Instinctively Manson's queen lit up her personal shield, allowing it to harmlessly absorb the pathetic display of sorcery spat at her by the disappointingly average guard who now looked on in absolute horror.
'Good,' she thought. 'What's the point of having power if not to terrorise others?' Almost within a sword's reach, Earth stopped and smiled, the kind of sickening smile only pure, malevolent evil could muster. It had the desired effect, goading the guard to step out and leave her partner's back exposed. Without hesitation, the vile queen willed her magic into existence, producing a brilliant swarm of bright blue mosquitoes that, after acknowledging their own mortality, dive-bombed head first straight towards the quaking guard. Putting all her willpower and mana into her barrier, she died with a look of total and utter surprise ingrained into her scaled face as the supernatural insects not only penetrated her personal shield, but violated her scales with almost no resistance. Before the first guard's body had even hit the ground, Manson's queen was already using her exquisite gift for evil to drill beams of super powered light into the exposed back of her partner. With a roar louder than most planes taking off, the wounded dragon dropped to his knees before a horde of dragons and nagas swamped him. In an instant he too was dead.
Alongside Troydenn's massive, motionless skull, Yelevel, one of the dragon councillors that had retreated back into the king's private residence when the council building had come under attack, danced a dance she knew well. A former knight in her younger years, for but a brief while she'd served alongside George, although some time after his encounter with the famed dragon at what was now known as the city of Salisbridge. Presently she found herself dicing with a particularly punchy naga who had a whole array of magical mischief up his sleeve. So far, she'd managed to avoid being caught by any of it, but was not only running out of ideas, but of mana as well. Knowing that she needed a brief respite to recover just a little spurred her on to finish off the serpent-like beast as quickly as she could. Detonating a brilliant, bright flash bang at almost point blank range, knowing what was to come allowed her to close her eyes and escape the worst of the dazzling explosion. Acting on instinct alone her human form closed the few metres' gap as her slippery opponent tried to wriggle out of the way, unable to see where his enemy was. Leaping for all she was worth, she almost slipped as she landed on the top part of his scaled tail. Grabbing onto his right ear with her right hand to steady herself, she knew speed was of the essence. By now the naga could feel her atop of him and started dancing about like a cat that's just realised it's about to be taken to the vet. Yelevel held on firmly, rising up and down and rolling with every movement, focusing her centre of gravity and maintaining her balance. During a momentary respite, she struck. Using the stolen knife she'd acquired from the guard that had held her hostage originally, with her left hand she rammed the blade fully into the beast's left ear with all the strength she had. Rewarded for her efforts by the start of a high pitched scream and the naga's now inert body slumping to the floor, the councillor leapt up and over the bleeding corpse, landing beside the massive matt black cadaver of Troydenn. Catching her breath fleetingly, having bought herself a little bit of space, she scrutinised the magical madness going on all around her. All things being equal, she should really have picked a target and ploughed on into the battle. It's a shame that she didn't. It might well have saved her life. With her back to the giant corpse for cover, and the energy within her recharging at quite a rate, she glanced around in front of her, selecting her next target carefully. Unbeknown to her, Earth's two headed wicked serpent slithered out from under Troydenn's neck where it had been hiding. Spotting its prey, the nightmarish beast wasted no time. In one lightning strike, both heads each clamped their razor-sharp teeth around a leg, injecting venom and holding on for all they were worth. Yelevel didn't have a chance. By the time she realised what was happening, the pain prevented her from finding the appropriate magical response, while the poison dulled her senses. In a matter of seconds it was over. The councillor for New Zealand was dead, Earth's familiar was vaguely satisfied and the battle raged on.
Waves of pure, supernatural power roared through the air, hexes and enchantments ricocheted off the walls and floor, as a rainbow of different coloured smoke drifted across the king's private residence. Throughout it all, a young human woman began to feel the cold chill of the marble she'd been sitting on for some time. It hadn't of course been all plain sailing. Fu-ts'ang had deflected away a number of wild magical assaults that hadn't been intended for her, but had put her in danger anyway. And while things had gotten way past crazy, the dark dragons and nagas didn't see her as a threat and so focused their rage and their magic on other more dangerous looking targets. Little did they know that she'd played a significant part in the damage they'd suffered. Her tally of kills was significantly higher than anyone else's here. Of course, it wasn't just her. They were a team... one pure mind working with an experienced, calculating one that had a singular grasp of what needed to be done. And what a team they were. If Manson had known just what was going on, and the way in which Janice was guiding Fu-ts'ang, she'd be their number one target for sure. But he didn't, and with so much chaos and mayhem around the chamber, it was unlikely that he'd find out any time soon.
Turning her attention to half a dozen nagas closing in on Yoyo's young band of renegade dragons, the youthful bar worker guided her partner in their direction. Slicing through the air, barely noticeable to most of those around apart from the slight frosty trail he left in his wake, Fu-ts'ang arrowed in on his first target... or should that be targets? Skipping around a wayward volley of scattered magical shots, the deadly weapon swept in low, disguising his trajectory by passing through two giant clouds of smoke given off by one of the huge ear splitting explosions that regularly lit up their surroundings. Lining himself up, much to Janice's approval, and with the deadly, icy white frost circling the blade, the weapon rushed forward, cleaving not one, but two naga tails in half, in a single strike. Both beasts smashed against the marble floor, emitting the most nauseous of ear-splitting sounds. Pleased with his work, Fu-ts'ang whipped back around in a tight arc, sights set on the next target.
With their concentration focused on saving the lives of the band of young dragons, Janice and her partner failed to heed the approach of a brutal looking dark dragon. Brilliant burgundy merged gently with yellow across the whole of his body in a stunning combination, apart from his face which just looked as though he'd flown into the side of a house. Scales were missing, while some just flapped around as he walked, barely holding on with anything at all. The most disturbing things though were his eyes. One was almost totally bloodshot, while the other was... MISSING! A dark yellow eyelid was fused in place, with two thick black lines running diagonally across the scales and gunk that sat there instead of the normal tennis ball sized eyeball. As if that wasn't enough, some of the scales on his tail had been removed, and metallic spikes of various sizes and degrees of deadliness had been inserted. Stalking towards the unwitting Janice, one or two of the spikes dragged across the marble, the loud scraping noise of them doing so masked by the violence going on all around them.