I fell to the ground after I hit the wall and Theodius placed a hand on his hip as he watched me return to my feet. "How stupid of you to come here without the stone as at least some form of defense." I glared at him. "I didn't come to fight you. I came to take back the woman you stole from me."
Theodius returned my glare and pulled May closer to him by her arm. "If you want her back you're going to have to! She's mine now!" His words fueled my anger. "Why do you want her so badly?! Just find someone else!" May chimed in as well. "I'm not agreeing with you, Dedrin, but yes! Why don't you find someone else, Theodius?!" Theodius turned to her and pinched her cheek. "Are you serious?! Someone else who isn't this sexy cherry tomato right here?!"
May blushed, only proving his theory and Theodius continued. "Why would I let the sweetest, prettiest, good-hearted creature in the world go? She's everything I'm looking for in a prisoner." I clenched my fists. "Prisoner?" Theodius smirked as he turned to me again. "You know, of the sexual variety. It's too bad you got to her first, but I'll manage." My glare intensified. "You can't do that to someone!"
Theodius rolled his eyes. "Of course I can. You traded her to me. She is now my possession. No refunds." I didn't know what to do. I was virtually powerless against him. My chances only decreased once a third piece of the stone of Sudre appeared in his free hand. Now it made sense why the two pieces Dymas tried to join didn't fit together before. "You were wondering what all the items you had gotten for me did, so I think I'm going to show you exactly what they can do."
Razerous then stepped into the room and caught Theodius's attention. He turned to Razerous with distaste in his eyes. "You. What brought you out from under your rock to come here?" Razerous walked over to me as he held eye contact with Theodius. "I'm here to assist Dedrin in the retrieval of CherryMay." Theodius rolled his eyes again. "Ugh. This is exactly why I cursed you. Who talks like that?" I raised an eyebrow. "You could talk before?"
Razerous shared my confusion. "What do you mean? All dragons can speak." I sighed as my confusion melted away. "If we survive this, remind me to throw my shoe at Saniel. Wait a second, Theodius was the one who cursed you?" Razerous looked down, grimly. "How do you think he got to be Saniel's master in the first place?" Theodius groaned again at our chatter. "Oh my gods, shut up! We're going to play a new game now! It's called, Try Not to Die!"
He then used his piece of the stone to make all of the items we had collected for him appear in the air over his head. He waved it again and created a chain that wrapped around May and carried her into a chair in the corner of the room. She struggled but the chain only tightened, and Theodius took the first item from the air above him. It was the horn we had stolen from the yetis. I had already found out what this object did back when we made our escape down the frozen mountain and braced myself as Theodius brought it to his lips.
A large storm came from out of the other end as he blew into it, and the force of the winds pushed Razerous and I back into the wall. Dark clouds filled the room, and both rain and hail fell down upon us as the crack of thunder echoed above. Suddenly, lightning struck and destroyed the wall next to me. The bricks then pieced themselves back together and more lightning came for us. The walls regenerated wherever it crashed and it didn't surprise me that Theodius would have a self-healing castle with how reckless he was with magic.
As I tried to avoid being struck by lightning I moved through the fierce winds and blinding rain or hail to regain my balance. Theodius had removed the horn from his lips yet the storm continued to rage out of it as he reached for another item. This time he pulled the witch's ruby from the air and held it out in front of him. "Ruby of darkness, release your clouds of poison." Black smoke seeped out of the ruby and carried throughout the room.
Razerous avoided them and returned to standing as he shouted through the storm at me. "Don't touch them! You'll die!" I nodded. "Good to know!" It became increasingly hard to avoid the poison and the lightning, but I noticed that the lightning seemed to carry out a pattern. The gears in my head turned as I thought of a way I could eliminate at least one of the obstacles.
I studied the pattern for a few seconds longer as I dodged and pulled Razerous out of the way who was only hanging on by a thread. I then drew my sword and jumped into the place where I predicted the next bolt would come and raised my sword into the air. The metal attracted the electrical current like I expected, and luckily my handle wasn't a conductor. The lightning ran through my sword as it struck, and I then redirected the bolt in Theodius's direction.
The bolt directly hit the ruby he was holding and shattered it to pieces. Theodius turned away from the brightness of it for a moment before looking back at the ruby's remains. All the poison clouds disappeared and Theodius yelled in anger. "You asshole! I can't repair that!" I raised an eyebrow. "Why not?" May jumped excitedly from her chair in the corner of the room. "Oo! I know this one! Is it because dark and light magic don't mix?!"
Theodius sighed as he turned to her. "Yes, that's correct, but just as a reminder, let's not tell Dedrin more limitations about magical items, hm?" May's excitement became a pout and I hesitated. 'Light and dark magic don't mix? If he can't use the stone of Sudre to repair the dark ruby then does that mean the stone uses light magic? I'll have to keep that in mind when destroying the rest of the objects.' I thought. Things started to look promising for me.
I could destroy anything he uses against me and with luck, he won't be able to regenerate them. I then returned my sword to its sheath and started to push forward toward Theodius. The winds were strong but I was inching my way closer. Theodius realized that the lightning had no longer been a threat to me and raised his hand to make the storm stronger. My footing was barely on the ground anymore and the lightning came down faster, but I had still calculated a route through the storm.
I continued to move ahead until I was a few feet from the horn. Theodius stepped back with confusion. "What are you doing?" I then plugged the end of the horn with my hand and the storm disappeared. I gasped as the light in the room returned and I was no longer hit in the face with chunks of ice. Razerous fell to the ground from the sudden decrease of wind and I fell to one knee. "Ugh. That was annoying."