Dragon Gods Reign

[Dragon peaks]

Turning towards the source of the roar, they watched as a mass of fire and light akin to a sun shot through the canyon before crashing into the ground before them. Shattering the ground in an explosion of searing heat, they waited for the cloud of fire and dust to settle.

As soon as it did they saw a young child of around 12 years standing there, his form clad in dark red flames. Wielding a sword slightly too large for his frame with both hands, he stood in an amateurish stance.

“Get away from my father.” He shouted determined.

Hearing these words but disregarding them, the seven of them waited for a moment longer as they still felt the mana's presence nearing. First perplexed and then insulted by this, the boy concentrated the flames along the sword's blade and rushed forward.

Barely sparing him a glance, Sarkia pushed his blade from its trajectory toward Yldra with a slight flick of her hand. This sudden shift caused the boy to lose his balance, stumbling to the ground next to them.

Kicking the sword away, Sarkia already turned her full attention back to the same presence the others were waiting for when she sensed a clawed hand slashing at her. Grabbing it with ease, she pulled the boy up by the wrist with an annoyed sigh.

“Listen here child, you may be a half-dragon but that does mean shit right now.” She growled at him, her eyes taking on their true draconic form.

When he saw this he stopped struggling against her grip, staring at her in surprise. In that moment Sarkia simply let him drop to the ground, hoping that this would stop him from annoying them further.

And despite doing so reluctantly, the boy didn't disappoint her and rushed towards his father instead of attacking them again.

“Father, how are you?” He asked but was brushed off.

'Keep calm all you want, it won't last long.' The man thought to himself.

Looking in the same direction with anticipation, his smile only widened when a massive shadow appeared in the distance. A moment later the being it belonged to appeared, the solar dragon's frame rushing through the comparatively narrow ravine with unexpected speed.

Not bothering to dodge stone protrusions on the mostly straight path towards their group, the dragon continued speeding up with strong beasts of its wings as it crashed through them.

This caused large pieces of debris to hurl in all directions, with Yldra catching them by controlling space before hurling them to the sides.

A moment later the dragon let itself drop to the ground, its form going up in flames that coalesced in the form of a human woman standing before them. Her gaze instantly wandered to the father and son duo, she made sure that they were fine.

In the meantime, another seven figures appeared behind her. These men quickly followed her gaze, looking towards the two with a gleeful smile. This caused his expression to fall again as soon as he noticed it.

The dragoness completely disregarded this, instead letting her gaze wander over Darganth's group. When she saw Neandra a smile spread across her lips though it was clearly no well-meant one.

“Neandra, been a long time since I've seen you here.” She said with a condescending laugh.

“Hakuria.” Neandra answered, clicking her tongue in annoyance.

Hakuria didn't pay any heed to that. Confidently walking forward and coming to a halt before Neandra, she eyed her with a critical sneer.

“I would have said that I would have expected better from you but that would be a lie. Now kneel or I will make you.”

“Make me? Good joke, how would you do that?” Neandra answered with a cocky grin.

Her words caused some unrest from the men behind Hakuria. Growling at her attitude, they murmured curses about her.

Seemingly emboldened by this, Hakuria straightened her back further and looked at her with a smug smile. But what initially looked to become a drawn-out standoff between the two ended quickly when Neandra spoke again.

“Or did you forget the beating you took last time? You even needed to cry for help from another dragon, those were fun times.” Neandra said while reminiscing.

At those words, Hakuria's arrogance instantly faltered. Her carefree smile also sank, with the corner of her mouth twitching as she stared at Neandra in rage.

“I was ready to forget what had happened but you just had to bring it up again.”

Along with the end of this sentence, Hakuria's throat lit up with a bright yellow glow. She charged her dragon's breath before shooting it at Neandra a moment later. Smiling confidently as it reached her in an instant, she didn't doubt her own superiority for even a moment.

But instead of forcing Neandra to undo her transformation lest she be burned to cinders, the attack met another stream of fire. When the two fire breaths impacted each other it took barely a moment before it became clear which one was superior.

Her own breath barely managed to hold back Neandra's for a fraction of a second, Hakuria became enveloped by flames. For a moment it seemed like they managed to devour her body completely but this quickly proved to be false.

By holding her hand out she pushed Neandra's breath back, something that was possible as it was closer to a beam than the cone of her own breath. This revealed her completely unharmed body, with the flames also harmlessly impacting her palm.

“Was that supposed to tickle?” She asked mockingly.

“As if I need to go all out to block your breath. But it seems like I still overestimated its power.” Neandra shot back.

Scoffing in response, Hakuria was about to respond in kind when Darganth stepped forward to interrupt their altercation before it escalated further.

“How about you both take a step back and calm down.” He said in an attempt to mediate.

But instead of listening to him, Hakuria only shot him a disparaging glare. Turning back to Neandra and noticing that she had listened to him at least partially, still anticipating an underhand attack by Hakuria, she started laughing.

“Listening to playthings now, are we?” She asked amused.

“Projecting a bit much now, aren't we? Just because the men around you have no worth beyond clinging to you doesn't mean that others are the same.” Neandra answered back before Darganth could do so.

Gnashing his teeth in annoyance but deciding to let Hakuria's words slide for now, he let Neandra take care of her.

“How would you know, none ever gave you a chance. I doubt that he is different, first chance and you'll be back alone. Isn't that right handsome?” She said, giving Darganth a flirtatious smile.

Before he could rebuke her she suddenly started laughing as Jennia and Allarie had started to glare at her with narrowed eyes. And when the two stepped to Darganth's sides her desire to have him only grew.

Right as she was about to act, she momentarily tensed up, halting her just as she was about to rush at them. Feeling a shiver running down her spine, the look she gave the three of them became filled with hesitation. Meanwhile, Jennia and Allaire gave Yldra a short smile of thanks for supporting their normally empty threat with her dragon's authority.

Managing through it just a second later, she disappeared in a blur of speed. Arriving before Darganth and trying to grab him, she was just about to succeed when his dragon's authority slammed into her.

Freezing with her arm still outstretched, she started trembling in shock.

“I tried to warn you.” Darganth said with a sigh.

“Wha-” Hakuria started but was interrupted when Neandra's tail smashed into her side.

Flung to the side, she barely managed to get up just in time to dodge the following salvo of solid poisonous projectiles.

“Even after noticing your history with Neandra I tried not to hold any prejudices to you, but now? Now your all hers.” Darganth said, his words causing Neandra to smile sadistically.

Without delay, she shot the next volley of spells at Hakuria, this one consisting of spears of fire, lightning, and ice. Using the full capabilities that being an Archmage offered her, Neandra guided each one to follow her every movement.

This forced Hakuria to constantly dodge around, slowly riling her up more and more. With each small mistake, another spear would cut close or even hit her, exploding in both cases and showering her with a wave of its element.

From time to time she would also find herself beset by attacks from Yldra or Venrie, with both disrupting her even further. On the other hand, each time she tried to strike back she would get restricted by Darganth's dragon's authority, much to her irritation.

Especially because he was simply sitting on a conjured throne with Jennia and Allaire, alternating his kisses between them.

Looking further to the side, she saw the men following her standing around helplessly. Clicking her tongue in annoyance as she remembered Neandra's words, she made sure to remember this.

When a moment later one of the fire spears struck her abdomen she was again ripped out of her thoughts. Despite its explosion barely fazing her, she nonetheless grew frustrated and decided to no longer hold back.

Roaring in response, her form shifted back to that of her true body amidst a shower of flames. A moment later the elemental spears struck her though now they barely even grazed her skin. Ignoring the handful of scales that were knocked loose, Hakuria rushed towards Neandra with her claw in full swing.

Hoping that Darganth's dragon's authority wouldn't stop her again, she grew irritated when Yldra and Venrie stopped their attacks in response to hers. But when a moment later she felt two claws digging into her back she realized why.

Before she could do anything to free herself from Neandra's grasp, she felt her feet losing contact with the ground. As she was dragged up into the air she struggled to the best of her abilities but to no avail. And under Nenadra's constant attacks with her tail, each one injecting more poison into Hakura's bloodstream, she slowly lost the strength to do so.

Helplessly watching as they rose higher until they broke past the cliffs after about six hundred meters, she started pleading instead.

“We dragons should hold together, don't do this to me.” She pleaded but was simply ignored.

Just as she was about to formulate another plea the two reached the mana storms and in an instant their body started to become riddled with wounds. As if thousands of sharp winds were swirling around them, cut after cut ripped out pieces of their flesh.

Though despite both getting wounded it quickly became obvious which of them was faring worse, with Neandra getting fewer and lighter wounds that also healed at a visible rate.

Hakuria was meanwhile shredded by the mana despite her constitution as a true dragon. Thanks to Irsyrs presence this area contained small traces of transcendent mana which posed a threat to all but the strongest of solar dragons.

This mana was also what inflicted the wounds on Neandra, with it ripping through her defenses with ease. But compared to Hakuria who also had to fight off her poison, she could focus her entire efforts on expelling the higher energy by overwhelming it.

Like this she kept them in the air, weathering this bit of pain to inflict more on Hakuria. Only when she felt Hakuria to slowly lose what last bit of strength she had remaining did Neandra dive back to keep her from dying.

Slamming her roughly onto the ground, Neandra stood atop of her chest and loomed over her. Her claws were piercing into Hakuria's body, sinking deep enough that they were only centimeters from her dragon heart.

“Burn this memory into your mind because the next time you try something like this my claws won't stop here.” She threatened.

Nodding weakly in response, Hakuria soon lost her consciousness.

When she saw this, Neandra returned to her transformed state before leaving her wounded body as it is. The wounds that Hakuria had suffered from her may be extensive but not to the extent that they would threaten her life.

Instead, she would be in pain for years to come, her poison rampaging in her body and greatly limiting her power. And this wouldn't be just physically as it may not be able to deal permanent damage to her mana heart but would weaken it for years.

All of that was without even considering the transcendent mana that would interfere with any attempts to train her own mana until it was fully purged from her system. And before it was expelled she would also have even more trouble to combat the poison as her healing would be limited greatly.

“Enjoyed the opportunity?” Darganth asked when she arrived back with the rest of them.

“Yes. Thank you for not intervening more or earlier.” She said with a smile, surprising him a bit when she pulled him into a kiss.

Continuing to flirt with each other for a while, they were interrupted by a cough from Allaire to get their attention.

“What do we do with her?” She asked, motioning towards Hakuria.

Thinking for a moment, Nenadra's gaze soon fell on the group of men that had followed her.

“Force her into a human form and let them take care of her?” She proposed.

With Darganth just shrugging and the others not having any better ideas they did just that. Forcing Hakuria to polymorph by using his dragon's authority, they simply left her in their care.