The arrow pierced his scales, driving into his lungs. His chest tightened, constricting like a vice. Diato couldn't control them, all he could do was tolerate the pain. He felt his body leaning backwards, but didn't try to resist it. The pain from the arrow was hard enough to deal with.

He let his body free fall to the ground. He forgot about the existence of his tail. The tail stabbed on the back of his hip, as he smacked himself on the ground. The wings and his tail got sucked back inside his body as he painfully transformed back into his human form. The breeze of cold wind struck his bare skin, but he was more focused on his chest.

On his chest, he saw a bluish magical arrow stabbed into it. Surprisingly, the fluid oozing from the wound wasn't blood; it appeared to be orange in colour, unlike anything Diato had seen before. Diato, for a moment, thought being a dragon turned his blood orange.

The arrow felt as if he had put ten tonnes of weight on his chest, to sink it inside his chest. He couldn't breath. Loud breaths and grunts were his only options. He clenched his fist on the ground, letting dirt inside his fist, as if grabbing the land like a fabric. He couldn't touch his wound. He knew the orange gooey stuff wasn't his blood. And one seed couldn't contain this much poison. It's consistency screamed it was lava, but Diato's skin wasn't burning at all. He squinted his eyes and did the very thing he could do. Tolerate.

Terra looked at him over her shoulder. A surge of worry was sent up her spine. The adrenaline struck her, as she pulled out an injection containing a bluish green liquid, and sprinted to Diato. Her legs marching on the dirt, sent up puffs of dust behind her as she ran. She held up the injection high up in front of her eyes and pushed the bottom until a few drops came out of the needle.

Her heart pounded against her ribs as she shook off hair off her eyes, while running. She had already thrown her urumi near James. Which was probably a bad idea but she had to act fast. She couldn't let Diato die, either. Finally reaching him, she dropped to her knees and quickly injected the serum into his arm. She felt the rough texture of the dirt on her knees.

He was grunting heavily in pain, ignoring the coppery smell of his blood mixed with the sulphuric smell of the gooey orange liquid and the soil wet from his sweat. She felt the cold breeze of the wind on the back of her neck, which was wet with her sweat. She pushed the bottom of the injection and injected the blue liquid inside his body. She threw the needle on her side and her hand flew to the cup of his cheek. He glanced at her, his chit pressing against his collar bone,

"Don't bother" he spoke, in between his grunts, "I'm -" He grunted again, "I'm dead already" He spoke as his head fell back on the ground. He felt the soil between his toes as he dragged them up and down in pain.

The soil went in his hair, which was one of the weird things he found disgusting but he could get the dirt off it, as he was lying in it.

"No, no you're not gonna die" she still spoke with authority but softer than before. "I have Injected you with this special serum which will heal you".

She flung back on her feet. She pressed one foot on his stomach and pulled the arrow out of his chest with both of her hands. As soon as the arrow came out, it disappeared as if it was a victim of thanos's snap. She saw the orange liquid mixed with Diato's blood. She wasn't sure about the liquid, and didn't bother assuming anything else than assuming it to be the inferno seed's poison. But the she remembered that he only swallowed, one seed. So it couldn't be the poison.

She fell back on her knees, and the serum was working. The skin was healing. But nit that fast. Diato's grunts also softened gradually after she took out the arrow. It was a huge relief for him. Though he was still losing his blood, the quantity was decreasing simultaneously. He really wanted to eat some chocolate chip cookies. Though he wasn't fond of resisting temptations, right now, he had no other choice.

He found himself having a sigh of relief. The pain was finally gone. At least it seemed like it was gone. He let his eyelids fall shut slowly in relief. Then, he felt a tickle in his wang. He looked down and realised. Shit, I'm naked. He thought. Though he was wearing an oversized underwear, which was really broad from his hip. Thank god I didn't fully tear apart my underwear like I tore my other clothes. He thought to himself.

Turning to Terra, he noticed her avoiding his gaze below the belt, "Would you mind turning away?" He spoke, "I feel a bit... exposed"

The sigh turned into chuckle, as she gazed down from his belly and back up. His cheeks flushed with blood as she spoke, "Trust me," she shook her head "I've seen worse."

His eyes grew wide in half amazement and half shock. He hauled himself in a standing position, while he held onto his oversized underwear. That was when he realised that the wound wasn't fully healed. The gooey orange stuff had disappeared with the arrow but his blood and the wound was still there. He grunted again. He was barely able to stand up, his one hand holding his underwear while his other hand pressed beside the wound on his bare chest. "Girl, you got some wild hobbies" he said in a silly manner.

"No," she finally turned around, wiping off sweat from her forehead, "Like, the cross-breed dragons I've killed, they generally turn into their human form after they die, and most of them don't retain their clothes to cover up their private parts."

"So, I guess it's a common dragon problem, you're too human to understand." He talked in a silly manner. He approached a random guy lying unconscious, most probably from a taser.

However, the pain wasn't gone yet. He used a piece of his torn jacket to wipe the blood off his chest. This was when he discovered that the arrow had left a mark, and the wound was still there, in the form of a large bruise. He unbuttoned the guy's shirt and pants, for himself. Diato didn't even hesitate a bit to take off all the clothes from that guy. He wore the clothes, and approached his torn clothes. He picked up a large piece of his torn denim jacked and threw it on the naked guy's lower abdomen to cover him up, for when he woke up. I hope this guy doesn't think Terra was the one who took his clothes. Because he knows a dragon wouldn't be interested in his clothes. The clothes smelled as if they were newly bought, but the worn off colour screamed otherwise.

He picked up his club, but not his bow. Because all the arrows from his quiver were spread across the field. And the torn quiver was lying where he had transformed. He went near his borrowed bike and hung the club on it's side.

He flung his leg over the seat and tuned the bike on. He drove it near Terra who was fidgeting with Diato's butterfly knife.

"do you even know how this thing properly?" Terra asked, handing him the knife. He shoved the knife in his pocket.

He gazed down at his pocket where he had put his knife and back up at her. His voice dropped down to a whisper as he spoke, "You'll never know."

"Actually," He spoke with curiosity jumping around his lips, and his finger pointed up at the purplish night sky "I am wondering how you conveniently had a serum to cure a dragon from that spell." His hand fell back on the handlebars, "You're a Dragon slayer."

"No," she explained, "It wasn't to cure dragons but to cure humans from that spell, in case they get hit by it. You were in your human form so I thought it would work."

"Fair enough" he spoke, "But how did it cure me so quickly? Like don't medicines take time to heal?"

"It wasn't a medicine, it was a portion which gives instant effects. It was extracted from the Elysium fruit." She explained. "By the way, your torn quiver launched the arrows everywhere and now my car tire's punctured. So I'm coming with you."

"Alright" He spoke, as if giving up, "You can come with me on the bike, but I'm driving," he said, asserting his authority.

With a raised eyebrow, she shot him a skeptical look, silently questioning his authority.

"oh Hell naw" he slowly shook his head in denial. "I ain't sitting behind you! I'm a guy."

"... and a sexist" she pointed out.

***

Diato found himself sitting on the backseat of the bike while Terra drove it on the rough terrain. Few strands of her hair escaped her bun and flew on Diato's face. He immediately squinted his eyes, and clenched his lips, making sure the hairs weren't going in his mouth or eyes. Though, he could still smell the faint scent of her shampoo

"where are we going again?" he shouted from the backseat. The sound of the bike's engine was deafening. He shortly wiggled his tongue in and out of his mouth while blowing air to get rid of air which would've probably went in his mouth.

"To the Bounty Market" she shouted back, tilting on face slightly aside while keeping an eye on the road so Diato could gear her.

"why?" he shouted again. They were barely hearing each other, and putting together the words they heard to make sense of what the other person is saying. He again repeated his process of removing potentially infiltrated hair from his mouth.

"WHAT?" she spoke. She didn't hear it the first time but then realised what he said, "wait a second!"

The bike screeched its brakes and came to a halt. She pressed the red button and the bike turned off. The hair finally rested on her shoulder and he was free to talk as much as he wanted. He always found some weird things disgusting, and hair wet with sweat was on those things.

"I said why are we going to the bounty market?" his voice finally calmed down, his tongue moving freely, not having to spit hair out every once in a while.

"Because, as the name suggests" she explained, "this place is full of unethical people. And we also have some drayers over there to keep us informed about dragons in the underworld. So, we are going to find a drayer and they will help us find this shez guy. And as far as I've heard and read, Shez is also pretty active at the bounty market."

"So, are you pretty damn sure we'll find Shez there?" he spoke, scepticism clear in his tone.

"No..." she spoke, twisting the handlebars, "... But at least I'm not planning to wander like a lost lunatic."

The bike rumbled forward toward the bounty market, anticipation building as they neared their destination.