Dragon Game: All My Dragons Are Ranked 'SSS'

Drahon's gaze stayed on the Draconic Rat Boss monster, his mind racing.

There was only one way to deal with something like this - dragons!

That would do it!

They weren't going to fight this nightmarish creature with just swords, axes, and shields; they would instead burn it to death..., with their dragons.

He exchanged glances with Devon and Ayvira and they already knew. They already knew they were to summon their dragons. The plan was instinct. Summon, unleash, and burn this overgrown vermin before it could-

The Boss monster moved.

"Shit!"

It wasn't just speed, at least not the normal kind they knew. Instead, this was flash-level speed. It was like the very air bent around it, as if the monster had been waiting for that exact second, like it had been studying them all along.

Its molten-red eyes ignited with an almost mocking intelligence, its muscles tensing.

Without warning-

THOOM!

It launched itself forward, the ground cracking under the sheer force of its legs. The impact of its leap sent a shockwave through the floor, dust cascading from the ceiling. Devon was so stunned he could hardly react by summoning his dragon. Ayvira almost slammed against the wall. Drahon's summoning sequence broke entirely.

The Boss monster landed where they'd been standing earlier, its claws gouging deep furrows into the stone floor.

And it didn't stop.

"Run!" Drahon barked, already moving.

They didn't need to be told twice. Their boots hammered against the cold dungeon floor, echoing in the cavernous halls.

The Draconic Rat Boss monster came after them instantly.

Its claws struck the ground in a steady, bone-deep rhythm, a sound that grew louder by the second. Every footstep seemed to carry it further than physics should have allowed, closing the gap in unnerving bursts of speed.

It hissed - a long, drawn-out exhalation, sending faint tendrils of green vapor curling through the air. Even in the chaos, Drahon's instincts screamed: Don't breathe that!

That was pure venom!

"Left!" Devon shouted. They cut into a narrow side passage.

The Alpha's tail smashed into the wall where they'd been a moment ago — CRASH! — sending chunks of rock spinning through the air like shrapnel. One grazed Drahon's cheek, warm blood mixing with the sweat already stinging his eyes.

"Damnit!" he muttered, running like a maniac.

They all ran side by side, breathing very heavily.

"Why didn't your dragon just summon itself?" Drahon asked Devon, surprised his dragon hadn't appeared.

Back at level one, Devon had said his dragon could just summon itself when he was in danger, and he actually hadn't been lying because he proved it when the horde of Skeleton monsters was about to attack, it had protected him and taken him into the air. Devon had also helped him then.

But now, why didn't it do so? Just summon itself out of nowhere and roar the venomous Draconic Boss monster to death?

"I already have two more demon dragons," Devon replied, breathing hard as they ran.

"Well, we're damned!" Drahon muttered.

The hallway shuddered with another sound. Not footsteps this time, but a deep, resonant vibration.

The Boss monster's roar-

It was a shockwave that seemed to slam into their bones, freezing their movements for a fraction of a second. That fraction almost cost them everything.

Ayvira stumbled hard, catching herself with one hand on the wall, her breathing ragged.

The Draconic Rat Boss monster was surely using all of its skills on them at this point.

Drahon risked a glance back — a mistake!

The Boss monster was already in the air, all four claws outstretched, jaws wide open, fangs glistening with venom.

"Shit!"

He threw himself sideways, dragging Ayvira, who was too slow to react with him.

Devon dove in the opposite direction, and the Boss monster landed where they had been a split-second before, stone tiles cracking and lifting under the impact.

The green vapor hissed from its nostrils again, and Drahon didn't wait to see what it would do next.

"Move!" he shouted.

They ran again, weaving through the dungeon's twisting passages. The torches lining the walls seemed dimmer now, the flickering light casting the Boss monster's monstrous shadow ahead of it.

Frankly, this felt like a horror film, they were the victims and the Boss monster was, well… as its name implied, the MONSTER.

The rhythm of its pursuit was relentless. Thud-thud-thud-hiss… thud-thud-thud-hiss…

A corner. They rounded it, almost skidding on the worn stone, and the Boss monster followed so closely that its tail smashed into a pillar, pulverizing it into a spray of dust and shards.

They took another turn. A low archway forced them to duck mid-run.

The Alpha didn't duck. It barreled through, the sound of splintering stone behind them.

Drahon's lungs burned. His legs screamed. His heart hammered so loud he could barely hear anything else, except the steady, nightmarish rhythm of the monster's claws on stone, always too close.

The corridors tightened, forcing them into single file. Devon led now, Ayvira in the middle, Drahon at the back, the most dangerous position!

The Boss monster roared again, the sound bouncing off the walls so violently it made Drahon's teeth ache.

It's playing with us, he thought. It could have struck already.

But what was it trying to achieve? Was this some hide-and-seek sort of stuff, or some chaser game? Since the Boss monster was a rat, it could make sense actually if you look at Tom and Jerry, the way the house animals acted. And now, it seemed like so, the Boss monster was Tom and they were Jerry.

Somehow the mouse still wins against the cat, so perhaps they had a chance?

They darted into another passage now, and stopped dead for a fraction of a second.

There was a drop in the floor. A gap at least two meters wide, blackness yawning below. It was one that would make anyone with a phobia of heights freeze. It seemed like a pit without bottom, a bottomless pit.

No time to think. Devon jumped first, landing in a rough roll. Ayvira followed, barely keeping her footing.

Drahon jumped last, and felt the rush of air as the Boss monster's claws swiped just behind his legs. That was close! What if the monster had caught him?

He would have fallen into a bottomless pit and just died like that.

The monster had lunged mid-jump, just missing him but striking the edge of the gap hard enough to send a rain of rock splinters across the far side.

They kept running.

The passage sloped upward now, their feet pounding in a frantic, uneven rhythm. The Alpha's breathing grew louder behind them, the green mist more concentrated now, seeping into the air.

A wrong turn would be death. If they were to make one, they were done for, this was a run of no turning back.

They barreled down another hallway, and then froze.

A wall.

Right in front of them…

A goddamn wall!

A godforsaken wall!

At that point, Drahon hated walls with a passion.

It wasn't a doorway. It wasn't a stair.

Instead, a goddamn wall! An unbroken slab of ancient stone stretching floor to ceiling.

"A dead end?!" Devon's voice cracked, disbelief cutting through the panic.

No one moved.

The Boss monster's footsteps slowed.

One by one, they turned.

It emerged from the shadows, molten eyes locked on them, green vapor curling from its nostrils. Each step was measured now, deliberate.

Its claws scraped the floor, saliva hissing (which was certainly not normal) as it dripped.

And though its face was not human, the set of its jaws… the faint upturn of its lips…

It was grinning!