The wind pressure ripped right past them in a straight line, shredding everything in its wake like wet paper.
Ryuma couldn't see anything. His head was buried into Clara's neck, in vice versa. Their hair blew in every which way. Multiple items and wood blew past them with relative ease, and the best thing for them to do was to keep low the way they were.
It felt like the outside of the main wind cannon was blowing with enough force to push both of them along the way.
The two stayed huddled up until the main force past them for good and everything settled down. Her long hair no longer tickled his face as it laid strewn on the ground. The pressure in the air no longer clogged in his ear. He could hear the crashes of other objects that got destroyed again.
He slowly lifted his face. Clara panted just as hard as he was. For a moment, he looked into her eyes, and she just stared up at him. It was like, she was in a trance as she gazed into him.
She slowly lifted her hand and softly touched the top of his head. "Ryuma… your hair…"
He didn't know what she was referring to, but he jerked himself up. He had to survey the damage that was done.
"TOGA ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" Ryuma yelled.
Toga coughed, having been exposed to even more dirt and dust. He slowly rolled over and grabbed his head. "I'm alright! What happened to Nylo?"
That one question cut Ryuma deep into his heart like no blade could ever. Knowing the trajectory of that dragon's wind cannon, there was no way to have gotten Nylo out in time.
Once the dust settled, he looked at the spot they all previously were, and there was a giant halve tunnel. Anything in its trajectory may as well have been vaporized. If the pressure alone, didn't kill him, then everything crashing into him at once and crushing would have done so.
And his body was nowhere to be found, likely having been blown off the island with winds going speeds that high. The only solace one could take is that he likely didn't even feel it.
Nevertheless, Ryuma fell to his knees. Was Diaga right? Did he cause all of this? "No…" He whispered. The last thing he could remember was telling Nylo that he was going to be alright.
Did he break his promise already?
"Ryuma… please tell me you pulled Nylo out in time," Toga said, coming up from behind him. He was in denial. It should be obvious by that Nylo not even being here meant that he didn't make it. "He's safe right?" His voice was cracking.
"I'm sorry Toga… his legged was impaled, and the pipe was stuck. He couldn't make it out. He got caught up in the blast," Ryuma said. Every word weighed as much as the islands itself on his heart. The island shook again with the impact of another blast.
"No…" Toga slumped on his legs. Even without looking, Ryuma could hear the defeat in him as he was coming to terms with Nylo's death. Tears were spilling out and his mouth quivered. "Nylo was innocent. Why him?
Though Ryuma knew not to say it, it was likely that the red outfits Toga and Clara wore, was what caught the dragon's attention to their area. Nylo being under the wreckage at the time was only a casualty.
"I don't know," Was all he could muster.
"WHY HIM?" Toga shouted. He pounded his fist into the ground. Tears openly coming out like flowing rivers. He left a hole embedded into the ground.
Ryuma couldn't answer any of that logically. He imagined everybody was going to be asking that question when the sun rises. There was another rumbling in the background, but Ryuma ignored it.
"Ryuma… was what Diaga said true?"
"What he said was true. However, I never tried freeing that thing,"
"WAS WHAT HE SAID TRUE!?"
Ryuma sighed. "What he said was true… I was there when the damn thing escaped,"
Toga was the one that grabbed him by the collar. "Ryuma, if you had any respect for Nylo, you'll kill that thing with me today," He said.
The ice cold furry in his eyes was reminiscent of seeing the High edict. It paled in comparison only to the cold fury in his own eyes.
"I thought you'd never ask,"
"Ryuma! Toga! You're not going to seriously take that thing on, are you? Clara asked.
They could see it fighting in the air with flying white dragon members dressed in black, and red dog members using their fire to fly.
"Why not? A whole class versus a flying lizard. What's there to fear?" Ryuma asked.
They started walking in its direction. Clara ran up to Ryuma and tried putting her hands on him attempting to push him back. "Stop being stupid! You can't beat that thing!"
"Clara! Just do what you always do and be lazy. This isn't the time to want to switch personalities right about now," Toga demanded.
Ryuma just brushed her aside. "I have no intention of dying. I'll be back. I always win,"
Clara huffed and folded her arms. "Fine then. See if I care if you die. I'll just sleep it off tomorrow,"
Neither of the boys listened to a thing she said. Their walk started turning into a run. Their run turned into a sprint. Both were speeding up towards the dragon.
"You do realize that none of us can fly right? Ryuma asked.
"No… but we can jump high,"
Once they got below the dragon, they each used their respective Artes to launch themselves straight into the air at breakneck speed.
Both boys summoned their respective weapons and slammed it right into the dragons' scales. They put as much soul force into the blow as they could, only for the dragons' scales alone to block the attack.
It neither moved, nor flinch to their assault. As a matter of fact, it didn't even turn its attention away from the people it was already dealing with. They ran their swords along the dragons back, jumping off the end and landing on the building below.
"Hey, who are those two?" A member of the order said. "Get those kids outta here," Another member said.
The Dragon charged one of the members face first and swallowed him whole.
Ryuma and Toga turned around and put their guard up. "Are you kidding me!? We didn't even dent that thing!" Ryuma said.
Toga bared his teeth and started shaking. "It didn't even feel it. This fucker won't even acknowledge us,"
This was bad. Even both of them giving it their all didn't do squat when it came to a shining spirit. It had to have a weak point. Was it its underbelly? No that couldn't be it, there would at least be marks on it made by the members of the order exclusively in that area. Whatever this thing had, it was there all around.
He looked over at Toga. The more time the guy spent in his own head, the madder he got. This didn't look good at all. Toga was losing himself. In all Ryuma's life, he's never seen anybody take one of Toga's hits with or without his blades and be perfectly fine. It was a massive insult to his pride to have used his biggest move for something to not even noticed it was hit with it.
Worse yet… it was by the very thing that killed his brother. Toga's anger was starting to show.
Aeragis kept moving around, attacking more members flying around it. Every so often, it would suck in pressure into its mouth, and blast wind in a random direction.
Most members of the order were adept at dodging such an air blast, but a few would get caught every time. Not to mention that whenever it aimed its mouth downward, it would damage somebody, somewhere, if not cause more collateral damage to the area.
The boys jumped into the air again, landing on the dragon, both of them kept continuously slashing at the creatures back.
"Wind Artes!"
"Fire Artes!"
Both katanas lit up silver, while Toga's greatsword lit up red. Wind and fire slashes were now being applied to every slash they gave the elongated creature.
Still… no matter how much damage they applied, none of it seemed to phase the creature by even the slightest.
It did however shift its eyes towards the spot they were on his back at. It maneuvered itself in the air, twisting so that they'd fall off.
"I see. So the White Dragons have fallen so far as to send mere pups at me now. A true disappointment as of the times," The Dragon spoke.
Every member of the White dragon stopped their attacks. "No way… The Dragon spoke!"
"Foolish humans. Did you think a being whose lived as long as I would be incapable of learning your tongue? You shall learn the arrogance of your kind,"