“This has nothing to do with my love for Ashen.”
Suddenly, she was there, and her attack came from the sky, only leaving Jisel half a second to put her blades up. It was the same amount of strength as before, so why was she so scared? She could keep up with that woman, she had the strength to measure up to her... So why did she feel like Cessilia had grown into an absolute beast in just a matter of seconds?!
Their blades clashed, and Jisel rolled to the side, cautiously using the opportunity to put some more distance between them. Still, Cessilia’s eyes wouldn’t leave her alone as the Princess followed her every single step.
“You know nothing about what love is supposed to be, Jisel. You only ever saw him as your way to survive. You used him.”
“So what? You’re no better than I am! You only hid behind him like a coward!”
“No,” Cessilia retorted. “...Do you know why I love Ashen so much? ...He’s not as special as you, or everyone else, is trying to push him to be. He was never meant to be a king’s son. He’s just a man, like any other out there. He’s not a great king, and he’s full of flaws too. His bad temper, his stubbornness. He’s made tons of mistakes, and I know it all too well. He can’t even trust people close to him... and that’s all why I love him even more. He’s imperfect, and he’s broken... just like me. But, at least Ashen’s true to his feelings; he gets mad when he’s mad, and he never fears his own voice. He doesn’t flee from his responsibilities, and he knows how to bear the blame for his own mistakes and flaws. While… While all I did, for all these years, was push my own responsibilities to the back of my mind and act like a victim.”
At the opposite window, Jinn kept growling furiously, almost covering Cessilia’s voice with the ruckus. The dragon’s red-scaled paws were slowly digging their way inside the room, weakening the whole structure of the tower the banquet hall belonged to. The walls around and above the windows Jinn was destroying were starting to creak dangerously, thin dust coming off as a warning of a potential collapse. Still, neither of the two women bothered to try and stop the dragon from smashing its way into the room.
Jisel was actually hoping her dragon would get there soon to help her, while Cessilia couldn’t be bothered. No one could tell if she was even hearing the dragon coming in behind her, the thunder above their heads, and the ruckus coming from the streets.
“...But I’m done,” she said. “You were right, Jisel. I’m done being a coward.”
They swung their swords at each other again. The two women resumed their battle, fiercer, faster, more violent than before. It was down to who would be able to kill the other first. They weren’t leaving any time for rest, every second was passed trying to pierce the other’s defenses. It was a continuous ballet of blades, blocking or attacking relentlessly. They were flying and dancing around the banquet hall as if it had been just the right size to contain their attacks, as pieces of furniture were regularly stabbed and sliced in their stead, or violently thrown across the room to make way. The strength of their attacks was no less than that of a battle between male warriors. Those two had the Dragon Blood flowing fiercely through their veins, fueling the adrenaline and making them as aggressive as dragons ferociously defending their territory. There was no territory to defend, only the burning desire to best the other woman and get rid of their opponent.
“It doesn’t change a thing,” muttered Jisel as soon as Cessilia gave her a second to catch her breath. “Once a coward, always a coward, Princess. Don’t think you can change just because you’re a bit mad now.”
“Oh, I’m beyond mad,” hissed Cessilia, “and I won’t allow myself to be a coward anymore!”
She furiously struck again, Jisel’s sword barely appearing in time to block her attack. Yet, she wasn’t done, and not leaving her opponent any chance. Cessilia immediately spun around, and struck again, aiming at her flank this time; Jisel stopped it again, but too late. She was thrown violently to the side, forced to drop her dagger as her flank brutally hitting the ground.
“You know, for a while, I even feared that my dragon would actually come back,” said Cessilia, “because I wouldn’t know how to face her. I was that afraid of facing my own mistake that deep down, I really thought she was better off dead than with an owner like me!”
She struck as Jisel was still on the ground, leaving her to raise her sword above her body to protect herself. It didn’t matter how Jisel held her sword up; Cessilia relentlessly attacked, again and again. However, behind all her reckless stabbing, teardrops began to appear. She wasn’t trying to kill her opponent; her reckless attacks endlessly hit the blade of Jisel’s sword, putting enormous pressure on the redhead, but without actually targeting her for real underneath her sword. No, instead, Cessilia was putting all of her rage into every single strike. Her arms were swinging with furious strength, like she could have kept punching a wall in anger. Those tears were coming from her inner rage, bottled up all these years, more than the hatred she felt for Jisel.
She was mad, furious at herself. She had tried to be good, to only allow herself to hide in the fear of that memory, while keeping the anger away. She had been so scared of letting that anger come out, scared of what she would have been capable of, if she had let her fury come out that day. Cessilia could almost remember the bitter disappointment in her heart when she had heard her brothers and father had already killed those men. And one second later, she had been shocked with the thoughts that had come to her mind, of what she would have been capable of doing to them herself if she had grasped her chance for revenge... It had been a constant trap. Fear, anger, fear of herself again. Fear of becoming the same kind of monster she had seen in those monsters’ eyes. Cessilia had always admired her mother, and she wanted to be kind, gentle, like her. But she had her father’s strength, and the blood of a dragon running through her veins. Her mother wasn’t capable of killing people twice her size, but she was. And right now, she felt like she had finally reached that point, where the dragon inside could finally be free, after being trapped for so long and for all the wrong reasons.
She suddenly stopped striking and took a step back, catching her breath, and wiping her tears.
“See, Jisel. I’m done being a coward like you. Hiding behind a man or my cousin. Behind a dragon... behind any excuse. I am done passing for the one that needs protection. I am no weak, hurt child anymore!”
Just as she shouted that, the wall behind them violently burst open.
With a terrifying roar, Jinn crawled into the room, the large red head immediately going for Cessilia. The Princess only had time to turn around and raise her swords before she was brutally thrown across the room. A hilt escaped her fingers, and her back violently hit the opposite wall, her whole body shaking inside the armor. Even as she fell down, Cessilia had to immediately curl and try to protect herself from the stones crumbling above her. It was like a landslide, trying to bury her alive. She heard Jisel scream and shout something to her dragon, but it was barely heard through the ruckus. Cessilia quickly dug herself out with painful grunts, before Jinn’s claws cut through the mountain covering her. The young dragon wasn’t just trying to kill her; it was wrecking the whole place!
Luckily, the mass destruction going on allowed Cessilia to get away on all fours, while Jinn couldn’t see or smell her through the mess of crumbling stones and clouds of dust filling the air. Cessilia quickly found a spot under a table to hide briefly, and catch her breath while witnessing the havoc in the room. Half of the tower’s wall had been busted open, along with the roof above, leaving it exposed to the raging storm outside. In fact, Cessilia had been thrown against the edge of the half still standing, away from the only door and stairs out of there. Jisel was back on her feet, in the middle of the room, vociferating like a mad woman.
“Kill her! Kill her! She’s there!”
Cessilia grimaced, and rolled out of her hideout before the dragon wrecked it too. She jumped back on her feet, glad the armor had held. She was bruised and injured from the shock for sure, but thankfully, the armor fitted her perfectly and had done its job protecting her, for the most part. Cessilia raised her sword, glad she had only lost one of the two despite the sudden hit. Fighting a dragon was a lot different from fighting a woman, and she was going to need that dragon claw sword!
Jinn was as ruthless and reckless as any young dragon; furiously growling, it kept trying to bite or scratch her, not bothering with the fact that it was completely destroying the room and even throwing its own mistress off. Only when Jinn heard Jisel scream did the dragon look back at her, worried, before she shouted at it to attack again. Blocking its attacks was a whole new story from blocking Jisel’s. Cessilia had to wield her sword in a defense position so its fangs wouldn’t get to any or her limbs, and even a dragon’s claw couldn’t pierce a dragon’s skin so easily, but it was close every time. Jinn would try to pounce on her, throw her against the ground or a wall, and wreak havoc until something crumbled or collapsed and forced it to back off. Twice, Cessilia managed to slice the dragon’s snout, making it twice as enraged.
While she was able to keep the dragon from injuring her in some way, the same couldn’t be said for their battleground. The banquet hall was already in ruins, unrecognizable except for the entrance door, still miraculously standing. Almost all the walls had been blown out, the ceiling collapsed, the stones falling on them or to the sides, hitting the other parts of the castle or diving into the sea. Cessilia’s face was covered in sweat and rainwater, the dragon’s growl echoing with the thunderous storm around them. The ground was getting both unstable and slippery, threatening to collapse at any given moment. Suddenly, a stone slipping under her threw Cessilia completely off balance.
She fell to her side, allowing the dragon’s paw to completely sweep her out of the way. The sharp claws dug deep into her flesh, making Cessilia let out a scream of pain. She felt her whole body echo the horrible pain of her injury. Her flank was throbbing, the horrible feeling of foreign, painful darts stabbing her shoulder, flank, and stomach, piercing the pieces of her armor. Cessilia swung her sword blindly, and by chance, she hit something that made the dragon growl in fury. She was swept once again, her body sliding down the floor until she hit something, perhaps another piece of the fallen wall; the pain was still veiling everything in an intense red. She hadn’t realized her head was hurt too until a thin trail of blood ran down her temple and eyelashes. Her hand went immediately for the injury by instinct to try and stop the bleeding. The warm liquid quickly filled her hand.
“Ha! See? ...You’re still nothing without your dragon, Princess!”
Cessilia raised her head, and between her chestnut curls, she spotted Jisel, facing her next to her dragon, a triumphant smile on her lips.
“You’re still as weak as ever! You’ve lost the privileges of your blood! Your dragon wouldn’t even want to come back to such a weak mistress! You’re nothing but a...”
She stopped talking as Cessilia moved. The Princess was slowly getting back on her feet, despite the pain and blood running down her left side. Not only that, but the blood flow had calmed down a lot. Cessilia began taking off the damaged pieces of armor with her valid hand. The heavy pieces fell loudly on the floor, one by one, while Jisel watched in confusion. With no more armor to protect them, Cessilia’s injuries should have been exposed and yet, there was none of that. Instead, her body was shining. A thunderbolt struck from the sky above them, revealing the large, beautiful waves of scales that were appearing on her skin. The blood of her injuries was already drying out, and slowly replaced by the outgrowth of magnificent, silvery, diamond-shaped dragon scales on her skin. They had a beautiful magenta shine every time the light hit them, making them look even more vivid than her previous armor. Every single injury Cessilia had received was now getting covered by the growing scales, as if a second skin was growing on her in patches, like a predator’s markings. Her own skin could still be seen underneath in a strange contrast, but the new silvery scales were covering even a portion of her face. She didn’t look human anymore, but like a half-dragon creature, with glowing green eyes and a shimmery skin.
“No...” muttered Jisel, panicked, stepping back, her eyes wide open in horror. “What is this…? No. No, no, no, no, no! J-Jinn! Jinn, kill her! Kill her!”
“...You should have tried that sooner.”
Jinn growled furiously, and while its mistress ran to the back, the dragon arched its body, making itself bigger and showing its fangs, ready to face her again. This time, Cessilia was ready. Her injuries were still painful, but she could feel it. The Dragon Blood, hot and burning through her veins, rushing through her whole body and supplying her with the adrenaline she needed to resume the fight. She had never felt so strong before, so... like a dragon. She was ready. With a fierce look in her green eyes, she began running, lifted her sword, and jumped at the Red Dragon, blade first.
Chapter 27
“What the heck is going on up there?!”
Tessandra raised her eyes, trying to see through the dust, the rain, and the blinding lightning bolts that shook the already dark skies above. For a while now, they had been hearing a terrible ruckus continuously coming from the castle, and from what she could see, most of it was that annoying Red Dragon’s doing. The red silhouette could easily be spotted on the higher towers, climbing up them like an oversized snake, its growls regularly reaching them.
She grunted and swung her sword to get rid of a couple of soldiers that were coming at them. Back to back with Sabael, they were still acting like an unstoppable duo. Luckily, he was still in a good enough shape to keep fighting and defend his position without too much trouble.
“If my memory’s right, that stupid teenage dragon just blew open the banquet hall! ...At least we know where the King and Cessi are!” she shouted back to him.
“Will they be able to handle that?” asked Sabael behind her, still looking worried.
