Chapter 2
Kai's Fight
The silence wasn't empty. It was a physical thing, thick with the dragon's sulfurous exhalations, the faint hum of Kai's fire-dagger, and the crushing weight of ancient, predatory regard.
Molten gold met liquid obsidian across the gulf of the clearing. Kai's heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic counterpoint to the slow, deep whoosh of the dragon's lungs, each intake pulling the darkness tighter around them.
The dragon's massive head, a sculpture of volcanic rock and corded muscle, tilted almost imperceptibly. Its furnace-core eyes narrowed further, the intelligence within them calculating, assessing the defiance in the human spark before it.
The low, considering rumble vibrating through the ground ceased abruptly. A finality.
Then, the furnace in its throat ignited.
It wasn't a build-up; it was a detonation. A blinding, white-hot core flared deep within the cavernous maw, washing the clearing in a hellish, flickering light that bleached the color from the pines and turned Kai's gray coat stark white.
The air itself screamed as it was ripped apart, superheated in an instant. A torrent of pure, incandescent destruction erupted from the dragon's jaws a river of fire wider than Kai was tall, roaring towards him with the speed and fury of a collapsing star.
The sound was apocalyptic, a continuous thunderclap that promised only obliteration.
Time fractured.
To Kai, the world didn't just slow; it congealed. The roar of the dragon's breath became a monstrous, drawn-out groan, stretching into infinity.
The terrifying brilliance of the oncoming inferno froze, a wall of shimmering, molten death hanging impossibly in the air mere feet away.
He could see individual tongues of flame, frozen mid-leap, their edges sharp and defined against the sudden, eerie stillness.
Around him, the forest held its breath. Pine needles, dislodged by the dragon's landing or the concussive prelude to its breath, hung suspended in the air like emerald shards in amber.
Dust motes, caught in the dying campfire's last gasp, glittered motionless. Even the terrifying heat radiating from the frozen fire-wall seemed suspended, a potential rather than an assault.
The only thing moving at its normal, desperate pace was Kai. His mind raced, faster than the frozen flames. He saw the path of annihilation carved through the air, knew with absolute certainty that in the next microsecond of real-time, he would be vaporized.
His right hand, still gripping the fire-dagger, clenched. The intense heat radiating from the solidified flame didn't burn him; it was part of him. But now, under the pressure of imminent extinction and the distortion of time, it changed. The fierce orange glow flickered, deepened, then cooled with astonishing rapidity.
The fire didn't vanish; it solidified further. The shimmering, heat-hazed edges hardened into cold, sharp steel. The inner glow dimmed, replaced by the dull, deadly sheen of polished iron.
In less than a heartbeat within the stretched moment, the dagger of fire became a dagger of cold, unforgiving metal. Its weight settled differently in his grip heavier, more substantial, a lethal anchor in the timeless void.
Simultaneously, his left hand moved. Not with panic, but with a desperate, practiced efficiency born of survival. It flashed inside his worn gray coat. The fabric yielded, not to a pocket, but to something else, something that existed in the liminal space conjurers understood. When his hand emerged, it held a gun.
It was unlike any firearm forged by mortal hands. Sleek, impossibly white, as if carved from frozen moonlight or the core of a dead star. It felt unnaturally cold against his palm, a counterpoint to the searing potential of the frozen dragon fire.
There were no visible seams, no hammer, no discernible mechanism just a smooth, alien curve terminating in a barrel that seemed to drink the frozen light. It hummed faintly, a vibration that resonated in his bones, a sound of contained, impossible power.
He didn't hesitate. He couldn't. Time was a rubber band stretched to its absolute limit. With the metal dagger still clutched in his right hand and the cold white gun now firm in his left, Kai moved.
He didn't run; he flowed. Pushing off with his back foot, he launched himself sideways, perpendicular to the frozen river of death. His motion was jarringly fast against the tableau of suspended pine needles and immobile flames. He aimed for a gap between two massive, ancient pines, a sliver of darkness untouched by the dragon's frozen fury.
As he cleared the direct path of the fire, crossing the boundary where the frozen heat began, time snapped back.
The effect was violent. The world roared back into frantic motion with the force of a physical blow. The suspended pine needles rained down in a sudden green shower. The dust motes vanished. The terrifying heat slammed into Kai like a physical wall, singeing the back of his coat and the hair on his neck even as he moved.
And the dragon's fire, no longer frozen, continued its devastating path with undiminished fury. It slammed into the spot where Kai had stood a fraction of a second before. Earth vaporized instantly, replaced by a roiling pool of molten rock.
The two ancient pines he'd aimed for were engulfed. They didn't burn; they erupted into towering columns of white-hot flame, their trunks vanishing in an instant, their upper halves crashing down as blazing wreckage. The concussive force of the blast wave hit Kai mid-leap.
It was like being kicked by a mountain. The air was ripped from his lungs. The world became a cacophony of sound – the dragon's ongoing roar, the shriek of superheated air, the thunderous collapse of the pines.
The force hurled him backwards, spinning him through the air. He lost his grip on the metal dagger; it spun away, glinting once before vanishing into the inferno and smoke.
Instinct and desperation took over. He twisted in the air, seeing the massive, fire-lit bulk of the dragon turning its head, tracking his trajectory with unnerving speed.
Its molten eyes locked onto him again, the furnace in its throat pulsing as it drew breath for another blast. He was flying helplessly towards the thick trunk of another massive pine, directly in the path of the dragon's line of sight.
No. The thought was cold, clear. He couldn't dodge in mid-air. He couldn't outrun the next breath.
He raised the white gun. It felt heavier now, colder, the hum intensifying. He didn't aim at the dragon's head or body; he aimed at the space directly in front of the tree trunk he was hurtling towards. He pulled the trigger.
There was no loud report, no muzzle flash. Instead, the air rippled violently directly ahead of him, compressing into a visible, concussive disk of pure force a focused blast of solidified air.
The shockwave hit him just as he collided with the tree. Instead of the bone-shattering impact he expected, the concussive blast absorbed his momentum, cushioning him against the rough bark. It allowed him to plant his boots flat against the trunk, bending his knees to absorb the remaining force.
For a dizzying moment, he stood perpendicular to the ground, boots braced against the tree, the white gun pointed downwards, smoke and flames swirling around him, the dragon's colossal form filling his vision below.
The dragon saw him. Its head snapped up, the furnace in its maw blazing anew. It didn't waste time with another ground-level blast. It knew where he was pinned. With a powerful beat of its vast, leathery wings that sent gales of hot ash and embers swirling through the clearing, the dragon launched itself upwards. Its ascent was terrifyingly fast, a dark leviathan rising against the backdrop of fire-lit smoke and the indifferent stars.
Kai acted. Still braced against the trunk, he raised the white gun, aiming not at the dragon's armored body, but at the leading edge of one massive wing, hoping to cripple its flight. He pulled the trigger twice in rapid succession. Twin ripples of compressed air shot forth, invisible projectiles traveling with devastating speed.
They struck. And did absolutely nothing.
The concussive blasts dissipated against the dragon's scales like raindrops against stone. Not a single plate shifted.
Not a tremor ran through the immense limb. The dragon didn't even flinch. Its ascent continued, unimpeded, its molten gaze fixed on Kai with chilling focus. It rose until it was level with him, then slightly above, blotting out the sky. The heat radiating from its underside was intense, drying his eyes and skin instantly.
Hovering with powerful, thunderous wingbeats that flattened the burning undergrowth below, the dragon opened its jaws. The furnace within was blinding, a miniature sun contained within its maw. It didn't roar. It simply aimed. The massive head tilted downwards, those molten eyes pinpointing Kai, trapped against the tree trunk.
Kai stared up, the cold white gun feeling suddenly useless in his hand against the descending god of fire. The air shimmered with unbearable heat. Below, the clearing was a lake of fire and molten rock. Above, annihilation gathered in a dragon's throat. There was nowhere left to run.