Sasha broke in. “Please take it off me. I can’t connect to Legon. please…”
“But what if you have an episode by taking it off?” Sara responded.
Sasha’s eyes blanked out for a moment and Iselin’s voice rang in their heads.
“Take the store off of her now! Legon is out of energy and is getting cut to ribbons by another Venefica. do it now!”
Sara didn’t need that voice twice. she wrenched the store off Sasha and threw it on herself noticing as she did that Sasha was now slipping into a full seizure. She found Legon’s mind with ease. he was panicked about Sasha and his men. she needed to connect fully with him. For Sasha she could just partially connect and send the energy needed, but Sara wasn’t advanced enough and had to force to connect all the way. as she did, she felt burning strips of pain along her left arm. She gasped and clutched it as the pain grew. his bicep was almost cut in half. it must have been a cutting spell that did it. She accessed the store and started dumping copious amounts of energy across their connection. this too hurt. she couldn’t handle it, but she poured more and more, feeling her body shudder under the pain.
She felt a cold hand against her skin, and then Sasha’s mind joined hers. she was still weak, but determined. She altered their connection with Legon and the pain vanished in an instant. Sasha forced the connection with Sara and then accessed the store and directed Legon’s healing wards, targeting the bicep and healing it in a moment. Moreover, Sara felt seething anger emanating from Sasha at her lapse in composure. Sara had never really thought about how Sasha felt about her episodes, but anger made sense; anger she understood.
Legon felt Sasha’s mind firmly reconnect with his and with it came an instantaneous stream of energy from the store. His arm knitted together instantly; the Iumenta looked worried, as he should be. Legon shot forward, swinging with the fenrra, changing his style every few blows. Soon the Iumenta was receiving small injuries, unable to use magic effectively under the constant assault. Legon saw fear in his yellow eyes, saw the Iumenta tasting mortality for the first time in his pitiful existence, saw the pain that it caused. He did not enjoy cruelty, so he decided to put this poor animal out of its misery.
He feinted to his left, and in his fear and fatigue the Iumenta took the bait. Legon crouched and brought the sword up, hitting the Iumenta square in the leg. most of the Iumenta’s weight was on that leg and he crashed down, clutching at the gushing stump. He was screaming in pain. Legon walked to stand over him. the terrified eyes locked on him and the scarlet fenrra he held in his hand. The Iumenta seemed begging for life in Elfish. Legon wasn’t sure; he didn’t know much of the language yet, but the look on the Iumenta’s face was unmistakable. The man wanted something from him. That was obvious. Legon pulled the blade back, ready to thrust it into the thing lying on the ground, and the Iumenta closed his eyes serenely.
Legon stopped. This man wanted to die. he wanted the pain to stop. he didn’t want the humiliation of having to go home disfigured, and most of all he didn’t want the shame of being spared by an Elf. Legon was going to kill him anyway. it was fine that he wanted it, really, but then he remembered the co-op and Sara and the boy that Barnin had told him about.
“Tell the queen hi for me,” Legon said coldly. “Curatias Crurim!” he barked, holding out his palm.
A bolt of lavender shot from his hand to the Iumenta’s stump, stopping the bleeding and cauterizing the wound. Then he kicked him in the head, knocking him out, and gave the order to leave him for his own medics.
Two massive thuds shook him as something hit the ground. He turned to see Iselin fighting the gray dragon. she was covered in cuts and bite marks. It only took him a second to realize that the gray dragon was far more powerful than Iselin. she was going to lose. He left his guard, sprinting toward the two dragons thrashing on the ground. Iselin’s front leg was torn up bad and so was her shoulder. she was bleeding a lot, even for a dragon. To his horror, two Iumenta appeared behind her. One jumped onto Iselin’s back. The Iumenta steadied itself, aiming his fenrra at an open place in her armor. Legon wasn’t going to make it.
He reached deep into the store, sending magic to his legs and shooting himself forward. He jumped, bringing the fenrra up above his head. the Iumenta turned and faced Legon, the look of triumph melting off his face as the fenrra made contact with his lower hip. the blade slid through him like butter, cutting his abdomen and ribcage and catching just a bit as it went through his shoulder blade. Legon landed on the other side of Iselin, winded from the loss of energy. she had no idea he was there. the other Iumenta was coming down at him, blade raised. he couldn’t stop it.
A flash of yellow struck the Iumenta, and Legon rolled to see Feena on top of him, slashing wildly with his claws, ripping off armor and flesh. He sunk his dagger-like teeth in the left side of the Iumenta’s ribcage and thrashed him around like a dog playing with a rag doll. There were muffled screams and a ripping sound as his ribs and shoulder pulled away from the rest of him. Then he stopped screaming and his body separated, one large chunk in Feena’s jaws, the other flung limply to the ground.
Legon heard the rocks under Iselin crunching and he leapt just in time to avoid getting crushed. she fell on her side, the gray dragon tearing viciously at her. Logic and reason told him to run, that she was lost, but he couldn’t leave her. despite his constant dismissal of Sasha trying to set them up, he did feel something for her. It was probably a crush-nothing worth dying over. the fight would be done soon and the dragon might turn its attention to him, and then not even Feena could save him. He thought of what Sydin said about making it count. he would. Iselin would be angry with him putting himself in this situation, but he would make it count.
He knelt down, as did Feena, taking his lead. it was like the dragon was a deer and he a mountain lion. he moved, not wanting to attract its attention. Feena suddenly leapt at the dragon, who moved to bite at him. when the dragon moved he turned his head to Legon’s right, exposing himself. As Legon jumped at the gray dragon, he activated cutting spells and brought the blade down over his head, aiming for where the head met the neck, but the dragon was fast. It saw him and began to turn its head. The fenrra hit the lower part of the dragon’s jaw, stopping just short of going all the way through.
Legon hung from the bottom of the dragon’s mouth, clutching the fenna tightly. He knew claws would be coming soon, but without the fenna he was done for. he twisted his body and kicked hard off the lower tip of the dragon’s mouth, using his body to try and leverage the blade. There was a crack as the bone gave way and the fenna came loose, sending him plummeting to the ground. He hit hard and a congealed liquid splashed his face.
He heard the dragon roar in pain and the overwhelming thud of its wings as it took off. He opened his eyes without thinking. the sky was crimson. He wiped the dragon’s marrow away, returning the sky to gray. The dragon was above him now and he saw gray light from the broken jaw. the dragon’s magic would heal it soon, and his sword was spent. Iselin jumped into the air, thrusting her wings down in a torrent of wind. She flew up and clamped her teeth on the dragon’s throat at the base of its head and neck. It gurgled a roar and she twisted her body in the air like a corkscrew. There was a loud report as the dragon-sized vertebrae broke, and the lifeless body started its descent. Iselin pulled back, ripping a chunk of the Iumenta dragon’s throat out and sent it sailing to Parkas’ command tent, followed by a river of fire.
Sasha felt her jaw drop as she watched Iselin throw the dragon flesh at the enemy. The next moment she clapped her hands to her ears as all of the Elven dragons roared in celebration, causing a deafening din to fill the air.