Another attack coming,Reyla hissed, lightning crackling at the tip of her finger. I was eternally grateful to call this woman my wife.
A roar echoed through the forest, and a serpent-beast made of jagged frost, its eyes empty white and with a reptilian face, uncoiled from the top of the pedestal. Its scales gleam like glaciers and its spiked tail whipped out behind it.
Its eyes locked on us, and it slithered off the pedestal, surging our way.
“Out in the open,” I barked. We'd stand a better chance battling it there.
We split, each diving in a different direction, though keeping the other in sight. While I churned vegetation into a huge hammer and brought it down hard on the creature's head, Reyla's lightning scored across its chest.
My magnificent, deadly wife. If I died tomorrow, at least I'd have spent today watching her be glorious.
She rushed around its left side, while I took the right. The beast tipped its head back and roared, shooting ice into the air. It rained down on us in thin, deadly blades, and only my quickly crafted barriers kept us from being hit.
While Reyla shot more lightning at it from one side, I sent a firebrand against it, melting half of its spine away. Farris raced in front of it, barking shrilly, trying to gain its attention.
It appeared to be focused mostly on me. The chanting person who’d released it must see me as the bigger threat.
A cackle to my right snagged my attention, and I spied the high lord who’d glared at me with hate yesterday in the foyer crouching behind a boulder. He cackled before ducking behind the shelter. His chant rose again, directing the serpent-beast.
I hurtled a spear of vegetation his way, but it burst apart when it impacted with the enormous rock. Before I could contemplate getting behind him, the serpent bore down on me, its mouth wide, its fangs dripping icy blades that plunged to the ground.
The serpent whipped upward, looming over me. Reyla blasted it with lightning, but it still kept coming, its huge body slithering across the glossy ground. It snapped out, fangs bared to rip me apart.
I hurled myself backward and conjured a wall of compressed vegetation, shoving it between us, but one snap of the creature's tail smashed through my barrier.
Diving to the right, I tried to get around behind it, but ittracked my movements and advanced even faster, gouging its fangs around me.
Farris snarled and latched onto the beast's tail, only to have the serpent whip it out and send the nyxin flying. Reyla's shadows snagged her pet from the air and gently brought him to the ground.
“Back away,” I growled, hoping both Farris and Reyla would listen.
The nyxin darted toward the serpent's tail again while my blaze of a wildfire scorched flames across the creature's side.
I needed to come up with a strategy fast, before it wiped out my family.
A roar echoed in the woods. Great, another attacker.
Trees bent back as a dark shape churned through the icy vegetation, headed this way. The serpent’s head snapped in that direction.
With the creature distracted, I gathered more power and sent a wall of ice at it, hitting it hard in the chest. Its head swiveled my way and when it plunged toward me, I flung myself to the side, barely avoiding being hit.
A black scaled creature slammed out of the trees to my right, aiming for the serpent. Its claws were the length of my forearm and its eye burned ember-red.
A dragon?
Wings unfurled on its spine as it approached, and I wasn't sure who to battle now.
It leaped, its wings flapping, diving at the snake-like beast.
I scrambled to my feet and flitted to Reyla’s side.
With Farris barking shrilly, we backed into the trees while the two creatures battled.
The collision shook the entire meadow, black scales meeting crystalline armor in a clash of ancient power. The dragon's clawsfound purchase while its enemy coiled around its hind legs, each creature seeking the killing hold. Fire met ice in explosive bursts that sent shockwaves through the frozen trees.
The dragon's fire blazed white-hot, systematically melting through crystalline armor until the serpent's desperate strikes became pathetic thrashing. It planted its claws in its spine and unleashed its final blast directly into the serpent’s core.
While the serpent floundered beneath the dragon, it locked its talons onto the snake’s neck. It yanked hard.
