“They’re here, Vur,” Tafel said and slipped her hand into Vur’s. She gave his hand a squeeze. “Should I open the portal to Ashley now? If we wait any longer, they might start killing each other.”
“Wait,” Vur said, his eyes narrowing as he looked off into the distance at the gathered dragons and phoenixes. “I want to convince them to stop fighting each other first.”
Tafel raised an eyebrow. “By yourself?”
Vur nodded. Before trying Tafel’s—inspired by Auntie’s idea— plan of uniting the dragons and phoenixes by having them fight the Oebu Sin together, Vur wanted to try his plan first. He bent his knees and fell forward, his body growing in size as he did. He galloped forward before leaping, wings sprouting from his back. He took in a deep breath and let out a roar when his polymorph completed, his body turning into that of an ocean-blue dragon with golden irises.
The dragons and phoenixes in the distance turned their heads towards Vur, who was flapping his wings while wiggling his body from side to side like an eel. In an instant, he appeared in front of the dragons and phoenixes and came to a halt, the gust he brought forced the parted sea of phoenix fire hovering in front of the shelter backwards by several meters. Vur’s golden irises slid down, his gaze landing on Kim Hajun. Vur ignored him and turned his head towards the dragons before turning his head towards the phoenixes.
A phoenix beside Malvina glared at Vur and pointed with his foot. “Who are—?”
“Shh!” Vur glared at the phoenix and shushed him, raising one claw in front of his lips. The talking phoenix didn’t know why, but it shut its beak and lowered its talons. Vur cleared his throat, the sound rumbling like a shockwave through all the dragons and phoenixes. They glanced at each other before settling down, landing on the ground to silence the sounds of wings flapping.
“Why are we—?”
“Shh!” Malvina said, shushing the phoenixes standing behind her.
“You lot keep your mouths shut too,” Volearden said, sweeping his helmeted gaze over the other dragons.
“My name is Vur,” Vur said and stood on his hindlegs to look down on his audience. “I’m from Erde; over there, dragons and phoenixes don’t fight anymore.” Vur nodded. “I want all of you to stop fighting with each other too.”
“And why do we have to listen to you?” a dragon with a long scar crossing one of its eyes asked.
“Isn’t that simple?” Vur asked, raising an eyebrow. He swept his gaze over the dragons and phoenixes, making eye contact with each one. “Because I’m the strongest one here, and if you don’t listen, you’ll upset me.”
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The scarred dragon snorted before laughing.
Vur narrowed his eyes and pointed at the dragon. “Polymorph.”
The dragon’s lips extended and merged into one another, turning the dragon’s mouth into a smooth patch of scales. The dragon’s one good eye widened, and it patted at its face with its paws before looking at Vur while letting out muffled grunts.
Vur nodded before sweeping his gaze over the crowd of dragons and phoenixes once more. “Who else wants to make me upset?” he asked. A ball of phoenix flames appeared in the air above the phoenixes, and Vur snorted before waving his wing. The green runes near his shoulder lit up, and a gust surged forward, extinguishing the flames upon contact. Then, he pointed at the crowd of phoenixes. “Polymorph.”
The phoenix that had created the ball of flames yelped before jumping. It wanted to flap its wings, but they were gone, having receded back inside of its body.
“I said no more fighting,” Vur said and pointed at the ground in front of his feet. “I’m going to protect all of you. If you want to hurt someone I’m protecting, you’ll have to beat me first.”
The dragons exchanged glances with the other dragons while the phoenixes exchanged glances with the other phoenixes. Volearden thumped his tail against the ground, drawing everyone’s attention onto himself. “Vur is my great-grandson. I’ve fought against phoenixes for the sake of my family, and if my family no longer wishes for me to fight, then I won’t.”
Fern turned to look at Volearden, a deep furrow appearing on the yellow dragon’s brow.
A pillar of blood-red flames shot towards the sky, causing everyone to look at Malvina. The queen of the phoenixes chirped. “Vur’s married to my god-great-granddaughter, so I won’t let anyone bully him, not even you guys,” she said, looking at the phoenixes standing behind her. “If you want to fight the dragons, you’ll have to defeat Vur first.” Her eyes narrowed. “One at a time!”
“No,” Vur said and shook his head. “Everyone who’s unconvinced can attack me at the same time.” He crossed his front legs over his chest. “Both dragons and phoenixes can come at me together.”
“I kind of knew this already,” Fern said to Volearden, “but even for a dragon your great-grandson is too arrogant.”
Volearden’s helmet swirled with a mixture of orange and purple. “Do you want to fight him?” The armored dragon shrugged. “I’m not going to stop you.”
“One dragon thinks he can make a fool out of all of us,” one of the phoenixes said. “Let’s teach this arrogant dragon a lesson! If he’s brave enough to fight us all at once, why wouldn’t we be brave enough to fight him?”
“Yeah!”
The phoenixes cheered and spread their wings, the heat radiating off of them causing the air to turn hazy. They leapt into the air, taking on a battle formation as they flapped their wings and moved into place.
“I hope you have a plan, Vur,” Stella said from inside his body. “Even I’m a little scared of all those dragons and phoenixes. There sure are a lot of them; if they were cabbages, we’d have a whole field.”
An imprint appeared on Vur’s forehead as his eyes glowed golden. An invisible pressure descended, pressing down on the phoenixes and dragons, even the ones that hadn’t assembled to attack him. The phoenixes squawked as they fell towards the ground, but imprints appeared on their foreheads, and they pumped their wings, managing to stay in the air despite the increase in gravity. Vur narrowed his eyes as they shone even brighter. He roared out the word, “Amplify!” and everything in his surroundings was crushed into the ground: phoenixes, dragons, and trees alike.