A Fight for Life

                  Rune let out a tremendous roar sprinting towards the approaching dragon-like creatures. With the agility of a swift animal, he dodged the oncoming attack from the first huge battle dragon with a quick juke, then launched himself at the second massive dragon warrior. Rune rolled it to the ground. Then, with a powerful vault from his back legs, he lifted and hurled the massive creature across the open room.

                  With the team of dragon creatures separated, Rune attacked the first huge battle dragon that whirled around, swinging its weapon. The monster attacked with his weapon again and again. Rune held up an efficient dodging strategy, while trying to land a deterring attack on the creature’s arm. Rune struggled to stop the battle dragon’s swinging attacks with its weapon. Then, with a quick twisting move, Rune dodged an attack and landed a solid bite into the creature’s lower arm. Rune bit and clawed at the huge battle dragon, causing it to bleed from several wounds, yet it did not seem to affect the monstrous creature. Rune clawed at the creature’s swinging arm, trying to disable the deadly attack. The giant battle dragon fought wildly to free its arm, pulling at Rune’s jaws to let go.

                  Locked in twisted arms, Rune could not pull the weapon out of the creature’s hand. He jabbed his facial horns into the dragon creature’s torso, then leveraged his arms and legs, throwing the huge battle dragon to the ground with a quick pounce, hoping to gain a better attack position.

                  The battle dragon smashed into the ground, but reacted just as quickly. As Rune landed on top of the creature, the monster thrust Rune with its legs sending him across the room. Rune rolled several times, landing on his feet, sliding to a stop, then whirled around just in time to dodge an attack from the secondary dragon warrior that had now joined the fight. With a quick roll of his head, Rune avoided a heavy blow from the creature’s weapon, then twisted around with a violent bite, locking on the elbow of the attacking arm. The massive dragon warrior screeched in pain, hitting and clawing Rune with its free hand. Rune bit down harder, trying to sever the muscles in the creature’s attacking arm. He could feel the arm weakening. Rune violently shook his head, and the massive dragon warrior let go of the weapon, sending it flying across the room. Rune dug his feet into the ground and, with a thrust, threw the monstrous dragon warrior down for a finishing attack.

                  Suddenly, the room spun. Rune failed to track his initial attacker, who landed a significant blow to the back of Rune’s head. He struggled to get up, mildly dodging a secondary attack from the massive club, only to take a hit to his upper shoulder throwing him to the ground. Rune staggered, trying to stand up and catch his balance, then stumbled over the uneven terrain.

                  Both dragon creatures leaped on top of Rune, pinning him to the ground. Rune fought to free himself, but the two massive creatures pummeled him with their clawed hands. Rune fought, swinging his clawed fists, fighting to escape the creatures’ embrace. The monstrous dragon-like creatures were too fast and held too much leverage over him. Then the creature sitting on his upper torso lifted its club high in the air for a crushing blow to Rune’s head.

                  A split second of leverage for Rune.

                  With one less arm holding him, Rune pulled his arm free, thrusting the horn growths on his arms into the armpit of the attacking creature. The dragon creature screamed, pulling back in pain, dropping its club. The creature jumped back onto Rune, wrapping its thick arms around Rune’s neck, squeezing with all its might. Rune fought and clawed at the creature, but it would not release. He tried kicking at the other creature, holding his lower torso and legs to the ground, but failed to free his legs. Rune’s tail flipped and writhed around, wrapping around the creature’s upper torso like a snake.

                  Rune fought hard, flexing his back and flipping his head back and forth, hoping his horns did enough damage to force the monster choking him to let go. Despite the wounds and pain he inflicted on his adversary, it would not let go. Rune could feel his body weaken. His vision began to go dark. Rune wrapped his snake-like tail around the neck of the creature sitting on his lower torso. The dragon creature used both hands and the weight of his body to keep Rune pinned to the ground.

                  Then Rune flexed his tail.

                  A row of sharp spikes extended out of the small bumps on his tail. The monstrous dragon creature pinning Rune’s legs to the ground slumped over, lifeless. Rune lifted his hind legs, and with a forceful lunge, somersaulted over his remaining attacker, rolling his spine spikes into the torso of the dragon creature.

                  Rune broke free.

                  He whipped around and faced the last standing battle dragon. The huge battle dragon stumbled and struggled to stand straight, bleeding from its wound, staggering back and forth. The ill-balanced creature let out a mediocre screeching hiss, and ran towards Rune. Rune let out a bellowing roar and charged the creature, crashing into the chest of the dragon creature with its facial horns. Rune lifted the monster up into the air, and body slammed the creature into the ground.

                  Rune stepped back to assess the life of the dragon creature. He circled around his adversary several times. He would lift the arms of the dragon creature, letting them fall to the ground to test their life. The creature lay limp and motionless.

                  “Whoa!” Enok stood in shock. As much as he wanted to help, there was nothing else he could have done other than watch.

                  Rune gave a huff and a growl of victory over his adversaries. He looked over his wounds as he walked back to Enok.

                  “Well, I don’t know how to repay you, Rune, but I owe you a life debt. You saved my life. I wish I could do more.”

                  Rune snorted a huff.

                  Enok stepped in close to Rune, patting his neck, looking over his wounds. None of the wounds looked serious, mostly surface scratches and cuts. Enok wanted to do anything he could to help the valiant beast.

                  “Let’s see if we can find a pool of water and get you cleaned up.”

                  Enok and the Ruundyr exited the room and continued their journey to find their friends.