The weather was not being kind to her, not kind at all. The winds had picked up earlier that day, and even though she had no problem navigating them, the steel dragon did. He had grown quite a lot since she first came across him in the mountains. He had been about the size of a cat then, now he was the size of a horse. Still, the wind had been too much for him. To make it up to her, he offered to carry her. Lady Era refused at first and had walked for a bit. Walking was hard on her feet though and it wasn’t long until she took him up on the offer. The ride was actually very comfortable. She sat between his folded wings as they walked along. The smooth motion of his walk soon caused her to drift to sleep. It was only a moment of sleep before the weather decided to announce a thunderstorm.

The bolt of lightning was barely any warning though as the rain was quick to follow. Startled awake she looked around to see that they were no longer in the forest but in what appeared to be the runes of some city. Seeing a large building with an intact roof she took to her elemental wings once more and went inside. She had a moment of claustrophobia as she slipped through the doorway and through the entry hall but was soon at ease again when she reached the main room. Thunder boomed once more as she was looking about. Rain was streaming in some of the broken windows and the rest of the place seem rather rotting… Rubble littered the floor and the pews didn’t look safe to sit in.

The steel dragon shook himself after shouldering his way inside. Flexing his wings one at a time managed to scatter even more droplets of water about. He came up behind Era as she looked toward the alter. There were some unusual marks on the floor, old marks of some type of spell. Era was intrigued and skimmed the memory of Lady Mladen for anything similar. There was nothing. The elf knew nothing of magic. Era let her wings dissolve into the air once more and made her way carefully forward. She noticed more signs of spellcraft. Burned down candles and the stubs of incense littered the ground on the farthest edges of the open floor between the rotting pews and what remained of the alter.

Lady Era didn’t dare step onto that open ground. She couldn’t tell if there was anything remains of the magic about. Instead she knelt down to study what was left of the markings, making her way around the edge of a circle in an almost awkward posture. The steel dragon decided not to follow. He wasn’t sure what she was doing. Instead he was puzzling over what his name should be.

"Please, do be careful not to disturb the runes," Gregory kindly stated, walking forward from one of the front pews that were still standing, "One wrong speck and this could go potentially bad." This would not be new. He had been attempting this for days after finding the book laying open on the preacher's stand. Dark, black blood specked some of the page, and a peculiar page it was. He had flipped through the book, only to find all other pages eaten away or left blank, while this page, besides the blood, had been perfectly cared for, a direct indication of powerful magic.

When Gregory had first come upon this place, he was unsure of how old it was, or what god it belonged to. After much wandering about around the grounds examining the scriptures on some of the walls, he was quick to see the drawing of a sun. The god of light had disappeared long ago, leaving this world without a figure of holiness other than an elected church representative. He had long dreamt of coming upon a mere artifact of the Earth god, and his joy was unmatched when he came upon an old church. The ceiling was missing in places, allowing light to shine through just infront of the priest's stand, surely a sign of the god's attention on such a place, and finding the book only made him more excited.

And so, when he set up a little retreat in the building, he was quick to summon Glaive to act as something of a strong-arm, keeping out the pesky undead or other evil types that would find themselves at such a building. Day one was the most tedious process. Gregory had delicately carved the symbol in the floor where the sun shone, but the earth was easy to break away, so he had been extra careful to avoid putting pressure anywhere on it but the solid middle. After a day of work carving in the symbol, He was quick to take notice of its exact appearance on the floor, bold runes outlining a sun, and lighter runes forming a circle around it. Each rune its own mystical word. The only problem was that the runes were careful instructions on the procedure, and Gregory was in no way able to translate it, nor was Glaive, saying it was above the language of his people, so day after day Gregory had tried every technique that a magician uses on a circular altar, and nothing had worked.

He had conjured up everything from clay goblets to groups of goblins from the abyss, which he and Glaive cleanly drew away from the altar and killed. And today happened to be the day in which he was flat out of ideas. This girl had arrived just as he was going to attempt to try putting energy in it from a distance, possibly saving his life. Glaive did not warn of their arrival, which meant that they meant no harm, even the large dragon that trailed behind the girl. Normally, one would gawk at a large, silver dragon, but as of now life had thrown too many amazing things for him to be surprised anymore, although he was wary of the Dragon's clumsy age, and his knowledge of the magic’s allowed him to know that this dragon was just into its long-legged awkward stage.

Era stood up straight and looked toward the sound of the voice. A winged male figure stood there and for a moment she wondered if he was one of her kind, a Traveler too… She doubted it after a moment more study. Era didn’t speak as she looked at him. She wasn’t using the eyes of this body to see him now, but her own. She saw something quite different with her own gaze then the image given to her my elven eyes. He was not of any of the elemental planes, but had ties to both this material world and Celestia. He was one of angelic blood. The ties with the other plane were very strong, but there was also a weaker tie somewhere else. Something darker, though it didn’t seem to diminish him in any way. In fact he seemed all the brighter for it. After seeing who it was, she acknowledged what he said by moving a step back from the circle. Her footsteps echoed slightly in the silence. By then she had managed to draw out the silence to the point of awkwardness. She took no heed of it though.

“My apologies. I am Era and I hope I haven’t interrupted at a critical time in your spell work. If I have, I offer my assistance in order to correct for my error and bad timing. I hadn’t realized there was anything happening here besides the slow decaying of pews.” She bobbed in a curtsy, showing a formality she normally didn’t bother using in most situations. Spell work was normally a formal situation though, so there was no hesitation there.

The steel dragon’s gaze had locked onto Gregory shortly after he had spoken. He didn’t get the hint from Era’s formality though. The dragon was too busy feeling sorry for himself and annoyed that he had been interrupted in deciding on his name. He didn’t want Era talking to this man, wings or not. She was his and he wanted her to talk to him. He was better then this man. But then he had made her land when she had wanted to fly earlier. Perhaps he deserved not to be spoken to. He had also let her get damp by not noticing the storm clouds when she had fallen asleep. He would have to make it up to her then.

Gregory smiled a friendly smiled and closed the book up, placing it on the altar in which he originally found it. "Unfortunately, much of the damage done in this building was from my own experimentation. This magic is very, very old and I fear that its secrets may remain hidden from even me." His glance drew yet again to the dragon. It was young, Hot-blooded silver, yet it remained loyal, even mastered at the hands of this young woman. Quite the beast-master she appeared to be. Gregory had thought about getting a dragon himself, but the majority of dragons one ran into were inclined to evil and were not generally happy to have a celestial around.

The rain assaulting the building seemed to be a dreadful representation of how current events had gone today. The rolling black clouds above perhaps a god's sign of anger towards such failure. Gregory did not feel ashamed of this. He knew the extent of his own power, and he knew what he was capable of doing and not. The sun god may be angry at him, but no matter how angry the sun god was, Gregory was just out of ideas. He glanced at the sky through the broken window near him. The rain had stopped, but black clouds still painted the sky and shrouded the ruins in a depressing atmosphere.

"If you would like to stay and rest, I won't stop you. But I am performing some 'experimental' magic, and it may go out of my hands. Staying here puts you in danger, as I must continue trying, but I will help to protect you should we summon anything... Undesirable." With the dragon, he doubted she would need added protection, but he had no better offers and he had an insatiable feeling as though time was running out. He could stop for nothing.

She thought for a moment about his offer and allowed a soft smile to cross her elven features. “Every moment I linger in the material plane I risk much more then my life.” She replied. “A summoning would be of interest though, if it isn’t a bother to you.”

There were tales, countless ones; of what happened to a traveler like herself should they leave the Elemental Planes. Crossing into such place as Celestia, the Abyss, and the Material Planes had the high chance of changing one’s very soul, interrupting the normal cycle of life and rebirth and casting away such a cherished and repetitive existence for just one more life, a last life. They couldn’t be born like most, so when such a true death took a Traveler it permanently reduced their numbers. She was here to document though, to study this plane and allow her people access to that knowledge and ways to survive in this Material Plane. She felt she was doing well, taking shelter in the body of a girl who could not use her own and not causing chaos and disorder. There had to be a process to this task at hand after all.

She went back over to where the steel dragon was sulking and his eyes met with hers for a moment. He backed up a bit and then crouched down where there was enough room for someone to pass around him if needed.

“I think we will stay here for a bit. You can stay in here or go outside if you wish to.” She then turned around and made her way between the pews and up the side isle out of the way of the spell work to sit on the steps that rose up towards the alter and Gregory. Turning her attention to the half-angel once again she asked calmly. “My I ask your name?”

Gregory nodded his head, practically oblivious to what she had said, but logging it away into his mind to review later. He had decided to flip through the book just one more time, practically able to recite each page he continued to thumb through them all, but his eyes caught something unusual. Cocking an eyebrow, he flipped back a page and let out a stressed sigh as he opened the book to page 333, a page that had been missing before. The page was white and pristine, a thing gray line outlining where the page had once been torn. The page appeared blank, but the symbol at the bottom right gave that secret away. Blood's words, it read in old moon-elf, and he knew immediately what to do.

Just before he reached for his spear, he looked up to see the girl standing near him expectantly. He had been asked a question, and after a moment of going through his mind, he found it. "Name... My name! I do apologize," He flushed at being caught with his head in the clouds, "My name is Gregory Faust." He lowered himself slightly, taking the lady's hand and brushing his lips on it. "May I have your name?" He paused to see if she would immediately answer, but soon enough he was buried in his book, and still listening for a name where it to come up. Yet again unaware of anyone else's presence, he held his arm over the book and brought his spear up to meet it. Biting his lower lip, he pressed the blade to his fleshy underarm, and pulled down.

Blood splattered and sizzled in front of him, and as his major organ bled it's self out he began to wonder if the old magic that surrounded the text would do its part. Just as he began to visually weaken, tendrils of light snapped from the page and enveloped his arm, covering it in yellow light and revealing an undamaged arm in its stead. He breathed a sigh of relief before grimacing at his work. He had cut a major artery quite carelessly, putting himself in danger and placing his magic before himself, dangerous indeed. The page before him was red with his blood, and the words were clear and glowing. There was not much to read, and what there was, was rather confusing.



"Go figure. A bloody poem," No pun intended, "It's probably of some use. I only wish the magicians of the day weren't all damned playwrights!" His lip curled in dissatisfaction as he stepped out into the hall that lead to his own altar and rolled up his sleeves, hefting his spear. "Glaive. Be ready to dam up a river of whatever the hell I manage to summon this time," He grumbled curses under his breath, shooting a quick glance to the girl to see if she had heard, and being ashamed that she probably had. He gritted his teeth as he summoned his tired magic for yet another round. At least one good thing had come of this, his amount of mana was higher than before, and the cost to perform the magic lower.

Approaching the self-made altar on the floor, he placed the point of his spear in the crevasse of the carved shape and channelled his magic through the spear into the altar. Once the altar was glowing with blue light, he shuffled in to place his obsidian hand on the ruin. Before it touched, he pulled it back and looked at his shirt. He would hate to ruin it. Undoing the few straps that held it closed, he quickly pulled it off, allowing the cool air of the church after rain to hit his skin and sending out Goosebumps all over him. Taking in a deep breath, he extended his obsidian hand flat over the altar and looked back to the girl and the dragon.

"Be prepared, I may be knocked unconscious." He continued to look at them both for a few moments before nodding and returning to his work. He envisioned himself, looking at himself as if he was out of his own body. He imagined his magic flowing from his heart and brain, releasing itself fully and wildly jumping about his body, licking the outside like flames of a white fire, and with a few minutes of concentration he imagined the white flames building at his obsidian hand. All of it. His hand burned and felt as if it would explode with the magic, and just before casting he opened his eyes to see that his and quite actually was ingested in white flame. A testament to his magic and his ability to contain it, as his hand had not burst or actually burned, just felt like it. Spreading his fingers apart he slammed down on the floor with his whole body, hands first, and the altar exploded.

Gregory had been flung back just in front of the girl and the dragon. He was conscious, drained of mana, and quite tired. Fighting to sit up, he held his body up with his hands to look at his work. There was a huge, gaping hole in the ground, one that looked to have no bottom until he saw a clawed paw. A clawed hand that should have been much smaller that it was. The paw was the size of his chest, and the demon it lifted was much, much taller than any creature he had seen before. In fact, out of the few dragons he had seen, this one was larger. Its eyes shone black and its glistening red scales appeared to flow like blood. It had no wings and a barbed tail that appeared to glow as if it were red hot. This, he had not expected.

"Sh*t.." He scrambled to stand, reaching for his spear but instead finding a rock to hold in his hand. Fear clenched his mind and diluted it enough to make him think a rock would help. Although not thinking clearly, he still stood protectively in front of the girl and the young dragon. "Run..." The order was for them as much as for him. Slowly, he stepped back, hoping not to catch the dragon attention as it stretched its red, bat-like wings and legs. This was not going to be a happy dragon. As thoughts raced through his mind, it occurred to him. This chapel was not the resting-place of a god, demi-god or priest. Nor was it created to be a place of worship. This was a prison for a very evil, evil dragon. He'd messed this one up big-time.

She shook her head slightly at him at his attempts to be civil and focused at the same time. His asking her name after she had already given it seemed to only offer further proof that she was interrupting him. She was tempted to add a bit of her own power as she lapsed into silence and watched him. She didn’t though. She was afraid she would hurt him with her not so holy fire, though her own fire was purer then most that burned in this plane. So, she waited until he saw fit to call on her, or perhaps until she saw reason to call on her own powers.

As she watched him she let her elven eyes close so she could see what there was to see with her own eyes. His power was bright and she found it interesting to study him as he worked. Then, the portal opened, and the world changed as the planes bleed together. It was no elemental plane though… but a trap, a cage, that he had sacrificed his own blood to crack open. Suddenly her eyes flew open as a single word reached her. “Run…”

What she saw with these material eyes was definitely enough to warrant running. Such a beast bore enough resemblance to Valen that it was quickly identified as a dragon, but it had a much less then friendly air to it. Glancing for the door, she knew that running wouldn’t help, not with so little cover between where they stood and the exit.

Instead, she took advantage of the recent rain fall and let it aid her in a spell. Almost as if by will alone, a heavy mist began to fill the room. Only once it started to blur the edges of the released creature did she start to move. She knelt and picked up the now blood stained book where it had been dropped and touched his shoulder to lend him a bit of her own healing magic to aid his continued existence as well. Still without a word, she went back over by the wall, finding it as a guide instead of attempting to navigate the rotting pews that were even more fragile now that she had robbed them of moisture in order to create the mist. With one hand on the wall, she followed it toward the main entrance.

Gregory stood, holding a rock in his hand a fierce glow in his eye. He knew death was coming, but he would not let it stare him down. This is foolish, taking on a dragon with a rock. The thoughts mocked him, and he grunted in agreement. He only began to return to logical thinking when a light hand brushed his shoulder, bringing him out of his own mind as magic as a quick healing magic flowed through him. He felt energy return to him in one fell swoop, and noticed that his sight of the dragon was blurrier with fog. Turning to check on the girl, he found her shadow stumbling to the hall, 1 foot ahead of him before she disappeared herself.

Moving his foot towards where she had gone, his leather shoes hit a piece of wood. Smooth circular wood that made a very pleasant noise in the fog. He heard the wind move about as the dragon turned his head in Gregory's direction, and only when he bent down to pick up the spear and begin running after the girl did he hears a great inhalation of air. This dragon was going to spit out some terrible breath weapon, and he knew it. If only he could get outside in time. Immediately he stumbled and almost fell flat on his face. His hands reached out in front of him and caught something softer than wood or rock.

The girl was moving quite cautiously, which was all good and well, but behind him the dragon was nearing its last breath. He blinked and found himself in the training hall in celestia. His old master in front of him with a book and a wooden sword in hand.

"These old techniques were used by the old Malan, Tyrandil's father, to dodge the breath of the fel-dragons. Painful stuff. Very much like liquid fire..." The last two words echoed in his mind, and he spurn to action. He was back in the cathedral, the girl behind him as he was now facing the dragon's direction. "Move quicker!" He turned his head and shouted. Summoning what little mana he had left, he formed the white tendrils on his obsidian arm. A tower shield tall enough to stand behind formed, with a large cross on the front. He almost had not made it.

He arched the shield upwards, ducking under it as it was immediately struck with a heavy fire. Some was falling over the edges, but most of the odd substance just dissipated before it hit the ground. Moments felt like years as he felt the shield rapidly failing, and just at the last moment the fluid stopped, and the shield crashed. Sighing loudly, he stood and prepared to run, but one last cough of the dragon sent a blob of the substance straight for him. Acting before thinking, he threw his left obsidian hand out to block it. He cringed expecting to hear it sizzle and feel it burn, but he felt no burning. Oh, it sizzled and popped, but only for a few moments as the substance dissipated on his hand.

Intrigued by this, he almost took a moment to study it before realizing what he had just used it to defend himself from. Turning again, he continued to make his way down the entrance and find the outdoors. From there, he didn't know what to do.

Move quicker? She thought, resenting the remark... not the remark, but how it was delivered. She went to all of the trouble to mask where they were with the mist and he yells, making himself a target. It couldn't be helped she assumed, after all, he didn't seem too much of the sneaky type while she on the other had could have gone invisible. She pushed off from the wall and closed her eyes in an attempt to spot Valen in the thick air. She couldn't see him at all, but heard the strange dragon further behind her. Not wanting to make herself, or more importantly the body she was inhabiting, a target she spread her once hidden wings and took off for what she remembered of the large doorway. Making her way outside she saw Valen.

“Dear, I need you to guard Mladen for me, can you do that?” She asked, lighting near where the steel dragon had retreated from the heavy mists. He turned his gaze toward her and realized that she was asking something very important to her. He nodded and sat down, drawing her close with one clawed hand. As she almost literally handed over the high elf's body, she emerged from her in her true elemental form. Long wings more like a cross between dragonfly wings and autumn leaves then the feathered wings of Faust, took up the majority of her form. Her skin was milky white and her hair like fire. She didn't linger in that form long, she was against a dragon at this point after all. Fire would offer her the best chance, and her powers were stronger with fire at the moment.

She hovered in the air for a moment, traces of her long skirt still drifting away from the now sleeping form of the high elf she had possessed vis contract. Then she called on something she normally wouldn't do in this material world, she called on her form that could survive easily in the Elemental Plane of Fire. She shifted, landing on the ground a bit harder then she normally would. Her skin turned a gray ash, her wings dissolved into the air itself, and her so called clothing blacked like charcoal. She wished then that perhaps it would have been better for her to ave been alive longer in order to gather a stronger amount of magic about her. Still, what she had may be enough if she was only aiding this winged man, this Gregory Faust.

Gregory ran headlong into a wall. He grunted, and pushed off, surprised as he burst from thick mist to the outdoors. The smell was refreshing after being hold up in that church for as long as he had. He only took a moment to smell it as he gasped for air and wiped the sweat from his brow. The fire he deflected with the shield was quite hot, and the quick change in temperatures broke him into a cold-sweat. Moon elf bodies, over centuries, grew accustomed to slow change in atmosphere, and although Gregory's had learned to speed up, it still always acted up on him by sweating. This would hinder his grip on his staff for a while.

He looked around to be sure he had left nobody behind. Glaive, Era, Dragon..! His eyes wandered over each, stopping abruptly on the odd being that had joined the fray. He glanced only for a moment before looking back to Era and realizing that she apparently had passed out, or worse. He had read on the elementals once a while back, but he had been sure to log them into his mind. He saw what was claimed to be a water elemental at a circus, and he had to admit it was pretty convincing, but what he saw before him was no circus act.

"Elemental," His lips formed around the word, tasting it for what it was, and then shoving it into the logs of his mind, "I see that you are not against me. Whatever happened to Miss Era can come later, first I suggest we get her very far away," A roar broke from the small cathedral, followed by yet another, then silence. He looked the elemental over, weighing what he believed to be its skill in magic by its outward appearance, "I trust you can keep yourself alive against the dragon. I need to look for a weak-spot on it while fighting, so I may need people to keep its attention." A louder, deeper roar broke the quiet and the roof of the cathedral exploded in a glorious green fire, the huge dragon crawling from the whole in the roof and slithering to the ground outside it.

Gregory toted his spear in his flesh hand, his obsidian hand clenched in a fist at his side. The dragon sized the number of people before grumbling and bearing its teeth in confidence. Glaive. Fight with everything you've got, but if I get drained of the energy that keeps you here or you're struck away, don't beat yourself up over it. He looked directly at his angelic ally and grinned. He knew that it had gotten through to Glaive. Tyrandil had always beaten himself up when he was torn from this plain in a time of need, and an angry angel never made for a smart one.

"Go for its leg tendons for now." He calmly suggested to his group before spreading his wings and taking flight. The dragon had once had wings, but now only scarred and burned stubs. Gregory was at an advantage.

((OOC: I'm assuming as an NPC, we both control the dragon, as long as we work around power-playing other characters.))

“Lady Era, not Miss.” She said, the words carrying a scattering of sparks in their tone. This Common, this Material Plane Language, sounded to strange to her in her elemental form. It was an odd thing anyways, but fire won’t burn fire, so distracting this strange dragon shouldn’t do much harm. She turned her attention to Valen and the high elf. She reached down and drew the blade that was at her side. Strengthen up, she gave her directions. “Take her away someplace dry. I’ll find you when this is done.” The steel dragon puffed up his chest as if he was going to protest, but then he didn’t. He knew why he was given the job of guarding Mladen. So, instead of arguing, he also took wing, about the same time as Gregory, holding the high elf’s sleeping form close as he spiraled up into the sky to find better shelter.

Era on the other hand started right for the beast. She drew the moisture out of the grasses and lit it stir in the air as a much thinner mist. She forced it away from her and the dragon, giving the others a fleeting cover that was quick to dissipate. She wasn’t really focused on the spell after all, but instead on what happened after one cast it. The water wasn’t in the grass anymore, or the pews in the cathedral for that matter. So she left the mist to its own devices and focused on a more useful spell. Fire spread out from where she was, almost like a ring of fire. She had sparked a grass fire that was quick to burn the now bone dry grass. Era smiled to herself, liking the effect. She followed the fire as it burned toward the dragon, the ash stirring slightly under her more heavy foot fall. She actually had footprints in this form while her true form seemed to hover slightly. It seemed about as heavy as the high elf was though. That had helped with the weight thing quite a bit. The mist was a bit of a hazard if she ventured into it now though.

A rasping sound drew her gaze from the lovely fire to the beast before her. Its gaze was now locked on her, right where she wanted it to be. She continued to walk forward, naked blade at the ready. She was looking forward to this. The further use of magic would have to be carefully measured. She as careful to stick with the smaller spells so that should he need it, she could lend her magical energy, tempered with a healing spell so he wouldn’t have a bad reaction to it and catch fire himself. Then, the dragon opened its maw and a strange fire issued forth. Era didn’t bother to dodge, absorbing the fire easily to give her a boost. Then she found out why the fire seemed so strange. It made a hissing sound where it touched her, appearing to not harm her at all, but she felt it. There was a toxin of some sort in this fire, a taint in a perfected element. She would do well to not let it breathe on her again. It made her feel… ill? A strange stinging, almost numb sensation ran along where the tainted flames had touched her. She needed to get closer though, so she continued her advance at a run now, bringing her blade up and almost over her opposite shoulder so that as soon as she was close enough she could bring it down in a more powerful blow.

Gregory watched the dragon as he took flight, his eyes scanning it over and over to look for a weak point. He bagan to slow his upwards pace, spinning when he heard another set of wings behind him, but relieved to find that they were belonging to the young dragon's as it moved lady Era to a safer spot. He nodded absently at this and returned to his studies of the dragon. Sighing quite audibly, he began to move towards the dragon at a slow pace. The dragon seemed to be trying to fly as it stared at him, it's fiery stubbs moving back and forth and his muscled shoulders flexing. Gregory found himself relieved that the dragon didn't have wings.

He stopped just above it, and his eyes locked with the dragons for a moment, before the attention was turned to another being. The fire elemental had turned the ground to a brush-fire. Gregory assumed it was to clear the area of any moisture that it wouyld give, a good idea. He watched as the dragon inhaled, but his knowledge of magic told him that even if he hit the being with fire, fire would not harm fire, and may even make it stronger. The green fire hit the elemental, and just as Gregory had assumed she took the fire in stride, but his eyes narrowed as she paused for a moments. His clear vision could see her face contort in confusion for only a moment before she began her march again. Apparently the dragon's fire was not normal fire, and it must have had some kind of taint, which thus slowed down the elementals progress, and over-all everyone's progress.

Taking hold of his spear, Gregory decided on an attack. It was a dangerous, but as he hover in flight he knew it was his only chance. The eyes he had locked onto appeared to be the softest spot on the dragon, and if he could jam his spear far enough into the socket he knew full-well it was a direct path to the brain. Fire glinted in Gregory's eyes as he muttered a prayer and closed his wings. He stood still in the air for a moment, but he quickly began his dive to earth. At the last moment before reaching the dragon, he swiped at it's eyes and missed, drawing a line across it's forehead. He continued his diving attacks, coming up short each time he dove. He hoped this fight would end quickly, but he had a very good idea that it would not.

After launching its breath weapon, the creature turned its attention to where the others had gone, the sky. It was unable to follow though. She wasn’t the only one grounded for the time being then. With the dragon, if you could really call such a creature that, now looking up to only be attacked from above, she took her chance and aimed her blade for where the creatures shoulder met the rest of its body. The scales were smaller there on Valen, so there would be less armor.

Her blade struck, digging in only a tiny bit before hitting the larger scales and stopping. A dagger or even a spear might work better for that sort of attack. She moved back as it lashed out, not really seeing her as it was also trying to get at Gregory. The shallow cut didn’t bleed much, but she knew it had done more damage then it appeared to. She felt better at least, as her blade had managed to steal away some of the monster’s energy to renew her own. The taint, what ever it was, didn’t reach her though the blade. Instead it seemed to help against that horrid feeling. It was in remembering that feeling that she darted in for another attack, aiming this time for between where its back leg met its side.

Gregory dove in for yet another attack. His wings were in the opening stages of getting tired and he was nowhere near forming a plan. As he lunge down again, he watched the elemental dive in with a knife, and just before a tail came up to meet him, he watched the knife draw blood under the neck. As he prepare himself for another attack on the beast's eyes. The wind whistled from his spear's blade, and moments before it found the first opened eye the barbed end of the dragon's tail whipped past him, and the body of the tail rocked the world around him.

Colourful stars blurred his site as he felt his rib take the blow. He couldn't find the power to breath, and he knew he had to act exceptionally fast. The ground came up to meet him, and moments after it did so he began to go over a spell in his mind. His vision turned from pink to red as the vibrant dots became black splotches, and with what little air he could wrestle, he summoned the words to his lips. "Orelethe" White magic filed from his heart to his hand, and he placed his hand on his chest. He felt the magic gush into his chest, and he felt it re-mold three several broken ribs and a punctured lung. As soon as the fatiguing spell was done, he turned to his stomach and crawled.

With the sounds of the dragon behind him, he only made it a few meters before he was forced to cough up blood from the lung. He was painfully tired, but he was breathing. Not bothering to look for his spear, he stood up and looked over to his friend. He looked to her feet to see his spear not far from her and as he strained to catch his breath, he found yet another spell that may help. "God's Spear!" He extended his hand and lightning crackled from the sky. It landed on the dragon, some of it striking the earth near the spear, sending it airborne towards the girl. "Catch!" He shouted amid breaths. He just needed a moment’s rest.

Her second attack never had a chance, as the best moved it’s legs in order to use it’s tail to strike Gregory from the sky. She lost sight of him for a moment and she was suddenly concerned. She moved away from the dragon until she saw him laying on the ground. His spear wasn’t far from her. The dragon’s attention was still on him, clearly it felt he was more of a threat then she was. Angered by this, she lashed out with her blade at the injury she had already inflicted, using the point of her blade this time. She felt the vampiric blade sap more of the beast’s strength, granting it to her. It was more then she needed and flames broke out along the smooth armor of her arms. If she kept this up perhaps she would gain the strength to sever a limb. As she stepped back to avoid the dragon’s head as it swung at her, she heard a shout and lightning came down from the heavens. His spear became airborne for a moment and she caught it as it flew at her.

She turned her attention to the celestial man where he was on the ground. He had moved from where he had originally fallen. Era then saw what sort of shape he was in, and frowned. Keeping the blade in one hand and his spear in the other, she dodged past the dragon as it wreathed from the pain caused to it and went over to where Gregory was. She stuck the spear in the ground and knelt on one knee. “I’m the one helping you, not the other way around.” She said and placed her hand on his back. She cast heal, but poured more power into it then was needed, giving the strength she had stolen from the dragon with her blade and some of her own to him with the spell. She was giving him some of her power and making sure her fire didn’t burn him by doing it through a healing spell. Feeling a bit tiered then, she sat down. Her tone, her fire, seemed to dampen slightly, the flames she had gained, not moments earlier, vanishing. She felt the taint from the dragon’s breath again; it stung like… perhaps like lightning. It wasn’t that though. She just couldn’t identify the fact she was poisoned from that dragon’s breath. It had never happened to her before. She had never crossed such a tainted fire. The fact that it was tainted though made her wish for the creature’s demise. Fire should never be like the fire this creature had.