As I’m pondering about whether or not I could defeat a Damnation with or without the help of the Worldstorm, if the need arose, I try to stretch out my muscles, since they’re brand new. I’d rather get used to them, before having to face such a difficult fight. Shiz seems a bit concerned that I’m walking around, light as a feather on his back while he’s sailing the skies, but I’m not overly worried. Let’s see, deltoids, biceps, triceps, my trapezoids, wait, isn’t that a shape, trapeziums, that’s it, my quadriceps, and my calf muscles. Six groups that I want to make sure are limber and fully responsive before any fighting today.
I know I technically don’t need to come back with Shiz. I’d never forgive myself though if he were slain or injured or lost the eggs because he got jumped by a Terrorzin loyalist that had been laying in wait, somewhere off of our first flight path. For all I know, us moving the eggs might have triggered some Psion or scrying action that alerted Terrorzin to send out a nearby force to intercept them. We don’t know enough about what he really has at his disposal, because for most of Rayileklia’s history, he’s had pretty much everything at his disposal.
Heaving a weighty sigh, I huff for a moment before remembering to breathe deeply. My exhalation this time is more of a yawn, despite this body being fresh, new, newly rested, and in great condition, I do feel a tad sleepy. Mostly I’d just like to be enjoying this day with my loved ones, like Kinzul had wanted me to. Or making use of my new advantages to continue growing more powerful and versatile in leaps and bounds.
While I’m distracted with thoughts of what I’d like to be doing, I almost don’t notice it as the paper giraffe pops its head out of the dimensional pouch with a note from Luni. She wants me to start engaging my ultimate form right this instant. I trust Lu more than anything in any universe, so I do. It’s going to take six hours for it to do anything more than just fizzling. I’ll get a mere few seconds out of the form. Or I could maybe put the form out of commission for several years, six or so, and get a minute or couple of minutes out of the form. Possibly. It’d take a lot of willpower though, and I’d be risking possibly being taken over by whatever alien biology is required to operate the form. We couldn’t do away with that when building it.
It’s disconcerting knowing Lu is having future foreknowledge once again. Or maybe has been this entire time. It’s kind of funny. Someone who keeps more secrets than possibly anyone else, and begs us to not force her to lie, and probably lies quite a bit casually by this point, is the person I trust most of all to make decisions or guide my actions. I love Lu, and Te, above all else, with Lil and Lucky near them, and then people like Kinzul, Illy, Prinrin, Tiktik, Alanea Whifflewillow, and even though she’s gone, in some ways, Dawn.
I’m distracting myself from the fact that I’m likely facing a big battle in less than six hours, but I don’t know how to prepare for something that requires my absolutely highest power already just after having created it. Shiz and I are flying, well, Shiz is doing the flying, but I’m sticking with him in order to—. Are you serious?
Upon approach to the Onyx Dawn’s aerie, I hear someone I don’t know calling out, “In the name of Terrorzin, I Mydraig the Hareslayer demand you all yield under his might, we prepare to march on the world, and will send yours to the front lines. We—.”
Hareslayer seems to be addressing six dragons working on the aerie. While three other volunteers remain on the aerie, Farzee, Gresog, and Revvinth take wing to bring their obvious refusal to this idiot’s face, but I can barely comprehend his attack that knocks them all out of the sky tumbling back to the Aerie suddenly in their human forms. It’s the fact that there are only three of them, and that they’re in their human forms that allows me to save them with my telekinesis as I switch into battle gear and leap off of Shiz while holding my breath.
The Hareslayer is an enormous dragon, his scales gleaming like burnished copper in the pale early morning light above the Worldstorm. The scales themselves are large, overlapping, and iridescent, reflecting different colors as Mydraig moves, their rainbow-like reflections cluing me in to what powerful Latent he might have. Mydraig's head is long and narrow, tapering to a pointed snout that bristles with sharp teeth. His eyes are enormous blobs of amber, glowing with an inner fire that seems to burn with frightening intensity. Two long, curved horns protrude from the dragon's forehead, adding to his already fearsome appearance.
The dragon's wings are massive, easily spanning the length of several tall buildings. The wings are a mottled brown, with occasional hints of green and red in the mix. As Mydraig beats his wings, the sound is deafening, causing a ripple effect throughout the surrounding foggy cloudbank beneath him of the Worldstorm. Further, Mydraig's body is muscular and powerful, with thick, sinewy limbs that end in razor-sharp talons. The dragon's tail is long and whip-like, ending in a spade-shaped appendage that seems perfectly designed for crushing and maiming victims.
Thankfully, Mydraig didn’t decide to maim the falling human-formed dragons. I puff a breath at that in a bit of grateful relief, falling faster suddenly. I chuckle at myself for a moment before I fight my own automatic responses so that I can hold my breath.
When I’m within a few meters of the aerie, I shout to Shiz, “Get *them* from the magic pocket inside and unpacked in Lady Kinzul’s demolished den, take these three with you. Make sure no-one else leaves Mount Solace until I finish him. I’ve got this chump.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Eyeing me curiously, Shiz queries, “You sure You don’t want a hand? Hareslayer’s able to reverse and revert breaths, Latents and some other powers. Somehow has a counter to just about anything ever thrown at him. Never been defeated. Doesn’t leave his home much, so it’s odd that he’s here.”
I begin giggling madly. Nemesis. He’s got a nemesis power, a counter power. Almost assuredly doesn’t leave his home so that no one finds out it’s probably a defensive counter only. People coming to attack him are obviously going to start crap. Shiz takes my laugh as cue enough, so he simply shrugs and accepts Farzee, Gresog, and Revvy as I set them on his back. They each grumble that they’re fine, and can help, but I reassure them that I’ve got this. I’m certainly not going to spend four and a half hours stalling this guy, and Lu must have known that, so this isn’t even the big combat that’s going to happen today.
What’s more, Hareslayer is speaking as if he doesn’t know we’ve already begun our offensive, that we’re now at open war with Terrorzin’s forces. In that case, I need to take him out, so that he gets no chance to report our disobedience to his forces. With any luck, the report of him not returning from Mount Solace will take as long to reach Terrorzin as the news of our continued assaults on various fortresses, citadels, and land forces. The Damnations could have told Terrorzin about us, but I don’t think they’re actually working for him. They’re dominated by our manxome foe in some way, possibly even on autopilot.
I can’t use any other combat forms, since I’m still in the middle of transforming into the cosmic king form. Worse, parts of my biology are beginning to alter and show signs of the transformation that’s coming, so I need to keep him from reversing that particular power of mine. I’m pretty certain that him reversing my Latent is going to go horribly, horribly wrong for him, so I just keep giggling as I float up towards Mydraiglewhatsit.
The numbskull who’d hurt my allies begins to call out to me but I interrupt with the usual, “I am Reggie Shellcracker, Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa. I give you this one, and only opportunity to surrender, or I’ll rip you open and drink of your dragonforce. Go ahead and sense the dragonforces inside of me, and guess if I’m bluffing.”
Mydraig huffs and calls me out, “Hmf, an impressive little selection you’ve got in there, an Ice, a Fire, and a Lightning.”
Woah, wait, what? Holy crap. That’s right. My current dragonforces happen to be the elements I most specialize in. Moreover, in their order of power. That-- that has to be a coincidence, right? I’m almost too distracted to make note of Mydraig continuing, “Still, none before you have succeeded, I Mydraig Hareslayer am undefeated.”
Grumbling, I quip, “Yeah yeah and you’re a poet and don’t even know it, I get it. I gave you your one shot at mercy, so go ahead then, try to attack me.”
Mydraig balks, not making the first move. Haha! I friggin’ knew it! His most powerful ability is to only counter abilities that are actively being used against him, including a shapeshifter’s more powerful form if used in combat. I stand smirking slyly at Mydraig until my expression morphs into a devious, evil grin.
Anyway, I don’t want to be here all morning, so I’ll play along. I’ll throw some easy to counter abilities that I’m essentially immune to, then, “give up,” to Mydraig, conceding defeat. Then the real fun begins.
Starting off slowly, I simply T K Surf in Mydraig’s general direction, testing a theory. Either he can’t counter what he can’t see, which would be far too easy a victory for me, or it doesn’t count if it’s only being tangentially used, rather than offensively against him. Either one is fine, hell, even having no weaknesses is fine, because I’m going to get him to finish himself off if my other theories hold true.
I begin inhaling, siphoning the heat from Mydraig’s vicinity, and his face. Suddenly my inhalation becomes a roaring flame that’s rushing my way, towards my face. I grin and begin cackling as I stand in an impressive blast of flame, technically of my own making. He can’t counter my immunities or resistances, because they aren’t offenses aimed at him. I suppose it was a bit of a stupid risk, if I had been wrong, I’d have been roasted. Still, I can’t help laughing almost maniacally. I’m trying to sell an image to Mydraig as too dangerous and crazy to let live.
Commenting on my crazy-factor, Mydraig queries, “Never had to face the heat before? Going crazy from the pain? Is this the best Mount Solace can offer? I’d have thought having a Red’s dragonforce within you would at le—. What.”
I try not giggling at his obvious flub, and fail slightly. When the fire dies down, I blow a puff of gas towards Mydraig, which for some reason, he doesn’t counter. I guess because it isn’t offensively used just yet. It’s not a really harmful gas unless I purposely pump a lot of volume into a small area, then it’s a toxin. Since he isn’t countering it, I continue exhaling it for a good while, getting a nice little cloud around the two of us. He hasn’t done anything more than flap in front of me, looking a bit stunned. Still, I ignite the gas with a spark, and I notice an eye-twitch that might signify something.
The gas explodes into a ball of fire between the two of us, but all of a sudden, before all of my breath weapon can finish igniting, it all becomes a glacier in midair. Some of that glacier is stuck to Mydraig’s face, which causes him to become top-heavy in the worst way. He shakes free of it almost immediately, and casts a glare my way. That was easy, and proves one of my later theories. His counters seem to be exact opposites, and, he doesn’t necessarily control what that counter does, at least not perfectly, or he’d have never been the one that had to break himself free of falling ice just now.
The ice plummets into the Worldstorm, and ends up destroyed immediately. Mydraig jokes, “So you do have a few tricks up your sleeve after all. Can’t say I’m surprised with all those titles. Still, you’re not even a tiny morsel. You should call out some backup, so that I’ve got a reason to go all out, and so that I have something to eat when this battle concludes.”
Still smirking at the confident Hareslayer, I retort, “No, no I don’t think I should. In fact, I’ll make you a deal, if you can survive all of my elements when I go all out, I’ll let you eat me.”