Errn.

In the distance, a siren blared as Sayed took in a deep breath. Captain Drake's dragon head turned on the siren, his serpentine eyes narrowing horizontally. It was just the distraction that Sayed needed to strike the captain.

"Let us go, brother."

"Agreed."

Fighting a creature so large was no easy prospect for Sayed. Fighting a man was simple. There were seven paths of attack: from above, from below, and from different angles on the sides. The final was to thrust from the front. That gave form to all martial techniques.

However, a foe the size of a dragon was a problem of scale. While there were the same seven paths, each was impossibly large for a single technique to cover. At least Maki had only been the size of a large building. Drake practically filled the entire square with his dragon form.

However, he and Jean had a job, and neither could afford to back down.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

His boots echoed down the road as he charged. He held his sword out from his side as he leaned forward, a smile stretching across his face as he forced himself into a dead sprint. The dragon had managed to knock him and Jean a good distance away, but they would make up for that and more when they reached the ship.

"Demon's Thrust!"

Ting.

He charged forward the remainder of the way, his form blurring as he thrust forward with his sword at the dragon's heart. As expected, claws interposed between his blade and the dragon's scales, catching hold of the sword's tip and holding it steady. However, Sayed was not the only one in the fight.

"Spirit Step!"

Boom. Crack.

Jean appeared behind the dragon's head, slamming down with one skeletal leg in his glowing form on the dragon's head. Drake's head wobbled up and down from the strike's impact, but he still managed to maintain his two-legged stance. His wings flared wide as he opened his jagged maw toward Jean.

Click. Fwoosh.

Flames erupted from Drake's maw, erupting toward the moon above and erasing Jean from Sayed's sight. Sayed reached back with one hand, his muscles tensing as he gathered strength within them before he threw a punch into the dragon's arm.

"Demon's Fist!"

Thud.

His sword came free in his hand, the claws knocked away. The flames stopped briefly, and Jean fell out from the smoke, limp but still covered in his glowing purple suit. Sayed knew he was still conscious, though he did not know how he fared. He needed to keep Drake off his friend to give Jean time to recover.

Sayed fell back toward the ground, catching himself in a squat before charging at Drake's exposed belly. Lighter yellow scales covered the dragon's underside, and Sayed hoped they would be weaker.

"Demon's Divide!"

Shing.

He jumped, swinging down at the dragon's chest while he fell upon Drake. His sword blazed bright orange as the flames of his blessing burned across his blade. Metal tore into scales but didn't cut deeply. To Sayed, it felt no different than trying to cut through a steel hull or thick armor. He scored the scales down, leaving a burning line in his path, but not deep enough to damage Drake.

Tap. Thud.

Jean hit the ground on the other side of Drake, sending a cloud of dust up from the impact. Sayed landed after his attack, holding his blade low as he finished his strike. The captain ignored him, surging at Jean with his claws. Sayed couldn't let that stand.

"You may ignore me," he whispered, switching his grip on his blade as Drake turned his back on him. "But can you keep your ignorance when I have clipped your wings?"

"Demon's Ascent!"

Swip. Rip.

His legs bulged as he jumped, throwing himself after the retreating dragon. He aimed for the weakest part of the right wing, the leathery skin that stretched between the two long bones. Like a ripping cloth, the wings tore apart until his sword caught on the bone. Sayed grabbed the wing at the top, holding himself steady as Drake's head turned on him.

"Fool!"

Snap.

Jaws filled with rows of serrated teeth rushed at Sayed on his precarious perch. However, they only snapped shut on air. Sayed threw himself up at the last moment, tossing himself over the wing and onto the dragon's head. He grasped into the scales with his fingers, holding his sword high as the head pulled away from the wing. Sayed had gotten what he wanted. He had Drake's full attention. Now, he just needed to retain it.

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"Only a fool would call Sayed, the greatest warrior of Hajh, that!" Sayed yelled as he stabbed his sword into the dragon's scales.

Hiss. Roar.

The dragon's roar pierced through the night as Sayed buried the tip of his sword beneath Drake's scales. Drake's head wobbled up and down as Sayed fought to keep his hold on the dragon's head. His sword did most of the work for him, digging deeper into Drake's skull as the orange glowing blade let out a line of smoke.

"I will tear you from my face and draw your entrails across this city!"

Blood ran down Sayed's ears from the volume alone.

"If you can reach the ship, now would be the best time." Sayed held onto his blade.

He closed his eyes as he opened himself to his blessing. He funneled more heat into his blade, forcing it deeper into the dragon's skull. He would have only moments before the claws came for him, and he would have to give up his foothold. Jean needed to act now.

Sayed searched for Jean on the ground but didn't find him where he had landed. Instead, Jean stood on a nearby rooftop, arms raised and his eyes closed. With a grin, he opened his eyes, and Sayed smiled back.

"Have no worries, Sayed," Jean said, jumping into the air and extending one arm. "We can finish this now. Spirit Wrap!"

Captain Drake hated using his dragon form. It was unwieldy and made precision strikes on a target impossible. For most of his work, he was perfectly happy to use his humanoid form and deal with problems at their own size.

The rage caused him to take it—the curse of his people across the many worlds before the Dark Meridian ever formed. Commander Milton had stoked it in his heart, and seeing his lieutenant on the ground had ignited it in an inferno. Now, it trapped him in his body like a cage, and he could not control what happened next.

"Now was neither the time nor place," he chided within his mind as the swordsman cut into his wing. "If you had retained your cool, you could have taken them both down. You know that you have to keep the fire in control."

He was not cursed in the sense that the people across the Erth were. His people were creatures older than curses, older than even the magics that some islands used before the Empyrean suppressed them. However, that didn't change the fact that his people's ability was fueled by aether, which bound all abilities, magic, and curses together.

"I suppose I have to wait for myself to run out." He sighed as his body snapped at the swordsman.

His other self said something to the swordsman that Drake couldn't understand. It was him, in a way, and when he was in control of the body, that self was locked away in its own cage, probably thinking the same thing as he did. His people were of two minds on everything because they were two in one. Their brains were split in twain, and a switch within their nerves controlled which self was in charge.

One side was more rational. The other was more emotional. The rational side took on the humanoid form. The emotional side took on the dragon's form.

Which was why he was trapped as a prisoner in his own body, watching the dragon side fight.

"What are they doing?"

He saw Sayed jump onto his head and felt the pinprick of pain as the sword found purchase in his skull. Drake winced. It was an easy enough fix, so long as his rage-filled persona picked the swordsman away with his claws. Even now, he saw the claws rise to remove the swordsman and smiled. He could regain control from his other side when the fight was over.

He wanted to check on Brunihld, and they needed to lock down the two outlaws before anything got worse. Once they were done, they would be able to check for wounded from his fall. Drake hoped that there hadn't been too many. He hated unnecessary casualties.

However, he spoke too soon.

'The Reanimator' had risen again while Drake was distracted by the swordsman. He stood on a nearby roof, motioning his arms in circles as he mumbled something. Drake couldn't hear it while trapped in his cage, and he was sure his dragon form wasn't paying attention. It was too focused on the sword in its skull.

Whatever the skeleton might try, though, Drake was confident that he didn't need to worry. In his dragon form, he was practically unstoppable. There was nothing either of the fighters could do to bring him down.

He was certain, right until the glowing garb that 'The Reanimator' had been wearing stretched out from his body, forming a massive jacket that covered the sky like a net coming down. His dragon side tried to turn, but it was too late.

Strings of aether wrapped around his form, tightening and wrapping around him as the cloth descended upon him. Drake watched as his dragon form fought back, flinging the swordsman away with a flick as he tried to bring his claws to bear. However, Drake saw that it was too late. He recognized what was going to happen before it did.

The cloth wrapped around his body, closing like a vice and wrapping his wings against his arms and legs. His towering form had only one leg to support itself, which would not last.

"Give me control," he said, rattling the bars of his cage. "Before it's too late!"

Roar.

The roar shook through his cage, shattering the bars. Drake opened his eyes, his form shrinking around him along with the cloth. It was not a quick process.

Crack. Crunch.

Bones folded in on themselves, and scales shrunk to fit his new size. He was shrinking at roughly the same rate as the cloth. However, he could do nothing to make his form shrink faster. It was bound by the rules that governed the realms of the Real and Surreal.

Thud.

He hit the ground with the cloth wrapped around him. His claws cut at the strings, but they only seemed to be replaced by more lines of aether as the cloth closed tighter.

"I'll not be beaten by—" The cloth crawled up his neck, closing his mouth shut tight as more strings wrapped away like tendrils and caught hold of his jaws.

Rustle.

He struggled against the bonds, but without being able to bring his claws or his teeth to bear, they were impossible to cut. He thought about unleashing fire for a moment, but it would only burn his mouth. He lay captured on the ground.

It was utterly humiliating.

"I think we did it, brother!" Sayed yelled to 'The Reanimator' as he ran over to where Drake lay.

"We need to go now!" Baptiste said, looking down at Drake momentarily before pointing to the sky. "I don't know how long my strings will hold him."

"And I do not trust I could finish the job." Sayed nodded before looking down at Drake. "You fought well, mighty dragon. Let us meet again when we are strong for an even greater fight!"

Thump.

Drake struggled against his bonds, but all he could manage was to pull himself up from the ground and fall again. He had to lay there and watch as the two outlaws started for the nearest building, jumping up the walls and out of sight.

Smoke burned from his mouth as he seethed. He would find them again and show them the price for this mockery.

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