Slowly, a grin creeps across my face; it's a very pleasant, very sweet smile, and it looks completely innocent in contrast with what I call forth next.
With a quick flick of my wrist, I snap my fingers — all theatrics, really.
"RRRAAAAA!"
"KREEEEE!"
Debris blasts from the roof of the school, showering those below, as two dragons free themselves from the building.
As the dust and smoke begin to fade, two figures erupt from within; dark green and vivid orange twine around each other as they circle higher into the sky, both maws snapping at the hovering Lightbringer on their way to the heavens as if she was a mere bird. She darts away.
The cheers turn into groans, perplexing and irritating me.
What were they still doing here? It's not like they were doing much, if anything, to help… except maybe to add to the casualty count.
Well, that can be easily remedied.
The dragons' heavy wingbeats clear the sky, revealing that the original ice dragon is nowhere to be found… but that is the least of their concerns.
Hovering low above the ground, Lightbringer makes a hand signal, to which Celerity and Torch nod and return. She soars into the sky, her glowing blue wings not even flapping once.
Once again, beams of light slice at both dragons, piercing them and dealing more damage to their matte scales than those of the reflective ice dragon. The dragons roar in protest and shake themselves off, but they don't have much time to recover.
Fire shoots towards the dragons, forcing them to dodge and creating an opening for Celerity who was hiding in the trail of the flames. Taking advantage of the opening, Celerity breaks out, shredding the wings of the green dragon.
Seeing this, I snicker. If they were planning on doing the same trick to these dragons, then they were sorely mistaken.
As Celerity finishes with the green dragon, he leaps off its back and races towards the orange dragon, soon reaching its closest outstretched wing.
"AAAAAH!"
The man stops flat in his tracks with a blood curdling scream. Instead of becoming a human blender, he becomes a projectile shot straight from a cannon, leaping fifty meters into the air.
Lightbringer rises up to meet him, catching him under his arms and hovers in the air. Celerity frantically kicks his legs as he dangles, flinging off a spray of orange. My drone races up to capture clearer footage, revealing the cause of Celerity's sudden shift to my audience.
His now charred suit exposes his bare feet, with flames still clinging and climbing up his legs to his knees. Orange goop drips from the ragged edges of his suit, causing him to shudder when it hits his bare skin and to try to shake it off faster.
"RHAAAH!"
The agonized green dragon, already distressed over its wings, cries out in pain as it's showered with some of the orange drops from Celerity.
With its cry, tendrils of vapor form on the ground, eventually covering the entire parking lot below. Some force pulls the tendrils together, swirling them into a clump until they coalesce into a singular mass. Cracks, like roots, spider out across the already ruined parking lot below.
As its concentration peaks, the mass surges outwards like a silent shock wave, likewise blanketing the sky with heavy clouds. With it, a cluster of vines burst forth, growing rapidly until each is thicker than a centuries old tree. The vines twine together as they grow and reach for the heavens until their tops are swallowed up by the clouds.
"Fee-fi-fo-fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman!" A deep voice bellows from the sky.
A huge pair of thick, leather boots emerge from the clouds, stirring up little puffs of vapor, and wrap themselves around the vines. Soon, a colossal pair of legs follow, with a proportionally sized body as a giant slides down the greenery.
His boots and calloused mitts tear off leaves from the plants as he descends, filling the air with the scent of grass. The torn off leaves, each as big as a king-sized bed sheet, slowly flutter to the ground after him.
With an earthshaking thud, he hits the ground, cracking the pavement further.
All the heroes stand or hover around, glancing at each other, unsure of what to make of this sudden appearance until the giant speaks again.
"Fee-fi-fo-fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman!" The voice bellows again.
"We're not in England!" I hear someone shout. "No Englishmen here!"
"But I'm Engl— I'm not English either! Go back up the beanstalk!" someone else yells. He gets a few murderous glares from his surrounding fellows.
The giant stretches out his hand towards the neatest person, scattering the crowd. A few don't move, seemingly awestruck, believing to be transported into some fantasy world.
They lack a healthy sense of danger, or paranoia, as I like to think.
The giant doesn't seem to care about those standing still, as he continues reaching towards the sprinting person who was once closest to him. Perhaps to him, it wasn't fun if they weren't running, terrified out of their minds.
The targeted guy shouts in a foreign language as the hand closes the distance and grabs him. He continues shouting as the giant lifts him up and still shouts as he is brought up and tossed into the giant's gaping mouth. Only when the lips seal does the shouting stop, but I'm almost certain that's only because the noise can't escape, rather than the guy going silent.
"Uhh… pretty sure he doesn't know what an Englishman is, as that dude was Asian… but okay… aaand that person was a woman…" Struan murmurs, watching the feed.
"Shh… they aren't known for being the brightest. Don't bully him," I say.
"Bully him? That's the least of his concerns," Struan says, giving me the side-eye. "Are you done yet?"
"Huh? I'm not doing anything — the giant is," I say jokingly. Struan punches my arm.
Ah, yet another joke, gone unappreciated.
Lightbringer shouts at Torch to take care of the green dragon, bringing our attention back to the battle. She binds the green dragon with her chains of light.
Torch snaps out of his stupor and rapid-fire launches fireballs at the green dragon. Bathed in flames, it writhes until its form vanishes. Torch looks around, only to see the giant still very much alive and active — and still very hungry.
Bloody footprints of mashed meat are stamped into the pavement, giving the heroes an all too clear picture of the destruction the giant is capable of in under a single second.
I watch as people vanish one by one from the parking lot, leaving a yellow and black blur in their former location as the charred Celery does his job even with his injured legs.
Lightbringer and Torch try to take down the giant, but the orange dragon commands their attention by force. Using his flames as a jetpack, Torch joins Lightbringer in the air.
A ripple spreads over the dragon's body, starting from the tip of its snout, turning its body into… a bright orange gummy? It opens its maw and projectile vomits what looks like a syrup version of orange soda. The viscous fluid fizzes and bubbles as it hits the ground, nearly missing people as Celerity whisks them away, just out of range of the attack, as he lacks the time to take so many people any further away.
Behind him, the giant scoops up a handful of the people just saved by Celerity, and pops them in his mouth like grapes. The yellow clad man can only look on in horror as he rushes to save more people from being showered by the orange gel.
Chains of light and fire wrap around the jaws of the remaining orange dragon as Lightbringer and Torch try to muzzle it, but their attacks only either pass through harmlessly or simply cause its surface to sizzle. The dragon gracefully dodges their subsequent attacks with agility and maneuverability that shouldn't be possible from such a large creature in the air. It was as if gravity and physics didn't quite apply to it.
With each beat of its wings and each swish of its tail, it narrowly, yet seemingly effortlessly, dodges the attacks in an elaborate dance belonging to a festival.
Unfortunately, what the two heroes didn't yet notice was that each move splattered the ground with orange. Furthermore, none of the moves were merely flashy dodges, but were targeted attempts to herd the people below for the giant, with the unwitting help of Celerity.
However, this dodging gives the attacking heroes above hope, as it means that despite appearances, the dragon must be affected in some way, right?
So, Lightbringer chooses the only option she has — to attack in a way that can't be dodged.
Orbs of light hover in the air, surrounding the dragon. They whirl around, firing beams of light and dice the dragon into tiny cubes. Still, that isn't enough.
Each chunk of jello stretches out tendrils, connecting to its neighbors and stitching the dragon back together like a goopy gel.
Nonetheless, her attempt is effective — if barely. Each time the dragon gets torn apart, while it isn't obvious, it is just that much smaller.
Quickly catching on, Torch begins his own barrage of fire, whittling away at the beast.
Having had enough, with a soundless roar, the dragon shakes, flinging apart its body in a multitude of droplets as its last stand.
Lightbringer zooms around to avoid the shower, a trail of blue light blazing after her from her wings, while Torch shoots upwards like a missile.
Eventually, the dragon shrinks down to its last drops, and with them the beast is no more.
With the airborne heroes' attention now freed, they turn back to the ground… yet all that awaits is death.