I know that Luni and Lucky’s job is to pin down Vanathar, to keep him or her from joining any of our fights, keeping our battles from complicating. Vanathar’s a fire dragon, so, as soon as I’m freed up from helping Lil take down Olashax, I should be able to take over for Luni and Lucky, while they offer support to whomever, maybe even just keeping Vanathar grounded for me to take out. I don’t really have the ground based limitation though anymore.
I know Lady Kinzul is, glp, poor Lady Kinzul. I know she’s taking on her own daughter, Astridus. It’s probably for the best, because Kinzul is likely immune to, or incredibly resistant to the potency of her daughter’s acid. The rest of us have no such luck.
Teuila is stuck with Xinthoz, a thunder dragon I believe. I’d have probably assigned Xinthoz to Luni and Lucky, what with Lu’s specialty in waves, especially soundwaves, but, Teuila has Essie. Requiem, the Silent Song. If she manages to land a hit, Xinthoz is muted for at the very least, a few moments. The smaller the creature, the longer the muting lasts I believe. Dragons are about as massive as they come though. Still, it’s Teuila, so she should be able to mirage-flash—
Teuila calls out quickly, “Oo, I like that one, stick with that one! We finally have a name for it, heeeee.”
I chuckle while Teuila sounds her glee across our telepathic wavelength. Right, as I was thinking, Teuila, even if the thunder dragon were somehow keeping her knocked away too far to make contact with Essie, she could do one or more mirage flashes from different angles, to get in close and at least score a quick swipe. Oh, that’s how they were keeping the tremors down. Teuila probably had Essie planted in the wall or the floor. Doy. I have no trouble believing Teuila will utterly destroy Xinthoz after she works out an attack pattern, and overcomes any tricks he might have. Illy and Veril both were worried about us not being prepared for dragonfright. I should ask Lady Kinzul for any tips on it.
Hearing my line of inquiry, across our shared wavelengths, Kinzul offers, “Dragonfright suppresses the will to fight, the will to move forward, sometimes the ability to move at all. It is the expression of the killing intent of the dragonforce of its wielder, and it costs its bearer to activate. Most only rely on it in periods of trouble, so that they may gather their energy for a devastating breath attack, and approach their victim to unleash it directly into their skulls.”
Hearing that sounds daunting, but Kinzul continues, “A dragon expressing their dragonforce thusly is unlikely to be able to move much if they are charging the potency of their breath. It is why I have devised our engagements as I have. Even should they be willing to risk the costs for long enough for a single maximal power breath weapon, I know that each of you, through either your Latents, your natural resilience, or through some source or another, could weather that blow. Further, while, and shortly after unleashing such a breath weapon, there is a period where a dragon cannot call on their dragonforce again. A, refractory period.”
Prinrin, Teuila, and Luni snort laughter across our telepathic wavelengths, but quickly mute themselves. There’s a deviousness underlying Kinzul’s voice as she commands, “That is when I want you to finish them, before they realize that they are ill suited to taking you on with their natural gifts, before they can take the fight to your allies who may not have your same gifts or resiliences. Our beloved Hunter is as immune to flame as our beloved Sun. When he becomes full size, he will undoubtedly shield our beloved Muse from any and all harm from such an attack. Our Hero was virtually created to be suited to stepping into nearly any battle against another dragon. Four immunities and a high tolerance for another element, and an unheard of vast arsenal of unusual abilities, magics, and artifacts. I will be directing you nearly everywhere my beloved Schism, pitting you against far more than your fair share of foes. For this, I am sorry.”
Kinzul continues to brief us, “There are far, far more mages in the ground troops than I had anticipated. Of the over seven thousand ground troops, it seems nearly half or more of them are casters of some variety or another. My Vivant, I wish I had called upon Boetah and Shaylon to aid you, Shaylon’s Latent would have been especially helpful. I need them in the next engagement however.”
Directing her attention to me, Luni, and Lucky, Kinzul states, “Vanathar is far more Brute than Breather, Hunter will not be able to slay him without Schism’s aid. Muse, you will do your best to prevent Hunter from succumbing to wounds until Schism’s arrival, though it seems you now have some material aid in your duty. Good."
Casting her attention to Teuila, Kinzul continues, "Beloved Tenith, you will have the most difficult task of all, bringing down the mighty thunderer, a Breather named Xinthoz. You must survive his dragonfright, and you must endeavor to either slay him, or survive until Sun can come to your aid. Sun, Hero. Destroy Olashax for poisoning my daughter to me! Rend him to dust and drink dry his bones and blood with your deadliest flames. Savor his dragonforce Schism, consume it, consume him. Please. End him.”
Her voice quieter, calmer, sadder, Kinzul asks my inner circle, “Can you all prepare your landing strategies? Muse, hang tightly to Hunter, his size-changing will absorb the fall. Schism, you’ve recently come into several ways to remain aloft, yes? Fall straight down until you pass through the acid bank. Do not slow your descent before then. Tenith, I believe you are quite used to falling from ungainly heights. Show them why you are both the Valkyrie, and my Sky Dragon Honoris Causa. Sun, fall swiftly beside your beloved Reggie. Be there for each other. I’m opening the sky now, and sealing it immediately after you are clear. Vivant! You know your duties! Survive well, and drive back their horde! Now my beloved Order, go!”
With that, Kinzul releases us directly above the acid cloudbank, letting us plummet swiftly. She flings each of us several hundred, or several thousand meters apart, save those that are paired off. I fight to keep myself from holding my breath. I don’t want to quick-change out of the Wyverium chestplate, just in case I panic and can’t get back into it. I know Lil would catch me, but half of this entrance is about making a statement. I’d be a little worried about making a sudden stop with my telekinesis, though I might be able to do a moving grasp that slowed.
Um, the, the storm is still closed beneath me, I’m, holy crap! The cloud bank parts as I’m about to connect with it. I'm falling. Falling through a world of darkness, of wind and rain, and I can't allow myself to stop. The clouds surround me, almost closing in on all sides, and I feel myself tumbling head over heels, with no sense of up or down.
I force myself to catch my breath, but the wind is so very strong, whipping past me with a force that attempts to leave me breathless. I can’t allow it to, I can’t slow my fall. I must trust Lady Kinzul. All around me is nothing but mist and moisture, lightning and pain, thunder and rain.
Miles of stormy clouds stretch out around me, an endless expanse of swirling darkness. Lightning flashes, illuminating the roiling mass of vapor, and I can feel the electric charge in the air, pulsing against my skin. My non-existant stomach lurches as I spin. What’s most disorienting though is that I’m nearly deafened just by the rushing of the wind and the crackling of thunder, and the pounding of my own heart.
I try to orient myself, to find some sense of direction, but it's impossible. The clouds are too thick, too chaotic, and I'm just a tiny speck in the vastness of it all. Lightning streaks through, and I worry that it’s going to hurt Lil, but it curves around the hole in the clouds. I struggle to keep myself breathing at a normal pace, so that I don’t slow my fall at all. The clouds part beneath me, and seal above me, as if I were simply in an impenetrable bubble passing through them.
Closer inspection though tells me that the parting of the clouds is not perfectly spherical. I can sense minor fluctuations, adjustments— Administration. These clouds cover all of Rayileklia. Her Latent only works on an effect that has her dragonfo—. Phew. I just learned a massive secret, and I don’t know how to handle it. Kinzul was right. I will bury this, and trust her for now. You have my love and trust, my beloved Lady Kinzul.
I break free of the cloudcover, and I grin at Lil who has finished transforming into his semi-pit-bull looking draconic form. We both angle our descent directly downwards grinning at each other with slyness. We haven’t been together in so very long. I love my best buddy. He’s my world, my everything, My Heart. Together, we’re going to utterly destroy someone that broke Kinzul’s heart.
All of us are set to land at approximately the same time from our meteoric falls, so that none of our targets can switch dance partners. Casting my Steely Body spell with adamantite shavings as a reagent on the way down is easy enough. I aim to angle as close to Olashax as I can, taking a deep breath to hold at the last second as I crash down into a absolutely meteoric three point landing while simultaneously using quick-change number four just before impact. Lightning follows me down, and skirts along Olashax’s snout near his good eye, temporarily blinding him with its brightness. I leave number four active for a good three seconds or more before swapping out to the Glacial Greaves.
Olashax, the ancient white ice dragon, an Ice, reels in pain and shock before me, his massive form casting a long shadow on the mud-covered ground below. His scales gleam in the lightning’s bright flash. His wings are still vast and powerful, we haven’t taken full advantage of waiting until they tire themselves out, trying to fly beneath the cloudcover. His wings are easily each able to span the length wheat fields.
As Olashax reels, his wings beat with a sound like thunder, stirring up great splashes of muck and mud. I can feel the chill in the air, the frigid bite of the icy wind that whips around me. I sense the thermal fluctuations that mark Olashax as someone who would delight in the harshest, most unforgiving clime.
His massive jaws are filled to the brim with rows of teeth as long and sharp as halberds, each one seems cracked and rigid in the flickering flash of lightning. I can see the steam rising from from his nostrils and snout where the lightning scorched away the moisture of the rain.
His one good eye is like a pool of pale blue ice at the moment, and even as it gazes sightlessly about, it still carries a piercing intensity that seems as if it could see right through me. I can feel his gaze probing at my very soul, searching for any weakness or vulnerability. Perhaps he can sense my dragonforce, and how diminished it is.
Signaling telepathically to Lil, I ask, “You ready buddy? Let’s announce ourselves.”
Lil and I simultaneously call out our titles, Lil’s of course is, “I am the Star of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, my Alias is Sun,” while mine is, “I am the Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, archmage, my Alias is Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa. I will have your dragonforce.”
As Olashax realizes we’re not going to back down, he risks letting out his dragonforce, expending a fraction of it to instill dragonfright. I can tell my legs could be, would be, should be shaking. His dragonforce is cultivated, older, stronger, larger, than what’s left of mine. Olashax is an immense presence, and even Lil is quaking in his figurative boots.
Something in Olashax’s overexposed dragonforce is sending signals to my nerves to tell me to cower, or to run, nerves that don’t function properly, nerves I don’t have. Instead of fearing Olashax, I begin to laugh. Haha. Hahahaha. This is too perfect! The look on his face as I break into laughter and start flying his way is beyond priceless. I can’t tell if he’s more startled that, this time I can fly due to my invisible telekinetic surfboard, or that I resisted his dragonfright entirely, without even a fraction of an instant of fear, laughing instead.
Olashax dares not drop his dragonfright though, because it has caught Lil, so Olashax’s dragonforce ever-so-slowly begins to drip away. It’s not enough that it’ll matter. It’ll soon be mine. Wow that sounded cocky. I just kind of want to live, and I need it, and he’s evil, ready to raze the world to the ground, so, yeah, just gotta assume we’ll win. Otherwise, everybody loses.
Olashax begins charging his breath, leary of letting Lil free to do the same, perhaps not knowing Lil is Can’Z’aasian. Lil doesn’t need to charge his breath if he’s going all out. Still, Olashax is so vast, and powerful, between his muscle movements, and subtle uses of shapeshifting, he keeps away from me as he takes occasional slashes at me with his left fore-claw.
Speaking of that fore-claw, I can see the hints of what’s left of the injuries Teuila dealt to both of Olashax’s front claws, his white-scaled hands. Whatever one would consider such anatomy. His dragonforce was obviously tapped into to nurture their healing and regeneration. Knowing how badly I need dragonforce, and how much I’m likely to use up, I almost wish we hadn’t injured him previously. *Almost.* Every bit of payback I can offer for Kinzul, for Teuila, for all the kobolds Olashax slew or abandoned, every whim of Terrorzin he has ever fulfilled, he deserves every bit of wrath and pain that can reach him, and every injury he’s ever taken.
Since I’m a mobile threat, Olashax has to focus on me, meaning Lil is safe, despite being currently immobilized. Hm, wait. My Honoris Causa. I think over a few seconds, maybe a minute or two, I can drain away the signals that are commanding Lil to quiver. If I am able to draw those signals into my void like other similar signals and energies. Wow, Lady Kinzul really picked well for me. Gotta hand it to the Administrator. Olashax pauses a moment, warily eyeing me from the last dodge he’d made when I attempted to close in on him. Fine, he wants to make it a dance?
Drawing Frostburn, I level it at Olashax, and say something I don’t think I’ve ever said before, “Let’s dance motherf—.“