The giant dragon's claw moved slowly through the air as Qassot's heartbeat slowed. She watched as the claws sliced through the air, plunging down towards the wizard who was nearly finished with his creation.
Qassot's arm moved before she could think.
Even as agony rushed through her chest at such a simple movement, and even as nerves that no longer existed screamed in protest at her sudden movement, she raised her left arm, still clad in its shining silver gauntlet, glowing brightly like the full moon that revealed itself, glowing brightly over the vast waters bordering the desert, shining down on her as each of the thousands of swords lying around the desert floated into the air, shuddered, turned, and rushed at Kluxon once more. If before, Qassot's attacks were a thousand small insects, this was a single, dense swarm all striking at once. The storm of bright silver flashed through the air, lodging themselves painfully into Kluxon's still-wounded face, disrupting his claws before they could come near Xenon as he assembled the last of the weapon he was building, clapped his hands, and pointed towards the sky.
Fire erupted from the massive tube's base, blasting outwards with such force that the world seemed to freeze, filling with smoke and dust as the weapon ascended into the sky.
Qassot dimly heard Xenon shout something, probably a number, but Kluxon was already turning his furious gaze towards Qassot, who he could now see through the gaping hole in the hill.
Qassot's mind went blank as she watched the dragon's heavy footsteps pound towards her. Each and every sword in his head yanked themselves free and rushed around him, slashing at his legs and face over and over, but Kluxon kept moving.
Qassot's thoughts ground to a halt.
Nothing ran through her mind.
There were no screams of terror.
There was no fear.
There were no shouts to win.
There was no hope.
No determination to take the Elder Dragon down with her.
No desire to leave a lasting scar that the dragon would remember forever.
Not one thought was in her head as she raised her claw towards Kluxon, commanding the storm of swords to continue hacking away at his face.
There was only a mysterious will that ran through her, ignoring all doubt and fear as she simply focused her mind.
As Qassot focused her attention, struggling with pain at the gaping wound in her chest, and commanded her swords to slowly carve away at the dragon's wounded head, even amidst the angry roar of the dragon, her eyes caught something moving at an immense speed, such that it was a mere blur, glowing light blue, flashing through the air towards the dragon. With a shock that blew the gradually returning fog away, something struck Kluxon's unharmed eye with deadly precision, yanking itself free as the dragon reared up in anger, letting loose a sound of more fury and pain than Qassot could ever imagine.
A blur of movement caught the blue streak as it passed, landing with a graceful flip besides a flash of white fire that appeared nearby in an instant.
As the dust cleared, Axel and Kyle stepped forwards.
-
Axel cursed under his breath when he saw Qassot's condition. A gaping, vertical hole in her chest and an arm torn off near the shoulder, bleeding only slightly as some sort of blackness spread across her scales from each site of injury.
"You need to tell us when you switch locations," Kyle said angrily.
"Portal's almost open," Ido replied. "Go help the others."
Axel set his backpack down next to Qassot and flexed his arms and neck.
"Watch this until I get back," he said.
Qassot glanced at him slightly.
"Don't push yourself," Axel insisted, swinging his sword in a flourish to his side, coating it with burning white fire.
"Cauterize her wounds and then stick around," Ido ordered. "I'll need you to tell the others when this thing is opened."
Axel lurched to a halt, glancing at Ido, who didn't respond, but he moved to Qassot's side anyways, sheathing his sword and setting his hand on fire.
"This will hurt," he said, bringing it close to her severed arm.
Axel felt a rush of wind and dust as Kyle left to help the Gem Keepers, throwing his dagger back into the Elder Dragon's eye as he rushed away, shouting to get the dragon's attention and draw him away from Qassot and Ido.
Axel's arms moved automatically as soon as he saw the fire. Something deep within him remembered that "cauterize" meant, and he grimaced in anticipation at what he had to do. He brought the fire up to Qassot's shoulder, and his ears were immediately filled with a mix between a primal roar and a scream as the fire scorched Qassot's bleeding stump of an arm, burning the loose scales and flesh and closing the wound up, instantly stopping the bleeding.
As Axel moved the fire to Qassot's chest, he heard Ido's comment over Qassot's screams.
"You're a lot less hesitant than before."
"Tell me later," Axel said, "when we're not in a crisis."
Ido said nothing, but continued opening the portal.
By the time Axel finished, Qassot's wounds were charred and scorched, smoking slightly in the night air, and her furious, pained gaze boring a hole through him made his spine shiver in fear, but what little bleeding there was had stopped completely. Axel had been surprised to find that Qassot's wounds had already partially closed, albeit in ways Axel didn't expect. Scales were already growing back over the stump where Qassot's arm used to be, and were closing around her lungs and damaged ribcage, leaving part of her chest still open and see-through.
Axel's stomach lurched almost immediately at the thought.
"We need to get you proper treatment so you don't get a permanent hole in your chest," he said.
Qassot's eyes opened slightly, clearly in fear of what painful torture actual treatment would be.
"Don't worry. It's far less painful than what I just did," Axel assured her.
There was a rush of wind as Kyle came rushing back in an instant, eyes wide with panic.
"How much longer 'till the portal's open?" he asked frantically. "That thing's coming this way again."
"Another minute or so," Ido grumbled. "Don't rush me."
"Well, we kind of have to rush," Kyle insisted. "That thing seems to have some sort of grudge for something over here. I can't get it's attention for more than a moment."
Axel glanced at Qassot, lying there in agony, wondering what damage she must've done to the dragon for it to hold such vengeance.
"Then come help," Ido ordered. "I'll use your memories and magic power to break through the last bit."
Kyle walked over to Ido, and Ido turned one of his hands towards Kyle's forehead.
"Go gather the others," Ido ordered.
Axel got up immediately, drawing his sword with a flourish and crouching down, channeling his focus as much as he could in a few seconds he could muster before darting off, feeling the world grind to a snail's pace around him.
As Axel crested the hill, he was immediately thrown into absolute chaos. An entire section of the desert had been completely deleted, and strange carved portions had been fully removed from the ground, as if someone had selected several large portions of the earth and pressed backspace. Black fire was falling all around a black dragon that was as large as a mansion, with a thin purple glow shining between its scales through a dense black aura that vaporized the storm of rocks that was flying around it. Two lights, one white and one black, shone and glowed as they flickered back and forth around the dragon, dodging its massive claws as black fire and beams of light bombarded the dragon. Axel quickly ran around to the side, leaping up several jutting rock ledges that had been exposed by the constant displacement of sand by the dragon's massive movements, landing near the land guardian that was Riselus in an instant. Risleus looked over in surprise.
"Where've you been?" he asked.
"The portal's almost open," Axel said, waving off the question. "Start moving over."
Axel darted off as Riselus sent one last look back at the two lights flashing around above the Elder Dragon before shifting the earth around him to fling himself back towards Ido in a single movement.
As Axel ran, rocks the size of houses, no longer under Riselus's control, came crashing down around him. He quickly set his sword on fire and swung at each one, slicing them into rubble in an instant as the world continued to slow around him. As the dust cleared, Axel looked up at the hulking form of the dragon as its massive head swept over Axel. He felt its black aura flicker over him briefly, sending a tingling sensation across his skin as his the trailing end of his bandage, hanging loose and flapping behind him as he moved, was suddenly vaporized. Axel's eyes widened and he immediately backed off, looking up at the beast's head as it roared in anger at the lights dancing around it.
"So that's what Qassot did," he said, whistling in amazement.
The dragon's massive face was covered in wounds. Its scales were peeling and slashed, shorn off by repeated blows to reveal bleeding, scorched flesh underneath. One of its eyes was already sightless and dead, seemingly burnt to a crisp by some sort of fire attack. Countless deep cuts scored across the dragon's already wounded, exposed flesh, with massive flakes still cracking and falling off. The exposed portions, even now, were being struck continuously with storms of black fire and beams of light. Axel swung his sword upwards to test, sending a blast of white flame into the air, towards the dragon, but the fire barely penetrated past the black aura, fizzling out into mere sparks by the time they harmlessly bounced against the Elder Dragon's scales.
Axel frowned, frustrated at his failed attempt at an attack, but continued running around to the dragon's other side, where he saw a tall, muscular man with what could only be described as a powerful physique already running towards where Ido was.
"Portal's almost open!" Axel called. The man glanced back at Axel, locking eyes with him, before continuing his run.
Axel's legs ground to a halt as he turned around and looked up at the two lights flashing through the sky.
But even as he wondered how he was going to get the two out of the sky, the dragon decided the two lights were no longer worth his attention and turned to where the powerful-looking man was running. Massive steps shook the ground as the Elder Dragon began to stride towards where Ido, Qassot, Riselus, and Kyle were.
Axel's eyes widened in panic at the first stride. Even at such a distance, with that hill to scale, the dragon would reach the portal in mere moments. He channeled his focus again and ran faster, ahead of the dragon, throwing white fire up towards the dragon's face in hopes of distracting it, but none of his attacks could penetrate its dense aura. Axel growled in frustration and kept running, leaping up the boulders and rubble left behind by Riselus's attacks in an effort to keep up and get high enough for his voice to reach what he assumed were Cyil and Aavern, flying high above the Elder Dragon, bombarding its wounded face with all they had in an effort to keep the dragon from approaching Qassot. With a massive leap, Axel ricocheted off of a large, protruding rock spire, left miraculously untouched by the chaos of battle, redirecting every ounce of his speed into launching himself upwards, flying through the air and ascending as wind rushed past him, until he was almost level with the dragon's eyes.
Axel didn't even try to attack, however, instead turning his face towards the heavens and shouting with all his might.
"THE PORTAL'S ALMOST OPEN!" he shouted, his voice reaching a volume beyond what he had ever reached before. "GET OVER-"
Before Axel could finish his sentence, the two lights turned around and exploded, one with black fire, and the other with bright white, rushing ahead of the dragon in an instant, dropping some final attacks even as they left to do anything they could to slow the dragon.
Axel sighed in relief as he fell, spinning, through the air, back down to the ground from the height of a six-story building. He flailed and gritted his teeth, channeling his concentration once again as he saw rocks floating up in front of him, evidence of Riselus's help from far away, already disintegrating on contact with the black aura that reached out towards him. Axel's feet hit a stray piece of rubble, and he immediately leapt forwards even as it crumbled into nothingness, leaping with speed beyond anything he had ever experienced, watching as the dragon's movements slowed to a halt, the aura stopped moving, and the rapidly dissipating platforms, suspended haphazardly in space, positioned just far enough away from each other for Axel to leap from one to the other. Axel's brow furrowed as his mind sharpened itself beyond what he had ever before experienced.
His foot hit the next platform, and without waiting to regain his balance, he pushed off immediately, using his momentum to carry him forwards to the next platform. As he leapt from one to the next, he dimly saw the dragon move forwards behind him - even at this speed, things still moved, albeit slower than anything normally noticeable - but he ignored it, rushing forwards with as much haste as possible, towards the scarred and wounded hill that had been raised to a high enough height that the dragon had to strain its neck to see over it, but as the dragon approached, that height proved meaningless. It simply towered over it.
Axel kept dashing down the platforms, reaching the crest of the hill and running down it, kicking up a sandstorm as he ran, seeing a rock gently carry Qassot through the portal as Riselus disappeared into it.
As the dragon's aura broke through the hill and his footsteps shook the earth, Axel reached the portal and tumbled through it, immediately plunging from the dusty, panicked storm that was the battle-scarred desert into a cool, refreshing breeze that rustled gently through the breeze.
Axel slammed into a tree before he could react, immediately bruising a rib, and groaned as he turned around and looked back through the portal.
Even as the dragon was approaching, the portal was closing.
As massive claws descended from the sky and slammed down, the hole in the air spun and disappeared.
The last sight Axel saw, framed in the black of the portal, was a massive missile descend from the sky in a storm of fire, slamming into the hill behind the dragon and exploding with a light that outshone ten thousand suns at once, blinding Axel and blowing a massive explosion of dust at him as the portal finally shut.
Axel coughed and wiped his mouth, opening his eyes in surprise.
His mouth opened and shut, but sound refused to escape his mouth.
Axel's gaze swept over the group gathered around him, in varying states of exhaustion behind the tree he was leaning on, with various levels of anger, surprise, and seriousness on their faces.
Well, mostly surprise.
The words finally escaped Axel's mouth as he stood up, holding his wounded ribs from where he had ran into the tree.
His voice shook in a mixture of disbelief and awe as he gestured at where the portal used to be.
"Am I dreaming or did someone just drop a nuke on that thing?"