Chapter 5

(April 5)

After getting back to the motel yesterday, I couldn't fall asleep at all so I spent the rest of the night writing into my journal and forgot to sleep.

Now I'm going to Williams place again but I can barely keep my eyes open.

I kept thinking about everything that happened, in an instant my life changed for the better or for the worst, is yet to be seen.

.

After I arrived at William's lab again, he was quite energetic.

He extracted some more of my blood to experiment on and even plucked off one of my scales again to put in a jar.

I sat there in silence for a bit watching William do his work until I got bored and spoke up, asking him why I was here.

William flinched and he must've forgotten I was here or something. He apologized saying he got too immersed in his research.

William pushed up his glasses causing the light in his lens to flash as he turned towards me.

"We won't force you into anything, but would you please consider becoming one of our knights in fighting against the dragons? We could use your help."

William said seriously as he looked me dead in the eyes.

I was afraid. Scared even. Just thinking of the sight of my friends burning to death in front of me, or as random civilians getting ripped to shreds without even a moment to scream, it frightened me. I said I would never fight again.

I can't fight dragons, I'm just a dude. A slightly above average dude that happens to have dragon blood within me.

I rejected it and told him I couldn't. I was too afraid... I know this is cowardly of me, but even if I were to help them, I would probably be useless in front of a dragon anyways. I'm weak, and I'm okay with being weak as long as I stayed away from battle.

But William spoke up again.

"So you're afraid? Scared? I understand, I too experienced my entire family die right before my eyes to these damn dragons. But it's BECAUSE you're scared that you must fight, think of that sight, think of your fears, do you want other people to experience that same thing you did? If you're afraid, then get rid of it. No one's asking you to be brave, just don't let others experience the same thing you did. What would you do if your family experience that sight?"

It's because I'm afraid... that I must fight so others don't experience the same thing I do...? If my family had experience what I had, I would be devastated…

I sulked, and my arms went limp. I'm still scared at the mere thought of a dragon, however during that moment I felt a flicker of courage ignite within me. I've always be easily susceptible to inspirational talks, especially when it's personal.

But I'm weak.

And I told William was weak, how was I going to be useful anyways? Even if I wanted to fight, I would be useless, courage is dumb if you don't have the strength to back it up.

William started chuckling, and he reminded me how dragons got stronger the older they were. Their rate of growth was multiple times higher than an average being. I was weak now, but he told me if I were to train, I would grow at an astonishing rate.

But that wasn't the end. He explained to me again that because dragon blood has the properties to absorb dragon essence, they also have a weakness.

That weakness is fighting other dragons.

Since their blood absorbs dragon essence, if they are attacked by another dragon with dragon essence, their blood will absorb all the damage and amplify the attack damage because the dragon blood will actively absorb the attack with dragon essence.

Simply put, dragons were weak to other dragons because they attract dragon essence.

Like how two magnets attract each other.

And William pointed at me.

"You have the advantages of the dragons, but you have none of it's disadvantages. Because you are still mostly human, you won't absorb dragon essence as well so their weakness won't apply to you, but you can still use dragon essence against them."

Meaning that I was the best counter measure against dragons.

I had, what dragons were weak to.

And I didn't have that weakness.

I was, the ultimate anti-dragon weapon.

(April 6)

I sent a letter back to my wife.

In my letter I told them they should move into the city with me, William had promised me he would pay for all rental and living expenses if I promised to stay here.

I haven't told him my answer yet, but I told him I'd think about it. I wanted to train and help out despite my fears but I couldn't be selfish and just leave my family alone again because I just wanted to.

After sending the letter, I'm now heading to William's place.

.

Upon arriving at William lab, I realized he wasn't there. Instead, there was a note telling me to come to the training room where I was before which I then went to.

There, Briggs was working out again.

He seemed to be very immersed in his training so I looked around for William and left him alone.

But Briggs noticed me and approached me and he slapped my back!

"HEY MY DUDE! HOWS IT GOING!"

His voice was loud, extremely loud. He cheerfully wrapped his arms around me in a bro hug and squeezed me until I could barely breath.

When he finally released me, I plopped to the ground like a rag and then got up breathing heavily.

Briggs slapped me on the back and told me that William was gone for the day so Briggs and I were gonna train together.

"Let's have a sparring match! I heard from William you're a dragon dude, let's fire up that dragon blood how 'bout it!"

Briggs declared and dragged me outside to a wide-open courtyard. It was circular and there were a lot of benches for spectators to watch the sparring matches and battle, however since there were no events it was empty with just me and Briggs.

Briggs stretched his arms and warmed up as I nervously cracked my knuckles.

He told me to pick a weapon from a box he pulled out that was filled with wooden weapons, a wooden club, a wooden sword, a wooden spear with a blunt tip, wooden daggers, a wooden great sword and etc.

Briggs grabbed the wooden great sword and swung it around to get used to its weight, while I looked at the options. I didn't specialize in any certain weapon, but I had used every weapon before, so I'm basically an all rounder.

Since I didn't know what to choose, I picked the basic wooden longsword and stabbed at the air a couple times.

A bit light, but it seemed to be decent enough and I turned to Briggs.

"Whenever you're ready."

And Briggs charged at me. Despite his size, he was quick.

He swung his greatsword at me horizontally which I grabbed my longsword with both hands and blocked his attack. However, the force was still powerful enough to fling me backwards a good distance.

From a single attack my arms were already numb.

Suddenly, Briggs shirt exploded and revealed massive abs and a huge six pack that looked as if his stomach was corn. His arms were ripped, and his upper body looked like an upside-down triangle.

Damn, he was buff. Buff enough to make man like me jealous.

Briggs walked towards me and my body had tensed up as I lifted my sword up in preparation.

Since Briggs had a greatsword, his range was slightly longer then my longsword. That slight difference was important.

The moment I was in range of his greatsword, Briggs swung his sword straight down at me which I then avoided to my right only to be met by his knee kicking me in the face.

In battle, your entire body was a weapon.

I flew back but I landed on my legs and stabilized myself. General advice, if you don't quickly prepare yourself, it could be your downfall. Though that nosebleed did hurt…

This time I ran at Briggs, I think I understood Briggs pattern, he took big powerful swings but if I managed to dodge them, he would attack using kicks or punches so I would have to block those.

I gripped my sword, dodged Brigg's greatsword attack and swung at him. But as I did so, I also raised my other arm to block him kick which caused my arm to go numb.

But at least I landed a strike on Briggs and I cheered inwardly... until the realization kicked in that I was still in battle.

That single moment of forgetting I was in battle caused my defeat.

Briggs swung his greatsword again right on top of me and the sheer force caused my entire body to slam into the ground and I passed out.

Which I then woke up a couple minutes ago in a nearby medical room.