The Coming Storm [Nayru/Zahhak]

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

"Screw you I'll take five and one then!" Seemed she had underestimated Zahhak once again, not that she'd risk boosting his ego any further by telling him that - he seemed to be holding his own more or less fine. But 'fine' was a relative term these days, and the overall situation wasn't entirely in her favor if these creatures were anything like the monsters of Elibe. Faster, stronger - if they were as cruel to boot, this fight was liable to get very unpleasant.

But they were close enough to town that Nayru didn't especially want to go super hard in the paint with maximized halfshifting or Sky forbid a fullshift, and it wasn't entirely out of enlightened self-interest. Sure, that was a decent sized chunk of it - uninhabited island or no she didn't want to have to hide here for the rest of her life - but there was also the issue of mucking about with the weather... and as she had learned in Bern, it appeared that she could no longer safely transform at all, at least not without overwhelming amounts of collateral damage. It had been fine against the chimera since no one else was around, but here, with countless innocent people in the danger zone... that just wasn't something she was willing to risk.

So - for now, see if she could solve the issue with judicious application of force. She'd worry about upping the ante later if needed.

The first Mauthe Doog that had attacked her and been pushed away by her parry was already back on her though, another breaking away from the pack to bound towards them and join in as well. But rather than claw her again, it bit, its fierce fangs crunching shut on her arm in a parry gone awry with boneshattering force. Hell, even she felt it, there was nothing restrained or playful about it. Like an attack dog or something of the sort was the vibe she got. The dog itself got the vibe of being airborn, mostly because it was.

"I'll beat a m*th*rf**k*r-" Nayru paused, grunting, as she was forced to channel a bit more power to keep her motion going as she swung the creature overhead in a grand arc towards the second creature bounding at her, "WITH ANOTHER m*th*rf**k*r!" Dog met dog with a symphony of aggrieved yelps that almost made her feel a little bad for smacking them around with each other before the third one, the suplexed one she had assumed was down for the count, was busy tackling her hard enough to knock her off balance, its skull hard enough to take her off-handed thwap to the head without giving way. Dammit. She had never fought these creatures before, her experience almost entirely limited to humans, demihumans, and Baels, so this was definitely a learning experience.

[Zahhak Al-Bahar]

Small platelets had slowly been accumulating on concentrated spots along Zahhak's body. Every time he took another drought into the well of power within his stone, he felt slight minuscule changes. Alone, they were hardly noticeable. As a whole however, they were becoming quite an oddity compared to the average person. The water dragon's entire left shoulder was covered in grey and blue armor like scales. His fingernails had grown longer, stained crimson and seemingly unbreakable with wicked curved tips. The white streaks within his messy brown hair were now well defined, running the length of his scalp.

With each savage smile that he revealed, the twin long fangs stood out more against the backdrop of a set of slightly pointed teeth. As one of the Mauthe doogs came charging in to approach Zahhak, who had been continuing to assail the skull of one. The creature wasn't one to give up however, and as Zahhak turned to gaze for a brief moment at the oncoming hounds, it was already snapping at him. His upper hand instantly reached out, palm pressing to the hounds upper jaw even while his lower palm edged its-self against along the inner floor of the doogs jaw. The razor white teeth it sported were just barely brushing against the scaled segment of his forearm, and the force of the impact almost made the dragons knees buckle from underestimating its power.

The dragon snarled, as his arms began to throb. Veins within his biceps and wrists practically bulged as he ran his muscles to their limit. His shoulders shook, his entire body clenched as he poured his strength into preventing the creature from closing its jaws. He could feel the resistance increasing as he tried to open them. It was attempting to lock its jaw. Hissing, Zahhak leaned forwards and began to slowly drive the weight from his heels forwards. Hot blasts of retched breath from the salivating maw of the doog hit him; reminding him of some of the foulest smells he'd experienced within the western isles. Luckily that wasn't something to stop him.

The faint jingling of his bells as his body shifted reminded him however. Thankfully...a moment too soon they'd reminded him. Any later and he'd have been dead. One of the other hounds he'd knocked over was rushing for him while he wrestled with this first one. Zahhak snarled. There was no helping it. He was going to have to take further from his stone. This is gunna hurt when its all said and done.. Zahhak shouted with a sudden exertion. He slammed his foot as if to kick off the ground and pressed against the doog with as much force as he could muster. The creatures shock had no time to be expressed.

"HHHHHHHYYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The dragon's palms slammed into the respective jaws of the hound before the air split with a snapping sound. He could practically feel the reverberation of the joints at its jaw shattering. The hound's head leaned, briefly slackening as it attempted to pull back. Zahhak wrenched forwards and twisted to force the hound onto the ground with a heavy thud. Lifting his leg, he wrenched even tighter with his hands ripping at the jawline and crashed his foot downwards against the monsters jaw where the bone was thinner, and connected to the actual joint. The wet crunch and sudden yelping came through an eerie distortion as unplesant crunches and snaps filled the air. Zahhak's arms struggled against the force before a spray of blood filled the ground and he fully ripped off part of the Mauthe Doog's lower jaw. Having stomped on it first to break the bone, and by spreading them far enough to break its resistance before lashing out he'd managed to effectively disable one hound for what he hoped would be a rather short fight at this point.

The other hounds..not so much.

The fatigue from so much so quickly suddenly hit him. The water dragon snarled as he dropped to one knee. The approaching hound had not let up, and even as Zahhak reached out to punch the creature in the side he moved just slow enough to get caught. Now..it was his turn to bleed. Sharpened colossal fangs met hardened scale along his arm, and sank into his lean body. Blood welled up along the series of teeth that bit into Zahhak's shoulder and arm as the dragon shouted in rage and pain.

Nayru had called Zahhak Shark boy. That term, was perhaps now more than ever, appropriate. The overwhelming scent of iron lingered heavy in the air. The crimson stains upon the bare chested male dragon, and the trails of red trickling down his arm from the currently filled small holes within his arm of where the doog had managed to bite through his small scaled hide were almost overwhelming. It infuriated him. It thrilled him. So many swirling emotions threatened to overtake him. So instead, he acted on instinct. His left arm became tense, forcing sudden surges of the thick red liquid to trail down his arm before he slammed his head forwards into the doogs. A second wind of adrenaline and blood-lust overtook him while he savagely headbutted the doog. The creature's jaw opened just enough to snarl and suddenly his arm was freed, snaking it back and lunging into the hound with his body slamming into it.

The pair were knocked onto the ground, Zahhak tumbling underneath it and feeling partially winded as the weight of the hound landed onto him. This worked in his favor. For as the creature struggled to get up, the water dragon latched onto it with each digit pressing roughly into its hide, claws sinking into thick skin and tearing at the meat in a savage frenzy as Zahhak sank his twin fangs into the doogs neck biting at it with a swift strike. They were not long enough fangs or claws to kill, but the pain as the doog howled out wildly was satisfaction enough.

He wouldn't let them take him down so easily. This was a fight between predators, not some whimsical hunt.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

She took one step backwards, hen another, her gait unsteady and off-balance at first, but by the third step there was purppose in it and on the fourth her heel slammed into the ground with vigor, her non-dominant leg extended forwards as her rear heel came off the ground, both hands up before her and her chin tucked down a little - a generic krav maga fighting stance, nothing special, just comfortable and quick to react from.

Nayru had a feeling she was gonna need it.

The taste of draconic essence filling the air as Zahhak went crazy was hard to miss even for her, but for her part Nayru didn't see any value in trying to show off to match him, or to outperform him; if anything, this was an opportunity to practice the basics and hone a few ideas she had been working on rather than just halfshift and go full retard all over these clowns. It was less ego or pragmatism, though, so much as just a desire to have a good fight, something that wouldn't end in one hit, and unfortunately that was no longer possible if she went all out.

...Which was exactly why there were now four different Mauthe Doogs headed for her, most likely having decided she was much easier prey than Zahhak and therefore better to take out first. God DAMMIT. She was going to drag Zahhak back to a healer after they finished here even if all she could find were scattered limbs so she could fight him instead and try to at least get a god damn fair fight instead of this tag team bullshit. It wasn't quite a murderous rage, but it was definitely fair to say that her temper was fraying, and while she could recognize and potentially allay that fact, the streaks of essence running through her made it hard to actually want to. Especially with all these creatures charging her. It would only be reasonable to respond in kind.

Her right arm jerked reflexively, her toned muscles straining as power flowed into it and the white tattoo turned golden with building essence. Maybe there was a way for her to deal with things without actually dealing with them. Nayru grinned at the charging dogs, completely unperturbed at their approach as her arm twisted and morphed, golden scales shifting like saw teeth as they protruded from it,as it changed into something else if only for a moment.

"Time for some shock and awe."

And then her smile was feral as she hefted the mass of armored flesh that had become her arm, arcing it upwards for a moment before bringing it slamming down into the ground as the creatures approached, a meteor streaking through the daytime sky against which nothing could stand.

The localized earthquake paled in comparison to the colossal plume of electrified and shattered earth that erupted upwards a dozen meters, a near-solid shockwave of force emanating outwards from the impact to break and batter the Mauthe Doogs that had been so bravely charging a moment before, obscuring her body from sight as the golden arm faded away into golden sparkles, her body already moving into a straight punch to the side of one dog's head. She hadn't actually hit any of them with that strike after all, there wouldn't have been enough left of the victim to fill a jar with after all, but it was a bit of setup for the actual fight.

Amidst the cloud of choking dust and electrically charged stone, she continued to move, grinning from ear to ear at having a little more exciting of a backdrop for the fight... even if it wouldn't last that long. Then again - her leg flickered out, catching another of the dogs in the jaw, retracted, slammed out in a heel strike to slam its head into the ground with a resounding crash - the fight might not, either.

[Zahhak Al-Bahar]

He had to admit that he hadn't expected the heavily scented blood to taste quite like it did. He imagined these things as horrible monstrosities that had corrupted acidic blood or some gunky malefic filth which smelled revolting and tasted worse so. This didn't however. It was surprisingly...average. Heavy in metallic hints and a bit of a salty sweetness to the coppery taste. What made it sweeter was the hounds wounded yelps as he began to bite into it at more vital spots of the neck. Its pack members however were not as quick to agree with Zahhak on this, enraged with snarls and feral snapping jaws. At this point, as Zahhak rolled off the hound with his claws releasing from the sundered fur covered hide and lightly hopping back to avoid snapping fangs, he felt a bit weary. He wasn't out of breath and gasping yet, nor was he unable to fight back. He was however unprepared for how much this fight would drain him.

As he shifted, he attempted to lift his injured arm and take a fighting poise once more. A searing brand of pain however shot through him, just from attempting to lift his arm past his waist. Snarling, and swearing with a hissed tone under his breath, Zahhak tried to gauge it briefly. The holes in his arm were not deep enough to cause that much pain; bite wounds though they were, were lessened thanks to his draconic scales. Dark crimson still stained his skin, giving it a wet slick look and making it feel far more useless. However he recognized the pain. A familiar thing, and the off-set nature of his shoulder confirmed that suspicion. Zahhak swiftly pressed his right palm to the injured shoulder and flexed his muscles as tight as possible. Veins throbbed, blood flow from the wounds increasing as thick fat red droplets trailed down each side of his arm from the multiple wounds. He pressed roughly into his shoulder as he braced himself. An audible snapping sound as his shoulder popped back into place echoed; followed by a laugh at the relief of an ache free motion.

That would have to do, as far as second winds came. The doogs were on him once more already as he lunged to the side and struck out quickly with two savage closed palm blows to the neck. It was the same doog he'd been viciously biting. Zahhak hissed before he lunged back at it. Unfortunately, his normal style of fighting would be next to useless as this fight dragged on. So with the Dragon's shouts of exertion and savagery drowning out the jingling cacophony of bells that he wore, Zahhak threw himself back into the fight.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Well, this was a barrel of fun and all, but much like the issue with the gargoyles back in Bern, Nayru was finding that just punching things one or two times wasn't really the solution to all of life's woes. Worked pretty well with squishy humans that popped like a blood balloon when you gave 'em a love tap, but all these damn monsters seemed to be made out of Unobtanium or some crap 'cuz they just refused to stop moving unless she hit them like thirty god damn times or used a much more limited ability. Wonderful! Soon as she got some spare time, she was going to use this stupid island to train until she was dead or could at least vomit forth huge gouts of furious hornets.

Or lightning. Whichever happened first. For nwo though - she stepped to the side, bringing her elbow down on the charging creature as it barely missed her, ramming it into the ground - they had a fight to win, and shark boy seemed determined to get himself killed. Not that he was doing that bad for himself, really she could respect fighting like that, but even if he didn't necessarily need protecting - and she was DAMN sure he wouldn't accept it anyways - it was still somewhat her responsibility to try to keep him alive... probably. And to be honest, there was a certain level of self-preservation there too. After fighting with Veigue so many times, she knew the value in having someone to watch your back, even when you didn't think you needed it.

Another charge was met by a straight punch, but Nayru fell back a bit anyways, trying to get closer to her erstwhile companion without making her 'retreat' too obvious. "Hey, Zahhak, you still in there?" The fight had been going well so far, but Nayru knew all too well from experience that it only took one moment of overconfidence to ruin that. "Unless you're planning on drowning these guys in your blood," she paused to grin, "which I totally respect and support you in if so. But if not, this would probably be over faster if you worked with me here." Seriously, what was the point of phenomenal cosmic power if the whole shebang was just one list of restrictions after another? Can't do that without burning out your throat, can't do this without getting half of Elibe riding your tail trying to kill you, totally bogus.

[Zahhak Al-Bahar]

If it weren't for the thin layer of scales lining his biceps, the veins would've looked like they were ready to burst from the very flesh that confined them as they pumped blood. Zahhak crashed his fist with thunderous force into the jaw of another Mauthe doog as the snarling hound tried to come in towards him. Blood had woven inbetween the divots that the layer pattern of scales made, resembling small rivulets of sanguine which trailed downwards off his arm in thick globlets. The torn skin near his upper shoulder was ripping a bit every time he punched into something. Shifting to using his right dominantly, Zahhak had to thank his fathers few and rough lessons in life teachings for his aptitude in ambidexterity.

Balling his fingers into a tight fist, he shouted with a rough exhale and drove his fist into the hounds jaw once more. The snarling mutt fell onto its colossal side as the water dragon prepared to drive his heel into this jaw and cripple it just as he had the other. There was a sudden force against him, and his look of shock barely had time to register. He had been about to finish the damned hound. Until the rough force of one slamming its skull into his side gave him the briefest period to attempt a swear, before it sent him sprawling with a loud crash through the foliage and into a tree. The tree was splintered and cracked a bit like it'd been battered with a hammer repeatedly. Zahhak felt the warm trail of crimson liquor like fluid trailing down his shoulders and along his bare chest. His entire body ached and throbbed with protest as he removed himself from the large wooden pillar he'd been thrust against. His bones popped, rippled, and cracked as he forced himself into a standing position. His left arm was now dangling a bit. Painful, and almost entirely limp. A second time it had happened. The same arm no less. There was something certainly wrong with it, and he began to suspect that the initial bite by the doog had done something to set it out of place to such a degree that even relocating it wouldn't be good enough.

His look of distaste was complimented as the water dragon clicked his tongue, before grunting and slamming his palm into his disjointed shoulder. Flexing his muscles with every ounce of intensity he could to brace himself, a surge of thick red blood gushed out of his bite wounds while he pressed hard into his shoulder and audibly cracked it back into place. The pain was refreshing. As always, it reminded him he was alive. The water dragon lifted his hands as he grit his teeth, the sharp spike of pain distributing briefly before slowly washing away with relief of his injured shoulder being fixed. At-least, as fixed as it was going to get. A darker shade of blue and pale white began to over-take his skin further while he half-shifted more so. Fins of a scarlet shade rose from the sides of his head and atop his head while his brown hair turned entirely white. Subtlety was not a luxury he'd been afforded. The remaining three doogs were rushing towards him and he needed them grounded. They still had the three headed one to handle after this.