The Gilded Oasis {Zaraxus'Nathurian} {Open}

As the dragon circled toward him, Belrim nearly threw the harp at it, worried the dragon thought he was helping the hunters. A second dragon seemed to come in out of nowhere. "What in the hells have I gotten myself into now?", he thought to himself. The blue dragon circled back away now beginning to summon a storm, and as the bolts of lightning began to crash, Belrim brought the song to a close. There only appeared to be one man left, and Belrim noticed the change in the dragon as the man unsheathed his sword. Even before the name was given in common, Belrim knew what the sword's name  meant and had heard about ones like it before. "A blade forged from blood... These men are pure evil. They used to travel through the city, and the citizens cheered their exploits, but these are not honorable people.", he thought to himself.
   As Belrim began to reach for his flute, he saw a badger. "But... That's not possible?! Badger? But where's Elli?", he asked, suddenly remembering the second dragon. She had to be here somewhere! Belrim pulled the flute from his belt and began playing. It was a soft tune, and it was focused on the man with the sword. The song was meant to cause those who heard it to become drowsy. "If I can just buy the dragon an advantage, I'm sure he can finish the fight. If worse comes to worse, I've become much more skilled my rapier from my travels, thought I doubt I'd last long in a fight with this man...", he thought to himself.

Seeing her distraction work Elli let out a small laugh, "Badger it worked!" she cried turning towards him, but Badger was gone.  Her concentration broke and the red dragon faded away,  "Badger!" she called looking around before seeing him running across the desert towards a man, "Belrim!" she yelled getting ready to run towards him as Zaraxus summoned the storm, the lightning strike was almost deafening and she clapped her hands over here ears.  "Focus, finish this first and then worry about socializing," she muttered turning back towards the fight.

Seeing Zaraxus' reaction to the man drawing his sword gave Elli pause. She'd never encountered dragon hunters before, but she could tell this man was bad news. She knew her crossbow bolts wouldn't have much effect at this range against the mans armor and she didn't want to get closer with Zaraxus being so large she didn't want to get in the way.   She heard Belrim's song, seeming almost like a lullaby, "That's it!" she exclaimed focusing on her magic again a colored pattern appeared in front of the captain, swiring hypnotically, soothing, distracting.  Elli hoped that coupled with Belrim's song it would give Zaraxus enough of an edge.

Zaraxus could feel the magic in the air, but his arrogance, and rightly so, made him assume it was on his side. Which, luckily for him, it was. The Dragonhunter Captain was distracted, by color and song, when the 'duel' between the two began, and that was much to his detriment. He was snapped into reality just moments before a giant, blue-scaled tail collided with his chest, smashing him into the building. The blue dragon let out a sound of humor, not quite a laugh, more like a short chuckle, and waited for his opponent to rise again. He knew the captain wasn't dead, no man capable of wielding that blade and felling his kin would be taken out by that.

As the dragon imagined, the captain stood to his feet, blood streaming from his nose. Hefting the blade in both hands, he let out a mighty cry and charged the azure drake, dodging fang and claw, trying to get to the dragon's softer underside. Zaraxus knew this strategy, the smaller creatures that fought against his kind always tried this. 'Get to their stomachs, the scales are weaker there.' The dragon scowled and leaped backwards, knocking up a substantial amount of sand. Going for a tail slap again, much to the dragon's misfortune, the hunter was expecting that. Pain shot up Zaraxus's spine as Draco Sanguis cut through his scales like a hot knife through butter. It bounced off of the bone, which saved him from losing the tail outright.

Zaraxus went from being on the offensive to the defensive really quickly. It was obvious that he had underestimated his opponent. Accumulating several cuts and scratches, the dragon was beginning to contemplate fleeing the scene. With some distance between the two combatants, the hunter laughed, "So now you see wyrm, each one of you I kill, I get better at killing. The Sanguis has had its fill of several of your kind, giving me strength and speed beyond the ken of mortal men. Your kind will cease to exist, and you will only be spoken about it tales and bedtime stories. Time to meet your... AUGH!" While the hunter was monologuing, Zaraxus had been channeling his magic, increasing his own speed. Flashing across the distance between the two, the Wyrm's fangs were now buried into the hunters chest. At first, the hunter tried to resist, he tried to fight, but the power the sword had given him was simply no match for a dragon's jaws.

Zaraxus tightened his jaw, and the was a horrible sound of rending metal and snapping bone. Anyone watching close would see sparks beginning to form in the dragon's mouth, obvious that he was going to fry this hunter from point blank range. The captain was going to die, and his sword was going to be added to a horde, that is all there was to it. From the direction of the stable, there came a rather loud thunk, and, very shortly after lightning erupted from Zaraxus's mouth, into the air. He screamed in pain. The fourth member of the Dragonhunter squad finally revealed himself. Hidden in the stables, under the guise of a covered wagon, a portable ballista was pointed in the direction of the battle. Luckily the bolt had missed the intended spot, and his heart was still very intact. Unfortunately, it had lodged itself into the joint where his wing meets his body. Secondly, the bolt was poisoned with dragonsbane: one of the only poisons that can harm dragons. It isn't deadly to them, but it makes them wish they were. Fire was shooting through the entirety of his body. He lay, thrashing on the ground, stirring up clouds of dust and sand. In the commotion, the Dragonslayer Captain had disappeared, along with his sword. However, the fourth member of the squad was reloading another large bolt, attempting to go in for the kill.

Belrim saw the ballista land in the dragon. "That may have well been a fatal blow to our dear dragon... These hunters will never stop, will they?", he thought to himself, stashing his instruments. He looked to where the shooter was stationed, and began walking toward the stables, drawing his rapier. His normally smiling face went as stone. As he approached closer, he could see the man trying to reload the weapon, meaning the dragon was most likely not actually dead. The thought almost brought a smile back to Belrim, but he was still angry. The man seemed to be busy, and hadn't really noticed Belrim's approach, but he didn't like the idea of stabbing an unaware man, no matter how angry he was. As he looked to the thrashing dragon on the ground though, his anger returned and he was once again set in his approach. He approached close enough to stab the man in the back, but had a thought. "This isn't really my fight, and the dragon may have his own questions.", he thought to himself. He quietly laid his rapier on the ground, not wanting to risk sheathing it, and brought out his small metal guitar. It was a very sturdy weapon, and he wasn't worried about breaking it. He raised it over his head, bringing it down hard onto the head of the man reloading the weapon. "Maybe this will at least keep him down for a little bit?"

"Zaraxus!" Elli cried she glimpsed Belrim heading to take care of the ballista so she focused on the dragon. Sliding down the sand dune towards the dragon she called to Badger, "On me, guard, now." She dodged the dragons thrashing limbs and reached up to pull her goggles down to protect her eyes from the swirling sand. As she ducked under his flailing wing and worked her way up towards his head she saw badger running towards them.

As she reached Zaraxus' head she called out trying to be heard over the noise. "I'm here Zaraxus, I can help you! What do you need? I can get the bolt out but I'll need you to be still or if there's something else you need, I just...you're going to hurt yourself with this thrashing," she called laying a hand on the side of his head. She was mildly concerned about being crushed herself, and she knew the man with the sword was still around elsewhere, but out of the corner of her eye should could see Badger on alert for anyone who would do them harm. "Please Zaraxus, how can I help you?"

The unsuspecting Dragonhunter crumpled into an unconscious heap as the bard's metal instrument collided with his skull. He was hard headed, sure, and that was why he didn't suspect that the dragon would have friends, but metal beats skull every time.

Zaraxus thrashed for a couple more seconds, the poison spreading like fire through his veins. It took several moments for him to even register that someone was talking to him. After he heard Elli, it took him a moment more to realize that it was, indeed, the gnome from inside the tavern. Why would she be trying to calm him? Was she still on his side, even knowing his true form? Bah, these small creatures were so confusing. Dahak damn it! He had nothing else to lose.

It took every ounce of control he had, but the thrashing dragon finally calmed down. Hopefully the gnome could remove the ballista bolt, but, in fairness, it was bigger than she was. He needed the bolt removed, and then he might be able to fix himself, but, until the thorn was out, he was stuck in this form, and likely going to die soon.

Belrim breathed once more, seeing the dragon hunter slump to the ground. Knowing the man would likely wake up again, he struggled to move him to a support beam for the stable, and tied the man to it with a length of rope from nearby. He could hear the dragon starting to quiet and instantly grew worried. He threw his guitar onto his back, running to the dragon. He could now see Elli speaking with the dragon with a panicked look on her face. Belrim knew that greetings would have to wait, seeing the large pike that had impaled the dragon. "How could people be so cruel?", he thought to himself sadly. He dropped his bags on the ground and quickly decided his next actions. "Here goes...", he mumbled as reassurance to himself. He truly hoped the dragon to be friendly, as this would likely be very painful, and leapt actually quite nimbly onto the back of the dragon. As he regained his footing, he placed both hands around the bolt near the wound and pulled as quickly and smoothly as he could manage. As it slid free, he let go to cover his ears, preparing to be launched.

Elli kept talking until Zaraxus was able to stop thrashing, she could feel how tense he was and knew he must be in great pain beyond what one would expect from a normal wound.  As she turned to go get some supplies from Badger she saw Belrim run towards them and leap upon Zaraxus' back and pull the bolt free.  At the same time she felt herself being dragged away from the Dragon.  

Dragon hurt.  Hurt things hurt others.  Bad human around.  Badger thought as he paced warily alert for any enemies approaching or if the Dragon was about to become a threat to Elli.  As he saw Belrim removing the bolt he knew how he would react in that situation.  That hurt.  I hurt I bite, dragon hurt dragon bite?  Belrim and Elli near dragon.  Elli near mouth.  Dragon bite Elli?  Dragon hurt Belrim?  Dragon hurt Elli? How protect Belrim and Elli he whined in frustration before lunging forward and grabbing Elli, dragging her backwards as quickly as he could.  Dragon no bite Elli! Help Belrim when Elli safe.

Zaraxus braced himself, but that wasn't nearly enough. He roared in pain as the bolt came free, his blood flowing onto the sands. Luckily it wasn't a vital area, but it still hurt, more than anything had ever hurt before. His tail smashed into the ground, causing sand to fly into the air, obscuring all but the keenest of vision. He let out another roar, this one releasing sparks of electricity into the cloud of sand, causing some of the granules to crystallize into coarse glass. All in all it would be a pretty sight, were it not for the scaled beast writhing in pain.

Zaraxus tried to restrain his thrashing to a minimum, knowing there were much smaller, much more fragile creatures in his near vicinity. It took him a couple of moments, but he eventually quelled his pain, or, rather, the pain and the poison was too much for him, at the moment, and he fell unconscious.

Belrim tried to jump from the dragon's back, not nearly as gracefully as he'd hoped. He instead tumbled awkwardly to the ground beside it, at the very least rolling away as much as he could manage. He grabbed his pack just in time for the dragon's roar, and he noticed the sand around him turning to glass, some of it cutting at his face and hands as he dashed to safety. Belrim looked to see that Elli and Badger were safe, and could see Badger pulling Elli back away from the dragon. "Such a fantastic animal as ever!", he thought to himself, glad to see the two still doing well after their last adventure. The dragon began to grow quiet, and Belrim was suddenly worried. There was a lot of blood, and the hunters' swords and bolts were surely poisoned, which Belrim knew he could do nothing for. "Can't sit here and let it die... I have to do something.", he mumbled under his breath. He ran to the pair, speaking as calmly as he could, "Elli, I'm afraid he's been poisoned and I don't know what to do about that. You were ever the more resourceful one between us. Do you have anything that could help? I'm going to see what I can do about the wound itself, but I fear we must remove the poison before I can do that."

Elli was grateful for her goggles as the dragon's lightning turned the sand to glass. As Belrim approached she was already rummaging through the pouches on badger. "I might, a while ago I was messing around with making poison darts, turned out to be an awful idea but i might still have some...here we go!" She said pulling out a small vial. She looked between the vial and the size of the dragon, and the wound and shook her head, holding it out to Belrim. "It's not much, and I'm not even sure it'll work on whatever poison they used but we don't have much choice. It works for rattlesnake bites, nightshade, and hemlock," she said with a shrug giving it to him and returning to her packs.

"I've got some astringents and bandages in here too, I'll get them ready if you wanna go try that stuff on him. Oh his names Zaraxus, and I thought he was an elf. He's nice though," Elli said as she gathered more supplies. Badger continued to look around wary of other enemies or the dragon waking up.