- Fury of Man

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A/N: forgive me for this was originally part of chp. 155 but 155 became far too long so I split them in two bits. Part 1 and Part 2.

Welcome to the end game.

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Lia couldn't breathe, she couldn't move, nor could she feel her body as it went rigid at the sight of this majestic beast as its wings spread through the air to catch the golden sun in all its glory. Its roar was like a thundering storm as if lighting and thunder cried on command in his voice.

He towered over them, his scales were as large as Lia's head and she felt her eyes trace themselves along the beast's body, watching its scaling muscles, its many scars, its wide wings and giant talons. They crushed stone beneath the monster's foot as the ground cracked and shook with his breath.

The Dragon seemed to relish in the sun's warmth as the dust and dirt that had concealed him, hiding him away from the world's watching eye, fell in a plume of smoke that covered anyone below him. Including Lia and the others.

"We need to leave."

Cain's voice echoed through her ears, but she didn't hear him until his hand was firmly around her arm, pulling her towards the edge of the cliff, as if he was going to jump.

Lia didn't know if it was the fear of the Dragon or the fear of the fall, but for some reason all the suspicion and nervousness she had when Cain appeared vanished into thin air. She took his hand willingly and approached the edge, only turning around then she remembered the sad eyed man who watched the Dragon as its head rose through the sky.

"Wait, Arnold? Come on, we have to-"

"You go ahead."

His voice was broken and sad, as if he had just seen the very thing that confirmed his fears, the very thing he hoped was untrue. He didn't turn to look at her, he didn't even bother covering his eyes as the dust swarmed around him, fading back into the ground where it belonged.

He only looked up with sad and accepting eyes as the Dragon took deep breaths as if waking from a slumber.

"Arnold, what are you doing?"

It was a question laced with fear, one that caused her heat to pound with unease as she watched him grip his spear tightly in his fist. Arnold glanced over his shoulder to reveal his depressing eyes brimming with tears that he fought to hold back.

"Your friend can't carry us both down at that same time. Someone must stay behind."

"No, we can still make it. We can still…"

She struggled against Cain's grip, but his hands were like talons that held her in place as she fought to make her way to Arnold, unwilling to let the man go.

"What about your son? Are you just going to leave him?!"

She tried to throw Cain's hand off her, but he resisted well, watching the distant clouds with an empty and still eye that neither showed any compassion, nor any worry. She hated him for it, for a man was about to die on this cliff face and he cared so little for it.

"Let go of me! Arnold! Don't you dare walk away!"

The man didn't look at her, he didn't show any signs of acknowledgement as he turned once again to look up towards the Dragon's head. Then Lia sensed it, as she turned her head to the sky, she saw two red and black eyes like flaming fires watching her from above.

Death was watching.

"Go, Lia. I'll be fine."

She fought against her fear and struggled again, feeling Cain's frown as he held her back, but she continued to resist.

"What about Lukali?! Are you just going to leave him?! You can't!"

"Lia-"

"You can't! You can't die because…"

Because I hate you.

She heard the words in her head but couldn't say them as Arnold turned to watch her flaming eyes with a deep ocean of blue that threatened to fall from his cheeks.

Then, his spear was to her throat as she fought against Cain's grip, her eyes flashing over Arnold's stern and sad face. It was then she saw it all, laid out before her like some puzzle she now could see.

The dreams and visions of their battle surrounded by fire were here, as it flashed across her vision, she saw the battlefield, all ready and waiting, the fire born watching as Arnold's spear laid against her neck.

This was where she died, not by the still beating of her heart, but inside by the shattering of her soul.

She knew. And it broke her inside.

"I saw my son."

Arnold's voice broke the silence between them like shattering glass.

"I saw all the moments I could have had with him, all the epics I could have told him, all the lies I lived until now. All the mistakes I've made…"

Lia watched the tears fall from his eyes like the spear that lowered from her neck until its tip traced against the ground, leaving a trail of what would be blood.

"...I won't make the same mistakes again."

Then he was off, stepping from the cliff as he drew closer to the Dragon, the beast backing away as it brought its head closer and closer, its teeth like razor blades that cut through the air as its head snaked down towards him.

In one last desperate attempt at fighting this fate, fighting the fate she had been battling since she arrived in Morden, Lia pushed against Cain's grasp as he picked her up over her shoulder and began readying himself for the fall.

"Arnold don't do it! Don't!"

His voice was sad and fragile, like the world had broken him too many times as he turned, and Lia watched the tears glimmer from his eyes as they fell from his sad smile.

"Promise me one thing."

She nodded, she had no reason not to and could find no reason to refuse.

"Tell my son that I'm sorry."

Then the dust cloud enveloped him again as the Dragon descended from his high peak, drawing closer and closer as the monster's head snaked along the cliff's edge, approaching them with eyes filled with malice and hunger.

Lia's eyes searched the cloud for any sign of his figure, catching a glimpse of his spear shining in the wind as the dust cleared around him, paring ways for the sun to dance along his back like the flaming warrior he was.

"Don't worry."

His voice boomed over the edge as they fell, her stomach plummeting to her throat as she heard his voice for the last time, shattering her heart and soul.

"I'll be right down."

Then he was gone.

***

The Dragon approached the man before him, his mind questioning how a human had made his way up to this tall and majestic peak, only fit to hold him as he napped along the ridge line. His head was like a house before the man, his small spear barely a toothpick to his teeth and talons as they ripped through the ground, trees, and brush that had lived here for years.

He was hungry, he was angry, but he was a smart Dragon. He knew this was some ploy the man was pulling, but until he knew what that ploy was, it didn't hurt for him to play along.

After all, who could hurt him?

Then he smelled it as his face drew closer to Arnold, who stood still like a stature unwavering and brimming with courage. It was the smell of iron and blood, but a scent of blood he recognized.

"You smell it don't you?"

The man said as the Dragon arched his head backwards, his eyes widening with the overwhelming sense of malice and hate that filled his lungs and lit his fire briming in his chest. He didn't make a move. He only watched as the man lifted his spear to his chest, tapping the head against his bicep.

"You smell the blood your people left on me, when I took their lives."

The insolent fool had killed a Dragon and this one smelled it on him like the stench of human filth that filled his nose, only this smell suffocated him and filled his lungs with stories. Dragon's blood lasted a while, and even with the appearance gone, any dragon could tell when one was killed.

It brimmed off him like the confidence that seethed from his skin as the golden sun rose behind him.

"Come on big guy. Let's dance."

Arnold mumbled to himself as he drew his shield from his back, arched it against his forearm as he stood with all the world on his back.

Even as the Dragon's open maw filled his vision, the darkness of his lungs lighting with flares as the fire built up around him, the teeth closing in behind him, he felt empty and calm like the world was watching it all in that one moment.

His mind was all he needed then as he closed his eyes, gliding through the memories that flashed in his head, like streams of river water that never had an end.

His son and his first steps. His son when he first fired a bow. His son, when he came home with a squirrel wanted to keep it as a pet, but he said no - that brought a smile to his face.

The first moment he laid eyes on his wife. The first moment they kissed and the first moment his ring was on her finger. The first moment he was afraid when he heard she was pregnant, wondering how he would be as a father.

The moment his son said his first words, "dad."

He was no longer a father then, or a Hunter. An adventurer he was no more. He was not a leader nor was he an explorer. A death bringer or fear maker.

He was Arnold the Dragon Slayer.