Roland sucked in his fears and gazed at the approaching winding dust road ahead. From afar, the crowded dark forest loomed in the near distance. He estimated around 1km worth of distance sat between them. But Roland already knew the Dragon in the air would catch them before they reached it.
He turned towards the carriage driver, whose face was completely pink and covered in sweat; his jittering eyes hardly moved from the front; he was hard-pressed to focus on the ride ahead. Two robust black steads galloped with fury ahead. The heavy winds whipped past his ears. Roland turned his attention to his death knight. The Willow had just finished tending to little Swallow's wounds; Roland had tuned out for most of their conversation until this point; he was too busy drawing as much information as he could from Omega.
The troubling thing he came to understand was Omega's inability to record anything during his blackouts, making it twice as hard for him to carefully understand the current predicament.
The carriage steered expertly over the narrow path, slowly sinking downwards. A sudden howl cracked through the cloudless skies again, and the reptilian creature soared through the heavens. A shadow blotted out the sunlight as Roland nervily bent his neck backwards and finally caught a clear view of the terrifying creature's sandy brown underbelly. Its skin looked like fine leather, whilst its outer appearance was a rigid stone-like scaly material. The Dragon was just as huge as he expected, but nothing could prepare him for how much it dwarfed him.
Roland narrowed his gaze and just about caught sight of the rider above. He might've been surprised if he hadn't expected one of those little shits to be involved with this somehow.
'Sigh, of course, it's him. Even in death, that crazy girl still makes my life hell.'
Lotten Cloud, the blonde youth who could barely control himself, controlled the Dragon above. Roland twisted around, his gaze flickered between his death knight and the Swallow with eyes pleading for any kind of help.
"What do we do? How do we kill that thing?"
'Can we even kill it?' He thought to himself.
"Killing a dragon in the air is complicated work weak prince. Unless you know of any moves to ground the big fella. I suggest we outrun it." The blindfolded girl suggested.
"We can't outrun a Dragon in this thing. We must attack and defend." Announced his death knight.
Roland thoroughly disagreed and would closer hide in a hole somewhere rather than challenge that thing right now.
'We need to make it to the forest; at least then, we might have a chance to escape.'
'Omega, any ideas how to escape.'
{Negative. With Host's current abilities, Omega suggests focusing on avoiding a direct hit with the impending attack. In the worst-case scenario, Omega advises host to consider forsaking the current party; their presence can be used as a distraction whilst the host finds a way to seek cover}
Roland didn't respond to that, but a part of his brain wanted to entertain that idea in truth.
The Dragon circled above and pulled away further from them. Roland watched with growing concern as the Dragon flew above the forest before beelining around. Its great wings beat the air once before its elongated neck dove down as it soared towards them. The reptilian maw cracked open, and a burning miniature sun stared upon them. Roland felt his entire blood turn cold in that second.
There wasn't a single thing he could do to stop the inevitable. Nor could he even anticipate how to stop it. With a growing panic, Omega's warnings flashed through his mind. Roland's legs buckled, and he braced himself. Before he could shut his eyes, a shadow rose valiantly beside him. The Willow had a long bow with an arrow almost matching the bow's size aligned against the tall string. Roland glanced at the spiked arrowhead; its metal glistened beneath the sunlight like a freshly cut metallic spike.
The Willow pulled the arrow back with a tremendous force, showcasing just how stupendously strong it was, before firing towards the incoming Dragon. The arrow whizzed ahead like a bullet, and just before the creature's maw extended fully open, Roland saw the projectile find its mark and rather audaciously derail the Dragon's jaw set in place to attack. A mouthful of roaring flames spewed out with the destructive force of an erupted volcano. The carriage driver almost anticipated this and forcefully angled the reigns harshly to one side. Sending the horses galloping away to the right, one of the large carriage wheels cycled over the edge of the uneven dust road, and the carriage noisily clattered in a bid to topple over.
Roland found himself whisked dangerously to the edge. Luckily, a firm arm latched hold of him just in time.
"Got you!" The Swallow's voice reached his ears; when he turned thankfully towards his saviour, the first thing he noticed was the blood stains showing through her poorly bandaged arm.
She pulled him back into the centre of the carriage swiftly enough. Roland could feel his heart racing, and when his spluttering ended, he quickly offered his thanks. But the Swallow didn't pay him no mind. Her blindfolded gaze remained locked onto the Dragon in the sky. The Willow moved to the back of the carriage; Roland kept one eye locked on the creature in the heavens, and the second glance remained tightly pressed on his death knight's movements.
However, he did catch the aftermath of the scorched ground covered in spewing magma; the entire road in their wake had been reduced to a pool of decayed earth.
Back towards his death knight, with narrowed eyes in careful watch, the slender figure was fast unwinding something between his hands. Roland vaguely saw the outdoor light catching a barely visible wire trailing towards the serpentine creature lurking above. Roland shifted his gaze between the wire and the distant Dragon. Horrified, he quickly realised what his death knight plans to do next.
"N-no-no that's too reckl-" A firm hand slapped him rather aggressively against his shoulder.
"Don't waste your breath, weak prince. You don't get to decide on how the strong handle this mess. Besides, Tsk! Big brother thinks this is best."
Roland bit his tongue and sat quietly after hearing that. He could still recall similar words being said to him by one of his active commanding leaders during his old life. A slight pain twinged against his thoughts.
These days he found himself remembering the life of Zachary Lynch.
The Willow parted his palms, and the large wire whipped out of his hand quickly. A few more seconds and the inevitable would take place. Roland watched his death knight pull out a small dark knife and weave the end of the wire into it. The masked figure twisted towards him and gave him a firm nod.
"You are strong, Young master."
Roland felt his heart lurch into a hard knot.
The air started to change; he tossed his gaze above and captured the Dragon, preparing for another breath of fire.
'Shit.'
Before he could react, the Willow leapt off the edge of the carriage and was hoisted up by this almost invisible thread of wire. Roland watched nervously as his death knight acrobatically zipped into the air. The Dragon's charge flung him wildly from side to side, but the Willow was almost as weightless as a feather, riding the wind with such impressive gusto.
The giant creature soon realised The Willow's presence and immediately directed its maw filled with flames towards the approaching problem. Roland felt his chest filled with anxiety ache in terror; he could only blankly stare helplessly in watch while the Dragon's fire erupted mercilessly.
He crawled desperately towards the other end of the carriage and cried out bitterly towards the skies.
"WATCH OUT!"
A stiffened silence struck the air, and goosebumps ran wildly down Roland's spine. The world around him distorted and in the stillness of the grey silence. Roland remembered the day he died.
The hellish flames from the explosion roared through the coliseum; Zachary's suicide had possibly wiped out half of the highborn's society in a single swoop. That thought, within this moment, felt unusually poignant. Roland blinked, and his consciousness returned to the real world. At that moment, his heavens drastically changed. A crowd of misshapen trees blocked his skies.
The silence broke away by the bombardment of the heavy carriage charging into the heart of the tall forest.
Roland twisted around in a slight panic. It took him a few moments to gather where he was. Thankfully, they had somehow bought enough time to reach this place. And yet, he still wasn't at ease—for obvious reasons.
"Stop moving around like that; you're making everyone uneasy." The boy heard the childlike voice of the girl beside him.
The Swallow shuffled beside him; she perched on the edge of the carriage beside the driver and focused ahead. The partially thin path snaked through the heavy forest, and the crunchy ground beneath the wheeled carriage cracked like soft stones beneath their retreat. A few hundred yards deep into the forest, the silence was nerve-biting. Roland couldn't keep his mind at ease. Ever so often, he twisted back down the crowded way they left behind, hoping to see his death knight appear.
'How will he survive fighting that thing? C-can he win?'
Dark thoughts weighed heavy on his spirit right now, but Roland understood he needed to adopt elements of his old thinking. Like a bolt of thunder, his erratic gaze softened, and his eyelids fell half closed.
'Calm down, calm down, this is necessary. We have to escape. You have to survive. It was necessary. Th-there was no other way.'
Roland breathed a murky breath and gently slapped his cheeks to wake himself up. His actions might've looked weird, but the Swallow merely turned her face once before facing her front again.
"Good. Do what needs to be done. This…this isn't over yet." Her voice sounded uneasy for the first time since Roland had met her. He swallowed his spit harshly and gently nodded his head. This was real now. His life was in danger, and at any moment, trouble would arrive.
'I must be prepared for anything.' He placed his palms between his chest and steadied his racing heart.