The flesh charred deep. The dragon's answering roar shook the canyon and crumbled smaller rock formations—but it was aimed, a concussive counterattack rolling over Alicia's cover, not a sound of suffering. Code doesn't suffer agony.
The armored warrior charged forward, the axe raised. He leaped high, spinning in midair while tracing a circle with the axe's blade. As he descended, he brought the weapon down in a powerful overhead strike enhanced with lightning. The black blades bit into the dragon's shoulder, electrical energy coursing through the wound.
The dragon thrashed—its body jerking where the current seized its muscles—and its tail swept in a wide arc, catching the armored warrior and sending him crashing into a canyon wall with enough force to crack the stone. He slumped to the ground, struggling to rise, the axe still locked in his fist.
"Two left," the dragon said.
Jeff's eyes changed again—both irises now glowing red, the pupils still black. More of his wing feathers had turned black, all of one wing's feathers now black.
"Alicia, get him to safety!" Jeff commanded, his voice tight with barely controlled rage.
Alicia ran toward the fallen warrior, but the dragon shifted its bulk, blocking her path.
The runes on Jeff's forearm spread further up his arm—new runes appearing that hadn't been there before, crawling across his skin like living script. He unlocked all his finger configurations and locked his double-jointed fingers in a different, more complex pattern that required both hands working in coordination.
Massive spikes of ice erupted from the ground beneath the dragon's feet, piercing up through the gaps in its armor. The creature's limbs locked and shuddered as the spikes ran them through—its body being physically pinned. Jeff wasn't finished. He adjusted his thumb positions while maintaining the finger locks, and lightning—not his normal magic, but something darker, tinged with shadow—struck down from above, hitting every ice spike simultaneously.
The corrupted electricity locked the dragon's muscles against the piercing cold. It broke free from several of the ice spikes anyway, tearing its own flesh to do it, ichor flowing freely from the wounds.
The dragon's eyes narrowed. Its plate flaps rose along its haunches in yet another arrangement, and it swung its tail toward a green-and-yellow tinted crystal formation nearby—another one it clearly knew. The tail's tip drew a swift circle against the crystal's surface, then pressed within it at an angle. From the formation's far side erupted a hissing torrent of green-yellow liquid, aimed not at Jeff but at Alicia.
Alicia threw herself to the side, rolling behind cover and it missed her by inches, stone dissolved into a steaming, collapsing ruin.
Jeff's eyes shifted again—the white parts of his eyes turned black, the irises remaining glowing red.
Jeff was no longer in control of his own body.
Jeff's body moved with inhuman precision and speed. He dove straight down toward the dragon, his wings—now completely black—folded tight against his back. At the last second, he spread his wings wide, creating a massive gust that kicked up sand and debris, temporarily blinding the dragon.
He landed on the dragon's back, between its shoulder blades. His sword plunged down into one of the open wounds, and he channeled everything through it—fire, ice, wind, lightning, and darkness all at once. The magical energies poured into the dragon's body, wreaking havoc on its internal organs.
The dragon bucked and twisted, trying to dislodge him.
Jeff's face was smiling.
He wrenched the sword sideways, expanding the wound. The dragon's movements grew more urgent—the fast, focused urgency of a mind watching its vessel fail and calculating what could still be done.
Alicia, seeing the dragon distracted, ran to the fallen armored warrior. She checked his breathing—still alive, but unconscious. She dragged him behind a larger rock formation, out of immediate danger.
Jeff pulled his sword free and drove it into a different wound, this one closer to the dragon's spine. He unlocked his finger configuration and formed a new one with just his right hand, his left maintaining his grip on the sword. The black runes on his forearm now covered his entire left arm.
A sphere of pure shadow formed in his right hand, dense enough that it seemed to pull light into itself. He pressed it against the wound where his sword pierced, and the darkness flowed into the dragon's body like poison.
The dragon's movements became more frantic—not desperate, but ruthless, spending its failing body like currency. It rolled onto its side, trying to crush Jeff against the ground.
Jeff's wings beat once, powerfully, launching him clear. He hovered in the air, his black-and-red eyes fixed on the creature. His sword was still embedded in the dragon's back.
"Fragile creature," Jeff's avatar said.
He locked all ten of his double-jointed fingers into a configuration so complex it looked painful. His tattoos that had glowed earlier now blazed with light—the halo on his neck, the "yellow outlined smiley face with the red tear drop" on his stomach.
The air around Jeff darkened, shadows gathering from every direction. Lightning crackled through the shadows, purple and black instead of blue and white. Ice crystals formed in the air, each one wreathed in dark fire. Wind howled, carrying all these elements together into a swirling maelstrom of destructive power.
The dragon dragged itself toward the nearest green crystal formation, one foreclaw stretching out, a talon already beginning the curve of a circle against its surface—
Jeff brought both hands down in a chopping motion.
The maelstrom descended.
Everything—shadow, lightning, ice, fire, and wind—slammed into the dragon simultaneously. The creature's remaining armor shattered like glass. Its scales peeled away. Its flesh burned and froze and electrified and cut all at once.
When the maelstrom dissipated, the dragon lay still, its body a ruined mess of torn flesh and broken plating, the talon resting an inch short of completing its circle.
Jeff hovered in the air, breathing heavily. His eyes remained black with red irises, his wings completely black. His tattoos that had been glowing still glowed, though the light was beginning to fade.
He descended slowly, landing on the ground near the dragon's head. He walked forward, his movements being controlled.
The dragon's eye opened slightly, its vast body barely clinging to life.
"You..."
Jeff raised his hand, fingers beginning to form another configuration.
Jeff's breathing slowed. The black in the whites of his eyes began to recede, color returning gradually. The red glow in his irises flickered.
Jeff's hand lowered.
Jeff's eyes returned fully to glowing orange, the black receding from the whites of his eyes. His wings began showing white feathers again among the black. Able to control his own body again, Jeff turned away from the dragon.
"Jeff!"
Alicia stepped out from behind the rock formation, leaving the unconscious warrior safely concealed.
Jeff's wings trembled. His eyes shifted from glowing orange to glowing neon yellow, then began to dim.
Jeff's legs buckled. Alicia rushed forward, catching him before he fell.
"I've got you," she said, supporting his weight. "I've got you."
Jeff's eyes completed their return to non-glowing dark brown. His wings—now half white feathers, half black feathers—drooped with exhaustion.
"The warrior..." Jeff managed to say.
"He's alive. Unconscious, but alive," Alicia assured him.
The armored warrior groaned from behind the rock formation. Alicia helped Jeff over to him, both of them exhausted...
("Jeff's eyes automatically turn the "glowing colors" ""neon yellow" and/or red" under particular conditions. Jeff's eyes, as soon as Jeff's adrenaline level is 25% above Jeff's usual adrenaline level, automatically "turn ""glowing neon yellow"" and remain that way" and then turn "non-glowing dark brown" as soon as Jeff is relaxed, it's one of the wishes Jeff had made in one of his lives because he always wanted glowing neon yellow eyes, his wish granted by a wish-granter. Ever since Jeff got the cursed ring, Jeff's eyes, when he gets somewhat angry, automatically "turn from ""glowing "neon yellow"" to ""glowing "orange""" and remain that way" and then turn "non-glowing dark brown" as soon as Jeff is relaxed, Jeff's eyes, when he gets a little more angry, automatically "turn "glowing "orange" to ""glowing "red"" and remain that way" and then turn "non-glowing dark brown" as soon as Jeff is relaxed, and then Jeff's eyes, when he gets "completely angry", automatically "turn ""glowing "red" with the white part of Jeff's eyes turned black"" and remain that way" and then turn "non-glowing dark brown" as soon as Jeff is relaxed. Jeff's eyes, when he is ""almost completely" angry", automatically ""glow different colors, one glowing "neon yellow" and one glowing "red"" and remain that way" and then turn "non-glowing dark brown" as soon as Jeff is relaxed. When Jeff is ""almost completely" angry", ""more runes automatically start spreading up Jeff's left arm and then the runes remain" and then such extra runes "unspread and vanish" as soon as Jeff is relaxed", and Jeff's wings, when Jeff is "completely angry", automatically ""change from white wings to black wings" and remain that way" and then turn to white wings as soon as Jeff is relaxed, and Jeff's wings, when Jeff is ""almost completely" angry", automatically "change to """one random wing black and one random wing white" or "a random mix of "black and white" wing feathers on both wings""" and remain that way" and then turn to white wings as soon as Jeff is relaxed. While Jeff is not angry, ""the whites of Jeff's eyes" and "Jeff's eyes' pupils"" "always remain normal ""unless, in the future, ""Jeff wishes for otherwise in some way" whereby such gets “granted via a wish-granter"”" or "unless, in the future, Jeff's eyes get changed by other magical means".
Jeff's cursed ring is simply one of "such cursed objects that parts of "Eric's sections of information" explain about".)