Chapter 279: The Fire Dragon part 6
Owen's observation about their last encounter with the fire dragon made Elwin wonder about what could be done about the fire dragon continually escaping when they had it on the ropes. Elwin felt like dealing damage to the fire dragon at that moment wasn't realistic, given how he recalled when he'd tried attacking the dragon when ti was escaping the first time he'd encountered it.
Patricia seemed interested in trying to figure out not only how to strike the dragon at that moment, but also when to attack. As it was clear that their regular attacks weren't working on the dragon.
After they'd encountered each other during that battle, they'd started travelling together and had encountered the fire dragon three times after that.
Now, they were starting to head into a valley with a hill in the center. Elwin wished they could just end the dragon. Waiting for it to appear and attack whenever was starting to get rather tiring.
Two of the attacks had occurred in the middle of the night and both times Elwin wasn't on watch. The first one was with Owen on watch and the second with Leon. The last attack occurred during the thunderstorm.
That fight didn't seem to take as long as the others and Elwin suspected the dragon had as much difficulty with the pelting rain as the rest of them. As not only was the ground so slick to the point that staying balanced while fighting was nearly impossible.
If the dragon hadn't been having as much trouble as the rest of them, Elwin was confident that they'd have all been killed. That it would have had no trouble. However, while it retreated most of the time when it started to get overwhelmed, this time Elwin suspected that it retreated simply because it could tell it wasn't going to do very well in the fight.
This time, they had reached the bottom of the hill, while they were tracking a herd of deer, when the dragon merely appeared in the middle of their combined group. Unlike previous times, it didn't approach from a distance, but rather was suddenly in the midst of them without warning. Owen's bow was incinerated as he jumped away when the dragon swiped at him.
Elwin couldn't say why, but he had a feeling that if they didn't slay the dragon this time, that they weren't going to at all. He hadn't shared that feeling with anyone, even his brother Leon, but the feeling was there. He worried that nothing they did would have a lasting effect, but the only way to find out was to see how this fight ended.