DRAGON RAGE: ORIGINS.

[murderbaby]

WHO: Aziraphale, Julius, Val, Mhavos
WHAT: Everyone loves Canadian rappers.
WHEN: Probably around Harvestmere.
WHERE: The Storm Coast
NOTES: Stop dragon my heart around.

• For reference.
• Top levels in comments, feel free to make ur own.

Comments

[overharrowed]

This was supposed to be a research mission Julius thinks but does not say, staff in hand. "Right, I think," glancing at the other three, "running might be the best plan, as we're not exactly --"

The drake picks that moment to charge and Julius cuts himself short and pushes out his free hand to the left. The intricate lines of a barrier spell flare beneath their feet (assuming no one has wandered too far away to catch in the 4 meter circle). He hopes someone else has the presence of mind to hit the creature before it actually barrels into them, but if no one does, at least it won't hurt quite as badly to be wrong.

[degenere]

Val lifts his writing-book so he can peer down at the lines of the spell, as they brighten into being. He has his book in his hand because he has been writing, of all things. Kept his back to a boulder, peered around to take in the sight of the beast as he had time and opportunity, making notes on the drake that is now coming toward their party.

He's not stupid. And he has a crossbow, which he is quite good with--and a knife--and a sense of self-preservation--but honestly, it is not every day that one has the chance to observe a drake in the wild.

"Very good!" he congratulates Julius, just as the drake barrels around the corner and roars. Its breath is hot, even without the ability to breathe fire. Spittle flies off of its teeth and tongue and spatter the ground. Its claws look like obsidian dipped in ink, black and liquid and endless. Fascinating.

[murderbaby]

Mhavos can't help but start at the magic forming under and around them. It's a small thing, and he has it under control almost immediately. He's seen magic before. He's seen mages before. But no one has ever used a spell on him, and it's... new.

It's new, it's fine, get over it.

"Can you move the barrier," Mhavos hisses to Julius, ignoring Val entirely. "Or do we need to wait it out?"

He's not going to suggest, oh, you fight the dragon, when he himself cannot.

[aziraphlail]

It's a dragon. A real, actual dragon. Aziraphale has always wanted to see one even knowing it was stupid to 1) want to be near something so dangerous and 2) wish they existed. For several seconds, as magic (real magic!) flares up around him and the dragon starts to move, he's nearly giddy with excitement.

Then it dawns on him quite how dangerous this is.

"We might need a miracle to get away," he says, quietly, and tries whisking them away. It doesn't happen. Another try doesn't do anything either, and he looks up, wide-eyed, at the dragon. Maybe a distraction? Somehow? If it was on slowed down, for instance. This time, something happens - the dragon does slow a little as ice crystals form around its forelegs.

He really should have thought about this possibility beforehand.

[overharrowed]

"Good thought," he says to Aziraphale. Presumably he means the ice, not the wishing for a miracle.

He doesn't linger over it, though. "The barrier doesn't have to move, it's on you until it deteriorates or absorbs too much damage," he says to Mhavos - not as if he should have known, necessarily, but briskly because his concentration is somewhat split. Understandably.

("It's on you" is maybe not the most comforting way to express that thought.)

"Waiting it out isn't tenable regardless, it won't make you invulnerable, just tougher." Julius himself is already moving a bit, fanning out to make the four of them a less conveniently crowded together target. "I can try to slow it down a bit, at least, but it'll take me a moment." It has occurred to him it would have been useful to learn more than two offensive spells, one of which is fire-based.

[degenere]

The drake, meanwhile, is seething, heat coming off of it in waves. It feels like standing too close to a forge, and Val makes another note before he snaps his book shut and tucks it back into his satchel. The ice that binds the creature's feet crackles dangerously, as the drake flexes its legs, straining for freedom.

"A distraction," Val suggests, brightly. "The thing about these creatures is that their attention is easily caught. It is looking at us now, yes. If we give it something else to look at, it will then, naturally, look away. I can run over there and make a great deal of noise. Any one of us might do it. But if we have the gift of spellwork... can not that create a distraction that might give us the chance to head for safer ground? Perhaps that way?"

He points, the way out, or back, or to safety, however you want to think of it. Primarily it is a way currently behind the drake's great scaled tail, which is as thick as a burly man. It will also afford Val a better angle from which to draw the creature's spade-shaped head as well. Very good, for him.

[overharrowed]

"Risky, but possibly our best chance." Julius mentally runs through his spells, looking for something handy. "A flame blast wouldn't hurt it much as a direct hit. Centered elsewhere, though, it's loud and literally flashy. It might buy us a few moments of divided attention." He wishes he had something better; he knows a lot of mages who would, but his own specialties lend themselves more to traps and dueling other mages.

He glances back at the other three. "If I give a try, are you ready to make a run for it? I can protect our rear if the three of you are a quick about it." They don't have long to decide, based on the loud crack of ice as the drake approaches renewed mobility. "If you can make it to that ridge, we can create a choke point there." Glyphs will be much more effective that w ay; thank the Maker that drakes don't fly, he thinks fleetingly.