by Paul Cude
Throughout the history of its race, the dragon contingent had never suffered so much. And this was just the beginning. It wouldn't be long before the humans on the surface followed in their footsteps.
'Lightweights,' she thought, as the laminium dagger held tightly in her right hand swiped across the throat of her first dragon attacker, spewing brilliant green blood in nearly every direction. Evidently they'd fully expected her to retreat and had been taken totally by surprise when instead she'd sped towards them. Deep inside her head, she just tutted at their naivety, wondering how many more of them she could take before their sheer numbers overwhelmed her. Turning on a sixpence, she reversed the dagger's blade in her hand, before using a smidgen of its power to plunge it into the eye socket of the next dragon to set upon her, skipping nimbly out of the way of the sweeping sword blade that had been hell bent on cleaving her in two. With two taken out in quick succession, her inherent cockiness threatened to raise its ugly head, but this was neither the time nor the place, something that quickly became apparent as another five dark dragons stalked towards her.
Approaching the human female that they'd just seen murder two of their own, a cautious apprehension abounded across their telepathic link. Their leader, the biggest brute of the lot, immediately ordered them to spread out in an effort to outflank and overwhelm the tricky human form in front of them.
Sucking up the power bound in the laminium of the dagger, the thought of letting the weapon fall into the hands of these dragons tore at every part of her being. They'd be unstoppable, able to destroy whole dragon communities in an instant. She just couldn't let it happen, and despite having always ignored the odds before, particularly on the lacrosse field, five against one, here and now, looked almost impossible to overcome. Seeing no way out and, slightly more significantly, no way to either hide or destroy the precious weapon she was carrying, the fear causing her hands to shake ever so slightly turned to anger as she chose which of the five would die with her.
In his wildest dreams, he'd never imagined being dropped into a situation like this. The last twenty four hours had been a rollercoaster ride filled with impossible ups and downs. From Australia to Antarctica, the huge battle in the underground cavern, a magical wormhole transporting them half way across the planet in the blink of an eye, and now this. It was all simply mind blowing. Even after Yoyo and the dragon stuck as a human... what was his name? Ah, that's right... FLASH! Even after their warnings that it was a distinct possibility they would all find themselves in the middle of a raging battle, he'd never really believed it. And in all honesty, he still didn't. It seemed like an adrenaline filled dream, being here, cloaked in invisibility, hidden amongst mighty magical beasts, fighting for not just their lives, but the future of the planet. Sprinting for all he was worth, he ducked out of the way of a bright pink salvo of magical missiles, before forwards rolling back to his feet, no mean feat for any dragon at any time, let alone in the middle of a hard fought, pitched conflict. Upright once again, all the time heading in the direction of the young human shaped woman surrounded and massively outnumbered, backed up in the furthest part of the chamber, Hillier scanned the scene in front of him, nervously looking for just the tiniest thing out of place. THERE! The outline of a massive marble pillar, had, for just an instant... rippled! Impossible to spot unless you were looking for it, the off-the-cuff young dragon recognised the imprint of the suit twinned to the one he was currently wearing. Identifying where his friend and colleague Zebediah was headed gave him the exact knowledge he needed. Not sorry at all that he'd stopped to help save the huge battle dragon from the twisted blade that had threatened to decapitate her, he did at least feel a little guilty about slipping up the suit's mask and showing her his face. Throughout the years, he'd always been a little bit of a show off, but that had mainly been a front to hide the insecurities he'd always felt. Speeding around the opposite side of the semi circle of dreaded monsters that were almost upon the human shaped dragon, to where he assumed Zebediah was located, he picked a mantra from the top of a huge list at the front of his brain and prepared to set loose the magic he hoped would turn the tide of a very one sided encounter.
Without hesitation, she'd chosen. The three in the middle had been her pick, knowing that if she harnessed all the power she could absorb from the dagger, there would be a pretty good chance that she could take all three of them from this world. It would, of course, leave her exposed to an attack from the outer two, but this was no longer her concern. Her willpower was now fully focused on doing the maximum damage to the maximum number of opponents, no matter what the cost to her. Take as many out as possible, lessen the odds for her friends after she'd gone, this was all she could do. And so in a blurring whirl of blade and magic, she danced directly into the centre of her surrounding attackers and, reciting one of her favourite mantras, opened herself fully to the mystical energy within her. A surgical strike of emerald tendrils spat from her hand, tearing the middle dragon's throat apart in an instant, smouldering smoke filling the gaping hole where a split second earlier his Adam's apple had been. One down, three to go.
Sneaking up on the left hand outer dragon in the line of five that were all about to attack the human shaped dragon, briefly he wondered why she hadn't reverted to her prehistoric natural form. In his mind it made little sense to stay like that; in fact he'd go as far to say it was total and utter suicide, for most beings anyway. Through the madness on his way over here, he'd glimpsed the tiniest bit of what she could do, and if that's what she had in her locker, than there was at least half a chance her life could be saved, but only if Hillier were close by. Not daring to think of the consequences should his friend be elsewhere, he ignored the hastened drum beat of his heart and prepared to strike.
Rewarded with just the tiniest hint of pleasure as her first victim crashed to the ground in front of her, she knew not to dither as her fight was about to get close up and personal, and by then she had to have taken out at least one other enemy. This time, choosing the kind of assault that was abhorrent to almost all dragons, her magic mentally probed the beast to the left of his fallen comrade, as she looked at it. Enhanced and enriched by the power from within the laminium, time slowed as her brain's reaction sped up. Part of her magic poked and prodded her next target and surprisingly, to her anyway, it found the tiniest of unprotected gaps in the dragon's personal shield. Instantly taking advantage, her power trickled through the breach and fought its way immediately into the prehistoric monster's brain. With the hardest part done, and Richie all the time travelling towards her next target, it was just a question of what mantra to use next. Usually one for finesse, she knew that now it was a question of practicality, and how much magic to use was totally and utterly irrelevant, given that she was inundated in that department thanks to the vicious weapon she wielded in front of her. Choosing a minor explosive mantra and adding just a little of her willpower to the mix, she rattled off the words inside her head. BOOM! The dragon in question had no idea what hit it, dying instantly, its brain quite literally exploding as it ran.
Two down, with the other three almost within touching reach of her famed laminium dagger, she gave herself over to the magic within as time resumed its normal course, and hoped to take out at least one more of the dreadful, dark warriors.
Fighting wasn't really his thing, and so terrified out of his skin at what was going on around him, Hillier racked his brain for something suitable to assault the dragon he assumed was his to take out. Momentarily flustered, the best he could come up with was a devilish blinding bomb created from pure fire magic, which he threw right into the face of his very surprised target. BAM! It wasn't a huge explosion, as it hadn't been designed that way. Nevertheless it was effective, as a cloud of splintered fiery fragments peppered the beast's face and eyes, effectively rendering him blind and out of the fight for the time being. Pleased with his work, the young dragon weighed up whether to attack another dragon, or finish off the blinded flailing one that he'd just put out
of commission.
Most of his young friends had their quirks, or favourite things. That included the type of magic they preferred to use when casting mantras or spells. For Zebediah it would have to have been tricky hexes that would confound or confuse. Hillier he knew preferred to dabble in anything fire based. For him, he'd always been attracted to anything either cold, or magnetic, and during his sparring sessions with Yoyo's other young dragons, had developed a vast array of spells based on these two core elements. While he knew he could do some limited damage to the dragon in front of him with many of the magnetic mantras that were his stock in trade, almost certainly the situation called for use of his cold spells. Dragons' general susceptibility to cold gave him a much better chance of taking out this one swiftly, something he was keen to do, given the fact that he had no idea if his teammate was out there stalking about in an effort to help the cause of the young human female shaped dragon. Without any further ado, he embraced all his magic, targeted his willpower and voiced the words in his mind, watching, satisfied, as a thin sheet of ice started to form at the sides of the scaly monster's head.
Having taken down the other two with magic, it was now time to use the perfect weapon she found herself armed with. In a fleeting slip of concentration, her thoughts turned back to the point at which she'd led the humans deep into the dragon domain and had stumbled, quite by accident, across the master mantra maker in his huge, prehistoric form. It wasn't quite by accident though, as he'd revealed moments later. A vision had taken him there and then, hoping to meet up with their merry little band. Her delicate little mouth threatened to break out into a smile at the thought of Gee Tee handing out terrific weapons to each and every one of her friends... the paralysing water backpack for Hook, an array of grenades for the others, and most unbelievably of all, the mystical and futuristic Fu-ts'ang for Janice. On seeing all this, the wily old shopkeeper had kidded her on that he'd forgotten anything for her, when reality couldn't have been further from the truth, having placed her with what could only be described as one of the finest weapons in the course of dragon history. Exquisitely balanced, finely honed and charged with more power than most developed countries, fighting with it had been an honour, and had boosted her abilities beyond belief. But it could only do so much, and so, almost out of options, she surged forward and with a cunning roll off to one side right at the very last moment, ducking under the fizzing, sparkling blade that had looked to hack her in two, she bounced up back onto her feet. Knowing perfectly well where her target would be, she thrust the elegant dagger straight into the beast's weak spot, with no choice but to leave her back exposed, waiting for the inevitable deadly assault. No fuss, no goodbyes, there was just acceptance. As the hulking brute crumpled to the ground, its mouth barely able to form any sort of response to what had just happened in the lightning quick attack, the young lacrosse player struggled to work out why she was still standing. Slowly turning around, her surprise was palpable... and this from a being not easily perplexed. Looking up at the monster in front of her, memories of what she'd done to Casey threatened to overrun her. Only seconds before, the dragon who had been powering towards her at a charge, intent on ending her life, was now covered from head to toe in a layer of thick, white frost.
'What the hell?' she thought. Odder still was that the dragon on the other side that she hadn't dealt with, was writhing around on the floor, clutching at his face, flames streaming from his mouth in every direction. Part of her thought she was dreaming, that perhaps she'd been struck down and this was somehow the first step towards the afterlife, not that she believed in such a thing. Quickly, it became apparent that this was not the case.
Watching the bewildered human female wondering just how she'd survived, Hillier and Zebediah both had exactly the same idea at exactly the same time. In an instant, the both lifted up the masks on their camouflaged suits, revealing big smirks zigzagging across both their scaly faces. For her part, Richie jumped back startled, brandishing the dagger about in front of her.
"Whoa, whoa..." shouted Zebediah over the ringing of weapons clashing, masonry exploding, and magic tearing through the air.
"It's alright," piped up Hillier. "We're with Yoyo. He sends his regards. Good hunting."
And with that, the two of them slipped down their masks, their features rippling into invisibility, leaving only a very stunned Richie. Mind blown, she turned around and assessed where she could best be of use. A whisper in her mind gave her cause for concern. The two dark dragons left here had still not been properly dealt with and could potentially rejoin the fight at some point much further in the future. Disgusted with herself on some base level, she knew, as with Casey, she had little choice but to do what could best be described as practical. Seconds later they were no longer a threat, and with yet another stomach churning deed completed, only one of many so far, she gripped the hilt of the dagger tight, and set off at a sprint to see where she could best make a difference.
Deflecting an array of poison spores back in the direction of her assailant from just above the circle of what was left of her force, Amelia Battlehard caught a glint of blurred movement, below and off to her left. Drifting down to the ground, surrounded by her overrun force, she watched as one of the individuals she felt so responsible for smashed the hilt of his stolen sword up against the jaw of his attacker, stunning him momentarily, before ramming the dark, deadly blade as far into his chest as it would go, directly piercing his perceived weak spot. Normally this would have been enough. But not here, not now... not against THEM!
"DAMN!" she cursed, having warned each and every one of them about the deceptive weak spots some of these dastardly foes were able to create. To be honest, it shouldn't really be an issue. Things had changed so much over the last fifty years or so, with the fantastical weapons their human charges had invented with a view to killing everything in their way. A hundred years ago, nothing their charges had would have even scratched them, but now that was so not the case. Barely a day went by that another different and more effective machine gun didn't roll off the production line, capable of firing armour piercing bullets. All of her kind knew not to mess with those. One or two had over the years, ending up brutally slain. And that's what made this whole 'weak spot' business so totally and utterly absurd. Modern, much younger dragons knew little, and cared even less about it. Dragons of a certain age, who had all been through the same training, were far too focused on where the weak spot was when fighting another of their ilk, and even though instructed otherwise in this case, prehistoric ingrained urges were inclined to run riot. She was only too aware how easy it was, in the heat of pitched battle, to throw all rational thinking totally out of the window. Directing her thoughts straight at her comrade, she screamed telepathically for him to watch out! But before he'd had a chance to realise exactly what was going on, the despicable dark dragon, having feigned death briefly, brought his brute of a tail around, smashing it viciously into the side of the King's Guard's face, toppling him to the ground. Instantly Amelia spat out a vicious streak of blue tinged flame in his direction in the hope of at least creating a momentary distraction and buying her brother in arms a few more valuable seconds. But that's not how it panned out. With the sword still buried in his chest, clearly not suffering from a fatal blow, the prehistoric monster stamped on his enemy and, in one very swift and calculated move, dragged his long, razor sharp, curved talons down the length of the body below him, exposing all the organs within, letting loose a fountain of dull green blood.
RAGE stoked her primal instincts at the sight of yet another one of her force lost, and it should have been preventable... that's what hurt her the most. Exploiting the killer's momentary lack of concentration as he tried to remove the blade he'd been impaled with, the dazzling captain launched herself in his direction, on him in but a moment. Realising just how costly his mistake was, he flapped his wings, trying fervently to take to the air. But to no avail. Amelia Battlehard had gotten right up close and personal, too close in fact t
o launch any kind of magical attack. Panic stricken, the monster's head flailed about in an attempt to head butt his surprise attacker, but the thoroughly riled Captain had other ideas entirely. With one swift kick that totally blew apart his kneecap, Amelia Battlehard gave in to the unthinkable, knowing that she had to finish things fast. Ignoring the howls of agony she'd just induced, just a little afraid of the repercussions of what she was about to do, her jaws opened as wide as dragonly possible and, moving them either side of her enemy's neck, she clamped down with all her might, rallying against the stomach-churning urge to be sick. As needle sharp, pointed teeth carved through scale, bone, cartilage and muscle, her will dissolved. Pulling back, having not quite severed the dragon's head from its body, a foaming brown nausea spewed everywhere. Shaking her giant jaws from side to side, ridding herself of the last of it, watching the monster of a corpse crash to the ground, the shaken but not stirred captain launched herself back into the air, once again taking up her place up above the circle, urging her comrades to close ranks and tighten up, all the time looking to protect them from above.
