Raising her hands in front of her, a dazzling array of electrically charged magic crackled, fizzed, sizzled and spluttered in a myriad of different colours. Volcanic red, sumptuous plum, red velvet and cool cherry represented but a few. It was, however, all quite red, which suited her just fine because that was her favourite colour and she expected to see a lot of it here and now. Anticipating the taste of human blood to come, she unleashed the magic she'd been holding in.
A split second before a red death took him, Peter bit down on the alea and in his mind screamed the words that Gee Tee had assured him would trigger the last chance or gamble that it represented. Amongst the chaos of his surroundings, he had almost expected nothing to happen. After all, he was totally reliant on the master mantra maker in all this.
Sucking in a small breath, she shivered despite the humidity and heat. Eyes open now and focused fully on one person only, she watched helplessly as Manson's evil queen summoned her blood red magic and prepared to destroy the love of her life with it. Inside her head, a voice echoed gently throughout her thoughts, providing focus and a measure of calm despite the circumstances.
"Concentrate! You need to concentrate if we're all to get out of this. He'll be alright until we can get to him. He's actually quite resourceful, you know."
Heeding the wise weapon's words, Janice closed her eyes again and immersed herself in magic. Being surrounded by ancient beings had never felt so good.
Watching the dark objects head for Flash and his party of dragons at quite a rate, Hook made the only decision he could: to fight! Having very little left to give, he whirled around and punched the dark dragon standing over him with everything he had left. In all honesty, it was a gamble, like the one Peter had just taken with the alea. But in Hook's case it was a calculated risk. After all, they had to procreate? Didn't they? As the pain in his hand from making contact dropped him to his knees, a moment later he had his answer in the form of the most barbaric of howls. Rolling over and over, all too aware of the giant shadow getting ever closer, Hook barely made it out from underneath the body of the flailing dragon as he collapsed to the marble surface with the loudest CRUNCH in the world. Beside himself with laughter at what had just happened, all the time pushing away the pain from his hand, broken arm and assorted other injuries, he crawled into a crouch and began looking for some cover. As he did so, magic blossomed into existence all around.
Drawn to the brilliant, bright reddish magic ignited by Manson's queen directly behind Peter, a feeling of utter helplessness threatened to overtake her. What broke that spell, bringing her back to her current predicament and almost brought a smile to her face despite the dire situation, was Hook off to one side, turning in one swift move and punching the dragon hovering over him right in the 'hoard of treasure'. As the magic from the laminium dagger consumed her totally, all she could think was that the rugby playing human was something special, to say the least.
The time had come, and so without any regrets at all, telepathically, she sent the signal, before turning her attention to the rather sticky situation she found herself in. Bringing one of her hands up so fast it was a blur, even to all those with magical powers, she just managed to get it between the dark, shiny blade and the scales around her neck. Even that would only buy her a matter of moments, so with her other hand straight down by her side, she conjured up a fragmented bolt of dark blue lightning and proceeded to ram it into her guard. The resulting yelp had been reassuring, but not quite the reaction she'd hoped for, having been certain that the guard would have dropped to the ground or been thrown back by her attack. Unfortunately he'd remained professional throughout and still had his lethal looking, sharp as hell bastard sword up and around her throat. Undeterred, and with the blade now cutting into the flesh of her hand, instinctively she kicked out, aiming for the exact same area as Hook, but not quite making the same kind of contact. With magic exploding all around her, it was hard to concentrate and bring forth any of hers now, with her opponent's strength threatening to overwhelm her. Thoughts of the king and how she'd let him down punctuated the tears zigzagging across her scales. As her hand gave out, almost cut in two, she said goodbye to the only world she'd known and waited for her head to be cleaved from her body. Knowing that some dragons prayed to long forgotten gods, it had never really been her thing. Imagining a higher power and believing in miracles was an absolute impossibility for her. But what happened next would make her re-examine every belief she had.
From completely out of nowhere, a rusty, old, bent dagger slashed through the right elbow of the arm holding the dark and dangerous blade, powered by magic with enough force to sever it completely. With a CLANG and a THUNK, the sword dropped to the floor, swiftly followed by half a dragon arm, the dark dragon still having barely realised what had happened, it had all been so fast. More than a little surprised at the unexpected turn of events, Amelia Battlehard swept up the dark sword without a moment's hesitation, and with the blade held firmly, pirouetted, decapitating her enemy in the blink of an eye. Looking around for the king, out of thin air only a couple of metres away, a dragon's head appeared, all on its own. To say it nearly frightened the life out of her was an understatement. With a million questions running through her mind, and a raging battle kicking off all around her, the head in question winked once, roared, "You're welcome," and then suddenly disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. Unable to ponder the total impossibility that had saved her and with the giant black beast of a sword firmly gripped with both hands, she took off at a sprint, weaving in and out of the explosive magic that ravaged the air all around her, all the time heading for the king's last location.
Throughout the complex, King's Guards fought against their assailants valiantly, despite being severely outnumbered, even though most, like Amelia Battlehard, had a sharpened blade to their throats. Some used magic to fight their way free, others used cunning and guile. Most failed, some survived and won their personal duels, procuring a weapon and a very small amount of thinking time.
Ignoring the explosions, animalistic cries and the debris all around her, she opened her mind and let it wander, gaining a bird's eye view of everything raging across the field of battle. Not only was she the eyes now, but in charge of the decision making too. And so it was that as the battle commenced, the sole point of her focus was the group of nagas which Fu-ts'ang found himself in the middle of. Held out in front by one of them, not at all fazed by the cool frost constantly circling the blade, he was suddenly startled when the extraordinary weapon, of its own accord, turned up, its tip pointing directly towards his throat. Halfway through his thought of, 'what the hell is going on?' suddenly the weapon surged forward with all the supersonic speed of a bullet, the blade plunging up through his jaw and into his skull, killing him instantly. His comrade beside him was the only one to have seen clearly what had happened and so started to slither away. Those around began to berate their colleague in the middle of the battle for breaking formation. Before he had the chance to explain about the weapon, Fu-ts'ang and Janice turned their attention towards the whole group of them, slicing two in half before they'd even registered a threat. Finally the nagas in that small cluster got into the game, bringing out their best magic, aiming wonderfully coloured bolts of electricity, fire and even ice at the majestic looking weapon as it manically flew through the air, on the hunt for each and every one of them. It was, however, all to no avail. Fu-ts'ang was far too nimble and agile for any of the attacks. Janice had found peace and a perfect partnership. While she detested the killing, she had no doubt it was necessary, not just for the here and now, but for the much bigger picture. It went beyond all of this and affected everyone, everywhere. This wasn't so much about surviving for the next few minutes, as about the whole planet and saving the entire population of the earth and their way of life. In less than twenty seconds, a pile of dead nagas had appeared in the middle of the chamber, leaving the previously pristine floor and the blade of the deadly weapon slick with naga blood.