They stepped back from me and properly faced each other. At this distance I could see that one was ever so slightly larger than the other. He had a golden spot on the right side of his face that ran from the base of his jaw, over his eye and up to the small horn growing from the crown of his head.

The smaller of the two, and most likely the ever so slightly younger, had a golden mark that started thin at the top of his snout and ran up in a line to his brow line before covering what would’ve been a forehead, but was the space between his brow line and his horns.

Shemezhyok, made a low but gentle rumbling noise. But Awmezhyok shook their head and made a shorter but louder set of rumbles.

Shemezhyok huffed before tapping their chest twice. Awmezhyok nodded and they both looked up towards the sky. I saw their throats balloon before their mouths opened and they both spit up a quick fireball.

The two balls of flame dissipated quickly, but Awmezhyok’s was slightly larger than Shemezhyok’s. Awmezhyok grinned, and an unmistakable laugh came from their throat.

Shemezhyok’s eyes narrowed, and they grumbled before taking off and flying to and landing on an outcropping that was behind them and slightly above the island. They sat at the edge of it their head hanging off to get a decent view. The tip of their tail was also hanging off the edge, swinging back and forth ever so slightly.

A decision was clearly made. And in this sweltering heat I was glad it was made relatively quickly. If it meant I only had to fight with one of them at a time it would make the whole ordeal much easier… not to say that I expected a fight with a hatchling would be easy on its own.

I heard a cheer and some claps behind me. I hope that it didn’t matter how well I fought. The only important think I could think of was hoping that he wasn’t expecting me to feed him after a fight like Quartz would. I would need to finish before he became too hungry.

I hesitated with my weapons. I didn’t want to injure them severely; it really didn’t seem like the goal was to kill them. And I had just gotten the new short sword, I didn’t want it to end up melted. In the end the most I could do, would be to enhance my entire body for as long as possible and fight bare handed.

Awmezhyok looked at me closely again, their head moving down to my level before lifting up and turning to face Shemezhyok. There was a short trill that sounded like it came from the base of their long neck, before a few long ones that seemed to come from the back of their mouth.

Shemezhyok nodded eagerly and Awmezhyok turned back before closing their eyes and scrunching their face a bit. Their body glowed slightly in a pale blue light. It shimmered a bit faintly before shining brightly. I covered my eyes and could still see the glow even through my eye lids.

When it was gone, I opened my eyes and saw a slightly humanoid dragon figure. Shemezhyok laughed and rolled out of view briefly before their head came back over the side but was upside down.

The human like face of Awmezhyok pouted before turning and shouting something incomprehensible at Shemezhyok.

Awmezhyok was about halfway between the size of Mezu and the size of Lefty. Their face was mostly human except for their horns, teeth and iris shape. Their horns and teeth were now proportional to their new body. Their skin was mixed with human and the previous scales, their golden face markings matching their original form. Their hair was long but stopped at about their shoulders. It was a deep red color that seemed almost black, much darker than their scales.

Their wings were gone but their tail remained, with it being also correctly proportional. Their chest was a mix between skin and scales, but their legs were still very dragon like.

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This seemed much more favorable to me since dodging Awmezhyok’s large limbs would’ve been most of the fight if they had remained in their former state.

They turned back towards me huffing out a small breath of fire since the argument had finished.

I didn’t have time to consider making the first move as Awmezhyok came at me fist first.

I crossed my arms to block the hit reinforcing my shoulders and my feet.

Despite my attempt I was still thrown back slightly.

I had to increase it all.

There wasn’t time to think, and I got to my feet and lunged back towards them aiming for a right hook.

It landed but they obviously weren’t thrown like I was.

I needed more.

I blocked their next punch more successfully and leaned into the left arm block to swing my right shin into their side.

With the more mana I had thrown into my leg with this kick I got an actual reaction from them.

Awmezhyok grinned but grabbed my leg before I could get it away and tossed me across the island.

I slid across the rock and hit rubble as I went managing to slow myself down before I got to the edge.

I heard some shouts from Shemezhyok as I stood up.

Awzhyomezhyo moved their mouth as if mocking Shemezhyok when I dashed towards them.

With them distracted I landed a left hand squarely into their face throwing them back a few steps.

I closed the distance, taking a step before connecting my foot with their head.

They took the hit easily and lunged towards me landing a punch to my gut.

I coughed up air but grabbed their horns holding them there and kneed upwards unsure of what I’d connect with.

I connected with their gut, and which made them cough up too, but it was fire instead of air.

My shirt lit up and I backed away frantically getting it off. I grimaced feeling my skin burned. Luckily there was no cool air to feel but the sweat dripping down my body wasn’t making things any better.

They didn’t give me any time and came at me yet again. We shared a few blows, each of us blocking the others.

They landed a solid punch or two and did a spin kick when I backed up. I managed to block their leg but was slapped in the face with their tail.

An extra appendage surely adds more things I’d need to focus on.

It wasn’t long until I got physically exhausted. If I continued for much longer, I wouldn’t have much mana left to fight the other one.

I needed to get them to shift back to their dragon from, that might signify me winning the fight.

I landed my foot in their gut to push them backwards. They stumbled a few steps.

I launched myself bent over and landed my shoulder in their stomach as well.

Arms wrapped around them I focused on my shoulders, arms and back. Lifted them up and bent backwards.

Their head slammed into the ground behind me. I heard a yelp.

I let go and spun around and scrambled to get them into an arm bar.

I pulled against their shoulder and forced my leg down on their throat as hard as I could.

He struggled a bit trying to throw me off, but I forced more mana too support.

The gurgle from their throat caught me by surprise though and I loosened my legs.

That was enough for them to throw me off and they bent over on their hands and knees coughing trying to catch their breath.

The same glow appeared around them, and I scrambled to my feet to back away from them.

In a flash, Awmezhyok was back to their original form.

They roared and the ground rumbled.

There was a mostly intact bolder to my right I ran for it leapt off of it, reinforced my right arm from my back to my fingertips and threw one solid hit into their nose.

Their head slammed to the ground.

I fell the rest of the distance landing on my feet. I hopped backwards to create space wondering if that even affected them.

I looked to see their eyes fill with tears and they grabbed at their nose whining. Well as much as a dragon could make a whine like noise.

I heard a laugh and then the woosh of wings and looked back over my shoulder to see Shemezhyok flying down from their outcropping.

I backed away from them even more as Shemezhyok landed and patted Awmezhyok on their shoulder.

They conversed a bit before Awmezhyok flew off to the same outcropping.

The glow was the same and I closed my eyes trying to catch my breath in the brief time it seemed they had given me.

When I opened them, Shemezhyok’s human like form stood before me. Again, their face kept the golden scale marking but there was much more skin to scales than when Awmezhyok had attempted it.

Shemezhyok checked themselves out and grinned putting their fists on their waist and puffed out their chest as if proud they had done better.

Size wise there still wasn’t much of a comparison between the two of them but their hair was slightly longer than Awmezhyok’s human like hair. But otherwise, their legs where the same, but one of their eyes had a human iris while the other remailed the same as their dragon form.

I guess Shemezhyok was more confident in their shifting magic than Awzhyomezhyo, but neither of them would be able to pass as humans at this point.