The Merciless Alpha(erotica)

Ak’vix’tur’aveen had just been finishing off a solid meal of dire elk, when the beacon caught his notice. Like a faint ripple in the weave of magic present in all things that he’d felt since he first became aware in his egg, months before his birth, this ping fascinated him.

Ak’vix’tur’aveen was aware of most of the goings on in his domain, the section of the forest he called home, and had for twenty years. The forest elves and their infernal six-armed spear throwers that were the only thing that could threaten him were far away to the northwest, so he could rule his section of this great forest with impunity. But now, something strange and interesting was happening.

He stretched his impressive bulk and prepared to go investigate. Maybe it was the elves, finally returning to survey the lands they had surrendered to nature, lands that now belonged to him. He got excited at the thought. This far from their precious dragon slayer ballista, he could easily overcome the pitiful creatures. If it was, he could finally find out if they tasted as appealing as they looked. He could almost feel the bones cracking in his mouth as the tender, juicy meat shredded on his teeth and ridged tongue. He took a few majestic strides then leapt to a nearby tree, his noble wings flapping to give him extra height and distance on his already awe inspiring leap.

He smiled, sure that every creature in his forest was overjoyed to live under the shadow of a lord so regal and powerful as he.

His claws dug into the trunk of the first tree and his haunches coiled as he made contact, with a twist and a push, he launched himself to the next tree. It was far too tight and cramped among the trees to fly, but Ak’vix’tur’aveen was easily agile enough to leap among the trees. And while soaring among the clouds might take less energy, as a true full blooded dragon his stores of energy were boundless.

Time to find some elves and have a second dinner.

Ak’vix’tur’aveen wasn’t hungry. Even if he was, he could survive on a diet of rocks and soil if he had to. Living flesh was just so much richer, and knowing that another living creature surrendered its life for his consuming pleasure gave him a thrill. Now he hoped to learn the thrill of hunting an intelligent foe.

~~~~~~~~~~~

All the elves were on alert. Irsivir had his teeth bared and his hackles were up, making the ridge of fur on his back and shoulders stand even taller.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Something big. Something fast.” Tavorwen stated bluntly. “Coming this way.”

A moment later, there was the sound in the distance, fast approaching, like a crashing through the trees.

“Oh by the fires of Elgorith… DRAGON!” Zanantha called.

The elves scrambled. Not a trace was left as they tried to make themselves scarce.

I grabbed my rifles, slinging my combat rifle on my back and taking my sniper. If either of the rifles had a chance against the beast we’d discussed, it was going to be the sniper. I vaulted over a root to put a barrier between me and the oncoming beast, then I looked over as the creature approached. Narusil slipped behind the root next to me.

“Not good.” Narusil hissed through gritted teeth.

“What are the odds of us escaping its notice?” I wondered.

“Next to none.” Narusil admitted. “Light is generally a spell with negligible energy. Yours had some actual power behind it. The dragon is probably coming to investigate and dragons have good enough hearing, scent, sight and perception of magic such that if it is looking for us, we are not likely to escape its notice.”

“Fuck.” I cursed.

With a series of crashes, the dragon came jumping into view. It used its wings to supplement its leaping as it bounced from giant trunk to giant trunk then came crashing down into the clearing where we had been relaxing moments before.

The Dragon was enormous. You don’t really understand the scale of a creature until you see it up close, like when viewing an elephant in a zoo you don’t realize how big it is until you see it next to a zookeeper. But this dragon was close enough I could see how large a beast it was. I could wrap my arms around any of its legs and my hands wouldn’t even be close to touching. It rose to its full height. The dark brown and green scales covering its body were the size of dinner plates, with rough edges overlapping each other like leaves in a bush. The dragon’s claws were all larger than my forearms, perhaps my entire arms, and tore up the ground with an ease that spoke to the sharpness and the strength of those claws. The dragon was at least twenty feet tall at the shoulder. Its neck was close to ten feet long and serpentine, its head twisted and turned, clearly able to turn well past a one-hundred and eighty degrees, able to look behind itself with the flexibility of its neck. Its teeth were enormous and sharp, and its long tongue swirled in its mouth.

The reflective eyes swept around the surrounding trees. I realized it was looking for the stone I had cast the magic on. I realized in terror that Creadean held the stone. If it found her, there would be next to nothing I could do.

Its eyes locked on a root and its mouth drew up into a smile. With resonating steps it started walking toward what must have been Creadean’s hiding space.

I went to bring my rifle over the root, I had to try and do something.

Narusil put a hand on my barrel, keeping it down. She shook her head and held up a finger indicating I should wait.

The dragon’s head snapped to the side, tracking motion. Too small for me to see, but easily tracked by the dragon’s eyes, something hit his face, bursting in small red clouds around his face. I swear the dragon chuckled, and a deep breath pulled the red cloud into his nostrils.

The dragon’s eyes grew wide in shock and it gagged. Its eyes watered as it tried to cough and sneeze the burning powder out of its nasal passage.

Quick as an arrow, Zanantha was behind its hind legs, her short curved blades, held reversed, forcing between the scales and stabbing into the dragon’s tendons.

The dragon’s leg buckled and it tumbled, rolling and came back to its feet, favoring the leg Zanantha had stabbed, but by no means incapacitated.

“Now.” Narusil directed, releasing my rifle.

I brought my rifle up, and hurried to line up my shot, not terribly worried as my target was roughly the size of a barn. I fired as the dragon lunged, and my round ricocheted off the scales of the dragon’s shoulder and embedded in one of the trees, doing no harm, but knocking the dragon’s lunge off target and allowing Zanantha to dive out of the way of his impending bite.

The dragon’s head turned toward the root Narusil and I were cowering behind as I pulled the lever, popping out the casing and chambered a new round.

A series of arrows peppered its face, bouncing off the scales, including clear scales covering its eyes, making it blink. The dragon paid the arrows no mind but drew in a deep breath.

“Down!” Narusil instructed and realizing what was coming I needed no encouragement. We dropped and pressed close against the root.

A rush of hot air pushed a green mist past the root we were hiding behind and a group of hidden birds, scared by the sudden fierce wind, tried to take flight. A second after they entered the mist, the skeletonized birds fell, their bones scattering as they fell.

Quick as it appeared, the green mist dissipated.

“It will take the dragon a few seconds before it can do it again.” Narusil stated analytically.

I had a window. All I needed to know.

I came over and the elves were doing their best to distract the dragon. Those with blades were trying to slide their blades under the dragon’s scales with minimal success as the dragon was onto their plan and kept moving and swiping at them as they kept it turning. The elves were fast enough and agile enough to avoid the deadly claws of the dragon, but they were tiring fast.

I leveled my rifle and tried for as straight a shot as possible. It had seemed like the dragon had been affected by my shot but the poor angle had let the round glance off. I hoped that a more straight on shot would penetrate better, and not ricochet back in my face. I squeezed the trigger and felt the rifle slam back into my shoulder.

As an anti-vehicular sniping I’d heard all sorts of armor take armor piercing rounds. Nothing quite matched the echoing crack of the adamantine round making a direct impact on the dragon’s scales.

The dragon reared back, screeching as a rain of dragon scale fragments rained down below. I could see that the scale had stopped the round but was completely annihilated. The dragon glanced in my direction, and I chambered a new round.

The dragon whirled and fled, stepping right over the she-elf harassing it there. It took three bouncing strides like a giant cat, before flapping its immense wings as it leapt to the first tree and it bounced tree to tree away, quickly getting trunks between it and me.

I kept listening as the distinct sound of the fleeing dragon faded with distance.

“By the Father…” Narusil breathed.

Risavis emerged from the shadows, Irsivir in tow, to gather the shards of the dragon scales. The battle maidens and matrons had a sense of wonder as they stared at where the dragon had made its exit.

I walked out. Still on alert with adrenaline flooding my veins.

“You carry a weapon that can shatter dragon scales on your back like a mere quiver…” Risavis breathed in almost reverence.

“Is the dragon likely to return?” I asked.

“It would be a fool to do so.” Zanantha declared. “Dragons are well aware of their strengths and what few weaknesses they have. A hole in its scale armor that size would be easy for Risavis and Nauveir to hit and seriously injure, if not kill, the scaly bastard. That’s assuming you didn’t just end it or shatter more scales making it even more vulnerable.”RêAd lat𝙚St chapters at Novel(D)ra/ma.Org Only