Dragon Battle!

Ala, Bada, and myself - Druk the Thunder Dragon; a trio with potential power that could rule it all!

Ihar wished to have Jacob transport us to Korea, to face the battle of Bogatyr and Zmei. This was better. As Bada and myself sat on the back of Ala, a demon protector of the winds and storms, heading to battle in the far east!

How could Bada decide to join me with this creature?

After she realized the power needed to defeat Zmei, and drive him out of Korea, her homeland, she understood my mind.

Why didn't we believe Bogatyr could handle Zmei alone?

Insight. Vision. From my previous dreams.

You see, in the dream, Ala and I were able to defeat Bogatyr. Even if it was a slight chance and even we never saw him fall to his death. The fact was, we did win the battle, and it was obvious that my foresight into a future that didn't happen showed that he had become weaker, in some sense, even if it was ever so slight, after his years of solitary living.

His resolve was lesser than before.

Zmei needed to be beaten and driven away. If he even slightly got an upper hand in the battle, his confidence would burn like deepest pits of lava, and he would be near impossible to remove. Bada knew this once I told her. And Ala, the demon dragon who could take the form of a seductive and carnal woman, wanted power so incredibly, she was heading straight into a trap.

Zmei would be defeated by Bogatyr, Ala, Bada, and myself; then Ala would be defeated by Bogatyr, Bada, and myself. This was the best way. My idea, and my devious plot.

Would it actually work?

The Paektu Mountains in North Korea were spectacular. Arriving in the daytime, the grey mountains stood out upon the green landscape and sea-blue lake in the middle of the peaks. Except for Zmei, who sat upon the highest peak, roosting as it seemed, resting, and planning his assault.

Why did he move so near the Chinese border away from the capital?

We didn't know. Perhaps it had to do with waiting for his reinforcement.

As we pushed closer, the clouds formed in the sky, and darkness started to take hold.

Bogatyr was nowhere to be seen.

Zmei raised his massive heads, lept to the bottom of the mountain near the lake, and looked at us approaching from the east.

"What is this? Ala? You naughty demonic pretender! You travel all this way to do battle with Zmei?" the middle-head of three said in a booming voice. Then, in a lighter and scratchier tone, the left-head said,

"Surprising this is and fantastic as well! We've wanted to smash that annoying dragon pretender for some time! Now she comes of her own free will! Ha!"

The third head, on the right side, said in a well-tuned musical style of voice,

"And look! On her back! Two youngling dragons! How fantastic! One of them must be Druk, who we've heard so much about! Scaring even Malix, that old fool, into submission! Let's not kill them, just injure them, and then take them for our minions!"

The middle head then bit a chunk of rock from the hillside and spit it out towards us, with the right and left sides breathing fire and projecting our way! Ala swooshed upward, dodging both assaults, then let her lightning streak from her mouth towards the giant, green, three-headed beast!

Striking Zmei, knocking him back a couple of feet, and leaving singed marks on his chest, his eyes, all six of them, glowed blood red, and he released a firestorm the likes of which I have never seen! The three streams of flames merged together and formed into one firestorm that reigned down upon us.

Luckily, being resistant to fire, I was able to protect Bada and myself by placing us both in a protective ring of fire. Ala though did not fare so well. The falling firestorm caused her to gyrate and begin to fall with Bada and I losing our seat and free falling towards the lake. Ala then crashed into a mountainside with an explosion of rock and dust!

Before we hit the cool, blue lake, Bada placed a ring of water around us, and before we went under, I saw him, Bogatyr, appearing with a sword thrust to Zmei's backside!

Under the water, the ring kept us from getting wet, and we were able to breathe. Bada said to me while in a trance-like state,

"I can feel them. The dancers. The chanters. All the way south in Jeju-do! They know I am here, that I am home! They give me power!" and she shot me upward and out unto the banks of the great lake.

I looked up and saw Bogatyr fighting valiantly. Dodging the biting heads, and riding on the middle's neck, he continued to slash and thrush causing sprays of burning brick-red blood to the ground below, coming out of Zmei's flesh! And as he lept up and delivered a decapitating blow to the right-head, the middle-head engulfed him in flame, and the left picked him up in its mouth ready to chew him into pieces.

I immediately fired my own flaming breath at Zmei, catching that left-head from behind, causing it to shreik in pain and drop Bogatyr to the ground.

Ala came back.

Angier than ever, her lightning was unleased, striking Zmei over and over again, causing an electrical storm of the earth below him, consuming Bogatyr as well along with the now two-headed beast!

Zmei wasn't finished though.

As Ala flew closer, speeding up, going for her ultimate wind attack, Zmei hurled a boulder with his tail, striking her head before her transformation, and causing her to crash to the earth and slide into the pool with electricity lighting and sparking in the water like a voltaic miasma!

Bada was still in the lake!

Bogatyr then arose, a bit rough for wear certainly, lept to the air delivering a savage blow to the back of Zmei's middle-head!

He missed his mark.

The blow was intended for the neck, but as Zmei caught sight of the attacker and lowered his head, the blade cut through this head, exposing parts of his skull with blood blasting everywhere!

The great dragon was not defeated yet though. Despite the destructive hit, he was still going, and angrier than ever!

Before I could react, and great upward waterfall came from the lake, knocking me to the ground, and I saw the most amazing sight of my short years!

A large, blue dragon, shimmering in the light as if it had scales made from magical crystals, with long whiskers and a beard, black in color, the same consistency as Bada's lovely head of hair, and a multi-colored crown of feather-like dragon skin on its head, twisted in the air, throwing the body of Ala, humanoid Ala, at my feet! The grand dragon landed just behind Zmei!

The green terror turned to engage and received a blast of water and ice in his middle, already injured, head from the Yong Yungary's large opened mouth that ripped the top of the skull off bashing it into lava goo upon the mountainside!

"Enough!" the last of the heads called out. "You cannot kill me! How? How did Yong come to be? Impossible! I will go, yes, I will go back to my home. You all have defeated me! Wretched fools! Scoundrelly scum!" Zmei called out as he turned and lept over the mountain behind him, and could be heard with crushing feel running for the border of his homeland, weakened, frightened, and enraged!

Bogatyr fell to the ground, injured, and out of breath.

Ala, laying at my feet didn't move, and her flesh turned to black, wrinkled, and wretched with her dazzling looks fading and turning horrid in her defeat. She wasn't dead. And as he stood up, hunched over, glancing at me and looking away quickly, she shot up into the sky, leaving a black explosion of clouds behind which blew away in the fresh breeze.

"Bada? Is that? Is that? Is that you?" I called out.

"I am Yong Yungary the protector and Lord Dragon of Samhan! Bada was my human form. Your lover who remains in your heart! You will see her again. I have taken form by the power of my followers in Jeju-do, and by the energy of the lightning that touched my pond. I must go, and appear to my high priests! Bada will return to you in time. She is still too weak to keep this form for long, but rest assured, the entire Council of Dragons has seen or felt what happened here today, and those evil land marauders will no longer come to Samhan with the thoughts of conquering on their minds!"

She rose in the air, and shot away, towards the east and the sea.

Sure enough, no sooner than the danger ceases, Jacob appeared!

"Bloke! We need to get you out of here! The all-powerful dragon from China is heading his way! As you see, we sit on the border of North Korea and China! Although he is unlikely to cross, I still don't want him to see anything of us here!" he said.

"Jacob, of course! Ihar sent you. Where is…"

Bogatyr had vanished without a trace.

"That warrior bloke with the beard? He's gone! Let's be gone as well!"

He grabbed my arm, and we vanished!

Reappearing in my apartment back in Belarus, I grabbed Jacob by the collar of his grey and orange skin-tight neon shirt and yelled,

"Bada! We must go back for her! You fool!"

"No! You can't! She will come back in time, worry not!" Ihar, who sat in the lounge chair said, "Liba has gone missing! And it was because of turncoats, so everyone believed, at my hospital. In reality, it was a shape-shifter. She's not alone either!"

"Shiver? Big Pinky?" I sarcastically asked.

"No, there is another. In fact, there are humans with powers all over the world. They use Belarus as their base, as do we, the light side. Why? There is no Lord Dragon here to give us chase as has happened in places of the past. You cannot hear Liba's voice because she is too far away. Being kept prisoner in the United States where the largest amount of these evil superpowered people base! We need your help! There are heroes there now, that was trying to save her, but they have been captured. You and Jacob are the last hope. There is one problem, though. Someone has convinced one of the long, long-standing dragons of the midwestern region to awaken, and help … help keep Liba prisoner!"

"Dragons? In America?" I was puzzled.

"Yes, the native people there had lord dragons in their culture. Being of honorable origins, they would not interfere with human troubles. When the native people were all but wiped out from the European settlers, or invaders as some would say, the dragons when into limbo. One has been brought out through some kind of mischievousness and devilry!

"How dangerous?" I asked.

"Quite! For the Piasa Bird is highly skilled and powerful! Combined with what little we know of the Virtuous Villains, a name I think is silly and would rather not repeat, the evil there is powerful! You must go, with Jacob, see who is still able to fight, and try to save Liba! Don't try to defeat the entire enemy! They are too strong! Try to get to Liba and have Jacob teleport her out of there! Do you understand?"

"Yes sir. I'm ready! And sorry, Jacob. I shouldn't have…"

We teleported away again!