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

Slippery little bastard, she’d get that damned rams horn! Vy snarled when she saw the small dragon back out of range of her attack, effectively cornering himself back into the alleyway. Snapping her jaws, she didn’t even notice that the rams horn had gone completely still but was grimly satisfied when he didn’t move as her paw shot into the alleyway over his head, her long yellow claw hooking the back of his horn-and-face bone plate and she tore him sideways, demolishing one of the buildings that made the gods forsaken alleyway as her paw crashed through it, rams horn in tow. Perhaps she had stunned the rams horn with that, maybe she’d broken his neck. Either way, the pitifully small dragon wasn’t moving when her foot came to a rest on the other side of the now collapsing building and she bared her teeth in delight. Ram her in the chest, would he? The tingle of excess energy pulsed through her and she tossed the dragon in the air with an overwhelming air of maliciousness like a cat playing with a mouse, flicking the limp dragon off her claw.

Planting her forelegs, the clubtail spun on the spot, her heavy tail whipping through the air and smashed into the falling body of the rams horn with a grotesque smack and planted both the plated club and the body of the now very messy dragon corpse into the ground. She inhaled deeply, filling her lungs with the scent of scorched flesh and burning buildings and let forth a torrent of flame on the last remaining building standing before her, roaring with savage delight now that the city was well under their control. Once the building was well and truly alight she licked her lips, the taste of her own fire leaving her mouth feeling a tad tingly and lifted her tail, shaking off most of the dragon corpse she had smashed into oblivion and leaving it as a bloody pile in the dirt. Raising her head above the chaos, she looked at what her fellows had wrought, the village demolished and up in flames. It was a good day.

Turning her attention to what was left of the alleyway, she looked at the pathetic body of the lash dragon that had been the subject of Tabri's ire and simply blinked, dismissing the tragedy. “A grave day when dragons will fight to save their inferiors.” She grumbled her voice deep and tinged with certain weariness. “But a necessary evil to end them now and save them from their ignorance.” Snorting, she turned from the scene and looked around for her sister, wondering where the other clubtail had gotten off to. It was time to wrap things up and gather all of Maledictus Eice so they could celebrate their victory together.

Another human fell with a useless squeal of terror, the soft and floppy little body toppling to the ground. With a growl of satisfaction, Anækileya focused on her next targets. There were lots of them, milling around as they made their hopeless attempt to flee. She was about to release a sheet of fire over them all when she noticed a dragon among them, taking them down one by one. Interesting. It was a wolf, not Temero and so not a member of Maledictus... But she wouldn't kill him without cause. Changing her tactic, she pulled her wings closer to her body and tilted downwards in a dive, swinging her tail heavily through the group of vermin as she reached the lowest point of her arc and then pulled upwards again. A few more passes, with wide and slow turns inbetween each one, took out the lot of them and she landed heavily next to the unfamiliar dragon.

'I am glad to see that not all stand with these rats which have invaded our homeland. Know that if you wish to join us in our work, you will be welcome. Perhaps you would care to join us for a short time, at least? I expect the area has been purged now, and so we are free to gather and discuss our next moves.' The clubtail looked at him for a moment before she straightened from the crouched position which she had assumed to talk to the smaller dragon, and executed a slow take-off, circling in the air as she rose majestically. Whether or not he would follow her, she had other things to be doing. Once at a satisfactory height, she allowed herself to glide gently for a few moments, surveying the landscape around for any humans which may have escaped her previous sweeps. Convinced that there none, Anækileya looked over to the destroyed village, where she could see the hulking green shape of her sister. Everything did indeed seem to be finished, and so she made her way towards Vythiweia, gliding smoothly downwards and landing with a ground-shaking thump which left deep gouges from her claws in the soil. She let out a general roar of greeting as she touched down, flaring her head-spikes impressively.

Fenrir licked at his teeth and lips as the blood began to accumulate, slowly starting to appease his thirst and hunger. He had never known that human flesh would be so much more satisfying than animal flesh. It satisfied quicker as well, it was an interesting experience. All around him, the remaining humans were being swept off their feet and left in a bloodied mess on the ground, making Fenrir step carefully, as he did not want to get himself any dirtier than he already was from his own hunt now.

It took a while before the dragon finally spoke to him even though the obviously female clubtail seemed to have been considering it for a while and the wolf dragon himself had not known what to say. What was there to say in a situation such as this one? ‘Did you enjoy your meal?’ because it obviously wasn’t a meal for her, no she was doing this on purpose or for pleasure because she did not lay a single tooth onto any of the humans. What was going on here?

Fenrir raised a surprised eyebrow at the clubtail’s words and wondered what on earth she was talking about but before he could even get in a word, the dragon had already lifted off the ground again and was slowly circling away, back towards the village, which, the wolf dragon now fully realised, was completely in ruins and hidden behind a slowly lifting cloud of smoke. At first, he had though the clubtail might actually make a pass at his throat after her first words, but he had quickly realised that he was not in danger, on the contrary rather. The dragon wanted him to follow her for whatever sort of discussion it was she was about to have with ‘the others’, whoever ‘they’ all were.

Completely in the dark about anything that was going on, he wanted to know more and thus quickly leapt into the air and followed the club tail, easily enough catching up with her as she did not seem in a hurry at all. Once she touched down, making a show out of it, the wolf dragon followed here once more. His landing slightly more delicate and maybe even unnoticed next to the clubtail's roaring and play with head-spikes and whatnot, the wolf dragon remained quiet for a few moments, taking in the soot and blood everywhere, including the remains of a ramshorn dragon at the feet of the second clubtail they had landed next to. Finally, he spoke up, eyeing the first clubtail he had accompanied, before surveying the second one as well; they looked rather similar.
“What exactly is it that ‘you’ are doing here? And who are ‘you’?”

At the arrival of her sister, Vythiweia raised her wings in greeting, lifting her chin and made a deep noise in her throat. A small bit of worry that always formed in the pit of her stomach whenever the other clubtail got out of sight for more than a few moments, released, unknotting slowly and reassuring her. She walked toward Anækileya, eyeing the wolf dragon at her side that had flown in a second later. Bending her neck down slightly, she examined the dragon, noting immediately that it was not Temero or any of the others that ran in their ranks and became suspicious immediately. The only dragons not part of their group that she had encountered so far had been enemies. Looking briefly over her shoulder she snorted at the corpses in the alleyway and turned her attention back to the wolf dragon again.

"We," she began, her voice amused, "Are Maledictus Eice, the ones who drive out the plague. And we are here because that is precisely what we are doing." Her jaws parted in a grin, showing off her sharp teeth and righted herself so that she no longer stooped to the smaller dragon's level. She inhaled deeply and let out a terrifying roar, painting the sky white in a momentary flash of fire, then settled down and waited until she had the majority of the attention of her fellows. "BROTHERS AND SISTERS!" She shouted over the general fray, her neck curved in an elegant S as she addressed the others. "This day we have taken our price from the rats that refuse to leave our land! Today we have shown that we are no mere beasts to cower and hide, but are dragons! Proud, fierce, and the rightful owners of these blood-stained sands. But this is not enough! This triumph will be the first of many, the day that those scale-less bipeds that pretend themselves our masters will look back upon, and woe their ignorance and corruptness! Celebrate this victory, for we have risen and shown our teeth! Glory to the dragons!"

Freya circles high in the sky and looked at the battle below. Just to the east of the village she spotted a small group of humans trying to flee. Mostly women and children and few of the old ones who smelt like moth balls. With a lick of her forked tounge across her snout she could feel the fumes boiling in her chest. She had heard the flesh of the young ones is the sweetest, maybe she would get her chance to find out. Pulling her wings into her side she drops from the sky, she would use her tail and slight adjustments with her wings to keep on target. She could hear them begin to scream as she got closer which only made it more fun for her.

At the sound of Vy’s raised voice, Dyavol flew through the destruction around him to hover near her, his scales glittering red with blood. He had taken the time to gorge himself on the fresh meat wherever he could (not that it took much to fill him up), and now, surrounded by lifeless bipeds, he felt strangely warm and content. His lust for vengeance on the two-legs had been quenched for the time being, and he could enjoy a moment of satisfaction in the ruined village.

Looking around he absorbed the sight of the blood spattered dragons, and revelled in their victory, making sure that he didn’t stray too far away from the two clubtails. He was safe near them, and wasn’t at any risk of being blown off balance by one of the others accidentally. In fact, the whole scene, right down to the last drop of blood slowly soaking into the sandy ground was perfection to him.

At her sister's greeting, Anækileya ruffled her head-spikes again and echoed Vythiweia's soft growl. She felt at once more secure- a ridiculous feeling, for who here would be able to threaten them? Yet knowing that the other dragon had her back was always reassuring, even if it was only to know that they were both safe.
She let the other clubtail speak; she had always been better with words. Anækileya herself was too impatient to come up with the finely worded speeches which her sister could, but it was certainly helpful that one of them could. When the theatrical display of fire and roaring began, she bared her teeth in a snarl and whacked her club into the ground, shaking it as the sky flashed bright with Vythiweia's fire. As the dragon launched into her speech, she let her attention wander somewhat as she surveyed the members of Maledictus Eice. She was pleased by their numbers, but a thought of the unnatural guardian dragons caused her to flick her tail in slight unease. Artificial they may be, but it didn't change the fact that their magic was formidable. They, perhaps, could cause problems, even though the humans would fall in droves before this force of dragons.

Breathing fire and fumes on them the humans panic more. Filling the air wither their screams and her nose with the smell of their fear. With a happy growl shesnaps open her wings and lands with a satisfied crunch on a few of the ants. Thrashing her tail she could feel a few more go down. She snaps at the darker shadows in the fumes and could taste the copper sweetness on her tounge. It had a differnt flavor note then an animal does, but still just as good. She bounces around in the fumes like a happy chick, enjoying the crunching and silencing of the pathetic moans.

Not far away she could see the others gathering. NOt wanting to miss what the more talkative sister has to say, she wanders her way over. Her scales coveres in spatters of blood and mud. She licks her snout to get most of the tasty gore off her face.

The wolf dragon wearily returned the clubtail dragon’s inspection, cocking his head lightly to the side and flattening his ears to his head as she scrutinised him. He didn’t quite like the way she was looking him up and down, but he did appreciate the fact that she bent down to his level as she began talking to him rather than keeping her head high. “Maledictus Eice… What a name”, and he couldn’t say he’d ever heard of them or their cause. Whether that was a good or bad thing remained yet to be seen. Her voice grew louder as she began to address the whole company of dragons gathered around – there were quite a handful! – and the wolfdragon listened intently, being sucked in by the raw emotion behind those words.

Fenrir had already started to be a little grumpy again as there was just too much noise, too much roaring and growling, and wing-fluttering going on, not to mention the regular tongues flicking out to lick blood and meat residue off of scales, and not just their mouths, and this almost everywhere around him. It was almost disgusting. Could they not eat without making a mess? Needless to say, Fenrir liked his things clean and he didn’t particularly like being put on edge by anything he did not like.

However, when the clubtail spoke, he forgot about such thoughts. Even though he was not entirely convinved by the clubtail’s speech, he had no qualms whatsoever to simply rid the earth of whatever it was that was bugging him personally, like for instance those puny little humans out there. In addition, it really had been a lot of fun, and he had to agree with the fact that dragons were the rightful owners of these lands and the humans thought they could simply invade everything, make their lives difficult by constantly being nuisances, being annoying and being in the way at the most impossible of times. Plus, they were rather loud, especially when Fenrir simply wanted to be left in peace.

“Maybe I’ve come to the right place by chance then,” he thought before he loudly commented the clubtail’s speech with a roar to indicate his agreement.

The scream of the little lash dragon who had tried to attack Tabri was instantly cut off as she snapped her jaws together, Ahroha’s neck breaking with a horrible finality. The lightning storm tossed her head from side to side, shaking her limp body so it danced like a rag doll before she flung it away, torching what was left of the unfortunate lash before she hit the buildings on the opposite side of the street.

Tabric slowly opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, the taste of barbequed flesh mixing with the metallic taste of blood from her nose. No doubt that would make eating annoying for the next couple of weeks, especially when it started to heal over. Ah well, it had been worth it.

Vythiweiah had also dealt with her own little nuisance by the time the lightning storm turned back to the alleyway again, depriving Tabri of the joy of dispatching another pathetic human-loving dragon. Well, it was probably for the best- even with Tabri’s skewed perception of the world, she recognised that a victim-deprived clubtail was not a happy clubtail. Hopefully her equally violent sister had also satiated her lust for blood.

There was a period of hustle and bustle as dragons arrived down out of the sky around the pair of them, Anækileya appearing with a small entourage of other dragons. By no means had all of Maledictus Eice gathered, but Vythiweiah felt the need to make a speech anyway. Which was just joy untold.

==X==

Syn nodded brusquely as Azenth finally got to his feet again, biding his time to attack the two armed men in front of them- like a sensible dragon would. Azenth, however, definitely did not fall into the sensible dragon category, and decided to just attack anyway, earning himself wounds he obviously deserved for such stupidity. The desert chaser watched in incredulity as one of his tail-blades snapped away, then his disbelief grew as the three ended up in a messy squirming pile on the ground.

“Gods’ sake, do I have to do everything?” he snarled, finally seizing an opportunity to aid his ward as he saw an opening in the crazy mishmash of fighting. The hapless lash dragon was flailing around like a fish out of water, and screeching like a pup too- well, he was certainly going to be getting a fair few quips about that over the next few days, to say the least. Not to mention his wriggling made it difficult for Syn to attack the two humans- eventually he managed to get a decent blow in to one of them, the pathetic thing’s bones snapping under the strength of his paws. He kicked the man away from the scrum to deal with later; he wasn’t dead, but would be no trouble without a weapon and with broken bones.

The other, now, was also easier to deal with, but had more weaponry. Not only did he have his sickle, but an axe too, and seemed to have hardly any difficulty getting hold of them properly again. In one movement, he had managed to catch the sickle under one of Syn’s front legs, slicing it across to try and cut through the desert chaser’s leg. Syn managed to move fast enough that he didn’t lose his limb, rearing up onto his back legs, but the man managed to slice away a long piece of pelt and skin at the back of his leg, blood and pain welling up along the long cut as he dropped back to all fours again, staggering drunkenly. He wasn’t invincible.
“Azenth, so help me, kill the scum before I kill you for your stupidity,” he growled, voice edged with anger and pain.

The ruckus she stirred from her little speech made her chest swell with pride. Pride for herself of course (for what dragon did not revel in a little flattery every now and again?), and pride for the fellow dragons that followed her. They were true warriors, ones that would see the grand scheme of taking Dragons Cove back by storm through to reality. No longer a dream. Reality. That made her smile all the more. "Tonight we celebrate and feast!" She declared, though knew that the celebration as it was would probably consist of torching what little of the village there was left standing. Blights were best purged with fire, she had found. It discouraged other plague-carriers from coming and attempting to resettle and reclaim their ruins. "But our work is not fully done." There was always a risk of retaliation. As unintelligent and short-lived as the non-dragons were, it would be foolhardy of her to presume that their victory made them safe. The had prevailed over the dragonkin for this long. Who was to say that they could not do so again? "You." She looked directly at a few of the dragons gathered to her right side. "Patrol the parameter of our land. Let any dragons in the area know that we are here to stay, and that they can join us, or struggle against us. Kill any non-dragons that do not flee at the sight of you, but the the ones that run go. We want our word spread. Relief will be sent by sunset.

"Anækileya, join me in scouring what is left of this pitiful mess. I wish to safeguard our brothers and sisters against traps that the vermin may have left. As for you-" Here she looked to the wolf dragon that had joined them so suddenly, appraising him with a sharp eye. "Come with us. We shall talk and see where you stand." With her orders delivered, she gave a roar of dismissal, the dragons she had commanded to patrol taking flight or jogging to do as they had been asked. There was work yet to be done, but it was the sort of work that Vy would relish.

After all, they had won.

THIS IS AN ENDING POST! This board is now closed! Thanks everyone who participated! Look forward to more exciting ME boards in the next round of plottage!

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