Joy.

  The first emotion Rowan felt as he finally escaped the dragon’s gasp.

  Worry.

  The next emotion Rowan felt as he realized that he was still in midair.

  Fear.

  His body couldn’t help but tremble when Rowan imagined what happened to him if he did nothing as he began to plunge downwards. It would not be a pretty sight.

  A shriek could be heard overhead as the dragon realized its prey had escape. Rowan looked upwards at the sound and saw the dragon diving for him.

  There was one difference though.

  Red liquid flowed from the dragon's nostril.

  Blood.

  Rowan immediately realized what happened. His desperate last attack must have struck the dragons nose and caused a nosebleed. The blow must have hurt the red dragon more than he thought to cause a nosebleed. Truthfully he hadn't realized that he had hit the dragon nose when it happened. He was just trying to punch at the head at that time with no no specific target in mind. The dragon did not expect the surprise attack which allowed him to escape. Now it had recovered from the surprise and was trying to grab him once again. If looks could kill, then Rowan would have died by the dragon's death glare many times over. He must have hurt the dragon’s pride more than anything.

  One problem at a time please.

  It was out of the frying pan and into the fire situation, except the frying pan was still chasing him and was about to catch up. The dragon would catch up first before he hit the ground. Rowan reached for his remaining quiver, only to find himself grabbing air.

  The last quiver must have gone missing in the chaos of the fight.

  Rowan cursed at the sudden realization. He never noticed the missing quiver since the last few minutes of the battle had been so painful and intense. From being sent flying to being grabbed and yanked into the air, he hadn't noticed the quiver coming off.

  The realization came at an absolutely terrible time as the dragon was seconds away from grabbing him. Rowan did what he’s been doing for the majority of the battle.

  Improvise. It was time for the last resort.

  Once again, he reached out with his free hand and aimed it at the incoming dragon. His other hand still contained the bow and he didn't want to damage one of the few objects left behind by Almar. Besides, bows were very difficult to make. He had tried a few times and Almar’s bow still remained as the best bow he had.

  With all his fingers pointed at the dragon, Rowan began pouring mana into them.

  First there was no reaction, then his wooden fingers grew.

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  From one foot to two feet and then they kept growing until five long stick-like figures hit the dragon. Rowan was able to witness the dragon widen its eyes in surprise at the sudden appearance of his fingers growth. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to damage the dragon's scales. Once the fingers came into contact the scale, two of the fingers slid off the scales and kept growing. The other fingers halted at the toughness of the dragons scale. That was all Rowan needed.

  The fingers didn't stop growing. If it couldn’t grow longer by going forward, then it could only grow in the back.

  The newly grown fingers helped Rowan increase the distance as pushed him further away from the dragon. Not by much, but enough that Rowan had to worry about going splat on the ground instead of being teared to pieces by the dragon. His attack was merely to buy time and it worked. Now he had to worry about how to break his fall.

  The trees were rapidly getting closer. Rowan quickly strapped the bow to his back through its opening with the string in front of him. Not the way it was meant to be carried, but Rowan didn't have a lot of choices. The bow would suffer less damage from the fall as it had gone through enough for the day. It was amazing that hasn't broken yet and Rowan intended to keep it as long as possible. Now with his right hand free, he immediately used it to cut off the overgrown fingers. They had done their job and there was no need for 15 feet fingers. The length would only get in the way. There was no more time for fine adjustment as he was about to enter the forest once more. Rowan braced himself by putting up his arms in front of him as he came crashing down.

  CRACK!

  Rowan broke through a multitude of branches with his arms bearing most of the force. He earned several more cuts on his body as his arms were not able to completely protect him from harm. As he broke through more branches, he could feel himself slowing down. However, that meant that there was the toughest part of all.

  THUD!

  Rowan felt as if he had ran into a wall as he collide with the ground. The shock could be felt from his whole body, almost making him lose consciousness. His body screamed in protest at the treatment.

  However he wasn't dead and that was always a good thing.

  The red dragon disagreed with Rowan's thoughts as it came crashing down. Its claws came swiping down on him and Rowan immediately rolled away.

  After dodging the blow, Rowan leapt up and created some distance for himself.

  Surprisingly the dragon didn't charge at him like usual. It was waiting for something, but what it was Rowan had no idea.

  *

  The human had surprised it twice already. The first time may have been a fluke, but the second time was intentional. The human was as slippery as a loach and the dragon did not intend for there to be a third. It was frankly embarrassing that the hunt had gone on for so long. It had intended to finish off the human in the air, but it had slipped out once again. When it reached the ground, it tried to scurry away like a rat.

  It began to walk towards the human. Not in a rush as that have proven how tricky the human abilities were in dodging. It judged no quick movements would be best, as the human had the tendency to somehow dodge at the last moment.

  No, it had to do this carefully. The human no longer had any weapons left to harm it and it was bleeding it out. It knew a weakened prey when it saw one. The last blow had struck its nostril, but it was that of a desperate last attempt.

  A feat that could not be repeated.

  It watched as the human took out the bow. It knew that the human no longer had the sharp sticks to shoot it with, so the drawing of the bow was an act of futility. It watched as the human pulled back the string in a familiar movement.

  Why? It did not understand. There was nothing left for the human to use.

  The dragon leisurely made its way forward. Whatever the human was trying, it was useless. The human was on its last legs and it did not believe it could harm it.

  Twang!

  Something flew over instantly and the dragon was surprised once again.

  Not only did it feel surprised, it also felt something different.

  Pain.