Luck

I got to Goliath before the flames somehow. Wrapping my wings around him with my back to the demon. Using my body to shield him from the wave of fire. I was still in shock so I didn't feel any pain as the flames burned me. My wing membranes burned through first.

I couldn't actually feel the damage I was taking so unless I could see it I didn't actually know how badly I was being hurt. The flames only lasted a few seconds, but the damage was done.

"Nix," Goliath startled me back to awareness.

I hadn't realized I was asleep. I raised my head slowly off of his shoulder as I looked over towards the demon behind me. My single cold blue eye resting on his ugly mug. A growl escaped through my gritted teeth, and my murderous intent released full force. I didn't have to say anything.

My posture. My growling. My murderous intent. All of it said one simple thing. I had no mana left, and I was badly burned, but I could still see fear in his eyes.

My lips pulled upward into a terrifying smile. Absorb all the mana nearby, and put it to use. I took my hands off Goliath as I rotated my body, and dropped onto all fours. I wobbled slightly as I crouched to attack. I felt like I had no energy left, but running wasn't an option.

My body starting drinking in the mana around us. Healing itself as well as Gathering mana around me for an attack. I couldn't absorb it all into my body so what little healing I was doing wouldn't help me much. All I could do was something stupid, and desperate. He'd melted a good amount of sand.

Could I use that? The left huh? I lashed my tail out to the left. It struck the demon as he tried to surprise me from the left. Fighting him like this was affecting my space element affinity somehow.

I didn't have the power to knock him out with my current strength. The attack had only managed to surprise him. My elements reacted to my distress, and rage. Lashing out at him weakly. He looked irritated as he was pelleted with sand, ice, wind, and an electric current ran through him.

He portaled away from me as he summoned his fire circle again. Only this time instead of fire coming out a large snake made of fire came out. It's body was like lava, and it's eyes burned with deep crimson flames. The snake lashed out at me with its tail. This time it was Goliath's turn to shield me.

Goliath took the snake's hit first, but the power behind that hit was much stronger than anything the demon had thrown out. It forced Goliath back as he was slammed into me, and we were thrown. I could see Goliath's armor shatter at the point of impact. My vision was blurry, and I could tell there was very little of me that wasn't broken right now, but I could also tell that Goliath was out cold. He wouldn't survive if he hit the ground all rag dolled like this.

I wrapped my tail around him, and dragged him in close to me. Wrapping my damaged body around him as the ground came closer, and closer.

***

I woke to the sound of water dripping on stone floor. I tried to push myself up slowly. Measuring my injuries as I did. It was then that I realized something was on me. Most of my ribs were broken.

I couldn't be lifting too much weight in this condition so I had to be careful of whatever was on me. If it was too heavy I risked collapsing an already severely compromised rib cage. I started dragging myself out from under it with my left arm which was the one that felt less damaged to me. There was some light filtering into this place. Seems like I punched a hole through the roof when I fell in here.

I stopped for a breather. I couldn't breath in properly right now so it would be really bad for me to put myself in a situation where I needed to draw more air in. I looked at the water on my hand to see if it was clean enough to drink. My eyes widened in shock when I realized that the liquid I was laying in wasn't water. I was laying in a pool of blood.

I couldn't have bled this much, and still been able to think clearly, but the blood had to come from somewhere. I pulled out my light ball, and shook it best I could for a few seconds. I didn't manage to get it as bright as I usually did, but it was enough for me to see the battered body of Nix. He was beaten, and burned to the point that he was almost unrecognizable. One of his horns had been broken off completely.

I couldn't tell if he was breathing or not. I'd never see him so still.

"I hate doing this," I needed to get out from underneath him without disturbing him further.

I started shrinking. Not many people knew that my growth ability went both directions. I'd always preferred to go larger rather than smaller since I was always a big kid growing up. I'd actually discovered my ability by shrinking accidentally. Finding out you take after your dad is never a bad thing.

I snuck my way out from underneath him, and started expanding back to my normal size. It hurt to shrink like that after so long. Expanding after shrinking wasn't doing me any favors either. I stumbled to my feet. Resisting the urge to clutch my damaged ribs.

I grabbed my light ball, and shook it harder now that I was up. It got brighter, and started floating off the palm of my hand into the air.

"Good," I mumbled to myself, "Seems like I charged it enough this time."