I tell ya what, that dragon could sure hold his breath. It felt like thirty minutes before he finally passed out. The whole time I was supporting my two giant beasts, healing them and making sure that breathing air and water wasn’t a problem, all the while keeping that water bubble permanently on Rath’s face so he couldn’t get any air. When he did pass out and go limp in the water, I propelled myself closer and used flesh sorcery to check on him, making sure that he wasn’t dead. Normally, if someone is conscious or has a lot of magic, I can’t seem to use my flesh sorcery unless I manage to overpower them or they are willing to be healed/manipulated in some way. I had to force a binding on Kong and make Spot became a familiar before I had free rein to use flesh sorcery. Rath was an ancient dragon. I didn’t have a chance in hell to dominate him like the other two, so I was going to have to do something really messed up to solve this issue. There might be a way around that though; I conjured a flat stone plate and put runes of sleep and exhaustion and energy draining and put it in my pocket unactivated. First, I had Spot drag Rath to the shallows and had both Spot and Kong secure him, then I used water sorcery to pull the water out of Rath’s lungs so that he wouldn’t die. Then I conjured stone all over Rath until only his eyes, nose and a bit of his neck showed. Placing runes all over the stone coffin as the base for my enchantments allowed me to create something that could hold him for a minute or two, then I put that plate on Rath’s head.

Looking over my work, I’m glad that I had Spot and Kong as my insurance. Conjuring a huge double-sided axe proportional to Kong took no time at all. I put enchantments of strength and endurance on the shaft and sharpness and durability on the blade and then made a giant hammer as well for him complete with enchantments. “Ok Kong, you’re Spot’s backup. Spot, bite on Rath’s neck, but don’t bite down hard. If he wakes up, just let him know you’re there, but don’t kill him, got it?” I said. Spot nodded and took his place over Rath, opened his big jaws and put Rath’s neck in his mouth. Turning to Kong I said, “Do not harm Spot or anyone except for Rath. Your job is to hit him in the head with the hammer if he causes problems, and the axe is for if he gets loose, got it? That muzzle on his face should keep him from flaming y’all.” Kong bared his fangs but nodded. “Good. I’m going to fix the cavern real quick and put everything back to where it was,” I said, “Holler if he wakes up.”

I had to do this quick. I down to the new hole to my cavern, floated there for a second and then landed next to it. I I pushed back the water flowing around me creating an air bubble and said, “Gungnir, hold the river back, just let it flow around us. I need to get air back down there when I banish the water.”

“Too easy,” it said, pulsing with blue light, using my water sorcery to force the river to flow around the hole.

I slowly lowered myself into the hole, constantly banishing water as I went and air rushed in from up above as I created a partial vacuum from banishing the water. I managed to get the whole cavern free of water in five minutes and then conjured stone stairs back up to the hole. Looking around, all of my stuff, not that there was much was strewn around. I grabbed the disk of World Tree wood and check it over with nature sorcery. It looked fine, but I pumped some mana into it and it glowed a soft green. I’ll worry about this plan later. Climbing out of the hole and resealing it with several stone seals with ‘you-don’t-see-me’ enchantments took another five minutes. I dove into the water and Gungnir followed, letting the river resume its normal course. Water sorcery is freaking cool. The river flows around me but I’m in command of everything my magical senses can touch. Catching any kind of fish I can feel is beyond easy, and any enemy in this domain of mine is at my mercy. Now I want to go build a fortress under the sea, start my own Atlantis.

“Atlantis would be awesome!” Gungnir said, intruding on my thoughts as we coasted towards our prisoner, “I’d be a badass trident, and we would RULE! Get some mermaid bitties up in that underwater palace and endless sushi!”

“Cool it,” I said, “Still got a damn dragon to deal with. I’m thinking since he’s way too old and strong to dominate, we use him. Not against the goddess since she still overpowers him, but he could be useful in other ways. I mainly need what’s in his head. You don’t get to be that old without learning tons of useful things.”

“Well, if you mainly just need his head,” Gungnir started, “Then take his brain. Easy peasy.”

Take his brain huh? Could it be that easy? I could take his brain and his bloodline and use him for crafting epic gear. What nerd hasn’t dreamed about being decked out in epic gear? That was rhetorical. EVERY nerd has dreamed about this moment. And, my crisis of conscience had long passed in this new Earth. It was well past time that I take my rightful place and claim that which I conquered. And today, I would be a dragonslayer.

I held out my hand, my will and determination calling to Gungnir, who turned into a spear as it hit my hand, the shaft getting shorter while the blade lengthened, its shimmering crystal depths glowing with promised death and power. Kong looked at me as magical lightning and fire crackled down the length of the blade in my hand. I coated the edge in ice and said to Spot, “You can stop slobbering on him now. We’re feasting on dragon steaks tonight boys!” I conjured two large crystal pillars next to Rath’s unconscious body and cut runes of preservation and freshness in them, and then conjured one more crystal about the size of a pumpkin and began inscribing runes of will, clarity, memory, obedience, submission, chains and torture on it. Turning to Kong, “I want you to remove the stone plate from that dragon’s head and put that crystal,” I gestured towards the one I just made and placed in front of Rath’s face, “on top of his head and hold it there, got it?” Kong nodded and picked it up, rolling it in his hands while keeping hold of the axe I gave him. “Do not, for the love of god, break that crystal,” I threatened, “Gungnir, let’s do this.”

“Right on!” it said, “Can I have its soul? I mean, you aren’t gonna use it right?”

“Sure, I need Rath’s brain and body, you take the soul.”

I stepped next to where Spot had slobbered on Rath’s exposed neck and rotated Gungnir so that the point of the blade was downward. Using flesh sorcery, I jumped up fifteen feet straight into the air, Gungnir held high. “NOW KONG!” I screamed at the apex of my jump. Kong ripped the stone plate off Rath’s head and quickly replaced it with the binding crystal just before I descended and plunged Gungnir straight through Rath’s vertebrae. Using my magical sight, I was able to see where a weak spot was as Rath was unable to defend himself at all. Gungnir’s tip slid right between two vertebrae and blasted lightning and Chaos mana straight down, decapitating the once great dragon. I didn’t have time to celebrate, this was a crucial moment. As soon as Kong hit Rath in the skull with the crystal, the dragon woke just in time to feel his head separating from his body. The crystal activated and sucked in the bright yellow light that was being expelled from Rath’s eyes, his memories all mine now that the meat brain was defenseless as Gungnir had retrieved the soul of the dragon. “Stay right there Kong!” I ordered as I took Gungnir to the side of the corpse and began cutting with Gungnir. I had to do this fast. Using my flesh sorcery, I kept the corpse on the edge of life as I cut to the heart, removing the truck tire sized organ from the body and placing it in one of the hollow crystal pillars. Then I drained enough dragon blood to fill up the container completely and sealed it off.

Walking over to the head, I saw that the memories were still flowing. I walked to the back of Rath and with one swing chopped of his tail. “Come here boy, here Spot!” I called, the big pup tearing the ground in his excitement, “Enjoy buddy,” I said as I kicked the tail. “This part is all yours.” Kong hooted at me. Perfect. I ran to the head and changed Gungnir into a small hatchet which I used to gently cut open the head. I had Kong pull the brain out carefully and put it in the second container, which I also filled up with blood. Night had fallen and I wanted to get this juicy prize back to my river-bottom cavern.