Chapter 4.

*RAWRRR*

Ulf/Hilda-''MOTHER!''

Quickly hopping on Hilda, we took off towards where our mothers cry originated from. We went so fast that we left the Snow Wraiths behind.

Gripping my handle tightly, my breathing became haggard, my vision blurry, my light armor suddenly beginning to feel heavy, pressing me against Hildas back. Soon the world around me goes silent, all I hear is my heavy breathing and the scene that passes me going in slow motion.

Ulf-''Is this it? Will I lose my mother again? Will I lose a family member again? Why, why is this happening, why is it here, we did nothing wrong... Is it because our territory has been expanding rapidly these past years that it decided to destroy what we built?''

Slowly, my mind goes down in a spiral, the world around me starts to spin, my breathing that was already difficult became almost impossible. Suddenly, I hear a voice start to ring in my head.

Hilda-'' f.. lf!.. ULF! WAKE UP! THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO HAVE COLD FEET. WE NEED TO SAVE MOTHER!''

Mother?... Mother! DAMMIT! Why am I feeling scared, why do I need to start going all depressed like that. It's not the time to mourn my mothers death because she is not dead! I will make sure of it. I have the power to help mother, and I'm not alone, my sister is also here with me, together I don't doubt that even if we can't win against an Elder Dragon, they can be sure to at least lose an eye or a limb before they kill us.

With renewed vigor, I gripped my swords hilt tightly, my heavy armor starts to lighten again and my breathing becoming a lot easier. I let out a bellow to release my tension.

Ulf-''Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! haa~ haa~ haa~ thanks Hils, needed that''

Hilda-''Since your done having a panic attack or whatever, we need to plan our attack as soon as we get there, we can't just dive bomb it hoping for the best''

Ulf-''I think I got a plan. If my memory serves me right, I think I know how to fight it somewhat''

Hilda-''You've fought these things before?''

Crap, why did I say that. What am I gonna say? Wait there's no time for that!

Ulf-''Don't worry about it and just listen. When we get there we will always be on either sides of it, attacking and disengaging at the same time, so when I attack you disengage then vise versa, making it constantly switch its targets. Most likely it will catch on pretty quick so we need to make our hits count and do as much damage as we can. We have to be constantly moving, never stay too long or get an extra attack in, got it?''

Hilda-''Alright''

Ulf-''One more thing, do you remember earlier how there were black spikes among the normal ones? If I recall the angrier it gets or the more damage it receives I don't remember but regardless, the more its spikes become black. I don't remember what happens when it becomes all black since I have forgotten, but it's probably something bad. So try to destroy the black spikes however you can to try and delay that process. The rest of the strategy will be on the fly like usual and adjust accordingly''

Hilda-''I can see our nest in the distance, get ready''

*ROAR*

Then all of a sudden, a loud roar that wasn't our mothers rang out from our home and a loud crashing sound came soon after.

Hovering around 50m over the site, my blood froze, my pupils contracted and my breathing once again became strenuous. The serene land with trees gently covered in snow was no more. Instead, what replaced it were massive ice shards sprawled everywhere as well as the same spikes we saw earlier, trees knocked over, small craters here and there and in the middle of one of the craters lay our mother, laying there motionlessly. She had her right wing ripped off and discarded just outside the crater, her front left leg was also missing and her once beautiful white and purple scales were no more as what decorated her body are now claw marks, blood and spikes pierced on her body.

My sister also froze, not knowing what she is seeing, or at least refusing what she is seeing. Our mother, the strongest dragon we have seen, reduced to this. Looking closer at her, we see her still breathing albeit very slowly. But that's all that matters since it means she is still alive! There's still hope!

But then a shadow from the distance flew towards the crater landed right next to our mother. There it stood, proudly looking at the work it's done, and although sporting damages like a broken horn, some frost bites and a bloody appearance from some claw marks, it still stood there with full vigor like it's not damaged at all. The Elder Dragon that feeds and hunts other Elder Dragons to protect the balance of the ecosystem from being destroyed by other Elder Dragons. The Nergigante.

Seeing the Nergigante standing over our mother knowing that it was the one that did this to her, something snapped within me. It wasn't just me as well, Hilda also snapped. Both of us only seeing red and the only thing we seeing is the Nergigante tilting its head up to look at us, and just stayed there, watching us.

Seeing it just look at us without doing anything made us think that we were being looked down on. Feeling the boiling rage building up inside me, I gripped my sword tighter and bellowed out. With that as the signal, Hilda also bellowed and rushed towards the Nergigante. All our planning and strategies was thrown out the window and we went head first towards it, all we want to do is rip the dragon apart.

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Skadis POV~

'Argh' Releasing a low groan, I tried to remember what happened.

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10 minutes before Ulf and Hilda arrives~

I was just laying in our cave when all of a sudden I felt a strong animosity directed towards me. Immediately, I stood up and flew outside, hovering, looking. Then all of a sudden, something hit me from the back and I plummeted towards the ground. Before I could even react and apply my ice armor, I felt something rip my wing off.

*ROAR*

Releasing a pained roar, I immediately start to cast pillars of ice everywhere to try and hinder my assailant and get my bearings. Then I saw it. A dragon covered in white spikes with two large curved horns adorning its head. It snarled at me and got ready to pounce on me. Not letting him dictate the flow of the fight, I immediately applied my ice armor then when I looked back towards him, he was already in mid flight reaching out its claws towards my neck.

I immediately concentrated a beam of ice and hit him square on the face. I saw him recoil back from the impact and roll a couple of times only to stop and stare back at me with its predatory eyes. I saw that my beam managed to break one of his large horns too.

Skadi-''Why are you doing this, I have done nothing to you''

???-''You have done nothing, however I have this hunger eating me away inside, I did all I could to relieve this hunger by hunting others, but my body regected them. However my instincts was telling me a direction to go and it led me here...''

He answered in a deep, predatory voice. Before I could even ask any more questions, he shot off from the ground and lunges at me with his balled fists. Quickly dodging to the sides, I stabbed my sharp ice tail towards him, but he curled into a ball, using his spikes on his wings to defend himself.

Seeing this, I immediately lept into the air and produce massive ice pillars to spread around me and made it fall onto him whilst he was still in his defensive mode. Once I made the ice fall, I fell back down into the ground due to my wing being ripped off. I also can't fight him normally using my speed so I have to instead immobilize him as best I can.

As the ice pillars descend, I see him begin to unfurl his wings, but before he could do it fully, I launch a concentrated stream of ice towards him, making him defend against it again therefore rooting him in place long enough for the pillars to come crushing down. And crushing it did, as I saw a couple of the pillars fall directly onto him whilst the other pillars just stacked up on top of it.

After a few moments, there was only silence, relieving a sigh of relief, I begin to relax thinking that the threat has been neutralized.

Skadi-''I need to quickly heal before the other Monarchs learns of my injuries. I can regenerate my wing but it will take a while. I'll need to rely on Fjord to hold the fort as well as my 2 little pups''

Thinking about them, I smiled with happiness. They will probably be really concerned about my appearance. Especially Ulf, he's such a momma's boy, that's why I love him so much, as well as my strong headed little Hil.

As I was thinking of my kids, the grounds starts to rumble. Quickly looking for the source, I turned towards the pillars of ice piled on top of each other. Then all of the sudden, the ice pillars burst, shards flying everywhere. From the rubbles, a shadow emerged. Then, he emerged. When he came out, he looked different. His body was covered in wounds and frostbites, but what really changed was his originally white spikes was now all jet black.

With a loud roar, he flapped his wings once and he immediately hovered over me within moments. Sensing that whatever he will do is dangerous, I attempted to move away from him as fast as I could, but it was too late. As soon as I lifted my legs to attempt to run, he flapped one more time then tilted his body towards me and dived towards my direction whilst curling his wings inward covering himself fully.

Knowing that I was too late, I decided to do all I can in trying to mitigate the damage, so I created ice pillars in front of me. The pillars barely did anything. As he crashes into the pillars, his jet black spikes erupted from his body, flying everywhere and some piercing me. Gritting my teeth, I produced more ice into my two front limbs and stuck them out to meet him. Then at the moment of impact, everything went black.

Moments later, I start to regain my consciousness and noticed that I'm in a small crater. Looking down, I see my mangled body, with wounds everywhere and one of my front limbs is missing. Looking up, I see him standing over me. Sensing my end, I closed my eyes, and all that was in my mind was my children.

Suddenly, from high above, I heard an almost animalistic bellow coming from the sky.

???-''RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH''

Looking up, I see my beloved children, Ulf riding on Hilda, dive bombing the dragon that was in front of me.

Skadi-''No... run away little pups...''

Was the only thing I managed to muster out before drifting into unconsciousness.