wry smile and attacked, capitalising on his superior strength and agility. His opponent reacted with astonishing composure, and a barrage of heavy blows was met time and again with counter-attacks. Draco simply picked up the pace and began to aim more carefully. Successive blows came ever closer to Aiden, whose face began to show signs of unease. His opponent’s gaze kept darting off to the side, as if searching for something. The dragon had no intention of giving him any opportunity to do anything and decided to take a risk.
In a flash, he closed the distance to Aiden, forcing him into close quarters. They found themselves literally face to face, and Draco had the chance to gauge the strength of his opponent’s grip. The dragon twisted the blade, freeing his shoulder, and then violently rotated his torso, adding momentum to an elbow strike. The blow struck Aiden at the temple, but his helmet must have absorbed most of the force. The boy staggered, simultaneously loosening his grip on the sword hilt. The dragon had been waiting for just that and yanked the weapon, knocking the sword from his opponent’s hand.
Using his momentum, Draco struck downwards, adding a twist to the blow in the opposite direction to before. Gler’thys slowed abruptly before reaching its target and was pushed back. The unexpected reaction threw the dragon off balance, but a half-step backwards was enough to restore his stability.
‘See, you’re doing quite well,’ he said, grabbing Aiden’s immobilised arm before the boy could topple over. ‘I’ll help you…’ He smiled warmly and looked over his friend’s shoulder to check whether he could safely lay him on his back.
Right next to the alder tree trunk stood two defenders whom Draco hadn’t noticed before. Both had their hands outstretched in front of them, both aiming at the dragon, and flames were gathering around their fingers.
‘Bloody hell…’ was all Draco managed to say.
