Chapter 50

The Dragon versus the Master

With incredible finesse the Master flew through the last hole and landed on solid ground. He stood and surveyed his surroundings, finding himself in a massive cavernous chamber filled with line upon line of war machines. Ancient walkers, tanks, motorcycles, transports and artillery were among just the few that were laid out in front of him, their armour and interiors rusted beyond repair, making them useless hulks.

A faint warning flashed through his mind and he jumped aside, dodging a tank as it soared through the air and crashed into the ground where he once stood, pieces of shrapnel and metal breaking off its form. He landed on his feet and jumped again as a motorcycle came spinning towards him, hitting off the ground like a pebble on the waters surface, pieces of metal breaking off it as it bounced.

The Dragon stood several meters away from where he once stood, his eyes alight and angry, a snarl curling the exposed section of his mouth. He pointed towards an old two legged battle walker and swung his arm. The machine suddenly skidded across the floor and flew into the air towards his falling form. The Master performed a somersault, giving his blade more momentum as the walker came careening towards him and cut down, slicing the flying walker in half with the blade, the debris of the war machine flew on either side of him and he felt a searing pain on his cheek.

As his feet meet solid ground he felt his cheek and looked at his hand, seeing blood his eyes widened. He got careless. Growling he heard the laughter of the Dragon, rasping and deep, echoing through the chamber and bringing a cold chill up his spine. Besides himself he shuddered.

Several flashes brought his attention back to the Dragon in time for him to see several spear tips of green energy soar towards him. He dived to the side, releasing his own spear tips of condensed force lightning. The two burst of energy meet in the very centre and exploded, creating shockwaves in each direction. Tanks and other vehicles were thrown away from the explosion of energy like leaves caught in the wind, creating mangled piles of metal in every direction.

The Master corkscrewed in midair and raising his hands released a full salvo of force lightning upon the Dragon. Later generations feared the use of such aggressive force attacks, thinking of them as methods of the dark side. That was not completely true. If the practitioner used the lightning for a purpose other than through his anger, to protect someone for example, then force lightning could be used as easily as a force push.

The long jagged lines of bluish white lightning flew towards the winged silhouette but instead of striking the Dragon it smashed against the side of a thrown tank and exploded, taking the vehicle with it. Shrapnel tore and whistled through the air, striking off the floor and the nearby vehicles. He was just able to intensify his shield as the shrapnel disintegrated off it, flashing blue. The Dragon stood unmoving, the shrapnel simply bouncing off his armour and scales alike.

He landed on his feet and broke into a run, holding his possessed sword with his hands and readying for a proper strike, the blade sung in his mind, granting him extra bursts of speed as the Dragon released blast after blast of compact green energy, dodging them with sidesteps. He came up beside the Star-God and swung his sword, the blade sang as it cut through the air, connecting with the Dragons side and stopped.

It clashed against the side of the Dragon, but failed to cut through its incomplete armour. Growling he spun, swinging his blade and cutting at its opposite side, the same result followed. The Dragon smirked and grabbed the blade with his clawed hand as the Master tried again. A flicker of movement and the Master flew backwards, crashing into the far wall and leaving a crater. As he tried to pull himself out he was assaulted by another deadly blast of power, then another until the wall broke through and then he was flying again.

He crashed into a high backed chair and fell backwards with it, landing hard on the floor and rolling. He groaned and spat up blood as he came to a stop, holding onto his ribs and considering that several may be broken. He slowly got back to his feet and with a subconscious thought called his sword to him. The blade flew through the air and was caught by his outstretched right hand.

With his right hand he firmly held the grip of his weapon and with his left he telekinetically lifted bits and pieces of debris, weapons from ancient spears and swords to war-hammers and battle-axes floated into the air and shot forward towards the approaching form of the Dragon. He swept his hand and the weapons hit against an invisible wall and bounced harmlessly away, some of the rusted weapons bent and snapped under the strain.

Undeterred he raised his hands above the Dragon and concentrated on the Force energy on the spot above him. Blades of pure blue light appeared and crashed downwards, aimed towards the Dragon, they hit off the floor with a great series of near blinding flashes, booming like thunder as they hit the ground and kicked up a cloud of dust.

He lowered his hand, breathing heavily from the psychic exertion. He leaned against his body spanning sword and waited for the dust to settle. Hoping to gain at least a temporary respite. He didn't get the chance as a blurred shape shot from the dust cloud, grabbed him by the throat and held him several feet from the ground.

"That won't work" the Dragon scoffed "I am immune to all warp powers. Psykers trembled before my power as theirs was rendered useless. The very Eldar gods shivered at the mere mention of my name!"

"Really" the Master asked, his voice rasping yet mocking, his mouth curling up into a smile, blood trickling from the corners "Then what' that?"

He heard a section of his armour chip and looked at the source, his left arm had been torn from the elbow. For a moment the Dragon simply starred at his stump, shocked that a psychic attack had struck him. His eyes widened with rage as he returned his murderous gaze upon the Master and threw him against the far wall.

"What did you do?!"

"Its called Blade Storm" The Master replied with a grin "I made it up myself. Really good for taking out clusters of enemies"

"Not that" he shouted angrily "How did you hit me. No warp attack can hit me!!!"

"See that's your first mistake" the Master replied "You assumed that I was using this warp energy when I was using the force"

"The force" the Dragon asked as he stretched out his stump, a new fore limp shot out from his wound, covered in a sticky green fluid. The Dragon flexed the fingers of his new limp experimentally "I don't know what this force is but it doesn't really matter. You are strong if you can cut me, but against a god you will fail"

"I guess so" the Master replied as he got to his feet and starred right into the pitch black eyes of the monster "But then I guess I'm lucky because I'm not fighting a god"

"What" the Dragon growled in barely controlled rage.

"You heard me" the Master replied with a smug expression "You are no god. You are simply an immortal who has become powerful in your millions of years of life. I guess if I was as old as you then I would be similar to your strength"

"You insolent little bastard child" the Dragon shouted in a fit of rage as he came forward, grabbing the Master by his collar and hoisting him into the air, he then threw him across the full circumference of the room, through the wall and into the side of a tank, crumpling its armoured side like paper as he hit it "You are nothing, a flickering light in the dark, I am eternal, I am a god. I will never die. Every time I rise the galaxy burns and runs with the blood of billions in a cleansing!!!"

"Cleansing" the Master asked between ragged fits of coughing and spitting out blood "Is that what you Star-Gods call mass genocide?"

The Dragon didn't reply as he approached him, instead he unsheathed his black sword from its scabbard and raised it over his head, a maniacal grin on the exposed part of his mouth. He was done talking.

He brought down his sword and was surprised to see it clash with the master's. The immortal grinned and batted the black sword aside. Flipping to his feet and slashing upwards, cutting deep into the thin membrane of the Dragons right wing, black blood stained his swords blade and the Dragon screamed, staggering backwards from the sudden attack.

He regained his footing and swung his own black bladed sword, aiming for the humans face. It caught the bridge of his nose and left a shallow gash. This time the master staggered backwards, blood flowing from the cut down his face. He spun, aiming to cut the Dragon in half and found that the Star-Gods own blade blocked him, the two blades crackled with energy. A shockwave of raw power was released when the swords struck and left several gashed in the far wall.

"Where is this power coming from" the Dragon growled through gritted teeth.

"Guess this is my adrenaline kicking in" the Master replied "A little going away present for you 'Star-God'. You may kill me but there are dozens of others!"

He batted the blade away and swung his sword, cutting deep into the Dragons shoulder, his blade sang as it quenched its thirst, spilling more of the Star-Gods blood, another shockwave was released and added another few gashes to the walls. The Dragon staggered backwards, gripping his bloodied side before screaming in anger and striking at him with renewed power.

As the master deflected the Dragons blade he was hit by the Star-Gods right fist into his cheek, sending him corkscrewing in midair. Somehow he landed on his feet and jumped, bringing his right foot around and smashing into the side of the Dragons armoured head. He too started corkscrewing in midair, but stopped a few feet off the ground, floating back to his feet within the blink of an eye.

He snarled and dropping his sword punched the master in the stomach, his feet left the ground for a few moments from the force of the blow and the master coughed up blood. He felt his ribs crack under the pressure and countered the blow, bringing his fists up and punched the Dragon, first on his right and then on the left side of his face. His incomplete helm cracked under the power of his fists. The master then followed up with a lightning quick kick to the Dragons still injured side, reopening the near healed wound and causing the Star-God to release him.

He landed on his feet, staggered and then jumped, swinging his right leg for a roundhouse kick. The Dragon recovered quickly, blocked the kick by grabbing his leg and threw him to the ground with such power that the floor the master fell on imploded, leaving a crater.

Stricken and in agony the master rolled to his side and threw up blood, leaving a pool of crimson on the floor. He sat up only to be met by the Dragons armoured foot to his chest, sending him skidding backwards and crashing into the far wall with a bone cracking thud.

By know he was falling in and out of consciousness. Black blotches appearing at the sides of his vision, made worse as his sense of the world around him started to blur, colours and objects seemed to mix together and lose their shapes. He was dying, he felt the blood seep from a wound in the back of his head, his lungs punctured by ribs that never broke, his force barrier had shattered an age ago and his body showed it, covered in cuts, bruises and several nasty stab wounds.

As his consciousness left him he had a single regret. He wanted to see his brothers and sisters again, one last time. The Dragon now loomed over him, hands gripped on the hilt of his blade as he held it in the air, ready to plunge it into the Masters chest.

As he brought the blade down the Master was engulfed by a great blue light and vanished, just as the Dragons black blade dug into the floor where he once lay. The Dragon pulled the blade out off the ground and looked around, his psychic senses searching for any traces of the Immortals life signature. He was no where on the face of the red planet. Wherever he went, for now the Dragon could not follow. Silently he sheathed his sword and turned, heading back towards his coffin to continue his regeneration.

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The air smelled different he realised. Instead of the tang of damp and rusted metal he sniffed clearer yet still dusty air. Slowly he opened his eyes and willed the blotches overhead to take a shape. He saw a high ceiling. Lower than the one of the cavernous storehouse, but still a kilometre high. It was made of what looked like grey stone with a spine running through its centre, ribs of concrete stretched out from the central spine, acting as extra support.

He then heard a voice, soft and gentle call to him, a blotch of deep violet appeared in his vision and as it cleared he began to make out features, a nose, deep worried eyes of pure purple, cone like ears and a pair of head-tails cascading past slender shoulders. She spoke but it sounded miles away to him. He cleared his hearing and vision with the forces help and smiled when he was finally conscious enough to see who it was.

"Sasha-" he started but was abruptly silenced as a finger pressed against his lips, he looked up and was saddened to see that her cheeks were glistening, she had been crying.

"Shhh big brother" she managed, choking back sobs of joy to see him "You just rest. Those wounds will be healed in no time"

"How did I get…here" he persisted, drawing a choked sigh from his much younger sister.

"You were rescued from your little suicide mission by the Emperor"

"The Emperor?"

"Hush" she said, effectively ending the conversation "It will all be explained in time big brother, just rest and don't make me put a sleep suggestion on you!"