THUNDERING SKIES

It was a frightening scene to watch and every muscle and fiber of Lia's body tensed up as the two forces rushed to meet each other. Mozrael was a bright blue with lightning spread around her full body leaving a trail behind. Aramith on the other hand could not be seen in the dark, swirling matter around him. He looked more like death itself as he morphed up at a shocking speed.

Lia had to cover her ears as the two forces met creating a loud booming shockwave that spread out in all directions spread out. The dome rippled at the sound and started to get even weaker when the shockwave of dark matter and lightning spread out to hit it. 

Before the clash, Mozrael had set up two shields all over her body with her Youm, but the first one was shattered, and the second was sapped of all energy even a leaf could break it. She dispersed it and focused on the situation at hand.

A dark mist spread out all over the sky where they clashed. Mozrael was startled for a second, but her senses were peaking and she could feel something was amiss. From above her, Aramith shot at her swiftly and even though she sensed the oncoming attack, she was too slow to react to the surprise and was knocked in the back. The force of the attack couldn't injure her well-scaled body but pushed her downward. She lost control for a second but twisted herself like a cat and gained control as she spread her wings wide. 

That was her mistake.

Out of nowhere, black spikes spawned around her, and a few penetrated through her. Her scales deflected the rest. Her wings took the most damage and she roared in pain. She was dumbfounded by the attack. After striking her from above, she had been monitoring the boy, knowing his every movement, especially the fact that he was darting above and not below, so where did the attack come from? 

It took only a second for the gears in her head to wind and produce an answer for her. He had set up these spikes before and his earlier attack wasn't to attack her. He only did that to push her into the trap. With stunning maneuverability not seen in a dragon her age and size, she spun and darted about, spreading and retracting wings as she dodged spikes that kept appearing from all around her. It could be said that she was in a minefield that could end her quickly. Aramith had lost it at that point.

She managed to escape the trap and finding herself at a higher vantage point, she was able to take note of the spikes. They disappeared into nothingness shortly after popping up. She frowned as she noticed certain black orbs and they seemed to be the source of all those spikes that kept attacking her. She charged lightning that flowed through her spine, spread along her body, and then blasted out in all directions. The sky was lit up by a network of white veiny streaks of dangerously flashing lightning. All orbs around her shot out spikes but disappeared after coming into contact with the lightning. The lightning also revealed Aramith's allocation in the sky as he floated with dark matter swirling around him. 

Mozrael faced him and he instantly threw out an orb at her. Knowing what it was, she breathed a large stream of bright blue flames at it, hoping to destroy it.

The flames all went to the orb, and as she watched, she realized something was wrong. The flames were all entering the orb too perfectly. When she stopped, she realized the orb had taken a blue color similar to her flames. That was wrong. She hastily bolted back, right away and the orb exploded, releasing flames that burned hotter than what she released.

Aramith was adapting quickly and she was getting more afraid. This was the reason why he wasn't to use his ability often, especially to end a person's life. He was the only person who had the dark attribute, so little was known of it.

The attribute was very versatile, but the more Aramith used it, the more the darkness would take control of him. He would grow powerful within a short while, getting more aggressive the more he used it, and when he killed someone, he would lose all rationality and be possessed by this bloodthirst that could never be satisfied.

There were only two ways of dealing with it; either someone more powerful than him fought him till he was weakened, putting him in a coma. The other alternative was Lia. She could use her Light attribute to nullify his power, but that would take a toll on her energy. In her current state, this move could sap away most of her life force.

Mozrael chose the first choice but was starting to fear things were not going as planned. She had rarely seen him use his attribute, so in this battle, everything was coming to her unexpectedly.

 His blackened eyes stared right into Mozrael's soul and he breathed heavily. He went at her and Mozrael was pushed to defend herself. She put on three shields and kept dodging his attacks.

He attacked like a savage beast, slashing at her non-stop with his right hand. Tendrils of darkness formed from his other hand and spread to wrap around her shields, exerting force on them. With the speed she moved, observers couldn't see anything, but Aramith still kept up with her, attacking like a madman. 

The tendrils crushed two of the shields and the third was on the verge of breaking. The moment it shattered. the tendrils wrapped around her tail and started to climb her body. She released a strong surge of lightning that caused the tendrils to disperse. She twisted and moved in irregular patterns, but he was stuck on her like a leach. 

As she tried to twist again, he shot at her so fast, she had to turn to defend herself. She lashed her tail, but he slipped under and was going straight for her head. Mozreal quickly caught his right arm in her jaws. She bit into it and he screamed in agony, struggling to break free. 

No one would have predicted his next move. He pushed back from her and the skin and muscles could be heard ripping apart. Mozrael was about to let go when with the sound of snapping bone, his arm tore off and he darted away from her, putting some distance between them. Blood dripped from the limb in her mouth, and she hastily dropped it. It exploded just before touching the ground and Mozrael sighed inwardly. 

He gave her no time to breathe before attacking again with the tendrils. They had barbed ends that left cuts wherever they struck. Blood dripped from his severed arm, but he gave it little thought and attacked with even more ferocity, screaming like he was crazed. 

She swung her tail and fireballs came out, exploding on the boy. dozens of explosions sounded as the fireballs blasted him. A dark cloud swirled above him, and a thick bolt of lightning shot down on his location. The lightning blast disappeared, and Aramith emerged again, looking unscathed. a dark mass was above him. A closer look helped her identify that it was connected to his severed arm.

She spread her wings and lightning shot at that dark mass. It shifted aside and shot at her. A strong fist grabbed her head and the weight and force of it pushed her down. Aramith lightly landed on her descending figure. She could see the dark fist was connected to his severed arm. His grip was powerful and the weight of it felt like a whole mountain was dropped on her. She twisted and turned, but the force was too much and she couldn't balance herself. As they descended, she noticed dark spikes start to form above them. They stayed still and pointed down, not at her. 

They smashed into the ground, releasing a plume of dust and scattering debris. The force was powerful, but her scaled body was protected. HE disappeared right after that and she could feel something wrong. Right then, she saw an orb above her. Remembering the first attack, she charged flames to shoot, but thoughts of the second attack crossed her mind and she stopped the attack. She didn't know what to expect from the orb and worse still that the little devil couldn't be found anywhere. A chill spread into her body and her eyes darted about as she sensed around.

Up above, the spikes slowly turned to face the orb. Mozrael had no idea what had been done. A spike about three meters long blasted into the ground in front of her. Noticing the situation, she jumped back and with a flap, soared high and away from her. The orb disappeared and another immediately reappeared above her head. She dodged another by a hair's breadth and moved away.

That's when the ugly truth of the situation hit her. This whole time, it hadn't been a battle. She had been defeated by Aramith already. This couldn't be termed as a battle anymore. It was more like a cat chasing a mouse. She couldn't fight back. The fear that started to creep into her heart wasn't little. The thought that a wrong move could end her life made her heart beat strongly. There was so much she wanted to do, and the person she cared the most for was trying his best to end her life. How cruel of the world to pit her against him like that. 

Dodging them wasn't enough and there were many close calls. She summoned countless lightning bolts that descended from the sky, striking the spikes. With each strike, a loud boom of thunder could be heard.

The skies thundered, and the Lord of the skies was now being hunted in the sky.