A Warlock's Ascent

"What is… that?" Sanjay asked. He had never seen something like that before in his life, that thing was making him disgusted as well frightened at the same time, that feeling was mutual with Dave as well. Both of them kneeled in front of the black stuff that had blocked their path and started observing it closely.

It looked like a black color tar that someone had smeared in the middle of nowhere, it was giving off a very rancid smell like that of a rotten egg. Also, they could see that steam was being emitted from the tar. But the scariest detail of the tar was the body of the creature lying in it.

The body of the creature seemed like it had melted. From the carcass, it was very hard to determine what kind of creature was it, but there was no doubt that it was the body of a huge creature. This creature was as big as an full grown elephant, according to Sanjay. Anything below the neck was melted from the black tar, it looked like a very horrible way to die.

Dave didnt care about the creature as long as it was dead, he was more concerned about the tar and where it came from. He looked up and sure enough, he saw that there were smudges of black tar in the trees just above them. From what he observed, he determined that the tar fell from the sky and this creature was unfortunately below it when it fell.

But seeing this, the biggest question that came to his mind was how the hell this tar stuff fell from the sky.

"Doesn't this creature look like the bigger version of the beast that you killed?" Sanjay said while looking at the face of the carcass. Hearing his comment, Dave looked at the creature once again. And sure enough, he couldn't deny the fact that he does have a point.

Dave's face lost color, he just had an epiphany about their situation. "Do you realize what this means right?"

"What?".

"If that thing is indeed the bigger version, then it would mean that I killed a baby. Now, do you get it?" Sajay understood what he meant.

"We need to get out of here as soon as we can," Dave said while looking around.

The baby version of that creature almost killed Sanjay. If it wasn't for Dave's surprise attack, subduing that creature would have been impossible. From these facts alone they were certain that the adult version of the creature will surely have no problem killing both of them within seconds.

"We should move faster." Sanjay insisted and Dave happily complied.

After seeing that tar and carcass, Sanjay suddenly started feeling energetic. He started walking faster and faster. And because of Sanjay's newfound motivation, they were able to reach the hills faster than they had estimated.

While coming towards the hills, they found many puddles and splashes of black tar, seeing this, Dave started thinking that maybe the tar was some kind of weapon, a human-made weapon.

Otherwise, he could not explain how would a substance like this will fall from the sky. But now the question was, what kind of beings would use the tar as a weapon? Are they humans like them? And if they are not then are they friendly?

"Dave, I know that I told you that hill will be a relatively safe place. But now that we are here, I am having a bad feeling. I don't think that we should be here." Sanjay said while looking at the scenery as they were approaching the foot of the hill. And Dave couldn't agree more.

The area around the hill was lifeless, this area was drying, leaves of the trees have withered away ages ago, now all that remained in that desolate place were some puddles of black tar in various places, barren and lifeless, just like the soil of the area.

"Yeah, you are right. But we need to find shelter and water if we need to survive the night. This hill could be a good place to scout the area, we cannot turn back now.." Dave said.

"Fine you win, but we need to hurry. But after scouting the area we would leave this place as soon as we can, do you get it?"

"Alright."

"Done then. Man, I just couldn't shake the feeling that we shouldn't be here. Am I being paranoid?"

"No, you are not. This place is making me paranoid as well."

By the time they got to the foot of the hill, the sun had almost set. It was then that they encountered another problem, the hill in question was steep. A person could still climb up, but it would be very difficult. Seeing this, Dave insisted that he should climb up the hill and scout the area, and Sanjay should stay put for the time being. After all, they could afford Sanjay's weak physique to slow them down at this time.

Sanjay didn't want to part ways, but he reluctantly agreed after some persuasion. After their conversation, Dave started climbing the hill, as fast as he could. His footwear was not ideal to climb this kind of hill, but still, he persisted somehow, it didn't take him long enough to get up the hill. And it was there that he was greeted with a very strange scene…

There was a big crater on the hill, it looked like something made by a collision with an asteroid, it was as big as a football field, and smelled horrible. There were several big rocks were lying around the crater, as though they were meant for decoration. But the strangest part about the crater was that it was covered in a thick coating of what looked like tar, it covered every nook and cranny of it.

He got on his knees and touched the ground to feel the texture of the substance covering the crater. It was black, hard, and slightly warm. He figured that the stuff covering its surface is the same as the acidic black tar that they found around the area. But this coating over here has been solidified and formed this hard flooring.

He figured that this stuff was safe as even after touching it, he was standing there healthy as a horse. It was truly a bizarre scene, if this place was man-made, then what was its purpose? And now as he was thinking about it, this place look more like an arena to him...

When he turned around, he could not spot any rivers or civilization from there, he could only see a green sea of trees. But then his eye caught the shadow of something flying in the sky, in a distance. It looked like a bird, it was flying around here and there in a zig-zag pattern, he figured that the bird must be hurt. The way it traveled, it looked like the bird was coming toward him.

As he spot nothing from here, he thought about going south, maybe he could spot something from over there. He turned around and started moving. It was then he heard it.

ROAR!!!

He turned around, the bird was closing the distance between them, fast, and as it was getting close, it was also becoming bigger and bigger. His heart started pounding faster, he started sweating, he understood that thing was not a bird at all.

He looked down, the hill was not big, but still, it was too steep, he could slide down there fast, nor could he jump off. So he turned around and started running deeper into the crater, quickly ducked down, and hid behind one of the rocks placed around the crater.

He then took out his sword and waited. He didn't know what this creature was nor he wanted to know. He just knew that it was too big, and it had come here to eat him. Soon he heard a loud sound from behind the rock, something very heavy had landed not too far away from him.

He felt big gusts of wind coming from behind the rock, which must have been the creature's big wings. The gust of winds was very powerful, they were pretty similar to the one that a helicopter produces while taking off. This made him understand the creature was very big and could fly at any moment…

ROAR!!!

BAAM… BAAM… BAAM… BAAM… BAAM

Dave then heard thumping sounds from behind the rock. The creature was on the move. He could feel the ground shaking under him because of the weight of the creature.

From the sounds he understood that the creature would be walking past him, so he slowly started circling the rock, he did not want to come into the field of vision of the creature, so he was being careful with his steps.

The creature started to make his way toward the center of the crater. It didn't seem like the creature had any idea that he was even there. By the time the creature had got to the center, he had also safely made his way toward the other side of the rock, outside the field of vision of the creature. But now standing there, Dave faced a dilemma.

'What the fuck should I do now? If I make a run for it, then will that creature would be able to see me? Of course, it would see me, I know my luck. Then should I wait for it to sleep? But that could take hours…. OH MY GOD! What if, this creature isn't alone? What if there is another one just like it around here?' He thought. He could not see any way from which he could run away from here scout free.

Dave then decided to be a little brave at that time, he knew that he had to make a run for it, and it would be a little bit less tricky if he knew what the creature had been doing at that time. So he slowly sat down on the ground. He took his sword and cleaned the dirt off one of its ends. He then slowly stuck out a shiny part of the sword out of the rock to see what he was dealing with. And what he saw behind him made him almost piss himself.

The creature in question was a very big lizard. It was covered with a black color scale and had golden crocodile-like eyes. It had two long-titled horns coming out of his skull. The creature's front legs were and also acted like the creature's wings. It had a very long neck and razor-sharp teeth. The creature in question was a very famous mythological creature that he had also heard of. The creature in question was a Dragon.

But the most terrifying thing about the creature was not its features. The most terrifying thing was the fact, that currently, it was lying on its stomach. His golden eyes were shining in the setting sun and were currently staring straight in his direction.