Gorphen

Gorphen hid in the shadows. That's all I have left, he thought. He no longer had a family; they’d been lost years ago. He didn’t have any friends, at least any alive. Any friends or family he had dissolved into the shadows he carried with him. He was always left alone.

Forget that, focus he told himself. Ancient China was a horrible place, at least in his opinion. He was the only samurai left here, the rest had been killed or had run away. You have one job left, just do it and you can be done.

It was a standard job for him. Kill in the dark and run away. Luckily, his employer let him choose the cause of death. Whenever this kind of job came up, his weapon of choice was snakes. Not conventional, but his favorite. He didn’t have any friends, but at least he had his snakes. One of his past friends—of course he was dead now—had made fun of him for naming his snakes. He just didn’t have the same connection as Gorphen. He couldn’t speak to them. Well, technically speaking, Gorphen couldn’t either, but he understood them, and the snakes understood him.

The target was on the move. Gorphen jumped, he’d been lost in his thoughts and that caused him to lose his focus. Dang it, you can’t keep doing this, he thought. Recently, he’d let his thoughts take him away from his job. That was not a good quality for a samurai.

He got up quickly. Still silent on his padded feet, he crawled toward the window near his hiding place. Once he reached it, he took off. His snakes were curled up in a basket tied to his waist. The lid was sealed firmly to prevent them from falling out, but just in case, he asked, “You guys still in there?”

Whenever he talked to his snakes, he never heard an answer, instead he heard a voice in the back of his head. Yessss we’re fine he heard, as if he’d thought it himself. “Perfect, we’re gonna touch down in that clearing over there, and I want you to find this guy alright?”

When he got the affirmation, he turned his body down and dove right into a clearing surrounded by trees. The sun was setting, and the sky started to darken. His target lived in the middle of a dense forest, so trees were large and close together. Gorphen couldn’t see anything beyond the clearing. He spotted his target at the far side of the clearing, his back turned. He looked to be an arcane Imperial, adorned with jewels and other shiny decorations. This’ll be easy Gorphen thought, slowly unsealing the basket around his waist. “One bite and he’s done, make it quick” he whispered. Seven snakes slithered out of his basket, all hiding perfectly in the tall grass surrounding him.

As the snakes made their way to the dragon on the other side, Gorphen thought he heard a twig snap behind him. Years of experience made him know what was happening. It's a trap! He thought. He jumped to the side right as an axe came crashing down where he once stood. He swerved and hissed at his opponent. Or rather opponents. Four more dragons came out of the forest behind the first. They all had glowing pink eyes. The imperial’s henchman no doubt. All five of the newly emerged dragons charged him. Big mistake he thought to himself, smiling smugly. He took off into the air, green magic flowing off his wings. While his eyes betrayed his arcane birth, he’d joined the wind clan years ago, and now was the strongest wind warrior known to dragon kind. When he reached an acceptable height, he dove, the wind pushing behind him making him faster. His huge, razor-sharp wings sliced through all five dragons at once. His wings now dripping with blood, he took off towards the leader.

“Please. Don't do this,” the dragon cried, fear evident in his primal eyes. So, this was a leader. That would make it all the more fun. The imperial suddenly tensed up, his face in excruciating pain. Serpens, his most venomous snake, had done his job. The dragon died in seconds, and with that, Gorphen was free.
@Leelo14Stitch