A friendly 'spar' (Private with Tion)

A lump of nervousness formed in her chest, which refused to move as she slowly approached the grounds. She was nervous, as she had never done this before, but inwardly she tried to relax. It was meant to be a bit of a friendly spar, but she knew that it could change in a few moments with her bloodthirsty state. Trying to channel her nerves into anticipation, Tempest allowed a toothy grin to form on her face.

Slowly, Tempest surveyed the grounds around them which they had decided to do their spar. It was a mixture of environments, a small lake off to the right which had a forest of trees half circling the forest before spreading out far to the right. There was a rugged field, having greatly uneven grounds. She guessed that they could either be used for taking flight, or for cover. There were a few dead trees scattered through there, as they were unable to quench their thirst during dry days as their roots couldn't break through the rocks around them. A few cliffs also arose from the uneven grounds, forming small mountains which barely had a surface to stand on at the top.

She positioned herself in the shade of a giant tree in the middle of the field near the lake, and waited for her opponent to show themselves. Carefully, she noted where the waters started and knew that she needed to avoid that area, and she needed to go to the rocks to fight them. She slowly relaxed, trying not to get pent up about the sparring and didn't see the point in dehydrating in the sun as she waited for them, which is why she rested slightly in the shade.

It was not like him, nor the Skywings, to see that their leader abandons his post and ventures out on his own and without cover. A somewhat friendly invitation called him into unknown lands, and he had to take with him a few escorting guards. It was not that far, and so far the overprotection was uneventful. He made it to his location and beckoned his guards to be on their way, waiting for their king on that spot if he returned. It was quite far from the actual fight.

Tion made his way to the arena, and very soon he could spot the lake and the cliffs towering over it. Quite the scene here, not far from the mountains. It was quite a windy day, with nothing heard but the roaring wind. Clouds formed a thick grey blanket above him, with distant rumbles echoing across the mountains. It seemed like it was going to rain at some point. Which would be nice for those dying trees. Among them, he saw his opponent.

A somewhat strange invitation with no name left for him. He did not know what to call this dragon, but judging from its colour, he presumed a Firewing twice his size. But sitting under the tree like that all exposed? If this was an actual fight, Tion could very well hide in the clouds and smite the dragon on the spot with his lightning. But this was supposed to be ‘friendly’. He refrained himself from executing that thought before making his descent to meet the firewing, but still up in the air as he was beating his wings, no more than 5metres from the ground.

Tempest didn't see the point in attacking him straight away when she saw him. That sort of behavior wasn't something which she had allowed for her younger trainees, so she would never do this to someone else. Tempest smiled, lowering her head to the SkyWing, who easily seemed to hover in the air. However, her eyes didn't leave the fellow leader, and she kept them on him and her stance allowed her to be able to spring into action if she needed to.

"Greetings, my name is Tempest, leader of the FireWings." She said politely, looking up at him again. "I take it you are here for the 'spar'?"

She was the first to make her greeting. So her name was Tempest. In addition to her name, she let him know of her rank. The leader of the Firewings. What a fortuitous event. An invitation to a friendly spar between different leaders. It would also give Tion some indication in what his level was at. It had been quite a while since he last fought or even used his abilities.

The air rumbled again and Tion looked up. Brief flashes of white lit the clouds, and something cold sprinkled all over his snout. It was going to rain, but started off as a very fine shower. Quite a depressing weather for something so 'friendly'. He gave a quick glimpse around the arena again. The air was getting wet, the smell of dirt creeping into his nostrils. Wind was not getting any tamer, a sudden large pocket almost pulling him up and away from the area. He leveled himself a bit before returning the bow. An honour it is to meet the great queen of fire. I am Tion, king of the Skywings, and yes, I was invited here for the spar. And I take it you are my opponent?

Tempest noted how he always stayed in the air, and knew that his size and this would be an issue. She was trying to figure out how she would deal with this, but her thoughts were distracted by another scent. Inwardly, she groaned. This was going to be a rather tough match for her. Especially when she factored in that there was a high possibility that it was going to rain, and this would hurt her scales if she didn't evaporate the water before it touched them. She knew little of the dragon in front of her, but it was nice to be able to finally meet the leader of the SkyWings.

She was battered by the wind, and waited until it calmed before she spoke again, bowing her head a little more. "The honour is mine, it's a pleasure to finally meet you Tion. I've not heard much of the SkyWings, I am sure that you will give me a rather nice-or potentially nasty, surprise. But yes, I am your opponent this... well, rather miserable day according to the weather." She says rather dryly, and considered attacking him while she still spoke. However, that would not be rather honourable, and she smiled, before stepping away from the tree. "Would you like the first move?" She offered, raising her head to be able to see him properly, and she slightly moved her right leg forward which made her form slightly larger and more intimidating-and this was normally how she got fights to back off at home. However, it was rather instinctual now, and she did it via an accident.

He sucked in a deep breath through his nostrils and exhaled quietly, repeating so he could get enough air to calm his heart. It was hammering against his ribs. It had been a while since he fought, and the emotions he bore were lost. He could not remember if he were fearful for his life or the thought of failure, or that he was impatient and eager. For now, it seemed he had the advantage. If the thunderstorms grew stronger, he would not have to worry about preserving his energy for sure hits.

Tion snuck a smile when Tempest offered him the first move. With pleasure. He spoke in the same time he pulled his wings far back and made a huge flap. Carrying large pockets of wind on his membranes, he pushed and flung them forward. They spiralled and formed two large whirlwinds.

Before seeing them collide, Tion lashed his tail forward and sent 3 condensed arc-shaped pockets of air towards the queen. If she managed to dodge all of them, Tion would continue to lash his tail towards her, keeping her distant from him. However, if she retaliated and broke through, Tion could just as quickly veer left and dodge any incoming attack, thanks to his mastery of aerial flight.

Tempest took a few moments to figure out the situation she was in. The two whirlwinds either side of him, which would have the potential to suck her in and throw her away, which would disorientate her rather badly. She could dodge backwards in an attempt to get away from them, but then those weird air slashes could hit her. She allowed a snarl to form on her face, before she decided that maybe distance wasn't going to be the best thing ever for once.

Her powerful legs kicked off the ground, managing to dodge two of the three attacks, the third one glancing off her shoulder. Angrily, she hisses slightly in pain as her claws struggled to keep her in place. She felt the rocks give way, and had a slight pang of terror as she wasn't expecting the force behind it. However, it was for a tiny moment and she was only just starting the fight, allowing her to recover quickly.

She knew that he was a SkyWing, and would naturally beat her in flight, so instead of leaping up into the sky, she spread her flames in an arc around Tion in order to try and predict where he would go. If he had dodged her flames by flying higher, she was going to have to try and goad him into coming closer to the ground and in order to try and do that, she planned to try and make her way towards the protective yet rugged fields. The mountains there could give her slight cover to use before striking him back, even grabbing him with her claws would be nice. The last thing she wanted to do was to fight the king in an aerial battle, in which he easily had the upper hand in.

If the king decided to push the flames away with his wind, Tempest had prepared herself in a stance that would (hopefully) allow her to try and attempt to dodge the air based attacks which he was more than capable of sending her way.

It was a strange feeling. Tingles rippled over him as he shot wind out of his wings and his tail, as if he had stretched a muscle that was at rest for thousands of years. He needed to get used to this quickly, especially since he had not used his abilities for quite some time now. He predicted his lightning attacks would be clumsy at first due to the same reason. However, just by a few strikes, blood rushed to his head. He was getting pumped.

As Tion did his warm up attacks, Tempest met the expectations of a leader and dodged all of them. She retaliated with an arc of flames, spread horizontally and heading for him. Tion snorted a bit and, generating wind under his wings, propelled himself upwards. After the dodge, Tion manipulated the course the wind under his wings took him and directed them after Tempest, who was making her way towards the hilly landscape of rocks.

Thanks to his speed in the air, he overtook her quickly. But what to do after that? He should not act so rash against a leader. No, he had to calculate his next move. Should he welcome her decision to take the fight into that landscape? He did not see why he should stop her. As for her fire attacks...

Tion had plans whenever she would use them.

He would fight against Tempest from the air, trying not to land, especially with her larger stature. Due to her bulk, he doubted his constant use of wind attacks would be enough to disorient and launch her against hard surfaces. He would have to use his lightning element if he wanted to prove his might toward the Firewing queen.

Spiralling in the air, Tion dashed right into her path. There he hovered and, as he rebalanced himself, pulled a wing far back. With a huge beat, he sent another tornado towards her, a much larger one that would require her to at least run quickly to the side if she wanted to dodge. If this tornado landed, not only would she be spinning on the spot, but the tornado would launch her high up in the air. Should she ever be caught inside it, Tion would ready lightning into his maw and shoot it towards her.

If she did manage to dash out of the way, Tion would spin into a vortex again and rush towards her, ready to body-charge towards her. As he spun, the wind surrounding him would be incredibly strong that it would whip like a hurricane against those too close to him and send them flying away from Tion.

Tempest snarls, sliding to a stop as Tion appeared in front of her. He was a very quick SkyWing, much to her annoyance. She breathed in deeply, about to retaliate against him with her fire. She was almost about to when she made out the familiar movements of his wing. She knew what was coming, and didn't want to face that. However, when it was launched, it came much quicker than she had expected, hurling towards her.

This one was much faster, but she silently nodded to herself, before her feet threw her to the right, sprinting away from the gust of wing. He fought long range, but her strengths against him would be in the close quarters, but how to get him there..? Before she could continue thinking, she dashed around his to the right where more rocky lands were present and away from the path of the giant tornado. Even as it was behind her, Tempest was able to feel the strength of the tornado as it tried to pull her from the ground. Tempest began to heat her Hell Claws. They wouldn't be visible on the ground or on her just yet, but she figured that she would need them in order to be able to hold herself against the tornado. But to actually put that theory to the test was something which she really didn't want to do, but would do it in dire circumstances.

Tempest closed in the arc, climbing a little higher on the rocks as she glanced at a root. She puffed a piece of fire at it, hoping the root would run into the rock beneath it. She began timing it in her head, making a mental note of 30. However, she figured that he may try and cut her off again with the giant tornadoes and stop her from her plan. She knew that she needed to get him down, or to stop using them, so that she would be able to use her close quarters strengths to her advantage. She was beginning to think that that may be the only way for her to deal with it. However, for her to even be able to get close... would be next to impossible.

If he were to fly in front of her to cut her off again, she would ignite a few trees around him in order to distract him and hopefully allow her to get closer. If she could get closer by distracting him, she would feint a few swipes at him to further distract him and allow herself to position correctly in order to go against the SkyWing. This position being below him, so that she could try and grab him and pull him to the ground, and use her Hell Claws attack him.

He had caught a glimpse of the light within her maw, preparing to retaliate when he rushed within her path. His attack cane out first, and for that he was relieved. But it missed, just as he predicted it would. Calculating where she would go, he spun himself into another giant vortex, the air howling and whipping, and hurled himself forward, going for a ram. It was probably a bad idea, seeing that he was forfeiting his distance advantage for a risky manoeuvre, but he did not want to give her a second of respite to retaliate.

Losing his ability to see what was before him was annoying and, after travelling for quite a while, he predicted he had missed. Levelling himself, he looked around and saw his opponent traversing up those rocks. He did not see what advantage she could muster with that height, but he figured he should trap, or at least force her to move in a predicted direction.

With another huge flap, he sent another two whirlwinds, one going directly towards her, the other cutting her left escape route. Predicting a right dodge, Tion took a deep breath and blasted a huge ball of wind in that direction, white and grey in colour as it rolled and spin its way there. However she was hit, and by what, he cared not. All of them would push her off the rocks and hopefully disorient her for his next attack.

His maw began to utter a few sparks, and he looked up to see the rain getting heavy...

(( Sorry about the incredibly late reply.. you know my struggles XD ))

26... Tempest continued to count, almost missing the fact that he had had done his attack behind her. She continued to run, her legs moving quickly. But after a sound to her right, she snarls, suddenly cut off from him. Her hell claws were ablaze, and she knew that she was now ready for the thing which she really didn’t want to try... 25... Tempest hesitated in her step the absolute slightest. What was this SkyWing doing? She saw his wings pull back and she knew exactly what was coming next. As quickly as she could, Tempest leapt forward and dug her claws deep into the ground. While she was doing that, her tail flicked around her as she came to a sudden stop. Growling, Tempest hit the ground rapidly, again, again and again, her claws melting and breaking the rock beneath her.

He had finished the flap of his wings and had sent another shoot in case she tried to dodge to her right, she kept continues to strikes, although they were slightly more panicked. 24... Tempest began to thing she wouldn’t have the time to finish her plan, and she dug her hell claws into the ground, her arms disappearing into the holes which she had made. One impact hit far away from her, the orb as well... but her claws were barely able to get into position before the whirlwind aimed at her hit.

The wind felt like it would rip her arms from her sockets, trying to suck her giant form up and throw her into the sky. She growled, gritting her teeth as the howling wind got rid of her flames. The whirlwind started to pull her, but she refused to let go, her arms began to ache, and with a final roar as the wind died down, she tore a chunk of earth free, her claws holding it in front of her as she snarls, watching Tion as a light seemed to click in his maw. Her claws hit the boulder once, splitting it in two with her claws. 23...

Tempest roared her muscles flexing as she was prepared to use the rock to throw into his attack to take the hit for her. Her tail wrapped multiple times around the other half boulder. She planned to take that with her into a closer range if he tried anything against her-but she was relying on the fact that the top lump of rock would be able to take the hit for her. 22...

He watched how the Firewing queen reacted to the serious of moves he released upon her. At first, it was quite questionable. She took his vortex head on and, despite how much it was ripping against her body, she had quite the willpower to endure and do what she had to do. As sparks in his maw began to strengthen and shock against him, he frowned a little at what she was planning. Tempest was digging into the rocks beneath her and... rather impressively... she hauled a huge Boulder out from under her.

Tion figured that boulder had a purpose he could think of on the spot. It would surely block his lightning attacks, and she may even throw it at him. He could not hold the energy in his maw for long and he had to expel them. Tion released them onto his claws, the electricity surging to them and forming two orbs, sparking and hissing in his grip harmlessly.

He then charged forward, closing the distance quickly with sheer speed until he was 5metres from her boulder. There, he would whip his tail upwards and somersault in the air, shooting a vertical arc of wind at her. If this connected, the blast of gust would travel upwards, attempting to drag the boulder with it and therefore exposing her. Tion would then drop a little lower in altitude, and hurl one orb directly at the exposed lower half.

He did not stop there, as he then quickly soared past her from below and, once behind her, throw the last orb at her back. Tion then readied himself for any counter-attack, wings, tail, claws and maw at the ready...

Tempest quickly let go of the split boulder with one of her hands, holding it steady with her left paw and her extremely long tail. Her shoulders ached from her previous action, but she knew that the pain would drive her to a further strength, one where that she could easily trade her intelligence for strength. However, that wasn’t what she needed at this moment, and so she concentrated. The small amounts of lightning came down, sparking between the paws of Tion, which caused Tempest almost to scoff. If this were a regular SkyWing, she’d just have incinerated them by now. However, this one actually seemed to know what they were doing. 21...

Watching closely as he suddenly dived forward, watching him closely. She knew that she wasn’t able to move the entire boulder quick enough, so she paused only for a split second before her left paw shot forward. With a giant grunt of effort she managed to heave the top half of the boulder into the path of the SkyWing. Tempest timed it so that the boulder may block her path, and if it were deflected back to her at this moment, her right hell claw was ready to slash the boulder apart as she also moved it forward to strike at Tion. 20... If it were to be thrown away, her claws would continue forward to try and strike at the SkyWing. Her top half was exposed during this movement and she shifted her weight quickly, knowing that his wind powers were greater than previous opponents. She heaved the lighter rock partially in front of her lower body in order to potentially protect from any smaller tricks he might try to pull. After all, who would want to go for the Queen head on when she had her hell claws active? 19...

The second wind hit slammed into the ground where she previously stood, and the breeze almost tore the rock from her tail, much to her annoyance. In anger, she primitively began to heat her scales in her frustration. She didn’t have time to rest, the dragon already going for a secondary attack against her back. 18...Awkwardly, she turned her body to face him. Seeing the cowardly attack, Tempest ripped herself to the ground and away from the attack. Seeming it came from below her, it should harmlessly go past her and into the air behind her. Quickly, she released five flame balls from her maw, trying to blind him temporarily and give her a chance to breathe slightly and do her own attack. 17...

If she was given the tiny chance that she needed, the Queen intended to follow the attack up and would use her tail to randomly lash at the sky. The incredible reach and length of her tail was much greater than the other Skywing before her. She knew that using it might cause him to keep his distance a little more, and if it tip were to be caught in the winds, it wouldn’t drag her entire body forward with it. The only thing is, it would prevent her from using the rock, but she would keep that close to her so that the dragon wouldn’t tear it away from her so easily.

However, if he continued forward, she was already beginning to heat her scales, desiring the little dragon to come closer to her so that she could try and grab hold of him and so she was prepared for any physical combat he wanted to have. She wanted the annoying yellow drake to experience the stalemate which she always have her opponents. The small amount of rain which was falling earlier began to die down, teasing both duelists with the small promise of a refreshing coolness.

As he had predicted, the firewing queen hurled one half of the boulder towards him, and he proceeded with the somersault. The arc of wind collided with the boulder and, with a muffled thud, pushed it in the opposite direction towards her. However, it did little as it encountered her glowing claws and was shattered into millions of rock pieces. She did not stop there, as she moved forward, hitting towards him. Or where he was. He threw one of his orbs directly at her as she charged forward before he hurried to her back. The second orb was a clean miss.

Droplets of rain ceased, yet the skies boomed again from the distant thunder, making it apparent that this was not the last of its rainfall. Against her balls of flame, Tion conjured wind below his wings and propelled himself away, spinning up into the air to dodge them. This gave him some distance from her as she then raised her tail high up and started striking the area around her. It was clear that tussling with her in close quarter combat was not favourable for him and that he would need to rely on his range as well as aerial expertise. At least he needed to incapacitate her for a brief moment before he could use his lightning attacks.

Concentrating on his wings, Tion hurled two more whirlwinds at the queen, sparks beginning to show in his maw again. However, these whirlwinds were not aimed for her, but instead, traversed in an arc from his wings and around her. The intent of this was to cut off her escape from his next attack. He followed this with a deep breath and puffed an expanding ball of concentrated wind. If it collided with her or the ground, it would blast the area 300ft in diameter with a heavy hurricane-like gale. This would require her to hold onto the ground if she were not to be sent high into the air, completely exposed for Tion’s next series of attacks. If she did hold on, that would be when Tion would close his wings around him, spinning in the air as he gathered more wind and propel himself in a speedy dive towards the queen, attempting to tackle her while she was dazed from the wind. At this point, his lightning would be close to ready to be released.

She could try and escape before the orb’s impact, but with the large range of the two whirlwinds and the speed they were circling, she would need to at least excel in speed or aerial flight if she were not to get her wings caught in them and thrown up high into the air. If she was hurled into the air, Tion would quickly follow suit with strings of more wind attacks, keeping her disoriented, up in the air and pretty much on the same spot while he charged his lightning attack, which he would then shoot into the air and let the strengthened bolt fall down on her.