Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Lightning King

The northern camp is obliterated. All tents have been burned as many bodies lay scattered across the scenery. The war dragons have not been spared as many have a look of frozen fear on their face as they perished. Beau nudges a dragon as its body looked contorted and stiff, its mouth wide open as it looks like it was about to bite something. Beau notices the dragons' claws are burnt black… Beau is very confused as to what happened to him. He has never seen such a thing before.

Everyone is clearly dead. Similar to what Beau came across many people had the same frozen poses, their hair look frizzled and raised.

The area still had billowing smoke as the smell of death could not be ignored. Mali tried to count the deceased but there were too many. He saw another camp similar to this on his journey to Unmei. He sensed something in his heart and his mind. Whoever did this is still nearby.

Aaron jumped off Beau and has already begun the process of checking for survivors. In case they were hiding. Iolene follows Aaron closely behind. They headed to the north of the camp where Lei and Mali went east. Fred and Duryss are ordered by Mali to go west. Lexi, Nekhii and Yuri remain central in the camp to see what they can scavenge.

However, to no avail, there were no survivors. But to their surprise, it was not just Northern soldiers there were also southern soldiers. Killed in the same manner... No stab wounds, no gore, no nothing... This had Mali worried... Whoever did this must have backtracked when they realised Northern soldiers are getting too close to the city...

Everyone reunited in the centre of the camp as Lexi managed to steal some gear and sharpened her battle axe at a nearby whetstone. Aaron decided to do the same as Iolene watched them with curiosity. Aaron lets Iolene have a turn but almost slices her hand. Aaron quickly makes her stop and takes over again.

"Never letting you do that again…" Aaron says. Iolene had no choice but to agree…

"We must leave now!" Mali demanded. As thunder can be heard in the distance.

Everyone looks at him. Aaron without question sheathes his sword as he gets onto Beaus' back. Grabbing Iolenes hand and pulling her up.

"I'm sensing it… Iymp are you feeling that?" Lexi says with anxiety. Her heart begins to beat fast, she erratically looks around.

"Yes, I am…" Iymp says seriously in human speech. He has never sounded so serious.

Mali rides with Lei on Ponderrah as they all race out of the camp. Dark clouds begin to form above the group. Rain begins to heavily pour over everyone creating low visibility for the dragons.

The grass and path began to get soaked and slippery. The dragons had no choice but to slow down to a steady walk. Mali looked behind him but the clouds only reached a certain perimeter. He couldn't help but notice its unnatural occurrence.

The bamboo stalks that tower over everyone was not enough shelter to cover from the rain. A screeching roar can be heard in the distance. It sounded unfamiliar and different to other dragons. Soon followed by screaming and roaring. A battle has started nearby.

Beau stops as everyone else stops with him. The visibility is making it hard for Beau to navigate the path. Aaron rubs Beaus' neck in comfort. They need shelter... But everyone's relief that the rain is not cold as the summer heat created humidity. The rain felt cooling especially for the dragons.

The screaming eventually faded as the screeching of the mysterious dragon continued. Beau and the dragons decided to turn around and go back to where they came. There is no shelter nearby, but they need to get away from the screeching.

Iolene looks back as she notices a small blue light in the distance. In a bright flash a powerful blue mag beam blasts out almost hitting Iolene! Mali in quick defence jumps onto Beaus' back, creating a gold mag shield absorbing the beam. Aaron unsheathes his sword while Beau turns around as Mali jumps onto the ground. Iolene held onto Aarons waist tightly as Beau moved.

The others stop as they rush to Iolenes defence. They all looked where the mag beam came from. However, there was no sight of a dragon. Beau growls at the dragons to make a defence circle. Duryss, Iymp and Ponderrah press their backsides together. Making sure they are not revealing their vulnerable areas.

Nekhii powers up her wrist shooters as they glowed light green. Fred unsheathes his hammer as he decides to protect Yuri. Lexi brings out her battle axe but does not set it aflame.

In a split second, Aaron looks up. "ABOVE!" He shouts. As a large blue dragon can be seen landing toward them. Claws long and sharp stretched forward landing in the middle of the circle. The bright blue dragon shrieks and smiles as it cuts straight into Duryss's flesh. Duryss roars in agony as he turns knocking Yuri off in the process. Yuri had no choice but to run away as he is missing an arm. He knows he cannot fight under these circumstances. Fred in retaliation yells as he waves his hammer at the creature, failing to hit it as Duryss tries to get away from him.

Mali uses a mag beam to blast the dangerous blue dragon away. Hitting him hard into the bamboo stalks. However, he wearing blue draconium armour. Barely a scratch on him…

"Lexi, Iymp NO!" Mali demanded.

Lexi on Iymp in that second races to the dragon to behead him. Setting her battle axe aflame she prepares to deal a finishing blow. She thinks that a dragon like this cannot live. The blue dragon smiled as he jumps upward at them. Colliding with Iymp using his sharp lightning bolt-shaped tendrils on his back to Pierce the red dragon. Iymp cries out in pain as Lexi screams on her saddle as she tries to hold on.

Iymp managing to release himself from the spikes falls backwards. Lexi falls off her saddle rolling onto the muddy ground. Iolene without hesitation jumps off Beau to heal Iymp. The tendrils are sharp and long the wounds can easily be fatal.

Aaron jumps off Beau to help Lexi but Mali demanded him to help Iolene. The blue dragon smiles as he planned to kill Lexi who is trying to get a foothold in the mud. Lei asks Ponderrah to mag him high in the air and he does. Lei prepares his spear to stab into the enemy dragon.

Mali at the same time planned to strike the dragon's underbelly. However, the dragon realizes this and jumps backwards. His long legs give him minimal effort in jumping high and long distances. Mali instead uses another mag beam to push him away again.

The Samurox's smile could not have been larger.

"Gold Draconium!" A horrible shrieking voice speaks. However his mouth did not move, his bonemark glowed with each word.

Mali in preparation to fight proceeds to pose with hands glowing with gold orbs. Nekhii shoots light green bolts at him and it successfully hits! The dragon shrieks with anger as he lunges at her. Mali launches himself with a mag beam into the air. Catches up to Samurox as Mali lands on his back. The Samurox with ferocious anger tries to mag the tiny man off. But Mali's grip is too strong so Samurox can only buck.

Lei tried to aim his spear but couldn't risk hurting Mali. However, Lei was also partly distracted as Samurox's armour looks similar to Shun Shun's armour. How would he get armour like that?

Aaron using his strength is holding pressure on Iymps wounds. "Hang in there Iymp!" Aaron shouts encouragingly. Lexi crawls over almost in tears. "Iymp!" She says weakly as she leans onto his face. Iolenes hands glowed as she uses all her energy to stop the bleeding. Iolene feeling weak collapses as Aaron grabs a hold of her by the waist with his left arm.

Iymp awakens as he takes a deep breath in. Lexi strokes his face and soothes him. "I am so weak…" Iymp growls in dragon tongue. Which came out as weak moans.

Duryss could barely move as his rump has been severely sliced open. Fred in desperation yells as he charges at Samurox with his hammer. Samurox dodges the hammer attack and rolls over. Mali had no choice but to let go. Samurox as soon as he finished rolling, aims at Ponderrah.

Ponderrah sensing the danger races off into the bamboo woods. Lei hoping Ponderrah remains safe. He may be blind, but he is not stupid. He will stop and hopefully can make his way back.

Beau races to Samurox and physically pushes him off his feet. Nekhii is shooting many bolts from her gear as she tries to hurt the Samurox. The bolts get reflected from the armour. The dragons fight as they tried to bite each other ferociously. Beau however was quickly overpowered when Samurox mag pushes him away in Nehkiis direction where she had to dodge. Losing her footing she slides from the mud.

Samurox laughs as he begins to glow bright blue. In his mind, he is finally recharged to use more of his deadly attacks. His bonemark glows blindingly bright. The clouds grew darker and darker. Aaron looks up as a sudden lightning bolt shoots down at Mali. Mali creates an orb shield he protects himself from the onslaught. The bolt was so powerful it almost shatters the shield.

But it wasn't just that bolt, many began to strike. Aaron held Iolene damsel style as he races around with her. Iymp using what is left of his energy gives it to Lexi as she forms a shield similar to Mali.

Lei hides behind a rock hoping the lightning doesn't strike him.

Fred runs back to Duryss as the bulky dragon limps to avoid the lightning attacks. The Samurox during the lightning attack fights against Mali. The tiny man easily deflects all of the Blue dragons' attacks. Beau interrupts Samuroxs attack by slamming into his side.

THIS DRAGON WON'T STOP! Beau thinks to himself. He is as tall as Ironclad but he is not as muscled. The armour begins to stab into Beaus' shoulder. Beau breathes in as Beau uses all his weight against him. The blue dragon slips as he falls over and slides down the path. His beautiful clean armour is now coated with thick mud. He growls with anger as his blue eyes glowed intensely.

Samurox is tougher than the usual dragon. And he is wearing armour that is specially created for dragon royalty. It wasn't hard to realise who they were fighting against. The Samurox is one of the dragon separatist leaders. He is responsible for the deaths of many and has a hatred for humankind. But Beau noticing him wearing armour is strange as armour is a human invention. They never use such objects in the wilds. Beau then jumps forward attempting to rip his helmet off. Beau succeeds as his long mouth managed to grab the helmet and pulled it off. But it came at a price as Samurox swiped him with his long claws. Beau gaining a massive gash on his inner left leg. Samurox then used his back to try and swipe his underbelly. Beau had no choice but to jump back.

But now Samurox's head is now exposed. Lei noticed as he looked behind the rock of how much he looked like Shun Shun. He is Shun Shun's son…

The lightning bolts cease. Iolene begins to wake up weakly. Aaron stops running as he gently holds Iolenes face up.

"Hey, you okay?" Aaron asks softly.

Iolene weakly nods. He looks around as the battle against this dragon is not going well. Aaron goes to the rock where Lei is hiding. Placed Iolene gently on the ground.

"Look after her Lei," Aaron asks as Lei nods preparing his spear. "Don't kill him, Aaron." Lei quickly asks before Aaron runs off.

Aaron unsheathing his sword jumps forward to the Samurox who has just gotten up. The mud on his feet is making it difficult to stand. The Samurox manages to slide away as Aaron stabs his sword into the ground.

Fred looks at Aaron as he remains quiet. He tries to tend to Duryss injury. There was nothing Fred can do for now. He grabs his hammer and leaves Duryss to join Aaron. Duryss walks next to Iymp who lies still.

However Fred joining the battle ended quickly as Samurox unleashed many mag beams. Aaron and Mali manage to dodge but Fred gets launched into Duryss knocking him out.

Lexi shakes her head with disappointment. She decides to stay next to the injured dragons.

Aaron, Beau, Mali and Nekhii remain on the battlefield. Nekhii felt useless as none of her bolts affected him once.

The Samurox dodging attacks non-stop. His energy seemed to be never ending. But in a sudden shock, another dragon enters the battle attacking Nekhii. The dragon is black draconium as it had a snake-like appearance. However, the dragon is weakened as it is covered in battle scars. He must have been knocked out as his head is covered in blood.

"Ah… You are alive." The Samurox smarmily says.

The dragon continued to attack Nekhii overpowering her. Mali mags the dragon away but like the Samurox he never stays down for long.

The Samurox jumps at Aaron with Beau knocking him over. Aaron jumps onto Beaus' back, his sword out and freshly sharpened. Beau stomps into the vicious dragon managing to crack and pull off Samurox's shoulder armour pieces. Aaron pulls Beau back as he saves Beau from the Samuroxs sharp claws.

The Samurox stands up again breathing heavily but still smiling. He showing exhaustion… Aaron pushes Beau forward as the Samurox races forward again. The dragons collide as Aaron on Beaus' back manages to drive his sword into the Samuroxs side. The dragon shrieks loudly as he had no choice but to retreat.

Beaten and bloody the Samurox flees into the forest. The other dragon was not so lucky as Mali delivered a death blow by doing a mag push powerful enough to blast his head off.

The battle is over...

Beau collapses underneath Aaron as exhaustion takes over him. Lexi hugs Iymps face as his eyes open and purrs she kisses his cheek and cries with relief. Lei tends to Fred who is unconscious, Iolene crawls to Mali as he races over to her and hugs her. Nekhii finds Yuri who is okay and labels him a coward.

Aaron looks around as the rain stops and the clouds begin to dissipate. The sun begins to shine once again.