Page 40 of Drakhana's Secret
The two massive dragon males begin to circle Sapphire. She hurls projectile after projectile at them. Rastus unleashes a rain of fire on her while Logan sends a blast of ice her way. Sapphire barely manages to block the ice with an earth wall while she is engulfed by the fire that’s so hot, I can actually feel it from where I’m standing.
Sapphire screams in pain. My chest squeezes. I call on my dragon and transform.
I take flight and join the battle of the behemoths even if I know I don’t stand a chance against them. Maybe if I can distract one of them long enough, it will give Sapphire time to regroup and come up with a plan of attack. Two against one isn’t exactly the best scenario and it pisses me off that they would gang up on her instead of attacking each other like they are supposed to.
I fly up to Logan and whirl around, slamming the ball of spikes at the end of my tail into his massive neck as hard as I can. He doesn’t even feel it. I call on the biggest rocks I can find in the area and bombard him with it. They merely bounce off like they are marshmallows on a hard crystal. It’s ultimately frustrating.
Right at that moment, Rastus manages to bite one of Sapphire’s wings. She screams. Logan does the same with the other wing. Her agony is so great that it hits me right in the chest.
Rage fills me like sand falling in an hourglass. I see nothing but red. My mate, the dragon I am heart-bounded to, is being torn apart and there is nothing I can go.
That rage is what allows me to tap into a great power store within me. The well overflows and floods line a geyser. I begin to grow, expanding in size until I am just as big, if not bigger than Rastus.
I bring my claws up and charge him. He let’s go of Sapphire’s wing, which allows her to take a swipe at Logan. Now this is more like it. A fairer fight.
I wipe about and send Rastus crashing down on his troops, killing many of them in the process. He rolls to his side and shakes his head. Then he plants his claws onto the ground and opens his maw.
Right as a lava stream slams my way, I raise a wall of earth to block it. The lava is so hot that it actually melts the shield that I created. But that doesn’t matter because I’m able to dodge to the side away from the stream.
Then I call on the earth once again and it begins wrapping around the giant body of Rastus. At first, he shakes off the hardening mud, but soon there’s more and more than pile on and he can hardly move. I use this moment to turn my attention to Logan, who is blasting Sapphire relentlessly with ice.
I recreate the same move I had done earlier. I whip around and slam the ball of my tail into him. This time he feels it. The blow actually sends him flying back and tumbling into his own troops too. Unfortunately, the ice dragons are faster and manage to dodge their leader.
I turn to Sapphire.
“Are you alright?” I yell at her.
“Yes,” she assures me. “The wounds on my wings sting, but I can still fight.”
I narrow my gaze at her but can’t lecture her on being careful because Rastus has managed to break free from his restraints.
We face off once again. I call on the biggest boulder I can find and slam it into him. It hits him on the side of the head and shatters in a rain of rockfall. He merely shakes off the concussion that I believe I’ve given him.
Good. I wouldn’t have respected him if that was all it took for him to go down. I flap my wings and barrel into him. We tumble together, all claws and snapping teeth.
Twenty-Seven
Sapphire
When I called on Mother Earth for help, the last thing I ever expected was to be in a bare-knuckle fight with two of the most powerful dragons in the ice and fire clans. Both Logan and Rastus found a common enemy with me. They somehow set aside their animosity towards one another and turned it on me.
I hate to admit it, but I doubted myself. Could I win against the two of them? My powers are substantial, but getting pummeled on both sides isn’t something I’m used to. I’m not a fighter. I am only doing this for my people.
This is the moment when I first felt real fear in my heart. I honestly believe that I was going to die. Even when Gallant came to help me, I know that there was nothing he could do against the juggernauts I was up against.
The instant I felt Rastus’s teeth sink into my wing and Logan followed suit, I knew it was all over for me. I knew that no matter how much I flailed in order for them to let me go, I would lose. They would tear me apart and all my brethren on the ground would die.
Then Gallant turned into the most magnificent earth dragon I have ever seen. His sleek body grew several hundred times his size. His mossy brown scales gained a tinge of gold. The spikes on his tail elongated. On his head were several buck’s antlers.
He became the embodiment of what an earth dragon should look like. For a second, I got a glimpse of how our ancestors must have looked. I stood there in complete awe of him.
Almost immediately, he took over the fight. He dominated Rastus and Logan like they were upstart fledglings challenging him for dominance. When I feel like they are about to overpower him, I lend him aid in the form of a boulder hurtling into the air or a forcefield that prevents any form of attack from hitting him.
I dig my claws deeper into the pillar of earth that I had created and continue to call upon Mother Earth for help. Her response is to grant me a tornado made of mud that swallowed up anything that isn’t an earth dragon in its path. With it I helped decapitate the forces of the ice dragons.
Then I pull up all manner of rocks from the ground, make them into molten projectiles, and send them flying toward the fire clan dragons. Each dragon the rocks hit is engulfed and killed instantly. Their screams filled the remains of the night air. Dawn is upon us.
Gallant, we must end this soon! We can’t keep this pace!I send my thoughts to Gallant. With the rising of the sun comes a bigger chance that we are all discovered. I send the same message to our warriors, rallying them for one final push.
