Page 50 of Samuel
Suddenly, the trees parted, and there it was—a massive, scaled creature, its eyes blazing with a fierce intelligence as it regarded us.
The rogue dragon stood in the clearing, its maw dripping fire, eyes fixated on us with a predatory intensity.
It let out a snarl, smoke curling from its nostrils. For a heartbeat, everything else fell away.
Finn and I stood side by side, our weapons raised, facing down the creature that had brought terror to this place.
This was what we were trained for, but the sheer size of the dragon, the raw power radiating from it, was unlike anything I’d ever faced.
“Holy smokes…how do we even face something like that?” Finn whispered.
The rogue dragon’s roar shook the forest, a deafening sound that sent adrenaline coursing through my veins.
Heat radiated off the beast in waves as it towered above us, flames licking at its maw.
I barely had time to process the sheer size of it before it lunged, slamming its massive claws into the ground where Finn and I had just been standing.
Dirt and rocks exploded into the air, and we threw ourselves in opposite directions.
"Move!" I shouted, scrambling to my feet, my heart hammering in my chest.
Finn rolled to the side, coming up with his handgun ready.
He fired off three quick shots, but the bullets ricocheted harmlessly off the dragon's thick, red scales.
The creature barely flinched.
I raised my rifle and aimed for its eye—its only vulnerable spot, as far as I knew.
But before I could pull the trigger, the dragon turned its head, and a torrent of fire burst from its mouth.
“Finn!” I screamed, diving behind a tree as the flames scorched the air around us.
Finn had already ducked behind a fallen log, narrowly avoiding the inferno. My pulse pounded in my ears.
This wasn’t going to work. The dragon was too fast, too strong, and our weapons were useless against it.
We were sitting ducks.
“We need to split up!” I shouted, dodging another swipe of the dragon’s claws.
The beast’s focus seemed to zero in on me, its molten eyes tracking my every move.
It was like the dragon could sense me—wasafterme.
“No way!” Finn yelled back, firing another useless round at the dragon’s side. “I’m not leaving you here!”
“Listen to me, Finn!” I ducked under another blast of fire, my mind racing.
The creature was relentless, and each attack was aimed directly at me. It was no coincidence.
The dragon had locked onto me, and if Finn stayed with me, we’d both end up dead.
“It’s targeting me. You need to get out of here. If we split up, you have a better chance of escaping!” I yelled.
Finn hesitated, and I could see the conflict in his eyes, even in the middle of this chaos. He didn’t want to leave.
“I’m not leaving you, Blake!” he shouted, firing again as he sidestepped the dragon’s snapping jaws. “We can take it down together!”
