Pounding Heart

24 : The Battle

     I glared at Dilarox through the heavy downpour. It was not unlike the Shadow Sea. With a grin, I twisted around in the air and dove beneath her. She looked around in a frantic hunt, and I blasted myself upwards and knocked her off her balance.

     With a frustrated few wing beats, her deadly glare locked onto me and was prepared for my next attack. She slipped to the side, just out of my grasp, and whipped her tail out. The blade caught my side, and I cried out.

     She flexed her talons and sliced my leg. I tried to push her off, but she clamped her talons down on my scales and held on, slashing and snarling at me.

     The weight disappeared as Daniik shot through the sky and rammed her away from me. She regained her flying rhythm, and charged back over.

     My stomach burned and it spread up my throat. I opened my jaws and released a blast of black fire. In the darkness of the stormy night, Dilarox could not see it well. She screamed as the flames grazed her dangling feet, before flying higher to get away.

     She roared and fire erupted from her own mouth, but golden in color. I countered it with my own fire. The two collided, myself on the bottom and Dilarox on top. The colors swirled together, as if the gold and black were battling on their own against the other.

     The exploding white fire that was between us began to get closer to me, as Dilarox had the higher ground - er, higher air. I strained to look forward as the light was blinding.

     Silver and green zipped around in the corner of my eye. Nota was grinning with crazed battle excitement and Kintes was... oh who am I kidding? His usual dreamy self.

     Nota shot past, and spat molten metal onto our foe. Dilarox made a horrible gurgling cry, trying desperately to claw the molten substance off her scales. Her paws here burnt and blistering. Light elementals were not meant for extreme temperatures like Fire elementals.

     "Why you little-" she began, before Kintes spun around and slapped her face to the side with his tail. She faced back front, her face turning red with rage.

     "Zepth!" Daniik cried, looking up at the clouds with fear. They were crackling with electricity, and it would only be moments before we were inside a lightning storm. Flying through lightning definitely didn't sound fun, and I wasn't eager to try.

     Dilarox continued thrashing around in the rain, not thinking clearly anymore. The anger of being attacked was clearly making her insane.

     "Fight me yourself, you coward!" She flung her head to the sides, throwing water off. "Fight me your self-"

BOOM

     A single bolt of pure electricity exploded from the clouds, hitting the screaming dragon smack center. The light traveled through her, and touched all the way down to the floor below.

     Her perfect white and gold scales were now blackened and charred. She simply blinked at me. For a moment, she was a child, wanting nothing more than to please her mother.

     But that faded, for as she stopped flapping her wings and started to fall, she pulled a single silver object out. With the last drop of life she had, she spun the dagger towards me, and disappeared into the blackness below.

     I froze. The dagger Queen Hyla had pulled from the box, those years ago... it was the same dagger that Dilarox threw to me now.

     The blade glinted the flashing lightning in the distance, and I didn't even try to stop it. Maybe it should come to me... maybe I am not the great protector I should be...

     But a dragon swung his wings down with such might, that they sailed through the rain, between me and my death.

     Everyone of us faced downwards and dove to catch Kintes from the sky, dagger plunged into his chest.