My Asian Dragon

Darting forward at his top speed, he whipped his tail into the first man as he passed him, the tree trunk like appendage crushing his chest while sending him flying. Whirling, Longwei snapped his jaws, taking off the second brave man’s arm at the shoulder.

The remaining gunmen, seeing Longwei’s effect, started firing in his direction. He was moving too fast for them to get accurate aim, but still there were a few close misses in the wild shooting, and Longwei wheeled, darting deeper into the woods. The gunmen reacted as he had hoped, charging after him. He slowed down just a bit, giving them a better view of his hide before disappearing behind a line of bushes. Flattening himself in the dirt, he waited until he heard another mantrap claim a victim before whirling out of the bush, staying low to the dirt. There were only four men left, and his snapping jaws took care of them in a few seconds. The last one got off a lucky shot, hitting Longwei in the tail, but it was a minor wound, scraping scales and flesh only.

The silence as the last of the gunmen were killed was strange. Longwei looked around at the ambush site, which only three minutes before had been a quiet stretch of country dirt road, was now the site of a bloodbath. One truck was on fire, another four were parked, and bodies littered the ground in all directions. Longwei went down to the road, looking back the way the Triad had come, doing his best to make sure none escaped. He couldn’t see or hear any, and he turned his attention back to the burning hulk on the road. Shifting into human form, he staggered. Reaching down, he took his hand away from his right leg, covered in blood.

So wounds could transfer from dragon to human form, he thought. How interesting. Going to a knee, he looked up to see Joy running towards him, her rifle slung around her neck. “Somebody get the fu*king doctor!” she yelled as she ran up, throwing his arm around her neck. Leaning on Joy’s shoulder, Longwei took a few tentative steps before nodding to her. The wound stung, but he could still walk. “I’m fine,” he said carefully. “Gather the weapons.”

Joy looked him in the eyes carefully before following his request, gathering the discarded weapons on the ground before checking the pickup truck cabs. Most of the trucks had some sort of cargo boxes in the back, which Longwei was certain contained more ammunition. Making his way carefully around the flaming pit, Longwei limped over to the bunkers, where he had stashed an extra pair of pants. He was a dragon, but he still felt uncomfortable going around naked in human form.

*****

Longwei felt the bandage wrapped around his thigh rub uncomfortably as he looked down on the wounded Triad. The survivor of the previous attack, the terrified man was the only one he had let live. Most of the wounded Triads who fell into the mantraps bled out before the doctor could even begin to treat their wounds. The others died even as the doctor worked on them. The traps had been effective.

Longwei stared at the man who was tied up and shivering. His missing fingers had been sutured, and his face was still pale from the blood loss. Picking the man up, Longwei set him in the driver’s seat of the rearmost pickup, which had been turned around carefully. “Now, do you know the way back to your boss?” he asked carefully, looking the man in his eyes and speaking in clear Mandarin.

When the Triad nodded, Longwei continued. “Good. Go back, and tell your boss two things. First, tell him what happened here. Tell him this is what happens whenever any of your people even try to come to this village.”

“And secondly, tell him that the Triads time is coming to a close. I am coming.”

The Triad nodded fearfully, and Longwei slipped the keys into the ignition. The engine cranked over, and the Triad shot down the road towards home, accelerating as he went. Joy came over, and looked at the rapidly disappearing taillights. “Was that a good idea?”

“I don’t know,” Longwei said. “But I’m not going to go killing prisoners. We killed today because we had to, but I’m not a butcher of unarmed prisoners. It may be a subtle difference between the Triad and me, but it’s still a difference.”

Joy nodded. “I can accept that difference. Come on, we’ve got a lot of cleaning up to do.”