I've been away a bit, I realize. I'm terribly sorry for that. Don't think this fic has died yet; I've just had a bout of... well, writer's block isn't it, since I have chapters written ahead... so we'll say, "author insecurity." Thank you so much to those of you who have encouraged me to keep going. You know who you are.
-Ri
Chapter 16
I glanced both ways at my enemies and shot forward after the white-armored male. He was apparently not expecting a frontal assault and veered off to the side, holding up his super-heated sword to parry the sloppy strike I threw at him. The angel was fast approaching from my rear, and without turning toward her, I kicked backwards and sent her flying.
"Who are you?" I growled, whirling into a powerful horizontal slash.
"I am Commander Chabaz Vesuvian, and I and Gloria lead this army." He parried and thrust at my ribs, but I was anticipating that and twisted my body to the side. Gloria? Must be the battle-angel… how cliché. I idly wondered what Fefnir was running into on the ground.
"Tell me; where is the reploid called Phase?" I snarled, sending an extra electrical charge into my blades and slashing downward before making a hard right to avoid the combined attack of two harpies. The energy from their wings missed me and came dangerously close to hitting Vesuvian, who growled an angry response to their carelessness.
"Girls, take care to stay out of Chabaz' way," Gloria called in a lilting voice, the first time she had spoken. The white-winged women half-shrugged and backed off and I sent a crescent of blade energy after their retreat.
The opal-horned reploid dove at me, shooting a beam of energy from his forehead. I moved aside, although it grazed my shoulder.
"Master Phase is wherever he wishes to be," Vesuvian said, his expression growing darker. A bit of resentment there?
"Give me a real answer," I ground threateningly as I threw a backhand swing and succeeded in gouging his chest armor. Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed Gloria's red-clad figure soaring at me, a harpy on either side of her. I allowed my body to become a conduit for electricity and sent a quick but fairly weak charge directed at the advancing three. The bolt slammed into the angel's chest and stopped her flight, although she recovered quickly. The pale women to either side of her stopped with her and began speaking, but I did not care to hear what was said, and had not the time anyway because a large demi-dragon was presently charging a large blast to fling my way. I roundhouse kicked its ebony, snarling face, and it fired in the opposite direction from me. Angered, it slashed at me with its glowing talons, scoring a gouge in my chest and forearm, but not penetrating the armor. I stabbed straight on with my left saber but it slid off the armor, which was not unforeseen. As I attacked, I allowed myself to fall closer and closer to the river, grateful that the demon was oblivious to its own fatal weakness. I circled around it, stabbing at the back of its neck, but it lashed at me with its tail. Instead of trying to control my plunge, I allowed myself to fall into the churning water, hoping that the beast would follow. I took my time getting back out and when I did, I hovered only a few feet from the boiling rapids. The monster followed up its attack with a smaller blast, which I avoided. The blue energy hit the water and created a mini-explosion upon contact.
Cerussite shot out of the water behind it and sliced upward with his claws, causing the beast to twist around and slash at its new attacker. As it did, Leviathan leapt out and plunged her lance into its chest, dragging it into the water with her. One down,I noted sardonically as Gloria and two harpies came at me from above. Suddenly, one of the harpies went down in a molten fireball, and I glanced over to the bank to see Fefnir flash a malicious grin.
The other harpy screeched in fury and alarm and moved as though to turn and charge at Fefnir, but Gloria barked a quick command and held up her hand, causing the vulture-woman to sulkily cease her quest for vengeance. From behind, I could feel the rush of wind as Vesuvian and a small number of winged dogs swept in at me. Several fell to Fefnir's buster fire, and I saw the horned commander send the two dragons after the red Guardian to distract him. Nice job, Fefnir. I was grateful that my crimson comrade was aware enough of his surroundings that he was keeping track of the aerial battle as well as the ground fighting.
Vesuvian charged at me, sword flaring with barely withheld flames. I turned away, spinning into a slash with my right saber. He caught the attack on his blade and pushed back, knocking me off balance and cutting a deep furrow through the armor on my forearm, biting into the flesh beneath. I ignored the blood coursing down my arm and stabbed with my left blade, penetrating through his chest-plate, although not very deeply.
"Chabaz!" I turned in time to see the red angel flying at me with the circular blades on her arms glowing. I managed to move my targeted neck out of the way, although the strike bit shallowly into my shoulder. She put herself between Vesuvian, unfurling her wings and flinging her arms wide, hurling both blades at me in the process and me. The glowing weapons whined through the air, and I leaned back away from one, taking a minor gash to the chest, and twisted away from the other, which missed completely. As they made their return trip to their owner's arms, I moved to the side and swatted one away with a saber. It sparked and fell, its homing mechanism damaged.
Gloria seethed at having one of her weapons taken away and flew at me with surprising speed, slashing my stomach deeply. I grunted in pain, but instead of going after her, I warily watched Vesuvian as he hovered before me, a small trickle of blood running from his chest. I could not be sure, but I thought that the opalescent, unicorn-like horn on his forehead was starting to glow. He's going to shoot something at me, isn't he? Sure enough, a white laser erupted from his brow quicker than I could move, and penetrated through my right shoulder. Involuntarily, I cried out in pain, holding my left hand over the wound. My right arm was nearly useless, and I did not have to look at it to know that the circuitry and metallic bone deep beneath the skin and synthetic muscle was exposed. I had a sudden flashback of the first time I met Arcan, with his nearly-severed arm. I wish I could be that indifferent to pain. Blood poured down my back and chest, and I only barely managed to avoid Vesuvian's follow-up attack, and Gloria directly after that. Great. Only one working arm, and I've got two commanders and their soldiers to deal with. This is decidedly ugly.
"Master Harpuia!" I heard a familiar voice call, and I looked up to see Aztec Falcon soaring toward me. He grabbed a harpy's head in his talons as he approached, crushing it and sending a gory shower of purple blood spraying through the air. He had taken some damage, but seemed to be okay as he moved to hover next to me. "You appear as though you require some assistance."
"Greatly appreciated," I nodded. Okay, this should even the odds a bit.
"This oversized fowl won't be enough to save you, human sympathizer!" Gloria hissed, flinging her remaining blade at Falcon. He blocked it with one wing and suffered a small gouge in the reinforced metal.
"This entire army won't be enough to save you, succubus!" I spat back, holding my left saber in a ready position. Vesuvian hovered next to the female air warrior and readied another shot from his horn. I yelled a battle cry and charged at him, swinging upward. The strike missed, but I continued forward, ramming my working shoulder into his chin and sending him flying backwards. Falcon, who was now behind me, engaged the battle-angel, but I did not have time to see who had the upper hand.
A winged dog shot past me, gashing my already-wounded right arm with its bladed wing. It turned on me, jaws gaping, and attacked, aiming for my throat. I swung my saber as it came at me, dividing its face neatly in two. Fast and strong… yet crude. More than a little outdated, I decided in reference to the four-legged robot. Two smaller demi-dragons then flew at me. A bit more of a problem… One fired three quick energy blasts at me, and I did my best to dodge out of the way. My right shoulder was clipped, and the hit damaged the top of the booster. I kept my flight under control regardless, and intercepted the second dragon, which was soaring at me with extended claws. As it swiped at me, I retaliated with my beam-saber, cleanly chopping off its left hand. The other set of claws raked my ribs, although the wound was fairly shallow. I kicked the beast in the stomach, sending it backwards a few feet, creating a bit of distance for myself to maneuver.
I glanced over my shoulder, wanting to keep tabs on whatever Vesuvian was up to. I noticed that, yet again, he was preparing to shoot at me with his laser. I dodged to the side, and the white beam cut cleanly through the demi-dragon's eye and out the back of its head. It did not even bleed; it simply fell lifelessly to the ground far below. The first dragon was charging a larger blast to throw at me. I swerved out of range and flew at Vesuvian, slashing at him. He blocked the attack with his sword, but I followed up with a knee to his stomach, knocking him away.
"Master Harpuia-" I heard Falcon's warning and turned sharply to see Gloria charging toward me, attempting to strike at me with her arm blade. Falcon was struggling to go after her, but it appeared that one of his propulsion systems had been slightly damaged, making it hard for him to move quickly. My own booster was acting up, but it was nothing that I could not deal with.
I turned away from Vesuvian to engage the angel, bringing my saber up just in time to parry her thrust. I heard the rush of energy as the demi-dragon released its shot, and I grabbed her by the wrist and whipped her around into the path of the blast. It struck her back and she was thrown forward, and I moved aside to avoid having her crash into me. The demi-dragon roared in rage and came at me, lunging at my damaged right shoulder with its powerful jaws. I sent a crescent of energy hurdling towards its face, and it caught the attack across the snout. It cut into the monster's face, although not terribly deeply, and the demon was forced to break off its attack, being somewhat blinded by the hit.
Vesuvian flew at me again, ignoring the wounds on his chest, and brought his blade down on me in a massive over-hand swing. It bit deeply into my right shoulder, and I gasped in pain as the already-wounded limb went numb. If this keeps up, I'm going to lose my right arm. He tried to stab me, but I moved away, heading back toward the ground and holding my shoulder. I was hoping that, if he followed me, I could gain the advantage on the ground, without the added threat of harpies and demi-dragons. I glanced over my shoulder, back at Falcon, hoping that he would be okay by himself. To my relief, Magnion was just arriving on the scene with a small contingent of air-based soldiers. Falcon nodded to me once, acknowledging my departure and letting me know that he would be all right. Vesuvian, as I had hoped, was pursuing me closely.
I did not bother to attempt a soft landing; I hit the ground and rolled, coming quickly back to my feet as the white reploid landed and stabbed his fiery blade into the ground where I had been. I used his momentary distraction to nail him in the chin with a solid kick. As he fell backwards, I slashed my blade, flicking it on and off, to fling the violet energy at him. He caught that on his sword and flung it away.
"Hiding on the ground now?" he questioned snidely. "Quite a cowardly act for the great 'Master' Harpuia of Neo-Arcadia. I thought the sky was your domain? Or are you admitting that the 'master of wind' is not you?"
I charged forward and stabbed him through the ribs. "In my experience, boasting is usually used to cover poor skills. It seems I was right." I ripped the saber out and moved to lop his head off, but he ducked under the swing, and although the wound in his side was deep, it seemed to affect him very little.
"Don't think you've won yet," he hissed. "It will take much more than that to bring me down."
Suddenly, the reploid found himself engulfed in flames. "How 'bout that, then?" Fefnir remarked, taking aim with his arm cannon to fire again.
Vesuvian angrily cleared away the trails of flame with a few swishes of his sword, charred but relatively unscathed. "Pitiful," he muttered disdainfully.
While he was turned toward Fefnir, I charged electricity through my body and leapt to fly above him, releasing the energy into a powerful lightning bolt. The explosion was unexpected to him- Fefnir, too, apparently, as he stumbled away from the blast radius- and I landed in front of him to attack with my saber. To my surprise, he caught my arm as I swung and tried to stab me through the stomach. I pulled back on my captured limb and flipped him over my head, but he landed on his feet. Well, electricity didn't work, either. I guess his armor is made to repel that type of attack.
"Your efforts are laughable," he chortled, but was met quickly by Fefnir's fist to his face.
"Laugh at that," the crimson guardian said smugly as Vesuvian picked himself up from the ground. Fefnir landed an elbow on the back of his shoulders, knocking him down again, and then glanced at me. "You should get that arm repaired. Having use of both limbs kinda helps-"
"Obviously," I muttered. "And how do you propose I do that in the middle of battle?"
He shrugged. "I dunno, I'm jes' sayin'…"
Vesuvian rolled to the side suddenly and swiped his sword over Fefnir's ankle. The clash of metal on metal created a resonating ring through the air and left a shallow scratch on the armor. "What the heck 'you doin'?" Fefnir wondered impatiently, as though talking to a disobedient child. I could tell that the white reploid was surprised that the blow had not knocked Fefnir down, but the muscular Guardian was about the most sure-footed person I knew.
Not one to be daunted, the pegacorn-based general continued his roll and leapt up with a thrust of his jets. As he came down, he brought a mighty over-hand strike down, aiming for Fefnir's head, but Fefnir turned suddenly, phasing out his buster, and caught the burning blade between his palms. Looks like Phantom's lessons actually sank in, I decided as the red Guardian yanked the sword out of Vesuvian's hands. I charged forward, intent on stabbing him while he could not parry. He ducked out of the way, grabbing my wounded right arm and twisting it painfully behind me.
"Armed or unarmed, never underestimate your opponent," he hissed at me with an expression that was half smile, half-mocking grin.
I managed a small, strangled exclamation of pain as my badly damaged limb was pulled at an unnatural angle behind me. Baring with the discomfort, I ducked and threw him over my shoulders yet again, immediately leaping after him to plunge a dagger through his head. He rolled to the side, and I buried my saber into the ground instead. Fefnir, who had disposed of Vesuvian's sword- I was fairly sure I spied it buried in an unfortunate reploid's neck- brought his gun to bear on the white-armored warrior. Instead of wasting effort firing on him when that seemed to accomplish little or nothing, he simply swung it with considerable force, throttling Vesuvian as one would flatten an insect.
"May I state that that's improper use of government property," I mumbled dryly. Vesuvian now seemed unlikely or unable to fight back- I was not sure which- and I moved in for the kill.
"Aw heck, I'm government property," Fefnir commented sardonically, "and I take my share of abuse."
"Don't we all." As I moved toward Vesuvian, saber ready to strike, the red-clad battle-angel suddenly swooped in, knocking me away, and then grabbed Vesuvian, carrying him aloft. I was about to follow, but Fefnir's heavy hand on my left shoulder stopped me.
"If you let that arm get any worse, it's gonna fall off."
I was about to protest the exaggeration, but, glancing at my blood-covered limb, shuddered instead at the realization that it was not an exaggeration by much. "You know, they're not going to sit by kindly while we patch me up," I managed. "I'll be fine."
"Yeah, and I'm X's grandma, Fefnir snapped back stoically. "I'll cover for you; just get something quick and superficial. I just don't wanna be the one to hear you whine if it falls off because you didn't do anything about it."
"Fefnir, who's gonna repair my arm in the middle of battle?" I questioned dryly. A demi-dragon swooped toward us, but Fefnir shot it a couple times and it hit the water with a massive splash.
"Hold on; I have just the guy." He flipped on his com, keyed in the correct frequency, and spoke loudly into it. "Hey Arcan. You know my position? Good. Get yer butt over here. And bring a med-kit."
"You've got to be kidding me."
Arcan did not take too long, and thankfully had the good sense to remain relatively silent- probably due to the dour expression that dominated my face the majority of the time. Five minutes passed as Fefnir rained heavy fire on anyone unfortunate enough to approach our position. What are friends for? I thought dryly.
"How does it feel?" Arcan rotated my arm painfully, pulling it from side to side.
"Well, when you do that, it hurts like a-"
"Heads up!" Fefnir interrupted, firing a fully charged shot into the air. Three steel-blue winged dogs circled overhead. One turned its snarling face toward us and belched a column of fire. Arcan dove out of the way, muttering a sharp exclamation, which was lost in the roar of the flames. Rolling and coming to his feet, he drew the two light-repeating pulsers that were holstered to his hips and fired the energy-based machineguns at the oncoming foes. I mentally gave the soldier a hair more respect at his improved skills. New weapons and armor don't hurt, either.
My arm was now stiff and sore, but functioning, and I summoned my sabers and leapt to the air before remembering that one of my boosters was slightly damaged. I overcompensated as I turned toward the leader of the pack, and he flew into me, gnashing his teeth at my face. I yelled and stabbed him through the eye, ripping my saber out none-too-carefully as blue blood spouted into the air and the dog dropped like a stone.
The second dog went down under Arcan's gunfire, and the third made it as far as landing before the combined efforts of Fefnir's charged shot and a bolt of electricity from me overkilled it. I landed next to our handiwork, sabers ready and held at my sides. "Fefnir, I want your men to try to take down some of those walking tanks; I don't know what they intend to use them for, but I have a few guesses, and none of those options are favorable."
"On it!" he barked. "Arcan, let's move!" I turned away from the red and dark green figures, scanning the nearby area for problems. An ATV came hurtling at me, firing bursts of chain gun fire. Fortunately, either driver or gun was quite inaccurate, and I jumped out of the way without taking a hit. Performing a forward flip in the air with the slight help of my turbines, I landed on the four-wheeler behind him, back to back. He reached for a side arm, but I reached backwards with a saber, cleaving his hand at the wrist. He screamed in pain, utterly enraged at my sudden attack, and I used his momentary distraction to shove him sideways off the vehicle, turning myself around to take the controls. I yanked the handlebars sharply to avoid crashing into a tank and lay down heavy fire with the chain guns. The bullets tore through several ranks of enemy soldiers and pelted the armored, lizard-like beast of burden along the left flank. It reared its head, emitting a rumbling groan that seemed to shake the earth.
As I swerved away from a massive, gray-plated leg, I felt two sets of claws digging into my back and shoulders- especially painful on my right shoulder, which sported a superficial repair job at best. I was lifted from the ATV before I knew what was going on and it flew driverless into the wall of the canyon, the impact crunching the front of the vehicle. After a brief moment, it burst into flames, and I knew it would not be long before it exploded. The talons on my shoulders tightened and I activated my boosters at full power, ripping myself out of their grasp, although I suffered a few shallow gashes from their claws for my troubles. I turned and faced the harpies, only to discover that they were not alone.
Gloria flung her blade at me as I turned, and I barely moved aside, suffering a nasty slash on my stomach. All these minor wounds are going to add up if I'm not careful. I flew head-on at the winged warrior, feinting with my stiff right arm, but pressing the attack with my left once I was close enough to strike. She moved to block the feint, and I scored a direct hit, stabbing her through the stomach. She gasped in pain, clutching the wound and calling an order to the harpies that I could not quite hear. Three of them dove at me, all fanning their wings and sending electrical charges at me. Fortunately, as before, it did no real damage and simply felt rather unpleasant. Gloria, though wounded, did not seem particularly handicapped by the puncture and attacked from above, driving down at my skull. I reached for the nearest harpy, managing to entangle my fist in her matted hair, and yanked her in front of me. She took the blade to her throat with a small near-explosion of dark blood. The other two harpies shrieked in anger and the battle-angel cursed at me, drawing back like a serpent to strike again, but not broadcasting where or when. I charged in at her at an odd angle, ending with my back being turned to her, and threw a backhand strike at her torso. She twisted to one side, but I turned as well, also shooting up a couple of feet with my boosters, and brought one elbow down to crash into her head. The blow was apparently not unexpected, but my speed outmatched hers and she could do nothing to avoid it. Instead, she fell with the attack, allowing herself to turn and plummet face-first with her wings folded, unfurling them about twenty feet beneath me to loop and soar back upward again.
While the larger threat was temporarily out of the way, I turned my attention to her two remaining white-feathered minions who were attempting an attack from two sides. The first plunged at me talons-first to tear at my left flank while the other swooped at me and then suddenly broke off her attack, dropping straight down for approximately ten feet before I lost track of her in favor of keeping the first female avian from ripping the flesh from my body. One grasping claw got in the way of my saber and I easily hacked it off, the grisly shape spinning through the air and out of sight in the melee below. She emitted a sound that was somewhere between a hiss and a squawk as she drew her other leg away. I suddenly remembered the other harpy and looked down in time to see her flying straight up at me from below. With a swift motion, I attempted to plunge a dagger through her forehead, but my plan was thwarted when she darted to the side, flew up past my right thigh, and left a nice gouge in the lesser-armored portion of my leg with her talon-like fingers that jutted from the joint of the wing.
Since she flew past me, I directed most of my attention to the one that was still close, lashing out with a foot to catch her in the chest right between the breasts. There was enough force behind the blow to actually dent the metallic breast-bone, and when she screeched in protest, it was weak, as though she had trouble drawing breath. I quickly plunged one sword into her forehead, causing her to die instantly, a vacant look in her eyes as she slid off the blade and fell to eventually land in the river. The other feathered woman, upon seeing the death of her other companion and realizing that she, too, and no chance, let out her shrill, piercing scream. My ears rang, even though I covered them, and I struggled to keep my mind lucid against the splitting migraine that ensued.
I tried to keep my eyes open, but it did no good, since my vision was flashing. This particular frequency really manages to mess with my optical sensors. Something struck me from above, and I assumed that it was a harpy, but through the haze of my headache I realized that it was Gloria again. Her blow landed on my already-throbbing head but failed to penetrate the helmet. At least, I thought it had failed until I felt a trickle of blood run from somewhere under my hair down my forehead and over my nose. As the harpy-induced headache faded, I saw the white winged menace fall helplessly to the ground, her face expressionless. Serves you right; you fried your own brain. I turned my attention completely to the blood-red angel, my head now hurting from the blow she had dealt me. She slashed again, and this time, I managed to block the swing with one saber and thrust with my other weapon, although she edged out of the way before the strike connected.
"You won't win this," she ground, although her expression held the smallest amount of desperation. "Even if you kill me, there will be others."
"Others like Phase?" I shot back. "What do you now about him? What do you people want?"
At the mention of Phase's name, her face twisted minusculey in contempt, but instead of addressing the subject of the ghostly reploid, she said, "What we want is your downfall, if that isn't obvious."
"It is," I muttered, kicking upward to catch her in the stomach. She moved, and my foot connected with the side of her ribcage with a crack, and a bit of blood pulsed from her wounded abdomen, splattering red droplets onto my armor. She spat blood and flew at me again, striking with a downward slash which I blocked easily. "You can't succeed, you know," I growled. "Neo-Arcadia will never go down that easily, and never to the likes of you."
She laughed hoarsely, blood trailing down her chin. "Oh, don't worry; this little scouting force was never meant to take you down." She followed her words with a thrust with her left arm, but it came from her right side awkwardly. I tried to block it, but anticipated the wrong direction and ended up catching it across my left forearm. No serious damage, but having both arms wounded would make the rest of the battle extremely difficult, so I drew back quickly, noting that, although the armor now sported a hefty scratch, my arm beneath did not seem to be wounded badly. Thus satisfied, I stabbed with my right blade, though that arm was stiff and some of the swift reflex was gone. She was not expecting the attack and took it in the chest, eyes widening in shock and pain.
"If this little 'scouting force' was never meant to prevail, then it never should have been sent," I hissed. "Neo-Arcadia does not play games, and we don't waste time in destroying our enemies." She opened her mouth to protest, but I yanked the blade upward, splitting her open from the chest up. The defeated shell that was once a reploid fell from my saber in a shower of crimson blood and I turned away, ready to deal with any new threat that may have been coming my way.
"Master!" Falcon called, coming up beside me, bloodied but not beaten.
"Falcon… how goes the battle?" I inquired, scanning a keen eye over the mass of soldiers.
"It seems that we are slowly prevailing, although it is hard to tell if they are retreating or not, since they were already on the move from the start. Magnion and I have succeeded in leading a group of aerial soldiers to wipe out much of their air force."
"Good. Keep cleaning up. I am going back to the ground battle to give Fefnir a hand if he needs it, or possibly to aid Leviathan in the water."
He nodded once and was off, and I did as I had said I would and dropped to the land below, barely even bothering to soften my landing with my boosters. Two ATVs were heading toward me at high speed; I jumped over the nearest, managing to clothesline the driver with a blade, decapitating the reploid cleanly. The vehicle swerved out of control into the one next to it, causing it to flip. I ran past the mess, pausing after I had passed it to slice an enemy soldier in half at the waist. I scanned the crowd, hoping to spot Fefnir's red bulk nearby, but had no luck. The fighting was still intense on the ground, and finding a single individual-even one so prominent as the person in question- was a difficult task.
One of the remaining demi-dragons- a large one- swooped down and grabbed one of my men in its talons, tossing him into the air and grabbing him in its powerful jaws, crushing him into an unrecognizable bloody mess. It dove for another soldier, but I, barely bothering to aim, hurled a saber end-over-end at him, embedding it in the open mouth. It screamed and dove at me instead, but could not remove the weapon. Unfortunately, it seemed to have missed its electronic brain, since it was still very much alive. Great. So that means I'm down one saber. I charged to meet it head-on, juking just to the left of it before impact and yanking on the protruding hilt of my saber, retrieving the weapon before it could clamp its teeth down on my hand.
If I get it to the water, we'll make short work of it. It tried to charge a blast of energy to fire at me, but the blue power simply crackled around its jaw and dissipated. At least I damaged it, I thought with satisfaction. It roared in anger, realizing what had happened, and flew at me again- right in the direction I was hoping it would go. I flew away from it, but not as quickly as I could have, tempting it to chase after me, but not obviously. Once well over the water, I hovered only a few feet from the surface and awaited its advance. It hesitated slightly, intelligent enough not to underestimate me, but not quite ready to back off. Without the use of its jaw-cannon, it had no choice but to use close-quarters combat- exactly what I was hoping for. Finally, it continued its charge with an incensed keen, claws hooked and ready to slice, although I had other plans. Unfortunately, so did the demon; instead of attacking with its talons, it spun and smacked me with its tail. The blow caught me in the head- more specifically, on one of the fins on my helmet. I could have almost swore that the solid strike had bent it.
Although the hit naturally knocked me back a little bit, I allowed myself to fall into the swiftly moving water, hoping that the beast would follow. Unfortunately, it seemed more content with waiting for me to attempt to rise again.
To my surprise, it spoke, though in a rather gurgling voice that was hard to discern. "I am not as ignorant as my brethren, Green One," it hissed between gleaming teeth.
What's with the dragons and this "Green One" thing? Oh, yeah, since they sort of have a hive mind, it would remember what the others have called me before. Wait… if they really have a hive mind, then- My thought came too late as another, although notably smaller, demi-dragon struck me from behind. Its claws penetrated my back and drove me under the water before the creature retreated from its liquid bane and left me to struggle back to the surface and go after it. My damaged booster choked as water got into the circuitry, and my flight out was a little shaky at best, but I managed. No one wound I've sustained in this battle has been overly serious, but little by little, I'm being taken apart piece by piece. I steadied myself and waited for a dragon to make its move. The smaller one charged and fired three successive shots at me, and while I dodged, the larger beast flew at me with the intent to impale me with its claws. I moved aside and swung a blade at its wing joint, hoping to impede its flight and send it falling into the water. To my dismay, it caught my arm, digging in with its talons, and flung me into the water instead. As I tried to resurface, something caught hold of my leg and pulled me deeper…