Dark Mirror: Clans

[Kauria]

For once, Metrus was taken aback. "The . . . other half?" His mind clicked away, churning with this new tidbit. His red eyes flicked to the fire dragons some distance away, specks of gold and red and coal-black clashing with his clan's forces in a whirl of smoke and shadows. Back to the big black dragon.
Well.
That didn't explain everything, but it certainly explained a lot.
It was out of some hot, quick, foolish emotion that Metrus responded, "Then it is my pleasure to rescind the offer. By all means, ignore the one chance you had at avoiding this messy affair." He didn't feel like thinking about consequences. No point in wasting effort on a lost cause.
He did anyway. "But if you truly find this 'senseless,' then you will find a way to end it without contributing your own teeth and claws to the struggle, for you will tear only yourself in two. This is not the fight for a halfling."
Deciding that he had been appropriately snooty, Metrus turned to return to the main battle.
The shadow dragons that had paused in their assault bounded and flowed past Thorondar, a recently-risen zombie pausing atop the rock to shoot him a dirty glance.
Well, the best dirty glance it could muster without a head.

[Nohiki]

"And where do you think you're going?" sounded from above. Fraction of a second later, Tara slammed into the ground right behind Metrus. In a second, she folded her wings and got into combat stance, a fire wall creating a circular arena around them. "Two of us, no one else."

[Awesomoman]

Frost was a little disgruntled that the Elders had basically let the Dark dragons off. Not that being on another clans territory was so wrong, but the fact that three of them tried to kill one should have at least gotten them jail time. Attempted murder is a crime no matter who you are. However, no one else seemed to see it that way. After they were released Vorun came up to Frost, "Sure, I could take you to the medical t-t-tents. They'll have you feeling good and r-r-r-ready in no time." He motioned to follow him. "After that, I know a good place to g-get ya something to eat."

[Morty]

Vorun's eyes widened, and he followed the young frost dragon in a state of partial stupor. He hadn't expected it to be quite so easy. He recognized his benefactor as the one who had stepped in during the fight with the three renegades. His debts to the ice clan were starting to pile up, it seemed. Perhaps when he was well again and not under threat of banishment he would make a point of making his services available to their leaders. "Thank you, for your help at the crater." he said to the ice dragon, clearing his throat. "I would be in a far worse way if it weren't for your arrival, deportation notwithstanding." He could only grit his teeth and hobble along as the ice clan youth led him towards the healer's caves.

[Awesomoman]

"N-n-not a problem." Frost and Vorun made it over to the medical cave, luckily not many others were hurt at the time so Vorun was able to get in and be healed right away.
After about 30 minutes or so they had done all they could and let him go. Frost was outside waiting. "So, what are you in the mood f-f-for?"

[Morty]

Vorun was too hungry to be annoyed by the fact that the ice dragon had to accompany him everywhere. Dully he reasoned that, rightfully, he was under scrutiny due to all the tension between their clans. "Something bloody, and twitching." he rasped, after inspecting the bandages wrapped around his torso, still numb with cold from the frost spell the healer had cast on it to dull the pain. "Failing that, something edible. I can't remember the last time I ate properly." he said, mostly to himself. Inspecting the walls of the ice fortress he noticed that they seemed to be almost luminous; its mirrored surfaces trapped the light and reflected it until only the deepest, most closed-off reaches of the fortress could boast shadows. That would make it difficult to infiltrate; even by night the light of the moon and stars would make it difficult to maneuver discretely. He didn't think he would ever have a reason to infiltrate the ice fortress, but it never hurt to be informed. He returned his attention to the frost dragon as he led him down the icy passageway.

[Zetherus]

As the dark skies swirled with fire and darkness the giant dragon stood in the center of it all. He laughed at what the dark dragon said earlier trying to get him to flee the war, but that didn't stop him to think that the dark clan was right about that. Deep inside Thoron's very soul he could feel a presence emerging. It appeared in a deep hollowed laugh with a voice almost memorable was heard after, " Ha ha ha, Why not end their very existence with that weapon of yours? After all they were the ones that drove off your parents and tried to murder them!" Thoron shifted his gaze to look behind him but saw no one there. "Who's in my head right now?" Asked the black dragon as he watched his surroundings. The voice echoed again with a horrible rumble, "I'm flattered that you don't remember me! After all, we both fought in this same exact area!" Thoron's eyes widen when he heard what the voice spoke of making him smile from the surprise then a response followed, "Well now, I thought I got rid of you for good, never to hear your ironic voice again murderer! How are you speaking to me right now seeing that I have sealed your soul into the Void!? You should be silent like all the others!" Thoron felt something above him as he saw two fire dragons fall out of the sky and on to him, but he was able to stand and catch one of them from slamming into the ground. The other one unfortunately came in too fast and smashed into the smoking dirt violently breaking her back left leg exposing the bone from where her kneecap is suppose to be. The black dragon hurried after he let the soldier go and approached her trying to help. He looked to the dragon he saved and told it to carry this one back. The soldier listened just he didn't trust the stranger until the giant stood up the female and walked her over to him. The fire dragon nodded at the black dragon and surely more fire dragons showed up to aid the injured out of the battle zone. Thoron watched as they vanished into safety then the voice spoke once more, "Awe how touching seeing that your love for your dragon kin is so much more important then your own life! How would you feel if you betrayed the ones you saved or could kill the ones you hate? What if, you could allow me control of your body and slaughter those who have no purpose?" Thoron looked for the injured in the war then snarled when he heard what Lok'tus offered. "Are you serious, your a fool to even offer me that! I'll never accept a offer from an evil god like yourself so piss off. If you try to resurrect yourself then the next time we meet there will be nothing to bring back!" Thoron growled as he shut his mind away from the dead entity from further conversations with it. The giant saw a wall of fire in the distance but that didn't bother him so he continued to fend off the dark clan and save some fire dragons during the fight.

[Kauria]

Anger shot through Metrus' frame; it was her. Why she had sought him out in this battle, he had no idea, but his oath had again delivered herself to his claws.
He had made a dozen such promises of vengeance every time a broken warrior had stumbled into his den, but this was getting personal enough to finish once and for all. Words dripping with overconfidence, he raised both his head and his voice and replied neatly, "Terms accepted."
The warriors who had been uncertainly circling the ring of fire peeled away at this statement, leaving the shadow dragon to his own devices.
Metrus was not built for battle, certainly not compared to the fire dragoness who faced him, but he stood firm, rooted by a reckless bravery born of confidence and anger. Every muscle in his body was tensed to react. "Your move," he growled through bared teeth.

[Nohiki]

"Bad call." Tara hissed and was at the other dragon in a second, her claws flying at his throat for a swift end. She wanted to end this quickly, as she wasn't sure if the light from the surrounding flames were extinguishing available shadows or creating more. She kept them up though, afraid of being interrupted.

[Awesomoman]

"Something bloody, and t-t-twitching? We got that." Frost lead Vorun to a giant ice structure with a name carved over the door, The Freezer. The inside was filled with ice dragons feasting on all sorts of dead creatures. "Welcome to the mess hall, or as w-w-we like to call it, The Freezer. Hope you like c-c-cold meat." Frost laughed.

[Kauria]

The fire dragon lunged at Metrus, faster than he'd expected. He jerked his head to the side and reared to meet her, but her claws still tore furrows across the top of his shoulder, ripping through his black scales like wet cloth. Blood trickled down his front leg in a sticky mass. Metrus grimaced, not daring to look at the wound.
He had to put some space between them, then escape the ring of fire if he could. Its licking flames were hot against the back of his wings, and would only continue to press him into close combat. He snapped his jaws open and exhaled a ray of wine-red shadow magic into what was hopefully his opponent's face.

[Nohiki]

Tara's momentum caused her to trip over the shadow dragon, sending her to the ground in barrel rolls. Suddenly, she could feel death in her right legs. She twitched away, little flame appearing on her skin here and there. She rolled on her stomach and let out a stream of fire while moving her head, bathing the ground in flames. Too late did she realize that she could no longer prevent the other one from flying away from the arena. Aerial fight wasn't her favorite, but giving up was even less. She will follow until only one of them is standing. [blue]{Mana left:0}[/blue]

[Kauria]

Metrus spread his wings and leapt backwards, not wasting his time to see whether he'd hit the fire dragoness or not. A new flare of heat seared his claws and tail; it was by lucky coincidence that he'd taken flight in time. Twisting, he flew up into the choking smoke that filled the sky and hovered momentarily, blinking ash from his eyes. His opponent looked small from so high, and he could at last make out the damage he had caused. Despite the fearful adrenaline that pounded through his body—or perhaps because of it—he felt a smug, exulted smile crack his face. This was the warrior that had killed so many, promised a second death to his cousin, and here he was, holding his own.
Metrus shook himself out of his thoughts and stooped into a dive, aiming for the stony soil a distance outside their former "arena". This was battle best continued on the ground, where his opponent's injuries became weaknesses.
He landed gingerly on his scorched soles, his body curving briefly at the pain. Standing tall again, he roared to the warrior, "Come over here! There's something I forgot to give you the first time you threatened to kill my family!"

[Nohiki]

"Ashers don't make threats. They make promises!" Tara shouted from where she was, holding another dark dragon that was unfortunate to get close enough in the air by head. HEr claws were slowly working their way into her prey's neck, piercing large nerves and causing very slow and even more painful death. When she heard the spine snap and the screaming stopped, she thrown the corps aside with a single swing. Larger flames were now randomly bursting out from her skin. "You're nex-" Tara didn't finish as another dragon approached from behind. In the next instance, the ground shook, and something that looked like living pile of boulders took the dragon into the depths. Tara turned around again, waiting for the dark dragon's move.

[Zetherus]

The Crusade grew more intense by the hour as Thoron navigated through it's depths. The dark dragons begin to see the giant as a threat as he continued to push through and attack the dark clan. They gathered ten dark clan and waited for their moment to strike as he neared ever closer to their invisible ambush. Thoron looked to the sky for an instant and thought he saw Tarra until he noticed dark dragons converging onto his location. He soon realized that he was completely surrounded.

The dark clan jumped out of hiding and charged. Three dragons appeared behind him and went in for the kill. Thoron turned his head just slightly to see behind him and saw the ambush. He stood up and extended his right wing to it's full length and swung it behind him as he did a 180º turn. The dark dragons didn't expect it until it hit and crushed one of the three to death. The other two went flying as they got slammed by the massive wing and thrown out of the way stunned by the sudden attack. The giant looked at the stunned dragons and walked up to finish them off until he was attacked by another dragon from behind using some kind of acid breath. Thoron grunted a little as he could feel his flesh popping from the acid but hardly any damage was done. He turned around to show the dragon his fangs then noticed another darkling had showed up next to the dragon that had spewed the acid on him, on his left and right, more dragons appeared at a total of seven ambushers were cornering the giant. "Hmm, well now this will be fun! Got any more of you hiding around here!?" Thoron roared as he stood and formed his right arm into his weapon ready for the assault. "Come on and meet your maker!"