“Kalus,” Howard’s voice breathed hoarsely through his earpiece, “That’s one of the Higher Order of Dragons.” He was more than familiar with their lighter Scales, greater size and dramatic flares of eye color. “That black mist around hi-”
“M-Particles,” Kalus realized on his own. His foe’s talons cut into the deck boards fewer than ten feet away. Only then did the beast step into the service light from the bridge, which was suspended above. A shiver rattled Kalus’ very bones at the first real sight of the Dragon. Scales like alabaster ice. Two ruby eyes glinted through, deeper than wells of blood. In the light, Kalus saw tendrils of blackness dance all around the Dragon.
“I am Donellanus, last King of the Dragons,” the beast growled. Kalus cocked an eyebrow at the bright scales wrapped in darkness. He’d never heard mention of a royal line amongst the monsters.
“Sophia will give you backup from above, Kalus. Get inside! You can’t take him alone!” his Captain ordered. Demi, however, knew his Arms Master well and had already sprung for the stairs to the deck. Not again, flooded through his adrenaline-fueled conscious.
“Yeah. Time to show the Higher Order that goes both ways,” Kalus snarled. He lashed out the handles of his Chrysum swords. A three-foot blade snapped out from each. They ignited with the ripple of Chrysum fire at once, green in one hand, yellow in the other. If His Highness managed to get through Kalus, it wouldn’t be without a few cracks in his stark white armor. Donellanus hummed in consideration as they blurred across the deck, in the hands of a master welder.
“You hide behind the flash of impressive weapons,” he considered, even while he phased between the searing edges. Multicolor streaks burned wild afterimages into the blackness of space beyond the deck, without a drop of spilled blood to show for it. Donellanus phased to the left, right and through gaps between the Chrysum swords with ease. “Your true value, however, is in your will.”
“I’d say the same for you, if you’d swing back!” Kalus taunted. He loosened his grips on his blades but was ready to spring, at the tick of a second, to parry Donellanus’ strike. If only he could entice one. Instead, the Dragon shuffled and strafed just outside the arcs of green light, then yellow. Kalus’ Chrysum blades nicked the cloak of shadows that hung in the air around the Dragon King, only for it to mend itself.
“I told you, I came to deliver an invitation. Though your outburst has given me some insight into who my guests really are,” Donellanus mused. So entertained was he, in fact, that he anticipated his foe’s next swing only as it came for him. He foresaw a connection of blade and scale, and so finally broke his evasive form. A single flick of his immense wing bashed Kalus away and sent Donellanus gliding back five paces. The Arms Master cut the side of his boot on the deck to spin back around, ready to launch. He would have, too, if not for the arrival of his Captain behind him.
“Kalus! Stand down!” Demi shouted. Kalus did about half of no such thing. He held his blades ready to slash, rippling with Chrysum fire, but planted his feet firmly between his Captain and Donellanus.
“A royal ball, then, is it? Hate to break it to you, Highness, but I prefer smoothies to scalies,” Kalus snapped in place of another assault.
“An amusing man,” Donellanus laughed in a puff of Chrysum steam. “You’ve twice the fire of some of my own. Even those in the Higher Order.”
“I didn’t know the Dragons had a royal line,” Demi called out to keep his Arms Master from launching yet again.
“The last King before me died before humans were a blip in the stars. There hasn’t been one since. There will not be one again,” Donellanus explained.
“Is that a formal surrender?” Kalus asked, finally too confused to keep up his aggression. His blades half lowered.
“I told you before, it’s an invitation. To our base. It’s deep in the clouds of Jupiter, like your WCC suspected,” Donellanus told them.
“Oh, it’s alright, Cap’. He just wants to crack open a cold one in his mancave and divvy up the Universe between us,” Kalus shrugged in mock casualness.
“I’m with my Arms Master on this one. Why would we walk into the den of the enemy on the invitation of a self-proclaimed King?” Demi demanded.
“Because it is in both of our best interests. The Jupiter base is a den of your enemies, though I am not one of them. There are splinter groups within my kin, even within the Higher Order, who aim to take all humans have built for their own. It would benefit me as much as yourselves to erase them,” Donellanus told them. This was around the time Sophia locked her cannons onto the Dragon King’s exposed back. Her finger hovered over the trigger in wait for a signal, until Lilia told her:
“Wait. He doesn’t seem hostile.”
“Human worlds and resources don’t interest you?” Demi posed, daring to take a step toward the hulking mass of scale.
“Not anymore. None but one. Mercury, and your sun,” Donellanus told them, “My calling became clear to me with my crown. The others have been…obstructive to my cause in the past. Now they are as much my enemy as yours.” Kalus and Demi shared an uneasy glance.
“Say we believe you,” Kalus began, though his tone plainly told that he didn’t, “Jupiter is a pretty big place. How, exactly would we find this base?” At this, Donellanus’ armored lips spread in a frightening toothy smirk.
“I’m glad you asked,” he said. Donellanus’ flung a claw out before him, which unleashed a spiral of darkness not unlike the SkyLine Launcher. It surged across the deck of the Cerberus, straight for Kalus. In seconds too short for anyone to react, the black cloud swarmed Kalus’ arm, constricted like a sleeve around it, and bit into his skin. By the time he wrenched away, several images had been etched into his skin, something between a burn and a tattoo.
“What…the hell…are,” Kalus panted while the darkness withdrew. His eyes jumped back to Donellanus, only to find him replaced by a burst of Chrysum fire. The smoke from Sophia’s cannon barrel, ready to fire again.
“Is the shot confirmed?” she called through a speaker to her comrades on the deck. Kalus and Demi glanced from the fire to the stars, in search of Donellanus’ remains. In place of them, they found the King of Dragons entirely unscathed, hovering high above the Cerberus.
“He’s on your three!” Lilia called out to Sophia. By the time their Artillery Specialist wheeled her pod around, Donellanus was gone.
“Damn, he’s fast. Way faster than the last Dragons we tangled with,” Sophia mumbled, fists tight around her cannon controls.
“Kalus, are you alright?” Demi called out, a hand on his shoulder. “What did he do to you?” Kalus couldn’t tear his eyes away to answer. He spoke while he read the letters and numerals imprinted on his arm.
“I’m not sure.” And Kalus remained so, until he returned below deck and Lilia got a look at the markings.
“He gave you an invitation,” Lilia realized. “These are coordinates.”