“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” John practically scread at Thana who took a surprised step back at the outburst. Worry and the idea itself made the blood pump through John’s veins like he was done running a triathlon while being chased by Romulus himself.
He took a deep breath, seeing the blood mage shrinking back like a scared bunny at the Gar’s rage. “Calm the fuck down,” she pleaded. Even while afraid of her lover’s rage, she still couldn’t stop swearing. Wisdom and experience made John recollect the path to the current situation in an effort to analyse how this even ca to be.
It had begun with John reprimanding Nathalia over the dinner table after Thana had inford everyone else what had transpired. Well, Lydia had a whole lot of other berating she had wanted to let Thana know first. “If you do sothing like that, at least inform !”
“Make less of a fuss if you are doing secret etings.”
“You could have at least taken his book.” And other such things.
John was more focused on the fact that Nathalia had even let her go. Of course, the dragoness proved completely indifferent to his comnts, simply staring at the vegetables in her stew as if she hoped she could sha them into becoming at.
Afterwards he had gone with Nathalia and Thana to supervise their training efforts for a bit. The two of them had been bashing heads for a while when Thana had finally said the thing that made John burst out like this.
“Last ti I was really angry, like fuck-ass mad,” she had pondered. “So how about we stick in an incineration chamber and put on fire?”
John’s reaction to that had been understandably explosive. He took a second deep breath and then, in as calm a fashion as he could, pointed out, “That is an absolutely terrible idea, and I will not allow it.”
“Allow it? Motherfucker, I don’t need you to allow to do anything,” Thana, her fear swinging directly to rage of her own, growled.
“Thana, please,” John tried to plead with her. “Don’t take this as a challenge to do it. We both know that you aren’t the most stable person and sticking you into an ‘incineration chamber’ is just bound to lead to trouble. You also just said you DIDN’T want to get so of your mories back. Triggering past traumas sounds like a perfect way to rember unwanted stuff. Furthermore, at best this does what you want and at worst you will go into a complete berserker rage AND you get what you want.”
“Fuck you, I am doing it.” Thana flipped him off.
“No, just…” Before John could get anymore argunts in about how terrible of an idea this was, black stone walls pierced out of the scorched earth that was Nathalia’s domain.
They had been fighting in the lava field that was the dragoness’ ho. Although the actual lava was pushed far to the horizon. In this plane, her Sanctum, Nathalia was as close to almighty as they ca, being able to create life in the shape of golems or restructure the landscape as she saw fit.
But the question of how ho barriers worked had to wait for another ti. For right now, John glared at Nathalia. “If it is her wish, I will oblige,” she just shrugged it off and jumped at the top of the construct she had just made. It looked like an upside-down funnel. “We are not bound by your opinions, little John,” Nathalia shouted to him with a grin that revealed her dagger-like, carnivorous teeth.
“Of course you are not, this is not about you having to do whatever I say,” John shouted back; “This is about this being an absolutely terrible idea! I don’t want Thana to live through this stuff again!”
“I won’t be a burden to Lydia or anyone else!” Thana shouted out of the funnel. “So let do my shit, John!”
“You are not a burden just because you can’t take out the whole enemy team alone,” John still attempted to talk so sense into her. “You can rely on us a little more.”
“I tire of this bickering,” Nathalia sighed and waved her hand; “Her resolve is set, you cannot stop us either way.” She was absolutely right on that front, John didn’t hold a candle to either of them.
‘Yet,’ he reminded himself and sighed heavily. “Fine,” he spat out, “but if this goes south, I will never let you forget about it.”
Nathalia made a dismissive gesture and her chest swell up as her inner inferno was fanned. Her maw opened wide, and a mont later, she spewed forth fire of such intense heat that John scrambled away from the premise while keeping a close eye on Thana’s health bar in his interface. It didn’t drop, so at least Nathalia was holding herself back.
Then Nathalia, the funnel and the fire were suddenly gone. All John caught was a stripe of blue ripping upwards. He ripped his eyes up to the sky and sent Jack flying after them.
‘Of course, I had to be right,’ John thought as he saw the scene unfold. Behind Thana’s back burned six pillars of ghastly blue fire like the gas flas used in chemical labs. Fuelled by an invisible source, their clearly outlined shapes stuck out like the full moon in the otherwise red and black landscape, the tips forming a hexagon.
One of her gigantic claws descended upon Thana. A literal single claw was all the accuracy Nathalia’s form could muster against the incredibly tiny human. Thana caught the claw between her bare hands, her inner turmoil forgotten in favour of pure survival instinct.
It was like John was witness to a God of War cutscene. A little woman tried to hold against the sharp, not to ntion house-sized, tip of the claw of a dragon who was the embodint of volcanoes. It didn’t help that Thana was actually holding against Nathalia for a good few seconds.
Finally, however, the battle was over when the ground underneath Thana’s feet gave in and caused her to fall. The claw nailed her to the ground with impressive accuracy, penetrating her stomach just deep enough to fixate her on the tip of the dragoness’ claw without cleaving her into two parts.
Nathalia’s head reached downwards, and she hissed. It was a surprisingly high-pitched sound for a creature of that size. Hearing the throaty voice of the dragoness co from that maw was also a bit out of place. “Such an annoyance… stop ruining my claw!”
Thana was now busy trying to break free by repeatedly slamming her fist against the enormous talon. Small cracks spread and lded back together, the tiny wounds clogging with the magical lava. John barely even wanted to step closer, the dragoness radiated such extre heat he was feeling like he was laying in the noon desert.
Still, he did it before the berserk girl had the brilliant idea of ripping herself apart to get free or sothing. Not only would that have been too much for his already strained nerves to behold, but it would also have worked and prolonged this cataclysmic fight.
The blood mage didn’t even notice him coming closer. Ceaselessly, she punched away at the claw holding her down until John kneeled down on her side, careful not to co into contact with the energy pillar like wings, and put a hand on her head.
Her movents slowed down as the rotation of her eyes slowly normalized, looking into his own. From jumpy to a quick rotation to finally slowing down. Then her hands collapsed. Nathalia kept a keen eye on the whole scene.
“Now I don’t want to sound smug,” John said very loud once the blue fire was extinguished; “But I totally told you!”
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