THE GREATER THE POWER,
THE MORE DANGEROUS THE ABUSE
—Edmund Burke—
Erza's foot tapped restlessly against the carpet as she thought over both Natsu and Lucy's recounts of last night. While the pinkette was still nursing his bruised head after Erza had flung him from the bed into the wall, screaming all the while about Lucy's honor, Lucy was just as focused as the scarlet knight.
"So, something was at our window, and managed to open it. It escaped, but it's smell lingered. You don't know what the smell was?" The woman asked, but Natsu merely shook his head. "Well, whatever it was, it was able to scale the walls outside to the third floor and open a window. It's intelligent to say the least."
"It's been around since the first day we arrived," Lucy mumbled, and at that, Erza's tapping stopped and all eyes were on her, Natsu's the most concerned as he felt her shiver from where she sat beside him. "I thought I was just paranoid because it's our first S-Class as a team, so I didn't think much of it, but… I always had this feeling of being watched. I felt it last night, too, and then Natsu and I heard the noise. I jumped when I heard it, and opened my eyes in time to see the wall flicker… and then the feeling was gone. It's been watching me this whole time."
"I wish I could disagree with you," Erza began, "but you're right. Whatever this creature is, it hasn't been watching the rest of us. I would have sensed it when I examined the edge of the forest yesterday, and Natsu would have smelled it. For some reason, it's interested in you, Lucy."
"So, do we need to figure out why it's stalking Lucy first, or do we need to find whatever is doing the stalking first?" Gray voiced, keeping his eyes on the woods outside the window, almost daring the creature to return.
Natsu glared at the ice mage with a look Lucy could only describe as exasperation. "If it's after Luce, and we go out there without knowing why, she's at risk."
"None of us have ever been in this town before, and we're always at risk on missions. Besides, we're all here to look out for each other, and I can take care of myself," Lucy replied, and Natsu pouted at her. "I know you're worried, but it will be fine. For now, we need to keep whatever it is from killing any more innocent people. For all we know, the beast that killed the three tourists and whatever is after me are entirely unrelated."
"She's right, however, we can't be careless. No one travels alone from this point onward." Erza stated, and no one could argue with that. "Now that that's taken care of, I suppose we should focus on the mission. Lucy?"
"Yes?"
"Which areas do you recommend we examine first?"
The stellar mage slipped the notes she'd taken from her notebook and glanced over them. "Let's start with Trail Three and see if we can find any clues. The areas around trails Two through Four have been searched, so I'm going to suggest we skip reviewing those areas and head to the other likely areas if we don't find anything."
"How many possible areas are there?" Gray asked, leaning down to look at the sketch in her hands. "If there are too many, we can travel in pairs and meet up elsewhere."
"Ten possibilities, but only four are very likely, so I'd suggest sticking together," Lucy replied, moving to stand. "If we head out now, we can probably expect to search all four locations and the trail before lunch and see what we need to do from there."
Natsu, though he did his best to stay focused, was admittedly more motivated by lunch than the mission and was the first out the door. By the time the others had reached the area where all six trails converged, he was sniffing the air as he wandered down the third trail, Happy scoping the area from above. "This one definitely smells different from the others," the Slayer noted, wrinkling his nose in distaste. "Same smell that was at the window last night. It's all over the place, but mostly here."
"Can you follow it anywhere?" Lucy asked, but Natsu shook his head.
"Whatever it is has been all over these woods. I can tell where it's been most often if I'm there, but otherwise…" he shrugged, folding his hands behind his head and walking further along. "It smells horrible all over the place!"
The others followed the slayer down the trail, and it was only twenty minutes later that Lucy called their attention, pointing at a small upwards slope that grew into a hill that the trail ran underneath. "The top of the hill is where the bodies were found." A few small yellow ribbons were tied around the trunks of the trees on the hill, words of caution printed upon them in black ink. When the group arrived, what they expected to be a barren crime scene was more depressing than anticipated.
A small picnic blanket sat near the peak of the hill, claw-like tears searing through the fabric and red stains splattered all around. Some areas looked singed as though there had been a fire, others with earth upturned in a clear sign of fruitless struggle. Whatever had happened to the tourists had been anything but painless and certainly not quick if the signs of a fight were anything to go by.
Natsu pressed his scarf over his nose and mouth, eyes dark as he looked over the area. Lucy took a moment to steel her nerves before moving forwards and examining the area more closely. "There are three distinct areas with more blood and scorch-marks. If there was only one monster, then two of the three family members would have been able to run further away, or at least one could have. The claw marks and prints vary in size as well, so I'm going to assume there are multiple monsters, not only one. It's also unlikely that the three people had the same type of magic, if any at all, so the beasts probably caused the scorch marks."
"Fire magic?" Gray asked, letting his fingers graze over one of the patches before he jerked his hand away with a hiss of pain. "Damn," he cursed, shaking his hand and wiping his fingertips on a clear patch of grass, "it's wet, and burns to touch. Acid?"
"I'm not sure. At least we know whatever it is is harmful to us and not just the plants," Erza stated, leaning forward as she examined claw marks in one of the trees. "The substance is here as well. I assume it's produced from the beasts' claws."
"Then why are there patches instead of trails?" Natsu asked, his voice muffled behind his makeshift mask. He stood from where he'd crouched, moving to stand beside Lucy, who had been staring at the ground for a while now as if it held all the answers. "Luce?"
"Maybe it's not from the monsters," she hummed, turning and moving to where Erza stood. "There are lots of poisonous plants out here. Maybe the beasts stepped on them during the attack. That would explain why it's in the claw mark grooves and on the ground."
"The stuff smells exactly like the monsters do, though," Natsu advised. "Unless they roll around in this stuff every day, it's got to be coming from them."
Lucy's hand moved to her chin as she thought, her mind whirling a mile a minute as she tried to come up with an explanation for it all. She knew there were multiple monsters, at least three, she knew that they attacked humans and most likely ate them, and she knew that they were somehow associated with some kind of poison.
The only beasts she could think of that travelled in packs and attacked people are Vulcans, but there were no species that dealt with poison of any kind, ate humans, or were intelligent enough to hide for so long without anyone knowing about them. They were brutish and loud. A beast silent and well-hidden would be a wyvern, but unless they were mating then they travelled alone, and again, they had no dealings in poison. Even if they were in a family pack, they wouldn't be out here in the open where people are commonly seen.
Of all the magical beasts she could think of that she'd researched the day before, not a single one fit all of the descriptions. It was driving her mad with curiosity, and she wondered if perhaps there wasn't more to the story than a simple animal attack.
Finally, when she grew restless with the lack of answers and influx of questions, Erza sighed and turned to her blonde teammate. "Where is the next location you would like to search? I believe we've found all we can here."
They travelled in relative silence, the gruesome scene they'd just witnessed leaving them all sobered with sorrow. Lucy guided them to the next location, careful to avoid the areas she had marked as uninhabitable and dangerous. As they approached the next area, Natsu covered his nose once again, and the group came to a halt.
"What is it?" Gray asked, eyes scanning through the trees, but Natsu merely shook his head.
"It smells like the monsters," he answered, only to gag from opening his mouth, "just worse. A lot worse."
Erza, already antsy and impatient for answers, merely moved through the brush that Natsu had refused to trudge through. She paused not far beyond the line of shrubbery, one hand on her hilt as the other motioned the team forwards. Before them all stood a house, overgrown and worse for wear with splintered wood for patio steps and cracked beams barely supporting themselves, let alone the home. The windows were either gone or nearly so, pieces of doors hanging on by broken hinges while the remainder of the wood was scattered amongst broken glass and trampled vinery.
The walls at first appeared rotted from time, but upon a second glance, the odd coloration of dried blood and a strange violet fluid took up more space than the rot, expanding beyond the wall and stretching upwards to the roof, to the overgrown grass and what seemed to be a broken-down cart. The house very obviously looked abandoned, but the signs were telling a story of not a calm exit, but a brutal one.
The group of five all crouched low as they stared at an empty home full of stories they were almost hesitant to unveil.
"Do we go in?" Happy whispered, hovering just between Erza and Natsu as he looked to them for answers.
Erza's eyes bore into the building as though she could see through it, staying stiff as if she were in a catatonic state before finally giving an exhale of uncertainty. "I don't see any signs of life or movement as of now, but judging by the trails littering the area, I'm certain this is where the beasts gather."
"Do… do you think they, you know… cleared the house out themselves?" Lucy asked, keeping her eyes peeled towards the treeline as, slowly but surely, the group began to move forwards. Erza gave a hum of thought, but said no more as she took the first step onto the patio, it's steps creaking minutely. "Considering the weight of your armor and weapon, you'd think the step would do more."
"I assume the monsters are rather large. My weight would seem miniscule in comparison," Erza stated, only to send a glare at Happy as he tested her theory on the patio railing. The loud sound of protest that followed caused the exceed to bury himself safely into Lucy's chest. "I highly doubt they sit on the rails, Happy. If they are as large as I anticipate, that is."
"Do we really have to go inside?" Gray grumbled as he followed the blonde into the home, natural light from a plethora of holes lighting the otherwise dark room. "Can't we just wait for them to come back, then tear the house down?"
"We could," Lucy agreed, "but we have no real knowledge of the beasts we're facing, and the state of the house suggests that the bodies that were found on the hill may not be the only victims. We need more information, and this is the crime scene."
Natsu nodded his agreement, though it's effect was minimized by the fact that his scarf was wrapped around his face to block the smell, leading him to use the wardrobe change as an opportunity for ninja stealth. He examined the empty living room from atop a three-legged table, one leg raised and hands pressed together in front of him. Happy, for his part, was doing his best to act as the table's fourth leg.
Erza disappeared into one of the connecting rooms, sword drawn and eyes sharp, as Gray scolded Natsu in angry whispers and Happy panted away as Natsu's sudden defensive movements shook the table. With a shake of her head and trusting that, upon her return, Erza would kick them into submission, Lucy ventured up the stairs to the second floor. By the time those four got around to the other first floor rooms, she could have the upper rooms taken care of.
Her hand carefully grazed the wall as she ventured down the hall, peeking into one room after another for anything outstanding before she began her more depthful search in the furthest room and worked her way back. Lucy paused only two doors away from the end of the hall, staring into what was notably the most in-tact room she'd witnessed so far. A bed with only slightly-ruffled sheets, a mirror with one crack as opposed to the dozens she most commonly saw, a shattered bedside table in the middle of the room, a dresser with a few claw marks as though something had tried to pry it open, and vines climbing in through the window.
It wasn't anywhere near perfect, but while the room's rather unusual case of being fairly unscathed piqued her interest, it was the vinery that she found herself drawn to. She crouched low, examining the leaves from a safe distance and using her foot to crush one of the green fronds. The same violet liquid lining the walls outside began to ooze from it, causing smoke to rise from the wooden floor below until the hazardous material faded.
Her brow furrowed as a thought seemed to form, swirling just beyond her reach and taunting her as she worked to figure out just what she was missing. "Poisonous plants… is it the type? These are common, though, at least for this area. The location… no, the area around the house has a few of these plants, it's not unusual for them to be here." She ran her palms over her face before letting her eyes focus on the trees through the window. Her hands moved to rest on her hips, and she ran her fingers comfortingly over her keys as she let her mind roam the possibilities as they came to her.
A chill swept down her spine as she stood abruptly, but she knew it wasn't the breeze when the feeling remained so long as her eyes continued to stare outwards. It was a heavy feeling, less observant and more threatening in comparison to the other episodes, and her heart began to race as she tried to spot whatever it was that had decided to return to it's den. The trees swayed harmlessly in the distance, nothing out of the ordinary to be seen, but the feeling stuck to her skin.
Lucy shook her head and gave a slow sigh. "Natsu will smell whatever they are if they get too close." With that whispered reassurance, she returned to staring at the plants by her feet. Her mind pressed at her, demanding she put the pieces together, and with a start, she remembered a vague snippet of conversation. She could feel the slight discomfort tingling on her palm as she recalled scrubbing the make-up from Natsu's cheeks, the sound of the two men arguing in the bathroom, her fingers flipping through her own notes.
"Erza, none of the animals on the list could eat these dangerous plants."
None of the creatures in the area could eat these plants, yet the poisonous fluids in each leaf had been released so often it gleamed on the walls of the den. Scorch marks similar to those beneath the leaf she'd just crushed had been on the hill but a mere bundle of leaves couldn't have made such wide marks considering how little damage one plant could really do. According to her research, the plants hadn't been introduced to the area when it was founded, but came into play without much warning nearly twenty-eight years ago, assumed to be the work of seeds mistaken to be those of a different flower being planted.
It spread, the dominant plant that it was, but even though it could sap the life and resources from the plants surrounding it, the poisonous entanglements never spread too far and stayed in control, from the moment it was introduced to now.
Twenty-eight years. X763. What else had occurred that year?
No new animals had been introduced to the area. The city had been calm and quaint and rather spacious for years until people grew attracted to it's quiet atmosphere and the population began to grow. X763 was one of the many years spent with neighbors being almost a mile apart from one another, town hall was more of a farmhouse than an office, the land was forested densely, bandits roamed near intercity roads but few crimes were ever committed in the town, the postal office was still fresh off the ground…
Few crimes were committed. Few, but enough. One crime in particular occured in X762, just a few months before the poisonous plants began to become an official local flora.
Her keys felt heavy on her hip as the puzzle pieces began to fall into place, and a man's face flashed in her mind.
"...it's like intaking ethernano loaded with a magic different from your own. It messes with your entire system, and enough of it can completely change your own magic."
She turned on her heel, hand resting on her keys as she thought through it all.
"Which spirit was it?"
Golden light surrounded her hand as magic spiked through her keys, her mouth falling open as she prepared to call out to her team. Before her lay the remains of the broken bedside table, smoking as poison streamed over the wood. Her view of the door was blocked by a vision of black scales and purple streaks, off-colored streams of saliva wavering from heated breath as eyes the color of amethysts stared through her.
Natsu had blocked out any scents with his scarf before he'd entered the home.
"Lacertae," Lucy breathed, leaping towards the broken mirror as claws streaked through the air where she'd been standing. Loke appeared silently on the other side of the room as the mirror shattered against her shoulder and the lizard-like creature came further into the room. She heard Erza call out to her and a wave of heat filtered up through the house as crashes sounded from below them.
The lizard turned towards her, but Lucy overcame the pain in her shoulder quickly as she darted through the door, buying herself time to draw her whip as she took the stairs three at a time. Loke blasted the beast the second it began its descent of the stairs, following it down as Lucy aimed for it's legs.
"Open, Gate of the Golden Bull," she called, watching Loke leap over the beast to give her better access to it's claws as it reached for him. "Taurus!"
In the next instant, the monster was on the ground, Taurus's axe slicing through the air and Loke's light blasting at the beast. The three all remembered how it had worked when Zoldeo had weaseled his way into Capricorn's body, but this man had taken not Lacertae's body; he had absorbed her magic. She could only trust they knew how to resolve this and do her best to keep the beast from harming them.
Another shout came from the kitchen, and she leaned back to see what was going on only to drop into a crouch as another beast, larger than the one she'd caught, soared past her as though it had been tossed, Erza following suit.
"Lucy," her lion spirit called, and she turned, surprised to find not a lizard, but a small boy in the confines of her whip. Loke's hand was pressed onto the small boy's forehead as the child's body began to fade similarly to that of her spirits, dark magic spiralling around his form. "I can return them to the celestial spirit realm, and the King can deal with them there. The other spirits can do the same once these people have been defeated, and so can you, if you touch them and perform a forced gate closure."
"Got it," the blonde replied, withdrawing her weapon. "Loke, you go to Erza and help her return the spirit she's fighting. Taurus, I need you to find Gray and stay with him, tell him what you need to do. I'll find Natsu."
While her response had initially been well-planned, her spirits already moving in separate directions, she realized with a start that aside from Erza, she had no idea where her teammates were. She ran through the front door with Taurus as he sought out Gray, and her spirit mooed as they instantly spotted the ice mage skating on ice-encased grass as the beast he'd found used it's claws for traction. Taurus took off towards the battle, and Lucy spun, scanning the area for any sign of her partner.
Just as she was about to take off in a blind search, she heard a familiar attack sound out in the forest and her brow twitched further as a tree was set ablaze.
"Oh my stars, he's going to burn the forest down," she grumbled, setting off in a sprint.
Scrambling through the bushes the group had initially seen the house from, she pushed her legs to their limits as she dodged tree roots and directed herself to the familiar source of heat. As much as she'd hoped to run into him, however, she couldn't help but groan when her wish was taken all too literally and she crashed into the Dragon Slayer's back.
"Lushy!" Happy cheered from where he sat atop another beast's tail, the lizard swishing it fruitlessly from side to side in an attempt to shake the exceed off. "We found the monsters!"
"They're not monsters, they're people!" Lucy replied, and at the sound of her voice the creatures head whipped around to stare at her. The chill returned as she tilted her chin up, this lizard-like enemy towering at a height reminiscent to Elfman's. It's eyes pierced through her and, unlike the others she'd seen so far, there was a spark resting behind it's gaze that seemed all too aware. Of what, she wasn't sure.
Natsu pulled her up into a standing position, but before he could ask her for clarification, she kicked him, sending herself in one direction as he flew opposite her. Happy squealed as he was swung around to where they'd been standing, the lizard's spiny tail swaying to a stop. It whipped out, sending Happy flying into Natsu, before the beast lunged and swiped once again at the blonde.
With a disgruntled shout, Natsu stood and launched himself forwards, dodging the flailing tail as the beast ignored his presence altogether in favor of narrowing in on the blonde. Before long, she felt a familiar wave of discomfort that came in the form of her magic exertion dropping to a mere trickle. It was followed shortly after by another wave of panic as her magic began to restore as opposed to drop, and she realized with a bitter start that Loke and Taurus had been sent back.
"Natsu," she called, leaping out of the monster's reach as she worked to avoid the monster that had honed in on her presence. "My spirits and I can take care of them, and they know it. They're targeting us so that even if you defeat them, nothing will happen other than death."
"What do we do?" He called, using his fire as a deterrent for keeping the claws away from him.
In the way of a response, Lucy snagged Happy from the sky above her. "We need to regroup. Tell Erza and Gray." Her soft-spoken message went unheard by the beast, but Natsu's keen ears perked as his flames expanded, forming a barrier on one side as Lucy took off in the direction Happy had flown. The monster let out a deafening cry as it scuttered around the flaming wall and gave chase to the celestial wizard, Natsu following suit.
By the time Lucy had returned to the clearing, Gray was desperately working to put space between himself and the beast he was facing by way of ice shields and lances. As quick and powerful as they all were, the black scales lining the beasts bodies seemed impenetrable. Gray spun so that his back was to Natsu's, and the two blasted at the lizards with magics neither had experienced yet. Lucy kept to the edge for the time being, allowing her teammates to regroup fully when Erza burst through a half-shattered window, followed closely by the lizard she had initially been following.
"What now?" Gray yelled from where he stood, Erza and her shield fending one beast from his back while he froze another's tail to the ground, allowing Natsu to get a rather ineffective hit in.
It was a question Lucy knew she had to answer, because of all of the battles, hers was the only one that had ended successfully. Her mind whirred in recollection of the first beast's defeat, recalling that while she'd held the beasts legs together and Loke had blinded it, Taurus had slashed down with his axe. Despite this, the boy hadn't had a scratch on him as he'd been disappearing.
Her hand hovered over her keys as she focused her power not on summoning, but on simply connecting, and she was rewarded with a soft hum in the back of her mind. "Taurus?"
"Lu-ooooo-cy! Ho-ooo-w can I help y-ooooo-u?" The bull's voice echoed, and a smile split her face.
"Thank you for your help today, Taurus, but I need just one more thing from you. How did you and Loke manage to subdue the boy? Loke's attack blinded him, and I restrained him, but nothing my team is doing seems to be working."
A small moment of silence filtered through as she ran, one of the smaller lizards rushing at her and drawing her hand from her keys. She sprinted at an angle, catching Erza's eye, and not a moment later, the lizard behind her was redirected by a plethora of daggers ramming into the earth between it and herself as a kind of warning from her scarlet-haired teammate.
Her hand found its way back to Taurus's key, and the bull wasted no time in completing the connection. "The claws are the weak p-ooo-int. That's where a maj-ooooo-rity of Lacertae's magic is cent-ooo-red. Cut or break th-oooo-se, and then y-ooo-u can force a gate cl-ooo-sure!"
As grateful as she was for the information, she quickly broke the connection with her spirit. She loved them, quirks and all, but his mooing was going to be the death of her as every extra second had her teammates struggling more and more to keep up the defensive distractions.
With precision born from years of practice, her fingers danced over her keys until they landed on those of Gemini and Aries, both of which were summoned in quick succession. While her teammates could easily destroy the claws, it was her job not only to send the beasts back, but to make sure they had safe access to those claws.
"Gemini, I need you to copy Aries. You'll work with Erza and Gray to trap the Lizards while they aim for the claws. Aries, you'll work with Natsu and I. The second you see a safe opening after the beasts are subdued, go in for a gate closure." While copying another spirit resulted in a lower level of magic power, it didn't take much of Aries's wool to trap any beast. In many prior cases, her wool was so comfortable that no one really struggled against it, but Lucy wasn't willing to test that theory on these creatures.
The twins darted into action as a much more confident version of the ram, giving a short explanation to Gray and Erza as they set to work. Lucy extended her whip and lashed out at the largest of the three lizards which had initially been Natsu's focus, and it approached quickly and cautiously, already wary of the appearance of the ram spirit. As shy as she was, Aries was quick on her feet, and her first wool bomb just barely missed as the beast tucked to one side, it's tail coated in small tendrils of pink.
Natsu rushed forward then, working to keep it in one area with Lucy while the ram fired blast after blast of wool. Once one of the lizard's arms was slowed by the wool, Natsu let loose his wing attack, and an unearthly screech resonated around the field as one of the claws seemed to crackle and crumble as if dried out, steam rising from the now-barren appendage. Two claws still remained on that limb alone, but the success was enough to drive the team forwards as they focused on precision.
Soon enough, shrieks filled the air as one after another the mages slowed the beasts just enough to destroy the claws teeming with Lacertae's magic. Gray's exhaustion was masked by a satisfied smirk as his ice spread and latched onto anything it could, creeping along the ground in patches waiting to catch one of the beasts as Gemini-Aries blasted them with wool and Erza came at them from all sides with swords in hand. The real ram spirit had taken to blasting wool in seemingly unusual places, only for Lucy to use her whip to drag a beast just far enough to one side to catch it.
When the first beast fell, a small girl taking its place and fading into the spirit realm, it was a silent situation. However, the sudden diffusion of effort from three lizards to two was utterly dynamic in effect as the creatures were strained and dodging at an inhuman rate. Despite it all, though, the largest of the pack still kept a gleam in its eyes that continually sent chills down Lucy's spine.
With a shout and a wave of heat, Natsu landed a punch on the beast's head and it went rolling, sliding to a stop and curling it's arm to protect the three remaining claws it had. Aries and Gemini both worked to douse it in wool as Erza and Natsu went in for the final strike, so Lucy turned to Gray, who had laid a successful trap and had nearly frozen the last claws off of his own beast.
Time slowed to a halt as one of the claws froze and cracked, and just beyond it she could see the porch of the house wavering, violet poison glistening in the incomplete shadows as one lizard, nearly as large as the one Natsu had faced, tensed in preparation to pounce.
Natsu's battle cry and Erza's requip command rang out as the largest beast attempted to claw at them.
Gray sent a wave of ice lances as the lizard he'd caught thrashed in the ice.
Happy carried Aries upwards to bast wool from above as Gemini sent bomb after bomb from below.
All Lucy could to was extend her whip and scream.
In one instant, all eyes were on their own battles, but in the next, both sides of the battlefield had turned their attention to her, her whip mere feet above Gray's head as she tugged, pulling the airborne lizard from Gray and in the only direction she had enough force to take it that would keep its claws from her teammate.
Right into her own arms, the place where it wanted to be the most.
It's claws, sizzling with fresh poison and all perfectly intact, sank so deeply into her arms she felt the hum of the hardened protrusion sliding against the bones in her arms and shoulders, searing pain coursing through her limbs. Her scream morphed quickly from one of panic to one of pain, what was initially Gray's name cut off as she could focus on nothing but the burning of her vocal chords and the sizzling sound of her skin and bones burning. As her mind spiralled into a place splotched with dark spots, it was all she could do to keep her magic pumping into her spirits, trying with everything she had to ensure that the other two beasts were down before she thought about letting her hold slip.
But it wasn't slipping. She didn't have anything to hold onto beyond the sensation of cold claws and hot, acid-like poison digging into her flesh and bones and streaking through her bloodstream. Her whip had twisted the creature to keep it's claws from her teammate's head, but as a result, it's forearms were centered on her own while it's head was further down her body, jaws open as it worked desperately to draw her team from it's companions. Once again, she felt hard protrusions scraping along bone, although this time the pain shot through her leg as its teeth tore into her like blades, slicing through muscle and sending splatters of warm blood and sizzling venom over her lower body.
Her scream was cut short, going silent as her throat gave out on her, but in the end she was a distraction, a means of escape, and her reactions were a necessity.
Silence was not what the lizard had in mind. Just as it's teeth began to burrow further into her flesh, a different scream tore through the air, and a wave of heat seared through the space above her, sending the claws dragging over her chest in shallow cuts with the exception of one, hanging on with whatever it had as it left a deep, hissing gash on the juncture between her neck and shoulder.
Whether it was magic bleeding from her, or actual blood, she couldn't tell anymore. The battlefield was full of muffled explosions and obstructed voices and the sun was becoming harder and harder to see. A blur of blue passed through her vision and a much louder cry was heard. Colors filtered in, dulled by the dark splotches that were overtaking her vision. Pinks and golds, blacks and blues, silver and red and something indescribably dark swirling up into the sky, disappearing into the dark spots that were the only real thing she could focus on.
Someone said her name and a face filled up what was left of her field of vision before, with the most painful sigh she'd ever experienced, the last of her strength drained from her form and she collapsed into the sensation of pure numbness.
