'This will be fun,' he thought to nobody but himself.
Like any good domino construction, the lines turned this way and that, splitting into two, and then two again, before twisting off in totally the opposite direction. As each came crashing down, nothing known to either man or dragon could prevent this unstoppable force from reaching its inevitable conclusion.
Something in him changed instantly, forcing the pain to disappear, flooding his essence with hope. Immediately he dived out of the ball he'd been in, smashing to the ground, metaphorically speaking. With the relentless force still exerting itself on him and pushing him ever closer to the fateful drop off the edge, his will reasserted itself. Powered by the new found hope, he staggered to his feet and began walking in the opposite direction. It was like striding into a hurricane, but slowly, inch by inch, he made progress in the opposite direction.
Never before in the history of the universe had Death been so caught off guard or surprised. When he finally came to terms with what had just happened, and the fact that he wouldn't be needed right here today, like the fickle entity that he was, he just shrugged it off and moved on to the next one. There were plenty of others close by that required his services.
"Mourning your friend there?" mocked Manson, the magic in his hands ready to be used at the first sign of trouble.
Vasuki chose not to answer. What would be the point? Caught off guard, knowing full well he was unable to bring forth any kind of defence in time, the serpent-like king rose up regally to meet his fate head on, hoping against hope that his magic had made the difference.
"Your brief glimpse of freedom was short lived. What's it like to suddenly have hope after all that time, and then find it pulled out from under you? Must be disappointing to say the least? Naga got your tongue? Ha ha ha."
'Coooommmme onnnnn, coooooommmme onnnn, coooommmme onnnnn,' thought Vasuki. 'Ssssurrrrelllllyyy iiit mmmusssst hhhhavvvve wwwwooorkkkkeddd byyyy nnnnowwww.'
Only a few branches of the DNA domino tree left to fall now, and if anyone had been looking at the smoking, corpse-like body of Flash, they'd have spotted wisps of crackling purple energy sparking over his skin. Vasuki had his back to the ex-Crimson Guard's remains, obscuring Manson's view totally, whilst everybody else in the chamber had more pressing matters on their minds.
Wondering what was going on behind him, not daring to look round despite every atom in his body desperate to do so, the naga king's experience told him one thing and one thing only. Buy some more time! And so against his better judgement, he tried to do just that.
"Whhhyyy dooooo yoouuu dooo aaalll oofff thisssss?" he hissed. "Suuurely theeere isssss noooo neeeeeed."
"HO HO HO," replied Manson, anything but Father Christmas. "There's every need. It's my destiny to rule the planet, just like it was my father's. He might have failed, but fate wills me on to succeed. Benevolent beings like you are weak and have had your time. A new era is about to be ushered in, one that you were never going to be part of. Thankfully, due in no small part to your race, the world will belong to my Queen and I. And once it does, your race will be wiped from the face of the earth. How's that for ironic?"
Fighting off a rising tide of fury, Vasuki wrapped himself in the diplomatic persona he hadn't used for decades.
"You're aaa smmaaart, creedible drraaaagoon. Yoou caan't poossssibly waant toooo hurrrt aaallll oooof theesssse beingssss. There muusssst beeee sooome kiiind ooof cooomprooomisssse weeee caaaan reach?"
"COMPROMISE?!" shouted Manson, infuriated. "Do you know how many dragons I've killed? Thousands, if not tens of thousands, and that doesn't include their precious pets on the surface. You can probably add hundreds of thousands of those to the tally. Do you really think those in the dragon domain will be happy to do a deal with me? I DON'T THINK SO!"
"Hoow caaann yooou knooow without trrrrying?"
"Hmmmm..." murmured Manson. "What are you really up to? I don't believe for a second you think an agreement is possible. Buying some time in the hope of a rescue, are we?"
Hopes dashed, with his feeble ploy all but revealed, the naga king was out of time and at the mercy of a being who had no concept of the word.
With the tiniest 'tap' in the world, the last one fell into place, ending the cascade and launching the mother of all chain reactions. Locked and loaded, the torrent of magic within writhed and wriggled before finding the right path and once that happened the change was electrifying and much, much quicker than it should have been. Instantaneously, the being that had been on the verge of death was all but reborn, back to his prehistoric best thanks to the repairs made by Fredric to his damaged DNA, back in Antarctica, but with one crucial difference. Before the naga attack at the bottom of the world, the one that had almost proved deadly, the one that Gee Tee had saved his life from at the cost of his dragon form, his natural shape had been nothing too special. Not huge, not small, somewhere in between. Of course his training had made up for any shortcomings in his stature, as had his quick and lithe mind. But here and now, something was different. The feeling of the change was the same, his mind recognised that instantly. But something about the volume of it all felt odd. The reason would soon become apparent.
About to decimate the being in front of him, that he thought of as substandard, with the powerful magic he juggled in both hands, shock and fright forced him to take two steps back as a mighty primeval dragon sprang into being out of nowhere behind the naga king, its prodigious gaze focused solely on him. The tables had been well and truly turned on Manson and, for a change, not only did he feel out of control, but terror and fear ran riot throughout his monstrous, human shaped body.
Magnificent did not do him justice. Much, much bigger than his previous prehistoric incarnation, his new outer shell felt as though he'd just slipped into a tight fitting pair of gloves. Shiny, bright silver scales inundated his upper body, trailing off into gun metal grey around his head, the underside of his wings and down across his sternum. Nordic sky blue accentuated a whole host of features, running along the inside and outside of the wing phalanges, down his tail along the whole neural spine, culminating in the entire caudal spade at the end of his appendage. The same colour outlined his entire cranium. Quite literally, he was a dragon to die for.
Euphoric at being back in the form that he'd entered this world in and being saved from death by the skin of his teeth, Flash, all dragoned up, let out an almighty "ROAR" in the direction of the evil Manson, causing the twisted mastermind to drop the powerful magic he'd been playing with and roll out of the way. In that instant Vasuki recognised his chance and so, slithering out from in front of the newly formed beast of a dragon, he brought his unusual naga magic to bear, creating a defensive shield of frost around his entire snake-like body, as well as readying a wicked looking, shimmering, spear of ice to go on the attack with.
Stomping forward, causing the ground to shake and the marble to break, Flash stretched out his new born wings, scything them through the air, twisting them this way and that, delighted to feel the wind tickling either side of them. It felt so good to experience this again, he thought, especially since it looked for some time like he'd never do so. Pushing his feelings to one side, the logical, literal, agent part of him took control, knowing the trouble they were all in, determined to end things once and for all. And he knew exactly how. If he could kill Manson here and now, things would end, of that he was sure. The dragon world would go back to what it had been before. Simple really, at least that's what he told himself. Without hesitation, knowing exactly what had to be done, he... ATTACKED!