HALF: Dead nor Alive

The dragon healed the wounds in its chest, but not the wings since it was still covered with holes because of the parasite’s attack. The dragon roared as it spitted fire at the parasite but the parasite dodged it by rolling over and making an earthquake.

Because of the injuries on the wings, the dragon decided to charge at the parasite while wiggling its head as if it was looking for the right angle and position to bite. The parasite screeched and sprayed the dragon with phlegm that hit the face of the dragon but it did nothing at all.

The two Kings clashed, and the dragon used its wings to wrap its body and blocked the phlegm with it. The moment the dragon uncovered its body, the parasite whipped its tentacles at the dragon and pushed the dragon away.

The dragon was fine from the attack and immediately charged back and used the edge of its wings to scratch the parasite’s skin. It used its arms, tails, and mouth to attack the parasite, and the parasite was overwhelmed by the difference in their strength.

“What did you say about the dragon? It’s a pure breed?” Faye asked and looked at Eve with confusion because she never heard such a thing. “What does that mean?”

“It’s hard to explain, but I have seen enough to understand about parasites,” Eve answered. “To put it simply, that dragon isn’t really the result of mutation, it’s pure evolution. As a parasite to be able to reach the peak without mutation, it’s almost impossible since the pure breed is the main nutrition for the other parasite,” Eve explained while the others were listening to her.

“Wait, before I ask you about anything else, can you tell us how did you know that a parasite is a pure breed or not?” Faye asked as she looked at the parasites that were exchanging blows.

“That’s easy, a pure breed parasite’s shape or form is identical to the animals that we know. For example, if it’s just a giant tiger or bear, that parasite is a pure breed and only took a single genetic to live, but the moment it has more heads, fingers, or limbs, it’s no longer a pure breed since it’s the result of mutation from combining different genes,” Eve explained with her arms crossed._.

“So, you’re telling us that dragon is a real thing?” Tommy asked with a shocked expression.

“Yes,” Eve nodded her head slowly.

Everyone was shocked and made the same exact reaction when Archie heard it for the first time. They all couldn’t believe that such a monstrosity existed on Earth and the possibility of things that were beyond their beliefs existing started to make them uneasy.

Eve didn’t tell them about the other things that she told Archie because it was unnecessary. It wouldn’t do anything good to her since they would start questioning her existence with that knowledge.

“So, now that you guys know what can a pure breed does, it’s better if you use that last ammunition for later. I believe blowing its head off would be the best option we have right now,” Eve said as she stared at the dragon. “I’m not sure what the serum does, but if it made the dragon evolve, it’s a good sign because the parasite will have the chance to defeat it since undergoing an evolution would take a lot of energy,”

Faye was the one who lead the team and the one in charge, it was a hard decision since everyone’s fate was in her hand. She looked at Eve and thought if she should listen to her and which action she wanted to pick from those two.

“What’s the chance if the dragon will evolve by the serum?” Faye asked.

“I don’t know because I have no idea what’s inside that ammunition and nobody could tell because none of us know,” Eve answered and it wasn’t the answer that Faye was looking for. “We can wait for a few hours and see if the serum would have a side effect on the parasite,”

Faye hummed and nodded her head with understanding.

“Alright, let’s do that and if nothing happens, we will use the last ammunition to blow the dragon’s head to kill it,” Faye replied and looked at everyone, they were all nodding with understanding and they had no complaints about it,

An hour had passed, and the dragon was on the lead and wounded the parasite with its sharp fangs and claws. The parasite couldn’t do anything else but try to resist since the dragon would chase it anyway if it decided to run away or hide. It was really a battle to the death, and that was exactly the purpose of those parasites, and Archie had no idea why it was such a thing to make the King-type parasite fight each other.

Another hour had passed, and the parasite started to fight back since it kept growing stronger and stronger as time flew by. The dragon noticed it and decided to make some distance from each other, Archie would make the same move as the dragon if he was in that situation.

“Is it happening?” Faye asked Eve because two hours had passed and she could tell the gap of power between those two started to get closer and closer.

“No, I think it’s the other way around because the parasite is slowly getting stronger because of the mutation from the radiation. It’s a good thing because now it starts to get interesting,” Eve answered while she leaned on the tree.

The dragon roared as it spread its wings wide open, and everyone could see the skin on the wings start to heal itself. The dragon started to fly away and breathe fire right onto the parasite’s face, it was a gas of fire until it turned into liquid and then it got thicker.

The fire was really hot that the trees started to dry out because of the heat waves, and it started to get unbearable for them to stay there. Faye decided to get everyone to move further away from the battle because the ammunition might explode if it got exposed to the extreme heat.

They all went up the hill where the heatwaves stayed down below, and Faye made the right decision because the first row of the trees got dried out the moment they left. It wasn’t as shocking as the fact that the dragon kept pouring the parasite with liquid fire since it had been 15 minutes since it did that.

“How long that dragon could spit fire?!” Vincent asked and stared at the battle in disbelief.

“For as long as he wants,” Eve answered. “A parasite has some kind of ability to sacrifice its life force to escape from an inevitable death from a threat. The dragon is doing it right now and it’s a good thing because the moment he stopped doing that, he’s at the weakest point of his life,” Eve explained.

“That means the dragon isn’t going to evolve from the weapon?” Daniel asked and looked at Eve with curiosity.

“No, I don’t think this serum can affect the parasite in a good way for them,” Eve said as she stared at the ammunition. “This thing might be able to help you guys to survive. They really did a good job this time,” Eve said and looked at Faye and Ruby.

Everyone smiled and they were happy when they heard that they finally made a powerful weapon that could fight off the King-type parasite.

“Alright, let’s load that weapon and wait until that dragon has done spitting the fire,” Faye said with a smile on her face.

The dragon’s skin started to turn red as if the blood or whatever inside its body was boiling hot. They couldn’t see the parasite nor even any movement from the ground, and the possibility of the parasite’s death was pretty high.

“Archie, we should go and make sure that the dragon won’t be alive after they blew his head,” Eve said as she looked at Archie.

“Alright, I’m ready whenever,” Archie said as he walked toward Eve and watched the dragon cook the parasite.

Daniel immediately went to his position and aimed the weapon at the area where the dragon would stand later. Faye and the others patiently waited and suddenly the dragon stopped spitting fire.

They couldn’t believe that there was only half part of the parasite’s body was left on the ground. The top half was melted and its body was stiff like a rock until the dragon decided to descend and crushed the parasite’s body with its legs and arms.

“Fire!” Daniel said since he predicted it right.

They shot the bullet and traveled right toward the dragon’s head, and it was a direct hit since everyone could see the dragon’s head got knocked back by it.

“Archie, Eve!” Faye shouted as she stared at them.

“We know,” Eve smirked. “Let’s go, Archie, I got your back,” She smiled.

“I know,” Archie said with a smile on his face and then the two of them slid down the hill.

The dragon roared but the ammunition exploded and knocked the dragon down.

“Archie, Eve, I hope you get there in time,” Faye said with her hands clenched.