Without a blade, Zero did the only thing he could think of–the same thing the drake had done to him. Zero charged forward and positioned his good shoulder towards the hind legs of the dragon.
Hitting it felt like running into a brick wall. Zero bounced off the dragon, and was then hit by a hind kick in the stomach.
Normally, Zero would have been able to dodge the kick, but after being rammed by over a ton of weight, Zero's whole lower body gave out. Not from his own charge, but by the previous charge. Ever since he was first hit, Zero had been running on pure adrenaline.
One arm was bent from crashing into the cave wall, while the other was bent oddly from the initial impact. At the very least, one rib had broken from the kick, while many other bones had fractured. So Zero collapsed onto the ground, with blood coming out of his mouth.
But there was no time for that. One drake was dead, the other was occupied with Caelum, so why hadn't the third simply stomped on his head, or at least, Zero's Abyssal blood would have warned him of impeding doom. So why was he still alive?
Zero groaned, or at least tried to, and shifted slightly in a vague resemblance of consciousness. His vision was a complete blur, and all he could hear was a loud roar. Was it Caelum's wind or the dragon's roar? He did not know. All he could feel now was the warmth from his abdomen drip out of his mouth in a crimson stream.
Since Alice had not directly fought anything yet, it would not be the first thought to think she was occupying the Drake. Although if Zero was capable of thinking straight, it would have been a reasonable conclusion.
But if he could see through his blacked-out vision, he would be met with a rather odd sight–Blonde hair whipping around wildly as a small figure clinging to the back of a rampaging drake.
Brushing up to her arm, and embedded into the dragon's neck, was a single fang from an Enlightened Snake. The pouch of venom that was once attached to it had ripped off and landed somewhere on the cave's floor. Whether its contents had been drained before its separation, Alice did not know.
Right now, she was too busy trying to avoid coming face-to-face with a terrifying set of jaws.
For Caelum, he was face-to-face with a terrifying set of jaws. Jaws that were glowing bright enough to illuminate the whole cave. A blast of fire spewed out from the drake's mouth, aimed directly at a man with orange robes.
The flames spread out into multiple cascading streams as a rush of wind collided with it. Some of these flames landed onto the man's orange clothes and singed through them immediately, burning the skin below. While the rest collided against cave walls or flew into the nearby forest.
Caelum barely flinched as his skin shriveled and changed color from the burning flames. A moment later, though, the scathed skin became smooth once more.
Unpeterbed and unmoored, he raised his staff and swung down between the beast's eyes. A loud thunk was drowned out by the whistling stream of wind that followed and pushed the drake's head against the floor once more.
Caelum spared a glance at Zero lying motionlessly on the floor and then at the rampaging drake. It seemed Zero was not in danger of being trampled, so he turned his attention back to the drake before him.
It snarled, but its mouth did not ignite again.
"Are you all out of fire, dragon?"
The dragon charged at Caelum, like it had at Zero.
Caelum struck his staff onto the ground, then took a step off of it. He leaped over the drake's charge, leaving just his staff in tow. When the drake rammed the staff, the drake's charge slowed as if the seemingly small staff held great weight.
Of course the trick's Caelum could do with the wind could not stop such a force, but it would most definitely redirect some back at the head of the dragon.
Caelum landed behind the drake and moved towards Valiant Blade. Pulling the sword from the dead drake's body, he was dismayed to feel blood covering the handle of the blade as well.
Caelum held a staff in one hand and a blade in the other. Feeling unconventional with the arrangement, he threw his staff at the leg of the Drake, but it bounced off harmlessly. No half-done attack would throw such a beast off balance. But a gentle blade could pierce their soft skin.
Caelum gripped the blade and swung, connecting with the side of the dragon. Immediately after, he dodged backwards and narrowly missed having his head bitten off. But while Zero's strikes from the blade were deadly, Caelum did not have the fractured plane to aim his strikes, and his swordsmanship was simply lacking.
Caelum's attacks were slower with tremendous force, but a blade required agility and swiftness that he did not have.
Caelum had just abandoned his best weapon and was now stuck with something that he could not properly wield. He made a mistake–one he could not take back.
Stuck with no defensive weapon, Caelum was hastily thrown back by the next charge and just barely managed to keep his balance. Now he was pushed up against the cave wall, a crimson hue behind him… A crimson hue behind him!
On the blade rested Abyssal blood, blood from the blade's owner. Due to his blessing, Caelum had a better sense of the Vie around him, and right now, a large amount of Vie was being poured into the sword.
Lying on the ground, Zero raised his hand towards Valiant Blade—a moment later, the gem in the hilt burst into a brilliant crimson color.
The drake charged forward at its cornered prey.
Caelum swung and met the dragon head on. Steel and scales clashed violently, but the scales moved forward–because the blade split them.