Consciousness is a fraying rope. She clings to it, desperately.
Pain grips her from all sides, her heart is hammering in her chest, her lungs are burning, and breathing feels like an impossible task. And yet she keeps doing it. She can't pass out.
She has to stay conscious.
She has to keep fighting.
For her friends, for the world, for all of humanity.
The battle is not over, not as long as she still draws breath. The thought is clear in her mind, crystallized. And then it shatters as something slams into her ribs, hard. Pain explodes from the point of impact to her every nerve. She gasps out a breath.
"Is that all you've got, Dai?" a cruel voice taunts.
She cannot speak. Everything hurts, so much. She's teetering on the edge of a precipice, and if she falls, she might never come back. The darkness beckons.
Focus, Dai. Focus.
She sinks her nails into her palms. Her hands are wet with her own blood, and wholly human once more. She lost her dragonoid form under the powerful assaults of Vearn. Vearn the Demon Lord, Vearn the King of the Underworld, Vearn the Dark God. She thought she could beat him, that with her friends' help, with everyone's help, she had a chance at challenging his supremacy and could topple him from his golden throne.
Turns out she can't.
Turns out he's infinitely more powerful than they had anticipated, and even her dragonoid form, her last resort, wasn't enough. It was all on her, in the end. She failed.
Now, just staying conscious is a battle. Her eyes are closed: keeping them open is too hard.
The ground rumbles and shakes below her. She wonders if the floating palace will crash, if they'll fall to earth like a dying star, if this is how it ends. Maybe the fall would kill him, she thinks, delirious. Maybe that would do it.
His foot smashes into her side again. This time, the impact flips her onto her back. She cries out as her spine seems to bend unnaturally. Her whole body feels wrong, and she's covered in so much blood, her skin slick and too hot. Is it all hers? Did something go wrong when she reverted to human? It hardly matters, she's dying anyway.
A foreign weight settles on top of her, straddling her. A clawed hand grips her throat, so large two claws dig into the sides of her jaw. He could snap her neck so easily. Strangle her with barely any effort at all. She waits for him to do it, either of those. Or perhaps he'll cast one last spell point-blank on her, and reduce her to cinders with a snap of his fingers.
She waits, her heart pounding in her chest, in her throat, her pulse throbbing against his hand.
Nothing happens.
*
He studies her, watching his claws dig into her blood-marred skin, surveying the soft oval of her face, her rounded cheeks, her pink lips. Outwardly, she seems a young human girl, utterly unable to challenge him. And yet, their battle has been long and drawn out, and Dai has proved a formidable adversary. Never has he felt so threatened before, actually fearing for his very life on a few occasions during their fight. The girl holds impressive power despite her small lithe form.
His palace has been devastated by their combat, the place crumbling down around them as they had exchanged blows that would have killed, had anyone else been on their receiving end. He has made sure it will stay afloat, using a fraction of his power to stabilize its orbit.
After shifting into a monstrous form to battle Dai, he too has regained his real body, now whole again, with the arm Dai had previously damaged healed and intact. His power is not at full strength, and he knows it will be a few hours before he regains his full abilities. Nobody can oppose him at this stage. Dai's allies are trapped in the depths of his palace, assuming they're not already dead, and his barrier is still up, which means no one can come in from the outside.
His ultimate victory is at hand. In the meantime, there is this. The little dragon girl who came close to killing him. He had intended for his last attack to be fatal, for her to die in that white explosion of magical power. Somehow, she survived. What to do with her now? He squeezes her throat, feels her pulse thud frantically against his palm. He could kill her this way, simply squeeze and squeeze until she gasps for air and cannot find any. However, this seems undignified. She's a warrior, and she deserves a good death in battle.
She whines, stirring beneath him, her eyelashes fluttering, though her eyes stay closed. She's trying to escape, her hips bucking fruitlessly under him, and the only thing she succeeds in is rubbing against his crotch, quite involuntarily, he's sure. He's surprised when his own body reacts, his cock twitching with interest. It has been a long time since he has indulged in pleasures of the flesh, a very long time indeed. Usually, the women he chooses don't survive it either. But Dai is a worthy opponent. Despite her young age, her heritage of dragon blood and the training she has had allowed her to garner a considerable amount of power. She has managed to hurt him, to make him bleed... She is his equal, in pure raw power, if not experience yet. And she has such a strong will...
There is something alluring in having someone like that at his mercy.
He considers where his thoughts lead and shakes his head. This isn't wise. He really should kill her. It's dangerous to let her live. But she's so intriguing... a mess of contradictions, she is... So innocent and yet so powerful. A monster by means of her dragon blood, fighting on the side of human scums. And if he could turn her... she could become his greatest weapon... far surpassing anyone he had ever had following his orders. Of course, she's already refused to join his side. But if he could convince her... yes, if he could...
He realizes he has unthinkingly let his thumb drag along her bottom lip, wetting the digit. At the sight of her parted mouth, he feels himself harden further. Well, then. Something has to be done about that. Not while she isn't fully awake, though.
He slaps her, withholding his full strength from the blow, using just enough to bring her back to awareness. Her eyes snap open, at first hazy, unfocused. Then she blinks, and her gaze narrows, meeting his. She bares her teeth in a snarl that reminds him of Baran in his most savage moments. In the next instant, she brings her hands up, attempting to form the stance that would unleash her dragon powers. He doubts she has enough juice left, but he has learned not to underestimate her, so he acts swiftly, pinning her wrists on the ground above her head.
"It's over, Dai. I won. But you fought well," he tells her, gripping her chin with his other hand. "You should be proud of your accomplishments."
The compliment seems to enrage her, and she renews her struggles. He lets her exhaust herself for a moment, enjoying the way her tiny hips rub against his with her every movement. Then he lets go of her chin and grips her dark hair, forcing her head back viciously. Her lips part again as she inhales, gasping with pain. He uses the opportunity to thrust his tongue inside her hot little mouth. She doesn't react right away—he credits shock, and besides there's a fair chance it's her first kiss. When she does react, she tries to bite him. He expected nothing less from her.
He draws back quickly, sinking his teeth into her bottom lip in retaliation. She gasps, breathing hard again, her dark eyes wide with confusion and fear.
"What..." she begins, can't seem to manage to finish her sentence.
"You know what this means," he says.
And he grinds his hips against hers, once, hard, letting her feel the full extent of his desire.
*
She flinches when she feels it. A hard, hot length against her thigh that has to be his erection. Dai isn't clueless about this matters, even if she did grow up on an isolated island with no human contact for the first fifteen years of her life, and has never actually even kissed a boy. When Maam had found out she had never had 'the talk', she had taken it upon herself to educate Dai, and there had been an embarrassing afternoon filled with words such as 'penetrate' and 'semen', with diagrams to boot.
So yes, Dai knows what it means to feel this rigid length pressing up against her. Vearn is excited by her, by her body. Carnal interest. But she's not prepared for it. That's not how it's supposed to be. For him, of all people, to want to do that with her? The thought never crossed her mind. They're enemies, they ought to try to kill each other, and nothing else. How can he even want her?
Her confusion seems to amuse him a great deal. With a cruel smile on his lips, he leans over her, crushing her further under his weight.
"Has anyone ever touched you, Dai?" he asks, so close she can feel his hot breath on her lips. "Or are you truly innocent?"
One clawed finger traces along her lower lip, slicing it open. The pain barely registers. Dai squirms, tensing every muscle she has, trying to call upon the last of her strengths. All her struggling amounts to nothing. Vearn chuckles, the sound a low, dark rumble.
"No one?" he says, guessing the truth easily. "I thought there might have been something with that young mage... or perhaps your taste lies in older men, and it was Hyunkel who had your attention?"
She never had those kind of thoughts about either Popp or Hyunkel. They're her friends, and she knows they feel the same way about her. Yes, her eyes might have lingered a bit too long on Hyunkel's bare chest during the few times she saw him training shirtless, but so did Maam's eyes, and it never went any further than that.
"Perhaps mere men are not enough for you, little dragon," Vearn says, his gaze burning into hers, a thing of hunger filled with an intent that scares her down to the marrow of her bones.
"Get your hands off me," she screams—tries to scream, more accurately.
He huffs, bends down low, until his lips are nearly, very nearly, touching hers.
"Perhaps what you really need is a monster," he growls.
He kisses her again, forcing their mouths together, brutal and inescapable.
*
Her breath hitches as their lips connect, a small gulping whine, and he savors the sound. He licks into her mouth, then lower, down her throat, his rough tongue swiping over her pulse. Her struggles resume, but it's laughably easy to keep her contained. She gives a soft whimper as he slides one hand up her tunic, brushes the swell of her breasts with questing fingers. He cups her right breast, then the other, enjoying the tremor that runs through her small body. And all of her is so small. Mouth, breasts, thighs...
And what lies between them.
His hand heads down, to undo her pants. He slides them down her hips, pushing down her underwear as well, heedless of her attempts to fight him off. It's endearing, really, the way she twists and bucks underneath him. He can't wait to be inside her to see if she will keep struggling like that. He rather hopes she will.
He spreads her legs by force, and her cunt is on display, a strip of pink flesh beneath a small patch of dark hair. She produces a mewling sound when he touches her there, her body stiffening, muscles taut and trembling. He's pleased that she doesn't beg, even when he starts rubbing her slit with two fingers. It might have been a millennium or two since he took care to please a woman, but he hasn't forgotten all his tricks, and Dai appears to be particularly receptive, whether it's from the adrenaline lingering from the fight or for some other reason. Either way, her body reacts nicely to his touch, and soon his fingers are coated with her arousal.
"Have you ever played with yourself like this, Dai?" he asks her. "Or am I going to have the pleasure of giving you your first orgasm?"
She turns her head, looking away from him, biting her lips, and that effectively answers his question. She doesn't even know what an orgasm feels like. Poor little dragon, too focused on fighting him and his legions to take some time for herself.
He rolls a heavy thumb on her little clit, smiles at the spasm that jolts her body, at the surprised cry she lets out. Oh, he has so much to show her. Keeping his thumb on the swollen nub that will give her so much pleasure, he prods at her opening, and, taking care to retract his claws, he sinks one long finger inside her.
She jerks, a high-pitched plaintive noise tearing out of her. Sun above, she's tight. Her cunt is spasming around the girth of his finger, as if it's already too much for her. He pumps it in and out in a lazy movement, getting her used to one finger first. She squirms, muscles tensing, shifting, coiling, all in vain. She can't get away from him, and she can't escape the pleasure he is giving her either. He watches her face as she bits down on her lip to stifle her moans, watches her eyes and the way her pupils dilate as his finger works her.
When he deems her ready, he adds a second finger, pumps them more vigorously into her clenching channel. She's making constant little noises, her cheeks red and her breathing rapid, her hips shifting minutely, almost but not quite rocking back against him.
"This is how good it can feel," he tells her.
It takes thirty seconds more of this before he gets her to climax. She comes with a keening mewl, her cunt clenching and unclenching hard, a rush of wetness slick and hot coating his fingers, his wrist.
"No," she whimpers. "No, no..."
"Yes," he says, and he drives his fingers deeper inside her, thumbs her clit with more pressure, guiding her through the rest of her orgasm.
She shudders, her body twitching with the ripples of her pleasure, her cunt fluttering around his fingers, her back bowed and her hips canted up. Her head lolls, her mouth open as she pants in ragged gasps, and he drinks in her expression, the desperation etched on her features, the helpless anger bleeding out through her pores, the spark of her exhausted magic trying to resist this, resist him.
Finally her body goes lax, though her thighs are still trembling. Her head is turned sideways, tears glinting at the corners of her eyes. She's resolutely not looking at him. It hardly matters. Withdrawing his fingers, he palms himself through his pants. His cock is rock hard, and he can't wait any longer. He frees his erection, strokes himself a couple of times, making sure to smear her wetness on his member, before he slides the tip of it against her slit.
It will hurt her, he knows. His cock is proportionate to his body, and he's twice her size, so there's no way around it. But he fully intends to have her screaming in pleasure by the time he's done.
She's trembling beneath him as he starts pushing his cock inside her. He groans in pleasure as the tip of him enters her. One inch in, and it feels heavenly. She's so incredibly tight and hot around him.
"No," she groans.
She struggles, feebly. He presses down on her restrained wrists, nicks the inside of her thigh with the claws of his other hand, the one he's using to keep her legs spread.
"Stay still," he says. "The more you fight me, the more it will hurt for you."
She acts as if she hasn't heard him, even increasing the strength of her squirming. She's never going to stop fighting him, he realizes. Not matter how dire the situation or how little hope she has of winning. The thought makes desire pulse in his blood, and he flexes his hips brutally.
*
Something too hot and too large and too big is being shoved inside her. It hurts, but the pain is not the worst of it. It's the violation, the fact that Vearn is forcing this on her, forcing her to feel all of this, him inside her. His erection is an iron brand inside her sex, throbbing and hard and too much.
She looks down, sees the joining of their bodies, and he's only halfway inside, there's still so much of him for her to take, and his size is—there's no way it can—it won't fit, it won't, it won't. It can't.
His hips move, forcing another inch in, and she screams, a high, keening sound of pain. Her cunt ripples around him, her inner muscles reacting against the intrusion.
"You're fighting me beautifully," Vearn rumbles, smiling down at her.
She wants to scream more, hit him, find her sword and bury it in his stomach, but she's trapped under him, his hands anchoring her to him, and she's lost all her weapons. The only thing she has left is her voice, so she says, "You haven't won", spitting it at him like venom.
"But I have, Dai. I have. Tell me, what is this, if not victory?"
He pushes deeper, forcing her to take more of him, and she can only grit her teeth and pant. The thing inside her—his cock—is enormous, and every inch feels like it should be the last, like she cannot possibly take more, but he keeps going, and her body keeps taking it, accepting more and more, somehow fitting itself to his girth and size. Finally he stops moving, and when she glances down, the truth stares her in the face. He's all the way inside her.
"My entire cock is inside you," Vearn taunts.
He brushes a finger against her clitoris, and she cries out, spine arching, as something thrilling and raw skates across her nerves. He does it again, a molten heated warmth pulsing from that point of contact. She groans in confusion. How can it feel like this? Her cunt twitches around the thick cock stuffing it, pleasure echoing through her flesh, replacing pain.
"You'll come for me again before I'm done fucking you, little dragon."
"No," she growls, baring her teeth savagely.
"Let me show you," he says, and he withdraws and spears back into her, his massive cock breaking open her cunt again in one sure thrust.
She howls.
It's as much an assault as the rest of his attacks were when they were fighting, as devastating as the impact of his spells, as powerful as every clash of their transformed bodies. No, it's worse, because it's all inside her, and he does it again and again, and she can't defend herself. Can't do anything to stop him.
He's fucking her, ruthless, splitting her open on his cock, his hips colliding with hers relentlessly. His member is hitting a spot that makes her see stars, that sends bolts of pleasure into her belly and tears whines from her throat. Pleasure, pleasure, more than she has ever known, her flesh slick and growing even slicker, traitorously so.
She hiccups a little broken sob of a breath, tries to stop herself from reaching the release that is building between her thighs. Perhaps if she wills it enough, it won't happen. Perhaps her body will listen to her, stop burning, stop pouring out slick arousal to coat the cock pumping inside her. Perhaps she'll be spared further humiliation.
Except Vearn's fingers are on her clitoris still, and the pleasure is getting better, sharper, every passing second. She hears her own panting, little "ah—ah—ah" tumbling from her lips, breathy gasps, and she knows it's going to happen. She's going to come on Vearn's cock.
Oh Gods, she's going to come.
She screams when she does, pleasure bursting in a tidal wave, every muscle locking down in burning ecstasy. It feels like she's dying and being reborn at the same time, feels like what he's doing will never leave her, that she'll always be there in this moment, on her back with his thick cock rammed all the way inside her, her cunt pulsing in glorious spasms, each one so violent she wonders how she's still whole. Surely she should have shattered by now. Surely she should be dead, and not jerking in pleasure again and again, her cunt tightening around him like she wants this, like she wants more.
How long can she endure this?
*
He's watching her in the throes of her pleasure, and he's quite sure he has never experienced something as carnally satisfying as the feel of her little cunt fluttering around his cock. She's squeezing him so tightly, her walls gripping his length, milking it with their pulsations, while her hips are grinding back against his, as if he still isn't deep enough inside her. And to think he wanted to kill her just a few moments ago. What a foolish mistake that would have been.
He waits until her spasms subside to grab her hips with both hands, and then, his body draped over her, dwarfing her, he sets a brutal rhythm, taking her without holding back. He knows she can take everything he can give her, and that thought too sets his blood on fire.
He slams inside her with brutal thrusts, groaning as he pushes to the hilt inside her slick cunt. She mutters something, an insult perhaps, and she struggles again, even more weakly than before. He holds her, pinned down, fucks her harder, rewarding her resistance with punishing cruel strokes.
"Stop, stop," she pants, her voice high and near its breaking point.
He lowers his face to hers, smiling knowingly at her.
"Does that feel good, Dai?" he asks, licking her mouth.
She gasps softly as his hips drive home once more, and he forces his tongue past her lips, licking deep inside her mouth. She has a peculiar taste, one he hasn't found in women before. Then again, he's never consorted with a human/dragon hybrid. She's new, and full of surprises. Predictable in some aspects, though, as he realizes when he feels her teeth sink into his probing tongue.
"Little dragon, always biting..." he chides her, letting his tongue trace a path down her neck.
He keeps pumping inside her cunt, his flesh slapping rhythmically against hers, burying himself to the hilt every time, ramming her into the ground. The pleasure he feels is beyond anything he has ever thought he could get from the act, almost better than the high of victory. Her reactions are quite entertaining too. She's gasping with every thrust, her face screwed up in the effort not to let her own pleasure show. Such a stubborn little girl...
He bits her ear violently, and she wails, her cunt clenching around him. He grunts, changing his rhythm, all but rutting inside her now. He's not going to last much longer... She's tight, so hot... so soft...
And so completely his.
The thought sends him over the edge and he spills himself inside her with a grunt. He hasn't come in a very, very long time. Consequently, the load he's pumping into her is sizable, and he can feel some leak out of her, dripping to the floor. Breathing in slowly, the aftershocks of his orgasm winding down, he chuckles.
"Now that was good, little dragon..."
She whines, tries to wiggle away from underneath him. So combative. He adjust her on his cock, manhandling her little body with ease. Her legs jerk, and she moans, glaring at him with those dark eyes.
"You got what you wanted," she says, showing him her bloody teeth. "Let me go."
"It's not over," he informs her. "You're going to come for me again."
She tenses up, shakes her head.
"Yes, Dai, you will," he says, touching her cheek with one finger.
She bites him. Sinks her teeth into the meaty space between his thumb and his forefinger, and draws blood, the little brat. He backhands her, using a touch of his power so the blow hurts more. The sound that leaves her lips is half-snarl, half-whimper. He grabs her by the throat to make her stay still, rubs at her clit with his other hand. He has her gasping in no time. It's not going to take long at all. As he grinds his hips against hers, hardening again inside her, he wonders if she realizes that for her, sex would have been associated with violence anyway. She can't escape her dragon blood, no matter how much she might wish to.
"Submit," he asks of her, knowing she won't. "Submit to me, Dai..."
"No," she grits out, her eyes closed, breathing hard.
A couple of seconds later, she's coming around him with a stifled whimper. The contractions of her cunt are just as strong as the first time, feel just as good. He rides her orgasm, grinding into her to the hilt until he comes as well, releasing his pleasure in bursts, coating her inner walls with his thick spend. There's a copious amount of it, flooding her clutching depths, leaking out again. He has always enjoyed the sight of his cum dripping out of a well-used cunt, and when he pulls out, the blood mixed in with his seed is doubly satisfying. As is the weak kick Dai aims his way, which he deflects with no effort at all.
"Still fighting me?" he says, gripping her chin with a rough hand, claws digging in.
"I'll never stop," she snarls back. "Right until you kill me."
"Oh, I won't kill you. No, no." He smiles down at her. "I'm going to keep you. A little dragon girl to warm my cock and my bed."
Her eyes go wide.
"You... want to do this again?" she stammers, anger warring with confusion on her features, like she's afraid she understood it right but doesn't want to believe it.
"Again," he says. "And often."
Her scream is pure anguish. He seals their lips together to drink her despair at the source. Of course, she bites him. Savage little dragon.
He's going to enjoy taming her.