its not that dragon is hard its that you either dont have the right skills dont use them right or you dont do the quest properly i personally found it impossible without dragon spirit and then a good strategy would be to kill the nest towers (The Biggest Towers on the floating rock) and then back off from everything kill the flying things heal then chase down the bastillas
1.Never stop Moving
2.Always lock-on target
Follow those rule and you should survive also if you find yourself overwhelmed get the dragon burst it should help.

Where i come from ascesion to a higher rank is a simple assasination those who are Ranked Highest watch their Front their deaths come from thier back and they die naturally because a dagger in the back naturallyu ends their life.

I am not a safe place