Chapter 7: Joining the Battle
The air shimmered with heat waves rising from the sandstone formations that dominated the harsh landscape. Massive pillars of weathered rock jutted skyward like the fingers of buried titans, their surfaces carved smooth by wind and sand. The ground beneath was a mixture of compacted sand and exposed bedrock, cracked and broken in places where tectonic forces had reshaped the terrain.
Scattered across the canyon floor, far apart from one another, glass-like polygonal crystals rose out of the sandstone. No two formations resembled each other. One near the canyon's mouth stood taller than a man, tinted deep orange with darker orange twisting through its interior. Another, a hundred yards off, was barely knee-high, colorless and clear as ice, studded with small polygonal sub-growths. A third, alone atop a ridge in the distance, glowed faintly green from somewhere inside itself. They sat in the landscape like they had simply decided to be there.
Exiting the magical portal leg first, Jeff, then Alicia, stepped onto the terrain. The sound that hit them first was deafening—the roar of combat, the crash of magic against scale and stone, the ground-shaking impacts of a massive creature in battle.
Before them, perhaps two hundred yards distant, an enormous dragon dominated the battlefield. Its body was a fortress of armor plating, and its wing membranes were patterned in geometric whorls too regular to be natural. The dragon stood easily forty feet tall at the shoulder, its wingspan—when fully extended—capable of creating devastating windstorms.
Already engaged with the beast was the armored figure they'd seen on the broadcast. The warrior wielded a battle axe, its haft short enough to control one-handed, its twin blades a dull black that didn't match the gleam of his enchanted armor at all. As they watched, he slammed his gauntleted fist against his chest plate twice in rapid succession, then swept the axe forward in a wide arc. Lightning erupted from the axe's blades, striking multiple points along the dragon's flank with thunderous cracks. Without pause, the armored warrior planted his feet shoulder-width apart, raised the axe overhead with both hands, then brought it down in a chopping motion—not striking anything physically, but completing the gesture. His entire body converted into crackling electricity that shot forward, reforming beside the dragon's foreleg where his axe appeared mid-swing, crashing against the armor plating.
"We're doing this," Jeff said, his adrenaline rising. The irises of both his dark brown eyes turned glowing neon yellow, the pupils remaining black.
Alicia nodded, her hands already moving through the beginning gestures of a spell preparation, her fingers splayed and rotating in small circles at her sides.
Jeff performed his tongue simultaneous triple-fold. White feathered wings appeared attached to his back, the appendages flexing and spreading to their full span.
"Coordinated strikes on the wound points!" Alicia called out, already running toward a better vantage point, her eyes scanning the dragon's body for the spots where previous attacks had damaged its armor.
The dragon's attention snapped toward the newcomers, its head swiveling with terrifying speed. Along its neck and shoulders, armor plate flaps snapped open into standing positions, arranging themselves into a precise, unmistakable pattern—to perform magic. The creature reared back its head, then opened its massive jaws. Jeff's eyes widened as he saw the glow building in the back of its throat.
Jeff briefly locked his double-jointed pinky finger into a specific bent configuration. A powerful gust erupted around him, catching his wings and launching him skyward just as a torrent of blue flames scorched the ground where he'd been standing. He controlled the wind's direction using his left thumb like a joystick, guiding his aerial trajectory away from the flames. The fire didn't spray or billow the way fire should. It arrived in a disciplined column, the dragon corrected the aim mid-burn, and cut off its fire-attack the instant it missed—the economy of something that had made this exact attack countless times before.
The armored warrior took advantage of the dragon's focus on Jeff. He dropped to one knee, pressed the flat of the axe against the ground, then drew a quick symbol in the air with his free index finger—a jagged line representing lightning. Electrical energy poured out of the black blades and coursed through the earth, traveling up through the dragon's legs and causing its muscles to spasm momentarily.
Alicia reached the nearest crystal formation, a squat cluster of rose-tinted polygons jutting from the sandstone. No time to wonder what it did. She drew a large circle on it with her finger, placed both hands flat against its surface within the circle, fingers spread wide, and pushed hard on a facet angled toward the dragon.
Light poured from the crystal's opposite side—not a beam, not a blast, but a soft rose-colored radiance that unfurled through the air in slow, shimmering ribbons, curling and drifting like festival streamers. It washed over the sandstone, over the rocks, over the raging dragon, painting the entire battlefield a gentle, glowing pink.
Nothing burned. Nothing broke. It was, if anything, romantic.
"...Okay. Not you," Alicia told the crystal, already running.
The dragon tracked her movement through the rosy shimmer with one eye, and its plate flaps shifted into a new standing arrangement along its left shoulder. The air above Alicia condensed. Water—tons of it—materialized in a single suspended mass and dropped. She threw herself forward; the deluge hammered the ground behind her hard enough to crack stone, the flash flood chasing her heels through the fading pink glow.
"Watch its plates!" she shouted, rolling behind an outcropping.
Jeff soared upward, his wings beating in powerful strokes. Both his hands generated spheres of black energy courtesy of his cursed ring, each one pulsing with destructive potential. With immense throwing force, he launched the dark orbs directly at the dragon's eyes.
The dragon twisted with surprising agility for its size, one wing sweeping up to intercept. The dark orbs impacted against the geometric membrane, tearing twin holes through it in bursts of dissipating shadow. The dragon glanced at the damage dismissingly.
"Its heart area has a barrier!" the armored warrior shouted. He pointed the axe toward the dragon's chest where a faint shimmer of transparent magical energy flickered whenever struck. "Aim for there!"
Jeff adjusted his approach, diving lower. He locked his double-jointed ring finger on his left hand into a hooked position. The tattoo on the back of his neck—the halo—began glowing, the intensity increasing with the amount of magic building up. Frost originated from his hands and spread rapidly across the creature's back where fire attacks had superheated the armor, causing it to glow red-orange. He controlled the frost's spread using his left thumb like a joystick, directing it to cover the heated areas precisely. The sudden temperature change created stress fractures with audible cracking sounds.
The dragon didn't flinch. It turned its head and looked at the frost crawling across its own back, quickly analyzing.
The armored warrior didn't waste the opportunity. He raised the axe overhead, spinning it in three complete rotations, then pointed it directly at the frosted areas. His lips moved rapidly, speaking particular words—his audible utterance. Lightning streaked from the black blades, targeting each frosted section. The combination of thermal stress and electrical assault shattered portions of the dragon's armor plating, leaving several open wounds that wept ichor.
Alicia sprinted to a new position, her breathing controlled despite the exertion. She found another crystal formation, this one tinted dark blue and purple, half again her height. Another gamble. She drew a large circle on it with her finger, placed both hands on it within the circle, and pressed hard on a facet angled toward the dragon's head. This time the gamble paid: from the crystal's far side, water erupted in a twisting stream, crossing the distance and breaking against the dragon's snout, sheeting across its eyes and nostrils in a clinging film. She shifted the angle of her pressure, walking the stream to follow its head as it moved.
Jeff flew in close, his sword drawn from its sheath at his side. The blade absorbed magic from him, becoming magical. He briefly unlocked his ring finger and re-locked his double-jointed index finger on his left hand. As he slashed with his blade, he exhaled sharply through his teeth—a quick "tssst" sound—and wind energy flowed through the metal, extending the cutting edge with compressed air. The enhanced strike bit deep into one of the open wounds on the dragon's flank.
The dragon roared—but it was not a cry. It was a weapon. The sound arrived as a physical wall, precisely aimed, battering Jeff end over end through the air. Beneath the roar, plate flaps along its spine were already standing up in a third configuration, and its exhale kept going, the roar sliding seamlessly into a shrieking pressure of compressed wind that Jeff barely rode out.
The creature planted all four legs wide, claws digging into stone, and began gathering power.
"Get clear! It's charging something big!" Alicia warned, abandoning the crystal as she prepared to move.
The armored warrior slammed his free fist against the axe's haft, then spread his arms wide while stomping his right foot. A barrier of crackling lightning poured out of the weapon and formed in front of him, a defensive lattice of electrical energy.
Deep in the dragon's throat, light was building, brighter with each passing second. The plates along its entire body lay flat and locked, streamlining it, bracing it.
"MOVE!" the armored warrior bellowed.
A massive beam of concentrated blue and cyan energy erupted from the creature's maw, directly in Jeff's flight path. The air itself seemed to tear apart from the sheer destructive power channeling through space.
Jeff's eyes widened. Too close. Moving too fast. No time to—
Lightning struck him.
The armored warrior, had noticed the danger Jeff was in, and had pointed the axe directly at Jeff, traced a quick zigzag pattern in the air with his other hand's index finger, and shouted a single sharp word. The bolt hit Jeff square in the chest, not to harm but to launch. The electrical force flung Jeff violently sideways, his body tumbling through the air away from the beam's path.
The dragon's beam scorched through the space where Jeff had been a fraction of a second before, the heat so intense that the air shimmered and distorted in its wake. The beam continued past, striking a sandstone formation in the distance and reducing it to molten slag.
Jeff crashed hard into the canyon wall, the impact knocking the wind from his lungs. He slid down several feet before catching himself with his wings, breathing hard, his chest aching from both the lightning strike and the collision.
The irises of his eyes shifted from glowing neon yellow to glowing orange.
"You... you could've warned me!" Jeff shouted at the armored warrior, anger rising in his voice.
"No time for warnings in battle!" the warrior called back, already moving to engage the dragon again. "You're alive. Focus!"
The dragon's attention fixed on Jeff, its massive head tilting with what might have been amusement. "Fragile creatures."
Pushing off from the wall, Jeff locked his double-jointed middle finger into position. Flames erupted from his hands, channeling through his sword's blade. He directed the fire's trajectory with his left thumb, sending a spiraling column of flame toward the dragon's face.
The dragon simply closed its eyes. The armored eyelids deflected the flames harmlessly.
"Fire took my eyes once. Several bodies ago," the dragon remarked, opening them again. "I corrected that."
Alicia reached another crystal formation, this one shot through with bright yellow. She used her finger to draw a circle on it, pressed both palms against it within the circle, fingers splayed, and pushed hard on a facet angled low, toward the dragon's rear left leg. A jagged arc of yellow electricity leapt from the crystal's far side, streaked across the canyon floor, and struck the limb—current coursing up through it, every muscle clenching at once. The crystal hummed under her hands as she held the pressure and the angle, feeding the arc. The dragon's leg buckled, its weight shifting.
The armored warrior saw the opening. He gripped the axe with both hands, held it horizontal at chest level, then thrust it forward while speaking three sharp syllables. A massive bolt of lightning tore from the black blades into the ground beneath the dragon's compromised leg. The earth exploded upward in a shower of rock and electrical discharge.
The dragon's leg gave way beneath it, and the creature adjusted, redistributing its weight across three limbs. Jeff flew in close again, his orange eyes blazing, slashing and stabbing with his sword, the fiery blade now cutting deep into an exposed wound. Ichor sprayed across his arms and chest.
The dragon's tail whipped around with devastating speed, the movement creating a sonic boom. Jeff barely managed to pull up, the tail passing inches beneath his feet. The wind from its passage spun him in a complete rotation before he regained control.
"Jeff! Its left wing joint!" Alicia shouted, pointing. "There's a gap in the armor!"
Jeff adjusted his flight path, but the dragon was faster than he anticipated. It did a massive swipe through the air, talons extended. Jeff twisted, his wings folding partially, but one talon caught his left wing's edge. Feathers scattered—some white, some now black.
Pain lanced through Jeff's wing. He dropped several feet before recovering, his flight now slightly uneven. His eyes flickered, the orange glow intensifying, and more black feathers began appearing among the white.
He locked his double-jointed thumb into a specific configuration while keeping his middle finger locked. The tattoo on his stomach—the yellow outlined smiley face with the red tear drop—began glowing. Dark energy and fire combined in his free hand, swirling together into a volatile sphere. With immense throwing force, he launched it directly at the dragon's wing joint.
The attack struck true, exploding against the gap in the armor. The joint gave with a wet crack, and the wing dropped, hanging at an awkward angle.
The dragon moved. Not toward Jeff, not toward the warrior—it turned and strode across the battlefield with sudden purpose, walking straight past two crystal formations without a glance, past a third, heading unerringly for a distant formation near the canyon wall—a towering mass twice the height of a man, pulsing with orange light.
The armored warrior went pale behind his visor. "It knows this valley!"
The dragon pressed its foreclaw against the orange formation and dragged one talon across the surface in a swift, practiced circle. It pressed a talon within the circle, angling with surgical precision. A massive beam of glowing orange energy erupted from the opposite side of the formation, sweeping across the battlefield in a horizontal arc.
Alicia dove behind a rock outcropping as the beam passed overhead, superheating the air. The armored warrior converted to his electrical form, dispersing into crackling energy that scattered in multiple directions before reforming in a safer location, the axe reforming in his grip with him.
Jeff flew upward hard, wings straining. The beam passed beneath him, close enough that he felt his skin burning from the radiant heat. Several more feathers—now a mix of white and black—singed and fell away.
His eyes shifted again. One iris glowed orange, the other glowed red.
The dragon turned its massive head toward Jeff. "Perhaps I should have devoured you first."
Jeff locked his double-jointed pinky and ring finger together in a complex configuration. Wind and darkness combined around him, the tattoo on the back of his neck—the halo—began glowing intensely, the ink blazing with light. His wind and darkness combination creating a vortex of cutting air and shadow energy. He directed it with both thumbs now, for more precise control.
The vortex slammed into the dragon's face, the wind blades cutting into its snout, the darkness corroding where it touched. The dragon's head snapped back from the force, and several scales cracked and fell away. Ichor ran freely down its jaw and it kept its eyes on Jeff.
Alicia saw her chance. She sprinted to a broad, red formation she hadn't yet tried, drew a large circle, pressed her hands against it within the circle, and pushed hard while dragging her left hand downward across its surface. The crystal answered with fire—not a beam, but a roaring, expanding cone of flame that howled out of the formation's far side like a furnace door thrown open. She angled it by adjusting her hands, walking the inferno across the dragon's damaged snout precisely where Jeff's attack had exposed flesh.
The flesh charred deep. The dragon's answering roar shook the canyon and crumbled smaller rock formations—but it was aimed, a concussive counterattack rolling over Alicia's cover, not a sound of suffering. Code doesn't suffer agony.
The armored warrior charged forward, the axe raised. He leaped high, spinning in midair while tracing a circle with the axe's blade. As he descended, he brought the weapon down in a powerful overhead strike enhanced with lightning. The black blades bit into the dragon's shoulder, electrical energy coursing through the wound.
The dragon thrashed—its body jerking where the current seized its muscles—and its tail swept in a wide arc, catching the armored warrior and sending him crashing into a canyon wall with enough force to crack the stone. He slumped to the ground, struggling to rise, the axe still locked in his fist.
"Two left," the dragon said.
Jeff's eyes changed again—both irises now glowing red, the pupils still black. More of his wing feathers had turned black, all of one wing's feathers now black.
"Alicia, get him to safety!" Jeff commanded, his voice tight with barely controlled rage.
Alicia ran toward the fallen warrior, but the dragon shifted its bulk, blocking her path.
The runes on Jeff's forearm spread further up his arm—new runes appearing that hadn't been there before, crawling across his skin like living script. He unlocked all his finger configurations and locked his double-jointed fingers in a different, more complex pattern that required both hands working in coordination.
Massive spikes of ice erupted from the ground beneath the dragon's feet, piercing up through the gaps in its armor. The creature's limbs locked and shuddered as the spikes ran them through—its body being physically pinned. Jeff wasn't finished. He adjusted his thumb positions while maintaining the finger locks, and lightning—not his normal magic, but something darker, tinged with shadow—struck down from above, hitting every ice spike simultaneously.
The corrupted electricity locked the dragon's muscles against the piercing cold. It broke free from several of the ice spikes anyway, tearing its own flesh to do it, ichor flowing freely from the wounds.
The dragon's eyes narrowed. Its plate flaps rose along its haunches in yet another arrangement, and it swung its tail toward a green-and-yellow tinted crystal formation nearby—another one it clearly knew. The tail's tip drew a swift circle against the crystal's surface, then pressed within it at an angle. From the formation's far side erupted a hissing torrent of green-yellow liquid, aimed not at Jeff but at Alicia.
Alicia threw herself to the side, rolling behind cover and it missed her by inches, stone dissolved into a steaming, collapsing ruin.
Jeff's eyes shifted again—the white parts of his eyes turned black, the irises remaining glowing red.
Jeff was no longer in control of his own body.
Jeff's body moved with inhuman precision and speed. He dove straight down toward the dragon, his wings—now completely black—folded tight against his back. At the last second, he spread his wings wide, creating a massive gust that kicked up sand and debris, temporarily blinding the dragon.
He landed on the dragon's back, between its shoulder blades. His sword plunged down into one of the open wounds, and he channeled everything through it—fire, ice, wind, lightning, and darkness all at once. The magical energies poured into the dragon's body, wreaking havoc on its internal organs.
The dragon bucked and twisted, trying to dislodge him.
Jeff's face was smiling.
He wrenched the sword sideways, expanding the wound. The dragon's movements grew more urgent—the fast, focused urgency of a mind watching its vessel fail and calculating what could still be done.
Alicia, seeing the dragon distracted, ran to the fallen armored warrior. She checked his breathing—still alive, but unconscious. She dragged him behind a larger rock formation, out of immediate danger.
Jeff pulled his sword free and drove it into a different wound, this one closer to the dragon's spine. He unlocked his finger configuration and formed a new one with just his right hand, his left maintaining his grip on the sword. The black runes on his forearm now covered his entire left arm.
A sphere of pure shadow formed in his right hand, dense enough that it seemed to pull light into itself. He pressed it against the wound where his sword pierced, and the darkness flowed into the dragon's body like poison.
The dragon's movements became more frantic—not desperate, but ruthless, spending its failing body like currency. It rolled onto its side, trying to crush Jeff against the ground.
Jeff's wings beat once, powerfully, launching him clear. He hovered in the air, his black-and-red eyes fixed on the creature. His sword was still embedded in the dragon's back.
"Fragile creature," Jeff's avatar said.
He locked all ten of his double-jointed fingers into a configuration so complex it looked painful. His tattoos that had glowed earlier now blazed with light—the halo on his neck, the "yellow outlined smiley face with the red tear drop" on his stomach.
The air around Jeff darkened, shadows gathering from every direction. Lightning crackled through the shadows, purple and black instead of blue and white. Ice crystals formed in the air, each one wreathed in dark fire. Wind howled, carrying all these elements together into a swirling maelstrom of destructive power.
The dragon dragged itself toward the nearest green crystal formation, one foreclaw stretching out, a talon already beginning the curve of a circle against its surface—
Jeff brought both hands down in a chopping motion.
The maelstrom descended.
Everything—shadow, lightning, ice, fire, and wind—slammed into the dragon simultaneously. The creature's remaining armor shattered like glass. Its scales peeled away. Its flesh burned and froze and electrified and cut all at once.
When the maelstrom dissipated, the dragon lay still, its body a ruined mess of torn flesh and broken plating, the talon resting an inch short of completing its circle.
Jeff hovered in the air, breathing heavily. His eyes remained black with red irises, his wings completely black. His tattoos that had been glowing still glowed, though the light was beginning to fade.
He descended slowly, landing on the ground near the dragon's head. He walked forward, his movements being controlled.
The dragon's eye opened slightly, its vast body barely clinging to life.
"You..."
Jeff raised his hand, fingers beginning to form another configuration.
Jeff's breathing slowed. The black in the whites of his eyes began to recede, color returning gradually. The red glow in his irises flickered.
Jeff's hand lowered.
Jeff's eyes returned fully to glowing orange, the black receding from the whites of his eyes. His wings began showing white feathers again among the black. Able to control his own body again, Jeff turned away from the dragon.
"Jeff!"
Alicia stepped out from behind the rock formation, leaving the unconscious warrior safely concealed.
Jeff's wings trembled. His eyes shifted from glowing orange to glowing neon yellow, then began to dim.
Jeff's legs buckled. Alicia rushed forward, catching him before he fell.
"I've got you," she said, supporting his weight. "I've got you."
Jeff's eyes completed their return to non-glowing dark brown. His wings—now half white feathers, half black feathers—drooped with exhaustion.
"The warrior..." Jeff managed to say.
"He's alive. Unconscious, but alive," Alicia assured him.
The armored warrior groaned from behind the rock formation. Alicia helped Jeff over to him, both of them exhausted...
To Be Continued.
("Jeff's eyes automatically turn the "glowing colors" ""neon yellow" and/or red" under particular conditions. Jeff's eyes, as soon as Jeff's adrenaline level is 25% above Jeff's usual adrenaline level, automatically "turn ""glowing neon yellow"" and remain that way" and then turn "non-glowing dark brown" as soon as Jeff is relaxed, it's one of the wishes Jeff had made in one of his lives because he always wanted glowing neon yellow eyes, his wish granted by a wish-granter. Ever since Jeff got the cursed ring, Jeff's eyes, when he gets somewhat angry, automatically "turn from ""glowing "neon yellow"" to ""glowing "orange""" and remain that way" and then turn "non-glowing dark brown" as soon as Jeff is relaxed, Jeff's eyes, when he gets a little more angry, automatically "turn "glowing "orange" to ""glowing "red"" and remain that way" and then turn "non-glowing dark brown" as soon as Jeff is relaxed, and then Jeff's eyes, when he gets "completely angry", automatically "turn ""glowing "red" with the white part of Jeff's eyes turned black"" and remain that way" and then turn "non-glowing dark brown" as soon as Jeff is relaxed. Jeff's eyes, when he is ""almost completely" angry", automatically ""glow different colors, one glowing "neon yellow" and one glowing "red"" and remain that way" and then turn "non-glowing dark brown" as soon as Jeff is relaxed. When Jeff is ""almost completely" angry", ""more runes automatically start spreading up Jeff's left arm and then the runes remain" and then such extra runes "unspread and vanish" as soon as Jeff is relaxed", and Jeff's wings, when Jeff is "completely angry", automatically ""change from white wings to black wings" and remain that way" and then turn to white wings as soon as Jeff is relaxed, and Jeff's wings, when Jeff is ""almost completely" angry", automatically "change to """one random wing black and one random wing white" or "a random mix of "black and white" wing feathers on both wings""" and remain that way" and then turn to white wings as soon as Jeff is relaxed. But ""the whites of Jeff's eyes" and "Jeff's eyes' pupils"" "always remain normal ""unless, in the future, ""Jeff wishes for otherwise in some way" whereby such gets “granted via a wish-granter"”" or "unless, in the future, Jeff's eyes get changed by other magical means".
Jeff's cursed ring is only one of "such cursed objects that parts of "Eric's sections of information" explain about".)