The Norkari Mountains

Lum is presently oblivious to anything but Arya. Still her bubble is held by her will, and that is iron. So long as she can sing it would stand firm. Lum continued to draw, and pour healing energies into Arya. She could see the girls burns healing before her eyes, and the hair regrowing on her head.

Klur was blubbering in an upset matter as Lum had removed him from her care. He was reaching towards Maelik, whining and nearly crying once more before he took off, eventually breaking there, emotionally. He kicked his feet in the air, clenching his fists and pounding his forearms down upon his thighs, launching his head into the air to cry aloud, hoping someone would acknowledge his sorrow.

Then the twins would begin to poke him, making his eyebrows frown intensely as he looked to them with confusion. His eyes widened as a sudden, strange, rock-like disk was handed outwards to him. "Food" was all the consent he needed, nearly ripping it out of the twin's hand as he smashed it into his face, nearly looking to shred the piece through his teeth at the velocity he crammed it to his mouth. His tongue came out, his breath panted as he held onto his stomach, groaning a bit as he wanted more, swallowing his spit at a higher frequency now. He spat out the small, crisp bread pieces, enjoying mainly the other ornaments to the cookie.

However, as a manic giggle was emitted, his evil, malicious smile soon faded as the voice of an ancient being came out. His face halted, eyes widening as another voice came from somewhere, but it was unknown. His face was in horror, but amazement at the same time, soon looking back down to the twins, a hand placed upon his mouth as he mumbled, nearly starting to bite on his hand, hoping they'd get the idea.

The demon barely kept his own weapons from slicing him a new scar and bounced away from the eruption with catlike reflexes, the protective barrier something that Maelik didn't bother to factor into his earlier equations.

"Well that's new..." he muttered before having his eardrums assaulted by the reverberating volume of his nemesis's voice.

"Mongrel? Why I'll have you know that I'm a pureblooded monster thank you very much sir," he responded with more than a little snark, trying to mask his unease after hearing the dragon's threats. The former lord was not used to being on the receiving end of malicious death threats, and he was even less used to not being able to immediately put a stop to them.

Under normal circumstances he would simply retreat and do an extensive study on the beast, after the monologue he certainly had enough information to go off of, but in this case he was anchored here. Lum (and to a slightly lesser extent Arya) were vulnerable and unable to vacate the area, as such it was up to him to distract and hopefully harm the beast enough to dissuade it from continuing its attack.

So in a spurt of uncharacteristic magnanimity he decided to stand and fight the titanic dragon off, but it would be very difficult to do so underneath it. So Maelik waited for an opportune time to slide out and continue his assault from the air, and as such was forced to watch with growing anger as the monster threatened that which he prized most.

"That tears it... You may be bigger, stronger, tougher and maybe even older than me but I swear, if you touch her I'll rip your head off and shit down your throat."

He was going to continue along that line of foul language (even escalating the potty mouth further) but the light magic breath attack forced him to zip his lip and deal with the problem at hand instead.

His expert eye judged that there was little hope for him to fully evade the radius of the attack without magical aid. So even as he took to the air and rocketed away as fast as he could the demon hissed out a few arcane syllables, draining some of his stored magic and reinforcing his demonic aura to better protect him. Apparently fear for others was more potent than fear for one's self as Maelik managed to cover far more distance than he anticipated and only the fringe of the light attack caught him, the brunt of the damage being absorbed by his wards as he was blown the rest of the way out by the blast.

But he wasn't through yet, he may not be able to pierce this beast with his swords but he had sharper weapons at his disposal. He gathered yet more demonic energy into himself in preparation and began to fly back into the fray at a decidedly higher altitude.

As the demon spat out his insult, the dragon's wings flared, roaring at the demon as he flew upwards. Laughing evilly, his voice came out once more as he followed behind Maelik, light-fire pouring from his nose in a pursuit against Maelik, the slowed turns and derailed spin-arounds to follow him nearly un-altering the outcome if the fire would reach him, as his flames covered a width fairly more than that of Maelik's body.

His voice spoke without effort, rather than the smaller ones, who had to speak up to be heard. "And how will you every do that, Firewalker?" His question soon boomed to another prideful piece of poetry. "My teeth are the swords of a thousand armies!" With that statement, as quick as it occured ,rock formed around the dragon's mouth, as it clamped downwards emitting the sound of an explosion behind Maelik, purely meant for intimidation. "My talons are spears from a hundred nations!" The flapping ensued heavier, the dragon increasing distance as his fire-breath halted, only to show Maelik the monster's face to his right. "My tail, is the club that will smash your putri-" His eyes dilated as he turned around, suddenly, heading downwards with a constant glide, one nearly incapable of catching up to.

"MATHLADEEM!! The ORC CHILD!" He shouted aloud, a monstrous roar shook the mountains, as over the mountain range the transport could view the dragon, slowly attempting to make its way towards Madame and her crew, focused strictly upon Klur. "I hear your cries, I smell your blood!!!" He roared out, his tail straight, like a pillar, as he glided forward, still having much distance to attempt to get close to the transport. "U'uk fal'Gath, my teeth to his neck!" He chanted aloud, a manic grin upon the sides of his face as he slithered forth in the air. "Hear me, Mathladeem! Hear the voice of Rag'Novok The Shattered! That of which you humiliated, and know fear! Feel the vengeance in every flame that spurs-!" He deliberately barrel-rolled in the air, crashing into the middle of a mountain, spikes forming upon his back from the collected stone as the rest fell downwards from high in the air. "-Through your putrid skin! I am coming!" His last statement seemed quite more playful than intimidating, but for any case, seemed irrelevant to the orc child which remained focused on the twins.

Maelik managed to keep ahead of the flames, although the light magic component sizzled at his hide, truth be told he wasn't too sure how he would turn the tables on this beast without a reprieve to enhance himself. He noticed that off to the side that his precious Lum was finished playing first aid and was getting down to the nitty gritty. Perhaps she may provide him the few seconds needed to prepare.

As it turned out though his salvation came in the form of the colossal creature simply flying off in pursuit of something else. Mathladeem or something... The demon vaguely remembered hearing that name ages ago, the same with Rag'Novok. But more importantly, that detestable blowhard was going after an orc child. His orc child!

Having the opportunity to do so Maelik released his pent up aura and with a thunderous crack his form became engulfed in shadow. The darkness that surrounded him widened and grew exponentially before it cracked open to reveal the light devouring demonic dragon that the former Lord had become. His wings flared and sucked in the daylight around him, his maw opened and with each breath puffed out soul scorching fire. The only light to escape his vicinity was the red glow that permeated from between his scales, the same bloody crimson tint as his merciless eyes.

"Don't you dare! That kid is mine!" his volcanic rumble echoed, his earlier speed easily surpassed in this newer form as he crashed through the skies like a flaming meteor. With surprising speed he caught up to Rag'Novok and after amassing what remained of his stockpiled aura magic he encased himself in a shroud of hellfire.
Having done that the demonic dragon flew at an angle at ramming speed, meaning to charge at the much larger dragon's face, doing his best to shove every flaming spike and ridge into the beast's eye. It was a risky maneuver, but damn the consequences. That child was his to care for and raise, it was his to love.

"And his name is Klur!"

Klur, who seemed to be completely ignorant to what was going on, looked to the sandwich with a giggle of excitement, soon grasping into it and shoving the bread into his face. Suddenly, his face changed, more of a pause and contemplation as the bread fell out of his mouth, soon looking to see the meat,then ripping that apart and stuffing it through his jaws.

Klur burped and sighed with a small smile on his face, flexing his arms a bit to get the blood flowing in them for a strange reason, realizing the mess he made on his legs, picking through it to find any more meat upon the sandwich, a bloodlust seen in his eyes for such a delicacy.

The twin dappled Percheron horses pulling the carriage continue to move in almost mechanical synchrony, hooves thundering across the ground as they pull the great carriage down the rough mountain roads.

A stone boulder- almost as large as the carriage itself, is dislodged from the mountainside by the landing of the massive dragon, and lands in the roadway, blocking their path.

However, the horses don’t stop. They don’t care! They simply lower their heads, and smash directly through the boulder, continuing on with incredible speed, pulling the carriage through the stone rubble.

Within the carriage, Naoki relaxes slightly, but maintains her grip on both the pole and Kate. She speaks, just loudly enough to be heard over the clattering of the wheels and sounds of the battle outside.

“We’re outrunning the dragon, and help is coming. The Black Tower is sending their agents, and Lord Ildesias himself is on the way. We should be safe from here on out.”

She heaves a great sigh, and tilts her head over to lean on Kate’s shoulder. This is not the sort of cuddling she intended to engage in on the ride up, and not how the trip is supposed to be going. The whole situation calls to mind that particular, terrible night at The Sun when they were beset upon by that angelic fellow, and Hasdrubal ‘died’. But this time, the angels are on her side, and it’s a four kilometer dragon they’re fighting.

She decides, all things considered, that this situation is equally as terrible as, and overall, less enjoyable than that previous incident, and she would really rather these sorts of things stop happening altogether.

However, after taking this moment of rest, respite, and lamentation, she launches back into it, closing her eyes and continuing to oversee and direct the battle efforts. Her earring shines more brightly than it ever has before, beginning to glow a bit, even. She informs Lum and Maelik of the inbound reinforcements, directs the reinforcements to the area (thought that isn't very hard, considering the size of the dragon), and in cooperation with Reese Cresno back at The Sun, keeps a map  updated with the current locations of all involved parties.

Marduk approaches the region on foot, a heavy iron cross resting across his shoulders.

Friz'lor presently followed, bored of the assignment already. He would likely not get to kill anything.