Dragon Tale - Chapter 4.2 (Patreon)

'…Dog?' Brody tilted his head to the side and just stared. He knew he'd joked about it, but come on.

"No you dumb, Gog!" a second similar sounding voice echoed as a third forest vulcan launched itself through the air out of the foliage and threw a huge fist the the still standing, second vulcan.

"Shut up Slog!" it countered, catching the punch with both of its hands and blocking it.

The two then proceeded to punch at each other wildly, all the while standing atop the first vulcan that got thrown into the clearing.

Brody stared at them blankly, idly storing his notepad and pencils away in his Requip space and just watched.

…Like, if they were going to do his work for him and knock each other out, then he was all for it.

But god were they dumb.

Apparently the ones who stayed in their packs, were a lot smarter, because, they y'know, socialized with each other, while these ones, the Gorians lived in seclusion and only ever fought each other if they met each other anywhere else.

Still, god were they stupid.

At least his plan worked though. A little better than he actually thought it would. Weird they turned up around the same time.

But considering they knew each others names and were already fighting…they'd probably ran into each other along the way as they madly dashed here and had been fighting all the way.

They hadn't even noticed him either. A whole minute passed as they flailed wildly at each other, punching, slapping and even biting at each other, and before long they were both pretty bloodied.

It wasn't long before a winner was decided.

'Dog' groaned underneath them and shifted, and 'Gog' slipped on its back as it did and fell. And Slog wasted no time in raising its huge meaty fists up into the air and absolutely battering them down in a rapid blurring barrage into its opponents skull.

"Slog winner!" it cheered when Gog went limp, skull cracked, near dead, "Strawberry belong to Slog!"

'Actually, I plan on giving them to Enna, she's fond of them or so she told me the other night.' Brody mused to himself.

He was just about stand up and put an end to this nonsense now that a winner had been decided, when-

"Kekekeke!" a demented giggle erupted from the foliage and a fourth vulcan made its way into the clearing, visibly smaller than the other three, but with smug look on its face, "No dumb Slog, you stooopid. Me, Clock win now, you beat up, can't win. Strawberry belong to Clock!"

…Weren't their names supposed to end in 'Og'. Because, he'd heard over twenty of their names at this point, and they all had so far.

"Clock have tiny peepee!" Slog shot back, nostrils flaring.

"Clock peepee just fine!" Clock howled in a rage, its 'calm' demeanour evaporating in an instant and the smaller forest vulcan launched itself at Slog, fists raised.

Apparently that was a sore spot for 'Clock'.

Brody watched with a dry gaze as Slog shot forward to meet Clock, ramming its shoulder into the smaller forest vulcans face and stunning it, before grabbing it in a headlock and proceeded to pummel Clock's face in its with free hand.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Before long, Clocks face was little more than a meaty pulp and Slog let go of it, letting the probably dead, if not, near dead forest vulcan drop to the ground in limp.

The last forest vulcan standing, proceeded to beat its chest in victory as it stoood over its fallen brethren, "Slog eat all three weaklings and strawberries, Slog da be-" Slog bellowed loudly, only to be cut off in the middle with a choked splutter.

Brody landed, arms wrapped around the throat of the huge green simian creature and dragged it down, forcing it to its knees, "No actually," he smirked, "Brody wins." he twisted his arms and jerked with all his strength.

And crack went Slogs neck.

The teenager unwound his arms from the beasts neck and watched as it fell to the ground limp, dead.

"Good try though." Brody crouched down and pat the dead forest vulcans head consolingly, before reaching over and ripping off its tail, and then doing the same to the other three.

"Well I can safely say, I'm stronger than ten year old Natsu, yay me." Brody chuckled to himself as he made his way around the four bodies, taking over all of them one by one,

Kid Natsu had struggled to beat a Gorian after all, and he could do it easily, in his base form now.

'Hmm, I got a boost from all of them.' he noted, feeling his magic power increase a bit more with each one.

So that brought his total up to thirty, and he hadn't hit his limit yet, interesting. Or maybe the thirtieth did it?

Well no matter, he'd find out the next time he ran into a forest vulcan.

Either way, with that taken care of, Brody grabbed the four tails that would work as proof of his kills and stood up, cracking his neck, "Right, should probably test out the increase in strength I have in my vulcan form now and-"

Brody's voice was drowned out as a massive, draconian roar echoed loudly through the air. It was so loud, it actually had him wincing a bit.

"…What the fuck was that?" he swallowed heavily.

A loud piercing scream followed a moment later, followed by dozens more. Brody's eyes widened and he whipped around to stare in the direction it came from.

"…That came from Onibus…." he realised.

What the hell could have made a sound like that? It had to be something huge and strong.

He tried to move, to head back towards the village. But his body wouldn't budge. And it was then he noticed something.

His legs were trembling.

So were his arms.

His whole body was in fact.

The instincts in his body, were telling him not to go near that. Not to go there. That if he did, he would die. Every instinct was telling him right now, to flee.

The tail of his partial Take Over form swished nervously behind him.

Shit.

Fuck!

"Stop!" he growled, punching his legs, trying to stop the shuddering. But, his body barely felt it, the adrenaline pumping in his veins and triggering his fight or flight instincts, hyped him too much.

And his body wanted to flee.

Screw that.

"Move!" he snarled at himself. He wasn't a pussy, he wouldn't run away just because of a massive scary sounding monster roaring. Even in the face of certain death when he first appeared here, he hadn't given up and pussied out, so he wouldn't now!

Gritting his teeth, Brody forced himself to move. Slow, hesitant steps, before they became firmer and faster.

Before long, he was dashing through the forest at blurring speeds, bag of strawberries long forgotten as he made a mad dash back towards Onibus Town.

It wasn't long before he reached the town and his eyes widened at what he saw. People running in fear in the streets, craters through the pavements, multiple buildings outright demolished.

And there standing in the middle of a ruined clothing shop, was a massive reptilian creature. It was at least twenty five feet tall, if not larger, with huge winged arms, and thick powerfully muscled legs with nasty razor sharp talons decorating its feet. Thick green scales covered it from head to toe, and it roared loudly, staggeringly, from a massive maw filled with razor sharp, shark like teeth.

It was a Wyvern.

A Green Wyvern to be exact.

One of the strongest magical beasts around.

The one species of Wyvern, that was totally carnivorous from what he'd read so far about various beasts around Fiore when he'd been thinking of targets to use his Take Over magic on.

Fast, strong, incredibly durable, with scales resistant to magic and physical force. It was a beast most mages couldn't hope to handle alone and only top tier mages could defeat one solo.

The only saving grace, was that its magic power went into protecting itself and it had no magical abilities beyond that.

For what little good that did him.

"…Shit." Brody grimaced.

It had to be a green one didn't it? Why couldn't it have been a white one, otherwise known as a Blizzardvern. They were omnivorous, but not as…blood thirsty as the green ones and would back off with a sufficient show off force.

The green ones would fight to the death for prey. And it looked like humans were on the menu. He'd decided ages ago, that he wasn't going anywhere near one for a long, long while.

It had just decided to come to him, huh?

Brody watched as drool pooled in its mouth as its beady eyes settled on a small girl running away from it.

He was moving before he even realised it, "Beast Soul: Vulcan!" he pulled on his magic and transitioned straight into the full form, going at maximum strength immediately.

He exploded forward, leaping through the air and just as it was about to lunge down and bite down atop the little girl it had chosen as its prey, his fist smashed into its jaw.

A thunderous impact resounded out.

And the beast staggered a few steps to the side, before shaking its head and whirling around to face him, rage in its eyes.

With a roar it lashed out, swinging a massive wing at him and forcing him to jump backwards to avoid it. But as he did, it turned, rotating rapidly and lashed out with its tail, a massive, jagged thing spiked at the end and shooting towards him so fast he could barely follow him.

Simian reflexes kicked in and his own furry green tail lashed out, swinging around and using the force to spin him out of the way just in time to avoid having his face stabbed right through and left with a gaping hole in the middle.

With a rage filled howl of his own Brody wrapped his arms around the tail and pulled with all his strength.

To his credit, the huge beast was pulled right off of its feet, right onto its back. but at the same time, as it did, it yanked its tail back and bodily lifted him into the air, dragging him towards it in a flash.

He let go of the tail, but it was too late, he was already soaring straight towards it, its mouth snapping out to bite down atop him as he came into range.

"Shit, shit shit!" Brody rapidly cursed. He couldn't fucking do anything while mid-air and not knowing any long range magic or anything!

The only thing he had, was his body!

"Fuck off!" Brody roared just as it snapped down, thrusting out both feet in a double mule kick and smashing them right up into its snout before it could chomp down.

The muscles in his legs screamed in protest, but he pushed through with a snarl. The force of his double kick, sent them both ass over head.

The wyvern tumbled backwards in a heap, while Brody with his simian reflexes, flipped mid-air and landed on the ground standing, a wince appearing on his face as he did, the muscles in his legs throbbing.

'No wonder…' he thought as he eyed the beast. With its sheer size, it had to weigh a couple tons at least and he'd just sent it through a backflip with a kick from both legs.

Not that it did any damage, as it merely shook its head and rose back up with another snarl.

Fuck.

Shit.

Cunt!

What the hell did he do here? He couldn't hurt it at all. 'Weaknesses, what kind of weaknesses do it have?' his mind rushed a mile a minute recalling what the book he read said on them.

Only the physically strongest could smash through their scales, and only strong magic could overcome their resistance.

'The only other thing is…' a grim realization set in as it roared and rushed him, powerful legs shaking the ground with each step.

Its insides.

That meant, either attacking from inside its mouth or, his eyes met its own beady eyes as it lunged at him.

He quickly backpedalled with a series of bouncing jumps as it crashed into the ground, creating a crater and sending great chunks of debris flying through the air, all the while its beady eyes stayed locked on him.

He was its prey now.

'It's kill and eat or be killed and eaten.' he thought as he landed in a crouch, before tensing his legs and springing forward.

And it had only one place he could reliably hurt it right now.

And luck was on his side in one way. Unlike the Blizzardvern that were much more intelligent.

Green Wyvern's were dumb brutes.

Incredibly fast, strong and durable dumb brutes, but dumb brutes nonetheless.

'It won't back down, it'll attack.' he thought as he shot towards it. And that would be his chance. Take one hit, to give one back.

It jaws snapped out, he lashed out with one arm.

He roared as one of its massive teeth punched right through his left forearm.

That should have been it.

But he had an extra limb.

His fluffy green tail hooked into it nostril, grasped the skin tightly and yoinked, pulling with the momentum of his own charge and the momentum slamming into him from its bite.

Instead of being dragged into its mouth and chewed to bites, his body rapidly flipped and flopped face first onto its snout, his arm still stuck to its tooth. His leverage was fucked, but he had just enough reach-

To last out with his right hand in a knife hand blow, driving it straight into the beasts eye.

The wyvern howled in agony as he gouged through its eye, blood flying from it.

Brody's eyes widened and he howled himself in pain as it thrashed around, tearing chunks from his arm pierced by its tooth. 'I can't reach its brain from here.' he thought blearily.

The wyvern reared up its head as it thrashed and Brody snarled, tearing his arm free from its eye and then smashing it again and again and again in a flurry of one handed punches, "Fucking die damnit!" he snarled even as it bodily threw itself down and smashed its head alongside him into the ground.

He saw stars as his head smashed into and through the ground, and felt his cheeks slit open as it continued to thrash and drag him through the concrete. Not for a moment did he let up, he continued to attack, tearing apart its eye socket with everything he had in a blind frenzy.

Finally, the stalemate was broken through as with a jerk, he was flipped back around and dangled from his mangled arm precariously right inside its mouth as it opened wide.

And prepared to bite down.

"You want to eat me!?" Brody bellowed, rage filled spittle erupting from his throat as he glared bloody daggers into its wide open mouth and razor sharp teeth, "Not if I eat you first! TAKE OVER!!!"

One had to make contact to use Take Over magic on a target. Luckily for him in this case, his arm was making contact.

With the tooth pierced straight through it.

A brilliant light flashed brightly illuminating the destroyed street.

________

Power, strength, hunger. The sheer instinct to kill, feed, survive. Primal instincts of an apex predator slammed into his mind.

His soul shuddered and he felt it…crack?

He heard a howl and his vision slipped between black, green and gold. He felt his consciousness waver.

'No.'

He decided right then and there, that no. He would not be devoured. He'd felt it happen before. He'd been eaten once. Never again.

The wyvern, was not the only apex predator here.

His mind, his magic, his soul roared and slammed against the overwhelming presence of the wyvern with everything he had.

And it shattered before, the beasts soul curling inwards from the blow and going limp.

And his eyes opened once more and Brody found himself standing in the middle of the destroyed street where he'd done battle with the wyvern, panting deeply within the crater that had been formed between its head and his body.

"…I….won…" he laughed to himself, almost madly. That had been a crazy thing to do. It had been all instinct. And it had been his only option in a desperate gambit to survive.

But he had come out on top, and survived. He had won. He was the true apex predator.

His vision was hazy, but he noticed, people hesitatingly peering out of ruined buildings or street corners.

Before suddenly, cheers erupted. He heard his name being chanted.

And then his legs gave out and darkness consumed him.