Page 46 of The Dragon Shifters' Enemy
“Poison?”Caden asked Valerius.
He nodded.“Good, Zephyra, take down that head.”
That main coppery head with the yellow eyes wobbled slightly back and forth.Its eyelids fell halfway shut.The other heads appeared confused, perplexed.They were blinking again, like they had when released from Zephyra’s mesmerism.
Caden saw Iolaire look down at the Behemoth’s body.Blue eyes went huge in the White Dragon’s head.It clearly realized that it was attached to something it should not be.It’s body was not there.The Behemoth’s body was there however.Iolaire let out a terrified scream.
Caden could well imagine Iolaire’s horror at what it was experiencing.He looked up at his Dragon Spirit’s blue eyes right now and they were filled with sorrow and horror, still.How Caden longed to hold his Dragon Spirit.To comfort it.But he would never be able to touch the White Dragon.Raziel though comforted Iolaire for him.Nuzzling and winding their long necks together a little like swans did.
“Iolaire is the only one to fully wake,” Valerius muttered.“Do you see?”He pointed towards the other heads which still seemed hazy-eyed and disconnected from what was going on around them.“That must be why later it escaped while the others were drawn back again.”
Caden saw Iolaire’s neck straining to get away from the body of the Behemoth as if it could physically separate itself, rip its own body out of the Hydra’s.
Zephyra went to strike the Behemoth again, clearly sensing a change and potential victory, in taking down that center head.Its tail--with that poisonous barb--whipped around to strike at the Behemoth’s central head again, but the Behemoth--who had seemed discombobulated--struck even faster.It chomped down on Zephyra’s tail.Zephyra let out a scream that was so piercing that Caden thought he might have gone deaf from it.His ears rang.But his gaze was still stuck on what was happening.
The Behemothrippedoff Zephyra’s barbed tail.Blood, a rich purple, poured from the wound. Zephyra continued to scream as it tried to back away from the Behemoth who spat out the tip of Zephyra’s tail before biting downagain.It was then that a burst of blinding light hit the back of the Behemoth’s main head.It was Evren.The small silver Dragon sent another blast of light that had the Behemoth releasing Zephyra.Tiny but mighty, Evren helped to drag Zephyra out of harm’s way.
The Behemoth let out a roar of pure rage as the wounded Zephyra was drawn out of its reach. But in its blind anger, the Behemoth’s inattention on what was going on about it was going to be its undoing as Raziel’s massive jaws clamped around the Behemoth’s throat.It had been so busy facing Zephyra that it had forgotten about its most dangerous foe.Raziel.The Behemoth’s angry roar became one of agony as Raziel not only bit out its throat but then poured fire down inside of the opening, frying the Behemoth from the inside out.
“Holy cow!”Caden gasped.
“Indeed,” Valerius said quietly with the same amount of awe.
All of the Hydra’s heads--including Iolaire--joined that chorus of unbearable agony as Raziel bit downagainaround the Behemoth’s central head and tore the whole goddamned thing off.Raziel threw the now dead head away.All the other Dragon heads slumped, even Iolaire’s.Were they unconscious?Released from the Hydra’s spell?Dead?
Raziel lifted its head towards the strange sky and bellowed its dominion. The other Dragons joined in. But the fight wasn’t exactly over yet.For the Behemoth’s body suddenly began to glow a terrible red.Raziel’s eyes narrowed.It released the body and flew backwards, hovering at a distance, as this strange and, clearly, unexpected phenomena occurred.The other Dragons, even Mephous, who was now shaking its massive head as if to clear it, turned to see what was occurring.
“What’s happening?”Caden asked.
“I do not know,” Valerius answered.
The glow became so bright that Caden had to shade his eyes with one forearm.And then… there was an explosion.Valerius grabbed Caden and shielded him with his body.They were on the ground, no longer in their chairs, hiding behind the table when they both realized that the explosion had not come through to them.It was just a memory that Raziel was showing them.
“Holy shit that felt real!”Caden gasped.
Valerius slowly unfurled his body from around Caden’s, but his hands remained on Caden’s shoulders.“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine! That was… oh, man…real,” Caden repeated as there were no other words that seemed to do justice to how shaken up he felt.
“Yes, yes, it was,” Valerius agreed.
He helped Caden get up, but he did not allow Caden to go back to his chair.Instead, Valerius held him close.Caden rested his head on the Black Dragon King’s shoulder.He hummed with happiness at the protectiveness that Valerius was showing him, even though he wanted to say that they were both Dragons so…
Caden’s train of thought derailed as he cracked his eyelids open to still see the final image of the victorious battle on Raziel’s chest.The land that the Dragons had been fighting on, was gone.There was an empty smoking crater that Caden could not see the edges of. The Behemoth’s body was gone as well.And so were the other Dragons.There was no trace of them remaining.
The single word that came to Caden’s mind was:obliteration.
He frantically turned Valerius around to see what he was seeing.
“What?Caden--no,” the word was hissed through Valerius’ teeth.
“That’s the Spirit realm, right?That’s… but it’s… ifthathappenedhere…” Caden could hardly get the thought out.
“It would devastate a country.Maybe more than one.Maybe…” Valerius whispered and his voice dropped off.
“Valerius, we can’t defeat the Behemoth like that!If killing the Behemoth does that then--”
“We will havelosteven if wewon,” Valerius murmured with barely suppressed horror.
