Chapter 478 – Teamwork Makes Dreamwork

“We need to—” Asterios lunged towards Noir, but recoiled when a lightning bolt almost smote him from the sky. “Watch out!”

His companion hadn’t previously experienced this technique and the environment it created, which led to the other discharge striking directly at her wing, blowing out its membranes. She roared in pain and started dropping towards the ground in an uncontrolled spiral.

Then, another bolt struck the glowing leviathan, and with a bright white flash, he was gone.

Even knowing what was about to happen, Asterios was still too far away to react in time. When the second flash hit, Venuzathor practically teleported behind Noir, moments ahead of her incoming reunion with the marble pavement, his glimmering and sparkling claws already drawn into a mighty swing.

They raked over her back without mercy, eating away most of the dark coat protecting her body. The slashes that reached her scales didn’t dig too deep, but still hurt, and she was smacked forward with a powerful thud. Her body glided over the bottom of the pit until it smashed into the far cliff, creating a small hollow with a shocking web of cracks.

The Dracodon didn’t halt his lesson at that. His maw was already wide open, the crackling energy flowing along the pulsing ridges towards his vicious mouth. All his energy was being gathered for a super-charged breath that would undoubtedly put her out of the fight as it had done with Asterios back then.

He didn’t think, just moved.

A spear of flames formed in his jaws and he launched it forward like from a bow. It was adorned with a thin rope of the same color that snaked through the air behind the speeding lance. His fangs latched onto it and incredible force yanked him forward, drawing out a strained grunt from his throat. The second he appeared near the crash site, he spread his wings but still didn’t avoid adding one more cavity next to the original one with his arrival.

With no time to waste, Asterios crawled out of it, throwing just a glance at the forming-up attack aimed in their direction. He took position in front of the groaning Noir, shifted every single drop of his draconic energies into his wings, moving the coating completely, and practically inhaled the restorative energy from his third source.

The quarry trembled under the power of the rushing pillar—no, tower of lightning. It punched into Asterios like a collapsing building, his draconic frame skidding backward a bit as the bluish energy swallowed them whole. His wings burned, itched, stung, and hurt like mad, but they still protected them from the brunt of it. And being brought closer to his companion, he infused his breath with Tia’s powers too, craning his head back to puff a delicate flame at the injured female.

By the time the assault ceased, she was more or less back in an acceptable shape, the rest of her superficial injuries quickly getting mended by her natural regeneration.

“What the fuck is that, even…” Noir coughed as she lifted herself off the floor.

“He is on another level in his Storm King form!” Asterios laughed excitedly. “We need to work together if we want to have a chance at beating—”

A bright glint caught his attention and he knocked his body into hers. They bounced off each other in opposite directions just as a helix of lightning made of three bolts zipped between them, exploding the wall behind their backs. Venuzathor wasn’t going to give them a break to reorganize.

“Come on, Noir!” Asterios shouted at her, and she looked between him, their opponent, and the result of the last two attacks, hesitation clear in her movements. “Come!”

“I’ve never fought with a partner!” Noir shouted back with a growl, but it was quieter, less… wrathful. “It’s always been just me! And maybe a useless Slave or two!”

She was visibly uncertain as she peered back at him, her lips pulled back in a snarl. But, there was something else there, deep in her dark silver eyes, hiding behind her fierce pupils.

A trace of vulnerability.

“Then just open your mind and connect with mine like the bond allows us to!” he yelled in return. “I swear not to look anywhere you don’t want me to!”

“But—”

“Do it!” Asterios growled, flaring his aura.

Noir shuddered, her eyes widening as her pupils narrowed. However, not because of fear or his strong demand. It was not an order, and yet he could have rightfully made it into one. He didn’t suppress or influence her own aura, instead reaching out to it, requesting... aid.

And she was starting to feel like it was the right choice to answer.

He felt the prodding mental tendril and grasped it as delicately as he could. A grin curled up his draconic lips as their bond quickly deepened, the two of them becoming much more aware of their respective states. It reminded him of the first times with Miria and the others, but her psyche was much more organized, orderly, comprehensive, and proficient. There was no chaos in their connection—at least in the structural meaning of that word—and while it could still be better if they one day took a step further, it was considerably more than enough.

~Now we are talking.~ Asterios grinned through their connection. ~Let’s show that overweight old guy who is the true apex predator here.~

Noir snapped to attention, her thoughts having wandered off a little. But, she could feel that he didn’t mind the tiny subconscious peek she slipped into his psyche. However, now was not the time to be distracted. They had a common enemy to take down.

When the next discharge came, they were ready, reacting like one being. They flapped their wings and hurled themselves backward, spinning their bodies with mirrored motions. Another powerful beat and they were rushing towards the hulking figure in the distance side by side. Droplets of moisture slid over their sleek scales, the first signs of the incoming rain amidst this spiritual and atmospheric storm.

Lightning attempted to strike them repeatedly, but they bobbed and weaved, warning each other about each upcoming flash, their senses combined. With two perspectives, it was much easier to watch both the sky for the accumulating sparks and the ground for any tells from the glowing Dracodon.

At first, they simply reached their adversary and split right in front of its nose, avoiding the straight chomp. Communicating mentally, they cooperated with bouts and projectiles of crimson and onyx flames. The barrage didn’t bear too many fruits, but it wasn’t meant to cause serious injuries. They fine-tuned their senses through this brief practice, annoying their target a tad as a bonus.

What they needed was a strategy.

The battlefield was against them, though.

With the sun gone, the shadows were almost nonexistent too, save for the short glimpses after each flash made by lightning. That window of opportunity was too short to make use of. They didn’t exactly require the help of darkness, but Asterios could now tell that a great number of Noir’s techniques were strengthened by them.

So, he came up with a plan.

If Venuzathor could transform the field to his advantage, so could they.

The dark True Dragon inhaled extensively, and the next time she flew in front of Storm King’s snout, she released the condensed spell. Venuz was ready for the flames, closing his eyes to shield them, but the inferno didn’t come. Yet, when he opened them back, he couldn’t see anything, just pitch-black darkness. He pawed at his head, but his claws didn’t reach it, bumping into a springy bubble surrounding it.

Four mighty swings were required to pop it, the obfuscating mist falling and seeping into the ground. As soon as his sight was released, he noticed a crimson-amber glow above. Craning his neck, he spotted the red True Dragon with a swirling and unstable gathering of fire in front of its jaws, many times bigger than its creator. The attack was almost fully charged.

Yet, Asterios didn’t drop it onto him from the sky as he expected the young one to do. On the contrary, Ast’s neck angled upwards, going for the ceiling. The male huffed at the coalescing blaze and sent it flying towards the peak of the shimmering dome. With a quivering impact, the fire burst outwards on contact, its tongues sliding along the cupola as it created a bright burning canopy at the very top, like snow at the tip of the tallest mountains.

Then, the clever man positioned himself just before it and spread his wings to their limits.

Immediately, half of the ground was swallowed by a thick shadow. The Dracodon was in the very center of the ominous darkness. Venuzathor didn’t even have time to react before a massive draconic limb emerged by his side, rivaling his own legs or even surpassing them. The giant fist smashed into him with enough power to shove his heavy body away, his protective plates cracking under the blow.

He didn’t get to stop sliding and another one of those appendages punched into his other side, evoking an echoing grunt from the colossus. One after another, bigger and smaller bundles of claws either held like blades or tightened into knuckles raked over his entire figure. It was impossible to escape the shadowy pool allowing them to form as every movement resulted in more tendrils coiling themselves around his legs.

What was worse, it felt like there was a black True Dragon mixed amongst those arms, taking vicious potshots at his weak spots.

With no change coming in soon, the onslaught would inevitably whittle him down.

Therefore, Venuzathor released a static blast around himself, shoving the spiritual appendages away for a few seconds, and hastily lifted his snout. His jaws quickly parted and he drew in lots of air. Already sensing the dark mists heading for his maw to interrupt, he snapped it shut and blew a cluster of pressurized wind into the sky. His target evaded it, but the flames behind flickered and dispersed a bit from the blow.

Watching the Storm King’s mesmerizing pathways lighting up more and more, Asterios knew they would soon rival the intensity of the light he had created with his previous ploy. Noir was now dedicated to stopping Venuz from diminishing the fires even more, but that was his obvious bait, just buying him time to shrug off her entrapment completely.

Deciding that this strategy had served its purpose, he communicated with his partner and flipped backward. During his descent, he began fusing sharpened spiritual energy with his coating, spreading the mix over the upper edge of his wings. The ridges glittered with red, orange, and black while he whizzed through the air, literally slicing the atmosphere as he went.

The menacing whistle forced Venuzathor to look up again and he shuddered. He crouched low immediately and prepared to throw himself aside, but the shadows anticipated that and were already all around his legs. Because of them, he barely hopped in place, dragged back down with a heavy thump. Unable to do anything else in time, he thanked himself for coming up with the additional rule for the spar.

Ast’s blurry shape dropped onto him along its terrifying song of death, going past Venuz’s side and crashing into the ground without slowing down. The Storm King wailed with a shaky roar as two out of three left wings were cleanly sliced off of his back, falling after the True Dragon. Those would not regenerate during the fight. And possibly wouldn’t even after if he didn’t receive help in that regard. Thankfully, they had a healer on the spot and thus could go almost all out.

That was what Venuzathor had to do.

It was a completely different fight now. Two True Dragons working in great concord were not to be trifled with.

Releasing another titanic roar, he spun his source like he had not in a very long time. The storm around the battlefield intensified by a magnitude or two. Lightning strikes were pounding the ground like a repeating crossbow and the sharp rain was now in a total downpour, a layer of water gathering over the quarry’s scarred floor.

Sensing the change, Asterios and Noir put some distance between them and their enraged opponent. No matter how far they went, however, they still had to dance around the sparking discharges continuously attempting to stun them from above. Once more the shadows were gone and the cold shower extinguished the last of the flames topping the dome.

Both of them were anxious, unable to tell who the feeling had initially come from. It didn’t really matter. The sturdy behemoth glowering at them with its glowing eyes and savage ridges between his shielding plates looked like destruction incarnate.

The kid gloves were off.

They needed a new, extremely effective plan.

An unquestioningly decisive blow.

Just one good hit to knock Venuzathor out of the battle.

Avoiding getting struck, they racked their brains.

Asterios searched his knowledge and experience for an answer. All those techniques, spells, tricks, and underhanded tactics. Every power granted to him by his beloved mates. There had to be a combination of such somewhere there that would overcome the wisdom and battle sense of the old Dracodon.

He wondered what the others would have done. He knew about Noir, already connected to her, but everyone else? Miria, Selene, Tina, Silvia, Grea, Althea, Tia? Perhaps his Aides or even Servants? Or someone on a completely opposite side of the spectrum like his father? Maybe his—

Asterios paused.

His father?

Suddenly, he knew.

~That’s it!~ Asterios shouted delightedly.

~What?~ Noir frowned at him mentally.

~Remember what you said about my biological mother?~ He grinned at her fiercely.

She scowled but without any heat. ~If it’s an apology that you want, this is not the time—”

~No!~ Asterios cut her off. ~What you called her!~

And then, she understood him.

~Asterios.~ Flashing him a matching grin, she met his eyes. ~You are a total psycho.~

And so, he understood her too.

They needed no further words, kicking off each other’s paws, a humongous bolt of lightning whizzing past them from Venuz’s direction. Spinning and twirling together, they headed straight for the Dracodon. Cutting off any further attacks, they bombarded his face with irritating projectiles.

Venuzathor snarled and snapped his jaws a bit to the right this time and nicked the tail of one of his opponents as they split up, heading in opposite directions. A simple but effective tactic, forcing his attention to two polar extremities. He could either focus on a single adversary or keep himself steady to watch them both, unable to challenge them directly.

Thankfully, he didn’t need to think long as they both rushed at him again from their respective sides. Between him and their current positions, tall waves of shadows rose from the ground. Since the darkness had no anchor point, it was weak and nothing but visual obstruction, but that was exactly what the pair must be going for.

The Storm King sent out an omnidirectional discharge of lightning shortly before the rolling walls reached him. As he had thought, the shadows didn’t even lick at his scales as they faded on contact. They had been just a diversion. However, one shape hadn’t hidden away, instead continuing on their path and using them as cover for a bold sneak attack.

Out of the two, it was unsurprisingly the black one.

The dark True Dragon slammed its smaller head into his skull from the side like the bold and audacious thing it was. It managed to stab right into his eye, bursting it in the process and evoking a pained roar from him. But, that move cost the daring challenger dearly as Venuz’s claws were already on the way, and before the attacker retreated from the depths of his socket, they connected.

A high-pitched yelp resonated through the air as the Onyx Dragon was hurled ahead, bouncing a few times off the ground, defiantly coming to a stop with its claws. Right away, it lowered its stance and began gathering energy for a breath.

Venuzathor growled and mirrored the motion. Now that he was in his charged-up form, the female’s breath attack wouldn’t be a problem for him. A quick bout of his enhanced lightning breath released before the male showed up to intervene and she would be—

A sphere of black flames exploded into his healthy eye, disrupting his focus. The grand pupil snapped in its direction, then narrowed like it had never before.

Noir… was there?

The haughty female smirked at him amusedly.

But…

If she was on his side…

Then who…

Venuzathor moved his attention to the front and his eye widened to its limits, the details finally registering in his mind. The Onyx Dragon gathering energy for its breath bore a tinge of crimson over the very edge of its scales. Atop its head, two jagged stumps poked forward, remnants from broken-off horns. The pulsing agony in Venuz’s ruined eye suddenly made a lot of sense.

This was the male, Asterios, and it had been him from the very moment of the decisive split.

And, judging by the power of the aura wafting off him, their diversion had bought the incoming technique enough time to easily contest the Storm King’s empowered exhalation.

On the other side of the pit, Asterios smirked inwardly, watching the realization dawn on his wise combat teacher. The mighty Dracodon didn’t even try to launch his own attack, instead putting all his bets on defense. Venuzathor’s four remaining wings took a page out of Ast’s book and formed a slanted shield in front of his body. The surface sparked and crackled with lightning, adding a dense layer that felt very reflective.

But, that was not enough.

Not for what Asterios had the opportunity to cook up.

Opening his jaws, he finally revealed what he had been keeping a secret. A seemingly small sphere of amber shade floated between them, filling up the space amidst the roof and bottom of his mouth. It spun so fast it appeared to be vibrating. Some kind of black and red flashes popped inside of the orange shell. The pressure emanated by the inconspicuous orb made up the majority of the perilous aura leaking off Ast’s frame.

~Apologies, Old Man.~ He reached into the mind of his indirect familiar. ~This is going to hurt.~

With a flicker of red fire rolling from his throat and onto his tongue, Asterios snapped his snout shut with a sharp crack. A resonating whoomph followed as the fiery spark exploded and hurled the sinister projectile forward. The entire arena seemed to fall silent as the glowing globe melted a straight trench underneath its path, illuminating the quarry with furious scarlet shades.

There was a split-second sizzle when it struck the angled shield, went right through while dissolving the protective screen into smoke, and disappeared deep into the Dracodon’s safety dome, returning the oppressive silence.

Then, a yellow flash burst from within, piercing the membranes and displaying the bones for a beat.

An earth-shaking blast followed, swallowing Venuzathor whole in an amber-crimson inferno that surged to the sides and into the sky in the shape of a mushroom. The spiritual seals at the very top cracked and creaked under the immense abuse, the fissures slithering down to the very bottom of the dome.

Everyone present had to shield their eyes from the blinding glow that was continuously released from the very center of the impact, made bearable only thanks to some eerie and greatly disturbing dark spikes emerging from it too that seemed to suck in all the light, just not quickly enough to match its generation. If not for Selene’s foresight to prepare for every possible and impossible probability, the spectators would have been blasted away by the tremendous shockwave along with any nearby forests.

Noir crawled towards Asterios while that force gradually lessened, reaching his side about thirty seconds later. By then, the remnants of the blow had dispersed too and the thick cloud of dust lazily revealed the aftermath. The two of them, just as the gathered audience, gaped at the devastation.

The impact zone was charred to a crisp, a not-that-big melted crater appearing at its back. Its position overlapped with where Venuzathor’s rear had been, and the expression could be taken literally too, as the Dracodon was now missing his left leg, tail, and about two-thirds of the further thorax, the gap almost reaching the leg on the other side.

But, that wasn’t all.

The rest of his gargantuan body was badly burned, all scales up to his neck either vanished or melted into the irritated skin. His stomach, chest, and front seemed whole, just a little baked outside, if not for circular holes riddling the length and width of his frame. Those must have come from the dark spikes.

All in all, the giant was in no shape to continue, and most likely in one hell of a pain.

Still, the rough grin displayed by his draconic lips was radiating pride and satisfaction.

As soon as one quite capable Valkyrie provided a tiny bit of healing, they would be having words.