Castella didn’t enjoy fighting as much as people thought she did. She didn’t necessarily hate it, but it was not something she enjoyed the way someone might enjoy food or spending time with friends and family.
No. Fighting for Castella was more of a sense of duty and obligation. One she diligently saw through. She sought out challenging opponents, fought them, and won. Much like she was now. Although maybe less on the winning side for once.
With a power beat of her wings she launched herself in a twirl, moving out of the way of the missiles The Harbinger launched at her and then retaliated with several powerful strikes, each one carving deeply into its hard exterior.
Castella needed to hold its attention for Lillian, so that is what she would do. Not that it would really be all that difficult to do though.
Castella let out another inhuman roar of defiance, resetting the focus of her skill again. She didn’t know if it was actually latching onto it the way it did other creatures, but it seemed to be keeping its attention on her so she would keep doing it until she had a reason to believe it wasn’t working.
It raised its arm, much more quickly than what one would expect given its size, and swung at her causing her to dodge out of the way once again. As the arm passed her by she attempted to counterattack it, but the air displacement from it moving was too much for her to be able to force her way through and she ended up being buffeted backwards.
She took time to right herself before swooping back in at breakneck speeds, as she passed by she was hit with a devastating cut along its jawline.
When people saw her wings they assumed that they had to follow some level of ruling on wings that you saw on birds, they expected swooping turns and an inability to quickly change direction.
So everyone was always surprised when she was able to immediately stop all forward momentum and launch herself back the other way and pass by for another attack.
She did this several times, flipping, and then almost like she was planting her feet on solid air she’d come to a stop and push back the other way. Combined with her speed she practically became a blur to onlookers as she carried out her onslaught against The Harbinger.
Cut after cut, gouge after gouge, she assaulted the monstrosity. She was eventually forced to stop when it launched another salvo of missiles at her. She wasn’t sure what element of magic those fell under, but she wasn’t necessarily interested in getting hit by one to find out.
She quickly thrust herself away just barely staying within sub-sonic ranges of speed. The missiles followed her however so she was forced to keep dodging. She continually kept up her evasive maneuvers before dipping down to street level and weaving between the buildings at a speed that many would have crashed at instantly.
She made an effort to twirl and roll herself into side allies that would normally be too tight for her large wingspan, but whenever she made to enter one she would make one powerful thrust of her wings and then keep them tucked against her body until she exited the other side, her momentum easily enough to carry her through the longer ones.
Every time she entered one of those alleys the missiles dwindled in numbers before she was once again left on her own.
She growled slightly in frustration, it had taken her nearly 23 seconds to lose all of them. An incredibly short amount of time considering, but far too long to be leaving the beast unattended.
She quickly zipped through the winding corridors tracing her way back to The Harbinger. She quickly reached its foot moments later and shot up into the sky. This time breaking into super-sonic territory.
Glass shattered around her as she rocketed straight carrying her enormous blade at her side and preparing it, as she got closer to its chin she let out a yell and heaved with all her strength bringing her blade upwards and slamming it with all of her strength and speed into The Harbingers chin causing a devastating explosion of force from the zone of impact.
And for the first time that anyone had seen in recent years.
The Harbinger stumbled.
The adventurers had all cleared out of the area once two of the six spell-blades had taken to the field to fight. But many of them and the soldiers were watching from a distance as it happened.
Castella was a little surprised that her hit had affected it to such a serious degree that it physically stumbled, but it didn’t show on her face and she didn’t let it slow her down from chaining into that.
She zipped down to the back of its leg which was currently the only one connected to the ground. And activated one of her other skills as she charged up to release another blow.
“[Dragon-Rend]”
The skill came out as a quiet whisper that no one was able to hear. She swung then heaved a horizontal swing into the back of where its knee was and as the attack carried through the air her blade transformed from the slab of dragon scale that it had been forged out of into the shape of an actual dragon's claw.
It wasn’t even half the size of a real one, but it was large enough to do what she wanted it to, there was also just a hard limit of what Castella was able to carry. This sword was pushing that limit.
Dragon scales are thick and large. Both of those things contribute to their weight. They are also exceedingly dense. A scale half the length and width of a human body is so impossibly heavy that even warriors in the fifth tier struggle to even move it let alone lift it.
Of course, that was if you were born as a normal human. Which Castella was not, she was half-human at best. No, Lillian assumed correctly in believing Castella was part draconic, Castella just didn’t care to flaunt that and chose to take an appearance that allowed her to blend with humans better.
This meant that she had way higher than expected base levels of strength. In fact, dragons were one of the strongest races to exist outside their neighbors the Titans. However, what the dragons lacked in strength against their rivals they excelled in wisdom and magic. Something the Titans struggled with although some had enough that it prevented one side from completely beating out the other.
This strength though allowed her to carry much more than a human warrior of a similar tier to her, and this allowed her to lift her blade that was made out of a dragon's scale, and this blade was now in the form of a dragons claw and hurtling into the back of The Harbingers knee.
When her sword impacted it blew off most of the rock-like exoskeleton that it had, it also sent out a shockwave so powerful that it pulverized the nearby buildings reducing them to rubble.
The Harbinger's knee buckled in while it was still in the middle of stumbling and to everyone's surprise and excitement. It toppled to the ground.
It was at this moment that Lillian called out to her, “Castella! Clear!”
Castella didn’t waste a single moment, with powerful beats of her wing she accelerated into the air and away from the collateral damage zone. She kept moving until she ended up by Lillian's side.
The distance they were at should be safe enough to watch without causing any issues.
She hoped.
The air was palpable with magic. It weighed heavily upon Castella’s shoulders as she had gotten within range, it almost made it hard for her to breathe while she was next to Lillian.
Lillian’s eyes were screwed shut tight in concentration, her hair filtering slowly through the air as if it was unaffected by the pull of gravity. An almost soundless groan escaped her lips as she struggled with the enormity of her skill.
The air began shuddering around her as her skill came to the apex of her power. Suddenly without warning, Lillian thrust her hand forward and the air shimmered and warped around it like it was slipping through another dimension. She opened her eyes and a deep purple mana spilled forth from them. She opened her mouth and when she spoke the the sound of her words echoed behind her on a delay from when her lips moved,
“[Impendum]”
Mana exploded out of her and seemed to dissipate into the air. Castella caught Lillian as she started to sag forward and started flying her back to the palace. Lillian wouldn’t be able to fight anymore, and if she used that much mana Castella wasn’t sure if they were far enough away to avoid getting caught up.
Castella rocketed back to the roof of the palace where she was met by several of the guards and she handed Lillian to them before turning around and looking upwards.
Her lips tightened slightly. She was definitely glad she had moved further back.
It blazes through the sky in complete defiance of the world around it. It was also moving far faster than Lillian had ever made one go before.
Onwards it blazed, hurtling downwards from the heavens. Lillian’s aim has never been off in all the times Castella had ever seen her cast the skill, this time would be the same as every other. Aimed right for where she wanted it.
It was finally close enough that Castella could finally get a glimpse of its size. Its diameter was roughly 50 feet across.
She glanced back down and could see The Harbinger trying to raise itself back up, but it was much too slow.
In its futility, it raised slightly and let out another of its deafening roars.
And was subsequently silenced by the screaming meteor that impacted down directly on top of it.
The aftermath was devastating.
The shockwave shattered all the glass in the city. The entire quadrant of the city that the meteor had landed in cratered, all the buildings collapsing on themselves. A plume of fire sprouted into the air on impact with the ground and smoke blanketed the city covering it in a faux-darkness.
The city rumbled and shook with the fury of an earthquake, older and weaker buildings in other quadrants of the city crumbled and fell, no doubt killing or trapping their inhabitants.
If Castella hadn’t taken back off into the air she had no doubt she would have been shaken to her feet much like the guards had been that were standing guard over Lillian who was lying on the ground.
The smoldering meteor rested on the body of The Harbinger that was now lying underneath it in the center of the crater of the quadrant.
Castella watched and waited. Hefting her weapon into her hands to be prepared.
She prayed to herself silently to let this be the end, let it end here so that no more are met with death this day.
She let out a weary sigh as her worries were validated and the rubble of the meteor shifted off of The Harbinger, allowing it to rise up once more unimpeded.
It let out a defiant roar, its form was devastated, the meteor having done more damage than anyone else had seen in living memory. Many people at higher tiers than Lillian had fought it and yet none had done as much damage in a single attack as she had.
It then proceeded to surprise everyone who was still able to watch it, including Castella.
It started running. But not away. It moved in a straight line for the palace.
Castella reacted instantly and blasted forward letting out a roar as she activated another skill,
“[Dra-”
Castella was completely blindsided by an attack that she noticed way too late, coming much faster than it had ever moved before. The large claw spiked her into the ground.
And her vision went dark.
Castella didn’t enjoy fighting as much as people thought she did. She didn’t necessarily hate it, but it was not something she enjoyed the way someone might enjoy food or spending time with friends and family.
No. Fighting for Castella was more of a sense of duty and obligation. One she diligently saw through. She sought out challenging opponents, fought them, and won. Much like she was now. Although maybe less on the winning side for once.
With a power beat of her wings she launched herself in a twirl, moving out of the way of the missiles The Harbinger launched at her and then retaliated with several powerful strikes, each one carving deeply into its hard exterior.
Castella needed to hold its attention for Lillian, so that is what she would do. Not that it would really be all that difficult to do though.
Castella let out another inhuman roar of defiance, resetting the focus of her skill again. She didn’t know if it was actually latching onto it the way it did other creatures, but it seemed to be keeping its attention on her so she would keep doing it until she had a reason to believe it wasn’t working.
It raised its arm, much more quickly than what one would expect given its size, and swung at her causing her to dodge out of the way once again. As the arm passed her by she attempted to counterattack it, but the air displacement from it moving was too much for her to be able to force her way through and she ended up being buffeted backwards.
She took time to right herself before swooping back in at breakneck speeds, as she passed by she was hit with a devastating cut along its jawline.
When people saw her wings they assumed that they had to follow some level of ruling on wings that you saw on birds, they expected swooping turns and an inability to quickly change direction.
So everyone was always surprised when she was able to immediately stop all forward momentum and launch herself back the other way and pass by for another attack.
She did this several times, flipping, and then almost like she was planting her feet on solid air she’d come to a stop and push back the other way. Combined with her speed she practically became a blur to onlookers as she carried out her onslaught against The Harbinger.
Cut after cut, gouge after gouge, she assaulted the monstrosity. She was eventually forced to stop when it launched another salvo of missiles at her. She wasn’t sure what element of magic those fell under, but she wasn’t necessarily interested in getting hit by one to find out.
She quickly thrust herself away just barely staying within sub-sonic ranges of speed. The missiles followed her however so she was forced to keep dodging. She continually kept up her evasive maneuvers before dipping down to street level and weaving between the buildings at a speed that many would have crashed at instantly.
She made an effort to twirl and roll herself into side allies that would normally be too tight for her large wingspan, but whenever she made to enter one she would make one powerful thrust of her wings and then keep them tucked against her body until she exited the other side, her momentum easily enough to carry her through the longer ones.
Every time she entered one of those alleys the missiles dwindled in numbers before she was once again left on her own.
She growled slightly in frustration, it had taken her nearly 23 seconds to lose all of them. An incredibly short amount of time considering, but far too long to be leaving the beast unattended.
She quickly zipped through the winding corridors tracing her way back to The Harbinger. She quickly reached its foot moments later and shot up into the sky. This time breaking into super-sonic territory.
Glass shattered around her as she rocketed straight carrying her enormous blade at her side and preparing it, as she got closer to its chin she let out a yell and heaved with all her strength bringing her blade upwards and slamming it with all of her strength and speed into The Harbingers chin causing a devastating explosion of force from the zone of impact.
And for the first time that anyone had seen in recent years.
The Harbinger stumbled.
The adventurers had all cleared out of the area once two of the six spell-blades had taken to the field to fight. But many of them and the soldiers were watching from a distance as it happened.
Castella was a little surprised that her hit had affected it to such a serious degree that it physically stumbled, but it didn’t show on her face and she didn’t let it slow her down from chaining into that.
She zipped down to the back of its leg which was currently the only one connected to the ground. And activated one of her other skills as she charged up to release another blow.
“[Dragon-Rend]”
The skill came out as a quiet whisper that no one was able to hear. She swung then heaved a horizontal swing into the back of where its knee was and as the attack carried through the air her blade transformed from the slab of dragon scale that it had been forged out of into the shape of an actual dragon's claw.
It wasn’t even half the size of a real one, but it was large enough to do what she wanted it to, there was also just a hard limit of what Castella was able to carry. This sword was pushing that limit.
Dragon scales are thick and large. Both of those things contribute to their weight. They are also exceedingly dense. A scale half the length and width of a human body is so impossibly heavy that even warriors in the fifth tier struggle to even move it let alone lift it.
Of course, that was if you were born as a normal human. Which Castella was not, she was half-human at best. No, Lillian assumed correctly in believing Castella was part draconic, Castella just didn’t care to flaunt that and chose to take an appearance that allowed her to blend with humans better.
This meant that she had way higher than expected base levels of strength. In fact, dragons were one of the strongest races to exist outside their neighbors the Titans. However, what the dragons lacked in strength against their rivals they excelled in wisdom and magic. Something the Titans struggled with although some had enough that it prevented one side from completely beating out the other.
This strength though allowed her to carry much more than a human warrior of a similar tier to her, and this allowed her to lift her blade that was made out of a dragon's scale, and this blade was now in the form of a dragons claw and hurtling into the back of The Harbingers knee.
When her sword impacted it blew off most of the rock-like exoskeleton that it had, it also sent out a shockwave so powerful that it pulverized the nearby buildings reducing them to rubble.
The Harbinger's knee buckled in while it was still in the middle of stumbling and to everyone's surprise and excitement. It toppled to the ground.
It was at this moment that Lillian called out to her, “Castella! Clear!”
Castella didn’t waste a single moment, with powerful beats of her wing she accelerated into the air and away from the collateral damage zone. She kept moving until she ended up by Lillian's side.
The distance they were at should be safe enough to watch without causing any issues.
She hoped.
The air was palpable with magic. It weighed heavily upon Castella’s shoulders as she had gotten within range, it almost made it hard for her to breathe while she was next to Lillian.
Lillian’s eyes were screwed shut tight in concentration, her hair filtering slowly through the air as if it was unaffected by the pull of gravity. An almost soundless groan escaped her lips as she struggled with the enormity of her skill.
The air began shuddering around her as her skill came to the apex of her power. Suddenly without warning, Lillian thrust her hand forward and the air shimmered and warped around it like it was slipping through another dimension. She opened her eyes and a deep purple mana spilled forth from them. She opened her mouth and when she spoke the the sound of her words echoed behind her on a delay from when her lips moved,
“[Impendum]”
Mana exploded out of her and seemed to dissipate into the air. Castella caught Lillian as she started to sag forward and started flying her back to the palace. Lillian wouldn’t be able to fight anymore, and if she used that much mana Castella wasn’t sure if they were far enough away to avoid getting caught up.
Castella rocketed back to the roof of the palace where she was met by several of the guards and she handed Lillian to them before turning around and looking upwards.
Her lips tightened slightly. She was definitely glad she had moved further back.
It blazes through the sky in complete defiance of the world around it. It was also moving far faster than Lillian had ever made one go before.
Onwards it blazed, hurtling downwards from the heavens. Lillian’s aim has never been off in all the times Castella had ever seen her cast the skill, this time would be the same as every other. Aimed right for where she wanted it.
It was finally close enough that Castella could finally get a glimpse of its size. Its diameter was roughly 50 feet across.
She glanced back down and could see The Harbinger trying to raise itself back up, but it was much too slow.
In its futility, it raised slightly and let out another of its deafening roars.
And was subsequently silenced by the screaming meteor that impacted down directly on top of it.
The aftermath was devastating.
The shockwave shattered all the glass in the city. The entire quadrant of the city that the meteor had landed in cratered, all the buildings collapsing on themselves. A plume of fire sprouted into the air on impact with the ground and smoke blanketed the city covering it in a faux-darkness.
The city rumbled and shook with the fury of an earthquake, older and weaker buildings in other quadrants of the city crumbled and fell, no doubt killing or trapping their inhabitants.
If Castella hadn’t taken back off into the air she had no doubt she would have been shaken to her feet much like the guards had been that were standing guard over Lillian who was lying on the ground.
The smoldering meteor rested on the body of The Harbinger that was now lying underneath it in the center of the crater of the quadrant.
Castella watched and waited. Hefting her weapon into her hands to be prepared.
She prayed to herself silently to let this be the end, let it end here so that no more are met with death this day.
She let out a weary sigh as her worries were validated and the rubble of the meteor shifted off of The Harbinger, allowing it to rise up once more unimpeded.
It let out a defiant roar, its form was devastated, the meteor having done more damage than anyone else had seen in living memory. Many people at higher tiers than Lillian had fought it and yet none had done as much damage in a single attack as she had.
It then proceeded to surprise everyone who was still able to watch it, including Castella.
It started running. But not away. It moved in a straight line for the palace.
Castella reacted instantly and blasted forward letting out a roar as she activated another skill,
“[Dra-”
Castella was completely blindsided by an attack that she noticed way too late, coming much faster than it had ever moved before. The large claw spiked her into the ground.
And her vision went dark.
