Nana didn’t even have the voice to answer. She was still trembling and, when Tessandra let go, she fell down to her knees, all her strength leaving her body. He had just sent her flying across the battlefield!
“Darsan, you crazy fuck!” Tessandra shouted. “Wait until this is over, I’m going to fucking kill you! Are you alright, Nana? Do you need to throw up? I’m so sorry...”
“I... I... He just...”
“Yep. That’s Darsan for you. I’m sorry, he used to play that with his little brothers, I don’t think he realized you’re not exactly made for that kind of game...”
A game? That was as fun as a game for him?! Naptunie tried to keep herself from crying and, with Tessandra’s help, she got back on her feet, just in time when her brother appeared next to her.
“You stopped them,” said Sabael, looking out of breath. “Good job, sis.”
“Why did that dumbass send you here?” asked Tessandra. “Please tell me there was an actual reason, or else I swear I’m going to murder him.”
“Y-yes,” nodded poor Nana. “I-I have a plan...”
“Oh, thank the gods. What is it? Don’t worry, I promise I’m going to kick his ass and tell him to never do that again...”
While trying to catch her breath and get back to a normal heart rate, Naptunie quickly explained her plan to Tessandra, who nodded all along. They glanced around at their side of the battlefield, agreeing to her plan.
“That’s a good plan, Nana. Leave me and the boys to it, you and Sabael can work on the side to create more smoke and make sure the Yekara who escape this area are either captured or forced back here. Darsan, Kassian, and I will have no problem if those guys are hindered by the smoke, we may even be able to force them to give up.”
“I doubt that,” said Sabael, “but I agree, that’s a good plan.”
“Where is Lady Bastat?” Nana asked. “I thought we could ask her for some fabrics to create large fans and direct the smoke...”
“She’s injured, so she was sent to the back, but we can ask the Sehsan, I doubt they will refuse,” explained Tessandra. “They are two streets down, trying to coordinate everything with your tribe. We need to get things over with here soon, though, I heard it’s getting ugly up there, and I’m itching to check in on Cessilia too.”
Just as she said that, a loud dragon growl echoed far above them. They turned their eyes toward the castle, where Jinn’s red body was furiously attacking one of the towers. It had destroyed half of the brick walls, leaving only a bit standing. Nana’s face got paler again, imagining Cessilia up there facing a dragon. Next to her, Tessandra was squinting her eyes even more, surprised by something she thought she had seen. A silver streak. It was very small and faint, but she was almost sure she had seen it.
“Cessi...”
“Come on, Nana,” said Sabael. “We should get moving as fast as we can!”
“Go,” nodded Tessandra.
Giving her one last look, Naptunie quickly left the area, running after her older brother. Tessandra got down on one knee to grab her swords, the blood already washed away from the blades by the rain. But just as her fingers grazed the ground, she felt something. She froze. It was extremely subtle, but she felt a very faint shake coming from the ground. A second one, shortly after. Her fingers tightened up around the handles. ...An earthquake? She slowly stood up, listening. The sea was streets away from here, but she could hear it raging furiously. The waves crashing against the island were somehow getting... louder. It was abnormally strong. Tessandra began to breathe more heavily, sensing something was coming. It was as if the battlefield around her had been reduced to a silent, slow background, while all of her senses and instincts were focused on a bigger danger. She glanced up at the sky, only catching dark clouds and at times, blinding lightning bolts. Still, she couldn’t shake that feeling. Trying to ignore it, and feeling the enemies gathering around her again, she raised her arms, preparing to resume the fight. She noticed how her hair was standing up under the armor’s leather.
Suddenly, she heard it. Forgetting all about the fight, Tessandra turned around, her heart beating like crazy. She hadn’t dreamed that too, had she? Her eyes fixated on the skies, on the horizon, she waited, restless. She heard it again.
This time, she turned to Kassian, yards away from her, as if to confirm she wasn’t crazy. She wasn’t going crazy. The Prince had stopped fighting too, with the same shocked, torn expression. He had heard it too.
Chapter 28
Back in one of the castle’s highest towers, Cessilia’s fierce fight against Jisel and her Red Dragon had gotten more violent, more... beastly. Combined with the Princess’ new appearance, she was also seemingly much stronger.
The young Red Dragon kept pouncing on her like a cat trying to kill a rat, but she just wasn’t letting herself be killed. Cessilia was moving fast, like a dragon, slithering through the attacks, fighting back as if her opponent wasn’t a furious creature three times her size. The claws kept digging through the stone, wrecking what was once a gorgeous banquet hall, now reduced to two walls and a large mountain of rubble. As most of the roof had been brought down, a lot of the rain was pouring in, making the whole floor quite easy to slip on when it wasn’t unstable from all the debris scattered around. Each time Cessilia found herself against a wall, she had to watch just as much for the dragon as she did for the falling of broken bricks. Still, she wasn’t retreating from this fight. Her new, shining silver scales were glowing like a light in the darkness, beautiful and eerie on her skin. She had taken off most of her armor and her Dragon Blood was now taking over in making her skin thicker, tougher. The external injuries were closing up and healing at an incredible speed, but she could still feel the vivid pain inside. Her organs weren’t as quick to heal as her skin was, so she couldn’t move at her full speed, but she sure was trying.
Jinn had to find ways to relentlessly attack her while also finding a precarious equilibrium on the tower the rest of its body was gradually ruining. This banquet hall was absolutely not the right size to welcome one whole dragon, even a young one, and the Red Dragon was just destroying everything mindlessly. Cessilia wouldn’t have cared less about Jinn destroying the whole tower, if it wasn’t for the fact that she was still in it and feeling the tower getting less and less stable. Somehow, the dragon’s lower body also kept scratching the lower floors as it tried to climb, and all the jumping and scratching was causing the whole building to become off-balance, weakening it. The more she fought, ran, and jumped to fight back against the unruly dragon, the less stable she felt the ground under her. If she didn’t finish this soon, chances were the whole tower would collapse, and Dragon Blood couldn’t save a crushed body...
The fighting itself was already hard enough as it was. Few men could have ever claimed to have fought a dragon alone, and Cessilia was probably the only woman capable of doing so. She was fierce, grunting and groaning everytime she thrusted her sword. Her anger was on par with Jinn’s furious growls, the two of them fighting like irate beasts wanting nothing more than to rip each other apart. The large claws got very close to her many times, sometimes ripping the floor and digging several inches into the stone right next to her legs. Every time Jinn pounced on her, Cessilia would retaliate by slicing the dragon or piercing it. Her sword was hanging on just fine, and as it was made of dragon claw, it could pierce the Red Dragon’s skin while making big holes, not just a clean cut like a normal blade would have. Even if it wasn’t always as deep and large as she had hoped, bit by bit, more and more injuries were appearing on Jinn’s body. The dragon was getting madder each time, trying to kill her even more vehemently, forcing Cessilia to be on the move always. She couldn’t get a single second of rest, aside from the very few times she managed to jump away or run to the opposite side. She could barely catch her breath and wipe the sweat and rain off her face before she had to get moving again. It was a dance of death, in which whoever slowed down saw their blood shed.
Her hair was drenched, and she had ripped apart the hem of her dress that hindered her already. There wasn’t much left of the original outfit, leaving Cessilia covered only by some purple armor and her silver-magenta scales more than the dark brown pieces of fabric. It was better for her though as it made her movements easier, and she needed any mobility she could get. The rain was dripping down her whole body, soaking the ground and slowly transforming the floor of the former hall into a water rink. Despite how fast she moved and how careful she was, Cessilia slid several times against the wet stone, almost impaling herself on the dragon’s fangs a couple of times. She was only glad her Dragon Blood was more fired up than ever. The piles of debris would have ruined her feet and legs with multiple scratches if they weren’t already covered in scales. There were few portions of the hall left that weren’t covered by broken stones and debris, and she had to navigate through the mess while fighting a dragon that couldn’t have cared less. Jinn had no issues climbing over the hills of broken walls to jump on her, fangs first, and try to bite her head or arm off. Cessilia had to run, dive behind whatever obstacle she could find between her and the dragon and find the first occasion to retaliate. Despite being at a clear disadvantage, the Princess was unrelenting, and not giving the beast an easy fight. Cessilia was stronger, fiercer than ever, and didn’t back down, even when she was injured again. It happened after she had tripped once more and almost ripped her foot open on some sharp piece of metal. She fell down to the side, and immediately rolled on the ground to avoid being impaled by one of Jinn’s sharp claws by less than an inch.
When she jumped back on her feet, out of breath but sword ready, her entire right flank was bleeding out, covered in many little and middle-sized cuts. Immediately, the fresh wounds were quickly covered by a new shimmer of silver scales, her skin fighting the injuries with her as fast as the eye could see. The more that fight continued, the less human she looked. Silver scales were now covering more than half of her visible skin, and at each bolt of lightning that enlightened the sky, her scales shimmered too.
“Just get rid of her already!” shouted Jisel, furious. “Just kill her!”
Cessilia wasn’t going to let herself be killed, not so easily. That measly dragon didn’t scare her one bit, and she refused to lose against Jisel. Every time she had to jump to avoid the dragon’s attack, she made sure to keep an eye on that woman. Cessilia could forgive the dragon, perhaps, but she wasn’t going to let Jisel get away with it twice. That woman had chosen her path, now it was time she paid for it.
“...Just come out and fight me yourself then!” she grunted, raising her sword again.
Jinn furiously growled, and Cessilia saw the dragon take a large, deep breath that couldn’t mean anything good. She ran to hide behind a pile of wreckage and covered her head seconds before the large, hot flames burst out. The heat rose in a blink, and Cessilia felt the flames lick her arms, her legs, and everything around. The dragon’s furious fiery breath lasted for just a few terrifying seconds. Although her body had some immunity to it thanks to the Dragon Blood, she knew a dragon’s fire was too powerful. She tried to endure it, feeling her silver scales rush to heal as fast as they got burned, trying to keep her alive despite the cataclysmic fire directed against her. Cessilia tried to protect her face, but she felt every part of her body itching, burning terribly. It was only a matter of seconds, but those seconds felt way too long. When it finally stopped, she was still way too hot, and she could smell burnt flesh. She looked at her limbs, relieved to see several thick layers of scales had appeared to protect the exposed parts. Then, she smelled flames still burning, and realized some of her hair had caught fire. Without hesitation, Cessilia grabbed the locks and cut it off. Some of her hair was now cut to neck length, but she didn’t have the time to wonder how it looked. She immediately began running, ignoring the pain still stinging her forearm and legs, and jumped, aiming for Jinn’s back.
Cessilia knew dragons spitting fire had to take a few seconds to calm down, and she had to use that time. She violently stabbed her whole sword through the dragon’s left flank, and half a second later, Jinn’s furious growl thundered. Disoriented by the pain that pierced its flesh, the Red Dragon writhed erratically, more violent than ever. It sent Cessilia flying off of its back, separating her from the sword still planted in its back. She felt herself hit the ground violently one second before Jisel’s scream echoed her dragons. Cessilia grimaced. With the speed and violence she had landed, even if the floor had been cleared of debris, it would have been painful, but now, she could feel several parts of her body in a tremendous amount of pain. Luckily, she wasn’t the only one. Still panicked by the weapon planted in its back, Jinn kept squirming and groaning, the Red Dragon going into a complete frenzy. The crazy rampage was just about destroying anything left in the room, spilling debris everywhere and collapsing the remaining walls. Still lying on her stomach, Cessilia tried to raise her head with a groan of pain, her green eyes immediately falling on the doors leading to the lower floors which had miraculously kept standing until then. If she entertained any dream of escaping this way, they were brutally crushed. In its madness, Jinn wrecked them, and the wall collapsed on it, along with whatever was left behind. Cessilia let out an annoyed groan. Now she was truly trapped here, unless the rest of the tower collapsed… which didn’t seem impossible. Jinn’s rampage hadn’t just damaged the remaining walls, the floor was now literally swaying under them. Cessilia’s heart dropped to her stomach as she felt the tower tilt more and more. By reflex, she grabbed the first hole she could find in the ground, and held on, hoping this would stop soon. Sadly, it wasn’t. She heard a terrible sound somewhere beneath, something akin to a landslide or an earthquake, and the ground under her kept tilting and tilting. She could feel her body getting pushed toward the edge, leaning dangerously to the side that was collapsing. If she let go, just for a second, her body would inevitably slide down and fall off of the tower... She closed her eyes, trying to calm her crazy heartbeat and the blood pulsing in her head. She didn’t even want to think about whether the sea or the rest of the castle was waiting below. All the Dragon Blood in the world wouldn’t be able to save her from such a fall.
“Ha!”
Cessilia forced herself to look in the opposite direction. Annoyed, she saw Jisel, holding on to her dragon herself and, with her free hand, wielding Cessilia’s dragon claw sword she had left in the wound. She had visibly ripped it out, waving around the blood-soaked weapon while her dragon had calmed down a bit. Jinn was still furiously growling, its wound bleeding out and the red body squirming still, arched as an indication of its suffering.
“What is it, Princess? Can’t keep up after all?” she mocked her.
“Stop it, Jisel!” Cessilia shouted back. “Both you and your dragon are going to die! If you stop now, we might spare you!”
“Shut up! Look at you, Princess, you’re about to die! And you want me to beg for mercy? Fuck no! I have come this far by bowing to everyone, and now, I have a Dragon Princess groveling under me! I’m going to watch you die, and then I’ll show Ashen how he picked the wrong, weak woman!”
“I’m not weak,” grunted Cessilia.
