Their minds now buzzed with unease and questions that didn't have answers. Even Eccar, who only minutes ago had refused to listen to a single word from their enemy, now stood frozen in thought.
He stared at Orzhal-Kur, her words echoing in his head like a poison he didn't want to admit was real.
"You're not heroes."
Why would she say that?
"Not heroes… which an the opposite?"
That thought struck Eccar's mind. He had clawed his way toward his purpose and finally found a reason for the powers that had chosen him. He wanted to protect and stand strong for the people who couldn't.
But if what this creature said was true, if their power was inherently destructive, if it fed on balance and consud it, then everything he had built within himself was a lie.
He clenched his fists, his knuckles white and trembling.
"No…" he muttered through gritted teeth. "She's lying. Has to be."
But Erend had already taken a step forward.
His eyes didn't hold the sa denial. They held doubt. A deep creeping doubt mixed with curiosity and fear.
He was already asking questions and Eccar was sure that he wouldn't stop now.
Eccar didn't want to hear them. He didn't want to know.
"Enough of this!" Orzhal-Kur growled. Her voice dropped into sothing animalistic and creatre a tremor in the air. "I will not be stopped by you. My master's resurrection is near and it will be perfect!"
Her body began to change.
A violent surge of Magic energy exploded from her chest. Orange fire and black spores spiraling around her like a storm. Her body twisted as her limbs elongated, her skin turned into a bark-like texture riddled with molten cracks.
Her eyes glowed more fiercely now, and her arms split open to reveal coiled vines bristling with barbs and flas.
Her back unfurled into a sweeping crown of thorned branches that blazing with orange light. The ground around her began to decay and steam rising from rotting earth.
The vines danced like serpents behind her.
She no longer looked like a woman anymore. She looked like a forest demon from another dinsion.
Erend took a step back, swallowing his questions.
He wanted answers, almost desperately. But he could see it now that this creature wouldn't give him anything but more pain. She didn't want to talk. She wanted to end this.
Then there was only one choice left.
He glanced at Eccar, who sighed but nodded grimly, understanding what had to be done.
They will need to fight but they will also need to take her down without killing her, if they could.
Orzhal-Kur didn't wait. She lunged forward witht both of her hands ablaze and the ground erupted in orange fla and twisting roots.
A spear of vine shot from beneath Erend's feet but he leapt into the air, dodging as lightning snapped along his limbs.
Eccar slamd his fists together, summoning a wall of stone just in ti to block a searing wave of orange fire that blasted toward them.
The fight had changed.
She was faster and stronger now. Her vines didn't just bind but they also exploded, erupting in clusters of thorns and fire.
One vines lashed out at Erend again and missed, but the mont it hit the trees behind him, they combusted instantly.
BWOOOSHHH!
Eccar charged her, stone covering his arms like gauntlets, but Orzhal-Kur's vines that ca from the ground twisted around his legs mid-run.
"Shit!"
Before he could react, a burst of fire slamd into his side and threw him against the crater wall.
Erend moved in behind her and send fast attack with a fire-covered kick. It hit he but her body had hardened.
The impact scorched her but didn't crack her strange vines armor. Her arm swung backward like a whip and slamd into his ribs, throwing him through the air.
After all those attacks that should kill a normal mortal, the two Dragonborns rose again. Their eyes locked on her. Bruises start forming undere their scales but fire still burning in their gaze.
The enemy before them had beco a real monster, gained her real form. They also need to up their ga.
Eccar cracked his neck. Steam rose from his arms that now glowing under the layers of cracked stone as he clenched his fists tighter.
Across from him, Erend exhaled slowly, his eyes sharpening as arcs of blue lightning flickered down his shoulders and into his hands. Water surged beneath his skin and spiraling over his arms.
They moved together.
The two Dragonborns charged from opposite flanks. Erend from the right and Eccar from the left. The wind surged around them, pushed by elental force.
But Orzhal-Kur didn't flinch.
The crown of thorns around her back glowed brighter and a cluster of searing orange light ignited. It grew rapidly and brighter.
Then she released it.
BWOOOOSSSHHH!
A roaring blast of fire erupted from her outstretched arms. This was not like ordinary fla but sothing from another dinsion. This fire was brighter, denser, and hotter. It burned with hues of bright orange that pulse with Magic energy from another world.
FWOOOOOOOM!
The firewave expanded in all directions, swallowing everythingg around it with a scream.
It hit both Erend and Eccar mid-charge and halted them in their tracks. The impact knocked their balance off for half a heartbeat but that was all Orzhal-Kur needed.
Their Dragon Scales hissed violently under the assault, sizzling and glowing. Their skin beneath burned, pain start to flashing through their nerves. But it didn't stop them.
Around them, the ground was already gone. Ash replaced soil. Trees evaporated. Stone lted. The blast radius had wiped a ring of forest into nothing in re seconds.
But in the middle of that hellfire, two figures still stood. Smoke drifted from their bodies. Their chests heaved. But their eyes still burned with defiance.
They moved again and actually becoming faster this ti.
Eccar slamd the ground with one foot, sending a surge of sharp stone pillars launching toward Orzhal-Kur from beneath that ant to disrupt her footing.
Erend leapt into the air, twisting mid-spin as lightning ford a spear in his hand, he combined it with water that coiling around it.
Orzhal-Kur snarled and raised both arms.
Her vines lashed out in a storm of whips and thorns, intercepting the stone spikes mid-flight. So shattered on contact, others caught fire but they slowed her just enough.
Just enough for Erend to co crashing down.
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