Combat

[sanke]

~ Part I ~

     Clamping his jaws down around the silver dragon's neck, Raydus felt the warm gush of the female's lifeblood as it flowed over his tongue and out of his mouth. He jerked his backward, away from his opponent. He felt his fangs connect under the scales, and the soft heap of flesh in his mouth easily tore away from the bone.
     The female seemed in shock. Her eyes, wide and luminous with fear, were slightly glazed. Then the real blood started to flow. The wound was fairly large, and soon her elegant silver chest was stained a deep, rust-red. She flapped her broad wings frantically, trying to stay airborne - but, all her strength gone, she closed her eyes weakly and began plummeting to earth. As she fell, her wings closed involuntarily around her, encasing the legs of her terrified rider as they entered a death spiral.
     Raydus spat the chunk of the female's flesh down at her. She tore through the clouds, leaving a small tear in the vast stretch of white. As the hole closed, Raydus let out an indifferent sigh and counted under his breath.
     'Three...Two...One...' Almost immediately after his countdown ceased, a faint thump echoed up through the clouds.
     Effortlessly, Raydus tilted his wingtips slightly downward and dove seamlessly through the thin cloud layer. He continued his dive until he was about 50 feet from the gound, then pulled up abruptly, scanning the gray, barren landscape.
     The caracass of his young rival lay about 45 feet to his left. Swooping down on the remains, he saw her rider had fallen off his mount. He had been crushed beneath He body, which lay belly-up. Her wings had loosened their wrap around her serpentine body, probably the reason her rider had fallen off. Raydus could tell just by looking at the carcass sprawled out below him that the Silver had died before she hit the ground.
     Raydus let out a cry of triumph, and turned his wings upward again. As he turned toward the mountains that were his home in the east, hisbody and tail arched and spiraled after him - a ribbon of black waving through the darkening twilight sky.

~ Updated Part I ~

     Clamping his jaws down around the silver dragon's neck, Raydus felt the warm mass of the female's flesh beneath her scale as his fangs sunk ever-deeper into the . He jerked his backward, away from his opponent. He felt his fangs connect under the scales, and the soft heap of flesh in his mouth easily tore away from the bone.
     The female seemed in shock. Her eyes, wide and luminous with fear, were slightly glazed. Then the real blood started to flow. The wound was fairly large, and soon her elegant silver chest was stained a deep, rust-red. She flapped her broad wings frantically, trying to stay airborne - but, all her strength gone, she closed her eyes weakly and began plummeting to earth. As she fell, her wings closed involuntarily around her, encasing the legs of her terrified rider as they entered a death spiral.
     Raydus spat the chunk of the female's flesh down at her. She tore through the clouds, leaving a small tear in the vast stretch of white. As the hole closed, Raydus let out an indifferent sigh and counted under his breath.
     "Three...Two...One..." Almost immediately after his countdown ceased, a faint thump echoed up through the clouds.
     Effortlessly, Raydus tilted his wingtips slightly downward and dove seamlessly through the thin cloud layer. He continued his dive until he was about 50 feet from the gound, then pulled up abruptly, scanning the gray, barren landscape.
     The carcass of his young rival lay about 45 feet to his left. Swooping down on the remains, he saw her rider had slipped down into the gap between flank and wing. He had been crushed beneath her body, which lay spread-eagled on it's side. Her wings had loosened their wrap around her serpentine body, probably the reason her rider had fallen off. Raydus could tell, after his many years of aerial combat, that the Silver had died before she hit the ground. He could see it in her eyes. They were closed, not forced open by the shock of the would-be fatal impact.
     Tilting his back on a a long, elegant neck, Raydus let out a cry of triumph, turned his wings skyward again. As he spiraled upward, his dark-scaled body shimmered in the twilight. Then, with nothing less than a flick of a tail, the beat of a wing, the black dragon of shadows vanished into the darkening night sky.

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