Sometimes, just rarely Killian manages not to get into a sticky situation. The last few days had been like that for him; he had spent time with Luna, tinkered with the Hullaballoo and even had a little play with some alchemy. (Even that had gone quite well, not one -unexpected- explosion!) Today he had had breakfast and landed the ship deep in the steppe. It had been a pleasant but uneventful trip up into the hills, he’d seen a few birds riding the air but nothing else.

Once he had arrived at the gates of Sviet they remembered him! (And still let him in!) He had poked around the market and bought ingredients and crystals to replace what he had used. After he’d eaten a hearty lunch the Novella commissioned a spare part for his airship – a process that flowed a lot easier than anyone could anticipate.

So far, Killian’s blind optimism hadn’t caused him to question his good fortune – but as soon as he heard a blood curdling scream, he knew his luck had run out. The locals where all rushing towards the gates, there were screams, the clash of swords and fire. Lots of fire. A few children ran past him, skidding into an alley.

A moment later Killian threw himself into a sprint, he raced around the small town and vaulted across the market stalls. The closer that he got to the main gate the more wounded he saw; fire engulfed the wooden houses as Killian suddenly stopped in front of a small angry dragon. She was surrounded in the blood of orc and flames.

Killian looked her cold in the eyes, there was no of the usual starry magic. He tried to look into her soul – but all he could feel was pain and fury. There would be no reasoning with this one. “You shall not spill another drop of blood. These people are under my protection.” Killian commanded across the scene. As he spoke, he pulled his silver wand from his greatcoat pocket.

He raised it in her direction and spoke one last time. “Now leave this place and let me help these people.”

He might have been talking confidently – but he wasn’t. He was alone, under equipped and out of shape. Long ago he might have been able to destroy this world – but nowadays he spent days hanging around his ship eating nice lunches and reading old books with Luna.

Rage, rage is what fueled her for the last couple of months now since THAT happened. The dragoness was in a murderous mood most days, when she wasn’t crying in her cave home alone, or stalking HIM and HER around the lands waiting to strike again. But after her first failed attempt at revenge, while she figured she had made her point, they were now weary of her being almost anywhere. With her stock of potions that could make her look like almost anyone it was all too easy for the dragoness to get close to them.

She had come to this populated place to seek some food since she was in the area, and for a time she was managing to just hold herself together. Wrapped in her usually robes Xyaban had been looking over the food stalls when some careless fool had stepped on her tail. The soon to be victim had started to make apologise but before he could finish his sentence Xyaban had ran him through with her hidden wrist blade. That started the screaming as people started to take notice. Xyaban retracted her blade and now that her blood was hot and she could smell blood she settled back into her murderous state.

Fires started around the market as she threw fire balls at any target she could see. From seemingly nowhere her familiar appeared. A massive canine looking demon and it took off after someone in one direction while Xyaban threw her hand out and lightning arched towards a few people shocking them until they dropped dead. Hearts exploded and smoke rising from their bodies.

The dragoness turned at the sound of the voice and glared at the man who had told her to stop. The dragoness smiled and threw her hand out to her side. Behind some cover someone who had thought they were safe exploded, or at least the ground under them did, but it wasn’t pretty regardless. ”Then protect them.” Xyaban snarled at Killian as she threw her other hand out and another spot exploded. ”Well, hero? I’m waiting. Come stop me.” Xyaban teased as she pulled from a pocket the slender hilt of a sword. From it came a blood red blade of pure light, if anyone were to know these blades they were usually white in colour, but it seemed she had had this one long enough to taint it.

Somewhere another scream came as Rupert found his second victim. Xyaban giggled and waited to see what brave fool would do.

Killian had only just seen the woman hiding in time. (if 0.63547 seconds was enough time to cast an arch protection spell.) He managed to shield her from the explosion just in time, the incantation had been in his head. His wand hadn’t flared because he hadn’t used it. He didn’t need to- he just liked how cool it looked. She certainly was chaotic – but he felt the second explosion coming and noticed her pick her target, again he shielded the victim with arch protection. Killian needed a plan; he couldn’t do this all day. Next the madwoman pulled out a light sword. Killian’s heart sank – He had destroyed his.

As someone screamed in the background Killian felt himself roused into action. First, he fired a simple knockback spell for her to dodge. Next he caused vines to burst from the ground and clutch at her wrists and ankles. As he worked his magic he darted to the east and plucked a simple but sturdy looking sword up.

As he spun back towards her, she had made short work of his delay tactics, there was a clash of hot metal as he managed to deflect the first swing of her sword. It had sheered the weapon clean in half. His foot work was rusty, but once he had been a capable swordsman. It was the only thing that saved him from her next swing. Killian hurled a few bolts of lightning towards her face and earnt himself a little distance again.

This wasn’t going well, so far, he had barely managed to defend against her. She was furious, powerful and strong. If he had any chance of winning, he needed a better tactic. Behind her was the market stall he had plundered a sword from. His sapphire eyes glinted as he saw his opportunity. From the end of his wand he sent a simple – but blinding ball of light flying towards her. Simultaneously all seventeen daggers jumped off the table and flew towards the dragon.

Killian had just enchanted a pair of scimitars to engage her in swordplay when he was knocked flying backwards through a market stall by the biggest scariest ‘dog’ he had ever seen. Blood oozed from the giant paw mark as Killian stumbled out of the debris.

“I like your dog.” He coughed, his lip had split, and he had a mouth full of his own blood. When was the last time he had been made to taste his own blood? He pressed his free hand to it and looked at it as if he had never seen blood before. Then as quickly as it had come the bemused often soft face had faded. Instead it had been replaced by the steel gaze of an angry old man.

With a roar he sent an explosion spell between the two.

The spell thrown at her Xyaban redirected with a magical protection spell and knocked it aside with a grin. The vines that went to grab her did get a hold of her but since they didn’t muzzle her Xyaban opened her mouth and breathed fire on the vines and burned them away. She singed her robes but decided to discard them anyway, so, as per her normal, she was fighting naked. Because she had no shame, no care what others thought of her, but knew that a lot of people would be put off by fighting someone, let alone a female, who was naked. That trick had worked a lot in Xy’s past, if someone managed to ask her about it, and it was always fun.

The dragoness blocked his initial strike with her light sword and cleaved his simple metal sword in two. She twisted and went to strike him but he managed to get away from her, but the lightning did hit her and Xyaban shuddered for a moment as the pain washed over her as her muscles contracted on their own. ”Ohh, you know how to turn a girl on, more of that please.” She giggled at him only to have that fulfilled by the flying daggers from behind her as she was forced to squint away from the bright light he used. A bark from Rupert gave her just enough warning to dodge the worst of the daggers but some landed on their mark.

Xyaban stood and stretched she had five daggers stuck in her in various places. ”Oh, what a naughty boy, trying to penetrate me before we’re done our foreplay.” She giggled again and watched he dragged himself from the debris that Rupert had tackled him into. ”He’s the bestest boy.” Xyaban grinned as she removed the daggers from her skin, the one she couldn’t reach with her hands she used her tail to remove and tossed it casually aside.

She sensed an instant before the explosion spell went off between her and Rupert. The big beast was tossed aside and suffered decent damage, but if he did ‘die’ Xy could summon him back later on anyway. For her part Xyaban managed to just barely bright a barrier up, but some of the blast did catch her and burnt some flesh away, but nothing that wouldn’t heal over time. With the shield between her and the blast it forced her away from it and she opened a magical gate and went through, appearing a few yards behind Killian.

Rolling to her feet with some burn scales and skin Xyaban smiled to her. ”Yes, more pain, please, you’re getting me all hot and bothered.” She laughed and winked. ”My turn at foreplay.” Xy threw he right hand out and a fan of magical knives shot out towards Killian at high speed, while at the same time Rupert, while wounded, got himself moving again towards Killian with a blood curdling howl. Xy also sent out a blast of concussive force and followed that by lobbing a ball of magically created grease that would impact and explode to cover an area before Xy would light it on fire.

All of that, however, was to make Killian focus on all that. While Xy kept throwing spells that would last for at least a little bit on their own, she had opened a small portal in front of her, no more than a foot in size. Since it was facing her and would most likely be invisible from Killian’s point of view.

Xyaban reached it and removed something from within before she drew her hand back out with the item. Immediately, Xy shifted the portal’s exit to right behind Killian, but low to the ground by his leg and swiftly moved her hand through. She cackled as she got the one end of the shackle around Killian’s right leg and pulled back to pull him off balance with a strength that didn’t really match her small size.

With Killian on the ground Xyaban pulled her hand from the portal and closed it before teleporting behind him and stepping on the shackle chain. With a laugh she grabbed the still open shackle and opened another portal on the ground that led to the light post close by and closed the shackle on it before opening the portal larger to allow Killian to fall in.

”Caught you!” Xyaban smiled as she watched Killian hang there by one leg, which had to be uncomfortable. Looking up at him she smiled as Rupert padded over and stood under Killian looking up with murder smoldering in his eyes. Xy sheathed her light sword and tossed it back over her shoulder to have the hilt land on her discarded robes. Tail lashing she watched him struggle for a moment or two before giggling again. ”That must be uncomfortable, here, I’ll get you down.”

With no other words Xyaban used Killian to climb up to the top of the light post, her naked body rubbing against him, she truly had no shame. Sitting on top of the lantern post for a moment Xyaban used her legs to keep herself balanced as she snapped out her hidden blade of bone and scale from her right wrist. ”Get ready to land on your foot!” She laughed and hacked at his leg with her blade.

A couple of swings later and she had allowed Killian down from the lantern post, minus his right leg which was still hanging, dripping blood. Smiling Xyaban snapped the shackles open with sheer force from her arms and let the bloody leg land next to Killian before she dropped down to the ground as well. ”Now you’re down, hm, but that cut looks like it hurts, sorry.” She leaned down and poked at the stump that was left. ”Just checking to see if it hurts enough for you to notice.”

Sighing Xyaban took a few steps away while Rupert just stared at Killian waiting for the command to finish the poor man off. ”Ah, now I’m booooored! I’ll go find somewhere else to have fun.” Xyaban smiled to Killian and came back over and leaned down and kissed him on the lips, whether he liked it or not. ”Bye bye!” With that Xyaban opened another portal and she and Rupert stepped through and away.