My jaw dropped. Help me look for it.

I can't see it among all the bloody details!

wow Shit loads of bricks. I love it awesome best picture ever. I hope your well. I hope your weekend battle is going well. Take care Lord Sir master. Bye from me.

Bricks and bugs, oh my.

Too true. I hope your weekend going awesome. I hope your unicorns and dragons are well. Good night sir.

Wow.

Among many other things, I love the blank smiling expression on the overlord; really makes it clear that he's just a puppet.

Poor guy, forced to serve the insect hive mind.

Looks awesome !! D:

It does. :)

That is an awesome pic, one thing I do enjoy about your work is the political (Hey I'm a History major and Political Science minor, it's my thing) backdrops and just where your universe got it's start.

Thanks. I like making worlds that make sense and are internally consistent. It's enjoyable to know not just how something is, but how it came to be,

Hm, wonder where the... "Transition" comes in... Once I find the time to read your bloody thousand-chapter epoch, I'll know by then, I gather. ^_^;

My Map and World History describes how the dragons became what they are today, although not in detail. The new series will expand on that quite a bit.

There are bits and pieces of it explained in my thousand chapter epoch too. :)

I see. Groovy. :)

that is intense, both story and drawing. damn

Thanks. :)

Great picture, though I don't know if I will even bother with the prequel devoted to "fighting and horror", after you have handled the "fighting" so unconvincingly in this series. A unicorn mare slaughtering two much bigger, stronger, apex-predator and sword-armed dragons with her short little horn? Mere furries somehow exterminating a country full of huge and formidable Drakes like in some fairytale that only small chldren could take seriously? Sorry, but I think you should stick with the sex and domination, as you don't seem to have the slightest idea of how martial arts and military technology work. A shame too, as this is a great read until you delved into those subjects.

Kind of funny that as easily it is for furries to kill both dragons and drakes, that the same furries were so soundly defeated by the insects, when it was the same dragons and drakes that were able to hold the insects at bay. (Not to mention raiding and enslaving furries with impunity - save for one super-hero uncorn mare). This has never been adequately explained. Despite how much thought you have put into some aspects of this project, your decision to include such unbelievable, adolescent-minded, video game/comic book 'dragonslayer nonsense' makes it difficult to take your writing seriously beyond the basic sex and domination.

Hey, sorry to be a bother but dont you think you've stated your opinion enough by now? :)
I seriously doubt DT is gonna rewrite his entire story to make dragons unkillable at this point. Contructive criticism is one thing, but it's getting a little bit to the point where you're not really coming with anything new by now or helpfull anymore.You've stated you think the fighting is awefull by now. I dont think the writer WANTS to change it, so perhaps you should look for something that suits you better? :)

You don't get it either. I never ciritisised when a giant but killed a dragon, in the realm of nature we see large bugs killing small lizards. But a large, intelligent dragon WOULD bevirtually 'unkillable' if it faced a much smaller opponent using a horn on its head as a weapon, so pleas don't put words in my mouth. I believe any adult familiar with martial arts would agree with me. I'll keep reading this because there are good characters, hot sex, and a somewhat plausible fantasy world with furries and dragons. I'm just saying that I probably won't read 'the prequel' if its largely dedicated to fighting, when I believe this is the author's weakest area, and he has no interest in improving. But i do see that offering further constructive critisism is going to be a waste of time better spent on my own writing.

Good luck with your writing then :)

Fortuna got here first but yeah.

I've explained in great detail my reasons for why things are the way they are the first time you brought this up. And the second. And the third. And the fourth... I'm not going to keep rehashing the same arguments over and over especially when I keep getting publicly insulted and you ignore the reasons and explanations I give.

I like feedback and criticism. I don't want to discourage anyone from voicing their opinions, good or bad. I appreciate and enjoy feedback, even negative feedback. But seriously, chill. My dragons (feral and anthro) are not your ideal ultimate killing-machine versions. They are my own creation with flaws and in some cases, severely crippled. Not an idealized god-like version of the perfect dragon.

You really don't get it. I NEVER said they should be unkillable, in fact I thought the chapter with the bug battle (where dragons died) was quite good, but that was fighting giant bugs... not herbivores try to stab sword armed, and tail thrashing, armored, natural predators three times their size, with a horn about two feet long, thereby exposing their vulnerable bodies to killing blows. The problem is that you simply have no idea of how sword fighting works, and why a horn attached to your head would be completely ineffective against a much larger, well armed and armored opponent. You are the one who made the the dragons so formidable in your own description by making them so much larger, stronger, and most important, a united empire where each dragon does the job they are best suited for. That is all your doing, not mine, but the problem is that you then you ignore all of this, just to make a unicorn mare, an "unkillable and godlike, ultimate killing machine" instead. And no, you have never given a logical explanation why you continue to contradict yourself, and thereby, undermine the plausibility of your own story. You simply have stopped replying when you seemed to realize my points were valid, and apparently maintain an attitude that is is probably too much trouble to make the weakest elments of story more sensible.

If you ever do pubish this, and receive reviews from people outside your own little fandom, I believe you will see that I am not the only one who has seen identified these strange inconsistencies.

Sigh. I have done so, in the story and here and I'll try one more time.

Some dragons have such a strong desire to fight that they still choose to do so, even if unfit for that role. Dragons have a strong instinct to 'find their place' but it's not absolute and some will follow their dreams so to speak. Tamira ran into several of these, inexperienced, brash, impulsive dragons. Wanting to claim a prize, rushing into battle against a seasoned and skilled warrior. It was an extremely favorable situation for her, and others didn't get so lucky. In fact, I have scenes written (but not yet published) from other battles that day and the fights go as you would expect, the unicorns are beaten.

She is by no means a godlike warrior. She lost going one on one with other dragons later on. She ultimately lost the battle where she killed those two dragons as well.

I'm sorry, but I don't see ONE fight with odds (and luck) stacked in a unicorns favor as making the entire series 'childish' and 'nonsense'.

You're ignoring your own points once again. One of the reasons the dragons are good fighters, undoubtedly all of them, is because they are a natural predatory species, and therefore killing a furry herbivore would be a natural, instictive reflex, as surely as Tamira would naturally try to flee rather than fight such a creature. And in order to get close enough to kill a dragon with a not very long horn, she would be in a vulnerable 'death zone' long enough for the most inexperienced dragon to still kill her. And it was bad enough with one, but two??? He manages to run into the two worst dragon warriors in the empire? What are the chances. And they are even called soldiers, indicating they would have had training, and one of the key things they would undoubtedly be trained on would be the incredible advantage of such a prehensile and powerful tail. I'm sorry, but it just doesn't add up, just like the easy to kill, 'retarded' Drakes exterminated by the furries, yet the trained ones are the deadliest weapon against the insects.

On the other hand, the fight between Tamira and the Bull was believable, because they both fought with horns on their heads, and Tamia wouldn't have to overcome the same instinctive fear from confronting such a huge and terrifying predator.

If Tamira killed some mercenary slaver furries, that she would not have an instinctive fear of, and be familiar with from pervious contact with furry species, the episode would have worked fine, and been an asset to the story, but now this is a strange mixture of explicit, adult sex combined with fighting feats expected only in chldren's stories.

Credulity is stretched to the limit with her killing one trained soldier-dragon, which I presume was large and had a tail that would have instantly knocked her off of her feat, but adding the second one truly does make it seem childish and unbelievable, and incredibly out of place, in an otherwise adult story.

Are you not aware that in the mainstream world, it is popular to spoof the whole knight slays dragon cliche' because it is so unbelievable to thinking adults?

And you never explained why, if it was so easy to exterminate all the Drakes in their territory, why the furries wouldn't have domesticated them too, since they are the only weapon that would give them a chance against the dragons. To say only dragons can train them seems a contradiction, given the fact they obey the commands of their furry handlers.

Like the unbelievable dragon fight, the supposed furry drake pogrom makes no sense and adds nothing to the story. Feral Drakes could simply be naturally 'rare', and therefore not a great threat, but very dangerous to furries if they tried to catch or hunt them, which would better explain why the furries don't also have a Drake air force.

It's your story. I spent a lot of time trying to help, but I give up.

You do realize that just because an animal is an herbivore or predator has nothing to do with a 'killing' capability. A hippo is big fat ass herbivore but nothing on the planet will dare tangle with one. A cornered rat is one of the most dangerous animals out there (omnivore but still seen as a 'prey' species). African Buffalo, the American Bison, even wild Mustangs are capable of killing thier main predators. No offense to the dragons out there, but an overconfident anthro dragon could get his throat tore out by an anthro chipmunk as much as a big cat. It's a major falsehood to think just because a creature eats salads that it's going to run the moment trouble shows up. In myth unicorns are 'protectors' of sacred forests and they kill evil creatures that trespass on thier turf and brook no mercy.

As far as drake air force, you know there are other very powerful airborne 'mammal' creatures in mythology that can beat dragons. The Giant Eagles and Rocs in Tolkien for one. But don't forget Griffons, Manticores, Chimeras, etc. That furries might have as counter, just the dragon centricity of the tale means he hasn't mentioned them. (Yes this is speculation but the point is to show the potential and possiblity)

Also just because a dragon is intelligent doesn't make it even 'virtually unkillable', especially when it's opponenet is just as intelligent....if not more so because mammals have an edge there. (no offense dragons) Dragons have weak points too, like most reptiles, and in dragon myths the under scales are soft and vulnerable, if they are like crocs that would mean the force coming down on a bite would be high, but the muscles that 'open' the jaws are weak. Some plain hemp rope or twine could lock down the dragon's bite, and keep it from barbarqueing someone. If they have wings then the joints and membranes are highly vulnerable, not to mention in real life, flying animals have alot of blood vessels there in those precious wings. And a tail is going to be very hard to use effectively and is a liablity in close quarters where it can get caught in things. A tail is mostly for balance purposes, so even then trying to tail slap is going to sacrifice good footing, and as you pointed out a martial artist...loves to keep his feet under him.

I'm afraid you are mistaken on all counts. As for hippos, they actually support my statements. Predators smaller than them, (like lions or sall crocodiles) do not attack them because they are dangerous, but it is fully documented that very large crocodiles (like the infmaous Gustave), do hunt and eat them, though furtunately for hippos, the truly big crocs exceeding 16 feet are very rare nowadays. And in this case the dragons are armed with swords, and the unicorn with a relatively short horn. It is ridiculous to fight a creature with a sword with only horns. 100,000 dead bulls to one matador is ample proof of this. In this world, an armored, intelligent dragon with swords and a strong prehensile tale would indeed be virtually unkillable. If you read the story more carefully you would know that the author give the dragons all of these attributes, but then contradicts himself by having the hopelessly overmatched unicorn, kill not one, but TWO huge dragon soldiers.

The dragons' large taloned feet give it good footing to use its tail as a weapon, and it would be incredibly deadly in a fight. These dragons could even carry an extra weapon with their tail according to the author. And if they do have a 'soft spot' they wear armor to compensate for it so no "chipmunk" is going to rip out their throat.

Tolkein is a bad choice for you to cite, because a single dragon in his stories often destroy whole armies of humanoids, though these dragons are larger than those in this story. The drakes in this story are huge, yet are easily killed by furries (Tolkien would probably be rolling in his grave over this absurdity). The Eagles never fight true dragons in Tolkien's LOTR. If they had, they would have been roasted in flight, and whipped to pieces with thrashing tails. The Fell Beasts in the original story ar more like vultures, and about the same size as the eagles. It was Peter Jackson who turned them into huge "dragons", though with necks made out of warm butter that a bimbo could sever with one sword swipe. (See the story Eowyn and the Fell Beast in my gallery). In this story the author makes no mention of any flying mammals, and having this air force is one of the dragons' gretest assets, besides their great strenght and size advantage.

I agree there are a lot of silly dragon slaying stories written to amuse small children. And it is from this collection of children's stories that you seem to be getting your information. But from everything in THIS story, the attributes of the dragons given by this very author, makes it ridiculous for a unicorn mare to kill intelligent, armored dragons, three times its mass, equipped with sword, shield and metal armor, and a powerful prehensile tail. And the author even admits this! He says she had to be extremely lucky. I'm just saying nobody could be that lucky to kill TWO of these dragons in a row, and still quite unbelievable to even kill one.

So your saying stories like Siegfried killing Fafnir, and Beowulf where ONE pink soft skinned human kills not just a dragon (though it costs him his life) and several other powerful monsters, and stories like Saint George killing the dragon, etc. Are for children?

Also you mention one croc, MOST crocs are killed by hippos, even the very large ones. As far as the matador vs. bull goes, that bull isn't an intelligent bipedal creature that is also trained to use his natural weapons. But nothing is unkillable if it draws breath and bleeds. A dragon with a sword and tail, and even armored, can be killed by an anthro chipmunk if that chipmunk is given a sword and armor as well. You seem to think dragons scales are impentratable and they aren't, tougher on the top, yes, soft and vulnerable on the bottom though. And Smaug was killed by one man, with a bow and arrow, with one shot.

Yes, these kinds of silly dragonslayer stories were indeed written either for children or hopelessly drunk nordic warriors in their meadhall. Though in reality, they were not supposed to be taken seriously to begin with. Fafnir is not even a dragon, but a dwarf who could take the form of a dragon, but not necessarily its strength and invulnerability.

Beowulf is actually a comedic farce that the original dark age listeners laughed at while they were getting drunk. The survivors of the adventure claimed the body of the dragon was pushed into the sea, with no proof or trophy of its death as in the case of displaying Grendal's arm. They claim the body of Beowulf was burnt, yet these were Christians, and if the body were burnt there would be no reseurection. Reality - the dragon evidently ate beowulf so there was no body to bury, and no troph from the dragons because it was still alive.

Beowulf's kingdom perishes shortly afterwards, because there is no money to pay soldiers and buy weapons. Reality - the gold wasn't buried by Beowulf, it was never taken from the dragon.

Before te dragon kills him, he even worries that the dragon was sent by God to punish him from his sins (a popular concept in this time as it was believed dragons would be released fro Heaven on Judgement Day to devour sinners). Dragons in the early Christian Church the highest heavenly creatures, their name, Seraphim, meaining fiery flying serpents in Hebrew. The true meaning of the Beowulf story will be contained in my next book, replete with copious footnotes as to translations and the actual dragon/biblical lore known to the dark age author.

St. George? There wasn't a dragon connected with St. George for 1000 years. This was simply added to his story by a Bishop to make his book on the Saints more exciting. (Sort of like all the crap fantasy books with the hero fighting a dragon on the cover). And in this case, it is clear that it was shaelesly stolen from the ancient Greek Perseus story.

As for Smaug, he had wiped out a Nation of dwarves, and was totally invulnerable except for one small patch on his chest, which the archer fortunately found out about (from a talking bird), and and hit. So why didn't this supposedly sly and crafty dragon put a steel plate over the only spot that he could be hurt before he flew into a storm of arrows, any of which might accidentally reach his vulnerable spot? Because as Tolkein admitted himself, this was simply a Children's fairy story intended to entertain his eight year old nephew. He never imagined that thinking adults would ever take such silly crap seriously. Tolkien actually wrote another 'dragon' story the same time as the hobbit, but this time, a parody of fairy tales to amuse his Oxford peers, much like Shrek today is a pardoy of fairy tales. And in this story, the dragon defeats the kings whole army (actually they understandably flee in terror), and the hero makes a deal with the dragon because he knows it would be too dangerous to try to kill it, even with his magic sword. Ironically, most adults are not even aware of this more sensible and adult story and embrace the silly children's fairytale (Hobbit) instead!

But again, we are straying from the author's and artist's work, so if you wish to continue a discusion which has nothing to do with this story or accompnying artwork, please move it to a PM or commentary on one of my stories.

Hey DT,

If you want to upload a higher-resolution version of this you can click 'change submission file' and upload the same image again. Scaled to something 1600-2000 pix wide would be a good tradeoff between detail and manageable image size.

I was thinking about doing that to show off the detail better. Thanks for the reminder, and the picture! :)

Fighting swarms of giant insects with medieval weapons! That is a nightmare scenario! Its even more messed up that the control insect is sacrificing it's host to disable the dragon's sword!

The artist did a really good job! This is terrifying to look at!

Given their dependence on steel weapons and natural things, maybe the dragons and furries could make an investment in those fungus spores that wipe out ant colonies!

The dragons ARE trying. They only have one effective biological weapon which is a defensive toxin, but if they could find a fungus that killed insects at large and left everything else alone, they would certainly use it.

I hope so! Those bugs are gruesome!

Even if the insects are defeated, the furries would be greatly weakened and the dragons would be the military super-power of their world!

The dragons are taking losses too, but in present times they have been holding them off in a stalemate for generations. While they are currently too busy to take over the furries, they are also dependent on them for food and supplies so a war with the furries would be interesting to say the least.

If the furries were smart, and the dragons tried...they could use Russia's tactic from WW2, and burn everything and retreat, until the dragons starved themselves out, and broke down. Sadly the bugs would be the effective Allied invasions and force a two front war.

Well, as long as the bugs are a threat the furries will not go to war. The dragons may be bad, but the bugs are infinitely worse. However, if the insect war was won, then there very well could be a war.

In that case, starving the dragons out would be the tactic the furries would use, yes. Their only option really, as invading them would be futile. The dragons would be forced to come out and attack, try and take the farmlands, force the furries to work them. Burning the fields in a fighting retreat would be the furries logical response to that. They have farms further from the border, the ones near the border are pretty much devoted to supplying the dragons.

Of course if war broke out, getting the drake denial systems up would be their first priority. I have only mentioned them in passing, but soon will go into detail exactly what they are and how they work. Part of the problem with world building a story in progress.

Well I've always thought the best anti-drake ideas are ones that take away a dragon's biggest strengths, things like ballistas with projectiles that have barbed tips (easy go in, and destructive to pull out.), and booby traps.

Ballistas fire stones. not arrows. But you probably mean a two armed torsion catapult, which the Romans called a 'scorpion'. But no, this would be no threat to intelligent dragons and their trained drakes. The dragons could easily 'bomb' these engines with impunity, far out of thier range, dropping incendiaries, rocks, and even diseased animals into the furry cities with impunity. With their air power, the dragons could kill millions of furs without risking a single drake or dragon.

They could also attack the machines directly by training the drakes to carry shields in front of them that would stop the darts. They are so strong that each can carry several dragon warriors, so carrying shields and wearing inpenetrable armor would be child's play. This is a reality of the world Dragon Talon created, even though he doesn't realize it, just as he doesn't understand that unicorns could kill the kind of dragons he describes in his story.

Actually no your wrong kiddo, history lesson here...they can fire both, but the heavy iron tipped arrows are more iconic to the weapon, and even then sharped wood at speed is enough to pierce a dragon's belly or neck hide. The scorpion was a lighter model of the ballista and even better for ambushes. Any sort of bolt throwing siege weapon is going to have success. Even an man carried Arbalest is going to hurt. A dragon is going to have to take to the air to even 'attempt' a bomb run, and as very large objects, a trained crew is going to hit them, before they get hit in return, historically crews of ballistas could pick off a single man at 500 yards, a giant dragon in the sky is easy pickings, and hitting it before it takes flight is even easier. A major volley of such weapons and the dragons will be having to deal with medieval equivalent of flak.

As far as armoring the drakes and carrying shields, you forget something about flight. You have to aerodynamics and keep weight lower then the power used to achieve flight. A couple dragon warriors might weigh 200 pounds each on the heavy side and sit on the back keeping weight equalized, but putting barding on, and making a drake carry a shield, that weight is going to be in the tons. At most light weight chain 'might' work, but at most a leather covering could be considered. And more to the point carrying a shield, takes a claw away from that drake, and puts a lot of weight to that side of the dragon. It's going to start drifting in the air, the moment it gets tired, if not just corkscrew into the ground from the wieght and improper balance. And your still not addressing the point of the membranes in the dragon's wings. A cut or tear would be lethal from blood loss let alone if it's in the air when it's hurt and falls to the ground, and there is no way to armor a dragon's wings.

Please don't try to lecture me on military history, for it is what I do for a living. My books on the subject are sold all over the world in four different languages. If you've seen the complete Gothic German harness for man and horse in my gallery,I have actually JOUSTED in this and do medieval hand to hand combat on a regular basis. This is one of the reasons why I know how stupid most 'dragonslayer' stories are - written by people who have no idea of weapon technology and human ability.

Do you know what the word "Ballast" means. It is stone, and a Ballista throws stone. That's latin. So is the word "catapulta", which is a twin armed torsion machine that fires bolts. Yes they look roughly the same, but a bolt thrower cannot throw stones without major modification. And no, you could not pick off a man at 500 yards unless he isn't moving. It takes several seconds for an bolt to travel that far, just like an arrow. While you may read things about "arrow shooting ballista" in your D&D handbook, I happen to own one of the most historically accurate ones in the United States, and do fire it. You may have even seen it on the history channel.

You do not seem to understand, that a drake/dragon could fly higher than the range of a torsion engine, and drop incendiaries on cities and engines, or flechettes on humans with absolutely no danger to themselves.

And like I said before, if you actually read the story, the drakes in it can carry a whole squad of dragons, each probably weightin close to 1000 pounds, or group of captured mares, so a dart proof shield would be easy to carry and would not create much drag because it could be carried horizontally up into the point of entering catapult range, but like I said before, they could cause catastrophic damage to armies and cities completley out of catapult range. As for the non flying dragons of this story, their size and strength allow them to wear virtually inpenetrable armor, (the the "magic" unicorn horn can slice through anything like a star wars light sabre!) But what the author doesn't understand is that the unicorn's head and back are extremely vulnerable to killing blows long before a short horn could near the dragon's chest.

So don't critisize me, but the author if you think it is impossible for the Drakes to carry that much weight. But since they do in his created world, I am merely pointing that the furries would have no defense until modern anti aircraft guns are invented, or "magical nonsense" to blast them from the sky. Though even here, the dragons appear to have far more skill in magic than the furries, (save for unicorn light sabre horns).

But snce you are not even discussing the art or story in question now, if you care to continue this discussion, feel free to critisize or comment on one of my dragon stories, or do it in a PM, (though I believe the author would learn a lot if he read my comments).

Yup, that's a very effective anti-dragon tool. ::Winces in sympathy for any dragon struck with it:: Certainly worked well against an unfortunate dragon in my story series. Though he also lucked out in that their aim wasn't slightly better.

Yup. Dragons are awesome creatures, but biologically they have alot of weak points, that can't be armored. I know a lot of artwork shows them still flying with torn wings, but in all flying animals, reptile or mammal, the wing membranes are full of blood vessels, that having a severe hole in it would be painful and near fatal. Barbed bolts in the wings, would also mess with thier natural flight motion, it's liable a single piercing shot would be so painful and deabiliting that the dragon would have to 'crash land', if something hit the joint inbetween the wing and it's back it would shut that whole wing down. Not to mention a dragon would have to have hollow or at most very light weight bones to even get and stay aloft no matter how powerful they are. But yeah I like to think up realistic counters to dragons, and 'powerful' mythological monsters.

Yup, wing joint is always one of the big weak spots for my dragons. Put an arrow in that while they're flying, and they're in trouble lol. The dragon I was talking about took a ballista bolt that just barely missed his chest, but scraped across his ribs and into his wing joint, shattering and nearly tearing off his wing. Crashed into a building. Thanks to other dragons and a whole group of healers he survived, but ended up crippled by the ordeal. Not a fun experience, lol.

Yeah, sounds like an interesting read.

Thanks! That event happens in Blood For Blood, the 6th installment of my ongoing Dragon In The Dungeon saga.

Very glad it came out so well for you! It looks fantastic. The details are stunning.

Yes, thanks a lot for your referral. :)

Quite welcome!

There are always times when one must band with another in dark times, Even if it means only being a single last act of defiance. VICTORY IN DEATH!

Is DEFEAT IN LIFE an option?

Yes... the idea was however that even if you fall in a battle with others but it ends in succsess you died honorably. All depends how you view it.

Thank you for choosing not to ignore my posts and finally answering again. But there is one question I have raised, that was never answered, so hope you will now.

You admit that Tamira had to be extremely lucky to kill a dragon. That's good, and validates everything I have said. She would have to be impossibly lucky, and this is why killing two of them goes beyond luck.

But because it was such an impossible feat, I don't understand how you can imagine that this remarkable warrior mare, would simply be given as a slave to a dragon officer, when EVERY dragon in the Empire would demand that their honor be restored by having Tamira fight a REAL dragon warrior in the arena before the eyes of thousands. This is yet one more thing so unbelieveable in your story. By having Tamira kill not one, but two dragons, you open a 'can of worms' the unravels any believability this story once had.

It is a real shame, too. I know you are trying hard to make this a realistic world, yet insist on keeping things in it that are simply not believable. 100,000 sword killed bulls to every matador should be food for thought. And if the matadors were three times the size of bulls, and had poweful, weapon carrying tails, and wore armor, then the ratio would be more like 1,000,000 bulls/unicorns to one giant dragon matador.

Are you Dragonkin/Otherkin?

No. My observations are based purely on common sense, logic, and military science. I don't even have a dragon "character". If Tamira had been fighting a similarly dragon-sized 'anthro' lion (roughly three times her size), and able to fight with a sword, I would be basically saying the same thing, though it is even more ridiculous she could kill a sword-equipped, armored 'dragon', because the author has explained how powerful and dexterous their tails are, thus making the notion of the much smaller fur, killing one with such an unwieldly a weapon as a head mounted horn, virtually impossible.

What this pretty much boils down to is you telling Dragon Talon (and his commentors & watchers) that THEIR fantasy world is wrong and your fantasy world is right. In all of your comments that's what I'm really seeing.

In his story I imagine the unicorns to be quick and nimble. Quicker than anything in real life could be therefore they could very well fight with a horn on their head against a much larger competitor. As far as your question (well it was a question with no question mark. more a statement) about why not kill tamira for slaying the dragons or challenge her against a real warrior. Why keep her as a slave? Why do people own rattlesnakes? it's an incredible show of power. "dude check out my lethal snakes. yup I aint scared of them" Its controlling something dangerous and in this story's sense breaking the will of it to show that you're the strongest of all to completely dominate something that knows it could kill you. I imagine thats huge bragging rights in Dragontalon's story amongst the dragons. But this isn't my story. This is just my opinion from reading this story. I felt it was pretty well explained through the chapters. It's not even CLOSE to a common theme in the story as it seems the unicorns are more often than not getting their asses handed to them. So I don't see why all the fuss about it happening once or twice in... 70 some chapters? If anything that proves how seemingly impossible it is to slay them.

I think it's wonderful that Dragontalon allows you to comment freely to share your opinion of how you think his fantasy world is poor because it doesn't uphold to the rules of your fantasy world. To be honest, I am surprised you are still allowed to comment when you are so argumentative and insulting to his fans and commentors. Your suggestions have blossomed from mere observations to downright rants and I feel that's incredibly inappropriate to blast all over seemingly every submission he has. When he gives you an answer, you grow more argumentative and completely blow it off by starting your response with "you don't get it" or something similar. No, we get it.

But how do you expect anyone to listen to you when you will not listen to anybody else?

Apparently you are the one who is actually 'not listening'. Everything I have stated in my critiques is based on DT's world, not mine. As you have said yourself, "in reading some 70 chapters it proves how seemingly impossible it is to slay the dragons". DT himself says as much too, claiming that in future chapters it will flashback to how badly the unicorn forces were defeated in the raid. But all of this basically confirms what I have been saying all along. I really like the bulk of the story and have said so many times, but in a few cases DT has choosen to 'break' his own rules he established in this world, not mine. Even in the decription of the battle, he ignores the powerful prehensile tails the dragons have, and mentions many times throughout, which give them esentially a 'third' arm, so long it can strike the smaller, furry opponent from behind. First DT said these dragons were inexperienced, or bad fighters, and then that Tamira was incredibly lucky, but the point is every dragon soldier would be trained in these tactics. In this case DT also ignores the natural terror any unicorn would experience facing such a large and unfamiliar predator for the first time. (This is a great failing in most 'dragonslayer' stories, not only his). If Tamira killed a smaller, weaker, unarmed 'clerk' dragon, never trained in battle tactics, the story would be a bit more believable, though even then it would be unlikely she would win because the dragon is still a natural born killer (predator), and almost certainly would still cause her execution. But killing two trained soldier-dragons in a row, or even one -- turned what I previously thought was an excellent fantasy story, into a rather childish and unbelievable one. And the irony is that this incident adds nothing at all to the story. If she simply fought well, before being captured, it would have attracted the dragons' attention and she would have been a 'special' slave. We are adult readers and this is an adult story, so hardly need this to be emphasiaed in a cartoon fashion like the impossible killing two huge dragon soldiers.

But if Tamira really did accomplish something so incredibly impossible, it would be the talk of the whole dragon world, and Tamira would become too much of a 'celebrity' to simply end up the slave of some mid-level dragon officer. EVERY dragon in the empire would want to see the amazing mare, and to restore morale, the dragon leaders would in fact be compelled to have her killed in a fight with a expert dragon warrior, probably in the same great arena where Tamira far more realistically defeated the bull.

If I were not one of the greatest fans of this story, I would not spend the time pointing out why it has some problems. It does no good for people to simply pat DT on the pack and say how great everything is, when there are such great contradictions. If this story began with the silly dragonslayer episode, I would have probably stopped reading then and there. But this isn't brought up until I had already been 'hooked' by a rather interesting story.

You are right about one thing though. It is great that DT hasn't banned me from commenting as many other writers might. But remember that he does say he welcomes critisism, and I seem to be the only one being candid. I have received award for my critiques on other writing sites, and some authors have even upgraded my memberships so I could critique their stories. I am persistent, because I see talent here, but saddened that a great story is being ruined by the same kind of adolsecent-level dragonslayer nonsense which is the reason why so relatively few adults are able to take the fantasy genre seriously.

I can see you're not listening. I can see you don't understand. You don't get it (that's what I do right? Skim what you read and just throw a no u back at you?) Since you say this to everyone who responds to you I'm very suprised you've not realized that you are the problem and that what you're saying isn't applicable to this fantasy world. If everyone else (who agrees with each other) is wrong and you're right in your own mind.... it just sounds like you have a hard time accepting that you're opinion isn't something that most people agree on.

Your last paragraph really shows me exactly what I needed to know about you. You're incredibly arrogant but too ignorant to label yourself as such. Instead you prefer the title "Persistent". Persistent and Arrogant are two different things, Sirrush. Persistent would be taking this to notes instead of spamming every submission he has with your ideas on how to make this a better story for you. Arrogant is picking on his watchers and commentors to brag about your weapons and tactics training and upgraded memberships. Arrogant is responding to comments that were not geared at you because it gives you license to show off your "knowledge" and push your opinion on yet another person. You want to force everyone to read your take on things as opposed to just the author. That is not persistence. That is downright arrogance. It's also borderline trolling too. Seriously I'm STILL not sure if you're trolling or serious from the nature of your posts.

There also comes a time when even persistence turns into griefing/trolling/aggravating when one (you) refuses to listen to the author when he had attempted to explain this earlier and forces his opinion on anyone who dare comment and show support for the Authors work.

Oh, and by the way I am one of the only ones being candid here. Because others have only dropped hints about how irritating your arrogance is. I am actually telling you how bad you're making yourself look here. (inb4 but Spooked you're also making yourself look bad: No, actually, I've received notes from other fans who won't comment on DTs stories anymore due to your behavior. I picked this submission because you thoroughly trashed the comments with your arguments before I even got here)

I've offered constructive crit to Dragon Talon. I've found and brought typos to his attention. But while you assign yourself the titled of "the only one being candid" you are ruling out people who are doing the polite AND correct thing in noting him with the information. He even requests to be notified privately. You are not the only one being candid. You're just the only one showing absolute lack of manners and tact.

Oh, and before you throw me one of your "this conversation doesn't belong here because its not on the topic of the story"..... check yourself. You've made arguments about this story on DTs personal submissions. Submissions that were of his own character and not anything in his story. You forced your opinion in there, so I'm putting mine here. Also whenever I see you post that response to people it comes across clear as day: "Shit, someone is really challenging my opinion and I don't want them to win so I'll make them take it to notes so they dont make me look worse than I am already making myself"

Just being honest. You know, that thing that you like :)

Every point I made is a valid one, and to date, no one has intelligently refuted anything I have said. Thank you for helping DT correct typographical errors. We all must do what we know best to help make this a great work. If my comments have done nothing more than change the aspect of Tamira being a comic book dragonslaying hero, to simply being incredibly lucky (though unbelievably lucky to kill two dragon soldiers in a row), at least I accomplished something for my tireless efforts. I am not surprised if unnamed others disagree with me but discuss it. I suspect they are mostly, if not all, adolsecents/teenagers with no real life experience, and get all their notions about fighting from video games and b-grade fiction created to bolster the egos of children by letting them imagine that are "dragonslaying heroes", and small mind have been so imprinted with this nonsense that they are bound to take it seriously. If DT chooses to let an otherwise great, and adult minded story remain tainted by something so transparently childish and unbelievable, that is his perogative. If it is published in this version, other adults will review it too, and everthing I have said will be validated. Like it or not, I do know what I am talking about. Ad for your rant, what is that saying? "If you can't say anything nice......."

It doesn't surprise me that you don't know how to complete the phrase "if you can't say anything nice"

Because you definitely don't follow that phrase. Arguing with commentors, belittling others because their opinions differ from your own, failing to respect the author's wishes on how he chooses to be contacted. You're far too arrogant to not say anything at all. You want to push your self proclaimed knowledge on other people in highly disrespectful and antagonistic ways.

So perhaps you should practice what you tried to preach there, Sirrush. You can't be an imposing know it all jerk to people then try to tell me to "not say anything at all" when I finally decide to call you out on your sour behaviour. double standards, yo. You appreciate "your candidness" when it comes to being rude to this author and his commentors and fans... but don't appreciate my candid assessment of your behaviour. You should be commending me for this. Critiquing your foul behavior and being honest with you.

I intended to cut the phrase when I did, because everyone should know what it is. This is called 'brevity'. Look it up.

I am not being arrogant, and I am not trying to 'push' my way. It is not 'my way', at all, it is making logical assumptions based on the elements of this world which DT has established as 'fact', and then promptly contradicts. As much as I like this story, and DT's abilities, in the two cases I have brought up, he is unwittingly breaking the first rule writers must adhere to if they want to maintain credibility -- which is breaking their own rules. If anyone is being 'rude' here it is not the person trying to make him keep his story true to the rules he has established, but DT himself, for often ignoring comments which took time, and though, and were produced to eliminate the clear contradictions now in the story. Even now, he has never replied as to why the dragon empire would accept the insult of having two soldiers killed by a mere unicorn mare. It would have been a national disgrace that could only be rectified by having a 'real' dragon soldier defeat, and undoubtedly kill her before an audience of thousands of dragons in the empire's greates arena to restore morale. If the populace knew she was now a pampered slave it would be a scandal. DT must know that he really 'stepped in it' with the silly dragonslayer cliche' but is probably too prideful or lazy to correct this no matter how bad it looks. And the same with the "furries exterminated all the drakes" nonsense. If they were able to do this, they could just as easily have a Drake Airforce too, and would, because this is the single most decisive weapon in the dragon arsenal that insures they would always be victorious over the furs. At least DT was honest about not having any experience or knowledge in matters related to the military sciences -- yet unwilling to listen to people that do -- probably due to the so called 'fans' like yourself, telling him he shouldn't -- fans who ironically, and by their own words, reveal they know far less about these matters than DT does.

Congratulations on such a great picture!

I like how the bug is using the wolf's body like a puppet to fight them. What a terrifying enemy

Yes, not just his body, but his mind as well.. dominating it from within, forcing him to think and plan and plot against his own kind.

Great composition, though the wolf seems a bit out of scale, unless this is a very small dragon, or a wolf three times as large as they are in the rest of the story. Perhaps the insect parasites can manipulate the genes of their host and make them grow larger, or this is some other species of 'dire' wolf or something that can grow as large as the dragons.

Yeah, the wounds on his arms and legs almost look like they could be him growing out of his skin.