Storms and Mountains [Nelthy]

The sun had just passed its zenith, when Àlamei got to the western border of the Twilight Imperium. She had already spotted the Guard she was supposed to relieve sitting on the perch they had agreed upon as a meeting point. The tree line here was spotty, giving them enough view into the forest to spot any advance. Of course they were supposed to patrol the woods, but when waiting for their replacement, they always came out to the higher and more open plains.
Mei extended her wings to their full span to slow her descent before landing next to the other dragon, the stones crunching beneath her talons as she held onto the ledge.
"You're late." the other Firewing said, briefly looking at her with a little bit of annoyance in his eyes.
"Just because I'm not early, doesn't instantly mean I'm late. You're just grumpy because you had to take the morning shift." she nudged the bigger dragon with her shoulder, provoking a relenting but annoyed rumble from him. They knew each other, had served on many a mission together and they both knew he wasn't actually mad at her and that she was indeed correct in her accusation. "How's it been?" she asked joining him in looking down at the forest, her eyes scanning the tree tops for any unusual behavior or smoke, but everything seemed quiet and almost peaceful.
"Calm. Didn't spot nothin'. A couple smaller animals, one stag even, but no Monsters, Humans or Rogues whatsoever. Almost boring." Àlamei nodded. They had gotten information about a larger Monster settling down in this area and reinforced patrols here, but so far they hadn't spotted anything. Not even tracks. They would continue their search for a while, but so far it seemed like the info had just been a rumour after all.
The leathery skin of her wings rustled as she adjusted her position on the perch. "Anywhere you haven't been much today?" she continued her questions.
"Western side. Did mostly air patrol over there and didn't see anything, but haven't really been there on foot. Overlaps so much with the other posts, so I thought I'd leave it to you." The dragoness rolled her eyes at his laziness but nodded.
"Alright. I got it from here. Heard they found some new fishing spots, might wanna check that out." The dragon next to her instantly turned towards the dragoness, exhaling sharply. "You're saying that NOW. Should've started with that! Good luck not dying of boredom." And then he left. Mei waited until the sound of his wings flapping in the air was gone, before pushing off the ledge and climbing into the sky herself.

She flew a wide circle over the woods, arching back towards the much neglected western side and slowly set down to landing in a clearing between tall oak trees. A few rabbits fled the spot when they saw her shadow, but other than that the forest seemed undisturbed by her or any other presence.

From the far west soaring through the sky is the giant dragon known as Neltharion. He has been on a journey for a while, having to need to cross the Shimmering Waters to return to Imperium territory. Neltharion hasn't been or seen the Imperium lands for quite some years due to...unfortunate circumstances. It wouldn't be too far from the truth if anyone said that he'd been living through Hell this entire time. He was grateful for a certain healer that he met in the Lishon Region wilderness by complete coincidence. He would have no clue what would've happened otherwise if it wasn't for that fateful encounter. However he had no time to think about that right now, his wings were beginning to tire from the long flight. Thus he focussed his sight upon the ground for a suitable resting place.

After a few minutes he set is sights upon a clearing between some oak trees. Something else that caught his attention is the unknown dragon that he spotted along with the clearing. He hasn't conversed with anyone from the Imperium since his return and has become curious of the current affairs that might be playing in the Twilight Imperium. "Wait, perhaps it's just a rogue" Neltharion thought for a moment. He would first inquire where the unknown dragon's alliances lie.

Neltharion swooped down towards the open clearing before opening his wings fully to slow his descend towards the dragon, blocking out the sun for a moment by the sheer size of his wingspan. With a loud thump he landed onto the ground and stared at the dragon..no dragoness before him with his red glowing eyes. "So what do we have here? A guardian?" After a few seconds of silence he continued with his sentence "...Or Rogue" Keeping his eyes locked upon the dragoness before him, he awaited an answer.

She hadn't strayed far away from the clearing yet, when she heard the telltale rush of wind in the trees. There hadn't even been a breeze when she had come out here just a few minutes ago, so there was no other explanation than a creature, a rather big one judging from the amount of wind it created, flying over the forest. Àlamei turned back around towards the clearing, her tail swishing out behind her, tentative and ready, the only sign of her rapid attention fixed on the clearing. Then she saw the massive dragon overhead. He was obviously landing, so she jumped back a little to make room for what could only be an Earthwing. No one else grew to such massive size.
Even though this was Twilight Imperium territory and an Earthway would be welcome, she stayed vigilant, slightly crouching, ready to jump at his throat if the need arose. He might be a Rogue and one never knew just what those Rogues were up to. Her body almost itched for a fight, but she controlled herself, only a glimmer in her eyes betrayed her outer seriousness.

Mei tilted her head slightly in a curios way. She didn't recognize him or his deep voice, but the tone he used clearly spoke of a tad too much confidence, something she could relate to.
"I could ask the same question of you and the answer would be much more interesting." Her glowing green eyes met the red of his as she studied his face. She really did not recognize him. The dragoness remained silent for a little while longer, all the while holding his gaze in a just as confident manner as he did, before she broke the silence, untilting her head.
"You're on Imperium territory. Either identify yourself or leave." The third option was usually one for emergencies, one that was quietly implied in the way she emphasized the word "leave". It was every Rogues choice whether they wanted to leave on their own, all their bones fixed and in place, or be 'escorted out' with none of their bones in place.

Neltharion eyed down the dragoness before him, slightly impressed that she didn't even look the tiniest bit intimidated by his sheer size. Of course he wouldn't show this in any way. He loomed over the dragoness a bit more to emphasize his size. "Leave? And how would you accomplish that?" He stayed silent for the next moment letting the tension rise before he spoke up again. "But, if you are curious..the name is Neltharion. A citizen of the Earthwing tribe." Nelthy's posture relaxed just a tiny bit to let the tension diffuse he built up mere moments ago. "I can assume you are a guardian due to that reaction. So to whom do I have the pleasure of speaking to?" The giant dragon asked curious about the identity of the female before him.

He leaned his head down more onto her level and took note of her non-Firewing features and started to theorize on what other ancestry she could possess. "I've noticed that just like me, you're not of pureblood" Neltharion inquired. Just a few moment he starts to lie down onto the ground to relax from his long flight. "I've been flying for quite some time, hope you don't mind if I rest my muscles a bit." He stated rather than honestly asking for permission to relax in this clearing.

She almost rolled her eyes at the dragon when he began to loom over her. Why did all the Earthwings have such a size-complex? She hadn't met one who didn't try impressing or scaring her with his sheer size, usually it awarded them the exact opposite of their intended reaction. Many times she had wondered if they were trying to compensate for lacking size in other parts, but after careful consideration and some field studies she had found that the vast majority of them did not. Well, some of them did, but you would probably find those kind of dragons everywhere in the tribes.
So instead of being intimidated, she smiled. 'Come now, loom a bit further, make it so much easier for me to rip out your throat.' she thought, seemingly unfazed by the rising tension, while simply stating: "I have my ways." Sure, it would be harder to move this boulder of a dragon away from here, but who said he had to go, when incapacitating him was just as effective? Maybe it would even lure the monster out they'd been searching for.

It caused just a little bit of dismay, when he finally revealed to be an earthwing citizen after all. In her head she had already begun fighting him, but sadly she would have to be patient yet again. Neltharion. Àlamei had never heard that name, then again she didn't know everyone in the tribes by name. Somehow she had the feeling though, that she would have remembered him. "The name is Àlamei." she answered his question, lowering her head in a more formal greeting, now that she was more face to face with him.

A roguish smile split her lips again, as she felt the inquiry behind his statement and looked him over.
"Ah, another hybrid." Her gaze zipped across his scales and wings, noting the slightly red edges before coming back to his eyes. "Let me guess, you've got some Firewing in you besides that mountain gene?" She abandoned the plan to scout for just a few more minutes, after all a little chat was always a welcome distraction on long patrol missions and it hadn't been that long since she had taken over. But when he flopped down in front of her she started to turn away, planning on venturing along the outlines of the trees first before going further in.
"You do that, but I should probably advise you to look for a different spot." she implied over her shoulder, before slowly starting to walk around him to get to the other side of the clearing.

Neltharion getting a bit more comfortable on the ground chuckled a bit as he listened to the Firewing's reply "Pretty sure it's too much of a hassle to move a boulder like me" He kept on watching the dragoness before him as she lowered her head down slightly and introduced herself to him. "Àlamei...Nice name" Neltharion commented normally with no hidden meaning behind it. "Does it have a meaning as well or were you just called that cause it sounded nice?" The oversized lizard called Nelthy asked Àlamei out of curiosity.

The large dragon smiled back a bit and answered to her guess "You're right, my blood is that of the Earthwing and Firewing tribes." Neltharion gazed her over once again as she circled around him "And what kind of dragon did your Firewing parent mate with to result in the combination that is called Àlamei?" He asked in a casual manner interested in learning more of the first dragon he met that was of the Twilight Imperium.

"Move away? After I just got settled in? I don't think so, far too comfortable here" He moved his gaze away from the dragoness and set it upon the sky "Shame that it seems that a storm is brewing up though, Would've loved to just bask in the sun after a long flight" He said as he moved his gaze from the sky again towards the Firewing.

He wasn't wrong, she had to admit as much. But as already mentioned, she had her ways. The tension seemed to have completely subsided, so she fully relaxed, rolling her shoulders a little bit to losen some of the muscles. "Thank you." She said honestly but with a little smirk, watching how he settled down even further. If he wanted to risk laying around while some monster was apparently on the prowl, so be it. At least he would be easy to spot when she eventually had to go help his rocky butt fight off a wild beast. "Pretty sure it is a play on my heritage or some sort. I remember something along the lines of Àlamei being a long forgotten and abandoned goddess of lightning and storm." She shrugged carelessly, never truly having bothered with learning much about the heritage of her mother or the dragoness herself. She never really had had the time for it either with her father constantly looming over her. But he was gone, so actually she did have time now. Oh well. Why bother right this instant?
"And what about you? Neltharion doesn't sound like the rocky names your kind seems to be so fond of." she inquired now that he had awoken her interest rather than her will to fight. He was intriguing, that much was true, the way he chose to speak was quite different from what she was used to, it gave him a bit of a regal, but also ancient atmosphere, just like he had been stuck in a different time. She chuckled at the way he asked about her heritage.
"I'm part Skywing, the reason why I look as colorful as I do." She spread her wings for a second, shaking them to make it look a little more like stretching rather than presenting herself, while she walked around his bulky form.

"Do as you wish, but don't say I didn't warn you when you get attacked by the monster we've been looking out for. You might even make yourself useful that way instead of lying around lazily." Mei enjoyed the way they currently bantered each other and was almost around him, when he mentioned the storm and the dragoness stopped to look up as well. No wonder the wind had been so calm. The clouds already began to hang over the sun like dark, droopy sheep and filled the air with the smell of rain. The wind had picked up a bit and would surely do so even more. "Looks like it's gonna be a bad one too." she remarked, furrowing her brow at the darker sky. That meant she should probably get out of the thicker woods and back onto the plateau where she had met with the other guard. She would have a better view of the forest that way and didn't have to worry about falling branches.

Neltharion listened to the Firewing called Àlamei closely and especially takes note on how the dragoness can be relaxed while on duty. After hearing the story behind her name the giant dragon gazed up into the vast sky with black clouds slowly approaching the pair. Though, instead of focussing of the impending storm he looked into his own mind to see if he has ever read about such a story in a book. Yet no matter how much he searched into the depths of his mind it came up blank. He swore that he should've atleast known something. After all, he used to read about gods a lot in the distant past. For now he buried the thought deep in the back of his mind and focussed back onto the dragoness. "The story of my name is a long and exciting one..." After a pause he continued again "With great action and suspense" Trying to hype up the origin of his name with those few sentences he finally starts the story "Once upon a time, there was a dragon...who got the name Neltharion, due to never having met his parents...the story remains forever forgotten. The End" And thus he ended the anticlimatic story of his name.

He focussed his sights upon her shiny and colorful scales. "I've never met a Firewing with such scales before...it looks.." Neltharion stopped his sentence for a moment to think upon the right words to describe the scales of Àlamei "Dazzling" Afer a few moments of thought, he came upon that word.

The large lizard raises one brow as Àlamei mentioned a monster that was lurking around these woods. A cold smile quickly grew upon his maw. "A monster you say? If it bothers me, I'll just kill it~" He said with a jovial voice...yet a strange coldness could be felt from the tone of the voice as well. With the pupils of his eyes slitting just a tiny bit more. After a few moments he shook his head lightly "Well, that depends if it comes here though" The large dragon said with his usual demeanor.

He lays his head down upon the ground and starts to soak in the last remaining rays of the sun above him. "I'll just catch the remaining rays of the sun before heading out to seek some cover...Or I could just ask you if you know of a perfect place to seek shelter" he asked her hoping to get a positive answer since he really didn't want to bother searching if he could avoid it.

A short, but honest laugh erupted from her maw when he finished his story and she just had to shake her head. "I see you have a nag for dramatics." was everything she could come up with at the moment, a little bit of a chuckle still swinging in her voice. He sure liked to make a show of himself and his boyish but carefree and confident demeanor only highlighted that. She was almost inclined to say, that he was...pleasant to have around at the moment. Something she didn't often think of the Earthwings and their cold seriousness. Did they even have a sense of fun? This one seemed to have at least a sense of irony, something she took a liking to.

Àlamei turned her head over her shoulder to look at the large Earthwing, fanning her wing across have of her face to hide an obviously fake blush, her eyes betraying her display of naive flattery like that of a young juvenile with a spark of wagishness. "Why thank you." she said behind her wing, lowering her gaze for a second before folding her wings back into place. The storm grew ever closer, so it was time to fly one last round across the forest before taking up her spot on the perch, watching from a safer distance.

Only his tone let her stop for a second and turn around. She recognized the ease with which he spoke of killing a monster and couldn't stop herself from grinning. Apparently she had stumbled upon a fighter, what a nice surprise. It would be a shame though, if he happened to stumble upon the Monster first. They had been sitting here for quite a while and it would just be unfair of him to rob the guard of their long earned fight. Finally she just shrugged, regarding him with a carefree look. He wasn't her responsibility while lying around in the middle of a dangerous forest, especially if she had to do one last patrol before the storm.
"There is a cave quite a bit further to the west, you probably wouldn't reach it before the storm breaks though, so the closest place to shelter would probably be the plains just ahead." That way she at least didn't have to have an eye out for his big lump as well during the storm.
"I could show you to it, but duty always calls before a big storm breaks." Mei said, shrugging and getting ready to launch into the air again. The air was full of a rising tension now, a low rumble coming from far away and anouncing the coming thunderstorm.

Neltharion just watches her get ready to take off for a moment "I see you take duty before anything else, commendable trait you have there." He nods his head once. He took his eyes off her for just a moment to think about something before turning back to the dragoness "So, in other words..." He paused for a second "If I were to provide my services in slaying this monstrosity, I could get you to show me place instead of having to search for it myself." He smiles a bit at Àlamei before speaking up again "And whatever would I do if the first person I've met of the Imperium would get injured?" The large lizard exclaimed jokingly.

Nelthy unfurls his massive wings to stretch them a bit before folding them up again. "I think I can handle a short flight for now." He gazed up towards the slightly darkened sky as he watches dark clouds cover the sun fully "It seems my time has ran out for basking under the sun" The dragon stood back up slowly with his head held high. "So wherever might our adversary be?" He asked her without actually confirming wether or not he could actually tag along.

Neltharion prepared himself for take off "I wouldn't mind turning a monster into ash right about now~" He exclaimed jovially letting his hatred for monster leak out just a tiny bit. "If the gods aren't fixing this issue, then we must do so." And with that he was fully prepared to take on any foe.

Ah, so now he was the benevolent hero for aiding her work and protecting her. She sighed audibly at that and rolled her eyes. Oh, how much she would give for males to not always treat her like she was something to be protected and they were the ones to do it. But then again, who would she openly embarrass in her free time, when they all suddenly started to respect her? "Of course, now that you have landed in this forest and disturbed my watch, it is your duty to protect my fragile self." She replied with just a smidge of too much cynicism to be mistaken for irony. She looked at the overgrown dragon and tilted her head at him, her talons dugging into the soil, ready to launch her into the air.
"At least do me the favor of not hurting yourself while i deal with this beast." she shot back as a slight revenge for his joke early and even went as far as to wink at him. Àlamei wouldn't be able to stop him from following her anyways and if he was even half as smart as his eloquence made him out to be, he would probably just tag along until she sought shelter herself. Less work for him.
Mei smiled a dangerous smile at the hatred dripping from his words. She almost felt that, the excitement of a coming fight already surging through her body.

"I'll see you in the sky, rocky." And with that she shot up into the ever darkening sky, climbing higher until she had a general overview over her section of the forest. The static of the coming storm grew with her flight and she felt the prickly sensation of the lightning on her scales. A comfortable shudder running across her spine, making her eyes glow just a smidge brighter. From up her she watched and waited for Neltharion to follow her. With a small glance she made sure that the larger dragon was actually rising into the sky before she went back to looking across the tree tops, hovering in place until the Earthwing caught up to her.

"Every being instinctively searches for shelter with a storm like that coming and if we're dealing with something remotely smart and dangerous enough to justify heavier patrols, it will most likely leave the forest to do so. I'd suggest looking over the border of the forest, everything between the plains and about 50-80ft into the forest. We should find whatever it is." Her tone had grown more focused and serious, lost its underlying irony and wagishness she had displayed during their little conversation. This was tactical business and she treated it as such.

Neltharion chuckled a bit at the response the dragoness before him gave. The large dragon instantly knew more fun can be had with Àlamei. He could foresee a future full of teases and prodding towards the dragoness. His brain quickly forming new ideas on how to mess with her in a casual manner. Neltharion just kept smiling at her attempt of a revenge jab. "You don't have to worry about me getting hurt. I'll let you do all the close quarters combat. My specialty lies in long range combat after all." Neltharion said keeping his smile up, with some memories resurfacing of the many times he had to fight in the worst of places. However he made sure the feelings and emotions connected to those memories were buried deep in his soul, forever hidden.

The large Hybrid watched Àlamei shoot up into the sky with quite some speed and grace. Right after he folds open his wings and crouches down slightly to launch himself off the ground and engage in flight. With great force he pushed himself off the ground and into the vast sky. Shifting his gaze at the incoming storm "Atleast it'll add to the atmosphere" The flying drake thought to himself. Neltharion moves his attention back to Àlamei who seems to have switched into her serious mindset. "Nice deduction, it seems you do your job well. Good to know the Imperium hasn't grown weak while I was away." Nelthy kept listening to her and what the next course of action would be. "After you then, I shall not get in the way of an honorable guard and I shall make sure I can offer a bit of long ranged support." He exclaimed in a calm manner ready to face off against the monster they might be facing.

As long as he didn't accidentally hit her with his long range support, it might be a nice and useful addition to her close quarter combat techniques. Of course she didn't tell him that right now, but maybe after a battle, if they found one and worked nicely together. Most of her comrades were middle range combatants, some more focused on close range or aerial combat, but it was seldom that she got to work with someone to support her from afar. Well, if they did find a Monster in the woods, she was getting a little ahead of herself already making up strategies.

Àlamei mustered a small, semi-arrogant smile. "Not all of us can go on vacation instead of working." She joked but went back to being a little more serious rather fast. "Let's go then." Nodding to Neltharion, who had agreed on following her, she started down towards the tree tops and her intended route. Mei wanted to get this done before the first rain broke and they'd be caught in turbulence and cold weather. She hated cold weather.
So far everything seemed as calm as when she had gotten hear, aside from the ever nearing storm of course. No sign of a monster or even a rogue. Just a few stags and deer running around down in the forest seeking shelter, until she caught sight of something in the corner of her eye. Instinctively she arched up in a tight curve, her wingtip colliding with something cold and hard, but she managed to narrowly avoid being smashed to pieces by a giant metal ball.
The first thunder rolled across the sky in unison with her hiss. Her green eyes slitted, battle senses awoken by the attack, and found what had almost dropped her out of the sky. A low growl emitted from her maw.

Down in the forest, close to the plains was something that couldn't be described as anything else but a hideous monster, screaming at them in a high pitched, wailing manner and guarding what seemed like the entrance to a tunnel. No wonder they hadn't found it yet, if it was hiding in a tunnel whenever the guard was here. The storm must have flushed it out. The clouds broke, rain began falling, the world instantly becoming dimmer and hazy.
"Looks like we found our monster after all." She growled over the sound of the rain towards the larger Earthwing. In her years fighting with the guard she hadn't seen a monster like this before. It was...a mass of mixed and twisted bodies. Legs sticking out on every direction, arms and fingers misplaced and misshapen. Faces, Wings, Ears. It seemed to have everything but not at the right places. And it was screaming from too many mouths, not stopping even when the lightning cracked ahead.
Disgust welled through her body, finding it's equal in the anger that surged through her, because this thing had dared to attack her. She slightly adjusted her flight, trying a gentle curve to get a better look at this thing while not having to stop in place and become an even better target. This thing didn't follow them. It didn't even seem to track them with its eyes, instead it was rummaging through the soil at its feet, probably getting together a new ball to hurl at them. "Ain't never seen anything like that." She said with disgust in her voice, unconsciously switching to the slang many of her guard colleagues used.

Flying in the air next to the Guardian he looks through the trees to spot anything out of the ordinary, ignoring the loomiing strom that even dwarfs the large Earthwing hybrid. WIhtout taking his eyes off the forest he says to Àlamei "Vacation?" Taking a moment to think on how to describe the hell he has been through for the couple years he was away. "I think it 's more like...an eternal battlefield" He settled on just that. Even though it wasn't nearly sufficient, what would be sufficient to be compared to hell?

With a single nod he chased after the dragoness taking charge with flying over the forest for surveillance. For now all that Neltharion that was of note were animals but the amount of animals around was a bit lower than usual. It seems there might be an actual monster here after all. All that is left is to find it and exterminate it, something the large lizard quite enjoys. By pure instinct his gaze locked onto the dragoness dodging a massive ball of metal. Quickly there after he put more stength into his wings and quickly forced himself up higher into the air.

Neltharion looked at the abomination with a grin plastered onto his maw and with pity in his eyes. "A mass of miserable flesh, fits the description of a monster rather will in my opinion~" The flying dragon said out loud not even hiding his disgust for these pitiful creatures. Feeling a couple drops of water hitting his scales, he moved his head up to look at the darkened sky filled with gloomy rain clouds before looking back at the abomination. "Atleast it's atmospheric" He noted mostly to himself, the weather would be perfect if one were to write a story about monster extermination. Neltharion had enough of the wait. "I hope you do not mind Guardian." Without explaining what he was about to do, he charged up his Fire Breath to its compressed form for 6 seconds. Releasing a small line of fire from his gapin maw towards the monster. Not long after that the line exploded outwards right in the monster's path.

Eternal battle field? Which island did he visit? Most of the continent was rather peaceful currently, at least compared to a few years ago, but apparently not wherever he had been. Àlamei was inclined to pry a bit further, but decided this was not the time. After all they were trying to find and kill a monster, so maybe it wasn't the best time for some friendly, get to know chit chat. Another time. Another place. Maybe one not quite so wet.

As much as she could relate to the grin on his face, hers was the opposite. A grimace of grim determination and hatred, her teeth bared she glared at the Thing while arching back towards Neltharion, a subtle pain pulsing through her left wing. The larger Earthwing managed to evade the projectile unhurt, that was something at least. Below them the Monster still screeched, above them the thunder rumbled and lightning crackled, reflecting off some of her scales, making it seem like the electricity was rippling across her body as well. Yes, the darkened sky and white flashes of lightning were atmospheric, the clasps of thunder being the only thing to overshadow the Monster's screams, but that blasted rain. It made it harder to see and splattered on her wings. And worst of all, it was cold. If it got much heavier flying would be harder, so they had to hurry.
Something Nelth seemed to agree with, as he already took a shot at the Monster, fire erupting from maw hitting the Monster straight on. "Nice shot." The dragoness called over to him watching the Monster closely as the smoke subsided. It seemed almost unharmed, just a small scorch mark was left where the blast should have hit it and it seemed to be growing smaller. Mei frowned. Was it healing itself? The monster just kept on rummaging. Hurling a smaller, badly aimed ball at them. Clearly it was now angry.
"Cover me in case it decides to throw again." She ordered the Earthwing without as much as a doubt towards him not following suit. Mei had already turned down, her wings closely at her sides, as she excellerated towards the Monster, plunging her talons into one of its many heads, this one looked vaguely human, and ripping it right off as she shot back up into the air with powerful flaps of her wings. The satisfying sound putting a smile back on her face, until she turned around just to see it healing the wound like it was nothing. Àlamei growled, climbing back up to Neltharion.

Neltharion nods at her request for support and watches Àlamei dive down and attack one of the faces the monsters possesses before coming back up. He took note that the abomination seems to be able to regenerate itself. "Seems like attacking it over a longer period of time will be ineffective." He stated from the short exchange that he witnessed and of course his attack from before. He takes a moment to think up a strategy while keeping eye contact with the monstrosity. "Guess there is no choice, but to annihilate it with full force." He said with a grin on his face, not wanting to wait to decrease the monster population by atleast one.

Taking a deep breath Neltharion gets ready to once again to fire another blast at the disgusting abomination of nature. After a charge up of 6 seconds he sends another beam of concetrated fire towards the monster that explodes outwards shortly afterwards. "Can't back down now can we?" He asked the dragoness in a jovial matter. Neltharion hoped they could pull this off sooner rather than later, getting stuck in a storm isn't his top priority after all.

Even with his second shot being fired off, he knew that it wouldn't be enough to take down a monster with such capabilities and took another deep breath and charges up another shot to fire at it right away. Hoping the teamwork between the dragoness and himself could take care of this annoying pest in a reasonable time.

Mei let the ripped off head fall to the ground, disgusted by the twisted look of it and growled when that Thing began healing itself in no time. Neltharion was right, attacking it slowly didn't seem to do anything. The dragoness nodded. "Time to roast the flesh of this thing." she agreed with the larger dragon, already mapping out a plan of attack for herself. She would have to constantly circle back and forth to give Nelth ample time to make shots himself, distracting the thing from her so she could score another hit as well. They'd have to be fast and strong, luckily that was her specialty.

A grin matching that of the large Earthwing grew on her face, the pulsing pain in her wing feeding her desire to annihilate this thing. "I like the way you think." She told him after his second blast, before diving down anew, blasting a bolt of lightning at the beast, partially right were Nelth's blast had hit it. She didn't take a moment to slow down, instead shooting right into the forest, nimbly avoiding trees, to fly a curve and double back on the Monster while Neltharion took another one of his shots. She broke free of the trees right as his explosion hit and ripped free one of its arms with her talons. The Monster screamed, whether of agony or anger didn't matter, it was music in her ears.
The Monster behind her hurled another one of its balls at the large Earthwing in the sky, before suddenly bloating itself up, and releasing the air together with quite a lot of sticky, fleshlike goo that shot away from it like projectiles. The Earthwing was too far away to be hit by this, but the dragoness was covered with quite a bit of it. Her skin shuddered, the weird goo sticking to her scales even through the thick of the rain. It didn't hurt, didn't burn through her scales like acid or anything, just stuck to her. The Guardian was confused by the attack, but didn't let that stop her. She was turning back up towards the sky, attempting a barrel roll to fling the goo off her body, but was caught off guard and off balance by the sudden vortex sucking everything in range towards the monster. Her momentum so suddenly cut off, her barrell roll catapulted her right into the trunk of a thick tree, sending splinters in all directions. Leaving her disoriented for a second. Just enough time for the vortex to pull her ever closer to the monster.
The attack was so strong even the trees started leaning towards where this thing stood with a mouthlike hole agape, absorbing everything that flew into its maw. It was surely strong enough that even Nelth should feel its power but didn't necessarily have to struggle against it. Unlike his fighting companion.

Àlamei had regained her focus, but somehow the flesh on her scales seemed to be sucked into the cortex even stronger than everything else. Her attempts at flying away and shooting back into the sky were hopeless, as she entered the reach of the monster. Other dragons would have been panicking by now, but Mei only bared her teeth at the monster. She wasn't about to give up this fast, instead she turned around to face that Thing, getting ready to blast it right into its open maw, hoping her long range support was smart enough to do the same. If he wasn't it was looking rather grim for her. She dug her talons into the ground, stabilizing herself to gain just a few more precious seconds to charge her lightning breath and aim more precisely.

Neltharion was pleasantly suprised to see that Àlamei shared his way of thinking when dealing with monsters. Seeing her grin in the face of danger is good sign for someone he might be able to call a comrade later on, but for now they had to focus on turning this monster into a unmoving pile of flesh. Turning his eyes to the monster down on the ground he watches it closely as he sees its preparing for something. Keeping steady in the air Neltharion waited on what the monstrosity might do and then he saw it. A Metal ball was thrown his away all the way up in the sky. With a strong flap of his wings he lifted himself a bit higher in the air. The metal ball grazing against his scales on the underside, leaving behind some sparks. "That was too close..." He stated to himself, perhaps it was the combination of the weather and him having had to fly for a great distance.

After dodging the projectile he refocuses on the monster on the ground that is currently engaged with Àlamei and saw that it bloated up before sending a goo like subtance everywhere. It didn't seem to do any damage so that was weird. Then it proceeded to suck anything and everything towards it like a vortex. That included the dragoness who got covered in the goo like substance. Neltharion saw the mass of flesh opening a giant maw threatening to devour the dragoness. He immediatly started charging up another shot towards the beast's maw for 6 seconds and noticed the dragoness was preparing for something as well. Neltharion fired of his beam of compressed fire towards the beast's opened maw roughly around the same time Àlamei would do her thing as well.

Her lightning breath usually wasn't very aimed, especially over longer distances the lightning tended to branch, covering more ground but becoming unprecise. This close to her target though it was bound to hit right where she wanted, the only problem being the water pooling around the both of them, connecting them in one ever growing puddle. Luckily this was only a small hiccups compared to the speed at which she was being pulled in.
When she felt her own lighting filling the air with static instead of the huge thunderstorm above them, she pushed off the ground for a split second, releasing her breath attack to charge right into the gaping maw with all the force she had. Flapping her wings as hard as she could to counteract the vortex and keep her off the ground. Finally she felt the heat of explosions, Neltharion's attack hitting just a split second after her own. The combined force blew a hole right through the body of that twisted mass, cutting an abrupt stop to the vortex, sending her outward with some unexpected momentum. The blow seemed to have done the trick though. Mei could still see a bit of purple lightning zipping from burned off pieces of flesh and smell the smouldering. The Monster seemed to be burning away from the inside, screaming in pain until it collapsed, parts of its body turning to the same goo that still covered her scales and flowng away with the water.

The rain had gotten worse, so had the lightning which was now cracking violently through the sky as she climbed back up to meet her fighting companion. "Well, that was way too close for my liking." She said, looking at the goo on her with disgust, as a bolt of lightning cracked much too close as well. "Probably not a good idea to keep flying now. Something as large as you is bound to get hit if we stay out here."

Neltharion satisfyingly watched the monster being blasted by a combination of his compressed fire breath and the lighting breath of Àlamei. Knowing that yet another monster has been wiped off this world put his mind just a bit more at ease. "It may have been close but atleast we took care of another pest." He said to the goo covered dragoness flying besides him. Nelthy took a look at her body covered in the disgusting substance. "Perhaps you need to go take a bath in the river after this storm is over." He suggested to the dragoness. Atleast the rain helped somewhat with washing it off but, if Neltharion was in that situation he would rather wash it off himself than let the rain do so.

Looking at a lightningbolt impact the ground he nodded to the dragoness as she suggested to move away from this place. "Perhaps you're right, perhaps you are not..but I still think we should go find some shelter. Wasn't there some cave nearby where we can go?" The large flying lizard asked Àlamei. He would really like it right about now to just be out of the rain and out of the way of any incoming lightningbolts.

She couldn't decide whether he was making fun of her or being serious, but since the suggestion was actually a helpful and constructive one, she decided not to think too much about it and just take it as a pointer as she nooded. "Unfortunately, yes." She said, twisting her maw in a disgusted way, both at the goo on her scales and the thought of bathing in a lake. She hated water, it made her vulnerable. But there wouldn't be any way around it unless she wanted to smell of rotting corpse in a few days.

The lightning might have been intoxicating, especially for someone with an affinity for it, but being hit by a bolt was definitely not and Neltharion was right. The cave she had been telling him about wasn't too far away and they might get there before one of them got hit. So she nodded, pointing into the general direction of the cave with her head. "Should be a few miles ahead. Let's see if we can find it." Mei let herself drop a little bit first though, to do another barrel roll without hitting the Earthwing with any of the goo on herself. It got rid of the worst spludges but some of it still stuck to her, when she came back up, intentionally staying a bit lower than the larger dragon, slimmimg her chances of getting hit by lightning. She wasn't about to die first just bc she was travelling with this mountain of a dragon during a really bad storm.
It took a couple minutes, but eventually she spotted the cave and its opening, signaling Neltharion with her tail and diving down. The Guardian landed almost gracefully on the wet ground, trotting into the cave entrance and shaking off all the excess water. It still left her pretty drenched. And cold.

Neltharion couldn't wait to seek shelter from this bloody storm, everything was wet and cold...not a very likeable combination of things for those that are of Firewing blood. At the very least there was a cave nearby where they could stay for yet an unknown amount of time. Considering the storm however, it seems that it might atleast an entire night for it to pass over. Of course there was the looming danger of being hit by lightning as well, which this dragon would really like to avoid.

The large flying figure in the sky watched as the Firewing dove down to throw off most of the vile goo that was on her body with a quick barrel roll. "Hopefully that'll help just a tiny bit." He said to the dragoness, however he thought that it wouldn't matter too much since that mass of an abomination truly was revolting and just a tiny amount would be terrible. The large hybrid started following Àlamei in flight towards the cave which she nodded towards...Neltharion did notice that this guardian chose to fly at a lower altitude than him. Almost as if to put a barrier between her and any stray lightning bolts that may strike close by. Not an unjustified decision as lightning hit relatively close by the pair that were flying towards the cave. At that moment Nelthy thought that it might be a good idea to speed up and that was what he did.

After a short flight which consisted of just a few minutes he finally reached land again and landed near the cave entrance not too far from the dragoness. "Thank goodness we've arrived." Neltharion quickly shook off excess water of his massive frame, making sure to not get anything on the dragoness. It was still pretty cold for the dragon and decided to hurry up and went inside the cave first.

Amused she watched the much larger dragon shaking of all the rain water and hurrying inside the cave. Apparently she wasn't the only one not happy about the cold this rain brought. The icy wind outside didn't make it any better, so she followed him, happy to get away from the prospect of getting even colder.
The cave wasn't exactly heated but at least they were able to get away from the wind and thankfully the Guard stashed some dry wood in here. They just had to find a way to light it on fire, so they could actually see in here and maybe dry off a bit. From the looks of it they were gonna be here for a while, at least until the storm died down a bit, which could take all day. They could fly back to the settlement during night, but she didn't really cherish the thought of flying at night after a big storm and abandoning her post. The guard wouldn't send someone out here until the storm had passed completely and until then it was technically her responsibility to watch over these woods.
"There should be some fire wood in here somewhere." she notified the Earthwing so he could help her search. "You don't, by any chance, have a less explosive fire breath as well, do you?" Otherwise the wood would pretty much be very useless to them without a way of actually lighting it.

Being inside the cave was instantly more comfortable, no annoying cold rains or hard winds to contend with. Of course one can't exclude the fact that lightning wasn't able to strike inside the cave and thus frying someone. "Firewood would be lovely right about now" Neltharion said to the dragoness in a relieved tone as she mentioned a firewood stash that she had hidden in the cave. going deeper into the cave he looks around for the firewood. When the Àlamei asked the large dragon if he had something less explosive up his non-existant sleeve he answered with "Something less explosive? Why do you think I have something like that?" He said to make it initially sound that he couldn't do so. "But, for your information. I can do something less explosive." He said before breathing a tiny amount of fire out of his maw.

Moving deeper into the cave Neltharion quickly stumbled upon the firewood. "Excellent, found what we were coming for." He exclaimed looking quite relieved before walking over to it and grabbing the bundle with his tail. "Now where should we start this fire? I hope there is a comfortable spot nearby, though I could make it more comfortable with a little bit of Earthwing manipulation." Neltharion said with a bit of a prideful tone.

She perked up from a dark corner when Nelth called over. She walked over to him, rolling her eyes at the entitlement she had expected of the Earthwing, but definitely had to admit, that it was nice to see him having a normal fire breath as well. That meant some drying off and actual warmth. Two things she was very fond of right now, as she was cold and getting slightly cranky.

"Pretty much everything is more comfortable than being outside in that storm." She sighed, not even fully willing to start her games again, even though that would have been the perfect opportunity. She trotted a little further into the cave, feeling a slight wind gust from that way. "But before I let you make a dirt nest for us, let's see where this leads us." Mei had never actually been in these caves before. Every Guardian had to know about them in case of emergency, but she didn't really know what was in these caves.

Following that slight gust of wind, she turned down a smaller hallway until the tunnel suddenly opened up into a huge underground lake. "Well, if that isn't something." Soft glowing, blue moss covered the walls, lighting the cave even without an open fire and steam was rising from the lake that seemed to be fed by an underground spring. A smile spread on her face, lifting her mood after all. "Looks like I get the chance for a bath without waiting for the storm to subside."