Freezing Wings

Chapter 29

[This chapter is bloody, and it has slightly cruel themes. You have been warned >.>]

Before my mind could register what was happening, I found myself diving, tackling that creature to the ground.  

We were about the same size, both of us being about twenty feet tall. However, this thing obviously had more muscle mass than me, though it lost out in agility and stamina. At the time, I didn't pay attention to either of these things, focused solely on killing the thing. 

It's back was covered in muscle, a large hump rising five feet above its neck. I dug in as far as I could and hooked downward before ripping backwards, a huge chunk of black muscle coming with me. Instead of blood spraying out, a rancid stench assaulted me, the smell of rotten and decaying flesh making me gag. 

An agonized squeal stabbed at my ears as the thing writhed, standing on its hind legs and reaching back, grabbing at me. It's claws scratched at my scales, deep gashes appearing on my arms. The thing bucked like a bull, making me dig in even further as it tried to throw me, shaking and turning wildly. 

I snarled, spreading my wings to stabilize myself and digging my back legs into it's hips, digging all the way to the bone. Black blood flowed and a roar of pain echoed through the mountain range before it reached back, it's claws digging into my shoulders.

It got a grip and ripped forward, sending me flying. I flapped my wings in a futile attempt to slow my flight, managing to turn upright before crashing into a building, creating a huge crater in my wake. 

The thing immediately took off, trying to run. I crawled out of my hole and spat out blood, darted after it, ignoring the pain in my ribs. 

The Kymari had vacated the area. I could see a few watching from the side, seemingly realizing that their normal weapons wouldn't do anything. Quite a few of the warriors had disappeared. From what I could tell, they had probably gone to find a bigger gun that would work on this thing, but at that moment, I really didn't care.

I soon caught up with the thing, about a thousand feet from the city. It was running as fast as it's damaged hips could take it, seemingly trying to escape. It was, obviously, too slow. 

I took a different approach than I had started with, tripping it first. I just smacked it's ankles, and the thing tumbled over itself, crashing into a snow dune. I hissed, pouncing as soon as it hit the ground. 

It was belly up, laying on the hunk of muscle it called a back. However, because of the hump, it had a problem rolling over onto it's stomach, like an overturned turtle. 

I pinned it down by the neck with one hand and flamed, covering it's face with a layer of ice six inches thick. I pinned down one arm with one leg and the other with the other leg, my other hand digging directly into it's stomach. I waited until it's head was completely covered in ice before closing my mouth, taking my hand off it's neck to smash it's face into the ground. 

After grinding it into the snow for a bit, I pulled it up and looked at it. The ice hadn't chipped yet, it's face frozen in an expression of animalistic fury, it's eyes spinning in their sockets. I slammed it down again, and again, and again. 

The thing writhed in my hands, its strong arms trying to grab me. It was strong enough so that, at one point, I had to freeze them to the ground, as to not get torn apart. It was now bound to the ground, spread eagle. 

I smashed it down, again, again, and again, until there was a small crater on the ground in the shape of it's skull. My vision was completely red and I couldn't control what I was doing, covered in a haze of fury. 

Black blood flowed from it's neck from my claws and it convulsed, struggling. I dug into it's stomach, ripping a hole big enough to put a human in through in it's body. 

After nearly ten minutes of this, I finally stopped, climbing off the half-dead creature. Despite going through something that would kill nearly every other living thing, sentient or not, it was still breathing, not suffocating under the ice. I soon put an end to this, the crisp snap of bone ending it's life. 

I backed off, the haze fading from my eyesight. The pain in my ribs came back with a vengeance and I staggered, blood flowing freely. The snow was dirtied with the remnants of our battle, black and red splotches forming a trail. 

I was about to limp off to my cave to nurse my wounds when I heard a sound. 

It was like footsteps, but not. It was irregular and uneven, and much louder than it was supposed to be. And it seemed to be right behind me. 

I leaped into the air, trying to fly. But just as I got off the ground, something that felt like a brick wall slammed into my side at full speed, driving me far, almost to the spot that all of this started.

I was being pushed from the back, my wings caught on the horns of this creature. I screeched in pain, scarlet blood flowing from my wings as they were torn, claws racking them to shreds. Shards of pure agony stabbed at my brain and made me writhe, tearing at the thing behind me. I craned my neck back, a stream of liquid ice freezing the air solid. 

It was the coldest I could make it, many times colder than dry ice. It was condensed out of the accumulation of Aura, and had been gathering over the past three days. If it couldn't freeze this thing, nothing could.

Thankfully, the thing screeched with pain just as we reached the mountain, just before I was to be plastered the wall like a scaly poster. It backed off, revealing it's appearance. 

It looked much like the first one I had fought, but bigger. It was about one and a half times the size of the first one, it's hump rising to nearly thirty five feet in the air, and it's head about five feet higher than mine. I snarled, hate coursing through my veins, both from whatever was pushing me to act like this, and my own heart. I thoroughly wanted this thing dead, even if I had to go down with it. 

Its entire back was covered in ice, the fog it was giving off getting thicker and thicker with every passing moment. The ice spread, covering it's back legs and gluing it to the ground. It hissed in fury, the ice obviously causing it pain. I snarled right back at it, spitting out another ball of ice into it's face and silencing it's cries of distress. 

In less than thirty seconds the thing was completely covered in ice, nothing but an ice statue. I smashed it to pieces and scattered the remnants, making sure that the thing was dead.

After making sure that there would was nothing big enough to attack me in the vicinity I staggered, a pained whine slipping out my mouth. My wings were nearly shredded, the only thing not cut being the bone they were attached to. The ache in my ribs had turned into a burning feeling, that spiked to agony whenever I inhaled.

I found myself slumping down on the side of the cliff, a small pool of red blood forming as I moved. I coughed, my mouth suddenly going dry. A haze covered my eyes and I suddenly felt very tired, my body going weak. 

I could dimly hear the roar of a dragon through the fog of pain, coming from someplace near me, growing louder with every passing moment. 

As black encroached on my vision and my breathing slowed down, I found myself thinking that I didn't want to die. That I didn't want to go down like this. 

The last thing I heard was the flutter of dragon wings and the last thing I saw was a green face. Then, everything faded to black.