Fight to the Death (2/6)
Far below the surface, scores of prisoners hug the edges of their bars screaming things like, "Let us out!", "Don't forget us!", and "We're all going to die!"
Far above them, they see the quaking ceiling, and they hear the thumping sounds humming in their ears, as if the ground were a drum beating an ominous tune for Death as she comes for a visit.
As if to herald her coming nearer, the thumping from Dakka's tail strikes gets faster and faster, and the ceiling starts to shake and convulse violently in some areas before giving way – crushing anyone beneath the falling rubble.
Everyone knows that the fortress above them is going to fall on them shortly, and everyone wants to get out, yet the evacuation is taking too long. As per the acting warden's orders, it's better to let the prisoners be buried than to let them escape. So, any prisoners who aren't properly secured are left to die, while the rest are brought down to the teleportation portals in chains to be transported to safety.
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Far, far away on a grassy plain, a little girl in dirty trousers stops picking up the harvested wheat from the ground and stares in awe towards the East. "Daddy!" her small voice calls out, "Where's the thunder coming from?"
Her father puts down his sickle and looks out over the mountains. "Yeah, Nee. I hear thunderclaps, but it's not a cloudy day."
Nee looks out over the Eastern mountains and points, "Daddy. You always said those mountains were cursed by evil spirits. Do you think the spirits are fighting each other right now?"
The father shrugs, "Well, thunder can be heard from many miles away, so the booming sound could be coming from the mountains. Maybe the demons in the mountains really are fighting?"
The mountains is where the Pit is secretly hidden, and the guards kill anyone who comes too close, whether the intruders are armed or not.
Thus, it's not a stretch for the locals to think the place is cursed and full of malevolent demons, since any who venture there never return.
Many of the locals took those warnings as some sort of fairy tale, but hearing the constant thunderclaps echoing across the valley, and hearing a faint screeching and roaring on the wind, even the most devout student of logic would believe in spirits and curses.
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While the locals within 15 miles are gawking at the bad omens coming from the mountains, Dakka slams his tail in the ground one last time.
Truth be told, the dragon wasn't expecting to hit Haalfrin here. Instead, he was fully aware of the Wills moving stealthily in the streets, though he doesn't know where they are.
(Of course, he only knows the Wills are out there because Freyya has updated him on all of Haalfrin's abilities over the years. Knowing he has an army of Wills, and knowing he hasn't seen them yet, Dakka knows they must be hiding low on the streets, waiting to ambush him.)
Knowing that humans can be tricky, Dakka decides to wreck all the buildings and completely flatten the fortress, all while looking like he's aiming for Haalfrin instead.
Indeed, Dakka's plan works. With nowhere left to hide, the Wills are easy targets. Dakka roars in triumph and abruptly turns away from Haalfrin before blowing a thick plume of white fire that engulfs everything in front of him at a 90⁰ angle.
A third of the Wills have their bodies are burnt away. The weakest of them dissipate while the rest of the fallen Wills return to Haalfrin's soul to recover the damage to their spiritual bodies.
Knowing he'd been tricked, Haalfrin growls in anger at losing some of his Wills, and he orders the remaining Wills to go for the beast's wings; that's the most fragile part of a dragon's body.
Being aware of his own weakness, Dakka flaps his wings a few times and sends huge gusts of air that knock the flying weapons out of the air. Dakka slams his tail on the ground a few more times in an attempt to destroy as many Will bodies as possible.
Haalfrin looks behind him as he's using a flight spell towards cover, and as he sees the dragon stomping his army to pieces.
When he also sees his army attempting to spread out and flee, he feels something in his soul stir, and he slips into a momentary trance…
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For a moment, Haalfrin thinks he sees a giant, 7-horned dragon in Dakka's place. The great dragon is clothed in black scales, and its eyes glow a majestic gold.
Just the same way Dakka is slapping his tail on the ground and scattering his armies, Haalfrin sees the black dragon crushing millions beneath its tail with every swipe. With every breath, the creature kills billions. Even the earth quakes beneath its every step, and the world itself groans in pain and fear.
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'What the…,' Haalfrin snaps himself out of the vision.
Before he can right himself, the man crashes into the ground, as he hadn't been able to look where he was going while he was seeing the vision.
After Haalfrin crawls out of the hole, he curses under his breath. "Sh#t." He barely manages to dodge away from Dakka's burning breath, as the dragon wouldn't have failed to notice his enemy slip up so obviously.
Knowing he doesn't have time to mess around or think about what that vision was, Haalfrin continues ordering his remaining Wills to spread out.
With their durability being laughably lacking compared to the dragon's strength, they'll only get themselves broken more quickly if they're clumped up and easy to strike. Plus, if Dakka has to spend more energy chasing down the Wills, the weaker he'll become. The final advantage Haalfrin can think of is that it'll distract the dragon while he can get in close and try breaking off as many scales as possible.
Without scales, the blade Wills can actually inflict damage on the beast. It's worth a try, at least.
And so, this dynamic begins between the dragon, the human, and his army of possessed weapons.
If the weapons fly too high in the air, they'll get swiped out of the air by the dragon's wings. Thus, they fly low to the ground, and they fly in spear-shaped formations, as per Kaalhyme's instructions.
In these spear formations, the strongest Wills will be at the front and cut away at the intense airwaves. Even when they get knocked out of the sky, the comrades behind them will be protected to a certain degree.
Once they get in close enough, they can hug their bodies tightly to the dragon, where his wings and claws won't be able to damage them so easily.
With Haalfrin helping to strike Dakka, and with the Wills getting in close and stabbing at the spots with shattered scales, Dakka is under some serious pressure.
Instead of buckling under the insane numbers and relentless onslaught, the dragon roars out another challenge and keeps destroying as much as he can.
Even though his enemies are slowly bleeding him, Dakka is also destroying the Will army alarmingly quickly. His wing beats may not be taking as many Wills out as before (thanks to the spear formation), but there are still casualties.
The Wills are also harder to reach when they're hugging close to his body, but he can still slap them to death with his large claws and roll on the ground – crushing their bodies with his weight alone.
Even though the fight appears to be even, Dakka and Haalfrin both know that the Wills are running out of forces faster than Dakka is running out of mana or vitality. The fewer Wills there are to keep up the assault, the less effective their attacks become. The less effective they are, the more easily Dakka can kill them.
Knowing he's about to lose, Haalfrin pulls back his army and orders them to go down below and find more steel bodies to take.
After 600 years spent training in his Death Aura, these Wills won't be extinguished just by having their bodies broken a few times. Still, without bodies, they're completely useless in battle.
Dakka sees the remaining weapons clatter to the ground lifelessly. Since most dragons can't use spirit magic, Dakka can't tell where the Wills are going to. He actually thinks this is a trap until he sees the goddess's sacrifice jumping down a hole in the ground.
"YOU'RRRE NNNOTT GETTTINGGGG AWAAYYYY!"