The dragon didn't flinch. It turned its head and looked at the frost crawling across its own back, quickly analyzing.
The armored warrior didn't waste the opportunity. He raised the axe overhead, spinning it in three complete rotations, then pointed it directly at the frosted areas. His lips moved rapidly, speaking particular words—his audible utterance. Lightning streaked from the black blades, targeting each frosted section. The combination of thermal stress and electrical assault shattered portions of the dragon's armor plating, leaving several open wounds that wept ichor.
Alicia sprinted to a new position, her breathing controlled despite the exertion. She found another crystal formation, this one tinted dark blue and purple, half again her height. Another gamble. She drew a large circle on it with her finger, placed both hands on it within the circle, and pressed hard on a facet angled toward the dragon's head. This time the gamble paid: from the crystal's far side, water erupted in a twisting stream, crossing the distance and breaking against the dragon's snout, sheeting across its eyes and nostrils in a clinging film. She shifted the angle of her pressure, walking the stream to follow its head as it moved.
Jeff flew in close, his sword drawn from its sheath at his side. The blade absorbed magic from him, becoming magical. He briefly unlocked his ring finger and re-locked his double-jointed index finger on his left hand. As he slashed with his blade, he exhaled sharply through his teeth—a quick "tssst" sound—and wind energy flowed through the metal, extending the cutting edge with compressed air. The enhanced strike bit deep into one of the open wounds on the dragon's flank.
The dragon roared—but it was not a cry. It was a weapon. The sound arrived as a physical wall, precisely aimed, battering Jeff end over end through the air. Beneath the roar, plate flaps along its spine were already standing up in a third configuration, and its exhale kept going, the roar sliding seamlessly into a shrieking pressure of compressed wind that Jeff barely rode out.
The creature planted all four legs wide, claws digging into stone, and began gathering power.
"Get clear! It's charging something big!" Alicia warned, abandoning the crystal as she prepared to move.
The armored warrior slammed his free fist against the axe's haft, then spread his arms wide while stomping his right foot. A barrier of crackling lightning poured out of the weapon and formed in front of him, a defensive lattice of electrical energy.
Deep in the dragon's throat, light was building, brighter with each passing second. The plates along its entire body lay flat and locked, streamlining it, bracing it.
"MOVE!" the armored warrior bellowed.
A massive beam of concentrated blue and cyan energy erupted from the creature's maw, directly in Jeff's flight path. The air itself seemed to tear apart from the sheer destructive power channeling through space.
Jeff's eyes widened. Too close. Moving too fast. No time to—
Lightning struck him.
The armored warrior, had noticed the danger Jeff was in, and had pointed the axe directly at Jeff, traced a quick zigzag pattern in the air with his other hand's index finger, and shouted a single sharp word. The bolt hit Jeff square in the chest, not to harm but to launch. The electrical force flung Jeff violently sideways, his body tumbling through the air away from the beam's path.
The dragon's beam scorched through the space where Jeff had been a fraction of a second before, the heat so intense that the air shimmered and distorted in its wake. The beam continued past, striking a sandstone formation in the distance and reducing it to molten slag.
Jeff crashed hard into the canyon wall, the impact knocking the wind from his lungs. He slid down several feet before catching himself with his wings, breathing hard, his chest aching from both the lightning strike and the collision.
The irises of his eyes shifted from glowing neon yellow to glowing orange.
"You... you could've warned me!" Jeff shouted at the armored warrior, anger rising in his voice.
"No time for warnings in battle!" the warrior called back, already moving to engage the dragon again. "You're alive. Focus!"
The dragon's attention fixed on Jeff, its massive head tilting with what might have been amusement. "Fragile creatures."
Pushing off from the wall, Jeff locked his double-jointed middle finger into position. Flames erupted from his hands, channeling through his sword's blade. He directed the fire's trajectory with his left thumb, sending a spiraling column of flame toward the dragon's face.
The dragon simply closed its eyes. The armored eyelids deflected the flames harmlessly.
"Fire took my eyes once. Several bodies ago," the dragon remarked, opening them again. "I corrected that."
Alicia reached another crystal formation, this one shot through with bright yellow. She used her finger to draw a circle on it, pressed both palms against it within the circle, fingers splayed, and pushed hard on a facet angled low, toward the dragon's rear left leg. A jagged arc of yellow electricity leapt from the crystal's far side, streaked across the canyon floor, and struck the limb—current coursing up through it, every muscle clenching at once. The crystal hummed under her hands as she held the pressure and the angle, feeding the arc. The dragon's leg buckled, its weight shifting.
The armored warrior saw the opening. He gripped the axe with both hands, held it horizontal at chest level, then thrust it forward while speaking three sharp syllables. A massive bolt of lightning tore from the black blades into the ground beneath the dragon's compromised leg. The earth exploded upward in a shower of rock and electrical discharge.
The dragon's leg gave way beneath it, and the creature adjusted, redistributing its weight across three limbs. Jeff flew in close again, his orange eyes blazing, slashing and stabbing with his sword, the fiery blade now cutting deep into an exposed wound. Ichor sprayed across his arms and chest.
The dragon's tail whipped around with devastating speed, the movement creating a sonic boom. Jeff barely managed to pull up, the tail passing inches beneath his feet. The wind from its passage spun him in a complete rotation before he regained control.
"Jeff! Its left wing joint!" Alicia shouted, pointing. "There's a gap in the armor!"
Jeff adjusted his flight path, but the dragon was faster than he anticipated. It did a massive swipe through the air, talons extended. Jeff twisted, his wings folding partially, but one talon caught his left wing's edge. Feathers scattered—some white, some now black.
Pain lanced through Jeff's wing. He dropped several feet before recovering, his flight now slightly uneven. His eyes flickered, the orange glow intensifying, and more black feathers began appearing among the white.
He locked his double-jointed thumb into a specific configuration while keeping his middle finger locked. The tattoo on his stomach—the yellow outlined smiley face with the red tear drop—began glowing. Dark energy and fire combined in his free hand, swirling together into a volatile sphere. With immense throwing force, he launched it directly at the dragon's wing joint.
The attack struck true, exploding against the gap in the armor. The joint gave with a wet crack, and the wing dropped, hanging at an awkward angle.
The dragon moved. Not toward Jeff, not toward the warrior—it turned and strode across the battlefield with sudden purpose, walking straight past two crystal formations without a glance, past a third, heading unerringly for a distant formation near the canyon wall—a towering mass twice the height of a man, pulsing with orange light.
The armored warrior went pale behind his visor. "It knows this valley!"
The dragon pressed its foreclaw against the orange formation and dragged one talon across the surface in a swift, practiced circle. It pressed a talon within the circle, angling with surgical precision. A massive beam of glowing orange energy erupted from the opposite side of the formation, sweeping across the battlefield in a horizontal arc.
Alicia dove behind a rock outcropping as the beam passed overhead, superheating the air. The armored warrior converted to his electrical form, dispersing into crackling energy that scattered in multiple directions before reforming in a safer location, the axe reforming in his grip with him.
Jeff flew upward hard, wings straining. The beam passed beneath him, close enough that he felt his skin burning from the radiant heat. Several more feathers—now a mix of white and black—singed and fell away.
His eyes shifted again. One iris glowed orange, the other glowed red.
The dragon turned its massive head toward Jeff. "Perhaps I should have devoured you first."
Jeff locked his double-jointed pinky and ring finger together in a complex configuration. Wind and darkness combined around him, the tattoo on the back of his neck—the halo—began glowing intensely, the ink blazing with light. His wind and darkness combination creating a vortex of cutting air and shadow energy. He directed it with both thumbs now, for more precise control.
The vortex slammed into the dragon's face, the wind blades cutting into its snout, the darkness corroding where it touched. The dragon's head snapped back from the force, and several scales cracked and fell away. Ichor ran freely down its jaw and it kept its eyes on Jeff.
Alicia saw her chance. She sprinted to a broad, red formation she hadn't yet tried, drew a large circle, pressed her hands against it within the circle, and pushed hard while dragging her left hand downward across its surface. The crystal answered with fire—not a beam, but a roaring, expanding cone of flame that howled out of the formation's far side like a furnace door thrown open. She angled it by adjusting her hands, walking the inferno across the dragon's damaged snout precisely where Jeff's attack had exposed flesh.