Chapter 30

Selene, ten minutes earlier…


Jiroh looked at the both of them unfazed by their full release of power. He scoffed at them as he reached behind him for the sword that was strapped to his back.

The moment his hand wrapped around the hilt, Selene had an uncomfortably familiar feeling. A cold, blood curdling sensation that she had felt many times before when she had fought...Kayron.

As Jiroh pulled the sword out of its sheath and more of it became visible, she noticed a blood red crystal embedded in the guard of the sword. The moment that the sword was fully unsheathed and she could see the full length of its adamantine blade, blood started leaking from the crystal in its guard and wrapped itself around the blade. It then began to travel up his arm and encircle the rest of his body which had already undergone a transformation before she had brought him here, hardening his skin into scales. As the blood from the sword encircled his entire body, it solidified into armor.

Artemis' expression hardened in anger as she lunged forward with terrifying speed. She pulled her sword arm all the way back before she slashed at his neck. However, instead of slashing right through it with ease like Selene was expecting, her sword was stuck in Jiroh's blood armor and sparked off of his scales harmlessly.

His body lurched backwards from the impact and he was knocked off of his feet but he reacted barely fast enough to counter attack as he swung his sword back at her.

Artemis kicked off of his body just in time to avoid his swing and pulled her sword out of where she struck him. He crashed onto the ground with enough force to blow the ground apart and make a small crater.

Selene had seen meteors hit the ground from space with less force than that...

Yet, despite being hit as hard as he was, Jiroh stood up and brushed it off.

The way she looked at the situation, he was basically nothing more than an extremely durable punching bag. He wasn't fast enough to counter their attacks but his skin was so tough that even Artemis' moonlight couldn't break through it.

However...

Jiroh did have one weak spot that they could exploit. If Selene could force him to open his mouth then Artemis could drive the tip of her sword all way down his throat and her moonlight could tear him to shreds from the inside out.

Trying to cut through Jiroh's skin would be pointless, his skin was too hard, but she wondered how strong it would be able to hold up against blunt force...

Selene switched the grip on her sword until the point was behind her and the pommel was facing forward. She focused energy into the pommel before she teleported forward and appeared in front of Jiroh. She slammed her left foot into the ground, creating a shockwave and a pulse of heat that broke his guard as she slammed the pommel of her sword into his gut and he hunched over before being sent flying once again.

Before he could react, she teleported once again and reappeared behind him as she switched the grip on her sword back to normal. She then swung the flat of her blade at the back of his neck before lifting her sword up again and slamming the pommel down on the small of his back.

The force behind her strike left him buried in the ground and his sword clattered to the ground next to him.

She pulled back her right arm and clenched her hand into a fist as she concentrated a large mass of energy.

"Nova Impact!" she shouted as she slammed her fist into his back.

The heat and flames of her punch were absorbed into his blood armor and it shattered like glass. She then grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled him off the ground before locking her arms around his neck. As she held him up he coughed up blood and groaned.

"What is...," he mumbled.

"Artemis!" she shouted to her and she nodded in understanding.

She appeared in front of Jiroh in a flash and already sheathed her sword before she landed punch after punch after punch on Jiroh's body, stripping away his armor with every strike. Even when she tried to slow down her perception of time to count each punch she still lost count around two hundred per second. The force was so great that Selene had to reinforce her own body to hold Jiroh up and keep herself from being blown away along with him. The force reverberating through his body was so great that one of his eyeballs exploded and blood spurted out of his mouth. The heat from Selene's body boiled the blood coming from his sword and kept his armor from reforming, leaving him somewhat vulnerable to Artemis' many punches.

His head flinched back as he coughed up more blood before he gritted his teeth and groaned in pain and anger. He then shouted at the top of his lungs and she could feel a surge of power welling up inside of him.

Artemis' eyes widened and jumped away as she shouted, "Get away from him now!"

Selene quickly let go of him and tried to teleport away but Jiroh managed to grab her wrist before she could escape.

"You're not getting away!" he growled as black flames burst out of his empty eye socket and she could feel the surge of energy grow more and more.

I can't get away! she thought to herself in a panic as she continued to kick away at his body but his grip was stronger than iron.

Before Jiroh could release all the power growing in his body, Artemis swung her sword down on Selene's arm and severed it from the elbow down before kicking her away. Jiroh dropped Selene's severed hand and reached out for Artemis instead and went ablaze as black flames engulfed everything around them.

Pain flared up from the whole right side of her body from having her arm cut off but she manifested an arm of flames to make do until she could fully regenerate it later.

The explosion of black flames lifted a haze of dust and dirt like a smoke screen. She then watched as Artemis leapt out of the dust cloud grimacing in pain with her white armor blackened and burnt. She held onto the handle of her sword with two fingers as she clutched her broken arm.

She landed right next to her and winced in pain.

"Are you alright?" Artemis asked her.

"I'll be fine, I should be asking you that," she said as she looked her over.

"You had your arm cut off, mine is only broken. Worry about yourself," she said in a harsh tone as Artemis glared at her.

Selene's mouth opened in shock at the audacity Artemis had to say something hypocritical like that, especially at a time like this.

Whatever...

She ignored Artemis' brazenness as she held her sword at the ready with both hands. She closed her eyes as she began to focus and find her center. She fell deeper and deeper into her well of energy and allowed it to resonate with her entire being. She focused and concentrated the energy within her body and within her sword. As she did this, she could sense Jiroh still within the dust cloud. She could sense him surging wth energy and preparing an attack of his own.

"Artemis...get ready to deflect whatever he's about to throw at us," she said.

"Right," Artemis replied as she stood in front of her.

Only a few seconds passed before Jiroh lunged forward with his sword raised above his head and a column of black flames emitting from its edge trailed after him. His body was wreathed in flames and blood was still gushing from his mouth and he was still missing an eye but it was filled with a clot of blood.

"DIE DAMN YOU!" Jiroh roared in a fit of rage as he swung his blade down on them and the flames and blood solidified around it as if extending the blade itself.

Without a hint of worry on her face, Artemis took in a deep breath before her eyes intensified and she slashed her sword through the blade of black flames bearing down on them.

"Crescent Divider!" she shouted as her sword split Jiroh's attack in half and the energy was diverted around them. The energy released from her counterattack cut through his flames completely before it knocked his sword away and leaving him exposed in mid air.

As Selene held her sword close to her chest, primed with more than half of what little energy she had left, she took this small time to think to herself. She knew that dragons were fireproof and that trying to fight a dragon that breathed fire, or even just the human vessel, with fire was rather idiotic and suicidal, but the explosive force of her magic was enough to blow him away. She wondered if, just maybe, if she used enough force she could send him into space. All records of research involved with exploring outer space resulted in death for anyone that dared venture into its cold and dark abyss. She hoped that with enough force, she could send him hurtling into that abyss.

Selene then teleported in front of Artemis and angled the point of her sword low until it nearly touched the ground and even then the dirt beneath her steamed.

She swung her sword up at Jiroh's body and shouted with all her might, "SOLAR FLARE!"

A thin, compressed line of flames slashed at his body and at first, it seemed like nothing else happened. That seemed to be it.

But not a moment later, the thin slash of flames sent his body hurtling into the sky as she split the clouds and a wall of fire replaced the beautiful blue sky above.

The rapid release of that much heat into the sky caused the air to expand and push it away creating a shockwave all around them before it started cooling and pulling air in to replace what was lost.

Selene and Artemis looked up into the sky as Jiroh was sent hurtling into the void.


Marcus...


For something of its size, he never would have thought it remotely possible to move as fast as it could, and yet...

Marcus watched as an Archdragon's claw larger than all of Manhattan came hurtling towards him many times faster than sound.

"Oh shit!" he said as he barely managed to jump out of the way with his lightning trailing after him.

When Malthael's claw slammed into the ground, he tore into the ground and the shock caused the ground to split apart. So much so that he could see Lunaas begin to visibly split in half.

"Oh god...," he muttered as he fell to the ground before jumping over to where the split had formed. He slammed his foot on the ground and in seconds he filled the area where the ground had split and made roots form deep into the dirt to pull the everything back together.

He looked behind him to see Malthael preparing to slam his claw on the ground once again.

"No! Not happening!" he shouted as he slowed down his perception of time down to his very limits and could feel everything slow down to a crawl. Even Malthael, as large as he was and as fast as he was, seemed like a statue in Marcus's eyes.

He jumped into the air while thinking of ways he could force the Archdragon to move where he wants him to be. He then looked at his lower jaw and had an idea. Artemis had said that his scales were to strong for even her moonlight to pierce through, but were his joints strong enough to avoid being dislocated?

He flung his sword attached to a dragon glass chain through his mouth and made it wrap completely around its lower jaw.

He then looked Malthael in the eyes as he was falling through the air and realized that he was staring straight at him.

Marcus glare at him, even though he knew full well that Malthael could not see his face and as he hit the ground he gripped the chains he had made and fused them to his sword. He knew that if he wanted to dislocate the Archdragon's jaw entirely, he would need to push the limits of his curse mark and force the gravity affecting his body to increase to something absurd.

As he thought this, the gravity weighing down Light Taker began to get stronger and he could feel it getting heavier. He knew that if he tried to increase the gravity affecting his body, he could kill himself in the process but if he didn't use some form of mass for the gravity to have enough pull then it would be pointless.

However..., his sword did have weight to it. An object cannot have weight if it doesn't have some form of mass. And yet, Artemis' moonlight couldn't cut through it, it couldn't even scratch it. He had no idea what Light Taker was made of but he decided to test it out anyways.

The moment right before the chain went taut, he willed the curse mark to push the gravity to its heaviest point and he watched as even the lightning coming from his magic started to bend around it and the dirt beneath him started to rise to

What the...? Yes, this is enough! This will do it! he thought as the chain went taut when he swung the sword.

The resulting force was so great that it caused the air to burst into flames around his sword and luckily he was pointed away from Lunaas when this happened because Malthael's lower jaw had been ripped clean off and sent hurtling miles across the land until it was completely out of his sight.

I hope that didn't land on another town..., he thought to himself.

His perception of time went back to normal as he turned around to see the Archdragon flailing around in agony and gushing blood from where his mouth used to be. He dug his claws and slammed the side of his face into the ground as if struggling to fight through the pain.

With his lower jaw removed, it gave Marcus a large weak spot to exploit. He held his sword with both hands and was preparing to use the same gravity manipulation attack to pierce Malthael's heart...not that he was even sure it would be enough to finish him off.

But just as he lunged forward, ready to run him through, Malthael unfurled his wings, stretched out his neck and reached his head high into the sky, black flames exploded all across his body and the shockwave slammed into him. The wave of force slammed into the mountain all the way on the opposite side of Lunaas so it had little effect on it, and the force also didn't hurt him all that much but for some reason, when the black flames slammed into him, he felt an encroaching darkness overwhelm him and he lost consciousness.

He felt only moments pass for him but he had no idea how long he was actually out.

He woke up with a gasp, face down on the ground. When he rolled his body over, Malthael's giant claw slammed down on him and his armor fractured. More cracks started to form on his armor as Malthael pressed more of his weight down on his body. What surprised him though was that Malthael had carefully placed his claw on top of him so that his upper torso and above was still exposed. Malthael then moved his head closer to Marcus's body and he saw that where the Archdragon's lower jaw used to be was now a flowing mass of blood shaping itself into a replacement mandible and muscles and skin.

"Oh for fucks sake..., you have Kayron's regeneration too...?" Marcus said in dismay.

Blood rained down on him as Malthael moved his head closer to him, wanting to look him in the eyes as he killed him it seemed.

Marcus focused more of his magic into strengthening his armor but then removed the armor protecting his head so he can look up at Malthael. The lightning flowing through his body evaporating the downfall of blood into steam as it poured on him.

"WELL?! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! BURN ME!" He shouted up at him.

Malthael then pulled back his head and he could feel the surge of energy building up within him.

"You better burn me properly or I'm gonna be pissed," he muttered, mostly to himself as he prepared himself for Malthael's flames.