Greater Heights 5 (1/2)
A certain emerald dragon - so-called because of the verdant green scales its species boasted - was flying over the now-barren Isle of Life. A distant descendant of the elder dragon whose bones rested in the middle of it, the youngling carried with it a powerful affinity for the elemental force of life. This gift manifested itself in a few ways that were specific to this subspecies. The most obvious and practical effect was that an emerald dragon’s regenerative abilities were several times more potent than normal. It also empowered its fiery breath, allowing it to disperse any poisons, toxins, or disease that might prove harmful to it. It was especially effective at fighting back the undead and their Blight, although such things were not usually a concern on the Shattered Isles.
This special elemental affinity also had some other, more subtle effects. One of those was the young emerald dragon’s ability to sense when someone or something was employing powerful life magic within a few dozen kilometers of it. This trait was the main reason why it had returned here, to the gravesite of the emerald dragonflight’s matriarch. It had been drawn in by the sudden appearance of Ambrosia’s forest. Not only had it sprung into existence practically overnight, but its ongoing expansion was fueled by the deceased elder’s remains.
However, though young and relatively inexperienced, this particular dragon was no idiot. It instinctively understood that the greenery below was created by invasive outsiders that boasted formidable magical prowess. They were sure to be mighty beings that a mere hatchling could not stand against. The creature hadn’t yet developed the prideful arrogance and indomitable might of its older kin, which both allowed and forced it to rely on caution. Hence why it was circling overhead, well out of range of any magic or projectile the invaders could throw at it. There were definitely those among them capable of flight, but the dragon believed itself capable of fleeing easily enough should they give chase.
The youngling was therefore understandably quite surprised when a six-armed demon suddenly slammed into its underside with enough force to pulverize its scales and shatter its bones. The deafening boom of Kora’s supersonic box-assisted flight washed over it moments later, drowning out the beast’s shrieking roar of pain. The dragon somehow maintained its flight, unaware that it now had a passenger clinging desperately to its foreleg.
“Wow. You actually hit it,” Jen remarked in a vaguely surprised tone.
“Heh. I know, right?” Boxxy chuckled. “I thought for sure it would see Arms coming and dodge out of the way. Guess it wasn’t paying enough attention.”
The two of them had witnessed the collision from the ground and were currently watching the midair struggle as if it were a sporting event.
“Dragon’s going into a nosedive,” the harpy added. “Probably trying to shake Kora off.”
“Nah. Arms managed to climb onto its side and grabbed the wing by its base,” Boxxy corrected her.
Jen could somewhat follow the action despite the great distance, but her eyesight couldn’t hope to compete with the shapeshifter’s absurd collection of Skills and Attributes.
“I think she’s trying to- Ohhh, there it goes!”
“What? What happened?” the harpy asked impatiently.
“She just ripped a wing out of its socket. That’s gotta hurt.”
The thought of that made Jen shudder slightly. She was reminded of the uniquely agonizing feeling she had experienced when Axel stripped away her angelic wings. If such a thing were to happen to her new ones, it would surely be many times worse.
“Huh. It grew back instantly,” Boxxy continued. “I guess it was too much to expect that it would be that easy to bring down a dragon, even if it is a weak one.”
The shapeshifter had naturally scoped out the beast before it ‘delivered’ Arms towards it. At merely twenty meters in length, it was obvious that thing was a mere youngling and therefore not a major threat to the abomination’s group of demons and monsters. It could have just ignored the thing, but that would be passing up the chance to find out whether freshly killed dragons were tasty or not. And that just wasn’t how Boxxy T. Morningwood did things.
“By the way,” one of its many-eyed tentacles turned to Jen, “you’re free to go up there and have a bash at it too.”
“I have no idea what you mean,” she replied after a brief pause.
“Sure you do. You want to see how your new self would fare up against the strongest species in the world.”
It was fairly obvious that the harpy was itching to fly up there and beat the shit out of that dragon. Her face and voice made a valiant effort not to show any emotion, but the way her ears, wings, and tail twitched betrayed her desires. It was as clear as day that she wanted to be up there and in the fight rather than waiting around down here, and yet she was holding herself back. Unlike her red-skinned colleague, she knew full well what would happen if she admitted she wanted to kill the dragon.
“I’m sure Kora has a handle on the situation. I need to scout out for more enemies.”
The harpy turned around and took a few steps as if to walk away.
*Plop*
She didn’t make it far before a musclebound limb grasped hold of her shoulder.
“You’re not getting out of this,” Boxxy kindly informed her.
Back up in the air, Kora had managed to climb onto the dragon’s neck. She ripped out its scales one by one and used the resulting wounds as handholds in order to ascend up towards its head. The beast naturally thrashed and wailed in an effort to throw her off, but the hoarder demon would never easily let go of something she wanted. Which, at this point in time, was her desire to claim this thing’s skull as a trophy. Not even the absence of her legs, which had been pulverized into useless stumps by the impact, seemed to slow her down.
After some more struggling she finally made it up there. She grabbed onto one of the dragon’s horns with two hands and started using the other four to push against its scalp. A few seconds of grunting, yelling, and cursing later, the bony protrusion made a disgusting snapping noise as it came loose. Given Kora’s previous experience with this emerald dragon, she was fairly certain a new one would grow back almost immediately. However, she felt fairly certain she could nail this sharp and sturdy horn right into the scaly bastard’s skull.
Unfortunately for Kora, while not a bad plan in and of itself, she hadn’t fully considered the logistics involved. Sure, the horn had come loose just as she’d intended, but in doing so she had also pushed herself off of the head she had struggled so much to reach. Now freefalling with no chance of recovery, she could do little but make bold statements regarding the dragon’s mother at an unreasonably high volume.
At least until a fluttering of white and gold feathers plucked her out of the air in a rather violent manner.
“Sweet fucking ass-bandits!” the demon cursed as she got her bearings. “What in the- Oh, heya bird-brain.”
It had taken her a few moments to realize it, but Jen was now holding onto her shoulders with her feet while chasing after the retreating dragon.
“Whatcha doin’ up here? Weren’t you going to just scout around?”
The harpy responded by staring down at her with a sharp glare, at which point Kora realized Jen looked rather… ruffled.
“Oh. You got yeet-ed too, huh?”