I Guess I'm a Dragon Now (Part 1)

Dragons and Griffins

Quickly grabbing Asal in one of his claws and launching himself up into the air, Ergen had acted just in time as Chae released more of her petrifying fog that almost instantly turned the unfortunate horse he'd been riding on to stone beneath them.

"All units! Engage!" Asal screamed from the top of his lungs from Ergen's claw, and his orders were instantly followed by the sounds of several horns blowing in that distance. In unison, the front line's of Asal's army started moving forward while movement stirred in Emric's, though Ergen had other things to distract him currently as he flew to the side in order to avoid another beam of petrifying mist before responding with his own ice breath.

Shrieking out in pain as one of of her wings had been completely frozen solid, Chae started spinning uncontrollably to the ground before her side suddenly erupted in a cloud of feathers as two more wings replaced the one that had been frozen. And as soon as she recovered, Ergen had to cover both himself and his passengers with ice again as what looked like a small purple bullet suddenly shot from Chae's open beak and hit Ergen in the chest almost instantly. However, instead of attempting to pierce his armor as Ergen thought it would, the bullet instead stuck to Ergen's ice before suddenly erupting in hundreds of what seemed like tentacles made out of shadows as they reached out all around him and attempted to tie up his legs and disrupt his wings.

"Put me on your back!" Asal yelled from Ergen's claw, and Ergen couldn't agree with him more as he wanted his hands free to combat whatever the tentacles were. And so, after ripping apart several of the limbs that had been attempting to constrict his leg, Ergen managed to put Asal onto the back of his neck before he grabbed the main body of the tentacles and pulled it out. Whatever the creature was, it seemed as if it had been attempting to burrow it's way into Ergen's ice armor, and he didn't want to take any chances with it now as he instantly threw it down to the ground and somewhere in the middle of Emric's forces.

Only now noticing that he was flying over the hostile army, Ergen quickly collapsed his wings and dove downwards just in time to avoid several extremely large arrows that had been headed towards him. And now that he looked towards the high peaks of the city, he understood that they hadn't been arrows at all.

All of the upper levels of the city had been completely decorated with both ballista and what looked like some kind of net launchers. And now that he saw them, Ergen understood why Emric had retreated in the first place as it had been his plan to fight here all along where his forces could help him. However, now that Ergen had evaded the first barrage, the siege equipment was all but defenseless as he noticed that the city didn't even have any mages to guard it. And as Ergen spread his wings out again to recover himself, he let loose his frost breath again, completely devastating more than half of the siege equipment before he was forced to withdraw as several of the nets had been fired at him.

"Emric is chasing us!" Sera reported from the back of Ergen's neck, though he'd already known about that and was looking for a solution to his problem before he finally came up with an idea after seeing that another of the city's tall watchtowers was rapidly approaching. And so, turning sharply, Ergen reached out and dug his claws into the structure, ripping it's sandstone walls apart and making his momentum slow rapidly as he swung around the round tower.

Jumping into the empty space beyond the tower as soon as he'd stopped, Ergen surprised both Chae and Emric when he suddenly appeared in front of him before he opened his jaws and bit down onto Chae's neck. She screeched in pain and fought him desperately, but Ergen's large teeth had already managed to make their way through her hardened feathers and they both fell to the ground, smashing several sandstone buildings underneath them and sending a cloud of dust in all directions as they rolled onto the city's main path. Thankfully, Ergen had managed to protect his passengers by forming ice all around them, but Emric wasn't so lucky as Ergen now had Chae's back to the ground, hopefully crushing the man underneath her before he realized that he was wrong.

Uncomprehending at first, Ergen could do nothing but watch as Emric somehow instantly appeared on the end of his snout. The man's sword was already heading towards Ergen's left eye, though thankfully there was other movement on his neck as Sera ran forward and placed her shield between Emric and Ergen. Emric let out a grunt as he was suddenly thrown backwards after being hit by some invisible force, however Ergen didn't have time to give chase as Chae freed one of her claws and struck Ergen upside the head, thankfully not doing any damage thanks to his helmet but still managing to shove him to the side enough so that she could free the rest of her body.

"Come on!" Sera suddenly took Asal and jumped down to pursue Emric, and they did it right on time as Chae charged forward and tackled Ergen through another building. Dust once again went everywhere as Chae attempted to bite down on Ergen's head with her beak, though thankfully he'd managed to cover it in his ice armor this time before he reached forward with his claws and began raking them across his Chae's chest, sending feathers and bits of muscle everywhere beneath them before Ergen finally knew why she wasn't bleeding from any of her open wounds from earlier. The griffin wasn't bleeding because it didn't have any blood to begin with... Emric had somehow turned Chae into an undead being, which suddenly made Ergen worry that he'd turn undead as well from having bitten her earlier until Chae started growling loudly. From the sound of the growl, it almost seemed as if the undead celestial griffin was in pain before Chae's entire back suddenly burst open. Her rib cage had somehow split open, and Ergen was horrified to see that another head similar to Chae's first one emerged to try and bit down on his neck. However, she wasn't expecting Ergen's tail as it shot forward and pierced directly through the second head's skull, sinking even further thanks to the weight added by the new metal blade that had been attached to his armor.

Letting go of his head with her beak, Chae let out another screech of agony before Ergen took his opportunity and bit down on her neck again, hoping that he was wrong about turning into a zombie or something worse from the contact before he started spinning on the ground. Eventually, he and Chae gathered enough momentum before Ergen released her and Chae flew into several more buildings, destroying them completely until Ergen covered the entire area with his ice breath. And as he did, the screeching suddenly stopped, making Ergen wonder if he was victorious before an almost blinding light shined through the dust.

As soon as he noticed the light, Ergen covered himself in the thickest ice armor that he could create as a precaution as he had no idea as to what Chae was doing. And just as well he did as Ergen suddenly felt some kind of eruption shake him down to his very bones as his body rocketed backwards, passing through several buildings and eventually a large wall before he eventually found himself outside of the city once more. Both armies were below him again with their infantry heavily engaged, and Ergen shattered what was left of his ice armor and expanded his wings so that he could fly again, pulling up so that he could avoid crashing down right in the middle of the terrible situation before it suddenly grew even worse. Below, all of Emric's knights and Asal's infantry were fighting and their battle cries became horrified screams as black mist rushed over them, turning hundreds into stone in mere moments from Chae's missed attack.

Having unknowingly dodged the black mist and escaped being turned into a statue just by luck alone, Ergen turned in the air to face his opponent, wondering just what he could do to defeat her as nothing he'd attempted had worked thus far. He'd pierced her head with his tail, frozen pieces of her and he was even fairly sure that he'd snapped her neck in their last engagement. Though, somehow Chae was regenerating from everything, and she seemed more furious now more than ever as she started flying at Ergen again and he responded in kind. The only way that he could think of to end the battle was to freeze Chae solid somehow, however, doing that wouldn't be easy as she seemed to be determined to fight with everything that she had despite already being dead. And she proved it as they clashed in the air once again.