A Warlock's Ascent

He accepted his faith, looking at the dragon's eyes from the reflection of his sword his soul was on the verge of leaving his body. He closed his eyes, he didn't want to feel fear before he dies. He then just waited, patiently, the dragon would come and either would eat him alive or would burn him, either way, there was no way he could outrun it. So he lay there with his eyes closed.

A few minutes later when his death didn't come, he opened his eyes once more, as he looked in the reflection, the dragon had his eyes closed, it was resting. He smiled, he was happy that the dragon was not killing him, but it was then he started having thoughts about his situation.

'Did the dragon spot me or not? If it did spot me and still decided to ignore me, then I could simply run away. But if it did not spot me and I try to run away, then wouldn't that mean that if I make a move, it would pounce on me… FUCK… I don't know what to do' he thought.

Dave was stuck and now only a miracle could save him. He may pass a lot of his time in the church, but the thing was he was a big-time atheist, so he didn't believe in miracles, he had spent most of his life denying the existence of god, but now, he could help himself, he got in his knees and tried to pray any god that might help him.

BOOM BOOM

The sound of explosions perked his ears, he opened his eyes and looked around, he didn't understand what was happening. The sound was coming from down the forest, the place where Sanjay was, he didn't know whether that guy saw the dragon flying towards this hill or not, but he could help but curse him. He was putting his life in danger. And sure enough.

BAAM BAAM

The sound of the dragon's footsteps started echoing on the top of the hill. Like before he decided to stay away from the dragon's vision, as it came closer to his rock, he started circling it like before. He was not spotted. The dragon on the other hand stood by the end of the hill, looking at the vast expanse of forest in front of it, like the ruler of his kingdom.

BOOM BOOM

The explosions didn't stop, to check his territory out, the dragon jumped down from the hill, making Dave chuckle with excitement, he did not waste any time, and started running…

He ran in the opposite direction of the hill, he would get down from there and then try to circle back to Sanjay, if he is even alive. While running he got to the center of the crater, where he saw some disturbing things.

Not far from where the dragon was sleeping, there were six poles, dug around the creature's bed, while his bed on the other was just a pile of bones. The silver poles were covered in weird symbols and didn't have a lot of time to check them out, he just ran straight past them. He did notice the big insignia inscribed at the top of these poles. The insignia had a flying skull with wings covered in purple fire.

It was a weird insignia, but he didn't pay much attention to it. Another weird thing that he saw was a neon color skeleton lying amongst the piles of bones, but he didn't give a fuck about it either and ran away with all of his might. When he got to the other side of the hill, he stopped in his tracks, at that time he forgot about the dragon, he forgot about why he was running, the scene in front of him blew his mind.

In his childhood, he once went camping on a school trip, away from the town, and it was then for the first time in his life, he saw a sky full of stars. He could still remember that sky to this day, it was beautiful. The scene in front of him was similar yet so different.

Below the hill saw millions of stars, twinkling brightly like diamonds. He rubbed his eyes, the sky was supposed to be up, not down. But here he stood, at the edge of the hill staring at the stars. It was then he realized, this world where he stands was very different from the earth that he knows. This world was just a piece of land floating in endless space…

Dave eventually got out of his stupor and slid down the hill, he took a detour, instead of going straight to their meeting place, he first made some distance between himself and the hill. Only after making sufficient distance, he started going back. He would first scout the area, only if he see any signs of Sanjay being, then only he would move forward.

After running for a long time, he finally started closing in on their meeting place, there was no sign of the dragon, and the jungle was awfully quiet as well. But while moving, he started screaming, multiple screams. From what he could guess, the screams belonged to women, thinking that one of them might be Sanjay, he started running towards it.

When he came towards the source of the screams, he saw Sanjay, he was with two other women, both of them were Asians. They all were fighting what looked like giant bats, and all of them were trying their best to kill those beasts, but they were all struggling to keep up. It is then he decided to move as well.

He came running towards them with his sword in his hands, the beasts didn't know his presence, as soon he got near one of them, he jumped and swung the sword as hard as he could with his hands. The sword cut through the bat's body but got stuck somewhere in the middle. The bat fell down, and it was then other ones sensed his presence.

As fast as he could he pulled out the sword from the body of his vanquished foe, it is then he saw that one of the other bats was making a move at him, it came flying down with its sharp claws up front, and it was going to scratch him. He mentally commanded his shield to come out as quickly as he could, and the bat collided with the shield, whose blow made Dave stagger backward.

It was then a spear pierced through the bat's skull, impaling him and thus killing it on the spot. The young Asian girl killed it. The only bat was left after the scuffle who decided to fly away, he could win against them.

"Thank you. I am Dave." He spoke in the common tongue. The young Asian girl smiled. "Hello, I am Soo-Young" then she pointed at the other Asian woman in her thirties, "That is Shizuka"

The other woman passed him a smile, and he did the same. Before anyone of them could talk any further, abruptly the roots of the trees around them came alive. Like a snake the started wrapping around all four of them's limbs. Before they know it, they were all on the ground struggling to get up. They were bound to the ground.

It is then he heard someone walking towards them.