The onlookers watched in fascinated horror as a man turned into a serpent warrior, long and a sickly, pale grey color to its scales. Its mouth open showing two long fangs glistening with white venom, the mouth behind black as the starless night and never ending abyss. A Mamba shifter… with enough venom pooled at the tip of its fang to kill the dragon over head.
The light creatures shot into the air, the shadows followed in quick pursuit not realizing they were falling into a trap, and suddenly… there was a wall of light between the darkness and its struggling princess. In a matter of seconds the tables had turned, the snake shifter prepared to strike coiling his massive body.
"This is for my daughter, you witch." The creature hissed angrily as he shot out at lightning speed. Clovis's sword slashed through the snake's lower body, severing it in half, but the venomous fangs were already outstretched as the body left behind writhed as the nerves died. He watched in horror as the dying serpent struggled to remain conscious long enough to land its strike and take revenge.
The world seemed to slow to barely any motion as the end came. The onlookers could have sworn they saw venom pooled at the tip of those fangs as it neared Kyera who was moving, but way too slow out of the way. All it would take was a drop of venom and she would be gone.
The mouth felt the touch, and clamped shut, and injected its deadly load. Kyera found the power surge within her and bit down hard, slamming her jaws shut Prim's spine. The sickening crack and blood spurting into her white fur announced the death of the tigress beneath her. Kyera let go and turned to see what everyone else was staring at in shock.
An orange and black mass of fur lay heaped on the dirt. The head of the green mamba clamped onto his chest. Her heart jumped into her throat as she took several steps forward instinctively. Kyera dropped to her knees and drew her dagger. There was a mixture of emotions in her heart, on one hand glad he was dying but on the other… the part that still loved the man he had once been hurt.
Those blue eyes looked up at her, pain in them, his breathing rough and shallow as the poison ripped through his veins like a liquid fire. Slowly, he lost the ability to move much, despite having so few marks on his skin. He changed to human form, unable to maintain his tiger form. Orange hair streaked with blood, two deep punctures over the left side of his rib cage where the snake head still latched tightly. He reached for her weakly with just one hand but she knew what he wanted sometimes the heart never forgets the language it shares with another. Kyera hesitated for but a moment before taking his hand. He pulled her down and Kyera slowly lowered to her knees. Her hand tightening on the dagger in her palm. The metal cold and the jewel cutting into her very palm from the pressure she was exerting on the metals.
"You jumped in front of me." Kyera accused him quietly, and Verone nodded his head, coughing and blood spattered across his lips as his lungs filled with blood. He would suffocate. Slowly, if Kyera was any judge of a wound. There was nothing that could heal that which a green mamba had bitten. Not even her own magic could reverse the special poison in their venom. He nodded slowly. He whispered something but, his words were too quiet for Kyera to hear. She leaned down, and placed her ear next to his lips.
Clovis and the others watched as Verone, the one who betrayed his own, whispered into his princess's ear. Her eyes widened as she slowly sat up, looking down at him with shock in her eyes. Tears welled in her eyes as he took hold of her hand, and tried to pull the blade closer.
"Please…" He whispered and Kyera took the blade in hand, the sharp tip hovering over the space between his ribs, just below his heart. "Ky…" He whispered and before he could say anything more, she thrust the knife forward, embedding the blade to the hilt in his chest ending his pain. She lowered her forehead, so the last sensation he felt was her lips on his forehead, her warm skin to his. A soft smile creased his lips.
"Thank you... V." Her words were followed by tears that fell down her cheeks, smearing the blood and dirt on her face as his breathing stopped, and she reached out using one hand to close his eyes.
"Hear Me Now, With Verone's death, this battle is done. Too many have been lost. You have no leader and no warrior who can face me. Enough is enough. Bow, bow before your Princess, bow before the law, and bow before the crown or die at my hand." Kendrick roared as loud as he could, and every shifter, both dark ones and the remaining fell to their knees lowering their foreheads to the ground so that their heads were lower than Kyera's, where she knelt on in the blood and filth of the earth.