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

Battlefield

Dodging a stream of black mist while breathing his ice breath at the same time, Ergen and Chae circled each other while flying in the air, each attempting to avoid the other's attacks before they finally stopped and Chae charged forwards towards Ergen. As she collided into him, they both spun in place for a few moments, each attempting to injure the other with their claws until they finally broke apart and started flying in circles again.

Flying forward himself this time, Ergen collided into Chae, wrapping his front right claw over her beak and freezing it shut with his ice armor before he finally released his frost breath at point blank range. However, just before he did, Chae's second head emerged again and attempted to hit him with her with her petrifying mist, only for Ergen to change his aim at the last second before the two attacks collided. Black and white mist flew in all directions as the two fell from the sky, though while Ergen covered himself in ice armor to protect himself, Chae didn't have any such protection as the white mist started freezing all of her legs. Unfortunately however, she appeared to be immune to her own breath while Ergen had to keep reforming his ice armor so that his armor and scales beneath it didn't turn into stone.

Landing in the center of the battlefield like two meteors, Ergen and Chae quickly recovered themselves while preparing to face off again. However, their battle was suddenly interrupted by a giant as the creature trampled over anything in it's path before swinging it's massive club and hitting Chae upside the head. And while Ergen was thankful for the assistance, he soon learned that his new situation was a double-edged sword as large group of spearmen suddenly gathered at his feet and attempted to skewer him in every place that he didn't have armor. Thankfully his scales managed to protect him, though Ergen still didn't want them to get lucky as he backed away and farther into the the Demon King's ranks so that he could recover.

After using both his ice armor and breath so much, Ergen was panting heavily by the time he finally managed to get away from the spearmen. Though while he attempted to recover, Chae showed an otherworldly reserve of energy as she fought off several giants before gathering her breath, and Ergen was instantly back on his feet as he knew what she was doing. With how many people she about to turn to stone, Ergen knew that he needed to act quickly, else the allied army would lose over half of their attack force. And so Ergen ran forward, managing to reach Chae in time to grab her by the throat with her claws and point her head towards the air, which made her attack launch up into the air rather than into the ranks of infantry.

Apparently not appreciating Ergen's efforts to save lives, Chae started clawing his chest and legs in an attempt to free herself before she finally struck some of the softer scales on the insides of his legs that his armor didn't cover. He felt the felt the cut and knew that it would no doubt be deep because of the blood already flowing from it, though Ergen continued holding onto Chae's head before stabbing her through the chest with his tail, opening his jaws to release another breath attack on the trapped griffin before Chae did something unexpected.

Stopping her resistance, Ergen wondered just what Chae was doing before her body surprisingly started to melt. His claws and hands started stinging as Chae fell through them, Ergen quickly encased them in ice as he realized that she'd turned into some kind of acid that was even melting through the ground where she'd been standing. However, even if he'd prevented the burns on his hands, Chae's ability didn't seem to be finished with yet as her newly formed goo pile suddenly lunged out at him, apparently attempting to completely cover Ergen in the acid before the surroundings were suddenly illuminated by an orange glow.

Looking upwards to see what looked like a meteor shower headed towards them, Ergen folded his wings around himself, forming what looked like a shell before he covered himself in ice. Chae pounced on him and attempted to melt away the newly formed ice armor, but he forgot all about her as the ground started vibrating all around him and Ergen felt several sources of heat from several parts on his body that were once covered by ice. Thankfully, the attack soon ended, and Ergen broke out of his shell to see that he was standing in nothing but a field of craters now. Chae was missing along with all of the soldiers that had been nearby, though there had been very little of Asal's troops there as it seemed as if they had retreated before launching the barrage.

Secretly thanking his allies, Ergen started looking around frantically, thinking that it would have been far to simple for Chae to have simply died like that. And unfortunately he was right as a reformed Chae suddenly shot out of one of the larger craters, using her wings to take her into the air and back over Rock before Ergen pursued her. However, his speed wasn't what it once was due to him having little energy to spare as the results from his prolonged battle started to become apparent. Excessively using magic almost felt as if he was doing an extreme full body workout, and his entire being felt weak as he pursued his opponent with only the hope that she felt the same way giving him the willpower to give chase. Otherwise, he most likely would have ran away and waited until he recovered, though he also knew that option wasn't available to him either. Both Asal and Sera were off fighting Emric somewhere, so Ergen had to win on his end as well. Both for them, and for himself.

Following Chae while flying above the city, the griffin suddenly descended into the streets, turning rapidly and following the pathways to try and lose Ergen. However, Ergen persisted, matching her movements and chasing Chae through the city while slightly cursing himself as she was slowly losing distance on him. Eventually, she even managed to escape his sight entirely and he completely lost her. He had no idea where she had gone, and so he started ascending, hoping that the rise in altitude would help him spot his quarry until he suddenly felt something collide into his back.

Not seeming to be able to create his ice armor anymore, Ergen let out a roar and Chae screeched as she tackled him from behind, carrying him down to the ground at a rapid pace before they finally hit the buildings beneath them. Pain filled Ergen's body as he smashed through the sandstone with Chae's weight behind him, one of her claws keeping his head down and making his snout dig into the stone ground. And after at least losing three teeth due to the move, Ergen suddenly let out another roar, positioning his legs and wings just right so that he flipped over, rolling through the city with Chae will clinging to his back until she finally managed to stop his momentum.

Suddenly, Chae started spinning around, carrying Ergen with her beak and claws just as he'd done to her earlier despite him stabbing her multiple times with his tail. And when she finally released, Ergen found himself spinning uncontrollably through the air until he crashed into yet another building. However, this one seemed larger than the others as several of him could easily fit inside of it. Though, as he looked at his surroundings, his eyes opened wide in surprise as he spotted both Asal and Sera slumped near the entrance of the building with Emric smiling madly at him from only a few feet away. Ergen attempted to move, to reach forward and crush the corrupted hero king in his grip, but suddenly he felt as if something were restraining him. He couldn't move at all, and as Ergen struggled against whatever invisible force was holding him, a bright light shined from underneath him as what looked like a bright lime-green circle started spinning and expanding around him on on the floor.

"I'm so glad that you could finally make it, Ergen!" Emric yelled in a tone of pure excitement as he walked into a red circle on the other side of the room that seemed surprisingly similar to the one that Ergen was trapped in. "I've been waiting for so long for this... Let the ritual begin!"