Jake lay flat against the side of the temple wall. The Dragon Lord was inside and killing him could end the entire war. Ten years had passed since the discovery of the existence of dragons. It took a whole year for most people to except they existed, two years before their purpose was known. It was now 2015 and he was twenty five years old, seventeen when the war began. He still remembered watching the news when they aired the video of the large dragon flying over London. He still remembered the emergency broadcast when the dragons launched their first attack, thousands of the flying beasts outnumbering the population estimate the scientists gave and burning an entire city to the ground.
He still remembered the smell of ash when his own town many miles away was burned to a crisp and he returned to look for survivors.
The dragons multiplied quickly and were hard to kill. They also came in many forms so some required different tactics in order to defeat. They were really no different than any other enemy in a time of war. They had infantry, heavy armored walkers as tanks, flyers as aircraft, sea serpents as ships and subs, and even leaders. The dragons were even as smart as the humans, possibly smarter. According to the experts, they were originally worshipped by mankind until their followers go tired of being slaves and rose up against them. They were still seen as gods until man replaced them with more human like gods. The dragons continued downhill until they were seen as simple beasts and were hunted to near extinction. But they adapted and went into hiding. They vanished to build up their numbers, waiting for the opportune moment to return and take back their place as the gods.
Mankind had advanced since then, but they were still no match for the dragon armies as they had little knowledge of the enemy. Enough time had passed by now and the humans were able to learn what they needed.
Jake crept into the temple slowly and quickly hid behind the nearest pillar. He drew his sword and stared at the amazing blade. At the beginning of the war, bullets were almost useless against the dragons. The small ones could take quite a few rounds before dying and the bigger ones were so well armored with their scales that most bullets would bounce clean off. Armor piercing rounds could break through, but they healed amazingly quickly. Small holes from a bullet would disappear in a matter of minutes. It was nothing they had ever dealt with before, but they were not completely hopeless. A sharp enough blade could cut their armor and make enough damage to leave an actual wound, and you could cut the head clean off if you were lucky. Humans already had the fire resistant material to get in close, but the dragons were still superior in strength and mass.
Just because a sword was better than a bullet however, did not mean that the armories were about to drop back to the middle ages. It turned out quite the opposite. The sword Jake held was created using nano technology. It was so sharp and tough that it quickly evened the playing field between soldiers and the smaller dragons, and even allowed the better trained soldiers to take on the larger ones. Jake had heard the saying that necessity was the root to invention; he could see that in the blade he held. It took a real threat to the human race to push near fictional science into reality. The humans began the war losing; millions were killed without end in sight. Then all sorts of new inventions came out of the dark and saved them from certain defeat.
Considering wars in the past, and the fact that the whole human race was actually fighting for a common cause for once, the dragons weren't doing so well. They were feared at the beginning because they could attack anywhere without warning. Now the humans had sensors and auto defense weapons and now fire proof cities. The dragons must have held flight over knights in the middle ages as an advantage, but they were no match to a military raptor even before the weapons upgrade. The weapons upgrade was the nail in the coffin for the dragons. Missiles were mostly ineffective against them in the beginning. They were immune to extreme temperatures and loss of oxygen, luckily they weren't immune to blast waves that shattered bone and could bring down close to a hundred small ones at the same time. That sword effect though brought about the new weapons of war.
Mac guns were the first to come out. They were named after some gun from a video game. They were magnetically accelerated cannons. They fired long spears made the same way the swords were. They were instant kill for just about anything. The ships at sea though preferred to use large slugs like bullets to smash a hole through enemy lines and the sonic wave that crippled the small ones was a thing of beauty. The dragons were on the defensive for once and had to retreat to caves and temples while holding off on attacks as to not waste numbers. Jake detached his Meg from his armor and gently laid it on the floor. Dragons had good senses and he didn't want to risk the Dragon Lord hearing the sound of metal on metal as he got closer.
The Meg was a hand held version of the Mac Gun. It was an instant kill for most enemies, but Jake had used his last shots on a couple dragons as he made his way up. He also had abandoned his jetpack just outside the temple. Dragons were no longer the best fliers either. A good moral boost for a war already won. Jake only had his blade now, he had to get in close and go for the neck. This wasn't his first time taking on a dragon leader in one of their strange new temples they built. He had done this twice before, but the last ones were just like other large dragons. The one he was up against was the king, top dog, the final boss battle.
The regular land dragons were just as you'd picture them; four legs, two wings. They came in many sizes but it was mostly small ones around nine foot standing on their hind legs and their leaders who were possibly twenty feet standing up. And then there were the leaders of those leaders who were pretty much the same size but better armored and more bad ass. The dragons could get pretty big though. The biggest flyer he ever saw had a near two hundred foot wingspan, while the largest sea serpent recorded was close to a thousand.
The Dragon Lord didn't seem as impressive as he had imagined. He was actually slightly smaller than the others. The others were usually basic colors also like blue, green, brown, and even ones able to change color. The Dragon Lord was a dark purple-ish color and the scales were almost as reflective as Jakes blade.
Jake stared at the Dragon Lord as he sat on his throne staring into space. The throne was large and well patted with a decorative mattress and soft red blanket that was far larger than any human would have use for. It looked more like a large tilted bed then a seat of command. Jake was a little confused at his situation. The dragons were always doing something, yet this one was just sitting there. They slept, they ate, they fought, they built and made random dragons stuff, but they never just sat there. Jake was convinced that he hadn't been as stealthy as he had hoped when he made his way to the temple. Only he was sent, it was an assassin mission and he wouldn't do it if anyone else was with him.
He was sent on the mission because he was the most experienced at attacking at the Dragon Armies cores, taking out leadership before the real assault was made. He came alone this time because he was all that was needed and he was horrified from the last time he had accepted this kind of mission.
