He quietly, and swiftly, left the bathroom, gliding on the ground with his footsteps with minimal expression.
Arthur went to a construction sight, going over to a large crane and climbing up quickly, hiding out on top and sitting on the ledge, looking down at the world below.
He sat in silence, his head down with his hands in his lap. Without any distractions, he felt pains in his entire body. The aches in his joints, which had weakened, and the sudden chest pains along with them.
All of it only served to dirty him.
He waited, and he waited, until finally, he saw dozens of cars all head towards the crane, and stop at the foot of it.
Immediately, he leapt down, using the blood inside of him to latch on and hook to the crane's bars to prevent such a sudden halt, as his joints didn't like it. Upon reaching the ground, he summoned a long cutlass, swinging the blade and cutting the entire bottom of the metal crane, to which it fell, heading down.
The buildings were crushed into, broken down, causing dust to begin to fill the area.
That cutlass shrunk, and Arthur rushed at a dragon in the confusion, seeing one with light blue hair. He slashed at their throat, splitting it open and causing blood to spurt out.
He grabbed them by their blue hair, with them being presumably a man, though their figure was obscured in the dust, pulling them in and kneeing them in the gut.
"Transform," he commanded. They obeyed, transforming into a giant dragon who then tried to swipe at him. He severed their arms, beginning to hack into the scaled flesh of the dragon, absorbing the blood.
However, with a loud voice, someone cried out.
"We're on your side, Arthur! We're here to help!"
Arthur shattered the cutlass, turning it into a giant hand which swiped away the dust, before turning back into a cutlass in his hands. He turned and saw where the voice came from, seeing Damien and a different man together.
'Who's he? That voice wasn't Damien, so… no, wait, I remember him. From all that time ago, but what was his…'
"It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm Todd, Todd Oppen. Do you remember me? From waaayyy back then?"
Arthur shook his head.
"If you're on my side," he said, directing his eyes towards Todd's smile, "then kill yourself. Turn into a dragon, let me steal all your blood, and then die."
Todd shook his head, keeping a firm smile.
"I'm afraid I can't accomplish that last part. However, I can offer the blood of some, and we can aid you in your fight against the 170+ dragons in Africa."
Arthur was unaware that there were that many dragons in Africa. Yet, his face didn't change, as he stared at Todd with a tired expression.
Arthur turned his eyes towards Damien, who had his hand scratching the back of his head, letting out a small "ehehe…"
What Damien was supposed to do, was let them know that he and Arthur were on bad terms, to protect him. Yet, it seems that they were now trying to ally with him.
"Why do you want to ally with me?"
"Well, you want to kill our enemies. Of course, after you kill our shared enemies, you and us will be enemies once more. But hey, won't you have made quite the impression?"
At this point, it wasn't even really a matter of showing anyone anything. The world of dragons no longer interested him, as everything he'd done up to that point was useless and without value.
The only thing that kept him going wasn't even a strict determination and profound resolve. It was simply all he could do, really.
Just try to kill as many as he could until he dies. As he remembered that, he also remembered that nothing had changed since the beginning.
The only changes were in the pain he felt in his body, and his level of power.
"I see," Arthur answered, before going with the flow. "I accept your help. Let's just kill them."
He wasn't being dramatic at all, unlike what Damien had expected and worried about. By this point, there was no pride left to hold, and he was like a doormat, pretty much.
"Glad to hear it!" Yelled Todd, before finally, a group of around 35 dragons appeared overhead, flying through the sky.
These dragons were all a fair bit more massive than the ones from America, being maybe 50 feet tall perhaps. Everyone looked up, getting ready to fight.
They all dropped down as their dragon forms, paying no mind to any civilians that might be nearby. And in response, a few of the dragons on Arthur's side transformed as well, growing in strength.
The enemies all hit the ground, shaking it and breaking several chunks of it, sending thunderous booms through the air and earth.
The first one to move was Arthur, who kicked off the ground and flew through the air just a few feet off the ground, launching headfirst at a dragon with his cutlass in hand. He sliced its snout off, spraying blood into the air.
The wound was immediately healed, before being countered with the dragon's Art: Wind Cannon.
Within the dragon's regenerated snout, a small, condensed ball of air began to swirl and swirl, stockpiling energy and growing in size before launching out a massive gust of wind, picking up Arthur as if put into a hurricane and thrown.
His vision of the world distorted, turning into one giant blend of dark gray and blue, as he saw the ground and sky consecutively without any pause. He crashed into a building, rolling on the ground and coming to a halt due to a tendril sprouting from his back, stopping his movements.
He slowly stood up, digging his nails into his hands, as he was quite irritated from the attack and the dragon who'd launched it.
It could not be stated enough, that Arthur was very susceptible to pain.
His current state was only due to him being so overwhelmed that he opted to stop feeling entirely.
So while the blast wasn't one which caused a great deal of pain, it was something that burdened him heavily, making him wish for everything to just stop. The pain was worthless, it was futile and pointless, and it wouldn't end, and it was for naught.
Burdens piled atop each other.
'If they're in their dragon forms, would bullets even do the job? If they're so powerful, and the armor-like scales are even stronger, won't the typical guns the Dragonslayers use be inefficient?'
'I should have prepared guns, as I don't think I can replicate the firing of a gun with Blood Armory due to a lack of gunpowder.'
Arthur left the building, watching several of the dragons clashing in their dragon forms, which was quite a beautiful sight. He went to Todd, asked him something, to which Todd smiled enthusiastically and said he'd already planned for that.
"Alright everyone!" Yelled Todd, who had a line of 10 dragons to his left and right. Arthur stood near him and just a wee-bit in front. "Let's do Operation B!"
With Operation B being heard by all dragons, both fighting and to his sides, the dragons who were on their side while fighting, leapt up into the air and began to fly upwards. The enemies were confused, looking at them, to which the dragons to their side were all given machineguns.
Almost immediately, the dragons who were still on the ground began to get sprayed with bullets which rained upon them like hellfire.
It was very loud, to which Arthur covered his ears as he looked forward, checking to see if it worked.
As what might've been expected, it wasn't absolutely slaughtering them like it would for fleshy humans, but it was indeed damaging them, though not to as high of a degree as Arthur's side might've preferred.
These dragons, in their forms, were akin to walking tanks, pretty much. Though not quite as durable as actual tanks, it was still hard to really kill them with guns, though obviously possible. And with the many targets, the amount needed to kill them was not able to be met.
Once everyone was out of ammo, they tossed their guns to the side and rushed down the dragons. Arthur turned towards Todd, looking at him with an asking look to which Todd answered.
"I can only summon so many at a time. So I'd recommend you go out there, those dragons are a little banged up."
Arthur nodded his head, and formed the cutlass once more, rushing forward at the dragons. He chose one, which had light gray scales and piercing blue eyes. He felt a gust of wind pick him off his feet, lifting him up and blasting him towards the dragon, to which he was clawed and slashed into the ground.
Blood oozed from his chest, to which he stood up using blood as a tendril to force himself into the air, before swinging down the cutlass upon the dragon's mouth, slicing it down the middle.
'If they're injured, then that means I should be faster, no?'
Arthur slipped past the dragon's swing of its claw, getting to the back of it and slicing off its wings, before climbing the horns on the back of it, using it as a grip as he took a reverse grip for his cutlass, stabbing into it repeatedly.
When he stabbed it, he made sure to gouge out blood with the blade, cranking it as if cooking and making it bleed even more.
The dragon roared, leaping around from building to building, making it hard for Arthur to keep his grip. So, he used the dragon's blood and absorbed it into himself, before sprouting a second hand which dug itself into the dragon's flesh, making sure he wouldn't fly off.
It was an immensely grotesque and brutal scene, as blood was pooling outside of the dragon as it consistently, constantly healed, only for it to be continuously stabbed.
The attacks dealt were not aimed at the head for a reason, rather the back.
Blood itself was also regenerated by the healing to prevent anemia. So, it was as if Arthur was constantly receiving new blood to use. He used it to sprout tendrils from his back, which went around the dragon and locked into it, gaining spikes to absorb even more blood.
The dragon used its wind abilities to try and blast Arthur off, but these "locks" prevented Arthur from falling, and his cutlass was reinforced into his hand with blood as well.
…
Dragons in Africa had a much better healing than in other countries. As they grew up in harsher environments, with more dragons to fear, not only did they fight more, they also had to train more.
Like how some African tribes had really, really good stamina, it was somewhat similar here. African Dragons, which made up the majority of all dragons, had extremely high stamina, so they could heal nigh indefinitely.
However, indefinite healing was a disadvantage against someone like Arthur.
…
The dragon continued to leap around, healing their wings and flying, yet the impalements only grew more and more tiring to deal with. Each one, if not healed, would only produce more blood for Arthur, whose blade was getting stronger by the second, allowing him to hollow out any stab he made into the dragon.
It was monotonously bloody, inciting pain into each and every second for the dragon.
And over time, as the blade grew stronger, Arthur began to produce more and more dangerous stabs, slicing out entire chunks of bone and marrow, cutting it again and again.
All of that continued until finally, the dragon reached its limit. Its movements grew slower and slower until it couldn't move anymore, before it fell hundreds of feet down to the ground below, slamming down and paralyzed.
Then, it looked over, seeing Arthur finally get off of it, before severing the wings with an effortless slash.
It had tried to fight, yet it was literally unable to move from exhaustion. It had used up all of the immense stamina it had, and Arthur had only gotten stronger.
Then, now that the dragon was no longer of use, he took up a reverse grip and once more, looming over the dragon's head, stabbed it through from the top.
It was a decisive strike which killed it, shutting off any chance for blowing him away with wind and fleeing.
Now that his enemy was dead, Arthur began to slice away at the dragon, the cuts being cleaner than ever before, as if cutting through butter. He sliced it up into itty bitty bitty bits, nearly taking all of the blood that the dragon's incredibly long body had.
The process took a good amount of time, but it was completed in around 10 minutes.
He used all of that blood to add slight enhancements to his cutlass, though he turned most of it into armor. He flew out to where the rest of the dragons were, seeing his side actually being quite even.
As despite the superior numbers, they were indeed outmatched due to the dragons being more powerful. So, Arthur descended upon the battlefield, delivering a swift slice to a dragon's head.
It was nearly decapitated, as the cutlass cut through fairly easily, not needing much power. Of course, the dragon quickly healed, before Arthur went behind it and slashed the back of its neck, severing a spinal cord in the dragon which paralyzed it.
While it was healing, he severed the lower part of its jaw, cutting it off causing the dragon to screech into the sky. He climbed inside of it, shortening the cutlass by a few inches as he severed and dismantled the dragon from the inside.
Even if it was healed, the fact that there was another living creature inside of it that continued to slaughter it led to immense pain.
Eventually, the dragon unleashed a large fluid, hurling Arthur up onto the ground.
He got up, launching at it and slicing its head off with two consecutive slashes. The blood flew through the air, as the smell of vomit and guts assaulted the air with a horrible miasma.
The dragon's head was still intact, with a fully functional brain just a second off from having the head removed, so it regenerated the entire body in full.
Arthur then understood, before killing it anyways, bisecting the head down the middle with a swing from his blade.
He stood triumphant against two dragons in Africa, as though they were mighty, they were essentially unarmed against him.
No matter how mighty, if one wields a weapon, one which doesn't need great power to deal fatal blows, even the strong can fall.
He searched around for Damien, seeing him and some other gray haired boy fighting against a dragon and getting their butts whooped to near death, as both of them were missing limbs.
Arthur leapt up, used the armor to create tendrils which shot down at the ground, hooking into it and pulling him down to the Earth with incredible speed, before shattering the cutlass and turning it into a spear.
Moving incredibly quick, Arthur impaled the dragon through the head with the spear, crashing into it as he did so and slamming it down to the ground with an incredible impact.
He ripped the spear out of its head, before shattering it and turning it back into the cutlass.
…
Damien looked up, injured, as Arthur looked down at him. Arthur walked off of the dragon, plopping down onto the ground as he went over to him.
"Can you heal?" He asked.
'Arthur, I… I have to, to kill him…'
He reminded himself of his goal. It wasn't a goal he set out of desire to murder, but rather "what had to be done."
Damien looked down, remembering what he would have to do in the future.