The new Hero Zaymoog is arriving in Dragon Strike: Puzzle RPG just in time for this weekend’s Dragon Strike event!

He must remember his purpose. Zaymoog stood silent in the grove facing the rising sun as it scattered its first light through the forest. He stood in front of the great oak… the old father of the forest. Before him lay a clearing ringed in tiny red mushrooms. Beyond that… the behemoth.

The hulking stone creature rose over the line of the trees on the far side of the clearing. Its great claws were as tall as Zaymoog, but as one’s eyes rose higher, the crag became more menacing.

It seemed to be cut perfectly of stone. Scale details rose alongside the trunks of the trees. The muscles on its legs seemed eerily too realistic to really be stone. The nearby trees drooped, stunted for years by the great stone wings blocking the sun’s life-giving light.

And towering over the forest –taller than even the great oak– loomed the face of an ancient lifedrinker. At first, one could be forgiven for thinking this was the greatest sculpture ever crafted. Until, that is, one saw the smoke pluming out of the stone jaws from the still-burning inferno within.

Zaymoog didn’t look at the wings choking his forest or the menacing face of the stone dragon though… his eyes focused directly on the beast’s front left paw. The pointer claw of it specifically. He knew what tricks this monster could play. To look at the entirety was to see illusions, ticks — danger where there was none.

Zaymoog no longer had a clear recollection of how long he’d watched that single claw. He would keep watching it until the great oak was safe or had withered away of old age. It was his purpose. How he longed to close his eyes, but he mustn’t.

The crack of sticks! Who was in his forest!? He felt a definite presence. It had been so many years… yes, he couldn’t mistake that feeling. To the North. Still, he must not look away.

Getting closer now. It was at the clearing! Zaymoog knew it couldn’t be good. There were no friends or allies. Only those that wanted to harm the great oak and control the might of the beast.

“Are you still here, old man?” An aged, gravely male voice to his left. “Should’ve given up centuries ago. You can’t fight this power… but at least you’re here to witness it.”

Zaymoog straightened himself and responded without taking his gaze off that single claw. “You’ll have to forgive me, but the years must’ve reduced your importance to me. Who the hells are you?”

A guttural laugh pierced the air. “Still have that wit, huh? Even with all these years alone.” The voice paused, but Zaymoog could hear him approaching… not approaching him… but the base of the beast! “It really is a glorious creature. Do you ever speak to it when you’re lonely?”

“Demons don’t speak,” Zaymoog retorted, “The great oak is company enough for me.”

Zaymoog heard a curious sound… a delicate bell and what sounded like a great wind blowing down from the mountains.

“Oh he does speak,” another laugh from the voice, “and now you’ll get the opportunity to meet your silent friend of all these countless ages.”

A great crash rung out from the clearing. Before Zaymoog could even guess at its origin, it happened! The claw moved! First it stretched upwards, shaking sand out from its cuticle. Then the entire foot was flexing… Zymoog could see pebbles falling from the sky across his vantage as the dragon shed its stone skin.

“Most venerable brood mother!” The voice shouted over the commotion of falling stone and stretching dragon. “I have come to call you to a great purpose at the behest of lord Malum!”

Purpose. Yes. Zaymoog must remember his purpose.

“I HAVE SLEPT SO LONG… NOW LET THE WORLD WEEP, FOR I AM–”

Before the dragon could finish its monologue, a blinding flash lit up the grove. In front of the great oak, Zaymoog stood with his staff towards the great head of the beast and a blazing aurora emitted from him. The commotion of rock ceased. The dragon’s roars quieted, and all the world stared at Zaymoog.

Suddenly there was a loud PLINK, as if a chain had snapped and the light abruptly ceased. For a moment it was not clear what had happened. There was sunshine. Peace returned to the forest and the birds sang… Then the bones began to fall.

The dragon’s skull fell with a crash into the clearing, all flesh stripped cleanly away from it. The trespasser’s discarded bones also clattered to the forest floor unceremoniously, out of Zaymoog’s view.

He had accomplished his purpose at long last. Then, something wonderful happened. For the first time in thousands of years, Zaymoog blinked.

His lifeless body fell to the ground in his grove. For now he would rest, though his fight against Malum was not yet done.