The Enderdragon was massive, its wing large enough to send the Kingdom castle into darkness. Purple eyes glared at the now frightened people, gleaming with hatred.

Nobody dared to move, as its glowing eyes seemed to threaten them that any movement would result in getting hurt.

"Your Kingdom has prospered for too long!" the dragon growled. "Soon, it will fall under my claws and I will see to that this world is destroyed too."

Why isn't it attacking? I thought, my hand on my forehead as I felt another headache coming.

"Surrender now, and your lives will be spared, and you will live to serve a higher purpose in your miserable lives." The Enderdragon scanned the crowd of fearful people.

"Or," it snarled, "you resist and face oblivion. Come to your senses that resistance is futile, for you are facing a mighter power than you can ever imagine. I do not wish to fight weaklings like you, but if you insist, go to the End, and we shall see."

With a flap of its mighty wings, the Enderdragon took off, probably heading back to its home dimension.

As I tried to figure out the dragon's motive - with my head still hurting, Hailbert rushed towards me.

"Did you see that?" his eyes were wide. "I thought the Enderdragon was a myth."

Then he noticed how I was acting. "Are you okay?"

"Yes... just a slight headache," I said as the headache slowly eased and disappeared.

Hailbert frowned, but did not probe about it more, changing the subject. "I was thinking about why the Enderdragon did not attack and instead wanted us to go to it. I think I got it."

"I remember reading that in the End, there are special crystals that heal the Enderdragon. Maybe it wanted us to go to the End to get leverage over us."

I nodded, mildly surprised by Hailbert's inference. "That's a possibility."

Is the Enderdragon the "grave danger" Quail mentioned? I thought suddenly. I can't rule it out... and something's definitely not right here...

"Any idea what we are going to do now?" Hailbert asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. "I mean, we aren't going to surrender, are we?"

"These people have never seen a war," I muttered. "Rose may be the ruler of the Kingdom, and is willing to fight, but the other officials and people may not agree."

"You got a point."

As I thought about the situation more, an idea popped into my mind, but it was not a good one. I gulped, thinking it through.

Quail told me to protect the people. I... can't let her down. In fact, I can't let anyone down.

Hailbert was staring at me with a quizzical look. I turned to him, suppressing all my doubts as I spoke to him with a serious tone.

"I'm going to kill the Enderdragon."

"Are you kidding?" he practically shouted in disbelief. In a lower voice, he continued. "You just recovered, and if you fight again, you may make your condition worse."

"I know," I said, my gaze unwavering. "But I have a responsibility to protect these people. If we don't surrender, it's likely that the Enderdragon will return and destroy our home. I can't let that happen, so I must act now."

"You are in no condition to fight against the Enderdragon, the strongest of all monsters ever known in the world! Please, think this through," Hailbert urged.

"I have." I knew that he was only concerned about my condition, especially since I had just recovered from a major injury, but he needed to understand my intentions.

"Fine," Hailbert suddenly said, much to my surprise. "But you have to show me that you are ready."

"What?"

"Let me rephrase that for you: fight me, and if you win, I'll let you fight the Enderdragon."

I hesitated. I could tell that Hailbert was being serious, and I was worried that I may accidentally hurt him.

"Okay," I finally agreed.

~~~~

We fought a clearing in the middle of the forest, not too far from the Kingdom. I took out my sword and took a deep breath.

Meanwhile, Hailbert took out his axe, moving into a fighting stance.

"Whenever you are ready," I told him.

As soon as I spoke those words, he charged. There was no way I could dodge in time, so I used my sword to block the attack.

I quickly sprung back, knowing that it was no use trying to push against Hailbert's attack.

I waited for him to make his move. When he attacked once more, I was ready for it, dodging in time and swinging my sword towards his chest.

Hailbert blocked it in time and continued on the aggressive. I did not have much of a choice as I faced him head on.

Each time our weapons clashed, my grip on my sword weakened. Maybe he's right...

Suddenly, I felt my senses heightened as I narrowly dodged one of Hailbert's attacks. Without thinking, I retaliated, my sword heading towards his chest.

I realised what I was doing in time and stopped myself just before my sword made contact. Hailbert looked rather surprised and sighed, raising his hands in surrender.

I won, but I felt awful, knowing that I was just a strand of hair close to stabbing him, where I could have possibly severely injure him.

"Looks like I can't change your mind," Hailbert muttered. "But I'll come with you. You can't kill the Enderdragon alone."

"Thank you." He was right. After all, fighting the Enderdragon is not equivalent to fighting a zombie, so I would need all the help I could get.

However, no matter how hard I tried, I could not shake off the awful feeling I had ever since the fight. It was like something took over my actions, which almost injured Hailbert. My hands were trembling as I looked at them.

What is going on with me?