The dragon lunged forward snapping wildly at the party. Anzar Ran behind the dragon, looking for an angel to get on its back, Rea was already grabbing the tome and flipping through its pages, looking for anything to help us fight. That left me standing off with the giant creature. My hand on the trashed blade I carried for whatever reason, the dragon clawed at the ground, its nostrils sending strong gusts of wind with each huff of its chest. I began walking forward, that slow methodical pace I had gotten used to move with intent. My hand gripping the shattered sword, the dragon let loose an ear shattering roar as he charged me. I rolled just in time to miss being bit in half by his massive jaws. I plunged the jagged sword into his neck as deep as I could. Unfortunately, with how damaged the sword was to begin with; it wasn't very deep. I sighed and tossed the weapon aside and grabbed ahold of the dragon's leg. I focused on my arm, thinking about it becoming a weapon for me to win this fight. The dragon roared in pain as sharp barbs erupted from my arms and into the creature's soft leg. The dragon leapt back and watched me with a renewed caution.
"Can you buy me a few more minutes John? This tome may have a spell we can use to put this thing down." Rea called from the other side of the dragon.
"Yeah, I will do my best, Anzar it's time for you to earn your keep, make sure he stays on the ground, that thing gets airborne we are screwed." I yelled charging right at the dragon.
The dragon, now confused at the smaller creature assaulting him with no fear. Never in his hundred years did he ever have such a foe. The dragon felt fear for the first time as the giant wolf that came with the scary creature ripped into his wings. He struggled, clawed, roared at them. His giant claws tore into the empty air, trying to hit any kind of flesh. The dragon faced its demise at the hands of this new creature, what was it? Why had it come here? What did the dragon do? It was confused as a bright light filled the cavern, sparks, electricity then darkness.
The dragons body fell as the tier 8 Gods Bolt spell dissipated. Rea, with tome clutched to her chest was dancing around singing about how awesome this tome was. I sighed and looked at the now smoking dragons' corpse. Rea started setting up camp and getting a fire around.
"I must take time and read this; would you carve up some fresh meat for dinner? I heard dragon meat is a delicacy. If only we had salt, I would make some dried meat. I guess I can still, we will be here a few days while I go through this. This tome is ancient, like your curse. There's an off chance that we could learn something about you and what you are dealing with. Our first priority is figuring out how to get you to be human again." Rea said basically talking to herself as she hustled around.
Anzar kind of just walked around, he seemed restless as he watched me carve into the dragon. I flung a good-sized chunk of meat his way and he settled down. By the time I was done cleaning and cutting the meat, Rea had camp completely set up. Two tents, the fire was going, and a water pot was boiling. She had even brought out a sewing kit to fix my cloaks. She grabbed them off my body the moment I had stopped moving.
"I'm going to fix these; we can't have people asking questions about you at this point in time. People won't care that you are an intelligent monster, only that you are a monster to be hunted. Humanity is such a disgusting race." She said quietly.
We spent the evening like that, Anzar ate his fill, Rea sat next to the fire with the tome, silently reading each page multiple times, absorbing every bit of knowledge that tome held, every so often making a started gasp. By the third day we packed up and began our trip back to outside of the dungeon.
"Well, this tome does hint at an ancient city that was long forgotten, it supposed to be pretty close to where we are now just deeper into the Howling Crevasse. Apparently, they were wiped out by a great dragon attack several hundred years ago. In this city there's a library that I'm after, there might be more information on ancient monsters and curses. I think that's our best bet moving forward." Rea explained as we trekked our way out of the dungeon.
She took the lead and began guiding us down the side of the cliff face and deeper into the territory. Wind cut through everything with each step we took, its howling made one's ears hurt. WE kept pushing through the conditions and soon we came to a deep valley in the canyon. The canyon itself was overgrown with trees and shrubbery, one would think you had walked into a rain forest. The weather was humid and sticky. In the distance you could hear the roar of bigger monsters clashing with each other and birds flying off into the distance. This place was more untamed then simply forgotten. Rea led the way into the thick jungle that awaited us, The city walls barely visible amongst all the plant life. We pushed through the thick shrubs and other various plants, the heat cranking it up another notch.
"You should be grateful you're not human currently." Rea said while struggling to catch her breath.
She was covered in dirt and sweat; we all were pretty nasty at this point. Poor Anzar had matted nasty fur with burs stuck in. He looked miserable. We traveled for a few hours before we finally came across the first signs of the city ruins. at first it was simply the cobbled road that led to the city gates, then it was the remnants of a trade route coming in and out of the city. Broken crates, boxes and carts littered the roadside, the wood clearly rotting and barely holding form from the years of abandon. The city gates were at one point truly impressive, standing at twenty-two feet with a square balcony overlooking the gates entrance. Large oak doors sat rotting on the gate. Rea pushed one open, causing it to fall over with a loud bang. Several flocks of birds flew off. The city itself had been hit hard; there were signs of battle everywhere. Scorch marks on stone where the dragon's breath hit, bloodstained stone, burnt buildings and skeletons littered the view. We walked slowly, checking each step for traps or anything else that might give us away. Store fronts looked like they had been just starting to set up for the day when chaos hit. Goods were strewn everywhere, not that any of what was left was worth anything.