A Prideful Tongue Brings Danger (Closed)

[Tenshi the Sunkern]

(OOC: For the time being, this is just me and Hayes, and maybe MM if he feels like joining in.)

"I wonder how Crigan is doing." Charybdis took a bite out of the hamburger she had in her hands, a soft purring sound coming from her as she enjoyed the taste of it all. The fish fillet, the tartar sauce, the relish and pickles... she had forgotten how good human food had been. Then again, humanity had always been a species that had proven themselves quite ingenious at various things. She was with Proteus, in one of the many cafeterias at the UCA, and the two of them had gone there after their meeting with Shinki and Sariel. With there being no trace of the Maluvor in sight, they had guessed that things were going well, and had retired off to get some food to eat. Proteus had ordered himself a whole pizza, while Charybdis... well, she had taken everything offered at the food venders and had wolfed it down within minutes. She ignored those were gossiped that she was Yuyuko's long lost sister, merely dismissing such unwarranted claims as a mere joke. The ghost ate because she wanted to eat. She ate because she was a bottomless black hole, always starving for the next meal.

"He is probably busy with whatever the yama have asked of him. He is a Death God, after all, and they are to do what the Yama ask. A servant to a master, you can say."

"I know that." Charybdis pouted, as she shoved what remained of her burger down her throat, before reaching for another. "It's just... I hope his situation improved. I wish we could help him... but master Persephone has given us an Ultanium order, one that Shinki cannot override."

"I hate that garbage. I really do." Proteus leaned back on the bench he was on. "If Mara does get better... well, then I hope for Crigan's sake that Persephone doesn't hunt him down. She is a nasty witch when she gets truly pissed off."

Charybdis sighed, and laid on her belly. She had her own reasons why she had to follow Persephone's order... it was her only ticket to being normal, and she didn't want that to go up in flames. She shook her head. No, she didn't want to think about it. She sat up, and tried to think of a way to change the topic she had started. "Well... atleast the humans or whatever that run this place have some very good food!"

"That, they do." Proteus replied, as he enjoyed a slice of pizza. "I don't know what Persephone's plans are for the human race... but whatever she is up to, I hope they keep of doing what they have always done. Humans are a creative, young race, with few powers, no remarkable strength, but they are quite intelligent and determined to survive. I'm amazed they survived the great Magician's War and the Human-Demon war... and to even use the technology made by the Ophorus into their own machines... they are a race that has earned my admiration and respect."

[Fainis the Sadistic Pansexual]

"If they did not use their talents for the extermination of all that they fear, perhaps so," rang a deep, echoing voice. "But as it is, they are rats and deserved to be exterminated themselves."

The growl, filled with pure and primal hatred, sounded as if it came from just besides Charybdis, yet when she and Proteus rotated their heads to find the source of the noise, they saw no such thing. The pair shared a baffled glance for a moment. A low murmur had started around them, the other occupants of the cafeteria chatting and whispering among themselves in hushed voices. Some put on sneers or snarls of disgust. Other nervous frowns. Some of even fled entirely, most notably a ragged, wiry man with curly caramel hair and a look of wide eyed alarm on his scarred face. Again, Charybdis and Proteus shared a look filled with bafflement. What was going on?

"You two must be new arrivals to be so left in the dark," drawled the voice soothingly with obviously false sympathy.

Charybdis, her palm flat on the table, felt the slight tremor that it caused, and her eyes soon found the origin of the subdued snarl, though that did little to alleviate her confusion.

She leaned down...

"But perhaps I can assist you. You see, all that is required is that you.."

... and peered curiously at her glass of trembling water.

"Turn around."

-

A few minutes ago...

Pale eyes that were once crimson red fluttered open. A low moan echoed from between pearly teeth and filled a dark room occupied almost solely by gold and the shattered remains of ships. Pawing enormous handfuls of gems and jewelry to push himself up off his plated belly, Kedos Croder shook his spiny head and heaved raggedly, his breath coming in short, punctuated, pained gasps. Sickly white eyes rolling, the dragon examined his surroundings. Where was he? Why did his body scream? What was going on? The drake squeezed his eyes shut and hummed, his tongue scraping the top of his ribbed pallet as he thought. Suddenly, he remembered and his eyes opened wide again.

The UCA. Battles. Arc. The Horsemen. Rosie. Pain. A draw.

It was all flooding back to him now.

Curling his lips to show his pink gums and bone white teeth, Kedos lifted up, his head swinging past a damaged prow marked by the letters "Fa-" and "-cy." The blue behemoth sneered stiffly as his sore limbs sang in pain, but finished rising anyways. Broken bones and exposed bowels could not stop him. Why should a bit of leg pain? Wading through his horde of gold and jewels, the great navy drake rolled his lips in an unhappy snarl. A draw. Another draw. He had had enough of draws! He was Kedos! He won duels, not walked away unappeased. The northern drake laughed hoarsely in the back of his throat. The UCA would not listen though. They never listened. He would need to bring this directly to that brutish mammal...

Striding from his quarters, the gold tumbling at his feet stopped dead by a pale wall of yellowish energy that contained it safely within his living space, Kedos reared his great head high and peered down the long corridor that lay before him. Though the dragon could not know it, he looked much different that what the UCA had last seen of him. He had shrunk almost a full twenty meters and dropped much of his girth as well, though what he had lost in bulk was made up in musculature. The chest and forearms of the titanic reptile were far larger and more defined than they had been in the past, his claws gleaming dangerously on the front of thick arms. His serrated back was interrupted by a pair of sharklike fins of unequal height and shape. Perhaps most notably, the blood red color that had been drained from his blank eyes now adorned his arms, marking the beds of sleek, thin, needlelike scales that he could spike up to form spiny shields.

Kedos grew frustrated and impatient as his search for the walrus proved exceedingly fruitless. Now that the drake thought with a clear head, he realized that it was likely that the mammal was healing, being forcibly stripped of the wounds that he had hosted during their battle. But Kedos was not one to give up, even in the wake of mistaken notions and faulty logic, so he strode on, eager to find either the walrus or a suitable distraction to end his futile search.

And, as his keen ears picked up a conversation coming from a human eating place that he stalked past, he believed that he had found just such a distraction...

-

Kedos Croder, massive, blue, with blood stained across his arms and hate spilled into his sockets, stood in the entranceway to the cafeteria, almost filling it up entirely with his enormous frame.

The drake's sneer parted with a low groan of judgment as he stared fixedly at Proteus. "You have no idea what you say when you proclaim the greatness of humans, little one."

[Tenshi the Sunkern]

Proteus looke dup at the massive form of Kedos. Sure enough, he looked quite different than what he had seen on the television displays... but after what had happened with Quetzar... "I merely admire their tenacity and skill with what is given to them, not what they do with their intelligence and craftiness. No doubt, you have felt the sting of their might, sea dragon?"

Charybdis, on the other hand, immediately hated what she saw. She recognized him alright from the clips played constantly around her. The egotistical "God of the Sea", Ketos... what a joke. "So they call you the God of the Sea?" Charybdis asked the towering reptile. "I bear few qualms with humanity itself, but I too know of what some will do when given power beyond regulation. So tell me, with that hot attitude and overblown ego you have, no doubt you brought humanity's wrath upon yourself... or maybe even, the rest of your kind." She could see it in his eyes, the proud arrogant warrior that he was... and the pain of his past. Since she was bored, and since she didn't like him one bit, perhaps she could rip into a wound or two... he didn't deserve her sympanty, or her nice, abit deranged talk.

"Now hold up Charybdis, that's no way to speak to a strange-"

"Don't care." She flatly said. "I'm sure our "God of the Sea" is more than capable of handling an adult discussion." Charybdis cut off Proteus, the title of Kedos's name said in such a way as to mock him.

[Fainis the Sadistic Pansexual]

Blank eyes narrowed into deathly thin slits. When Kedos spoke next, it was with a boisterous edge. "You would be wise to heed the words of your companion, child. I am called only what is most appropriate." Then the drake's voice grew slower, quieter, and his eyes hooded in suspicious rather than rage. He responded carefully. "No... it was not I who felt their sting. All I felt of them was feeble bodies breaking underfoot."

The drake had glanced at Proteus to answer the query of the cyclops, but now he turned his glare fully on Charybdis. "Tread carefully now, girl. You deal with no mortal creature, but an immortal! I am timeless! Divine blood lies within me! A killer of gods am I!"

The great dragon leaned forward, inclining his head so that his brow cast a ghastly shadow over his glaring sockets. "And you are far less than a god."

[Tenshi the Sunkern]

Proteus knew that what Kedos had said was dangerous ground. "Now now, no need for such harsh words between either of yo-"

A hand raised up to his mouth, silencing him. Proteus looked over at Charybdis, and saw that her eyes had twisted back into serpentine slints. a low hiss escaped from her. "You are not needed in this conversation with such a lowly salamander. You may leave, Proteus. I can handle this myself. I don't want you to get caught in the crossfire." Charybdis said, her eyes never leaving Kedos's own. The Cyclops, realizing that was was coming could not be avoided, decided to leave with his pizza. Charybdis flopped off the bench she was on, and held herself up on one hand off the ground. "You dare call me, the Goddess of the Seas, a mere child? I am the Lord of the Dragon Palace, the greatest of all the earth's treasure stores, containing wealth and power far beyond what such a lowly and arrogant reptile like yourself have ever seen. Treasure hoards miles high, containing the rarest and most valuable jewels ever seen in either earth or the Demonic Realm... are all in my possession. I might not look like it right now, but rest assured, I weild power far beyond what such a base creature as yourself own. The gods you have killed... they were nothing compared to who I am.. or the Goddess I served before I was given her mantle. We Draconians are beyond what you are..."

Here, she shifted hands, before landing on her feet, dark storm clouds brewing outside the windows of the UCA. Lightning clashed as great wind gusts battered the windows. "And you are no god, nor are you an immortal. You are a lizard, a salamander, a mere newt! I have seen greatness... and you hold none of that! You are a disgrace to any real God of the Seas!"

[Fainis the Sadistic Pansexual]

"Only in that I slayed the last one I met!" spat Croder with fire in his dead eyes. "Do you think that all drakefolk were as majestic as Kedos? That we were all so large? So powerful? No, even though we once dwarfed humanity, we in turn were dwarfed by the monsters and gods that made the Earth tremble with their footsteps. Thunderous creatures that surpassed us in both power and size. I was not fully a half of my current stature in the past. But then I grew. I changed! All when I ripped open the chest of Kharbios Sulla and ate his beating heart! I have drank divine blood and made it part of me! So, no, I am not a god, girl, and I do not ask that you call me one. I only ask that you acknowledge what is true: that I am greater than a god. That I hunt them!"

With each boast, each claim of greatness, the raging breath of the dragon became thicker and more visible until it appeared that Kedos was breathing smoke. The frost that formed across his muzzle and lips told that it was icy mist instead though. The air around the reptile seem to shiver, forming small snowflakes and flurries with its pitiful tremors. Charybdis's glass of water had frozen solid and been splintered by the expanding ice. As the drake mad his last bellow, it shattered, sending a conical chunk of ice skittering across the table and to the floor.

Kedos's anger was not only heard or seen, but felt! 

"True power lies in feat, not wealth, girl," grumbled the Demon of the Deep. "I have contested my feats against the immortals and emerged victorious, their divinity ripped from them alive and swallowed whole. Can you say the same?"

[Tenshi the Sunkern]

ice ran down Charybdis's face. Her eyes, fiery and enraged, never once left the great form of Kedos. The storm outside brewed louder, and louder, the window panes cracking in spider web fashion...

Until at last, they shattered, and the full force of the hypercane that had formed above the Hub came in with full power. Winds over 500 miles per hour whirled in, and those there held on as best they could. a torrential downpour flooded from the heavens, drenching all there... and as the rain hit Charybdis, her body began to steam... and she began to change before Kedos's very eyes. Her arms erupted into gigantic proportions, the skin scaling over and ending in massive eagles talons. her legs elongated and fused together, turning a motley brown as it ended in what looked like a sharks tail covered in long, serrated spikes that ran along the sides. The clothes she was wearing fused into her flesh. Buldging muscles erupted along her arms and chest as they were covered in sickly green scales. And larger she grew, dwarfing Kedos, dwarfing anything and everything that was within the Hub. "YOU HAVE MADE A GRAVE ERROR, SEA DRAKE!" Charybdis roared as her voice deeped and contorted along with her face. Her hair was absorbed into her skull as it elongated, and deadly fangs erupted out of her top jaw. Draconian fin ears appeared out of the sides of her head, and twin horns curved down from the top of her skull. She now towered above the sea dragon , and above anything the UCA had ever seen up to that point, and with her new clawed pectoral fins, braced herself as she slammed a single fist down beside him. The very area shook as Kedos was thrown off his feet by the seismic power of the hit.

"Now... you must live to your claims, whelp." Charybdis's voice rang through Kedos's mind. She inhaled, and let out a loud, primal roar, one that shook the very dragon to his core, and nearly ruptured his eardrums. "This power you see before you, it is not one I wished to have, but I will gladly put a delusional newt like you in place with it!"

[Fainis the Sadistic Pansexual]

Kedos hollered as he was battered by the vicious storm that had suddenly invaded the Hub. Water and snowflakes swirled from his body like ash as the powerful wind tore at his sandpapery hide, but they paused in midair, forming a static ring of humidity around the dragon. Stretching his arms out, Croder pushed away the water carried by the savage gales, creating a 200-meter dome of empty air around him. The great blue beast curled his lips at the monstrous new shape of Charybdis. The transformation of the girl had not come as a complete surprise to him, as the girl had not smelled human, but this was unlike anything he had expected. She was...

Hideous.

"Very well, hag," breathed Kedos in hatred and ire. "One so foolish as to disregard power is not deserving on it. So allow me to alleviate you of your strength. I devoured the heart of Kharbios. I will devour yours too."

[Tenshi the Sunkern]

"Impressive." Charybdis hissed as she twisted her head, her draconic ear fins fully extended. "But far from being worthy of your boasts. This place is not fit for any sort of battle. I shall be waiting in the Arctic. Come and face me there, if you are more than just hot air. If you can strike me down, then you are worthy of your titles... if not, then you are but a newt. I will be waiting."

And with that, a bright light came down, and the monstrous form of Charybdis was taken away, no doubt by the UCA's power. It would seem as though they thought this would be a show worth watching. As soon as Charybdis was gone, the storm subsided. Those who hadn't been blown away shakily recovered, and went to go dry themselves. There would be one hell of a show to watch that wasn't the Championships...

[Fainis the Sadistic Pansexual]

There was silence for a moment as the massive mermaid creature disappeared. No creature dare even breath in the wake of such an exchange, the shadow of such a colossal challenge. The tension was truly daunting.

Then- slowly, eerily- a thin smile crept across the face of Kedos Croder.

"So be it," murmured the dragon as he stalked off, his great head swinging towards his quarters, where he could be readily transported to the Arctic arena that the hag had chosen. "Let us strike another name from the pantheon of the sea."