Cameraman Never Dies

Judge's grandfather leaned back in his chair, surveying the chaos outside his office window with the kind of disinterest most people reserved for watching paint dry. Buildings were crumbling, dragons were soaring through the air, and cultists were screaming something about eternal destruction, but to him? It was Tuesday.

"Free demolition service," he mused, sipping tea calmly. "Finally, a break on that renovation bill." He'd been looking for a reason to tear the town down for ages, and here it was, wrapped up with a nice little bow of cultist madness. The Dragons could handle themselves, obviously.

The cultists might as well have been chickens attacking a tank, and if anything, this would be a nice little exercise for the younger generation. Stretch the old wings, burn a few fanatics, and call it a day.

Still, there was the matter of his grandson. Judge was safe in the Phoenix egg for now, but fights like this had a tendency to get a little too destructive. You never know when some overeager cultist would try to mess with something they shouldn't. And speaking of reckless, there was his daughter-in-law, Eleyn, casually scorching everything within a mile radius.

"Ah, classic Eleyn," he sighed, shaking his head. Fire everywhere, enemies screaming in terror, and not a single thought given to property damage. He almost admired her commitment to overkill.

But the real surprise was Melina. For someone so composed, she was doing the kind of structural damage you usually associate with wrecking balls—not de-structuring everything at the atomic level. Yet here she was, turning objects into fine dust with just a flick of her hand.

Then his 'Grandpa Sense' started tingling. He squinted. There, just past Eleyn, a particularly shady cultist was inching toward the Phoenix egg like a moth to a very bad idea. Now, normally he wouldn't care—most cultists had about as much chance of getting through the egg's defenses as a toddler trying to take on a tank with a plastic spoon. But this one? This one had a vibe.

"Damn it," he muttered. Grandpa Mode: Activated.

He pushed away from his desk, rolling his neck like an athlete about to enter the big game. Time for the big, dramatic entry. Dragons, after all, didn't just show up. They arrived. With flair. He raised his hand, ready to teleport in style and…nothing.

"Hmm," he frowned, trying again. Still nothing. "Ah."

Of course. The anti-teleport barrier. Curse the foresight of these cultists. He stood there, a man defeated—not by battle, but by logistics.

"Well, this is awkward," he grumbled to himself, looking toward the window.

There was only one option left. No teleport? No problem. He could jump! You couldn't have a grand entrance without a little altitude, right? Except for the fact that this felt a little less "dramatic boss" and a little more "desperate skydiver without a parachute."

With a sigh that carried the weight of a thousand unmet expectations, he climbed onto the windowsill and launched himself out. Mid-air, he felt a surge of satisfaction as his body transformed into his true dragon form (but way smaller), silver scales gleaming in the sunlight like the world's largest disco ball. The wings spread out, catching the air, and with one powerful flap, he soared above the town.

That's more like it, he thought smugly. Now this was a proper entrance.

He spotted the cultist below, creeping ever closer to the Phoenix egg, unaware of the doom literally descending upon him. With a roar that echoed like thunder, he dove. Cultists scattered, screaming something unintelligible about 'false gods' or 'great serpents' or some nonsense like that, but he had eyes only for the one.

As he plummeted, the cultist turned, eyes wide, like someone who had just realized that picking a fight with dragons was a one-way ticket to bad decisions. But it was too late for regrets. With a single swipe of his claw, the cultist was reduced to what could only be described as "fancy red mist."

"Not so ominous now, are you?" Grandpa Dragon growled, feeling quite pleased with himself.

He landed with an earth-shaking thud, transforming back into his humanoid form with the grace of a ballerina—if that ballerina happened to be a grumpy old dragon lord with a penchant for theatrics.

Dusting off his robes, he took a look around, watching Eleyn still frying cultists like it was an Olympic event, while Melina casually disintegrated anything that even thought about moving in her direction.

"Ah, family gatherings," he muttered. "Always such a lively affair."

Eleyn finally noticed him and waved, her hands still crackling with fire. "About time you got here, father!"

He waved back, mostly because it felt rude not to. "Had a bit of trouble with the teleportation spell. These cultists actually had the nerve to plan something."

"Rookies," she snorted, setting a nearby tree on fire for good measure.

Melina floated over, looking as calm as if she had just finished a nice stroll in the garden, not the wholesale destruction of several city blocks. "Patriarch Gereon," She called out, "We could really use a way to disable the anti-teleport barrier. These idiots actually managed to get their hands on something powerful."

"I was just thinking that," Grandpa Gereon grumbled, eyeing the sky. "Any idea where the artifact is?"

Melina, ever the tactician, already had an answer. "There's a central cultist controlling it. I can sense the artifact's location—it's up on the ridge behind the town."

Gereon rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You know, I was just planning to take a nice afternoon nap, but I suppose I could go tear down a world-ending artifact. Just for kicks."

"Would you prefer I do it?" Eleyn teased, sending a cultist flying with a casual backhand of flame.

"Oh, please, I'm not that old," Gereon coughed "Let's get this over with before dinner. And about the trip you had been planning, let's do that after the town is rebuilt."

"Father, I would head outside the barrier and teleport Judge to the palace. Please take care of things here"

Melina touched the egg, "I will go with her, Protecting the egg and fighting together can become quite a task, especially if someone comes whom she can't handle in her human form."

Gereon looked at both Eleyn and Melina, he nodded and started heading toward the artifact's location, While the other two started to head out of the city.