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Chapter 15: Darkness

It was hard to believe how fast Alex had arrived at that magical barrier, her large form bumping against it for a moment, forgetting that there was an impenetrable force field there. It had been merely minutes since she had burst through the roof of an inn somewhere distant from his location, probably causing the innkeeper to grow furious...but he didn't care right now...he had grabbed his sword while he felt her approaching...

"Incantatum Shivilum!" Alex roared, destroying the shield in a matter of seconds, but in that loophole, James quickly dashed from beneath her body and out from behind her. Startled, Alex whipped her tail around him but he broke free before she could fully grasp him with it. He was furious! How could he just simply stand there and watch the beautiful landscape die in front of him...it was time to take Talon head on! And nothing...not even his mate could stop him from doing so...

"JAMES! GET BACK HERE!!!" Alex shouted angrily at him, his smaller form jetting upwards into the black clouds. He was blinded for several minutes as he jetted upward the smog of the clouds simply an impassible cloud of smog. He was however, able to make out the form of a large, glowing aura...it was huge...and he knew exactly what it was... Talon himself... He could feel the ever growing presence of his mate, but she was just as lost as he was in the clouds, flashes of red lightning nearly blasting him out of the skies as he pressed on, pursuing the slow moving dragon.

"For such a big dragon, he sure takes his time to get around...maybe its because he is full of pride...something that I will rid him of!" James shouted.

"James! Don't do this! We arent ready to take on our greatest enemy without the aid of the dragon clans! This is folly!!!" Alex cried, but she was silenced as a great roar shook the skies themselves.... Talon suddenly emerging from a clearing in the skies.... Glaring angrily down at James...

"You have no idea how long I have waited for this...Talon....You have slain my family, my friends, and most of all my childhood! You will pay for what you have done!!!! Your life ends here, malicious fiend...I will drive the very tip of my blade into your SKULL!!!!" James roared.

He suddenly began to feel something leave his body though... a warmth that had left him as he stared up into the eyes of the beast.... "Aegis...?"

"You are thinking like a blinded fool once again! You are letting your anger and malice guide your hand ! Remember what I told you. Fight not for revenge, but for protection. Do not take the first strike...doing so only feeds your anger and hate towards him...remember what I taught you...be the defender...let your honor and valor guide you...not hatred and blind fury...."

He began to feel the warmth in his soul increase again, Aegis having bonded with him once again, but this time, he felt a surge of strength and courage, drawing his blade with a loud metallic ring, brandishing it in his claw...ready for anything the dragon had to throw at him.

"JAMES YOU GET DOWN THIS INSTANT!!!! IF I EVER FIND YOU WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A LONG TALK!!!!" Alex shouted... causing a tinge of fear to run down his spine...

"I regret doing this to you but this is a fight that I must attempt by myself!!!!" James cried...but he was astonished that his voice had changed. Instead of his normal voice, it came out was one that was bonded with another entity, his voice echoing loudly amongst the black clouds, his voice resonating with that of Aegis himself.

"Hero! On guard!" Aegis cried within his mind. In that second, he was barely able to dodge a downward slash that was aimed at him, slicing a hole in his wing, but a minor one. Nonetheless it stung, the delicate membrane tearing easily at the edge of his claw.

With a cry of anger, James took the initiative to strike back...like a true defender... He plunged the tip of his blade within the arm of the drake, the blade drawing the blood of the beast copiously, but several complications arrived with such. Firstly, his blade was now stuck in his arm, and he wasn't able to recover it, and secondly, out of the corner of his eye he could see the beast's second arm coming for a swipe.

He regretfully let go of his sword's handle, taking to the air to dodge the rapidly approaching claw and instead somersaulted in the air before returning to the blade, drawing it out with his imbued strength and resuming the battle, jetting towards Talon's head.

The black dragon roared out in anger and reared his head back, an orb of dark flame beginning to form in his maw. Luckily for James, he merely had to place his sword in front of him, leaving the rest to Aegis. A holy barrier suddenly engulfed him, and as the black dragon blew his destructive flame at him, it merely glanced away from him, the barrier taking the blunt of the attack, but the feeling of uncomfortable heat penetrated it. By the time the fiery assault was over, he noticed a weak point in the dragon, he was winded, and needed a second to recover.

Not allowing his enemy to get back on his feet, he took the opportunity to strike at his neck with the tip of his blade, causing the dragon to suddenly pump his wings powerfully, sending James flying several hundred yards away.

Without warning, he was suddenly blasted with several fireballs, each one seeming to slow down time as they struck him.

"AGH!!!!!!!" James cried, his body smoldering as he fell several hundred yards down, his weakened body attempting to recover from lost altitude but he felt his body suddenly purged of weakness as a bright light engulfed him...To his surprise his scales had gone from their azure color to a pure white...

"JAMES!!! WHERE ARE YOU!? AND WHAT IS THAT DAMNED BRIGHT LIGHT?!" Alex shouted, but she stopped dead in her tracks as she stunned at what she saw. James had just transformed into a large feral dragon, and his normal features were replaced with that of a large regal white dragon. He didn't look like that of the wind clan, but pure divine, his scales emitting a searing light.

"Fear not! For I am with you!" Aegis shouted into his mind, his veins feeling as if fire itself was coursing through him, energizing him with such an invigorating rush...But his marveling was cut short as the dragon once again appeared from above him, his jaws opened widely with his black fangs glistening in the red lightning.

James, however, put both claws in the jaws of the beast, wrestling with the bigger dragon and to his luck, the dragon launched himself several hundred yards backwards again, shaking his head in discomfort before roaring so loudly that it shook the skies themselves once more. This time, a barrage of dark spheres is what beset him. With ease, he dodged each one and instead reared his head back, firing a beam of divine light at the beast.

The beam met its mark and caused him to rear out in pain.... In retaliation, he suddenly disappeared into the clouds once again, before appearing directly behind him and biting into his neck viciously.

"Eagh!" Aegis cried, but it came out in his own voice, his strength flickering for a few moments before something tackled the weight of the dragon from his body, Alex having intervened in the battle.

"No! You must flee!! He will kill us both!" James cried.

"I would rather die at your side than without a father for my child...." She roared angrily.

James could hardly believe it...but all of those thoughts were shunted out of his mind as he saw his greatest enemy...that malicious black monster hurtling towards his mate.

He knew what to do...Aegis knew what to do...

With a sudden pump of his wings, he launched himself at Alex and pummeled her out of the way, a pair of fangs piercing through his body with great ease, the black dragon wounding him greatly as he sank his teeth deeply into his flesh, the beast growling in delight.

"JAMES! NO!!!" Alex cried, watching her mate as he suffered at the jaws of the beast. "YOU MONSTER!"

With that she rammed her body into his side, her body suddenly becoming encased in an earth shield. The force of her blunt assault caused him to clench his jaws first in pain, further damaging James, but then he was released.

He felt it...he had made a grave mistake. He had barely scratched at the black dragon's stamina...barely wounded him...and now he was suffering for it. The holes in his chest were grave indeed, but they had missed his heart and lungs. He managed to regain a hover but that was all he could manage as he saw his mate repeatedly pummeling into the side of his greatest enemy...

"I...cant take much more of this...You need to... Aghh!" Aegis sputtered, but he began to feel his body suddenly invigorated again, launching himself upward into the heat of battle once again.

In that moment, he suddenly flipping through the air, slamming his claws downward into Talon, followed by his tail as he did a front flip, his body spinning horizontally in the air immediately afterwards. To follow up with the combination of attacks, he finished with a blinding surge of light, blasting into the beast.

Talon groaned out in agony as the light penetrated his scales once again, the beast turning his gaze back to James. He had not managed to lay a claw on Alex, her earth shield too strong to penetrate. Her agility in such a form was slow, but it was much quicker than that of the black dragon.

"I will tear you apart! Limb from limb! Flesh from BONE!!" Talon roared, his eyes beginning to glow with a red haze. "FEEL MY POWER!!!!!"

"JAMES!" Alex cried, but it was too late.

Talon unleashed a beam of dark energy at James, his body's strength flickering wildly in his soul...before going out completely as he felt the rending power of the black flame, his strength rapidly depleting... his body failing...but then he felt a shield...someone protecting him from harm. As he felt his sense of spiritual sight returning, he saw his mate defending him with her own body, her earth shield taking the blunt of the attack, but it was greatly sapping her strength as well...now was the time...now that he was distracted.

He suddenly summed up the last of his stamina...his strength...and his courage to launch himself at the chest of the beast, away from the black flame, slashing his claws at the beast's chest repeatedly before piercing his flesh with his claws, twisting and gouging.

Talon groaned out in agony, but then attempted to redirect his flame at him, a magical barrier encasing his body once again.

Alex took the opportunity to ram herself into his head, dazing the dragon for a couple of moments before he spun around, his tail ramming into her like a whip... her crippled body falling from the sky.

"NO!!!!!!" James cried, his body suddenly engulfed in an inferno of white light once again. He roared out angrily, this time his roar rivaled that of Talon's, but none of that mattered now as he suddenly appeared behind the beast, causing great confusion at the ability of teleportation, his claws slashing at the dragon's spine and cutting deeply into the bone, his claws guided with the strength of holy might, his super abilities something to be marveled.

Talon roared angrily and suddenly emitted a flame nova from his very scales, but the nova completely missed James as he teleported once again, this time slamming into the top of his head, breaking part of his horn with his tail before reappearing directly in front of him, his maw blasting the black beast with a jet of holy flame.

Talon growled out in anger, but his strength was still plentiful, his body still filled with energy. He may have been wounded, but he was seemingly impossible to stop....

"Alex!!!" James cried, "Where are you?!"

There was no response....

Before he could cry out again, he felt every ounce of his strength disappear as his back was suddenly ripped open by a black claw, his crippled body falling to the ashes below...

"Agh! I'm sorry...mom....father...I've failed..."

"No you have not!!!! Unleash your soul!!!" Aegis cried, his own soul pouring his strength into James, his wounds stitching back together in a last ditch attempt to finish Talon...

James began to feel a feeling within his chest...much like the feeling of love...that warmth in his chest... just it felt full to bursting, much like a first date with a love... but it was pure...raw...holy power... and he knew exactly what to do...

He launched himself at Talon, his roar piercing the very skies as the black dragon and white dragon met in the skies, his body emitting a blinding light that destroyed the black clouds around him, and instead replaced them with silvery white ones, each one of them zapping the black dragon with vengeful lightning blasts, his body suddenly emitting a white flame that seared the black dragon's very soul, causing him to recoil in anguish.

The black dragon looked at the white dragon in front of him and suddenly took to the skies, flying higher and higher, his black form unmistakable through the silvery clouds.

"You cannot escape my judgement!!!!" James cried...but that's when he felt it... unimaginable weakness...his body completely drained...his eyelids fluttering weakly as his wings began to slow down... before he felt the sensation of falling once more...

"No!...Not...now..so.....close..." James muttered softly before losing consciousness...

He wouldn't know that Sarah and her golden dragon had arrived just in time to catch his exhausted body before it hit the ground...however there was a much more pressing matter...Alex had hit the ground long ago. Luckily, her earth shield had saved her from becoming a bloody mess, but several of her bones had been broken and would take an entire day to mend...It was a time to plan...to recover from past wounds...and plan for the future... It was a time for a plan to unite the dragons... and cast down Talon once and for all!

(Hey readers! This is just another friendly message letting you know that the sequel to this story is now called "Dawn Bringer! Look for it later on once I've posted it! Murry out!)