Evie, Zolan and Kei did not need to speak as they continued to coordinate their attacks from the back of Onyx. The dragon himself was in an even absolute understanding with his rider as he flew forward – slowly but surely. A huge fire ball shot to the right. A crushing downward swipe of his powerful tail at the rear. A couple rending swipes using his front or rear legs equipped with long, curved and deadly claws at those unlucky monsters that tried to get past their defense from the bottom. Onyx coordinated his attacks beautifully with the three who were on his back, making the four of them an undefeatable team. The flying monsters were dying and falling like rain as this team pushed forward, leading the rest of their army behind them.
"We're doing well! Keep it up!" Evie took a couple seconds to rally her teammates and encourage them. "Just push forward a little more, Onyx. We're almost to the core."
A reverberating roar came from the rest of the first division army that had moved with them. They had heard the words of their Queen and were fired up. They had been fighting with all that they had to push forward and at the same time keep their losses to a minimum. So far, it had been good. And they were very close to that dark core they were aiming for.
"Your Majesty, something seems to be off with that place we are heading to…" Zolan had been doing his routine checking but found that there was something wrong. Something was different about that core he had decided to call 'black sun' they were headed to.
"What do you see?"
"The darkness around the core seems to be…" Zolan paused for a moment to find the right word, "…wavering. I can't quite tell what might happen." His voice was worried while his gaze was still trained hard at that one spot.
For some reason, he had a bad feeling about it because the black sun was just… it seemed as though it was alive.
"My queen, I think you should warn the others to be careful and strengthen your shield just in case." Zolan said, narrowing his eyes at the black sun they were approaching.
Hearing the seriousness in Zolan's voice, Evie immediately did as he had said and warned everyone.
'Onyx, you heard Zolan. Be careful. Also, inform the rest of the dragons of the matter as well.' Evie spoke to Onyx through her mind communication before casting another layer to strengthen the protective shield around them. Just as she was done…
"Danger!!" Zolan shouted out.
However, the warning came too late. Onyx suddenly let out a loud roar as he reared back, wings spread wide open as he tried to flap backwards.
"Onyx!!!" Evie screamed, her fingers clawing at the thing that had shot at them out of nowhere and was now restraining her dragon.
Evie did not expect that her shield would be penetrated through so easily – right after she had strengthened it too. A pitch-black tentacle-like ray was currently wrapped around the middle of Onyx's long neck and was in the midst of pulling him toward the core. It was so dark that it still looked black against the dark scales of Onyx.
Evie snapped her head up and looked at the darkest core, that black sun they were aiming for was now right before them. She could see the outer circle of it moving and undulating as though the surface was covered with a den of snakes. The writhing and twisting movement only sent a disgusted shiver down Evie's spine. Looking down again at her hands which were grabbing onto that dark ray, Evie could feel the areas of her skin that touched that thing chilled and numbed.
Immediately, Zolan aimed his sword and slashed across the rope-like thing that was pulling Onyx nearer to the black core. However, every time his blade sliced across it, the solid tentacle wavered and dissipated into smoke when cut, only to solidify immediately after. Onyx roared again and trashed, pulling back on the tentacles holding him captive.
Gritting his teeth, Zolan gripped the hilt of his blade and put more force into his attacks. "Blades seem to be ineffective on this thing, Your Majesty!" Zolan was exasperated after slashing away at it a few times without success.
Evie then lifted both her hands above her head, palms cupped together as she narrowed her eyes in concentration as her lips muttered out a short spell.
"Step back and shield your eyes!" Then a sudden eruption of dazzling light lit the surrounding area as though a miniature supernova occurred.
It seemed as though thousands of blades, each the length of a person's middle finger, slender and razor-sharp, all formed purely out of Evie's light magic and were just floating above her. Each and every sharp point was glinting brilliantly with the intensity of the power being transmitted into it. The brilliance of those thousands of blades grew so dazzling until in the next second, Evie swung her arms down in a swift and sharp gesture. That move sent those needles speeding down, converging on one particular point on the tentacle that was wrapped around Onyx.
At the same time, Onyx who was mentally connected to Evie, launched his own powerful and concentrated blast of fire column at the apparent source of the tentacle – the black core. Both this joint attack had the dark tentacle wrapping around Onyx to explode in a smoky detonation, causing the immediate area to be cloudy and for some short seconds, vision was cut off.
Kei and Zolan heard a whizzing sound speeding past them, as though wanting to drive through and impale them. They realized it was another dark tentacle sent from the black core as a retaliation for the earlier destroyed tentacle. The two immediately realized the tentacle headed straight to their queen.
"Queen Evie!!!" they both yelled as they jumped towards Evie.
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A/N: Thank you for the patience spellbounders.