Shaashara couldn't help but bring a cruel and vindictive smile to her lips as she watched the vain and appropriately humiliating attempts by the boy to free himself, tightening the coil of her grip upon him even further. "Look at you. You dared to pity me, and this is all you're capable of?" He looked so pathetic, struggling for freedom, practically begging for his life-- but this was his own fault! How dare he, or that dragon, look down upon her? She, who had defended the Naga claimforests from humans and monsters alike? She, who spent the entirety of her life devoting herself to becoming a weapon for the sake of her sisters; She, who'd fought beasts twice the size of that dragon! She needn't even use magic against him.
"Perhaps I'll leave a message here in your blood; Lure her back to our territory. She may have caught us by surprise earlier, with her dominion over water, but she is but a child; A child stands no chance of survival against me. Would you not agree, boy?" She ran through so many scenarios in her head of just how she might go about killing the dragonette; So many methods, so many ideas. For added emphasis, Shaashara lifed her coiled tail-- the human included within it-- And slammed it back onto the ground-- The human along with it. "Well?" She repeated herself, before her coils further tightened, almost a flesh-ripping snare at this point. She briefly wondered if she'd rupture his lungs and organs first, or if his head would simply pop like a balloon under too much pressure... But only briefly did she wonder this, for moments afterwards, she found herself preoccupied with other, more pressing concerns.
"You are not worthy."
A concentrated beam of pressurized water shot forth from one of the nearby tunnels leading out of the cave; Shaashara's senses were sharp enough to feel the threat coming and dodge it, at the cost of releasing the boy from her coiled grasp. The air within the cave grew damp once more with the tell-tale signs of water magic as, from the tunnel that the attack just came from, appeared a very, very angry dragon. She'd been holding onto a couple of wolves-- beasts she was able to very quickly and easily return to the surface and capture-- but at the sight of the Naga, she dropped them. Her silvery eyes narrowed, her body giving off the warning signs of inevitable danger, those red bioluminescent lights bubbling to the surface of her skin. If the Naga could sweat, she might've right now... and yet, she stood her ground all the same, having retreated some 10 or 15 feet closer to the dragon's hoard to avoid that last attack. "Back so soon? And I was thinking of preparing a present for you; How unfortunate." She quipped, looking to incite the creature further; After all, despite that 'human visage', it was still a dragon. A young untamed beast could be angered into making mistakes in battle; Her greatest chance of victory. Yet as Lusca took another step closer towards the serpentkin, it seemed that she'd yet managed to maintain her composure... at least, for now.
"None may touch my treasures, or my friends!" There was something distinctly more feral, more primal, to the tone of her angered voice as she practically screamed at the impudent Naga. Shaashara didn't seem to be the slightest bit intimidated. Instead, a daring smile crept up onto her face as she, slowly, began to reach down towards the ground, Lusca's eyes following her actions with barely-contained rage. "Oh... you mean... like this...?" She said with a condescending tone to her voice, before her hand found purchase on one of the many golden coins scattered across the cave. She then, to Lusca's great duress, launched the coin directly at the weakened human not so far away, with enough speed and force to fracture a bone if it had connected; Lusca was faster, however, and with a dash and swing of her arm, she deflected the gold from reaching it's mark. A hate-fueled gaze was set upon Shaashara, before Lusca reached the limit of her anger-- eyes going completely feral in a maddened rage as she let out a terrifying roar and rushed head-first at the naga, clawed-hands outstretched. The huntress grinned a cruel, war-maddened grin of her own; It was a fight!
Lusca leapt forth, closing the gap in distance between her and Shaashara in moments and swiping at the naga with the full strength of her claws; She missed, however, as her opponent had been expecting it, and dodged by slithering quickly just beyond her reach. Lusca didn't stop her momentum; she kicked off of the spot she'd landed on and leapt forth again, slashing at Shaashara who deftly avoided by ducking beneath her lunge and slithering below. Once more she attacked, and this time Shaashara, ever the quickstudy, was able to read her movements enough to not only barely dodge her strike, but take hold of her slashing arm following it's momentum and, with great martial prowess, toss the dragon girl with her own momentum into the nearby cave wall. This was what Shaashara wanted; sound of mind, a dragon was a terrible threat. But angered, a beast was a beast. Her grin widened as Lusca, instead of smacking straight into the wall, had the werewithal to flip her body and land with her feet hitting the wall, absorbing the impact of the throw before landing on the ground again. And within moments, the dragon once more rushed Shaashara, but this time the naga was much better prepared.
"Sssssshaashara han sssjilaanha!"
Lusca's clawed hand swiped down at the naga once more, but were met with repelling, magical steel; Her eyes widened in shock as she realized that her blow had been stopped by the shaft of a magical spear, which had materialized into the naga's hands moments before! "Ha!" Shaashara triumphantly cried out, repelling the dragon's body backward with sheer core strength to create some separation, before twisting the spear in her hands rapidly and following up with practically sound barrier-breaking thrusting strike to the exposed chest of the beast. It didn't pierce Lusca through, but it once more knocked her back with enough force to send her flying into the wall; This time, however, with the wind knocked out of her lungs, the dragonette did in fact slam back-first into the cave's end, the hollowed underwater mountain shaking slightly from the force of the collision. She didn't fall to the ground, nor did she show signs of pain; Indignantly, Lusca pushed herself off the the small indentation she'd made in the wall, looking back at the naga once more; and more importantly, that damned spear she now wielded.
Shaashara smiled with twisted pride, very much aware she was being appraised as a proper threat now, and pointed her spear back at Lusca. "This weapon is an extension of my own willpower; Bestowed upon me as First Spear of the huntresses of Sjilaanha, and imbued with the strength of my predecessors through our proud history-- And it has spilled far more powerful dragon blood than you!" She taunted, further enraging the dragoness who proceeded to let out a powerful roar in return, before flexing her wings for the first time since she'd begun fighting. Shaashara was fairly certain of what it meant, and with a grimace on her face, she shifted on the spot almost immediately as Lusca, wings now extended, took to the air with a powerful flap, and another. Was she trying to establish aerial dominance, or take away Shaashara's close-ranged advantage? The naga didn't have time to think about it, as only moments after she ascended, another beam of pressurized water fired her way; She dodged it deftly, only to be shocked at having to immediately afterwards dodge another one, and then another. Her eyes were finally able to focus in the semi-darkness of the cave on the airborne Lusca-- Whom she could now see had gathered 3 large, floating orbs of magicked freshwater to her sides-- from which she'd been firing these beams of water. The naga frowned, gritting her teeth as Lusca fired yet another salvo of water streams at her, each with enough pressurized force to slice through the ground they came into contact with as the naga dodged one way and then the next as quickly as she could, before looking back to Lusca's location and seeing that she'd vanished; She had mere moments afterwards-- split seconds, even-- to correctly bring her spear above her head with a powerful reverse-overhead swing to deflect the dragon's incoming aerial diving attack, only to take a close-range blast of water to her torso, knocking her off balance and bruising her abs but otherwise not wounding her. This was, however, not the best situation for her; she realized that she was on the defensive, and with the dragon being airborne, she had no real way of luring her down, or preventing her from using that water att-- wait. Yes she did.
Another stream of water surged directly at the naga, and she dodged it as best she could, though she had not yet had time to mentally numb the earlier blow the dragon dealt her which resulted in the slightest bit of hesitation in her dodges. Lusca continued to rain down beams of pressurized water on her, however, which she continued to manage to dodge with a hare's breadth-- Yet even she eventually would wear down, and one more beam managed to strike the Naga's side amidst a dodge, potentially fracturing a rib even through her armor-like scales. Shaashara audibly winced, tumbling backwards off of her balance; Lusca's eyes narrowed, and seeing the opportunity, she stopped in place to pool her orbs of water into one, massive beam that she was only moments away from firing-- when suddenly, she stopped; Her feral, enraged eyes snapping back to conflicted, yet relatively 'sane' ones. Shaashara hadn't just stumbled backwards; she'd stumbled directly over near the human's body, putting him in the direct path of her attack. Lusca frowned, she--
"There!"
A sharp pain erupted through dragonette's left wing as Shaashara, who'd naturally only been playing possum, gripped her spear and, as soon as she saw the hesitation in her opponent, flung it directly at her wing. The weapon flipped through the air like a spinning sawblade, as fast (if not faster) than the coin she'd tossed earlier; In the air, there was no possible way for Lusca to maneuver fast enough to avoid it, and as such it ripped straight through the dorsal meat of Lusca's wing, slicing her straight through and causing her to let out a cry of great pain as she fought to, and ultimately failed to stay airborne, before crashing to the cold ground beneath her-- darkened blood spilling from Lusca's wound and staining the gold and treasures she'd landed upon. Shaashara smiled with glee; Raising her hand to the air, she re-chanted the summoning spell of her spear, slithering towards the fallen dragon. "Sssssshaashara han sssjilaanha!" From it's fallen position beyond her and the dragon where it landed, Shaashara's spear dissipated into nothingness; Reappearing in her raised hand as she now loomed over the fallen sea dragon, who strained against the pain of her wound to get back up.
"Humans, beasts, dragons; All the same. Ruled by your baser instincts. So easy to hunt. So easy to prey upon." Without giving Lusca time enough to attempt standing, Shaashara plunged her spear's head down at the dragon's lower stomach, just above the waist. Lusca's eyes widened and she quickly brought her hands up to stop the blade from piercing her; She was successful, catching it an inch or so from her body, but the angle her hands were forced to catch it at made the hold awkward, and gave Shaashara plenty of leverage to play with as she pushed down even harder against the dragon's defense, closing the gap at an agonizingly slow rate and causing Lusca to cry out in strained pain as the naga's spearhead slowly but steadily pierced down into her abdomen, blood beginning to pool at her navel as the blade found purchase. Shaashara was thorough; Her serpentine tail had taken to intertwining itself with that of the dragon's, wrapping and coiling itself around her own tail and squeezing down on it to prevent Lusca from gathering any strength or attempting to run away with it. With a fierce thrust, Shaashara plunged deeper still into the dragon, who could only let out frustrated whimpers of agony knowing instinctively that if she let go of the serpent-woman's spear, she'd be dealt a wound she would never recover from. "So... very... weak!" She proudly proclaimed, putting further and further pressure onto the dragoness. She would return to her clan with another legend to her spear's name, this day!
