(SW of Celen's Fall) Hunting to Kill (17th Board)

Although Celen and his dragon were ancient beings, and had not had opponents to fight against for many years, they held up well against the dragons of Maledictus Eice. But not even they could stand forever against a hoard of wild dragons mad for some prize they did not understand. With one clubtail under his dragon’s feet, the other shoving hard against its side to unbalance further, there was a moment of teetering unsteadiness, then it finally lost all balance. The chamber seemed to shake with the force of it as the dragon crashed down onto its side, tail swinging through the air and head smashing down on the stone floor.

Celen had been being attacked from all sides atop his perch, his sword swinging as the scythe claw set to with all he had behind him. Blood splashed heavily across him and on his saddle, enough to kill the dragon in time even if Celen did not deal another blow now. There was no help for it down here, unless its companions came swiftly to its aid.
Dyavol’s attack came in quickly too, although by fortune- or following misfortune- it didn’t hit for the lurch of his dragon underneath him. The tear dragon lingering underneath was lucky if she wasn’t crushed underneath by either Celen’s mighty beast or the rampaging clubtails. Celen himself went flying from his saddle at the impact of the floor, spinning across the stones and only barely managing to keep his sword in hand, throwing up a desperate shield of magic over the doorway to where the lightning stone was. His whole existence was to keep that safe and protected.

Fenrir was showered by a myriad of small rocks and pieces of the walls that suddenly started crumbling down from the ceiling as the large dragon crashed to the floor under the combined strength of the attacking dragons.

Howling in a mix of fury and pain, Fenrir tried to shield himself from the worst of the rocks but wasn’t quite sure how he should accomplish this as there was no shelter anywhere in sight. He continued bleeding all over the floor from his wounds and after this latest connection with the floor, he could feel one of his wings being damaged and there may be a broken bone or two somewhere down the middle of his body.

But all of that didn’t matter. He didn’t need his wings to fight, or even to bite, and now that the large dragon was on the floor, he was fair game.
Roaring, Fenrir scrambled back onto his feet and rushed back into the fray as quickly as he could with his somewhat scraped body.
Blood! He wanted blood! He needed blood!
Retribution for every pain that had ever been caused him and any other of the dragons surrounding him.
Revenge on this dragon for standing in their way and for defying the might that was the Maledictus Eice! No one could withstand them! They were meant to rule and they would rule!

Fenrir didn’t care about the human, though he would get his. In time. No, the wolf dragon made a bee line for the downed traitor and ferociously bit into the beast’s leg, drawing blood instantly, not caring that the scales were scraping his mouth bloody. The dragon would pay for what it had done! Dragons were the superior race! They should never bow down to humans, they should never allow a human to even think about riding a dragon!
Traitor!!

Rintho glanced down as he sensed the spirit disappear, back into its little protective pebble had made for it. Soon, it would have all the lightning energy it could hope for...Rintho of course, was unaware that it also may not wish to leave that, or whatever might happen to it; his other concerns were rather bigger.
The madness of the maledictan killing frenzy were clear, and their dogged determination like a wolf pack on the stag, the new coordination that they had, made for a vicious sight. He could see them having formed an arch of continuously biting and leaping dragons, clambering to have a piece at the behemoth, and then he watched as the clubtail leaders slammed into it amongst others.

The cavern thundered and groaned, his eyes shot up to watch the uppermost ceiling of it, mercifully tough this ancient engineering was. With no time to marvel at it, he lost his balance and put a hand to the wall as the great dragon was felled a feeling of solemn sympathy to the undead man and his dragon...guardians on the cavern.

As this happened he noticed the soft halo of light that was drawn across the great doorway to the chamber, trembled with the falling of the rider, like a spreading of a ripple on a calm pond. Furthermore, there were narrow gaps to the edge of it where rocks had crumbled. This was it, the final part, the entrance to the lightning stone.
Now or never, Rintho seized the moment and scampered over to the edge of the magical shield, dwarfed by the immensity of this shield.
Looking about again, with great reluctance he turned away from the fiasco behind him. It had already dawned upon him that something far greater than himself was happening here. The lightning stone's guardian, and it could only be Celen, was being destroyed and something momentous would occur. That he could do anything, he would...but his magic was so far strained and what could one hope to do against such a bloodthirsty hoard, like nothing he had ever heard of. With a million thoughts competing in his mind for attention, he continued, sliding his hands to touch on the holes of unprotected rock, forcing magic into them with difficulty. The need to use much but also control it next to the lightning stone made it immensely difficult, indeed, he'd already seen many naive dragons quite kill themselves in the process here while daring to use their magic brashly.
With persistence and anxiety, he tore the small holes in the magic wider, forcing them away from the rock to create a large enough gap for him to pass, like a heavy curtain.

Wasting no more time, he finally took the plunge, hauling himself through the gap he had created, and watching as the magic reformed after he was through. That sort of magic, was the mark of somebody far beyond his own caliber...

And then, he looked up from his instinctive gasping, however much he did not need the air. The lightning stone was before him, no greater in height than a scythe claw, no wider than seven feet, but a mass of pure, impenetrable and magically charged rock. A remnant of the arch magician, and his last stone to be created; it was near his final home of Nusfar.

Rintho awed at it, feeling all of his senses tingle with excitement and the charge of magic that threatened to ruin his animation spell entirely if he did not act with the utmost of care.

Last edited by Artemis on Tue Sep 17, 2013 5:58 pm; edited 1 time in total

Jitt had almost had it anyway; when Celen's dragon was toppled, he really didn't stand a chance. Vaguely, he tried to open his wings, but some of those muscles really weren't working right since he'd taken that hit and all that he managed was twitching them a little bit before hitting the ground, hard. Likely the fall alone would have been enough to take away what little consciousness he was retaining, and he wouldn't have woken up again, but just to add insult to injury the colossal dragon landed directly on top of his limp body, snapping off one of his claws. A few limbs and the end of his tail protruded from under the greater dragon's back, but it was clear to anyone who cared to look that this was it for Jitt. Perhaps the best that could be said for his end was that it was quick, if not painless; one second he was still slashing blindly at Celen; the next, he was in freefall; the next, he was dead.

Dragons of Maledictus Eice scattered in all directions to avoid being crushed like Jitt as Anaekileya gave a roar of triumph and they toppled their enemy, ignoring her building fatigue as she hopped from its meaty neck to deliver a hefty smack with her tail as she landed on its ribcage. Mighty as the dragon was, it would have trouble getting back to its feet as dozens of dragons promptly swarmed over its body, another small cluster pouncing on Celen- now accessible for their claws, teeth, acid and other assorted torments. Anae spared a brief glance for the human, only to see him making some sort of gesture at the door with a desperate kind of determination. A horrible suspicion creeping over her, she turned her head sharply, looking almost hawklike as she stood atop the dragon with her wings half-spread. Sure enough, some kind of magical barrier seemed to have been erected over the door. She gave a snarl, swinging her tail and sending a boulder scooting into the traitor dragon's crotch in her annoyance. Swiftly, she called out to the two remaining lightning storms who were jittering about the place in excitement, clearly overcharged on magic. Thankfully, they'd had the sense to restrain themselves from actually using any since a third had killed itself in an instant. The proximity of the stone was apparently just too much. Either way, they weren't doing anything useful, so they may as well go and investigate the barrier- and they might be able to sense something about the stone or the barrier's nature while they were there. After sending them off, Anae returned to her grisly and pleasurable work, leaping back to the neck of Celen's dragon and trying to pin it down while she ripped at the hollow where its jaw met its neck. The dragon was still fighting back and doing damage, of course; it wasn't that feeble. But grounding a dragon was always the first step to defeating it.

Dyavol was furious that he had missed, but when the room stopped spinning around him he managed to see why, and gave a trumpet of joy. The huge dragon was down! He immediately darted down towards the human, who seemed to be doing something Dyavol didn’t understand with the door. He didn’t care – he whizzed towards Cellen, aiming for his right arm to bite and tear at the skin. No human held him like a useless plaything and kept their fingers. He hurtled towards the man, hoping that his frenzied flight would collide with his arm. From there he could reach the throat more easily. He wasn’t going to give up, despite the apparent futility of his line of attack. Besides, the others would be busy with the huge dragon, not worrying about its rider. Most of all he felt left out – even the newcomer has blood on her claws, and he was still clean. The world was wrong when there was no blood on his scales, and he wanted more than anything to fix it.

--

Ocei has blood across most of her face and chest, but stopped her attack as she heard the great beast groan. The room looked like it was shifting, and it took her much too ling to realise that it was actually the huge dragon toppling. She panicked, diving towards the nearest gap between its limbs, but she wasn't quick enough to escape entirely. As the dragon’s huge frame crumbled over her, pain lanced through her hind leg and right wing. She gave a roar – higher and less intimidating than she had intended, but forced herself to keep moving. She pulled her leg free, and tore her wing out from underneath the crushing weight of the fallen dragon roughly. She had been abused by her human for years, so the pain was nothing new to her, but as she crawled out after her narrow escape her wing looked utterly broken. There were red spider-web lines tracking across under the translucent membrane where the bruises would form, and it hung pathetically. She gritted her teeth and hauled it into its place on her back, still high on the adrenaline of the fight, but made herself take a few deep breaths before diving back in. She had helped, but now some of the blood across her was her own, and she needed to gather her senses.

Celen held one hand towards the doorway to the lightning stone as he projected his magic at it, his longsword much more difficult to wield now he was on the ground, without both his hands to hold it if he wished, and without the extra room his dragon afforded him. He had to sheath it away on his back and take a smaller sword from his belt as dragons rushed at him again, rising from his crouch to fight. The fall might have killed a mortal man, but Celen was not like others… although he felt hurt from his heavy landing still. His eyes were on the door until his line of sight was interrupted by intruders, and he had to swing back into fighting. The bigger dragons first, beating them back with his sword and swift cuts that left one gasping on its own blood and another rent open at the front, but it gave that tiny, tenacious butterfly dragon to bear down on him again in its own way, its wings tinkling against his armour as it came close. The only way to brush him away was with his sword, his other hand so occupied with holding up his magical barrier. He swiped out quickly, then had to move as an ebony hunter came forwards with teeth bared.

His dragon writhed on the floor as it was swamped by bloodthirsty dragons suddenly swarming up over its side. The worst was the clubtail, thinking herself so mighty to have downed this ancient beast. With no care for the crushed dragons beneath it, and little more for the clubtail who thought herself so mighty, it slashed out with its barbed tail, whipping it low over its body to clear off the wild fray of dragons laying into its scales. More stood near its legs, too low to be able to smash away or impale on its tail, but it kicked out and rose up to its feet, more fire gushing from its mouth. They would die. Celen needed protection however, it was clear from the wordless mental connection between them that he could not stand against a pack of dragons for long. Not when his magic was directed elsewhere.
It carved a clean swathe of ground through ME as it barrelled towards Celen, smashing dragons out of the way with its front paws, trailing blood but putting itself selflessly between its rider and harm.

Dyavol hadn’t expected to run headlong into a sword. He back-peddled with his wings just seconds after making contact with Cellen’s armour, and managed to get himself above the height of the blade before it rushed through him. He grazed his knee on the blade, leaving what he considered to be a fairly big section of flapping skin (which was really a very tiny cut), but was otherwise unharmed. He flitted round, preparing for another strike, but it didn’t happen. Was that all he was: an annoyance? Not worth the filthy Human’s time? His anger doubled and redoubled again until what was left of his reason was blotted out entirely by the red haze, but before he could try to attack again, the huge dragon was forcing its way towards the man, and Dyavol didn’t want to be in the way of the behemoth’s jaws. He flew up and over the dragon, joining the other dragons, and looked straight ahead. He couldn’t think of anything except possible openings, and barely registered that Jitt had fallen, and the new tear dragon was wounded. A thought came to him as he glared at the enemy dragon, and he darted first upwards, then down and ahead. The mad dive was aimed at the larger dragon’s head – to one side of the great jaws to avoid the teeth (each looking almost as big as Dyavol himself). Dragons had few weak spots, and this creature even fewer, but Dyavol was aiming for a dead-certain weakness. He was aiming for the eye.

Whatever it was the dragon was doing, Fenrir kept his jaws locked, refusing to let go. He was drawing blood now and nothing else mattered anymore. His teeth were firmly set into the flesh of the downed dragon and when the latter suddenly kicked out and pushed up onto his feet, the wolf dragon refused to let go.

For a while at least. Until he noticed that he couldn’t keep his grip without ripping his own teeth out of hurting himself some more. Reluctantly, Fenrir let go, already having been dragged a few steps when the huge dragon crushed everything and everyone in its path in an attempt to get to its rider.

Such a pathetic creature, rushing to the side of a human, to defend a human! Humans were nothing in this world! They should all be extinct, whether old or young and this one certainly fit the bill! How many of his companions had the man already downed? How many injured beyond reason?

Rising onto his feet, ignoring the screaming pain that was rushing through him, the wolf dragon fixed his gaze on the two-legged, the man who was threatening to kill even more of his fellows. That would not do. It simply would not do. Without thinking twice about what it was he was actually doing, Fenrir sprinted towards the human, intent on using his teeth and claws in any way possible.

Last edited by Zay on Wed Sep 18, 2013 5:04 pm; edited 1 time in total

Affording only a quick glance behind him to see the chaos, Rintho then focused himself fully on this wonder. The lightning stone, one of three stones with locations that were either unknown or unreachable...to the common sort of expedition. Maledictus Eice, however, were hardly out for picnic.

The stone itself was a dark and muted yellowy brown, veins ran all through it; sometimes they were shadowy and just like the ordinary rock itself, other times a bright and brilliant golden light would move through them all over the stone. It was what he might have expected, a large thing that appeared to have come up from the earth. Without the strange properties of the glowing veins, one might have mistaken it for just another rock; another feature in any landscape. Far from it.
Rintho steadied himself the best he could, trying to control his nerves, this would require expert control of his magic. It was a well known fact as power of a spell or a channel of magic increased, so it became harder to use it accurately, effectively...without injuring oneself. Beside the lightning stone itself? A formidable task.

The lightning stone was charged with an old and powerful sort of balanced magic; the kind that only came with excelllent skill, he could sense that quite easily and it was not much unlike Celen's, though the concentration of it was far more intense.
Here, he would seek to withdraw some of it into another pebble. Setting the smooth pebble out right beside the base of the stone, and making sure he was to one side of the stone to keep an eye on the dragons, he then spread his palms, attempting to invoke neutral magic to persuade some of the lightning to leave the stone and channel to the pebble.
The moment he began his spell, and even in his great gentleness, he felt a strong and tense coursing of magic in his arm and he cringed for the pain. It was like having burning sand for blood, he imagined.
Growing the power of the spell, his face in a deep grimace, he felt his insides twist strangely as the lightning stone sought to permeate all of himself; and he knew that would surely kill him if it did not act carefuly.

Last edited by Aero on Wed Sep 18, 2013 7:48 pm; edited 1 time in total

The great behemoth's crash filled Vy with a sense of triumph. She had no room to doubt herself in a battle this fierce, but it was a relief all the same to know that this great creature could in fact be bested. She only skittered enough out of the way so as not to be trapped underneath the creature as it fell but bore witness as other smaller dragons who were not so lucky found themselves underneath the hulking dragon.

The fighting was too close-quarters for her to use her tail in a great sweeping crash that would surely shatter the downed dragon's bones while it was in such a helpless position. Her sister had taken place upon the mighty creature's ribcage like a conqueror upon a mountain and Vy was content to support her sister's efforts. A flash of red caught her eye and she noticed that among the chaos the crazy scythe claw Jitt had managed to get himself thoroughly squished. Bitter rage at the destruction their opponent wrought on her followers welled up, and that inbred instinct to protect her fellow dragons was the driving force between her next attack. She leapt on the dragon's hind quarters, clawing for the delicate tendons behind the knees and ankles. She would not allow this dragon up a second time to best her kin, and went to her work trusting that Anae would deal with her end of the dragon and come out victorious.

She saw the tail coming for her too late to do anything about it, only having enough time to brace for impact as the barbed tail crashed into her. Again, she was forced back by the pure strength of the ancient creature, the brief flare of her wounded pride blocking the lancing pain of a puncture wound just behind her foreleg that was now bleeding copiously down her side. Such things could be bothered with later. For now her sights were set on disabling that behemoth once more and so she followed the dragon's retreat in quick pursuit. That's when she noticed it's human rider, the little man fending himself from a horde of her fellows. This dragon was well and truly tamed then, to flee to the defense of its pitiful master. To add insult to injury, the beast was simply ploughing through the other members of Maledicus Eice like they weren't even there!

Following in the path that the dragon had taken, Vy was careful to avoid smashing her falling comrades more than they already had been. Gathering her strength, Vy leapt into the air with her wings tightly tucked against her body. It would seem that she had overshot her target, but she was not aiming for the behemoth anymore. She was going to destroy what it was protecting in penance before finally allowing the creature to die.

Anaekileya was saved the worst of the dragon's tail, crouched down in the crook of its neck as she was, but her wings were protruding enough to get tangled painfully in the mass of prickling spines which grew from the end of their opponent's tail. Thankfully she managed to pull them away before too much damage was done, but that didn't prevent her giving roars of pain and anger as a multitude of small holes were ripped through the leathery skin of her wings, immediately releasing trails of blood from the maze of blood vessels which traced their way throughout her wings. She didn't have much time to waste lingering on her injury, though; before she hardly even knew what had happened, the ancient dragon was climbing back to its feet as if Maledictus Eice were no more than insects. Its strength was unnatural, its endurance likewise; true, she had no experience of beings its size, but surely no normal creature could be so unaffected by all these attacks.

Either way, now was not the time to speculate on exactly how the behemoth functioned; it was making a clear beeline for Celen. The human was so much more vulnerable on foot, exposed to all their attacks, they couldn't allow him to be reunited with his dragon. Their thoughts melding almost into one, Anaekileya bounded before the great dragon even as her sister made for its rider. Still in full motion, as one of her front paws hit the ground she influenced the stone around it to rise up and encase the limb, swinging her hindquarters through the air as she did so to spin a half-turn on the spot and crash down defiantly directly in the larger dragon's path, all four feet firmly planted. She might seem small compared to this giant, but she was still large enough that it couldn't just step over her or brush her aside, especially with the ground itself holding onto her feet and anchoring her as she concentrated on using her magic as finely as she was able.

With Celen now on the ground, it was suddenly much harder to beat away all the dragons attacking. Perched atop his magnificent dragon, he was quite unreachable by most of Maledictus Eice; but now on the ground himself, he was much more vulnerable to all those around. They seemed to twig that he was important too, and he was suddenly swamped by many dragons.
Fenrir posed the first danger, a wolf dragon so consumed by his rage he seemed unstoppable as he charged to rip the man into as many shreds as he could. He had to turn to block the wild dragon the best he could, although he was knocked backwards by the force of it. Keeping his magic stable was more important now, and he took a brutal slashing of claws that would have downed a lesser man, silent except from one cry to his dragon.
“Irael!”

The cry came sharply to the dragon’s ears and he kicked away the few dragons still hanging onto his hindquarters, putting his head down to bull through a path towards his rider. There were too many intruders everywhere however, and before he knew it, there was a sting in one eye and a sudden blurring of his vision. He growled for the annoyance of it and shook his head, blinking his great eyes until the sting disappeared. He ground to a halt as one of the clubtails spun in front of him, his lips drawing back from his jaws in anger. The other had left the attack on him, but was now leaping for Celen… his rider, bound together for so many hundreds of years. His instinct was immediate; his back legs tensed and he too leapt, throwing his weight forwards to smash against the further clubtail in mid-air, pulling away Celen’s magic from the doorway to instead enwrap his precious companion in the thick shield instead. It was enough to batter away the dragons from attacking, but left the doors suddenly wide and unprotected, even as Celen sent frantic thoughts to his dragon to stop this foolishness, protect the stone!

Even with the chaos growing to a pitch beyond him, he maintained his strong hold to the magic of the lightning stone. Using neutral magic was easier than other sort, but that made it no less difficult in the face of such a great threat pounding hard to break through the shield and destroy the guardians. That, and the stone itself was so powerful, he had grown used to at times coming close to the stones closer to settlements, the earth and water stones...Even the wind on occasion, but in the field of lightning...it was all quite new to him.

With a grunt of sustained energy, at last he felt a wrenching within him as his arm jerked back for the pain and he clutched it with his left hand, fingers flexing and curling to push the pure white magic onto the pebble...Coaxing even the smallest fraction from the lightning stone itself...Until finally he dropped his arm and gasped for air.
That was the very best he could do, and there was a very pleasing amount in the pebble; nothing compared to what the lightning stone held, but more than enough for him. A shame that it was a complete ignoramus demanding that he hand it over; but stealing it back could not be so hard...pretending it were an accident.

With that done he breathed for a few moments, exhausted by the effort, but crashing and rolling beyond the shield made him stare ahead with widened eyes and he scrambled to his feet unevenly. Until at last the shield failed and he audibly gasped in fear, dashing (as best as he could in his weakened state, far more a lively limp than a run) from the lightning stones chamber. He dived away from the entrance rushing so as not to become encircled by frenzied dragons.

She should have known better, but Anae had expected that Celen's dragon would at least be impeded by her stand; instead, it bunched itself up and made a tremendous leap, its trajectory set for it to fly right over the clubtail's head. She wasn't about to give in that easily, though. She didn't know how well she'd be able to fly with the holes in her wings, but she wouldn't need them just to jump. The clubtail breed's infamous strength came into play as Anaekileya leapt into the air, stretching up with her forelegs to sink talons into the giant dragon's underbelly- or at least disrupt its flight a little.

Meanwhile, the lightning storms had made their way to the barrier- only to see it dissipate before them just as they arrived. Almost incoherent with excitement, they rushed through the archway, screeching to a halt dangerously close to the lightning stone. Only the memory of their fallen comrade kept them from reaching out to its allure with magic; instead they circled the stone with tails twitching, chittering in awe. After a few moments, they regained enough sense to pull themselves away and stand guard in the archway; though how they could defend against another magical shield, they didn't know. All they could do was wait for their leaders to come and investigate and try not to give in to the temptation to use their magic.

Dyavol backed off as soon as the huge dragon’s eyelids snapped shut, batting him away, but his tail-spikes were already sticky. That was more like it! He studied his work, breaking into a dark grin, before backing off quickly as Celen’s dragon launched into action. Being in the air gave him a good vantage point over the whole scene, but the door, surrounded by its flicker purple magic, caught his attention almost immediately. As he watched, the magic vanished, and the lightning storm dragons amongst their company spilled into the cavern beyond. Keeping a tentative eye on Celen in case he played some dirty two-leg trick, he flitted towards the doorway and ducked inside. There, he froze.

The lightning stone. The magic radiating from it was palpable, and almost knocked him out of the air at first. He possessed little magic himself, and even he could feel the sheer power of the stone. It was hard to believe that the lightning storm dragons could stand to be so close to it. But it smelt of human – smelt of the Arch Mage and his magic. The clubtail sisters had told them it was there to control and restrict dragon magic, and their word alone was enough to stir up a deep sense of anger within it. But he couldn’t do anything without their say-so, so he turned his back on the glowing artefact and forced himself out of the cavern. The fight was still their priority, he had to remember these things.

--

Oceianna couldn’t bring herself to stand and watch as the huge dragon vaulted back towards his captor (for she knew too much of humans to accept that the human may be anything more than that). Her wing was clenched painfully tightly against her side, but her limp wasn’t so bad that she couldn’t charge. She rushed towards Anae and the huge dragon, targeting the huge dragon’s tail as he jumped. She could no longer fly for a sustained period, but using her uninjured wing she managed to lift herself to the height of the base of his tail, and stretched out her claws to attack. This creature could not be allowed to regain his strong stature – they had already lost Jitt, and their strength would only last so long. Why couldn’t these people just do the decent thing and get out of their way?! She would never understand such a powerful dragon defending a human so bitterly.

She saw the dragon jump before the scales of his back brushed the underside of her tail as she soared overhead, threatening to tip her forwards as she leapt. Vy almost lost her balance, snapping her wings half out to maintain some stability and came down hard on the unexpected protective bubble that now encased her target. Her claws slipped off the smooth surface of the barrier and she crashed with all of her weight against it, knocking the breath out of her and sending a spike of pain through her shoulder blade where all of the impact was focused. She feared that she had dislocated it upon impact, but perhaps not as it held her weight when she gingerly set it on the ground to recover from the blow.

Roaring in fury, Vy firmly planted her claws, sinking partially into the solid stone and swung her massive tail at the barrier protecting her prey. Jagged stone projected from the floor opposite her tail as she swung, bustling against the other side of the barrier. There would be no simple slide away from her strike. Vy would pound that barrier away with everything she was capable of until the biped laid crushed upon the floor.

Total chaos erupted all around the wolf dragon and Fenrir didn’t know where up or down was anymore. Nor was he sure he was still standing on his own two feet or floating through the air. His head felt like a big pile of red-tainted and bloodlusty fluff. His anger was still there but somehow it was put on hold by the confusion that was racing through his body like electric energy.

What on earth is going on?!

One moment he had been charging and tackling the big man, the next he was feeling as though he had been fried by energy. All around him the fighting was still going on, just as frenzy as before, but Fenrir felt as though he was not quite part of it anymore. His rage was slowly subsiding, replaced by a terrifying yet enchanting pull towards the next chamber. The lightning storm dragons were already dancing closer towards the entrance the man and his dragon had previously concealed.

Shaking his head, even more confused, the wolf dragon tried to ignore the sights presented to him. It had to be a dream.
No, he was just lying on the ground somewhere, knocked out after his clash with the warrior, and he was now dreaming, imagining things.
The lightning storms were glowing!
What was even crazier, Fenrir himself was glowing along with them, drifting in the same direction as well. He wanted to resist, he wanted to get back into the fight. The dragons of Maledictus Eice did not desert each other! But he couldn’t refuse the seductive song the stone beyond the entrance way was singing to him. It was a deadly and dangerous song, but it was so enticing, Fenrir couldn’t react in any other way.

Filled with energy, and crackling more and more with every step he took, the yellow bits of his scales seeming as though they were reflecting sunlight and thus illuminating the cave even more, Fenrir could feel the magic within him starting to light up dangerously, like a fuse ready to blow at a moment’s notice.

Celen’s dragon landed messily on the ground from the attack he came under from all sides as he leaped, trying to throw the clubtail off her trajectory that would have crushed his rider under her paws. It was hardly effective from where she landed anyway, but he saw as she came down hard on the ground in an awkward posture. He felt claws rake against his scales, but they did not detain him for long, the pain fading quickly. The perk of being a lich, one might call it. The joint shredding power of a clubtail and a tear dragon on his hindquarters did him no favours however, and he was slower to move at least at first now towards Celen within his protective bubble.

The man himself was shaken within his shield as Vythiweiah smashed her tail repeatedly against it, holding the magic strong now that Irael had put it around him. He could feel the weight of it though, and with the lightning stone open to attack and Lightning Storms gathering around it like moths to a flame, tension was rising.
His dragon would not abandon him however, and although he had not landed so close as the clubtail was, he was quick to come to his aid, roaring and charging forwards with all of his power behind his stride to knock the dragon away. Their mindlink was powerful as they moved together, Celen pressing against the edge of his shield bubble until Irael had come to his aid, charging from the spot as his shield was dropped, towards the lightning stone once more. There was a line of dragons in his way, but by his friend the Arch Mage’s power, that would not stop him.

Despite even feeling her knife-like claws sink through the comparatively soft belly-scales of the dragon, it seemed to Anaekileya that it felt nothing. Hissing in rage at this cheating of death, she continued to claw at his hindquarters; but to no avail. Twisting away and landing heavily on the stone floor, she watched for a second with raised hackles as Celen and his dragon stared intently at each other, clearly planning something.

But while the pair might have had thousands of years of boredom to work on their unity, Anae and Vy had been linked almost since their hatching. When the two guards of the stone had been twiddling their thumbs or adding to the mural on the tunnel's walls, the clubtails had been fighting for their lives. While it was undoubtedly the only field the two duos were matched in, they were certainly equals on that front. It was about all Anae could do not to make for the dragon again as he charged her sister, but at a mental urging from the other clubtail she instead took a few leaping bounds to place herself directly before Celen, the assembled power of Maledictus Eice at her tail to aid in blocking the man from the stone. Magical and undying he might have been, but that didn't mean he was able to teleport to the other side of a line made up of dragons whose sole intent was to kill him. Dropping into a hunting crouch, Anaekileya prepared to crush the little man- and so what if his sword cut her paw in the process? A little piece of steel would not allow him to stand against the full strength and wrath of a clubtail, of that she was certain.

Do not let the rat get away! The roar of denial was an unconscious cry to her sister, the message passing between them with a flick of thought. The words escaped her mind only a second before she looked over her shoulder and saw the lich dragon charging right for her. There was no getting out of its way, not with her forepaws planted so firmly in the ground as they were. The crack of dragon scales ramming together was loud to Vy's ears as she was sent sprawling from the braced position, catching the dragon's charge full on her side. For a moment she blacked out, but roused to consciousness an instant later when she came crashing down on the ground.

The rocky uneven floor of the cave impeded her slide, but she'd been hit hard enough to be knocked quite a distance away from her target. There was no time to feel her injuries, no time for self pity. Vy struggled to her feet, every breath she took a sharp pain in her side. There were others standing nearby, but she was too far gone in the sudden haze of mind-numbing pain that she barely noticed their presence. Flaring her wings in challenge, Vy roared at the lich dragon. It was as much a call to arms for her fellow dragons as it was a defiant cry that this pet would not lay her low. Some had already paid the ultimate price for this cause; she would not let their sacrifice be made in vain. All those not attending to the biped… "SHRED HIM!" She screeched and began another counter charge, throwing all of her weight and anger at the lich dragon.

The run Rintho made was agonisingly slow. With so much magic of his consumed, his entire body was heavy, slow and unresponsive to his will. It was exactly what he did not need in the face of ecstatic lightning storm and wolf dragons abound, drawn to the stone without rhyme or reason except for the fact it had some delicious magic within it.
He managed to avoid many of them by skirting the very edge of the cavern away from the hotbed of the action, his entire body vibrating for the fearsome roars of dragons all over, and what he presumed to be one of their obvious leaders.

It was really quite terrifying, but so caught up in his mission was he, that not for a moment did he let it consume him. Now as he scuttled away, he became all the more conscious of the remainder of his magic. The only thing that would allow his climbing back to the surface and moreover, keep him a ghost from the dragons. To be seen was to die.
Rintho now hunkered down amidst an enclave of stalagmites, breathing hard as he came to "rest" there. It was clear to him now how very keen the dragons were, all about the entrance to the chamber of the lightning stone, forming their own wall of scales, teeth, thrashing tails and claws. That was the dragons that were not already mercilessly laying upon Celen.

Guardians have mercy on the lich; Rintho wanted to know more of this entire place. He now had what he came for, but it was wrong to abandon now, was it not?
But if he stayed he may be killed...
Deciding he was damned either way, Rintho waited from the safety of his stalagmites, quite making up his mind that it would be a crime of a unique and deeply wrong kind, to only give these caverns a worried glance while running to the lightning stone. There was more to all of this, and Celen would know, if it ever was Celen. But then, he seemed was going to die...

Vy’s roar had Dyavol’s attention immediately. “SHRED HIM!” the cry echoed around his mind. He would not disappoint – since he came to the Clubtail sisters he had lived to do their bidding, so that together they could cure the island of the plague of humans. His stunned silence after seeing the stone was gone, and he was rocketing towards the biped once again before he knew it, rolling and spinning through the air to maximise slashing power with his claws and tail spikes. The further his uncontrolled flight went, the tighter his coiled up body got, and the faster he spun, so when he reached Celen he would hopefully make quite an impact. His momentum increased with every revolution, and the whirling blurry redness in his head as he whisked across the room was thrilling. By now he was beyond thinking about the consequences of his actions – beyond all conscious thought. The spinning mess he could see washed it all away, and his unrelenting rage drove him entirely.

--

Vy’s roar almost deafened Ocei, and she flinched back from the loud noise made by the clubtail colliding with the enormous dragon. As the other dragon moved towards his rider, she could see the marks that Maledictus Eice had left on it, and the red patch on his stomach from her personal attack, and it made her oddly proud. They might fell the behemoth yet. Vy’s order to keep after the human took a moment to register, but once she spotted the human running towards the chamber the Lightning Stone was in, she charged around past the bigger dragon’s lethal tail to join the ranks between Celen and the stone. The new angle gave her a clear view of the human, more on her level than when he had been on dragon back. That was strangely more frightening than before. Something about seeing the humanity in his face reminded her too much of the life she had so recently escaped. It was all she could do to stand her ground with the others, ready to attack when the time came.

The stone was singing to him, just to him. A lovely, enticing melody that urged him forwards, begged him to come closer and feel the touch of real magic. Fenrir was excited and scared at the same time. He had lost all control over his own actions and it frightened him because he wasn’t quite sure what was happening to him. Then again, the lightning stone would never hurt him. Would it? It was splendid! Nothing so beautiful could even mean any harm!

The wolf dragon was now stepping into the chamber along with a handful of other dragons following the compelling call of the magic. The air was crackling with lightning, electricity and all kinds of sparks began to drift around, igniting upon getting too close to the stone.

It was a weird sensation to be this close to the stone. Fenrir did not feel any of his pain anymore, despite the fact that he had most certainly more than one broken bone in his body and that his wing seemed a little useless. He felt as though he could fly!

All of a sudden however, the wolf dragon stopped dead in his tracks. The bubble of completely happiness and harmony burst in a crash when all of a sudden one of the lightning storm dragons got too close to the stone and spontaneously combusted in a dazzling demonstration of lightning and sparks flying all throughout the chamber, some even hitting fellow dragons, singing them almost to the bone. Screams and panicked cries followed soon after but the more they all panicked, the more dangerous the situation became as their innate magic was sparked into uncontrollable surges of energy release.

Celen ran for the stone, its safety the only concern in his head now. He had known that one day he would have to forfeit his own life, or Irael’s, for this greater purpose, and both had had quite the time to adjust to such a thought. And they were liches; he trusted in the magic that made them so. Dying for them was not like dying for others.
He was not intimidated by the line of dragons that formed in front of him, pushing forwards determinedly as fast as he could, eyes set on the glowing stone behind them despite hearing the growls of Irael and that other clubtail that would not submit. The other one… well. He would do her damage, and hope that stopped her foolish attempts to cross.
His teeth bared in a snarl, undefeated, as the brute dropped into a crouch, holding his sword in both hands and swinging out across her outstretched paws as she leapt for him.
Irael, protect-

The dragon let out another deafening roar as his rider’s mental link suddenly cut short, leaving an empty void in one part of his mind. Celen, his rider, companion, friend; gone? No! Half of him raged at these dragons that had suddenly ripped his constant companion from his side, but the other half… it sagged, to know that Celen had been taken down by beasts.
Protect, that was what he was supposed to do. Protect, until the end, and he could do no more.
He did not feel quite so strong or as powerful now with a gap in his mind where Celen should have been.
He did the best he could however, ploughing towards the stone with every intent in his mind to stop it, bowling past the smallest dragons with little effort, taking the straightest path towards his goal. But even he could not fight forever against a hoard of dragons thirsting for his blood, however much effort he put into it. Claws ripped into his scales as the larger dragons attacked his sides, those smaller swarming like balance-turning cats underfoot. It was the huge dragons that eventually turned him, his weakened limbs no longer holding him under the rent of so many attacks, pain seeming to linger longer than it had before. The living quite defeated him, even as he tried to move towards the stone with his last pieces of strength, seeming to see his old rider standing in front of the stone, beckoning him that last length of floor… but could do nothing. His strength was quite wrenched away from him.

The spirit of Celen indeed stood in front of the stone he had fought so hard to protect, the picture of how he had been for the many hundreds of years before Maledictus Eice had come to find him. He seemed to crackle a little to look at, his washed-out appearance glowing like the lightning stone itself.
It was… strange. Disconcerting, perhaps; he could not remember the last time he had had his body destroyed and he had appeared in this form. There was nothing more he could do to fight against these intruders, not like this, not if he were ever to protect the stone again after this day. No, the only thing that would ever stop them were words, and they were fools, naïve children that saw no worth in anything that was not their own propaganda. They did not understand diplomacy, they did not understand respect, they did not even understand their own history! These fools would not see the truth in words until it broke their ideals, and even then, blind rage seemed to take them each by force to cover their eyes from seeing it.
It was a shame Celen did not have the luxury of standing aside to let them scorch their fingers on the flames of their own wrongdoings, but, his whole purpose had been to protect the stone. Now, he was forced to stand aside.

As the dragons moved away from his Irael, leaving the massive dragon downed and out on the ground, his spirit seemed to flicker, stepping forwards a couple of steps, then his form disappearing to reappear a few paces forwards, like a jumping spark. He moved erratically over to his dragon, his outline blurring with each movement, sometimes sharp, sometimes pale and difficult to see. Those that stood in his way, he moved straight through as if they were not there at all, unperturbed by the hatred that surrounded him.
Once at his dragon’s side, he did not even spare a look around him for those that still looked, completely disdainful. Animals. The lightning stone did not garner his attention either, however much it always did during life; there was nothing he could do now for it. Perhaps the one time he had truly with his dragon was in death, like this, each other the only thing that mattered.
He set his hands on Irael’s nose, looking along the length of his downed and damaged body, before bowing his head and closing his eyes. It was over, for good or evil.

Perhaps they did not sweep their opponents effortlessly from the field as they had done in the past, but slowly, surely, Maledictus Eice were victorious. Even the mighty dragon who had, at times, seemed undefeatable, was eventually worn down by their unity, Anaekileya and Vythiweiah worrying at him from either side until finally his great body sank to the ground in exhaustion. Anae had sensed a change in him when the human was killed, something breaking within- and despite the inherent revulsion she felt at their pairing, she couldn’t help but give a shudder of pity when she thought of how it would feel to lose Vy. For a time when Irael fell, the cavern was filled with the victory cries of Maledictus Eice, echoing deafeningly around the empty space; eventually, though, she reared up on her hind legs with wings flared and gave a single great bellow. In dribs and drabs, the dragon fell silent and looked up to her; every one of them suddenly seemed exhausted, their adrenaline fading away and their energy spent.
“This dragon was a worthy opponent,” she said quietly. “He betrayed all dragons by fighting against us, it is true, but no doubt he had been brainwashed from birth. He did not truly understand Maledictus Eice; likely today was the first time he heard of us. This does not excuse his crimes, but we must remember that he too was a dragon, and every dragon we kill is another tragedy. He was, perhaps, the last of the dragons of old; the last remnant of our past power, before the Arch Mage robbed us of our heritage. We must remember him as such! We do not know his name, but he shall rest here for eternity, and any dragon who returns here should know of him. Know of his betrayal, of his power, and of his death.” She lifted her head, half-wondering at this speech; normally she was not one for so many words. Yet somehow, the plight of the dragon had moved her.

“We have lost our own here today. It seems appropriate that they too should lie here, where they laid down their lives for their cause. For our cause. So that dragons might live freely in our own home once more!”
It took some time, but gradually the dragons arranged the bodies of the fallen in an arc around the huge corpse of Irael. Anae was not skilled enough with her magic for the task, but other dragons who had greater mastery over earth magic carefully pulled raised images of each dragon from the stone floor; images of a scythe claw, a lightning storm, and even their opponent marking where the corpses lay so that they might be recognised when their flesh had rotted away. Finally, when they had paid their respects to the fallen and gathered their strength slightly, the dragons could turn their attention to the lightning stone- answering its enthralling call.

They filed into the huge room where it lay, the clubtails leading warily with spikes bristling. Nobody spoke for a minute, all of the dragons pulled into a stupor as they gazed at the stone- until one lash dragon shook himself from his daze with a little grunt. The sound was magnified throughout the hall, the others blinking at the silence being broken and recollecting their thoughts. Now that they were there, Anae realised that she really had very little idea of how to destroy the stone. Would physically smashing it work? It seemed stupid not to try; yet it hardly seemed like a good idea to touch it. She wasn’t sure if having little magic of her own would make that more or less dangerous, but she wasn’t about to find out. Decision made after a brief conference with her sister, she levered one final, particularly sharp-edged boulder from the ground and, with a full-circle spin on the spot to add power, she sent it flying through the air towards the lightning stone with all her magical power behind it.

It didn’t even make a dent in the stone- but she did notice, just for a moment, a dimming of the magical glow around where the stone had struck. It didn’t take long, though, for the gap to be filled back in by light seeping from all around.

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