Draconian Peril Ch.4
Ryuu held onto his mother's ashes as he watched Baku carve a small ivory tomb with his claws, making it a perfect symbol to represent Serris' power and grace. Baku looked over to his son and motioned him to come forward with the urn.
"Alright Ryuu, empty Serris' ashes into here." Baku said quietly.
Ryuu nodded, taking off the lid of the urn and carefully tipping it's contents into the small ivory box. As the ashes poured, a glint of silver and black caught Ryuu's eye. Ryuu stopped pouring and grasped the small silver and black ball that seemed to float above the rest of the ashes. Baku arched his neck until he could see what it was that had caught his son's eye. They both came to the same conclusion quickly, it was a Soul Cage, Serris' Soul Cage. As Ryuu held it in the palm of his hand, he saw that the silver runes and ivy-like images that encircled the artifact seemed to move and writhe while a dim white light began pulsing brighter and brighter with each passing second.
"Its calling you Ryuu." Baku said as he took several steps back, away from his son.
Ryuu looked over his shoulder to gaze at his father questioningly,
"What do you mean 'its calling me'?" Ryuu asked as he clasped the orb in his hand tighter.
Baku sighed audibly.
"Serris' Shadow Flare is resonating with yours." Baku said as he watched his son.
Ryuu looked at his mother's Soul Cage and noticed what looked like a small flicker of fire inside its blackened shell. Ryuu concentrated, opening the hollow in his chest that held his own flame. Ryuu's Shadow Flare burst to life, almost to big for the depression in his torso to hold. The light began to change, becoming what looked like wisps of smoke as they were pulled into his flame. Ryuu's eyes went wide with power as his form shifted slightly. His once white feathered wings regained their snowy coloring while a streak of crystalline sapphire coated the back edge of his ivory horn, and a sheet of sky-blue runes coated the rest of his horn. Ryuu had felt this power once before, when he had fought Serris in her transformed state. His mother's power hadn't resonated with his own, he had absorbed her power, the power of her Shadow Flare.
As the light faded, Ryuu looked down toward his mother's Soul Cage. Its light was extinguished, the silver accents faded and tarnished. Even as Ryuu held the Soul Cage, its surface began to crack, fissures and valleys spider webbing across its surface before it collapsed into a mound of dust. A tear rolled from both Ryuu and Baku's eye as Ryuu finished pouring his mother's ashes into the small ivory box along with the remains of her Soul Cage.
The next few weeks would be hard on Ryuu.
Over the next month, Ryuu had become as close to his father as he had been with Serris. Training all day, studying all night. Ryuu was trained in every aspect of the Shadow Flare that was known, from abilities such as creating poisonous gas, to the most advanced abilities that Baku didn't even have enough power to perform successfully. These advanced powers were the ones that Ryuu had the least trouble with, summoning powerful creatures was one that Ryuu excelled at.
"Alright Ryuu. Lets see what you've got." Baku said as he stood behind his son.
Ryuu nodded, as he closed his eyes, calling up an image of what he wanted. He gathered the necessary power in his palm, churning it with slight movements of his fingers before releasing it into the atmosphere around himself.
"Shadow Flare Blitz!" Ryuu called out the name of his technique.
Sparks began to jump from Ryuu's scales into the air, before it ignited and formed a cyclone of black fire around himself. A low rumble sounded throughout Baku's lair, turning into a loud roar as the cyclone uncoiled itself from around Ryuu; reshaping itself into the form a fire wyrm, then a living incarnation of burning destruction. Ryuu pointed his hand toward his target and the mass of destructive energies surged forward, ripping through and burning everything in his wake as easily as a bullet goes through flesh. Ryuu then commanded the wyrm to return to return, coiling around himself once more before disappearing in a pyroclasm of burning energy. Leaving nothing to prove that it was even there except red hot cinders and large piles of ashes where each and every target once stood.
Ryuu let out a long breath and sat back on the ground, admiring his work. Smiling, Ryuu turned his head to see what his father thought. Baku just stood there, mouth agape as he looked over the destruction his son had caused with one blast. Ryuu sat there smirking, he had barely used any power in that attack; compared to the vast amount that he could have used anyways.
Even under the most extreme conditions, Baku couldn't believe the destructive force behind
that one attack. All the crystals and rocks that were within its blast radius were now glowing a bright yellow from the intense heat. The sandy floor of the cavern had been churned up in waves, outlining the path Ryuu's attack had followed, and turned to glass in that same instant. Not only that, but the air in a 100 hundred foot radius of the attacks path was too hot for Baku to approach without having his scales start to glow from the heat, and his breath burn his lungs raw within seconds. Only Ryuu could walk within the area, and it seemed to have no effect on him whatsoever; he didn't even sweat or begin to breath hard.
Baku waited until his son left the damaged area, and walked up to him. Before Ryuu could react, Baku had lifted a taloned paw and rapped his son on his forehead with the blunt edge on his claw. Ryuu fell to the ground from the force, and clutched his head from the pain. Ryuu might have been more powerful than his father, but his physical prowess was limited by his body. Even though Baku could do very little to hurt his son, even if he wanted to, having a half-ton claw rap him on his head still hurt like hell. Ryuu stood, rubbing the bump on his head as he stared his father down.
"What the hell was that for!?" Ryuu yelled with fury burning in his voice.
Baku lowered his head to eye level with his son, growling once on his own before answering.
"What do you think? I told you to hit the targets, not cook my home." Baku told his son, snarling at the same time.
Ryuu looked behind him, taking in the damage he had done for the first time.
"Oops." Ryuu said, his wings drooping visibly as he tried to think of a way to put out the fire.
Ryuu raised his head as he thought of what to do. Flaring his wings, Ryuu called a frozen gust of wind to encompass all six of his flight granting appendages. With one mighty beat, Ryuu created a twister of icy wind; instantly cooling the area around him, as its vortex passed over the molten ground. Ryuu collapsed onto the ground, almost completely drained of power. He had not practiced using any elemental powers besides fire before, and
suddenly switching to the power of ice had left him with little more than speed to protect himself. Ryuu would need to practice manipulating the other five elemental mediums:
Fire- the essence of fury and emotion.
Water- serenity incarnate.
Ice- cold logic and indifference.
Earth- great knowledge and honor.
Lightning- perfect unity of the sky and soul.
Darkness- pain and chaos incarnate.
As Ryuu pondered this, he felt rather than saw, his father walk up behind him. Ryuu looked up, seeing the cocky smile he expected to see on Baku's muzzle. Baku lowered his head, hooking one of his horns under Ryuu's arm to help him to his feet. Ryuu thanked the dragon and promptly fell back to the ground, landing on his tail, effectively fracturing several of the bones with a sickening crunch. Both Ryuu and Baku flinched, more at the sound than the pain. Ryuu attempted to stand once more, and got his tail out from underneath himself before he spoke.
"Ow... Boy am I glad for rapid healing abilities." Ryuu said, trying to keep a straight face. Unsuccessfully.
Baku looked like he was about to burst from holding in his laughter. His talons were digging into the ground, and his tail swinging from side to side quickly.
Ryuu growled at his father.
"Just get it over with. You're more annoying now than ever with that stupid expression on you're face." Ryuu yelled, firing one of his feather-blades and hitting Baku on the tip of his muzzle.
Baku roared in both surprise and pain. He clawed at his muzzle until the blade came loose from the mass of cartilage under his scales. Baku looked around, trying to find Ryuu so that he could rap him on his head again. Ryuu had already walked out the mouth of the cavern and taken to the sky.
Ryuu was just gliding on the air, enjoying the sensation of the wind rushing past his scales and feathers. This time he didn't use his power for anything. He just basked in the warmth of the sun, admiring the way the winds shifted; pulling the clouds along as the only sign that anything was moving at all. After several hours of this, Ryuu stopped relying on his sight and let the winds guide him. When he finally opened his eyes, he saw that he was soaring above a quiet, open field. Looking down, Ryuu saw that there was a lone tree standing near the middle of the field. All around the tree were stains of red, splashed all over the ground. He then felt a strange presence below him, a presence that seemed to call to him.
The girl sat in a high tree, not far from the edge of Baku's territory. Her sword, Thenos, would begin to shriek loudly, quickly alerting Baku's servants that she had entered his territory if she even set one foot inside the mystical shield that he had erected around his land. She had now realized that she couldn't get to Baku, but that didn't mean that she couldn't get his son to come to her.
"Anytime now Thenos, you will taste draconian blood. And his scales will be a nice addition to my collection." The girl sighed quietly, stroking Thenos' cross guard lovingly, and drawing a quiet purr from Thenos' flesh and steel throat.
Ryuu landed at the top of the tree he had seen earlier, surveying the land and the crimson puddles on the ground, looking for that which had called him. He stood at the topmost branch of the tree and looked down, he saw a little girl about ten or twelve years of age sitting on one of the lower branches. Ryuu shrugged, jumping to the ground, using his wings to break the fall. Ryuu landed softly, using his wings to make slow, but powerful gusts of wind to let him land silently. As Ryuu knelt down in front of the blood stains, he could now smell an incredibly strong smell of freshly shed blood and honey.
The girl had expected to see a draconian, namely Ryuu, come to her. She didn't quite think that he would literally fall from the sky and land at her feet, like Ryuu just had. The girl could tell by the look of him that this would be one of her finest.
Ryuu stiffened as a new smell assaulted his nose. The smell of his blood, draconian blood, and something else. Ryuu turned around quickly, fear writ on his features.
"Hey! Its about time you got here." A voice said behind Ryuu.
He quickly turned again, to see who it was behind him. The girl he had seen in the tree mere moments ago now stood in front of him, he hadn't heard so much as a leaf rustle. Regaining his composure and relaxing his battle-ready stance, Ryuu spoke.
"Excuse me?" He said with confusion apparent in his voice.
The girl ran over to Ryuu, taking his hand, and examining his scales while shaking his hand at the same time. Ryuu wrenched his hand from her grasp, quietly.
"My name is Styx, what's yours?" The girl smiled almost to quickly.
This time Ryuu answered without hesitation, he had calmed himself after the initial shock of seeing a human girl walk up to him so casually.
"You are a very odd little girl. Aren't you scared? Most humans run on the spot if they saw a draconian." Ryuu said to the girl who had taken an interest in his wings.
"Like I said earlier, what's your name?" The girl asked as she felt over the soft feathers of Ryuu top set of wings.
"Ryuu, my name is Ryuu. And you might want to be careful of my wings, they-" Ryuu stopped in mid-sentence as he saw Styx had cut her palm on one of the blades concealed under his feathers. Ryuu looked the girl over, expecting her to start crying from the pain of her wound. To his surprise, she seemed happy about the bloody gash in her hand. Ryuu watched with intrigue as Styx spread the blood all across her sword arm. Styx began chuckling, her eyes fixated to Ryuu, looking him over for weak points in his defense. Taking hold of her sword's handle, she spoke.
"Ryuu, Lets have some fun!" She yelled, drawing her sword in a flawless motion, never taking her eyes from Ryuu.
Ryuu blocked Styx' first attack by using his middle wing-set as a pair of shields, extending the bones, membrane, and scale count to double the amount of space they could defend with.
"What the hell are you doing?" Ryuu yelled at her from ten feet away.
Styx just laughed, drawing the blade's edge across her tongue with a seductive flare in her eye. Ryuu could tell she was enjoying herself.
"Come on Ryuu, lets play. I haven't killed a draconian in months!" Styx taunted, an air of confidence and lust bubbling around her.
Styx charged Ryuu, sword at ready. Ryuu once again blocked her downward strike, holding his wings high to deflect her sword. As her sword bounced of the diamond hard scales of Ryuu's wings, Styx flipped her blade around, plunging it through his lower right wing. Ryuu cried out in pain as the metal of her sword seared his flesh. Not knowing what else to do, Ryuu kicked Styx in her solar plexus, effectively throwing her a good twenty feet away. Ryuu then jumped another ten feet back, making sure to keep a very good distance between them while he examined his wound.
"Damn, what kind of sword could do this," Ryuu gestured to his badly torn and burnt wing, "to a draconian, much less one like me!?" Ryuu clutched his still burning wing tightly to his chest, as the pain slowly died away.
Styx smiled, and held out her sword at arms length. It looked like an ordinary brass short sword with an ordinary cross guard and pommel, but nonetheless, it had cut through his wing
like warm butter.
Styx grinned at Ryuu's confusion before she answered his question.
"Thenos, lets play." Styx called out to seemingly no one in particular from Ryuu's perspective.
Styx sword began to grow in length, its old brass blade giving way to a six foot, tarnished silver blade, the cross guard merged into the blade before extending over the handle. The leather wrapping around the handle softened until it looked and felt like new flesh and bunched up in folds at the base of the blade, acting as an lid for the crimson eyeball that opened a mere inch from the handle. The pommel extended and flattened into the shape of a large ax blade, complete with a three inch gut hook at the tip. A chain the began to form around the guards of the two blades on either side of the handle, connecting together after a short time. The final change took place when muscles and flesh began to spread across portions of the blades ad handle, and arcane runes filling the space unoccupied by flesh; serrated fangs sprouting from random places along the main blade of the weapon. This wasn't a weapon, it was a living creature in itself. A construct.
Ryuu grimaced as he watched the sword take on its true form, hearing its desperate cries of pain and blood-lust. He had to cover his nose as the scent of rotting flesh bombarded his sense of smell.
"Is that... thing, alive!?" Ryuu asked in disgust, as he watched the veins pulsing under its flesh.
"Alright, spill it! Who the hell are you, and what exactly do you want from me? Or do I even need to guess?" Ryuu asked in a cold tone, fury clearly writ all over his features.
Styx brought the demonic blade to her mouth, licking along the edge more with lustful passion than blood-lust. Ryuu's scales and feathers bristled at the act, she kept her eyes locked with his own the entire time. Ryuu didn't know what to do, he found himself unable to take his eyes off of her form. He could tell there was more to her than the unusual weapon she wielded. That much was obvious.
"What do I want you ask? Why, I want to kill you. Skin you're carcass, and wear you're feathers as a trophy. Before I rip the scales from you're hide, and turn the rest of you into strips of leather and jerky. Thats all." Styx closed her eyes, laughing to herself at the look of horror and disgust in his features.
"Bringing death and pain are so much fun aren't they? Tortured screams, terrifying enough to make blood curdle at the mere sound. Oh, it makes me all warm inside just thinking about it." Styx ran her blade across her shoulder, creating a large bloody gash. She reveled in the pain, as though in ecstasy.
At that moment, Styx wore the expression of pure innocence. Yet behind that mask, Ryuu could see a beast. One who had seen so much carnage and had so much taken from her, that her mind had become twisted, almost evil in nature. Ryuu could see this just from her eyes now.
Smiling, Ryuu fully extended his injured wing, as black flames began to mend his wound. Ryuu looked on toward Styx who now watched her prey healing itself before her eyes. He saw a glint of fear, however short lived it may have been, cross her eyes. Inspiring him to not hold back. Ryuu called forth his true essence, the Shadow Flare, taking on the form he most preferred for battle.
Ryuu moaned in pleasure as the dark power surged trough his veins. He flared the scales on his forearms and opened the vents for his miasma to seep throughout their soon to be battlefield. Ryuu's wings darkened, growing more ragged as they extended. Large, ivory scales took up their place on his chest, guarding the spaces between his ribs as the hollow that would hold his flame began to form. Ryuu leaned his head back, enjoying the sensations his true power brought with them as the flame in his chest burst into existence. Ryuu would enjoy their little 'game'.
Ryuu turned his gaze toward Styx as his eyes became near-bottomless pits of crimson.
"Alright Styx, lets play."
Styx was caught off guard. Both by his comment, and the fact that he had healed from Thenos' strike almost instantaneously. Ryuu crossed his arms across his chest, their blades facing opposite directions as Ryuu spoke.
"Its only fair that I have a weapon as well, and these simply will not do." Ryuu said quickly.
The blades on either of his wrists suddenly extended as though they were spring loaded. Ryuu engulfed both blades in his dark flame before altering his weapon's form. Sapphire crystals began to encrust the blades, sharpening it to a near perfect edge. The metallic bone retracted back into his wrists beneath the crystalline shell, causing the sapphire to take the exact form of his bone-like blades. These however, possessed both sharper edges and more resilient structure.
Styx looked over Ryuu's newly jeweled blades. She couldn't tell if he was much stronger than before he transformed himself, but the blades sprouting from his wrists seemed to be sharp enough to cut through steel with ease.
"I'm guessing I had better stay away from those little knives of yours, huh?" Styx asked in a taunting voice.
Ryuu smiled at her comment, this would indeed be entertaining for both of them.
"Why don't we find out?" Ryuu said, before Styx charged him.
"First Incarnation: Shadow Flare cutlass. " Ryuu whispered to himself, giving power to his attack with a few mere words.
Styx didn't even have time to blink, much less block Ryuu's attack as the burning crystal blade cut into her flesh. Styx felt no pain from the wound, even as Ryuu continued to push his blade across her gut; cleanly slicing her in half. Styx' body had stiffened when Ryuu had first touched her, so she didn't know what had happened. To her, Styx just heard Ryuu call out some sort of attack. A mere second later, and he was standing fifteen feet behind her and she had no feeling from her waist down. Styx tried to look down, to see if Ryuu had done anything to her. She was horrified by what she saw. Along with her clothes being torn in half, there was a line of blood oozing slowly from her waist. Styx turned her head quickly, looking at Ryuu. She looked him over, he had seemed so calm before. Yet now, his eyes were screaming for blood and carnage. As Styx looked lower, she noticed that the once clear blue crystal of his left arm's blade now bore a deep violet hue from the coating of her own blood along it. Her own blood dripped from his blade slowly, as fear began to overwhelm her mind.
"What the hell..." Styx' words trailed off as she fell back.
Ryuu watched as his opponent fell backward into the dark mist he had created. As she hit the ground, Ryuu saw her body separate itself in half from his attack. The wound was clean. No rough edges, not even her bones had put up any resistance as his blade had cut through her. Now she lay still as his miasma began to encroach on her.
Ryuu turned to walk away, but turned his head once more to watch as his mist devoured her.
Ryuu was shocked, as he looked on, his miasma refused to go anywhere near her. The ground in a six foot radius of her corpse was completely barren of the dark mist. He then saw the reason. Her body had begun to heal itself at an incredible pace, changing as it did so.
Styx' eyes had changed to emerald slits, her ears had grown longer and now came to a sharp point. She moaned in pain as the rest of the changes began to take place. Her teeth grew sharper, and her nails grew to resemble talons. These weren't the only changes though, as a coat of fine silver fur began to cover her body from head to toe and five long silver furred fox tails sprouted from her tail bone. Her body itself seemed to be maturing as well; whereas she looked as though she were a mere child before, she now looked well near twenty years old now. She had taken on all the most attractive features a woman could want. Well defined curves, full breasts, and a head of long, beautiful red hair. Where once stood a child of gore, now stood a woman of destruction.
As Styx stood, she shook her head as though something was in her hair. Ryuu muttered a single word, the only word that he thought could explain what he had just seen.
"Nogitsune."
Ryuu stared at his adversaries' true form, he had known of the fox people. Known that they played a major part anywhere they are even mentioned.
"I had never though that-" Ryuu cringed in agonizing pain as his words were cut short.
Styx had reclaimed Thenos and dashed over to Ryuu, plunging her demonic blade through his heart. Ryuu screamed as each fang on the sword went to work gnawing on his flesh and
shredding his muscles.
"Maybe, that we existed?" Styx said in a soothing tone, finishing what Ryuu had begun to say.
Ryuu gasped in pain, falling to one knee as she twisted Thenos in his chest. The touch of her sword burnt his flesh on contact. Making Ryuu seem helpless before the woman who bore his life in her hands.
"I never expected you nor any other dragon to understand,so I suppose I'll tell you; when a human dies a painful death, when terror and fear engulf them in their final breaths. A kitsune comes to them and offers the human a deal. The offer never changes, and is only given to those who die after their purpose in life in fulfilled. In exchange for eternal life, ever growing power and great wisdom. The human must forfeit that which they treasure the most and submit their spirits to the foxes desires. Now do you understand us Dragon? We are all like this, I could tell you saw almost pure evil in my eyes when we first met. You were smart to heed your instincts and be cautious. But you will still die. Right here, right now." Styx said with a painful twist of her sword.
Ryuu had stopped panting from lack of breath now, Styx thought him to be near death, unable to move. She applauded her own power, as she stood there basking in the destruction she caused so easily. Without looking up, Ryuu smiled as intense pleasure began to course through his body. Unintentionally, Styx had given Ryuu access to another of the remaining five elemental powers he had yet to master.
Darkness.
A massive cloud of ebony smoke began encompass Ryuu's entire being, darkening his feathered wings to a pitch black coloration. Battle-lust began to flood his mind, not enough to take control, but enough to make him fight back. Ryuu's crimson eyes began to pulsate again as he looked up, locking his sight with that of Styx.
"Tell me... How old are you Styx?" Ryuu had begun to breath harder now, as he stood weakly, resting his hand on her shoulder.
Styx took this as his last words and answered in kind, gentle tones.
"In human years, I'm eighteen." Ryuu smiled, amused at her response.
Before Styx could react, Ryuu had taken hold of Thenos' handle; thrusting it to the hilt into his chest.
"You're the same age as me Styx." Ryuu said in a wisp of a voice.
Before she could react, Ryuu had thrust his arms under her shoulders and taken wing, flying above the clouds; still holding the struggling nogitsune with minimal strength. As Ryuu kept rising deeper and deeper into the massive clouds overhead, frost began to form on his wings and scales, only to break off at the slightest movement.
"You know... there are many ways of attaining immortality. Dealing with the fox people is one, as I'm sure you are aware. Drinking the blood of a vampiric being is another. However, baring the curse of the Shadow Flare is the way that my family used. I am no mere draconian, I am the living incarnation of the Shadow Flare." Styx visibly shuddered as Ryuu revealed his true nature to her. "We both know that neither of us can win or lose this battle, but lets do so anyways, just for fun."
Ryuu kissed Styx passionately, leaving her in a daze as he gripped her arm and slung her back to earth as hard as he could. She kept her eyes locked on Ryuu as she fell, too entranced by his actions to even attempt to slow her decent.
When Styx impacted the soft earth beneath her, she could feel several of her bones had broken; just barely enough to stop her from healing immediately. Jagged pain rippled through her being as Styx lay there in the crater, unmoving for several minutes. When she turned her head, she could see not only her bones jutting from her elbow, but through the smoke; she could also see a man's silhouette. A man with six wings.
Styx nearly froze in terror when she saw Ryuu standing just outside the crater he had used her to create. He stood perfectly still, the wind occasionally whipping at his feathers. As the smoke and dust cleared, Styx stood coughing slightly and holding tight her broken arm. Ryuu shot a pulse of healing energy at Styx, repairing her arm as good as new.
This act of kindness confused her, first he slung her down from a mile in the air, then healed her wounds? This made no sense to her. Styx wanted nothing more than to understand him now.
Ryuu reached up toward Thenos' handle, and ripped it from his flesh. The demonic weapon fought the entire time, trying to keep itself buried in the bloody gash in Ryuu's chest. Ryuu looked over the weapon, admiring it with a gentle gaze as the weapon stared back at him. He then sheathed the first few inches of Thenos' blade into the ground.
"Fucking little toy of yours actually hurt." Ryuu said with an acidic tone.
"You know, you really do look a lot cuter in this form." Ryuu smiled, winking at her.
Styx blushed, her red cheeks visible behind her silver fur. Gathering her thoughts, Styx rushed forward, retrieving Thenos and making a dash for Ryuu. Styx was becoming desperate after having been thrown from the sky, she swung her sword wildly, with little control or style as she tried to get even one successful hit. All her attacks were in vein, as Ryuu dodged them with no effort whatsoever. Merely a step to the left or raising a wing were enough to evade her now. With her next swing, Ryuu caught Styx' wrist, twisting around so that her back was pressed against his chest. Ryuu then proceeded to wrap his wings around
her, disabling most of her movements.
"Not only do you look attractive, but you're scent is so enticing... I just can't help myself." Ryuu said with a glint in his eye.
Ryuu gently pushed her head to the side, exposing her throat to him before sheathing his fangs deep in her throat. Ryuu was soon suckling at the rich blood that flowed across his tongue, eagerly drinking his fill before Styx managed to free her sword arm.
Styx had nearly fallen to Ryuu's gentle ministrations on her throat, she almost desperately wanted him to continue. Her rationality took hold though, telling her that if she let him have his way, there was a chance that she would die by his fang. Even one with immortality will die if their body is drained of blood. Styx called up nearly all of her remaining will power to break free of Ryuu's embrace and swung her sword, just barely clipping his chin with the tip of her blade.
Ryuu wiped the leftover blood from his face, quickly circling his long tongue over his lips to emphasize his next words.
"How rare. Not only do you smell and look great, but you're blood tastes of the sweetest of ambrosias." Ryuu said just above a whisper, keeping his eyes locked with Styx'.
Ryuu could now see that her lust was visibly affecting her now. Her breathing was hard, a look of need etched into her features. Not only that, but her scent in itself had become more potent. Ryuu knew that if he kept fighting her the way he had been, she would eventually forfeit.
Styx collapsed to her knees in defeat as she clutched her still bleeding shoulder, Ryuu's fang marks clearly visible where he had bitten her. She knew she wouldn't be able to hold out much longer. She couldn't believe the irony of her situation. Styx, a being incarnate of trickery and pleasure; had fallen for Ryuu, a being of pure destructive power and chaos. "
A nogitsune had lost in a game of seduction to a dragon, how pathetic." Styx thought to herself.
Trying to stand, Styx looked at Ryuu before she collapsed to her knees again, realizing with whatever remaining rational thought was left to her that if she continued to fight him; she would die. Aside from the overwhelming force of her lust, severing the base of all her tails was the only thing that could kill one of the fox people with one hit. Styx hated herself for having to admit it, but at the time she had little choice in the matter.
"I surrender, you have beaten me Ryuu. As with tradition, I am no longer a warrior, so do with me as you wish... master." Styx said, her throat exposed to Ryuu in submission.
Ryuu stared at Styx as thought she had lost her mind,
"What did you say!?" Ryuu almost yelled in confusion.
End of Chapter IV