The master spy or Puss in the boot adventures

The way of the ninja 34, Part 126

The colossal serpent towered over them, its ruby eyes gleaming with an otherworldly hunger. Maleficent cackled triumphantly, her staff crackling with dark energies as she prepared to command the beast to devour the heroes.

But in that moment, something extraordinary happened. The princess stepped forward, her emerald eyes blazing with an inner fire. She stood tall and proud, facing the serpent without a trace of fear.

"Enough!" she declared, her voice ringing out like a clarion call. "I will not allow this abomination to harm my friends!"

Maleficent sneered, "And what do you think you can do to stop it, little girl?"

In response, the princess closed her eyes and began to chant in a language older than time itself. Her words thrummed with power, echoing through the ruins of the palace like the heartbeat of an ancient god. As she spoke, a shimmering aura enveloped her form, growing brighter and more intense with each passing second.

Suddenly, her eyes snapped open, glowing with an incandescent golden light. Her skin rippled and shifted, hardening into gleaming scales of purest emerald. Her form swelled and grew, expanding to titanic proportions as wings of gossamer beauty unfurled from her back. Horns of polished ivory spiraled from her brow, and her tail lashed the air like a whip of living flame.

Where the princess had stood, a magnificent dragon now towered, her beauty terrible to behold. The heroes gasped in awe and wonder, while Maleficent and Gnash stumbled back in shock and fear.

"Impossible!" Maleficent shrieked. "The Dragon Princess? But the prophecy said you were lost to us, cursed by the Dark One to live as a mortal!"

The Dragon Princess fixed her with a piercing stare. "You know nothing of my curse or my destiny, witch," she rumbled, her voice deep and resonant. "I have walked among mortals for a thousand years, learning their ways and guarding them from the shadows. But now, in this dire hour, I reclaim my true form and my sacred duty."

She turned to face the serpent, which had recoiled at her transformation. Opening her great maw, she spoke to it in the ancient tongue of dragon-kind, her words sinuous and hypnotic. The serpent swayed back and forth, mesmerized by her voice.

The dragon swiveled her massive head to face the serpent, her molten gaze boring into its ruby eyes. Opening her fanged maw, she began to speak in a sibilant tongue, the ancient language of scaled kind:

Attend, O offspring of the deep!

I, Aurelia, drake of royal kin,

 keeper of the Azure Flame within. 

By bond of fang and skin,

 I implore thee –

 let not this path of decay ensnare! 

Resist the call of weak and fleeting minds,

 but join  me in the eternal dance of dragon-kind!

The great serpent swayed from side to side, as if hypnotized by Aurelia's words. A keening hiss escaped its throat, a sound of confusion and longing. Slowly, ponderously, it began to turn away from Ragnar and his friends, its baleful gaze now fixed upon the two witches.

Suddenly, To the astonishment of all, the serpent slowly bowed its head in submission before the Dragon Princess. She placed a taloned hand upon its brow, and a pulse of golden light suffused its form. When it raised its head once more, its eyes were clear and filled with a new awareness.

The Dragon Princess smiled. "This noble creature was enslaved by Solaris' foul magic, compelled to do his bidding. But now, it is free - and it knows who is his real enemy!"

Maleficent shrieked in fury and disbelief. "Impossible!" she screeched. "No mere dragon can overpower my dark sorcery!"

But even as she spoke, the serpent slowly turned its massive head to face the two witches. A hiss of rage escaped its fanged maw as it lunged forward with blinding speed, jaws snapping shut just inches from Maleficent and Gnash.

The witches stumbled back with cries of fear and outrage. They raised their staffs to unleash devastating spells, but Aurelia was faster. With a roar that shook the very foundations of the earth, she breathed out a torrent of sacred dragon-fire.

The witches barely managed to raise a shimmering shield in time. The flames swirled and crackled around the barrier, threatening to engulf them at any moment. Sweat poured down their faces as they strained to maintain their defenses against the onslaught.

"This isn't over!" Maleficent screamed over the roar of the flames. You will experience true power of the Night!"...