Culture Shock

Chapter 54: Point Blank

The angle and tightness of her spiral was just right to send her flying at neck-height when the dragon got back up on all fours. "Come on, come on," Relle chanted under her breath before taking the plunge, so to speak. Her aim was true, and her gloved hands latched onto one of the slender spinal horns sprouting from the top of the dragon's bicycle seat-shaped head. When momentum continued to send her flying, she made sure that the horn went with her, too. She dropped like a stone, and when that twisted the dragon's head and neck to follow her down, the rest of its body had little choice but to do the same or else suffer its spine being snapped. 

The dragon flopped mightily onto its back and collided with the tower adjacent to the one Dora used as her perch. Relle was sent sprawling, bouncing and rolling across the grass and debris until the back of a park bench caught her. The wrought iron legs creaked and buckled under the force but didn't break, and she sat up on the bench seat with only a few new cuts and bruises to show for her troubles. From there, she scrambled up and rushed-- more like stumbled, but that was the dizziness's fault!-- back to the blue dragon before it could recover from its sudden case of whiplash. Dora let go to drop onto the dragon's back, pinning its wings and front arms in place while she rolled it over to lay on one side. That gave Relle a clear shot at the clasp holding the amulet closed.

From there, it was child's play to pop the latch and slip the jewelry off. Only when it was totally clear did Dora back off of the gradually shrinking body beneath her talons. She lumbered over to Relle and pushed her sharp, jagged nose against her student's side, which got her to giggle and hug back, the now human-sized necklace dutifully clutched in one hand. 

Finally, she could exhale, and when she did, she felt some of her stress leave with it. 

~*~

"Ohh, shit!" Miguel cheered at the top of his lungs when he watched the blue dragon's head twist its entire body around so quickly. From his spot dangerously close to the giant intersection where the two dragons and Relle Phantom had briefly faced off, he could easily see all the way down the street to the Sky Trio Towers and the battle within their midst. "Yes, yes! Woooo!"

At his side, Saoirse watched everything with wide eyes from around the corner of a crumbling building. Had it been her best decision to follow after Miguel when the boy suddenly decided to run back toward the café in order to try and study the dragons from a closer distance? Definitely not. Did she regret her decision after seeing her girlfriend in the middle of the entire ordeal, fighting as she always did? No way in hell. 

Now she knew that Camry was alive-- or maybe 'still existed' was a better way to phrase that? Saoirse's heart still raced with the gut-wrenching terror caused by seeing her get snatched up by the black dragon and carried into the sky, but after seeing the two of them work together to take down the ghost whose objective clearly was to cause damage and hurt people, that terror converted into the kind of adrenaline that comes from seeing your favorite team pull through for a victory at the absolute last possible second. 

"Did you see that?" Miguel asked after pressing a finger to his ear. Even though Saoirse couldn't hear the answer, she understood that it vindicated his excitement. 

"Ho-ly shit, right?" Joaquín laughed. "Too bad there aren't any news crews around to get that on tape."

Ricardo cut in suddenly to ask for an update on how Ramón and his sisters were doing. "We've got the last of our groups heading your way, Dad," Ramón managed to say despite how he panted between words. "But the city's big, too. There could be more in other areas."

"Ari just told me she saw a fleet of soldiers arriving from the west," Ricardo reported gravely. "She says they look like the task force. Joaquín, can you see them from where you are?"