Conquest Of The Fallen: Dark Dominions

Poor Bellerophon fell from the skies like Lucifer from heaven—at least what the Templar monks preached. The gold dragon was lost to the Hall of Valor: the celestial realm of the Old gods, but by some miracle its rider, Trisha Turnbull survived. And was revived. She had nasty third-degree burns but would live.

The Healers swarmed around her and gingerly put her on a gurney for the maladies, carting her away. All the spectators in the Corynthian college's dome fell back with mixtures of sullen grief and terror. That Salome, dragonrider for the Shadow faction, [Raven Arc] had done that to Trisha was disturbing. The Griffins in the amphitheater couldn't believe their eyes.

One skyling said, "It's not enough to flop in another round of the Games, but we lose a dragon and a damn good rider too? Fuck, man! This is bullshit."

"Nah. It isn't." The boy in grim clothing beside the skyling girl replied; his assertion was in an apathetic voice. From the black swab around his neck, he was clearly a Raven. "Trisha was out of her depth. She's a Second Year and Salome is a Fourth Year with a dragon who cares shit about rules. There was only one way it could go.

The thing is we just didn't expect such a hurl of dragon fire."

"Yeah, she's a Second Year. But what about the blood faction's dragonrider?"

The [Raven Arc] boy in swarthy shawl moved his eyes away from the gilded skyling girl to the center of the arena where the burned Bellerophon lay. And further up to the three dragonriders and their flapping beasts left in the sky. He gave a sweetly menacing look to the black streak, Shredder and a two-word reply to the skyling.

"We'll see."

Though it sounded like he so very much wanted to say: 'Shredder will burn them all. Just like that gold, vain bitch and her stupid dragon.'

The golden placard of Griffin Arc on the floating leaderboard screen dulled and went red as the inscription [Terminated!] blared onto it. Only three Arcs now remained in the Tournament. For Raven, Salome riding Shredder. For Phoenix, Israfel astride Zarathustra. And for Pegasus, Bolta and the colossal Coronis. Rafel was in between the rage of two formidable [Fourth Year] riders.

He gulped in his place high in the clouds.

Below, the crowd couldn't care less about what did happen to poor Trisha, or what would become of her state if the Healers did manage to piece her back together. Such was the risk of the riders Tournament; those who fell were quickly forgotten. The colosseum turned their gazes rather to the dragonriders left in the sky. The battle of dragons wasn't over.

Not with the deadly eyes of Shredder set on Coronis and Zarathustra.

Zara sensed Rafel's worry at the black dragon. She spoke telepathically to him. "Breathe, red one. Just breathe. Hold my reins tight. Hold me close.

Never let go. And we'll be just fine."

Rafel sighed on her. His thighs tightened around the saddle and he clutched firmly to her straps. Zara's words sounded like lyrics to a romantic song. Felt off to him. He didn't do romance. It was blood and war, and the fact that he was damn good at it that got him this far.

He was a lone wolf. He didn't trust himself when fighting with another.

He was scared. Scared for Zara.

Rafel leaned over here long, crimson neck.

"B-But Shredder—"

"But nothing," replied his female dragon.

Just then, the noise of the crowd which had begun chanting reached them from below. "FIGHT! FIGHT! DRAGON FIGHT!" They roared. Rafel was lucky to pull his eyes up when he did, because he saw Salome rip at Shredder's reins. The black dragon tore out from the fluff of a particular grey cloud, firing like a bullet for them.

Its speed was astonishing. Bolta saw the attack too.

"Israfel!" She yelled in warning.

Shredder lunged a swift aerial attack, its obsidian talon extended to tear into Zara's side just as he had done with Bellerophon. He attacked from the left, whipping out from behind the cloud like a charcoal blur, scattering the fine clouds.

"Zara, up!" Rafel pulled sharply at the reins on his red dragon.

Zarathustra immediately flew straight up, just as Shredder hit their position. The black dragon's claws met with cold air. Zara and her rider evaded its attack. An applause hit the clouds from the rotund square below. Salome growled atop her black, purple-eyed menace.

"You idiot First Year! Do you think you can take me? Stay still, and let me make this quick. I promise to kill you fast enough."

SKREEEEE!!!

Shredder let out a piercing shriek for effect.

Rafel chuckled above them both in the sky. "You wish."

"Oi!" Bolta called from the right. And both Salome and her dragon's heads whipped to the blue rider at the same time. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

"Gladly." Salome returned. Her smile was all teeth.

'Gods! This girl is crazy.' Rafel was thinking.

Zara heard this and crooned back to look up at him.

"She sure is. Why don't we help the Olympian, red one?" Rafel agreed and turned her reins down to join the ensuring fight. Coronis, Bolta's dragon and Shredder were circling each other, assessing for weak points. Zarathustra joined the fray. "Oh goody! Look who's come to play?!" The voice was thin; Rafel followed the prickly sound to the throat of Shredder.

It nearly hurt his ears.

Salome chuckled and patted her beast's glinting, onyx scales. The black dragon went on speaking in the voice of cracking ice.

"Be warned, O fools today! There'll be hell to pay."

Bolta scoffed. "Does he always speak in rhymes. Is he retarded or something, and this is the only way for him to communicate?"

Shredder's smile turned to a snarl.

"Fuck you." Salome cursed on his behalf. And she gripped her reins hard. "Rip her to shreds!" She gave the black dragon command. Shredder needed no further incentive to hurt Bolta. He sent back his mighty black bat wings and moved in swift speed. Those grim spikes on its hard back forked into the air like quills of a porcupine.

It swooped across the distance, lightning quick.

But Coronis was ready. Being the largest dragon in the bunch, she swiped out with her wing, catching the black dragon on its face. Shredder fell back with a yelp, tumbling a few feet down in the sky.

Slam! The force of Coronis's heavy wallop hit.

"Ooh!" The crowd in the stadium fell back in unison. It was a good punch; caught the monster square across its elongated jaw. When compared to Coronis's sheer strength, Shredder lacked the advantage. If she got another blow in, it just might send the black dragon to the sands. Salome sucked in her teeth and settled her dragon again in the air.

She opened her angry mouth, insulting the blue dragonrider and her creature hotly.

"You overweight monster. You shouldn't even be in this Tournament. You're too fat."

"And you're evil." Bolta retorted.

Rafel was at the moment behind Shredder. Zara was flapping and waiting for his silent instruction on her reins. She spotted also the moment he saw weakness: an open spot on the body of Shredder. In utter silence, Rafel pushed his dragon forward. Zara moved forward, fast. She kept quiet until she was just a breath away from clamping her teeth around Shredder's throat.

Then the dragon lifted her lofty, scarlet horned head and let out a fierce howling.

Salome spotted her out the corner of her eye, but was not fast enough to pull on Shredder's reins.

"Dodge, boy," was all she could say.

Shredder took the initiative and dived before Zara's whalish jaws could close around his neck. The shark teeth clamped down hard.

Snap!

It missed his throat by one-thousandth of a second.

It was Shredder's slipperiness that saved it from fatality. The black dragon arced up into the sky away from both bigger dragons. Salome caressed its neck. "Good boy." Shredder was annoyed and nearly threw her off. "I'm not a boy, wench!" He shook off Salome's petting. She offered a quick apology.

"Oh, sorry I guess?"

Shredder growled but kept flying with her. A few dozen feet under them, Coronis was in hot pursuit. She opened her mouth and a furious streak of blue lightning charged out from her mouth. It missed Shredder by a heartbeat.

More flashes of marine fireballs left Coronis's great jaws, lightening the sky in dark frights. Shredder suddenly turned on its tail and faced Coronis with death in its poison eyes. "KILL! KILL! KILL!" The crowd was chanting in the arena. Salome tried to pull her dragon in the other direction but it would not budge.

"What the fuck are you doing? You're gonna get us killed! She's thrice your size."

Shredder didn't take his purple orbs off Coronis.

"Dragons do not run from a fight." He replied his female rider. "If it displeases you, you are free to take your chances with the fucking air."

With that said—

SWOOP!

Shredder folded in his tenebrous wings and began plummetting at terrible speed. Bolta held Coronis' reins tight. "Steady girl. Steady." Salome's eyes widened as neither one of the dragons showed signs of retreat. "I do not run from a girl!" Shredder yelled. "Then you shalt die by a girl!" Coronis shrieked back and thunder whipped the heavens.

A fearsome blue stream of fire left her mouth and an equal devastating green firestorm flooded out from Shredder's black lips.

"Fuck." Salome muttered just as the fireballs exploded in the air and both dragons crashed into each other.

Shredder's sharp talons knifed into Coronis's belly and her own gaping, mighty jaws finally found rest in his neck. Both dragons howled in pain and fell together from the skies. They were descending at great speed. Tearing at each other. Biting.

"Shit." Rafel said atop Zara. "We need to save them."

He pulled and she rushed for the falling dragons. With a swift tumble in the air, Rafel dragged Bolta and then Salome up into the saddle with him. The two girls had already fainted from the initial clash, and Salome had a broken leg. He pulled them into his ride and left their dragons to fight it out to the death. A hundred feet to hard earth, Coronis finally cleaved the head from Shredder.

But not before he dug out her entire stomach with his wrenching talons.

DUM!

The earth pounded as the two monstrous dragons fell to the ground. A windstorm blew out at the explosion of their bodies hitting the sands. As the dust cleared, Coronis lay on her wingside: a blue-scaled juggernaut struggling to live; nearly all of her gigantic intestines were splashed across the arena.

Shredder's headless body lay on its back, and the head of the black dragon was found not too far way. The purple eyes had lost their magic.

The entirety of the colosseum crowd was doused in a spray of wet, coppery dragon blood. Some kids even had it in their open mouths. Students were slack-jawed.

In the bedarkened skies, only the red dragon and her rider remained, floating above the bodies of the fallen. Zarathustra sent up her serpentine tail behind to ruffle the scarlet bun on Rafel's head. They had won. In battle, blood, and glory. Zara said telepathically to him. "You have a pure soul for a demon.

You didn't let the girls die—even Shredder's rider."

Rafel said nothing. The bloodlust gleamed in the eyes of the filled amphitheater. And just a second later, they all jammed to their feet: boys and girls, all factions, all species, and they thundered; dragon blood fresh on their faces like war paint. They screamed out for the last Dragonrider.

"YAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"