Chapter 54: A Drake's Pain (Patreon)

The drake was currently sitting on his haunches, staring at those strange light things that had once overrun the site where he and that red kin of his had had their heated dispute. It was still a fond memory for him, never before had he had such an intense battle, not even from his days as a mere kobold does he remember anything even close to the level of intensity that had been, and he still found himself taking the occasional wistful glance at the entrance his battle buddy came through, hoping they would return for another round.

Unfortunately, that hadn’t yet happened, and so he could only find other ways to pass the time. Most of this was spent either continuing to adjust to his body’s new strength by running about, or by passing his time by watching those living colors, even if there were barely any remaining after the events of the day. Aside from this, he could only delay his boredom by growing his collection of gemstones, a collection which was swiftly becoming his favorite place to relax and unwind after a long day’s hunt.

With that said however, he couldn’t claim his day was entirely monotonous, there were a couple of invaders who had managed to come into his floor, and they’d provided a fair bit of excitement to the otherwise dull time.

His mind drifted towards one particular fight, the first he’d had that day. While it hadn’t been as fulfilling as the one with his burning brethren, it had left him distinctly satisfied for a long while, due in part to the sheer mayhem their entrance to the floor had set in motion. He’d never experienced a fight in such tumultuous conditions.

As he began ruminating on the events of that six man battle, he began idly scratching one of the larger shards of crystal while being very careful not to chip, scratch, break, or otherwise damage it. He was well aware that anything unable to break his jaws would stand no chance of even leaving those gems with a blemish, but he still shuddered at the memory of a dislodged crystal and what it put him through.

However, he was saved before being able to delve too deeply into these traumatic memories, getting distracted when the water he was sitting before rose, just barely lapping at his feet. He took but a moment to realize that a few more of the strange living lights had made their way back to the crater, and rejoined their counterparts in raising the waters. After watching the dozen different lights of slightly varying sizes and shades of blue, he turned on his heels and left, no longer interested in observing for the time being.

Instead, he debated going searching for the red one, having a second grand battle in their domain rather than his. Unfortunately, he realized that there probably wouldn’t be some grand fight, or even a skirmish. Rather, it’d almost certainly be completely one-sided if his rival lived somewhere with more water than his own residence, something that seemed likely considering the build of the creature and the utterly ridiculous speed it displayed when it was submerged.

Coming to this realization left him disheartened, and he visibly deflated. He had been preparing himself to charge valiantly into the path downwards, perhaps even rend that strange worm that resided by the exit to pieces once more. Now, he could hardly muster up the motivation to turn away and plod over to his hoard, deciding that perhaps it would be a good time to sleep after all.

The sand shifted and crunched beneath his feet, the moisture that was perpetually locked away in the ground being squeezed back out in response to his immense weight. In the pools of water he passed through, crystals were batted away and corals brushed aside, and the further he walked, the more he slumped over in exhaustion, a sense of fatigue he hadn’t felt mere moments ago being pushed onto him for reasons unknown, forcing the itching of his shards of gem right to the back of his mind in practically no time at all. He’d all but given up on reaching the center of his domain by this point, and he was beginning to contemplate just falling asleep right in the middle of the pool of water, leaving it up to chance that he’d be able to breathe doing so.

He was just debating whether to spare the energy to push aside the corals and weeds beneath him or use them as bedding when his fatigue was washed away, replaced by something much worse. He’d felt as though every shard of crystal embedded in his flesh and bone had suddenly come alive at once, and they'd all been indignant from the very start. The itching he’d been ignoring had suddenly turned into a sensation he was left wholly unable to describe.

It took him a few seconds to even begin to wrap his mind around the level of pain he’d begun feeling for no reason, seconds spent silently opening and closing his jaws before it finally set in and he managed to rear up on his hind legs and begin to wail in agony. Of course, he only made things worse when he smashed his head into the ceiling which was too low to allow him to stand, sending him crashing back down into the sandy floor.

He didn’t even seem to register it a moment later, though, left thrashing and clawing at his face without any of the grace or delicacy he’d displayed earlier. Instead, he used his razor sharp claws to scrape and rend away the flesh of his left half, trying desperately to get a respite from the unwanted torment, and failing miserably. 

In fact, he was so preoccupied with his own situation that he was unaware of anything he was doing beyond attacking his own face, much less to the mayhem he was causing to the floor around him. His wails and roars sent the rest of the creatures into a panic, and everything else on the floor tried only to put as much distance between them and him as they could. While this went on, his thrashing was laying waste to everything around him. His surroundings were completely devastated, put into a state even worse than his combat with the red one, though it was much smaller, limited only to the one area his pain-fueled rampage had begun. 

It took only moments before his hulking frame had crushed and displaced practically everything beneath him. Creatures big and small were squashed, while crystals and corals flung aside or directly eviscerated, and there was a multiple meter deep crater that all the sand had long since been flung out of, leaving the drake stuck thrashing about on the hard, jagged limestone floor.

Very soon, abrasions started forming all over his body as he squirmed and rolled, and even his ridiculously sturdy scales weren’t enough to save him from becoming a bloodied mess, though none of his wounds remained for very long before they were swiftly erased from existence by his diligent Creator. Of course, the drake was both unaware and uncaring of this fact at the moment; he was far too busy clawing at his face, before he began smashing it into the ground in hopes of dislodging even one crystal, or even just distracting himself from his suffering by knocking himself unconscious. 

Neither scenario occurred though, he’d only succeeded in repeatedly crushing the claws still attempting to rip apart his own maw, then leave himself with even more pain once the gems made contact with the limestone floor. Each time he smashed himself into the ground, it did nothing but send yet another wave of misery straight through his head. What made it all the worse, he found himself unable to stop, hoping with all of his being that the next time his head made contact with the ground it would do something to free him from this prison of pain, despite knowing it likely wouldn’t.

And so he was forced into an awful fate, one in which any actions he took only resulted in nothing but more pain, where doing nothing hurt just as terribly. This continued for what felt to him like an eternity, before he felt something snap. What it was or how it happened, he had no way of knowing. Rather, the only thing he was aware of, was that the moment he’d felt the sudden jolt and heard the crack on his left side, he was assaulted by the most sickeningly amazing feeling he’d ever experienced.

It was a sensation even more indescribable than the pain which had just passed, something horrifically agonizing while being utterly incredible, and he’d found himself unable to even remain conscious for more than an instant in the face of the sheer pleasure he’d felt. 

However, he wasn’t asleep for too long, and he was quickly awoken by the lungful of saltwater he’d taken in when he fell into the pit. Even better, he was able to bask in the afterglow of this sensation because of this, and the burning fury in his chest was nothing at all compared to what he was feeling now. Even just catching the tail end of this wave of relief was enough to leave him lightheaded, and it took all of his focus to even decide it was best to leave the quickly filling hole he’d left in his earlier tirade, much less put that decision into motion.

And so, it was with unsteady steps that he began clawing his way out of the pit, nails digging into the steep walls and pulling himself upwards. He was oblivious to the massive amounts of sand he was tossing behind himself in his wobbly ascent, and completely unaware of the shards of sandy yellow gemstone that he was currently burying by doing so. In fact, he was so thoroughly muddle headed that he didn’t even register the tiny new crystals barely peeking out from the gaps in his scales where none had been before.

Instead he could only crawl forward, heaving himself out of the pit he’d been trapped in and accidentally launching himself away in doing so. Of course, this hardly even registered to the drake, he was still far too lost in his own ecstasy for him to do so. It took him nearly half an hour to lumber the hundred or so meters to the center of the floor, and that was with him forgoing collecting even a single thing on his journey to the center. He was even unaware of the Creator’s constant inspection every step of the way, the rejuvenation, healing, and even a few small tugs on his mind went completely unnoticed by the scaled beast.

Finally, with one last unstable step, he collapsed onto the side of his pile of gemstones, mind fading away once more. This time, he was not to wake up for quite some time, being far too exhausted by earlier events to even stir.