Through the blossoming explosions that constantly rained down on the shield Richie held in place through force of will, powered by the exotic laminium dagger, Flash, preparing yet another of his party pieces, caught the briefest slither of movement, outside and vaguely in the direction he'd planned to travel. Off in the distance, unnoticed by the trio he intended to get out there to protect, a dangerous woman, protected by magic by the looks of things, cloaked head to toe in brown, appeared to be traversing the battlefield with singular intent. Right there, right then, it was all the motivation he needed. As a pinprick of a hole started to appear at his feet, the ex-Crimson Guard closed his eyes and commanded the bonds of his now fully dragon DNA to unshackle. On doing so, he gave them a totally unfamiliar command, one from far off in the past, one that he hoped would still work, one that he prayed would get him out in front of things and into a position to serve the being he'd pledged his life to.
With the bulk of Manson's force having headed through the council building and out onto the courtyard before the bridge on the other side, a small contingent remained in case any sort of resistance force should show up. It was unlikely, but this plan had been long in the making and no detail, however small, had been overlooked. Well... almost.
On the third floor, two dragon guards stood stoically at their posts, ready to fight tooth and claw, ready to unleash the magic that rallied within them. On guard, they fully expected trouble. What they didn't expect was the sound of soft buzzing, lazily drifting up from one of the stairwells next to their posts. Both giving the other puzzled looks, the bigger of the two indicated to his colleague with a nod of his head that he should check it out. Confused about what could be making the sound, the smaller dragon plodded over to the edge of the stairwell, leaned over the railing and looked down. From out of nowhere, up popped two nifoloa, and in one swift, coordinated action, both picked a different eye and stabbed their single large tooth into it, releasing a huge amount of toxic venom. Before the prehistoric, dark dragon had been dragged over the side by the bright, blood red hands of the gaki, it was already dead.
Stunned at what he'd just witnessed, the larger of the two guards readied his magic and, thanks to his training, was prepared for anything. At least he thought he was. As a dozen more nifoloa joined their two nest mates in a swarm that would chill any being's blood, two four armed, scaled apes swung up from the staircase, landing with a thud beside the single toothed, vicious magical insects. As if that wasn't bad enough, a pack of eight blue-maned asena trotted casually around the corner, green blood dripping down their jaws, matting the thick fur surrounding their necks, a wicked understanding of the poor dragon's plight reflected in their blazing blue eyes.
As the realisation dawned on just what he was up against, regret welled up inside one of Manson's nameless sycophants. Nothing was worth this, none of the promises of power, wealth and position. At that very moment, all he wanted to do was survive and with that in mind, he opted for the most undragonlike thing possible... to run away, or in this case... FLY AWAY! Turning on his heels, bending his legs, he pushed off with all his strength in an effort to take to the air inside the building. It was then that a cloud of tiny gnats tumbled into his line of sight, flitting this way and that, surrounding his face. Ignoring them as little or no threat, just as he'd been trained to do, surprise, fear and terror consumed him as the first of the little buggers breathed a steady stream of fire right into his left eye. Rocked by the attack from something so innocuous, his take off faltered momentarily, ending any real hope he had of escape. A split second later they were on him... ALL OF THEM! Scorpion men stung him, double-headed eagles dive bombed and pecked him, pixiu raked their claws across his wings as he tumbled to the floor, conaima took giant bites from the muscles on his thighs and belly. All of that, and the camaheutos and skrikers hadn't even gotten involved. Of all the ways to die, this was by far the last way any being should go. After a few minutes, the feeding frenzy was over and the coordinated attackers continued to move upwards, following the trail of magic.
Cold, calculated cunning battled against the rage that constantly flooded her veins as she negotiated the obstacles in her way. It had been slow going, but she was about to reap the rewards for her patience, having almost reached a position to strike from. She knew exactly who was going down first... her father! And this time, unlike events in Germany that her mind had blocked out for so long, there'd be no escape, no intervention by the fickle mistress of fate. This time, he'd be going straight to hell.
Not quite the fiery red mass it had threatened to become, the laminium dagger that Richie held out in front of her to power the shield that for the moment kept them all safe, had cooled down considerably, affording Peter the luxury of just dribbling a little healing magic across his friend's hands every now and then to keep them fresh and undamaged. Concentrating solely on this, the young hockey playing dragon was well aware that something was going on, something that involved Flash, but he hadn't a clue about the details. None of them did. So as Hook followed Yoyo's instructions in an effort to assist the injured, Janice's consciousness swirled in and around that of her new found friend and decidedly deadly weapon, Fu-ts'ang, they, like Peter and Richie, almost missed the single most amazing, most astounding bit of magic on display so far today. And that was saying something.
As the pinprick sized hole in the shield expanded to that of a table tennis ball, Flash's strong, stocky form instantly folded in on itself. Remarkable, it was made even more so by the fact that as far as the friends new, a human sized shape was almost the smallest a dragon could become. Peter might have known differently if he'd thought about it; after all, his first experience of Gee Tee's Mantra Emporium had involved one of THE most embarrassing experiences of his life, in which he'd stood almost naked in front of Tank, who'd been sitting high up on a wall, transformed, using an ancient magical mantra, into a gigantic grinning spider. If not for the shock of the experience, the young dragon might have thought to wonder about the size difference. It had been a giant spider, but it was still about half the size of a normal human being, something that should have been almost impossible. Anyway, he hadn't thought to enquire of either his friend, or the famed master mantra maker, about this and so his surprise now was palpable. Usually unflappable, even in a situation like this, the young lacrosse playing dragon was also so flabbergasted she almost dropped the dagger, something that would have ended them all. Luckily, she didn't. And what bombshell had them so up in arms, so totally and utterly dumbfounded?
Flash's physical form had continued to crumple in on itself, looking as though it might disappear altogether, but before this could happen, the colours of what remained of him began to change. Greys, whites and subtle yellows transformed into majestic blues, stunning shades of green, brilliant bright oranges and reds that looked like a phoenix rising from the flames, with finally just a hint of purple, all taking place in less than a blink of an eye. So captivated were the friends with the rainbow brilliance of colours forming before their very eyes, they'd failed to notice the newfound shape their magical pal had become. But they noticed now, and as their jaws dropped open simultaneously, they marvelled at the beauty, elegance, complexity and simplicity of it all. With that, and the hole in the shield staying steady at about the size of a tennis ball, Flash, decked out beautifully as the single most striking hummingbird in the whole of history, hovered in mid-air, wings flapping almost faster than their enhanced dragon senses could see. He nodded once in their direction before diving headlong through the gap Richie had provided him with, lost instantly in the dizzying array of ethereal explosions still inundating their last line of defence.