Candice slammed a wolf into the wall of a pavilion. The dragoness ducked as a blade swished by over her head from behind, just missing her horns. She bucked low and kicked the wolf hard in the solar plexus with her hind legs. The wolf choked, missing his breath and grasped at his throat as he fell to his knees. Candice spun out of the way to avoid being crushed and spat a blast of ice into the wolf's face, freezing its head over. The beast fell to the ground and it's head shattered. Candice turned away from the sight and ran.
Tremor struck a wolf in the chest with the ball of his wrist. The impact crushed the wolf's chest and impaled its internal organs. As the creature sputtered blood, Tremor knocked it back into its pack-mates. The wolves tumbled over each other in a tangled mess of fur, blood and limbs. Tremor slammed a paw down and a pillar burst from the ground sending the bodies tumbling through the air.
The earth dragon turned to see Candice bound over to him.
"This is insane!" She panted heavily and hung her head, trying to gasp for breath.
"Keep your head up." Tremor lifted her chin with the barb on his wing. "You'll get your breath back a lot quicker if you don't restrict your wind pipe. And don't worry, we can take these losers."
Candice felt the blood rush to her cheeks as Tremor stared into her eyes. The moment was interrupted by a snarl and the dragons turned to see more wolves scrambling over their fallen comrades to get at them. Candice took to the air and several of the wolves leaped after her. Tremor jumped up and curled himself into a boulder. Candice froze the wolves on the ground that had been aiming for Tremor as the earth dragon plowed into her attackers. Tremor hit the ground the shock wave smashed the frozen wolves.
Suddenly a pillar of fire burst up on the far end of the city. "It looks like there's trouble deeper in the residential area!" Candice called down.
"Then what are you waiting for? Let's go!" Tremor spread his wings and took off. Candice shook her head and followed close.
Several wolves headed down the side streets along the east side of the city. Each carried at least one unconscious black dragon.
"The Alpha will be pleased to see the bounty we have collected this time around." One of them smiled and took a nip at the neck of one of the dragons under his arm.
"I, for one, am curious why the Alpha needs these these worthless creatures. Unless he is having us kill them for their flesh, then I do not see the point."
"You won't have to worry about that." A sudden voice caused the wolves to stop where they were. They had come to a small open courtyard with a small pool in the middle of it. The wolves all looked around, snarling and trying to sound as intimidating as possible to whomever had dared to challenge them. After a long moment the leader took a step forward.
"Hold it right there!" The wolves heads jerked towards the dragoness that had stepped out from behind a large dragon statue on the edge of the courtyard. "Put the dragons down, right now!" Gaia narrowed her eyes at them.
The wolves all looked at each other in surprise. Then the leader spoke. "A single hatchling? Is that all the mighty dragons have to offer us?" He spit and missed; the glob landing on the statue. "You younglings can't hope to stand up to even one of us." The wolf looked down at his unconscious captives then back to the earth guardian. "What makes you think that you of all dragons can match us?"
Gaia wanted desperately to say something witty that would put the wolf in his place. But that was her brother's specialty. A grin spread across her lips. "Well if you're so confident, then why don't you show me tough guy!"
"Alright then." The wolf set his captives down and drew his blade. "I'm gunna..." He took a step forward and didn't finish the sentence. Gaia slammed a foot on the ground and sent a pillar of stone straight into the wolf's lower jaw. He saw stars as he heard his bones break from the impact. Blood and teeth flew from his mouth as he reeled back and slumped to the ground
The rest of the pack stood speechless as they stared down at him, blood trickling from his nose and mouth. They snarled and dropped their prisoners and charged Gaia with pure hate burning in their yellow eyes.
Gaia spat an earth bullet and struck the lead wolf in the chest. The attack shattered his chest wall and his organs turned to mush. His pack-mates paid him on mind as his body flew past them. Gaia slammed her front paws into the ground. The wave of stone barreled towards the wolves sending most of them off balance and tumbling over each other. The three wolves that dodged the attack leaped for the dragoness. The lead wolf brought its blade down hard. Gaia side stepped the blow and spun around. Her tail connected with the side of the leader's head and she followed up with a back-kick. The force sent the leader into one of his pack-mates and the two hit the ground. The remaining attacker swung his weapon and Gaia ducked. She thrust her horns into the wolf's gut and tossed him over her back.
The first two wolves looked their comrade's bleeding body as he struggled to rise. They were about to go on the attack again when the wounded warrior lifted his head up and let out a pain-filled howl. Gaia whirled around with wide eyes. She had never encountered wolves before but she had a good idea what he was doing. With a dying gasp the wolf collapsed to the ground. There was a long moment of silence between the combatants. Gaia felt a chill run down her spine and she moved closer to the pool in the middle of the courtyard.
The dragoness felt her heart racing and pounding against her chest. After a moment she took in a deep breath to calm herself. There was a slight shuffle and the sound of claws against hard stone. The dragoness turned and struck an attacking wolf with her tail. Immediately another wolf took its place and lunged. Gaia rolled to the side as the blade struck the ground where she had been standing. She hooked her tail around the base of one of the dragon statues and hurled it at the wolf. There was a yelp and a loud crash as the projectile smashed into a wall.
As the statue began to fall, Gaia sprang into the air and shattered the upper half of the stone dragon. With a mighty flap of her wings she sent a shower of stone at the wolves across the courtyard. The canines shielded their faces with their weapons but their bodies were struck by the stone bullets. The invaders fell to their knees, blood seeping from their open wounds and covering the ground around them.
Snarl heard the dying howl as he entered the city. He had managed to slip past the defenders of the outer walls and make his way towards the residential areas of the underground dragon city. The shrill cry make his fur stand on end. Not out of fear, but rage. The warrior ground his teeth together and sheathed his weapon before taking off on all fours. He leaped high onto the wall of a pavilion and scrambled to the roof before racing towards the sound of his dying comrade. The Alpha bounded from one rooftop to another until he reached a high ledge overlooking part of the city.
Snarl's fierce yellow eyes searched madly for any sign of his pack-mates down below. His grip on his weapon tightened as his frustration increased.
Suddenly there was a loud crash and a cloud of dirt and rocks burst up from a small courtyard close by. The Alpha looked down to see a young, green dragoness roll out of the way of one of his warrior's attacks. The dragoness smashed a nearby statue and peppered several of his warriors with the stone fragments, crippling them severely. Seeing his companions bleed made the Alpha's blood boil. He sprang into the air with insanity burning in his eyes. Gaia never heard or saw him coming as the Alpha male brought himself down on top of the young dragoness.
A loud screech ripped through the cavern.
"I'm willing to bet that's Stella!" Candice called over the noise as she pointed her nose towards a spray of lightning that had just shot up from the ground.
Tremor nodded. "I think we should go gi-aaaauuuuggghhhh!" His sudden scream caused Candice to jolt and look around wildly in alarm.
"Tremor! What's going on?" She looked around expecting to see a group of wolves coming at them. "Tremor?" She looked back to find him gone. Her eyes swept down to see his body tumbling out of the sky. "Tremor!" She cried and dove after him. Nearby a group of wolves heard her cries and turned their attention towards her. Their pace quickened when they saw the earth dragon laying on the ground.