Carpathian 23 - Dark Storm

matter what.
    He drew back, ignoring the agony ripping through him, took a breath and unleashed
     a torrent of fire straight into Mitro’s malevolent face. The vampire howled, jerking
     back, twisting his arm viciously as he withdrew his empty fist. Mitro threw himself
     to one side to avoid the steady stream of flames pouring from the hunter’s throat,
     his scream filling the chamber.
    Bright red blood sprayed into the air from Dax’s torn chest. Great globs of burning
     blackened blood, a poisonous acid, from Mitro’s open chest splattered through the
     chamber and burned into ashes, raining down over him. Gases exploded into fiery balls,
     hurtling through the enclosed space, pitting deep craters into the walls. Vents burst
     below them, more noxious gas rising along with bright orange-red sprays of molten
     rock.
    Mitro hammered at the thin barrier, slamming into it over and over like a battering
     ram, dodging the fiery bombs blasting upward from the lower pools of roiling magma.
     Dax leapt after the vampire, reaching with the tips of his fingers to hook an ankle
     and yank the undead backward. A thousand tiny needles punctured his palm, burning
     on contact. His first instinct was to let go, but he forced himself to hold on, dragging
     the vampire back down toward the bubbling pool of heated rock.
    Mitro drove his foot into the hole in Dax’s chest. Pain exploded through the hunter.
     For a moment everything went black. His body shut down, his hand slipping off the
     ankle. He tumbled through the air before he caught himself. Mitro was at the barrier,
     ramming his ridged skull over and over into the same spot. Dax streaked upward to
     try to intercept him again.
    The mountain rumbled ominously—held its breath for one still second—and then heaved.
     The concussion sent both combatants reeling. Dax slammed hard into the wall before
     he could catch himself. Heat seared his body. Blood dripped from his ears. His vision
     blurred. The chamber filled with gaseous vapor, and the sudden increase in pressure
     nearly tore him apart.
    In that instant, he felt the Old One rise to protect him. His body had grown accustomed
     to the conditions of the volcano over the centuries, but neither he nor Mitro would
     fare well when the volcano erupted and the dragon knew it.
    The Old One took possession fast, his soul rising, spreading out to encompass Dax.
     Crimson and orange scales first engulfed Dax’s body, sliding smoothly and efficiently
     from his head to his toes. The hard shell covered the gaping hole in his chest, but
     his blood continued to seep out between the scales, staining his chest scarlet.
    Dax was used to shapeshifting, but this felt different. When Carpathians shifted,
     there was no sense of the body completely remaking itself, but this time, there was.
     He could feel his mass increase, his bones lengthen and reshape. He could feel the
     wings sprouting from his back, the supple, scaled hide stretching out like vast sails
     catching an ocean wind. He could feel his nails lengthen, become razor-tipped diamond
     talons. Strength, agility and raw, primal emotion coursed through his veins. He wasn’t
     a hunter who’d assumed the shape of a dragon: he was a dragon. Mighty. Powerful. Master of fire. King of the sky. And though his consciousness
     was still there, the Old One was there, too, ancient and powerful and just as deadly.
    His wings spread, and his dragon body spun in midair. The long, ridged tail splashed
     into the magma pool, slinging red-hot rock against the sides of the cavern. But instead
     of pain, the heat invigorated him, strengthened him. He screamed in triumph and challenge
     and spewed another jet of hot flame toward the vampire.
    But just before the boiling clouds of flame enveloped him, Mitro shifted into a large,
     scaly black dragon and rammed hard against the barrier, breaching it at last. He bellowed
     his triumph as the mountain belched, geysers of vapor and fiery material venting through
     thin spots. There was another short breath and the mountain erupted. Huge, violent
     plumes of gas, ash and molten rock spewed forth, ripping through the mountaintop and
     into the sky above. Both dragons went hurtling sideways, driven through the side of
     the mountain by the force of the blast.
    The fiery red dragon tumbled end over end through the sky, disoriented, nearly blind,
     inside the cloud of fiery ash and gas spreading over the forest. Lightning cracked
     across the sky.