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Jared swung his hammer down on the head of the goblin before him. The crunch of metal buckling was satisfying as the machine fell under the weapon. Though it was just a simple sledge hammer, fighting against the hoarde of goblins just about amounted to the demolition it was intended for. As Jared looked up from his latest conquest, he surveyed the destruction that had resulted from the battle. At least a dozen goblins, had attacked, now all scrap strewn about the small field. Goblins were vicious machines, each about chest-height when fully upright, armed with razor-sharp claws on the end of all six of their limbs, each articulated at four seperate points. Always found in groups, they were relentless combat machines.

"You alright?" Jared called to the only other creature standing on the battle field. The older man pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose and nodded as he brushed himself off, and smoothed down his graying hair. Jared's companion wore a loose, baggy shirt, and in their travels jared had concluded that the his sleeves were lined with pockets containing the tools of his trade, for he'd never seen the man reach into the poackets of his plain slacks. He carried a backpack as well, but Jared knew what was in its lone, large compartment. "Well, come on, wizard. We're not done yet."

"I'm coming," the wizard's bushy gray mustache raised on one side as he scowled and picked his way delicately around what was left of a pair of goblins. The two were slowly beating and grinding together what few moving parts they still had, in a mutal act of self destruction. Even as he avoided them, the old man seemed proud of his handiwork.

The two walked through the strewn wreckage of the battle, and up to the great looming structure overlooking them. Like some evil keep, or mountain, the ancient factory building stood atop a steep hill, and rose up into the sky. As they came to the entrance, they could see the walls were crumbling in places, and peering into the darkness, scrap and rubble were piled all over. Jared looked at the wizard, who in tern gave him a sidelong glance, "You're sure about this, right?"

Jared grunted and nodded, "Don't worry wizard, there is a great trove in there. Trust me," he gave a wry smile, slung his hammer onto his shoulder and walked into the drak building. The wizard followed him, pulling a torch out of a sleeve, and flicking the switch on. As the circle of light it made swept over long forgotten conveyors, unidentifyable scrap, and crumbled walls and fallen bits of cieling, Jared began to doubt the stories he'd been told about the place. This didn't look like some secret storage facility. It looked like the abandoned factory everyone claimed it to be. And yet, for some reason the goblins hadn't seen fit to claim it, and as far as he could see, neither had anything else.

Jared was pulled out of his own thoughts by the sound of metal scraping against metal. He looked at the huge pile his companion was currently illuminating. His eyes had adjusted enough for him to see beyond the circle of light, and he followed the dark outline of the metal pile deep into the recesses of the building. "Get down!" he shouted as he lunged at his companion, just as the pile rose up and swung at them, "It's a dragon." And indeed, what had seemed to be a huge pile of metal slowly rose up and shook off the few lose bits of metal it had been covered in. The monstrosity stood on four thick legs, and swung its head down toward the two.

Its head was practically domed with dozens of optical sensors, each blinking green and yellow slowly. "Do something!" Jared whispered tersley.

"Dragons are fully autonomous. None of my normal spells would work on it!"

"Well find something that will!" Jared pulled himself up and lifted his hammer. The dragon pulled its head back, and several of the blinking optics took on a steady glow. With a cry Jared leaped at it, bringing his hammer over his head and swinging it down into the center of the war-machine's glowing dome. At least half of the creatures eyes shattered as the hammer tore a hole in the center of them. The ones that remained instantly turned a bright, fiery red as the creature raised its head with a roar of rage and strained metal.

Jared stepped back as the dragon lowered its head once again. However, instead of turning to look at him, it opened it's maw to reveal several razors and serrated teeth, several of which buzzed lightly as the spun like buzz saws. The dragon surged forward, intent on snatching him up to be rended into slurry by the meat-grinder of a mouth. With only an instant to react, Jared hurled his hammer at the whirl of blades and death, and then leaped aside.

As the hammer's head impacted the blades, the dragon's mouth snapped shut, muffling the resulding screech and grind of metal chewing metal. A few sparks flickered out of the corners of the creature's mouth, and then the sound was gone. Jared cursed himself, as he was now unarmed, and the dragon was still none the worse for wear. As the beast turned toward him, he managed a glance at his companion, safe for the moment as the dragon focused its wrath on the barbarian.

The wizard had pulled his tome out of his bag and was furiously typing on the keyboard, his face aglow as he straed intentley at the screen, mumbling about systems and cursing some network. Jared just wished he could do something to make the dragon stop trying to kill him. He looked frantically for something to fend off the monster with among the rubble and scrap. It dove at him again, with the wide jaw of razorblades, and he leaped aside again. As its jaw hit the ground, he reached over his shoulder and felt his hand wrap around something. He hauled on it and came up with a metal bar, slightly bent in the middle, with a chunk of cement on one end about twice the size of his fist.

The dragon turned at him and he roared as he swung the improvised weapon ad the creature. The cement clanged loudly against the beast's jaw, and the machine paused in its onslaught. Jared panted heavily as he waited to see the beasts next reaction. It wasn't giving him the opportunity to strike at its eyes again, and he doubte there was any part of it with lighter armor than the sensitive dome. As he stood waiting, the dragon's head once again rose up, this time accompanied by a strance hiss. Jared's brow furrowed for a moment, and then his eyes grew wide with realisation. He ran forward, then dove to the side as a gout of flame surged from the dragon's head toward where he'd been standing.

"Of course it breathes fire," he panted irritably. As the flames died down, the pile of twisted steel and concrete he'd been standing against now glowed red, and shimmered with heat. "This gets worse every minute," he groaned, "Anything helpful yet, wizard?" he shouted.

"Still working on it!" was the irritable response. Dragons were created to be fully autonomous battle machines, meaning they were not connected to any global networks. The old man's magic was usually weaved by hacking through network connections into machines' control functions, leaving him defenseless against the dragon. "It has to have some kind of godforsaken input!" the old man shouted at his tome. He looked at the limbering hulk as it lashed at his companion. No one knew much about dragons. They seemed to avoid each other as often as everyone else avoided them, and survivors of encounters with them were few, far between, and usually much the worse for wear. He blinked, as something occured to him, then began working furiously at his keyboard again.

Jared stared angrily at the Dragon. He was getting tired, and as far as he could tell, it was only getting angrier. Jared held his weapon in both hands, an awkward action given the bend in the bar, and readied for another attack. He wasn't sure what he might do, given the still glowing plie of rubble off to one side, a jagged pile of scap to the other, and a dragon taking up most of the space immediately in front of him, but he was ready, at least. The dragon surged forward to bite him once more, and he swung the block of cement at its jaw again. The impact clanged, the dragon's jaw jolted, but this time it didn't stop, and as he flowoed through with the swing, jared's arm passed between the dragon's jaws, and then out again. The entire length of it was covered in blood, cuts covering it's length. It took a moment in the open air before the pain of a hundred flesh wounds sank in and Jared cried out in blinding pain.

He staggered back, and found his back agains one wall of the ancient building. The dragon's jaw was open again, and all but filled his field of vision. He glanced down at what was proving to be a useless weapon, and realised that the clean end of the metal bar had been sheared to a sharp point. He took a deep breath as he realised his last option to strike down the beast. He shifted his grip so that the point as heald forward, and the chunk of cement was held back, then lunged toward the dragon. He twisted, trying to slip past the open jaw. He was surprised that the beast didn't budge as he did, and he managed to get past with only one long scratch as he scraped his chest against two of the razor teeth. He pushed forward and shoved the pointed bar at one of the joints in the plated, serpentine neck of the machine. It punched through, and slid all the way in, untill he was pushing the cement against the plating.

There was a quiet pause as he wondered if puncturing the neck had damaged something important, or if the machine was just calculating the best way to kill him while he was pressed up against its underbelly. "Oh dear. RUN!" came from behind him, in the voice of his elderly companion. Jared's eyes went wide as he looked around frantically. He ducked under the beasts neck, and could see clearly under one leg. He darted toward it, dove to the ground, and tumbled forward to come up besides the thing at a run. "Over here!" the wizard shouted, waving from behind a pile of rubble. Jared ran toward it, and fell to a croush next to his friend.

"What's wrong?" he panted.

"You punctured the fuel line for that big flamethrower it has."

"So?" The wizard rolled his eyes. He typed something out on his keyboard, then picked up a fist-sized chunk of cement. HE stood, and the dragon laborously turned its head toward them. He lobbed the chunk of rubble toward the still gaping jaw. It hit the buzzing teeth, and in moments was nothing but dust, and a few sparks as some bit of metal inside it was ripped apart by the spinning blades. Then, at the end of that moment, a the sparks blossomed into an explosion of flame that enveloped the dragon's head, neck and swept along its body. The wizard barely had time to fall back behind the pile of rubble to shield himself from the concussion and burst of heat from the dragon's explosion.

As the echoes of the burst died down, the two men looked at each other, "Oh," Jared managed.

"Yeah," the wizard replied, "It may also interest you that I've found out how to work with dragons. Don't think it was luck that kept it from snatching you up out of that corner."

"Oh yeah? You got a name for your new little spell?"

"I think I'll call it the form of the dragon," the old man nodded as he stood, and put his tome back into his bag. "Now normally, I'd be very upset at you dragging me along on a wild goose chase, and nearly getting me killed, but this little advancement in current technology is about worth the trouble." They both smiled as they headed back toward the entrance, eager to leave the dragon's corpse behind.