Ruby Dragon (Final Fantasy VIII)

Ruby Dragon is an enemy and a boss in Final Fantasy VIII. Devouring a Ruby Dragon permanently raises the character's HP by 10. Squall and the party must fight two Ruby Dragons if they are to retrieve the Guardian Force Bahamut in the Deep Sea Research Center. Ruby Dragons are also fought as random encounters in Centra forests near Edea's Orphanage and on Island Closest to Hell and Ultimecia Castle.

A Ruby Dragon is fought during a particular Laguna dream sequence. While shooting a movie at Vienne Mountains (with Laguna as the protagonist), a Ruby Dragon wanders onto the set in place of Kiros in a dragon suit. Both Laguna and the director mistake the dragon for Kiros, remarking how realistic the "costume" is. Upon realizing the dragon is real the director flees, leaving Laguna to fend it off with a gunblade before fleeing himself, only to encounter, battle and defeat it alongside Kiros a minute later.

The player can have Ward Zabac in this scene only if they don't read the Timber Maniacs magazine in Shumi Village in Squall's time before the flashback takes place, but Ruby Dragons are known to be easier with only two party members, as then they don't use their devastating Breath attack.

Battle
The Breath attack is non-elemental and physical in nature, so its damage can be halved with Protect and defended against by junctioning a high-level spell in Vitality, such as Meltdown. Ruby Dragon will only use Breath if all three party members are alive. Same goes for Meteor and Firaga. So if there is at least one dead character, the dragon quickly loses its potential as a dangerous enemy (it will simply start casting Fira and Aero then, even at higher levels).

It will cast Reflect on itself if one of the party members is also reflected.

Strategy
It is susceptible to Sleep, which can be exploited. Irvine is useful to have around against a sleeping Ruby Dragon, as his Limit Break, Shot, doesn't count as a physical attack and thus will not wake it up.

Demi is another good move to use while it's sleeping. Ruby Dragon can also be defeated instantly with Quistis's Degenerator or Selphie's Rapture and The End Slots spells. The GF Diablos is very effective, as it can deal up to 9999HP damage at once.

Pictlogica Final Fantasy
Ruby Dragon from Final Fantasy VIII appears as an enemy in Pictlogica Final Fantasy.

Etymology
In this instance, the word ruby refers to the dragon's color.

Rubrum-Drache (FFVIII) RubRumDragon