It wasn't fair to blame Garrett for laughing. Before him stood the so-called "dragon," four-legged, with a long neck and irregular sharp teeth, spikes running down its neck and spine.
It looked ferocious enough.
But it had no wings.
Yes, this was a wingless, flightless dragon.
For such creatures, he preferred not to call them dragons at all. "A giant lizard" felt more accurate.
It even had only 600 hit points, clearly nothing compared to Smaug. And its scales didn't look all that tough either, certainly not like Smaug's... not even as hard as Wormi's. A single ordinary sword strike just now had already taken more than ten points of its health.
Then there was the matter of size.
Smaug was around a hundred and forty meters long, while this one... maybe fifty, at best.
Practically a child, good for bullying a few orcs, perhaps.
"Damn you, human!"
ROAR!
The wingless dragon bellowed in rage and charged at Garrett. But it quickly realized its mistake. It didn't even try to dodge when Garrett swung the greatsword down.
The blade struck precisely where the scales had already cracked before, cutting straight into flesh. The dragon howled as flames burst from its body, lighting up the treasure-filled hall like daylight.
"AAARGHHHHH!"
Its miserable screams echoed throughout the underground cavern. Garrett didn't just stand there watching. After downing a strength potion, he swung his greatsword again and again, each blow driving the wingless dragon back. Within moments, it was half-dead.
When the scales on its neck shattered and the sword was about to slice clean through, on the brink of death, the dragon suddenly let out a hysterical roar.
"MOTHER!"
BOOM!
The wall exploded. Treasures went flying as a massive figure burst through, a dragon nearly a hundred meters long charged in from the adjacent chamber.
But it was too late.
What it saw was the severed head of its child.
"Wretched food! Filthy worm! How could you!"
It lunged forward in fury. Garrett stood atop the dragon's corpse, raised his head, and estimated the newcomer to be nearly a hundred meters long.
He didn't move. He merely lifted his sword and met the charge head-on.
With a deafening crash, the dragon's head was forced backward. Runes flared to life across Garrett's armor, absorbing the impact.
It looked as though he had the upper hand, but Garrett knew that without the shield, that blow would have sent him stumbling several steps back.
"I know who you are!"
After that clash, the dragon seemed to calm slightly and said:
"As I thought, you're the human who killed Smaug. I must admit, impressive. Even if our whole family joined forces against that fool, we would only be beaten senseless."
"So what then, you want to surrender?" Garrett mocked.
"If you surrender now, I might just let you crawl back to the Northern Waste and live out your miserable days."
"Heh... pathetic creature. Such arrogance. Don't think that killing Smaug means we fear you."
The dragon's enormous eyes gleamed gold as it spoke, but they flicked side to side, clearly stalling for time.
Garrett didn't interrupt. He merely watched the performance in silence, intrigued.
"So you know I killed Smaug," he said, "and yet you still face me?"
"Don't think I don't know..."
The dragon moved slightly, stretching its neck forward, and with a mocking tone said:
"I've heard that long ago, Smaug's scales were damaged by a human, and later, that human's descendant wounded him again the same way. Otherwise, how could you have killed him?"
"Oh? So that's what you think?" Garrett couldn't help but laugh.
Yes, he had indeed relied on that arrow to bring Smaug down quickly, but that didn't mean he had to.
The reason he'd gone for a weak point strike was simple: Smaug was alive. He wasn't some mindless monster from a game that would keep attacking until it died without a thought.
Smaug could think, could scheme, and if he sensed danger, he would flee instantly.
Once that creature ran, it was nearly impossible to catch him. Stopping him, let alone killing him, was a nightmare.
Back then, if Smaug and Garrett had been locked together in a sealed chamber where neither could escape, the outcome would have been inevitable. Smaug would have been slowly ground to death. Even if it took a long, long time.
"Hahahahaha... And now you stand here all alone. So what if you're strong? You think slaying a half-grown whelp is something to be proud of?"
"Where's that archer companion of yours? Dead already, I suppose?"
"That's what humans are, short-lived, fragile. Him, you... all the same."
"When we're done killing you, we'll dig up that archer's grave and hang both your corpses on the wall, so everyone knows the final victory belongs to the great dragons!"
The wingless, ugly dragon roared furiously.
The smile on Garrett's lips slowly faded.
BOOM!
At that moment, another wall collapsed. A massive dragon, over a hundred meters long, burst through. Clearly, this was the reinforcements the mother dragon had been stalling for.
Now, counting the dead youngling beneath Garrett's feet, the family of three was complete.
Moments later...
RUMBLE!
Garrett fell from the vaulted ceiling, greatsword in hand, and brought it down upon the boastful mother dragon's head, smashing it down into the floor. Blow after blow, his sword crashed down, shattering scales into shards. The ground itself began to sink from the impact.
The dragon thrashed wildly, its enormous body toppling stone pillars behind it. Golden plates and silver goblets were crushed under its weight, all in vain.
Then, with a loud crack, its skull shattered.
Garrett gripped his sword with both hands and drove it straight down. The blade pierced through the dragon's skull.
It paid the price for its insolent words.
All of it happened in the span of a few breaths.
The other dragon, the one that had come as backup, hadn't even managed to act. Seeing the scene before it, its eyes went wide with horror. It spun around at once, legs pounding frantically against the stone. In that moment, it cursed only one thing, that it had no wings to flee faster.
When it felt Garrett's gaze lock onto it, when he took a few steps forward in its direction, the last remaining dragon could only scream inwardly.
Run, damn legs, run!
WHOOSH!
A sound like fireworks split the air. A figure wreathed in blazing orange flames streaked through the sky, landing directly in front of the fleeing dragon.
THUD!
The instant he hit the ground, Garrett unleashed his armor-break strike. With both hands he swung the massive sword forward in a crushing blow, slamming it straight into the dragon's head.
The charging dragon reeled as its massive skull jerked upward, and the whole creature collapsed sideways with a thunderous crash.
Its fate was already sealed.
Days later, three dragon heads adorned the northern wall of Framsburg, two large, one small.
Among the two larger ones, one was terribly damaged, as though a mountain had crushed its skull while it lived.
The other's face was twisted in agony, so human in its fear and regret that anyone who looked up could almost feel it. And if one were brave enough to lift its eyelid, they might faintly see reflected in its pupil the image of a terrifying figure, his body wreathed in fire.