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The Dragonslayer

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St. George and the Dragon by Girard Master

"Well personally... I kinda want to slay the dragon."
— Angel, Angel, "Not Fade Away"

In modern fantasy fiction, killing a dragon is usually a job for an entire party of adventurers, or completely beyond most warriors' ability to harm. So how can the Dragonslayer do this themselves? Having a dragon-specific Weapon of X-Slaying and the strength to lift and wield it helps, but beyond incredible strength and skill, they must have knowledge. Dragons traditionally have a brace of classic weak spots — a missing scale, the eyes, and the mouth are particularly common — and knowing just where to hit the beast can be crucial. Dragons, especially in games, often have specific elemental alignments, and knowing how to properly exploit the Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors can also go a long way.

So this is just a variant of the Hunter of Monsters, right? Well, no. The Hunter normally suffers the Achilles' Heel of Crippling Overspecialization, while the Dragonslayer still has a giant sword, which unlike a stake or silver daggers is very effective in battle. The Dragonslayer is often The Hero with a few dead dragons tacked on.

But that's assuming the truth. Dragon slayers have a reputation for being Miles Gloriosus, to the point where even the real deal is viewed with skepticism. Perhaps the one rumored to be a dragon slayer isn't, and you instead need to look for his brother, or maybe sister. Or maybe their great-grandfather was one, but nobody in the family knows how to do it anymore.

Due to the power and danger usually given to dragons in myth and fiction, the title of Dragonslayer itself can also be a highly respected and coveted one in-universe, as bearing it signifies personal victory over one of the most powerful and feared monsters around.

In medieval legends, this role is often filled by heroic knights. Though in non-Abrahamic legends the role may be filled by a storm god instead.

It is important to note that having killed one dragon does not necessarily make one a dragonslayer, just as having saved one person makes someone a hero but not The Hero. This is basically part of their job description, meaning they generally hunt dragons, plural. The other qualification, of course, is surviving the encounter. Not the person who gets rid of The Dragon, unless we're being literal here. Compare and contrast the Dragon Tamer, who works with dragons instead, though there's nothing stopping someone from being both.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 
    Anime & Manga 
  • Berserk: Guts's iconic giant sword, the Dragonslayer, is a seven-foot-tall slab of sharpened iron, created when the Ultimate Blacksmith was asked to make a sword that could kill a dragon (back when fantasy creatures weren't a common sight across Midland), and can pretty much only be wielded by someone who's been training with seven-foot-long swords since birth. While it's yet to live up to its name in a literal sense (the one fight against a dragonlike Apostle by the name of Grunbeld was a draw), it's certainly killed a vast number of slightly lesser foes, and if there ever was a man capable of killing a dragon, it's Guts.
  • In Delicious in Dungeon, Namari mentions killing dragons in the past. Later on, Team Touden slay a very powerful Red Dragon.
  • Digimon: WarGreymon's armor is equipped with Wolverine Claws called "Dramon Killers", which function as a One-Hit Kill against any Digimon with the -dramon ("dragon monster") suffix.
  • Fairy Tail has Dragon Slayer magic, which gives humans the physiology and powers of dragons, and is consequently the only technique capable of harming dragons. Ironically, the ones who taught mankind this technique in the first place were the dragons themselves, devised as a way to end a civil war against those who rejected peaceful coexistence with mankind. However, using this magic comes with the downside of turning the user into a dragon themselves, as was the case with Acnologia, the most bloodthirsty Dragon Slayer of all time, and the one who hunted dragons to near extinction. There are multiple "generations" of Dragon Slayers:
    • 1st Generation: The original Dragon Slayers who were taught their magic directly by the dragons. As dragons are all but extinct now, very few of this generation can be created.
    • 2nd Generation: Dragon Slayers who gained their magic by having dragon lacrima implanted into their bodies to give them access to the lacrima's element. These tend to be referred to as "fake" Dragon Slayers, and are still quite rare as these lacrima themselves are rare and thus very valuable. The sequel would reveal these specific lacrima are actually "processed" Dragon hearts. It's also possible, though rare, to implant multiple lacrima to gain multiple elements, as is the case with "Eight Dragon" God Serena, the top Wizard Saint of Ishgal.
    • 3rd Generation: Dragon Slayers who have not only been taught by dragons, but also have the dragon lacrima implants. Some refer to this generation as the best of both worlds.
    • 4th Generation: Debuting in Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry, these are Artificial Humans grown from dragon lacrima, and thus are The Needless who can fight as long as they are empowered by a source of magic.
    • 5th Generation: Debuting in Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest, these Dragon Slayers gained their magic from devouring the flesh of dragons and other Dragon Slayers, hence their alternative name, "Dragon Eaters".
  • Georgia of Pokémon the Series: Black & White is a self-proclaimed "Dragon Buster", a trainer dedicated to taking down Dragon-type Pokemon. To this end, her team is mostly made up of Ice-types, which were at the time the Dragon-type's only weakness aside from itself. Naturally, she's The Rival to Iris, a Dragon-type trainer.
  • In the manga Rain, the main character Rain gained the title of "dragon slayer" after he supposedly single-handedly fought and killed a dragon in one-on-one combat and absorbed the dragon's lifeforce and power.
  • Parn from Record of Lodoss War has, over the course of the show, killed at least two dragons. One in the first episode, and the other an ancient dragon.
  • Lina Inverse from Slayers does not qualify, even though she's killed hundreds of dragons, because her technique is seen as overkill and not involving real skill. She does however meet an actual dragon hunter on her quest for gourmet cuisine (he's less a BFS variety, and more a specialist that uses knife skills).
  • The Vision of Escaflowne starts off with Van fighting a dragon in a specialized dragon-fighting suit of armor. There's a folding pop-out shield that he can extend to protect him from flame breath, there's a crossbow on one arm, and if needs be he can shed the whole thing at once for added mobility. Dragonslaying is apparently a very important thing in his world, since it's how you get energist crystals for powering giant robots. It's also his rite of passage as the king of his small country.
  • In the short story "Monsters" from Wanted! (1998), Ryuuma's greatest and best known feat is killing a huge dragon in a single hit. During the Punk Hazard arc of One Piece, Zoro mirrors Ryuuma by beheading a large dragon in a similar manner.

    Card Games 

    Comic Books 
  • Dark Souls: The Age of Fire has as its protagonist the Silver Knight Akron, who was given the title "The Dragon-killer" by Gwyn. However, the title is a lie: it was actually Knight Artorias who slew the dragon next to Akron — Gwyn merely misinterpreted the scene and thought Akron did it. Artorias never bothered to take credit, and Akron was too ashamed to correct Gwyn and accepted the title as a constant reminder of his own failings.
  • Marvel comics' The Mighty Thor-related books have Sigurd (the Ever-Glorious), as also mentioned under mythology, and despite all the flaws this incarnation of the guy has (like being huge Jerkass), he killed a dragon and got even more immortal thanks to it.
  • In Smax, Smax is revealed to have started out as a professional dragonslayer before moving across worlds to become a policeman in Neopolis.

    Fan Works 
  • A Certain Droll Hivemind: Misaka-11111 and Mikoto encounter the last descendant of the old dragonslayers, a girl born and bred to fight dragons. Mikoto, who of course still doesn't know about magic, dryly notes that she's never seen a dragon. The girl says that her great-grandfather killed the last one, which Mikoto calls "convenient." The girl, on the other hand, is a Blood Knight looking for anything that might be a challenge for her superhuman body and skills.
    Hamida: Do you know how boring things are when you're part of a super-powerful bloodline born of one of the Saints and made to kill dragons but your ancestors managed to wipe them all out? It's super-boring, trust me.
  • Child of the Storm has Harry become this in the Of Dungeons and Dragons arc. While he is assisted by his father and a number of others, he does the bulk of the fighting against the Elder Wyrm, being sardonically referred to as "the Knight In Shining Armour" by Wisdom. Funnily enough, it's also quite literal, as Harry has at this point been knighted thanks to the Battle of London and is a member of the Order of the Garter.
  • Deconstructed in The Peace Not Promised when James Potter goes out into the wilderness to hunt down a savage dragon, summons the magical Sword of Gryffindor through his bravery, and cuts off the beast's head — only to find afterward that the Ministry arrests him for poaching a protected species. And he never does discover that Dumbledore set it all up on purpose, with the aim of obtaining the Sword.

    Films — Animated 
  • The film Fire & Ice has a man named Galador who slew a dragon. Too bad he died years ago, and his son has to do the job. His son, while not directly killing them, manages to take care of one by pitting it against another, and the second, an ice dragon, by bringing down salt mines on it.
  • How to Train Your Dragon has a entire race of people who do this, as a necessity because the dragons raid them for their sheep. Hiccup proves unable to do it however, and befriends one of them. This changes everything. In the third film, we are introduced to Grimmel the Grisly, a famous dragonslayer who has hunted every Night Fury to extinction. Only Toothless has somehow managed to slip through his grasp.
  • Shrek:
    • The lair of Dragon the dragon is filled with countless knights who attempted to slay the dragon in order to rescue the princess. When Fiona confronts Shrek (who just grabs the princess and runs) about not killing the dragon, he makes fun of what an ineffective strategy dragon killing would be.
    • It's explained in the second film that if Shrek had not rescued Fiona, it's likely that the only person who would have been able to kill the dragon and then rescue her would have been Prince Charming. This would have been a subversion too, because Prince Charming — who looks and sounds exactly like the stereotypical dragonslayer — would likely only have been able to win the battle because his mother is a powerful sorceress, responsible for Fiona being locked up in the castle in the first place.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Dragonheart:
    • The human protagonist is a professional dragonslayer, who's forced to team up with the last dragon in existence in a con game to keep his meal ticket going. He started in the business after blaming a dragon (the one he's working with, unknown to him) for turning the king evil with the eponymous heart donation. He gives up the grudge after befriending said dragon and realizing that the heart only made the king immortal — the king was always evil. In the end, he has no choice but to act as a dragonslayer one last time to put an end to the villain once and for all.
    • The villain's mother, the Queen Dowager, also hires dragonslayers to kill the last dragon, so her son will die with him.
  • In the aptly named Dragonslayer, the magician's apprentice Galen takes on the mantle to defeat the last known dragon during the dying Age of Magic. Thoroughly deconstructed as Galen may have the weapons — magical spear, dragonhide shield, and his mentor's powerful Amulet — but not the training to take on a monster. He himself cannot defeat the dread Vermithrax, but he does summon his mentor Ulrich Back from the Dead, who does fight the dragon in an epic duel. However, even the wizard can't kill the dragon himself; destroying his Soul Jar makes him explode while in the dragon's clutches, which was his plan from the start. It's also subverted in two different ways: First, at the end of the film, the corrupt King shows up, shoves a sword into the dragon's cooked corpse, and has himself declared "Dragon Slayer". Second, the spear itself is actually the titular Dragonslayer, as it's named by its maker Sicarius Draconumnote .
  • In Reign of Fire, Van Zan (and his fellow Americans) are all specialists in slaying dragons. They have knowledge of the dragons' weaknesses and exploit these with a range of specialized equipment, including a tank and a helicopter which can drop troops onto flying dragons to force them to land.

    Literature 
  • The Book of Dragons: In "Habitat", the main character earns a reputation as a dragonslayer after killing one in his youth by braining it with a large rock. During his stint as a mercenary, the free company he signed up with took to calling him ormsbana and wurmtoten and made a dragon banner for him in order to capitalize on his reputation during battle.
  • The Cleric Quintet: Cadderly managed to kill a dragon with an explosive bandolier, and to brainwash another into doing his bidding.
  • The Conqueror from a Dying Kingdom: For taking down a dragon from the air with a spear in hand and mounted on a Kingeagle, he is acclaimed as Dragonslayer, sometimes known as the Dragonslaying King.
  • Draconis Memoria: Contractors, the mercenary adventurers and explorers all across Arradsia, are the people primarily responsible for hunting, capturing and harvesting wild drakes. Composed of some of the hardiest men and women on the continent, the Contractors tend to form small independent companies of five or six members, joining into larger groups in times of crisis or major hunts. Many of them are also permanently employed and protected by the Ironship Syndicate.
  • Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly has a prince go in search of a dragonslayer whom the legends describe as a Knight in Shining Armor who killed the dragon with his sword. He turns out to be a rather bookish man who disabled the dragon with poisoned harpoons and finished it with a battleaxe.
  • Michael Carpenter's claim to fame in The Dresden Files is killing a dragon, which in this series are on the lower end of being a Physical God; it's also how he met his future wife.
  • Fred Saberhagen's The First Book of Swords: Nestor was already in the dragon-hunting trade when the god Hermes gave him Dragonslicer. With that Sword he found that he could kill dragons easily.
  • In the Lord Dunsany story The Fortress Unvanquishable Save For Sacnoth, the warrior prince Leothric sets out to kill the Nigh-Invulnerable dragon Tharagavverug, as it has the magical sword Sacnoth, the only weapon capable of killing the wizard Gaznak. Once the dragon is slain and Sacnoth recovered, Leothric carves his way through the fortress. Inside there are several dragons, including Gaznak's pet Wong Bongerok, but with the aid of Sacnoth Leothric easily slays them.
  • Deconstructed in The Good, the Bad and the Mediochre. Maelstrom is a dragon slayer — described as such in-universe, in fact — but since the setting is one where dragons are rarely evil and often sapient, this just makes him a massive, speciesist, douchebag Psycho for Hire.
  • In The Hero and the Crown, Lady Aerin becomes a dragonslayer after working out a reasonably safe method for doing so. Her ownership of a powerful magical sword helps, of course.
  • In The Ice Wind Dale Trilogy, Wulfgar and the chieftain Heafstaag recount their achievements as a show of strength. Wulfgar is young and has no authority within the tribe, so his list is much shorter in comparison, but his ability to add "Dragon's Bane" to it is considered to even the scales. He defeated with dragon Icingdeath with the help of Drizzt, even waking it up to battle it rather than killing it in his sleep.
  • In The Kharkanas Trilogy, the Prequel to the Malazan Book of the Fallen, one of the early Tiste creation myths tells of Tiste heroes who slew a many-headed dragon, drank her blood, and became gods. This is exactly the story we are presented with in the main series regarding how Anomander Rake and Silchas Ruin came to be draconic shapeshifters: namely by slaying Tiamat, the many-headed ur-dragon, and drinking her blood. This is yet another instance of this trilogy calling into question what had previously been established as fact in the main series, following the theme of Steven Erikson questioning how much we can truly trust what we know about history.
  • Invoked in A Memory of Light when Demandred proclaims himself to be the dragonslayer and a Dark Messiah. However, in his case, the dragon he's come to slay is the local Chosen One, who goes by that title, not a scaly fire-breathing beast.
  • Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn: The backstory of King Prester John is that he was a poor fisherman's son until he ventured beneath the Hayholt and slew the dragon that had taken up residence in the catacombs. That act set him on a course that eventually had him uniting all of Osten Ard, except that in reality, he found the dragon already dead by the hand of the old King (who was mortally wounded in that battle). Prester John always felt the guilt of claiming credit for that kill.
  • Tom Holt's Paint Your Dragon plays with the trope. Saint George is an out-and-out treacherous bastard, and the dragon is closer to being a hero. The dragon just wants a fair fight.
  • The Queen of Ieflaria: Esofi has killed several dragons, though in concert with other battlemages. This is still very impressive to the Ieflarians, who have suffered continual dragon attacks. When he attacks her, she kills the emperor of the dragons on her own.
  • In John Moore's Slay and Rescue, Prince Charming is quite the dab hand at rescuing princesses from dragons, and has developed several specialized techniques for dragonslaying. He just wishes the princesses would be a little more demonstrative in their thanks.
  • Dragons and dragonslaying (even discussed in those words in The Hobbit) comes up several times throughout Tolkien's Legendarium:
    • The Silmarillion:
      • Túrin Turambar slew the dragon Glaurung, father of dragons. Much as was the case with Sigurd and Fafnir (from whom Tolkien drew inspiration), Túrin killed Glaurung by finding a place where he knew the dragon would cross the River Taeglin, and stabbing him from below. Other characters have killed dragons, but Túrin is actually given the epithet "Glaurung's Bane" (dagnir glaurunga in an inscription on his tombstone), making him the prime example of this trope in the Legendarium.
      • Eärendil slew Ancalagon the Black, greatest of all the dragons of Middle-earth, during the War of Wrath to end the First Age. Unlike many other examples, this was an aerial battle which Eärendil fought from his flying ship Vingilot, and Ancalagon's fall shattered the peaks of Thangorodrim. Additionally, Thorondor and his other Eagles supported the Hosts of the Valar by battling Morgoth's fleet of dragons in the air. However, Eärendil is better known for other feats, like sailing to Valinor and being the father of Elrond (and his twin, Aragorn's ancestor, Elros).
    • The Hobbit:
      • Discussed, as noted above. As Gandalf and the Dwarves muse on what to do about Smaug to reclaim their treasure, it's discussed that there are no more heroes left capable of slaying such a beast, and that is what led Gandalf to direct them to Bilbo, and to reclaim their treasure by thievery instead.
      • And then it's played much straighter with Bard the Bowman; when a riled and angry Smaug attacks Esgaroth, he slays him by loosing an arrow into the one vulnerable part on Smaug's entire body. As Bard's kill takes place during a battle though, he doesn't really become known for dragonslaying as such.
    • Other cases of dragon-slaying are mentioned as well, including that of a "long-worm" named Scatha, who was slain by Fram of the Éothéod. From his hoard came the Horn of Rohan, which is presented as a gift to Merry by Éowyn at the conclusion of The Lord of the Rings. Again however, Fram is never actually given this as a title or epithet.
  • In Trash of the Count's Family, "Dragon Slayer" is a title that a certain character has. However, being a real Dragon Slayer is something that is inherited through a bloodline and comes with special abilities (like being able to eat dragons and absorb their strength). There's some confusion over whether the protagonist Cale is a descendent of a Dragon Slayer or if his abilities just give him the same feel a true Dragon Slayer would have.
  • Within the ream of The Witcher:
  • The main characters of the novel trilogy The Year of Rogue Dragons are an adventuring party who specialize in taking down dragons, slaying several evil dragons per book. It's Personal for the leader, half-golem Dorn Graybrook, who lost his family and two limbs to a dragon attack as a child. Over the course of the trilogy, though, he not only allies with several good-aligned dragons, but even falls in love with a female song dragon.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Angel: "Not Fade Away" ends with the team facing off against a massive demon army, including among other things a dragon. When asked for a plan (more specific than "we fight"), Angel replies that he'd like to slay the dragon. According to the follow up comic, he actually tames it and becomes a Dragon Rider.
  • Supernatural has an episode where Humanoid Dragons are trying to resurrect Eve, the mother of all monsters. Dragons are so rare that most hunters don't believe they exist. In their research, Sam and Dean meet a doctor who has one of the few swords capable of slaying dragons, the Sword of Bruncvik, wielded by an ancient dragon slayer. Sam kills a dragon with it.

    Music 

    Myths & Religion 
  • Aided by his one faithful retainer Wiglaf, Beowulf battles and kills a dragon that devastated his kingdom of Geatland, but dies of his wounds afterwards.
  • Classical Mythology: Bellerophon is famous for killing the Chimera, a fire-breathing monster that was part lion, part goat, and part snake.
  • Saint George (c. 275-303 AD) is famous for slaying a dragon since the 11th century (there's no mention of George's dragon-fight prior to that). The real George was a Syrian-born Roman legionnaire who was executed for refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods. The legend is possibly inspired by Eastern icons of George fighting a dragon in which the dragon was (in reference to the dragon of Revelation, who is in fact Satan) merely a symbol of Rome and/or paganism, but eventually the scene came to be understood as literal. Quite probably he's the Trope Maker with regards to modern dragonslayer stories, as his inspired many more.
  • "The Lambton Worm": Sir John Lambton kills just the one somewhat draconic monster, but it's his defining accomplishment. The reason he succeeds when even other knights have failed and died is that he gets good advice from a wise woman about tactics, and he has the sense to act on it.
  • In Norse Mythology, the hero Sigurd a.k.a. Siegfried is chiefly famous for killing a huge dragon called Fafnir somewhere near the Rhine.
  • In one version of Tristan and Iseult, Tristan kills a dragon, but is so wounded in the process that he falls asleep, allowing someone else to walk by and take out the dragon's eye to claim the kill (and the princess and half the kingdom). Fortunately, Tristan awakes to set things right. Unfortunately, Iseult sees Tristan and falls in love with him (he has to escort her to his uncle, whom she's betrothed to).

    Pinballs 
  • Game of Thrones requires defeating the three dragons of House Targaryen.
  • Sir Tristan has this task in Golden Logres.
  • In Medieval Madness, the player must slay a dragon in order to rescue one of the princess by shooting the damsel ramp.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • El Cazador De Dragones Eragon in IWRG and NWA Mexico. Although he wrestles there, the dragon slaying is an example of Wrestling Doesn't Pay.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • Rangers who choose Dragon as their favored enemies. Of course, said rangers are encouraged to be very, very careful when working.
    • The Council Of Wyrms campaign setting introduces the Dragon Slayer kit. Dragon Slayers are human beings specially trained to kill dragons. They are immune to dragon-caused fear, gain bonuses when attacking dragons, and have armor and weapons that are more effective against dragons. They are dedicated to the goal of eradicating dragonkind.
    • The Draconomicon has much to say on the subject:
      • It suggests that many of the dragons who become paladins end up as this — being paladins, they are driven to confront evil, and being dragons, they tend to think more of dragons, including how much of an evil the evil ones can be. They are also, of course, intimately familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of dragons...
      • The Draconomicon also includes two Prestige Classes specialized for hunting dragons, the Dragonslayer and the Dragonstalker. The difference between the two is that Dragonslayers fight their prey in pitched combat, while Dragonstalkers track their targets for extended periods before killing them from ambush before the dragon even knows they're there.
  • GURPS:
    • GURPS Dragons naturally has some material on creating dragon-slaying characters.
    • One of the worked examples of the "Slayer" template in GURPS Warriors is a dragonslayer. Much to the disgust of traditional knights, however, he's a commoner with a cart-mounted ballista who kills them for profit.
  • Shadowrun:
    • There is an organization of dragon hunters that killed many dragons during the down cycle while they hibernated, and continues to kill them today. One of them, going by the name Dragonslayer, has posted many times on Shadowland with conspiracy theories about dragons.
    • The Dragonslayer archetype is a totem for Shaman characters (or a mentor spirit in later editions). Dragonslayer shamans tend to be Boisterous Bruisers or Blood Knights on the lookout for a suitable "dragon" to slay, though the "dragon" can be metaphorical as long as it represents some kind of evil entity that threatens innocents. Above all, the Dragonslayer totem despises oath-breakers and liars (alongside giving up on your goal), and forces adherents to be true to their word once given.
  • Warhammer:
    • Warhammer 40,000:
      • Depending on the edition, the God-Emperor of Mankind was Saint George, though instead of killing the dragon, he imprisoned it on Mars. That dragon might very well be the Void Dragon, a C'tan (the C'tan are among the most powerful entities in existence, its brother the Nightbringer having imposed its image into nearly all races as death incarnate, aka the Grim Reaper). However, this may have bitten him in the ass, as the Void Dragon has power over machines, and it is more or less implied that the Adeptus Mechanicus' worship of the Omnissiah is strengthening the Void Dragon.
      • The Primarch Ferrus Manus once wrestled a strange silver dragon and plunged it into magma. The dragon's living metal skin fused itself onto his arms, granting him the ability to forge things without tools. The similarities between the Emperor's and Ferrus's encounters implies that the dragon Ferrus defeated was a shard of the Void Dragon, and that the metal fused to his arms is Necron Necrodermis.
    • Warhammer Fantasy:
      • Dwarf Slayers are dwarves who, to make up for some failure, become mohawked Death Seekers who look for the toughest monsters around so they can die a glorious death. Being dwarves, however, they're naturally quite good at killing the things, and so their failure becomes greater the more monsters they kill. They typically start as Troll Slayers, from there moving on to becoming Giant Slayers and eventually Dragon Slayers. Those who prove too tough for even dragons to kill then head into the Chaos Wastes as Daemon Slayers, and are never heard from again.
      • Gotrek & Felix: The human poet Felix Jaeger, companion to the world's most infamous Slayer, possesses a sword that was enchanted for dragon slaying. The effect is that Felix, who usually approaches Cowardly Sidekick compared to Gotrek, will turn into The Berserker any time they have to face off against a dragon. Fortunately, the sword gives Felix a few buffs to help him survive.
      • The Bretonnian Dukedom of Bastonne has produced more than its share of dragonslayers over its history. Gilles le Breton, Bretonnia's first king and himself a Duke of Bastonne, first rose to fame when he fought and killed the legendary dragon Smearghus, who had been ravaging the Bastonnian countryside. His descendant and current Duke, Bohemond Beastslayer, himself slew a dragon in his younger years and crafted his mace's shaft from its thighbone. The knight Jasperre le Beau, also called Jasperre the Dragonslayer, is particularly skilled at this; he killed the dragon Malgrimace while rescuing the king's daughter, and has since then killed many other dragons in addition to other monsters such as hydras, griffons, and hippogriffs.
      • The vampire Abhorash, founder of the Blood Dragon order, encountered a dragon and fought it in single combat. After a full night of battle, he grappled it and drained it of its blood. Not only had he slain a dragon, but by consuming its blood Abhorash permanently quenched his blood thirst, freeing him eternally from ever needing to consume blood again.
      • The Ogre tyrant Greasus Goldtooth gained the moniker "Drakecrush" by slaying the great Ice Drake Jaugrel.

    Video Games 
  • AdventureQuest and its spinoff AdventureQuest Worlds have this as a class designed around killing dragons and dragonkin like the Magitek-wielding Drakels.
  • The Dark Souls franchise:
    • Dark Souls:
      • Dragon Slayer Ornstein earned the first part of his title, fighting alongside Lord Gwyn against the Everlasting Dragons in the climactic battle that allowed humanity to rise and flourish. There's a collection of dragon heads mounted in the castle in Anor Londo that provides proof of his kills.
      • The Chosen Undead also gets the chance to slay up to five different dragons over the course of the game, and six with the DLC installed. Eight, if the hydras are included. It should be noted, though, two of those dragons are rotting zombies, two were deformed and maddened over the centuries, and one is a much lesser (though still powerful) drake. The only true dragon you face is in the DLC, and it needs to be crippled by a giant's arrow before it can even be touched.
    • Dark Souls II:
    • Dark Souls III:
      • The Dragonslayer Armour is a heavy armor resembling Dragonslayer Ornstein, equipped with a melted iron greataxe tailored for slaying archdragons and a greatshield resistant to lightning. It is in fact an Animated Armor controlled by the Pilgrim Butterflies like a puppet. The real Ornstein wasn't even in Lothric Castle, he's finding the Nameless King, Gwyn's first-born son, in Archdragon's Peak.
      • The Ashen One, just like their predecessors, also gets to slay their share. Wyverns show up occasionally throughout the game. One of the bosses is a human king whose obsession with Seath the Scaleless's knowledge mutated him into a grotesque dragon-like monster. The DLC once again has a true dragon to fight, and while this dragon may be the closest to a true dragon at its full strength, unlike its predecessors, it's also implied that the centuries fighting against the Abyss have corrupted and eaten away at it. It's still one of, if not the most difficult boss in the franchise.
  • In Destiny, there was an event known as the Great Ahamkara Hunt, in which the Guradians hunted down a species of dragons known as the Ahamkara. In this case, these "dragons" are dragons in a very loose sense, being Reality Warper Eldritch Abominations that resemble large wingless serpents with dozens of eyes, and who grant wishes and desires in exchange for knowledge and violent slaughter. In one case, this became a literal case of dragon-slaying, as Lord Saladin wished to fight a real dragon, and the Ahamkara granted that wish, turning into one. In Destiny 2, the player ends up slaying Riven, an Ahamkara, at the end of the "Last Wish" raid.
  • Dragon Age, naturally, has plenty of opportunities for this:
    • The Warden in Dragon Age: Origins fights and slays several dragons over the course of Origins and Awakening, including the game's Big Bad, a dragon-shaped Eldritch Abomination.
    • Hawke in Dragon Age II faces the entire gamut, ranging from Drakelings to a High Dragon. In the Mark of the Assassin DLC, they're invited to take part in Duke Prosper's annual Wyvern hunt, winning a prize for being the first to slay an Alpha Wyvern. Near the end, Hawke gets into a fight with Duke Prosper, who, in addition to using a crossbow, rides into battle with his trained Wyvern, Leopold.
    • Cassandra Pentaghast, in addition to being a member of the current royal family of Nevarra, descends from legendary Dragonslayers responsible for the near extinction of the entire species during the Steel Age. Pentaghast herself is no slouch, as seen in the Dawn of the Seeker film. Over the course of the film, Cassandra takes out a grand total of six, five of them in the same scene.
    • The Inquisitor and their party (which can include Cassandra) can slay a total of ten dragons, plus Corypheus's red lyrium dragon.
  • The arcade game Dragon Buster and its long-distance sequel Dragon Valor for the original PlayStation. The eponymous characters in Dragon Valor are individuals who wield magic swords which are the only thing that can kill dragons.
  • In Dragon's Dogma, the Arisens, whose their hearts are ripped by dragons (both literal and technical), are tasked to slay the dragon who stole their heart. This is a Secret Test arranged by the Seneschal to seek people who can succeed them; the dragons were those who failed in killing the Seneschal.
  • Dirk the Daring in the first Dragon's Lair game, though not so much in the second.
  • In Dragon's Wake, the player is a young dragon and the villain is a Black Knight that has already killed several dragons and intends to add the player to that list.
  • In Drakensang, Dragonslaying is a proud tradition among the dwarves, who have developed lots of special weapons (axes, hammers, and large crossbows) specifically meant to kill dragons. To really drive the point home, Dwarves are said to have 18 words for "killing a dragon".
  • In both Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara games, there is an optional boss fight against a massive red dragon. Slaying it causes a dragon icon to appear over your name in the top score list, declaring you a dragonslayer.
  • In Elden Ring, it's possible to slay a great many dragons. Dragons drop not only mucho mucho runes, but their hearts as well. A character can take these hearts to a dragon-worshipper church, and eat them to gain some of the dragon's power. These constitute 1) either the dragon's signature Breath Weapon, which is more powerful but narrow gague and cannot be used from horseback, or 2) a less-powerful, wider-spread, and can-be-used-while-mounted generic version, plus 3) the spells Dragonmaw and Dragonclaw (conjure a biting dragon head or slashing dragon arm, respectively). Such people are known as "Dragon Communers" in-setting, and are said to mutate into wyrms (as evidenced by their use of greatswords fashioned from their own shed scales).
  • The Dragonborn in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the only one who can kill dragons permanently by consuming their souls. Others can kill them, too (in fact, the Empire's Secret Police the Blades started out as dragonslayers), but this only kills their body, with their Aedric soul remaining intact. Their return from (near) extinction is revealed to have been not due to repopulating their numbers, but because Alduin's return allowed him to resurrect them from the burial mounds their remains were entombed in by the Ancient Nords.
  • The player must do this as one of his duties in the "Dragon's Keep" table of Full Tilt! Pinball.
  • King's Bounty Legends has the "Dragon Slayer" spell, which enhances attack against dragons and fire resistance. Plus, the Knights can deal bonus damage to Dragons.
  • Might and Magic VIII has a faction of dragonslayers (who also dabble in dragon enslaving — they call it taming, but these dragons are sapient) in it partly for the glory and partly for the profit, whose elite fighters, like Jeric Whistlebone, are an individual match for at least the weaker dragons. They'd still have been stomped by a full-scale dragon assault if not for that one of their first moves was stealing the dragon leader's egg and threatening it if anything like that happened. If you return the egg to the dragon leader...
  • Monster Hunter: The eponymous hunters not only slay average monsters, but also Elder Dragons, some of which are regarded in-universe as gods, all while fashioning their remains into their own equipment just for good measure. The icing on the cake? These guys have absolutely no fancy superpowers whatsoever and rely only on natural skills with weapons and good health.
  • Neverwinter Nights 2:
    • Slaying the red dragon Tholapsyx in the first campaign grants you the history feat "Dragonslayer". The feat doesn't have any actual effect; it's just a cool thing to have on your resume.
    • In Storm of Zehir, a completionist player can slay up to four dragons, and your first dragon kill grants "Dragon Slayer". This time, though, the feat adds +2 to attack and damage rolls versus dragons.
  • Odin Sphere: Anyone who wields a Psypher has the potential to be this, as a Psypher is one of the few weapons that can reliably pierce dragon scales. By the time the story takes place, almost all dragons have indeed been slain by Psypher wielders, and all five main heroes fight at least one of the remaining dragons during the course of the story while three end up slaying them. Specifically, Oswald kills Hindel and Wagner, Cornelius fatally injures Belial, and Gwendolyn tops everyone else by being the destined slayer of Leventhan, who by that point of the endgame grows so large his body could encircle the whole continent at least.
  • Pokémon:
    • Pokémon X and Y adds the Fairy type to its Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors system specifically to counter the Dragon type, which had been getting too overpowered. Aside from being super effective against Dragon-types, Fairy-types are completely immune to Dragon-type moves.
    • Prior to the Fairy type (and even afterwards), Ice-type Pokémon and moves were the go-to strong choice against dragons (especially if they were part Flying). Beyond that, the only way to cause super-effective damage to a dragon is with another dragon (and that wouldn't come into play until the second generation games, as the only Dragon type move initially was the Fixed Damage Attack Dragon Rage).
    • A few specific species are also known for their effectiveness against Dragon-types:
      • Oddly, before the existence of the Fairy type, Porygon2 of all Pokémon was the main go-to for dealing with dragons, possessing the ability to copy their abilities as well as withstand the amount of damage they deal, leaving surreal images of a two-foot-tall toy duck taking down a seven-meter-tall serpent.
      • Sylveon was the first Fairy-type Pokémon revealed and the face of the type when it was introduced. In fanart, it's often depicted as having a fierce and violent disposition against Dragon-types, at odds with its pink, frilly appearance.
      • The Alolan variant of Ninetales is both an Ice- and Fairy-type. This makes it immune to and ridiculously strong against Dragon types.
  • Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall:
    • Adrian Vauclair is a renown dragonslayer, having created a superweapon the Luftwaffe used to shoot down and kill the dragon Feuerschwinge during the event known as Dragonfall. Much of the game's story involves finding the dragonslayer, as the dragon he supposedly "slew" looks to be making a return. The truth is somewhat more complex, and Vauclair, as it turns out, is planning to up his game from one-time almost-slayer to "guy who single-handedly genocided the dragon race off the face of the Earth", a plan you're expected to try to prevent.
    • Dieter is a Dragonslayer shaman and a punk rocker who has spent his life fighting racism and people who try to keep down Berlin's anarchists. He can occasionally be seen communing with his mentor about whom he should be picking a fight with next. His personal quest involves taking him to defeat a Berlin chapter of Humanis, a human supremacist group, who is attempting to douse Berlin in nerve toxins to kill off its non-human population.
    • The end of the game can see the Berlin crew enter the dragonslaying club themselves by putting down Feuerschwinge for good, though at that point it is practically a Mercy Kill considering what Vauclair did to her. It says something that both Dieter and the Dragonslayer will support talking her out of suicide and letting her go instead, since both of them consider her the victimized party.
  • Your Knight in The Sims Medieval can become one in the Quest "The Dragon of [Kingdom Name]", complete with a dragon-slaying sword named Wyrmslayer.
  • Red's Fantasy set card in South Park: Phone Destroyer is Dragonslayer Red, whose card art depicts her having just decapitated a dragon with a huge battle axe. And if one of her voicelines is any indication, she eats them too.
  • Titan Quest: Essence of Sigurd's Courage references The Saga of the Volsungs, and Sigurd the dragon slayer:
    Sigurd the dragon slayer was the hero of the Völsung clan, famous for his bravery and ambition.
  • At one point in The Tower of Druaga, Gilgamesh must slay an enemy called Quox, who is essentially a dragon, even if Quox is never specifically referred to as such.

    Visual Novels 
  • When the dragon shows up on Earth in Dra+Koi, a dragonslayer instantly shows up to fight her. It has no other purpose than slaying the dragon. It's actually just a suit of armor and a weapon to be used by the real hero, who is the real dragonslayer. The person wielding it is called the dragon slayer or the hero: They have no name given.
  • The Nasuverse has multiple instances of Heroic Spirits whose legends are defined by having killed dragons, such as Siegfried, Sigurd, Beowulf, Saint Georgios, and Saint Martha. Several of them are so renowned for it that they've gained abilities that allow them to better kill or subjugate dragons or those with Dragon Ancestry.
  • Neron the paladin in Sword Daughter became a legend by slaying the blue dragon Slag, and a temple was built in his honor. Turns out that Slag's less dead than legend would have you believe, but Tyrna and Gavin can finish the job.

    Webcomics 
  • In Dragon Mango:
    • Dragonslayers are an actual species. They are humanoids with random unusual features similar to dragons and have natural magical abilities. They are the only species innately strong enough to stand up to dragons. In truth, they are dragons, who decided to secretly shapeshift into human-like forms, befriend humans, integrate into human civilization, and use humans as easy meal tickets by protecting them from their kin.
    • There is also a human named Steen Dragonsbane who has made it his life's mission to wipe them out. Defeating a dragon is believed to be a near-impossible feat for a human, but thanks to his Super-Strength, years of experience in their weaknesses, and the weapons he has made from their corpses, he has killed quite a few.
  • El Goonish Shive:
    • When a dragon shows up, Noah proudly proclaims, "I will slay the dragon." It's clear that he would have easily been able to defeat it, except it's actually a summoned monster receiving an immense amount of power from an outside source, allowing it to heal from any injury.
    • Magus was training to fight dragons and other monsters before he got trapped in the main world. The way he talks about it, it seems like magic and monsters are so common in his world that the job is more like being a firefighter than a mythical hero.
  • Gunnerkrigg Court plays with it. The official protector of the Court is called the Dragon Slayer, but James Eglamore — the current Dragon Slayer — admits that it's a rather misleading title. Dragons are rare enough — if not outright extinct — that they don't require much slaying these days. Nevertheless, there's little doubt that Eglamore could take on a dragon if necessary: he defeats a Rogat Orjak (technically not a dragon, but very dragon-ish all the same) in an early chapter.

    Web Original 
  • The lore of Twitch Plays Pokémon granted this title to AATTVVV (a.k.a. All-Terrain Venomoth) after it unexpectedly managed to take out Lance's Dragonite while 30 levels weaker than it. Most of this can be chalked up to Artificial Stupidity in Generation I (Venomoth is weak to Psychic attacks, Agility is a Psychic but non-damaging move, so the Dragonite spent the fight trying to Agility him to death), but dragonskin is still terrain.

    Western Animation 
  • Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender is famed in story for slaying the last dragon left in the world, earning the title Dragon of the West. Really, however, he lied and left the last of the dragons alive, and only claimed to have killed them so they could live in peace.
  • The Hunstclan from American Dragon: Jake Long are a cult, dedicated to the killing of magical creatures, but especially dragons. High ranking members even wear the skulls of dragons that they have killed as helmets.
  • The TV show Dragons: Riders of Berk, a Sequel Series of How to Train Your Dragon, introduces the Dragon Hunters, who capture and often kill dragons for profit and sport.

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