Risk Of Epic

        Fire engulfed the area, orange and red flames washing over the hardened scales of the dragon that had braced itself for the assault. The fire heated up the scales slightly, but as the wave of heat subsided, the dragon lowered its arms, a look of fury taking hold of its expression. He eyed the much larger, greed enhanced berserker that towered over him, its nostrils still billowing smoke.

    Extending his claws and snarling, his pupils contracted into small slits, his legs tensing up as he prepared for an assault. Leaping from where he stood, the smaller dragon flew into the air, hurtling straight at the berserker's face. As the dragon barreled towards the enormous dragon, a streak of fire arced through the skies above the battlefield, neither combatant paying it any mind.

    The berserker raised its arms swiftly, as the smaller foe slashed ferociously upon impact. Its diamond hard claws tearing and rending the scales as best they could. Losing his grip on the grooves between the scales, the smaller dragon slammed into the hard ground below, knocking the air out of him, his purple scales rattling from the force of the fall.

    Razor sharp claws extended out from the larger dragon's hands, the sickening screech they made as they were drawn prompting the young dragon to leap to his feet. He backed up a few steps, his battered body trying to stay invigorated, while he focused intently on the berserker, trying to find an opening in the overlapping scales.

    Bitch, please. Acrid don't need no opening, Acrid makes one.

    With a deafening explosion, a metal case rammed into the berserker's backside, the impossibly fast pod cleaving right through the "impenetrable" carapace of plates, and embedding itself in the ground. The dragon's innards exploded outwards, the shockwave of the impact rupturing it's internal organs, with bone and flesh blasting outwards, coating the ground in a slick film of blood and sticky flesh.

    The younger dragon had been shot backwards several feet, slamming into a tree, and bouncing off onto his stomach. His vision blurred as he grasped his head in pain, writhing from the pain and the shock. His claws dug into the ground as righted himself, trying to get his vision to return to acceptable clarity.

    From what he could make out through the distorted view, the berserker had toppled over onto its shredded front, its claws still gripping its devastated gut as the final breath left its mouth. Smoke no longer came out in plumes from its nostrils, and it had stopped moving altogether, the distant, glossy, and yet somehow surprised look in its eyes making it apparent it had died instantly.

    Poking out from the immense dragon's back was the tip of the foreign object. It was covered in the flesh and blood of the berserker, the liquid gently caressing the hard metal plates as it rolled  idly down the sides, like rain on a window pane. The bones within the corpse had been utterly pulverized to a fine dust, and organs were liquified, blending into the massive pools of blood forming around the dragon, the damp ground eagerly drinking the reddish liquid up.

    A rustling could be heard behind the young dragon, as three more dragons, nearly twice the size of him surged forward out of the thicket of the forest. One of them, stopped, shocked by the corpse of the berserker before him, while another clutched the injured youngling tightly.

    "What... what happened here?" one of the warriors asked, incredulous, as his claws extended in anticipation. The sunlight glinted off of the sharp instruments of death, the look on the dragon's face one of complete disbelief.

    Suddenly, the berserker's corpse exploded outwards, the remainder of the carcass being blown into chunks of meat that showered the dragons in viscous fluid and organs. They all shielded their faces with their arms, and one of them, who didn’t have wings, seemed to gain an aura around him, his scales darkening slightly as they hardened.

    As the downpour of gore relented, the last few bits of the eviscerated dragon plopping down onto the ground with a sickly thud, the team of dragons let their arms lower, revealing the sight before them. The pod had been completely torn open on one side, twisted and tangled metal jutting outwards, and in all the mess, a single figure stood, on four legs.

    Its flesh was a violet burgundy, and large pores seemed to ooze a viscous green substance, as it's maw dripped with the same liquid. Beady eyes rested behind a snub snout, and its claws were coated in the same mysterious substance that the rest of it seemed to exude. It snarled slightly, baring its teeth, before drawing its head back slightly, and unleashing a ball of caustic spittle.

    The vile liquid washed over the dragon with hardened scales, the corrosive bile eating away at the scales, before soaking into the soft flesh below. The instant it made contact with the dragon's skin, he toppled over, rolling and writhing about in uncontrollable agony as his comrades looked on in horror.

    "Go! Get out of here, get back to the town, warn the others!" the female warrior dragoness instructed the youngling, a sense of urgency and terror in her trembling voice.

    "B-But I can fi--"

    "NO! Run!" She shoved the dragon she clutched towards the thicket, causing him to stumble a bit as he regained his footing. With a concerned last glance, the young dragon vanished into the thicket, dropping to all fours, and sprinting away from the scene as fast as his legs would carry him.

    Turning back to face Acrid, the dragoness roared mightily. She pounced towards the beast with fire forming in her maw. As she landed gracefully a few feet from the beast, she opened her mouth, and a tapestry of orange flames billowed forth in a  line, straight towards Acrid. The wave of destruction swept over the beast, searing flesh and vaporizing the liquid pouring out of Acrid.

    As the dragoness ceased her flame breath, she stood shocked, her eyes filled with sheer disbelief at the creature before her. The charred and still ablaze body of Acrid began to regenerate, patches of skin regenerating at a breakneck pace, as the ooze continued to drip out of him.

    The reforming and distorted face of the creature did nothing to hide the malice in it's eyes, as it lunged forwards, still on fire. Tackling the dragoness to the ground, it put its deadly claws to use. First, it punched the dragon in the jaw forcefully, sending her reeling. Then came the real attack, as Acrid's claws sunk into the lighter face scales protecting the dragon, one claw plunging right through her eye and into her brain.

    Swiping and slashing ferociously, Acrid soaked the dragon in not only her own blood, but the virulent toxins that coated his claws. In a few seconds, the dragon had been killed -- no, annihilated -- overcome by the grievous wounds and the incredibly lethal disease coursing through her bloodstream the contents of which was now spattered around her head and on Acrid's flesh. Acrid grinned manically, relishing in the overkill, his eyes filled with sadistic glee. The mutilated face was nearly unrecognizable by the time Acrid was tackled by the last warrior, sending them both flying off of the dragoness.

    They rolled a few feet after hitting the ground, Acrid kicking the dragon off, the impact denting several scales, and a shockwave of blunt trauma resonating through him. Flying through the air, and fumbling uneasily to right himself, the dragon managed to stick the landing, wobbling slightly as he made contact with the blood soaked ground. He snapped his jaw furiously, his claws filled with bloodlust towards the vile intruder.

    To his surprise, Acrid simply stood up, and dashed off in the other direction, through a dense patch of foliage. Confused for a moment, but still seething with rage, the dragon glanced over at his friend that had been assaulted with bile. He had stopped moving, his claws curled slightly, a clear sign of rigor mortis.

    Clenching his teeth, the wingless dragon charged after Acrid, seeking revenge, his strides shaking the ground slightly. As he slammed through the thicket, he was instantly assaulted by wracking pains in his feet, his muscles weakening. He shot a look downwards, and slipped as he did so, the caustic green sludge below him sapping his strength as he fell belly first into a pool of it.

    He struggled to move for a moment, his eyes beginning to feel heavy as the agony engulfed him. Close by, Acrid smiled cruelly, baring row after row of jagged, bile soaked teeth. The dragon looked up helplessly, still trying to make an effort to stand. Acrid just stood there, eyeing him maliciously, before a cloud of green gas exploded from Acrid's pores, the disgusting toxin seeping in between the dragon's scales, ready to unleash their payload. With that, Acrid turned away from the dying creature, leaving it to fester in the disgusting plagues set upon it. The last thing the valiant dragon saw, as his vision began to fade, was Acrid trudging through the forest.

    But a jolt of a force roused the dying dragon to life for several more seconds. The rumbling of the ground continued in short intervals, as the snapping of tree branches and the terrible din of trunks being torn apart flooded into his ears. With his last seconds of life upon him, the dragon just barely managed to observe a colossal stone foot smash into the ground in front of him, shaking him terribly, and sending him sprawling backwards out of the puddle of disease.

    It was too late, though. The dragon's eyes closed for the final time, an expression of anger and defiance still gracing his anguished face. He would never know of, nor experience, the titanic clash of forces that lay just ahead.

    But Acrid would.