80

Fire and Rage

They say that there are a few ultimates in a man’s life. One of which is undoubtedly, the ultimate women. Few things can drive a man like women can. They are in most cases a man’s greatest strength and at the same time his greatest weakness. The right women can drive a man to greatness or death in its pursuit. No one can make a man more angry or happy than the women he loves. No one can cause more pain or sooth his body and more importantly his mind.

Slyfer with surging blood and a fiercely aching heart is only starting to discover this now as one of his ultimates is nearing death. He can feel his muscles strain with each beat of his wings, shooting him forward at a speed he had never travelled before. Even the air in the sky seems to part and give way filling his wings akin to steps, his wings use the compressed air like spring boards driving him forward. Little does he know he is manipulating the air unconsciously? It is an innate trait ingrained in all dragons to help in flight once they grow larger.

Like a drowning man tugging on a lifeline, he tugs on his connection to Trisha that seems to be fading with every moment. He starts to snarl in anger and frustration when a familiar chant starts to fill his mind, turning his vision red and his scales black as night.

“Maim, Kill, Burn.”

……

Luna is still trying to piece together the situation they are in while looking at the strange multi-coloured fairies when she hears a roar, followed by a clap of thunder so hard it makes her ears sting. A feeling of doom surrounds her and her mind goes blank, but just as fast as it came it disappears again and she finds herself curled up on the ground. The forest around her has been flattened and her ears are ringing. She sees Shady stumble to his feet and makes his way to her. He talks but she cant hear his voice. The ringing slowly starts to fade and she can finally hear his voice.

“Luna, are you okay?”

Still, a bit shocked she nods her head and turns her gaze to where the fairies are… or were. They have disappeared. She finally manages to ask. “What happened?”

Shady looks around at the destruction and shudders at the memory at what he had seen. Panic floods his heart. “A black dragon, I saw a black dragon.”

He seems to regain himself and helps her to her feet. “Come, you must quickly return and find out what has happened.”

…..

Jade coughs a few times and swears. Waving her hand at the dust, her action only seems to agitate the settling cloud a bit more. She feels someone grab her arms and is quickly lifted up before getting carried out of the wreck that was her room mere moments ago.

Fira puts her down softly while fighting down the anger boiling inside her. It had hit her while she was getting ready for bed. It had come like a wave and washed through her unbidden and unstoppable. Because of that, the contents of her room is nothing but ash.

Jade is startled when she looks up spotting her dark elf friend breathing hoarsely. “Fira, what is… what is going on?” She almost felt fearful to ask seeing as flames are sprouting from random places on her friend’s body.

Fira makes a pained expression before leaning against the wall and replying. “Its Slyfer he is really, really, really angry and even more than that… He is very worried.”

Jade wants to ask why however Fira answers it a moment later. “Oh no! Trisha is in danger.”

*****

Trisha has never felt so much pain. She can feel the cold, like death stealing her life away. Her mind is jumbled and confused as the ancestors keep screaming, some even turning to fight with each other. She fights for coherence while calling up a storm of wind to surround and cut anything that comes too close. She hears a panicked scream and the cold stops mounting, giving her a moment of respite.

It allows her to grab a hold of her thoughts. She collects herself and then with seething anger and growing panic puts everything into her inner voice. “Silence!”

This one word carries over her inner thoughts shaking the very world inside her mind. The Tigers stop and regard her. “If you can’t or are not willing to help me then shut up so I can think!”

She thinks back over what happened, lamenting her stupidity. –Why did I do it? No, I know why. By all rights, I should have been able to make short work of my enemies yet it feels like something is missing from me. The strength I had before is no longer there. When I was with Slyfer…-

She stops. – Perhaps they have some sort of magic that weakens me?- For a moment her panic grows larger, but she fights it down and continues to try and think rationally. The ice mage starts to attack again. Her mind slips and she finds herself wishing to be in Slyfer’s arms again. If only he was with her these enemies would have been easy…

Her mind stops and follows the train of thinking. -Could it be that my bond with Slyfer makes me stronger when I am with him? What if it possibly makes us all stronger?-

An ice lance stabs into her side, wrenching all thoughts away and replacing it with pain. A tiger’s roar fills the battlefield. Instinct takes over and she thrashes against the ice locking her in place, causing the ice to cut deeper.

Seeing the tiger’s attention focused on him as the crazy thing starts to forcefully break through its ice prison, the mage pales and takes a step back with a limp- the previous wind magic that just came out of nowhere had cut deeply into his thigh. He too is in pain. Despite the Snow Elves’ resistance to cold, he can feel frostbite setting in on his fingers. He is by far not the best mage of his race, but casting ice magic is still easy. Only doing it for long can cause all kinds of problems. Freezing yourself to death is one of them.

The tiger breaks a claw free, its yellow eyes burning into his very soul. Ice forms to imprison the limb once more, but its broken as soon as it forms. He is surprised when most of it is red only to realise that its blood.

The tiger roars again and lunges. Cracking the ice and causing the mage’s heart to beat like a racing horse. “I can smell your fear!” The bloody creature says right into his mind. “I am going to rip your head off.”

He nearly shouts for it to stop. But the ice breaking pulls his attention towards casting more magic. He looks at his hands, knowing that he will probably lose one if not both of them.

Exhausted and nearly frozen himself, he gathers the magic. “Let us see who will die first!”

Luka, having finally fought his way past the obstruction spots the mage and tigress. His face sinks and images of Slyfer beheading him flashes unbidden through his mind. It was not Slyfer that asked him to look out for her, but Aldowin and the High Elf made it abundantly clear how much Slyfer cares for her.

He swears as his mount breaks the line of sight he had by ripping into a bandit. He lifts his sword. “Forward, for the alliance. Kill them all!”

He signals towards a fire mage who shoots a fireball into the sky- it’s the signal that those on the hill need to join the fight. In his heart, he hopes he can still save the stupid girl. A Penka appears out of nowhere on top of the fire mage’s mount. Before Luka can say anything the mage's throat is cut and the Penka disappears once more. Luka did not, however, miss the hateful glare the Penka gave him before disappearing.

“Bunch up, watch your backs. There are Penka’s waiting to slit your throats.” A scream from one of his warriors serves to accentuate his order. He had seen who did it. It was the same Penka and it was far closer than before.

His juggernauts push forward gaining ground, Luka’s arm in constant motion as he reaps Bandit lives. His mount lunges forward and something snaps. It only takes a moment for him to realise the saddle is loose, it slides to the side throwing Luka off to the blood covered ground below. He hits hard with the thick armour, but has no time to think as a familiar Penka face appears right above him.

The furry creature stabs down towards his neck and Luka rolls to the side, causing a frustrated grunt from the furry ball of death. Pain lances through his side just underneath the breastplate. Instead of rolling away he rolls towards it, swinging his shield with the momentum to try and trap the creature’s arm and hopefully bash its head in at the same time.

The world shakes his shield hits something, but his small victory is lost in the chaos as wolves bound over him. He tries to struggle to his feet but a furry hand grabs onto his helmet and pulls him down once more. Something hard hits the side of his helmet, rocking his head to the side he swings in that direction with his arm only to hit nothing but air.

A spike of pain in his side tells him his enemy has its weapon back. With no other choice, he rolls forward and his leg gets snapped when a mount tramples over him. Grunting in pain he tries to spot the would be assassin, but all he sees is the chaos that is war. His warriors bashing into the enemy, wolves pulling down their mounts as his warriors fight the riders. Yet in all this, he feels isolated and alone.

He looks around once more and spots it, the Penka is slowly rising- for some reason struggling to do so. Clutched in its furry hand is the dagger that was in Luka’s side. One eye is swollen shut, probably due to his shield. Its other arm hangs uselessly by its side? It snarls in a strange feral almost… cute growl. “You killed my son!”

Luka tightens his hand on the shield. His sword lost somewhere in the chaos. The Penka launches towards him, moving pretty fast despite the obvious injuries it has suffered. Luka tenses up swearing the hell gates that his leg is broken and making a note that if he were to survive he would have his warriors spar against the Penka’s seeing as they are completely oblivious to what is happening right in their midst.

The Penka arrives and stabs toward his neck. His shield is lifted to meet it and the blade slides to his right. He pushes the shield forward forcing the blade to go wider before letting loose a wicket punch at the Penka’s abdomen. He is rewarded with a loud thud and a yelp from the Penka, but Luka has no time to celebrate as the Penka aims at his eyes he leans back, the blade barely misses. The Penka pounces forward onto him driving him back to the ground. Luka swings the shield. His arm protesting against the heavy weight. The rim hits the Penka on the side of its head causing blood to drip into Luka’s eyes. He swings again but his arm gets pinned and the Penka slashes at his wrist. Luka lets out a grunt in pain and brings up his knee driving it into the Penka’s side. The force launches it forward and toward Luka’s head. Dribbling with spittle and a look of madness in its eye the Penka tries to stab into the visor once more. Luka tilts his head and gives thanks for the hard steel covering his head which leads to a new idea.

Stomach muscles tense and Luka’s head snaps forward bashing into the Penka's nose. Still, the creature refuses to get dislodged so he bashes him again. Its nose crunches audibly as it falls away. The weight lifts from Luka’s chest and shield arm. Scarcely able to see through the blood Luka leans forward and half hops onto the Penka. The roles now reversed.

It spits a glob of blood at him and Luka rewards it with an armoured fist to the face. “Die!”

He hits it again, but still the creature struggles. Frustrated and angry with pain Luka rips of his helm and pounds the creatures head till he hears a crunch and it goes limp under him. Exhausted and hurting Luka falls back and just lays staring at the sky.

He starts to frown he could have sworn he saw clouds moving, not normal clouds since the moonlight would have made it obvious but black. He sits up he sees it again. Ignoring the pain in his leg he forces himself to stand. He looks around for his mount before looking back at the cloud. He nearly chokes. It’s a lot closer now. He tries to shout for his mount. He can now make out a silhouette hidden inside. Faint traces of red shine through making the clouds seem cracked.

A loud roar snaps him back to reality. He looks in Trisha’s direction since the roar came from there. He finds his voice and finally manages to shout. “Juggernauts, to me!” At first, there is no reaction and he needs to repeat the order all the while dread grows in his heart. His blood seems to stall. The thing in the sky is a lot closer now. Thunder reverberates through the air at first faint- if not for the sounds of fighting it would have been louder. Those very sounds seem to fade into the background along with a nagging voice in the back of his mind. Another sound of thunder this time much louder. Something nudges him and he looks towards it. It’s his mount. The wolf lies down and he half climbs half falls onto it.

Another roar from Trisha is answered by something much more sinister and powerful. Luka’s wolf whines as its fur seem to stand in all directions. An errant thought from it makes it into his mind. Though the wolf may not have said it into his mind on purpose, he finds himself agreeing wholeheartedly and says what it thought allowed.

“We are all going to die.”

****

Slyfer looks down at the bleeding tiger half encased in ice. In his beloved’s mouth is a dead Snow Elf and he believes probably the culprit behind her current state. Looking at her he feels a mixture of relief, annoyance, and anger. Relieved that she is no longer being attacked, annoyed because she killed the mage before he could and angry that she is in this state.

The emotions swirl and gather in his chest. It heats up and starts to sizzle. “Maim, Kill, Burn.”

With that thought and barely able to distinguish friend from foe. His fiery maw opens and the black dragon unleashes hell!

****

Trisha looks up at the dragon she knows is Slyfer but yet she can barely recognize him. She had managed to break loose and kill the mage, but at great cost. Tired and spent she can only watch as the black dragon unleashes a torrent of fire at their enemies. It spreads in a cone, killing everything in its wake and turning the earth into a boiling mush of burning flesh, melted steel and cracked earth.

Bandits and animals scream as they are turned to ash. The fire sprouting from its mouth finally stops and the dragon dives down towards her. The closer he gets the more it feels like death is coming for her. Looking at the enemies and allies around her she can see they feel the same. Most have even passed out. The tigers in her mind quickly fill her in on what it is. “Killing intent. It projects your feelings and thoughts of slaughter into the surrounding magic, much like talking to someone in their mind, but on a larger scale.”

Strength flows into her limbs as Slyfer gets closer, cementing her idea that their powers are closely tied together.

The dragon crashes down right next to her causing her wounds to protest in pain. The moon gets blotted out as Slyfer stands over her and lets out a roar of challenge at any who dare try and attack. An arrow hits his cheek before uselessly falling to the ground. His red eyes snap to the culprit who seems in a daze as it draws another arrow almost mechanically.

The air screams as Slyfer’s tail slices through it, before turning the archer into meat paste. As if a trigger the dragon launches itself at those that were with the archer. They barely make a sound as the dragon crashes down amongst them. Claws like the scythes of death itself kill many with one swipe. One still able to move aims to run. But Slyfer’s jaw snaps forward, crushing the creature before he fires off more flames to rinse the taste out of his mouth.

His other claw rakes through the ground, grabbing a hand full of dirt rocks and bodies before unceremoniously throwing it at mostly fear stricken bandits. Like scatter shot fired at close range the dirt, rocks and other things rips the bandits apart. Before long Slyfer finds himself standing amongst a sea of corpses yet the rage in him still has not subsided. Red eyes roam to find enemies to kill, but finding none he lets out a roar in frustration.

It does not take long for the dragon to spot the wolves and their riders it lets out a low growl of warning. Some part of him holding back the reigns in order not to slaughter his allies.

He starts to walk back towards Trisha all the while keeping his red eyes trained on them. Trisha lets out a soft meowl and tries to move, but the dragon nudges her softly to stay still.

In their minds, they are talking to each other. “Slyfer I can’t move.”

Hearing his name, Slyfer regains a bit more of his sanity and struggles to get out a few words. “Stay still.”

To red lines on the dragon seems to pulse and for a moment they fear the sudden gentle dragon will cook Trisha alive as its maw opens spilling light over her. Instead of flames it is hot air.

Trisha squirms a little under the uncomfortable heat, some of her fur even starting to get singed. The ice weakens and the dragon tries to break some of it only to have Trisha growl and nip at his claw.

“That hurts!” her voice screams in his head.

Huffing, the dragon takes away his claw and circles Trisha at a loss.

“What are you doing, help me already.” Her voice comes again he reaches out to do so but as soon as he touches the ice she swears at him.

Ignoring the swear words and her nails scratching, causing sparks on his scales. He slowly pulls out the largest ice spike and in doing so she starts to bleed profusely.

With no other choice. He quickly pulls out two others. “Quickly change back to your human form.”

She does so and it’s the last thing she consciously does before unconsciousness takes her.

Unknown to him five fairies sitting atop snails in the distance saw everything that transpired. The one that had been sleeping before is now looking at him with an angry scowl her light changing from black to white and vice versa. Red and green are arguing in hushed tones about who arrived first. Pink is fiddling with her hair and blue… blue is muttering to herself.

Pink suddenly stops and looks at the others. “Hey, shouldn’t we go help them. The Queen did send us here for that after all.”

The dark fairy turns to her with a withering stare. “Us, help them? Help them? After he woke me up you want to help.”

The pink fairy clicks her tongue “Tch, it’s not my fault I am that good.”

A long wail interrupts her unsatisfied mumbles. “Why! Why are they strewn so haphazardly? Look, one leg cut, but the other is left attached. There are no even spaces, no order. I cant take this. I cant take this. I can't take this….”

Magic starts to gather around Blue that is having a breakdown. Dark looks at her and then pink while the other two continue to argue. “Will you please shut her up before…” A roar interrupts her mid-sentence.

The black dragon is now looking directly at them. All of them stop. After a few seconds of just staring at each other. Green nudges red. “You see, you see this is your fault.”

Red ignores her and starts shouting. “Hey you want to fight? Just because you are all big and scary looking doesn’t mean…”

Pink snorts and brushes her fringe aside. “It keeps staring; it knows I just look that good.”

Blue’s eyes are round. One twitches now and then. “One of its horns… is out of place. I need to cut it…” She starts to giggle. “I need to cut it, yes, yes just a small cut.”

Dark sighs and rubs at her temples. “This is why I always sleep.” She then turns to them. “For the love of the Queen, Shut up!”

“You.” She says pointing at blue who is still giggling and pokes her fingers into her eyes. “Close your eyes.”

“You.” Pointing at pink. “If you touch your hair one more time I am going to rip it out.” She says this while actually grabbing a strand and ripping it out. She points at green who is still trying to argue with red who is trying to incite a fight with the black dragon of death. “If you want to argue so much why don’t you just hit him already…. She starts beating red into a pulp.

With blue writhing in pain on the ground, Pink crying her eyes out while holding the ripped out strand of hair and Green wailing like a banshee next to red who has fallen unconscious or is possibly dead she turns to Slyfer… who is now ignoring them? She grows angry, but it soon fades when his black scales start going blue. A claw gently reaches out and picks up a half-naked woman covered in blood. Slyfer is just about to take off when Dark appears next to him, her snail taking but an instant to close the gap.

Looking down at the injured Trisha, Slyfer has no time nor does he intend to spare any for the crazy fairy. He intends to race back to the tower so that Trisha can get healed. Slyfer feels hopeless, his mind had drifted to the life giving magic he used a while ago after destroying the fortress but he has no idea how to use or even get to the same state of mind he was then.

“I can help,” Says the fairy with sleepy eyes roaming over his draconic form.

In her, Slyfer can’t find a slither of the normal giddy happiness that he has seen in all the others and he finds himself thinking. -She seems very… human.-

Slyfer lets out a deep breath in an effort to settle the frustration in his heart, an action that causes the little fairy’s hair to billow as if she is caught in a stormy wind.

Ignoring the obvious impatience from the dragon the fairy points to the ground and understanding her meaning, Slyfer gently puts Trisha down. Even now he can hear her heart beat slowly fading, her skin is pale and clammy where it is not covered in blood.

The fairy floats over and to Slyfer’s surprise, her aura changes from dark to a bright white. Her eyes close in focus and the aura spreads to Trisha who slowly starts to float. Marveling at the sheer power and magic emanating from the fairy, Slyfer can’t help but get restless. His large blue eyes focused on Trisha.

He soon realises it is not a normal heal as Trisha’s wounds start to close, however that is not all. Some of the blood on her body flows back into her wounds. Dirt smears and marks disappear as if they had never existed before. The dragons in his mind look on with surprise. –This is not healing magic, but rather time. The little fairy is manipulating time.”