+The humans continue to fascinate me. With all their advancements in the field of warfare, still they plow ahead, seeking ever more powerful weapons. This comes as no great surprise, as warfare is now a far more common occurrence in the east now that they have something to fight other than each other.+

+The latest tactical challenge they face, evidently, is the construction of stronger mobile forces. As their strategic situation has changed, humans find it easier to hold strategic positions on a battlefield at the same time they find it more difficult to defend temporary bases, given that most demon warrior breeds fight with a hunter's mentality, and greatly prefer immobile, distracted targets rather than long convoys; most beasts will gladly assault a well-defended base camp before they'll attack a vulnerable and unsuspecting convoy on the move. Creatures frequently assault these camps looking for prey, not understanding that they have virtually no chance of success. As the paradigm of warfare shifts, the humans have adapted. Soldiers more and more often take to eating and sleeping in or on armored vehicles rather than setting up camp.+

+These developments have led to some reconsideration of the basic structure of most land-based armies; naval forces eat, sleep, and live inside their war machines themselves, and can function indefinitely without stopping so long as they are regularly supplied. Of course, this state of affairs is a necessity on the open ocean, but it has certain benefits that soldiers on land could learn to appreciate.+

+The problem with any overly large vehicle, as the humans understand it, is that it's extremely vulnerable to artillery fire and air strikes, which are ineffective against most small, mobile units. Demonic armies tend to possess feeble and short-ranged artillery - rarely amounting to anything stronger than a ballistae - and flying units rarely if ever possess the same kind of destructive power as even a relatively small payload of conventional bombs, as well as being likewise limited by a relatively short range. Furthermore, new advancements in magitechnology have introduced energy shields, providing near-impenetrable protection from long-range threats.+

+Considering the prevalence of raiders in the wastes that gleefully prey on any military supply convoys they can take by surprise, military manufacturers started looking into the design and production of larger vehicles that could hopefully fully house and sustain its crew for a period of several weeks.+

+There were few major breakthroughs in this area until the creation of the Messiah. The shell of the massive hovercraft was unearthed from the Dead Sea by Israeli archeological groups after doing an extensive search with newly developed geo-scanners that specifically searched for magical items buried deep underground. The projects that spawned this expedition are very complex in nature and motivations; I have discussed them at length in previous journals, so there's no need to delve too deeply here. While my research on the Messiah has been limited by extremely heavy security and my own reluctance to seize certain assets by force, I've managed to generate several likely theories surrounding the weapon.+

+The massive carrier hovercraft that currently roams the wastes was built from what the scientists are referring to as a "dreadnaught," a massive craft that was buried underground with a sizeable cache of ancient magitechnology. This is fascinating for numerous reasons, foremost among those being that the humans of Earth realm were the first to develop effective magitechnology, or so it was thought. I've managed to observe enough of the artifacts to feel assured that these devices are not elven or angelic in origin, the only other races to combine magic with technology to any crude degree, so then what creatures created these behemoths?+

+Of course, whenever there's a big mystery that involves powerful relics from a long-dead race, a scholar like myself is inclined to simply shrug and chalk it all up the Ancients, and the civilizations that existed eons ago as those god-like beings razed the stars. But that assumption makes little sense; the Ancients were beings of magic who twisted the forces of nature (which are, naturally, the forces that technology relies upon) at their whim. Their magic was of a kind held above all other forces of the universe. Why then, would they or any of their progeny stoop to these mortal machinations when a power far greater than that of the material universe protects you and wages your wars? There was another force at work during those turbulent times, I am sure of it.+

+Nonetheless, my observation of the Messiah is continually stymied, and I doubt I'll have much more success studying the dreadnaught that the Americans recently unburied in Mexico. I may leave this mystery to the human scientists, for once.+

- Entry #4603 of Doppler Thaeramon's personal scientific journal


Nexus II
by Black Dragon
https://www.angelfire.com/anime5/fanficlair

Disclaimer: Damn near everything belongs to me 'cept Ranma.

Words in " " are presented phonetically, or is the primary language in a scene (usually English, in this case). {" "} is spoken in a different language than the norm. Sounds are italicized, and writing is now presented in + +.

Chapter 13
Conflict Draconis
**********************************************************************************

All hands to battle stations! All hands to battle stations!

General Kitinski yawned as she walked down the hall to the Messiah's war room, where her officers were doubtlessly already making plans, ignoring the men and women dashing by her in a panic.

"Mmmm... I'm feeling a bit tired. The priest certainly was energetic..." she frowned suddenly and tilted her head up to look at the ceiling. "Wait, what was his name again?"

June was slightly perturbed when she realized that she really could not recall. The only times she had addressed him, she had referred to him as "evon," or the less polite term, "clown." It didn't sit well with her at all that she had slept with someone who she couldn't even name; she didn't consider herself as being "easy," and didn't want anybody else to have the same perception.

'Then again, ignoring what other people might think of me was part of the point of that little-' Her train of thought was interrupted as someone bumped her shoulder, and her eyes immediately snapped onto the culprit, the rest of her body stopping dead.

The man who had winged her glanced over his shoulder as he dashed away, looking prepared to deliver an annoyed reprimand.

Once he saw who he had just passed, his face paled considerably, and he halted in his tracks before whirling around.

"G-G-General Kitinski! I-I'm so s-sorry, Ma'am! I was careless, and-"

"At ease, soldier," she snapped in a manner that somehow seemed reprimanding and encouraging at the same time. "It was my fault; this is no time to be wandering through the halls daydreaming. On your way."

The soldier didn't take the time to reflect upon his good fortune, and quickly went back to dashing toward wherever he was going. June shook her head to clear it, her jaw setting firmly.

'Dammit June, put your nonchalance and self-assurance away for once! My soldiers need me...'

Taking a deep breath, her features softened, and she opened the door to her war room.


It was obvious that a great amount of strategizing and tactical discourse had been going on, despite the way that all her officers were silent and grim-faced when she entered, as if they had been waiting for her. The table between them projected a holographic display of the Messiah as well as the surrounding area in a one hundred mile radius, with several red arrows representing the expected angle of approach.

There were several other points on the hologram - they represented the placement of friendly forces - that had been highlighted hastily, probably over the discussion of troop placement, and one of the officers had apparently knocked over his coffee and was distracted enough that he'd thus far failed to clean it up. All indications of a spirited strategy meeting.

"All right people, I'm here. Give me the problem," she said firmly, stepping before the hologram and staring down at it intently.

A field major straightened. "General Kitinski, we have an incoming flight of Omegas from the southwest, heading on an attack vector to the Messiah. Satellite images have confirmed that the enemy units are all dragons of various types. As you know, creatures of such high mana resonance generate energy fields that disrupt long-range radar, so we won't have a bead on them weapons-wise until we have visual contact."

"How many?"

"A dozen flyers, and three to five grounded. It's harder to tell due to the forest canopy and the fact that some of them are subterraneans."

"How fast?"

"Much slower than expected, probably because of the grounded serpents. The entire group seems to be moving at the same rate; no doubt they want to attack at the same time."

June nodded. "Okay then. There's the problem. Give me a solution."

"We've already moved our mobile anti-air artillery here," a Colonel said, pointing to a hill nearby the massive hovercraft. "It's far enough away that any enemy units that break off to destroy them will risk being flanked by our own anti-aircraft guns, and close enough to cover a good bit of the dragons' expected effective attack range, as well as their eastern retreat path if they have to flee."

"Good. But not enough," June said simply.

Another man pointed to a cluster of markers above the Messiah. "We currently have all our fighters and bombers in the air and ready to sortie. I recommend an interception flight HERE," he pointed to a spot on the dragons' approach path. "If we can delay the advance, then-"

"Then we delay the same fight, but without desperately needed air support," June said firmly, cutting him off. "No. We're fighting dragons, here. We can realistically hope that our fighters and bombers will kill maybe two before they're wiped out in dog fighting, ASSUMING they get the element of surprise. No."

"They will stall the dragon flight, though!" he protested, "The extra time-"

"Isn't worth sending those pilots into a fight we know they'll lose," June interrupted again. Then she pointed to a spot above the Messiah. "They'll attack here, after the dragons have already begun their assault. A flanking maneuver should increase the effectiveness of their attacks and increase their longevity in combat."

"But that would leave the dragons all but unimpeded on their first run against us!"

June nodded. "That is acceptable."

"But General-"

"I am not prepared to throw down any 'last-ditch' or 'desperation' tactics," she said coldly, silencing the two men that had opposed her choice of tactics. "Nothing will suffice except for the complete eradication of the enemy. We HAVE the firepower. If the Messiah must weather the brunt of the assault, so be it. This craft was not built for pleasure cruises."

Another of the colonels looked grim. "It IS possible that the dragons could bring down the Messiah's shields on the first pass. Or even worse, that the dragons could board us, avoiding the anti-aircraft fire AND our air cover."

The silver-haired woman snorted. "Let them try. I'll personally reduce the filthy reptiles to dust and bones."

Several of the officers winced, none of them sure how much of the General's comment was confidence and how much was arrogance.

"The point, gentlemen, is to have as many guns hitting the lizards all at once. On their approach, they'll see a single target; the objective. After their first approach, they'll realize that they have several more targets, and will need to choose between them even as our vulcan cannons pluck them out of the sky." June smiled slightly at the prospect, and leaned further over the table.

"Now... give me another problem..."

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Battle stations! All hands to battle stations! Radar contacts at eight miles! ETA ten minutes! This is not a drill!

Rayden glanced over his shoulder as a group of technicians rushed by the entrance to the lounge, the man in charge screaming orders to the rest of his men. "Man, sure got busy in a hurry, did'n it?"

The bartender, not being assigned to any military post, sighed and slid another bottle of brandy over to the demon knight, casting an uneasy glance at the six empty bottle already piled to the side. "Yeah, well, that's war for ya. You almost done here?"

Rayden took the bottle and took off the cap. "How long 'til the lizards get 'ere?" He asked, a slight slurring betraying his inebriation.

"They said ten minutes," the man replied. "I got nowhere to go, since this is my station. All I have to do is make sure the cabinets are secure. You goin' back to your quarters?"

Rayden took a long swig of the brandy, and then let out a deep breath. "HELL no. I'm gonna be out there killin' lizards as soon as the damn leadwings GET here. Why's it take 'em ten minutes to clear eight miles?"

On the stool next to Rayden, K raised his head up above the counter momentarily to scowl at the demon knight. "For the umpteenth time, we're NOT lizards! You don't see me referring to everything humanoid as 'human' or 'mortal,' do you?"

"I'm sure if you keep whining about it I'll stop, despite me not stopping in the face of your constant whining so far," Rayden mumbled before gulping down more booze.

The bartender raised an eyebrow, and then leaned over the counter to get a better look at the little dragon. "Hey, did you want anything? I don't really..." he frowned. "Is there something wrong with that stool? It looks like the seat is about to fall off from here."

"Nope! It's fine!" K lied, ducking his head back down as he waited for the man's attention to turn elsewhere.

Bang! Rayden slammed the latest empty bottle down next to him, and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "Next."

The barkeep sighed. "If you were IEF, a human, or even just fifty pounds lighter I'd have cut you off three bottles ago. And were you serious about going out and fighting?"

"Of course I am!" Rayden said, his focus temporarily returning enough that his words came unhindered. "A little grog is good to have before a fight! Dulls the pain when you're wounded!"

"Might I suggest not going into battle drunk?" The barkeep asked drolly. "You might keep from getting wounded in the first place."

Rayden rolled his eyes. "I
always
get wounded. Now are you going to give me another or not?"

Radar contacts at six miles! All non-combat personnel, secure your stations, retire to your quarters, and await instructions! All core engineers, report to the generator maintenance alcove for assignment! This is not a drill!

The barkeep shook his head and closed the cabinet behind him. "Sorry pal, I've gotta keep this place locked up until they give either the all-clear or the evacuation order."

Thump!

The man blinked. "What was that?"

"Nothing!" K shouted up from the floor.

Rayden rolled his eyes and picked up the little dragon before heading out. Under some circumstances he might have protested being thrown out, but he understood the rationale of the orders, and besides that, barkeeping was one of the few professions other than soldiering that he had any kind of inherent respect for. "All right then. See ya around."


A minute later, Rayden stepped out of the officer's lounge, and then immediately stepped back to keep from being trampled by a squad of technicians carrying crates of what he guessed was ammunition.

"Man, this bites," the demon knight grumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets and walking down the hall after them.

"Tell me about it; no matter how strong they think this boat is, we're going to be taken apart! Then what happens to us?" K shivered.

Rayden scowled. "It's worse than that! How the hell am I supposed to fight? This is an aerial battle! If we were on foot, we could probably force the lizards to land and come to us, somehow..." he clicked his tongue. "I knew getting on this heap was a waste of time."

"More to the point, getting on this heap may get us killed," K drawled. "Never mind that we may have just dragged down an entire army with us."

"Feh. I'm not gonna die here," Rayden insisted, pounding a fist into his palm. "Not without stabbing one of those overgrown newts between the eyes. I'm not gonna die without a fight."

"I'd really prefer you leave off the modifier 'without a fight,' seeing how I'm probably going to be with you," K mumbled. "Isn't there somewhere safe around here?"

Rayden groaned. Just his luck that he'd end up saddled with the party mascot. "I don't want to hide somewhere safe!"

K swatted him in the side of his head. "Well, think about how other people feel once in a while!"

"I don't want to do THAT either!" The demon knight complained.

"You're so aggravating!"

"You're so weak!"

"Of course I am! I'm the brains of this outfit!"

Rayden slammed his fist into the wall, leaving a sizeable dent. "And I'm the muscle! So why don't you use your brains to get my muscle into a fight?"

K scowled as he pulled his head back, admitting to himself that Rayden had a point; though he had little to contribute if he were taken into battle, to have the demon knight hiding in the hold would be more than just a waste... and probably subject him to unprecedented levels of complaining, as well.

"All right, fine. If you're going to be a big baby about not getting a chance to die a brutal, violent death, we'll go help out. But this is how we're going to do it..."

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"Fall in! Fall in! All units, report!"

On the top deck of the Messiah, a small group of men and women rushed to get in a line before a single man barking orders.

These were not ordinary soldiers, as evidenced by the fact that they were all wearing wetsuit-like outfits with minimum embellishment; their belts and heavy combat boots were the only things that were not skin-tight, and even the rank pins and IEF emblem had been printed on the surface of the suits rather than being stitched or pinned on.

The ranking officer frowned as his eyes swept up and down the ranks of the Magi-soldiers, and he stiffened as he saw his superior officers approach from across the busy topdeck. "Atten-SHUN!"


June regarded Karen silently as the Colonel jogged to keep up with her, the pair meeting in the midst of scrambling technicians and gunners.

"... So, I take it you put your uniform on in a hurry," the silver-haired woman finally said.

Karen twitched. "You too?"

"Mm." Normally June would've been outraged at such a casual demeanor under such severe circumstances, but she had to admit that the recent sexual activity had left her rather at ease. "So, did you get to finish, or..."

"No," Karen said through clenched teeth, trying hard not to snap at her superior.

"Oh. How unfortunate," June said simply, halting for a moment as two gunners hauled an ammo crate across their path.

Karen was sorely tempted to ask who it was that had suddenly attracted the general’s attention, but quickly decided against it; even if her superior was acting remarkably casual now, she had to be wary of crossing whatever line the general was acting on.

June noticed her subordinate’s frustration, and successfully guessed as to the source of the uncomfortable silence. “You know... after this is over, we should go down to the bar and get some drinks.”

The Colonel blinked in surprise, though she still looked wary. “General?”

“Managing these defenses can get exhausting, and I’m not getting any younger,” June continued, stopping as another group of men hauled ammunition across their path, “it simply occurred to me recently that there’s an awful lot of history between the two of us, yet we’ve never taken the opportunity to sit down and speak of it.”

The gunners passed by, and the pair continued moving.

“A lot of history...” Karen mumbled. They had known each other for six years, but she’d never considered the older woman anything more than a superior and fellow soldier.

There was a bit of an awkward pause as a gaping hole in the deck opened up in front of them, and armored gunships rose out of the topdeck launch bays. “Did you know that Ranma was a volunteer subject for the Magi-soldier project?”

Karen blinked. “Uh? Oh, yes... he told me about that. He didn’t make it, though. His mana resonance was too low.”

June chuckled. “His mana resonance was fine. Not up to sorcerer level, but he would’ve made a fine wizard. No... the experiment was a catastrophic failure.”

Karen blinked again, leaving her eyes wide. “Wh-What? What do you mean ‘catastrophic’? It couldn’t be that bad if he’s still alive...”

“He’s only still alive because... well, because he’s Ranma Saotome. If he were caught in the epicenter of a nuclear holocaust, he and the cockroaches would be the only survivors... and then the cockroaches would all die.” June chuckled. “He should have been dead after what happened... hell, he should be dead a hundred times over...”

Karen immediately began to ask the obvious question, but was drowned out by the sudden roar of engines as the four gunships took off into the sky.

As Karen started smoothing her hair that had been blown about by the kicked-up air, June spoke.

“I have quite a few stories about Ranma to tell... though none of them are as steamy as yours probably are.” She smirked slightly as her subordinate flushed and looked away. “I’ll tell you all about it sometime. But you have to do something for me.”

“M-Ma’am?”

June suddenly looked more serious. “You have to survive this battle, Colonel. Have you ever fought a dragon before?”

Karen shook her head.

“Well, then it’ll be a first for both of us,” the general said. Then her expression soured as she approached the line of magi-soldiers. “Maybe your boyfriend could give us some tips. He’s killed two of them. That I know about, anyway.”


The Colonel in charge of organizing the magi-soldiers stood stiffly as June and Karen finally reached the line. “General! Awaiting orders!”

June nodded, her lips pressed into a thin line as she looked over the men and women gathered here. Each one was a magical powerhouse, capable of wiping out a tank column with a few words and the right gestures. And yet...

“Group one, retire to the hangar bays,” June said without any preamble. “Group two, protect the aft of the ship. The final group will protect the shield generators.”

The Colonel raised an eyebrow as the soldiers looked confused. “Ma’am? If we’re deployed strictly on defense, we won’t be able to use most of our best spells against the enemy without significant damage to the Messiah.”

“I understand. You see... I don’t know all that much about dragons...” the general admitted, pointing her index finger in the air and idly drawing a picture with a winding strand of light. “But they’re quite resilient against magic. It would be best to allow our guns to engage the lizards and keep our mages back supporting the troops. Limit your attack spells to attacks of opportunity and last resorts. Colonel Molsk! Colonel Nemo! You’re with me. Move out!”

Immediately the soldiers scattered to their assigned areas, the magi-soldiers joining squads of ordinary men tasked with protecting the ship from boarding actions.


“Leave the ones in the air to me and the big guns. You two cover me.” June stepped past another group of engineers and stepped onto a lift, being joined by the two Colonels after a moment of hesitation.

The ride to the top of the bridge was silent, and Karen saw the man behind her, a Colonel by the name of Shawn Nemo, stare stoically into the sky, squinting at the thin, dark shapes far off in the distance.

“They’re almost within firing range,” he murmured. “Just what is going on here? Why are these creatures attacking?”

June smirked. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

The Colonel blinked. “General?”

“Tell me Nemo... do you believe that the actions of one man – not a general, or a leader, or anyone with that sort of influence – can control the tide of a battlefield? Of a WAR? That one fighter can single-handedly carve a path to victory for an entire nation... or lead a single small army to ruin?”

The older man frowned deeply, looking away for a moment. “I... I’ve never thought about anything like that. Maybe a powerful sorcerer-“

He stopped talking as June began to laugh ruefully. “We’ve been through so much, and gained so much power... and yet we’re all still so naive.”

The lift ground to a halt while the two Colonels were groping for something to say, and June turned and smirked at them.

“Come. The ancient beasts approach. Let’s show them the might of foolish, ignorant human soldiers, shall we?”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The plan had been simple. At least, it would have been considered simple by a human.

While the serpent kings were intelligent and could be perfectly sneaky, they rarely excelled at it. They were gifted with size, strength, and resilience to devastate entire armies. They weren’t typically deployed in large formations, for the same reason that thermonuclear bombs weren’t typically dropped in clusters. The dragons had a hard enough time keeping pace with each other between the grounded ones and the flyers; when the assault actually began, the primary concern was that they’d run into and blast each other descending on the same target.

It didn’t occur to any of the beasts that the target could put up a real defense. While they expected that two or three of their number might fall to the sheer power of the humans’ weapons, how could the puny mortals expect to repel ALL of them?

So the “plan” involved rushing forward and devastating the human army from above, while various earthbound dragons spread out and tracked down their ultimate objective: Dashtall’s prize and the human worm that had dared to steal it. It was straightforward, and exposed the dragons to the full power of the enemy’s weapons such that they would have equal opportunity to expose the humans to THEIR power. Precisely the type of strategy that dragons excelled at.

It also happened to be the type of strategy that humans excelled in exploiting.

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“The enemy is approaching at 800 meters!” The Messiah's captain turned a grim stare toward the weapon control station. “Send them an appropriate welcome.”

“Aye aye, Captain,” the officer said sharply. “Firing rocket flares...”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Several block-shaped turrets, already loaded with the particular ammunition demanded by the mission, slowly turned toward the oncoming flight of serpents, the gunners below calculating the best trajectory for their weapons.

With a fiery hiss, the rockets within ignited, and each launcher sent a cluster of eight smoke-trailing darts into the sky toward the dragons.

The serpent kings, wary but not prone to caution, plowed forward straight into the sparse deluge of warheads, bracing themselves and making slight adjustments to their flight path so as to avoid as many of the missiles as possible.


Back on the Messiah, soldiers watching the approach pensively were instructed to shield their eyes.


BANG! BANG! BANG! All around the dragons, the rockets exploded into bright, dazzling explosions of light, doing negligible damage to the serpents that the rockets hit, and temporarily blinding the dragons that were watching carefully as to avoid getting hit.

Screams of rage and sudden confusion spread through the flight as the dragons closest to the front began to veer off, exposing those behind to the second wave of flares. One dragon turned poorly, striking a large snow dragon and tangling their wings momentarily. The other serpent, being blinded itself, promptly snapped at its involuntary assailant, and the pair soon started spiraling to the ground in a mish-mash of gnashing teeth and talons.

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“Captain, the spearhead formation has broken. Four of the targets are maintaining course. The others are slowing down or changing their heading.”

The weapon control technician nodded sharply. “The targets have entered combat range! Stations four through nine report target lock!”

The Captain nodded. “It begins now... open fire. Swat those filthy lizards from the sky.”

“Yes, Captain! All battle stations! FIRE AT WILL!”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Among the flight of serpents, a long, large black shape with tattered wings like a damaged mainsail and thick armor like a shell of iron spikes loomed above his brethren, his massive, gleaming black body passing those that had fallen victim to the humans’ tricks.

His vision was fine, protected from the light by shaded lids that protected his particular strain of dragon from the glaring light of magma eruptions and the rare occasions on which sunlight penetrated the volcanic pits they inhabited. Several of his fellows were not so fortunate, but the great beast that led the assault paid them no heed, raising his altitude further to prepare for his plunge toward the target.

The massive creature didn’t even notice as bits of mithril-tipped metal peppered its armored body, the projectiles having lost too much of their power at the present range to penetrate.

With an Earth-shaking roar, the shadow dragon began its descent, blue, ethereal light seeping from between its teeth as it dove toward the target.

SHWOOM! A great beam of light sliced through the sky at the beast, striking the black serpent squarely in the head. The blast barely fazed the creature, breaking into a spray of prismatic lights as it broke over the black spines of the dragon’s armor.

Dragons were not exactly prone to facial expression, but the massive beast gave something akin to a grin as he vomited a huge energy ball down directly toward the head of the Messiah; a sickly, roiling ball of shadow that leaked dark blue light as it sailed toward the deck.

BWOOF! And then it exploded in mid-air, striking a plane of light and exploding to spill over the edges of the square-shaped energy shield in its path.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June waited until the shadow dragon adjusted his course to miss the small barrier, and then lowered her hand.

“Let’s deal with the large one. Colonel Molsk, cover me. Colonel Nemo, inform the bridge to prepare the main cannon.”

The man nodded quickly, and picked up his radio as the general pointed into the sky, strands of light appearing around her arm and weaving themselves into an intricate, brightly glowing pattern.

Ancient powers forged from centuries of careful, exhaustive study and dangerous experimentation burned through implanted circuits in seconds, bending powers beyond nature into the crude patterns necessary to cast the spell.

“Force cage.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vwom! The shadow dragon snapped its wings forward as thick bars of yellow light appeared in the air, rapidly stretching around the beast in a criss-crossing web and trapping it within a glowing cube.

Snarling as it hovered in place, the dragon whipped its tail about, smashing the halberd-like tip at the end into its mystical container.


Far below, June winced as she fed another surge of mana into her construct, the magical forces straining against the might of the serpent king. “ETA on that cannon?”

“Twenty seconds!”

“Good enough. Urgh!” June winced again. “They had better not miss...”


The shadow dragon howled as he gripped the bars of his cage in his talons, his wings beating viciously against the energies as a black miasma gushed from his mouth in a glowing tide of destruction.

Around the black beast, the other dragons in the flight that had either avoided or recovered from the flares glanced at the lead serpent as they passed by, curious and slightly nervous by the powerful conflict of magics.

One of the sharper-eyed dragons veered off, noting a titanic cannon barrel being lifted near the aft of the dreadnaught; it had no idea what the capacity of that particular weapon was to hit fast-moving, aerial targets, but it really didn’t want to find out from personal experience.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Adjust cannon angle 1.7 degrees starboard!”

“Loading cycle complete! Ironbreaker shell ready for firing!”

“Firing calculations check out! Ballistic arc is clear!”

“Beginning firing cycle! Ubercannon is GO!”

“Please don’t call it that...”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thwoom! The sound of the main battle cannon firing was akin to a distant peal of thunder; a booming noise that felt like a great hammer striking the floor below.

The sight of the weapon firing wasn’t particularly impressive; the foremost length of barrel slid backward into the next segment to absorb the recoil, and a shell was vomited out of the gaping mouth of the weapon with a burst of acrid-smelling smoke.

No, the show didn’t begin until the great projectile struck its target, sailing lazily through the bars of the force cage before slamming clumsily into the great black beast writhing within.

The plain iron tip of the shell collapsed instantly against the dragon’s scaly armor, utterly useless in penetrating anything with such hardness.

As the shell sunk further against the beast’s chest, its mundane covering collapsing and tearing, a mechanism under the tip activated, and a delicate magitech device spread a phasing pattern over the exposed scales, splitting the matter apart such that something solid could pass through it for just 0.7 seconds.

Incidentally, that was the exact amount of time it took for a secondary charge within the shell to drive a spike of cluster bombs through the “magic hole” created in the armor.


Ka-KRACK! Observers of the grim scenario were treated to the sight of a cannon shell impacting the giant serpent with all the apparent effectiveness of an empty soda can... right before the dragon’s chest burst like a watermelon.

Great chunks of black scales rained down among a torrent of dark, steaming blood as the force cage faded away, not being needed to contain the half-dozen dragon parts free-falling toward the sandy ground below.


June smirked as she lowered her hands, quite pleased to see the distant dragons in the air whirl about in confusion and sudden panic.

“Colonel, have them begin the reloading cycle. How long will that take?”

Shawn quickly passed that question down, and scowled at the response. “It’ll take another three minutes before they have another ironbreaker shell loaded. The gunnery sergeant wasn’t expecting to use the big gun, so they didn’t have them ship up extra ammunition ahead of time.”

June frowned, and then shrugged as she sighed. “Can’t be helped. That was more of a spur-of-the-moment trick, after all.”

Karen, who had been watching the surroundings quite anxiously since she was given the task of covering her fellow magi, grimaced. “The others have begun their attack run! Incoming!”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pwoof! Pwof! Shoooom...

Great flares of energy lit up the surface of the Messiah’s shields in dazzling displays of light, the great blue bubble of power rippling like the surface of a pond over the gentle curvature of the craft’s bow.

The attacking dragons, which hadn’t managed to get back into any sort of coherent formation after being blinded, having their lead annihilated, and being subjected to a vicious volley of anti-air fire, broke off from their respective dives toward the giant hovercraft, veering to either side and searching for something that looked like a weak spot.

One such beast was struck in the head with a lucky shot from the topside magi-cannon, and wobbled about clumsily in the air long enough for three vulcan cannons to converge on its wings and rip them to tatters.


A fire dragon passed overhead as that particular serpent tumbled to the ground, and then spat a bubbling orb of magma at the nearest offending weapon, snarling angrily as it watched its projectile splash against the dreadnaught’s shields.

Passing by under another stitch of vulcan fire, the red drake gained altitude swiftly, jets of flame and smoke trailing from its wings as it picked up speed, eventually coming around and hovering over the aft of the Messiah, where the great cannon was located.

“Damnable human weaponsss,” the dragon growled, a circle of glowing red light appearing in the air and rotating slowly.

With a feral roar, a thick beam of searing plasma vomited from the circle, plowing fiercely into the shields protecting the hull. The barrier, straining under the power, shuddered mightily, the smooth field of energy shuddering violently as arcs of electricity started sparking around the point of impact.

When the beam was exhausted, however, the shield remained intact, slowly smoothing itself out before fading away back to near-invisibility.

That much heat and fire placed havoc with local air flows, and the fire drake twitched as an unnaturally cold wind washed over him.

“Well now, wasn’t THAT a great waste of time?” Sang an ice dragon as it swooped down behind its red counterpart, snow falling gently from the great sheets of icicles that extended from its scales. “Really Tarvul, you should stop flying off on your own. There’s a reason we’re attacking as a group.”

The fire dragon twitched again, now being subjected to both the ice dragon’s heat-draining aura AND her smug lectures. “Sssilence yourssself, blue... your breath would be better ssspent on the enemy!”

The ice drake, which never did like being referred to simply by the color of her scales, hissed as her eyes narrowed. “Get your sorry molten tail back to the main wing! The earthborne will be approaching soon; we MUST drive the craft down!”

The red dragon briefly glanced toward the target as a stream of vulcan fire swept over him, each bullet sizzling to droplets of molten metal as it breached the surface of his flame barrier. “Don’t give me ordersss, you insssolent...“ He blinked suddenly and his head snapped to the side, immediately attracting the blue dragon’s attention.

“What? What are you look-“ THWOOM! A flechette round struck the female in the back, splitting apart on impact and sending white-hot shrapnel blades scything into her back and wings. “GRUAAGH!! BY THE ABYSS!!”

The ice dragon whirled around as bits of sundered ice rained down around her body, attempting to call up her own barriers before the sudden salvo of fire.

THWOOM! THWOOM! THWOOM! The fire drake curved around and dove away as his companion vanished within a cloud of exploding shrapnel, cursing under his heated breath as he noted the series of gun batteries placed on the mountain behind the target.

‘Damnation! Why would they put more guns there?’ He thought angrily, curving away from the mountain in question as larger bits of ice dragon started to fall to the ground. ‘Maybe to cover the rear of the weapon? But most of the others concentrated their attack on the front, and this craft is mobile. The only reason to really do such a thing would be... to cut off a retreat in that direction?’

The red dragon’s wings pumped rapidly as he gained altitude, rising over the aft of the Messiah, and hopefully keeping close enough to the mother ship that the batteries on the mountains wouldn’t fire. ‘But the only way we’d flee in that direction is if we were attacked from-‘

The serpent’s eyes widened as he watched dozens of glittering craft appear in the distance, darting toward the battlefield on an intercept course straight toward the rear of the dragons’ main assault.

“IT’S A TRAP!!”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Shields are at 30%! They won’t hold out much longer!”

“Somebody get that bloody lizard off the ship! Where are our goddamn guns?!”

“IT’S BREAKING THROUGH! All units, prepare to repel boarders!”


Karen winced at the chaos coming from below as she fired another salvo of freezing missile alongside June, taking aim at the sleek, silvery serpent that had decided to harass the magic-users standing atop the main observation tower.

“DIE, reptilian filth!” June snarled, great rings of light appearing around her arms before she sent numerous rockets of energy toward the attacking creature.

Much like the ice bolts, the magic blasts seemed to break over the dragon’s skin like water parting around a rock, refusing to detonate in their normal, functional manner.

The dragon hissed in response and opened its mouth, vomiting forth a whistling stream of light.

“Black well!” The least powerful of the three officers promptly activated his primary defensive technique, and a swirling maelstrom of darkness appeared in front of the beam, the black clouds of magic eagerly sucking up the light.

“Disintegration!” June shouted as she countered the dragon’s attack, a thick bolt of yellow lightning leaping from her fingertips to splash harmlessly across the beast’s belly.

Sweeping its great, feathered wings upward, the holy dragon rose up above the soldiers, pinpricks of light converging around its head in preparation for another assault.

Then a missile hit it in the back. BWOOM!

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEE!!” All three of the officers clapped their hands over their ears as the wounded serpent bellowed painfully, and June scowled as the creature tumbled down out of the air, landing flat onto the weakened energy barrier.

The barrier writhed violently against the heavy mass that had settled onto it, shaking and crackling against the serpent’s skin to little effect.

The holy dragon, meanwhile, swiftly shook off its shock and vertigo, and sunk its gleaming talons into the energy shield, its great maw curling into a smile when its claws slowly slipped through the surface and emerged below the powerful barrier.

Karen cursed as a pair of bombers veered off from their attack pattern, not daring to use their ordnance in such close proximity to the shield and risk breaching it. “Blue wing!”

Points of blue light appeared around the colonel’s hand, and swiftly grew into lance-sized icicles before rocketing toward the holy dragon one after another. While this worked much better against the considerable magic resistance of the dragon, the projectiles still barely manage to penetrate the thick, luminescent skin before shattering.


“Tch!” June grit her teeth, mentally running through all the abilities she had on hand as the dragon slowly sank further down through the shield, its gaping, dagger-toothed maw slipping through the wall of rippling power.

“General! We can’t hold here! We’ve got to fall back to the main deck!” Shawn shouted, launching his own volley of dark missiles that crashed upon the serpent to no apparent effect.

“Agreed,” June said reluctantly, floating up into the air. “Colonel Molsk, take Colonel Nemo down. I’ll find someone to help take down this monstrosity.” She gestured disdainfully at the glimmering holy dragon, and her subordinates sweatdropped.

“Yes, General!” Karen didn’t bother to salute before snatching up the other colonel and levitating away from the platform, already sensing a considerable power buildup from the holy dragon above them.

FREEEEEEM! A river of white-hot light poured down from the beast’s maw, neatly missing June but rocketing down toward the deck and plowing into the not-inconsiderable armor covering the deck.

After a mere two seconds, the armor melted away completely, and hot, destructive power swept into the officer’s quarters located behind the Messiah’s bridge, vaporizing the contents of two separate rooms and killing a random crew member that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.


Karen landed as the beam trickled away to nothing but a shimmering strand of light, and gently dropped Colonel Nemo on the deck. “Get a squad over here! We’ve got a breach! We need heavy weapons on the deck, pronto!”

“Colonel!” A young sergeant that looked to be in quite the panic rushed up to her, the barrel of his rifle smoking from use. “There’s another breach? We still haven’t gotten the first one!”

Shawn grimaced as he looked about. “There’re two of those bastards in-“

“SSSH!” Karen suddenly hissed, and the soldiers fell quiet, their silence making way for a constant, humming noise that floated over the growl of the nearby vulcan cannons.

“What the hell?”

“Sounds like... a fly?”

VvvvvvvvvvvvVVVVVVVVVVVVHM!

The soldiers looked at each other as the buzzing sound got louder, and then promptly dove for cover as a massive, emerald-green shape rocketed over the edge of the deck, its four, gleaming wings pumping furiously against the air and its long, claw-tipped tail whipping about behind it.

Karen twitched as she stared at the new arrival. “It’s... It’s a dragonfly.”

Shawn nodded in agreement. “A gigantic dragonfly with huge claws and teeth and... stuff... coming out of its tail.”

Said dragonfly (known more commonly as a swamp dragon) stared down at the humans through coal-black eyes as they started taking aim, not about to wait for the strange creature to take action on its own.

Winding around, the creature showed remarkable agility in bending its body just out of the way of an ice lance before it disgorged a large, sticky ball from its tail, dropping it onto the deck with a wet Splat!

Immediately after unloading its cargo, mithril-tipped rifle rounds started peppering its body, as the dragon’s agility was no match for the concentrated fire of a full squad of soldiers, and its iron-hard carapace no match for the powerful armor-piercing cartridges.


“It’s getting away!”

“Aim for the wings! Higher! Try to cut its mobility!”

Swirls of icy snowflakes gathered around Karen’s hands as she began to summon a blizzard, when her eye caught sight of the slimy ordnance that the beast had dropped in the middle of the deck.

‘Can’t be a bomb... it’s not close enough to hurt any of us, unless it’s very powerful, in which case there’s no reason to drop it up here where we might be able to get rid of it rather than down below... wait, is it MOVING?’

The function of the gooey blob became abundantly clear when it exploded in a burst of slime and pointed limbs, dozens of small creatures emerging from the egg sac all at once before orienting on the nearby soldiers.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE?!”

“Forget the dragon! Over there!” The soldiers quickly turned their weapons on the tiny, slime-covered monsters scrambling over the deck toward them, but precious seconds were spent in confusion over the change of targets and checking their line of fire to ensure they wouldn’t shoot their own men.

One soldier was too slow in deciding upon a target, and his rifle fired a final, useless burst into the air as one of the vicious, slimy insecticoids leapt for his throat, digging its mandibles and legs into the man’s neck as more of its kin swarmed the man’s legs.

Karen, for her part, was not amused at all when half a dozen of the vile little things started clambering for her and Shawn. “Of all the stupid...” Growling, she held up one hand that began to glow a bright blue, power building in the minute space between her thumb and forefinger. “Haaz break!” Snap!

With a snap of her fingers, four of the creatures froze instantly into urchin-esque ice balls. “Die, vermin!” Crack! Those same creatures exploded like landmines, shredding one more of the monsters in a hail of razor-sharp ice shards.

The final little monster let out a confused hiss before it lunged, having been spared from the spell by sheer luck.

“Void bullet!” Shzak! That same creature was rent apart in mid-leap by a bolt of darkness, and Colonel Nemo nodded grimly as he lowered his hand. “The attacks on the shield seem to be lessening. It seems that we’re winning the air battle.”

Karen gave a distracted “Sure,” as she prepared another spell, glancing about the deck for more of the spawnlings. Although most of the creatures had been shot apart while scrambling for the soldiers, it was possible for something that small to slip into a hard-to-reach area and wait in hiding for a particularly inconvenient moment to attack. ‘No way were those actual dragon hatchlings... no dragon reproduces in those kinds of numbers, and I doubt a mother dragon would find her true offspring that expendable...’

Vvvvvvvvvvvhhhm...

Karen cursed as the loud humming sound returned, and the soldiers quickly ducked back down behind cover, only occasionally glancing at the deck to ensure that no more spawnlings were attacking.


VvvvvVVVVVVVVVVVHMMM! The swamp dragon shot up over the edge of the deck, swooping upward gracefully as its tail dripped a dark, greenish ooze down onto the platform below.

The soldiers all started to take aim, when Colonel Nemo waved their guns down.

“Hold your fire! Hold your fire!” He shouted, his face darkening.

Karen looked at him questioningly, lowering her head from the sky. “Shawn?”

And then she saw them. Dozens of the spawnlings, perhaps even hundreds, started clambering over the edge of the deck wall ringing the hull of the Messiah, their tiny, foetid jaws snapping angrily. A glance over her shoulder revealed the same on the opposite side of the deck; a veritable carpet of claws and teeth climbing onto the metal flooring.

Karen’s heart started pounding as the soldiers started dashing from their positions, which were mostly near the edge of the deck. The spawnlings were little to no threat to her; she could destroy a great mass of them with only slightly more effort than it took to fire a gun, and she could fly. Her men – not to mention her fellow Colonel – could not fly. Worse yet, her spells that were most effective in dealing with a teeming carpet of death would have extremely unfortunate effects upon allies caught within the blast radius. Friendly fire was not an option for her.

A vulcan turret gunner that was too slow in leaping from his station screamed as the spawlings bit into his legs, dragging him down into the sea of claws and teeth.

Karen grit her teeth as she prepared another spell. “Damn it all! Gather together! Use your frags! Don’t you dare lose to a bunch of overgrown beetles!”

“Callidus dome!” Shawn shouted, catching a good number of the creatures within a meter-wide dome of black and grinding them up. Several soldiers dropped grenades next the phenomenon as they retreated to the center of the deck, constantly tearing into the swarm of spawnlings with their automatic rifles.

Karen thrust her hands out as the explosions started behind her. “Ice hammer!” Great frozen cylinders coalesced above the spawnlings, and dropped one by one upon the swarm, crushing those creatures underneath into paste. “Damn it! It’s not enough! We have to-“

Splap!

The Colonel’s head snapped to the side as she heard a wet impact, and she gaped as another slimy bundle of eggs settled onto the cold metal deck. ‘I’m between spells! Just a few more seconds!’ “Shawn! Somebody! Anybody! The egg sack! Kill the-“

Thunk! Rather than being blasted with a bolt of darkness, or being ripped apart by rifle fire, Karen watched as a single throwing knife – glowing red and glimmering, at that – embedded itself into the slimy wad just as it began to swell. FWOOSH!


The swamp dragon clicked its mandibles angrily as it saw its last clutch of spawnlings engulfed in flames, and then looped around in the air to try and find the source of this new interference.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! A dozen knives flew into the encroaching swarm of spawnlings, and then one by one, each of the weapons exploded like a napalm round, blasting waves of fire into the vile creatures and sending shock waves of confusion and panic through the teeming mass.

The soldiers didn’t flinch or freeze, and certainly didn’t complain. They adjusted their fire to shoot into the spawnlings that were making their way around the flames, trying to keep the entire swarm at bay.

Karen, being an officer, was more sensitive to the changing strategic conditions, and immediately sought out the source of the weapons after instructing Colonel Nemo to keep attacking.


Shwwwh...

. It was only the slightest change in air pressure that alerted the swamp dragon to the attack, but it was enough. The beast suddenly did a barrel roll, its long tail curling into a corkscrew as a nearly invisible blur sailed past.

Skrak!

Ranma clicked his tongue as he grabbed onto a piece of scaffolding, having felt only a slight disturbance in his grip on his sword as he had passed his target; a glancing hit, at best.

The swamp dragon curled around to face its attacker, an alien hiss issuing forth from its throat, and Ranma got the distinct impression that he was being insulted even though he couldn’t understand a thing. ‘Huh. Guess that telepathy thing isn’t perfect.’

“Ranma!” Karen shouted in a dizzying mixture of joy, hope, and dread.

“Sorry I wasn’t here earlier, but I had some stuff to take care of,” the pigtailed man shouted down to her, making sure to keep his eyes on the insect-like dragon. “Just hold off those little freaks, okay? I’ll take care of this guy!”

Karen actually would have suggested differently – Ranma’s talents would be much more useful in fighting off the spawnlings, while her soldier’s weapons were apparently quite effective against the dragon – but the situation was moving too quickly for her to try and manage people who didn’t take orders from her. “Be CAREFUL! There are more that got through the shield!”

“Yeah, I know. Just take care of yourself, all right?” The wanderer waved his sword about experimentally in front of him, noting how the dragon’s tail swayed back and forth to match the movements. “Okay then... let’s see what this freak can do...”


The swamp dragon quickly tired of hovering in front of the human waiting for him to act, and suddenly lifted upward through the air, its wings beating furiously. Its tail curled up under its body, and the tip bulged.

“GWAH!” Ranma shouted in surprise and leapt as a jet of thick green slime blasted toward him, splattering all over the scaffolding and mast that he had been holding on to. Twisting in mid-air, he tried to slash at the dragon in mid-air, only for the creature to jerk out of the way just in time.

Ranma touched off of another mast with his foot, leaping higher to grab onto another set of scaffolding high above.

He clicked his tongue as he saw his previous perch rapidly dissolving. “Great. Acid. Dangerous AND gross.”

Ranma snapped one hand to the side, causing several knives to slip out of his sleeves and into his hand. He clenched one between his teeth, and then started building his flame aura. ‘Most of its attacks seem to come from its tail. If that’s the case...’

The swamp dragon bobbed up and down in the air rapidly, the buzzing from its wings nearly drowning out the symphony of gunfire below. Then it whipped its tail around, a glimmering green light coming from the tip.

SHZAK! Ranma had no clue what the luminescent green blade was that came from the dragon’s tail, and didn’t really care so long as it missed him. Sailing over the attack, he tossed a few throwing knives at the creature, only to see that the knives wavered in mid-air and veered off-target due to the vibrations in the air from the creature’s rapidly pumping wings. The blades either bounced off the beast’s carapace or stuck into it shallowly, none doing any real damage.

The swamp dragon took note of its opponent’s failed assault, and zoomed toward the pigtailed warrior while he was still in the air, its tail glowing once more as it prepared to strike.

‘Just a little closer...’ Ranma thought as he sailed through the air, looking for all the world like a helpless target.

The tail stabbed forward as the swamp dragon rose above its target, a long, emerald lance of power emerging to spear the nimble warrior through the chest.

Of course, Ranma was a fighter who had specialized in mid-air acrobatic combat long before he had ever even met a Ninja. Twisting impossibly, he grabbed onto the mouth of the tube-like extremity and pulled the rest of his body out of the way, barely singing the edge of his leather armor on the strange magic energy. Flipping his ancient, rusted katana about in his hand, he then stabbed it deep into the creature’s tail, impaling it.

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEH!” The swamp dragon promptly began thrashing the damaged limb about, flinging globs of acid, and eventually Ranma, haphazardly onto the deck below.

Ranma did a back flip and landed rather heavily on his feet, wincing.

Then he spat out the knife he had in his mouth into his hand and then stabbed the spawnling that was lunging for his leg. “Stupid little freaks. More trouble’n they’re worth.”


The swamp dragon hissed viciously as it glared down at the martial artist through large, gleaming black eyes. Then it brought its tail around, preparing to launch a cascade of poison down upon the insolent mortals.

Sploosh! As Ranma had intended, the acid broke upon the flat of the sword impaled in the dragon’s tail, mixing about chaotically in the beast’s tail and gushing out of its wound in a cocktail of lethal venoms and hot blood.

SHWEEM! Then the beast’s writhing form was blasted back into one of the huge armor shields elevated over the deck, the Messiah's magi-cannon nearly punching a hole right through its carapace.

The dragon was slammed hard into the adamantite surface, and then slowly slid off in a crumpled heap, leaving thick streaks of foaming green slime to mark the impact.


Ranma kicked away another spawnling and then drew his pistol, blasting another that was scrambling for the flank of the soldiers on the deck. ‘Looks like more men are coming up from below. And the little freaks are thinning out quickly, now. Then that just leaves-‘

“SSSHRRRRRRRREEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAH!!!” An ear-splitting roar sent Ranma rolling across the deck, seeking quick cover as the noise played havoc with his senses.

A series of bright lights exploded above, and the pigtailed warrior cursed as the great shield over the Messiah’s hull glimmered and shook, the energies rapidly decaying before the barrier vanished entirely.

‘Okay, time to get my bearings,’ Ranma said, quickly picking off a few more spawnlings that were stumbling about from the noise with his sidearm. ‘The dragonfly is down for the count. Most of the flyers are being pummeled. The white dragon...’ Ranma winced as he watched a fantastic flash of lights flare in the distance. ‘White dragon’s still around. I could help with that. Or-‘

Thump! A pair of heavy boots landed on the deck as a storm dragon boarded the vessel proper, his light blue scales melting into flesh as his bony black horns splintered into a thick mane of bright blue hair.

“Hmmm... this doesn’t look good,” Ranma mumbled as the new arrival glared at him.

“The target...” the dragon heaved breathlessly, as if speaking was uncommon to it. “Kill him... kill him... KILL HIM!!” Great crackling tendrils of energy seeped from the dragon’s fingertips, wrapping together to create writhing blades of lightning.

Ranma rolled his eyes. “You DO realize that you’re on enemy turf, right scaly? That big bug of yours could only distract the soldiers for so long. You’re outgunned and outnumbered.”

The storm dragon’s lips curled into a smile, and his eyes flared a brilliant blue. “Am I... now?”

And it was at that point that a great, armored head rose above the edge of the deck.

Followed by a smaller, sleeker head. Except that this one was on the other side, behind Ranma.

The pigtailed man glanced behind him, then forward again. Then he scratched his head.

“Huh. Yeah, I guess you’re fine. So... any of you guys want to talk this out like rational sentient beings? I’m sure that if we just sit down and discuss our diffe-YOW!”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WHUMP! June leapt upward in a spiral of glimmering lights as a snow dragon collapsed onto the deck below, the serpent bleeding critically from hundreds of bullet-holes torn into its relatively soft skin.

“Kais sever!” With a sharp wave of her hand, a crescent arc of light scythed into the dragon’s head, putting an end to its irritating shrieks.

With barely a glance at her casual handiwork, June turned back to her former target clinging to one of the adamantite “roofs” to avoid vulcan fire.

The holy dragon spat out a bolt of light, and the IEF general quickly reinforced her personal barrier against the force of the projectile.

“Damned lizard!” June cursed, more energy seeping around her arms, ready to be expelled in waves of pure destruction.

Of course, the IEF general was becoming more and more certain that “waves of pure destruction” might as well have been waves of lukewarm tap water against the holy dragon. Every spell she cast fizzled instantly upon touching the serpent’s gleaming scales.

“Someone get me some firepower over here!” She demanded, her voice being drowned out in the din of gunfire that had consumed the deck. “Kais sever!”

SCHLUNK! The light blade sailed through the air, striking the roof shielding above the dragon and slicing off a portion to fall down atop her enemy.

The dragon hissed as it curled out of the way, its body gliding through the air as if it were in water.

Before June could yell ineffectually for help once more, spheres of bright light began to coalesce around the holy dragon, forming vague patterns around its serpentine body.

June spat a nasty word in Hebrew. ‘Is this all I could do, after all? Just wrap magic around myself and survive until help comes? How much longer? How much longer can I possibly stand up to the power of a dragon?’

The lights around the dragon flared, and glowing strings of energy appeared between the spheres in an arcane pattern that would have only made sense to a magi far more specialized and a few hundred years older than the Israeli officer.

The holy dragon reared its head back elegantly, ignoring a few stray bursts of rifle fire in its side as it began to sing a single, high-pitched note.

SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEM! As one, the spheres of light unleashed thick streams of energy forward, the beams converging haphazardly on June’s location as she gasped and squeezed her eyes shut, feeding all her strength into her barriers.

Shwoom!


June couldn’t help but notice the general lack of searing pain, numbness, or in fact any sort of sensation that might indicate that she was in the process – or had completed the process – of being pounded into a molten soup by the battery of light blasts.

Being quite familiar with light magic, she kept her eyes shut tight for two more seconds, allowing any additional flare bursts to fade before she risked sight once more.

Kaze smiled down at her, holding his staff in the air. All around them, the light beams circled wildly like a cyclone, bending around the glimmering light of the priest’s staff.

June frowned. “You’re late.”

Kaze shrugged unapologetically. “It took me some time to work up the nerve to come out here. I’m not exactly the brave, heroic type.” He idly turned toward the confused-looking holy dragon. “Light of judgment, let the wicked that would oppose me feel the weight of their sins. Mirror repentia.” SHWOOOM!

All at once, the energy beams rocketed off toward the dragon, eliciting a startled shout from the beast, but little else in the way of results.

June sweatdropped. “Aren’t you supposed to shout when you’re casting spells? You sound like you’re lecturing it, not attacking it.”

Kaze grimaced. “Well, I’m tired. Not that I should be complaining about that, I suppose... but it’s just as I thought; this creature’s magic resistance is too high. I won’t be able to do much more than distract it and block its attacks.”

The holy dragon hesitated for a moment, and then started glowing again, beginning another silent incantation.

“Well, then we should find someone else to handle this overgrown snake and find a different target,” June groused. “You go ahead and distract it for a bit. I’ll be back.” With a brief mumble, a circle of light appeared on the deck, and June sunk right through it, the lights fading as she slipped underneath the reinforced metal floor and into the level below.

Kaze blinked. “Did... Did she just abandon me to this beast after I saved her?” He shuddered, which had as much to do with the quickly gathering magics above him as his current predicament. “I’d heard the stereotypes, but these Jewish girls are vicious.”

Eldritch powers curled around the head of the holy dragon as it prepared to unleash its attack, the magic forming a small vortex above the beast’s head.

“Mmm... not good,” the priest snatched up a wad of talismans in his hand, and tossed them out in front of him, the slips of paper fluttering haphazardly into the air before suddenly snapping themselves vertical and shifting into a circular pattern.

A glowing yellow eye appeared above the holy dragon, and a stream of shimmering bolts of energy started pouring out of it in Kaze’s general direction, hammering the talisman shield as well as the deck around him and the cabin behind him.

‘I wonder how long I can keep this up... oh well. I never did want to live forever.’ Stepping back, he swung his staff about in his hand like a baton. “The wicked that masquerade as creatures of holy persuasion can suffer only annihilation as penance for their deception,” he said conversationally as the magic eye continued spewing energy bolts and he continued powering his barriers. “Perish, serpent. Light of Ul’naan!”

“Reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaugh!”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Damn lizards! Back off!” Ranma shouted as he dashed away from a thick jet of poison, flinging knives at the human-form dragon as he moved.

“KILL HIM!! Kill him quickly!” The storm dragon shouted, ignoring the pinpricks from the small blades as his eyes flashed. With a gesture, streams of lightning lashed out at the nimble human in thick, crackling tendrils.

Ranma blocked the lightning as best he could with his seemingly indestructible gauntlet, wary of the rock dragon’s next move; the dragons had been attacking one at a time to keep from hurting each other, and while that made it much easier to avoid the attacks, he was still hard-pressed enough that he couldn’t manage an effective counter-attack.

The rock dragon opened its maw, and green motes of light appeared around its mouth before being sucked toward the quartz-like crystal shard embedded in its forehead.

Swsh! Zzzzap! Ranma ducked another slash from the lightning-blade, turning to try and sweep his opponent before the rock dragon finished whatever it was doing. The serpent in human form landed on his hands and then pushed himself up off of the deck, flipping to his feet.

Schungk! Then he shouted in surprise as nearly two dozen throwing knives stabbed into his torso, knocking him over.

‘Useless! I’m never going to win with these two big ones on my back!’ A slight cracking noise seemed to drive the point home, and Ranma backflipped away as the space where he had just been standing exploded upward into a blossom of razor-sharp crystal shards.

‘That wasn’t so bad,’ he thought as he landed. ‘Next is the black one... wait...’ He suddenly moved very quickly.

SHRAK! SHRAK! SHRAK!

“Crap!” Ranma leapt erratically as more bursts of crystals emerged from the deck, following his evasion path... which seemed to be leading toward the smaller, black-scaled dragon, he couldn’t help but notice.

The venom dragon had evidently tired of lobbing poisonous vomit from the relative safety of the ship’s edge, and its snake-like body slipped down onto the deck before racing toward its prey.

On the plus side, this stopped the rock dragon from trying to turn his legs into shredded jerky. Everything else about the situation was on the minus side.

“Damn it! Damn it damn it damn it!” Ranma cursed as the black serpent snapped at him with curved, wet fangs. As he jumped back, the dragon’s tail whipped about and swatted him out of the air, sending him rolling across the deck into the storm dragon.

The dragon in human form laughed sadistically as he stabbed both his lightning blades down into the hapless human... and then watched said human vanish into a puff of smoke. “What? What... is this?”

Ranma’s form flickered into view behind him, and the storm dragon was taken clean off his feet by a roundhouse kick striking him in the head and sending him flying into one of the nearby vulcan cannons that had already been destroyed in the battle.

‘Can’t use that trick too much,’ the pigtailed fighter chided as the rock and venom dragons oriented on him. ‘I know these things can see through the doppelganger technique if they try. That might not work again.’

The venom dragon hissed as dark green smoke began seeping from the corners of its mouth, preparing to unleash a lethal barrage of toxins at its prey.

The dragon blinked, hesitating. Something was wrong, here. Wait! From behind!

“VENOM SLASH!!”

It was only the creature’s exemplary senses that allowed it to whip its body out of the path of a lethal sword slash just in time, allowing the dark blade to sink its crackling, writhing energies into the deck of the hovercraft as if the reinforced armor was Styrofoam.

K winced as the black serpent turned to face the new threat, its forked tongue sliding out from between rows of poisonous teeth. “Okay. Element of surprise: gone. Do you think we could move off to the sidelines where I can safely shout encouragement and combat advice without risking being eaten, please?”

Rayden ignored the tiny dragon as he pulled up his greatsword and pointed it at his new enemy. “Finally, a real fight!”

“It's about time!” Ranma shouted as the storm and rock dragons launched magic beams at him. “Now get a few of these jerks off my back! K, go get my sword! It’s in the overgrown dragonfly!” After a moment, a series of stalagmites punched out of the ground, and Ranma hopped up on top of them before withdrawing his Nighthawk pistol and unloading it into the storm dragon, stunning it.


“Gotcha, boss!” Rayden grinned as K grumbled and took off of his shoulder. “Venom dragon, eh? Meat’s no good, but I know some guys who’ll pay a buttload if I carve out those poison glands of yours.”

The serpent king looked down its snout at the demon knight, its lips curling back. “Hssss... I smell angel wings and demon blood... so you’re of the cursed ones? I didn’t think there were any left...”

Rayden’s grin promptly became an annoyed expression. “Hmph. Put your claws up, lizard. Videm gyoani!” Black energies started to gather around Rayden’s feet, slowly warping around his legs and climbing upward. “Father of war, grant me fortitude and strength to fight on when this feeble mortal shell fails! Blood aura!”

The venom dragon promptly released a blast of corrosive poison gas that obscured the dark paladin’s form as the shadows reached up from below, embracing him in a sheathe of darkness.

There was a moment of hesitation from the beast, where the din of the surrounding combat closed in around it, confusing its senses. ‘Did the poison work? If so, there’s no point in fighting this fool; he’ll be dead in minutes.’ The dragon wasn’t counting on it, though. A good number of demons had spectacular resistance to poison, and spectacular constitutions besides.

It was thoroughly vindicated as the dark broadsword Rayden carried came flying through the noxious cloud, spinning about like a boomerang. The venom dragon barely managed to curve out of the way in time, feeling its armor give slightly as it got nicked in passing.

A moment later, Rayden followed his blade, toxic smoke trailing from his body as black lightning crackled around his fist. “SHADOW BREAK!!” BWOOM!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ranma was glad to see Rayden get one of the dragons off his back. He really was.

BWOOOM!! Crackle! Gzack!

But even so, fighting two dragons head-on was leagues beyond what he considered a sensible fight.

“Gah!” Ranma hit the ground rolling as a tongue of lightning overshot him, scorching the Messiah's deck.

The rock dragon promptly darted its head forward and snapped at its nimble prey, aiming to crush the human between jagged, diamond-hard teeth.

Ranma recovered easily enough, jumping over the snapping jaws and landing atop the massive, armored head of the beast. “You know, this is really starting to get annoying. We’ve got a whole damn ARMY here, you know? But here I am, fighting on my own again.”

The dragon quickly tired of Ranma’s complaints, and swung his head to the side, attempting to crush the warrior to paste against the topside supply compartments.

After jumping off to safety at the last possible moment, Ranma did his best to block an incoming bolt of lightning with his gauntlet, but felt most of the attack sink into his arm, numbing the muscles even as they burnt his flesh.

“DIE!! DIE!! Why won’t you DIE?!” The storm dragon snarled as he closed quickly, a bubble of crackling electricity whirling around him.

Ranma landed lightly enough, shaking his right arm to get some feeling into it. “My physician advised against that, actually. DRAGON FIST!”

The human-form serpent’s eyes widened as a blazing dragon’s maw emerged from the human’s left hand, sailing for his head as he closed to melee range.

KA-BWOOM!! The storm dragon was sent reeling from the blow, his lightning barrier fizzling instantly before the strength of the attack. Sliding across the metal floor a ways, he bounced off the surface before sailing over the edge of the deck, and temporarily out of the fight.

Breathing heavily, Ranma quickly turned to locate the next immediate threat.

And stared straight into the dark, dank maw of the rock dragon as it darted across the deck to snap at him again.

BWAM! The pigtailed man blinked as a thick beam of light suddenly slammed into the side of the beast’s head, halting its attack and stunning the creature.

Immediately afterwards, dozens of rifle rounds started peppering the dragon’s carapace, digging numerous tiny holes past its thick, horned armor and into the slightly more sensitive flesh below.

The creature howled angrily at the sudden attention, and turned its head sharply to address its new foes.

Ranma breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the creature’s focus shifting elsewhere, but nonetheless prepared himself to attack; it would hardly do for some random soldiers to be killed in the effort to save his life.

“Are you unharmed, Saotome?” Came a smug-sounding voice from behind him.

He wouldn’t admit to anyone that he was surprised, but it took a good two seconds for Ranma to figure out who it was behind him, and another second for him to decide not to fill that person full of knives.

“...... Huh. And you’re... wait, wait, I’ve almost got it...... Emcee?”

Emrey’s cocky demeanor vanished rapidly. “That’s ‘Emrey,’ human.” While it was hardly outside the bounds of reason for Ranma to have forgotten his name after their brief encounter, it thoroughly annoyed him that the wanderer hadn’t even turned around to identify him, instead keeping his attention focused on the rock dragon.

“Oh, right. I’m a bit scratched up, but it’s nothing serious. Thanks for asking. Toodles!” Before the assassin could offer any protest, Ranma’s form flickered, and he vanished into a blur of motion.


Ranma dashed atop the guardrail along the edge of the main deck, jumping high and then dropping down hard atop the rock dragon’s head. The beast’s jaws impacted the deck and snapped shut, consequently cutting off the energy beam it was about to fire from its mouth and dispersing it ineffectually.

“Ranma!” Karen shouted. She was at the head of the soldiers making a sweep of the Messiah’s deck, her hands aglow with icy magics. “Careful! It’s the-“

“Can’t talk now!” He said, leaping from the serpent’s head right before shards of crystal began to circle him and fire toward him like darts. “K! Sword! NOW!!”

The little metadragon was grumbling to himself as he dragged Ranma’s weapon across the deck, the rust-caked edge held firmly in his beak. “Coming... coming...”

Not wanting to wait any longer, Ranma dashed full tilt across the length of the deck, leaping up and rebounding off of a mast – which promptly became a pincushion for dozens of crystal needles – before landing in front of a rather startled K.

He snatched up his weapon, and was about to mutter a quick “Thank you,” when he noticed something important. “HEY!! This blade used to be longer!” He turned a rather harsh glare on his pet/companion, who winced before glaring right back.

“Don’t get on MY case about it! It was stuck all the way through the swamp dragon, and the only way I could get it out was by clipping the tip off a bit!”

“Then why didn’t you just wait? This is a Ninja heirloom weapon, dammit!” Ranma growled.

“I thought you needed it now!” K growled back.

“Not if that meant you EATING it!”

“It’s not like I wanted to, you know! That thing tastes like lead!”

Ranma doubtlessly would’ve continued the verbal fight, had not the physical fight taken priority so abruptly. A huge, nearly invisible wave of pressure slice through the air, and the pigtailed man leaned back sharply, causing the disruption to miss lopping off his nose by a scant few millimeters.

“Well, great. The human wannabe’s back.” Ranma slashed his sword through a second air wave, causing a loud CRACK! as the air blades met and negated each other. “This isn’t over yet, K. You have to learn to stop eating my stuff.”

K snorted as he took off into the air again, seeking a safer perch from which to watch. “Hmph. You guys are such a drag sometimes. It’s always complain, complain, complain...”

Ranma slipped to the side as a crackling lightning flashed past his arm, positioning his sword behind him. “Back off, lizard!” Darting forward, he punched the storm dragon in the solar plexus before following with a sword strike, loosing a thin spray of blood as the serpent king howled in rage.

The dragon’s return strikes were each cleanly parried, and as it pushed forward to try and press its strength advantage, Ranma suddenly dashed forward.

“SILVER BLITZKRIEG!” Shing! Zslash! Shnk!

The storm dragon’s world exploded into pain as his target seemed to burst into a flurry of slashing blades, cutting through his enhanced skin with disturbing ease.

Snarling, lightning curled around the dragon’s fist before he plunged it recklessly at his opponent through the whirlwind of silvery slashes. Crackle! BOOM!!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Why the hell did I come up here?!” Kaze shouted as a stream of white-hot light ate away at his shields, disintegrating two talismans in its path that had attempted – and barely succeeded – in weakening the attack.

The holy dragon hissed as its breath petered out, and it hissed again as the priest wobbled. The foolish little cleric hadn’t done much to hurt it, as his light magic was utterly useless against it even without the dragon’s considerable magic resistance, but Kaze was proving to be a considerable annoyance, and boasted his own very impressive defenses. It certainly didn’t help that the two opponents shared the same magic type; while the holy dragon could easily ignore the effects of light magic and Malakai’s holy judgment, Kaze had a limited, but infuriating, ability to throw the dragon’s spells back at it.

“Come ON! Somebody help me!” The evon shouted as he rooted around in his sleeves for more talismans. Grabbing a few flare spell strips, he flung them desperately at the serpent king.

The dragon snorted and spat out several yellow projectiles that each homed in on the incoming talismans, striking the enchanted paper slips and reducing them to ash.

Kaze groaned. “Heroism was a lot more attractive when all I had to do was sleep with beautiful young acolytes and talk about how great I was going to be. Where the hell is my support?!”

Clunk! Whrrrrrr... Although a distant noise and slight vibration floated over the deck, it didn’t distract either him or his draconic opponent.

With a guttural snarl, the holy dragon dove down onto the deck, its serpentine body sliding around a mast and several crates.

Kaze growled and tapped his staff against the deck. Vwom!

Appearing above the dragon, he tried gathering his mana to him, becoming even more aggravated as he felt the mystical power dissipate almost as fast as he was collecting it. ‘This is ridiculous! I’m tiring already?’ Although he hadn’t bothered with much offensive magic, he had been going full-tilt trying to keep himself alive with his shields and a few desperate illusions, and adrenaline didn’t work nearly as well with magic-users as it did for warriors. Kaze was not someone who had fought many long battles before, and it showed.

The holy dragon snarled, but stayed low, well-aware that there was a great deal more gunfire coming from the deck now. Instead, its tail whipped about to try and smack Kaze out of the air.

Thwoom! That particular appendage wasn’t so spry after a heavy railgun punched through it as if it were styrofoam, blasting shimmering skin, muscle, and warm blood out onto the deck below.

Kaze quickly levitated over behind the nearest mast, gaining some good cover as the holy dragon screamed in pain and fury. Once he was in a relatively safe position, he glanced over at the source of the increasingly loud grinding noise.

He was suitably impressed as the main launch elevator slowly rose into position, a massive, four-legged combat mecha standing atop it. Smoke wafted from the war machine’s right cannon even as the laser sights on its left arm started lining up its autocannons.

Atop the shoulder of the mech, and sitting comfortably on a bank of missile launchers, June smirked at the enraged dragon, and then turned to regard Kaze. “Not bad for an evon. And a cleric, to boot. I could make use of a soldier like you... as more than a body pillow, I mean.”

“Innuendo later! Shooting things now!” Kaze shouted, noting that the dragon was preparing another attack.

“SHREEEEEEEHN!!” With a feral shriek, the holy dragon spat a swirling ball of light at the combat mecha, leaving a glowing streak on the deck below as it cut a molten swath across the ship.

“Pffh. Don’t even try,” June snapped, raising a hand toward the projectile. “Force plane.”

BWAM! A powerful shock wave of superheated energy ripped apart the deck below, and both the missile and the floating shield used to detonate it collapses into a single prismatic shower of lights.

June leaned back on the mecha, giving the cockpit a light kick. “Kill it.”

Thwoom! Thwoom! Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!


Turning sharply away from the writhing dragon as the holy beast was ripped apart by heavy cannon fire, Kaze landed lightly onto the deck and stalked over to the massive war machine as it emptied its ammunition bays.

“Why didn’t you have that thing up here in the first place? We can’t fight these creatures with spells and small firearms!”

June shrugged as a volley of missiles was launched from the block launcher next to her, and waited for the barrage to end before she responded. “It wasn’t feasible. We weren’t expecting a concerted boarding action so quickly, and it didn’t make sense to have heavy combat units here on the deck where their mobility is so limited; it’s a rather expensive unit to simply turn it into an immobile defense turret.”

“And I’m a rather important cleric to simply leave in the line of fire as a DISTRACTION while you get your act together!” Kaze complained, waving his staff angrily.

June stood up and hopped down as the warmech started to turn so that it could fire on the earth dragon currently engaged with most of the on-deck soldiers being led by Karen. “Oh? I was not aware of your supposed importance. I’m surprised you didn’t mention it before our rendezvous earlier.”

Kaze waited until the mecha released a loud barrage of cannon fire before speaking again. “If I thought being the avatar of a holy cult would have impressed you in the least, I would have brought it up,” he said bluntly. “But that’s not the point! You knew how resistant that thing was to magic, and you left me there to die!”

“I actually expected you to flee,” June reasoned, shrugging apologetically. “You professed to being something of a coward. Why would you stand and fight something you couldn’t hurt?” She trailed off at the end as another ground-shaking barrage made conversation futile, then picked up again as shell casings the size of D batteries bounced onto the deck around her. “Regardless, I am VERY impressed by your... endurance.”

Kaze hesitantly shut his mouth, picking up on the subtle signs that he was on the verge of receiving a very pleasurable apology later, but really wanting to complain some more until the Israeli general got the point.

The decision was taken out of his hands as the only friendly dragon within twenty miles landed on the head of his staff. “Hey, guys? It’s obvious by now that you two have a ‘thing’ here, but if you don’t recall, there’s a WAR going on over there,” K snapped, pointing a wing in the direction of the earth and venom dragons. “Let’s save the mushy stuff for later, lest we become mush, eh?”

June rolled her eyes, but relented immediately; her soldiers’ lives were on the line too, after all. “You’re right, of course. Evon, you and I will continue this discussion later... in my chambers.” With a sensual wink, the woman’s hands suddenly blazed with destructive light, and then she turned and walked between the legs of the warmech to help fight the remaining dragons.


K sweatdropped. “Did... Did she just refer to you as ‘evon’?”

Kaze nodded, looking rather pleased now. “Yes. It’s quite a step up from the slur she was addressing me by before. I think she’s warming up to me!” He noticed the metadragon’s incredulous stare. “I never actually told her my name. And I guess she wasn’t listening when Colonel Molsk introduced us.”

The dragon continued staring. “But... wait... so even though... ‘warming up’ to you? Didn’t you-?”

“Yes,” the cleric hastily replied, “though she was drunk at the time. And she hadn’t had any in a LONG time.”

K gaped for a few more seconds before turning away, feeling slightly dizzy. “I don’t know whether to be disgusted or impressed...” then he started. “By the way, shouldn’t you be helping out too? That venom dragon is fast, and Rayden is getting thrashed out there.”

“I’m no good against dragons,” Kaze said, echoing his earlier excuse, “especially now that I’ve nearly exhausted my magical power. I’ll sit this one out.”

K was silent for a moment. Then he smacked the evon upside the head with a metal wing. Clang!

“Ow! What in the-“

The metadragon lifted his head up so he could glower at the priest. “I’m not going to let you bounce on this fight after you nearly got yourself killed for that woman.”

“But it’s not-“

Clang! K glared harder after sending another wing into the side of Kaze’s skull. “No. No buts. I know that Rayden is an inept berserker that gets in over his head constantly. I know he’s not a beautiful woman, and that even if he was, the chances of you making it with her would be nil.” He took a deep breath. “But damn it, he’s still an ally! If it were Ranma, he’d be there in a heartbeat.”

Kaze winced, and hesitantly looked over the criss-cross of gunfire and energy beams that were currently exploding around the Messiah’s deck. “All right, fine. But you have to come with me.”

“What?”

Kaze raised an eyebrow at the suddenly wary metadragon. “As I am now, I’m good for little more than a decoy. Well, really, I’m not good for much besides that against dragons anyway, but at least I can usually put on a good light show while distracting opponents. So you’ll come with me, right? Master Saotome would do it in a heartbeat.”

K sweatdropped, lowering his head a bit. “......... So, you’re pretty much out of magic power, huh? Not much point in rushing in and getting yourself killed, I guess...”

“Smart dragon.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zslash! “Ssssstupid darkling!” The venom dragon hissed as his razor-sharp tail cut another gash across Rayden’s chest when it SHOULD have sliced the demon knight clean in two. “Jusssst DIE!!”

Opening its jaws wide, the serpent struck, attempting to sink its long, gleaming fangs into its foe.

Blood dripped into puddles of hissing venom as Rayden swung a left hook clean into the venom dragon’s lower jaw, sending the creature reeling to the side from the force. Rayden himself staggered slightly after the attack, trying to keep his balance.

His body was in tatters; blood and poison flowed in thin streams from multiple tears in his coat, and his entire face was scarred and ragged from taking a direct blast of acidic venom. His sword arm hung limply, large holes punched into his bicep even as his finger clutched Darkrune’s handle tightly, unwilling to surrender its weapon. Poison surged through his body in quantities alarmingly close to that of his remaining blood; and although he didn’t suffer any of the normal chemical reactions such as paralysis – thanks in no small part to the blood aura enchantment – his body had reached the absolute limit in its resistance and was now actively breaking apart from the inside. Again, that the Dread Knight could even continue standing was largely the result of his magic enhancement before battle.

The venom dragon rolled its entire body away in a sidewinder motion to minimize the impact of Rayden’s blow, and then whipped its head around to face its opponent.

Brak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak! Before it could get very far, it found itself being ravaged by a vulcan cannon, the stream of bullets pounding against its not-inconsiderable armor the moment it was out of melee range.

‘This is no good! Where are the others?’ It thought as it dashed across the deck, its body sliding over and around crates and even a few alarmed soldiers with shocking speed. ‘Have our air forces been beaten back? How is that possible?’

Finding the vulcan cannon that was spitting fire at it desperately, the venom dragon lashed out with its tail, stabbing into the gun’s rotating barrels in a spray of sparks and loose metal. Once the weapon ground to a halt, the dragon spat a glob of acid onto the armored bay in which the gunner was huddled and then yanked its tail out, not waiting around to hear the man’s screams as flesh-melting poison slowly dripped down onto him from above.


Braa-aap! Braa-aap! Several more soldiers had taken up defensive positions next to the shield generator, yet another worthy target, and had opened fire on the venom dragon from there.

The serpent hissed angrily, but hesitated. Though the machine they were protecting was obviously important, did it matter at this point? ‘Can we still destroy this ship, or should we be concentrating on killing the human worm?’ The dragon thought as it ducked down below a rocket barrage that tore apart the deck behind it. ‘Where did he go, anyway? I can’t... oh, hell.’

The venom dragon twisted considerably to avoid the dark great sword that stabbed into the deck where its body had just been.

“Where ya going, snake?” Rayden crowed, stepping up onto a crate as he slowly trudged up to the creature. “Leaving me all alone like that right after we got acquainted; it’s as if you don’t like me or something.”

The dragon couldn’t help but sweatdrop at the sight of the demon knight, obviously on the verge of keeling over, walking up to him and engaging in combat banter. “Aren’t you dead yet? Jussssst lie down and perissssh already.” With that, his tail whipped around to the side, slamming into Rayden and smashing him sidelong into a sensor tower.

WHAM! The demon knight grunted as he felt metal crumple under his weight, followed by a pair of his ribs. Within moments, the pain faded away to a mild numbing sensation, and he pushed himself off of the tower.

The dragon snarled as it seemed the demon simply wasn’t going to give up. “Fine, idiot, you brought thissss on yoursssself!”

Rayden spat out a wad of... various liquids as the serpent rushed him, its jaws opening wide in preparation to devour its foe.

The Dread Knight mumbled something unintelligible, and his eyes briefly flared a deep, blood red as wisps of darkness began to gather in his hands.

Shlunk! The venom dragon seized its foe’s upper torso in its jaws, lifting Rayden clean off the deck as its fangs sunk easily through the dark paladin’s coat and incredibly tough flesh into the soft innards below.

Rayden did little more than grunt, the sensation of having two acidic scythes impaling his body being nothing new to him. Then he raised his shattered arms, reaching up between gleaming fangs to grip the sides of the serpent’s head.

“Die...” he whispered as his leather gloves pressed against hard, black scales. “Die!” he barked as black lightning surged from the center of his punctured body down to his fingertips. “DIE!!” he shouted as the energies crackled briefly around his hands before igniting.

BWAKOOOOM!! The venom dragon convulsed painfully as twin explosions threatened to split its skull right open, and it quickly drew its fangs from the dark paladin’s body and reared its head back as black lightning curled around its jaws within a cloud of scalding shadow.

SHWEEM! Adding insult to injury (or perhaps it was the other way around), the magi-cannon chose that particular time to snap off a shot of opportunity, plowing a light lance into the serpent’s much-abused skull and smashing it into the scorched and rent surface of the main deck.

Quite confused and in a considerable amount of pain, the venom dragon’s body and tail whipped about chaotically, smashing through the numerous crates and smacking painfully into the large reinforced masts that supported the roof/blast shields above.

Rayden slumped to one knee briefly, and then dragged himself to his feet, staggering over to his sword.

As if sensing the impending kill, Darkrune began to tremble and glow a dim, shadowy blue, and as the Dread Knight’s hand closed around the grip, the entire blade became alive with destructive energy, arcs of black lightning surging from pommel to tip.

Thwap! Rayden barely twitched as the venom dragon’s tail lashed out randomly and swatted him across the back, slicing open another long stretch of flesh over the two gaping, dripping holes under his shoulder blades.

“And warrior said to the beasts: ‘Follow me, pitiful creatures, and kill at my behest, rending my enemies in my name. Become my sword or feel its sting, and know your place before me,’” Rayden closed his eyes as the aura around Darkrune grew, though it was difficult for the onlookers to tell if it was in response to the strange litany or something else that wasn’t as obvious. “And the beasts divided thus, turning to one another with fang and claw bared, prepared to die serving the soldier of the darkness or opposing him.”

Rayden reached the dragon, grinning through a terribly scarred face at the creature’s cracked skull. Batting away the creature’s whipping tail almost casually, he raised his sword.

“And as battle raged, the warrior wet his blade in the flesh of serpents, staining his weapon with ancient blood, to forever prove his dominance of beasts.”

His sword fell with a crackling hiss.

“SSSSSRRAAAAAAAUGH!!”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wham! Ranma grunted as a glancing blow lacerated his ribs, slicing through skin as electric current danced across his nerves.

“Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!” He danced backwards quickly, but the storm dragon seemed to be getting more accustomed to his movements, and recklessly charged forward while swiping relentlessly with his lightning blades.

“Hey! A little space, lizard!” Ranma growled as flames coalesced over his left hand. “DRAGON FIST!”

BWOOM!! The human-form dragon was knocked clean off his feet by the impact, and sent crashing across the width of the deck, eventually plowing into the wreckage of a gun emplacement.

“Well, that’ll stop him for like ten seconds,” the pigtailed man muttered as he took a moment to tenderly inspect his wounds. All minor injuries, thanks to his agility and skill, though against dragons it would only take one minor slip-up to leave him dismembered and strewn across the deck.


A snarling roar came from behind him, immediately followed by a deeper, more guttural roar to his side.

Glancing to his back, he watched Rayden slump to the ground, unconscious, his sword buried deep into the venom dragon’s neck. He looked like he was in horrible shape, but honestly, Ranma was seriously starting to wonder if the demon knight could be killed at all.

Glancing to his side, he watched as the rock dragon’s skull was hammered by a volley of rockets and light missiles. It wasn’t out of the fight yet, but it was losing badly.

When he caught sight of Karen, glowing a bright blue as mist and ice circled around her in a furious maelstrom, he knew it was over.

The sorceress thrust her arms out, causing tendrils of shimmering azure to lance outward toward her target. “ABSOLUTE ZERO!”

CRACK!


Growling ferociously, the storm dragon leapt to his feet as lightning sparked from his hand.

To his surprise, his target appeared to be waiting for him, standing casually with one hand resting on his hip. The other was wrapping around a rather large, gleaming pistol.

The serpent king scoffed at the thought of such a puny human weapon being used against him, and spread his hands.

Lightning lanced down from the sky in a punishing volley, and Ranma seemed to vanish behind a curtain of crackling plasma.

A few bursts of gunfire came his way, and hot blood spattered across the deck as the dragon hissed in annoyance. “Damnable humans! Out of my waUGH!” A spin kick from behind sent the dragon stumbling into another mass of crates.

Snarling, the storm dragon stood up, irritated but largely unhurt. “Is that... really the best you can do? Cheap shots and illusions? Is Dashtal’s prey... truly nothing more than a trickster rogue?”

Ranma sighed as he raised his Nighthawk pistol. “Man... I really hate dragons.”

The storm dragon started to get up, heedless of his target’s weapon, when his sharp eyes noticed that the human wasn’t aiming for him at all, but rather at something near his feet...

He twitched as he stared at the rocket ammunition that had spilled out of the crate, broken by his hardened body.

Blam! The storm dragon winced reflexively... then blinked when there was no explosion following the impact.

Ranma frowned. Blam! Blam! Ka-twang! Twing! Blam! The rocket warheads bounced and rolled slightly as the bullets struck their explosive heads, but did little else, completely failing to explode in a Hollywood-style fireball.

Eventually, the pigtailed warrior lowered his pistol in annoyance. “Well, damn. They must have safeties on those rockets. Whatever happened to crates full of cheap, volatile Russian surplus weapons?”

The storm dragon didn’t really have an answer for that, so instead he lunged for Ranma, a ball of lightning encircling his hand.

“Yuun ram!” WHOMP! A ball of ice struck the dragon in mid-charge, slamming him to the side as Karen arrived to help out her friend and lover. “BREAK!” With a sick cracking noise, the ice sphere shattered like a frag grenade, mostly breaking on the human-form dragon’s skin without ill effect.

“DIE, MORTAL!!” The dragon screamed as the sphere of lightning grew larger, arcs of electricity dancing over his body.

“Mana burn,” came a calm voice from behind him, before the serpent in human form was bathed in light. A sickly sizzling noise came from the serpent’s hand as his magic suddenly slipped out of his hand, like a bowl that suddenly sprouted holes across its bottom.

As the dragon whirled around in confusion and steadily building dread, June Kitinski stood with her hands on her hips, a corona of power surrounding her. “Well, it seems like even the great Saotome can get in over his head on occasion. Need a hand?”

Ranma simply shrugged, much to the sorceress’s annoyance. “Well, I coulda killed him myself, but I figured that since the rest of the lizards’re dead, we could capture this one. Find out a thing or two about this Greken clown." He was mostly bluffing, of course – the dragon would have been more than tricky for him to take on alone – but nobody here needed to know that.

The storm dragon glanced around him incredulously. Him? A captive? They were going to take a serpent kind hostage? Just who did these piddling mortals think they were?

Boom! Boom! Boom! Ch-chak! Click! Vvvvvwooom... The dragon in human form sweatdropped as he was swiftly surrounded by soldiers with their rifles at the ready, as well as a gigantic walking mech. Not to forget the nimble warrior he had been fighting earlier, and the two powerful sorceresses flanking him. Now he remembered; these piddling mortals were the ones with all the big, nasty guns, magic, armor, and thousands of individuals to all fight him at once. Not very good odds, now that he thought about it.

June snapped her fingers the moment she saw the storm dragon tense up, a bright flash emanating from her hand as she did so.

Wham! The dragon cursed as he jumped up, only to smack into a plane of force and promptly fall back down.

“Colonel Molsk, you may contain this one,” June said casually, wiggling her fingers as destructive energies danced between her fingers. “Make it nice and painful. It will help soften him up for the interrogation.”

“Yes, General!” Karen said sharply, her hands glowing blue.

The storm dragon snarled, and his eyes flashed azure as his aura began to build. As if he’d just stand there and let himself be cap-

Shwk! Ranma’s blade sliced elegantly across the back of the dragon’s knee, cutting a key tendon before he smashed his gauntleted hand into the back of the serpent’s head, knocking him to the deck. “Easy there sparky,” he said condescendingly as Karen’s power began to build. “It’s all over now. But look on the bright side: you get to live!”

The storm dragon turned, a spell on his lips even as tendrils of blue started to encircle him. “You will ALL peri-“

“Tomb of ice, enclose. Be silent, lizard.”

Crack!


From across the deck, Emrey sighed wearily and looked out over the Messiah’s topdeck bleakly.

“So... it’s over, then. Finally.” Plumes of smoke wafted from half of the hovercraft’s vulcan cannon turrets, while three others besides had been either ripped to shreds or, in one particularly ugly case, corroded horribly by poisonous acid.

No less that five great, scaly corpses were strewn across the dreadnaught’s deck, not including the storm dragon that was currently having its frozen prison reinforced with a force cage in preparation for transport.

The rakshasa holstered his weapons wearily. Not that he had done much serious fighting himself; his abilities were useless against dragons, and he wasn’t suited to front-line combat anyway. Emrey had spent the entire battle sniffing out those spawnlings from the swamp dragon that had managed to skitter off into small , hidden places and killing the vile things. It was a rather petty contribution, but an essential one.

Or at least, that’s what he told himself as he walked toward the entry corridor the led into the ship. Entering the key code that unlocked the blast doors, he sighed as the heavy shielded barriers slowly started opening. ‘Those creatures were vicious and rather opportunistic. An infestation of them could... have... uhm...’

The rakshasa gulped as he stared at the horrific scene in the entry corridor. Long streaks of dark blood and thick ichor decorated the walls in wild arcs and splashes, having barely dried. The dismembered and gutted bodies of spawnlings lay strewn about, along with a great number of blades and a few charred streaks where it looked like fire had raked the floor.

“Lieutenant,” June snapped, coming up behind the stalled rakshasa, “we have wounded coming through. Move yo-“ she stopped mid-word as the demon stepped aside, revealing the carnage-soaked interior. “What? What are...” She frowned deeply.

Ranma approached from behind, dragging Rayden along by his feet. “Like I said, I had stuff to take care of. The bug managed to get one of those sacs next to the main entrance. Damn thing was full of those little crawlers.”

He passed by June and Emrey, leaving a great streak of blood and other dark, brackish fluids trailing from Rayden. Kaze passed by immediately afterward, mumbling to himself.

“Hmmm... no, I don’t think ‘slow poison’ is going to do it here. Is there a spell like ‘empty bloodstream’? I’ll have to look it up...”

Emrey's eyebrow twitched as he watched the trio go.

Behind him, June rubbed her forehead anxiously. "Those people are terrifying in so many different ways..."

The rakshasa could only nod mutely in response.

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End Chapter 13