The dragon growled as an attempt to frighten me while slowly taking a step back. When it realised I wasn’t like the ones he played with, it swished its big claws at me, trying to pick me up and throw me at the wall. Of course, I easily dodged it and dashed forward at a super human speed. To a normal hunter, I would’ve looked like a blur but the dragon could still keep up.

I zig-zagged across the arena, advancing my way towards him while trying to evade the dragon’s pure flames. I built up my wind magic to create extra clones of myself to confuse the mighty beast. Immediately, I unsheathed my two holy grade short swords, when I got close enough and dashed up the dragon’s back. I leapt into the air with wind magic and was directly above the dragon’s head.

“Holy grail twin dragons!” I shouted, activating one of my strongest spells, two wind dragons formulated around my body dashing down with a swing from both my short swords. The dragons bit down on the beast’s neck making it roar in pain. I felt satisfied but worried. My energy was plummeting at an alarming rate. The more I used my powers, the faster I was being drained. I had never felt this before.

It twisted its head to look above at me and breathed its blue flames at my body. I saw it coming but my body reacted way too slow. Pain shot up my nerves, burning them. My blood felt like lava and I could feel the beating of my pulse against my skin. My magic armour spell broke and I tried to escape the flames, but they were relentless.

After a good incinerating, the flames had stopped and my body dropped like a meteor towards the ground, leaving a crater in the arena floor; my body aching, pain spread throughout my body like a virus. So the mighty dragon wasn’t that easy to kill after all. I got up huffing and puffing, trying to gather the energy to fight, but I dropped back on one knee. Just one of its attacks was enough to get me to this state.

However it still struck me peculiar that I was so fatigued; I had noticed that even my transformation had left me. Normally these burns would’ve healed by now, but they weren’t going. I felt the same thing after that demonstration. It must have been something I consumed. That cup of tea!

That wretched General. I had no time to curse at my luck as the dragon exhaled its flames once again, leaving me no time to regain my strength. I was on the defensive. I danced around, my speed significantly slower and the pain still agonizing my body with every step. I knew I couldn’t hold this up for much longer.

‘What should I do? Think James, Think!’ I tried to think of a plan, just then the beast swiped with its claws impacting the right side of my body, I tried to parry the blow but I was sent flying backwards like a pebble bouncing on water. My body crashed into the walls of the arena, imprinting itself onto it.

From the corner of my eye, I saw someone conjuring a fireball, a small figure. The fireball the size of a boulder connected with the dragon’s dark scales. The beast turned its head in annoyance to take a glance at the small figure. It was a student!

“Get away from there!” I yelled. The dragon was mustering up another one of its flame breaths, instinctively, I activated my demon form and dashed for the small girl. My body cried out in sheer pain at the toll of activating the demon form once again. The mighty dragon’s flame hotter than hell itself, again scorched my skin, this time I knew I wouldn’t be able to take it.

As my golden armour shattered and my consciousness started to drift, I blocked the flames from affecting the small child with my final desperate efforts; every second in the flames, burned my arms and body. The dragon flung me out of the way and I was sent flying into something sharp. “ARGHH!” The pain was unbearable.

My hand reached down to my stomach to feel a red hot liquid gushing out. I clenched my jaw and squeezed my eyes shut so hard. “RRRRGH” I struggled to control the pain. Nothing could heal this. I didn’t have enough strength to do this. I glared down in horror and saw the big pole which had been penetrated through me from the impact of my fall. Blood squirted out of my arm from the torn artery and it hit me.

Laying on my side, I realised, I was hopelessly broken, just like all the others, a hole through my centre and broken limbs. The mighty king is laying on the dusty ground with all these corpses which were once his people. What kind of king am I? Now I was going to watch this student get grilled like a fresh stake while I slowly bled out on the ground.

From the corner of my eyes I saw a figure walk out into the centre of the arena, in front of the dragon. My vision was blotchy and I couldn’t make out the face but I knew it was the general. I’m not an idiot. Only she could be capable of walking like one leg is shorter than the other. God, I really wanted to snap her hips upright but it hurt to even part my lips. My throat felt dry like the inside was rubbed violently in sandpaper and the pain was giving me the hottest fever.

The dragon backed away from the general and the student was about to speak when I heard the general speak “Sorry sweetheart. Cant have no witnesses now, can we?” and with a swift move, she shoved her full hand down the students throat, forcing her to swallow whatever was in her hand. I rolled my eyes. Jeez, poisoning was a little unnecessary. I choked on the dry cough making its way through my lips. Ouch. The general faced me and smirked. She strutted out of the stadium in pride and I loathed every step she took. I averted my gaze back to the student.

She stumbled across the stadium over to me. I could tell she was struggling with indescribable pain flowing through her. She squeezed her chest right above her heart as she fell over. Her ribs snapped like twigs. Blood flooded through her eyes, and her guts came tumbling out of her mouth. Her horrified eyes were drowned in the blood but her bright black iris beamed straight into mine. I could tell she was crying as she gagged on the blood clots flowing out of her mouth. What kind of poison was that?!

She tried to say words so hard. I could tell she wanted to apologise to me and my heart ached for her pure soul. Her body shook vigorously and the shaking developed into flopping on the floor like a fish out of the water. I gulped at her pain. Then she stopped and fell to an eerie stop. She lay in agony as her stomach ripped open and all her intestines and body fluids poured out. She drooled red blood. Her head was still facing up towards me but I couldn’t make out her facial features anymore. She was unrecognisable with the amount of blood on her.

I faced the sky one last time. Wow. My death was going slower than I expected. Am I healing? I looked down again despite the agonising pain shooting up my veins. Nope-

I gasped for air. Oxygen was violently ripped and snatched from my lungs. Every waking minute was pain. Every movement sent screaming death dancing across my burning, vulnerable flesh. Everything became fuzzy; then I saw nothing at all. The pain was gone, feeling my body drain away until finally all was black.

My mind plunged into darkness.

**

My consciousness was floating through an empty space filled with a thick static black. Throughout the inky space, I felt someone’s heavy stare fall onto me.

“Am I dead? I can’t be, death shouldn’t look like this, didn’t people say there would be beautiful women or something, where are they?.”

The last thing I remembered was feeling the ruthless last bit of pain before it all was gone, and now I was here. What a pitiful way to die? Just my luck!

Everything was dark. Then I could feel my heart beating again, the blood coursing through my veins and arteries. I was alive? I tried to move but my limbs, they wouldn’t budge. What was going on? I was certain that I was alive, but I still couldn’t understand why everything was dark. I tried to circulate magic energy throughout my body but nothing was working. In fact I couldn’t even feel my magic energy at all.

Then, a flicker of blue light appeared directly in front of me, the size of a small firefly. I studied it for a moment, then the light slowly started to grow larger and larger until the blue light had transformed into a human figure shrouded in this blue light. What the hell was that thing? I had never seen anything like it; a part of me told me that this was not a good sign but even if I wanted to run my body would’ve never listened any ways.

“James Lance, I have determined you as a candidate, you will be transported shortly, Any questions you have will be answered by you in your next life.” the unknown figure spoke. I was dumbstruck. What was this figure talking about? Me, a candidate for what? As anyone would, I was questioning everything this figure talked about in my head, but the last bit resonated in my head the most, ‘in your next life’ Was I going to be reincarnated?

“Preparations are ready. Good luck my candidate.” the blue figure spoke clicking his figures. The figure disappeared and my consciousness left me again…