Jade and Draphen played a game of dungeon ball. The pair stood in a gymnasium within Jade’s villa on either side of the court from one another. There was no roof above them leaving the area was open to the elements, giving them both more space to move. Alongside Jade’s lack of stadium seating, the area was suited only for the game the woman knew and loved.
The enclosure was the size of two professional basketball courts side by side. The game normally played by teams of five or more, had four pillars to either side of the court that offered minimal defense to players.
Lined at the center of the court at the beginning of each match were five balls. Each with a different color, and function within the game.
The golden ball at the center, caused an automatic out if anyone on either team was struck with it. The green ball to its left, allowed an ally to move again if they were struck previously by the red ball to the right of the golden ball, that forced a player to stop moving entirely.
The final two balls were the white and black balls, to the far left and far right. When used on an ally the white ball took two points from a team, and when used on an enemy or opponent, it added plus 1 to the striking team's score.
When using the black ball on an ally, it allowed a player change, bringing in a player from the sideline to swap with the player caught or struck. While when it was used on an enemy or opponent, a forced swapping of players on the same team had to occur, and if that team had no additional players, the struck player would be benched until the next quarter.
If a swapped player was also hit by the black ball after just being brought into the game, it was the equivalent to being struck by the golden ball, and that player or the previously struck player from the team, was out for the rest of the game.
Jade had explained these rules to Draphen before they started, and since then, they’d been locked in the deadliest game of dodgeball ever created, Dungeon ball. A cultivator’s blood sport that came with a far more violent history, as the safety vests and runic teleportation system that instantly evacuated players in potentially deadly situations, hadn’t been a thing when Jade was growing up.
“I’d watch that rear wall of yours!” Draphen couldn’t help but look at the rear pillar on his side of the field, the structure lined with cracks, and was even missing chunks of stone in random areas from top to bottom. As knocking down anyone of the four walls on either side was considered a victory, alongside striking the teams captain with the golden ball, and scoring 100 points, Draphen couldn’t help but grunt in frustration at his potential loss.
“You're really enjoying making me look bad, aren’t you?” Draphen flew above his half of the court, well above the pillars and perimeter walls, doing his best to either dodge, or swat away the balls being thrown at him, using everything from his fists, wings and even the occasional dragon’s breath.
“No, just haven’t played in seasons and don’t get the chance anymore.” Jade teleported all over the field, catching and throwing the balls flying in every direction imaginable right back toward Draphen. Anything she didn’t retrieve personally, was caught by portals that opened and closed in a flash, none of the balls Draphen swatted away losing any momentum; open portals spitting the hurtling objects endlessly boomeranging back at him.
“What exactly is fair about this?”
“Absolutely nothing…” said Jade with a laugh. A portal opening an inch from Draphen’s back in the same moment Jade dribbled the golden ball like a soccer player, popping the ball into the air before she performed a spin kick.
Faster than Draphen was even able to blink another portal opened, and the golden ball disappeared. Though the king was incredibly fast and agile even while airborne, his spin to turn around and catch the ball resulted in the heavy object smashing right into his chest, nearly knocking the wind out of him.
“I believe that is my match,” said Jade, watching Draphen collect himself aerially. He landed, wrapping her in a hug.
“I believe it is,” He flew up in the next instant taking Jade into the sky, his wings easily able to manage the weight of both incredibly heavy Cultivators.
Draphen stopped ascending once well above the shifting lands below, his wings cupped in a fashion that kept the pair aloft. Draphen able to keep them in a slow spin, almost as if they shared a slow dance amongst the stars.
“You really think you are cute, don’t you,” asked Jade. The king only giving her a nod in response, and though Jade scoffed, she still rested her head on his chest, in a slow sway controlled by the subtle and slow rhythm of Draphen’s wings cutting softly through the night sky.
“What are you going to do about the Mana Monarchs?” asked Jade, starting a conversation she honestly didn’t want to have, but knew the man that held her was battling a conflict of emotions and more than likely needed someone to talk to.
“What are you going to do about Kim?” asked Draphen with a soft chuckle. The questions were both rhetorical, but both parties knew the questions needed to be both asked, and answered.
“Okay, I see how this is going to go, I’m going to train our son and in time, I believe I won’t have to do a thing about Kim. I don’t know if you have anyone with eyes on his foundation lately, but things aren’t looking good for him. Now try again, what are you going to do about the Mana Monarchs? A king on the throne causes a great cataclysm when they die, but a queen,” started Jade.
“I know, killing the girl would only make her that much stronger, I’d rather not need your help taking her down after a rebirth. We’d all pay for it if she has more than two lives,” stated Draphen honestly annoyed.
Draphen hadn’t attacked the realm of the Mana Monarch kingdom for multiple reasons, but the highest reason of them all was the same reason why Jade hadn’t killed the young queen when raiding the ship the young woman used as a base in Maelstrom. She was a queen of the Monarchs, a Phoenix bloodline so old that it was said their ancestors were the first entities ever touched by mana.
“So…?”
“You are going to keep asking me my plans until I tell you, aren’t you?” Jade nodded, her answer muffled as she’d turned her head, pressing her face into Draphen.
“Yeah, depending on what you have planned for the CityNation I may change some of my own plans to suit a more mutual end for both of us.”
“Oh yeah, the way you are talking it sounds like you’re sweet on me, young lady?”
Jade pulled back slightly. A moment of silence passing before Draphen knew he was going to lose an opportunity to keep the woman he loved beside him.
“I’m going to try and obtain a fourth realm, and this time I’m not going to hire you to do it for me,,” said Draphen. The intentions of what the king said hit Jade immediately, as the reason they’d chosen to use Jade’s softer touch when invading realms previously, was the same reason an entire coliseum had been burned down recently.
“What is the reason for such a choice? Don’t you think you are rushing for the fourth pillar too soon?”
"Have you not felt him since his return, my love? He is different, suppressed in some ways, but empowered in many others,” said Draphen. Almost as if the fates convened and spoke in whispers of things unseen. Draphen’s eyes drifted in a seeming random direction.
“Our son has experienced things that I believe neither one of us have. His experience has prepared him in ways we don't yet understand. Just as our own parents underestimated us and we rose about their expectations, he will amaze us with his abilities.”
The man she spoke to hadn’t looked away from the direction in the distance. She felt his heart begin to beat faster. In the moment she wondered if she’d truly caught his heart’s full attention. Until the stream of energy pierced the sky in the distance. The mana held weight, enough to make either one of the pair accept the power of whatever being was giving the display, but it was how Draphen’s nose flared subtly at the energy that gave Jade a sense of alarm.
“He’s awakening, Jade. I can feel it,” said Draphen. A shift had already begun. The transformation far stronger than it ever had been before. Jade teleported out of his embrace, Draphen plummeting out of the air as his body started to transform.
Fire built as a growing inferno was caged by a single Cultivator’s chest. Jade wondered if she should signal the alarms that Xani installed recently for the orphans to use in case of emergency. Yet when Jade watched the man she was becoming rather attached to in the last season, shift into a full dragon in what seemed like a breath she knew something was wrong.
Draphen’s new form landed within her dungeon ball court and crushed both sets of pillars with his body alone, easily long enough to achieve a normally very difficult task, with the weight of his new form alone.
This was no skeletal dragon, before her was a dragon made of flesh and blood. His scales a rich black that reminded her of the Musou black her son and his friends were so fond of.
Only Draphen's scales were serving the same purpose as the night sky, images of storms and stars drifting across his body almost like they were caught in orbit around a black hole at the center of his body. Draphen’s wings spread wide and Jade gasped at the sight of his deep blue and green flames rippling down the black membranes that now connected his wings making them one solid structure, rather than the skeletal wings Draphen used that defied reason when giving his skeletal form lift.
Jade watched as Draphen crouched, and looked as if he was going to take flight, and disappeared.
“Aw well, that ain't good,” said Jade making a slow turn as she fell slowly, slightly distorting gravity around herself. Far in the distance her eyes caught a glimpse of something she teleported towards. The instant it took her to travel the distance, was what she then realized was the same amount of time it took Draphen to flap his wings and move further away from her.
She teleported a longer distance in the same direction, only to witness Draphen’s body streak by at a speed some movement ability users would be jealous of.
“Son of the maiden’s dirty waters, he’s moving fast,” said Jade teleporting continually to keep up.
Finally she was able to grab a hold of one of his horns, the crown of the king of dragons far more pronounced and regal than it ever had been before. It wasn’t until she was moving at the same speed as Draphen that she was able to see the flames leaking from his maw and his eye sockets. The flames wrapped around his body, which told Jade that Draphen could definitely see his entire form and maybe even his environment fully, a strange set of runes spinning around the flames spewing out of the holes where his eyes should be.
“Don’t make me do this!” A beam and roar unlike anything Jade had heard from monster, man nor demon. The light that penetrated the night sky threatened to brake into the second atmosphere. The weight of the energy pushing the air, gravity, and moisture away in a new environment of power that created its own dome of pressure and distorted light in a haze for almost a hundred miles. Jade recognized the Realm Traveler’s building in the distance, and knew she had to act now.
“Sorry, love, you give me no choice!” In half a blink Draphen and Jade traveled 25 miles, but Jade pushed down with everything she had. Draphen’s course was shifted from a straight flight, into a descending dive. They were moving so quickly that instead of the instant crash Jade had expected to cause, Draphen instead performed a elegant swoop, propelling himself back into the air with the aid of his legs. His own landing gear far more capable and durable than any plane’s suspension.
Is he stronger than me in this form…?
For the first time in a long time, Jade wasn’t able to easily handle a foe, which was unusual regardless of how big or monstrous they proved to be.
And if that is the case, how much more terrifying are your flames?
Jade dare not find out, dedicating more of her mental focus to staying as far away from the blue and green flames that rolled freely down the now dragon’s body.
“Sorry, but you give me no choice, dude!” A massive portal opened up in front of Draphen and Jade let go. Another portal the same size opened up behind her and she teleported out of the way, Draphen’s large frame like a streak of light infused shadows. A line of black green and blue the only thing that proved he was still caught between the two portals.
“Sparks he’s moving fast, if he—“
Jade was forced to make another two portals when Draphen who was approaching light speed changed direction without a bit of momentum being lost. Then another two , and more, until Draphen flew at ridiculous speeds caught within a 20 sided prison made of portals. His flight paths never intersected, but the longer he was inside the more energy Jade felt build inside.
Jade began to shrink the space around Draphen and the portals she’d summoned, and heard a roar come from within the space. The fury of the bellow growing with every blink that passed.
“I wonder who is going to fold in this situation, your ancient bloodline, or my mana pool, my dear king of dragons,” said Jade. The portal prison fitting perfectly in her hand by the time she reached for it.
“Embers, Draphen! You couldn’t have told me the name of the realm you were targeting, could you…” Jade felt the energy that had sent Draphen into a far more powerful transformation than ever before, move the incredible distance she’d just traversed in an instant. The energy forcing her to look toward the dump, and for the first time wonder if her son was amidst a transformation of his own. She looked at the portal prison, and then toward the largest structure within Maelstrom. The palace compound.
“It's time to take you home. I think you’ve had enough fun for tonight.”