Legends: The Emerald World

Shin watched the captain clashing with the dragon from inside the fort's dungeon, his eyes chasing the dragon's every move. A dragon with obsidian black scales, this wasn't a being that any of them could defeat. Even if Ase cooperated with the captain, they wouldn't even amount to exhausting the dragon.

With how many prisoners there are, even if he used them all as bait to pull the dragon's attention away, he's bound to see through it. Unlike how they look, dragons are far smarter than humans and can speak humanoid languages. This dragon just doesn't talk to its toys and food.

If he wanted to safely escape, they must at least disable the dragon long enough for them to flee. 'Spider, get ready to follow orders. One wrong move and we'll all die.'

'Ay! Ay! Master!' She stood, saluting him with a wiggle, and then looked at the dragon. 'Want me to kick that thing's ass?' She started throwing punches in the air.

'No, go climb the back walls and wait for me to give further instructions.' Shin replied with a sigh and the spider crawled away, humming.

"Ase…let's hope the dragon doesn't notice us. Sneak through the back and try to reach the fort's gate, it's right down the stairs from the hole in the wall." He looked at the hole that the captain crashed through.

"What about you?" Ase whispered, "You can't even walk properly." She gave him a single look and concluded that he couldn't even stand on his own. His thighs were thinner than her wrists, she could close her fist around them.

"I can take care of myself. You go and get ready to distract the dragon. Just make sure you never get hit with its flames. Specifically, don't breathe the ash coming from it. You'll find it stuck to the walls like black soot." He pointed at the guard's office, "Take a bag from there and collect that for me. Make sure to not get it on your body. Just get me a handful."

Ase undone the rope she was securing Shin to her back with and laid him down, "Fine, I'll trust your plan. You saved me after all. Otherwise, I would remain in my cell and get buried alive."

Shin's eyes shifted toward the prisoners, "Old man, you check the inner rooms for potions." He then looked toward the large prisoner, "You go get us a shield, they are outside but you should be able to pick one without the dragon spotting you."

When Shin's eyes turned toward the shonky prisoner, he snorted, "I'm not taking orders from you, stick bug."

"Check the dead soldiers for weapons or rations. They might have some on them." When Shin spoke, shonky's eyes sparkled as he smiled, "You know, I've got an idea. You might be right." He rushed away, "I'll be right back."

Shin walked out of the hole and looked at the dragon, it was busy fighting the captain to care about some weak bugs sneaking around. The dragon couldn't see just how a human wouldn't notice an ant while fighting a rat.

Leaning on the wall to support his weak legs, Shin crawled his way toward the other side of the fort, finally facing the strongest boss he had ever seen in this whole place. A ten-step staircase.

Shin painstakingly made his way up the stairs, one step at a time, each one felt like an eternity, his weak and starved body barely moved, and walking alone felt as if he was standing in his arms.

While everyone was following the plan, one of the prisoners got the funny idea to try and run away. That woman looked across the fort's yard and noticed the dragon to be busy fighting the captain, the gates were wide open, and the horse stable was just outside.

Freedom looking just a few seconds ran away from her fingertips, and the woman dashed as fast as she could, bolting through the yard. Shin who saw her would've cried had his breath calmed down after the herculean task of walking up the stairs.

For a long time, she had been hiding a trump card. Lighting sparked from her toenails up to her hips, her eyes flashed while her feet dug into the ground. With a lightning spark, she flashed forward at lightning speed.

The dragon noticed the flash and swung his tail at her, aiming at her head. She dodged the attack, sliding beneath the massive tail as she aimed for the gate. Her figure disappeared into the portcullis, and she seems to have managed to leave the fort.

Everyone gasped, only Shin and the captain knew what was going on. Shin focused on his mission while the captain wanted to use this opening to strike down the dragon.

As the woman stepped outside, she was faced with a horde of over fifty large black drakes. Those drakes were ten meters long from head to tail and resembled titanic crocodiles but with longer legs and porcupine-like spikes spanning across their backs.

The drakes lunged at the woman, biting her from the legs. She cried, but her voice was immediately silenced as one of the drakes ripped her head off with a bite.

The prisoners watched in horror as the drakes ate the woman whole. The reason the guards couldn't just retreat and abandon the fort was those monsters lurking outside. The drakes are the dragon's minions, he brought them here to feed.

At that moment, the dragon looked back at the hole from where the woman came from and roared. He knew more humans were hiding inside, and he wanted them out. A fireball formed inside his mouth, and he blasted it inside the dungeons.

As the fire killed most of the prisoners and the smoke forced the rest to get out, the dragon picked them up one by one while still toying with the captain.

The survivors were quickly reduced to just Shin, Ase, the spider, the captain, the large prisoner, the shonky one, and the old man. All else died.

But, none had time to cry about the dead. If they wasted a single moment, they would go to greet them instead.

Everyone was in their place, the prisoners had returned to the keep and Ase was watching Shin from her spot. He had to act.

He carefully watched the dragon move and waited, counting seconds until the right moment appeared. A dragon would never notice a powerless bug, but Shin wasn't any powerless bug.

*Lizard*

The dragon who was attacking the captain halted, staring straight at Shin with a baffled face, that word he heard was in draconic and he understood clearly. Calling a dragon a lizard is akin to calling a human a monkey. Such an insult was bound to drive blood into the rage-fueled dragons.

Lightning sparked from the dragon's back as the wave of magic that burst from his body sent the captain flying back. The dragon's flames shifted from red to blue and he glared at Shin, a deep roar rushing out of his throat.

"Naked Monkey!" The dragon finally spoke, and in a human tongue no less. In his long centuries of being he had never been insulted by a human, and one this weak. He wanted to show this weakness where he stand, where humans stand.

The breath coming was a death roar, a dragon's ultimate attack. If such a move was unleashed here, the whole fort would melt in seconds. Not a single person here could survive, even the captain would find his bones evaporating from the heat.

But, behind the emperor, above the fort's wall was another creature, a truly insignificant bug.

The tiny spider was standing above a loaded ballista aimed straight at the dragon's open maw. 'Bow to my greatness, large lizard!'