Chapter 4: Past Against Future

    Melee's men had already taken their pre-planned positions around the hidden road in the forest.  His army was broken up into several groups, ready to ambush the small, rogue army when they came.
    As for Serent, Melee was already planning on taking on the monstrous beast himself.  The tales of victories against the feral dragons in the past scrolled through his mind, providing a list of possible strategies on how to take down this enemy.  He had to be eliminated before he took off from his perch.
    One man stayed behind at the cliff, ready to alert Melee via horn if Serent moved from his spot.  The dragon still remained there, barely moving a muscle since the army entered the area.
    For the time being, silence filled the air.  Time was nearly at a standstill, at least which is how it felt to the army.  The cavalry archers managed to keep their horses silent as they waited.  Melee and the rest of his infantry laid low amongst the brush.
    Marching soon broke the silence, but the army still did not budge.  Melee started gesturing to his men, signaling them when to strike.
    "Take over for me once it begins, I am going for Serent," Melee whispered to his second-in-command, a dragon named Amadeus, who was kneeling next to him.
    "Aye Bishop.  Are you going alone?"
    "I rather not risk your lives by taking some of our already small army to a possibly suicidal duel with a feral."
    Amadeus nodded.  "Hopefully the gods are good to you today."
    "I rather have them focus on you all.  I'll be fine as long as Serent is dead in the end.  Whether he takes me down with him or not, that is not to worry over.
    "I'll personally inform Natalie of your passing if we lose you."
    Melee showed a small grin.  "Thanks."
    The footsteps were getting louder.  The rogues were now starting to pass by the hidden trap.  Melee browsed the army to see what threat they offered before he launched his attack.  All the dragons appeared to be wielding swords of varying sizes, with a few archers mixed in.  None were on horseback.  The most important observation that Melee noticed was that it appeared that the dragons still had their sutures.  Some even appeared to have been injured by trying to remove them by force.  This relieved Melee to know that the risk of his men being burnt alive and the forest's destruction was only in the claws of Serent, which hopefully wouldn't get near the battlefield.
    Melee's window of opportunity appeared after his analysis.  He made his signal and the attack began by the firing of steel arrows that punctured the leather armor that the rogues wore. The arrows were strategically aimed, targeting their archers.  Several dragons collapsed instantly, leaving the rest of the army confused as Melee's men pushed onto the road.  The archers stayed behind, firing with precision accuracy.
    The ambush was working exactly the way Melee hoped for.  Already he and his men eliminated several rogues before they unsheathed their swords and fought back.
Even at such a small scale for a battle, the clashing of metal was loud enough to be heard from a great distance.  Combine that with the screams of dying men and it could drive anybody fearful of war insane.
    Melee's strict training regimen was paying off for his men; they were handling the undertrained group of rebels with shining skill.  Yes, they were suffering some casualties as well, but the enemy's losses were already widening the gap in terms of numbers of the dead on both sides.  Greater numbers weren't going to win this fight if he had something to do about it.
    The knight quickly put an end to any life that stood in his way as he made for the camp.  He wanted to assist his men somewhat by exterminating as many lives as possible before leaving them to handle Serent.  His movement was barely hindered by the armor he wore, leaving him mobile enough to perform his beautiful attacks that the enemy could not counter.  One dragon managed to trip Melee, but he was quick to get up, avoiding a stab in the spine that would have either killed him or at the very least, paralyzed him for the rest of his life.  Such a life might as well be death to him.  He retaliated the dirty tactic by slicing the rogue's sword-holding hand off.  The dragon screamed in agony before falling to his knees.  Blood flowed like a river out of his arm he would be dead by shock or blood loss within minutes.
    Another rogue tried to attack Melee from behind, only to have his heart pierced by a thrust of his shortsword.  Melee had trained himself to use it like a dagger while holding a longsword.  It wasn't the first time he pulled the trick, one that only a few assassins were known to perform.  He pulled the sword out of the collapsing body and sheathed it again as he fought more rogues.
    Some of the army began to retreat in some random direction, but the position of the cavalry archers sealed most escape routes as some fell victim to the rain of arrows.  Victory was becoming more certain.
    Melee finally broke out of the main clash after fifteen minutes of fighting,  His breathing was slightly heavy, but he didn't feel the effects of fatigue.  He had killed twenty-three of his own kind before he found himself running for Serent.
    The warning horn blew just as he exited into the clearing where the rogue camp sat.  Serent had finally started to hover into the air with his magnificent wings, which covered a scale of about fifty feet.  He moved a short distance before landing, crushing a few tents under his claws and tail.  Melee didn't spend much time gendering at the beast, but he assumed that the dragon was probably thirty feet tall.  Serent's matching steel eyes looked down at Melee, who had taken his stance.
    He could feel his mind being pierced by an unknown force.
    "A dragon that works with the humans that almost destroyed our race, have you no honor?" a deep, raspy voice echoed.
    Melee didn't know how to respond.  The dragon didn't physically speak, yet he still heard his words.  All he could do was talk to it verbally and see if it would respond.
    "More honor than a feral that would willingly slaughter innocents."
    "Innocents?  You can humans innocent?  Have you forgotten what they did to you and your ancestors?"
    "What is in the past stays in the past.  The alliance that dragon and human share is one that will bring glory back to our species."
    Serent roared loudly.  "You are just being fooled for an even greater fall.  The humans ruling the land will only betray you in the end."
    "There are good people in this world.  I know some humans that have a sense of honor."
    Serent roared again, shaking the ground as he stomped a couple times.  "Your mind is clouded with thoughts that any dragon should not have.  All human life must be extinguished!"
    "You are a fool ancient one.  Humanity has survived your attacks before and they will survive again."
    "They haven't done so well against me.  I am glad to see that at least some of "your kind" has the mindset to remember who they truly are in the world."
    "Your kind?"
    "You dragons that are shaped like humans; a sick evolution of our kind."
    "The only one that is sick here are dragons like you that never control their bloodlust."
    Serent took a deep breath and exhaled a wall of fire towards Melee.  He rolled out of the way to avoid the flames, but it left most of the camp to burn at this point.
    "If you are not willing to listen to reason misguided simpleton, then you and your army shall suffer the most painful death at my will!"
    Melee did not respond back; he just waited for Serent to make another move.
    It became a staring contest, neither side willing to make the next move.  Melee eventually won out as the dragon tried to scorch him again with a few balls of fire.  Once again, the agile knight was able to dodge them.
    Melee tried to get closer to Serent, but the dragon used its tail to send him flying a distance before crashing into the ground.  he could feel a rib being broken by the hard impact, making him take a breath as the dragon walked towards him.
    "Weak fledgling!"
    The dragon tried to stomp onto Melee, but he moved to the side at the last moment.  He picked himself up and made another charge while the dragon was too close to use its tail.  melee climbed onto the tail and began his assent up the rough scaling.  Serent instantly jumped into the air, making Melee lose his grip and fall to the ground.  The impact wasn't nearly as hard compared to being slapped by Serent's tail, but it still stunned Melee for a moment.
    Serent slammed into the ground, creating another miniature earthquake.  Melee got back up to avoid another wall of flame that was lunging at him.  It caught his grieves, but the metal held, despite the spike in temperature.
    Melee made for another attempt at the tail, knowing that he had to obtain control of the fight this time or he would certainly be killed.
    He reached it again, just before it swung at him.  The dragon held onto a spike and decided to use them as a way up.
    Serent jumped again, but Melee's grip was enough to stay on this time.  he wasted no time in climbing up to the back, reaching it just before Serent noticed that he was still on him.
    A vicious roar rung in the air as Serent tried using his flying to knock Melee off.  Still no luck as Melee reached the wings.  Seeing an opportunity, Melee used his sword to slice through the thick scales and into the limbs that held the wings.  He could hear a bone snap, rendering the wing almost completely useless.  Serent roared in pain as he felt Melee cut into his other wing seconds after the first.  The dragon's altitude plummeted as he began to nose-dive towards the earth.  He struck the ground at high speed, shaking the land again as he slid into the base of Greenthorn.  Melee was flung forward, almost getting impaled by another of Serent's sharp spikes.
    Shaken, but still on Serent's neck, Melee made his way towards the wounded dragon's head.
    "Think about what you are doing...you are betraying your own kind."
    "I am preserving it!"
    Melee reached the head and hopped onto his foe's nose.  Their eyes met again; a final meeting.
    "Any last words, destroyer of peace?"
    "You'll regret this decision...my brethren will strike again, but you won't have your allies when it happens.  I swear."
    Melee prepared to thrust his sword directly through the eye and pierce Serent's brain for an instant death.  He was about to thrust when his voice echoed again.
    "No...I will not die by your hand."
    Suddenly, the temperature within Serent jumped significantly.  Melee could feel it and jumped off before sustaining any burns.  The temperature just continued to rise until Serent erupted into a burst of flames that engulfed his body.  Melee stepped back as the flames grew larger.
    I have heard about this...The feral dragons of the past always burned their own bodies so nothing may be recovered or learned from them, Melee thought.
    All Melee could do was return to his men.  The silence in the air told him that the battle was over and he was confident that his men won.  He began to slowly walk away from the burning corpse.  Even though it had to be done, the pain of killing his own was something that could never be avoided.  Many of his kind died today, but at least future generations could live on in peace with a better life than he will ever have.  Melee then started to recite an old hymn in an ancient dialect he learned when he was young.
    The air around Serent would get warmer and warmer with each passing minute.  Soon the air surrounding him became too hot to sustain any life with oxygen.  That was fine; by the time anyone dared to enter this part of the land, the body will be long gone to the bright flames, leaving nothing but charred remains of the camp that almost changed the world for the worse.