Arthur’s stomach twisted with a sense of guilt. He hadn’t intended to kill the woman; he hadn’t really wanted to kill the alchemist, but with the ritual taking place and the circumstances… No. He could have worked a little harder and spared their life. He had no idea if the ritual was even proceeding without his direct control.
A ritual he still needed to make sure was done. He opened his Archive externally, starting to scan and search for any functional magical patterns. If it actually was a rite to force dragonification it could be a massive windfall of information on how to prevent it.
But first there was the question of Wraith. The clay pseudo-dragon had stopped moving, pieces of it sloughing off like the other creations. Wraith’s spirit had slid out of it, the ghost standing above and behind it.
“Wraith?” Arthur asked.
“I’m sorry,” Wraith responded. “I didn’t want to attack you, but-”
“He was controlling you; it’s not your fault,” Arthur said. “Let’s figure out what he was planning to do to the rest and stop it.”
Wraith nodded. “I wish I could be more helpful, but my memories are rather scrambled.” Still it came out from Wraith that Wraith had been controlled even while possessing the member of Silver Demon, and taken here where he was forcibly transferred into clay by Raimi, and pushed into that draconic form.
Arthur was only half listening. Most of his attention was on trying to figure out the magic of the site, leaving it to Taberius and Enif to watch the prisoner.
Not that she seemed intent on trying to escape. She was crumpled into a corner, in an obviously depressed state.
Eventually Arthur swore aloud. Hands rising and spheres of territory spreading through the room. Not enough to bring it down, but enough to crack and crater the surfaces of the room. “If there’s anything that was actually doing something to our guildmates here, I couldn’t find any trace of it. But hopefully that got it,” he said to Wraith and Tabby.
Ashley made a small scoffing sound. “Wait, you actually still believed that bullshit I made up? Raimi wasn’t even the one who knew that alchemy. I separated you from the prime specimens so that Ridley could have plenty of uninterrupted time with them.”
“Prime specimens?” Arthur asked.
“Yeah. Last time only one of the three was advanced enough to be used, and then when help came… Well he was too powerful to be controlled. The whole thing went belly up fast from what I heard. There was only a few teams that were decided to be worth messing with. The Dark Dragon Slayer Knights were considered the prime targets. My job was to keep you occupied while Ridley turned them into dragons. Guess I did pretty well.”
Arthur’s Archive was working in a moment, locating the three Dark Dragon Slayer Knights. The thought intrusions might not be the best if they were engaged in battle but he had to figure out who to go and help.
Suzaku ended his panic fairly quickly. The dragonification alchemist was dead; there’d be no consuming his soul to learn from it, no forcing him to show Arthur his powers or explain them. That source of information was gone. But at least Suzaku was fine.
When Arthur arrived in the heart of Silver Demon’s lair, he was shocked. He had expected to arrive heroically just in time to save the day. He was the protagonist; this was his story and he was the main character, it only made sense that he’d be needed to beat the main villain.
Georg was standing, glaring, at a trio of disarmed dark alchemists. Minerva, Madmole, Skullion, Kiria, and Team Natsu were watching them carefully. Silver Demon had been shattered, and Arthur had fought a minor side character. It was - at least momentarily - humbling. He had grown used to thinking of himself as the main character, and this had seemed all the more like it.
But Georg had beat the master. And he’d not encountered anyone of any real importance.
“Who’s the girl with you?” Georg asked glaring, his eyes turning towards Ashley.
“A prisoner,” Arthur said. “Ashley. She’s dying.”
“Still needs to be restrained, you idiot.”
Arthur nodded dumbly. He was still struck by the anticlimax of it all. He had expected a great battle. Had thought he’d be the hero who saved the guild. And instead he’d been diverted and distracted.
Georg and Kirin were talking, the eldest of the Dark Dragon Knights reporting to Georg on what had happened with them. And Arthur, of course, gravitated towards Minerva to learn what had happened with her.
Delivering Silver Demon to the governmental authorities took the rest of the day and then some. They weren’t actually ready to contain them since they hadn’t been warned that it was going to happen. It left Arthur as 2nd watch to observe the group, and play jailor.
There were several dozen low ranking members of Silver Demon, entire teams which had been dealt with as a side thought at best. And then there were the elites. Of Silver Demon’s top squads, only 4 had been captured; 5 if you counted Ashley among the living and not the dead.
There weren’t good cells to hold them in the lair; the guild master and his two alchemical dolls got the magic sealing cell that had contained Pax and Orin. But that left Ashley, and the other member of Silver Demon, merely chained up.
Arthur actually removed the chains on Ashley. She was dying soon, after all. She didn’t need to be uncomfortable until then.
Her death was going to weigh on him. She wasn’t a threat to him, and he could have just knocked Raimi out. Except he wasn’t sure that would have freed Wraith from his control. A part of him thought he ought to just make it quick, and painless.
“So how long do you have?” He asked her.
The dark haired girl, apparently at least in the form she seemed to default to when relaxing, glared at him.
Arthur shrugged. “Fine. Anything I can do to make you relatively comfortable till then?”
“Let me go,” She said.
Arthur rolled his eyes. “I said relatively comfortable. You could still harm someone if I let you go.”
“Is that what you think I want to do with my last minutes alive?” She said.
Arthur shrugged. “Vengeance seems a natural enough way to go out to me.”
“So that’s what a hero’s mind is like,” She said dismissively. “So many things I’d prefer to do than take vengeance. Or just die free. To walk out and face the sun, and die with its warmth on my face.”
“If you could tell me when you’ll die, I might be able to arrange it so that you can die under its light,” Arthur said weakly.
She spat at him. “That wouldn’t be free. Besides you think I know. I just know… I died years ago. Brother bound my soul to some of his clay, he kept me around possessing it. The rest of his creations died with him. And I don’t think I’m going to stick around on my own as a ghost.”
“The rest died with him. You haven’t yet. Maybe you won’t.”
“Yeah, but I was made better. He worked on me. He fixed me up. He put a lot of time and effort into reinforcing my connection to this body.”
“So maybe that will hold up.”
She tossed her head, and then glared at him. “I could die, at any time, without warning. Do you expect me to be thankful for that?”
“Better than a few hours ago. Besides you had to know being part of a dark guild was dangerous.”
“You think I chose this? Brother brought me back. If I didn’t want to die for real I had to stick close to him. He chose this life, not me!” She struck the table, her left hand changing into a chainsaw blade as it bit deep.
“So, since you’re still up and animate, what sort of life are you going to choose?”
She looked at him, the chainsaw blade whirring its way free from the wood. “You say that like I have a choice. You’re going to hand me over to the authorities, and I’ll be stuck there till I die, or used for experimentation.”
Arthur couldn’t meet her eyes there. He couldn’t release her. He couldn’t trust her not to be a danger to others. He didn’t even have the certainty she could be redeemed that he had with Angel.
“Would you rather stay in my custody?” He asked.
She scoffed a little. “What, trying to cozy up to me after you killed my brother?”
“You’ll never forgive me for that, will you?”
“Nope.” Arthur began to wonder if he didn’t need to pay four hundred points for Defeat Equals Friendship. Not even for this situation, but for the rest of his time on this journey.
It was two days later when the prisoners had finally been handed over. In that time, Arthur was glad to see that he’d triggered the bounty for dismantling a dark guild. Silver Demon was apparently considered well and truly dead.
The guild celebrated the victory. It was a significant one. From a public relations point of view they’d proven they could handle the most powerful criminal organization on the continent. And whatever could be said about outside help; it had still been an organization which the national governments had begun to fear. When there was an international coalition discussing hiring the strongest guild in the continent - the alchemist guild Gold Owl - to take them down with the help of kingdoms’ armies, it looked good. And Diabolos could hold their heads high. They had defeated the guild master, Melies, his undefeated guards Nancy and Craven, as well as Raimi the Necromancer God, and the beast alchemist Ridley. Of the biggest and most feared names on the continent they had taken out 5 of the top 10. And beat a sixth one in the form of Carpenter. There was no equivalent to the 10 Wizard Saints or their Four Gods in Guiltina, but if there had been Georg would have likely been being put forward for the top position.
It was oddly hollow to Arthur. He kept comparing it mentally with the battle against Grimoire Heart. This had been nothing to that. There’d been no Hades. There’d been no need to plan it all. Some of it had been that he was stronger. But this hadn’t felt like he was preparing for Zeref like that had.
Still the party and feast was enjoyable enough. The Fairy Tail mages who had come north with them, Team Natsu, Wendy, and Lisanna, were welcome enough even if they were definitely viewed somewhat as outsiders. But they had fought with the dragon eaters which earned a certain amount of goodwill, and moreover Natsu and Wnedy had given some more blood to allow him to make an anti-dragonification drug meaning they represented hope.
Arthur was enjoying himself, relaxing, letting his guard down, laughing when Gray stripped mid-dinner without noticing it. And even more when Kiria managed to goad a - drunk - Madmole into following suit. People were living life and enjoying the zest of it.
And then Georg climbed onto the table, and bellowed loudly for silence. “This job showed us all something. We are strong. This guild was formed with one purpose, one reason, and I thought we’d have to wait. I thought we were too weak. I was beginning to have doubts that we’d ever be strong enough in my lifetime. I was going to wait until there were only five dragons left in Guiltina, and we could grow no stronger. But the other day convinced me that we are strong!”
There was a cheer, but it was one Arthur didn’t join in on. He had a sinking feeling he knew where this was going.
“Dragon Eaters, we can finally perform our mission! We will slay the five dragon gods!” Another round of cheering, one in which Arthur remained silent - and the look Georg gave him showed that Georg noticed.
“Prepare yourselves, Dragon Eaters, for once we are ready we will slay the Moon Dragon God Selene!”
Natsu was on the table, and burning before Arthur could get up there himself. “What do you mean you’re going to slay Selene?” Selene was a potential link to Igneel, and Natsu was not about to let himself lose that.
“I mean we’re going to kill her, eat her, and make her power ours. Don’t worry. You can have your little talk with her first.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“What makes you think you have the right to kill and eat her?”
“We’re dragon slayers. We slay dragons. Aren’t you one yourself? Shouldn’t you understand that?”
“What kind of reason is that?” Natsu asked pulling back a fist.
“More than I have to give you,” Georg countered, shifting into a crouch, ready to perform a charging tackle.
Arthur appeared between them, holding them each back with one hand.
“You’ve both been drinking too much. Sit down. Cool off. And stop babbling idiotically,” Arthur said.
“I’m not drunk,” They both snapped back.
“Then act like it. Neither of you know shit about the situation with Selene.”
“Then why don’t you enlighten me. Why can’t we kill Selene?” Georg said.
“It’d be suicide to try,” Arthur said. “She almost destroyed Edolas because one individual from it had the gall to disturb her.” He saw the look of shame cross Natsu’s face. It wasn’t like Selene was a lily-white innocent, even if Arthur had to remind him of the fact here and now.
“So she’s a danger to humanity. That’s all the more reason to kill her,” Georg growled.
“So she’s a danger far more deadly than Silver Demon,” Arthur said. “Taking out a bunch of half-baked thugs isn’t proof of anything. If we try to kill Selene we’re as good as dead.”
“It’s not just Silver Demon,” Georg growled, his voice a sinister rumble. “I fought Ignia.”
The guild hall had been filled with muttering voices, a drone of whispers about what was happening before them. This, though, made them all go silent.
“Like hell you did,” Arthur answered.
“He’s been my worst nightmare for decades. When the old spider’s little wonder twins cast me into my nightmare I only got out by beating him. I killed Ignia, and now it’s time to do that in reality.”
“Yeah. In reality. As in, that wasn’t real,” Arthur spat back.
Georg swung, a claw of force slamming into Arthur. But the jumper rolled with the blow. Georg’s four beasts dragon claw could cut through his Territory Armor with a clean enough hit. But he moved and let the force carry him, sending him flying into a wall but ultimately unharmed.
“What makes you want to protect that moon dragon so much?” Georg said. “It’s like you’ve got a thing for her. Don’t tell me the dragon eater has fallen for a dragon.”
Georg was preparing to move to Arthur, but Natsu’s hand reached for his shoulder. “He’s part of your guild. How could you-”
“I’m fine, Natsu. We’re just having a little disagreement,” Arthur said, rising to his feet. “And I don’t want to pick a fight with a dragon I know I can’t slay. I go up against Selene and the best case scenario is she runs between dimensions and keeps running till I’m exhausted and she’s able to come back and kill everyone else whenever she wants. Worst case she kills me immediately and then the rest of you.”
“We just take her out before he can run,” Georg said.
“I’m not strong enough for that, and none of these children are either.”
“We are, though. You and me. Together she’d not have a chance to get her bearings. We could do it,” Georg said.
“No we couldn’t.” Arthur wasn’t actually certain they couldn’t. He wasn’t completely certain he couldn’t. “And you definitely couldn’t without me.”
Georg growled his fists clenching tightly. “I’m getting tired of your insubordination, Arthur. It was a mistake to let you into the guild.”
“Yeah? Without me what would you have done about Silver Demon? What would you do about dragonification? What would you do?”
“Don’t get cocky. You keep back talking and I’ll break you and throw you out of the guild.”
“That’s your dragon rage talking,” Arthur said. “So let’s stop this before we do something we can’t take back.” He was picking his words carefully, overclocking like he was already in combat, focusing on his words and not going by his first reaction.
“No,” Georg said. “I’m tired of this. You find any excuse not to fight Selene you can. It’s time you stopped that. We are dragon eaters. This guild exists to slay the Five Dragon Gods. Either you will help with that or you will get out.”
“I challenge,” Arthur said.
“What?” Georg jumped off of the table with a thud, magical energy crackling around him in a corona of force.
“I challenge you. Diabolos is a guild where might makes right, isn’t it? The strong rules. And I don’t think you’re strong enough to be an asset when killing Selene. I’m not going to help you commit suicide and pull the guild down with you. You want to prove you’re strong enough to not be a load in a fight then fight me.”
“Load?!” Georg roared. And then he shot forward. His hand struck through the wall of the dining hall like a claw, the explosion of energy causing the wall to shatter and blow back into the room on the other side.
“Shouldn’t we take this outside?” Arthur asked, standing now on the table himself.
Georg roared, his head throwing back as he screamed at the sky. “You damn snake, I should never have let you join the guild. Let’s take this outside.”
Georg glared at Arthur. He was furious. He had let the mage into the guild, despite his awkward arrival, and despite his lack of power. And now… Georg had defeated Ignia. He had beaten the Fire Dragon God. He could handle Arthur.
But he still remembered Arthur’s fight with Kirin. He’d have to be careful, but he couldn’t afford to hesitate either.
Kirin was acting as the referee of sorts. In the training ground behind the guild hall, a mountain valley which they had carved out by spars or training, the yellow dragon slayer stood in the center with the two combatants at opposite sides.
When he fired his lightning it was time to begin.
Georg was surprised at how quickly Arthur had managed to act. Immediately spheres of force were surrounding him and exploding. He hardened his body with his black turtle dragon slayer magic, but even through the armoring shell he could feel the force.
And then he shot forward, a lightning fast claw to strike Arthur in the gut. Or that had been the intent, Georg found himself hitting face first into a sphere of territory magic which then exploded.
“I’ve fought Madmole. I’ve fought Minerva. I’ve fought Misaki. I’ve observed you. You might not have been willing to spar with me, Georg, but I still know how you fight.” Arthur’s tone was insufferably smug, the sheer arrogance of his certainty redoubling Georg’s desire to beat him down.
“Shut up, you traitor,” Georg said, rising to his feet. He let his magic flow through his body and he burst forward. It was a straight line movement, though, and while he was too fast for the eye he wasn’t fast enough to avoid Arthur’s response. Again Arthur’s territory magic formed before him. He used his vermillion phoenix dragon slayer magic; its draining effect, while more for life energy than magic, was still enough to allow him to plow through the attempted shield.
He was satisfied to feel the impact against the strange field that Arthur kept around him. But it flew backwards instead of shattering. He didn’t have the chance to follow up. The surge of speed from his white tiger dragon slayer magic had ended a half-step past Arthur and it needed time to be re-invoked. Time he didn’t have as a dragon head of darkness erupted from the ground around him.
Georg knew his magic was superior, though. His body hardened with the black turtle, and the vermilion phoenix began to suck the power from the blow. It wasn’t as effective as true magic dragon slayer magic, but it was enough to deaden the blow.
A second dragon of light rushed towards him. Where the darkness one was large enough to carry him aloft, the light one was small. For a split second Georg thought Arthur was tiring a bit already. But as it plunged into his stomach Georg realized he was a fool. His hand came down in a sweeping claw, pure magical power wrapping around it to shatter the dragon of light.
It weakened his armor, the darkness eating at his flesh, but the light was shattered. And then a blow hit him from above.
Arthur knew he couldn’t relent for an instant. While he wasn’t as clear on the details of some of the Four Beasts as others, he had at least an idea of all of them. Vermillion Phoenix, or in a more general term Life; there were certainly differences from a true Life Dragon Slayer but it was close enough. Black Tortoise was mostly equivalent to Madmole’s Armor. Azure Dragon was the same spatial and dimensional magic as Misaki. Last, White Tiger, or as Arthur sometimes thought of it, velocity.
Each of them was a problem on its own. He wasn’t sure how Armor compared to the Black Tortoise in energy efficiency, but Armor punched way above its weight class when it came to defense, and he had to assume Black Tortoise did as well. Vermillion Phoenix drained magical energy; he couldn’t imagine it was nearly as effective as Acnologia’s Magic Dragon Slayer Magic, and it even seemed to only be a fraction of the Dorma Anim Mk 2, but it could destroy his Territory Armor without directly overpowering it. White Tiger might be almost entirely limited to straight lines, but the speed was absurd, and Georg knew how to use it. Azure Dragon… Ok, Azure Dragon wasn’t much of a problem on its own, his Territory Magic should beat it head to head, but it meant Georg could eat his territory and dimension blue might be a problem with his other magic.
So when Arthur launched Georg into the air, he didn’t stop to see if Georg was alright. He used Takeover and his body bulged, muscles growing out, as his flesh turned blue. A pair of horns rose from his head, curving backwards. A pair of wings grew from his back and a heavy, scaled tail. He could feel the tusks in his mouth.
As far as magical tricks went this Kandarian soul was useless. It lacked the soul drinking of his Chaos soul, the explosion curse of Jackal soul, the Macro curse of Seilah soul, and the plant manipulation of the Floral soul. It had some baseline darkness magic and that was it. But what it lacked in magical tricks it made up for in sheer raw physicality; at least for the cost of energy. It was cheap, but it hit hard, and it moved fast.
He brought his hand down onto Georg’s head even as the arrow of light distracted him. Arthur managed to reach the ground first, and while his punch wasn’t the cleanest, it hit hard as it struck Georg. He’d been learning to fight. In all the time he’d been in this world it seemed like it was the only thing that he did. So of course he was learning. Blow after blow, he pursued Georg.
He didn’t rely purely on fisticuffs, though. While he couldn’t use his Purgatory Dragon Slayer Magic particularly well without changing forms, he could make use of Shining and Darkness in good measure, and coupled with Territory Magic… Georg didn’t have a chance. Whenever he tried to defend from one blow, another came from a different side, and as it kept changing where and how, Georg didn’t even have the time to focus his magic.
Arthur wasn’t holding himself in reserve to avoid destroying the base and potentially hurting his friends. Arthur wasn’t worried about the next fight and the one after it. Arthur wasn’t scared to overcommit without knowing what tricks the enemy had. Instead he was releasing a year’s worth of pent up rage and frustration.
Even having lost his prosthetic hand with his transformation, the battle was one sided.
There was only one thing Georg could do. He covered his vitals as well as he could while focusing everything into armoring himself. He had walked into a trap, and once he had he had lost control of the initiative of the fight. And now he was suffering the consequences.
He hated to admit it, but Arthur outclassed him. Whether it was magical power, physical strength, or raw speed, Arthur seemed to have him dead to rights. He even used his magic faster.
Georg hated it. He hated it. He hated it.
The dragon force called to him. The same siren’s song that he had felt when fighting Ignia. The fire dragon god had outclassed Arthur in raw magical power. But he had been pure force and power. Georg had been able to dodge. He had been able to use his magic. To keep the dragon unsteady.
He’d never been losing to this extent in that fight.
“Pathetic,” he growled to himself. He was the Dragon Eater. He wasn’t going to lose to some upstart whelp. He wasn’t going to pull on the Dragon Force again. It would break him. He knew that. And yet… it would give him the power to win. To prove he was better than this little snake he had let into his garden.
“What’s that?” Arthur’s voice hit between an explosion of darkness, a punch to the gut, and a spear of light.
“You can’t win as a dragon slayer!” Georg’s scream echoed through the mountain valley.
It was enough to stop the blows for a moment. Georg had been talking to himself, but he realized what had happened. This was a public fight. Everyone was watching. And he had just found a way to call Arthur’s victory into question. It felt pathetic to resort to it. Almost worth drawing on the dragon force inside. He could feel it singing in his arm, the limitless, destructive power of a dragon, and all he had to do was accept it even as Arthur’s punches continued to rain down onto him.
“You need all these other tricks!” He shouted loudly, making sure the guild could hear. “Of course you can’t slay a dragon god! None of these tricks will work on them! Only one magic can!”
The blows had stopped. Georg felt a little ashamed, but his strategy seemed to be working. Arthur seemed to not have learned the first rule of slaying dragons - you take every advantage you can get.
He spat out a mouth full of blood, and a couple of teeth. He was going to take those out of Arthur’s hide. The insubordinate ass might be stronger than him. But he was going to show him just how insufferably stupid and arrogant he was.
“So saying this isn’t a real win unless I fight you where I’m weakest and you’re strongest?” Arthur’s voice dripped with contempt. Georg barely held himself back. Just tap into that power, take a sudden burst of speed, and deliver a blow to the face.
But Arthur’s armoring field was still there, and while he might deal with it, he’d become a dragon before he had done so. He couldn’t win as a human, unless he fought like a human.
“No! I’m saying it’s not a real win, unless you use shit that’d work on a dragon! Isn’t that right?” He raised his voice to a booming roar. “He can’t prove he’s a better dragon slayer when relying on magic that won’t even touch a dragon!”
“Brute muscle affects a dragon,” Arthur said.
“Not properly,” Georg said. “You’ll get a fraction against a dragon.”
“Teleportation works just fine against a dragon,” Arthur continued.
Georg just gave a dismissive snort, sending blood from his nose to the ground. “Do you hear this shit? He’s scared!” He called out, trying to mask his own. The power raged right beneath the surface. It would be easy to call on it.
Arthur gritted his teeth. Then the blue-monster shrank and reverted to human shape. He raised his stump, one of his prosthetic hands appearing on it to point at Georg.
“Fine. I’ll beat you as a dragon slayer,” He said.
Georg smiled. He’d won. He threw his arms and head back, crying to the sky, and his dimension blue wrapped around Arthur. It was the same magic he had used to defeat Nancy of Silver Demon. It drew Arthur and himself into a dimensional space where Arthur’s body would be unable to move, and where any pain inflicted would be multiplied when the magic was lowered. And then he began to feed with the Vermillion Phoenix magic.
Except Arthur vanished, disappearing from the pocket dimension. A moment later silver butterflies were filling the blue space, surrounding Georg, and exploding in a burst of silver flames. More and more of those butterflies of moonlight were appearing, and flowing towards Georg.
He was forced to dismiss his magic, reappearing in normal reality, only for the heats of the silver flames to flow into him all over again. Rage was eating away at his rational mind. That draconic fury which always existed just below the surface was rising up.
Georg had hoped to beat him into line. To show him just how much of a fool he was. That hope was gone. Even if he had the chance, he wasn’t thinking that way. Arthur had hurt him too much. The insubordinate idiot was going to have to die.
Georg breathed deep and roared, the blast of force tearing through the ground. It combined aspects of all four of his magics. It held a gravitational force all its own, drawing things that it hit into another dimension and consuming them with the power of the phoenix before launching them away from himself.
It tore a ravine in the ground, cutting a visible scar in the mountains. There was no one here who could take that blast and live. Even Arthur’s absurd magical power wouldn’t manage it. It was a roar that could bring low dragon kings.
A flash of light from his left side was all the warning that Georg got. He raised his left arm, and felt a dragon-like claw wrap around it. There was a flash of light which left him blind, and the feeling of an explosion that threatened to tear through his arm.
He hardened his body a moment before there was an explosion of force against his stomach. He felt something hit him, sending him flying back and skipping along the ground. It had been bright, and his vision was still gone. If he kept being exposed to these flashes he might be blind forever.
He didn’t think about that, though. He wasn’t thinking much at all. A red rage was building up in him. He wasn’t thinking about winning any longer. He wasn’t thinking about the guild. He was barely thinking at all.
Scales were forming across his arms, his body starting to bulge and change. He could still hear the singing of power. He couldn’t keep fighting without drawing on the dragon force.
His mouth began to open inhumanly wide, as he felt a draconic claw grasp his head. He heard a scream of two words: “Shining finger!” And then everything went white before going black.