Eszter, who had once held her head high in the molten cocoon, was now dangling limply in its embrace. Supported only by the pyroclastic bindings, she struggled to do much more than lift her head. Not that she needed to, of course. Karakul did essentially everything of importance and she didn’t seem to be even slowing down, an engine of destruction that was fed upon her own anger.
“How much longer?” the demi-dragon whispered to her bond.
“Not much. We are nearing our prey.” the reforged dragon reassured her reincarnated self. At the sight of the entrenchment coming into focus, a low growl rose in her throat, preparing for another fight. “We will wet our claws in blood again soon enough.”
“No, not that.” Eszter groaned. “This ‘game’. I’m… I'm so tired… I don’t know how you can keep doing this but I’m just exhausted.”
“The fire in my blood does not stop burning. Not for anything.” Karakul cackled, projecting a small glut of flame to emphasize her point. “You are young, you will learn to keep your fire burning. Letting it snuff out will only drain you.”
“So, what, I need to stay angry all the time?” the dragonkin asked, drooping a little further. “That sounds even more exhausting…”
“Prepared for take-off!” their ship’s captain called, breaking Eszter out of her melancholy thoughts. “You’re authorised to fly when ready.”
“You will learn.” Karakul repeated resolutely before spreading her great wings, swallowing the boat up in her shadow for a moment before taking off, soaring towards the islet. Smaug was not far behind, launching into the air and tailing the larger dragon.
‘There can’t be that many more battles to win… right?” Eszter thought to herself. Even as she continued to bemoan her exhaustion, she could feel the change coming over her. As she saw the unmade scramble before them, cowering under their shadows, desperately taking up arms and firing upon them, the rage started to return. The wrath brought strength with it, vigour and vitality that she had been missing just moments ago.
She knew, rationally, that she couldn’t keep this up forever. She would feel even worse once she came down from her anger high and sooner or later her body would give out. Whether it was from exhaustion or from fighting until she was physically torn apart, it would come to an end. But, as the adrenaline started rushing through her boiling blood, she couldn’t find a way to care.
Small arms fire glancing off their scales, Eszter and Karakul descended onto the unmade defences as one, screaming at the top of their lungs. Undoubtedly muttering something snide under his breath, Smaug crashed into the enemy lines on the other side of the embankment, the two dragons beginning to work towards one another in twin swaths of bloody carnage.
On Karakul’s side, she found herself tackling a watchtower brimming with artillery. It would have proven a substantial threat against the Syntech ships or soldiers, but not to her. Any bond would have had little trouble dealing with such a merger fortification, but this was even more so the case with her.
The dragon queen opened her metal-lined maw and unleashed a blistering wave of starfire onto the watchtower, swallowing the artillery up in flames. It took only a moment for the ammunition to catch fire, the whole cache detonating in a devastating chain reaction. The watchtower detonated like a firework, scattering brickwork and explosives in all directions.
“Gahahaha!” Eszter and Karakul cackled in unison, the dragonkin feeling reinvigorated by the slaughter. Any traces of exhaustion were swept away in fire, blood and gunpowder. Storming forward under the cover of their self-made artillery fire, the reincarnations of Yucatan carved a path through the foe.
Unmade soldiers let out warped screams as they were flattened by showering debris or struck by artillery shells which promptly exploded, spreading further and further chaos along the battle lines.
The Syntech soldiers pushed up onto the shore, bringing their guns to bear, but didn’t push any further than that. They were allied with the monstrous beats tearing through the unmade ranks, certainly… but as they watched the molten rock rain down, random explosions bursting across the battlefield, they couldn’t help but glance at each other with uncertain looks.
They didn’t really need to get any closer for this one.
