When Destiny Burns, Ep. 1: A Halo and Inheritance Cycle Crossover

Chapter 4. 3 Operator pt. 1

A black shape moved to his left and he immediately spun around to deal with it-

A flicker of teeth and a strong message in the back of his mind made him stay his foot long enough for the new target to jump out of the way, after which he forced himself to slowly retract his leg. The presence near his head had been clear enough and throughout the black fog that lay on his senses like a thick carpet, he managed to understand that it was an ally.

Recognition of the creature flooded into his brain and he realized that the fight was over.

He took a few deep breaths and slowly reached for his head, attempting to ease the throbbing headache that was Slowly he managed to regain his senses and rationality and he took a quick look around.

The area was covered with blood, gore and bodies. Dozens of weapons lay broken and scattered with the bodies –and he was standing right in the middle of it all.

He noticed that he was drenched in blood; the same blood that had been dumped all over the ground. The creature standing next to him was also black, but that was a good form of black. It was what had been responsible for holding him back when he needed to be held back.

The Spartan looked down at the dragon and took notice of the smears of dark blood over its body. So, it hadn't escaped the fight unscathed?

It was just sitting there, looking at him with a strange expression on its angular head. But despite of the dragon's calm demeanor, the Spartan was still bothered by a raging torrent of emotions pressing against the back of his head. The dragon was definitely upset.

The blood sticking to it was as black as the blood he had spilled that night, but that didn't necessarily have to mean that it was unhurt.

"You alright?" He asked.

The thing didn't respond to him, but it did hiss and step backwards the very moment he spoke to it. The reptile seemed to be...disturbed...somehow. He knew that he hadn't made the cleanest kills that moment, but the wolves hadn't been much prettier in death. What had changed?

The Spartan decided that it wasn't important, as long as the reptile would still follow him to the Varden. "Move it," He ordered the dragon and wiped his knife off on the clothes of a nearby body. It was curious to see how these things could be so alien and still so human. Their bodies and even speech had all resembled an ordinary human, except for the fact that they were taller...grey-skinned...horned.

And some of them grew taller than Hunters. But those were most likely the oldest specimens. Their black blood was another strange thing though. Could it be based on sulfur? Carbon?

The dragon flashed a sense of severe distress and worry towards him, which he ignored. It shouldn't be worried, their foes were dead. He was having a monumental headache, but he could shake it off without too much trouble. Those dumb brutes had been unable to even lay a finger on him, in no small part due to his shielding.

Still, he saw fit to tell the reptile that he was unhurt. The purpose of the message was to speed it up to such a degree that they could reach the mountains within a few hours, but that proved to be a futile thought. The dragon simply refused to believe that he was unhurt, going as far as to state sheer disbelieve at his statement.

Then it walked over to one of the fallen savages and sniffed at the blood pooling out of it. Then the dragon gave a snort of disgust and quickly darted over towards him, having apparently decided that he was unhurt enough for it to join him.

He took a long look at the creature and concluded that it was completely unhurt itself. It must have jumped at his aid at one point, hence why it had been so close to him when he had finished killing those humanoids. It was brave for doing so. Brave, but foolish. Even though the dragon was more than ten feet long and high enough to give its enemies some nasty wounds, it wasn't invulnerable It had been wounded by a wolf some time ago and had it been careless, it could have gotten itself killed.