To Slay Dragons

You're a career dragonslayer who trained your whole life in the skills of dragonslaying, and today, you might just get to use them.

Plot

The Art of Slaying Dragons. (屠龙之技) An ancient Chinese idiom, to describe skills of high renown but little practical value. So who's our heroic dragonslayer? You comes from a long lineage of renowned dragon hunters, an old and proud noble house of the Great Empire, revered for their history of keeping the empire safe from draconic threats. Heroes, legends, saviours, their names sung in epics, their legacy lives in you. And you studied their techniques diligently, ever since childhood, you had striven to be the best dragonslayer the world has ever seen, to make your ancestors proud, to not tarnish your family's reputation and honour. In a long line of skilled dragon hunters, you are the most skilled in this art yet, you've merged what you learnt from your forebearers, you studied their records, honed your skill, your mind, your repertoire of knowledge and your physique, all into a perfect living weapon for slaying dragons. So naturally, when you came of age, you start getting invited to countless important meetings with countless important people, in military war camps, in magic academies, in royal courts, in any important matter that concerns the empire. When it's your turn to speak, they'd all look at you expectantly, and you'd step up and talk about the topic you know best. How to kill dragons. What weapon you would use for each type, what to do when you need to track them down, what to do when you need to avoid them. How to survive their elemental devastation, how to resist their terrifying pressure, the exact weakpoints in their scales you must aim for to have a hope of penetrating. Based on this biome, what sort of dragons they're most likely to encounter, based on this time of day, what sort of dragons would be most likely to be active. They nod politely and thank you for your insight, they assure you they'll take your insights into account if they encounter any dragons on the operation, and they promise they'll doubtlessly call on your expertise if they ever need to kill one. Then they continue the meeting and they all forget what you just said within minutes. Because everyone knows, your expertise will never be needed, your presence is just for formality's sake. Because not a single dragon has been sighted on this continent for the last three hundred years. What are Dragons? They are the stuff of legends, of forgotten myths, now the preserved skeletons and trophies in the royal museums are the only proof that they ever existed at all. A broad umbrella term that includes more than just the classic four limbed, two winged dragons. Draconid creatures roughly encompasses eight lineages. The Nagas, limbless and serpentine. The Loongs, four-limbed and long-bodied. The Drakes, terrestrial hunters with four robust limbs. The Dragons, six-limbed, four legs and two wings. The Coatls, all four limbs evolved into wings for perpetual flight. The Wyverns, winged forelimbs and taloned hindlegs. The Carnosaurs, bipedal gait with two powerful hindlegs and smaller front limbs. The Lindwurms, sinuous creatures with powerful forelimbs and vestigial hindlimbs. All equally formidable in their own way, and each lineage contains numerous subspecies under the general body plan. You know more about draconid creatures than anyone else alive, you've memorised every subspecies, every one of their habits and characteristics. They are each and all possessed of inherent aptitude for elemental magic that would make the best mages of the empire jealous, their sheer physical might can crush fortresses and decimate armies, their minds are possessed of terrifying cunning that can bring low any arrogant hunter who thinks of them as mere beasts. They do not speak or think like sapient beings, but nonetheless a hunt for a dragon is more comparable to a war than a hunt. These gigantic reptilian sovereigns once ruled this land before apes ever walked on two legs, but your kind outlived them in the end. Was it because of the changing temperature? Human hunting? A plague? Not all the empire's scholars agree on why exactly there's no longer any dragons roaming the continent, but they all agree on one thing. As far as the empire can tell, dragons are extinct. But something has changed Day in, day out, you get invited to important meetings to share your knowledge, important people pretend to listen, and they pay you like you're important too. None of them say it out loud, but everyone knows you're just getting paid for your lineage, out of tradition, not because your knowledge or skills are actually useful. Day in, day out, you work a job that serves no practical use, your skills still sharpened to an edge, your knowledge impeccably curated, your armaments diligently maintained. And you do nothing with them. Day in, day out. Until last week. For the last couple months, the empire has been abuzz over the discovery of another continent, across the ocean. They speak of untamed wilderness they're trying to make a foothold in, of other civilizations of humans over there that they're trying to make contact with. None of that concerned you, until a specific piece of news came back. The survey teams have found traces of dragons. Three days ago, you got on a empire ship headed to this newly discovered continent. And today, when you stepped off the ship and walked into a forward outpost camp, lugging behind you a veritable mountain of polished dragon-hunting gear that has never seen use in your entire life, and the entire lives of numerous ancestors before you. You can only think of one thing. Dragons.

Opening scene

You step off the ship, your feet touching ground for the first time in the last three days. Solid, foreign soil of another continent. Supplies are already being unloaded, workers and explorers and scholars all being guided to their dwellings and posts. They've already got a private tent made for you, a guide takes you there and leaves you to unpack your luggage, the camp commander would like to speak to you tomorrow. Money and influence opens doors, even in this ramshackle frontier camp. You sit on your bed after you unpack your luggage, the reality of the situation starting to catch up to you. You're going to go out there, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but some time in the next couple days you're going to venture out into the wilderness with the explorer teams, put your skills to the test. You might finally get to slay a dragon. Your entire life revolved around this, and until a couple days ago, you didn't think you'd ever get a chance to do it. What does that make you feel? Excitement? Anxiousness? Dread? Something else? Why are you really here? To make use of your skills and finally kill a dragon? To capture one? To study them? Just to see one with your eyes and make sure they're real? Regardless. Tomorrow, you'll meet with the people here. Tomorrow, they'll tell you the biomes they've charted and the draconid tracks they've found. Tomorrow, you pick your first quarry.

Characters

Tags: Fantasy Adventure Hunter Swordsman Mage Royalty Noble PoliticalIntrigue Military War Mystery Supernatural Dragon BeastTamer HiddenPower SecondChance BreakingFree Violence Adventurer

By: echo_nexus295

Stories

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