17

Sheathing my blade quickly as I grabbed the fallen spear. I had jumped back specifically to grab that spear after all. I lifted the long shaft of the spear, and swung it around awkwardly. Sure I had some proficiency with a spear, but not enough to appear like I knew what I was doing with one hand. I launched the blade with far more force then a human would be able to muster, and while my aim was a little off, but it was still in the right ballpark.

The spear pierced the man's leg about the same time two blades struck my back. I was thrown off my feet. The man that had a spear in his leg screamed in pain. Now I was surrounded by three elves. One of them was on the ground after having his brain rattled, and the other two were behind me.

As soon as my chest hit the ground I rolled to the side. Narrowly avoiding their strike. They were faster then the city guards, and their strength was closer to that of the head guard I fought before stealing his entire slave population. I regained my footing just in time to block a strike. The strike was faster then I was used to dealing with.

The power behind it sent pain down my arm. It seemed he was drawing strength from the enchanted gear he was wearing. A smile split my face slowly as a stand off began. I'd caught the first two completely off guard. This wasn't surprise or luck.

This was pure strength against pure strength, and to him it appeared that a human slave with no armor, and no magic had blocked his full enhanced strength with relative ease. Elves were stronger then humans as a general rule. I figured it had something to do with them being bathed in mana constantly from the moment they were born. Humans would be able to bridge that gap eventually, and hopefully my strength would cement our alliance. Humans were painfully adaptive so having their loyalty would be an advantage that I would need.

As long as they were open to allying with the dragons now they would grow to accept us as part of the natural order in just two or three generations. My mind was wandering again. I shoved the elf off of me, and danced back away from the danger. Stopping right next to the downed elf that had finally managed to fall in the slowed time he was stuck in before. I raised my foot up, and slammed it down on his back.

He was wearing armor of similar strength to the other elf so all I did was rattle him a second time, and bury him. Cocking my head like I'd just found an interesting toy.

"This is some nice armor you've got," I couldn't seem to stop smiling at the moment, "You don't mind if I play with it a bit do you?"

My magic descended on them like a blanket. Fear crossed their expressions as I erased our presence from this moment in time. My body expanded almost instantly. The runes on my scales glowed faintly as all the harmful mana in the air was repelled away from me at once. The effect was akin to a small light show in the dark of the night.

Swirls of poisoned mana flowed off my scales like fireflies around my body. Highlighting my silhouette in the darkness. I slammed my foot into the man that was still beneath it a second time. Hardening the ground as I did so. This time his armor couldn't take the hit nearly as well as it did the last time.

It bent inward. Not collapsing completely, but enough that his ribs were shattered, and he couldn't expand his lungs properly. Between the bits of bone, and blood in his lungs he was going to die soon. Fire flared behind my teeth as I lunged forward to take a bite out of them. The shorter of the two jumped out of range of my strike.

The taller one suddenly had the full force of my jaws clamping down on him. My teeth were sharp enough to pierce the armor. My jaws tensed slowly. Crushing him as he screamed, and begged for mercy. His ally didn't sit idle either.

I was glad I had taken off my spatial storage. It wasn't able to change with my body like the rest of my stuff. I'd nearly severed my own arm the last time I'd made the mistake of leaving it on when I changed forms. I continued to crush the screaming man as he desperately tried to pry my mouth off of him. Going as far as to pull out a smaller blade, and stab me in the gums.

It was painful, but not enough for me to let go willingly. The fact that I could take a lot of pain meant that the only way this idiot was getting out of my teeth was in half. He could still try, but it wouldn't do him any good. Hot flames licked through my teeth around him. Boiling him from within as I snarled at him angrily.

His ally was completely distracted my my massive claws. My tail swiped at him. Taking the occasional free moment to slam into the elf that I'd crushed because he wasn't dead yet. The elf in my mouth screaming bloody murder while I beat on a dying man mid fight with another man. It must have looked like a scene from hell.

Then again the swirls of poisoned mana I was repelling were quite beautiful so maybe not. Death by ethereal golden light show shaped like a dragon. If it weren't for the pain then they might even find it beautiful. I reared up suddenly. Slamming down with both hands at the same time.

I could feel the bandits muscles go tight under my weight as his arms gave. His muscles held firm, but the same couldn't be said for his joints, and bones. I could tell that one arm was broken. I wasn't sure about the other. From the way he attempted to raise it, and continue the fight I figured it was only dislocated.