I Received System to Become Dragonborn

Back to the battle inside the temple.

The creature tore through their formation with a vicious grace, its movements was so quick and deliberate, like it remembered how to kill.

Jan's arrows kept flying.

Thwip, thwip, thwip!

Each shot aimed for a gap, a joint, or a soft patch behind the jaw. But the thing's black hide was toughening, turning bone and ichor into armor. Even a perfect shot only staggered it a bit.

Kaela slipped in again with her knives, dragging the edge of one knife across the back of its arm, leaving a ribbon of black blood.

She then ducked away before it could react, but this time, the creature anticipated. Its elbow whipped around so quick and caught her in the ribs while she was in her mid-roll.

She gasped and tumbled across the stone floor, coughing hard, but she rose again and touching her aching side.

"It's getting faster," she called. "I think its learning our moves."

Selene responded by sending a flash of lightning then a sharp CRACK that forced the thing back could be heard. Electricity dancing across its body.

It staggered, but then it grinned. More jagged and hungry teeth had grown across its face.

It leapt at them.

Hund and Thorne stepped forward to meet it.

CLANG!

Hund's broadsword met its claws in a savage clash. Sparks flew. He braced his boots into the ground. His muscles rippled, holding the creature in place with sheer brute strength.

Thorne danced beside him and send a flurry of cuts aimed at the monster's sides. He managed to give him three blows before it lashed back.

He dodged the first claw, parried the second, but the third came from underneath, an elbow spike punching into his thigh.

"ARRGHH!"

Thorne cried out and stumbling back, blood pouring down his leg. But he didn't fall.

Hund shouted and struck the creature across the chest, driving it back a step. Then he stepped in and swinging with all his weight behind the slash.

But the creature caught his sword.

Its hand closed around the blade. Blood spilled from its own palm but it didn't flinch.

It then pulled the blade.

Hund was yanked forward and the creature's head slammed into his face.

CRACK!

His nose broke instantly. Blood sprayed into the floor. He dropped to one knee, dazed, and the creature raised both claws.

But Thorne was there again, dragging his injured leg behind him and raising his sword up.

He screamed as he drove the blade into the creature's body. It roared in frustration and swiping wildly.

One claw ripped across Thorne's chest and flung him aside like a broken doll. He struck the wall and crumpled.

"Thorne!" Mark shout with wide eyes filled with worry.

Hund roared and grabbed the creature around the waist with both arms, using raw strength to lift it bodily off the ground and slam it down into the stone floor.

BOOM.

The floor cracked. The creature snarled but it wasn't weakened. Its claws twisted and plunged into Hund's body, just below the ribs and threw him in the direction where Thorne was.

Hund choked, eyes going wide. He staggered after hitting the wall, holding his gut. Blood seeped between his fingers.

"Hund!" Jan shouted, his next arrow already drawn.

The others surged forward to protect them, forcing the creature back again with fire Magic and blade.

Hund dropped to one knee beside Thorne, gasping.

"I'm… still breathing," he muttered, but his hand was slick with blood.

Kaela landed beside them and pulled out a small vial from her belt. "Don't move. We've got you."

Jan shouted over the chaos, "Esther! How much longer?!"

"Almost there!" she called back, her hands glowing with mounting power. "Just hol, hold it off a little longer!"

But Hund and Thorne were down and the creature was not slowing.

Jan grunted and gritted his teeth. Hund and Thorne were bleeding, Kaela crouched beside them with trembling hands trying to stop the bleeding.

That left only him, Mark, and Selene still standing between the creature and Esther and Annette.

He glanced at the glowing light behind him. They just needed more time.

"Damn it," he muttered.

Jan shifted to the side and began moving toward the rear of the creature, careful and silent like a hunter.

Its attention was focused forward, its breath ragged. Now that Hund and Thorne were down, someone had to take the front. Selene was a powerful witch, but she couldn't hold the line herself. It was up to him and Mark now.

Mark seemed to realize that at the same moment. His jaw clenched, and he raised his sword.

The runes etched into its surface lit up, pulsing with blue energy as he channeled his Magic into the blade. In his other hand, the air shimmered faintly.

Jan didn't hesitate. He summoned a Magic arrow directly onto his bowstring, conjuring it mid-draw. Ice-blue and crackling arrows with freezing power appeared. He released that.

Thwip!

The arrow struck the creature's upper back. A blast of frost erupted from the impact, freezing across its twisted muscles, creeping along its neck and shoulder.

Ice spiderwebbed across half its body, locking one of its arms and half its chest.

The creature shrieked, twisting violently, but it was already slowed now.

That was the opening.

Without a word, Mark moved.

He dashed forward with his sword that glowing like a streak of blue moonlight. The first strike slashed across its frozen arm and fracturing it. The second cut into its hip. The third into its ribs. The fourth into its thigh.

And then the fifth slash clean across its neck.

Its head was severed.

The thing dropped to its knees. For a moment, everything was still.

Mark stood panting, black blood splattered on his face. His blade still humming with energy. The others stared in anticipation.

But Jan didn't lower his bow.

"That thing is not dead," he said.

The creature's body twitched.

Its black blood bubbled. Tendrils of darkness oozed from the neck stump like feelers, that writhing and searching. They can hear long breath rattling from its chest.

Then it stopped moving.

"I'm ready!" Esther's voice was rising behind them.

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