Zach’s hand turned the dial of the stove off the moment before the kettle started whistling. Decades ago, when he had first come to this he would have spent an hour struggling to turn the thing off before resorting to magic. But time had bred familiarity, and now habit had his hand in the correct position just in time.
Like clockwork, the kettle was then taken off the stove and boiling water was poured into two mugs already prepared with tea leaves. At the same time Hilda turned around holding two bowls of porridge, and Zach picked up the mugs.
They headed to the porch, settling onto the deck chairs there and began to enjoy their breakfast in the dark of the early morning.
Hilda would begin her morning training soon, and Zach had long ago scheduled his daily meditation so that they could do them together. It gave a more structured pace to their mornings that he had come to enjoy.
Zach’s bowl was soon empty. He set it aside, then settled back in the chair with a sigh, enjoying the quiet.
Then the wards around the house hummed and he sat up again with a second, much more tired sigh.
“Susan is coming by,” He said, “It appears she is in a hurry.”
Hilda nodded and the two of them stood before walking over to the edge of the porch.
They stood for a moment, waiting.
“What are we going to do about that girl,” Hilda mused to herself, “Immortal at sixteen and a dragon to boot.
Zach stood quietly, letting her think aloud.
“At least she’s the one of the better kinds of immortals,” She continued, and he had to nod along to that.
There were many different kinds of people, and many different ways that they reacted to the curses and boons of immortality. For some, the incredible weight of eons crushed their spirits and left them walking husks. Others were driven to madness, or forgetfulness.
Susan though, was the kind who simply didn’t notice it. In a thousand years, she would look up from one of her textbooks and awkwardly realize that the flag hung over her desk was for a country that no longer existed. Or perhaps that the school she taught at had changed names when she wasn’t looking centuries before.
She could still learn, grow, and hopefully mature now that she wasn’t stuck in the hellscape that was Themus during the Atlan Conquests.
“Think I should cook up the sweetbreads?” Hilda asked, catching his attention.
He considered for a moment, then shrugged, “It would probably be better to wait.”
They soon heard a whistle of air approaching. Then the gray bulk of Suasn’s body landed on the ground with an earth rattling thump.
She was immediately moving, twisting around to grab a small group of people off her back and placing them on the field in front of her. She spoke in a blur the entire time.
“Elizabeth-is-fighting-an-earth-dragon-I’m-going-to-help-her-Could-you-protect-Anne-while-I’m-gone-Thank-you-bye!”
A flap of her wings took her back into the sky, and Zach turned to take in the small group as the whoosh of her wings faded above them.
There was a short brown haired girl he recognized as Anne from Susan’s descriptions. Next to her was a pudgy boy holding hands with a tall girl in dark clothing.
The entire group looked windswept, hair blown back as they blinked owlishly and rubbed their eyes.
“Ugh, I think I understand why Ruth didn’t want to come,” The boy said, then coughed.
“Why’d you want to, anyway?” The girl next to him snapped.
“I dunno, Susan said they were adventurers and I thought maybe I could get some advice.”
That got Hilda’s attention. Zach couldn't hide a smile, she needed a new punching b– student.
They stepped off the porch and approached the small group, quickly capturing their attention. Hilda herself marched directly up to the young hero, looming over him with a grin.
“So you want to be a hero, huh?” She asked with both hands on her hips as she eyed him.
A mute nod was more than enough assent to her and the next second he was being dragged off to the protests of his girlfriend.
Zach didn’t pay them much attention. He had seen Hilda ‘induct’ new students plenty of times. Instead he focused his attention on the last girl, the subject of Susan’s request.
Anne was quiet, still looking upward after the receding form of Susan with a frown. Spotting Zach, she quickly hurried over to him.
“Do you think she is going to make it in time?” She asked.
The window panes rattled as a sonic boom split the air. Anne’s head snapped back up to see Susan, now a rapidly shrinking dot on the horizon.
“I don’t think it's going to be a problem for her,” Zach drawled.
-
Abana stalked around a floating model of earth, carefully examining the colored dots that covered it. It was huge, five feet across and so it took her several minutes to carefully examine the entirety of the finely detailed surface of the globe, a duty she took very seriously.
Each of the dots marked a potential threat to Earth. Size meant strength, and color meant hostility, They went from blue, meaning peaceful and then ran through the color wheel to red, which meant extremely hostile.
As things were, the globe looked surprisingly good.
There was the usual smattering of dots throughout the oceans and sparsely populated continents. The familiar red circle that dominated Eastern Europe was there. Along with the fuzzy purple blob covering the center of North America, the persistent reminder of the Eldritch creature lurking there.
Her teeth clenched as she spotted one of the spots within it, a small red one denoting the Eldritch Avatar she had encountered just last week.
It was a biting reminder of Rawiyah’s betrayal. She must have been hiding its existence for at least a decade if not more. All for one of her ridiculous schemes.
With a huff she looked away towards the other new dot. A large light blue one that sat almost on top of it.
It was almost as frustrating to her as the one representing Rawiyah’s nephew. Something about it just didn’t make sense. Instinct and experience told her the dragon was strong, stronger than what the dot represented.
She stared at the red and blue points for a few long seconds, blindly hoping they would open up and explain things to her. Eventually though, they began to dance before her eyes and she was forced to look away.
Feet wandered further away from the globe, and she tried resting her eyes by looking at the circular walls that ringed the Globe. They were slate gray, made of a perfectly smooth crystal.
The room itself was barebones, with a monolithic style. Five huge rectangular pillars lined the circular wall of the room beneath a tall flat ceiling.
She finally slowed as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. With a huff, she shoved the problems of the past week to the back of her mind where they hopefully wouldn’t bother her.
Then an ethereal chime rang in her ears and she sighed. Then it rang four more times and the sigh turned into a startled cough.
Bare feet slapped across the crystal floor and back to the globe. A red dot had appeared in the bottom left of North America. It pulsed, quickly growing to eclipse the ones around it.
She quickly turned, looking towards the pillars around her.
On four of them, the front began to change. The gray crystal gained color until each one displayed a perfect image of a woman.
From left to right it was Miura Pon, a middle aged Japanese woman dressed in the beige clothes of a zookeeper. Then Nora Montanari, a tiny Italian woman who stood stooped with age wearing soft sleeping clothes. Next was the blond and blue eyed Elizabeth Hill, wearing a onesie covered in brightly colored magical girls. And finally, Daisy Dixon. Dressed in flannel pajamas, the tall dark haired woman was practically a giant compared to the rest of the group.
The images seemed to solidify, then each of them stepped forward and out of the pillar. The Guardians of Earth, now assembled.
Nora was the first to look around to take things in, her eyes widened and she turned to Abana.
“All five?” She asked.
Abana could only nod. The others started at her words and quickly looked around, double checking that it was true.
An appropriate number of Guardians were summoned based on the threat posed. The last time all five had been needed was for an invasion of squid monsters in the early two thousands.
The group quickly rushed to the center of the room and assembled around Abana. Questing eyes finding and taking in the new mark on the globe.
“What is it?” Elizabeth asked, glancing towards Abana.
“Don't know,” She answered, “It’s too soon to tell.”
“This isn’t anything to do with your sister, right?” Daisy asked with a look to the younger girl.
“No she’s off busy kidnapping someone tonight,” Elizabeth said, which earned her even more looks from the rest of the group.
“We’re not going to have to deal with that later are we?” Miura asked quickly.
“Nope, it's just her friend's boyfriend or something.”
“Wha-”
“Moving on,” Abana broke in, more than familiar with Elizabeth and Susan’s collective ability to make a mess of things, “We need to get suited up.”
Wide grins immediately appeared on the faces of Elizabeth and Miura, and both of them practically leapt away from the group to strike poses. Elizabeth with one hand over her head and Miura with both hands held to her sides, pointed up and away. Then both vanished in twin flashes of light.
A moment later the light vanished to reveal Elizabeth in her red and blue dress. Meanwhile Miura reappeared wearing a bright pink jumpsuit with a white diamond pattern covering the chest. A pink helmet covered her head with a large black visor covering her eyes.
Nora and Daisy both shook their heads at the others' antics, a light chuckle coming from the older woman.
Abana on the other hand wasn’t immune to the dramatics that fueled the first two girl’s transformations. The Guardians were each allowed to choose their own outfits, and inevitably took inspiration from the heroes they had looked up to as children.
But unlike Nora, who was too old to care, and Daisy who was utterly blind to pop culture, Abana couldn't help the thrill that ran through her every time she began her transformation.
Spinning in place with her arms held wide around her, a third flash of light covered the room. A bronze breastplate and pauldrons formed over her, followed by the rest of her armor. As the flash of light dimmed and she finished her spin, her spear appeared in her hand and she planted it on the ground.
She shot a look at the still untransformed Nora, who only chuckled again in response.
“What? I just wanted to watch,” She said with a wizened grin, “You girl’s transformations get crazier every year.”
Her hand reached up and she snapped her fingers in the air. Unlike the flash of light that marked the others transformations, Nora was simply covered by an ethereal glow that hung in the air around her before vanishing.
The wizened woman now possessed the size and build of a professional bodybuilder, muscles bulging beneath a purple spandex outfit. It covered her entire body except for her face, which was covered only by a black domino mask.
To her right, Daisy finished her own transformation. She now wore a dress like Elizabeth. Of sorts. The top was a hunting jacket, and the ‘frills’ on the camo colored skirt looked suspiciously like ghillie netting. A pair of shotguns crossed behind her back made something that resembled a bow.
The entire ensemble was the result of a disastrous campaign from Elizabeth and Miura to make her wear a more normal magical girl outfit. And while they had been horrified by the costume, Daisy had loved it and it somehow stuck.
Abana looked around herself as she took them in with a wry smile. The protectors of earth, dressed like the dregs of a comic con.
Then she steeled her expression and straightened her back.
“Everyone ready?” She asked in a more professional voice. The Guardians looked toward her and nodded.
The group marched to one of the pillars. The face began to change again, greens, browns and blues blooming and melding together to paint a picture of a small clearing on the side of a tall hill.
Towering sequoias loomed on one side, while mountains dominated the far horizon.
As one, they stepped into it and the world blurred around them. Abana’s foot landed on soft grass, and when she looked around a small breeze brushed over her face.
It was a quiet morning, almost idyllic with the sun barely peeking over the tops of the mountains. Then the earth seemed to jump as a THUMP echoed from ahead of them.
They barely had to look to find the cause. It was a turtle, a flat brass shell covering its back and a club tail swinging behind it. Five hundred feet from head to the base of its tail, the thump had come from a single step from one of its apartment building size legs.
The entire body beneath the smooth shell was warped and craggy, with a vicious beak for a mouth and heavy claws on each of the feet. The building-sized head swiveled form side to side, examining the trees and mountains with beady eyes.
“That’s a bigass snapping turtle…” Daisy breathed.
“So we’re going to need evacuation,” Abana finished for her, “Support me.”
The others quickly gathered around her as she held her spear in the air. Then mana from her and the others began to condense around it. A small strand of light appeared, shooting from the tip into the woods to mark a bystander. More followed, and within seconds thousands of strands of lights had connected from the spear to every person within twenty miles of the monster.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
The spear began to vibrate as it hummed with power, threatening to shake itself out of her hand. She bellowed, clenching the spear with every muscle in her arm before slamming it downward and into the ground. The beams of light winked out simultaneously, and Abana was struck by the downdraft caused by thousands of tons of mass being displaced at once.
She had to take a heavy breath afterward, before a rapid thumping noise caught her attention.
“What is that?” She asked the others, “Did we miss something?”
“I got it!” Elizabeth said, immediately zipping off into the forest with supernatural speed before anyone else could get a word in.
Abana sighed, “Daisy, could you keep an eye on her?”
The woman nodded, and dashed off after the runaway magical girl.
“Okay, Abana continued, “Now what is that thing?”
“Looks like an Earth Dragon,” Nora said, looking the beast over.
“Wasn’t one enough?” Abana grumbled, earning her looks from the other two. She coughed awkwardly and tried to move on, “Anything to look out for?”
“All dragons are a little different,” Nora replied, “But I don’t like the look of that tail.”
Abana nodded, looking it over for another moment before she reached into a pocket on her dress and took out a small crystal.
“Is the evacuation done?” She spoke to it.
“Yep, a helicopter was left behind. But Elizabeth got it,” Daisy’s voice echoed through it.
“Right,” Abana said, pocketing the crystal, “Everyone, forward!”
She leaped upward, then kicked off one of the tall trunks around her, charging forward over the tops of the trees. The others moved to follow her,
The leaves and branches blurred past underneath them, and it barely took a second for the creature to come into range.
It finally seemed to notice them, both of the black and brown orbs of its eyes swiveling to face them.
Abana drew in a breath as she ran.
“PLEASE STOP MOVING SO WE CAN NEGOTIATE,” Her voice, magically enhanced into a bellowing shout rolled over the turtle. It heard her, the huge eyes zeroing in on her.
Then it breathed in. The air around Abana rushed toward it like she was in the middle of a hurricane. The wind finally slowed as the turtle finished, the world seeming to pause before it finally spoke in a voice so loud it wasn’t even a sound anymore.
“NO.”
She could see the word it spoke, rushing out in a shockwave that rolled over the trees until it smashed into her. Her ears could barely understand what she was hearing as the noise rolled over her in a roaring wave, but she got the gist.
It wasn’t planning to stop.
The crystal was in her hand in an instant.
“Go ahead girls,” She said, and began prepping her teleport spell.
An instant later a bolt of energy in the shape of an arrow impacted the turtle’s side. It was minuscule compared to the bulk of the coppery shell. But it sent the entire creature stumbling to the side, shearing the tops off a stand of trees.
Its legs shook as it caught itself, the head turning around to search for the origin of the shot.
Then a sound like gong rang out, and the turtle was sent reeling back the other way. It roared in protest, catching itself mid stumble before turning away from the stand of trees to reveal the purple form of Nora. She stood on top of one of the broken trunks, fist still held out from her punch.
The turtle roared, and its clubbed tail rose high into the air before falling back down like a meteorite. Nora vanished a moment before it hit. The impact shattered the remaining trees and caused a shockwave that blasted apart the surrounding forest for hundreds of feet.
Abana found her opportunity. Teleporting in above the tail, she hovered in place and held her spear high above her head. The bronze began to glow, then the spear lengthened, quickly growing to the size of a flagpole.
Then in a move that twisted her entire body, she threw it downward with every bit of strength she had.
The spear flashed downwards before the turtle had time to react. It hit, then pierced the tail fully, the tip digging into the ground below to pin it in place.
Abana teleported back to the starting area a moment later, her chest heaving from the effort of putting forth that much magical might in such little time.
She spoke into the crystal again, “Move in.”
“Wait!” Roared Daisy through the connection, even as Nora teleported to the center of the turtle’s back, barely more than a purple dot against the bulk of its shell. Her fist reared above her head in preparation to hammer the giant turtle into the ground.
The turtle noticed, drawing its head in toward its shell. Nora began to punch downward, and then Daisy shot out from the trees beside the turtle. She flew toward Nora like a bullet, tackling her to the side and sending them both flying away from the shell.
Then the turtle’s head launched upward. Its neck was terrifyingly long, allowing its head to curve up and around its shell, the massive beak snapping shut mere feet from the fleeing Guardians.
The wave of air caused by the jaws closing sent both of them tumbling, disappearing into the trees around it.
Abana was already charging forward before they landed, charging a teleport spell as she did. The two weren’t out of range of the turtle’s attack. Even as she moved in, she could see the turtle’s head pull back in preparation.
The eyes zeroed in on something, and a moment later Abana spotted it. It was Nora, still picking herself up off the ground, her teleport spell as unready as Abana’s.
The head shot forward, jaws open wide enough to swallow an entire pool as they moved in to swallow her whole.
To the side, another figure appeared. It was Elizabeth the tiny girl barely a speck to Abana’s eyes as she shot toward the head.
Her fist smashed into the side of the turtle’s head, knocking it to the side.
The next instant the group stood back in the clearing they had started from. The idyllic spot was already mostly destroyed from their fight, the trees toppled and the grass buried by a small avalanche of stone and gravel.
Nora was gasping for air with wide eyes, even as the others moved to surround her.
“It can do that?” Nora almost screamed as she stood with her hands on her knees.
“Yes,” Daisy snapped back at her, “All snapping turtles can do that!”
Nora shot her an incredulous look, then shook her head.
“What is wrong with this continent?” She groused.
“Alright, we know it can do that now,” Abana snapped, still trying to recover herself, “What else?”
“We’re overexerting ourselves,” Miura said.
“Gee, didn’t notice!” Daisy snapped.
“Daisy,” Abana snapped, and the woman quieted, “Anyway, Miura is right. It’s too magically dense, I could barely pierce its tail.”
“GUYS?” Elizabeth half shrieked.
Abana turned to see her pointing at the turtle, which had crouched down to partially hide within the trees. It wasn’t hard to see what caught the girl’s attention, the thing was radiating magic like a furnace.
She felt a pulse of magic run through it, and then the sky darkened overhead.
A glance up showed an entire hill falling towards them. The mass of earth and stone had been telekinetically ripped from the ground a mile away and thrown toward them like a hacky sack.
“This…” Daisy grumbled and slipped one of the guns from her belt.
She pointed it upwards and pulled the trigger. A blast of white energy exploded forth, striking the falling hill and blasting it into pieces.
Chunks of stone rained around them as the turtle rose once again. With a roar of pain, it ripped its tail free of Abana’s spear and raised it high once again. As it did, the mana flowing within it continued to grow in strength, almost beginning to erupt from it as the tail reached its peak.
“That’s not good,” Daisy said.
The tail began to swing down.
“Make a circle, one mile radius,” Abana snapped, “Then form a shield, GO!”
The Guardians rushed to make their formation even as the tail descended. Each of them running or teleporting into place to form a rough pentagon around the Earth Dragon.
Abana teleported to a craggy outcropping of rock, standing high enough that it still gave her a good look at the turtle.
Holding out her hands, she braced herself and called upon the mana flowing through her. A wall of energy appeared in front of her hands. It was small at first, but quickly expanded. Rushing outwards to connect with the spreading walls of energy created by the other Guardians.
Then the newly formed barrier grew upward, curving over the turtle to create a dome.
It was barely in time, the hole closing just as the club hit the shell. The shell vibrated, a wave of sound expanding from it like a solid wall of force.
Within their shield, the world disintegrated. The sound wave from the turtle reduced every hill, rock, and tree to dust. The land around it became a flat plain, etched with a series of concentric circles around the turtle.
Abana would have gaped at it if she weren’t putting every ounce of her power into maintaining the shield around it. She roared with the effort, muscles screaming as she was forced to push inward to counteract the cataclysmic forces being put forth by the turtle.
It finally ended, and she had to stop herself from collapsing, desperately gasping for air as she looked through the hazy smoke toward the monster.
It looked about as exhausted as she was, its legs shaking as it slowly settled down on the newly barren ground.
Then any hope that the situation might be over was crushed when the air above the turtle began to warp. It seemed to be forced away from a center point, forming a strange negative that was barely visible from the shimmer it produced.
“What’s going on?” Elizabeth’s voice echoed from the crystal in Abana’s pocket.
“That’s symbolic magic!” Miura shouted back, “I think the shell is meant to be some sort of gong!”
“Well, any idea what it means?” Abana asked back.
“Gongs announce and call for things,” Nora said, “It’s summoning something.”
“Can we stop it?” Elizabeth piped up, to a round of muttered no’s.
The group fell silent for a moment, except for a muttered question by Daisy.
“The hell’s a dragon need to summon?”
As if to answer her question, something appeared to fill the negative formed by the shimmering air, a huge feathered beast.
It looked like an albatross, with a heavy chest and wide flat wings. But a second pair of taloned legs came from the chest, making it resemble a gryphon. And its head was thicker and more angular than an albatross, with a wide triangular beak. The one positive was that it was ‘only’ a hundred feet long from head to tail.
Its wings spread wide, letting it drift down to land on the turtle's back. The head swiveled back and forth as it took them in.
“What is it this time?” Abana whispered.
“Another dragon,’ grumbled Nora, “But this one’s an Air Dragon.”
“Heed me, o’ Guardians,” It spoke in a powerful voice that stirred up the quavering dust around it, “I am the speaker of the Shogun, the great servant of the Empress. This world has been chosen to join the Empire of the Dawn. Surrender, or be destroyed.”
Abana grit her teeth.
“I’ll keep the shield going,” She whispered, “Get ready for a slugfest.”
“Here we go again,” Nora whispered back.
Then the enormous beak and eyes of the dragon were pointed at her. The two halves of the triangular beak opening wide into a black square . The chest widened as it drew in a breath, and then it smashed inward.
There was a heartbeat of time after the chest compressed, and then Abana felt the wall shatter around her as she was blown backward by storm force winds.
When she got her bearings again, she found herself half embedded in the side of a mountain at the end of a long tunnel of shattered trees. Wood chips and dirt still filled the air as she ripped herself free from the shattered stone.
Her feet had barely touched the ground before she was running back down the tunnel. She reached the end to find a scene of total disaster. The Earth Dragon was keeping Nora at bay with swings of its tail, while the Air Dragon dueled Miura.
A small mountain now jutted from the center of a small plain, marking where Daisy had stood while she held the shield. The shaking of its sides meant the woman was awake and breaking her way free, but she was still out of the fight.
Abana quickly charged toward the Air Dragon. Its fight with Miura was going badly for the Guardian. She would fire her arrows at it, then desperately dodge the powerful blasts of air it would fire back at her. But each one of its attacks split rocks and shredded trees like a sandblaster, leaving her with less and less places to hide.
As she watched, the dragon finally caught her in one of its blasts. The pink bodysuit vanished in a storm of wood and earth. The dragon quickly moved to capitalize, pouncing forward toward the site of the blast.
Then Abana teleported in and kicked it in the side. The dragon was knocked away, but before she could move again a wing smashed her out of the air. She crashed against the ground and bounced, flying away in a head spinning tumble.
“Teleporters,” The Air Dragon rumbled derisively, not even looking at her as it jumped away.
Abana quickly looked to see where it was headed. There was Miura, breaking free of the torn earth. Then Elizabeth appeared in front of her. Eyes blazing, she stared down the approaching dragon.
It quickly spotted the new arrival, but instead of stopping it sped up. A leap took it high into the air above the girl. Talons extended as it fell towards her.
Then it vanished in a blur of gray scales. A second later a sonic boom slapped Abana in the face, and she couldn't hold back a smile.
The Earth Dragon’s head whipped around to follow the blur of moving bodies, until they finally struck a distant mountainside in an explosion of dust and shattered stone.
Then a few seconds later, a second, smaller explosion came from the site of the blast. Finally, the air cleared enough that Abana could see the gray, snakelike form of Susan. She was lifting the other dragon into the air with both arms. Then she brought it back down in a vicious body slam that shook the earth beneath them.
As Abana watched, the Air Dragon was lifted skyward again, then fell again. And again. And again.
The Guardians and the Earth Dragon collectively paused for a moment as they watched the Air Dragon get brutalized.
“She’s on our side, right?” Daisy asked through the crystal.
“Yeah,” Elizabeth replied, sounding a little worried herself.
For a moment, the entire fight seemed to be over, then the Air Dragon managed to open its mouth towards Susan and a blast of air sent her careening backwards.
She caught herself, digging each of her claws into ground to slow down. Four sets of claw marks left across the stone after her.
“What…” The air dragon gasped out, barely managing to get to its feet, “…Is this madness?”
Susan didn’t reply, instead charging again.
The Air Dragon immediately jumped away from her into the air and spread its wings wide. It breathed in again, chest inflating as its wings spread wide. Along the bottom of the ribs, a set of flaps appeared, gaping open like a fish’s gills.
Then the dragon flapped its wings down, and its chest compressed with the same incredible force as its earlier breath attack. But this time the force was directed backwards, shooting the dragon upward like a rocket.
It soared into the air, a few more of the air powered flaps taking almost a mile above the ground where it hovered, staring down at Susan with hateful eyes.
“Is… is that thing flying without magic?” Miura stuttered out through the communicator.
“I think so,” Nora murmured back.
Abana watched, just as shocked. The dragon wasn’t using magic. The idea was ridiculous to her. For creatures like this, magic was intrinsic to their very survival. For it to be able to go so far as to fly without it was…
Then the Air Dragon’s mouth opened again and Susan vanished in an eruption of dirt and stone. She walked out of the cloud of dust a moment later looking somewhat annoyed.
Her head tilted up to take in the Air Dragon, and then she smirked.
Its eyes twisted into a furious glare, and then it started firing again. This time at the Guardians.
Abana was forced to run, ducking and weaving around the blasts of concentrated air that rained down around her.
Her vision jerked, and suddenly she found herself flying through the air. Stones pattering against her as they were indiscriminately tossed along with her by Air Dragon’s attack.
A gray hand the size of a truck caught her out of the air, and quickly moved down to tuck her against the huge gray wall of scales that made up Susan’s side.
“Hey Abana,” Susan said in a bellowing voice that made her entire body vibrate.
“YEAH?” She shouted back, desperate to be heard over the sound of explosions.
“Can you make it stop shooting for a second?”
“SURE!” Abana roared back, “JUST NEED MY SPEAR!”
Down the long body she could see the huge head twist back and forth, then lock onto something.
“I see it!” Susan cried, “Sending you there now!”
“GREAT, WAIT WHA-”
Susan’s arm reared back and threw her feet first like a javelin. Cursing the dragon as she flew, she spotted the gleaming copper of her spear and angled her body towards it.
Unfortunately it still lay within range of the Earth Dragons tail, and the monster was keeping a careful watch over it.
So as Abana began descending toward from the apex of the throw, she suddenly found the building size copper sphere swinging at her from below. Screaming out another curse at Susan, she kicked down at it.
The impact shook both her legs and sent her flying skywards again, but sent the tail crashing down to the ground earning an air shaking bellow from the turtle.
She hit the ground a few seconds later, running to where her spear lay buried in the dirt where it had pinned the turtle’s tail. Her hand grasped the handle, and it immediately shrunk back down to its normal size. Twirling it so that the head pointed upward, she reared back and threw it.
As she kicked off and ran away from the turtle, she heard a heavy whoosh of air from above. She glanced up to see the Air Dragon use its air jets to shoot to the side, easily dodging the spear.
But it wasn’t shooting anymore.
Then a scream from below captured her attention. It was Susan. She seemed to have her own gills opening on her torso. One around her collarbone drawing in air, and a second at the base of her ribs like the Air Dragon above her.
Susan’s ribs expanded with her own massive breath, but unlike the Air Dragon she held it. Then streams of superheated air began to flow from the openings at the base of her ribcage. Her chest seemed to be sucking in the air and heating it somehow, before shooting it out the back like a-
Abana’s mind rejected the idea outright, then she realized that whether she believed it or not, it was happening.
In front of seven sets of incredulous eyes, Susan took off from the ground like an oversized jet fighter.
The air dragon tried to dodge, ducking into a roll that took it to the side. It didn’t help, a twitch of Susan’s tail realigning her trajectory. Then she was smashing into him from below, a scattering of feathers the only reminder of its previous air dominance.
On the ground the fighting continued, except this time solidly in the Guardian’s favor. Exhausted and without backup, the Earth Dragon quickly found itself under attack from all five Guardians.
It still fought, the head struck out at them and the tail swung viciously back and forth. But close range and brutal familiarity with its attacks allowed them to coordinate quick counterattacks and keep it on the back foot.
When the Earth Dragon snapped at Abana, Miura punished it with magic arrows. When it swiped at Daisy with its tail, Nora retaliated with a flurry of empowered punches. Drawing on their power too quickly could be dangerous, but now that they were in a protracted battle the Earth Dragon couldn’t hope to compete against the sheer power the Guardians of Earth could bring to bear.
In short order, the Dragon was pummeled into the ground. Finally the creature seemed to understand it couldn't compete anymore and pulled its limbs and head back into its body.
Abana leapt on the opportunity. With a shouted command into the communication crystal, the Guardians assembled themselves around the Earth Dragon in a pentagon. This time the formation was much smaller, barely giving the monster the space to move.
A second dome of energy was formed around it, and then, with a pulse of mana that sent Abana to her knees, made permanent.
She stood back up on shaky legs to look inward at the captured Dragon. It looked surprisingly calm, eyes the size of garden ponds examining the surrounding Guardians.
It took a few seconds for the others to teleport over to Abana. Each of them appeared, then slumped in place looking exhausted.
Abana gave them a moment to catch their breath, but very quickly turned her attention to the ongoing battle above them.
Further away towards the mountains, she spotted the Air Dragon perform a perfect barrel roll that allowed it to perfectly avoid another charge from Susan. A perfect swipe of its claws catching her wing as she shot by.
The attack barely fased her. A second later she was flipping around midair to shoot back at it, forcing another dodge.
As Abana watched her continue to attack, it quickly became obvious that Susan outclassed the other Dragon almost completely.
She couldn’t compete with its experience, but her form of propulsion was much faster, and the forward sweep of her wings seemed to give her far greater maneuverability.
The quick attacks she was doing were forcing the Air Dragon to move constantly, and it was visibly beginning to lose energy. Each of its jets of air now came less and less frequently.
Finally, Susan caught up to it. Snatching it out of the air and pinning both of its wings with her arms, she used her own wings to position herself above it.
Then the jet engine that was her torso fired downward, and the dragons fell together like a meteor. The mountains shook, and a small mushroom cloud erupted as she piledrived the Air Dragon from a mile up.
“They really are sisters, aren’t they,” Miura deadpanned.