Emotions that filled me threatened to boil over as I struggled to calm my excitement. The ants came! And they couldn’t have chosen a better time. Crudia moved on the ground beside me, stirring awake, and I saw her bones beginning to fix themselves as she downed a potion.

  “Anthony, you’re here!” Mark suddenly exclaimed, as excited as I was. Anthony didn’t see him, of course, but it was funny seeing Mark like the guy as well.

  Anthony, for his part, looked almost exactly as I remembered him, with a few notable differences. The rocks around his body were larger, beefier, and so were his legs. His mandibles, previously as long as my palm, were thicker and longer too. And was he always this big? I could probably ride on the back of this ant now.

  “You… changed a little bit.” I said, looking at the dragon again. He was roaring, trying to claw itself out from the hole it fell in. The ants were crawling all over it, attacking with all they had. There weren’t many of them—maybe thirty?— but there were enough to turn several white veins in the dragon red every few seconds.

  His antennae moved as he spoke. “Indeed, I have! I have been charged with protecting the new queen, you see! But she has allowed me to aid you on this precarious quest I’ve promised to fulfill in the old ages!”

  “It’s only been a few days, Anthony.”

  “Indeed! Quite a long time it’s been, has it not? Well then, shall we proceed with slaying the dragon?”

  Ohh, he was bloodthirsty! I loved that. I had to help my friend first, though. ”One moment.” Crudia’s spine finally fixed itself, and I helped her up by grabbing her gently and putting her on her feet. She leaned onto me for several moments longer. “You alright?”

  “Hurts.” She huffed, still holding her ribcage. Her armor was basically torn all over, and there were several spots where fur should be but just wasn’t. They continued to fill as I watched.

  The dragon finally announced its success in getting out of holes with another enormous roar, and it started swatting the ants off with its tail. Though they had the rocks to protect them, they still turned to a green sludgy paste half of the time. The other half did just fly away as the tail hit them.

  After one last look at Crudia, I started running forward again. “Let’s move!”

  The dragon was not focusing on me now. The glass explosions kept peppering his body, coming from Fink somewhere in the crowds. Combined with the ants crawling and biting everywhere they could, it still had its hands full. The wolves were fighting, with a good number of them dead, and I had to walk over several corpses that littered the ground from both sides of the battle to get there.

  “I need to get to its head somehow! Any ideas?” I looked at Mark, Crudia and Talisha, but Crudia and Mark shook their heads almost at the same time. Talisha… looked shaken. She was biting on her nail, looking at the dragon with her eyes so wide I momentarily feared they might pop out. Poor her. But consoling could come after we were done with this dragon.

  “Indeed, I have one!” Anthony spoke from my side. “If I might suggest doing so, how about I transport you there?” His beady eyes looked at me, his antennae rigid from the upcoming action.

  It was kind of funny how he had the same idea I did. Riding an ant wasn’t something I expected to do, but who was I to complain? “Sure!”

  “Let us get closer, then, and then I shall take you upwards.” His head inclined, and he zoomed forward again, forcing me into another sprint. That ant was fast! This wasn’t a race, yet, but I was pretty sure he could keep up with Crudia!

  I slipped around on the blood-soaked pavement, but I got to the legs of the dragons soon enough. It was still completely focused on the ants on its back, letting me take a few seconds to grip Anthony to the best of my capabilities. He just stood there, waiting, as I tried to find a way to sit at the three parts of the ant. In the end I decided to just grab a rocky protrusion and hope I wouldn’t fall on the ascent.

  “Bryga and Dusk are on their way!” Mark said, just as Anthony began his ascent. Good to know, though. Perhaps they’d even get a hand on the action, as unlikely as it was. I was about to finish off this guy. My first evolution was just in front of me, and I was hungrier than ever. Xila’s wings were helpful, but I hoped for something even better. A chitin armor that increased my strength? A glow effect that would make me prettier? God, the options were endless. I just needed to stick the landing.

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  Holding on for dear life, I dangled from the rock as Anthony quickly made his ascent. The tail of the dragon whirred past us, missing us by a thin margin as Anthony stopped an inch away from where the tail slapped, and that in turn made Anthony ascend even faster. I was once again astounded by the dragon’s size, though - how could something so huge even function? Forget the black flame, this thing was fascinating even without it!

  I shivered at the thought of what this thing would have done to us, had it decided to just blast fire at us from the air.

  Finally, oh so finally, we got onto its back. I tried to ignore the stench of squished ants all over, but that was almost impossible. There were still quite a few of them alive however, scurrying about, biting into the dragon’s flesh and then running as if mad. The dragon’s tail sweeped around like a whip, but it was mostly defenseless.

  Doing my best not to fall from its back, I let myself down from Anthony’s back, and ran forward, aiming to reach its head. The horns on its head stretched into the air, serving as a point to focus on as the dragon continued shifting under my feet. How could a being with so much damage move so much?

  Using all of my strength, I jumped, barely reaching one of the rims of its head, and almost slipping on the scale as I pulled myself up.

  The sight in front of me showed the damage done to the boss more than anything else. Huge chunks of scale were missing, and the smell of burnt flesh… made me hungry. Was dragon meat tasty? I’d hopefully have a chance to find out. I ran forward, looking for a spot that would be the best for my [Bullet Strike], when suddenly, a voice, loud, deep and reverberating, interrupted me.

  “HOW DARE YOU”

  The head swung upward, and I felt the world tilt with it, throwing me into the air for a short moment before I fell back down. There was a red vein mark just under my feet, though.

  It was now or never on whether I trusted this lense.

  I reached back, and used [Bullet strike].

  I felt my body flash inside the head, creating a huge crater inside the flesh. A roar sounded, tThe head swinging back even faster now, but I was already inside the newly made hole.

  “This is fucking disgusting.” Mark remarked.

  As if that was the worst thing we’ve been through. I looked in front of me, but the heat was emanating from literally all directions now. No idea if it affected it much. But something in front of me was different. Black, but smooth, with little cracks from my attack.

  The skull was right in front of me. I didn’t need more motivation. I rushed forward, and smashed with all of my power. Another roar, even louder than the last, sounded, but it was higher-pitched.

  Oh yeah, he was feeling the pain now. I smashed, again and again, each strike chipping at the thick skull, and each of them bringing another roar of pain mixed with whimpers.

  I had to hold on to the flesh as it tried to shake me out of its head, but I was simply too deep inside for the sharp movements to matter.

  The chunks of skull got bigger and bigger as I smashed. A big chunk, as large as my hand fell to the ‘ground’ that was the flesh. Another, twice as large. The cracks grew larger, almost resembling a spiderweb. My arm felt jittery from all the shield impacts, but that didn’t stop me, not when I was this close. A feeling of dejá-vu suddenly took over, reminding me of my fight with Majorica the ant queen.

  But I put that feeling away. This was different. I had no good feeling towards this dragon, who aimed to destroy the city for literally no reason. Putting my whole weight in a strike, I punched again.

  And my arm came through. I re-summoned the shield so my arm could get unstuck, and it came out from the hole with a plop, disgusting juices immediately flowing from the arm-sized hole.

  “Good. Just the finish line now.” Mark whispered, almost as excited as I felt.

  I didn’t even need to punch again—I just grabbed the chunks, as thick as my hand, and pulled. I was completely wet by the time I made the hole big enough to crawl through and stepped inside.

  The brain was… smaller than I expected. It was barely larger than my head, in fact! And looked weirdly smooth. I stepped, or better yet, swam toward it, watching it get ‘lower’ as the brain juice flowed out, though my sense of up was absolutely nonexistent now.

  I grabbed the thing on both sides.

  I thought of the pain this thing brought me. Of the countless corpses of the men, ants and goblins outside.

  I looked up, hoping that the gods watched, and mouthed a silent “Fuck you”.

  And then I squeezed. It was done in an instant.

  The whole world shifted, making me just float around the dragon’s head. Breathing this fluid was probably possible, but I didn’t want to risk it, and so I just held my breath for as long as I possibly could. The whole head shook, probably from the impact, and then several notifications flashed by on the interface, one after another.

  I swiped them away, looking for a direction of escape. Where the hell did I come from? It was so dark and I had moved so much that I genuinely had no idea. I could hold my breath for so long!

  Suddenly, an opening appeared, a slash that let in some light, wide enough for me to squeeze through. I immediately swam through, gasping for breath.

  Finally,air. “Thanks Crud—”

  My heart sank. It wasn’t Crudia who made that cut. It was Xila, sneering at me, her wings buzzing in the air.

  She was holding Fink in one arm, a blade under his throat. “Hello, Shrimpie.”