Cojack's snarl of war turned to a grin as he saw his sword sailing towards him. It started sliding across the ground, and he ran full steam towards where the weapon landed. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the monster move to swat at him, and he stopped himself, avoiding the beast's massive claws. The dragoon quickly stepped back to avoid a flurry of blows, and managed to put some distance between himself and the beast. With that distance, he ground his teeth together, cocked back his arm, and threw the sword in his hand at the beast, using the full weight of his body to propel the blade. The throw was meant only to distract the beast as Cojack ran for his big sword again, but he got lucky with the throw. The weapon wedged itself deep into the monster's shoulder, so much so that only the hilt was protruding from the wound. The beast screeched at the unexpected pain as Cojack scooped up his two handed blade, putting his remaining one handed sword into its sheathe as he did.
Armed once again with what had become his signature weapon, Cojack began to circle the beast. Two of its legs were crippled. There was no chance the monster was making an offensive move. The dragoon circled the massive beast until he came to the little dragoon. When he reached her, he grabbed her in one hand and placed her on his shoulder, letting her curl herself back around his neck. The whole time, his eyes never left his opponent. "Thank you." The red dragoon muttered to the little one on his shoulder. He would show the proper appreciation for what she had done later, but at the moment, he had to focus on the battle in front of him.
Cojack assessed his enemy's wounds, paying close attention to how the beast was moving as he circled it. It walked with a limp in its rear left foot, and walked stiffly on its front left. This meant the beast would have issues turning to its left side, since it would have to put its weight on its left legs. Cojack also imagined that the sword in its shoulder would keep it from striking out with its front left foot, as it would make it painful to move that leg at all. So, attacking from the left seemed to be the best option. It would have trouble turning to face him, and it would be hurting itself if it tried to strike him.
The dragoon made a quick dash to the monster's left side and found that his estimations of its turning ability were correct. The beast moved much slower as it tried to face him. This left Cojack with an opportunity to lay a long, deep gash along the monster's ribs. The monster screeched in pain and hopped away from the dragoon, growling angrily at the little creature that dared wound it. With the beast now facing him, Cojack started to circle the monster again. However, he was caught off guard when the beast leapt forward, front claws outstretched. The dragoon tried to leap away, but he was too slow, and one of the monster's claws clipped his foot, knocking him off balance. Cojack fell onto his butt, however, he quickly recovered. The dragoon was on his feet before the monster was. The beast had fallen after its lunge, likely unable to land properly on its injured front leg. Its injured leg was also the cause of its difficulty standing. Once it was stable on all four feet, the beast growled at Cojack. The dragoon was impressed by the beast. He had underestimated it.
Armed with the knowledge that the monster would indeed leap at him, Cojack decided that the best course of action was to face the beast head on. Without turning away from the beast, Cojack reached up to his shoulder and gently pulled the girl off of his neck. "Sorry. Too dangerous. Stay back." He continued to circle the beast until he was sure that the girl had gotten far enough away that she would be safe. He wasn't sure how the beast would react to what he was going to do, but he was sure that it wouldn't be happy about Cojack's plan. The dragoon slid his sword into the sheathe on his back, and drew the one handed sword still on his hip. His mentors would call the plan stupid. They would call it risky. They would call it dangerous. It was all of these things, but Cojack had accomplished tasks by being much more stupid. With a grimace and a bellow of rage, the red dragoon charged the enemy.
The monster swung at the dragoon with its left claws, connecting only with air as the dragoon spun away from the attack. The beast regained its balance and swung with its right, missing again. Before its foot touched the ground again, it swung with its massive left claw, falling over in the process, but catching the dragoon by surprise. Cojack barely had time to react, and he felt the talons glance off of his crimson scales. He had only narrowly avoided death. However, the grade 5 had fallen, and this was the perfect opportunity. Cojack bolted at the monster, which snapped at the dragoon with its jaws. However, Cojack wasn't going for its throat as the beast had expected. The dragoon leapt into the air as the beast stood up, grabbing ahold of the sword in the monster's shoulder with his free hand. The monster shrieked and shook itself, but the dragoon kept a firm grasp on the hilt of the sword. Cojack hauled himself up higher, and stuck the sword he hadn't thrown into the monster's back. Using that as a handhold, he pulled himself up onto the back of the grade 5 beast. The monster shook and bucked like crazy, but Cojack's hold on the sword remained firm. He was not going to let go. When there was a lapse in the monster's thrashing, Cojack reached to his back and drew his two handed sword. Hanging on with only one hand now, his large sword in the other, Cojack pulled himself into a crouched position.
When the opportunity came, Cojack leapt forward, blade held high above his head. When he came down, it was on the beast's head. He struck blade first, thrusting the sword through the skull of the beat with an audible CRACK. The monster shuddered once before its legs gave out, bringing the massive creature crashing to the ground. Once he was sure the monster was dead, Cojack stood, stepped off the beast's head, faced the sky, and let loose a triumphant bellow that shook the ground at his feet. The sound echoed off nearby buildings, giving the illusion that there were many dragoons, all roaring at a great triumph. The red dragoon took a few deep breaths, calming himself as he moved to pull his sword out of the dead beast. However, Cojack was unaware that adrenaline existed, and that an adrenaline rush made wounds stop hurting. As he began to yank his sword from the beast's skull, he felt a pain in his right shoulder. As he looked at his arm and began to move it, leaving the sword in the monster's head, he grabbed the shoulder with his free arm. When he moved the arm off of his shoulder, it came off of his body covered in something hot, wet, and sticky.
Cojack gasped at the three gashes in his chest, suddenly aware of the pain coming from the wound. He dropped to his knees and grunted, suddenly aware of a much more noticeable pain in his right shoulder, and a pain in his left ankle. However, the wounds on his joints could be ignored for a moment. Blood was coming out of his chest. He needed to stop it, and he needed to stop it soon. He thought back to years ago, when he was being taught swordsmanship. The man had a massive scar on his right arm, and one day Cojack asked him how he got it. The man explained it was a burn scar. One of the most desperate, but surefire ways to stop bleeding was to set the wound on fire. Looking down at the blood flowing from his chest, the dragoon knew what he had to do. He opened his gaping maw, aimed his breath at the wound, and let loose a torrent of flame from his mouth. He wanted to shout in pain as the flames lapped over his skin, but he kept the blaze focused on himself. After a minute, he cut the flame and let out a bellow of pain.
He fell forward, his hands hitting the ground in front of him as he gasped for breath. He looked to his chest again, glad that the scales prevented the fire from hitting anywhere that wasn't already exposed. Gathering his thoughts, he tried to recall where each of these injuries came from. The chest wound was obvious. Before he leapt onto the monster, evidently the claws didn't just glance off his scales. When the monster lunged unexpectedly at him and hit his feet, he had sprained his ankle. When his sword was knocked away and the monster swatted him to the side, his clavicle broke in two places. He didn't know the extent of his injuries, but he did manage to piece together how he got them. And that they hurt. He wasn't sure he'd be able to keep fighting.
Looking up, he saw the little dragoon coming closer to him. She was so small and helpless. Cojack then looked to the monster before him. The beast that would've killed her without a second thought had he not intervened. There were undoubtedly more of these monsters. There were undoubtedly more people that were helpless. People that needed a defender. Good, innocent people that would die if Cojack did nothing. He couldn't do nothing.
With a grunt, he grabbed ahold of the nearest part of the monster. With another grunt, he began to pull his aching body off of the ground, pulling himself up off of his knees. Using the beast's head as support, Cojack stood, grabbed the hilt of his weapon, and yanked it from the monster's skull. With it came bits of gray matter and all sorts of blood. The dragoon stumbled as the blade came free, but recovered by putting the tip of the blade to the ground and using the sword as a cane. When he pulled himself to his full height, he looked towards the fighting, knowing that he would have to rejoin the fray. He growled at the monsters as he retrieved his swords, the smaller blades coming out of the monster much more easily than the large sword. With all his weapons in order, Cojack drew his bow, taking five arrows out with it. His shoulder would make it difficult to use, but with the amount of pain in his chest, swinging a sword across the front of his body would hurt a lot more.
"Please stay off," Cojack said to the younger dragoon, "Shoulder hurt." With that, the pair made their way towards the fighting, Cojack using his bow as a walking stick to help keep weight off of his ankle. As they were about to leave the square that Cojack had fought the grade 5 in, he heard a familiar voice.
"We need to take care of the alpha. If we do the rest of these monsters might turn on each other."
Cojack turned to Victor with a smile, which quickly turned into a grimace when he tried to move his right arm to signal an affirmative to the other dragoon. Cojack watched him engage in a fight with more grade 3 creatures, some things that he decided he'd had his fill of. Removing his weight from his left foot, he knocked an arrow, aimed, and fired the arrow through the neck of one of the grade 3 beasts. "Let's go then," the crimson dragoon responded. With that, he grabbed another arrow from his quiver, signaled Kyo to stay close to him, and began to move in the direction of the hole in the wall where they would find the alpha.
