Heart Over Sword-Chapter 253: Dragon (2)

A scream erupted from Evanna’s mouth as her stomach dropped before falling from the skies. Her scream caught in her throat as her body tumbled, swirling around, the wind blasting her face, whipping her hair around, untying the plait as icicles scratched her. She forced herself to focus on the dragon that started to fly towards her.

It was almost like he wanted to watch closely how the ground would crush Evanna’s bones before she drowned. She couldn’t let that happen. Too many people relied on her.

She would not die today! With great power surging through her entire being, tensing her muscles, she forced the black tendrils of her dark power to crash into the dragon. With full force, she swiftly unlocked her mind and started controlling the beast. The dragon flew closer and closer, its wings moving rapidly to catch Evanna.

When she was close enough, the beast caught her and slowed its descent. Evanna clutched at the dragon’s clear, sharp claws with her hands, overlooking the icy lake below. The wind blew her hair back, and she almost lost her concentration from how proud and amazed she felt.

She was controlling a dragon!

It didn’t last long, though, because she felt the beast quickly putting up a mental block.

Just a bit longer! Evanna clasped at the edges of his mind, watching the ground grow closer. She could still get severely injured from this height.

But the power she had zapped all her energy. A wave of dizziness and nausea crashed through her just as she coughed up blood, gagging on it whilst her nose and ears bled.

"How weak," the beast growled.

Evanna could feel his grip loosening, but she forced herself back into his mind; there was nothing more she could do otherwise! At the same time, Arawn sent shards of ice towards the dragon’s eyes, this time because it was distracted with the battle of minds with the princess, all of them pierced its eyes.

It screeched loudly just as she held firm on his mind for a moment longer. The dragon was closer to the ground now.

Just a little more.. But her body convulsed from overusing her magic, more blood spurted from her mouth, and her hold on the beast completely released. The dragon roared angrily. Just as he managed to land on the ice, he threw Evanna across the lake. She hit the ice with a loud thud, tumbling and rolling. Her breath was knocked out of her on multiple occasions.

All the others saw was the raven hair of the princess twirling around, the fall looking painful across the ice, yet it was not life-threatening. Evanna finally stopped rolling, but she couldn’t bring herself to move just yet. Her body was sore, throbbing, aches and pains throughout her muscles. Her head also took a hit, causing some blood to pool down the side of her face.

"Ugh." She remained facing down, looking bleary-eyed at the scene unfolding before her. The power she used and this tumble took everything out of her. She felt drained as the icy floor seeped through her clothes and water pooled around her.

Water? She looked at the icy surface and noticed it was gradually melting.

Gritting her teeth, Evanna looked up to see the dragon was blowing fire across the ice purposely in a rage. Ronan and Axel were racing towards her, though Axel looked frozen with his attire wet from earlier.

Arawn continued to use his powers with those sharp icicles while telling the men to check on Evanna. The dragon looked to be bleeding from one eye, which Fiza and Garrett used to their advantage, fighting it.

Ger was already on its back, and upon stabbing the creature, his sword broke, shattering into pieces until he only held the handle. The dragon roared, swishing his tail to rid itself of Garrett and Fiza. They flew farther than Evanna did, going to the edges of the lake and almost hitting the trees.

The beast inhaled deeply, making Ger stumble from the way its shoulder blades were hunched. Then a brilliant cobalt-blue fire blew directly at the elven prince, continuously melting his shields. The dragon stopped and directed his aim in a swift circular motion around him, slicing the ice before another onslaught, this time from above. Ger fell off the beast as it jumped up to continue sending the prince closer to the icy water.

Across from it all, Axel and Ronan lifted Evanna up, who couldn’t stop watching everything unfold. They were all losing energy; even Arawn started to look tired, his hair flying backwards in disarray. The prince then hopped from the mini island the dragon formed, and the elf created those stepping stones from before, making an escape.

Evanna thanked her comrades, her heart calming at seeing her love free from the dragon’s wrath. Fiza and Garrett looked to be rising slowly, far into the distance. They would be out of this fight for a long time; better yet, they should stay there. The princess’s eyes flicked back to the dragon, only then realising she was missing someone.

Ger!

He was lying on the ground next to the dragon! The dragon also noticed his presence in his good eye!

"Ger!" She screamed before coughing up more blood and groaning from the shooting pain across her body.

"Evanna!?" Ronan and Axel were not so surprisingly flustered at seeing their princess coughing up blood and looking so frail and pale.

Ger seemed to stir after hearing Evanna call his name and crawled out of the beast’s way before it hooked its claw into his back; he screamed in agony, then stilled in his movements, head flopping forward. The white dragon shook its head and released him, turning its attention back to Arawn.

Collapsing to her knees, Evanna pointed in Ger and Arawn’s direction, tears trickling down her cheeks, uncaring about her weak body right now. Before them was also the sword to slay dragons. "Ronan or Axel, whoever.." she rasped, all the effort straining her so she could tell them what to do.

"The sword! Get the sword to Arawn!"

Axel and Ronan looked at each other before Axel scrambled forwards. He wasn’t quick, but he could aim. "Arawn!" He yelled, gaining the prince’s attention.

Yanking the glowing sword out of the ice that had started to sink, especially under Axel’s weight now, he put all his effort into throwing the sword in Arawn’s direction. It wasn’t the safest option, but from how the wind picked them up earlier, Axel figured out the prince had more than a few powers up his sleeve.

And he was correct. The prince raised his hand, and the sword’s sharp end stopped just before his face. Arawn collected it and then looked back at the dragon now towering over Ger, who was showing signs of some movement. Ger raised his head, looking on the brink of death and struggled to raise his hand.

Arawn knew what he had to do. The dragon inhaled deeply, and mid-step towards him, the prince used his powers, throwing the sword towards Ger, and blasted the dragon with snow and ice inside his throat. He focused on the dragon, straining against its own fire that remained in its throat. The dragon’s eyes widened, panic settling in as its white chest started to glow blue.

While Arawn fought the dragon fire with his icy gift, he saw Ger wrapping his hand around the sword the prince kept afloat for him. Come on, Ger, finish this! The prince knew how it was going to end either way.

Ger understood the prince’s intentions. He was already mostly crippled, and this was the last thing he could do to save them all. Crawling on his hands and knees, tears in the corner of his eyes from the pain and numbness settling into his body, he did one final jab with the dragon sword, piercing the dragon’s chest right where the heart was.

How he knew where its heart was, he did not know. The moment his hand wrapped around the sword, he could see the light thump of its beating heart in its chest.

Ger gritted his teeth, making sure he pushed all the way through, collapsing onto his back breathlessly as the dragon screeched, the fire in its mouth backfiring as Arawn’s icy powers stopped.

One word whispered across Ger’s mind as the dragon’s body fell atop him.

’Dragon slayer..’

Evanna watched from the icy ground as the beast’s body crumpled on top of Ger, the ice breaking beneath them, their bodies falling to the icy depths of the lake.

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