Caldera Isle - Volcano (Scene - Completed)

[Karl Jak]

Advancing further into the Containment Zone, one of the dragons from the Fleet had their focus on the semi-active volcano to the south.

Surrounded almost entirely by cliffs of obsidian and slag rocks, ‘Caldera Isle’ (as it was dubbed by the sailors) could threaten the safety of everyone beneath the dome if it went from simmering to full blown boil. Already, the radio signals had come from the Command Point highlighting the dangers if the volcano erupted, and sure, there were plenty of people in the Fleet who could survive if the air was literal volcanic ash, but they were a minority.

It was only fitting that a dragon stared down the volcano as it grew larger on the horizon.

***​

Characters Involved: Karakul (@Eszter) & Smaug (@Shallan Davar)

Notes: Caldera Isle is virtually impregnable, save for the small, chunky peninsula that lay before you. If you intend to travel inland, you’ll need to capture this point first, but you’ll be resisted by ‘locals’. The temperature here is not unbearable, but it is extremely uncomfortable for those who aren’t suited to high temperatures.

Enemy NPC Characters: No enemy bonds. The enemies here are all lava- or magma- or fire-themed. I’ll let you interpret that as you desire.

Length of Scene: This Scene will last for 36 hours
Post Count/Size: 2 Posts max / 1750 words max
Other Stuff: Others MAY join this scene if they move along this path.

Good luck.

 

[Eszter]

“Temperature’s still rising.”

“Is the air lighting you on fire yet?”

“No ma’am.”

“Then we keep going.”

Aboard the ship spearheading the assault on Caldera Isle, Karakul sat with her back to the approaching landmass. The nightmarish contraption which held her chest wound closed was currently open to let Eszter more easily converse with the crew, though it may have been less disconcerting to simply talk to the colossal dragon face-to-face.

Half a dozen tentacles of red-hot lava stretched out from Karakul’s body cavity, twisting and turning as they writhed downwards. At the end of the tendrils hung Eszter, dangling like a marionette on its strings. Several of the horrific connections extended from along her spine with the remaining two extending from her arms, one each. To ensure her pilot was not picked off by some unmade assassin, the larger dragon hunkered down over Eszter, her wings forming a protective barrier.

“The men don’t know if they can fight in this heat.” the captain gasped, exasperated. Captain Blister, a fire genasi hand-picked for this mission, was relatively unphased by the steadily increasing temperatures exuded by the volcano. The rest of the crew, however, were not so lucky. Though no one was dropping dead or being scalded by the ambient air (yet), the general atmosphere of an oppressively hot, humid summer day was not helping morale.

“What, are they going to roll over and let the unmade kill them over a bit of sweat?” Eszter scoffed, crossing her arms carefully to ensure she didn’t tangle herself up in the connecting bonds. “You guys signed up to protect the crossroads or whatever, right? Noble shit like that?”

“Well actually most of us are just getting pai-”

“That was a rhetorical question.” the dragonkin butted in before Blister could finish, much to his chagrin. “Look, this isn’t negotiable. We’re going to capture that peninsula. All you guys need to do is follow me and Smaug while we do the heavy lifting. Oh, and don’t you dare try to correct my grammar. I obviously deserve to come first.”

The soldiers glanced uncertainly at one another, fairly sure that no one intended to correct her. Technically, they didn’t need to follow Eszter’s orders. She possessed no rank which would have commanded their respect. But assaulting the unmade was their role in this war, so they intended to do so despite their concerns of how dangerous the island could be. Blister was momentarily tempted to tell her this, but decided against it. The utterly unhinged were bad enough when they weren’t plugged into a gigantic dragon who was ready and willing to kill them at the slightest provocation.

“...augh…” the captain sighed before turning back to his soldiers. “Landfall in ten. Weapons hot, lads.”

Smirking proudly at herself, Eszter gave a quick mental signal to Karakul and was reeled back into the safety of her chest cavity, the interlocking jaws snapping shut behind her. Rising to full lucidity, the reforged dragon tilted her head from side to side and stretched her wings wide to wake herself up.

“Queen-Commander Eszter, preparing for take-off.” the demi-dragon announced, smiling to herself from within her white-hot cocoon. She was awfully proud of that title, it had taken basically the whole trip over to come up with. Blister held his tongue once more, simply glad that she was allowing his crew to prepare themselves rather than just taking off like last time.

Once all of the crew was in position and the go-ahead was given, Karakul crouched at the beginning of the runway before surging forward into a sprint. She crossed the runway in two bounds before launching into the air with the third, her wings catching the magical thermals that seemed to be found only around the islands that dotted the Abyss. On the other side of the fleet, she spotted Smaug taking off in similar fashion.

“We need to get there first.” Eszter murmured to her past self. “We can’t let that poser get started before us.”

“I concur, little sister.” Karakul growled, her wings pumping hard to get her to the fight even just a little quicker. “First blood belongs to the daughters of Yucatan.”

The pair closed in on the peninsula quickly, the reforged dragon’s speed ever-surprising for a being of her sheer size and weight. Swooping down to ground, Eszter quickly scanned the battlefield for a worthy opponent. There were enemies, certainly, twisted fire elementals and corrupted Pokémon. But… there was no enemy titan, nothing that could conceivably match a bond in single combat.

“Hmph… I expected stiffer resistance.” the dragonkin sniffed. As dismissive as she was, the resistance was rather stiff. With each unmade monster roused to activity, a few more seemed to spring to life and charge down the beach towards the invader. The reincarnations of Yucatan, however, remained unimpressed. “I almost feel a little bad for them.”

“I do not!” Karakul snarled as the horde advanced towards her, some creatures crushing one another in their desperate attempts to tear her apart. A rabid, snarling Flareon was squashed beneath the root-like foot of a burning treant, which was in turn torn down when a swarm of flaming imps washed over it, ripping off bark and limbs alike in their excitement. The great dragon reared back for a moment, breathing deep, and in that moment a burst of uncharacteristic clarity hit Eszter.

“Hey, is this a good idea?” she asked. “It just feels like you’re literally wasting your breath here…”

But it was too late for snide comments. With a deafening roar, Karakul unleashed her breath upon the unmade horde with the fury of a dying star, swallowing each and every one of them up in the raging inferno. After a few long moments of all-consuming flame, the dragon let up, revealing…

The exact same horde that had been there before.

“Well… I think some of them are a little hurt.” Eszter said, squinting a little in an attempt to get a better look, taking an embarrassingly long time to realise why it wasn’t working. “I think they’re a little more charred than before?”

Then, all at once, the rage hit her once more. Her stomach dropped as if she was going down a roller coaster and she couldn’t resist the slightly misguided urge to tear the unmade army apart with her teeth and claws.

“How dare they resist the fires of Yucatan?” Karakul boomed incredulously. Without giving them another moment, the reforged dragon lunged in, crunching a number of her enemies to bits with a single bite. A volley of fireballs came streaking from her left flank, conjured forth by a company of cackling and very-much-on-fire sorcerers. Unfortunately for them, their magic seemed to have as little effect on Karakul as hers had on them, though whether this was due to innate fire resistance or simply the thickness of her armour was anyone’s guess.

Bellowing her rage at the magic for rubbing salt in the wound, the dragon whipped around to face them, snapping another treat in half with her tail in the process, and lashed out with a claw. This proved to be far more effective than her fire breath, splitting the entire congregation into still-giggling, still-burning mincemeat.

“Keep coming, vermin!” Eszter howled to the oncoming horde. “Face your fate! Face death! Face the fucking meatgrinder!”

1223 words

 

[Shallan Davar]

Shallan had never seen a volcano before. As they circled in the air above the chosen landing, she couldn’t bring herself to focus on the charge. The mountain preoccupied her mind. Leaking ash and soot like the furnace of Honor himself. It overpowered her fear of any of the monsters that swarmed Karakul below them.

Her fear was just baseless superstition though, surely. Jasnah would be disappointed with her. This was how a child saw the world, not a scholar. Mountains were hollow sometimes, that made sense. The Horneaters' mountain homeland was famous for just such a thing. But the idea that one could be on fire at all times? Just waiting to explode, like a boiling pot with a shuddering lid? And to think that any number of the mountains on Roshar could be the same? She shuddered despite herself, and Smaug snorted in amused derision.

Against her better judgment, Shallan spoke up. “What, may I ask, do you find so amusing, O’ Smaug the resplendent?”

With a rumble, She felt Smaug’s attention turned away from his flight towards her. “Carefully now, little scribbler. Do not make such a racket of yourself that I silence you.”

Shallan quailed inwardly, but she would not allow herself to be dismissed again, to be silenced.

“You gaze upon my thoughts, O’ golden terror. I simply wished to know which among them you find worthy of disdain, when you have such a challenge before you.”

“You do not wish to know my thoughts, Scribbler.” Smaug all but physically smiled as he responded, “Or more precisely, you would not wish if you know them. You extend your hands to the idle droplets that fall from my goblet, and think you gleam from that my purpose. You are like a hatchling, moving from treasure to treasure with a nervous greed, as though your physical presence was what designated the hoard yours.”

Folding his wings slightly, Smaug dipped out of the air. Despite the small holes that had been torn through one of his wings, his descent was graceful, silent and deadly. They swooped above Karakul, plowing into a mass of rocky, molten creatures, scattering obsidian and magma in a tide of destruction.

“Much like that one, you only see the faintest shadow of what it means to be a dragon. You can no more grasp the difference in being, than she can ever return from her decrepitude. However much she might pretend the part of dragon now, the bond she utilizes with her own corpse cannot be sustained. When this charade of a contest has run its course, the both of you will be left hollow. Scenting the taste of the freedom and power possessed by all dragon kind, and yet dwindled forever to something lesser.”

Smaug’s head snaked out, snatching up a blazing skeletal beast. He held it in his maw, matching the creature’s fire with his own breath. When neither heat could overwhelm the other he resorted to more base solutions, snapping his neck like a whip, he hurled the beast’s bones against the rock, then stepped on it for good measure.

“Were you not such miserable things, I would perhaps pity you.” Smaug mused, like he was airing his thoughts aloud more than to Shallan, “But I shall watch you both bend and break under the weight of knowing what you can no longer be.”

Smaug gave another self-satisfied chuckle.

“I wonder which of you shall break first.

Shallan could feel his attention move beyond her again, back to the battle at hand. His tail cracked as he hurtled a particularly persistent fireball with eyes hurtling into the sea. He roared defiantly at the horde that still opposed them. Karakul matched his roar, then exceeded it, bellowing out a deafening clamor that foretold the inevitable destruction she would bring. Shallan thought she felt a trace of annoyance at being outdone, as Smaug’s attack became more ferocious yet, scoring a hole through the defensive lines.

“Why not help her, then?” She voiced aloud, “You said yourself that dragons were rare in the Crossroads now.”

Shallan immediately regretted it as Smaug’s outrage washed over her through their mental link.

“Do not think to give me counsel, ground worm! When you cease to amuse me I shall cease to allow your intrusions into my mind!”

Shallan was admittedly growing less and less confident on where exactly the balance of power truly lay in their shared consciousness, but Smaug clearly thought himself in full control of the situation, and Shallan saw little to be gained from contesting that at this time.

“But of course, O Smaug the molten!” She was running low on names… that was a bad sign…

“I would but humbly ask for a few more… thoughts from on high? Of course simplified as must be done for my own fragile intellect.”

Smaug snorted.

“False mockery of yourself does not amuse me, Scribbler. Your true skills are meager without pretending they are less.” His response was surly now. She was walking on dangerous ground here.

“All manner of beings play claim to dragonhood, little Face-dancer. I recognize Eszter’s declaration of dragonhood no more than I recognize WYVERN’s petty general. Or this sorry creature!” Smaug snarled, snatching up an unmade Charizard before crushing the smaller creature against the unyielding obsidian. He focused his attention upon the rock, until it too started to crack beneath his strength.

“Were they dragons truly, there would be no cause for debate or for posturing. The truth of their nature would be all that was required! That they must proclaim it at all is proof they are pretenders!”

Well, you’ve clearly never spoken with a scholar on the subject of definitions… Shallan relaxed her mental defenses somewhat as Smaug’s attention turned once again to the slaughter. She wasn’t going to be making any more headway along that particular line of argument, that much was clear.

Radiant was more interested in the fight anyways. There was no better way to oppose the unmaking than with the powerful force they were currently bonded with. Distraction and argument served only to undermine their own offensive. Veil thought this was pointless to begin with. What did they care, so long as they survived the coming battles? Smaug could be petty all he liked when they were separate and gone again.

And how confident are you that we will be given the chance to separate again?

Syntech had proved the lengths they were willing to go in combating the unmade. Why would they stop at the well-being of contestants who had willingly consigned their lives to a slaughter like the abyss? If their force was actually strong enough to claim this area, would the survivors be so readily freed? That smelled too convenient to Shallan, and Veil reluctantly agreed.

They needed to be on their guard, yes. Which meant pursuing every angle, from the straightforward to the inane. They had entered this contest with the intent to survive, no matter the methods.

1165 words

 

[Karl Jak]

Update:

You have taken the landing point!

Both of you receive +1 Points

In front of you is actual Caldera Isle. Your destination is the volcano, which has a very very hot environment around it. A Hot Temperature adaptation will make your life less challenging.

Confirm when you desire to move ahead (if you desire to do so) and that will prompt the next scene.

 

[Karl Jak]

The two Bonds strode up to the footfalls of the volcano, which belched smoke and small founts of lava from its maw. As they approached, the danger of the situation became clear.

***​

Characters Involved: Karakul (@Eszter) & Smaug (@Shallan Davar)

Notes: You are without the soldiers and artillery/ship supports, who remain at the beachhead to vouchsafe your return and/or retreat. You are fighting in and along the sides and mouth of the volcano.

Enemy NPC Characters: You are being confronted by two Size 3 Lava Elementals and an unmade Size 5 red dragon

Length of Scene: This Scene will last for 72 hours
Post Count/Size: 2 Posts max / 2500 words max
Other Stuff: Others MAY join this scene if they move along this path.

 

[Eszter]

“It seems that the weaklings could not join us.” Karakul growled as the dragons ascended the volcano, her tail whipping to smash against the mountainside. Crushed rocks tumbled down the cliff, fortunately rolling in the wrong direction to crash down on the troops behind them. “Their fragile little forms burn too easily. Oh well, it is better that they stay out of our way.”

Smaug gave a short grunt of subdued agreement, underlaid with irritation at her perceived hypocrisy. As much of a hollow shell that Yucatan’s reincarnation may have been, she at least had some minor advantage over the worms back at camp. The air around them was hot, almost unbelievably so. If the soldiers had attempted to follow the bonds, they would have doubtlessly been incinerated by simply existing too close to the Caldera.

Initially, this did little to bother Eszter. Anyone who would be susceptible to spontaneous human combustion had stayed behind so it was a non-factor. Then, abruptly, she worried if that was actually the case. Even if she didn’t have her innate resistance to heat, she’d be safe hidden away inside Karakul. Shallan, on the other hand, was much more exposed and did not enjoy the protection of a draconic soul.

Doing her best to keep it covert, she cast a concerned glance Smaug’s way, searching for his rider through her bond’s eyes. Sure enough, she was in the same place as ever and fortunately seemed untouched by the extreme temperatures. Presumably, the connection with Smaug protected her from the worst of the heat, though the dragonkin could only guess how comfortable it felt.

Eszter allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief. For tactical reasons, of course. Fighting with another dragon was far preferable to fighting alone, that was all. So she told herself, anyway.

Her thoughts were interrupted as the pair approached the mouth of the volcano, each cresting it with a flap of their great wings. At first, there was… nothing. Nothing barring the quiet sizzling and bubbling of the lava beneath them. The dragons circled the lip of the mountain for a few moments, wondering if they had come to the caldera for nothing. Then, in an instant, all hell broke loose.

Erupting from the molten soup came two balls of lava, each hurtling towards one of the Syntech bonds. Caught off guard, Smaug and Karakul quickly took evasive actions, swerving to dodge the magma. The smaller dragon corkscrewed around the offending blast, nimbly dodging around it, but the larger of the two was not so fortunate. Molten rock slammed against Karakul’s rear leg as she attempted to twist out of the way, leaving a red-hot mark in its wake as it crumbled away.

Snarling furiously, the reforged dragon’s head whipped around to face her attacker, flame alighting her maw despite their relative uselessness in this environment. For an instant, her rage was replaced by confusion as she watched what seemed to be the volcano itself shifting and rising up against her. After a moment of processing the sight, the reincarnations of Yucatan realised that it was not the land striking out at them, something that brought them great relief as it meant that they did not have to tear the Isle itself apart.

Instead, two creatures of lava and obsidian were rising silently from the mouth of the volcano, empty looks upon their faces. Corruption twisted beneath their rocky forms, the odd flash of rancid, bruise-coloured energy emerging within their magmatic veins and hissing away as oily black smoke. Mustering up low groans, the elementals advanced towards the bonds, hauling up more rocks to hurl at their airborne opponents.

But neither of their opponents were focused on them.

Instead, both dragons froze for a moment as they watched the entire mouth of the volcano stir, waves of lava spilling over the edge as something big rose from within. The surface was split by a vast pair of wings, followed by a curving crown of horns and the massive skull they were attached to. Magma streamed from crimson scales as the beast rose from the caldera, dwarfing the two elementals. Glowing yellow eyes cast feral looks at Smaug and Karakul while a low growl rose in the monster’s throat, building to a deafening roar. Flecks of lava and foul corruptive sludge alike flew from its maw as it bellowed it’s challenge to its foes.

One dragon against two.

For the first moment in the longest time, Karakul found herself stunned. The poor beast was much like her, a once magnificent demigod brought low by some meddling power. And now their respective masters were pitting them against one another, treating the most glorious beings in the Crossroads as little more than toy soldiers. Had they possessed the lucidity, perhaps they could have cast off their chains and turned against the ones that yoked them.

But then, perhaps the events that followed were inevitable. Such is the nature of a dragon.

Despair and existential dread were washed away by a flood of white-hot rage as the reincarnations of Yucatan heard the beast’s challenge. Even the whelp Smaug feared her enough to keep his thoughts to himself, so she thought, at any rate. But this fiend openly challenged her.

Her!

Within Karakul’s heart, Eszter found herself tearing ineffectively at the lava tendrils that connected her to her bond, screaming incoherently within the magma cocoon. She wanted, needed, to get out there, to rip the impudent beast limb from limb with her bare hands. They were Yucatan! They were the queen! How DARE this whelp challenge the queen?!

The reforged dragon hurled herself into a dive, recklessly throwing herself at the challenger despite the volley of magma rocks that the elementals cast her way. Of the stones that struck home, of which there was more than a few, they left dents and burns where they struck but none managed to punch through her armour. In answer, the red dragon exploded from the caldera, launching into the air to meet her.

Even with their wits gone, instinct took over as the two dragons clashed. The beasts grappled with one another, talons locking with talons as they whirled head over tail in midair, snapping at one another’s jaws and necks. The pair were almost completely equally matched, their size and bulk too close to pick which was larger at a glance. Similarly, their strength proved to be near identical as they struggled for the upper hand.

In the heat of their melee, the dragon’s began to drop out of midair, spinning wildly as they descended. Unlike many unmade creatures, the lava elementals lacked any true concern for their allies in the first place, and as such had no qualms about launching their molten projectiles toward the tangle of drakes. Fortunately for the clashing foes, their chaotic movements made getting a bead on them difficult. Magma balls glanced off of red and black scales alike as the dueling dragons broke apart right before dropping into the caldera, taking off in opposite directions.

The titans pulled out of their dives, flying directly upwards on either side of the mouth. Then, reaching the apex of their ascents, the nemeses twisted towards one another, eyes locked. Summoning up the wrath of countless existences, the rage of life after death after life, Karakul released a visceral scream as starfire rose in their throat. Likewise, the red dragon let out a below of bestial madness as it summoned up its own fire breath.

Like two jousters, the dragons soared right towards one another before unleashing their respective breath weapons. Pure, white-hot celestial flames clashed against sickly corrupted fire, mingling in mid air but neither reaching its target. With stubborn persistence, neither dragon let up or pulled away, knowing that being the loser of this game of chicken meant taking the brunt of their foe’s pyroclastic breath, their very pride as a dragon. If neither pulled away, however, they would find themselves slamming directly into one another with enough force to put a train crash to shame.

Of course, they could have simply hovered in midair. But such an act would have been unbecoming of a dragon.

With a thunderclap that made even the elementals below hesitate, the dragons crashed against one another. Scales splintered and metal bent with the force of their impact, but neither beast was about to yield. Claws locked once more as the beast wrested for dominance, each aiming to tear into their opponent’s relatively less protected undersides.

Ducking its head down, the red dragon flicked its horns up and managed to bash them against Karakul’s lower jaw. The reforged drake reeled for just a moment, which was all that her foe needed to rear back and lunge for her throat. Before it could sink it’s fangs into her exposed neck, however, the beast felt the stab of teeth into its own hide.

Mouth too full of dragonflesh to give a snide comment, Smaug landed on his foe’s back, crushing it between the Syntech bonds. His claws dug into the red dragon’s scales as he grabbed on tight, giving him the purchase to sink his teeth in even harder. Caught off guard by the sudden intervention, the red dragon flailed for a moment, venting its rage at its assailants.

Snapping back towards Smaug, the unmade dragon attempted to grab ahold and whip the smaller dragon towards Karakul, smashing them against one another. Seeing the attack coming, however, the calamity vaulted off his foe’s back and nimbly darted away, leaving a trail of fetid, unmade blood and flesh in his wake as he sundered its flank. Desperate, the beast lunged for Smaug’s long tail, only to receive a whip-like strike to the face for its efforts.

“Do not look away!” Karakul roared, refusing to loosen her grip on the red dragon even as they began to fall into another dive. “Fight and die, whelp!”

 

[Shallan Davar]

Smaug circled away from the clash with a sullen anger. It had been brewing since the pair of bonds had ascended the mountain, but Shallan could not tell directly where it was aimed. Given her connection to Smaug’s mind, it was possible that he wasn’t entirely sure himself. If she could not determine this, either Smaug was conflicted as well, or he was intentionally keeping the information secret from her.

An eruption of molten rock slammed into Smaug’s left side, his wing folding instinctively at the impact to shield it from the attack. He faltered in the air, keeling over. Rather than recover, he embraced the motion, turning the fall into a dive towards the pair of lava elementals that continued to assault them from below. He plowed into one of them with talons bared, seeking to carry it off. His impact tore straight through the being, sending rock and magma splattering across the molten terrain but finding no purchase to grip. He sailed past, massive wings beating as he sought to regain altitude. A glance behind confirmed the fact that the magma elemental was simply reassembling itself from the scattered debris, without any seeming distress.

With a roar of disdainful rage, Smaug touched down on the volcano’s edge, facing down the pair of elementals while the two massive dragons continued to clash thunderously in the sky above. They remained at a distance, though Shallan wasn’t convinced that this was strategic planning so much as a lack of emotion to drive them in their assault. Smaug reared up onto his hind legs, his wings beat the acrid, noxious air. Winds began to scatter small stones as he stormed forwards, his left claw latching onto the largest boulder that comprised one of the lava elemental’s torsos. With a roar he wrenched it free, accepting a point blank spout of magma in the process. Stepping backwards, Smaug hurled the boulder into the bubbling mess below them. It sank with a hissing sound, and Smaug watched with satisfaction as the rest of the elemental’s shape seemed to discorporate, dropping to the ground in a pile of rocks and oozing magma.

Shallan revised her opinion of the elemental’s mindlessness, as the second of the pair attacked from behind, leaping onto Smaug’s back while his focus was distracted. Smaug bellowed with anger as the Elemental punched molten rock into his back, writhing about to try and reach an angle to attack his new rider. For her part, Shallan was panicking. Their ascent up the volcano had proved unpleasantly warm from the start. Now the heat was becoming notably unbearable. Shallan hadn’t really felt the urge to move since her awakening in their bonded state, but now she felt the need to get away to shield herself from the immense heat behind her somehow.

Smaug’s tail finally snaked around, flinging the second elemental free. The heat abated, and Shallan breathed a mental sigh of relief. She must be attached to Smaug’s back somehow, though given how their shared perceptions worked, she wasn’t simply riding him. Their connection was deeper, and Shallan lacked any real ability to act autonomously. She needed to persuade him to move in the correct directions. Shallan stopped still as a thought finally clicked into place.

Storm it all, they’ve basically turned me into his spren.

With a frown at this revelation, Shallan refocused herself on the battle. Smaug’s attention was fully on the elemental that had ambushed him, swiping at it with claws as the being made clumsy blocks. It still showed no distress, even as Smaug’s attacks gashed the rock and spurted spray’s of magma. As Shallan watched the battle overall, she noticed a magma elemental pulling itself up the slope of the volcano’s interior. Smaug’s claw marks had left distinctive gashes in the being’s torso, but it showed no sign of having been notably damaged from being torn apart.

Above them the massive dragons clashed with another sound like lightning.

Well, a spren’s role was to advise. Pattern had been certain she would kill him eventually, but had committed to helping her all the same. She owed it to him to approach her role with the same commitment.

“Smaug, great terror of the winds, are you even sure that you are hurting these things?”

“Silence Scribbler!” Smaug snapped, “I have no time for your pointless questions now!”

“In fact my questions are often quite pointed, o’ Smaug the stupendous. These beings are born of the volcano’s heat. Even the one that you tore to pieces has returned. Their power may not be so easily broken as their bodies.”

“Then I shall grind their rock-clad bones to dust! Why do you draw my ire, Face-dancer?”

“Why do you avoid fighting the dragon above us?”

Smaug released a plume of smoke from his nostrils. His tail snapped out to send a spray of shattered rock peppering the pair of elementals. Shallan waited for a response, but Smaug only roared, leaping to pounce on one of the lava-borne beings instead. His jaw snapped down upon its head, tearing the boulder free and flinging it off the mountainside. The elemental seemed to care no more for its head than any other rock in its form. The spurting magma that erupted from its version of a neck began to slowly take on a more intentional shape as it continued to fight, and Smaug leapt away, beating his wings to circle back to distance in a wide arc.

“Are you distracted, O’ Smaug the powerful?” Shallan insisted, growing more confident in her theory now that Smaug was avoiding the question.

“Do not goad me, or you will feel my fury unfettered yet.” Smaug scowled.

“I am a scholar, great Smaug. If you won’t answer my question, I am left to theorize.”

“Let the two false dragons destroy each other.” Smaug snapped curtly, “I would have no part of their folly.”

“A good lie.” Shallan nodded to herself, “But I am practiced at lying, O’ Smaug the destroyer."

Now for the sentence that could really get her in trouble.

"You are afraid of it.”

Smaug leapt into the air, buffeting the surroundings with his wings.

“You dare to accuse me, scribbler? I shall hunt down your family to the tenth generation if you make such an insult! They are not dragons, and I would not lower myself to battle with them as such.”

“They were dragons!” Shallan shot back without hesitation, surprising even herself.

“Two of your former great kin battle above us, one dwindled into a mere echo of her owed glory, the other twisted and broken by a monstrous plague that threatens all of the worlds of our home! You are one of the few remaining true dragons, and you would have no part in righting this wrong? You would simply wash your hands of it and pretend it does not exist? Darksied dared to unmake one of your kin, one of the great dragonkind! And you would allow this abomination to survive?”

“You speak recklessly of much you do not understand!” Smaug rumbled, but Shallan was too angry now to check herself.

“You sit upon a hoard of your own making, O’ Smaug the least broken! If your claim is that dragonkind is superior to all others, then why would you suffer this insult to your people? By your own claim the Yucatan of old is no longer present, so why do you leave this task to your lessers and abandon her echoes?”

“Pride drives you to act! Reason dictates you to attack! Anger demands blood! Power calls you into the battle!” Shallan was all but screaming at Smaug now, “To do nothing in this conflict cannot be anything but fear!”

Their mental link sunk into silence then. Smaug stood upon the edge of the volcano, watching the two great monsters above them colliding again and again.

Then with a roar, Shallan’s perceptions closed into blackness. Like an iron gate sliding shut in her mind. She sat in darkness, without sight nor sound nor smell. Only the faint tingling of heat remained. Smaug had done as he had threatened, she supposed, and closed their mental link, confining her to her own senses in whatever state the Syntech’s bonding process had left her. It had been a calculated risk, but she had hoped not to reach this outcome. There was a distinct possibility that Smaug would leave their link closed, and she would only be a witless passenger for the rest of their efforts.

Her stomach lurched then, jolted by sudden motion from Smaug. She idly wondered what state she was in, and whether it was even possible for her to vomit in her current state. She was likely to find out by the end of this. Smaug had to be airborne now, if only because of how violently the motions changed direction. There was a dull sound in her ears, a muted roaring. She could only hope that her efforts had at least spurred the arrogant dragon into action. Karakul matched the other dragon in size, but they had been fighting their way through multiple islands now, and fatigue wasn’t limitless, even for ones as great as them. When two animals fought, the first to land a decisive injury was likely to be the winner, and neither Karakul nor Eszter seemed liable to employ grand strategy to overcome a losing battle.

Heat washed across her back once again, accompanied by another lurch of her stomach. More dull roaring, accompanied by a dull persistent hissing sound. Though her eyes were already unseeing, she tried to squeeze them tight.

Almighty, if you can still hear your lost daughter so far from Roshar, please let that be unmade dragonfire, and not us falling into the lava…

1630 words

 

[Karl Jak]

Updates:

This one was close, but you'll be victorious. The volcano will calm down, and the threat of the entire Zone becoming an ashen wasteland is abated (we hope). All that's left is to just write up a resolution (either one of you or you can split it, it's up to you two). Once that's up, you'll get map updates and be free to move.

Karakul will suffer a Minor Injury
Smaug will suffer a Major Injury

Karakul receives +3 Points
Smaug receives +2 Points

 

[Shallan Davar]

An unmade dragon was a terrible foe. Any dragon was a threat to be reckoned with, even a young whelp was an apex predator. But with most dragons, violence was always tempered by aim. A dragon destroyed with purpose. To hunt. To terrorize. To plunder. All horrible goals to the common mortal, yes, but the actions of a thinking, planning creature.

The Unmaking changed all this for a dragon. The grand majesty of the beast was stripped away along with its individuality. All that remained was an awe-inspiring power of destruction that had no greater purpose than carnage. What was once a natural-made god of awesome might became instead a cruelly empowered disaster, as readily destroying a countryside as would a flood or earthquake.

Smaug’s wings beat a steady rhythm as he circled away from the pair of feuding behemoths. It was a rare feeling for a dragon, but here were two opponents that he could legitimately lose a fight with quite easily. A wise combatant chooses his fights carefully, as he had done by focusing his energies on the magma elementals. Attacking a larger opponent of equal ability was a risky gambit, even a winning fight could result in serious injury. Smaug had planned to allow the foolhardy would-be dragon to face its unmade self unaided, perhaps cleaning up the leftovers from their squabble.

Then that insufferable speck of a scribbler had dared to raise her voice against him! Had dared to call him a coward for not rushing to Karakul’s aid. He would have to make certain that her and all her kin learned the price of her folly when this contest concluded. But her argument was not without merit. Neither of the monsters up there were true dragons anymore. They were not at his caliber any longer, despite his smaller size. Their power could not truly measure up to his own after all.

Well above the volcano’s rim he circled in the air, waiting for a proper moment to strike. The magma elementals could not reach him here, and had resorted to pelting lava impotently up at Karakul while she grappled with the unmade beast. It would be so easy to let them destroy each other…

But it would mean that the one true dragon here was not the one to finish the fight.

With a snarl, Smaug dove down upon the pair of monsters tangled in the air. He roared, pouncing on the monster’s left side, claws tearing into the folds of its wing. The unmade dragon roared in pain and rage, Smaug’s claws tearing huge gashes in the wing, shredding it to ribbons. This was the difference between a dragon fighting and the brutish nonsense Karakul engaged in. She had slapped ineffectually at the monster for several exchanges. Now with a single strike Smaug had crippled the beast’s ability to fight. It would not be able to keep airborne now!

Smaug sprang free, turning to observe his handiwork with a smug snort. He would let Karakul finish the wounded beast, now that he had struck the decisive blow. To his shock the unmade dragon had turned away from the former dragon queen, and continued to fly, a swirling purple energy shedding from the torn wing. Before Smaug could fully comprehend the attack its jaws had clamped down upon his left foreleg, teeth crunching through his armored scales like a vise. Smaug roared in pain, blasting his red-green flame full into the dragon’s face to try and dislodge it. The unmade dragon seemed to feel no pain, and it did not release its bite. Even with their connection clamped shut, Smaug could feel Shallan reeling from the pain, their mental link cycling the sensation back and forth between them.

Karakul pounced upon the distracted red dragon, making it regret its change of focus. Smaug was hurled free as the Dragon queen wrenched the unmade dragon around in the air. The great and terrible dragon Smaug smote the mountainside heavily, his forelimb mangled and bleeding.

This was the danger when a dragon fought a dragon. Smaug struggled to his feet, wincing as he put weight on the injured limb. The Magma elementals lumbered forwards to face their newly terrestrial adversary. Smaug roared a defiant challenge and refused to back down.

 

[Eszter]

“WE ARE YOUR OPPONENT!” Karakul and Eszter screamed as one as they throttled their opponent, crushing the red dragon’s neck beneath their weight. Howling in maddened pain and rage, the corrupted beast struck back, unwilling to lay down and die. The monster lashed out with its claws, raking them against its foe’s flanks.

It’s right forelimb failed to find purchase against Karakul’s loathed iron armour, her modifications providing as much protection as pain. The left, however, found its mark and tore into draconic flesh. With the horrific screech of tearing metal and the crack of shattering scales, a metres-long gash was torn in the reforged dragon’s side. She roared as pain shot through her, rearing back just enough to allow the unmade drake to slip free.

Taking to the air, the red dragon attempted to make some space between itself and its opponent, intending to whirl around and lay waste to the caldera with its corrupted flames. As it flared it’s wings to turn, however, the whole world seemed to spin as Karakul crashed into it at full force.

The reincarnation of Yucatan pinned her enemy’s wings to its sides as she tackled it in midair, quickly dropping from an ascent into a descent. Her prey struggled futilely in grip death grip, feeling like it was stuck in a steel trap much like the one on her chest. The ground rose up to meet them with terrifying speed, but Karakul did not flinch. Hundreds of metres turned to tens of metres until, at the last possible moment, she kicked off of her foe and took to the skies.

Unable to halt itself in time, the red dragon slammed into the ground with a sickening thud that seemed to shake the whole mountain. For a tense moment, Eszter half-wondered if the impact was enough to cause the volcano to blow. Thankfully, there was no deafening roar of the earth itself erupting. There was, however, the half-hearted roar of a dying dragon.

The unmade dragon struggled to rise to its feet, the corruption in its body more obvious than ever. The scaly shell of the beast had cracked like an egg in impact and unmade sludge oozed from its broken form. Still, it did not relent, desperately trying to force itself to its feet to continue the fight.

“Pitiful creature.” Karakul snarled and she stalked over to her foe, placing one great claw on its caved-in chest and shoving it to the ground. “Allow your queen to put you to rest.”

The wounded monster let out one final roar of defiance, only for it to be immediately drowned out by Karakul’s own furious cry. The dragon queen lunged down towards her enemy’s exposed throat, crushing it in her vice-like jaws before pulling, twisting, and tearing the flesh away. Her efforts were rewarded with a geyser of foul blood showering her as the red dragon could finally fight no more, falling limp on the volcanic slope.

Though the great beast was slain, at the top of the caldera, another battle still raged. Despite his wounds, Smaug fought no less ferociously than he did while unharmed. The firedrake leapt towards one elemental, raking across its stony hide with his claws, before dodging away as its bulky fist swung towards him. The second elemental raised a molten boulder, cocking it back to pitch it like a colossal baseball, a quick strike from Smaug’s tail ensured that the shot would fly wide, sparing him any more harm at their hands.

Below, Karakul threw her head back and reared up on her hind legs, screaming her victory to the skies above. She had triumphed, as was her birthright as queen! No dragon could stand against her, and thus no creature in the crossroads could threaten her. Hearing this, the elementals froze for a second, their simple minds comprehending what this meant. The pair seemed to short circuit for a moment as reality struck them, clearly having no directive to fall back on in the event of the more powerful corruptaint being slain.

Of course, hesitating like this in any battle was deadly, but doing it against a dragon was all the more dangerous. Smaug did not miss his chance, lunging in towards the nearest elemental the moment it dropped its guard. Rock shattered between dragon jaws and lava splashed ineffectively against scale as the great dragon severed his prey’s head in a single bite.

Roused back to action by the sudden death of its corrupted kin, the remaining lava elemental thundered towards Smaug. Before it could do anything significant, however, the thunderous sound of gigantic wing eats filled the air. Karakul crested the caldera once more, swooping down and swinging her cudgel of a tail into the last of their foes.

Stone splintered as the elemental was sent tumbling forward, slamming face-first into the ground before Smaug. Hissing with contempt, the firedrake placed a great claw upon its back, slowly putting more and more weight on the leg as he stared down at his helpless prey. The creature of stone struggled futilely beneath the massive weight of the dragon, a terrible cracking echoing across the landscape before it’s stony shell finally gave way.

With a shatter, Smaug’s claw punched through the elemental and into the mountainside beneath it, crushing his victim into globs of lava and shards of stone. The dragons glanced at the remains of their foes with disgust and, despite their differences, each had the same thought.

Their deaths were too good for fools who stood against a dragon.