Ebonria immediately ducked her head, planning to use the plating upon it as a somewhat makeshift shield. Digging her claws into the tarnished stone flowing, she thrust forward in the direction of the emberwyrm, continuously slamming her chest and visible ribcage with the elementium plates, and ensuring that she would not lose her own footing by digging her caws deeper into the floor.
Quickly tilting her head upwards, she unleashed a large breath of flame into the undead dragon's open chest cavity, hoping to deal some more damage to the leviathan. Sure, the undead creature was slightly larger, but Ebonria was younger, faster, and was covered in armor; which the other lacked.
Ætherius watched as the rest took to battle and began to assess the group that seemed to stand in their way. He saw one twilight dragon, one that had the prettiest shade of violet to her wings and a full, powerful body, causing him to grin. Too bad she would probably try to devour him… Twisted plans began to form in his mind, as he flickered briefly, becoming just faintly translucent for only a second or two and he was outside, high in the air, still in his elf form above the chosen attacker, plummeting towards her. As he did so, he began to gather his own chaotic magic’s before finally shifting into his true form.
He was very large. Not as massive as both of the ancient dragons that were in the group, but easily the size of an adult black dragon do to the twisting nether having it’s warping effects upon his own flight. His scales were glimmered like emerald gemstones as light seemed to pass through as if he were stained glass. Crystalline formations run along his body giving him a visage more suitable to the Outlands rather than here. He released a simple arc of blackened electricity from the crystals upon his front paws to sting at the dragon below him, to get her attention, as he spoke in a voice that would be seductive if it weren’t sounding harmonically dissonant and laced with static and echoing reverb.
“My aren’t you a pretty one.”
As the twilight dragon turned to face him he collided with her, allowing his full weight to bring them both crashing into the frozen wastelands below with enough force to create a small, localized earthquake before he began to tear at the beast’s wings and began to run away, much like a cat playing with another, more irritable one. The twilight, in pain but not completely broken gave chase after him, too infuriated to realize what he might be doing. She struck him with her shadow fires, searing at his tail and hind legs, forcing him to flicker and teleport beside her without his own control, ruining his own initial plans. At this point, he simply rammed into her and forcibly teleported them both away at random. Soon both of them found themselves deep under the oceans of Northrend before Ætherius blinked out of existence and was brought back on shore, a ways away from the battle. He really needed to get a handle on his sorcery…
Ebonria was younger, faster, and covered in armor: this was true. But she suffered the weaknesses of the living.
The long-dead nerve endings in what flesh she had left did not react much to the sudden fire being blasted into her open chest cavity. Nothing. No roar of pain, no recoil, no massive screech and retreat, nothing - the flesh that had been hit by the fire was badly seared and burnt, but Varia barely felt it. She did, however feel Ebonria headbutting her or otherwise using her body to push against Varia's. A loud growl of irritation was the only real sound she made in response to the black dragon's defensive attacks; the dull thudding of the metal plates on her strong bones was annoying and inconvenient at worst.
"Two can play that game, whelp," she snarled, backing off just enough to get decent aim on Ebonria before she loosed a torrent of corrosive crimson flame. It was not the typical flame of the red dragonflight.. There was nothing about it that would preserve or encourage life. If it made contact with any of Ebonria's elementium plating, however, it would no doubt begin to eat away at it, weakening strips of it so that Varia could dig her massive claws into the cracks of the armor and brutally peel it off with no care given to how much pain it might cause the twisted black dragon. She could not peel off the entire suit of armor the black dragon was plated in, there was not enough time for it, but a few plates hastily torn from the twisted flesh..
A second jet of flame, this time aimed at the bare flesh - this one designed to hurt.
Ebonria shrieked in agony at the flames. Tilting her head downward instintively, she charged once more at the emberwyrm, running through the torrent of flame. She could feel the flames superheat the thinner armoring at her sides, as the very heat began to eat away at them. The pain was immense, but she was adamant when it came to fulfilling an action or a deed. Continuing forwards with her unreleting aim, she collided with Variastrasza's chest, once more, hoping that it would be enough to stop the breath attack.
The young green seemed to have a hard time reaching out for that which she had planted in the armor of Ebonria earlier. The behemoth had underestimated Terin. The Behemoth had assumed the spell was to do direct and up-front damage. Ebonria had been wrong. Holding her hands up towards the monstrocity, as she had charged into Variastrasza and getting closer to Terin, something came alive in the diabolical armor. The sense of corruption in the air started to grow. It was obvious to even the blind that something wasn't right about the spell Terin was unleashing. From the small crack her earlier bolt had made in Ebonria's armor, a deadened brown vine started to sprout, seemingly careless about the flames around them. Its roots were peeling away at the metal, digging its way into it and making it crack. The vine itself were growing thorns about the size of a human hand, hopefully causing pain and frustration to Ebonria as Variastrasza was unleashing her fury.
Terin's green eyes flickered as their glow intensified, and her body began to tremble. Withstanding this kind of magic was still rough on the youngling. The Vine was growing fast, and the amazing thing about it was, that it was mostly already dead. Only the roots were still living. There were no flowers on the vine, no colors. Only brown, rotten death. Setting it ablaze would only have the full effects, if Ebonria could reach the core of the plant, hidden inside her armor. Terin hoped to make Ebonria tear the armorpiece off of herself. That way, she would be extremely vulnerable to whichever followup Variastrasza wished to do.. "Underestimated. Perfect!" Terin shouted mockingly at Ebonria. While Terin would be unable to inflict heavy damage by herself, the fact that Ebonria had allowed her to plant a seed onto her body was more than enough to make the young green useful.
Banking hard and fast he quickly gained an advantage over the Twilight by keeping the upper air. Often the lesser experienced fliers sought to chase or dive and few learned without trail when fighting another dragon. Flying though was one thing the Green Flight had mastered long long ago. Still though the Twilight was not lacking stamina or magical means and had far better control over his fire than Ronacus. The direction of his mouth seemed to not matter to the darkened twilight fire as the drake let it out. Ronacus flew on the edges of his skill to avoid and counter the Twilight but unfortunately still obtained a number of burns. The fires not entirely mundane he had to put some of them out with an array of spells, most notability the summoning of the minulus pumpkin. A clever little flower that is very fire resistance. Not immune but infused with his own energy they pushed what dark fire burned on him off before succumbing to the twilight fire themselves.
The battle continued as such for a few more minutes until the lesser drake faltered and was entrapped in a stream of emerald fire from Ronacus. He flared his wings and came to a stop with his back towards the Temple and then dove downwards after the drake as it lost the air beneath it's wings and started falling helplessly to the ground. Ronacus landed gracefully a few feet away as the Twilight drake cratered in the stone floor surrounding the Temple. It moaned and whined as the true power of his breath was taking effect, poison. It stumbled to get up as Ronacus approached but failed and merely attempted to swat Ronacus away. Avoiding it's claws, he lunged forward and bite down hard upon the neck of the Twilight and quickly snapped it. Better to die quick than to my breath cursed brother.
Springing up ward into the air to take flight, he began to shift into his ethereal form to pass through obstacles and other people, before slipping back into this plane of existence so that he could latch onto the side of Wyrm rest and crawl upward towards the peak, looking for that other twilight dragon that was flying with the plated one. He didn’t have to wait for long as that sudden sense of dread was replaced with a simple thought. It’s behind me.
Found himself torn from Wyrmrest and throne spiraling down towards the group that was facing off against Ebonria and turned his back to the group in mid fall in hopes to see if the Twilight Dragon was following after. At the very last moment, he shifted into his ethereal form and passed through both the fighting group and through the ground, away from the Twilight Dragon, forcing him to have to pull up to not interfere with the four dragons facing off.
Ætherius “flew” through the ground before coming upward beside Ronacus, shifting back into this plane of existence he finally spoke, his voice sounding as unnatural as his appearance. “Rejuvenating bit of exercise, no?” He panted as he said that before he looked back towards the one irate dragon that was circling up above, attempting to find the large, Nether Dragon. “Well, I am off to play some more.” He dove at the side of Wyrmrest once more to scale it, keeping his eyes on the dragon before he tried to think of a new, fun way to take it down for the others to have their way with it.
The charge succeeded in halting the flow of the corrosive crimson flames, effectively knocking Varia off balance - she used Ebonria to catch herself. In a sudden flail of front legs, she hooked her claws into whatever part of the black dragon she could reach, which would likely either be the elementium face guard or neck plates, something in that region. In the process of balancing herself again, Varia would seek to force Ebonria's head and neck down toward the ground if she could, hoping for a pin of some kind. If needed, Varia would make to grab at Ebonria's face or neck with her own massive maw, full of large, pointed teeth that one generally would not want near the flesh of their body, let alone their throat or face.
"Have enough yet, whelp?" she snarled, glancing briefly to the corner of her vision at Terin, taking care to not allow Ebonria closer to the young green than absolutely necessary.
"It does have brisk feeling when awake." Ronacus left his kill and with a powerful leap into the air he quickly outstretched his companion. "I prefer not to play but to kill. Let us finish this last abomination of our flesh!" Not wanting to directly attack another drake, he instead chose to distract it and allow Ætherius to take it down. Even with his body aching from burns, he focused and unleashed several torrents of water gathered from the air at the last of the Twilight drakes. Merely battering him around, causing no real damage to the drake. However Ronacus did succeeded in making himself the drakes new target. Growling slightly at Ætherius, Ronacus turned and allowed the Twilight to give chase. Deftly dodging several streams of blackened fire he wove in and out of the ruined columns outside the Temple with the Twilight close behind.
The Nether Dragon climbed higher and higher as the Twilight was soon distracted by the green dragon. He waited until the two flew past him before springing outward at the drake. Ætherius used his powerfully muscled form to drive his hardened crystals and claws of his front paws into the back of wretched dragon. The translucent draenic dragon began to violently tear away at scales and muscles until the spine was exposed. His urges to simply toy with him were pushed back as he tore more and more at the muscles along his spine before crushing the cord just above his wings, crippling the beast before flying away, letting the dragon fall down into the armies of Wyrmrest, allowing them to finish it off.
Swooping down, he began to catch up twilight cultists at random, flying high before dropping them down into the opened maws of the old god’s creations, keeping any stray creatures from interfering with the fight with Ebonria.
Aurumos landed on a platform on the second level of the temple and shifted to his humanoid form, still recovering from the earlier fight. He nodded respectfully as he saw his companions fight against the remaining Twilights. Even though they were different, this "team" started to gain chemistry. His blue high elf eyes gazed at Ebonria as she was assaulted by the others, carefully watching over the battle in case he might have to interfere, perphaps a little agitated as time was running out for them.
(( This is mostly a bump/character thoughts post. The time part was not a "Hurry up!" request. ))
Ebonria screamed in agony as the vines began to rip off her armor, but she had to deal with the emberwyrm first. Rapidly unfurling her wings, she thrust them forward, helping to move her back. Variastrasza's grip upon her neckbrace was strong, as they ripped off its outer plates and gashed the thinner lower layers. Managing to distance herself, even if it was not very far from the emberwyrm, she proceeded to let out multiple breaths of flame to keep those before her at bay.
Yet, the vines continued to inflict pain. Biting upon those closest to her head, she ripped them out, as more of her armor was pulled off. Her blood began to slowly seep out, reminiscent of magma in itself. She roared in agnory, breathing more tufts of flame at those before her, before she managed to thrust her wings downward. She had to get out of there; there was no chance of victory against them. As her wings continued to flap, she repeatedly unleashed her flame and magma breath upon any that sought to near her. Finally gaining enough momentum to get her into the air, she hovered, before something stopped her movement entirely.
Flapping her wings were useless, as she looked down to what had grabbed her. Below was the bronze wyrm, with her teeth clasped securely upon her metal tail. Thrashing it about was useless, as she did what pained her so very much. Ripping off another plate from her right side with her teeth, she let the heated blood drop down, upon Rakaenormi. The dragon managed to swiftly thrust herself backwards, but her grasp upon Ebronria had been loosened, as the twisted dragon flapped away, hastily. "This.. is not.. over!", she shrieked, attempting to leave as quickly as possible. The bronze wyrm smiled (or tried to, sorta difficult as a dragon), but only for a split second. Looking in the direction as to which Ebonria was flying, she noted a very big form. A not a nice big dragon, either. It was the Aspect of Death.
"We must fly, now!", Rakaenormi roared at her allies, taking flight to the west of the temple. As she thrust her wings, she swirved through the ongoing battles, smashing into the odd twilight drake on her way out. "Hurry!", she screeched, glancing back at the direction in which Ebonria was flying.
Aurumos took one last breath before diving into thin air in his elven form, morphing into a dragon mid-air. He unfold his great wings and breathed, blasted and clawed his way trough the living wall created by the Twilights, following Rakaenormi and making sure her back was covered.
The sight of Deathwing made him shudder with unpleasant thoughts: on the one hand, the Aspect of Death was once a brother to Nozdormu, a trusted source of power and knowledge. But now, all that was left was an abomination intent on destroying the Azeroth and destroying the titans' creation. There would be no mercy for Neltharion and his flight. He had learned the lesson of betrayal long ago.
Variastrasza's grip on Ebonria loosened only marginally and only briefly, but it was enough for the twisted black dragon to pull herself free of the emberwyrm's vice-like embrace. Getting a mouthful of metal in the process, the ancient leviathan released the plates she'd torn off the other dragon and continued to advance, her own wings unfurled in a completely unnecessary effort to make herself appear even larger than she already was. As a living fossil, the gesture was seriously pointless - either way she was imposing.
But Ebonria fled, spitting fire in a vain attempt to keep the group from chasing. Variastrasza considered the chase for a moment but decided against it - there was too much effort involved in getting her frame off the ground and up to chasing speed. Rakae made chase, though, but Ebonria escaped again and fled for real.. straight toward the looming figure of the black aspect. Variastrasza felt no fear at the sight of him. He was mad, he was corrupt, he was twisted and warped to the depths of his core.. But in her mind, she remembered Neltharion as he was before he succumbed to the voices in his head, before the whispers of the Old Gods became too strong to resist. He had been proud and wise then, in the long-gone past, and that was the image that stuck most firmly in the ancient dragon's mind.
Rakaenormi's panic was understandable but Varia did not share it. Calmly turning to Terin, Varia presented a bony leg for the green youngling to climb so she could settle into the familiar spot between the emberwyrm's vertebra and spine spikes. Assuming she would get up there, Varia flexed her wings and then heaved her massive frame into the air, sending snow flying in just about every direction from the force of her ascent. It took a few moments for her to get up to speed and gain altitude. She was not particularly careful about avoiding the dragons battling above; if a black dragon or a twilight dragon was in the way, she either unleashed a torrent of crimson of fire upon them or simply forced her way through them - any that were idiotic enough to try to fight her were swatted away as if mere flies, unable to distract the emberwyrm from her destination: Coldarra.
"The black aspect is a mad being," she said calmly over the roaring wind, to Terin. "He was noble, once. Very proud. Wise beyond his years. As you can see, he has fallen far into the reaches of insanity, as Malygos had.. To wage war on one's own kind, regardless of flight, is a terrible gesture."
Ronacus heard Rakeanormi yell to them and didn't need telling twice as he too felt and saw the Aspect of Death. Rage and fear filled him as he quickly turned and flapped hard to catch up with his party. He wanted to fight that mad dragon but he knew he could do nothing more than the fly against the Venus Flytrap. He would have to leave the real work to his own Aspect, Ysera. All he could do now was help stop the Twilight at Coldarra. Not wanting to prolong fighting at the Temple he wove in and out of assailants and defenders alike. Catching up with ease to the larger dragons he began to inspect their wounds and his own. Casting several long worded spells he began to heal them. It was not a long flight, by a dragon's standard, to Coldarra by they would need the time to recover appropriately.
The Nether Dragon continued with his little game until he noticed the others beginning their flight towards Coldarra and quickly followed afterwards, dropping two cultists that were still in his clutches to splatter across the frozen grounds. He blinked in and out of existence until he caught up with the rest, flying around and through them from time to time with his own curiosities flaring over what the group was composed of. It seemed like a very unlikely sextet, one that could shatter under the right circumstances. He drew upon any freely floating magic around them to mend his own wounds, and swooped down to snatch up a mammoth to devour mid flight before continuing with them. "I cannot say that I have spent much time in Coldarra." He said to no one at all before reaching a spot just above and behind Variastraza. "I also don't believe I have met anything like you either."
"I cannot say the same of you, Netherwing," Varia said casually, not even looking up or back to find the nether dragon that flew nearby. She knew it was him: the other flights here would no doubt have some experience with the undead dragons the Scourge enjoyed utilizing here in Northrend, but a native of Outland may not have had the same exposure. "Your flight is not common on Azeroth, but I have been afforded an opportunity or two to meet others of Neltharion's lost brood that have made home here."
She briefly fell silent, just long enough to fly over the frozen remains of a pair of dragons who looked fairly long-dead. "The Scourge realized the strengths of the dragons early in their recent campaign. By using some of their strongest magic, they were able to reanimate the bodies of fallen dragonkin and force them into the service of the Scourge. At the time, the blue dragonflight was attempting to lay siege to Wyrmrest Temple to prevent interference in their Nexus War. This gave Scourge necromancers many bodies to work with, and they preferred the freshly slain blues but were not particularly selective. In transit from the Ruby Dragonshrine to Wyrmrest, I was gravely injured by a number of these reanimated blues. I turned back and sought refuge at the dragonshrine but was immediately chased off by one of my own brood whose final rest had been disturbed by the Scourge. I was felled far to the north of here, near the entrance to the forest. They promptly drafted me into their service, as well."
"I do not belong to the red dragonflight any longer," she went on, occasionally tilting her body slightly to adjust her direction. "The very nature of my being is a violation of the purpose of the reds. This conflict, however, goes far beyond the dragonflights and who belongs to which. I do not feel it is unreasonable for me to inflict my presence upon the others under these particular circumstances."
Terin was still shaking mildly as she climbed onto the back of the gargantuan Variastrasza. Situating herself calmly upon her back, Terin took a decent hold of the enormous emberwyrm. The young green was coughing lowly, as the corruption slowly settled again. It had been beyond rough on her, but she had proven that she was capable of assisting the group. It ment the world to her, and therefore she now suffered from the backlash. However, every time Terin pushed herself harder into using the corruption that ran in her blood for magic, the backlashes seemed to be lessened.
However, a warning had been cast. There was another dragon that had accepted the fel as a part of its being, before she was twisted and malformed into a whole new being - a Fel dragon, Felmyst. Terin knew of the danger, yet she dared defy the odds. The power wouldn't ever claim her. Never.. "The aspect of Earth and his daughter. I should be shaken to my core, yet I am not. I just feel.. sadness..?" Terin slowly rose up from Varia's back, having the wind play with her figure. How she longed flying with her own wings..
As the Nether dragon neared, Terin sat back down safely, eyeing his figure from a distance. It was strange that beings like him existed. Dragons, from other worlds, reminding so much of the Dragons on Azeroth. Yet, his appearance was entirely different.. A low cough left Terin's figure, her eyes flickering once more. Taking a deep breath, it seemed to have all settled. Now, the only thing that remained, was curiousity towards the stranger.. As they spoke, Terin remained entirely silent, just watching and listening. For some reason, Terin was both repulsed by the stranger, and intrigued.. Shaking her head, Terin decided to ignore him for now.
Aurumos attentively studied the Netherwing and its movements, recalling past events..
Dozens of years ago, the Horde and Alliance fought for their survival and Deathwing stashed many eggs in the supposedly-safe Draenor. Little did he know that Draenor would burst into a terrible explosion, his eggs altered. Without a leader, the Netherwings forged their own path into the world..
He spoke slowly and in a low, solemn-tone, yet easy to understand:
" Tell me, young one...netherwing...
Why have you left...Draenor ? This world is besieged by servants of the Old Gods, the plague the titans subdued so many thousands of years ago..
What made you leave the energy-filled Draenor and come into Azeroth ? "
Ætherius listened to everything that Variastraza said, taking note of the one dragon preferring her humanoid form astride the hulking emberwyrm. He noticed a very familiar taint upon her but made no mention of it just yet, simply filing that away for the time being. “It does seem to reach beyond what code one might follow.” He finally stated to the Varia as his voice continued to crackle with unnatural harmonies before he heard Aurumos speak. He flickered briefly before glancing towards the bronze shaded dragon who smelled of sand. He chuckled, something that sounded like rolling thunder and electricity, when he spoke of leaving his home before he glanced off ahead towards their destination.
“The reason is, Why not? The eldritch forces and their servants stretch far beyond the scope of something as a single world. It is nice to have a refreshing change of scenery from time to time as well. It isn’t as if it is difficult for me to reach if need be.” He began to fly in silence at this point outside of the occasional flickering in and out of the astral or a crackling sound of raw nether seeming to arc between his crystalline growths.
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