Mockery Deathmatch Episode 5: Dominated

The wet mushy grass squeaked under the shifting rubber boots of the cloaked figures as their masks split right from their faces.
In an instant their golden masks exploded into fragments, revealing a male, green half-orc features with long teal hair, golden eyes, and tusks. For a heartbeat, he froze, looking to his side.

His partner next to him too stood there with her face revealed. Showing to be a human woman, dirty blonde hair with a red bandana, blue eyes revealing crow's feet. As she looked back slowly, assessing the identity of her partner, she almost instinctively let her thoughts slip.

"Well, I'll be damned. You're just a kid."

"Kid?" Xentus replied defensively, but as their guards were down even for a moment, the ballerina in front of them launched herself through the air with a fluid swoop. Xentus's dagger cut through empty space again and again, each strike missing by mere inches.

"Damn it... She's fast!"

Almost as if rehearsed, her mask appeared in front of his face not even an inch away "Or maybe~ You're just slow!~"
She followed with a tap on the nose before vanishing in their liquid back and forth.

Behind them, Honey crouched over Malcolm's unconscious body while tracking the fight with her mechanical eye.
"Tch...Somethin' ain't right, I can feel it, I just know..."

Her eye zoomed in and out, readjusting focus frequently to keep up with those theatrical pirouettes. Occasionally Honey flinched in increasing annoyance as the masked woman kept unpredictably heading for her and Malcolm's direction before getting intercepted.
"Why does she keep doin' that if she's gonna continue dancin' away?"

"Is she just puttin' on a show instead of tryin' to win?"

Xentus's wet clothes gave him cold chills on an already itchy back. Their intense fight splintered and crashed the nearby trees, increasing that nauseating odor that had been plaguing the island. The ground became increasingly difficult to maneuver, forcing all three combatants to adjust their footing constantly.

"There's a pattern here..." Honey mused. "She's usin' the same spin every third attack. Same leap and dodge combo when cornered by that tree..."

She looked down at the still unconscious Malcolm and back to the scene. "What are ya playin' at?"

Testing her theory, Honey raised her mechanical arm's rifle and fired. The shot rang out just as the masked woman twisted away from Xentus's thrust, the bullet aimed precisely where her evasion would take her.

Yet, she flowed around the bullet like water as if it bounced back from it.

"What the hell..?" Honey fired again. And again.
Each shot perfectly timed, but she avoided them all with that same ease, while giggling like a 10-year-old girl playing tag.

Then Xentus's foot caught something, tripping him down hard, his shoulder slamming into a trunk with an audible pop.

"Ah, fuck!" He clutched his shoulder, face twisted in pain.

Honey's eyes narrowed. She tapped her temple, activating a kind of infrared mode on her mechanical eye. Her vision turned to heat signatures and electromagnetic readings, suddenly revealing hundreds of thin lines woven between the trees in a big web.

"Oh you have got to be kiddin' me," Honey muttered.

The frantic high-pitched laughter felt like breaking glass, a sound that somehow managed to pierce through Malcolm's unconsciousness.
His eyes shot open just as she pulled a long string of silk tissues from her throat with a show.

"Okay that's enough," Honey muttered, rising to her feet quickly. As she looked over to the freshly awakened Malcolm, with new determination she said,

"Mornin', hun, glad you're awake, now get behind that tree. Now," in a firm but friendly tone as she finished reloading her arm with a click.

While Malcolm nodded and moved, she ran up to Xentus, grabbing his shoulder without warning.

"Wait Wait Wait, don't—"

Pop.

"AHHH!!! FFFFUCK!"

"Can't you be arsed to at least warn me a little?!"

With a more stern and unamused lower tone, she cut through Xentus's panic. "Can you fight, hun?"

Startled, Xentus held his breath before he exhaled. "I can fight." He rolled his shoulder, wincing. "Right then... Let's finish this slag."

Teaming up together, the more time passed, the more they moved as a unit. Honey circled wide, instructing Xentus to evade the threads, allowing him to attack with two daggers at high dexterity. Every time the masked woman attempted her signature evasive maneuvers, Xentus was already there, forcing her into Honey's line of fire.

The choreography was brutal yet beautiful, three dancers in a deadly ballet, with Malcolm watching in dizzy fascination from his hiding spot.
"Damn... Nobody's gonna believe me when I tell them 'bout this..."

In the progression of the battle, the masked woman got more and more creative. She pulled trick after trick from her arsenal: afterimages that confused the eye, contortions that no human could mimic, or magic trick sleights of hand that made her seem to teleport.

But Xentus and Honey were starting to adapt; they began to corner their prey.

CRACK!

The woman's mask sounded as the bottom half of the porcelain mask shattered when Honey's bullet hit it from the side. Caught off guard, she stumbled when Xentus's blade found her ribs. For the first time, she cried out in genuine pain, a sound that was disturbingly monstrous beneath the theatrical childish act.

"Now!" Xentus lunged forward for the killing blow.

When the masked woman with her bloody arm whipped toward Honey, spraying thick crimson muck directly into the mechanisms of her mechanical limb. Sparks flew as the delicate machinery got jammed, clattering down with a limp motion.

"My arm!" Honey stared in horror as her mechanical arm hung there without motion.

Wasting no breath, the masked woman leaped onto Honey with predatory intent, pinning her to the ground. When she was face to face with her, Honey finally noticed glimpses of something inhuman underneath the now partially shattered mask. A jaw that opened wide with teeth that were needle sharp.

She struck like an animal, clamping down on Honey's flesh-and-blood arm with savage force. Honey's scream tore through the jungle as those needle-sharp teeth sank deep, finding bone.

"Get off her!" Xentus hammered his fists against the woman's skull, kicked her ribs, tried everything to break her grip. She only bit down harder, her growls mixing with Honey's agonized cries.

Malcolm watched from a distance in utter horror at the turn of events. Looking for something to turn the tides, soon after, he appeared with a thick branch, swinging it like a club into the back of the woman's neck. The impact caught her off-guard, and she released Honey's arm with a pained yelp, clutching her pale pointy ear.

She spun around, locked on Malcolm. A sickening killing intent sent a shiver down Malcolm's spine.
Nothing like the tiger he witnessed earlier that day. He couldn't move at all...

Caught in a death stare of the woman, now standing on all fours glaring into his soul, Xentus seized the opening. His hand tangled in her hair, yanking her head back to expose her throat. His blade slashed her stomach, then her chest when she broke free, nearly breaking her own hair off in her escape.

The sound that emerged from her throat was nothing human. She stumbled against a tree, her costume torn and bloody, pale skin exposed now covered in black blood.

Xentus stood over her, cradling his injured arm while supporting Honey, whose mechanical arm hung useless at her side.

Under the masked woman's nearly raw crackling voice, breathing through her teeth, still a smile popped up, covered in blood.

"So... Hsshss... T-this is the final act...Hsshss...?"

"'Nuff with your damn act!" Honey spat through gritted teeth. "We're closin' your theater for good."

Something about those words did not sit right with the masked woman.
Desperately, she attempted to delay the inevitable and began crawling away, her gleeful spirit completely shattered at last.

"Please," she whispered, the word barely audible. "Please, I—"

Xentus raised his blade, mana beginning to flow along its edge in preparation for the killing blow.

When a sudden mushroom cloud formed in the far distance, covering the sky. With a delayed sound catching up, a blinding light followed as an incredible shockwave clapped like thunder, rippling through the trees and evaporating anything in sight with a mighty force.

The blast hit like a wall of compressed air. Trees became projectiles launched by hurricane winds. Debris rained from the sky as Xentus and Honey found themselves clinging to the nearest solid objects they could reach, Malcolm nearly torn from his feet by the force.

When the chaos finally settled and they could lower their arms from their faces, almost half the forest was gone... And so was the masked woman. Only massive, bestial footprints remained in the muddy earth, but the tracks faded.

"Everyone alright?! What the hell was that?" Malcolm breathed, staring at the massive clearing, in the direction of the explosion.

With a rough dent in her metal arm, Honey lowered her cover. "I can't believe it..."

"Honey, can you see anything?" Xentus asked, slumping against a tree with his eyes closed. "Keep watch while I try something."

"'Bout a mile on a clear day, but this day's messin' with the optics."

Xentus's sun and moon tattoos on the palms of his hands glowed blue as he covered his eyes.
Malcolm waited in anticipation as a big black raven materialized in a puff of smoke, directly launching itself skyward.

But when another shockwave rippled through the air, Xentus jolted back up violently.

"Shit!" He quickly moved next to Honey.

"What do you see?"

"Whatever it is...it ain't good," Honey muttered.

A few hundred feet away, a line of remaining trees began snapping like matchsticks, falling sideways in a perfectly straight path heading directly toward them. The destruction moved with intent.

Malcolm, trying to understand their situation, moved closer. "Don't y'all think we should probably move?"

Through the chaos, they caught a glimpse of something small and furry sprinting toward them through the falling timber. A red-furred creature with oversized metal gauntlets holding a gemstone, running for its life.

"What in tarnation—" Honey started.

The creature leaped toward them, but one of the masked woman's lingering threads caught it mid-air, becoming thoroughly entangled.

"Wha—!" it cried, struggling. "Get me out of here!!"

Cailleach hung suspended in the air, her fur matted with blood and dirt.

"Easy there, darlin'," Honey said, approaching cautiously. "What are you runnin' from?"

"There's no time, cut me loose immediately or else—!"

"Answer her question," Xentus demanded.

Honey noticed Cailleach clutching something in her gauntlet. "What do you got there?"

"None of your damn business, now let me go or I'll blow this place to bits!"

Xentus and Honey looked at each other with a serious expression.

"That was...your doing?"

Her voice shot up a few octaves, "Nu-Nu-Nu-Nu-Noooooo! Certainly not—That's a ridiculous conclusion...I—I just—" Before Cailleach managed to finish her sentence, the stone clutched in her palm pulsed with urgent light, forcing itself out of her grasp. At the same moment, the stone from Malcolm's pocket shot up, swirling around with the one Cailleach had, glowing and spinning in mid-air.

Both stones suddenly erupted in brilliant light, and merged with a sound like a gong, forming a single, larger stone that pulsed with malevolent energy.

"AAAAAAAAH!!" Cailleach screamed. "Why is this happening to me!!... WORST...DAY...EVER!" She yelled as her body still hung 7 ft above ground.

"What the..." Malcolm whispered when his eyes suddenly rolled back, and when they focused again, they blazed with yellow light.

His voice, deep like the roar of a lion.

"Aaah~ How un...expected... One moment...you're nearly wiped out by an explosion, the other, you're back in one piece..."

The dragon's voice spoke through Malcolm. "You have caused me considerable pain with your pathetic attempts to steal what is mine."

The dragon, in Malcolm's body, walked up to Cailleach and elevated himself above her head, looking down on her.

"I despise when people take what's mine... Fortunately, you returned what I lost in double, and for that... you have my gratitude, little pest."

"But you have served your purpose."

Malcolm's possessed form drew back his fist. "Please, let me return the favor."
The punch that followed sent Cailleach flying through the air, crashing through tree after tree until she disappeared into the distant jungle with a thunderous crash.

The yellow light faded from Malcolm's eyes as the dragon's spirit emerged, first as a translucent floating head, then, it expanded into a full ethereal form that towered above the trees. Its eyes burned with ancient malice as it began to float toward the direction of Cailleach, the merged stone following after him.

Malcolm lunged upward, grabbing the stone with both hands. "No!"

Honey yelled out at Malcolm in concern, "Malcolm don't, it ain't worth it!"

But he didn't budge, and with all of his strength tried to hold the stone's force in place, clutched in his palms as it lifted him off the ground.
"There's a site behind this forest... of ancient ruins!" Malcolm gasped, still fighting to hold onto the stone. "I don't fully get it but... I think if it gets the stone there, we'll endanger the entire island!"

The dragon's laughter hummed a vibration in their bodies. "Clever, very clever. But your resistance is futile."

"What do you know about this stuff?" Xentus said while increasingly aware of the dangers.

"The... dragon can only manifest in a certain radius around the monolith," Malcolm continued, strain evident in his voice. "If we could get far enough away—"

"Enough!" The dragon's voice echoed in their heads. "You will complete your purpose, as my vessel, whether you cooperate or not."

It turned its attention toward the distant jungle where Cailleach had landed, watching her tiny form attempting to flee once again. "First, I will settle the score with this pest maggot... Don't make me wait again, MARCH."

The dragon's voice boomed as it shot toward Cailleach like a comet.

Malcolm's body went rigid, then began marching toward the distant ruins, carrying the merged stone. Xentus and Honey tried to physically restrain him, while attempting to take the stone but Malcolm's possessed form resisted with strength that nearly dislocated their already damaged joints.

"This ain't workin'," Honey panted, watching Malcolm's face contort with inhuman effort. "He'll tear himself apart."

"Then we follow," Xentus said grimly. "We'll find a way to stop this thing before it all goes to shit."

The ruins rose higher from the island dirt like broken teeth and draconic symbols covered every surface at the site.

In the center stood a black monolith with a magical mist crawling over the ground around it.
As the mist touched the grass fields around Xentus and Honey, it began to turn sharp like spikes, moving around like it had a life of its own.

Above them, the sound of battle raged on, with Cailleach who emerged briefly, clinging to the head of the dragon, her gauntlets glowing a purple hue at every hit.

Up in the clouds in the heat of combat, a tear fell down Cailleach's furry face as she talked to herself.
"I can't believe it's come to this moment Cailleach... you really messed up this time..."

"I can't believe I'm asking for—"

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!!!!!"

An echoing cry for help sounded from within the scattering clouds.

"Oh dear...I—I think she's buying us time," Honey observed, peering through her mechanical eye. "But not much..."

As they approached, the spiky grass around the monolith began to boil as it crawled all the way to the dry ground around the monolith, leaving only the path around Malcolm safe to tread. Quickly Xentus and Honey scrambled up into the trees, watching helplessly as Malcolm walked the narrow corridor toward the black pillar.

"The stone," Honey breathed, focusing on the monolith. "It's tryin' to resurrect itself. Malcolm's just the delivery boy, we gotta stop 'em..."

"Can you shoot?" Xentus asked.

Honey tried to lift her mechanical arm. Pain shot through her nervous system as gears ground against dried blood and foreign matter, but she gritted her teeth. "It hurts like hell, but I reckon I can manage one good shot."

She began the painful process of clearing the mechanisms while Xentus leaped from tree to tree, using every acrobatic skill he possessed to navigate the spike field.

The dragon noticed Xentus approaching and roared, sending a shockwave that knocked Cailleach down to Xentus, both hitting the ground hard, rolling to absorb the impact.

Simultaneously letting out a weak "Ahhhhh.....!!!"

Panicking in a rush to fix her bent metal arm, Honey yelled out to Malcolm at the top of her lungs.

"MALCOLM! WAKE UP!! MAAALCOLM!!!!" frantically fidgeting with her arm, nearly losing her footing on the branch she was sitting on.

Malcolm's hand trembled as he raised the stone toward the monolith, some part of his consciousness still fighting the compulsion. For a moment, his eyes cleared, and he looked around in confusion.

"What... where am I? What's happe—?"

Looking at himself hovering over the monolith, almost at the perfect height to put the stone in, in reflex, Malcolm tossed the stone aside as far as possible, nearly hitting Cailleach and Xentus who just got up.

Cailleach quickly crawled up ready to pick it up when the dragon grew frustrated, focusing its will entirely on the stone, lifting it telekinetically right before she could reach it.

"AH no!!"

With a low growling hum of the dragon concentrating its every being to press the stone toward the monolith at full speed, right as the stone clicked onto the socket, a shot rang out across the ruins.

The stone exploded in a shower of shards, its pieces scattering across the ancient stones. The dragon's roar of rage and disbelief shook the earth so violently that various trees collapsed, including the tree Honey was sitting in.

When the dragon spirit popped out of existence, particles flying all over until nothing was left.

The evil aura and mist around the monolith dissipated.
For a moment, blessed silence fell over the ruins.
The spike grass withered back to normal and Malcolm collapsed to his knees, himself again.

Laying next to the tree, barely capable of holding herself up, Honey allowed herself a moment of relief, slumping against her tree branch.

Xentus rushed back to help Honey. "You alright?"

"Been better hun, but thanks," Honey panted as Xentus helped her up gently.

Drawing the attention of the others, in the background Cailleach walked back and forth complaining to herself about her shattered gauntlets.

"But think of it from the bright side Cailleach, you're alive, which was a statistical anomaly about 5 minutes ago."

"UGHH BUT I'M SO FRUSTRATED TODAY!!" She yelled out while pulling her own ears in a tantrum.

Xentus and Honey walked to Malcolm, helping him up while watching Cailleach.

"So you think this thing is finally over then?" Malcolm said while clutching his sore body.

Honey drawled, allowing herself a genuine smile. "Really hope so Mal...looks like we actually—"

The entire area around Xentus went black for a moment, tuning out his friends speaking.
Nothing but silence, muffled noise and his own heartbeat got his attention.
A flash of an image shot to him, from a bird's eye view for less than a second...

Way above them in the air, fragments of the stone were drawn together swirling like dust.

When everything turned back to normal and Xentus was among his allies again, before he was able to open his mouth, the dragon's laughter echoed through the air as its form became visible again, just half of its head floating above the swirling shards.

While Cailleach was in the middle of tinkering with her gauntlets, a crushing power of the dragon crumpled them up in scrap metal, releasing the power cores stored within it: purple, yellow, white, and green flat glowing stones, free and spinning through the air like dying stars.

"Oh no no no—" Cailleach whispered under her breath as she looked up in disbelief.

"I'm not done yet..." The dragon grumbled with a raspy vocal fry that vibrated in their core.

The glowing cores flew into the dragon's mouth, restoring its entire ethereal body once again.
Glaring back at Malcolm, taking full control over him again, Malcolm pushed down both Xentus and Honey while the dragon dove into the fragmented shards in the shape of the stone with its entire essence, pushing it into the monolith at last. With a boom, it settled into the monolith's socket.

Releasing a dark energy that poured out from the monolith.
Light exploded from the ruins, blinding, terrible light that seared the retinas and sent everyone flying. When it faded, the monolith had grown into a towering structure, surrounded by a circular gazebo adorned with draconic carvings. Dragon heads emerged from the stonework at regular intervals, their mouths closed with a central one open.

The sound of crackling scratched the ears of everyone present. "Yeees... Yeeeeeees!"
As Xentus opened his eyes just briefly, a horrible scene played in front of his eyes. The dragon's ethereal form began to solidify, scales materializing like fire walking on gasoline. Flesh flowed over bone, muscle over sinew, until a massive, red and gold dragon stood over them.

Malcolm stood at the center of a crater, tears streaming down his face, looking up in disbelief. "No!...No!!!"

Cailleach tried to run, with some scrap from her gauntlet but invisible force held her in place, slowly lifting her from the ground. The dragon turned its massive head toward her.

"LET ME GO!!!" Cailleach struggled as much as she could while in mid-air.

When the dragon moved Cailleach to face its head up close, suddenly she yelled "Rah-hiss!!! B#@(@&" quickly she closed her eyes in anticipation.
When a translucent red energy ball contained an explosion, then tossed it away in the air, detonating miles away above the clouds.

Some wind impact blew dust in Cailleach's face.

"You reek of dark spirits, little pest. You have survived encounters that should have killed lesser beings." The force began to squeeze, and Cailleach screamed as her arms bent at unnatural angles. "Perhaps... perhaps you could be useful after all."

Xentus struggled to his feet, blood streaming from his numerous wounds. "What do you want!?"

The dragon turned its attention to him, and for a moment, something almost like respect flickered in those ancient eyes.

"What do I want? Hmmm... I want what was stolen from me. I want my power returned from that cursed warrior who bound me to this plane.
I want all to remember why dragons were once feared above all other creatures."

The dragon's gaze shifted to Malcolm, and lifted him next to Cailleach.

"N-No... please... he's done nothin' to deserve this—" A weak trembling voice cried out from Honey laying in some rubble behind Xentus.

"Hmm...This vessel is too frail for extended use, but his mind... such archaeological knowledge, such understanding of ancient places. He will help me locate my target." The dragon's attention returned to Cailleach. "And you, little pest, might be of use to me eventually...

I don't know exactly what it is... Your eyes...Yes... While you should be trembling in fear... You rebel even more...
Your smell tells me that you have experience with this island...Which makes you valuable."

The central dragon head in the gazebo created a magical force field around it, trapping both Cailleach and Malcolm.

The gazebo began to sink into the earth, taking Cailleach and Malcolm with it. When both became restless, a spell settled over them both calming them and blanking their eyes.

"But first," the dragon continued, "I must deal with potential... complications." The dragon said as it looked directly at Honey's only open eye.

Just before the gazebo disappeared entirely, the dragon opened its mouth, aimed at Honey and Xentus. In a split second, Xentus threw himself in front of Honey, his arms wrapping around her protectively.

The blast that followed leveled everything within a hundred yards of the ruins.

"Now, nobody should be left to interrupt my ritual." The dragon, along with the runic site, vanished underground, leaving a massive ravine in the earth of the jungle.

EPISODE 5 END.

Post Credit Scene...

Miles away, in the shadow of a massive tree on the opposite side, west of the jungle, a bandit scout watched the distant breath attack through a cracked spyglass. The light painted the horizon in shades of amber and gold, and the shockwaves that followed sent birds fleeing from their roosts.

"Shit," the scout muttered, lowering his instrument. "That's absolutely a magical attack."

He sprinted through the jungle, leaping over fallen logs and ducking under low-hanging branches until he reached a hollowed-out fortress built into the trunk of an ancient tree. Another bandit stood guard at the entrance, his sword drawn.

"Hold it right there. The Queen's interrogating the new prisoner."

"This can't wait!" He panted, gesturing wildly toward the distant glow. "Something big just happened out there, a magical explosion or something.
It was like a mile-wide blast radius!"

The guard frowned, glancing between the messenger and the heavily reinforced door behind him.
"Alright, I'll pass along the message. But you know how Queen Alessandra gets when she's interrupted."

He nodded, still catching his breath. "Tell her Majesty that whatever caused that explosion might actually be a match for her..."

The guard raised his eyebrow in surprise while puckering his lower lip. Then knocked on the door 3 times and waited.

The door opened just barely, "Message for the Queen," he called softly. "Red."

A young female voice sounded on the other side of the door. "Her Majesty will review this after her current appointment, take this."

The messenger, desperately trying to see what was happening there, waited eagerly when the door closed and the guard dropped a sack of supplies in front of him. "Here's your pay, now get back to work."

"Yes of course! Thank you so much!"

Happily the messenger ran off leaving the area.

Moments later, the door opened briefly. "Her majesty wants to see you."

"Me? A-Are you sure?"

"..."

The guard took a deep breath, "This is gonna suuuuuck..." he mumbled under his breath as he walked in and the big gate shut.