The red dragon was a new type of foe that Rowan had never faced before.

  First, the dragon was airborne. That added a new degree of difficulty. All the monsters that Rowan had faced could only run on the ground which limited their actions. Being able to fly in the sky meant the dragon had no such limits.

  Second was speed. Rowan's position when attacking tends to be on the stationary side. That doesn't mean that he can't run and release an arrow at the same time. It was just harder and he much preferred to take that extra second to adjust himself so his arrow would have accuracy and power when hitting the target. Rowan was a sitting duck to the dragon’s sudden and rapid attacks. The only way he escaped its claws was very well time last minute dodge. Each time the dragon dove from the sky, Rowan only had a few seconds to avoid it.

  Now, he was done running as the dragon had already tried to grab him multiple times. Rowan grabbed an arrow from one of his three experimental quivers. Each poison was made differently, but he had seen the effects they had on the goblins and had great hopes for them.

  The quiver he had grabbed from came from a plant similar to poison ivy. The only difference was that compared to regular poison ivy, this plant was much more potent. The goblin that had the poor luck of being scratched by the plant by accident had scratched itself to death within ten minutes. Thankfully, his arms were made of wood, but Rowan still made extra care when handling the plant.

  The other two quivers were filled with arrows with poisons that were equally potent if not more dangerous.

  There was one problem and that was if he extracted the poison correctly, hence the reason why he wanted to test them out in the first place.

  It's just that he wasn’t expecting his first test subject to be a dragon.

  The current issue was if he could actually hit the dragon

  Now that Rowan thought about it, having a dragon as a test subject was actually a good thing. A normal monster may die immediately with one hit from his arrow. A dragon could take more than one arrow and Rowan would see if he had extracted the poison correctly. It would take more than one arrow and for such a large monster. He might even need to use up all his arrows. That would defeat the purpose of finding out how effective each poison is.

  Although it wouldn't be too bad to discover the effects of combining the three poisons.

  Assuming that Rowan arrow was able to penetrate the dragon scales.

  Dragon scales were said to be the toughest material on the planet. No ordinary weapon would be able to pierce through the scales. Only weapons empowered by aura or made by master blacksmiths stood a chance in piercing dragon scales. All other weapons acted like toothpicks and were completely harmless. That was the reason why countries had been obliterated by a single dragon in a single night as they lacked the warriors and weapons to face such beings.

  There were a lot of ifs and assumptions, which were not helpful in the midst of battle. However these thoughts did help Rowan plan the next best way to attack. The most obvious way to damage the dragon was to make sure not to miss. This way the poison would enter the dragon’s body. The sooner the poison enters, the faster it would take effect. Not to mention he wasn't sure dragons could be affected by poisons in the first place. However hitting an airborne was a difficult challenge, so Rowan changed his way of thinking.

  He’ll have to hit the dragon at point blank and the only way to do that was to release the arrow as the dragon came down for him. He would only have a second to attack,

  It just so happens the dragon was already preparing for another attack as he watched the red dragon turn itself around and began to descend.

  Only this time Rowan was ready for it.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  One…two…and NOW!

  Rowan watched the rapidly approaching form of the red dragon and jumped backwards. He had pulled the string as far as possible and infused as much mana as he could into the arrow for the limited time he had thought of this plan.

  Time seemed to slow as the dragon swooping claws tried to grasp him. This time, Rowan was able to see the dragon's eyes as it got closer and closer. His fingers let go of the arrow just seconds away from the dragon's approach.

  This was it. The moment he found out if his arrow could pierce its scale. The dragon's line of sight matched Rowans as they both slowly began to miss each other. It felt like an eternity as his arrow slowly made its way towards the dragon's body. As the arrow hit the stomach, he watched the arrow point turn along with the shaft from the force which caused the rest of the arrow to switch its path.

  Rowan could only blink as he watched his arrow hit the ground.

  As the red dragon began its ascent, he was able to catch its expression before it disappeared into the sky. Its jaws curled upwards and its eyes expressed mirth at Rowan's failure.

  His failed attempt to pierce the dragon scale almost caused the teenage boy to drop on knees in disappointment.

  However Rowan had not survived this long for nothing. He had faced despair and disappointment so many times already that it almost felt routine. The fact that he had been strangely successful in surviving so far almost felt strange. A knight would never give up in the face of danger and he wasn't going to do so now.

  Rowan decided to switch to his backup plan. Head back to camp. Perhaps the barriers of thorns could help deal damage to the dragon. The red dragon had already made multiple attempts of swooping down to grab Rowan and each time it flew down like a passing storm. Trees were torn apart in its flight path and it wasn't even slowed down by these obstacles. However multiple cuts were formed on Rowan's body from the wind and flying debris as he made a mad scramble back to camp. Each pass seem to draw the dragon even closer to success and Rowan didn't know how long he could avoid the dragon’s claws.

  Whenever he could, Rowan would shoot a mana infused arrow each time the dragon passed him. Even if it was more than an annoyance, Rowan was determined not to let the dragon have its way. If he was going to die, then he made sure to pain the dragon’s butt as much as possible.

  As the dragon made its another pass at him, Rowan noticed something on the dragon. Just like cuts formed on Rowan from each dragon passing, he noticed a scratch on the dragon's scales.

  A barely noticeable scratch from the first arrow he shot at it.

  This observation sent Rowan’s mind whirling as he ran. While his arrows had not been able to pierce through the scales, it had penetrated the dragon. Just a little bit. However that little bit was important as it showed the Rowan arrows could work. It had left a mark and that was all Rowan needed to know.

  The only question was how?

  The answer quickly came to Rowan. Just pump more mana into the arrow. Unfortunately that took time and the dragon wasn't going to give him it. Charging mana and running wasn't a technique Rowan had practiced or skill in. Not to mention that he was already pumping and circulating mana as he ran. This made his body run faster and tougher, but at the same put a strain on his muscles. If Rowan hadn't used the mana enforcement, his body would have been smashed by a tree earlier, or worse, snatched by the dragon. He didn't want to infuse mana into the arrow, but he had no choice.

  HIs life was at stake after all.

  Rowan's mind began to juggle four things at once. Paying attention to the dragon, running, enforcing his body with mana, and infusing mana into a separate object.

  As he forced his mana into the arrow, he could see small cracks forming on the arrow. A reason why he dislikes infusing mana into arrows in the first place. He couldn't tell what the limits were and arrows were time consuming to make. Rowan did not want to waste time on hand crafting more arrows just because his arrows exploded from him testing its limits. That would be a waste of mana, time, and materials.

  Now he didn't have a choice.

  The red dragon made another attempt at Rowan. If he didn't know better, he would think the dragon was having fun hunting him. Well, he'll show it. With an arrow ready, he shot it with all his might.

  Mixed with both hope and anxiety, Rowan watch the arrow fly straight at the dragon. HIs mind was half filled already with the scene of the arrow just bouncing off like the last few attempts.

  However things were different this time.

  BOOM!

  The arrow didn’t just pierce through the dragon's body. It penetrated with an explosion. Cracks were seen on the dragon shoulder where the arrow went through. The red dragon flight path was also slightly altered as it was pushed from the strength of the explosion.

  Huh, guess my arrow was stronger than I thought.