>>5403605You know, with the sword to channel your moon-magic and the Throat-singer to augment it, you could end this threat utterly, and at minimal risk to yourself… But you know, in your dragon’s heart, that this is not the true path to ultimate victory. An elven blade, even one seized through conquest; a slave’s song; elemental magic, learned from a human tome and mastered with a human-descendant’s affinity. Is this why you came all this way, transformed your body and spirit in the crucible of the Bloodrise conquests? To drift further from the true draconic way?
“No,” you speak aloud.
“NO!” you roar, still louder, in defiance of that which comes easily, of the aid of others, of half-measures and shortcuts.
You remember the Serpent Ascendant, his words and his ways, and with a True Dragon’s roar, you let loose your every ember of your natural flame into the very heart of your foe’s oily, ever-shifting body.
>19The flame that burst forth from you blasts it like a scouring wind. What passes for the shoggoth’s flesh and blood shrink back with a gasp of rushing air it is hurry to escape you. The fire licks at the edges of its abyss, illuminating the cavernous wound you have carved with your descent. The dragonfire clings to it, fills it up. You marvel at the carnage you have wrought, feeling a true, earned pride in your chest…
And then you see the dozens, hundreds of titanic and twig-like limbs all reaching down into the behemoth from above, reaching to rip, tear, and rend you asunder.
Again, the pragmatic part of you says to deflect with your Ring of Protection, to summon forth your mana and to cleave the crushing tide of misshapen appendages asunder like splitting a sea. You begin to… But something deep in your soul stop you, instead, perhaps in defiance of common sense and cold Reptilian logic, you tuck your blade into your belt and meet claw with claw and tooth with tooth.
>9It is not enough.
