No way was this actually happening.
Looking down again she saw all of the other blood sinking into the sand.
"Oh my god… I just killed a bunch of naga's and humans as well."
Naga's weren't as intelligent as humans, but that didn't mean they didn't deserve a life. Even if they got violent like that.
And she had just killed a whole tribe of them.
She had actually led this alpha wyvern straight into their town, no wonder they wanted her dead.
She had been defending herself against nagas, shooting her lightning out on instinct like it was the right thing to do.
The more she thought about it the crazier she felt.
She was used to questioning herself on everything, but never anything this serious.
This was a mistake she was gonna have to live with for the rest of her life.
But she still had a chance to save two more things.
Across the arena were the two baby dragons scrambling around in their cages. They were clearly extremely scared, frantically clawing at their cages to get out.
Salazar looked extra terrified. She couldn't stop looking at her parent, clawing a bigger and bigger whole in the roof.
The alpha wyvern was incredibly massive up close. The village houses were having no trouble falling into the whole, but the wyvern clearly couldn't fit through. The colosseum itself might be a tight fit for it.
'BOOM'
Vanagloria bolted over towards their cages.
She immediately went up to Salazar to calm her down.
Salazar was completely freaking out, clawing frantically at Vanagloria. She grabbed one of Salazar's wings like she was holding her hand, calming her down just a little bit.
She opened the door to the cage and grabbed Salazar under her wings.
'neeurrww'
"You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. Don't panic."
Vanagloria found her satchel laying on a seat next to the two cages. As quickly as she could she layed Salazar in it.
Next she went over to the crocodile's cage.
It seemed extremely scared of Vanagloria, it had backed up to the other side of its cage and was making similarly squeaky laser gun noises.
The noise of the room was getting to be overwhelming. Salazar was whimpering, the crocodile was breaking at her and rubble from the alpha wyvern kept crashing down.
It was getting harder and harder to breathe as well, dust was clouding the air stuffing her lungs.
"Oh crap." Vanagloria said after a small coughing fit.
She opened the gate of the crocodile's cage and snatched the dragon up. Vanagloria would've normally tried to befriend it first, but she didn't have that kind of time.
It was trying to snap at her as she carried it over to the satchel, barely missing her wrists. It's scaly skin was clammy and slippery, making it really hard to get a grip around its body.
She clumsily dropped it in the satchel next to Salazar, its scaly green tail pushing up against the leather walls of its new cage.
'nweeur-?"
Salazar was interrupted as Vanagloria closed the top of the satchel, tucking it under her arm. She could feel the reptiles squirming around in the bag as she walked out to get a good view in the hole.
With the grey stormy cloud and brown dust wave she could just barely see a house she could bolt up too. The wyvern was still tearing up the ground, barely missing her with the clumps of dirt.
She squatted down like she was about to take a massive jump and…
'BOOM'
Vanagloria bolted up onto a wall, making her fall down on her back, hitting the house's balcony. The stab in her stomach stung her on the impact. She was still clutching her satchel of dragons, practically hugging it.
Getting up, she felt almost lightheaded.
She was running out of element.
"I probably got only a few more bolts to use. Gotta make them count."
She looked around for an exit, but was met with the dark grey eyes of the wyvern, piercing through the dust clouds.
It was honestly terrifying. The wyvern's head was massive, easily big enough to swallow her whole. It's grey skin looked sturdy and rough, a giant old scar ran down its snout. It was definietly experienced in fighting humans.
And worst of all…
It definitely knew she had Salazar.
"Oh shit."
Immediately an idea popped into her head.
'BOOM'
She shot a small bolt of lightning past the dragon like she just bolted and ran into the house she was in.
As Vanagloria ran through the house she could feel the 'doom-doom' outside as the wyvern stomped around.
Running down the stairs, through the living room and out the back door only to meet the grey eyes once more.
"Oh right… dragons are smarter than humans."
Vanagloria jumped up as the it's tail swung underneath her, cleaving straight through the house behind her.
'BOOM'
Vanagloria bolted this time towards the stone statue walls of the city.
"So I can't make it fall for any tricks." She told herself as she leaned up against the wall to catch her breath.
The wyvern was frantically looking around for her. Its tail was crashing into buildings as it swung its body around.
Vanagloria already caused enough destruction to this town, she had to get it out before it destroyed the whole town.
"Fuck. This just keeps getting worse."
She felt like she could collapse right now. Her forehead still hurt, her lungs were clogged, she was tired as fuck…
"Aight, what am I gonna do?"
Vanagloria was looking everywhere for an answer.
There were a few mountains out in the distance as might be able to bolt to.
"Is there a limit to the distance?"
Maybe she could use her element to speed up her running. She could sprint outside.
Honestly, she wasn't even trying to fight the wyvern. That would be wayyyy too reckless. Right now she just needed to get away and regain some energy.
"Tír na nÓg…"
There was a little group of islands right above her, lower than most of the islands, maybe within range to bolt.
It still would be the farthest she had ever bolted, but getting up to someplace like that would be perfect.
It would probably take the wyvern a few minutes to figure out where she is and even more time to fly up there.
She could even start a storm, and get the attention of Vega and Martyr to help her.
"Okay…"
Vanagloria took a few deep breaths, calming herself down…
Inhale…
Exhale…
She gripped the satchel…
Squatted down…
'BOOOOOOM'
Vanagloria was now in the middle of the air, flying up towards the islands at an insane speed. Air was pressing down on her like it never had before.
She was slowing down rapidly and she had only just reached the bottom of one of the islands. A vine of the island was right next to her, within arms reach.
Her flying ended just before she reached the ground of the island.
Panicked, she grabbed the vine next to her, gripping it with all her strength.
"Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down."
It felt like she in a dream right now.
There was no way this was actually happening.
There really was no ground underneath her. No floor to place her feet.
It was just air.
Everything around her was just air.
It was taking all the energy she had left in her muscles to hold on. She was so tired, but she didn't want to let go so badly that she literally couldn't, even if she wanted to. Her hands were practically sticking to the vine.
Very slowly, she shimmied up the vine.
She was trying her best not to tug on it. If it snapped it was all over.
Eventually she was able to put a hand on the ledge, gripping with all her might.
She used her other hand to throw up the satchel, then immediately grabbing the ledge with it.
"How the fuck am I supposed to do this?"
Vanagloria could barely do pull-ups, much less bring her whole body over the bar.
"Maybe I can like…"
Vanagloria started swinging her legs side to side, still not looking down at them.
"Okay… Okay… Okay… just calm down."
If she was gonna get her leg up on the island successful she had to e confident.
She could do it.
She could do this.
Her foot hooked onto the ground, and with one feat of strength, she was up on the island.
Scurrying away from the ledge, Vanagloria sat down and fully looked over the ledge.
It was a lot like being on the clouds, but this time the ground was closer and there were things to look at. The villages, temples, lakes, statues and portions of forests were all visible in the rainbow valley.
The floating island itself had a temple.
Vanagloria was so panicked at the moment she didn't even notice that she had backed up into a giant golden temple.
It was practically the only thing on the island besides the ground and grass. She even noticed an entrence right next to herself.
"Oh shit. I can hide here."
First, before she went in, she snatched up her satchel.
Popping open the front pocket, she saw the two infants fortunately still in the bag. They were both freaking out and were sprawled over each other. Salazar perked up at seeing Vanagloria and immediately rushed up to her face, sticking her neck out to try and lick her face.
"Calm doooown." Vanagloria laughed as she pushed the squirmy dragon back into the bag. As much as she wanted to play with the dragon, she couldn't have Salazar escaping.
She buttoned the front pocket up again much to the sad disappointment of Salazar.
Vanagloria leaned up against the first temple step and got back up on her feet.
She then walked into the dark opening of the temple. The lightning still coursing around her was glowing in the dark, lighting up the small part of the walls around her.
Putting her hand on the wall for support, she started making her way down the hallway.
The golden wall had almost a full layer of dust over it, the smooth metal underneath it felt cold and ancient.
Vanagloria had no idea what this temple was for, but it was probably important.
But right now that didn't matter.
She needed some place to hide before the wyvern inevitably smelt her new location.
It was kind of scary, if it weren't for her light and the extreme amount of danger she was in, she would've avoided ever going near this.
Vanagloria walked down the hallway until her glow hit a wall. It wasn't too far from the opening, maybe only 10-15 meters long.
Her hand had been coated in grey dust and cobwebs, but left a trail of shiny gold where her hand dragged.
The wall seemed to be a dead end to an empty hallway. Whenever this was the case for some ancient temple like this one, this always meant it was some secret door.
She felt the wall to find two incredibly small gaps on either side, clearly a door.
It probably only opened if it she solved some sort of puzzle, or used some ancient magic.
She could feel a power behind the door. Deep within the temple there was something…
It felt like Vanagloria had some sixth sense that was screaming at her that there was a massive elemental power inside.
But honestly, Vanaglora didn't need to explore a whole dangerous temple right now. This hallway was a good enough hideout.
Maybe someday far in the future she could explore this place, but now was not the time.
Feeling around some more, she felt some indents in the center of the wall.
Brushing off the dust she found a little message engraved on the gold wall.
'The Personification of Zeal Was Here'
The message was written with horrible handwriting. Almost similar to her own.
"How very vain of them…"
"I should do that too."
Vanagloria took a hard rock she had in her pocket and started writing on the wall. Gold was a very fragile metal, so her rock was just barely enough to puncture the metal coat.
It still took a lot of strength nonetheless. The person who wrote above hers must've been using a sword or something to carve it out.
"'The Personification of Zeal'" Vanagloria read to herself as she continued to write.
"I feel like I should know who that is."
It was most likely some 'god' from back in the day who wrote this here. Vanagloria didn't know her old public figures that well, so she was probably gonna find that and ask somebody about that later.
"There we go." Vanaglora said as she backed away from the wall.
'Vanagloria Was Here'
It was barely legible, but it was gonna have to do.
'WOOOOSH'
'BANG'
Vanagloria's ears rang as the temple was struck from outside.
She had the instinct to run out and get away from this island but held back from it.
She just needed more time to regain energy, even just the slightest bit.
The stomps of Draconic feet and clangs of claws against metal rang out all around Vanagloria. The wyvern was probably bigger than the temple itself, so coming out wasn't an option right now. She could see it's tail flail around in the doorway every once and a while.
Then all noises suddenly stopped.
For a moment everything was quiet.
Then Vanagloria watched as the dragon's snout slowly crept down to the entrance, sniffing manically.
A small puff of smoke came out as the dragon exhaled, followed by an almost cartoonishly long exhale.
Not long after that, a rush of wind was hitting Vanagloria with immense force. It was practically pinning herself against the wall, it felt like she was getting smooshed by air.
After it ended Vanagloria started to panic.
"I gotta get out of here."
The dragons face was clearly too big to fit in the temple hallway, but if he was gonna try and kill her like this than she had to get out.
It could be a trap though.
That wyvern was probably waiting for her to come out.
"Okay, I got this."
Feeling only a little refreshed, Vanagloria hyped herself up as she went down the hallway.
She made sure to watch the wyverns breathing, waiting for its next inhale…