The Dragon Arrives

POV Vesuvius:

The dragon watched as his magma bomb exploded on the peak outside of his lair, with magma slowly flowing down the steep cliff.

Suddenly a red firework exploded in the sky, The red light illuminating it. Vesuvius, who was looking through the entrance tunnel of his lair, immediately recognised it, 'That is an emergency signal from my minions.'

The dragon sprinted through the entrance tunnel, the cave shaking under his steps. He jumped from the cliff, spreading his massive wings and gliding down towards the base of his minions.

POV Elven Runic Enchanter Alesia:

The young elf stood in the middle of the forest, corpses lying on the ground around her, with three remaining cultists, each looking in a different direction, gripping their weapons with determination.

No one was moving after the menacing growl that shook the entire forest. Everything turned quiet, even the sounds of animals and insects vanishing.

The only sound was loud flapping that was getting closer and closer with each flap. A horrifying magical aura was radiating somewhere from the sky. The aura was filled with life, nature, fire and nobility.

Alesia stood unmoving, her legs trembling as she recognised to what the aura belonged. She, as a pure-blooded elf, was sensitive towards mana. Wood elves lived deep in their forest, and their natural power to recognise the auras of different predatorial magical beasts was etched deeply in their genes.

'It is a draconic beast and at least a high one on top of that. What are they doing so close to humans.'

Suddenly hot air washed above her. All leaves on the trees around her vanished as they turned to ash, revealing the blue sky above them.

A massive draconic beast that was covered in thick black armour with cracks filled with magma and golden lines hovered above the forest, flapping its enormous wings. Its colossal body was emitting a dark smoke that slowly expanded and sparkled with blue and gold electrical sparks. Each flap of its wings sent waves of blazing hot air around and caused dry leaves to fly away, and temporarily disrupted the smoke giving short glimpses at the beast.

The small elf began to tremble, her heart pounding as if it wanted to jump out of her chest and sweat rolling down her body. Her face turned pale as she recognised that rough and physically strong body.

'I once saw a forest wyrm flying above the forest from a distance, and its body was nothing like this. It was sleek and slim, and this one looked bulky, rough and strong while still being elegant... Together with this aura, this description fits only one being... a dragon, either a lesser one or a true one. Or maybe I am just overthinking it, and it is just a rare species of wyrms.'

Dragons were mostly extinct beasts of legends for humans, only knowing about them from stories told for generations. However, for elves, with their long lifespan, there were still plenty of elves telling stories about witnessing these majestic beasts first-hand.

Suddenly a cold and deep voice vibrating with magical energy sent shivers through her body, "Foolish mortals, you never learn your lesson and keep causing trouble on my territory."

Then she realised something, looking once again at the cultists in front of her, especially at their masks, 'They are not cultists and demons. They are minions of this dragon.'. She immediately felt relieved, her heartbeat calming down, 'That means that I was brought here at the dragon's orders, meaning that I am not trespassing here. Meaning that I will more likely not end as a meal or ash!'

She wanted to celebrate her discovery, but she had no more time to think as the dragon in the sky opened his mouth, orange light flickering inside. Then a bright orange stream of magma with traces of gold in it erupted out, blinding light and heat washing over the surroundings.

Sweat ran down Alesia's face as the air around her turned hot. The beam of magma fell straight into the group of twenty people with medallions. In an instant hot, pressured liquid tore through them, lava splashing everywhere as they turned into a pond of bubbling lava glowing on the place where they stood before.

"Just wait. We will level up and destroy your faction and kill the boss leading it as..." the priest couldn't finish his sentence as the stream of magma moved towards him, leaving a trail of lava behind it. The magma hit the priest and his guard, all of them vanishing in a bath of blinding light and scorching heat.

Alesia closed her eyes at the destructive scene, seeing the last thing as the three remaining minions attacked two surviving warriors from the priest's group.

After a while, Alesia opened her blue eyes. Everywhere around here was bubbling lava, with fires spreading around it and trees burning in high golden-orange flames.

She couldn't help but feel awe at the legendary might of a dragon's breath.

The shivers passed through her body as she turned her head towards the sky. The huge dragon was looking at her, penetrating her whole body with its big reptilian eyes.

The dragon turned his gaze away, looking at its three minions standing on the corpses of priest's warriors, "Well done, my minions. I heard that you found a runic enchanter."

'For what the dragon can need an enchanter... and specifically a runic one.' she couldn't help but imagine a dragon wearing some plate armour over its body or swinging a giant runic sword.

'If I want to survive this, I need to satisfy this dragon. I can either it as an artist or as a meal...' surprisingly, she still felt relieved that it was a dragon seeking her services and not some demon-worshipping cult, as dragons, while having terrible personalities and being prone to anger, was still rather rational beings.

She straightened up and put all of her resolves, suppressing her trembling as she looked directly at the majestic dragon above her, "Your draconic highness, I am at your service."