Not wanting to be outdone, the dragon ordered his women to help him build things up in Village 1. It was him, 4 human women, and all his children. They all were strong enough to do what was needed, but they had no clue what to actually do to build a town. They had Aydin to call on. He was a mayor, so it was easy enough from him to send over a siege engineer to tell them what to do. It was done of the condition that they did not hurt the engineer. They also had to pledge to protect the 3 towns from an invasion. The dragon was fine was that. He also used the stores of gold and silver found under the village to get things from the interlopers. He was not tied down by sentimentality. He had the funds. He was going to use them. When building up a settlement, certain conditions had to be met. There was an amount of resources, food, people and jobs needed before it could go through. The mercenaries had food on them. The villagers hunted game and also had agriculture. The dragon purposely built over to us in Village 2. That incorporated all of us into his little ghost town.
I was not happy about that. On one hand, it saved us the time and resources of building up into a town on our own. On the other hand, the dragon declared himself the leader of the whole thing. He wanted to take our silver and gold as a tribute to him. Shank and Krit were the loudest detractors. They did not want it, but the idea of giving it up to anyone else was horrible. "My wife, champion and offspring collected it all. You can't have it." Shank growled at the dragon. "You think I care what a dull blade has to say? I'll take it myself." he scoffed with a puffed chest. I had heard enough of his bullshit. "Let me wield you. I think we have a good shot at beating him." Shank looked at me like I was a crazy person. "I've gone against him many times to no avail. Do you think a weakling like you, even with me, could do what I couldn't?" he demanded. I just raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I do. I wouldn't ask you if I did not think we could win. If you're too much of a coward, I'll ask Ace or Deuce. They're super powerful." I said to get under his skin. He wanted to be top dog. Shank needed to prove it.
Fighting him was something that had to be done. If we wanted peace, we could not keep putting it off. The dragon looked at us with crossed arms as I attached Shank's short sword to my waist. I drew the blade and got ready. It was clear that I was going to fight him. "So, you finally step up to face me. What a weakling you must be if you can't rely on your own blade!" he mocked as he summoned his spear to his hands. I did not listen to him. He was a brutal fighter and he had a lot of reach on me. That was not going to stop me. Using Shank, I charged in to get as close as possible. He was not a slouch. He could parry and dodge my strikes. I kicked at his knee and that seemed to work. I was not above a bit of dirty fighting. Hobbled, I was able to score a slash at his side. That made him roar in rage. Using his tail, he knocked me back by a foot. I was only just able to block the spear coming to my chest. He had the advantage now. I had to use several battle rolls to get into his guard and attack. Sometimes it worked. Other times he caught me. It was a close battle. We were low.
