CHAPTER 32: FIRE AND BLOOD


Lucy had sensed the dragon's presence deep in her bones since the moment they arrived in Labyrinthian, yet foolishly failed to recognize it.

Now they all had to pay the price.

The moment Gray vanished into the blizzard, Lucy knew he'd be gone. If she had realized that the nearby dragon was the cause of her inner distress, not the trolls, she could've warned him. It was too late. Even though she hadn't truly known the man, Lucy's heart wrenched as she stared into the swirling snowstorm where he had just been.

Once before, Gray had told her how their Nord ancestors could withstand any weather, and how their bodies were still the same. There was power in their blood, a power to cast away any cold, a fire burning in the hearts of the Nords of Skyrim. But this was no weather, not an ordinary blizzard Gray had grown immune to. Lucy heard the words of power in the dragon's scream, Fo, Krah, Diin, yet she couldn't translate them to human tongue – she just knew that the dragon's breath was never-ending winter itself condensed into a single exhale.

The air surrounding her and Natsu turned frigid upon the dragon's command. The cold clasped her throat like a frozen, metallic fist. Terrified, she glanced at Natsu. The mage had pressed himself against the stones. He shivered. Natsu wasn't a Nord, and shared none of the frost resistance of their blood. Lucy's arms felt frozen as she tried to reach out to him, as if she had no strength left to move them at all.

When the blizzard around them subsided, they peeked past the rocks again. Lucy couldn't believe her eyes, and she forgot to breathe. Gray was supposed to be dead, frozen alive as Natsu had ironically hoped just a few minutes ago, but there he stood. Gods damn it, there he stood, among the whirling snows, and he just laughed.

Impossible.

Lucy looked into the dragon's ice blue eyes as the creature stared at Gray. She could swear even it was surprised by the man's immersive endurance against frost.

"Come at me, dragon!" Gray's shout echoed loudly in the air. "No frost will ever hurt a Nord!"

Was she supposed to feel encouraged or enraged by that? A layer of frost covered Gray, and like using the snow around him like clay, he created a spear from ice. It was longer than the ice spikes he had produced earlier. Its tip was shaped like an arrowhead. Gray launched it directly towards the dragon, but it rose on its wings, and the spear was crumbled against the stone tower.

The dragon was fast. It flew faster than Sahklonir, even faster than Alduin. Something else about it was different, and it wasn't the element only. As if it was somehow smaller, more petite than the previous dragons. Its scales were bright white like freshly fallen snow, but it had fewer, smaller spikes along its spine, and completely lacked horns. It soared through the skies again, disappearing into the clouds before it breathed another blizzard upon the plaza.

And somehow, they'd have to defeat it, or they'd die.

A strong tug on her arm made her realise she had dangerously zoned out. Forcefully, Natsu dragged her out of the snowstorm's way into the shelter of an old building. Half of it had sunk to the ground, so she had to crouch down to crawl through the small doorway. Natsu followed her as soon as she was in. The blizzard kept sweeping the streets where they had just been, and though the cold reached inside the stone walls, they protected them from the most ruthless winds. For a moment, they both stayed perfectly silent, and just listened.

When the dragon flew over the ruins, it made a strange, sharp, and high chirping sound. The sound created a resonance within Lucy's heart, as if she could read the dragon's emotion. It was excited about its opponents, excited to hunt them down like a cat chases mouse. In the darkness of the building, Natsu and Lucy glanced at each other, both knowing they'd have to come up with a plan, and fast.

"Fucking shit, I did not see that one coming," Natsu whispered. Maybe the dragon couldn't see them, but it would hear them, so he kept his voice as low as he could. "What do we do?"

"We kill it," Lucy answered, straightforward, but doubt lingered in her voice. "But this one's different from before. We should observe it first. If we charge straight into the battle, like last time, we'll be out of magicka in a second. Before we attack, we have to know how it attacks."

Natsu nodded. "Let's conjure our flame atronachs first. Fire didn't do much against the dragon in Kynesgrove, but could it work now? Since it breathes frost. Maybe the opposing elements deal more damage."

Though there was no proof to it until tested in action, his theory made sense.

"Could be," said Lucy. "Did you see Erza?"

"No."

"And what about Gray? I don't understand how he came out unscathed from the breath attack."

"The arrogant bastard might be invincible against ice, but no one's a match for the dragon's talons. They'll rip him apart if he's not careful. But we can't focus on him now. Let him handle himself."

As cruel as it sounded, Lucy knew he was right. If Gray foolishly thought of the dragon as another frost troll to test his mettle against, he'd surely meet his end, and they had to let him do it. "Okay," she admitted, with woe and worry in her voice.

"And whatever happens, don't believe what Gray says about no frost hurting a Nord. Don't get lost in that blizzard. No matter what."

Lucy gazed into his eyes. There was more he tried to say, but there wasn't time.

"Didn't mean to."

"Good," he answered. "And –"

Before he could finish the sentence, a part of the stone ceiling came crumbling down. He reacted instantly and pushed Lucy out of the doorway into the snow. Lucy helped him out as she watched how the dragon landed on the wall next to them, and smashed their hiding place into fragments with its tail. Not letting go of his hand, Lucy ran forward on the narrow alley, and hid into the shadows as the dragon took off again.

"Ready?" she asked. Natsu knew what she meant. Concentrating firmly on the new spell she had learned today, she formed a purple portal on her palm. A gateway to Oblivion opened as she cast the spell in front of her, and a flaming creature passed through. 'Maiden', as she had just named it.

Natsu summoned his own flame atronach. He sent it a bit further away, past the building they had been hiding at. Lucy's Maiden floated to his Flame Boy, and together they began searching for a good opening from where to launch fireballs at the dragon. Natsu and Lucy waited in the alley. They heard Gray's war cry from afar, and it no longer sounded as confident. Lucy began to fear the worst.

"This place is gonna be both good and bad for us," Natsu started silently. He watched as the dragon flew over the atronachs, and their fireballs missed it. "There ain't too many spots for the dragon to land. We can hide among the buildings and streets, but if we find ourselves in a dead-end, then, well, we're dead."

They pressed themselves against the wall. The dragon roared ice towards their conjured creatures. One fireball blasted against the dragon's wing. It let out a startled screech, which sparked hope in Lucy's heart. Maybe it could be damaged. And it seemed fire did more damage than anything else.

"Let's not die, then."

Natsu grinned at her.

While their atronachs were being beaten into embers, Lucy conjured her bow. The enchanted robes she got from the scholar gave her an excellent boost for casting conjuration spells, and her magicka didn't feel nearly as depleted as it used to be after summoning bound bow. She placed her feet into her fighting stance and picked an arrow. It gleamed faint blue, wavering light on her hands.

Adding fire to her arrows would be useful now, but it was a thing she couldn't do by herself, yet. The conjured bow kept both of her hands occupied, unable to cast flames at the same time. Lucy didn't need to ask Natsu to do it. He created a bolt of flames and placed it on the rock beside her. From there, she could set each arrow aflame – as long as she could stay in that spot, which she inspected wouldn't be for long.

Natsu stepped to the other side of the street. He combined a fireball with his both hands and kept it contained in his hold, trying to aim for the dragon. When the beast landed on top of a wall, possibly searching for Gray, Natsu threw the fireball. It exploded on its back and evoked a deep, pained roar from its throat. Flinched, Lucy released her flaming arrow, which found its way to the dragon's leg – and deflected down from its scales.

'What?'

The dragon made a short, sharp turn towards them. When it locked its blue eyes with Lucy, she felt her blood running cold, freezing within her veins. The dragon stared at her, analyzing her, and then it understood who she was.

"Ful, losei Dovahkiin? Zu'u koraav nid nol dov do hi." The dragon spoke. Somehow, as if awakening the understanding of the language Sahklonir once spoke, Lucy knew what it meant. 'So, you're the Dragonborn? I see nothing of the dragon about you.'

She'd prove it wrong. Lucy answered by shooting another flaming arrow directly at the dragon's head.

And again, it just bounced back. This time, Lucy saw how the flames were put out the very moment they touched the dragon's frozen scales.

Lucy swallowed in terror. Natsu had seen it too. He tossed another fireball towards the dragon, and the same thing happened – the coldness it radiated was enough to smother all fire out of existence before it could damage it.

So much of their observation.

So much of their plan to get out of these ruins alive.

"Diin arkh dir!"

The roar tore through Lucy's mind. Before she understood, she was being dragged out of a blizzard's way, deeper into the stone alleys of the ruined city. Natsu's hand grasped around her wrist like an iron chain. The air around them grew so cold it hurt to breathe, like frozen needles were filling her throat and lungs. They escaped behind the corners while the dragon glided above them, as if enjoying driving them into the maze, into the dead end.

Natsu cast a very faint flame cloak around himself – Lucy could barely see the fire, but felt its warmth. Just as equally as their fire spells were deflected on the frozen scales, its blizzards wouldn't reach through the flame cloak. Lucy hoped she'd learned that, too. She couldn't sap into its warmth, or she'd burn. But as she looked into him, she could tell he was lost in thoughts just as desperate as hers.

"Why won't your arrows work?" Natsu asked harshly. "You killed Sahklonir with the same bow."

"I don't know!" Lucy hissed, frustrated. "The frost is protecting it, somehow."

Lucy couldn't hear Gray's voice anymore. He was somewhere on the other side of the stone walls, but as a corpse or not, Lucy wasn't sure. The dragon had lost interest in him and hunted her instead, for killing her was its priority. And if she couldn't figure out how to tear down its protection, it would succeed. She couldn't run and hide forever.

She tried to think. The dragon wanted them dead, there was no doubt of it, but one detail caught Lucy's attention. Instead of severing them apart with its talons, which would've been a sure, fast way to kill them, it relied on long-range combat. It avoided getting too close to them. What could it mean?

"Can you use the Shouts against it? What you practised with the Greybeards?" Natsu asked her.

"I'm not sure," Lucy answered. "They require a lot of concentration, and –"

"Then fucking concentrate and try."

Lucy failed to retort. He was right. She couldn't surrender to her fear. Her first attacks might've failed, but if she could use Unrelenting Force against the dragon, to force aside the ice shielding it, then they could have a chance.

"Okay."

She wasn't sure at all if it would work. Lucy held tight on the handle of her bow. She had to keep the spell up while using the Thu'um, a risk she had to take. When she sighted the dragon again, as it landed on the end of the street and gazed at them in between two buildings, she knew her chance had come. She signalled Natsu to step back. Then she focused her whole soul into her voice.

"Fus Ro!"

Even though her shout lacked the final word, the last portent of its immense strength, it staggered the dragon. It swallowed its frozen exhale, and within a second's opening, Lucy drew an arrow and released it, then did it again. Together with Natsu's fireballs, the arrows hit the dragon's chest. It let out a hoarse cry of pain. The arrows had sunk into its flesh, and the fire burned its thick skin. Though she couldn't do it again immediately, now she knew how to damage it. And if something could be damaged, it could be destroyed.

Instead of emanating another blizzard upon them, the dragon spread its wings and rushed forward. It soared right above the buildings they hid amongst. Natsu's gaze followed the dragon's trajectory, and while Lucy couldn't move so fast with her drawn bow, he hurried to the other side of the street to get a proper line of sight. Natsu launched two firebolts at it, missed, and cursed.

All out of sudden, the dragon whipped its tail, and the gate between them collapsed. Snow and stone came crumbling down, and Natsu disappeared on the other side of the dust and stone. Chills of terror ran all over Lucy's body. Unable to move, unable to do anything, she stared at the destruction, her racing heartbeat almost coming to a stop.

She should've never let go of his hand.

"Natsu!" Lucy shouted through the rocks and debris. Only the dragon answered, roaring and striking the monuments down with its tail and wings. She'd been wrong when she thought she'd be the first the dragon would kill. It knew its weakness against fire, and decided to bring down the one who wielded it.

"I'm okay!" he answered, his voice muffled by the rock and ice between them. Her relief was only faint. "A bit stuck here, but I'll find a way out. You go find Erza or Gray. I'll be fine!"

The uncertainty in his voice scared her, but she couldn't stay there waiting for him to climb his way out of the trap. Snow fell down from the sky, heavy and thick, and she was losing sight of the dragon as it disappeared into the whiteness. Its hoarse, grating sounds let her estimate its location on the skies. Again, it had attacked briefly, and then gained distance. Sahklonir hadn't withdrawn from the battle, not even for the smallest moment, arrogant and overestimating as it had been. It had wanted to feast on human flesh for the first time in thousands of years, but this one was cautious. Careful, as if it was protecting something more valuable than its own life.

Her choice was to trust in Natsu, and not let her worry falter her now. He had a fool's luck, like divine protection, and he'd survive anything.

"If you die, I'll kill you!" she shouted, and then she ran.

As snow and frost filled the streets, she struggled to find the way she had come from. If she'd stay among the labyrinth of the old city, she'd be trapped like Natsu. The open area, the plaza was where Gray had been, would be better. She knew she'd be more vulnerable there, but she could cast Oakflesh to protect her, as well as a Steadfast Ward to take cover from the blizzards.

She sensed within her soul as the dragon drew near again. Called by an agitated resonation, she turned her head towards the northern skies, and glimpsed it among the clouds. Instinctively, she drew her bowstring and shot an arrow. It missed. When the dragon was on the fly, it was impossible to aim successfully, no matter how she tried to predict its movements. Lucy dispelled her Bound Bow. Keeping it summoned drained too much of her magicka. It frightened her to think what would happen if she'd run out of it. As she'd seen before, a dagger wasn't a potent weapon against a dragon.

By the current amount of weaponry they had, Erza's greatsword held the greatest chance to hurt the dragon. Lucy had to find her, even wield her blade herself if Erza couldn't do it. And if the warrior had fled the scene in her fear, Lucy swore that she'd beat her up when they'd meet again in Sovngarde.

And then, near the collapsed hut she'd first taken shelter at, stood a person, not the one Lucy had expected. It was Gray, who looked like a snowman himself, covered in a thick layer of frost. His movements were slow as he created another frozen spear and launched it into the obscured clouds. A pained growl let Lucy know he had hit his target. Then the man turned his head and glanced at her.

"What are you doing?" Gray asked, his voice exhausted. "Get out of here as fast as you can. I'll fight the overgrown lizard, like my ancestors once did."

"So did mine. I'll fight, too."

It seemed that every time Gray didn't swallow an answer, he just silenced into it. Choked. His chest was bleeding again, and the snow on him was dyed bright crimson. Lucy sensed he was dangerously low on magicka. He couldn't fight for long.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah," he answered. Grunting, the man cast a healing spell on his wound. The frost troll's graze had opened again. "Finally, a worthy opponent. I've got to admit, it's a bit chilly, even for me."

"You're joking."

Gray grinned. "For a brief moment, my ice spears actually sunk through its skin, but now they shatter to pieces again. It gathers the frost around it and forms new scales from it. Ice is like that, to be shaped upon the caster's will."

He had to mean the moment Lucy had shouted apart the dragon's scales. The effect had lasted merely for a minute, but a minute was enough for the final blow. The most vulnerable part of the dragon was the mouth. If she'd manage to shoot it directly into the opened mouth, the arrow would pierce through its skull from the inside, damaging it mortally.

She just needed a lot more open air to do that.

"I know what to do," she said in a rush. "Come with me."

As Gray asked no questions, Lucy began running towards the plaza. She followed the monuments, landmarks she vaguely remembered. The raging snows and winds concealed the ruins, but she found herself in the middle of the opening. From there, she saw how a fireball flew through the air and struck the dragon's side, causing the beast to halt in an instant.

"Fo Krah Diin!"

Frost, cold, freeze. Those were the words of power, Lucy knew now. The dragon's shout resounded all around the ruins as it breathed a blizzard directly where the fireball had come from. Frozen herself, Lucy stared at the sight. Had that been Natsu, or just his atronach? She had tried to trust he would be alright, but would he survive that? She began to doubt it.

She braced herself as the dragon landed on the tower in front of them.

"You just stand back for a while, and when I say so, throw an ice spear directly at the dragon," Lucy explained and commenced to conjure her bow. She opened the gates on her palms and pulled the threads of magic from the depths of Oblivion, and so the magical, shining bow came into her hands once again.

The dragon opened its mouth, and so did she.

"Fus Ro!"

Gray's dark eyes widened as wide as the moons. At that moment, Lucy couldn't give a single fuck about keeping her identity as a Dragonborn as a secret. Be it revealed to the whole world, it didn't matter at all. Gray's true reaction was concealed behind his silence, but his expression spoke of utter awe.

Her shout didn't push the dragon down from the tower, but still staggered it greatly. A faint sound of cracking ice echoed within the ruins, and Lucy knew their moment had come. One deathly shot. It was all it took.

"Now!"

Upon her command, Gray threw the ice spear before she managed to shoot an arrow. The ice spear struck into the dragon's shoulder. It sunk halfway to its flesh, and the crystal clear ice turned blood red. Lucy's arrow hit the dragon's mouth, but was stopped by its tongue before it would've torn apart its throat. Lucy mumbled a curse, but knew it was still good damage. With its tongue ripped, it wouldn't cast any more blizzards –

"Fo Krah Diin!"

She stood directly into the snowstorm's way as it erupted within the dragon's mouth. Droplets of blood flew among the frost, wounded wrath, winter's deathly embrace. The cold clasped her limbs, freezing them solid, making it impossible for her to flee. She failed to mutter a single word as the world around him vanished into a veil of whiteness, and she knew she'd be gone. Just as gone as their moment.

'Don't get lost in the blizzard. No matter what.'

Natsu's words echoed in her mind as the blizzard surrounded her. But then, she realized that the sharpest winds blew past her, as if something stood in between her and the dragon. The frost blinded her, she couldn't see what, but something protected her. No, someone.

When the cloud of snow settled down, she saw a wall of ice formed around her, built in the blink of an eye. And in the ground, in front of her feet, lay Gray, barely conscious. Gray had erupted a wall from ice only to keep her safe. Lucy's eyes widened as tears welled up. Her bow vanished from her hands.

She raised her eyes from the frost mage to the dragon. The beast knocked the ice spear from its shoulder with its head, and the wound was closed by ice. The hope she had once felt withered from her soul. The dragon jumped down from the tower and landed heavily on the ground in front of her, the earth quaking as it walked towards her.

And as tears rolled on her cheeks, they were frozen in an instant.


A trail of blood flowed down on Natsu's face as he finally slammed shut the door of the tunnels he had been lost into.

At first, he had thought that fighting a dragon in Labyrinthian would come to their advantage. How foolish had he been. What he had thought would be a shelter against the blizzards, turned out to be a frozen deathtrap. He had misjudged the strength of the stone walls against a dragon's brute force. The truth had dawned to him when the first whiplash from its tail had brought down the gate and blocked the way between him and Lucy, which now felt like a forever ago.

Natsu had lost the track of time. One of the falling rocks had struck his head, but otherwise, he had survived unscathed from the destruction. Much to the dragon's disdain, his flame cloak had repelled the frost breath, giving him just enough time to escape the alley before the beast wrecked it all. He had run to a ruined building and found a locked door. The lock had been no match to his enraged kick, and so the old iron had given in.

If getting separated from Lucy had been his first mistake, going into the burial crypt of the ancient dragon cult had been the second.

Natsu slammed shut the door behind him and pressed his back against it. The Draugr, a dozen of them, scratched the old wood and snarled. Gods, how much he hated those things. It would've been a waste of time and magicka to stay behind and fight them. Just barely, he had managed to dodge the strikes of their axes and swords and found a way to the second exit. If there hadn't been one, he wouldn't have been so lucky to survive. Now he just hoped the undead would stay in their crypt, now that they had driven out the intruder.

Struggling to catch his breath, he raised his eyes to the sky. He couldn't see the dragon, but he heard its rasping, angered growls. He hadn't estimated the length of the crypt, but figured he couldn't have ended up too far. Perhaps to the other side of the city at worst, but still within the area.

Suddenly, the wooden door behind him cracked. He flinched and jumped around. A sword had pierced through the door, and the blue eyes of the Draugr wielding it shone through the hole. Natsu grit his teeth, readied a flame on his palms, and cast a flaming rune to the door. The moment they'd finally break through it, they'd be caught in an explosion. He cast another rune to the ground where he had stood. It should take care of the rest of the Draugr, in case they'd survive the first blow.

"Burn, you fucking creeps," he muttered at the undead. He left them to smash the door with their weapons, wiped the blood from his forehead and ran along the path which led out of the crypt's entrance.

Soon, he arrived in the upper district of the city. While he'd been gone, the world had disappeared into a white veil of snow. Natsu pulled himself upon the stones of a fallen monument, and tried his best not to fall. He sought for a glimpse of Lucy, but there was no sign of her.

Then he heard a scream, coming from the south. A scream he easily recognized.

Lucy stood there, in the middle of the open plaza, defenceless, looking so small from there. Gray lay on the ground among shards of broken ice, blood staining the snow underneath him. Lucy crouched by his side and attempted to cast a healing spell on him, but failed. A strange slash of a tail swept down the ice wall around them, forcing her to back down.

It was only then when Natsu saw the dragon.

The dragon swooped Gray out of its way. The frost mage flew through the air and tumbled to the side of the plaza. Lucy screamed something, but Natsu couldn't make out of the words. The dragon approached her, and for every step Lucy managed to fall back, the dragon crept closer. Lucy stumbled on the ice and fell on her back, and Natsu knew he had been stranded too far. No matter how fast he'd run, he couldn't save her now.

And just as the ice crackled and broke below the dragon's heavy steps, Natsu felt his heart shattering into a thousand pieces. He had once believed witnessing Igneel's death would've already broken it, but he had been wrong. If some parts of his soul had stayed unscathed from that, they broke now as he was forced to watch another friend die.

In that moment, the red string of fate, the thing which had kept him alive since the disaster his life had blown into, slipped through his fingers.

The dragon opened its mouth, lines upon lines of razor-sharp teeth ready to shred Lucy apart. As the final effort to stop the beast, Natsu ignited a blast of fire on his palms. But before he could launch it, the dragon stopped. Its whole body fidgeted with a force, and a loud screech escaped its throat. Then Natsu saw the blood. It flooded from the wound at the root of its tail, which now connected to its body in an unnatural angle, partly severed.

Erza Scarlet swung her greatsword again, and the tail was cut off from the dragon's body.

The flames withered in Natsu's hands. Awestruck, he watched as the tail twitched and wiggled like it was still alive, spraying blood from the wound. The dragon's roar of agony filled the entire skies. Quickly, it turned and faced the warrior. Even from afar, Natsu could see the fear in Erza's eyes, but still, she placed her trembling feet in a fighting stance and charged at the dragon again.

And Natsu knew he had to get to them, now.

He slid down the snow-covered stones, caught the edges whenever he could so he wouldn't fall too high, and landed at the edge of the plaza. He rolled forward when he hit the ground, sprung up and ran to Lucy. She crawled away from the dragon, her hands and knees slipping on the ice beneath them.

"Lucy!"

She lifted her head and forced herself to stand. Natsu reached her before she took a single step forward. Crying, Lucy fell in his arms, and for the briefest moment, they were lost in the happiness of finding each other alive, against all the chances.

Lucy's trembling, frostbitten fingers clutched sharply into his robes. Frantically, she shook her head and screamed as the tears poured down her face. Natsu couldn't hear her words, but her desperation showed through her actions. And he couldn't stand to see her crying. Crying, like she had given up.

Before the fire mage could say anything to her, the moment was broken by the dragon's heart-wrenching shout. A desperate whirl of ice and emerged upon its call. Erza was buried within the blizzard, and then the dragon unfolded its wings. A lid of frost had formed on the stump of its tail. While it no longer bled, the beast had lost its balance. It flapped its wings like a crippled bird, trying to gain altitude and fly straight towards the crags on the mountainside.

It was gone, but not for good. It would regain its strength, and then attack again, and kill them.

Lucy had stopped screaming. Blankly, she stared after the dragon, but then her eyes moved down to the warrior. Natsu saw her too. Erza sat on the ground, hands wrapped around her knees. Her sword lay adjacent to her feet. The dragon's breath had frozen her solid – the steel which had always protected her from the blows would be her death now, clued to her skin like a tongue on cold iron.

"We must help her," Lucy stuttered, and took a faint step forward. "And Gray… Do you see him anywhere?" The concern in her voice was sincere.

Natsu looked around, but his vision was getting blurry. There was only the endless white, as if rage and worry had stolen his world for every other colour. He couldn't find Gray among the snow, but he had seen the hit he had taken. He doubted they'd find him alive. As much as he hated Gray, Natsu hated the thought of having to report another's apprentice's death to the Archmage more. His chest hollowed as they walked through the battleground to Erza.

The warrior's vaporized breath rose towards the sky in short, bated puffs. Her face was as white as a ghost's. A layer of frost hid away the scarlet of her hair, and her armour glimmered like an untouched blanket of snow. Her eyes were closed – no, frozen, and she could not open them. But she sensed them coming. Feebly, she opened her mouth to talk, but no words came out.

Lucy fell on her knees in front of Erza. She struggled not to cry again. Her frostbitten hands touched the warrior's slumped shoulders, and her bare fingers stuck on the frigid steel. Natsu had to admit that the frost resistance of a Nord was, indeed, an astonishing thing. He would've already died in the place of any of them.

"What should… What should we do?" Lucy wondered. She looked over her shoulders, raising her eyes to Natsu. "She's going to die. She saved us. We… We can't let her…"

The helplessness in her gaze made him uneasy. Erza had only bought them time, not saved them. Natsu looked back to the warrior, her iced shell, and knew there was but one way to rescue her. Only one thing could reverse frost.

Fire.

Natsu lifted his left hand above Erza's head. He glanced at Lucy, and she understood to step back. Then he created an aura of fire around the frozen warrior. Not a roaring pyre, but gentle like wavering light. The flames did not touch her, but radiated their warmth, and so the ice began to melt. Erza opened her eyes.

"Don't move," Natsu commanded. "The fire should warm up your armour and then wear off, but if you touch it, you're dead. Consider it as thanks."

The frigid blood in her limbs could charge straight into her heart and stop it, but Natsu didn't bother to tell her that. A faint cough from behind them caught his attention. Covered in snow and stained with blood, a figure lay on the ground a few paces away.

"Gray? You're alive?" Lucy asked and hurried to the frost mage.

Though Natsu was usually filled with ire just looking at Gray, now it was suddenly gone. The frost wall around Lucy had to be of Gray's creation, and it had saved her life. He ought to thank him for it, too, but somehow couldn't.

"Y-yeah," Gray stuttered weakly and coughed again. Blood burst from his mouth. "But if… if you could fetch me a magicka potion, that… t-that would be great."

Lucy nodded many times. "Where's your pack?"

"S-should be on the root of that tower."

Lucy ran to the tower Gray pointed at, and returned with a couple of blue bottles. Natsu stayed back and watched as she helped the frost mage to drink them. The depletion of his magicka was complete, but he was also wounded. How mortally, that Natsu couldn't tell from afar. When the potions had been emptied, Gray cast a healing spell upon himself, but still wasn't even able to stand up.

The dragon growled somewhere in the distance, and Natsu knew they were running out of time. Erza and Gray couldn't fight, and Lucy probably wouldn't either. Was it all up to him, then?

What in the Oblivion could he even do?

He glimpsed the dragon through the mist. It circled in the air, like trying to learn how to fly again after losing its tail. If a sword made from Skyforge steel had cut it off, perhaps other weapons made the same way could hurt it, too? Yet, how unfortunate it was that he only had two daggers made from the same steel instead of a dragon-slaying spear…

Suddenly, Natsu got a terrifying idea that would, most likely, kill them all if it backfired. But in case it wouldn't, it could also save them – a risk he had to take.

He had almost lost Lucy here, and he couldn't let it happen again.

Not wasting any time on explaining his plan to Lucy and the others, Natsu set forward. He took the left-side dagger from its sheath and walked a bit more. All of his rage focused into magicka in his hands, materialized as angered sparks that dropped to the ground as he walked. Waiting for the dragon to land and assaulting it with these butterknives would mean certain death, but it wasn't his intention, not at all.

He would bring the dragon down from the skies with them.

Two daggers, two tries. Natsu glanced at the deathly sharp blade. His blood-stained face reflected from them again, but the image disappeared into the flames as he set the left dagger on fire. He squeezed the hilt tight as he began to pour the fire with his will, forcing it to form a flaming spike to both ends of the weapon. If anyone had ever used flame spears and combined them with a steel blade, Natsu had never heard of it.

He intended to be the first.

The spear began to take form as the sorcery of fire weaved around the dagger, which became its core. It gathered the heat and burned his skin, but he carried on – no, carried away. He severed all restraints, lost his mind into the fire, not caring what he'd burn in the process. Himself, these ruins, the whole world of Nirn, it didn't matter. He just had to get it done.

He set the very essence of magic itself ablaze.

Uncontrolled, untamed, the fire spread from his reigns and surrounded him into a storm of raging flames. It fed on his anger, on his fear, on his determination to live, until the spear was finished. As long as he was tall, it had become a missile of a condensed inferno, ready to meet its target and explode.

'Come at me, dragon.'

There it came, as if it heard his call. Up in the distant clouds, it soared towards them, barely visible among the fog and snow. Natsu's precise gaze followed it for a second, and then he lifted the spear to the height of his head. It seared, roamed like a wildfire in dry woods – he loved the sound. The dragon's wings were spread wide, like it was gliding down, unable to fly. He aimed for the body in between them, its lungs, and then he sprinted onward.

He sped up to produce enough power, turned his body towards his throwing arm, used all of his strength and might to thrust the spear forward. Then he released.

The momentum carried him forward several steps. He fell on his hands and knees into the fiery ground, smothering the flames beneath him, and raised his eyes to the sky. The roaring hiss still echoed in his ears, or then it was just the rush of his own blood, as he watched the spear fly through the skies, forever upwards, like it would reach the moon if nothing came on its way.

Then a dragon did.

The spear impaled the beast's chest, pierced through its frozen scales, and the vision Natsu witnessed next would stay with him until his last breath. The dragon opened. Fire engulfed its torn lungs when the rest of his blazing sorcery exploded inside of it. Like wine poured from a barrel, blood gushed down from the horrific wound as it descended from the skies which has once been the dragon's realm.

It was raining dragonblood.

An otherworldly, blood-gurgling cry emanated from the dying creature. The dragon kept frantically flapping its wings, trying to gain more air, but it fell, fell, fell. Natsu, hallowed by the sight, realized he was directly on the line of upcoming impact. He sprung upon his trembling feet and sprinted, as fast as he could, out of its way.

And as if Secunda itself had fallen from the night sky, the dragon plunged to the ground. The pressure wave of the enormous impact threw the fire mage off his feet. He landed face-first to the rocky field, and for a moment, everything turned dark, and very silent. So silent he thought he had died, too.

Then someone shouted his name.

Natsu was harshly turned around. He opened his eyes, but all he could see was fire. Fire and dragonblood. His whole body shivered from the excess use of magicka – he had depleted it all in one shot, and the two tries he had thought had never been. There had been only one chance. He had never felt so weak, but so strong at the same time. Almost like a hero. Natsu pressed his palms into his eyes, and could still feel the remaining heat of his spell lingering on his touch.

His name was shouted again.

Someone moved his hands from his eyes, forced him to look at them. And now he saw Lucy. Her fingers sizzled where she held him from. Natsu could smell her skin burning up, but she did not let go of his hands. Besides this, that her hands were burning, he couldn't understand what was going on. Maybe he didn't need to. They were alive, and nothing else mattered at that moment.

He sought for something to say, but not a single word came to his mind. Everything was blank, faded, dizzy. Slowly, he looked away from Lucy. A column of black smoke rose skyward behind her, the first and final pyre for the frost dragon to rest on.

"… and when you disappeared into the flames, I… I was sure that we lost you there, but then you… you just… incredible…"

It was then when Natsu realised Lucy had been speaking for a while. Her voice was feeble and thin, but gradually her words began to make sense to him. The world around him formed back from the place had been lost into. As if he had temporarily stepped into a plane of Oblivion where only fire reigned, drawn power from those flames, and returned. Now, he was somewhere in the frozen ruins of Labyrinthian, just a bit more ruined than before.

"Is it dead?"

Those were the first words he managed to utter. Lucy silenced. She glanced past her shoulders.

"I don't know."

Lucy helped him back on his feet, yet it felt like his every bone had been grounded into dust. He fought to stay conscious as he followed Lucy to the edge of the crater the dragon had created. On the bottom of the chasm, lay the torn-up dragon which still groaned. An extremely low, grating sound rose along with the smoke.

"It's not," Lucy said.

"Then the rest is up to you."

Lucy looked at him with disbelief in her eyes. She doubted herself, wondered what in the name of Talos she would even do, but Natsu knew that only the Dragonborn would kill a dragon. He wasn't one. She had to finish it off.

Two pairs of steps approached them from behind. They were Erza, hypothermic but alive, and Gray, wounded but still standing. The warrior carried her greatsword on both hands, and handed it down to Lucy.

"Take this," said she, unceremoniously. "Strike it through the dragon's head."

Hesitantly, Lucy nodded and received the sword. Her back slouched from the weight, but she quickly fixed her posture, tried to carry it with grace. Then she walked down the slope to the bottom of the pit, and Natsu followed her.

The dragon lay perfectly still, but amongst it ragged breathing, Natsu heard something which faintly resembled a merrily running stream, when the snows melted on a warm spring day. When they moved closer, he understood that the streams were blood flowing from its lungs, ending to the crimson sea beneath the enormous body. As if it sensed them coming, its wing fidgeted, but fell powerlessly back to the bloodied ground.

Natsu looked down and flinched. He was standing ankle-deep in a pool of blood. A potent hunch of iron mixed with the smell of smoke. Lucy didn't seem to notice it. Instead, she reached the dragon and began to climb to its back, using its wing as a bridge. She almost slipped, but restored her balance, caught the small spike still intact on its spine.

While she climbed, Natsu noticed a dagger flowing among the stream of blood near the opening of its wound. It had been caught between the dragon's ribs. He couldn't understand how the weapon was still intact. He retrieved it without saying anything. Perhaps there was some magic woven into a blade smithed in the ancient Skyforge, even if the Companions would never admit it.

The dragon groaned more loudly when Lucy reached the back of its neck. The tone wasn't frightened, but sad, sorrowful, like a plea to spare its life. But Lucy did not listen to its begs for mercy. She lifted the greatsword with her two hands, pointed the tip to the dragon's skull, and then pushed it down with the whole weight of her small body.

And so, the dragon died.

The flesh and frozen scales began to dissolve around the dragon's skeleton. Like gusts of the whirlwind, the beast's soul left its body and began to dance around Lucy like the softest autumn mist. She dropped the greatsword from her hands, stumbled backwards from the forceful intrusion of the soul, and fell from the creature's back. Even though Natsu had no strength left in him, he instinctively rushed forward and caught her before she'd hit the ground and drown in the pool of dragonblood.

Time seemed to slow down as he held her in his arms, like she was the most fragile, most valuable thing of existence. The swirling soul of a dragon surrounded them both. Echoes of the past aeons ringed in his mind as they passed by, and for a moment he feared he'd be absorbed too. He attempted to stay anchored in the present moment by looking Lucy into the eyes. She was staring back at him, but her gaze pierced right through – what she saw was far beyond Natsu's comprehension.

When nothing but bones were left of the dragon, the swishing sound came to a stop. The last remnants of the soul were now sealed inside Lucy's body. She closed her eyes and her limbs fell limp. Natsu shook her gently, but there was no response. The blood began to evaporate on the ground, enveloping them into a shroud of red mist.

Natsu didn't dare to move an inch. He stayed still for a while which felt like an eternity. 'It's over,' he kept repeating himself, glancing at the dragon's skeleton every now and then just to be sure it was truly dead. 'It's over for now.'

Eventually, Lucy opened her eyes again. There was something different in her gaze, something which Natsu failed to understand yet. She stayed silent for a moment, but then she rose to her feet with surprising ease. As if she knew exactly where to look, she turned her head towards the dragon, and halted completely. Even her breathing stopped for a second.

Natsu stood up too, but almost fell instantly. He took support from his knees and waited for the dizziness to wear off, but it never really did. Lucy moved again. Her footsteps made rings on the still surface of the crimson pond as she walked inside the dragon's skeleton. The empty ribcage formed a canopy of bones over her head.

And from there, within the remains of a dragon, Lucy found an egg.

It lay half-sunken in the pool of its mother's steaming blood. About a side of a human head, it was covered in white scales. Suddenly, Natsu understood why the dragon had avoided close combat. It had been carrying an egg, its offspring, something more valuable than its own life. But why it hadn't dissolved with the mother, was not known.

Lucy lifted the egg up in her arms.


A/N: Hi guys, hope you enjoyed the chapter! I also hope the Game of Thrones references weren't as shitty as they were obvious lol. Or as shitty as the final series itself.

As I've said before, battle scenes are challenging for me to write (aren't they for anyone?) so I hope this turned out okay. A lot of things were different here compared to their previous dragon fight: the terrain, the participants, the dragon itself. I hope it was a good variety. But I'm most anxious and insecure about the writing here. To me, it feels a bit chunky at times, but I tried not to bring my usual poetry-like style purple prose into the fight to make it move forward better. I'd be very glad if you'd tell me your opinion about it, so I can improve in the future fight scenes.

Personally, I really liked the moment I gave for Erza. There's going to be her view about that event later, but it's a huge step in her character development. She stood her ground and saved her buddies, even though she was frightened. Relatively, Lucy wasn't so much use in this fight, which again is another lesson for her that she still has a lot to learn. With the dragon souls messing up her head, she's not exactly in the best mental condition anyway. And I just had to make Natsu the MVP here, to show that he's very fucking badass too.

In the game, the dragons are always pretty much same and fight the same way (aka flying in the air for an unmeasured period of time, landing, kicking your ass, flying again, hitting with a breath attack, flying away, landing on you and killing you and stuff) but I want them to be more different. Depending on the dragon, they might be aggressive or cautious, and this one was definitely more cautious, avoiding close combat. This dragon was carrying an egg, so it was more aggressive in driving them out of its territory more than risking the egg in fighting them.

There wasn't any information about the dragon genders in the game, but I've made additions to the dragon lore. There will be more about it in the next chapters, but in this story, I've decided that there are female dragons too who lay an egg at certain point of their life. Remember how in the previous chapter Natsu and Lucy were discussing if the flame atronachs were female or male? It was kinda a prelude to this topic.

Thank you again for all the support and love!