Chapter Three

What's the Fear of Being Trampled?

Maria stared up into Carnax's belly. The beast was huge as a quadruped, but as a biped, the creature doubled in hight. Even at such a great height, the X-Guardian could see it's red eyes twinkling in the clouds. As Maria was busy being flabbergasted, Carnax took the time to raise it's metal hand high into the sky. Releasing an unlorely scream, the air around Maria froze as a shadow formed under her.

"MARIA!" A familiar voice called from her side. A woman clad in blood red Guardian armor charged Maria and took diving tackle into her ribs, knocking her twenty feet away. Carnax's hand crashed into the ground, creating a crater the size of the Guardian Tower. The force knocked the X-Guardian from her trance.

"What the..." Maria questioned, looking at her savior.

"Hey, baby sister." Natalya smiled, standing up to let Maria up. "What are you looking at? The underside of this oversized beetle?" The woman asked, a naïve humor in her voice. Maria could just see the edge of her mouth flicker into a smile. "C'mon sis. Let's whip this thing raw!" She got off Maria, stood facing Carnax with her legs slightly apart, arms out, palms spread. The air around her grew unbearably hot, almost to the point of boiling the skin. "Soul of Akriloth! Time to wake up! I; Drakonnen, call upon you! Lend me thy strength! There's a cookie in it for you!" She added as a secondary note. Maria looked up to the sky. The once-clear sky was now becoming overcast. Something was outlined in the sky, but she just couldn't make it out. Thunder began to grace the sky. With each clash of thunder, Maria watched the outlined figure become corporeal, steadily turning solid. There came a great screech and everyone flinched, even Carnax.

"What the...AKRILOTH?" Atrix shouted behind her. The moment the Great Fire Dragon Akriloth became fully opaque, he dropped with frightening speed towards the ground. He was, at first, curled into a ball, almost like he was sleeping.

"Wake up, sleepy head!" Natalya smiled, dropping her hands. The air temperature normalized. The dragon began to stir and eventually stood full up. Spreading his wings, Akriloth gave a great yawn.

"Oh, crap, man. How long have I been asleep? Most be, what, five years? Crap, I've got one hell of a crink in the neck. Hold up a sec, would you Drakonnen?" Akriloth asked, cracking his neck twice with two quick turns with his hands. He then turned around to face Natalya. "Oh, heya Drakonnen. Wow, you're looking sexy today. What can I do for you?" The Fire Dragon smiled, crouching down, putting his head on the ground.

"We've got a slight problem on our hands, and need your help." Natalya explained. Carnax screeched in the distance. Akriloth turned his head to face Carnax.

"Oh. Him. Yea, he's a pain in the hide, I know. Want me to fight him, or what?" Akriloth asked, again yawning. "Oh, sorry. Still waking up."

"No, not exactly. I was wondering if you could divy up your powers amongst myself, and my sister Maria here." Akriloth turned to face Maria, who had just gotten off the ground.

"Oh, so this is your sister? Pretty little thing isn't she?" He moved his head closer and started sniffing the X-Guardian. "Yea, definetly your kin. Smells just like you, with something..." He sniffed again. "Else? Is that Vampire I smell on you? Whoa, girl. What have you been doing with yourself? You smell HEAVILY of Vampire. Almost like you've slept with one." He smiled and laughed at what he thought was a joke. "Anyways, sure I can split my powers amongst the two of you."

"Three of us!" Another female voice shouted. Akriloth, Maria, Natalya and the others faced the direction. A woman of eerie presence was standing a little ways away, her red hair cracking in the light Taladosian wind.

"Who the hell?" Akriloth and Atrix asked simultaneously.

"SERRAS!" Maria blurted out. It was Serras Nerra, the Mage of Despair. She started to walk towards the three, the Blade of Insight fixed to her back. She came to a stop before Maria. "Serras, what the hell are you doing here?" Maria asked, looking into her eyes.

"Well, I saw how you, Crystal, your sister and Wolfblitzer got to the Isle d'Oriens, so I followed you. When you all went into the Lore Keeper's office, I followed. When I didn't see where you guys were I asked, and he said you opened the scroll. So I did too, and now I'm here." Serras smiled. "Pretty snazzy, huh?" This wasn't the Mage of Despair talking. It was the real Serras Nerra talking. The kind, caring Serras which held the darker side.

"What do you want?" Natalya questioned.

"Dunno. What are you guys doing here? What's there to do for fun?" Serras responded, looking about. She saw Carnax. "HEY! It's Carnax! Sweetness! We gonna fight him?"

"No, Serras. NATALYA and I shall fight him. I still don't completely trust you."

"Fair enough. But you might want to watch out. Carnax no like waiting. And your making him wait." Maria looked up to see Carnax raising his hand again.

"MOTHER OF PEARL!" Both Despair sisters shouted, diving in different direction to avoid being squashed. Then, Carnax lost his balance and dropped back to his four legs.

"Are you three gonna stand there and chat all day, because you've got a Scourge to destroy!" Galanoth shouted their ways.

"Right. Well, Serras, I'm willing to put my differences aside for now if you are." Maria picked up her swords which had been knocked aside from Natalya's tackle. She drew them up.

"I agree. Maybe after today, I can show you how thankful I am for containing the Mage of Despair."

"Yea, about her. Think you can control her?" Natalya asked.

"Oh, yea. She and I get along so much better now. Why?"

"I think we may need some help from her."

"Fair enough. Give me, like, three minutes." Serras dug to Blade of Insight into the ground before her and clasped her hand together before her face.

"Why?" Natalya questioned, dodging one of Carnax's eye lasers.

"She's asleep right now. Need to wake her up."

"Right. So, hey, sis. Wanna go Catpire-thingy on him?"

"Neh. There's such a thing as overkill. C'mon. Let's buy Serras some time." Maria lept towards the creature's massive leg with both swords spread.

"You mean you CAN score an overkill? Saweet!" Natalya smiled before snapping a finger. Her Guardian armor exploded off her body and began swirling around her in a circle, almost as if something held it there. As the pieces spun about her faster, they started to change shape, and even composition. She had a smile of content as the pieces finally collided onto her, forming the form everyone knows as Drakonnen. With a feminine grace, she held her right hand out open, a small flame sparking in her palm. She twisted her wrist about the flame as the spark grew and changed. With a flick of her wrist and a brilliant flash of light, the flame had materialized into a horned helmet. It was a visage of a gruesome skull with very sharp, almost vampiric teeth gracing where Natalya's mouth should be. "Alrighty, Akriloth. Be a dear and power the three of us up."

"It will be my great pleasure, O Great Drakonnen!" The monstrous dragon glowed bright red and finally dissipated, forming into three red spheres of energy. Each of the three spheres branched out and found it's target. The first, which originally comprised of the Fire Dragon's body and arms hit Natalya. The second, which was the Dragon's head and neck struck Serras, and the third, Akriloth's wings, merged with Maria, who, subsequently sprouted blood red Dragon wings from her back.

"I so do love being half dragon during ninety percent of my life..." The X-Guardian sighed with a sarcastic tone. "Alright, sis, you want the honors of first strike?"

"Nah. I've had enough. Have fun." Drakonnen urged her sister on. Maria complied with a quick cross-chop across Carnax's leg.