Chapter 26: Something You Cant Comprehend [ Part 2 ]
Everyone was silent at Emre's words. Emre had been kind to them, but the flip had switched when Killan started to question them. Now, Emre was using a cold tone that let none of his previous happiness be shown. Not to mention the aura that had been pressuring them since he had released it.
"Don't mistake me. I think you are good people. But do not meddle in the business of someone you just met." Emre added on.
He was beyond irritated.
"Emre, I think that is enough." Ragan spoke up.
Killan's fists had clenched as he looked at Emre with a mixture of irritation and uncertainty. Nalia didn't dare look at him or Idris and had resorted to staring at her feet. Gerrar looked a bit perplexed now, but he did not seem upset at either Idris or Emre. Conin had grown quiet and with his face mostly covered it was hard to tell what he was thinking.
Idris started to walk back toward where Emre's sword had been dropped and picked it up. It was quiet among them despite the sounds of battle nearby. Picking the sword up, Idris brought it back to Emre and handed it to him. Nodding, Emre slid the sword into the scabbard.
"We have something more important to do right now." Idris spoke up for the first time, but he was only speaking to Emre.
"What are you going to do?" Ragan asked with furrowed brows.
"There is a stronger enemy that we have to deal with." Idris answered, turning toward the party.
Everyone was looking up at them. Slowly, Idris seemed to have complex emotions on his face before he gave a slight bow to the party. Killan's eyes widened and Gerrar's face looked sad at this action.
"Thank you for allowing me to travel with you for the time being." Idris said before standing back up straight.
"I'm sorry." Killan quickly said.
"It's alright… but Emre is right. There are some things you cannot comprehend."
Conin moved from Gerrar's side and headed toward them with his head down. When he was standing in front of Idris, he looked up and gave him a small hug. Idris looked surprised and didn't move even as Conin pulled back.
"Even if we can't comprehend, is there anything we can do to help?" Conin asked, looking between the both of them.
"Stay in the back here and protect the villagers." Idris answered.
"Okay, we can do that." Conin nodded and started to back away.
Emre found his expression softening as he looked at the kind Conin. He wasn't actually upset with these people. Killan had just ticked him off. He just didn't need these people to get mixed up in what Idris and Emre had to deal with.
Looking at Idris, he took in a small breath. A stronger enemy was threatening this place. There may end up being more larger corruptions, but dealing with the biggest threat here first was best right now. It might be the one giving out the orders.
Idris nodded, knowing what he was thinking, and started to walk away from the party. Emre followed but actually started to step away from Idris so there were a few meters between them.
'I think it's time to go buck wild now.' Emre said.
'Buck wild, it is.' Idris agreed.
With a thought, Idris began to change first. A light glow began to surround his body and suddenly, he was no longer a human. In his spot was a massive winged beast. With four muscled legs and a towering body, what replaced the human was a black scaled dragon whose head met the height of at least 11-feet.
Two large curving horns graced the top of his head. His cheeks and neck adorned several spikes that ran down his spine to his long tail. His stunning black scales shone in the light with iridescence. His head turned toward Emre, and his eyes were no longer chocolate brown, but an almost white, icy blue color.
Emre responded in kind.
Replacing the dark-haired human, the color changed drastically, opposing the black scales of his companion. His long white-maned neck arched upward as he stretched out his long wings. The white and golden dragon turned his head to glance back at the humans who were still behind them.
He couldn't imagine the type of thoughts going through their heads right now. However, this spot was a bit cramped for two massive dragons so Emre started forward first. It was going to be his first time flying as a creature this big. It was exciting.
With a careful few flaps, he took to the air without breaking anything in the process. Idris followed him until they both were flying about 30 feet in the air.
'You look nothing like your human form.' Idris noted.
'My true human form is too pretty.' Emre said with a chuckle.
'Is it as bright?'
'Just about.'
'I might go blind.'
Emre let out a laugh as his eyes landed on the battlefield before them. The soldiers looked overwhelmed as the black mingled around them on all sides. The large hairy corruption was still standing in the back, close to the treeline. There was a large open expanse in front of it that separated it from the rest of the battle.
A perfect spot to tear up. Opening his mouth, he released a loud booming roar before swooping down toward the field. Idris also let out a growl as he followed suit.
It was hard not to notice them. The large corruption looked up with teeth bared and moved finally for the first time. It stepped further into the clearing and braced itself. Emre and Idris snarled as they landed before it with a thud. Emre was taller than it by a foot. Suddenly, the creature seemed a bit less significant.
At least, that was what he thought at first. Most corruptions that he had run across had no magical mana. They were hard to detect for him due to that reason. They felt just like normal animals without any magic. This was not the case for this corruption.
Its mana pool was larger than Ragan's. It was far stronger, in fact. They could not underestimate it. If they did they would die.
"I knew I felt something strong in the village." The corruption cackled out first, showing no fear. "I didn't expect it to be this."
Idris and Emre had separated and were starting to circle around the corruption to flank it.
"Why are you protecting humans?" It asked with a grin.
"Why are you killing humans?" Emre asked in return.
"Why not?"
Of course, Emre was not surprised. Dark creatures were always known as weak monsters that killed indiscriminately. Even if they got bigger, stronger, and more intelligent, it seemed that fact had not changed. The fact that it knew what a dragon was, however, proved that its intelligence was not meager.
"Tell me, just what do you two have to gain from protecting these humans?" It asked.
"Probably not much." Idris answered.
"Then why?"
Emre interjected with a smile. "Why not?"
The grin disappeared from the corruption's face as it glanced back and forth to the two dragons that were now flanking it. Emre was curious as to why it was allowing them to do so and became wary. He was making sure to keep a wide berth around it, just in case.
'I'm going to mock charge and see what it does.' Idris informed Emre.
'Be careful. I will as well.'
On the other side of the corruption, Emre watched as Idris lunged forward. Emre snarled and spurred himself toward it in turn. He watched the corruption steady its feet before a deep bellow emitted from its jaws. Starting at his body, the earth below their feet began to shutter.
Forcing its way through the ground broke through dozens of black spikes. On either side of the corruption, they spread out toward each of the dragons like a wave. Skidding to a halt, Emre gave a strong flap of his wings to take flight as the spikes approached rapidly.
He barely made it up as the pointed pillars broke through the ground where his feet had just been. Glancing up, he could see Idris was still safe as well. At this rate, they wouldn't be able to have a melee battle. Not that Emre minded.
They still had to measure its strength so for now Emre only formed three light arrows. With a whistle, they all shot toward the corruption. With its flanks now surrounded by black spikes, Emre sent one light arrow at its body directly, and the two others behind and in front of it. Any direction it went it would get hit unless it was fast enough.
It snarled and glared up at him before bashing its body into the side of the spikes. Some of the blackened pillars broke at its brute force and it slipped through the gap it had made as the three arrows landed on empty ground. Running out into clearing away from the spikes, it suddenly turned back around.
It was hard to notice at first but when Emre did notice, he braced himself. Inside its black mouth was a slowly forming ball of darkness. It wasted no time as a beam of dark light shot toward Emre.
Shield!
Within a second Emre was barely able to form a shield in front of him. The pressure of the beam slammed into the golden transparent wall with a loud boom echoing through the air. He flinched at the strain as the beam lasted for a few seconds before fading out.
Idris had taken that chance to attack as well. He had formed a roiling ball of navy blue darkness. It was already shooting toward the dark creature as Emre's vision clarified. Unable to move from the recoil of the beam, Idris's attack met its mark.
The ball of blue fire slammed into its shoulder. The flames immediately began to devour the smoke on its shoulder. Unlike how the fire spread on the smaller corruptions, the fire stayed localized on its impact point.
"What the fuck?!" The corruption shouted out in a strained voice.
As it grimaced in pain, Emre and Idris both started to dive toward it. Four light arrows began to form as Emre moved. Idris was preparing another bolt of navy blue flame.
With the two large bodies plummeting toward it and feeling pain that it had never felt before, it stomped. From the action, the earth cracked once more. Blackened earth burst through the ground and created a large wall in front of the corruption. At first, Emre considered simply destroying it with his body but then spikes began to protrude out toward them.
Pulling back, Emre sent two arrows toward the spiked wall. Spikes crumbled at the impacts, but the wall itself remained sturdy. This was expected for a creature with a large mana pool than Ragan. Even then, Emre felt as if this was just the beginning.
Idris released his flame bolt. It crashed into the same spot Emre's arrows had hit and the wall crumbled more. They would still have to hit it over and over for it to crumble fully. This would only be taxing on their mana stores.
Growling, Emre started forward again. With most of the spikes destroyed and the corruption making no moves to repair them, he was going to try to destroy it physically. When he was almost there the middle part they had been destroying began to crumble further.
Confused, he slowed down only to gasp as a beam of pure darkness erupted from the middle of the wall and aimed straight for him. Clenching his teeth, the beam landed.
A roar of pain exited his mouth as he felt the heat of the beam sear into his upper shoulder. The two arrows he had disappeared as his focus broke. The pain was like dipping your hand into a pot of boiling water for 20 seconds, only worse. He felt his wing falter and his trajectory plummet as the beam disappeared. He tried to right himself despite the pain in his lower wing and shoulder.
'Emre!' Idris's loud shout sounded in his head.
With a pained grunt, he splayed out his wings again, barely catching himself before he crashed into the ground. The spot the beam had landed was black and would have spread along his whole shoulder if his scales weren't fighting against the corruption.
'It's fine! Keep attacking!' Emre responded with a strained tone.
Idris had changed his direction toward Emre but turned back toward the broken wall at his words. With an angered roar Idris smashed into the remains, destroying the top of the broken wall with his strength. The corruption hiding behind it lunged up toward him.
Its teeth clamped onto Idris's leg and yanked him toward it. Idris didn't reject the movement and in fact, used it to his advantage to reach his long neck forward to bite into the back of its shoulders. With the momentum in his favor, he pushed the corruption to the ground, forcing it to release his forearm.
Letting go as well, Idris jumped over the rest of the way. Whipping around, the corruption righted itself, sending black spikes out of the ground toward the black dragon. Emre on the other hand made it to the wall at this point as Idris dodged the attack.
With the heat bubbling in his throat on his way here, he released it the moment the corruption was clear in his view. The golden flame burst from his mouth, and the torrent engulfed the corruption's backside as it had turned toward Idris.
It let out a bellow of pain as the ground cracked around it in a circle. As the flame seared its skin, it let out another call. It was different, more shrill and louder. So loud that Emre flinched back with the urge to cover his ears as the air vibrated. In but a second afterward, the earth formed a black spiked dome around the corruptions body.
The nearby sounds of battle lessened as the snarls and growls of the smaller corruptions disappeared. Instead, it became a sound of thundering paws, hooves, and feet as the small corruptions stopped fighting the soldiers and focused elsewhere.
'It called the others over!' Emre exclaimed.
The wave of monsters was considerably smaller than the start, but they all beelined for where Emre and Idris were. If that many corruptions came at them at once, they might be able to kill a ton but not without injury. They had had the advantage against the corruption because they outnumbered it, but now they were the ones about to be outnumbered.
Distracted watching the wave come closer, they barely caught spikes shooting out toward them. The spiked dome was no longer spiked as the shards flew out toward them both. Idris roared as the spikes pierced into his body. His left side was pierced the most as he moved to cover his vital spots.
Emre jerked back to hide behind the remains of the wall, a few spikes catching his arms, shoulders, and the right side of his muscled chest. He gasped in pain, glancing down to his chest being thankful that none of them had gone too deep. He silently scolded himself for not paying enough attention.
Urgently, he flapped his wings and took flight, looking down to see Idris doing the same as the hoard arrived in his spot. The dark creatures didn't seem interested in him though as they sped past him. They did little more than snarl and snap, but it seemed they were going to keep going.
The wave headed for the forest and quickly disappeared into the shaded foliage. Idris watched only for a moment before diving down to the dome. He started to tear at the hardened soil with his claws, digging through it. Emre lowered down to join him as the hole opened up.
Pulling the earth out of the way, the inside of the dome was empty. In fact, there was a large hole that went deeper. It had created a tunnel and escaped.
'It got away.' Idris grumbled.
Dark blood seeped from Emre's wounds, covering his white scales in red as it dripped down. He looked far worse than Idris merely due to being lighter colored. The spikes hadn't been pulled out either to avoid bleeding more. He glared into the tunnel for a moment before looking up.
'Can you use earth magic to collapse it?' Emre asked.
'I was trying to use my earth magic on the dome. I'm not able to.' Idris explained.
Emre's golden eyes narrowed as he focused on the blackened earth. After a moment he felt his chest tighten. Idris also seemed to realize as well as his icy blue eyes widened.
"Mana isn't coming from this soil anymore…" Emre breathed out.
"Shit…" Idris swore out loud.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Trraven
Trraven What does it meannn??
Also, we are back in our stunning dragon form for now!
Battle sequences are pretty hard to write out, to be honest. Hopefully, I'll get better with them soon.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone