by Dreagen
Suddenly, there was a flash of what seemed like a white light, then darkness in his right eye. Feeling disoriented, he shook his head in an effort to clear the haziness on his right side only to see it fade to black where it remained as such. “Nice shot!” he heard EeNox say from the side now shrouded in darkness. Turning, he saw him standing next to LyCora, who was standing with her legs spread and her flame blazing brilliantly. It was then that he put the boy’s comment with what he was seeing and made the connection. He had been so focused on ShinGaru that he had failed to pay any attention to the others, giving one of them time to line up a clear shot. The full force of the blast had struck directly in his right temple, blinding him in his right eye.
“Damn you!” he growled in a shaky voice as he gently rubbed his now dim eye. “Damn each and every last one of you!”
“Speak for yourself, you son of a bitch!” LyCora shouted back furiously. “What right do you have?” Her voice trailed off as it quivered with raw emotion. “You…you…I can’t let you live after what you’ve done! I hate you! I hate all DraGons! EeNara will never again know the horror of your armies! This all ends now!” She fired another blast from her mouth only to have it sail over her target’s head as he ducked low and charged forward. LyCora had no time to react and found herself impaled through her left thigh on one of the smaller bony horns on DayKar’s brow. LyCora shrieked in pain as he smashed the side of his head she was caught on into the ground, driving the horn deeper into her leg.
DayKar could feel the warm sensation of blood flowing out of her leg and running down the blind side of his face and into his mouth, where it touched his tongue and sent a surge of pleasure through him. “So sweet.” He began savagely thrashing his head back and forth, forcing her to wail in pain.
LyCora had never been in so much agony as the feathers on her back were pulled free and her skin peeled and stripped away in ragged strips as she was raked repeatedly across the ground. Worst of all, she felt stripped of any dignity she had ever had. What would her mother think if she saw her now, completely victimized on every level? Shame now mixed with pain as she felt her heart sink. EeNox leaped at the DraGon but was sent sailing in the opposite direction with a swift swipe of DayKar’s tail.
“Patience,” the DraGon called out after him. “It’ll be your turn soon enough.” Turning back and looking down, he saw a wide spread of red under LyCora as she lay their twitching uncontrollably, her eyes focused seemingly on nothing as small, weak chirps escaped her throat. Feeling satisfied with himself, he reared his head back as a large ball of gold fire formed just above him, resembling a smaller version of the one he had tried to destroy KaNar with. “Ironically, I’m giving you a merciful death compared to what the rest of the people of this world are going to suffer when the others get here.”
He suddenly lurched to the side as something wrapped around his left hind leg, causing him to accidentally send the ball of fire into the ground several meters off to his left, where it exploded in a brilliant flash, sending a shock wave that forced him to dig his claws into the tower itself to keep from tumbling off the edge. Baring his teeth and growling angrily, he looked down and saw the long, broken form of ShinGaru encircled around his shin, with his teeth sunk into the meat of his exposed calf.
“You miserable little shit!” DayKar bellowed furiously. “Why won’t you just fucking die already?” Reaching down, he grabbed him and with some degree of effort, pulled him free and brought him close to his face. Angling his head so he could view him with his remaining good eye, he parted his jaws and prepared to close them down on ShinGaru’s head when he felt yet someone else attacking him, climbing on his side, prying his armor off and trying to lock their jaws around the fleshy part of his throat. To his great frustration, the attack came from his blindside, and he now felt thick, serrated teeth working their way into him. Unable to see, he was hardly ignorant to the identity of his attacker, for the scent of the young TarBoranx was unmistakable.
EeNox used every ounce of pressurized strength in his jaws to push his teeth as deep as they could go into the neck of the DraGon. The whole time the same instinctive drive kept shouting in his every fiber: bite harder, push your teeth in deeper. As if a slave to this unseen force, he obeyed, and using all the strength his muscles and flame could muster, he at last felt his teeth glide through soft, warm flesh, and lock back into place in their closed position with a huge piece of warm flesh between them. EeNox felt himself rip away from his enemy and fall back down, where he felt the ground beneath his feet seconds later. The wave of instinctive ferocity fell back like a receding tide and at once, he felt like himself again. With two large chomps, he effortlessly swallowed what was in his mouth. It was only then that he finally noticed the warm fluid dripping down on his snout and running down over his lips. Looking up, he saw the garish hole in DayKar’s throat as a steady stream of blood now poured from it.
DayKar tried to cry out in pain but heard only a gurgling gasp escape his throat. Damn it, he thought as he felt his strength flowing out from the wound. He staggered off to the side as he placed a hand against his throat and began cauterizing the wound. It was then he noticed AnaSaya’s body was gone. Turning his neck in every direction, he was startled to see her slowly limping her way towards the altar where Rex and DiNiya continued to fuel the rift, which was now almost fully open and unleashing all manner of haunting and otherworldly sounds. “No, you don’t!” DayKar shouted in a now raspy voice as he haphazardly seared closed his injury, and began loping after her.
Seeing him go after AnaSaya, LyCora pushed herself back up onto her feet, ignoring the shooting pain in her left leg, and began half hopping, half limping to intercept as fast as she could.
EeNox and ShinGaru did their best to shake off the shock of their own injuries and rushed over to stop DayKar from getting to their friend first.
The DraGon was now nearly upon AnaSaya, his shadow looming over her as she continued forward, unwilling to stop to even look back. He had launched forward open mouthed, when once again he felt ShinGaru coil around his leg, causing him to stumble and lose his balance. Slamming his chin into the ground, DayKar grunted, the wound in his neck re-opening from being scraped on the hard surface. He struggled to get back to his feet, only to feel EeNox slamming into his ribs, driving pieces of now pliable armor into his side. The DraGon fell over kicking at the air as LyCora leaped onto him and began tearing into him with her teeth. DayKar howled in pain before cocking his fist back and driving it into her, sending her slamming into the altar, where she tumbled down the steps.
“LyCora!” EeNox cried out. Igniting his flame, he charged forward but did not see that the DraGon’s tail had snaked its way beneath him, and he was taken by surprise when it suddenly slammed up into him. EeNox felt something crack in his right leg as he was sent flying into the air. Not wasting a moment, DayKar fired a blast from his mouth, scoring a direct hit. With a sense of satisfaction, he watched EeNox fall from the sky.
LyCora, who had only just regained consciousness from the shock of the blow she had been dealt, looked up just in time to see EeNox hit the ground only a few meters in front of her. With a shriek of surprise, she forced herself back on two legs with more effort than she ever had to muster and was trying to make her way over to him, until DayKar brought one of his hands down between them. “I don’t think so!” he said as he picked EeNox up and began crushing him in his grip. “You have all had your way long enough! It’s time you learn the meaning of loss. Starting with you!” He now applied immense pressure to EeNox, who had been feeling dazed and numb, but was immediately pulled back into the moment when he felt every bone in his body short of his head and tail crack under the immense pressure constricting them. Desperately he tried to ignite his flame, which pulsed in small bursts, but ultimately he found himself unable to do more due to the overwhelming amount of pain. Straining his head skyward, he parted his jaws wide and let out a horrific howl of agony that cut right through LyCora, whose heart broke.<
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DayKar bared his teeth and let out a savage growl as he felt the young TarBoranx begin to break in his hands. It was the wail he heard emanating from the rift, however, that made him look to the sky and bask in the otherworldly light shining down on him. “Yes,” he said in an exhausted voice. “That’s it…just keep coming. Can you hear them, my love?” He glanced over and saw that LemaRes’s eyes were now permanently open. Gritting his teeth, tears began to stream down his face before he clenched them shut and unleashed a mournful roar up to the gaping sky. He had lost everything he had ever loved in order to fulfill the mission he was given long ago, had sacrificed the one he had loved the most in the name of his faith. The scriptures told him he would now be guaranteed a place in paradise at the Nova Queen’s side. It was the dream of all DraGons, and yet none of it numbed his pain or brought his broken heart any sense of peace. Honor and faith were the furthest things from his mind. What does that make me? For does that not make me just as bad as the heretic beasts whose flames I came here to extinguish? Such questions would have troubled him right down to the very depths of his innermost self once, but now…now I feel alone.
With a deep sigh, he gazed back up at the sky and into the rift with his remaining good eye, and beheld what looked like a red burning ring. He saw a quick flash of light just below his peripheral vision and felt the ground beneath him shake. In that moment, he saw the beam of red fire disappear and the rift begin to close. “Wha…no! NO!” Looking back down, he saw AnaSaya standing at the base of the altar, looking up; faint lavender wisps of flame faded from her muzzle. The base of the altar was destroyed, blown apart by a blast of flame, the result of which had severed the link between the two TyRanx and the tower itself. “No…” DayKar whimpered as he watched all that he had worked towards, sacrificed for, disappear right in front of him.
AnaSaya managed to pull herself to her full standing height as she breathed heavily. “It’s always…the quiet ones…you need to keep an eye on.” Having used up her last bit of energy, she collapsed down the altar steps, where she lay, breathing slow, ragged breaths. All her life she had watched it drift quietly by from the edge, always on the outside looking in. Close enough to touch but never daring to. She doubted even her mother suspected, but her greatest fear was that she would never be able to leave any lasting mark, not have any impact on the lives of others. Now, she lay dying on an altar from another world, and for the first time in her life, knew that she mattered.
“You!” DayKar hissed venomously. “After a war that destroyed a whole world, another condemned my people to a cold, dark sleep and me an endless existence, it’s you who undoes all that we have strived for…what I have strived for.” He walked to the small form of AnaSaya, who did not even have the strength to look up. The shock of seeing his dream vanish right before him had left him feeling numb, detached from everything around him. “I thought I had planned it all so perfectly, thought of every contingency. I knew you had returned—all six of you—but I was so sure it was only the Doom Bringer who posed a threat. Not even that other TyRanx was to be feared. Not…you.” Towering over her, he bared his teeth as flame flared from his nostrils and mouth. “The quiet ones, indeed; a lesson well learned, and never to be repeated.”
AnaSaya, barely conscious, could feel the heat of the DraGon’s flame as it grew in intensity, preparing to consume her in its searing ferocity, condemning her to oblivion. She had made peace with herself and regretted nothing. Now it was her time to pay the ultimate price for protecting those she loved. DayKar’s flame was at its height when she felt the sudden rising of another flame, followed quickly by the disappearance of his. Opening her eyes, she saw her field of view clear of DayKar’s menacing face, and a sky now whole once more. Then she sensed it, a shadow stopping over her. Shifting her gaze, she saw the silhouette of two DyVorians against the setting sun, and immediately recognized the two flames burning within them.
LyCora pushed her head under EeNox and helped him to his feet, while ShinGaru stayed close to her side in case her leg gave out.
“The sky,” he said in surprise. “It’s back to normal.”
“It was AnaSaya,” LyCora declared with a sense of personal realization. “She…saved us all.”
“So wait…what happened to…”
Two low guttural roars filled their ears and forced them to look towards the ruined altar. It was then that EeNox had his answer.
DayKar lay on his back, his sternum smashed in. With a groan, he reared his head up and immediately saw something that made his heart stop and his blood run cold. Standing with the ruined altar, in the perfect image of destruction as their backdrop, were Rex and DiNiya: two warriors from an ancient time when the world lived in awe and terror of the red flame. Holding a hand over the terrible wound on his chest, the once mighty knight staggered to his feet and let out a defiant roar in their direction. Half-crazed by the loss of everything he had worked so hard to hold on to, he no longer cared about anything. No more grand plans, no more personal ambitions. What was the point of any of it, now that he was truly marooned in hell? Worse yet, he was alone. The guilt he had felt for the death of his mate, however, had carved a deep hole in him, which was now overflowing with a seething hatred.
The two TyRanx fixed their enemy with a predator’s gaze as they slowly and methodically walked down the steps, moving on opposite sides of AnaSaya and putting themselves between DayKar and her. The tension in the air seemed almost tangible. Below, the sounds of the battle raging could be heard, drawing nearer, rising closer to the top. DayKar knew that not only had he failed to bring down the army, which had been trapped in the interdimensional space between their two worlds, but had essentially condemned the DraGons left on EeNara to death. The DyVorians will in time hunt every last one of us down. They will never let us live in this world…the world that should have been ours. Still, it can’t end like this. Not after all we’ve been through!No…I will not let it end here! With a burst of flame, DayKar unleashed a massive blast of fire directly at the two TyRanx, who leapt out of the way just as it rushed by, and traveled several hundred meters behind. Exploding against the canyon, the sky lit up as a massive explosion roared behind them, showering them with falling rock debris.
“Has he lost his mind?” EeNox exclaimed. “If that had hit anywhere in this tower, it would have destroyed the entire platform. Is he trying to get himself killed?”
“I don’t think he cares either way, anymore,” LyCora replied. “Look at his body!” They watched as his flame now burned so uncontrollably that it burned through his flesh and armor. “He’s pushing his flame to its critical mass. At this rate, he’ll explode!”
“He has failed in his mission,” ShinGaru declared. “Meaning he has become the most dangerous kind of adversary: one who feels they no longer have anything to lose.”
“No…that bastard!” EeNox stammered in a stunned voice. “He’s turning himself into a bomb. He’s going to kill himself and take us all with him!”
“The others right below…” AnaSaya said in a weak voice. “We can’t let him do it…they’ll all be killed!”
“She’s right,” EeNox said. “We have to stop him before he reaches his limit!”
Suddenly there was another familiar sound, prompting them to turn back to where DayKar had been approaching the TyRanx, who he was now blindly fixated on. To their surprise, the both of them had locked onto him and were in the process of using their powerful jaws to sink their teeth through his armor and flesh. “Whoa! Look at them go!”
DayKar spun wildly as he desperately tried to shake the two of them off before reaching around with his neck and biting down on the back of DiNiya, who, rather than release her grip, only tightened it, which prompted him to shriek in pain before spinning around and slamming into the ground on his back.
DiNiya felt the full force of the impact, but the pain seemed far away. In fact, her whole body felt detached from everything else around her. Everything except the feeling of her teeth sink
ing into warm flesh and the burning desire to continue doing so until her jaws closed fully. It was a pull unlike anything she had ever experienced before. The desire to bring something down at all costs.
Rex could feel her bloodlust, and found himself being driven to fight all the harder because of it. At last he sensed one like him, someone who was fueled by the same passion, the same flame. Together they would bring down their enemy: their prey.