When the Silver Dragon Tania saw David beneath her, his soul seemingly escaping as he lay on the brink of death, she panicked.
A closer look revealed various weapons embedded in him like a porcupine's quills and his Dragon Scales upturned and mangled; he looked absolutely wretched.
Fist-sized tears welled up in her eyes again, but as soon as they emerged, they froze into frost and hail, pelting David's forehead and making sharp, CRACKLING sounds.
"It's all my fault..." Tania lamented, her voice thick with tears. "I shouldn't have insisted on that sentimental talk before I left. Then you wouldn't have risked your life to save me, and you wouldn't have ended up... like this. This was supposed to be my mission alone. How could you be so foolish! Aren't you supposed to be a self-serving Red Dragon? Why would you go to such lengths for a Silver Dragon like me? Why..."
As she spoke, Tania broke down, sobbing uncontrollably. Her mind conjured a tragic image: her Red Dragon 'little brother' risking his life to save his Silver Dragon 'older sister,' all out of gratitude for a single shared meal.
As a kind and naive Silver Dragon, for the first time in her life, she felt a profound disappointment with the world, and a pure, unadulterated hatred and murderous intent towards these High Elf 'murderers.'
Her crystal-clear, sky-blue eyes began to show crimson streaks. She turned, her gaze falling upon the High Elves who were painfully struggling to break free from the ice and rise. She growled, her voice nearly cracking, "This is all because of you barbaric, greedy thieves! Because of all of you!"
This sudden fury startled Yevgeny, who had been fantasizing about claiming both dragons for herself. She quickly rose and shouted, "No... Miss Silver Dragon, please listen to my explanation! There's been a misunderstanding! It's not what you think."
But Tania was in no mood to listen. Ignoring Yevgeny, who was now speaking Elvish with the rapid-fire pace of a Blue Star commercial announcer, she continued hysterically, her eyes bloodshot, "I, Tania, will never forgive you! I... I'll fight you to the death!"
Just as she began to rise, a pair of dragon claws wrapped around her waist from below. David's weak voice reached her ears, "Can you still fly?"
Though still bewildered, David had grasped the crucial point from Tania's earlier lament and the High Elf's words: at this very moment, he and this Silver Dragon could cooperate. The enemy of my enemy isn't always a friend, but shared goals, benefits, and circumstances could forge a temporary alliance.
Suddenly embraced, Tania felt a surge of ecstatic relief, like a kitten finally allowed back into the bedroom after being shut out by its owner. Her mournful wails abruptly shifted to a soft, almost coquettish tone, "I can fly! Though I'm still a bit numb and stiff... You're actually alive! That's fantastic!"
"...Of course, I'm not dead. But if you don't take off quickly, we're both going to die here!" David retorted.
He didn't say, nor did he have time to say: If it weren't for your damn sudden appearance, crashing down like a mountain on top of me, I might have already decimated half of these High Elves and broken through by now. Though that would undoubtedly mean half a day of stomach pumping and a subsequent bout of madness.
What Tania didn't know was that the blunt force trauma she had inflicted on David when she'd rushed in and collided headlong with him surpassed the combined superficial damage inflicted by the Barbarians and these High Elves over a long period.
"But... the previous battle drained all my Magic Power..." Tania's voice faltered. Moreover, carrying David, who was heavier than her, meant she couldn't fly far even if she forced herself. The thought almost brought her to tears again.
"You just focus on taking off. Leave the rest to me."
"Okay!" Tania responded without the slightest hesitation.
Silently, she swore an oath: As long as I'm alive, I will never let you come to harm!
The next moment, Tania, draped over David, began to frantically beat her seemingly delicate dragon wings amid the astonished gasps of the High Elves, ascending like a fully-powered Kamov dual-rotor helicopter.
A fierce wind suddenly swept through the forest, sending snowflakes swirling.
What left the High Elves absolutely dumbfounded was a shocking sight. The Silver Dragon, despite being hit by several of the Barbarians' paralyzing arrows, was actually managing to drag the larger Red Dragon. Little by little, she defied gravity, slowly but surely ascending into the sky.
"Pegasus Knights! Moonshadow Guard! Stop them!" the Elven adjutant ordered, no longer caring about overstepping his authority.
A number of lightly wounded knights immediately spurred their Pegasi—some with broken forelegs, others with shattered hindlegs—to forcibly take flight in pursuit. The shivering Elf swordsmen also struggled to their feet, hobbling towards the two dragons attempting to flee.
"Stop, all of you!"
Yevgeny, nearly driven mad by the dizzying swings of fortune and the fear of losing everything, scrambled after them, leaning on her longsword for support. She reached out, running and sobbing, looking like an Elven widow spurned by her dragon lover, "Don't go! Listen to my explanation! Please, listen to me!!!"
Although things had come to this, she was still convinced that the two dragons, paralyzed and heavily wounded, couldn't get far. Therefore, all that remained was to rely on her acting.
At that moment, Yevgeny was like a woman possessed by the spirits of Blue Star's greatest Oscar-winning actresses: Catherine Hepburn, Meryl Streep, Vivien Leigh, Halle Berry, Julia Roberts, and Kate Winslet, all at once.
But her plea was answered by David's suddenly opened cloacal vent.
Though she didn't understand its significance, Yevgeny's Deadly Perception, which hadn't triggered even when she nearly died from David's earlier ramming attack, suddenly flared to life, causing every hair on her body to stand on end.
WHOOSH!!!
A dazzling torrent of fire, like the exhaust from a hybrid space rocket engine, erupted straight from David's cloaca, instantly engulfing most of the pursuing High Elves.
Yevgeny's Elemental Guardian Shield had just materialized when it was devoured with a FWOOMPH! by the terrifying flames.
Then, as if struck by an armor-piercing high-explosive shell at point-blank range, she was sent tumbling like a bird with broken wings. She crashed through several instantly charred tree trunks before slamming heavily into the suddenly thawed black mud, unable to rise.
Even though the Elemental Guardian Shield had absorbed most of the Dragon Breath's energy, her splendid uniform was largely scorched, and the right half of her face was marred by an elemental burn scar, difficult to heal—like a flame emblem.
The other High Elves, lacking such protection, weren't so fortunate.
Caught in David's unexpected rear-facing Dragon Breath, most of them had no time to even register shock at the mysterious draconic magic. They instantly became living torches, their forms contorted like figures in 'The Scream.' Their charred bodies collapsed, silenced forever.
But this instant, tragic loss was nothing compared to the heartache Yevgeny felt as she watched the two giant dragons make their grand escape, trailing magnificent plumes of fire.
And this time, she truly wasn't acting:
"Don't go! Please, don't leave!"
"If you go, how will I live on!!!"