Nychtaoulik Book3 Part8

PART 8-
Storm sighed, looking around the mouth of the cave he was faced with. “Guess I have to use an illumination spell…” he muttered to himself, casting magical light onto the stone walls. He knew he should be going to the fight as fast as he could, but he was hesitant. “Someone else can get there first… I’m the weakest one here anyway… or, at least, the least confident.”
Turning a corner, he wondered how Amethyst was doing outside. He missed the snappy monster, and their unwelcome comments. Storm realized he had become quite used to their presence, and for the first time really wondered about what they were going to do about finding that goddess. He had no idea where to begin.
And what of the others? The little fox had grown so used to living among his classmates, it would be weird to part ways after this. “If we all survive, that is.” He felt the floor getting wetter, and cooler, and finally felt a sense of urgency. “I should hurry up, my friends are in danger!”
“You are already here,” a sharp voice came from the shadows. A long, red creature slithered into the light, the crystals of its body glittering. “Caves do not tend to be very long.”
“O-oh…” Storm was very intimidated by the large cobra hood and little knife fingers the dragon had “I… I guess I was under the impression it would take more than two minutes to get here.”
“Feh!” they spat “The otherssss, they would have you work harder to find them. This cave is natural, I did not craft it myself.”
“Oh, you guys can make caves..?”
“We can make caves, we can make our elements, and most importantly, we make ourselvessss.” The tail-end of the deity snaked into sight, tiny vestigial legs dragging over the stone. “… Without these legsss, the others call me a snake… ssso I ensssure I have them.”
Storm was overwhelmed with questions, unsure which to ask first, but it is only polite to start with an introduction “Well… my name is Storm, and uh… I’m… a magic… guy…” (Nailed it).
“I am Jewel. Dragon deity of… cryssstalssssrrrg, I hate to sssay that!” Jewel’s tail lashed in frustration, and Storm did his best to not jump. “I do not like to dumb thingsss down for the magic-folk. My abilities focus on chemical bondsss, forcing atoms and molecules together, and it ssssso happenssss that a cryssstal lattice represents what I am about so well. They all tell me though, ssscience isss not real to usss, jusssst ssssay cryssssssssstalsssss, it iss sssssso much easssier!” another tail-lash “I could turn you into diamondsss… but I could alssso make you fall apart into tiny… individual… atoms.”
Storm suddenly felt even less confident and comfortable than he already was. “Uh… well, that’s… cool! Everyone else is just… silly.”
“Dissssregarding classsssificationss and dissssssressspecting me,” they hissed “they do not even know what us dragons truly are.”
“… I’m new, so umm… can you tell me?”
“A dragon is a constructed deity or monster of no past mortal form. As other deities do, a dragon must actively enforce their own existence. With no mortal form which exists on its own, thisss is all a dragon knows. A monster dragon, however, is enforced by their creator… As this is the case, a dragon’sss form may be altered to resemble any animal, change reproductive capabilities, alter size… anything besides changing the aspect that they can control – all of which work perfectly fine without intervention anyway.”
“So… deities aren’t… necessary?” Storm was equal parts curious and terrified of what happens after the conversation.
“If we all just stopped, everything would be jussssst fine. Why elssse would it be okay for eleven of usss to jussst sssit around thisss isand, waiting for mortalsss to fight? Mossstly we just keep each other in check. Many exist in pairsss or tripletsss: counterbalancesss.”
Storm tensed up when the fight was mentioned.
“Anyway, I know why you are here.”
“Oh?”
“You seek my aid in ensuring the immortal-and-magical monarch of mortals reaches the throne, yes?”
“Huh… it is kinda weird that he lives so long and is magic…”
“Easier than replacing them every decade.” The dragon said “That would be even more sshitty.”
“… I was under the impression… we had to fight… or something…” the fox said weakly, not wanting to fight a deity.
“We do not have to. We will anyway though.”
“Wait, why?!”
“I need to know… if you are ssseriousss!” the dragon reared up, towering above the smaller animal “Alssso, I am incredibly bored.”
Storm jumped sideways, out of the way of a sudden sharp crystal, formed in an attempt to stab his side.
“You are sssstudiousss, which I appreciate. I will likely ssspare your life.” Jewel rose the rock floor into a ring of spikes, rendering escape improbable.
“Th-there goes some of the natural beauty of this cave…” Storm warned with forced confidence. He dropped his light spell to focus on attacking, and the scene was swallowed by darkness. The student felt his way over the terrain, listening very closely for the sound of scales sliding over the ground. He held his breath, and fired an electric shock towards the first sound he heard.
The room lit up for a moment and he saw he had hit the dragon’s tail. Jewel hissed, and locked eyes with him for a moment before neither could see again. Storm hopped on a gust of wind a split-second before something loud crashed in the spot he was just standing. Silently, he landed and listened again.
“I can feel the network of the bondssss, you know…” Jewel’s voice was uncomfortably close, and he could feel the breath on his face.
Storm almost vomited in fear, like, he could taste it in his mouth. Instead he ran forward, but hit his face on a wall that had not been there before. Firing another bolt, this time missing, he could see several walls had been constructed for him to run into “Fantastic.”
He thought he saw something glimmer, but the light was gone too fast. Storm pulled himself over the wall, tumbling into another, then rapidly fired a few bolts; one to light up the cave, then several directly in the serpent’s face, a distraction. Storm turned around, to look at a pool of water on the ground, just as he thought he had seen. Honestly, he didn’t know how to use it to his advantage, he just wanted to know what was there. When he looked back, Jewel was slightly burned, and moments from throwing the fox into the pool.
Storm got thrown into the pool, after the ground beneath his feet pushed up, tossing him. The water was cold and salty, and after a bit of flailing, he was swimming in it. He realized that the cave must be below sea-level. That’s when he got his risky plan. Storm could feel his air running out, so he tried to pull together an oxygen bubble around his head. Jewel burst it immediately after he managed to get a breath, but it was all he needed. He magically blasted a hole in the wall, opening the cave to the ocean. Water came rushing in, flooding the cave. The fox surfaced, and felt around hopefully.
He was not disappointed. There was at least one fish in the cave.
In the dark, Jewel could not instantly tell the sea creatures and her opponent apart. Storm pressed his legs to his body, pretending to be a fish as the deity read molecular structures, in search of the mammal.
Right before they were going to strike down the fox (the one that has fur!), a voice interrupted.
“Hey, what’s going on? You disturbed my duel…”
Jewel looked over “Aqua?”

Earlier…
Tyrant walked down the water path, a ravine with a smooth stone floor. She could hear roaring water in the distance, and with a nice sea breeze on her face, she couldn’t help but to prance down the path to danger. No one was looking anyway. Her teal cloak fluttered around her short legs, and she was focused on her purpose.
The path ended on the beach of a narrow inlet. The sun was rising over the ocean in the distance. Her arrival lasted a very beautiful, serene eight seconds.
A shadow moved through the water, and breached in the shallows. A glistening blue dragon let out an echoing screech.
“…” Tyrant just waited for them to be done.
“Rrrrr! I have no chill!”
“Okay.”
“… Yeah, I’m just kidding. I’m Aqua, and I actually have a lot of chill.” Aqua said, introducing themself. “I was just trying to make sure you don’t think I’m going to make this easy, because I’m actually going to fight you a little.”
“I came prepared for duel, water-deity. I expect no less.” Tyrant spoke confidently and politely, like we all wish we could while public speaking.
“Oh, that’s a relief, okay, get in here and we’ll duel.”
“What?”
“In the water.”
Tyrant’s brow furrowed “I do not like to go in the water.”
“… Well guess what, I don’t really care.” The water surrounding Aqua swelled up in a mass. Tyrant braced herself, but it was too late. The water crashed down, running up over the bank, and grabbed her by the little paws, and tugged her into the lagoon.
“Ffffflowers!” she cursed, feeling her long, thick pelt get waterlogged and the weight of her cloak dragging her down. She fought against it with a levitation spell, but keeping her head over water was enough a challenge on its own. Scanning the water below, she thought she saw a shadow, and broke the spell to put her energy into conjuring and dropping a heavy solid construct, as aerodynamic as she could get.
A muffled “ow” could be heard from the depths.
Aqua was not as slow as they looked. Within moments, Tyrant had to side-splash out of the way to avoid getting rammed by the great sea monster, then again as they came back down. She got splashed in the face though, seawater stinging her eyes. She fought to see against the blur, and managed to open them in time to see the blast of water about to hit her face.
Suddenly, the water was tugging at her pelt and cloak again. She thought it was another attack, but felt herself being sucked down, and into a hole in the rock. It all went dark.
“Huh?” Aqua followed, making an even bigger hole in the rock, and realized this must be Jewel’s cave, the hole in the wall created during their battle. “Hey, what’s going on? You disturbed my duel…” she said, as Tyrant cast an illumination spell…

Meanwhile,
“Heh… you think a being of ice can defeat Flame, the embodiment of fire itself?!”
“For the last time, Frost is just my name, it’s because my fur is white, like frost.” Frost was facing the least cool dragon – no, the least cool of anyone, ever. With the stone walls leaking a bit of lava, she had already cast her cloak to the ground. She could see the sun in the sky ahead, it must still be morning.
“Many things are white, little cat. If you can defeat me, I shall let you be known as Little Flame, and others can call you that.”
“Ah, I’m good.” She replied.
“… Are you sure? Flame is the best name. Sometimes, flames can be white, watch this!” the dragon suddenly flared up white for a few seconds before going back to normal molten flesh.
“Very nice, but I’m kind of… used to this name.”
“Whatever, ready for my awesome attacks!? Just kidding, I don’t care if you are! Fireball!” a ball of fire was launched at Frost, who darted out of the way, hissing.
“Eat this!!” another fireball was sent sailing. This time Frost tried to block with a shield of rock, pulled from the ground. It was incinerated instantly.
‘I’m screwed.’

On an opposite, non-volcanic peak, Crystal finally reached the summit. “Fuckin’ finally.” She cursed. The snow looked barren, empty. “Don’t tell me I got the wrong address…”
An adorable, inquisitive head poked out of the snow “Rawr!”
“Oh, haha, nice, didn’t see ya there.” Crystal said, blinking.
The dragon rose, standing at full height, which was pretty tall. “I am Hail, deity of ice!”
“Nice!”
“Ice is nice! Thanks!”
“The icier the nice.. ier…” Crystal said, awkwardly.
Hail grinned “I’d hi-five you if I had more appropriate limbs.”
“Quite alright, s’the thought that counts.”
“Oh, that reminds me… prove to me your power!!” the deity commanded.
“Woah, uh, which one..?” Crystal asked “I’ve got a few.”
“Hmm… which one do you want to try?”
“Oh, this one’s rad…” Crystal took a running start, and leapt up into the air, firing two beams from each of her paws into each other. The collision made a small explosion. “NICE!”
“NICE! Duuude, that was sweet!”
“Thanks, I bet you’ve got a lot of power too, bro!”
“I do, I can make anything cold!”
“Nice! I’d say you’re the coolest!”
“Aww, thanks! Wanna go bug Flame? I bet they’re going waaaay over the top, like, come on, it’s not like any of them can win.” The dragon pointed their snout to the smoking peak on the horizon.
“Sweet, sounds like someone needs to chill. How do we get there?”
“Climb on!” Hail let Crystal onto their back, which was plated in icy scales, with a crack running down their spine. Crystal accepted this was going to be freezing, but that could be nice on a hot volcano. The two new friends glided over, dropping a bit of snow to the ground below, and Hail perched on the ridge by Flame and Frost’s fight.

Flame was still bombarding Frost with fire, and Frost was using every trick she knew to avoid becoming crispy.
“Hey, Flame!” Hail called down. “How’s it feel to not be cool?”
Flame turned their attention from the fight to say “Fuck off!” and in that moment, Frost threw a rock at his face.
“Hahah, owned.” Crystal commented.
“OH, I see how it is! You all want to bully me… because you’re jealous!” Flame accused.
“What? I’m not.” Hail said, as another rock bounced off Flame’s face.
“Of course you are! Don’t worry, it’s only natural, seeing as I’m the hot one!”
“Yeah, well, you wish you could be cool like me!”
“Hot’s cooler than being cool!”
“It’s not!”
“Yeah!”
“Nah!”
They keep up the educated debate as Frost throws rocks.

Silver was not lucky enough to get a short path like Storm did. “Of course the rock path would be an endless tunnel of fucking rocks, what else could it be. If these so-called deities are real, they could at least do something a little more ornate, or put some kind of markers in, like, five-fucking-million more steps until destination on left.” He complained. Stopping he sighed and then, growled, kicking a rock. “Stones are stupid! I don’t need this! Where the fuck are you?!”
Suddenly, light broke through from above. Rocks crashed onto the floor ahead of him, sending dust everywhere. Silver coughed, and closed his eyes against the cloud.
“I’m over here…” a deep voice echoed. When Silver opened his eyes, he could see the dragon illuminated by the light - a six-legged craggy beast.
Silver grumpily walked over the fallen debris to get closer “So. You’re a real thing that wants to fight me?”
“Hmmm, I guess I give that impression hm? Or perhaps, it was given to you elsewhere… Whatever the case, competition does not interest me.” The dragon’s voice was tired, and dragging.
“You… are you going to fight or not?”
“… Do you want to?”
Silver looked at his paws “… No, I don’t. At all.”
“Then let’s just not. I’m done with the bullshit. Oh, I’m Boulder.” He sat down.
“Silver…” he sat too “I’m also sick of the bullshit.”
“All we do is sit around in caves, waiting for animals we could kill to show up and fight us. Except I think the others actually hang out sometimes, but no one wants to hang out with me. They say I’m a downer. They ask me if it’s all the weight on my shoulders. I know they’re joking about my shell. I tell them yes, and come back down here.”
“All my life my parents have been… pushing and pushing me to be more like them, and I was finally starting to accept it when these… these guys I know kidnapped me and brought me to this school of magic stuff my parents hate, then we climbed all these stupid stairs and one of our group members started murdering everyone and we all came here with her and now we have to do all this shit. Fuck.”
“… Sucks.”
“Yeah…”
Boulder awkwardly pats Silver’s back with his big foot. “So, she kill any of your friends?”
“No. I don’t have friends anyway…” he lied.
“You lie.”
“Well… I knew one personally and… I saw it happen… and…” he forced the words out “and I don’t know who’s going to… get an asskicking… today…”
“Hm.” The dragon mused, thinking it over “Most of them could go overboard, but historically, it is usually Zap, the electric one. He is entirely serious about winning.”
Silver tried to remember who went that way “… Ah!! Dusk! Oh shit, really?”
“Heh. No friends?”
“Dusk isn’t a friend he’s a… he’s…”
“Say no more-”
“No I have to say more, he’s…”
“Dead if we don’t go.”
“…” Silver thought “… We can go?!”

“So you have finally arrived… My opponent!”
Dusk had just flown over his path to get there faster. He felt uneasy flying in the storm, and had a shield up, hoping to prevent getting struck by lightning. It didn’t take long to find Zap.
“Heh, yeah, I guess?” Dusk said nervously “If I gotta.”
“Spineless!” the dragon roared “I will show you a fight!” the sky darkened even more than it already had. Rumbles louder than Crystal’s belly rolled through the clouds, and the atmosphere felt tense.
‘Okay, I am trained for this, I can-’ “SHIT!” Dusk tumbled in the sky, a warmth coming from his right. Plummeting, he checked his wing to make sure his feathers weren’t ablaze. He hastily shot fire back, but with the distance, it fizzled out before it could hit the gliding lizard. He caught himself, and flew back up, only to fall every once in a while, to avoid any possible attack. “Are you serious?! You’re going to kill me!”
“And that will be my victory!” Zap advanced, getting closer “If you’re so sure, hold still so I can get this over with!”
“Yeah right!” he screeched, hoping to be saved, hopefully by someone who wouldn’t make him feel embarrassed about how pathetic he looks right now.

“Shiiiiiit.” Silver said as Boulder carried him outside (thankfully via floating rock and not six, slow, heavy legs). From the ground, the sky was obscured, and looked utterly awful. “He’s up there..?”
“Unless any of the dust on the ground here is him, yeah.”
“How are we… how do we get up there..?”
Boulder looked up for a bit, and suddenly lifted the earth below Silver. “I will send you up on this rock. You must take it from there. Pilot this rock onto Zap, and I’ll bring them down.”
“P… pilot a ROCK??” Silver asked, shocked.
“If you want to save your… he’s…, you will pilot this rock.” Boulder said “Ready?”
“No!… Fuck, do it anyway.”

Dusk was losing hope when he heard screaming. He swiveled his head back to see Silver riding in on a big fucking rock.
Silver could see the scene now and started screaming harder. “GET ON THIS FUCKING ROCK… YOU…. VILE, VILE CREATURE…”
Dusk was unsure about getting on, but he sure did get behind it as fast as he could.
The rock started falling back to the ground.
“What is the meaning of this?!” Zap demanded “Wh-”
Silver focused everything he could into believing magic was real. Also that with real magic, he could pilot a massive rock, and take down a god. The rock started to move where he wanted! It was actually Dusk moving the rock. “Believe in yourself, Sports!”
“What? Can’t you do it?!” he yelled back.
“I can’t do your moment for you! Take the rock!!” the rock started sailing down.
“You gotta be FUCKING KIDDING ME!” Silver roared “I took this rock up here to save your ass!”
Dusk drops onto the rock “My ass can wait, do some magic!!”
“UHG.” And then, by the power of last minute pressure, Silver moved the trajectory of the rock right over Zap… and let go!
Boulder could see Zap, followed by a rock, with the students atop (screaming) all falling through the clouds, towards him at a high velocity. “… Shit.”
A force slowed the rock, but Zap kept going and collided with the ground. Then the rock landed on the fallen dragon, and rolled off, dropping Silver and Dusk onto the ground.
“… You’re welcome.” Boulder said, as the other three coughed into the dirt.