Burdenus knew very little about being a proper dragon. From collecting gold to managing minions, he had little understanding of what exactly he needed to do. His parents had attempted to teach him, but he had no interest in being a good student. Still, some lessons managed to find their way into his mind.

  If there was one lesson worth remembering, it was the fact that he was a dragon. Dragons weren’t just powerful creatures, they were things of legend, beings that survived the Age of Calamity. They were living calamities, monsters so powerful the world could do nothing but bend the knee to them. As such, it was his duty to make a proper entrance.

  Burdenus gathered his rage, the fury which lurked within the heart of every dragon. His eyes filled with flame as he opened his jaw, letting loose a roar which caused the very foundations of the Avia Ree to shake.

  As he roared, the goblin forces shuffled in response, the most cowardly of them attempting to run away, only to be met by the impenetrable mass of their own soldiers. They were packed too tightly to escape, thousands of goblins pinning down the crowd from every direction.

  Burdenus thought of his mother’s lessons as he roared. She was the more ruthless of his parents, the one who taught her children the art of combat. In the end, he found himself emulating her with his words.

  “Lay down your weapons, bring me all of your treasure, and only then will you survive.”

  The crowd, which had been frozen in fear, suddenly found themselves reignited. Thousands of shouting voices came in response, swearing and insulting every aspect of Burdenus. From his species and appearance, all the way down to his voice, the goblins mocked everything they could.

  “Those were good last words,” Burdenus growled.

  Burdenus pushed forward, breaching into the hub of the Avia Ree. The second his body began to exit the tunnel, the first strike from the goblins began. The sight of green was replaced with stones and arrows, as a veritable hailstorm of projectiles were launched.

  The minor arms were small and ineffective at actually harming Burdenus, but they proved more than effective at pushing him back. With an endless wave of bullshit assaulting him, he was forced to stay back until he could actually see where he was headed.

  Alongside the small attacks were much larger strikes. Boulders launched by crude catapults slammed into Burdenus’s snout, hurled with enough force that the dragon could actually feel them landing against his scales. When the first wave of projectiles came to an end, Burdenus continued to walk out, making it clear to the goblins that their attacks had no effect on him.

  “Mages!” shouted a voice in the crowd. He spoke with clarity, as if directly into Burdenus’s ear, despite undoubtedly being a fair distance away.

  Burdenus saw dozens of lights pop into existence from the crowd, and as his eyes scanned the sources, he saw countless goblin mages with their mage-sticks pointed at him. Before he could act, a new wave of attack was launched, as dozens of spells went off at once.

  Gnarled roots burst from the ground, wrapping themselves around his left foreleg. From the roof of the tunnel, stalactites began to form, slamming into his back. Massive globs of sludge landed against his chest, sliding off before hitting the ground which it began to melt through.

  Burdenus had winced at the sight of the spells, bracing himself to be torn apart by the surge of magical energy. Yet, as the effects of the spells came to an end, Burdenus realized that nothing had happened. Sure, he’d been attacked and restrained, but the attacks didn’t so much as harm him, and the restraints would shatter at the lightest tug.

  He pulled his foreleg free before continuing forward. His only goal was to land an attack on them before they could launch another tidal wave of projectiles. It was then that he heard a whisper in the crowd, similar to the voice which had spoken into his mind.

  His eyes scanned around for the source, stopping when he came upon a sole goblin standing on a stone platform. They wore a mask of silver, with a smiling face forged from gold embedded into the front. In their hand was a short mage-stick, with a golden skull at the top.

  If anyone here was their leader, then it was that goblin. Burdenus broke free from the tunnel, struggling to balance himself on the tangled mess of wooden bridges. He spread his wings and prepared to take flight, pausing when he saw a glimmering light take form.

  A green translucent arm appeared in front of him, nearly the size of Burdenus’s tail. Burdenus looked on in confusion, until the arm swung back and punched him in the snout. While the attack failed to injure him, it managed to knock him off balance, tossing the dragon to the ground.

  He crashed onto the ground with a heavy slam which caused countless goblins to be crushed underneath him. As he opened his eyes, he saw goblins in the process of reloading the catapults, preparing for another wave of assault.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “I’ve had enough of this,” Burdenus muttered to himself.

  Before the goblins on the ground could respond, he opened his mouth and released a continuous stream of flame. While flipping back onto his stomach, Burdenus whipped his head around, reducing hundreds of goblins to nothing more than ash.

  Any sense of strategy or teamwork quickly fell apart as the scent of charred goblin filled the city. Hundreds of ranged attacks were launched at Burdenus while goblins swarmed the dragon from behind, striking him with anything they could find. The reflected boulders and missed arrows killed their own soldiers, increasing the panic of the goblin army.

  Burdenus no longer cared about attempting to negotiate or find treasure at this point. These bastards had just punched him in the face, and they would not live long enough to spread the tale. If his siblings learned about this, then family reunions would be a nightmare.

  Burdenus spread his wings, beating them with such force that he knocked over nearby goblins before taking flight. As he stopped his fire breath, the goblin army released a sigh of relief, before watching him ram face first into the nearest building.

  The massive stone pillar toppled as its foundation was shattered, unable to handle the force of Burdenus’s charge. Massive chunks of stone flew into the crowd, crushing any who made the mistake of standing in their way. As Burdenus flew through the building, it began to collapse.

  Hundreds of goblins plummeted to their deaths, their footholds and platforms falling alongside the building. Those inside and nearby were crushed underneath the rubble, killing thousands in total. Countless pathways and bridges were connected to the building, all of which snapped in two and tossed aside any goblins using them as staging grounds.

  But the death count of that strike was nothing in comparison to what happened when the pillar slammed into the one next to it. As the two collided with each other, the second pillar toppled over, knocking down the pillar next to it, causing the cycle to repeat.

  Before the goblins could even react to the full scale of the attack launched on them, Burdenus flew through another five pillar buildings. The once focused shouts of war were quickly replaced with screams of terror, as the entirety of their city was reduced to rubble.

  Burdenus felt the occasional boulder bounce off his body, alongside the random spells which attempted to slow his assault. None of them were enough. Even as he took deep breaths, his chest aching from the extended use of his flame breath, he did his best to destroy anything which remained standing.

  His eyes would peer over the rubble every once in a while, hoping to find any remnants of gold. Yet no matter how hard he searched, there were no signs of his promised treasure. For now, Burdenus planned to let his frustrations out on the city before forcing the survivors to comb through the ruins in search of gold.

  “Damn it all,” whispered the goblin with a mask of silver and gold.

  He watched as the other side of the city was demolished in a matter of minutes, hundreds of years of history left as nothing more than remains underneath a dragon’s claw. The beast had stared him in the eyes before he cast his curse-magick, luckily the blow managed to throw it off his trail.

  “This hub is lost,” said the goblin, speaking to his most loyal advisors, who were standing on the platforms surrounding him. “We won’t be able to murder-kill him, no matter what we do. But we can save the other cities.”

  “Please, Lord Halia, allow me to try and kill-murder the beast. Give me permission to use it,” she pleaded. She wore an elaborate wooden mask, with shards of gold. It was the goblin mage which Burdenus had faced earlier.

  The silver and gold masked goblin turned to her, exuding a pressure which threatened to make her collapse. “Are you willing to pay the price?”

  “Yes, Lord Halia.”

  “Then you will use your curse-magick to slow the dragon, give us a chance to escape. We will collapse this hub and the tunnels connecting to it. Even if the dragon lives, it will not be able to find the other hubs or cities as easily.”

  The female goblin hung her head low, “Understood, Lord Ha-”

  “You may use as many goblins as you wish.”

  She nearly jumped from joy, but before she had the chance to thank her lord, he cast a spell which caused his platform to float away. The other goblin advisors were quick to follow after him, leaving her behind on a suicide mission.

  In one hand she carried a mage-stick with a human heart pierced through the end, while the other carried the bark tome of her Gobgantuar curse-magick. She knew that there wasn’t any time to waste, the dragon having taken down another dozen buildings in the time spent talking.

  She raised her mage-stick towards the dirt sky, reading out the cursed-words of her most horrific magic. Normally, it was only allowed to be used on slave-prisoners, but her lord said she could use as many as she wished. With hundreds of goblin soldiers stuck below her, too tightly packed to escape the approaching rampage, she had a perfect source of ingredients.

  It struck without warning, hundreds of goblin soldiers caught off guard by the sensation of nooses tightening around their necks. The soldiers collapsed to the ground, abandoning their attempts to run down the nearest tunnels. While they writhed on the dirt floor, the goblin mage continued to chant her cursed-words, pulling them all together.

  The goblins began to coalesce, melting into each other as their bodies touched, eventually becoming a single mass of liquified gore. Their screams drew the attention of goblins just outside of her range, and as they saw what was being formed, they found themselves desperately running in any other direction. They would prefer to be burnt to death than face such a fate.

  The Gobgantuar began to take form, as thick veins appeared in the lump of flesh. Moments later, four stumps emerged out of the mass, quickly hardening and taking the shape of crude limbs. Massive fingers dug into the ground, as a screaming face began to emerge.

  Normally, she preferred to keep their faces covered. Coming out the top of the muscle mass was a misshapen face, with countless mouths on every unused surface, while a pair of crying eyes began to look over its body. Finally, as it finished forming into one being, its mouths fell silent despite the pained streaks of tears coming from its face.

  As it stood up, she watched as the Gobgantuar massively overtook her. It was tall enough that it could even rival the dragon in height. This was the last resort her people had, hundreds of goblins being removed from the cycle for this final attempt.

  It was hard to form words, her body having aged and fallen near decrepit from the price of casting such a potent curse-magick. “Kill that filthy lizard,” she said in nothing more than a whisper, pointing at Burdenus.