The Crystal Keepers Book One: Divine Fire

Chapter Twelve: A Terrifying Opponent

   The towering drake twisted to the right and swung its giant tail at Himara. The sphere shaped tail end was headed straight for her. She hastily surveyed her options in which to evade the attack: she could go left and instantly get mutilated by the mace of a tail, go right and after a few seconds get slaughtered or go backwards and still get murdered by the huge spiked tail. An idea popped into her mind. She could jump and easily dodge it. But how? Use fire magic to help!

   In the tiny amount of time she had, Himara hurriedly put her arms out and summoned fire at her feet. Twirling gracefully around, the fire streamed out and flowed around her body in a spire. Concentrating as hard as her mind possibly could, she made the searing fire raise her off the ground, and evade her death.

   Opening her tightly closed eyes, she found herself floating ten meters off the ground. Himara couldn't enjoy the view for long, for the drake let out a deafening roar of frustration. She was thrown back into reality and lost her concentration. The fire around her disappeared, and she began to plunge to the rock solid ground below. Shutting her eyes and preparing for her life's end, Himara braced herself.

   Suddenly, she felt herself stop falling. She was in a lying down sitting position and someone was holding her with their arms under her knees and one on her back. Her eyes thrust open to find Chikyūro clutching her.

   "Yūro!! You saved me!" she cheered, ultimately relieved.

   "No time for talk, lets kill this thing!" he ordered, putting her down carefully.

   Himara straightened up. "Okay, let me see your earth magic!" she announced happily.

   Just then, they realized that the dragon had its head raised up, charging black fire in its mouth. It curled it back and blew out the sweltering hot, black fire at Himara and Yūro.

   Himara shrieked, terrified and Yūro said reassuringly, "Don't worry, I got this." He closed his emerald green eyes and touched his dirt brown crystal with his lightly tanned, left hand. It gleamed like a star at night as he put out his right hand. An enormous light brown rock emerged out of the ground and shielded the firey breath from the two of them. The rock disappeared immediately after and Himara stared at him in awe. "Wow...that was cool..."

   The dragon snarled and steam emitted from its four nostrils as it swung it's head back and began charging for another blast.

   "Quickly, this is our chance! It takes two minutes for it to charge its fire breath, so lets go all out with our attacks! You with your magic and me with my axe, okay?" Yūro removed a steel axe from his belt behind his back. It had a four inch long handle and had a curved, razor sharp blade with little intricate designs etched into the edge of the blade that looked like writing.

   Himara nodded her head sternly and gingerly placed her right hand on her flaming crystal. It sent a surge of power through her body and a shiver of fear ran down her spine like a trickle of water. She shook her head firmly and focused on defeating the menacing dragon. She whispered confidently, "Let's do this thing."

   The two of them dashed to the dragon and Himara noticed just how tall the drake was. You never realize how big something is until you're standing right by it... she mused.

   "Go!" Yūro yelled for Himara to use her magic.

   She thought that she'd have to be as high as it was to do real damage so she did the same as before. Let out her arms and spin around while fire swirls around her. Concentrating, she lifted off the ground and raised to the height of the nape of the dragon's neck. Willing herself to stay afloat, Himara kept the fire twirling around her as she raised her left hand above her head. Creating a flaring ball of fire, she put her arm out and did a 360 while the ball of fire grew stronger and stronger in power. Lifting both her arms above her head and holding the searing fireball, she sang angelically, "Crystal...FLARE!!!" and flung the ball of broiling hot fire directly at the drake.

   It sent the dragon careening back, losing its concentration and the charging asphalt black fireball. It smashed onto the ground with a thundering THUD. Himara carefully lowered herself to the ground and observed as Yūro seemed to also be charging an attack. However in his case, he had his steel gray axe raised above his head, glowing in a dirt brown aura, much like his crystal. He seemed to be waiting for the right moment, waiting for the dragon to have its back on the ground. The second it hit the grassy ground, Yūro jumped up and struck the axe deep into the floor with all the strength his body had. A crack was born from the tip of the axe and made a chain of them that in the end, surrounded the dragon. Instantly, all the irregular shapes created out of the cracks sprung up at random times each, acting like spikes and piercing the already wounded dragon.

   It soon faded into the thin black mist and flowed into the portal that Kuchi left open. It closed suddenly after the mist entered it and the cracks in the ground also faded away, as if they were never there. Yūro removed his axe from the light asparagus green grass and turned to Himara, who was jogging over.

   "I...can't believe...we did it..," she huffed, exhausted.

   "I still can't believe how strong your powers are... And you seem to use them with such ease and elegance... It's as if you have used it all your life..." Yūro seemed to be awestruck.

   "My powers aren't that strong compared to yours. You did like, a super cool earth show! Mine was so lame..," she said defiantly.

   "I know but, even in such a small form, they're so powerful. The dragon was nearly dead after you used your magic. I just did the finish. By the way, how long have you been using magic?"

   "Well, I only used my powers a few times. I don't know how many but-"

   "See? I've been practicing ever since you left yesterday, and yet you are still more powerful. And I find it hard to use magic. Hmm... It is so strange for someone from the non-magic realm to have stronger magical powers than us..." he riled on to himself about Himara's powers and his suspicions.

   "Hey Yūro..," Himara started sheepishly.

   "Hmm?" he looked into her eyes.

   "Thank you for saving me. If it wasn't for you, I'd be dead. I may have strong powers, but I still would've died if you wouldn't have caught me. Thank you." Himara stepped close to Yūro and embraced him tightly.

   Wrapping his arms around her in turn, he realized that Himara was still shaking like a leaf from the battle. He finally understood just how scary it was for Himara, and whispered comfortly in her ear, "Don't worry, I'll be there for you whenever you need me."

   A fire storm and an earth eruption... What a pair of friends! Himara laughed in her mind as a smile spread along her rosy pink lips.