บท 12: River of flames.

The massive abomination cast its shadow on the SUV as if to imply the vehicle was its target. Lara climbed onto the window once more and pointed her rifle to the sky, but she could only grit her teeth knowing the small bullets wouldn't be enough to harm something of that size.

The Black Dragon appeared unscathed despite all the missiles it had taken head-on only minutes ago. The remaining fighter jets caught up with it in no time, but all it took was a flap of its wings and all of them were sent hurling to the ground. Ignoring the annoying metallic birds, it gazed down at the road below it, its eyes gleaming as they followed the only vehicle still moving.

"Master!" It felt odd for Lara to raise her voice. "I believe it is after us!"

"Well who could've guessed!!?"

Mark's sarcastic reply only helped piss him off even more. Just leaning in toward the windshield was enough for him to see the thing chasing them. His game did have dragons and giant monsters, but things of that size shouldn't appear until the later parts.

Instead, this one was thrown at him right from the start.

He could only curse the kind of developer who would pull out that kind of sick prank right at the start.

"What kind of FromSoft shit is this!?" He cried, rotating the steering wheel as they turned a sharp corner. "As if life itself wasn't hard enough!!!"

"Master! It is about to dive!"

The densely packed city made it impossible for the dragon to fly close to the ground. Mark intended to take advantage of that aspect and drove them toward the center where all the skyscrapers were huddled together.

His strategy seemed to work for a while; the dragon rose to a higher altitude while trying to avoid the tall buildings. Sadly, that thing was adamant about taking him down so it flapped its wings and shot in their direction then tucked them close to its body and turned itself into a giant missile.

Noticing the crimson flames leaking from between its fangs, Mark could already see what was about to happen.

"Get down!" He instructed.

Lara complied, and the moment she did, the car drifted around another corner. Flames spilled over the street like a tidal wave. The heat reached the SUV first and the surroundings took on a crimson tint. The flames followed right after, swallowed the vehicle whole, and continued to incinerate everything that came in their path. They spread into every corner, shattered gates and doors and flooded every building in the entire area.

Nothing should've survived in that hellish river of death, but as the flames continued to spread, a single vehicle emerged from their depths. Fire only burns upward so it has a difficult time filling the underground parking lot of the nearby office buildings. In his desperation to avoid being cooked alive, Mark made the split second decision to slip into an underground driveway he glimpsed on his left.

The car slammed into the ceiling then the ground but by cheer luck, Mark was able to keep it under control. Without stopping to think, he quickly drove deeper, going from the first underground level to the second then the third. The fourth was the last with no path leading deeper down. Mark slammed the brakes, slowing them down before stopping as far away from the entrance as possible.

The heat from the dragon's flames didn't chase them that far. Sensing the cool air and realizing they were safe, Mark kicked the door open and ran toward a nearby corner. The contents of his stomach rushed out right after.

"Hahaha…" once he was done throwing up the breakfast he had a little over an hour ago, Mark was suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to laugh. "Hahaha… hahahaha…. aaAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!!"

'We did it!' He yelled in his mind, unable to halt the laughter. 'We f*cking did it!!! Holy f*ck we actually did it!!!!'

Lara watched her master's unhinged display from a distance. Things were quiet except for his demented laughter and for a good minute everything seemed to be peaceful. The underground parking lot appeared like a place where they could rest until someone did something about the dragon. Nevertheless, fate saw it that they weren't allowed to relax even for a moment.

A tremor ran through the lower level of the parking lot alerting them of their hunter's persistence. An explosion followed a few seconds later and told them more jets had arrived. It was doubtful whether they could do anything about the dragon, but trying was better than leaving it to devour more civilians.

"I hope they would not bring the entire building down on our heads." Lara commented, having walked over to where Mark was.

"Haha. I don't think they're concerned about us." Mark shook his head. "Pray they don't nuke the entire area."

The constant quaking indicated that the battle wasn't moving away from their location. Mark had no trust in the building holding up until everything was over, and he didn't want to see if the dragon could cook them alive by spilling its flames into the lot's entrance. They couldn't keep hiding in such a place until it was over; they needed to escape somehow, and Mark felt it was his role to find that out.

'The big one is clearly after us. But why?'

One would think that a monster like that has more things to worry about instead of chasing after a bunch of random humans. If it's food then surely going to where all the panicked crowds were gathered would provide it with a much more fulfilling meal. The same goes for if murder was its goal.

'Well…' though he pretended not to know, Mark already had an idea about the reason.

Moving away from the mess he created, he rested his back against the wall and slid down to the floor. He hung his head for a while and sighed. Then, from the corner of his eye, he glanced at the silver-haired maid standing a short distance away. As much as he didn't want to, it was about time he gave up on the possibility of everything being just a dream, which meant he would need to change his mindset in order to deal with this hellish situation.

'Fortunately, there is no shortage of cliche stories I can use for reference.'

The weak sobbing of a child interrupted his train of thought and he remembered that they had a bunch of kids riding with them the entire time. Mark was sure all three were unconscious through the whole ride, but there was always the chance that he zoned out their voices as he focused on making it out alive.

'Were they injured in the explosion?'

Mark realized that he couldn't recall. Turning his gaze to Lara, he stopped to think for a moment before giving her some instructions.

"Can you handle the kids for now? See if they have injuries that need treatment."

"What about you, Master?" To his surprise, the maid replied with a question of her own. "You look pale. Are you sure you are well?"

Her expression looked indifferent more than anything. Still, what little concern she showed for him brought a smile to his face. The situation was still disastrous, but despite that, Mark was able to see one good aspect to it.

"I'm fine." He said. "We can worry about my mental health later."