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Rui’s warning came just in time for Lancelot to turn suddenly, narrowly avoiding a bite to his shoulder from one of the shadows. As it was, the dragon scraped him with its teeth.
But instead of getting torn in half, as Lancelot fully expected to be, he barely felt it. By instinct alone, he flipped around,lashed out his tail and smacked the shadow directly in its face, breaking its jaw.
His tail?!
A part of him couldn’t make sense of it all, simply leaning back to observe the situation like it was separate from him. The other part of him, pure primal instinct, knew what to do.
Without hesitation, he followed up the jaw-smashing with a chomp of his own, ripping out the shadow’s spine from its back and severing its neck.
Instantly, it dissolved as well, like the shadow it seemed to be.
He didn’t have time to celebrate, because the three remaining shadows came at him en force. They snapped at him with monstrous jaws, clawed and kicked, shot torrents of water missiles at him, pushing him back.
But Lancelot barely felt the hits. Perhaps it was adrenaline, perhaps it was the protective threads the Lady of the Lake had gifted him. Whatever the case, the shadows’ dragonfire bounced off of him ineffectually. Only the pressure remained.
His own fire power, however, was precise and deadly. Wherever his fire hit his attackers, it left gaping holes the size of a human chest. Soon, another shadow disintegrated, blasted into three pieces.
Lancelot locked all four claws with one of the remaining shadows while the other one tried to bite into his unprotected back.
Rui dug in her powerful hind claws into the shadow at his back and pulled with all her might, managing to dislodge it despite being half its size. She flipped it over her head as she used its own weight and momentum against it, managing to rip a chunk of its hide off in the process.
This gave Lancelot time to deal with the largest shadow in his grip. They snapped at each other with their jaws. The shadow’shead was bigger, its jaws wider. Lancelot had a narrower snout (snout!A part of him still reeled from what he was), which allowed him to stab into tight spaces to reach his target—
The shadow’s vulnerable throat.
He ignored the scrapes from the shadow’s teeth as it snapped and bit; he was focused on the killing move. And when he struck, he struck like lightning, chomping down onto the shadow’s jugular and ripping it out with a mighty jerk of his head.
His enemy gurgled a silent scream as it exploded into a cloud of smoke that dissolved in the water like diffused blood.
Without missing a beat, Lancelot whipped around to catch the last shadow with his long, thick tail just as it was charging again at his back.
The tiny fins that covered the entire length of his tail stiffened into steel-like blades as he slashed with it, effectively slicing the shadow’s stomach into ribbons. He finished it off with a blast of dragonfire into its exposed chest as it writhed.
Until, finally, only clear, still water remained, lit by the luminescence in his scales.
He gathered up Arthur and Annie in his foreclaws, avoiding their questioning eyes, as he and Rui propelled themselves to the surface with their powerful tails.
When they broke through, Wolfe and Merlin’s dragon calls greeted them as they circled overhead, the skies also free of enemy dragons now.
The sky dragons dove and transformed at the last moment so that they landed with precision and grace on top of Rui’s back. Lancelot handed Annie over as well, so that she could burrow into her Mate’s awaiting arms.
But he kept Arthur in his own claw, held tight to his chest. He wasn’t giving up his treasure just yet.
Arthur washis.
But even as he clutched Arthur against his heart, he could feel his body unraveling. His forehead burned something fierce. The more it burned, the less strength he possessed.
He looked into Arthur’s eyes as he felt his own vision blur.
Do not forget me, my king, he tried to communicate.
Wherever I go, whatever I am, I will not rest until I find you again.
I choose you, Arthur.
I will always choose you.
And then—
