Chapter 12- Fire and Ice
A frigid wave seemed to wash over the battlefield, as tiny flakes of glimmering crystalline whiteness fell gently to the ground with each wing beat of the colossal dragon. Its very body seemed to exist dually as both scaly reptilian flesh, and shards of ice. Every tooth and spike on its body resembled an icicle, and it had a pair of flaming blue gas burners for eyes.
It wasn't a great jump in conclusions to presume that the serpent's breath had something to do with an affinity for creating chills and frost.
Gently the great beast landed on the precipice, shielding Razor from the heroes with its massive bulk. It scooped up his battered form with its tail, placing him tenderly atop a comically large saddle that was strapped to the dragon's back.
Blaze and Silver were in a mix of shock and fixed determination. Real dragons weren't exactly an everyday appearance, and although Silver had participated in the battle against Nova, in his defense it should be noted that one never really grows accustomed to the sight.
By now the rugged tropical field that had been covered in a thick layer of shimmering ivory, and large crystals of ice built upon each other to form jutting stalagmites of frozen water. The amethyst feline ignited her fists with a burning crimson flame, but she noted that the aura of cold that the dragon was surrounded by was severely hampering her powers.
"Good girl, Niveus," Razor cooed affectionately, as the serpent snarled at the heroes, baring massive teeth. "I guess now you know why they call me the Dragon Tamer, for real!"
"Ha! At least now this might actually be a challenge!" Blaze erupted with all the power and volatility of an actual volcano, sparks and tongues of fire seeming to leap from her body. Confidently charging towards Niveus without any other warning, she became surrounded by an inferno of flames.
Silver was unnerved by the sinister and self-confident smirk on Razor's face, as he tugged on the reins, making the dragon take to the skies, a light snowfall trailing beneath her.
"Silver, launch me at the dragon," Blaze commanded, as she intensified the flames surrounding her. Her ivory companion seemed reluctant to go with any plan involving using her as a projectile, but as the dragon began circling and raining down razor sharp shards of ice, he assented.
Breathing in sharply, he concentrated the bright emerald aura surrounding him, generating a powerful and concentrated sphere of wind around Blaze. She charged herself like the payload of a missile, glowing a bright and bloody red with the intensity of the heat searing within her body.
Just as Niveus launched a massive icicle directly at them, Silver hurled her a grunt, releasing a torrential build up of air that transformed the cat into a living, flaming, screaming bullet. Blasting through the ice shard as easily as if it were a delicate pane of glass, Blaze tore through the air like a scarlet lightning bolt, leaving a trail of fire and ashes in her wake.
Drawing back her fist, she concentrated all her power and momentum into that single point, slamming it into the side of the dragon with force and brutality that seemed to rival a dozen cannonballs. Releasing an ear-piercing shriek that shook the very Earth itself, Niveus retaliated by snaking forward its grotesque head and snapping at Blaze, its dagger-like teeth flashing.
Gravity saved the cat from the maw of the beast, but simultaneously began pulling her towards her doom on the ground far below. As the feline began to fall, Silver shot up, his emerald aura fluctuating slightly as the Wyvern's tremendous wings flapped. He caught Blaze in mid-air, the power of his beast holding them both aloft as the heroes faced off with the icy wyrm.
"I've got to hand it to you both, you've got guts, for real," Razor chuckled from atop his dragon. "Most enemies I've faced went pissed themselves and ran at the first sight of one of my babies."
"I've faced a dragon before with my friends, and we killed that one," Silver echoed, his voice resounding strong and resonant like thunder. "Just like we'll defeat you!"
"What, you mean Nova?" Razor began to chuckle. "The way I heard it, Shadow was the one who took him out. The rest of you hardly did anything."
Silver's eyes widened at the mention of the obsidian betrayer; this was his first encounter with th organization, so he did not know how involved they'd been, or how Razor could possibly know about the battle with Nova... or Shadow.
"What are you driving at?" Blaze was quickly becoming impatient with Razor, and let this flaming rage manifest itself in physical form within her palms.
"Hm? Just that the guy isn't with you anymore. How are you going to get anything done without him?"
Silver had to admit, he'd feel much more confident facing this dragon if Shadow were here to help. But Shadow wasn't there. There was only him, and Blaze, and the task before him. Although the task might seem difficult, he knew that together they could stand against this foe.
Gathering his courage, he inhaled deeply, drawing swirling tendrils of emerald light into himself as he absorbed more of the Wyvern's power. Blistering winds began to howl, turning the gentle snowfall into a ferocious blizzard. Razor seemed unfazed by this, yanking on the reins to once again command his dragon to ascend.
Roaring in competition with the storm, the dragon began to pick up speed, raining down snowflakes and ice chips with each beat of its wings. Refusing to simply wait for Razor to take the offensive, Blaze clenched her fists, gathering energy for her next attack.
The icy matter surrounding her rapidly thawed in a premature Spring, as the purple cat pressed her palms together, and formed a spark there that grew into an orb of flames that threw off tongues of fire like a miniature sun.
"Silver, try to disrupt the dragon's flight path so I can get a clean shot at it," she yelled over the storm as her orb continued to grow.
Nodding in response to her order, he stretched out his hands, his fingers curving inward as his eyes glowed with a bright grassy light. The Wyvern's hawkish scream erupted from his throat, as the wings made of sheer energy riled the storm with each powerful beat.
Razor gripped the reins as tightly as he could to keep from being blown off in the fierce gales. At first, the dragon's speed and power enabled her to press through the windy barrage, but the beast soon grew exhausted from flying into the wind. It faltered, spinning out of control and tossed about by the storm. There seemed to be a delay before it fell, like gravity was asleep and suddenly realized that it needed to act, sending the dragon and its rider tumbling towards the ground.
With a grin of anticipation, Blaze unleashed the flames that she had been gathering, sending out a writhing pillar of undulating heat that lit the darkening battlefield in a fierce glow, bathing it in crimson twilight. Still spinning helplessly out of control, the dragon was swept up in the fire, and screamed as its left wing was struck, smoke intermixing with snowflakes as it fell faster and faster. The popping sound of ice rapidly thawing filled the air, as a ragged tear was burned into the beast.
Like a tremendous, icy comet it struck the Earth, throwing up clouds of snow into the roaring, bestial storm. Crystalline, icy blue limbs twitched in pain, coiling and uncoiling like flailing frozen serpents. Its head exploded suddenly forward from the mound of snow, jaws parted wide in a booming roar. It shook the snow free from its glimmering body, with wings still beating in an erratic, futile effort.
"Oh my poor baby, what have they done to you?" Razor cried mournfully, his dull amethyst gaze locking hatefully upon them. "It doesn't matter, you heal quick. Besides, we'll do better on the ground where wind-boy can't do so much."
Snapping the reins against the heaving flanks of the gargantuan, winged serpent, Razor sneered as Niveus began to attack. She surged forward, jaws gaping to reveal rows of needle sharp teeth, and releasing a blast of frigid breath that came towards them as a frozen rain of hailstones.
Flapping once to place themselves in front of him, the emerald energy wings of the Wyvern formed a shield in front of Silver, easily absorbing the ice. With a feral yell Blaze bounded forward, igniting twin flames within her palms. Razor yanked on the reins, seeming like some sort of eerie puppeteer.
In response to his command, the dragon lifted her tail, swinging it through the air like an icy battering ram. It connected with her stomach, earning a sound like the crap of thunder as she sailed backwards, blood spurting from her lips.
She rolled through the snow, twitching like an ant with its head cut off, as she sank down beneath a blanket of freezing light.
Silver was held transfixed in a state of disbelief. His golden eyes fell upon his feline companion and lingered there, as the howling storm raged about him, and within him. It was a part of him now, his breath mingled with the winds, the winds entered into him and filled him with their life, their energy.
Each finger in succession slowly tightened, as the wing beat of the Wyvern surrounding him gradually accelerated, eventually becoming a wild and rapid beat. Razor's eyes widened slightly as he gripped the reins more tightly in anticipation of what was to come. A bead of sweat ran in a twisting rivulet down the side of his head, freezing solid halfway down his cheek.
Suddenly, Silver lifted gently off the ground, the tips of his feet hanging limply in the air as if he were held aloft on some invisible string. The dragon roared in defiance, launching a freezing blast of light at him as he ascended. Silver's eyes flashed green as he stretched out one hand and effortlessly lifted a massive sheet of ice into the air, absorbing the attack with a deafening crack and an explosion of a thousand frozen glass shards.
The whipping winds around him darkened, condensing and forming into a swirling vortex, with the ivory hedgehog floating god-like within the eye of the storm. Tiny, needle-like shards of ice were flung about as the hurricane force winds further chilled the frozen battlefield. The dragon began to advance through the storm, its now healed wing outstretched triumphantly.
With a single powerful beat, it rose from the ground, flying with the wind to pick up speed until it was yet another blur, another indistinguishable blob of color amidst the whirling pool. Every second or so Silver would breathe in sharply, erratically, desperately trying to absorb enough power to sustain his vicious hurricane, although his body was beginning to give out from being in the Third Stage for so long.
'You cannot win this fight alone. Consolidate your losses; flee and return when you have help!' the gale called out to him.
Even in the midst of his rage, Silver seemed offended by the idea that he was not powerful enough to defeat Razor. After all, hadn't he been the first one to tap into the Third Stage? Hadn't he been the first one to discover the secret of his beast's true source? He hadn't had as much experience as the other heroes, and so they always seemed to look down on him, treat him as if he were second-rate.
For the most part, he accepted it. He knew that it was unwise to take offense to another's diagnosis of your abilities, and that part of it was true.
But now was his chance to prove his worth. Now was his chance to single-handedly defeat a dragon, capture a prisoner, and be the one to save the day. Now was his chance to be the hero.
Growling in exertion, Silver unleashed an outward explosion of air, thrusting his fists outward to surround Niveus in a glowing green light, as he tried to grab hold with his telekinesis. The dragon's bulk resisted the hold, flailing about in midair as Razor tried desperately to control it.
Desperately looking for a way to gain the advantage, he pulled down, swooping underneath Silver to make his approach at a lower angle. The serpent's jaws snapped open, a light cerulean orb of icy illumination forming there. It expanded, becoming tremendous within moments, as Niveus launched it at the floating hedgehog.
Silver seemed unaware of his own peril as the frozen projectile approached him like a looming sunset, enveloping him as the winds began to die. It took a moment for the residual breeze to calm, as flakes of ice and snow were tossed about the battlefield.
When the scene was less obscured, Razor surveyed his handiwork. At one end of the field, Blaze lay face down in the snow unconscious. In front of him, Silver was encapsulated in a jagged block of solid ice, his expression frozen in shock and sorrow.
"Good girl," He pet Niveus to reward her for the victory, as he dismounted, turning around and around as he searched the snow for any sign of his weapons. There near the edge of the cliff where the snow was thinnest was the faint glimmer of the steel of his Hisaki sword, and by it lay his whip.
"I remember I grabbed ahold of that one earlier with my whip," he said, apparently to his dragon companion as he picked the weapon up. "Didn't he say something about making sure to do that?"
He nodded to himself, not quite comprehending the meaning behind his words, but knowing that it had been his objective nonetheless. In the distance he spied Leukos's lonely form approaching from his battle with Knuckles.
Crossing the snowy field one final time, he hefted the purple feline's unconscious form over one shoulder, climbing aboard his dragon and taking to the air briefly. He landed near his partner with a broad smile.
"You've been unmasked..." Leukos said in an unsurprised, yet irritated tone.
"It's not like it matters," he countered, as Leukos climbed aboard.
"We were given strict orders to-" He paused, glancing at Blaze. "What are you doing taking a prisoner? There weren't anything in our orders about that."
"She's really strong, with hidden potential. I say we take her to the Leader, and see if she can join Hisaki."
Leukos mused for a moment, drawing back his hood as he finally came to a decision. There underneath was the same mask worn by the other agents, but it indisputably hid an echidna's face.
"Hm... for once, you had an idea that wasn't half bad. Besides, she might serve as a little extra 'motivation' for our hapless heroes."
With a grim chuckle Razor had the dragon take off, flying into the sunset like an icy vulture.