(V2, Plurith) The Sacking of Plurith (9th Board)

As requested,

The Sacking of Plurith

The city of Plurith has long been standing on the edge of a desert, a small spark of civilization on the border between bleak wastes and lush forests, it sits up elevated slightly higher than the desert with cliffs to the north of it that signal the end of forest and the beginning of wilderness. However, the village is now sharing the border with two very volitile parties; the Surahnian Rebels and Maledictus Eice. The rebel dragons, growing in number, have decided that this pathetic little village on the edge of their territory needs to be wiped out for good. Non-dragons must die, and there is a slaughter at hand if the volatile Clubtail sisters Vythiweiah and Anækileya have their way.
Number of slots: All current members of M.E. plus 3 (for possible joiners and protesters)
Location: V2 (Plurith)

Setting: One week after the domination over Racksom, Plurith was already held by the rebels, their people simply wanting peace and no slaughter. As such, there are very few soldiers here from the SR

Time: 1pm afternoon, a clear and sunny day. Being near the desert it is rather hot and a strong desert wind blows southwards over Plurith.

There will be no posting order.

Reangling her wings as she coasted on the wind that helpfully blew in just the right direction for them, Anækileya glanced around at the assembled members of Maledictus Eice. Beside her, her sister Vythiweiah flew towards their target, and the rest of the group were spread out around them. She could hear a drumming of feet on the ground from the flightless dragons who were running beneath them. The human village they were headed for wasn’t at all far away now, and the clubtail felt a slight flare of anticipation. They had waited too long to take any major action against the vermin who infested their land, but now the day had finally come. While she had been waiting impatiently for the last fifty years, she had to admit that it had been practical to accumulate more dragons on their side before they struck. If they lost any in this fight, then it would be a surprise to her. Their power far outweighed that of the pathetic bipeds who awaited them in the settlement below.

Without needing a spoken signal, Anækileya adjusted her tail’s position in the air. Her body instantly tilted, the heavy weight of her spiked club acting as a rudder, and she tipped her wings downwards as she dove towards the village. Out of the corners of her eyes, she could see all the other dragons of Maledictus Eice doing the same; those running on the ground pushed up their speed to a full-on sprint. Now the humans would pay the price for ignoring the threats of the dragons.

The heat was almost unbearable at this time of day and in this clime, the swift wind brought no relief...Straight from the centre desert.
Rouz was sprawled out by the farm boy's family home, on the outskirt of Plurith, having placed himself at the edge of the crop field.
"Dax, what are doing here so soon? Midday sun..." The Rams horn mumbled, opening one golden eye to see the golden haired boy.
He must have been, what? Twelve? A picture of sweetness, Rouz thought. He didn't mind the older humans so much, but their youngins were so innocent it was hard to dislike them.
"The sheeps fleeces got done so I..."
"So you thought you'd come to wake up my afternoon nap." His scowl turned to a smile though as he stood up and flexed. "Up." He said, lowering his body for the youngin to climb on. "
Rouz and his unofficial dragon rider trotted along through Plurith, really, not much had changed bar a few adaptions and projects. The Surahnian influence only deemed now that rather than the town keeping it's own produce and selling extra, all produce would be rationed by the SR capital; Racksom. They'd expected harshness, but none had come. Then again, nobody had resisted.
A quiet life was all anybody here ever wanted, even if that meant not being the most righteous or hearty of Dragons Cove folks.

Rouz was taking young Dax to the open woodland nearby to the south, his one break in the day was when the sun shined brightest.
Rouz looked up back to the northern part of the cloudless sky, a blanket of black dragon silhouettes now had blotched it's beauty.
"Those bastard dragons..." He muttered...Rouz frowned, the evil desert dragons, and he didn't know the name for their group, plagued this defenceless town for years and years. Taking a victim here, burning a field there, murdering a family, stealing another. Rouz froze, and thought of Ahrora. He swallowed hard, thinking what to do...More dragons were filling up the sky. She was no dragon to go down without a fight but the size of the figures on the horizon filled him with dread. This was no small party of rogue dragons, this was a cloud of death.
"Dax, go into the woods and wait by the stream for me...Don't move until I come back for you." Rouz nudged the boy off his back, one thought clear in his head. Ahrora

Then he noted the herd of land dragons thundering across the plains toward the village and his heart sank deeper.

It was hard to keep the thrill of battle under control. Living a life entirely centered on combat made it hard to restrain the feral urge to slaughter one's enemies, but Vythiweiah held on by the thinnest strand, a fire burning in her belly that tore at the tenuous restraint. Finally, they would make their mark on the world. After years of scheming and planning, hundreds of small raids, dozens of attacks on caravans… Now there would be a real fight. She had attacked this settlement before. Sometimes with other members of her group, but in the earlier days only with her sister. Never enough to rally a coherent force of bipeds to retaliate in kind. But that was at an end. The petty thievery as a means of survival was no longer their way. Now they had gathered enough like-minded dragons to be a force worth fearing, and the turmoil in the land between the bipeds with their insignificant wars was the perfect time to claim a piece of Dragons Cove for herself.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Anækileya dive for the ground and reared her head back, letting forth a terrifying roar of anger and defiance; a territorial call. This was their land now, and with her warning delivered to the settlement below Vy dove as well, closing her wings in a controlled fall, flaring before hitting the ground at a run just in front of the line of charging ground dragons. "Burn it to the ground!" She screamed over the noise of pre-battle. "Leave none alive! Take your home back! Take your revenge! Kill all who resist!"

The ground pounded with dragon paws. And that was definitely the way it should be, unless it also vibrated (much less emphatically, of course) with human feet running away from dragons. Which was much more agreeable to Syntribos. There was nothing better than a good chase, ending (most of the time) in a pretty tasty meal- especially for the ones that ran a long way, which meant they were fit and strong.

So, with that thinking, what was about to follow should have been right up the desert chaser’s street. Mass carnage, humans running for their lives, pick of the meat of Plurith… but there was always something to spoil the party, wasn’t there? In this case, it was the two large and very dangerous clubtail sisters flying ahead of the rest of Maledictus Eice. Syn had nothing against ME as a group, but the two were really starting to grate on his nerves. However, the feeling probably was mutual- he had been making his amusement to be the pair’s personal poltergeist. No doubt he would be able to be just as much of a menace, if not more, during their raid of Plurith.

Which was coming increasingly close, from the looks of the ugly smudge of houses littering the land in front of them. He forced his dislike out of the front of his mind for the moment, instead concentrating on which path to take through the little town. As Vythiweiah dove in to start the attack he let out a feral roar, playing along with the whole “we are terrifying, run for your lives” game. After all, he did have to be seen to be doing his bit.

Tabri was up in the air with the other flying dragons, quite near the front of the pack- this was the sort of thing she lived for. Carnage with no limits- brilliant. Nothing could really top the feeling you got shredding a two-leg’s house, its inhabitants screaming inside. That would definitely be the tactic she was about to take.

So when the first call to attack came, she was one of the first diving into Plurith, right on the tail of the two clubtail sisters leading ME. Ah, sweet destruction… it was all so refreshing.

As the large dragons roared outside, a much smaller threat lurked within the village itself. Hidden behind tiny, fluttery wings and a fragile body lurked another dragon just as bloodthirsty as the others, and just as eager to spill the blood of the two-legs in the village. Dyavol perched on the narrow window ledge of a house near the edge of the village, watching the two club-tails circling above intently. He was waiting for the signal, but he wouldn’t have to wait long.

Moments later, a roar went up, and the attack began. Howling in what he though to be a truly fierce voice (which was in fact rather high and quiet, and possibly inaudible in the madness) he leapt from the windowsill. A few paces out into the village, a man went down – blood streaming from the side of his neck from a tiny cut dealt by an unseen enemy. Dyavol looked at the flailing man, and then at the five metal barbs in his tail, pleased. They may have just been pins stolen from a dressmaker, but when connected with the vulnerable flesh on the side of the neck, they were quite impressive.

As the man shuddered below him, Dyavol fluttered upwards in an attempt to survey the scene. It took most of his strength to raise himself to any sort of height, but at least he was light enough to hover easily. This was it – the humans were going down, and he thought he had never been happier.

The lash dragon was keeping up with Syn the Desert Chaser for now, while he wasn't fully sprinting. Most lash dragons could do that, though for Azenth it was quite a feat, he was not the most athletic or well-trained of dragons. Things in life had come free until he'd paired up with Syn as an apprentice of sorts, his previous pack often considered him more a hindrance than a help.
Somehow, he'd been roped into helping Syn catch human prey (apparently easier than most food sources) and now another leap further when Syn had joined Maledictus Eice...

This was Azenth's initiation, to prove to these (far more bloodthirsty) dragons that he had what it took to be a member of their giant pack. Azenth felt wildly uncertain; he'd never ransacked a village before, in fact, he'd never been in a human settlement in his entire life. This was all new and scary.
"Syn, what do we do when we get there?" He asked, trying to mask his hesitant tone as they were quickly drawing in on the village. "So we just eat the humans right, or do we kill a whole lot? Or do we.. just listen to Anæ and Vy, or you?" He had a whole stream of questions and not enough time. Truth be told, he wasn't capable of hunting even simpler prey let alone going on a killing spree as they were supposed to.
This was to exterminate all non dragons that did not rightfully belong here.

Azenth pushed that out of his mind, it was all a bit too complicated for his head to comprehend. All he wanted to hear was a nice and simple objective, not a sermon of Dragons Cove history, which the clubtails frequently bellowed out to the undeserving humans and other unwanted settlers. Yes, he'd just stick to killing the humans for now. He'd let the other dragons kill those other things.
"Syn, what do we do with all this food? How are we going to eat so much? A really really big waste it'll be don't you think? Can we bury them for later?"

Sprawled on the ground like a dog, in the tiny bit of shade of one of the larger barns in Plurith, Ahrora grunted as the sun moved across the sky and effectively removed the shadow away from her face. Why did it have to be so terribly hot here? It was not that she didn’t like the sun, or the desert. There was just simply so much space for running that she could not be annoyed at the sun or the sandstorms for any length of time. She might not be a desert runner but she still enjoyed the few perks a desert could provide.

Squinting upwards, Ahrora tried to decide whether it was really time to get up now or not. Rouz would certainly be out for a walk with little Dax by now and she could join them, if she could be bothered to get up that was. Relaxing in the shadow was just soooo much more fun than walking around at the moment. One of the very few remaining Surahnian soldiers walked past her, his body throwing a shadow over her exposed scales but he barely looked at her twice. She really did not look like she was posing a threat, lounging about as she was.

The lash dragon could still not quite wrap her head around the fact that Plurith was now under the management of the Surahnians and that everything they had, now basically belonged to them. She had wanted to put up a fight, not particularly fond of having her freedom taken away from her, but the village had not resisted the change of power and Ahrora had not wanted to make it worse for the people. They would have to work much harder now as it was. In addition, her freedom remained intact. She could still do as she pleased and that was basically what she wanted. Being a free spirit.

Sighing, Ahrora stretched and again thought about Rouz. She should really get up and join the two for a walk, it would do her good. Her belly had started to grow quite a bit lately and she was not too fond of it but she loved her food. Once more, a shadow passed over her face, and another. Blinking, Ahrora lifted her head off the ground and looked skywards. “What the..?” Shadows over shadows of flying dragons, huge ones at that, were blocking out the sun. “Who..?” And then she realised that those dragons were diving for the village.

“Oh no!” Within half a heartbeat, Ahrora was on her feet, claws digging into the loose earth just as a terrifying roar sounded above the village and the flying dragons touched down on the ground. More roaring joined in the first one and it wasn’t long until the screams of the humans penetrated the air.

“ROUZ!” Ahrora screamed, but she knew her voice would not be heard over the chaos which had promptly followed the attack. “Those damn dragons!” She had never really paid attention to them, nor to their previous petty attacks, but this.. this was overstepping the boundary. Roaring in response, Ahrora prepared to launch herself into battle, willing to give her life in defense of what was rightfully hers. This village did not belong to those ghastly dragons, nor will it ever!

Freya stoops witht he others. He wings only slightly open as she dives towards the earth and the little village below. Flicking her wings she keeps on a striaght course, and making sure that she would not hit wing to wing with anyone once she opened hers. Out of her mouth was the fumes her kind were known for. It streamed behind her like a putrid green banner. A roar bubble behind her clenched teeth, she would not be the one to give them away, unless the useless humans looked skyward, then the real fun would begin. She bares her teeth to the wind in her best smile as she watches the ant below begin to scatter.

Hearing Vy's roar Freya lets loose one of her own. One she hoped would taint the wind with the sweet smell of fear. Snapping her wings open she lest lose the fumes that had build up within her. If she could get the fumes out the fire that resided within would soon follow and the flame was just as putrid green as the fumes. Skimming over the building her claws and tail find roofs and begin to level the place. Nothing was better to her then the destruction, and the symphony of those who could not defend themselves.

Mateous flicked his feathered red and black tail silently as he watched the events of the attack unfold, how he had got mixed up with this group was beyond him but in honesty he didn't much care. The heat of the desert was something the male Euphorn was unused to so he kept his pace slow behind the initial group attacking the outside of the villagers. These dragons hated humans, hated them and while Mateous was neither for or against he had decided getting rid of some of them wasn't such a terrible idea. They only caused harm to the Earth.

He came across his first set of humans, they were holding sharp objects in his direction and with just a look at the group, he began to draw the very life energy from their bodies. They soon feel unconscious where they stood and seconds later were dead at the dragons feet. Humans had hardly enough energy for this dragons tastes.

The delightful day had quite unexpectedly turned into a nightmare, their relatively peaceful way of life seeming to have come crashing down around their ears in the span of a few minuets. Rushing from his place curled up next to the side of a building, Ebenti the desert chaser hurtled into the center of town, horrified to watch the scene of carnage unfolding right before his eyes.

The dragons everywhere were terrifying to see, especially for someone who had barely ever had to raise a paw in anger in his life. How could they do this?! Screams arose everywhere from around the village, and he looked around to see a man flailing to the ground with a spray of blood. At first he didn’t see the dragon that had caused it, then his eyes locked on the small fluttering form about the size of his bow scratuching up people, bringing them down with what looked like tiny metal pins in it’s tail. But tiny or not, it was hurting people for seemingly no good reason. Trotting forward, the dragon leaped with paws outstretched over the fallen humans, aiming to bring the little terror down and end its reign of madness. At least this one he thought he could handle.

On the edge of town, Vy stood on the ruins of a house that she had brought to the ground with her tail, using the splintered wood as a perch to oversee the destruction of the town and keep an eye on the newest recruits, her tail wandering back and forth behind her, dragging long furrows in the dirt. This was as much an initiation of the untested dragons as it was a statement to all of Dragons Cove that they were a force to be reckoned with. In particular she was keeping her eye on the desert chaser that constantly had a lash dragon in tow. She didn’t know their names, but the chaser had made it known that he was a wild card, and she wasn’t entirely convinced of his lackey’s belief in their cause. She would keep a very close eye on those two until her gut instinct quieted.

Guest

By the time Kaëa- who had been in the back of the hoard- had reached Plurith, the smell of blood was already thick. The Red Rock dragons tilted her wings in order to fly downward, anticipating the taste. The humans had already lost their identities in the young dragon's mind, and were no more than prey to be hunted down.

It was the point of this expedition, after all.

The young female had joined Maledictus Eice not so long ago. This raid was a bit of initiation for herself, and- so she'd heard- another dragon. To see if they were up to par. But of course Kaëa would be; while she had no particular qualms against most humans, she was not a fan of the restrictions they tried to put on a dragon's freedom. The Red Rock saw them below her and no more significant than prey, and had no problems killing them. She was happy to support Maledictus Eice.

The medium sized dragon landed at the edge of the town, and accompanied her arrival with a roar. She flexed her wings to show them off, to add more fear to the mix, before tucking them away and relying on her feet. Not being much of a magic-user, the young dragon instead took to using tooth and claw as means of fighting. She snapped out at the nearest humans, and kicked at the buildings. Destruction was fun when you didn't have to clean it up.

And no humans would have to do so. They'd be safe in the stomachs of the ME dragons, or still rotting on the ground. Either way, they would be dead and gone, just as they ought to be. Staining her claws with blood, Kaëa jumped forward, snapping at more humans. Whereas last time she had only managed to scare some away, this time she caught an arm. The Red Rock crunched on it and swallowed, and watched the humans run off.

Tilting her head back, Kaëa finished off er snack. It was hardly anywhere near a proper meal, but the town- sharedm of course, with the other Maledictus Eice dragons- would make for nice snack. The Red Rock roared again, and chased after the humans who's arms she'd eaten.

As Vythiweia let out a ground-shaking roar beside her, Anækileya hit the ground at the end of her dive, swinging her tail in an arc behind her as she did so. A few small houses and several people were instantly crushed underneath her, more falling to her lethal club. All around, the humans were running and screaming, as if they thought it would do them any good to flee. Fools. The clubtail let out a blazing sheet of fire which ignited all the houses before her and toasted the running humans nicely. Out of the corner of her eye, the dragon saw a weapon of some sort being launched at her; the makeshift spear, simply a woodenpole sharpened at one end, bounced harmlessly off her scales and she snapped up the one who had thrown it, his bones and flesh easily giving way under her powerful jaws. She swallowed the last remnants of him, making a face at the taste of the fabric he had been wearing, and licked her lips before taking a huge leap and spinning in the air as she did so. A larger, more sturdily built construction crumbled and fell as her clubtail made contact with its walls, and she felt a wave of satisfaction as the humans who had been inside scampered out wailing. They didn't last long, either, easily crushed by the spiked club or her paws.

Straightening to her full and generous height, Anækileya paused for a moment and surveyed her surroundings. Yes, all was going well. Even their Euphorn, the breed normally so soft and good for nothing but healing vermin, was taking down the humans in waves- and she was delighted to notice that their smallest member was slaughtering anyone he came across with glee. That butterfly dragon may have been smaller than the club on the end of her tail, but he was definitely one of her favourite dragons in Maledictus Eice. Unlike Syntribos- the desert chaser had rubbed her the wrong way from the beginning, and she thoroughly suspected that he wasn't at all happy with the clubtails as his leader. No matter- he would pose no threat to her or he sister even if he chose to fight them. And she hoped he wouldn't- he may have been an arrogant little thing, but he was still a dragon and he wanted their land back just as she did. The immense green and gold dragon swung her tail from side to side before choosing her next target and pouncing.

With chaos starting to run through Plurith, it was definitely the place to be- if Syn hadn’t had other things to think about, he would have quite happily just enjoyed the killing spree already breaking out within the hapless village. But he had not only the two clubtail sisters to distract him, but also the whining little slip of a lash dragon who had also, somehow, managed to keep up with him ever since he had picked up Azenth in a long-abandoned bog.
“What do you think we do, spread the joy and protect the humans?” he asked snarkily. “No, kill the two-legs, kill their animals, destroy as much as you see. You can feast if you want, but you’ll be missing out if you pick the first scrappy human you see to eat. There’s much better pickings if you look for them.” The unpleasant desert chaser picked up his pace a little, the harsh track that lead into Plurith strange and unnatural beneath his huge paws. “And you listen to me. You always listen to me, take no notice of those two stuck up brutes.”

No doubt, even which such simple instructions, the lash dragon would manage in some way to get them wrong. No matter, little harm could come to Syn if all they were around were things they could destroy. And he hardly cared about Azenth, if he happened to take on too much to fight and got himself killed. Of course, it would be a shame to see his work go to waste, but that was the way of life.
“You really do need a crash course in growing a backbone, don’t you Azenth? If we don’t eat it, we eat it tomorrow. If we don’t eat it tomorrow, the scavengers eat it. If they don’t eat it, then some two-leg comes along, sees what handsome work we’ve done and goes ‘oh, we’d better get out of here, Maledictus Eice mean business’. And then we go and hunt them down and kill them too. Do you understand, or do I need to draw you a little picture and give you a gold star when you do finally get it?”

The chaos that the town was quickly dissolving into was definitely the way Tabri liked life to be like, and with innate joy she dived into Plurith, quickly wetting her claws with blood. She kept to the outskirts of the village for the time being, sending villagers scattering as she torched their houses and forced them closer to the centre of the village. Once they were trapped at its heart, there would be no escape, and she could destroy and hunt them as her heart desired.

A small party of humans fleeing towards her caught her attention and she crashed to the ground, claws shredding the street underneath her as she barrelled forwards, leaping gleefully on them before they had time to turn and escape another direction. She nearly ran head-first into the huge red-rock coming the other direction, smashing buildings into the street as she scrambled aside, not wanting to crash into such a hard-looking dragon. Her self-preservation didn’t run far, but it did run far enough for her to see sense to get out of the way.
“Watch it, stupid,” she hissed under her breath, glaring daggers at the other dragon. “Don’t think I’ll get out your way again.”

As the furious dragon leapt at him, Dyavol fluttered desperately to move to one side. The powerful blow just missed him, but sent his flight pattern into a spiralling mess. Bigger dragons may not have noticed the disturbance in the air, but to one as small as Dyavol, it was near enough devastating.

Struggling to pull his tail into line to act as a rudder, he launched himself as the dragon that had attacked him. The rush of the attack had sent him into a fevered frenzy already, and he could already taste the sweet taste of revenge on his tiny, forked tongue. He had reason enough to hate the humans, and the fact that he could no longer go by the name Lyenki was proof enough.

As he fluttered at the desert chaser before him, he flicked his tail around, spinning his whole form to try to catch the dragon across the face. He felt a little dizzy, but he managed to hold his nerve as he neared the end of the spin. However, it seemed almost certain that he had gone off-course. However, the faster he got away from the desert chaser, the faster he could get back to killing two-legs.

Rouz looked left and right frantically, tongues of fire and fume, acid and lava snaked through the air and choked the people with their power. This wasn't just an attack, this was complete extermination. Never before had Rouz seen the dragons attack with such malignment and all around him the people fell and the dragons of his home village resisted for what they were worth, before abruptly dropping.
It was no use, he knew Ahrora would refuse to give up this and neither could he. They would have to protect the village and bide time for the youngins and the oldens and the others to escape into the near forest, then run for life. Rouz turned into a cloud of the noxious dragon-fire smoke and faced his bleak near future.
As the smoke wormed through the air he caught glimpses of vibrant colour through the greyness and immediately he knew this was Ahrora.
He immediately made towards her, but this relief was only temporal.
Perhaps it would be worse, now they were trapped in with the blood-crazed dragons from the desert.
"Dax is in the forest, but we'll have to make a path for others to esacpe." He quickly breathed, thrashing his tail with apprehension.
Even for a dragon of the DDC, it would be very unlike a rams horn to simply bend to anothers will without their own consent. Rouz was no different, he now knew he'd have to gather every bone of tenacity and help hold the village for the sake of those that couldn't. At least he had some experience, Rouz wasn't the youngest of dragons, yet not oldest either. He'd helped defend in raids before, though nothing of this scale. The people would still be counting on him.
"Ahrora, be careful who you lock eyes with, I don't want you taking on one of those terrible brutes on your own, understand?"
She would of course, give him that look most likely, the look of Thanks, but no thanks. "What could possess them to do this, I wonder..." He squinted his eyes and sweeped the sky and the ground around him. There were so many dragons, where to begin?
"You and I will fight them together. The odds aren't in our favour, Ror, but we'll give them hell." He flashed her a grin of Rams-horn-defiance, knowing that it would fall soon, so said the lurch of foreboding in the pit of his stomach.

Azenth nodded, how hard could it be...As a lash dragon the limits of his dragon-magic and fire were much more obvious. He'd have to put faith in the training he'd had alongside Syn that had somewhat improved his body, a Lash dragon's best weapon. Agility and speed of the strike, if all went well, he should be quite the complement to the Desert Chaser.
But this was Azenth, and he had about as much faith in himself as Syn did, that was to say, none.
"I understand Syn." He responded in a little of a mumble, now they were upon the village he looked about, eager to impress his mentor and to be looked on with favour by the higher dragons, though he didn't tell Syn that. Syn would resent it if Azenth were to reduce himself to a lapdog, but Azenth would not mind so much, he just wanted to be accepted as a capable dragon.
A quibble of fear rooted itself in him, but as if he were jabbed by a hot poker he pushed himself on to see a human, hoe in hand, running toward him with fear and fury. Azenth didn't like being the object of hatred, but he had to do this.
"Watch me Syn!" He called, now charging head on to the farmer. Azenth side stepped as he had been instructed when an enemy means to attack you, he flicked his lithe lash tail around and whipped it into the body of the person. A terrible, throaty moan came from the male biped's mouth but not before he clouted Azenth on the back with the hoe.

Azenth flinched and jumped away. Jitteriness was in his step and a bruise on his back but before he allowed himself to grow fearful he span quickly to the left, his tail sailing across the man's throat like a clean knife. The blood sprayed and flooded to the ground, so much for one biped! Though Azenth could almost hear the inevitable disappointment that would come from Syn, though he still wagged his bloody tail hopefully.
"I am better Syn, aren't I?" He asked, looking back to the Desert Chaser, oblivious to the band of people hurling themselves in their direction from behind and the fog of blank faces at a shattered window, looking on to him from the male biped's nest.

Freya Peels away from the carnage to survey the action. Many were enjoying the blood sport, and then there were a few others that didn't seem to have their heart in it. She could tell and she began to wonder if the two sisters saw it too.The hot air from the burning building and bodies created a nice thermal above Plurith. She never had the taste for human, she always felt it must be an acquired taste, but live stock on the other hand.

Lowing with fear she spotted a farm and the cattle it held. With a lick of her lips in anticipation Freya tucks her wing and stoops.

Temero leveled his wings, gazing down at the quiet village below. Though, it was no longer quiet. The dragons of ME were already there, so he was a little late for the party, but Temero was ready to raze some buildings. Or at least tear them apart. Any kind of damage was good in his mind. The yellow Wolf Dragon snapped his wings shut and dove for the buildings, ready to enter the fray.

The heat of the desert did not bother Temero, having spent most of his life in warmer climates. Still, it would eventually bother him if he started to overheat. However, he hoped that this fight would be settled before then. Dropping down to roof level Temero scanned the streets, looking for someone or something to attack. This was what he had been spending his whole life preparing for. All those training battles, the time spent in seclusion to gather his strength, this was the end result. This was his duty, and his purpose.

The humans and dragons who resisted? They would never stand a chance.

At first Ebenti was surprised that the small butterfly dragon spun away so easily and watched with severely misplaced amusement. Then it rounded on him, and caught off guard by the odd yet startlingly ferocious attack, he didn't jerk backwards quite fast enough to avoid getting swiped across the nose with the little pins pushed through the dragon's tail. Stinging from the strike, the desert chaser roared in surprise and pain, rubbing his nose with a huge paw to relieve the sting and sniffed, the metallic scent of freshly drawn blood flooding his senses. "That's not funny at all!" He growled, locking onto the butterfly dragon and started swiping at him like a cat would do to a fly.

Seeing the spectacle going down from her standing point some distance away, Vy growled low in her throat, the rumbling bass vibrating deep in her chest. Flaring her wings, she set off at a half-glide to close some distance between herself and what was arguably their smallest member and let out a roar that dwarfed the desert chaser's in comparison of loudness, ending the glide in a trot that brought her right up on the chaser, bright yellow claws flashing for a kill.

The second that Ebenti heard the roar he had looked up from trying to swat the smaller dragon out of the air and saw the huge mass of dragoness coming straight at him. By no means had Ebenti ever considered himself a particularly brave dragon, and when confronted with the odds of taking on the clubtail, he quickly chose the most logical choice: run. He had just turned and made a dash for it when he felt the larger dragon's claw scythe through the hair on his tail and gave a yelp, but didn't look back, taking off in the first direction that wasn't immediately filled with bloodthirsty dragons, effectively making himself scarce.

Flaring her wings with a snarl, Vy watched the cowardly dragon run, tracking his movement to see with satisfaction that he was running straight at the line of dragons who had arrived last, ringing the edge of the city. Well, he had jumped out of the tree and into the hornet's nest, and as far as she was concerned his fate was sealed. Someone would pick him up. Flaring her wings, she looked around for Dyavol, wondering if she'd accidentally blown him away in her rush to save him. "Are you alright?" She called, eyes still searching for the tiny dragon.

As much as the female lash dragon wanted to fight against these dragons and drive them away from Plurith, it was quickly demonstrated that it would be hard to repress this force. The dragons were intent of not only raiding the village but completely laying waste to it. Instead of launching herself into a fight with them, Ahrora thus decided to look for the people intelligent enough not to pick up their pitchforks and try to fight against dragons triple their size but preparing to flee instead. As she was just about to turn away from where the heart of the battle was, an all too familiar form suddenly appeared in the haze of chaos.

“Rouz!” Ahrora called, a whole mountain’s worth of rocks seeming to tumble away from her suddenly relieved heart. “I’m so glad you’re alright!” she quickly brought the few paces still separating them behind her and nuzzle her loved one. Another wave of relief rolled through her body at the mention of Dax being safe, but at the same time the worry for Rouz and everyone else began to grow.

“I don’t understand what they want from us? They’ve always just taken what they wanted and left again. Why are they intent on slaughtering everyone in their path?” As Rouz’ words reached her ears, as predicted, she gave him the look. “I love you Rouz, but don’t mother me.” And with those words, her eyes locked onto one of the huge clubtail dragons, their imposing form visible even in the now spreading smoke. What she would not give to fight those beasts. She had hated those clubtails ever since they had first started picking on this small village, her humble abode. She would not let them destroy it! A momentary flicker of red-hot rage surged through the lash dragon but as soon as the ramshorn was talking to her in his gentle but strong voice, Ahrora’s thoughts deviated again.

As she locked eyes with her companion, she nodded solemnly. “We will give them hell.” While she was staring into his eyes, her heart began to tug at her and she was briefly wondering what her life would be like without him, without Dax, but she couldn’t imagine it. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing any of them, especially Rouz. He meant the world to her.

“Let’s release all the cattle,” she suggested. “If they want to take this village, we’re going to make it as hard for them as possible. With the recent drought and the sand in this earth, a few milling cows and pigs should hopefully produce enough dust in the air to at least momentarily cloud their vision so we can get a few people out.” With another look towards the raging battle, she sighed: “A lot are already lost.”

Turning back to Rouz, she whispered: “Don’t be reckless. I don’t want to lose you.”

Mateous watched as another group of humans dropped at his paws and he felt the signs of storing too much energy in his body. He could easily release it on a human, and let it completely obliterate the flesh bag from inside out but he figured he could just as easily give it to another dragon if the use so came to it. He trotted over to where he saw the butterfly dragon and the clubtail. He eyed the dragon that seemed to be fleeing for its life and thought it a wise choice.

He looked to Vy for a moment, "Do you wish for more energy? It can heal and restore." He asked both dragons, wanting to be rid of the excess energy in his body before it started to cause him any major damage. The storing of the life energy was easy to maintain in small amounts but with all of what he had taken in today, it was like containing a storm in a box.

Dyavol twirled around in front of Vy, catching himself after the huge gust as she had landed. He was getting better at avoiding being completely swept away, but he still had to struggle out of big gusts like that. As he caught sight of the desert chaser fleeing, he stuck out his tiny tongue, before giving a half-laugh and turning spectacularly.

“Thanks, Vy.” he grinned, licking a droplet of the fresh blood from his tail-barb. He had known that he was in serious trouble when the desert chaser had started swiping at him, and if the clubtail hadn’t swept down, he may well have been caught. “And yes, I am quite alright. I could have taken him, you know.”

As Mateous addressed them, he spun around to see who was speaking. Each tine he turned, he performed a careful somersault in the air, giving him a slightly comical appearance. “If you have some to spare, I’m all open. Just remember I’m only little, so not too much.” He laughed, his voice edged with venom. The scales on his tail itched to get back to the attack, but realistically he knew that he wouldn’t be doing that much damage anyway. And, come to think of it, the pressure on his tail-spikes did sting something awful, and his wings tired easily anyway.

Guest

The chaos was a sick, sweet sort of tune to Kaëa's ears. Even the tears and crunches of flesh sounded nice; it certainly made the red rock hungry, she figured as she tossed one of her de-armed snacks from before into her mouth. There was a definite battle lust that hungered in the red rock, and it was being let out to play. It was still unformed and messy and not careful or strategic, but it was perfect for a battle like this, where the uncoordinated sweep of a tail could bring down a house, and crush the bipeds within and near by.

Still chasing her torn victims, Kaëa scrambled to stop as a lightning storm dragon crushed the two-legs. She stopped herself in a rush only to avoid the collision wih the lightning storm, mostly for fear of whatever flames or- as the name would imply, though Kaëa wasn't sure if the dragon had this ability- lightning might she be attacked with. Fortunately, the other one had had the same idea, though Kaëa had slid some distance before stopping. She was, at any rate, close enough to hear the other's muttered words, to which she offered a growl. "Wasn't me who came barreling out of the sky before looking," she growled. Kaëa had no qualms against the flattened bipeds, however; there were always more, and, anyways, they were all to be killed regardless of who it was done by.

Temero landed on the roof of a building, using his teeth and claws to rip shingles up and throw them into the fires below. the people within cowered as he shoved his head through the gap and he snarled at their show of fear, blasting fire onto the walls of the room just to watch them run, screeching in terror. Ripping a few more boards out to free his head the Wolf dragon proceeded to the next building, hoping to find something slightly more challenging. The roof was already damaged and the internal rooms burning, but he added a few more flames to the mixture just to be safe.

Pausing in his carnage for a moment the wolf dragon looked around, scanning the town for something serious to attack. Most of the people were already being handled, and he was tempted to go after the refugees. But no doubt there would be some serious dragons watching over them, and Temero was not quite ready to start a fight with one of them yet, though he would if he got dragged into one. So, instead, he threw his head back and howled a challenge into the smoky air. Once the sound had faded he looked down at the street and spotted a Desert Racer just below him. It was not one he recognized so he screeched a battle cry and dropped down, claws extended.

Syn pushed himself ahead of Azenth as they raced into Plurith itself, focussing on where the humans would be, not what he could destroy. Leave that to the bigger dragons- dragons with fire. He took down one fleeing two-leg barely inside the town’s perimeter, wetting his claws on the human’s blood before moving on further down the street, excitement balling up inside him. This sort of thing wasn’t the everyday, and he wasn’t going to waste himself on just the one kill. His eyes flicked up towards his young apprentice as Azenth called out to him, watching the lash dragon’s attack coldly from where he stood. If he had had any attachment to the dragon he would have winced at the blow he took on his back, but instead Syn only felt disappointment. All the work he had put into training Azenth up, and he was still making amateur mistakes. Against a farmer.

His face hardened into a scowl as he padded up to Azenth and the farmer he had slain, sniffing disdainfully at the bloody corpse as he passed it. It would have been like the dragon to have just missed, made a mess of killing the man and still have left him alive.
“This isn’t through yet,” he said, looking past Azenth to the house behind, where the faces that were lined up in one window looked onto the two dragons. He didn’t comment on the kill, leaving it for the lash to think about. “You can make up for that with not messing up these ones. Still not going to save your ass.”

A snarl rumbled from his throat as he leapt forwards, screams coming from inside the building as he leapt through the shattered window and started to hunt those humans already fleeing in all direction from the room.

==X==

So, the red rock had a voice. Tabri narrowed her eyes and set a jet of flames and electricity in the direction of the nearest buildings, fire snaking up the dry wooden front of the shop as it caught alight. “And I supposes I’m the one who came running and rushing and killing down the street too? We’re all the scapegoat, aren’t we?” She beared her teeth viciously, her wings rucking up at her sides as she shoved past the other big dragon down the street where she had just come from. Something in the back of her mind told her that she should probably be befriending her fellow ME members, but that… that was just so standard. Tabri didn’t need anyone, and she would show the world that she didn’t need anyone.