'BOOM-BOOM-CRACK'
As soon as Vanagloria bolted out of the room, she bolted again to whatever location she could focus on the quickest.
She turned around to see destroyed ledge of the island. The wyvern was trying to get its tail unstuck from the dirt.
It really was massive.
The wyvern's body itself wasn't bigger than the temple, but its wingspan was just something to marvel at. It's wings were covering up the sky like a giant umbrella, the claws were just barely able to cling to the sides of the island. It looked almost uncomfortable for the wyvern to be on the island.
Vanagloria started running around the island, looking for some place to teleport to while also dodging the limbs of the dragon. The pain in her side almost felt like a sharp cramp which sucked, but she had experience in that which she hoped was helping.
The wyverns was screeching and knocking into everything. It was making such a huge commotion that even creatures of the ground could probably hear it. Chunks of dirt and stone were falling to the ground once more as it tore up the island, just trying to destroy the girl.
Then, Vanagloria felt a raindrop.
Once she finally got out from under the wings, she could see the sky. A giant dark grey cloud had formed from the wyvern right above the island, pouring rain down.
She turned around just in time to see the wyvern's head taking a massive inhale.
Vanagloria ran over to the temple and skidded down to the first step, laying right next to it.
She watched as the wind flew right over her, tearing up the grass and dirt of the ground.
Shooting off the ground, Vanagloria started jumping up the temple towards the dragon. Each step took a whole bound, each a foot and then some. Every step brought out more and more pain in her stab wound.
The wyvern turned around to face her, jumping so it's whole body could reposition itself. It's legs almost slipping off the edge of the island.
'BOOOOM'
Vanagloria swung her arm and snapped her fingers right at the wyverns face.
The wyvern seemed shocked but shook off the blow easily.
"Shit."
The shot took a lot out of her.
She was wildly tired right now.
She probably only has a few more shots before she passes out.
Vanagloria still kept her finger pointed at the wyvern.
The wyvern seemed to be smart enough not to open its jaw with the makeshift gun pointed at it.
She still had her other arm wrapped around the satchel, keeping a strong grip on it. The feeling of Salazar and the crocodile squirming around inside was distracting her.
Salazar was crying very loudly, definitely loud enough for her parent to hear.
It was probably the reason why he wasn't being eaten right now. The wyvern looked like it was listening in.
With this realization, Vanagloria cautiously put her hand down.
The wyvern had stopped and was watching the bag with its full attention, so Vanagloria decided to reach for the pocket.
As soon as she opened it, Salazar started whimpering at her parent in anguish. She sounded insanely distressed and angry.
But as soon as the wyvern got a good whiff of the whelp, he immediately got disinterested and started turning around.
The storm cloud above faded away and the tension in the air dissolved as the apex predator started walking away.
Salazar was still very much crying, although it was like the wyvern didn't even notice.
Her parent casually slid off the island and started slowly gliding down towards the ground, like all of the death and fighting to get here was for nothing.
Like the wyvern had gone all this way, only to realize the scent it was following was a kid it didn't want.
"Are you fucking kidding me?"
Vanagloria had figured the wyvern had left Salazar when she found it in the cave. It had a torn wing and a strange element. Predators typically leave their weak or undesired young to fend for themselves, and that's what Vanagloria assumed had happened.
But when she saw the wyvern going after Salazar, then she thought maybe Salazar had gotten lost.
But that wasn't the case at all.
The wyvern must've thought Salazar's scent was a baby it had cared about. As soon as it found out the scent was Salazar it just left.
Vanagloria watched as Salazar's cries got quieter and quieter, less and less hopeful the farther it parent flew away from her.
Anger filled her heart.
A resurgence of lightning filled her veins as she watched the dead-beat parent fly away.
It was wildly impulse, but in her anger Vanagloria pointed her finger gun out towards it.
She closed one eye for aim, focusing ALL of her energy to her hand.
The island started to rumble as electricity gathered around her hand.
She could feel her hair stand up as she walked to the very top of the temple, aiming right at the wyvern.
She was done with killing.
But that didn't mean she couldn't ruin it life.
"I'm gonna make sure you never fly again."
'BOOOOOOOOOOOOM'
Vanagloria was thrown back as the bolt of lightning exploded out in front of her, thunder echoing throughout the whole valley.
In a flash it cracked through the sky and struck the wyvern right on its wing.
It ripped through the skin and shot straight through, disintegrating a tree below.
The dragon screeched as it plumited through the sky. The screams were loud even from where Vanagloria was, getting off the ground of the island.
She had gotten up instantly to look over the edge at the dragon. Salazar was poking her head out of the satchel, watching with her.
She was much more calm, but still had a sad expression.
The wyvern crashed onto the ground, causing one final earthquake.
After all the noise the valley finally fell silent, finally giving Vanagloriat time to breath.
Although, her adrenaline was fading fast.
Her muscles were sore, her scratches were stinging from the dust, everything ached, she was lightheaded, her brain was throbbing and her spear stab wound hadn't gotten any better.
There was a circular stain of crusty red blood on her bright blue shirt, alongside many sweat stains making her grimy shirt stick to her.
And somehow she had to get off this floating island that was easily half a mile in the air.
"Oh my god. What is even happening anymore." Vanagloria put her hands over her eyes, easing the pain of her headache.
"So many things just happened."
Her heart hurt remembering she had just killed a whole village and girl they captured. Just cause she wanted a baby wyvern for her own.
Vanagloria looked over at Salazar who was looking back.
She couldn't cry in front of Salazar. She needed to stay strong and set an example for the tiny dragon.
"Come'ere." Vanagloria pulled the dragon in a one armed hug.
There was no way she could redeem herself for killing those naga's, but the best she could do was take care of this wyvern she had risked their lives for.
"neeurrooo." The baby dragon said, sniffing her hair.
"I want ice cream too." Vanagloria told her. It probably wasn't what the whelp said but it's what Vanagloria wanted right now.
She just wanted to get back to her new house, clean herself off and sink into one of the giant couches with a giant tub of mint-chocolate chip ice cream with…
"How am I gonna tell Martyr and Vega this?!"
She was gonna have to explain to them why this whole village was destroyed.
Salazar was gonna get thrown back into the jungle by Vega and Vanagloria wasn't gonna get an endorsement from her.
Martyr was her one chance in keeping the dragon, he actually supported the idea. But he sure as hell wasn't gonna believe in her after this. If he didn't before this then he definitely wouldn't now.
They were probably having the time of their life through the jungle. Taking out dragons left and right. Martyr had probably already gotten his endorsement.
"They're probably making out on a dragon carcass, or like a deer or something."
The crocodile started crawling out of the satchel as well. It was kind of expressionless because of how it's face worked, but it was moving extra cautiously.
She felt bad for it too.
The two of them were probably getting shook around in the bag that whole time.
At least they got some time to explore and stretch out right now, which is exactly what the crocodile did.
It was looking at its new surroundings, probably for its owner.
"She seemed like a cool person."
Maybe in some other timeline she would've been a friend.
Then the crocodile started squeaking.
"What is it?" Vanagloria asked the little guy.
The crocodile was angry at something behind her. Salazar soon followed. She was making her weird lazar gun sounds and had stood up on her hind legs, flapping her wings like crazy.
"Ugh. Everything hurts. I don't wanna get up." Vanagloria's head was pounding.
She tried to look behind her to see what they were yelping at but she couldn't see. The bright sky was completely blocking her vision, dark circles started forming in her eyes. It really wasn't helping all the other pain she was experiencing.
Still, even with how helpless she felt in the moment, she snatched up the little reptiles and put them in the satchel once more. Their little chests were puffing out in her hands as they yelled at whatever figure was behind her.
Her legs felt like they could barely hold her up, her arms the same as she pushed off the ground.
There were two figures, both human. The sun wasn't blinding her sight anymore now that she was standing. The dark circles were still clouding her vision, making it impossible to tell what they were doing.
She could tell that one of them was approaching her slowly.
Slinging her open satchel to her side, she stood up and got into a boxing stance. Her arms felt frail and scratched up but isn't this what heroes are supposed to do?
"I could do this al… wait…"
Tall, muscles, dark skin…
"Martyr?"
Right after Vanagloria said his name, she was tackled with a giant hug.
"I t-thought we lost you."
Martyr sounded way more emotional than Vanagloria expected. She was hearing his voice getting shaky for the first time. She had no idea her being gone had affected him this much.
"I guess they didn't leave me." She thought in the embrace.
The hug felt really nice. He was soft and warm. Not the humid, sweaty warm of the jungle but a soft fireplace warm. She could feel his chin laying on the top of her head, and all of the hard bumps of his chest and abs. His arms were wrapped around her shoulders, one hand softly laying on her hair. He smelled really sweet, the same scent she smelt in the tree back to overwhelm her. She could feel a nice tingly feeling cloud over the pains all over her.
This is exactly what she wanted right now.
"Are you okay?" Martyr asked.
"N-No... a lot happened. I tried to bring this baby wyvern into a naga village and… I ended up getting e-everyone killed." Vanagloria said honestly. She didn't want to hide what she had done, she needed to get it off her chest.
It still felt like she could break down at any moment, the one thing the hug wasn't helping. She wanted to stop trying to be a tough fighter and just cry right here. But she needed to show Martyr she was strong.
Although, hearing him sound like he was about to break down made her question if he was worried about any of that stuff right now.
"It's okay. All I care about right now is that you are alright."
"Let's get you back home."