NOVEL SIMPLE 83. Agony and Retribution
Bonny braced her hooves on the dragon’s neck and jaw. She stood upside down, bent double, and adjusted her grip, then yanked, hard!
Something in her back cracked and her hands and arms burned with the effort. Pain radiated out from her lower back. She knew better than to pull with her back. If only she had the luxury of taking her time to do this right.
The dragon twisted and spun, trying to fling her off. She held on tight and pulled her wings in, trying to make herself as small as possible. She slipped her left arm up under the chain, locking herself in place.
The chain reminded her of the wrath scales she had taken from the goblins, but harder, like metal. She didn’t know how to make or break it, but if it was demonic essence…
“Lust, what is this?” The words weren’t spoken out loud, but more mumbled and thought.
“Demonsteel.” The demoness appeared next to her and remained in relative proximity even as the dragon turned and rotated, flying wildly across the city and back.
“Can I break it or absorb it?”
Lust tapped on the chain, frowned, and shook her head. “No.”
“What do I do?”
“Use your aura. Overwhelm her.”
“Her?”
Lust winked and vanished.
Most of Bonny’s auras were active, but the default range was only wide enough to cover about half the dragon. She turned up the intensity of her Lust aura and extended it, feeling the draw. At a default level, the divine and demonic auras didn’t take mana or will. The practice with Kanae had given Bonny the ability to contract or extend the range and intensity, but as the aura became more powerful, it required a source. Unfortunately, reducing the power didn’t return mana or willpower the same way.
The dragon’s claws came up to rake at Bonny’s sides and back, tearing through her wings and leather armor like paper. She felt an uncomfortable pulling sensation and glanced down to see huge slices though the leather and into her her sides. Blood sprayed out, but at least it didn’t hurt. Didn’t distract. Much.
“Divine Mending! Divine Ward!” After healing, she cast her one defensive spell and increased her Regeneration aura. She enabled her Retribution after a moment as well. If the dragon was going to hurt her, she wanted to hurt it back. Maybe it would help distract it… or her.
Although, if this took very long, she would run out of mana. Unless, … “Sacrificial Restore, Mana!”
Bonny felt like she slammed her head into an iron wall. When she had pitted her will against the goblins, they were no challenge, especially when wounded. When she faced Matt, she struggled, but he was all martial, with no real mental shielding at all. Against Violet, she struggled again, despite more training, but the ooze was only slightly sapient before she had bonded with it. The dragon was different, it's will indomitable.
Her head throbbed. “Mending!” Not only didn’t she get additional mana from the dragon, she had lost some. She needed another source.
‘Violet, I need the crown!’
[a moment]
There was brief pause in the conversation and the dragon twisted and spun, whipping Bonny’s legs out into the open air. She only stayed in place because of the arm wedged under the chain, but it wrenched her shoulder.
“Mending!” Bonny pulled her legs back in, trying to wrap them back around the dragon’s neck.
[friends safe, you may take it]
‘Thank you.’ She tugged at the crown, summoning it, the action taking more mana to teleport it to her than when she was in the same room with Violet. She felt the weight settle on her head, glad she hadn’t waited till later to try. Her mana pool filled instantly and remained steady, bolstered by the seemingly unlimited mana available in the artifact.
Distracted, by the summon, her hooves lost purchase as the dragon twirled again, and her arm and lower body swung out again, wildly.
The dragon wasted no time in raking at her, foreclaws tearing through her armor and rending her legs and stomach.
The Retribution aura clawed back at the dragon, cutting at its scales, though not piercing them. The scales were far more protective than leather armor, even when assaulted by divine power.
“Divine Mending! Demonic Ward!” Since the Divine Ward hadn’t protected her, maybe the Demonic version would. Or at least do some damage back. She touched the dragon with her Lust aura, but there was no bond, nothing to use for leverage. She intensified the aura, hoping that a desire for sex would distract it from its anger.
She felt the dragon breathe in and curled herself back up tight, not allowing any of herself to dangle in range of fire without the dragon cooking itself as well. She wasn’t worried about the gas, since her aura would cleanse it before it could hurt her.
The dragon’s neck heated suddenly and the roar of flames jetted out, though it didn’t seem as powerful as it had when she’d viewed it earlier. Maybe the fire wasn’t as much of a threat as she thought. Could her aura cleanse it as well?
The claws came up again and she tried to fend them off with her free hand. She missed and one claw pierced into arm, yanking it up, toward the dragon's maw.
Bonny glanced up to see rows of teeth descending and summoned the Sword of Justice. It stabbed into the dragon’s palate just as its teeth perforated her arm.
A high keening wail shattered her eardrums as the dragon jerked its mouth back open. Bonny willed the sword larger, seeing it stab through and out of the dragon’s snout. She yanked her mutilated arm out, leaving the sword in place and forcing the dragon’s jaws open uncomfortably wide. It shouldn’t try to bite her again.
“Sacrificial Restore, Mana!” She pitted her will against the dragon, hoping that the pain and distraction of the sword was enough to allow her to succeed. It wasn’t. The pain hit her head like a hammer.
“Divine Mending!” Arm and headache. "Divine Mending!" Cuts and tears!
The fight became a marathon, who could last longer, her or the dragon? She continued to hang on as the dragon banked back and forth over the city, gaining height. She held on through claws and fire, until only scraps of armor were left and she smelled her flesh cooking against the oven of the dragon’s neck scales. There was no pain, but there were clear signs of injury and trauma. When she shifted her legs, her skin stuck to the superheated scales, tearing it away.
“Sacrificial Restore! Mending! Divine Mending!” It became a mantra, continually attempting to steal health or mana, healing herself, and pulling mana from the crown. Until she realized the crown wasn’t refilling her mana pool as it should. Apparently there was a limit and she was about to be in serious trouble.
The next time the dragon drew in a deep breath, Bonny twisted and kicked up with her hooves, impacting the dragon's jaw and closing it on the sword. Flames jetted up along the penetrating blade, exiting in a plume from the wound on it's snout.
It shrieked again and Bonny slammed her will into the dragon. “Sacrificial Restore: Mana!”
It worked. Mana flowed into her and she breathed a sigh of relief.
“Wound Transfer! Sacrificial Restore: Health and Mana!” Bonny activated more skills, using the gap in the dragon’s mental defenses to gain an advantage. She felt her skin reknit as huge rents opened along the dragon’s sides.
The next time the claws raked and pulled at her, she felt the dragon shudder in pain as her Retribution Aura finally cut back in mirrored slices.
“Wound Transfer! Divine Mending! Sacrificial Restore: Health and Mana!” The triple cast repaired the gashes on her, while widening them on the dragon. She stacked them to be most advantageous. Wound transfer swapped health in specific ways, literally moving the wounds to the dragon. Mending closed and healed her injuries, using arcane or divine magic. Sacrifice took the dragon’s health to heal her, but in a general sense, not targeting specific wounds.
Dragon blood splashed across her face on body as the cuts worked deeper, soaking into her wounds and into her mouth. It was hot! Boiling! It seared her skin and cauterizing her wounds. She felt the burning blood seep down her throat, scorching her insides. Her stomach cooked and melted, and she felt it all. The intense burning sensation hurt, even in the absence of pain.
She sobbed as she choked out another set of healing spells. “Wound Transfer! Divine Mending! Sacrificial Restore: Health and Mana!”
The spells seemed less affective than they should. The burning continued, but the heat from the dragon’s scales seemed to diminish slightly under the intensity of the superheated blood. Their mixed blood coated them both and fell across the city in a red rain.
The dragon's claws rose and fell again, shredding her wings, sides and back. The retributive damage seemed to increase the dragon's anger and it went into a frenzy.
Bonny's concentration waned and it was all that she could do to continue her chant: heal, heal, endure, heal.
She suddenly realized she was falling. Wind whistled in her ears and the incessant claws had ceased their endless tearing. She looked up, to see the dragon’s eyes glazed over, then down, to see the the sky, then the city growing larger beneath her, then the clouds growing smaller. They were tumbling as they fell, uncontrolled.
Bonny struggled to withdraw her arm from the chain, then pushed herself away. She opened her wings to catch the air and felt them rip as the wind yanked at her. More healing. She pulled them in, cast “Divine Mending!”, then extended them again. This time they held.
She watched the dragon as they separated. It’s wings were shredded, the continuous demonic transfers and divine retribution leaving less membrane present than Bonny had armor. It was a wonder they had remained aloft as long as they had.
A few moments later, the dragon slammed into one of the buildings just outside the north gate, hammering the building flat like the fist of a titan.
Bonny heard her name as she floated over the North gate and looked down to see all of her companions, but Violet, waving and shouting up at her. She smiled and waved in return, then glided passed them and down, landing near the fallen dragon.
