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

The mysteries of the cave paintings would have to wait for later. The stories of generations of bloodshed hidden from knowledge had remained unknown for hundreds, possibly even thousands of years. They could remain undiscussed a little longer. But right now in the present, she had a mission that needed to be completed, and as the dragon with it's human made an appearance from the temple on the opposite side of the cave, she understood that their task was not going to come without a few obstacles. A few big obstacles, as the case seemed to be. She knew very little of the pesky bipeds that roamed dragons cove, save that they bled and the screamed when they were wounded and frightened and that they could be as vicious as any lionmaned dragon. She would not underestimate a rider. Especially a rider astride a dragon that towered over her and her sister both.

She felt the rest of her followers gathered behind her and flared her wings slightly as if to protect them from the gaze of the dragon and rider. "We are Maledictus Eice." She supplied to the rider, focusing her attention on the human. She couldn't tell if he looked sickly or if it was simply the light given off by the glowing crystals in the room, but he definitely did not look like a typical pest in need of slaughter. "We are here to purge the curse that has plagued dragonkin since the first of the non-dragons to reach the island. You stand between us and our goals to wipe all evidence of tampering with our homeland away. Step aside, or be destroyed. Will will undo what the Archmage has done and give the land back to the dragons: It's rightful heirs."

Rintho looked at the...well, it seemed to be...a spirit from what he could see. Further more, a coherent one, how strange and so very rare. He had heard it question him and turned, as the sound seemed to move about strangely, but then it seemed curious.
"Oh my name is Rintho, who..what are you anyway because I thought-" He suddenly became quiet, hearing the ear splitting sounds of crystal being smashed to smithereens not far away; or at least that's what it sounded like. The entire cave shook fiercely, furthermore something was retreating back toward him.
A fume dragon, he did his best then to scramble to an edge and contort his body out of the way, but it still glancingly touched him and he almost stumbled full into a pool of spiked crystals. Regaining his footing he looked about nervously, the dragon seemed to have shrugged him off as if he were just a gust of wind. A relief, but alarming.

Waiting for him to pass and then checking to see others did not follow, he could even now still hear dragons trouncing through the caves further on now, slowly trailing away ahead of him. He faced back to the spirit.
"Oh and, I am a lich...can you sense my magic? You seem quite strange yourself, I don't think I have been able to see spirits in this way before...are you, are you something deceased?" He asked, prying for more; that was the only area of his expertise regarding spirits besides the most basic of knowledge. He contemplated entrapping it in one of the vessel stones he had brought along.

All the while he could feel a sense of urgency rising in him, the dragons he could feel were advancing deeper into the cave and the rumbles became earthier and created tremors under his feet.

Celen eyed the array of dragons who came to a halt in front of him. My, how things had changed; barely two of them could rival his own dragon, and the rest… one was smaller than any dragon he had ever seen, so much so, could it even be called a dragon?
What had things come to?

He listened to their case with a blank expression, his mind slowly clicking back into gear from the slow sludge it had become over the years. There had been no explorers to enter the fall for many years, hundreds of years, longer, for anyone to get as far as this band of dragons had reached. Quickly, his opinion turned sour of them; but was that surprising?

“You try to meddle in that which you do not understand,” he said, his voice lowering from its previously more melodic, open tone. “And from your words, it is clear that you do not understand such.”
The dragon under Celen shifted its stance a little, now the intents of ME stated, and it didn’t relax any. With a narrowing of its eyes to slits, it opened its mouth wide and roared, enough to make the ground feel like it was shaking. Flickers of fire and smoke curled from its jaws down towards the ground, barely restrained from a full-out fire attack.

When the dragon was finished, still smoking at the corners from its challenge, Celen spoke again. “Step down and turn away now, dragons, and no harm will come to any of your party. But speak another word against the Arch Mage, and it will be you wiped from this place, for attempting to break the peace that holds Dragons’ Cove.” He said it without any real malice, just deadpan intonation as if he was reading from an age-old book, which could not be disobeyed.

Somehow, Fenrir felt as though Vy’s speech had not had the desired effect but seeing that he had made his way to the back of the group, he couldn’t really be sure. Neither could he be certain if there was a reply. He heard mumbling but wasn’t really paying attention, though maybe he should. However, he just wanted to be out of this place. It was just horribly damp and slimy, too many obstacles and things trying to trap or kill them. No, this was not a place for dragons. Or any other living being for that matter. All the wolf dragon wanted was to get out!

Just as Fenrir was wriggling his way into a position where he could see what was going on, he heard a roar so loud and earpiercing that he did not only feel as though his ears were shattering from the inside out, but he could feel it reverberating in the ground and the walls surrounding the group. It felt old, ancient even, and spoke of a terribly power and wrath that Fenrir did not want to experience. It was so intimidating that he felt the incredible urge to bolt right that second.

If the challenge of this unknown dragon told the wolf dragon anything, it was that they were not meant to be here and that they would not be able to move without a fight, lest it was to turn tail and hurry back from whence they came.
Giving up on trying to put on a face, Fenrir wanted to run, flee this place! But he was rooted to the spot, paralysed in fear about what might happen, about what this dragon could do to him, to all of them!
In addition, he felt an odd tingling sensation creep along his skin, making his fur stand on edge and smoke started curling out of his nostrils.
What on earth was going on here?!
What had they dared awaken by coming to this forsaken place?

Anaekileya moved forwards to stand beside her sister, their wings brushing at the tips.
“Who was the Arch Mage to come and disrupt the flow of magic on Dragons Cove, to impose these stones upon us? Humans like you have stolen our homeland, persecuted us… we have been hunted for thousands of years. In what way should it be right to kill a mother before her infants, to sell those infants to another brainless biped who will likely let them die from neglect within days? You would have us respect the man who brought all of this upon us?” Her lip curled to bare her teeth, she gave a derisive snort, the ground giving the faintest of tremors beneath her feet. The human was not worth her words, she knew; but perhaps the dragon would hear some of what she said and think on it. She could not begin to think how long the two had been down here, unheard of… It was possible that they didn’t even realise the state the land was in. All the same, she very much doubted this was going to resolve in anything except a fight. Errantly, she wondered if this could be one of the fabled Guardians. She had never seen one, of course… but somehow it didn’t seem right. The Guardians were not supposed to look like this, even if they were great dragons who protected the stone- she was especially sure after having seen the paintings in the tunnel. No, this was likely something else.

“You, dragon,” she said now, turning her gaze on him. “How is it that you can allow yourself to be ridden like a horse by one of those who destroyed your home, who murder your kin daily and pride themselves upon it? An inferior species who consider the slaughter of innocents a triumph. Let it be known that Maledictus Eice will not be shooed away like a misbehaving dog. If you do not allow us passage into the temple then we will attack!”

Jitt was finding it increasingly hard to keep his concentration on all this talking. What were they here for? He didn’t want to disappoint his new friends, but he didn’t understand why they were all just standing around.
“…we will attack!”
The words drifted into his mind, slowly being processed. Who had said it? He looked up to see one of the leaders, the one he had followed, shouting up at a huge dragon. Nobody else seemed to be moving, but maybe they were waiting for somebody to make the first move? Maybe they would like him more if he proved himself and attacked first! Snapping his wings open, he took a huge running bound and soared towards the big dragon- oh, it really was big- with both of his scythes extended before him. He stumbled as he landed, forced to take a few clumsy steps to reach his target, but finally he made it and took a swipe at the thick, trunklike leg he found himself standing before.

The spirit remained still, wide eyes regarding Rintho uneasily as he spoke. The sudden crashes, however, spooked it out of its form and into a streak of pure light which zipped around the tunnel wailing. What was happening to its home? It could feel every bit of the crystal; it knew every shard which broke away to lie on the ground. It had never encountered anything like this before, never. Wildly, it wondered if this odd man who was talking to it was the cause- or if he could, perhaps, help. Well, he didn’t seem too aggressive. Slowly it came to a halt and the blob of energy hung in the air for a moment before slowly resolving back into the shape of an animal.

That didn’t last long. Before it even had its legs fully defined, let alone its face, one of the dragons from earlier came pounding back up the tunnel. Taking fright once more, the spirit retreated back into the crystal, lurking in its safety until the dragon was long gone. Finally, once the danger seemed past, it made its way tentatively back out to where Rintho stood.
“I, I… I don’t know. I live in the crystal… but the stone, I live from the stone. I feel you’re… strange. Your magic is different. The dragons, theirs is too, different from the stone, but yours is more. It reminds me of…” It stared at him for a few moments, intrigued. “It feels like the dragon by the stone. And the man. Are you like them?” Likely it would have continued, but it was distracted from its words by another wall being shattered in the maze below. Piteously, it whimpered, “The crystal keeps breaking, I feel it, make it stop…” The form of an animal began to blur around the edges again, becoming hazy and indistinct.

Dyavol’s wings flared, and he fluttered up to the very top of Anae’s head, his feet gripping the ridge of her head-crest so that he was ready to launch into attack the moment the order was given. Because it would come, he was sure of it. It had to.

Jitt… that dragon was out of his mind. Dyavol wanted to attack just as much as any other dragon, but nobody had breathed a word, and Dyavol’s sense of bloodlust was second only to his loyalty to the Clubtail sisters. He looked back, trying to judge how everyone’s reactions would go. He was torn: the aggression had already STARTED now, so surely he could fly ahead, but he knew Vy always insisted on talking to the enemy first when they included one of their own. That dragon could probably double the combined strength of Maledictus Eice if he decided to side with them, but that didn’t mean that they couldn’t take him to his knees of he chose not to. These two would /bleed/, unlike the stupid bone-and-magic enemies they had seen so far, and he wanted to split the first vein so badly. It was the only passion that really stirred his bones these days, since all other passion had died in him.

--

Ocei slowly moved up in line with the others, her nerves settling and a kind of unfamiliar emotion rising up in her lungs. For as long as she could remember she had been a captive – a slave, but this… she felt like she belonged here, with these dragons. They would watch out for her, and that made her want to watch out for them in turn. Her small size meant that even her sharp teeth could hardly hope to harm the dragon, and she didn’t really want to harm him either, but she could heal the others… and when the man lost his seat she could help. If it came to that. She was letting her thoughts run away. Maybe they could just talk it through… but this man and dragon pair were in their way, and in all the time she had known the clubtail sisters, both a forest and a wall of solid crystal had failed to stand in their way for long.

Of course, she was not brave enough to make any more until the rest of the group stirred, but she did step aside as that scythe-claw… Jitt, was that his name? She wasn't quite sure… moved through the group. Everything was about to break out, so she gritted her teeth and stood her ground, letting the new, bold feeling well up in her stomach.

In the face of the dragon's wrath, the comforting touch of her sister's presence was most welcome. She would never admit it, but the huge dragon's defiance put a spike of fear in her heart like nothing that the man riding it could. But even for that, she knew that they could not back down. They had come too far and suffered to much to reach this point to go back now, especially when the rider and his dragon stood in their way and declared them ignorant. She had seen the paintings on the walls. The subjugation of dragons for the entertainment of the humans was not a new occurrence. It had been allowed to continue and fester, and nothing was going to stop them from eradicating the disease that plagued them. Not even this monstrosity standing before her.

Anae's words stirred the anger in her soul that had dimmed when the large dragon had roared, and her confidence soared once again. Between the two of them, no enemy had ever survived. This would be no different. A larger challenge, but he would fall just the same-

The streak of red out of the corner of her eye stopped her mid-breath as she was about to add onto her sister's speech. That scythe claw! How he went from fleeing with Gerris and Syn to lunging head-long at such an intimidating enemy, she could never fathom. In knee-jerk reaction Vy leapt forward after Jitt with a roar issuing from her throat, using her powerful wings to extend her leap. She planted her forepaws firmly and swung the club of her tail over head of the smaller scythe claw dragon, swinging her body around with deadly force at the dragon mount.

This dragon who stood before him was a fool, for even speaking her words against the Arch Mage with such a lack of respect in her words, to speak such things against him that would never be true. She had not known the man, not seen the things he had done to bring Dragons’ Cove to peace and prosperity; she had only seen the beautiful aftermath, lulled by the peace into seeing those things that had occurred during her life as the greatest crimes against dragonkind. Celen was sickened by her lack of care for history and for respect of those who had passed, and how she could not see any truth except from that warped truth of her own.

Know your place. You have stepped from it. Celen’s dragon narrowed his eyes at Anaekileya, just as irritated by her words as his rider was. Horse? She was closer to an equine, for her base thinking. She knew nothing of the pride he held for carrying such an esteemed rider. He held a quicker temper than Celen, and it was a very good thing he had respect for the man, otherwise he would have disobeyed the silent command to stand his ground. As it was, he did not have to restrain himself for very long. Ignorant beasts, they were like children, stubbornly set on their own path and ignoring the words and wisdom of those times over older than them.

Celen’s dragon tightened his posture as Jitt leapt towards him, obviously confident in his skills against such a tiny dragon, despite his lack of practise in fighting; Celen himself drew the sword from his back at the sudden attack, raising it towards the ceiling as his dragon widened his stance, the ground quivering again under the force of another roar. Flames did jump from his mouth this time, although petered out when Vythiweiah’s tail clapped into his upper leg and chest, knocking him a pace sideways.
Insolent creature. The dragon turned his head on her, spitting flames in a wide arc and charcoaling the stony floor to black as he regained his balance, rearing back a little onto his back legs to launch an attack towards her, swiping and clawing with his front legs and holding none of his strength back.

Fenrir barely registered the fact that Anaekileya was addressing the two ancient beings before them and took him a while to focus on her words. However, once he realised this, he tried hard to listen intently, not in the least because it gave him something to concentrate on other than his fleeing instinct.

For a brief moment, he wondered if the clubtail even knew how hypocritical she sounded when flaming at the two beings that humans were murdering innocent dragons. What were Maledictus Eice doing when they were slaughtering a whole village if not exactly the same thing?
The thought disappeared as quickly as it had appeared and the wolf dragon shook his head. This was all too much. He was scared, he wanted to run but he didn’t want to turn his back now because he was already swimming in deep waters and if he turned tail now, the clubtail sisters would have his head on a pike. For sure.

In addition, there was the creeping notion that maybe they were right. Maybe these beings should not be here, maybe this dragon should not debase himself the way it did by letting a human be its rider. Fenrir had never had a human on his back, nor would he ever. Even the mere thought thereof sent shivers down his spine and a wave of nausea to his stomach.

The agitation of those around him however did not fail to get to him either. The tingling sensation of an oncoming battle was making his skin prickle and his fur standing on end. When another roar shook the ground and dragons started leaping into the fray – whether with their heads still screwed on correctly or not – the wolf dragon did not hesitate in joining, if only to make all this annoying back and forth stop, not to mention the extremely irritable loudness of the roaring, thrown back a hundredfold by the walls surrounding them.

Ignoring the heat on the ground before the assembled dragons of the mighty Maledictus Eice, Fenrir jumped forwards, roaring his own challenge and his extreme annoyance, joining Jitt in whatever it was the scythe dragon was trying to attempt by attacking the much larger dragon’s legs but he figured two would be better than one in that particular bit of the fight. They would have to be careful however. The tremble rocking the cave as the big dragon’s claws landed on the stone around them did not bode well.

As Vy flung herself into battle after Jitt’s hasty attack, Dyavol’s face lit up in a grin. That meant they could all go, and he wasn't wasting a second. Kicking off from his perch, he bared his teeth and flew towards the dragon’s rider. He stood no chance of piercing the huge dragon’s scales, not even with his tail barbs, but humans all had the same weaknesses, and he could certainly exploit some of them. The sword the human held was the only threat he could see, since he intended to be out of the dragon’s reach, but he was fast, and a sword that size would be heavy. Either way, he was going in.

With a roar of his own, Dyavol flew straight at the human, hurtling towards the gap between his shoulder and neck ready to spin himself at the last moment. That way he could hit with the force of his flight, not just his own small body. Finally, when he though he was close enough, he tucked one wing and dropped his shoulder, sending himself into an almost uncontrollable spin, eyes squinted against the air rushing around him. He only kept them open at all in case an attack came his way.

--

Oceianna’s fear vanished as the dragons around her began to attack. She had a hint of pity for the great dragon, and she hoped he was not being forced to carry the human in the way she had been before she found the dragons of Maledictus Eice. However, the dragon was standing in their path, and that meant he was their enemy, so she charged.

She didn’t dare take on the head, as the dragon was already spitting flames in an arc around the room, but instead charged for the closest back leg. She opened her jaws ready to sink her teeth in, hoping to distract the dragon so that one of the stronger members of ME could make a more serious attack. It made her nervous to cause damage rather than prevent it, but the thought made more sense now that she had heard Anae explain the fundamentals of the group to the dragon-rider pair. Plus there would eventually be a time for healing, and she could make up for it then.

That was a mutual lack of knowledge then, as they each sensed the other was different. Rintho hummed as he thought to himself then, a purr like sound coming from him as he put a hand to cover his mouth, eying the spirit.
His magic was similar to the dragon by the stone? That was especially interesting, but it also worried him somewhat. There was no doubt a lot of bizarre and rare magic floating about in these caverns, he had seen the animated bones from before, but deeper still...there was apparently an even greater pool of it.
Rintho especially wondered how the dragons would fare now.
"Oh? There is more like me? Well spirit, then maybe what you sense is a combination of both life and death magic and..." He broke off to see the spirit's sudden change and distress. Rintho could hardly do anything to stop the ungainly devastation that was being paraded through by the dragons in all their stampeding lack of care...How much damage they had already caused, how much of the cavern they had already unsettled....even if he did have to thank them for it.

"Come with me then little spirit, maybe you can help me...understand this a little better...I think they desire to harm the lightning stone, so far I have heard. It would look like they are doing a good job of harming everything else as well." He sighed, knowing he had to make all haste now, but thankful that he had stopped for this creature. Most helpful. "Whatever happens to your home, I think you'll be safe with me. Here..." He pulled one of the vessel stones from one of his pockets, imbuing it softly as he felt it between his fingers so as to help preserve the spirit. Rintho then also looked around quickly, reaching for a crystal fragment on the floor...With the spirit then following into the stone, and alongside the crystal fragment Rintho continued on his way.
"My apologies for all this disruption, I have only the best intentions I must swear...now..."
----

After a small while of running, and indeed he could see it was a lot easier for the hastily carved out path, aside from avoiding spiking himself again, Rintho had caught up to an entirely new area. A beautiful hall like none he had seen anywhere else and it was mesmerising for both its scale and....It was all painted, by hand. Who had done this? Was amongst the first thoughts in his mind, then followed by others...
What did the pictures tell?
Why was it here?
...Would there be time to examine any of it?
Rintho was squinting to see better as he looked up at the most distance parts, walking down the hall in wander, but the quaking was loud and awful...And then he heard bellowing of the loudest he'd heard yet.

A dragon, indeed...and the man? Rintho's curiosity was great, but his fear was now also erratic...Perhaps Atoro did not understand what he was missing to be away from here...It was truly a cavern filled in every nook with a million mysteries.
"I need you to stay with me little spirit, we're going right up to the lightning stone, actually, and we're going to save a piece of it for ourselves..."

Jitt scarcely had time to make a scratch on the scales of the dragon before two others dashed over to back him up, both dragons he recognised. They’d talked to him earlier, hadn’t they? Either way, he was glad for their support as the big one swung her tail through the air to land solidly on their foe’s chest. As the behemoth stumbled slightly, Jitt made another random slash at its leg. By chance, this time his claws were angled correctly to slide underneath the armour-like scales and deal some damage; he felt a small thrill of victory as they stuck, however little they might have been doing. That feeling dissipated in the next moment, however, as the dragon lifted up on his hind legs to swipe at Vythiweiah and Jitt was sent flying, no time to spread his wings and soften the fall before he hit the stone ground with a crunch. Dazed and disorientated, he lifted his head in time to see a thick swathe of fire burning in an arc across the chamber. With a grunt of alarm, he hid his face in the ground until the heat seemed to have passed slightly, whereupon he staggered back to his feet and doggedly made his way back over to the dragon, ready to resume the attack using his claws, teeth and perhaps fire as well if it would help.

It was with no small degree of surprise that Anae saw Jitt whisk through the ranks of ME to fall upon the other dragon as if it had done him great personal harm. She remained still for a moment, her brain trying to process the turn of events- this bizarre newcomer, of all dragons to attack?- but after a second her battle instincts kicked in and she moved into action just as her sister was beside her. She noticed with vague satisfaction that other members around them were doing the same, falling upon the great dragon’s legs with the battlelust which always seemed to surface when ME tasted blood. She herself didn’t go right up to the beast- though she kept a wary eye on her sister- but instead took a leap forwards and landed with a ground-shaking force, ripping a jagged chunk of stone from the floor with magic and then pivoting on her front legs to smack it with her tail and send it flying towards the dragon’s rider, aimed to knock him from his unnatural perch.

Agitated beyond proper reason, the spirit nodded wildly to Rintho’s words.
“Alive and dead and…” It trailed off as he spoke again, staring with wide eyes at the vessel he had removed from his pocket. “Hurt the stone?” it echoed, sounding lost as its form continued to disintegrate and it gradually began to blur towards the vessel. “That would… I need the stone. I can’t leave it. It can’t go.” The words faded into oblivion as it lost all shape and the streak of light condensed into the vessel, where a glittering thread of energy bound it to the crystal Rintho had picked up, seeming to form a circuit.

Without conversation to ground it and nestled secure in this new dwelling, the spirit lost track of time again, entering a daze similar to that which it had been in for the thousands of years before this day had come along and shaken things up. As such it scarcely noticed the passage down through the caves, or at least not until Rintho spoke again. It swam back through a haze of obscurity to poke a head out of the vessel and peer at Rintho.
“Take a piece?” it repeated wonderingly. “You would move it? Can I live there? Could I go where you come from? How do you get there?”

This parade of fools wasted no time in thinking they could attack Celen and his dragon, even though they would have no easy way of getting through. He had warned them to turn back, quite civilly for the fact they were trespassing on sacred ground, and now they would earn no mercy from him. The dragon crashed to the ground again after his swipe to Vythiweiah, drawing in another long breath to spew fire out again at the next attack received. So many opponents would have downed a smaller or less experienced pair quickly, but there were clear reasons for why Celen had been chosen as the guardian of the lightning stone. A small group of dragons had piled onto one of his dragon’s back legs to try and bring it down, one of the more dangerous looking (of the group, at least) actually dealing a little damage beneath his scales. He shook it to try and rid them of his scales like a horse whisking away flies, then twisted on the spot to put his more dangerous teeth and front claws near the gathered wolf, tear and scythe claw, pushing his head down and amidst the others with slitted eyes to push them away. Misguided creatures, perhaps they themselves did not deserve to die, but needed their world views rethinking. But dangers to the stone could not be permitted, and the dragon did not hold back much with his strength to knock them aside.

Celen, meanwhile, had distractions of his own to compete with. Dyavol was trying to make a menace of himself in the most insectlike of ways. It was a nod to his training that he reacted as quickly as he did against the dual threat pitted against him, pointing out his sword in the direction of the flying lump of rock blasted in his direction by Anaekileya. A thick ring of magic quickly sprouted from his hand and spread along the length of his sword, fanning out in a shimmering circular shape into the air as wide as the rock before it hit. Waves of magic rippled in the air as the rock hit, then flung off back in the direction it came with just as much force, leaving not one mark on either Celen or his shield.
With his other hand, the man swiped out at the dropping Dyavol, catching him almost with a gentle motion as his fingers closed around his middle. They were rock solid around his body though, and gave no leeway for movement.
“I should think a little thing like you may think a little harder about whom it is you decide to attack.” He looked the dragon up and down closely, letting the magic drop from his other hand without even a glance.

Oceianna tried to duck out of the way st the huge dragon’s head whirled around to face the group of them attacking his hind legs, but she couldn’t move for the mass of dragons around her. The dragon caught her wing just lightly, pushing her out of the way, but she lost her balance from the force of the attack and fell hard, jarring her shoulder. She bit her scaly lip and righted herself, dashing back towards the bigger dragon to re-join the group in attacking him. Her shoulder hurt a little, but not as much as the scars over her back had when they were put there, and the thrill of battle had just taken inside of her.

Ocei continued trying to attack the huge dragon’s legs, watching for his head now more carefully. She stayed near the wolf dragon, making sure she didn’t get split off from the group in case she was hit more directly by another attack. She tried using her slaws this time, her teeth proving useless against Cellen’s dragon’s scales.

--

Mid spin, Dyavol felt himself stop sharply, and lifted his head to see what was going on. He was trapped in Cellen’s hand like an insect, and the two-leg was actually trying to lecture him. He wouldn’t stand for it. He wriggled, beating his wings to try to squirm free, but failed. He made eye contact with Cellen, letting himself fill up with all of his accumulated rage at the entire population of humans.

“I attack two-leg scum, and I do so whenever I see fit.” He hissed, wrenching his tail around and under in an attempt to catch Cellen’s hand or wrist with his steel tail barbs. He did not appreciate being manhandled, and was willing to bite, claw and slash his way out of Cellen’s grip. The thought that he could easily crush him with that one had didn’t even enter his mind. Dyavol had come to believe he was almost invincible with the dragons of Maledictus Eice, and even if he wasn’t, he didn’t have anything to go back to, so he didn’t hold himself back.

Too late Fenrir realised that the hindleg he had been attacked had moved and that an angry dragon head had moved into its place. He had been lost in the frenzy of attack, letting himself be carried by the general battle fever of the Maledictus Eice and in turn he had switched off his brain. ‘And now I’m paying for it,’ he thought miserably during his brief involuntary flight before smashing into the ground hard.

The crunch of bones was unmistakable but nonetheless the wolf dragon scrabbled pathetically as he tried to get back on his feet. He had gotten the brunt of the attack it seemed and his right shoulder was either broken or at least dislocated and Fenrir scratched wildly at the ground in a pathetic attempt to lift himself off the floor again. His wing was stuck beneath him and the wild flapping of the other did nothing to improve his situation any. Roaring out in frustration, Fenrir slumped back on the ground for a while, taking a breath and trying to clear his head of the red haze that was beginning to spread through. Anger at the other dragons for not helping him, anger at the large dragon for immobilising him, anger at the whole world for being the way it was. No, it was no longer a minor annoyance he was feeling, but a white-hot fury was spreading through him like wildfire.

Roaring once again, pouring all his anger and frustration into it, Fenrir finally pushed himself back onto his legs, no longer feeling the pain. With his tail puffy and his wings flared, he bared his teeth at the ancient dragon with an utterly crazed and bloodthirsty glaze in his eyes.

It didn’t matter that he was wobbly on his feet, it didn’t matter that he couldn’t properly fly inside the cavern, he used every bit of strength and balance he had to launch himself back into the fray and straight at their enemy’s eyes in an attempt to scratch them out. Only, once he reached his desired destination, he had to realise that his right paw really wasn’t going to be doing much damage at all anymore as he could barely lift it, which only angered him more. Blind with rage and unfelt pain, Fenrir bit and scratched whatever came into his path, uncaring what would happen to him, but this… this… thing was going to pay!

Vythiweiah did not stop moving. With the dragon's flames licking at her scales and leaving tracks of char she retreated with a leap, clearing the space just as her sister launched a small boulder from the floor at Celen's dragon. They had found like this together too many times before for her to get caught in the cross fire out of carelessness. Looking out for her sister's flying projectiles was fairly second natures now. As she turned to prepare another attack, she saw the rock shatter into a thousand pieces without leaving a scratch on the blasted rider, and her anger boiled over. The gigantic dragon was simply playing with the others at his feet, and the rider now had little Dyavol in his hand. This would not stand.

She rushed froward, head low and small stones picked themselves up in her wake, following her in the short dash. Vythiweiah did not leave her comrades to fight her battles for her, and this would be no different. With a small flap of her wings and a powerful leap from her muscles she floated over the downed Fenrir, the stones following along behind zooming forward with the ferocity of a hailstorm as she threw all of her weight and power against the dragon mount with a ferocious roar, claws outstretched and teeth snapping for the weak places in a dragons armor under their jaws.

The dragon’s jarring head thrust had had quite the right effect, and he pulled it back into the air again as the smaller dragons biting and clawing at his leg were thrown all over the cavern. It did not do so much as smile, but there was an edge of satisfaction as they had to back off for a moment and regroup.

This fragile looking little dragon in Celen’s fist did not know when to hold his tongue, and the man frowned a little at him, his brows drawing close underneath the curve of his helmet. Insolent creature. He flipped the thing upside-down as he tried to get those sharp-looking spikes into his hand, unimpressed with such a move.
“Learn to respect your elders, those wiser than yourself, and you may do so well as to survive to control your actions somewhat more carefully.” He did not put his face too close to Dyavol, bewaring his thrashing tail and claws.
His dragon started to move more rapidly underneath him as the wolf dragon threw himself at his mount, scratching and biting at the old dragon’s face like some possessed beast. There was no more time to be schooling the tiny butterfly, so Celen tossed him aside into the air like discarded rubbish and put his hand back to his saddle, adjusting his weight perfectly in time with his dragon- aeons of practise let them move as one being. Blood flicked from the dragon’s nose where Fenrir had scraped a few scales away, then it gave another deafening roar as one of the clubtails came crashing in with what would have been a fatal attack for any other dragon. Staggering aside as they collided together, the dragon had to gather himself quickly before launching back at his large opponent, claws striking at scales from each and teeth bared in a huge snarl. Its tail whipped from side to side, a dangerous enough thing for the smaller dragons without even having to be intentional.

"Yes...a piece. I think you should....if you depend on crystal and lightning energy, if I have both in the amount you need, you should be more than well enough. I'm going to fill a few of those carrier stones up with lightning magic...and just one of the crystals should do? Well, yes, you shall be fine...I'll carry you along to a safer place. I only wish I could take more of you with me, never have I seen the likes of your sort before." Rintho spoke then at length, albeit largely to himself, about various little musings on the Spirit's magic, or the nature of the crystal...or the paintings before him as he passed what could only be seen as some imposing and fearful tableaux. Dark paint clawing and ebbing through the walls, curse magic written, he could only guess...The markings foreign and strange to him.

"Here we go Spirit, tuck yourself back in, and hope hard with me now." Rintho made sure it was secure in his pockets before proceeding down the final bend, now working hard to avoid the dragons, the ruckus was horrendous, and as he finally came to behold where they all clustered to fight, he opened his eyes wide in amazement. Never had Rintho seen, such a huge and great dragon, even lich like as him, and then a rider too! Also lich like, he could sense the magic that pervaded the air; it was also foreign to him...yet immensely powerful, dwarfing his own death defying magic.
"Goodness! This creature!" He exclaimed under his breath. Though invisible, he could not help but sound, although drowned in the noise, his awe. So this was the legend of Celen? Of all those years ago and here he was, in all of his glory as perpetually rotting flesh...

How much Rintho might have asked him...yet these dragons only sought to destroy him...perhaps he should wait...speak to Celen's soul...no, no, he could not be sidetracked. It would be difficult enough to retrieve energy from lightning stone without being killed.
Though he could not deny how enchanted he was by the idea.

Now edging his way as carefully as he might be able to, Rintho skirted the far edges, moving quickly and more than merely "worried" at the idea of being crushed by any great dragon, swatted aside like a fly by this undead behemoth.
Still, Celen and his dragon were standing in front of the stone it seemed, and Rintho was getting closer and closer, through the mayhem.

Clarification: I'm assuming celen came through from a "smaller" hall containing the lightning stone

"Yes, yes..." The spirit was enchanted by the idea of freedom in the outside world, unable to imagine for a moment what wonders might await it there. Creatures like those dragons and this man, like Celen and his companion- who knew, perhaps there would even be other beings of flesh and blood as well! It was inconceivable and yet the proof of all these newcomers to the caves was undeniable.

Upon Rintho's mention of others like the spirit, however, it grew uneasy and restless. The circuit of light between the crystal and the spirit's binding vessel pulsed unsteadily and the protruding little head shook back and forth as if in denial.
"Others," it muttered. "Others..."
As if on a command, the walls of crystal surrounding them began to glow- faintly at first but growing ever stronger as hundreds of tiny spirits bubbled at the surface of the rock, their bodies resembling all manner of different animals, from breathtakingly beautiful to grotesque.
After only a few seconds, however, they melted away again, vanishing into the caves. Unlikely as it seemed, the spirit Rintho had captured was among the very most courageous of its kind. For the others to ever dare do so much as say a word to an outsider would be a miracle to say the least.

As they neared the final chamber, sounds of the battle floating down the winding corridors towards them, the spirit shivered slightly and withdrew into its binding vessel from the insistent pull of the lightning stone. Only Rintho's binding magics allowed it to resist that alluring call now; and fortunate too, for if it ventured too close to the stone then it was all too probable that Rintho would never see it again.

Anaekileya only allowed herself the time for a snarl of rage as her missile was intercepted seemingly effortlessly, before skittering to the side to dodge as it hurtled back towards her to smash on the floor. Glaring hatred at the human as she was, she saw clearly as his hand closed firmly, vice-like, around Dyavol's tiny body. Another wave of loathing rocked her where she crouched; the butterfly was far from helpless, and woe betide anyone who under-estimated him, but the fact remained that he was just too fragile to be manhandled. Thankfully, after a few moments of speech the human released Dyavol again as his dragon came under fire from yet another ferocious attack. She watched the reactions of their opponents criticially- they weren't entirely unruffled, but they didn't seem to be worried either. And why should they be? None of the attacks of Maledictus Eice seemed to be having any real impact on the pair.

Yet even as Anae thought this, her sister launched herself into a full-on attack, finally rocking that behemoth from his unshakeable stance. With a roar of battlelust, Anaekileya slammed her club into the ground and ripped out her own cloud of smaller missles, many of them with cuttingly sharp edges. It wasn't really her preferred style of fighting, but when working alongside Vythiweiah they would be far more effective if they used the same method of attack, their magic combining to become more powerful. As the clubtail launched herself into the air, cannonballing into Celen's dragon only slightly apart from her sister, she was vaguely aware of other members of Maledictus Eice using earth magic to help direct the potentially deadly pebbles, and adding force to their flight. When the dragons combined their might like this, there was little that could hold against them- the clubtail sisters' harmony was a powerful rallying point.

Jitt had almost made his way back to the dragon when its massive, thorny tail swept past and knocked his feet out from under him, sending him flying once more. With a bellow of annoyance, he managed to clamber back upright again and made for the pair once more, this time eyeing them with true hatred. Springing into the air with his wings spread wide to help him maintain his height, he scrambled his way up the dragon's meaty hind leg in a few messy leaps, his claws providing some traction as they dug notches into the huge scales. He didn't pause to attack the dragon this time but instead descended upon the man sitting on its back with rage, slashing at the deformed, flat face for all he was worth.

Dyavol spat at Celen’s advice, wriggling even more as though he wasn’t aware of the crushing ability of the big hand around his chest. Luckily something distracted the dragon and human pair before anything could happen, and Dyavol found himself the wrong way up in the air and falling fast. He hadn’t realised how firm Celen’s hold on him has been until he was released, but the air filling his lungs tasted especially fresh. He tried to right himself, but catapulted into the mass of other dragons before he could manage to do so. He had no idea how many others he might have hit on his way, and beat his wings rapidly to regain height before he could get accidentally crushed.

He was furious. How DARE that two leg touch him? How DARE Celen lecture him on manners. His eyes narrowed and he tore through the air, heading straight upwards to be directly above the man’s head. He was eyeing up the sweet-spot at the back of his neck, deciding how best to angle himself to attack without coming anywhere near those pesky, grabby hands. He waited for the time being, however. The rain of stones from the clubtail sisters could easily be lethal, and stones didn’t care which side their target belonged to. Better to bide his time, out of reach, and attack in the next break in the vicious hail of pebbles and chunks of rock. It was a good thing he had waited too, as Jitt, that crazy Scythe claw, seemed intent on climbing up onto the huge dragon’s back. He didn’t want to be in the way of that…

--

Oceianna flinched as Celen’s dragon’s tail zoomed past her, almost clipping her shoulder as it swished. It was terribly powerful, as was the rest of the dragon, she realised. It was such a pity it wouldn’t join the dragons of Maledictus Eice…

She skittered to her left to avoid the destructive force of that tail, before dashing quickly between the huge dragon’s legs. It was utterly dark in the shadow under its belly, but safer than outside she figured. Then she was struck by a sudden idea. She twisted her head round, and jumped, teeth bared to attack the dragon’s stomach. She leant onto her back legs, using her front claws to attack, hoping that the dragon’s belly was a little more vulnerable than its back and sides.

A noise from her right almost made her jump, as Jitt scaled the dragon’s back legs, but she didn’t stop biting and scratching the huge creature’s stomach. She needed to be helpful, and this seemed like a good tactic for the moment.

No sooner did Vy collide with the behemoth than did her sister make a second impact, their stone projectiles clattering against the beast's scales like hail on a tin roof. There was a short moment of vicious triumph when the beast stumbled sideways, but Vy had no time to gloat over the success of the attack. The ancient dragon rallied, and she quickly found herself on the wrong end of a powerful set of claws that raked against the front of her plated chest, knocking her back and leaving noticeable rends in the nearly impregnable scales. She was forced backwards under the sheer power of the blow, an enraged roar leaving her throat. No one made the clubtail sisters back down. No one!

She barely noticed the red flash of Jitt's scales as he climbed the flank of the ancient dragon, instead concentrating on doing whatever it took to topple the behemoth and bring the the beast crashing to the ground for what she perceived as a personal insult. Digging into the ground with her forepaw, a chunk of rock released itself from the solid grip of the stone beneath their feet as if had melted out and threw the paw-sized chunk of earth at the dragon's face in a spray of razor shards. She did not leave it there however and charged forward, bunkering down and throwing all of her weight below the dragon's center of gravity to knock it off it's feet.

Attacks were coming thick and fast from every side now as the dragons of Maledictus Eice started to work together better, both Celen and his dragon having to work to stay on their feet and unharmed. Celen released his grip on his saddle as another attack came his way, gripping his sword more tightly in the one and readying his other to move quickly and direct magic against any attack that his dragon or his own sword could not deflect, twisting this way and that to make sure he did not leave open a blind spot for too long.

His dragon, however, was up against a lot more than he currently was, even if Celen did not abandon his dragon mount for a moment through their ancient telepathic bond. He waved up a brief shield to save them both from being ripped to shreds by the sharp volley of rock headed their way, sending them flying in all directions again before the second clubtail struck, shaking his mount’s solid stance. The dragon’s claws scratched and cut at the stone floor as he spread his legs wide and staggered sideways to find his balance, sucking in a breath at the same time to save his stomach from being torn apart any further than the tear dragon already had with her claws, leaving rents across some of his scales like papercuts. It kicked out its back legs to get away from Jitt, but with its attempts to regain a firm footing where it couldn’t be moved again, the scythe claw couldn’t be easily shaken.
Celen rounded in his saddle as Jitt clawed his way up towards him, bringing his sword up in a tight parry to the attack the dragon slashed out with, turning his sword on him immediately after with a full-bodied attack.
Everything swayed underneath him as his dragon roared, face suddenly opened in a dozen odd places by razor sharp rocks flung at them, then the jerk was worse as the second clubtail came barrelling into the big dragon, legs splaying out to every side to save them from hitting the ground. It was difficult with the clubtail in the way however, and the bigger dragon reeled sideways with a wild swinging of head and tail to try and stay upright.

Celen parrying the blow was a bit more than Jitt could understand; staring dumbstruck at his claw and wondering why it hadn't connected with its target, the dragon left himself completely open to attack, not even sparing a glance for the sword whistling his way. Unfortunately for him, ignorance didn't make the blade any less dangerous as it rent open a huge gash across his chest. Skin and muscle alike flapped apart and gaped grotesquely like some kind of mouth, a flash of scored bone like a glimpse of teeth. Scarcely any time passed befor blood began to stream from the wound and his left foreleg drooped, the partially severed muscles unable to support its weight. Jitt spent another moment staring numbly at himself, now at the disfiguring injuries, before loosing a banshee-like shriek of pain which echoed throughout the cavern for all to hear. One might have thought that an injury like that would be enough to put anyone out of a fight, but Jitt didn't seem to think so, instead hurling himself at Celen with renewed passion. Gore dribbled and splashed all over the man as the dragon made every effort to put an eye out with his claws.

Anaekileya was lucky enough that the claws of the behemoth missed her, but she felt equally enraged as they made contact on her sister's chest. Luckily Vythiweiah didn't seem to be badly harmed- apart from in her pride. Anae made brief eye contact with her just before she plunged in for her next attack, long enough to know what to do; just as Vythiweiah was about to make her impact on the dragon's legs, Anaekileya pushed off from the opposite side of the beast's upper body with all her strength, swinging her clubtail round to pack an extra punch as she shot across the hall. Hopefully, the two forces acting on opposite sides would rotate the dragon as if it were mounted on a spit, grounding it so that Maledictus Eice could really set in.

As Jitt took his rather painful looking wound, Dyavol saw his chance. He figured that a heavily bleeding scythe claw stabbing at Cellen’s face would be enough of a distraction, and dived down, on the opposite side of the man’s head, tail prepared. He was aiming right for the throat, but as his method of attack was so difficult to control, even an accurate strike could fall anywhere across the man’s face. He folded his wings completely, gathering speed, then hurled his tail out, snapping open his wings with a painful click, to send himself wheeling in a tight spiral towards his target, all teeth and claws and iron barbs. Between him and Jitt’s random attacks, he hoped that one of them would do some damage to the wretched two-leg who dared consider himself their superior. As he whirled, something warm and wet splashed on him – I must have been Jitt’s blood, but Dyavol liked to imagine it belonged to Cellen instead. He did so love two-leg blood, especially when it was spilled all over the ground.

--

Oceianna grinned as the bigger dragon flinched away from her. Her heart was pounding with adrenaline, but all she could thing was, “I’m helping! I’m actually being helpful!” As the huge dragon staggered, however, she stumbled beneath it, grazing her shoulder on the ground but otherwise remaining unharmed – unless the huge dragon lay down or something this was probably the best place to be. When she regained her footing, she leapt upwards, claws outstretched, and tried to dig them in on either side of a large panel of scale, hoping to rip the natural armour away from the dragon’s hide. She had been so used to healing all her life, and in a way it was nice to release all her pent up anger by being violent this once. And she was SO angry – even as she twisted her back around she could feel the fresh scars tugging, where the two-leg she used to belong to had attacked her. That was why she needed these dragons - why she needed to be HELPFUL! She gave a little roar (which couldn’t even be heard over the general noise but that didn’t matter) and renewed her attack at the behemoth’s stomach.

Everything surrounding Fenrir seemed much like a blur. Nothing except for the need to destroy existed in his current state of mind. The satisfying feel of blood running along his claws and paws made him feel better but at the same time it fuelled his blind fighting style. He didn’t know whose blood it was, if it was even maybe his own. He didn’t care.
Destruction was on his mind.
Destruction was what he was attempting to achieve.

Somewhere in his peripheral vision, he saw others fighting alongside him, the shadow of a clubtail dragon never really far from him, and all of a sudden, his fighting received another sort of strength. He finally realised that, contrary to what he had been thinking, he was not fighting on his own. They were all fighting together, alongside each other. Even if their attempts seemed somewhat futile on a larger scale, but they were doing it together.
This was ME.
This was Maledictus Eice!
And they would achieve what they had come for!

Their combined attacks did seem to bear some results, if not necessarily what they had been hoping for but it lent motivation and strength, something the slowly tiring dragons desperately needed. Fenrir knew that he could only keep going on adrenaline and rage for so long, even if the thought was still foggy in his mind and he was ruthlessly exhausting himself without pacing his condition for a longer fight.

When the enormous dragon began to sway and his tail came whipping around, the wolf dragon noticed the threat too late and took the full blast of the tail as it swung in his direction, knocking him over and making him slide across the rocky ground once more. By now, Fenrir was bleeding from more wounds than he could count but still he forced himself upwards again, he was not finished yet. Hell, no!

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