When people visit the Sionad Tundra, they typically have a really good reason for doing so- it simply wasn't worth the trouble otherwise. The whole place was, more often then not, entirely covered in snow. Combined with freezing temperatures, the deep layers of snow made the tundra traversable only to those who were prepared to deal with harsh conditions. There were places of interest, sure, but they were near impossible to come across unless by a freak accident or by someone who knew of their location beforehand. Besides that, there wasn't much to see- aside from the trees and shrubs, any signs of life were typically buried under the constant snow before anyone else came across them.
Despite all this, though, people still ended up wandering the landscape for one reason or another. Some were treasure seekers, searching for valuable artifacts or materials that other people refused to brave the cold to retrieve. Others were wanted criminals, counting on the fact that their tracks would be covered up and that their pursuers would rather give up than wander blindly into unknown territory. Still others travelled in search of an adventure, treating the harsh conditions as a challenge rather than a hinderance.
Axia, however, did not fit into any of the aforementioned groups. She didn't have a great reason to be out here, but she wasn't bothered much by the cold either. There was something that she was supposed to be doing, which she had little to no desire to do at the moment. Instead, she'd turned her attention to something she actually enjoyed: flying! Over the course of a few hours, Axia had done nothing but practice her takeoffs and landings, using the wide open landscape to her advantage. Unfortunately, she hadn't made too much progress, but she was determined to get it right this time.
Circling around in the sky, Axia took a moment to choose a spot to aim for before beginning her landing. Finally making her choice, she suddenly folded her wings up and allowed herself to plummet towards the ground. With the hard surface quickly approaching, Axia once again flapped her wings and shot forwards with plenty of speed. In fact, it was too much speed, and as a result her landing was... less than smooth. She stumbled over as her legs made contact with the ground, causing her tail to smack into a nearby tree.
Such a landing was obviously undesirable, but nothing that Axia wasn't used to. Laying in the snow for a moment to catch her breath, she then sat up and brought her tail close to survey the damage. A few of her aberrant scales had been shattered, leaving a cut that slowly dripped blood onto the snow below. It wasn't a serious wound, but it was definitely a sign that Axia should take a break from practicing. Frowning, she shook the snow off of her body and started to climb the nearest hill she could find. If she couldn't practice flying, then maybe she could at least come across something interesting by using the top of the hill as a vantage point.
Renegade sinners weren't afraid to hide in the most inhospitable places the world had to offer, they knew, anything was better then being dragged back to hell.. or worse imprisoned within a warden, to serve as sustenance for all eternity. Today was no different, today sinners thought they had escaped the clutches of the infernal abyss, how wrong they were, hell's agents reached everywhere, no place was too inhospitable for the un-holy.
Nymiria, ordered by the lords of hell themselves, found herself tracking five renegade sinners, escaped souls that have taken on their mortal bodies once more, attempting to blend in. They were quite good at it, they could fool just about anyone, even Nymiria. Too bad she thought about that too. Quite some steps away from the dragoness, all the way down the hill, fire flickered into un-natural life, its green glow illuminating the surrounding area. It soon began to take the shape of a doorway, howls of dread and agony echoing across the snow covered tundra because of it. Soon, three mighty hounds the size of horses stepped out, their un-natural flames melting the snow around them. They immediately began sniffing the air, attempting to find a lead. Behind them, a seemingly human woman dressed in feathered robes complimented with pieces of plate stepped into the snow, her heavy boots slinking into the snow.
''Terminus, Sentarius, Xandarius have you found anything?'' She inquired, her voice soft and gentle. The hounds let out a hellish howl in unison, answering their master with a clear yes through their howls. Then, their heads turned up-hill, clearly smelling more then just the sinners. Nymiria herself fixated her green gaze upward as well, though she could barely distinguish anything. ''Show me.'' She commanded, instantly causing the hounds to rush uphill, toward the dragoness. Leaving a trail of green fire as their massive paws dragged them through the snow, she herself followed suit, curious about what manner of creature other then the sinner's would attempt to hide in this forsaken area. She simply walked after her hounds, not in a hurry.
Once up top, the hounds would circle the dragon passively, waiting for their master to arrive.
For a while, Axia simply stood there atop the hill, waiting for something- anything- to happen. Despite her best efforts, though, nothing did happen. The only things she could pick up on was the faint howling of the wind, and the sound of her own breath. She was just about to give up and start making her way out of the frozen wasteland when she finally got her wish.
Out of seemingly nowhere, two very peculiar sounds rang from the bottom of the hill. The first one was, well, horrible to say the least. The unholy screams and shouts of the damned were unparalleled by anything the dragon had heard in her life. Many people would have ran in fear from such an infernal noise, but Axia was more intrigued than anything. Soon after, another noise caught her attention. This time, it was the sound of howling; it was a more common noise, but it had an unnatural quality to it. The sounds had obviously been produced by something that Axia had never experienced before, which only made her want to investigate the source.
In the end, though, it seemed that Axia hadn't discovered the source. On the contrary, they ended up discovering her. She soon found herself in the presence of three flaming hounds, rotating around her and melting the snow in a circle as they did so. Their intentions were unclear; such behaviour was sometimes displayed by predators when hunting a large creature, but these hounds weren't exactly ordinary animals. Unsure whether or not the strange creatures were hostile, the dragoness took up a defensive stance just in case. She was prepared to pounce at any moment, and she attempted to lock eyes with each of the dogs as they passed in front of her. Her tail dragged back and forth through the snow, leaving a small trail of blood as it did so.
The hounds would circle the dragoness a few times before their master arrived, immediately walking to stand beside Nymiria. She turned her gaze to meet that of the dragons and didn't seem to speak at all for the longest of time, she was contemplating many questions, but one in particular was important for her to ask ''What do the living seek in this land of death?'' she simply inquired, her true form already being betrayed to the dragon meant she didn't have to attempt and sound like a human anymore.
She seemed to wait a few more moments, her gaze constantly fixated on the dragon without even blinking, almost like a death stare. She then parted her lips again, many questions swirling through her head to which she wanted answers ''And what is it that has caused you harm?'' her hand extended toward the trickle of blood, before simply returning to rest on her hips. ''Were the sinners responsible?''
She then stepped closer, not entirely impressed by the dragon's defensive posture, but she seemed to have no intention of growing hostile herself, she simply was curious as to how the dragon would react, perhaps even a little curious as to her species. She had never quite seen a dragon like this before, in- fact she had only heard of them in tales and stories, but to see one sparked curiosity even within a demon of her caliber. After all, her species was curious and meddlesome by nature, some of things would never truly go away.
Axia held the stranger's gaze as complete silence hung in the air, trying to get a read on Nymiria. She wasn't the pinnacle of intellect, but the 'human''s unnatural composure and speech strongly hinted that she was something else. The dragon cocked her head to the side, trying to figure out what such an enigmatic being could want with her. If anything, she thought she'd be the one asking the questions, not answering them. Maybe if she cooperated, though, she'd be able to get some answers of her own.
"Oh, people don't usually come here. Most of the ones who do are either treasure hunters, or are being hunted themselves." Axia's voice was firm up to this point, but she suddenly hesitated when it came to talking about her own situation. Finally breaking her gaze, the dragoness glanced towards the distant mountains before continuing.
"As for me, uh, I'm here 'cause I just got kicked out of my home."
Clearly eager to move on from the subject, the dragon's voice suddenly regained its initial energy as she once again made eye contact with Nymiria. Her tail started to curl up instinctively as Axia explained the situation.
"Nope, this was an accident. You're the first person I've come across in hours, 'sinner' or otherwise."
The dragon's muscles started to relax, as it was clear to her that she wasn't in any immediate danger. She took up a more neutral stance, allowing Nymiria to approach her. However, she did have some questions of her own that she wanted answers to.
"Hey, who are you, and what are those 'sinners' you mentioned? Are they dangerous or something?"
Nymiria seemed un responsive for several minutes as she contemplated the dragon's answers. Clearly somewhat disappointed the sinners weren't here, or hadn't been seen yet. At-least her hounds could help her find them, but having a good indication of where to go always helped. When she turned her attention back on the dragoness she realized it was now she herself being questioned.
Somewhat surprised that the hounds hadn't given her away yet, Nymiria smirked. She didn't know whether this dragoness was just playing coy or just had not put two and two together yet. She sighed, it didn't really matter anyway, it wasn't like she was trying super hard to keep her identity a secret. ''Sinners are escaped convicts from hell, souls if you will. I am here to retrieve them or destroy them.'' she stated relatively bluntly, raising a brow at the dragoness ''As for what I am, I am surprised I have to tell you. I am a demon and these are my trusty hell hounds.'' she pointed at each of the hounds individually, indicating she cared about all three equally for herself.
''You should not linger here, it is not safe.'' She simply stated, before turning to face in the direction her hounds were looking, always keeping their noses to the enemy as she taught them. She had no idea how far away the sinner's were, the maximum raise of her hound's noses was quite impressive, which meant it could be a days walk or more, but probably less. They had come in relatively close to the source of the corruption through the portal, that was the mistake of the sinner's here, staying together simply made them light up like a flare on any demon's radar.
Nymiria looked back to the dragoness, figuring she couldn't even leave now that she thought about it. This storm was growing more intense then before, limiting even her un-natural sight to be only a few steps forward. ''If you cannot leave, stick close to me.'' she simply stated, before beginning to walk in the general direction of the sinners she was hunting.
So she was a demon, huh? Well, that was... interesting. Very interesting. The fact didn't really scare her- Instead, it filled Axia's head with a stream of questions. It wasn't every day that you got the chance to talk to... well, a demon. That being said, the experience was certainly a lot different than she expected.
"A demon? Well, I thought demons looked a lot different than you do. Also, according to what the stories say, you should've tried to take my soul by now. I guess those weren't true, then..."
The discrepancies between what Axia was experiencing and the stories she'd been told growing up only served to deepen her curiosity. If demons weren't really like they had been described, then what were they like? The dragon immediately made it her goal to uncover the truth behind that question, whether doing so was dangerous or not. She rarely passed up the opportunity to learn about something new.
"Hmph. People always tell me not to do stuff that 'isn't safe', but what they actually mean is that they don't want me to do anything interesting. If I only did 'safe' things, I would've died of boredom by now!"
Obviously unwilling to be swayed from her goal, Axia quickly started following the demon. Having adapted to the harsh weather typical of the tundra, she paid very little attention to the gathering storm- in fact, she seemed to enjoy it. Not drained of her energy in the slightest, it didn't take long for the dragoness to start talking again.
"...You're very strange, you know that? You were perfectly willing to tell me that you're a demon and all that, but you never even told me your name."
Nymiria simply turned for a moment, eyeing at the dragon following her. She couldn't quite tell her to go away anyway, especially now. She didn't really have time for it anyway. Of course, part of her was also curious about the creature.
When Axia spoke of her she simply grinned for the shortest of moments. She sure didn't look a demon, not right now anyway... If only she knew. Eyeing the dragon in complete silence for a moment she spoke up again ''I can assume the form of a human for practicality. I am also not the type of demon that can sustain itself with mortal souls.'' she then smirked at the dragons other words.
''If you wish to come then so be it, just do not get in my way.'' she then simply turned again. Walking a few steps before hearing the next comment. This dragon sure was full of questions. She smiled at that, it was a welcome diversion from the constant assaults and insults. She looked over her shoulder ''I do not beat around the bush when my hounds have already shown their true colors. That said, I am Nymiria.''
As they continued to walk they eventually came up on an old, abandoned camp. Nymiria immediately stepped toward it. Her hounds searching the tents and dragging their noses across the ground ''Recent.'' she simply muttered, dragging a hand through the ashes of the fire.
"So you can change forms, then? Well, I think your human form looks pretty good, even if you're just using it 'cause it's convenient."
Axia smiled, pleased that she was starting to learn a little more about Nymiria. The concept of someone making use of multiple forms wasn't completely foreign to her, as she had met many others who were capable of a similar feat.
"...Actually, there's a lot of dragons who have a human form, too. I don't think I have one, though... Even if I did, it would probably be kinda messed up."
The dragon's voice took on a hint of sadness, and she finally went quiet for a few minutes. She just kept moving forward, her eyes fixated directly in front of her. However, it didn't take long for her to realize that she'd completely forgotten to introduce herself. Abruptly snapping back into character, Axia piped up.
"Oh, I haven't told you my name yet! I'm Axia, and I'm a crystal-back... sort of."
When they came across the camp, Axia jumped at the chance to examine the scene and look for any sort of clues. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be much left behind to investigate. Nonetheless, it was surprising to the dragoness that such a camp had gone unnoticed by her.
"Hmm... I don't think I've ever come across this place before. It must be pretty new, or I would have found out about it by now."
Nymiria seemed to ignore the dragoness for a while as she inspected the camp. Not because she was un interested, but because she simply preferred to take things one at a time. There would be plenty of time to talk after the camp had properly been searched. After a while, an unholy sounding bark emitted from one of her hounds ''excellent'' she muttered, as the bark meant that the hound had found a more thorough trail.
Finally she turned to address the dragoness. A neutral expression spread upon her face. ''Indeed I can. A demon of my caliber is not allowed to barge around in its true form.'' she simply stated. She didn't really seemed to mind referring to herself as an it. in fact, she often found herself not really caring about most things. However, she felt some discomfort in the dragonesses words and she felt the least she could do was take some time for her.
''Its a pleasure. Axia.'' she simply stated, forcing a smile on her lips for a short few moments. She took a few moments to consider her next words, trying to come up with a way to make the dragoness feel better without exposing the fact that she wasn't such a bad person after all, she preferred being thought of as a mean demon, it helped with her work. ''Appearance is hardly ever important. Practicality and mannerism is.'' she didn't really know if her words were even related to her concern, but most of the time females seemed to be concerned about their appearance for potential mates.
She turned her attention back to the camp for a moment, noting Axia examine the area ''It is indeed very recent.'' she simply added, letting the dragoness peek around a bit. There was no reason to hurry, she had their scent now, they had nowhere left to hide. Every second Axia might delay Nymiria would simply be borrowed time for the sinners.
Seeing as Nymiria was taking a while to respond, Axia went on with her own investigation. It was, of course, rather uneventful; gathering information about whoever had set up camp was near impossible for a mortal being. Anything incriminating had either been taken from the scene or erased by the snowstorm. Refusing to be deterred by this, though, the dragon pressed on. She'd poke around the tents, turn everything upside-down, then spend a few minutes trying to figure out how to get her scales untangled from the fabric. Occasionally, she would breath a small amount of fire in order to melt the snow and see if there was anything buried underneath... without much success. Eventually, there finally came a point where it seemed like she would stop searching...
...Then one of the hell hounds let out a sudden bark, scaring the living daylights out of her.
This caused Axia to jump a little, losing her balance and sprawling into the snow. She sat there for a while, berating herself for getting so startled for no reason. Over the course of a few seconds, though, she started to berate herself for... well, berating herself. This was no time to sit around moping, it was time to go adventuring! Picking herself off the ground, Axia seemed to silently think something over in her head before energetically bounding up to the demon.
"Hey! Uh, thanks for saying that stuff. Being different from everyone is hard, but I guess it also has its perks. It doesn't have to be something negative..."
She paused abruptly, trying to think of what more she could say. Axia's conversations didn't usually last this long.
"...Sooooooo, did you find anything useful? Your, uh, friend seemed pretty worked up."
Nymiria couldn't help but snicker as the dragon fell in the snow thanks to her one of her hounds. She went to offer her a hand to get back up, but the dragoness seemed determined to help herself up. Working her face back into a neutral expression Nymiria listened to the dragoness speak, simply shrugging in response ''It felt appropriate to say. Mortal mannerism isn't my forte''
When Axia inquired what the hound had found she simply turned to point in a northern direction. ''The location of the demons I came here to hunt.'' she simply stated as she began walking in that general direction. She needn't burn this camp to a cinder as the storm would destroy all evidence within the hour. Instead, she simply began walking into that general direction, her hounds in tow. She took a moment to look over her shoulder at Axia ''I suppose I should ask. Why are you risking your life following me?'' she didn't seem concerned at all by being followed, but her curiosity demanded she asked.
The dragon nodded when Nymiria brought up her unfamiliarity with mortal customs. That was an aspect of life that she herself never really bothered with.
"Yeah, I can understand that. There's a whole bunch of dumb rules that you're supposed to follow, and a lot of them don't even make sense. Like, there's certain things you're not supposed to say, then there's things you're always supposed to say, even if you don't mean it... the whole thing's a mess."
Noticing that Nymiria was once again on the move, Axia immediately started to follow as she had done before. She took a little while to answer the question she'd been posed, but she was confident in her words.
"Well, I guess the main reason I'm doing this is because this whole situation is so interesting. This is a chance to learn about something that I might never come across again, and I say it's a risk worth taking. I'd rather die doing something worthwhile than spend my whole life being afraid of doing what I do best."
At that moment, a confident (or perhaps overconfident?) grin crept across her face.
"But anyways, I'm not planning on dying anytime soon. I'm a lot tougher than you might think, so I could handle myself if I got caught up in a fight. It's not like the sinners would want anything to do with me, though. You're the one they're running from, right?"
nymiria simply listened to the dragoness speak as they tracked through the snow. She didn't really pretend to understand the humans, let alone this dragon. She seemed rather, adventurous. She supposed, but she didn't know whether that was a good or a bad thing yet, probably a bit of both. When the dragon finished speaking about human mannerism she chuckled ''I can't say I know, I know basic verbal communication, emotions through my own kind and.. luckily, that usually applies to them as well.''
She nodded at her hounds, sending two of them rushing off ahead, while the other stayed with her, to help her track down the renegades. ''I don't know whether I should commend you for your bravery or call you foolish.'' she stated rather bluntly, though attempting to maintain a non- mocking composure. ''Most creatures do not plan on dying, its not something you decide.'' she paused again for a moment, further analyzing her potential answers. ''All are wise to fear me, whether they do it or not is of little concern to me. Arrogance makes my job easier.'' she then looked at her over her shoulder ''They would not seek you out no, but your soul is always a welcome snack.'' she promptly turned her face forward again, continuing their path.
Eventually, they would come up on yet another camp. This one, however still had two renegades residing within. It seemed they had split up, they hadn't detected them yet luckily, the snowstorm luckily messing with their senses as much as it did with Nymiria's. This was also one of the few times where being power restricted helped, it stopped them from sensing her vast aura, at-least for now. ''There they are. They have split up for some reason.'' she noticed her hounds prowling through the snow, already circling their prey. The snow storm luckily drowning out their shapes.
"Hmph. Well, maybe you're right. Maybe I am foolish, or arrogant, or whatever. Trust me, I've had those words repeated to me by others more times than I can count. But, you know what? I've been doing this kind of stuff for years, and I'm still around. I mean, I'm alive, aren't I?"
The dragoness laced her last sentence with pride, making it a point to puff out her chest as she did so. To tell the truth, she had been in some pretty rough situations before, and always managed to come out of them relatively unharmed. Though, to be honest, she couldn't say she'd ever come across anything like this before... not that she would ever admit to that. In any case, the words of another had rarely convinced her to stay away from danger before, and she sure wasn't going to start doing so now.
Axia's eyes lit up when the group came across another camp, giving her another chance to explore. Apparently, this camp actually had a couple people in it, which probably meant that it should be approached with caution. Of course, that meant that Axia immediately went to go check it out, not caring much whether Nymiria approved of her doing so. She moved through the snowstorm with surprising agility, moving at a fast pace while also remaining nearly silent. Hopefully, the snowstorm would obscure her presence enough to allow her to get a closer look at the area.
Nymiria simply shrugged in response to the dragon's retort. She really didn't know what warranted the entire story, it probably bothered the dragon more then she let on. Or perhaps it was sheer pride responding. In either case Nymiria felt no particular need to delve deeper into it, simply raising her brow as the dragon puffed its chest like some sort of bird would do during a mating dance.
She simply blinked as she noted the dragon sneak off. It looked extremely silly to her, dragon's clearly weren't meant for sneaking. But between her and the snowstorm, even a giant would be stealthy now. She figured she'd follow her, after all these two were her charge. She didn't really attempt to sneak, she knew that if her senses could barely detect the other two then they had no chance to even glimpse her. As such, she simply walked toward the camp.
Noting how the dragon moved to one side, she decided she herself would move to the other. Allowing the dragon whatever the type of fun it wanted with the other lost soul. ''I am moving to capture.'' she said, almost as if addressing an unknown third party ''release restrictions of dormant form.'' she pointedly added, her form quickly changing in response to the glow of the runes of her arms. Taking on the shape of a succubi with green skin and plate only covering her private parts, her long sharp horns curling along her head, two leathery wings bursting from her back.
She quickly dashed forward, hitting one of the sinner's before it could even react. Hand coiled around its throat, lifting it off the ground. A routine mission, that's what this was. It wasn't like these sinner's would be a threat to her, they had to be eliminated because of the humans they could endanger. Although she never quite understood why, it was not her place to question her masters. She eyed the other one, who gave her a panicked look. ''Well dragon, you wanted fun? have at him.'' she exclaimed before a long snake like demon replaced her tail, it coiled around the sinner in her arm, wrapping its mouth over its head before simply swallowing the poor sod, sending him into the abyss that would be Nymiria's guts.
While that was underway, Nymiria herself had let go of the sinner and turned her attention to the other. Conjuring an infernal bubble around the area, stopping it from attempting to flee. Eagerly awaiting what the dragon would do with it.
It didn't take long for Axia to spot something interesting, though surprisingly it wasn't the renegades- it was Nymiria herself. Somehow, in the span of a few seconds, she'd managed to transform from a seemingly human being to a succubus. If it weren't for the fact that the dragon already knew what Nymiria was capable of, she wouldn't have even recognized her. Fascinated by the transformation, Axia stood by and watched as the demon effortlessly took care of one of the sinners. Soon afterwards, she found herself in some sort of makeshift arena with the other renegade- clearly, she was supposed to kill him.
While the dragoness did had some experience with hunting animals, she'd never killed anything that she wasn't planning on eating. She stalled for a bit, staring down the sinner and trying to decide how to proceed. No matter what, this guy was going to end up dead; if Axia wouldn't do it, the Nymiria certainly would. She figured that anything she could do to hurt him would be infinitely better than whatever the other guy was going through. Besides... even if she did let the sinner escape, he'd probably just go back to whatever it was that landed him in hell in the first place. It was an unfortunate truth, but a truth nonetheless. Filled with sudden resolve, the dragon prepared herself to attack.
"...I have to send you back where you belong. Fight back if you want."
With that, Axia began to flap her wings rapidly, lifting herself slightly into the air and disturbing the fresh snow as she did so. The snow was blown from the ground, filling the air and obscuring the dragoness' location even more than the storm had previously. Using the snow as a sort of smokescreen, Axia waited a few seconds in order to make it hard to predict when she would strike. Finally, she dove towards the sinner from the air, stretching her claws out in front of her in an attempt to pin him to the ground.
The sinner stared at the dragon in awe for a moment, clearly not having seen anything quite like her just yet. Before long however, he recovered from his surprise, only to be pinned down by the dragon's massive form. ''No! you can't do this to me, you don't know what they do to you down there!'' he exclaimed, trying to appeal to the dragonesses good will.
Nymiria in the meantime hoped the dragon wouldn't fall for it. These souls had been send to hell for a reason after all, but she decided against voicing that just yet. She was curious whether or not the dragon was able to make difficult decisions without the need to work with absolute truths. She didn't really know why she wanted to see it though, perhaps curiosity, perhaps she felt like teaching the poor thing a life lesson.
She turned her gaze to the sinner being devoured by her demonic snake tail, as the crying and screaming finally stopped when he disappeared down the snake and eventually into her own body. Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly no visual indication showed that a man taller then she had just been pushed into her gut, showing that something entirely was going on, or perhaps that her gut didn't quite work the same way as a normal humans would. She let out a satisfied sigh, turning her gaze back to the dragoness and her ''prey''
''Lets not dawdle too long, we've got more to find.'' she added pointedly, hoping it would speed up the dragon's decision. From what she had seen so far, the dragon seemed far from a killer, but that was simply because the dragon had immediately noted she was not prey. Either way it wouldn't matter, if she came along she would no doubt be forced to become a killer eventually.
Again, the dragoness paused as she stared down at the sinner, now helplessly pinned to the ground under her claws. It wasn't easy to attack someone who had no chance to protect themselves, let alone kill them. Plus, the sinner's desperate pleading for his life definitely wasn't making things any easier for Axia. She was seriously considering the possibility of letting him go, until the anguished screams of the other sinner reminded her of what the alternative was. Shaking her head solemnly, she finally came to terms with her decision.
"...I'm sorry. I'll try to make this quick and painless."
Carefully removing one of her claws from the sinner's body, she shifted more weight on the other in order to compensate. She did her best to keep him from moving without doing unnecessary damage to his body, but in truth, she had no idea how much force his bones could withstand. Taking a few deep breaths in an attempt to keep herself calm, the dragon started lifting her other leg into the air. There, it hung there as Axia mentally prepared herself to do the deed. Eventually, she brought her claw down towards the man's throat with great force. She looked away as the claw sunk in, holding it there until any movement from the sinner had ceased.
Once she had assured herself that the renegade was no more, Axia stepped off of his corpse, doing everything she could to avoid catching a glimpse of it. Slowly, she made her way back over to Nymiria, tracking fresh blood through the snow. Unlike before, she didn't try to make eye contact; she did have a few questions that she wanted to ask, but she didn't really have the heart to do so at the moment. She just stood in silence, waiting to hear whatever Nymiria had to say, if anything.
Nymiria couldn't help but note the dragons reluctance, walking over toward the body of the sinner. She promptly leaned down, plucking the soul from the hollow carcass, tossing it behind her for her snake like tail to consume. ''These sinner's will try to appeal to your mortality. They will stab you in the back the moment they get the chance. Do not pity them.'' she stated pointedly, ordering her hounds to search the camp for anything worth noting.
She would force her to watch if she had been one of her own, but she was not and thus saved the ordeal. She would have to face the reality of this world at one point in time however, but Nymiria was patient enough to let that come to her on her own pace. She quietly took a few moments to savor her little victory, while her hounds searched.
When they turned up with nothing several seconds later she began walking in a northern direction, hounds around her in a group ''Time to find the last three, I am assuming they will be more interesting to combat. Perhaps, you'd like to fight them alone?'' one might've thought that she was joking, but if she was her voice had let no sign of it slip. It felt more like a simply inquiry or challenge then it did a joke.
Axia let Nymiria go about her business- whatever it was- and stared down at her bloodied claw, contemplating whether what she'd just done was the right thing or not. If it weren't for the fact that the sinner was going to die regardless, the dragoness couldn't help thinking that she would have let him go. In that case, though, Axia could have very well found herself dead instead, if Nymiria was telling the truth. Besides, the sinner obviously had evil intentions, even if he tried to hide them in order to protect himself. If she couldn't even bring herself to kill someone who who was undeniably evil, then how would she ever be able that choice when the answer was less obvious?
Trying to force the feelings of doubtfulness into the deepest recesses of her mind, Axia began to regain her usual vigour. She figured that she would have to get stronger- both physically and mentally- if she wanted to keep going on adventures like this. If that meant that she would have to punish evildoers, whatever that punishment may be, then that's just what she would have to do. With a surge of determination, Axia snapped back to reality and went to go join Nymiria.
If the demon's words contained any sarcasm, it was lost on Axia. The dragoness tended to take whatever people said at face value, and she did so here as well.
"Well, maybe I should try it by myself. If the other guys are anything like these guys were, then they probably wouldn't stand a chance against both of us."
Her tone was more serious than it had been previously, showing that the dragon's goals were starting to expand beyond just trying to learn and have fun. She'd committed herself to getting to the bottom of the situation, and she was willing to take the chance to do so now that it had been offered to her.
Nymiria listened quietly to the dragon as the continued their path through the snow. It wouldn't be long for them to arrive on the final group and then she could finally go home, perhaps sleep for a few weeks. She snickered, turning her attention back to the situation at hand. ''I was created to destroy them, so no, they wouldn't.'' she spoke without the slightest hint of arrogance ''I do however believe it would be an excellent experience for one like yourself.'' she continued her path with a sly smirk on her face. Clearly she had hoped this would have been the dragon's answer.
Eventually, several hours of constant walking later, they arrived on yet another camp. This one much more refined then the previous, occult drawings all over the place, a dome of infernal magic protection them from the snow. She squinted her eyes, picking out several figures, more than three even. ''as I feared, they are grouping here. Its a group of ten, still think you're up to it?'' she turned to the dragon, no sign of emotion on her face as she did.
''It will be much harder so there's no shame in backing out now.'' Her words were almost directed at her pride, although her facial expression showed no signs whether it was intentional or not. Meanwhile, her hounds set out to map the camp, find the exact position of the sinner's.
Axia nodded in compliance with Nymiria's first words, which seemed to approve of her decision. As she suspected, the fight would be pretty one-sided if the demon were to participate. In fact, it wouldn't really be a 'fight' at all; it would be a slaughter, just like the last one had been. If Axia's goal was to get stronger and have real experience in a fight, then she couldn't allow herself to become reliant on the help of others. After all, she wasn't always going to have an absurdly powerful being by her side.
"T-ten of them? I thought there was only supposed to be three..."
Hearing that the number of opponents had greatly increased, the dragon faltered slightly. Fighting three of them alone might have been difficult, but fighting ten of them was on another level altogether. Taking on a task like that bordered on suicidal... but then again, if Axia was the type to give up easily, she would have abandoned this 'mission' long ago. If anything, being told that backing down would be wise only made her more determined.
"I can't let myself back down now, though. There might come a day where I have no choice but to fight, and I need to be prepared for something like that. Besides, even if you say there's nothing wrong with giving up, I'd still be disappointed in myself."
After making it clear that she had no intention of letting a more difficult battle get the best of her, the dragoness turned to gaze at the infernal dome. There was no way of knowing if the barrier could be shattered through physical contact, or if it was dangerous to touch. Regardless, she started prepping herself for battle, prepared to take to the skies at a moment's notice.
Nymiria simply nodded in response to the dragon's words. Whether she was happy or not with the outcome completely out there still, as her face was not going to give more then the shortest of grin's. She quietly turned toward the direction of the sinners, using her hounds their eyes to see in the camp. It appeared they were drawing even more sinner's here, thinking of setting up a refuge of sorts. She couldn't help but smirk at that, they really had guts, she had to give them that.
When she broke the connection she turned to the dragon again ''There's ten of them now, but they are bringing more.'' she stated ''Its only a matter of time before more arrive, it seems they want to set up a sanctuary of sorts.'' she turned and stepped toward the camp, extending her palms, firey green energy sparked, creating an invisible dome around the camp.
''They will not be able to run, but neither will you.'' she turned to the dragon, gesturing for her to step toward the camp ''they are all yours.''
------
Meanwhile in the camp the sinners were setting up a portal of sorts, to bring through their kin. Five were actively working on it in the center of the camp while the rest patrolled the outskirts, unable to detect the barrier unless they wandered to far, giving the dragon the element of surprise should she take it.
So, there were more of them on the way... that meant that every moment Axia spent second guessing herself was only going to make the fight harder. If she was going to go through with this, then she needed to act as soon as possible. As much as she wanted to warn the sinners of her approach and give them a chance to prepare themselves for battle, if she did that then she'd essentially be digging her own grave. She needed to take every advantage she could get, even if such tactics were considered dishonourable by some. Turning to Nymiria, the dragoness spoke once more before heading into the infernal dome.
"I'm going in. I'll, uh, see you in a few minutes. Hopefully."
They were some pretty casual words considering what she was about to do, but she mostly said them in an attempt to convince herself that it was, well, normal. Immediately afterwards, she started running towards the dome and flapping her wings until she had enough speed to take off. She flew higher and higher, eventually stopping and circling around in the sky like she'd done earlier that day. Hanging in the air, Axia finished mentally preparing herself- once she went in, it was kill or be killed. There would be no way for her to turn back, even if she wanted to.
Once again, the dragon began to fall towards the ground while picking up a dangerous amount of speed. However, this time her momentum wouldn't be a hinderance- instead, she would use it as a formidable weapon. Frantically flapping her wings, Axia shot herself into the dome and locked on to the nearest sinner. Showing no signs of slowing down, she aimed to slash the renegade with one of her wings. If all went well, her blazing speed in combination with her jagged scales would be able to do some serious damage.
OOC: Sorry, short one.
Nymiria couldn't help but chuckle as the dragon took off with its final comment, turning her own gaze toward the camp and folding her hands behind her back, as if she was a recruiter of sorts testing her potential recruit against some live targets.
---
When the dragon flew in she was quickly spotted, her speed however was hard to prepare for and one of the sinner's fell quickly to her attack, her wing splitting it in half with relative ease, showing that sinner mortal forms were especially fragile, mainly because they were made out of soul stuff rather then flesh.
However, they didn't come unarmed, they immediatly retaliated as one of their kin fell, throwing bolts of infernal magic at the dragon from one side, while five other's tried to catch her with infernal chains and pull her to the ground.
----
Meanwhile Nymiria simply continued her observing but brought her hounds in close should she be needed to take action. She didn't intend to let the dragon die, but the dragon didn't need to know that. She was sincerely curious as to how much the dragon could whistand before crumbling, or if she would simply succeed.
Axia didn't feel much- physically or emotionally- as her wing cleanly sliced straight through the sinner. She wasn't entirely sure if that was because it never got a chance to react to her attack or if she was just getting more used to killing, but it was a little unsettling either way. The dragon finally brought her forward momentum to a stop, turning around and hovering a little in the air. Her eyes caught a glimpse of the sinner (or what was left of it, anyways), but she couldn't afford to dwell on it. There was no longer any time to think, only enough time to act.
Immediately, Axia found herself confronted by the rest of the sinners. Noticing some of them preparing to cast spells, she reflexively put her front legs in front of the rest of her body in order to block them. As the magical bolts approached the dragon, they suddenly began to grow in strength, becoming enhanced by an invisible force. These enhanced bolts exploded on impact with the dragon's scales, shattering a few of them and sending crystalline dust into the air. Thankfully, her scales managed to absorb the brunt of the attack, leaving the rest of her body relatively unharmed.
However, Axia wasn't prepared for what came next. A volley of chains approached from behind her, becoming covered in flames as they approached. One of them managed to latch onto her one of her back legs, yanking her towards the ground with great power. Unable to overcome the force, she quickly made contact with the ground and crashed into the snow. She immediately tried to break free from the burning chain, but it was simply wound up too tight for her to make any meaningful progress. Well, now she really wished she knew how to change forms- it would make escaping this situation a lot easier.
Seeing as she was now unable to take to the skies, Axia quickly tried to adapt her fighting to her new situation. Desperately, she thrashed her tail around, trying to take out anyone why tried to approach from behind. Meanwhile, she dashed towards the one who had chained her to the ground, slashing at them with both claws.
In surprise, the sinner was unable to fend off Axia and was pounced shortly after. Meanwhile, the rest worked tirelessly to avoid her tail, one even attempting to impale it with a spear. The group throwing the chains would simply continue trying to pin the dragon to the ground.
Meanwhile Nymiria simply observed, her hounds circling the dome in case something was about to go wrong, she had no idea whether the dragon was up to the task but so far so good. It wasn't as if Axia was chance-less or weak, she however still doubted ten sinners could be overcome so easily. Or well, eight now.
Once again, a sinner found themselves decimated by Axia's brutal strikes. Effortlessly tearing through the sinners brought her an uneasy, almost surreal feeling, but she was starting to get into the rhythm of battle. Slowly, the dragon's thoughts started to fade away until there was only one left: she had to win the fight, or she was going to die. There were no other options, no other ways out.
Unfortunately, being restricted to the ground meant that the dragoness was now a significantly easier target to aim at. This made the mages' attempt to drag Axia down with chains much more successful, with each one making her movements more sluggish as they landed. Despite having the strength of a dragon, the sheer number of chains was enough to overwhelm her. Realizing that she would soon be incapable of moving if this went on for too long, she started to focus her efforts and energy into breaking free of the chains. She even resorted to using her mouth, managing to bite through a few of them and freeing up some of her body.
In her frenzied efforts to remove the chains, Axia didn't notice the sinner with the spear moving in for an attack. The spear managed to connect with her tail, striking the spot where her scales had been shattered. A sharp pain shot through her body as the spear sunk into her flesh, renewing the stream of blood that had previously flowed earlier that day. In a sudden fit of rage, the dragoness let out a tremendous roar and turned to grab the spear with her claw. The spear stood little chance against her strength, immediately snapping and flying off in various directions while also leaving a few cuts on the underside of her claw.
Roar's of panic and anger continued echoing through the camp as the remaining sinner's continued their struggle. As the mages lost their chains they attempted to replace them with new ones.. While the sinner who's spear had been shattered used magic to create a new one, this time attempting to stab her eye out.
They didn't seem particularly scared of her draconic form, after all coming from hell tended to do that to you. Two more sinner's with axes joined in, attempting to cleave her scales with pure force, beating away at her exposed sides wherever they could.
Nymiria on the other hand decided to creep in closer, standing just outside the dome in case things were going wrong. She contemplated stepping in immediately but she felt that might just insult the dragoness. As such, she continued observing, waiting, seeing when it became absolutely necessary for her to take action.
Meanwhile the circles in the camp began glowing as more sinner's began answering the calls of their kin. She contemplated letting them come in so she could catch more, but that could also compromise the dragon. For now, she'd simply observe as to how the dragon would react to this new factor.
As the fight went on longer and longer, Axia's movements started to become more desperate and erratic. It was a constant struggle of keeping the chains from building up and trying to block the relentless attacks from the sinners. The dragon was being pushed to her limit, constantly exerting all the energy she could to even stand a chance against the sinners.
Noticing that the sinner with the spear had quickly undone the progress she had made and had created a new spear, Axia directed her attention to that particular sinner. She ducked out of the way of the spear, causing it to clash with the scales atop her head to little effect. She followed up by lunging forwards and threw her front leg towards the sinner, aiming to impale them with her jagged scales.
Soon afterwards, one of the sinners with axes brought the blade down on Axia's scales, smashing through them and knocking her onto her stomach. She immediately tried to push herself back up, only to be pushed down by the other axe. This process went on for a little while, but only became more hopeless as her energy was drained away and more chains started to pile on. Eventually, there came a point where the dragoness could do very little to fight back, and could only wait as the blades sliced through her scales and drew more blood.
Nymiria observed as all but one of the sinner's escaped the dragon's wrath, the unfortunate one that didn't being promptly impaled. She however did notice that the dragon was losing substantially now and that, if she were to let this go on for too long, she might even be slain despite a dragon's innate durability. As such, she quickly charged off teleporting into the dome and behind one of the sinner's with an axe, impaling it on infernus, whom had now taken up the form of a flaming sword.
Surprised, the sinner's not using chains to keep down the dragon turned their attention to the demon. Nymiria was easily able to dispatch most, showing she had been fighting these for ages, leaving only the four trying to keep the dragon on the ground. She didn't immediately move to take them out as well, figuring she had a little time.
''Can you finish those yourself or do you need my assistance?'' she calmly inquired, staring at the sinner's whom had trouble concentrating on keeping the dragon down, their resolve wavering as they saw Nymiria.
Coming to the realization that the sinners were no longer swinging their axes, Axia looked up to find Nymiria taking out the sinners left and right with relative ease. This came as a surprise to her, not necessarily because she doubted the demon's strength but rather because she didn't expect her to step in at all. The dragon watched as one sinner after another met their swift demise until only the ones throwing the chains remained. Afterwards, when she was offered the choice of finishing off the rest of the sinners herself, Axia did everything in her power to rise to the challenge.
"I... uh..." the dragon sputtered weakly as she shakily rose to her feet, almost losing her balance several times in the process. She tried to lock on to the remaining sinners, but they seemed to dance around as her vision blurred in and out of focus despite the fact that they were standing still. Feelings of dizziness and nausea flowed through Axia's body, and she started to shiver as she struggled to keep herself upright. This didn't last for long, though, as she was promptly overcome by a violent coughing fit. Finally breaking, she collapsed back into the snow from a combination of her injuries and pure exhaustion.
"...I can't..."
Axia went quiet as she lay in the snow, watching her own blood sink into the ground below. Although she was in no condition to pay much attention to them, her mutated scales started to glow faintly with a soft light. It was a subtle light, but it diverged into several different colours as it refracted across the scales.
Nymiria's eyes narrowed slightly as the dragon spoke, telling her that she could infact not deal with the rest of the sinners. She was somewhat disappointed, not by the lack of strength and resolve coming from the dragon, she actually really liked what she had seen. But she had hoped to see more, but letting her die would not give her that.
Quietly, Nymiria used her speed to leap over the dragon, grabbing a sinner by the throat with one hand and taking the chain from its hands with another, tearing it free from the dragon and using it to smash the other sinner's from the others so that the dragon could get up. She then snapped the neck of the one she held in her hand and threw his corpse at the other's, which caught a few unholy arrows in the process as Nymiria used it to block their shots.
It went quick then, Nymiria took Infernus once more and sliced through the group, dismembering them in the process as she ruthlessly and mercilessly cut them down. It took her mere minutes to dispatch the final one. She let out a sigh, turning her gaze toward the dragon, curling it into a short smile.
''Are you okay?'' she simply inquired, pulling the chains off the dragon if she hadn't free'd herself of them already. She seemed somewhat more compassionate toward the dragon. Mainly cause it had been years since someone managed to earn her respect in such a way. Although she had lost, she had more then proven herself to Nymiria, especially by not being judgmental toward what she was. '"You did well.'' she pointedly stated, gazing at the dragon.
Axia didn't bother looking up to watch the rest of the battle, as the outcome had already been made abundantly clear. It was a forgone conclusion that Nymiria would be able to take out the rest of the sinners without much of an issue. Instead, the dragon closed her eyes and waited for the battle to be over, trying to calm herself down and conserve her energy. When she felt the rest of the chains being removed from her body, Axia rolled onto her side to look up at Nymiria.
"I... should be fine. The cuts will heal eventually, and the scales will grow back. They always do."
The dragon's expression twisted into one of sadness. It was clear that she was growing uncomfortable about the situation, and it showed through her body language. She started to curl up in the snow, avoiding eye contact with the demon. Doing her best to hold back tears, Axia started to speak again, this time a lot more quietly.
"I wasn't anywhere near strong enough. If you hadn't jumped in when you did, I'd be dead right now."
Shaking her head, the dragon started pushing herself back onto her feet. She was still for a moment, taking a few deep breaths and keeping herself steady. Eventually, her eyes wandered over to one of the now inactive hellish circles, rekindling her curiosity to some degree.
"...Why did you interfere, anyways? You probably could've caught more of them if you'd waited longer, you know."
Nymiria couldn't help but feel a sliver of pity as she listened to the dragon speak. It sounded like she hated being ''weak'' and had hoped she could've proven different here. Perhaps asking her to fight had been a mistake? she had no intention of sparking this kind of doubt within the dragon, if her assumption was even accurate.
''Yes, you would have been. But that is what it takes to grow stronger. You cannot learn without first falling.''
Awfully wise words for a demon who normally didn't care. But secretly, she did grow a little fond of this dragon in their time together. When the dragon's second question came that was only confirmed.. She acted because she had begun to care. She hated to admit it, but she cared about a mortal now.
''I can always catch them later, letting you die would've served nothing.''
In her head, the response would've been different. She would've said she thought of this dragon as a friend and that she always protected her friends. But that type of answer was alien to her, it was even ''scary'' it meant showing that she was a living being rather then a killing machine, it meant stepping out of her comfort zone.
''I must apologize for bringing you such risk, it was not my intention.'' she added pointedly, attempting to diffuse the formation of guild in her head.
Like she would do with pretty much anyone else, Axia took the demon's words at face value. She didn't try to read into the true intentions behind her words, as doing so had never been one of her strengths. Instead, she busted listened and carefully considered what she had to say. If there was something to be learned from this, then she'd be more than willing to try.
"Hmm... I guess there can't really be such a thing as success without failure. But still, it's not like you can learn anything when you're dead."
Though she showed little to no signs of emotion, the demon decided to apologize anyways. This made Axia somewhat uncomfortable, as she didn't really want anyone else to feel responsible for her. She didn't want to be a burden on anyone, she wanted to lead her own life. As such, she looked towards the ground nervously when she decided to reply.
"You, uh, shouldn't apologize for that. It was my choice to try and fight them all by myself, so whatever happened because of that was my own fault. That's all there is to it."
Turning her attention to her wounds, the dragon began to clean off her claws and legs, using her tongue almost like a cat would. After doing so for a little while, she briefly paused to ask another question.
"So, what's going to happen next? With the sinners, I mean. It looks like they're not going to be showing up around here anytime soon."
Nymiria rubbed her chin for a moment, contemplating said next step. She knew what would happen to the ones they had already killed, as for the rest, they'd be found eventually, nobody can escape hell's judgement for long. ''The ones that remain will be cut down eventually, as for those who we slew her today.. They will be judged for their heresy. I expect most of them will have their souls destroyed.''
She turned her attention to the sky for a moment, before turning it back to the dragon herself ''Isn't it the human saying? what doesn't kill you makes you.. stronger.'' she rubbed her arm ''Or was it stranger?'' she eventually shrugged, not quite concerned which one it was anymore. ''With a bit more practice you could become a potent fighter.''
"...They'll be destroyed..."
The finality of that word threatened to restore Axia's doubtfulness of whether she'd done the right thing by trying to fight the sinners. Suffering through an eternal punishment seemed pretty bad on its own, but she could only imagine what the consequences of the destruction of one's soul was, not to mention how painful that process would be. The thought alone was too horrible to spend too much time on, so the dragon instead bottled up her emotions and forced them to the back of her mind. Perhaps they would surface again at a later date, but she couldn't let them overtake her will, especially not now. Instead, she nervously dragged her claws through the snow as she waited for the demoness to finish speaking.
When the topic of practicing to become a better fighter came up, Axia responded with a few concerns. "Well, there's kind of a... problem with that. I don't really know how I can practice. I mean, there's not exactly many people out there who are willing to spar with a dragon. I'd probably just end up hurting them, or doing something even worse."