Xing Lei strode forward despite the hands that reached out to stop him from intruding in the duels, his body shifted dodging each hand that tried to hold him back, casually walking forward watching both Destorianaxe and Osilliaice fight. While normally he'd trust the pair to handle matters, he needed their help to reclaim Alustriea and waiting for them to overcome the leaders of the opposing army would waste too much time. Thus he walked forward with determination, his steps slow and measured as he timed his arrival to intercede.
As he moved forward, his hands snapped out to either side grabbing either dragoness by their tail and yanked. Both yelped and snarled, clawed feet digging into the ground as they tried to resist the sudden pull from behind. Destorianaxe and Osilliaice both turned lashing out at their ambusher, the former with her claws the latter swinging her spear hard, yet neither strike met a target. Two sets of jaws dropped as a smaller, five foot tall kobold casually strolled between either seven foot dragoness, his body twisting casually as he dodged both strikes and strode between.
The pair blinked as claws and spear seemed to pass through the kobold, his body moving fast as he let either swing swiftly pass by with his agile movements. His steps unbroken as he completed his tugs, seemingly effortlessly tossing the pair back as he moved to confront the pair of heavily armored generals. His eyes narrowed as he watched the pair held back, their stances guarded at the interloper that had so casually intruded in the duels.
The platinum clad one was the first to step forward, his long sword pointed at Xing Lei, "How dare you sir! This is a battle between generals not the place for some common thug to stand forth!"
Xing Lei rolled his eyes, it had been a very long time since he had heard such an address. In his old life such proclamations were almost as common as a basic greeting, so arrogant were cultivators, yet it seemed these metal encased fools were of similar mind. He was hardly some random thug, if these two had not heard a whisper of his name by now they were surely addled in the brain. No, to him this was more some staged sense of honored pride, a rally to his forces to label him as some uncouth barbarian. The kobold couldn't help but sigh, it was nostalgic but still ultimately stupid.
Crossing his arms over his chest he sized up the pair, unimpressed with the stock still blade pointed at his face. Xing Lei's yellow eyes glanced over the sword wielder before looking beyond to the walking golden statue. Exhaling slowly he tilted his head, "Indeed I dare. What are you going to do about it?"
The one in platinum seemed taken aback by the rather frank response, glancing aside at the one in gold who could only shrug helplessly. By all accounts in the rules of war interfering in a general's duel was the highest level of uncivilized. Despite her not having a knight order herself, even Destorianaxe had had the respect to honor the tradition. Yet this kobold seemed to have no manners what so ever! Returning their dark gazes to Xing Lei, the one with his sword held aloft cleared his throat to dispel the awkward silence that had arisen from Lei's rather shameless confirmation of intruding.
Before the lead could answer, the one in gold snarled and moved forth, "Bah, brother Palathinarious you waste thine words upon this heathen barbarian, did I not tell you the blacks are a treacherous breed? This is surely a plot by that whelp Destorianaxe!" The golden eyes behind the visor flared as they looked beyond Xing Lei to the black dragoness behind, who almost lunged forward and was only barely held in check by Osilliaice.
The one called Palathinarious glanced aside at his companion with a frown, "You are young yet yourself Sir Galdraniae. I've known lady Destorianaxe far longer. While her blood is indeed of the blacks, she has her own code of honor. One you should not belittle off hand." Glancing back to Xing Lei the scowl upon the platinum dragon's face grew deeper, "Which begs the question why one of her greyscales would discard her word so casually and intrude in a combat he has no place in."
Glancing to Destorianaxe, Palathinarious frowned, "Did you not agree to this duel? Speak forth with as to why one of yours has ignored the agreement."
Xing Lei also frowned, his yellow eyes narrowing, "If you have a question feel free to address me with it, ignore me again in such fashion and you will regret it."
Destorianaxe had moved to speak but before she could explain who Xing Lei was, Galdraniae had snarled at him, "Silence you foul little barbarian! Your superiors are talking! This is not the grounds for one of your low born stature to speak!"
Palathinarious turned slightly to reprimand his fellow again but was distracted as a small clawed hand swiftly reached up grabbing his held blade, yanking the sword from his tight grip as if it were naught but wind between his fingers. His head had turned slightly when the sound like that of a brass bell being rung sounded out by him, there was a wail of pain and in the corner of his gaze Galdraniae had been sent flying several feet back, soaring through the air as blood erupted from behind the gold dragons visored helmet.
With a heavy crash and a groan of pain, the golden armored dragon man fell heavily before the ring of surrounding soldiers. Palathinarious blinked, his gaze turning to regard the kobold who so easily held his sword by the blade ignoring the edge had been heavily ensorcelled. The wicked edge seemed to be unable to even scratch the interloper's hand even after Xing Lei had swung it out to bash the golden armored dragon man with the blades hilt.
Galdraniae shakily pushed himself off the ground into a seated position, attempting in vain to raise his helm's now dented visor but failing that, the dragon man instead pulled the shining helmet from his head before leaning over to spit more blood upon the ground. While the strike had been vicious and would have likely broken a regular man's neck, for a dragon man such as he, it had been more a humiliation than dangerous. Snarling he fought to right himself, eventually yelling at some near by soldiers to help lift his gold plated ass from the ground.
Hoisted off the ground, the agitated gold shoved his troops back and turned on Xing Lei, a beastial snarl erupted from his maw as the armor shrank against the growing body of Galdraniae. His body hunched as limbs twisted, changing from the upright posture of a bipedal to the four legged stance of his true form. The gold dragons neck stretched outward as the angled reptilian gaze stared down at the now ant like kobold. Palathinarious frowned reaching towards his companion, "Galdraniae! Don't!"
The huge Golden dragon shook itself as large wings erupted from his back, a fang filled maw opening like a yawning cavern mouth as the voice of Galdraniae, "Be damned with your worries Palathinarious! This war must end and quickly, it was a fools errand to fight in any other form than that which is true! I'll show you how I crush these whelps!" Snarling a large fore leg lifted and slammed down sending Xing Lei rolling out of the way as the carriage sized claw slammed into the ground with enough force to shake the area. The other dragons swayed slightly under the rippling expanse of upheaval that formed a crater where the kobold originally stood, the watching lizardfolk and kobolds were not so fortunate. Like a rolling tsunami of earth the ring of witnesses were thrown about like bowling pins.
Galdraniae snarled again, his neck twisting sharply as he sought the elusive kobold who seemed to have teleported when he moved. The gold dragons eyes narrowed as he began rampaging on the spot, while he was not older than Palathinarious nor Destorianaxe, he had lived long enough to learn that these puny creatures that scurried beneath their claws were always prone for trying to take advantage of the blind spot beneath a dragons thick armored body. As the dragon hopped about the watching crowd grabbed the fallen and evacuated, even Destorianaxe and Palathinarious ushered their troops away from the enraged gold, yet none could see hide nor scale of the elusive kobold.
Stopping his tantrum, Galdraniae swung his head back and forth, his voice yelling out in frustration, "Ant! You dare make a fool of the great Galdraniae and run?! Coward! Come out and face thine death, stop cowering among the masses like a whipped dog!"
As the dragons neck swung back and forth, his narrowed eyes searched the fleeing throng for signs of the kobold, he was bigger than most of Destorianaxe's kobold pups, surely the wretch couldn't blend in so seamlessly amongst his kin right? Galdraniae roared in fury but then stopped as Palathinarious yelled from a distance, "Above you Galdraniae, look up!"
Look up? Galdraniae frowned, was that foul strutting peacock coming? Good! With the kobold fled he needed an outlet to expend his pent up fury. Shifting his gaze towards the skies between himself and the icy tower the great gold frowned. The skies were clear. Their common foe was not winging their way towards him, why had that old platinum warned him to be wary of above? Glancing back to Palathinarious with a puzzled gaze, Galdraniae was even more perplexed as the platinum dragon man face palmer and turned away... just what was going on?
Galdraniae's answer came as a heavy weight slammed across the back of his fore shoulders between his wings, his hulking body sung lower and a growl of pain erupted from the golds throat as a set of claws dug into his scaled shoulders, a fanged set of jaws clamped upon the back base of his neck, cracking his golden scales to find purchase in the leathery flesh beneath, blood streamed from Galdraniae's back as his frenzied dance returned with renewed vigor. Some beast had clamped upon his back and was going for a lethal bite upon his neck! But who? Destorianaxe had not transformed and that weak willed silver girl wouldn't dare stab him in the back!
The golds head twisted fully expecting that backstabbing green Velusa to be launching an attack in the confusion, but his surprise was all the more complete when he saw a juvenile sized black dragon perched between his golden wings, small claws digging into the scales of his shoulders for balance as those smaller jaws worked at the gold's thicker neck base. A black dragon whelp?! There was suppose to be only one of each metallic or chromatic allowed in the battlefield, how did this child get here? Much less perched atop his back trying to bite through his throat!
Galdraniae twisted and bounced, bucking like a wild stallion trying to dislodge the smaller dragon from his back, had the wretched thing been larger the sneak attack likely would have ended his life then and there, a death bite on the throat from behind was nigh impossible to escape from, it was his luck the whelp seemed to have over thought its ability to bite through his spine. Galdraniae was ready to do a roll, sweeping the youthful dragon beneath his greater bulk when the whelp surprised him again. Shifting its grip from fore claws to back, the little black dragon bastard freed up its fore claws for some reason.
Prepared to continue his dance, Galdraniae figured the whelp would be an easy toss off now that the wretch was using its hind legs alone to hold on. However, the spectators were priviledge to the truth of the matter. Xing Lei was perched much like a bipedal rider between the gold dragons shoulders, his fore claws were drawn back like arms in a ready stance, the right slamming down onto the back base of Galdraniae's neck. With a crack like thunder the gold dragons movements ceased. A shudder passed through the gold dragons body, a grunt of pain escaping the dragon's maw before the bulk of the dragon tilted to one side and crashed heavily to the ground.
Rolling free of the falling body the small black dragon resumed its kobold shape. Xing Lei dusted off his clothes and looked to Palathinarious, "Your turn?"