Kagome looked on in horror as Atma raised her hands to the sky. An almost ecstatic grin was plastered across the youkai's face.  Slowly, she looked down at the young fighters below. The blue flames enveloping the clearing suddenly died, and there was a brief moment of calm, then all hell descended. Atma brought her hands down, and the flames returned, burning so dark that they were almost black. The sun disappeared entirely and the only light to be seen was the lightning crashing to earth.

            Atma threw back her head in a booming, echoing laugh, threw Tetsusaigia to the ground, and held up her claws in a menacing stance… then fell over. Kagome blinked as the powerful youkai fell to the ground gasping and growling. Slowly, the horns of her head grew out even longer, the "fireflies" of her eyes flashed back and forth. The breath rushed out of her mouth in short ragged gasps. With a sickening rip, more horns began to grow from her head, curving out from her wealth of hair. The claws on her fingers and tows began to grow, splitting open the digits and turning into fearsome talons. She looked up half in pain and half in triumph. Her face grew slowly longer, and ivory horns grew along her jaw-line. Her eyebrows grew thicker and scaly, along with the rest of her skin. Her tail grew steadily longer, lashing wildly around. A second pair of wings exploded from her back, and flared outward, overlapping the first pair. The skin of her hands and arms quickly gave way and ripped outward to be replaced by a scaly hide. Horns shot out of the ornate black leather tunic down her back, shredding it down the center. Finally, the entire outer human-like shell was thrown aside like a curtain, and Atma, the ancient wyrm, revealed herself. She lifted her pointed, draconic muzzle and gave a reverberating roar. The great dragon grew until it was almost thirty feet long: an ancient, four winged, black wyrm. A crest of five horns curved backward from the back of her head.

            Atma gave a mighty roar, and glared at the fighters down below.  "Well?" She hissed, her voice now soft yet booming at the same time. "Are you strong enough?" She aske again, then inhaled sharply. Sango, Miroku, and Kagome dashed away, Shippo disappeared, but InuYasha simply stared at the gaping maw of the dragon.

            A gout of black flame erupted from the dragon's mouth as lightning crackled down onto her wings, crackling down her back spines. InuYasha flung his arm aside as if to ward off the flame, then leapt straight through the wall of blaze rushing towards him, spinning in a flip, the fire rat cloak warding off only a small amount of the hell-fire. He burst through the wall of flame, and flashed through the air onto Atma's face, scratching furiously with his claws. Atma screamed in pain, and snapped him away with he tail, like a horse getting rid of an insect. She growled lightly and bore down on InuYasha, ripping into him with claw, horn and tooth.

            Sango ran up towards the beast's rear, calling for Kirara, but the fire-cat didn't come. Confused, but determined, she continued, and jumped to the beast's tail, running along its spine.  Atma turned briefly from InuYasha and looked at the demon exterminator. Sango's eyes widened and she screamed in pain as every scale of the great wyrm suddenly stood erect, becoming lethal blades. Sango fell off the beast, clutching her bleeding the feet.

            Atma took a breath and launched a gout of fire at the fallen demon hunter. Sango, however, was pulled out of the way by Miroku's wind tunnel before being burned to a crisp. Miroku replaced the beads around his arm once Sango was out of harms way. "I'll go for the wings!" He shouted to Kagome, "You cover me, and protect Sango!" He dashed up towards the great wyrm, swinging his monk's staff. Kagome knocked an arrow and let fly, also aiming for the wings. The arrow blazed through the air, flashing with holy power. It imbedded itself in one of the wing joints, searing off the scales and skin underneath.

            Atma roared in pain, and turned towards the unprepared miko. "I'm getting tired of your arrows!" She hissed in fury. She turned from the bloody InuYasha, and flew at Kagome, her wings propelling her at incredible speeds.

~~

            InuYasha clawed at nothing, falling through the void.  He tried to clutch anything solid, but found nothing, he simply spiraled down deeper into the darkness. Suddenly, a scream pierced his ears. He could recognize that scream anywhere. "Kagome!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, and fought with a new vigor.

~~

            "Kagome!" InuYasha's scream rang across the clearing. Instantly, the hanyou dashed after the giant dragon rushing towards Kagome… but wasn't fast enough. Time slowed down for InuYasha as Kagome's scream of terror became a scream of pain. Talons at least a foot long slammed into the girls frail body. The scream turned into a whimper as the claws slammed her into the ground, the horrible sound of snapping bones filling the air. The claw drew back, but Kagome lay there, attempting to breath, lying in a pool of her own blood.

            InuYasha gaped at Kagome's broken body. With a shock, he felt something he hadn't felt since his mother had died… not even when Kikyo had pinned him to the sacred tree: he felt tears sting his eyes.

            He barreled towards the wyrm in a pure and utter fury. In a feat of pure strength he grabbed the beasts tail, and hurled her over his shoulder, away from the bleeding Kagome.  He dashed over to the poor girls still figure, looking over her broken form. He held her head up in his hand, tears falling from his eyes onto her cheeks. He gasped in hope as a small breathe eased in and out of her mouth, accompanied by a bit of blood. "Kagome…" He whispered her name. "please hold on." He stood up, and turned on the recovering dragon. He held up his hands, coated in Kagome's blood, and scowled. "You… little… bitch!" He seethed through clenched teeth. "DIE!" He swung his blood coated hands down in an arch, and blades of Kagome's blood slashed through the air at the dragon.

            Atma roared in pain as the countless blades cut into her, drawing lines of her own black blood to her scales. As the blades cleared, InuYasha coldly observed his handiwork. Atma still stood. She looked at him with a cool reserve, her serpentine mouth turned up in a grin. "So you are strong." She said. "but your journey is not yet over." Her wings flared, and she lifted into the sky. "Now, can you have protected, but can you save those you love?" She said, and soared off into the horizon.

            InuYasha could only look on as the beast that had done so much damage took off into the sky, escaping. Overwhelmed, he threw his arms wide in fury, and screamed out in frustration. "Damn you!" He swore. "Damn you!" He fell to his knees, beating the ground. "damn you…" he whispered.

~~

            Kirara looked at the scene sorrowfully from behind a barely standing tree. She shook her head sadly, and let out a mew of sympathy for the hanyou.

            A hand touched her head, and scratched behind her ears comfortingly. "Don't worry." Said a quite, warm, reassuring voice. "It'll be alright."