She did the same to Sorin, swiping him off his feet with her tail, the thorned end almost driving through him and into the stone wall.
He dove out of the way at the last moment, but she caught his chest and knocked the breath out of him, making him lose his dagger and sword in the process.
Both Wolfe and Sorin were unarmed and physically down for the count.
Wolfe barely made it to his feet, holding his right arm as he did so, his grip on the dagger he’d exchanged with Sorin shaky at best.
The dragon bore down upon him, its jaws opening to reveal several rows of tightly packed teeth, the long, thick tongue curling toward him, the way a lizard’s did when it wanted to snatch up its prey.
Just as the rough, slimy muscle wound behind him, the creature was suddenly knocked back by a blur of lightning blue.
Before Wolfe’s disbelieving eyes, a much smaller, fierce blue dragon locked claws with the white one.
A dragon with Rui’s lapis lazuli eyes.
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
Rui had felt her powers burgeoning ever since the first mating with Wolfe at the lake. It simmered beneath her skin like a low burning fire.
Now, when her friends, hertreasure, were threatened, the inferno within her took a life of its own, raging ferociously until the only outlet was to transform into her dragon form.
The Master had said it was impossible in this time, this realm. But he also said, contradictorily, that her Gifts would reveal themselves when she most needed them.
And, gods, did she need them now!
As she locked claws with the white dragon, she immediately felt her disadvantages:
Guinevere was much bigger, physically stronger. Her reach was longer, her claws sharper. Her thorned tail took swings at Rui, trying to smack the thorns through her scales into her flesh.
The white dragon was built for battle. Rui was not.
She was a treasure dragon by specialty. Though she was a fierce and skilled warrior in her own right, as oftentimes treasure had to be won by fighting for it, she wasn’t naturally vicious. Her scales protected her, but she had no thorns. Her teeth weren’t as sharp, and there weren’t three rows of them tightly packed together on top and bottom.
Her claws were powerful, but they were made to grapple rocks and dig through dirt and stone, not tear through armor and flesh. Her horns were shaped like deer antlers, more decorative than used as a weapon.
Guinevere pushed her back, snapping her monstrous jaws, trying to get close enough to bite into Rui’s neck.
That would be the end, Rui knew. She wouldn’t be able to survive a lethal strike like that.
But she took stock of her own advantages as well.
She was a lot more flexible than Guinevere, less bulky in build. As an eastern sea dragon, Rui was shaped more like a snake than a reptile. Her body was thin and long, curving this way and that.
With nimble dodges, she avoided Guinevere’s strikes. With her training in the art ofqi, she used the white dragon’s strength against her, pushing back at just the right pressure points to keep her at bay.
Simultaneously, she used her long body to twist around her foe, tying her into a pretzel. She managed to wind around Guinevere’s torso over her weakest area—her belly—where she was softer and more yielding. The thorns on her back cut into Rui’s scales as she squeezed the body like a python, but her thick, metallic scales protected her from the worst damage.
Guinevere thrashed and howled, kicking to get free, their foreclaws still locked together.
Rui squeezed tighter, locking their bodies, restricting the reach of the white dragon’s tail as well.
But the more pressure Rui exerted, the more Guinevere’s thorns cut into her. Some of her scales flaked off as the thorns penetrated through them and into her flesh.
She gritted her jaws through the pain of being skewered but didn’t relent on the pressure, methodically squeezing tighter and tighter around the white dragon’s torso until Guinevere’s breathing became belabored.
Rui panted herself from the exertion and pain. She couldn’t do this much longer. But she couldn’t deal a killing blow. Even if she let the thorns impale her own body, she wouldn’t be able to choke the life out of Guinevere.
She needed help.