Thanatos vs. Ketos - Butting Heads

[Fainis the Sadistic Pansexual]

Ketos whirled as he eyed the towering vortex of flames that imprisoned him, a fiery wall caging him in on every side. The heat within the blazing spire was rising, and it was all that the sea monster could do no to pant and heave, his throat and tongue aching for the cool touch of water. Even a beast as arrogant as Ketos had to admit- internally, at least- that he was in trouble. This was not a good situation. But, although his eyes were grim as he gazed upwards, towards the opening of the burning tube, the dragon's teeth where flashed in a grin.

"Running out of ideas?" called the Tyrant of the Seas, his rumbling voice echoing up the infernal vortex. "You seem to be stealing tricks for that sickeningly soft-hearted Sun Warrior."

Thanatos took the bait. "WHAT! You dare accuse me of taking the ideas of another, mudbloood? Ha! I do not know who this Sun Warrior is, but this technique has been in the royal dragon line for as long as it has existed, passed from father to son and to his son after him!"

"Then you were all lowly thieves, from the very beginning."

The Crypt Dragon exploded. "SHUT YOUR INSOLENT TRAP, YOU WINGLESS WORM!" Switching from his hissing, popping draconic tongue to English and several languages in between, the bull launched into a tirade that's volume rivaled thunder. Spittle flew from his curled lips as he roared and cursed, not only feeling the sting of insult for himself, but for his entire ancestral line.

Below the ranting dragon, Ketos snickered. "Yes, yes, just stay angry and take your focus off of me, old fool," the blue beast muttered to himself.

Hoping that Thanatos was too busy with his self-centered little speech to take notice, Ketos parted his fanged maw and loosed a broad jet of water, raking the pillar of seawater across the wall of the vortex that entrapped him. As expected, the liquid blast evaporated on contact, no match for the intensity of the bull's flame. But Ketos didn't need the water, he needed the steam. A great cloud of vapor curled from where the water was consumed by the fire, a thick mist soon forming. The corners of the ocean king's open mouth stretched up. Perfect. Spinning, the Demon of the Deep dragged the column of water all along the burning tube, and hot steam soon filled the blazing spire like it was some hellish sauna. The vapor grew and expanded, stretching upwards as more and more of it was produced, the elemental child of the two prideful dragons. But it would only serve one. Cutting off his geyser and chuckling softly, Ketos rose his arms and let the mist roll over him. It was hot, yes, painful to the touch even, but it fulfilled its purpose splendidly. First, it absorb the heat that could be cooking Ketos alive, roasting him where he stood. And second...

Laughing darkly to himself, the blue behemoth wrapped his arms around himself, and the steam gravitated towards him in a thick fog bank. Condensing and cooling, the vapor became liquid, and Ketos was granted relief from his burning wounds. It was a heavenly feeling, enveloped in chilly salt water, like a small gift from the ones above, but not the dragon's original intent. That was yet to come. Demonic eyes glowing like torches, Ketos focused his power, bundling his hydrokinetic influence as tightly as his watery coat.

And then he let it burst, arms thrown out with a wordless roar.

The air was speared by a million liquid needles and a shock wave of icy vapor.

Thanatos was caught mid-roar, the chilly blast rolling him on his side and the thin projectiles punching through him like paper. Blood burst from the big bull at a dozen places, and the fiery curse directed towards Ketos he had been spouting became a shriek of pain. The Crypt Dragon was pierced all along his unarmored underbelly, red streaks stripping the reddish hide there, and his leathery wings were dotted with bloody holes. Screaming like a crossed banshee, the horned juggernaut plunged, his slavering jaws open wide in his terrible roaring.

But Ketos was not done yet.

Cocking an arm back, the underwater titan crowed up to the winged dragon, deep voice filled with mocking. "Ready to admit my superiority yet, cur?"

Thanatos, despite being in great pain and falling from a dramatic height, whipped his head around to fire off a bitter reply, and in that instant, Ketos flicked a talon and sent a tint orb of compacted water flying towards the big bull. Before any legible word could leave his jaws, the condensed sphere entered the open jaws, struck the back of the throat, and was bounced straight down the Crypt Dragon's gullet. On instinct, Thanatos snapped his jaws shut and swallowed. Confused danced in the horned titan's eyes, and then horror replaced bafflement as he caught the wicked grin that Ketos flashed him as he fell.

With a snap of his claws, the small orb within the larger male erupted with the power of an entire ocean.

Blood ripped from Thanatos in a thick tower of gore, the red geyser coming from his open underbelly. In a stroke of irony, Ketos may have actually saved his hated rival by dealing him that wound, for without some sort of pressure release, the Crypt Dragon could have been torn completely apart. Still, having an explosion detonate inside of you was no pleasant experience, release point or not, and Thanatos shrieked in agony as his liquified innards rained down upon the grasslands in a red mist. Body falling limp, the cries of the big male died down as the grisly precipitation from his gut did, and he struck the ground without a sound, collapsing into a still heap without fuss. Smirking, Ketos marched over to the tangled corpse of the other male. Grinning broadly, the sea monster reached down like a big game hunter inspecting his kill.

The Crypt Dragon's bloodshot eyes snapped open and he lunged up, fangs sinking into Ketos's hand.

The Demon of the Deep reared with a scream, his jaws ushering a strangled holler of pain. Crimson rivers fell from the clawed hand of the blue behemoth as Thanatos chewed on it, a sort of vengeful madness in his eyes. Snarling like a scalded beast, Ketos heaved and brought his knee up hard. The bent limb cracked into Thanatos's chin like a hammer, and the serrated hide stretched across it stripped away the bottom of the jaw as Ketos pulled away. The Crypt bull released the blue beast with a howl, a hot flower of blood spreading from his ruined jaw.

Stumbling back, Ketos spat in anger and wheeled around, his paddled tail swinging out to slap the other male hard across the skull..

[Deleted]

When the tail came, Thanatos opened his maw and crunched down upon the fluke with all his jaw strength! The flesh and muscle was sliced as the teeth came down in full force, making Ketos shrill out.

Now with tail in jaw, Thanatos shook his head back and forth like a dog with a toy. Each movement cut deeper and within a few shakes, park of the tail actually came off! The feel of muscle and blood vessels being torn out of place caused the blue behemoth to stumble forward. All the pain before had probably sent him into shock. This sudden lose of blood made his body react in an odd way... he felt light headed. Oxygen was not being supplied too all the muscles to begin with, but now this terrible wound just infected.

With a spit of disgust, Thanatos heaved and huffed as he was too out of breath. Both had lost great amounts of blood. Now both began to feel the effects after the near thirty minutes had passed in this whole fight began. Which was worse was anyone's guess. So weak from the pain and lack of blood, Thanatos slowly laid down as if to die...

And Ketos just sneered as he turned away to breath. "Hehe... I won... I won..." But in his pride, he took no notice in that his foe was far from done.

Deep down, Thanatos was building in rage. The bacteria that filled gut had dripped and flowed out after his stomach after having his gut blown out like a grenade. But his rage built. The pride of true dragons, one that no one but a fool could deny, boiled with rage and hatred for those who dare cross the pure blooded nature of any true dragon!
The clear liquid that was the bacteria flared in a bright orange glow before igniting in a burst of flame. As his rage built from pride grew, so did the ever burning flames...

This bright display brought Ketos back to reality. "Why won't you just stay in the dirt like the serpent you are," he growled under his breath.

In a flash of flames-explosion-all of that is Thanatos was engulfed in crimson flame that cast a hellish glow all across the surrounding area. Even the ocean blue scales of Ketos was drowned in in the casting aura. Flames reached for the sky, holding as a tower of flame.

Then one claw in front of the other, Thanatos slowly pushed himself up. Almost like his skeleton was to give out, his body quivered with the effort. But once he rose, his eyes glared at Ketos. Every inch of Thanatos flowed with fire. Small crevices in his armor glowed like magma, and the massive opening that Ketos carved earlier flowed with endless flames as if a star burned in his heart. Each breath he now took fueled the inferno inside and released endless flames.

But Ketos? Not the least discouraged by this now burning inferno of a monster. "You believe you can intimidate me? HA! Just as a snake or lizard would do!"

Thanatos had enough of these petty insults. With a mighty roar that sounded demented from the ever growing flames, he lunged at the blue demon once more. Ketos brought his arms up and with them, blades of ice morphed from the moisture in the air.
However as he threw both blades to impale, they were destroyed as they came near the burning body that came upon him.The king shoved him down, flames already searing already damaged flesh and skin now that the whole monster was on fire. Ketos screamed in pain as teeth coated in flames crushed against his throat. Among having his throat now ripped out, every part that touched Thanatos's body was being burned. His arms... they were so numb. By now bone was very visible and muscle blackened by flame. It was a miracle he could even use his hands.

Not ending it there, Thanatos bit down upon the leviathans face. Having such a big jaw, much of his face was enveloped in the bite... and with a hard twist, most of the flesh upon Ketos's muzzle was torn away, giving him a gruesome wound that in compassion was a bearing mauling a mans face off.

In his pain and panic, Ketos slashed up into the body of his foe, clawing at the burning body, but Thanatos did not seem to mind in the least as he continued biting and ripping away at Ketos's face and neck.

Raising a claw, Thanatos aimed to bust this lizards jaw loose...

[Fainis the Sadistic Pansexual]

The Crypt Dragon king swung the hefty wing with all his strength, his formidable girth backing the hooked claws, but with an angry roar, Ketos caught the incoming blow and redirected it all in one fluid movement, the beefy beast moving with all the elegance and power of the waters he ruled. The sapphire talons of the sea monster guided the claws into Thanatos's own skull, the mighty bull splitting his scalp with a starburst of blood. Furious bellow ringing from open jaws that flung slobber and flames, the King of Ash toppled, a crimson ring spreading from his busted head. As blood fell from his mangled snout, Ketos lunged forward and planted a foot on the fallen bull's neck.

"You have gone far beyond offense, wretch!" spat the Demon of the Deep, his eyes as red as the gore that ran down his muzzle. "You have insulted Ketos. You have scarred Ketos. You have declared yourself above Ketos. Enough! Men and beasts have dared to do less, and I cut them down where they stood! But you," hissed the blue behemoth, grabbing the larger male's grand horns and shaking them vigorously. "You! Death is not enough for you. Destruction does not fully cover the gal of your actions! Ketos will kill you, yes, but I will also do more. I will divide your corpse, slice it into more pieces that there are thoughts in your dense mind, and then I will scatter you. To the ocean, across the land, even to the sky and stars! You will be no more. You will cease to exist. You will become what you are compared to Ketos." The ocean titan lower his curled lips towards Thanatos's bloody head, and he whispered what came next. "Nothing."

Lord Hurican of the royal Crypt Dragon line suddenly reared with an outraged bellow. He had heard enough from this wingless, flameless spawn of the sea! Draconic curses spilling from his jaws in a vulgar waterfall, the great bull dragon slammed his skull into the gut of Ketos, massive horns pummeling the open cavity, blood splattering from the grooves of the curling death rams. The sea monster howled, his mass tossed upwards as Thanatos flicked his head. Ketos grabbed out blindly though, and his claws hooked around one of the very horns that hurled him, its gore-splattered curve providing the perfect grip. As he was flipped completely upside down, girth falling forward, his plunge rocked Thanatos's head, and one of the bull's horns snapped off, broken along the crack created earlier in the fight, when the Crypt Dragon had crashed into the earth. Ketos hit the ground with a powerful thud, and Thanatos whirled with flames streaming in his jaws to roast the undersea king. But the bull froze when he spied what the Tyrant of the Seas held in his talons- one of his horn. One of his magnificent ones, a part of his royal crown. His horn.

A cry of swirling anguish and rage escaped the winged goliath, and he snapped his fanged jaws down to rip into the beast that dared ruin his crown.

His scream cut off with a spurt of blood as Ketos slammed him hard across the head with the horn, its tip throwing crimson gore.

"Fall like your wench before you!" rumbled the sea dragon, and he brought down the horn like a club again.

Blood and shredded tissue was splashed from Thanatos's skull as Ketos slammed it with the horn tip, the curved weapon swung down once, twice, thrice, and the same number of moan coming from the larger male in turn. Casting aside the bloodied horn as his rival's head ran run with blood and his serrated hide was speckled with crimson, Ketos snatched the Crypt Dragon's lolling jaws in his talons and wrenched them open. Aligning his yawning maw with the drooling bull's, the underwater juggernaut loosed a stream of boiling seawater straight down Thanatos's gullet! The still bull began to thrash and writhe as superheated water flooded through his ravaged body, beating against shredded meat and exposed organs. Crimson-tinted water and foam flowed from the larger dragon's open jaws, gut, and jugular, the reddish streams soaking into the soft soil of the savanna.

Throwing down Thanatos's gurgling head, Ketos straightened with a sneer, and his heavy foot lifted up. Moving the clawed foot to hover above his foe's busted skull, the Tyrant of the Seas stomped down...

[Inferno Rodan]

One more post each.

[Deleted]

(One more post, eh? Time to bring out big boy)

Feeling the clawed foot come down upon his muzzle, Thanatos roared in defiance as he threw himself up. This caused Ketos to stumble back as the head pushed it up.

Now Thanatos, while in pain, threw his head out again and sank his teeth down into the shoulders. The demon of the deep gasped and began fighting back bit digging his claws deep into the burning neck of his foe. The two struggled for a moment, that is until Ketos did something new. Something brutal!
Both his wrists, while rawr and dead with burn flesh, pulsed and ached. Suddenly his wrists split open in long blades made of his own blood! Definitely something he didn't do before. Pulling back one arm, he thrust up, slamming the edge hard into his foes chest. Thanatos screamed and released his foe as he recoiled back.

As the blade came out, Ketos held both arms up with a psychotic grin. "This... THIS... is what it means to be a dragon! This blood, of MY kind, true dragons! I am the last male of the great dragons and only one other survives. And that other is NOT you, OR YOUR BITCH!"
Ketos threw himself onto Thanatos, slamming one blade into the still existing horn. The two hard surfaces clanked loudly as if stones slammed together, but while the first was stopped, the other came up and pierced into the kings throat. Thanatos cried in pain, but managed to pull back.

Ketos was giggling in satisfaction as he saw his foe seemingly weakening. "Nothing will convince me that you are my equal, that you are even related. I would die first!"

As Ketos spoke, Thanatos growled underneath his breath. "[glow=red,2,300] Your desire is acceptable... [/glow]

The flames around Thanatos's body whirled slowly in an eerie manner as if the wind was crying in pain. The flames encasing his body began to climb and swirl up and around him as if with life of their own. Lord Hurican, the third Diamond King, did not even stare up at Ketos as the flames grew.
Ketso humored this, lightly laughing to himself as the display unfolded. "Another parlor trick you have stolen from the sun god?"
"No... This is a technique that only royalty of the Adamant Continent was allowed to learn. Sure enough as his words grew heavy, the flames spread far into the sky and spread as if they had become arches of flames. The air all around blew as the flames demanded more oxygen from the sky. They stretched all around the ground too, as if making a loose ring all around them. Then with a mighty blast of thunder that only could be described as a volcanic eruption, the flames light up the sky high above both monsters heads.
And there, sitting above them, was a massive form that resembled a dragon larger then any could have guessed. But yet, not a dragon... it had no real form. It was merely flames... But its eyes glowed with red hatred.

Ketos backed up in shock of this thing. "What is this abomination!?"

Thanatos only stared with sternness. "Something passed from my own father, Pythos the Second... You think me to be this terrible low creature that has nothing to do with a true dragon. Perhaps you are right... That threw Ketos off for sure... He was admitting wrong? But Thanatos went on. "I say this because there was once one of our kind that became a terrible monster. This power, this technique is named after that lowly creature. A creature who devoured the land, sea, sky and his own kin as if they were born to merely be devoured. A bloodthirsty beast that in the ancient days made all quiver in fear... Stoorworm, the Hungry.
As if reacting to the name, the form of flames above screamed loudly as it stared down at Ketos with a desire to consume him.
"Stoorworms might was gone forever... But my ancestors grew this technique, perfecting it to destroy our greatest foes to ever rise. This power method is so powerful that it is why it is named after the terrible Stoorworm. You must count yourself privaliged. Few ever had the honor to be consumed by these flames. Behold: Stoorworms Hunger!

The sheer fire that stood above him drew air in like a tornado. Even the dirt was being pulled up and drawn into the inferno as the flames demanded fuel to burn!
Ketos, prideful as ever, glared in fear but grinned in ignorance. "I FEAR YOU NOT!"

Without saying a word, the massive flaming avatar lunged down, the head of the flames opening up in a mighty maw of bright light and heat. Ketos turned to flee, but it was not use. The flames were just too vast. With a scream of pure terror, the azure leviathan was engulfed as the "Teeth" of the figure slammed down upon him and the ground around him.
Like a match to gasoline, the entire area erupted as the flaming form surged and "Exploded" in all directions. Thanatos only stared as the flames harmless pushed past him. A wall of flame spread out in a tsunami-like manner, torching the vast savannah and everything on it. It was as if a meteor hit! Less the impact of course.

The flames continued out for several thousands of feet before pluming up into black smoke. All that was left was a circular patch of black, dead land that smoldered with death.
At the center, Ketos stood on his feet like a statue... his body was scorched so bad that he wasn't even blue anymore. Every inch of skin was charged and he didn't breath, though he was still alive. His eyes wide in pain, and probably intense shock. It was hard to tell what he was feeling from that hard, shocked expression.

With a deep breath, Thanatos stared at the beast. " So you survived... I commend you. You have much gall..

(leaving it at that.)

[Fainis the Sadistic Pansexual]

To imagine what emotion flickered under Ketos's hard, blackened skin was not a difficult task at all. It was simply the same emotion the dragon felt most of the time, only multiplied by a hundred fold, if not a thousand, or even a million. It was rage. Burning, bubbling, overpowering, seething RAGE. And this overwhelming fury flowed through the sea monster like fire, smothering his pain, smothering the voice of reason that begged him to stay down, smothering even the void that was his energy reserves. The dragon was drained. Yet he still rose, powered on nothing but raw anger. Although his legs trembled and eventually gave way, sending the blue beast to his knees, and his charred hide flaked and crinkled, shedding ash like dandruff, the eyes of the oceanic king shone like spotlights, blood red in color and wrathful in nature. Against his black form, the demon eyes appeared brighter than ever before.

"Well, well," sneered Thanatos. "I can honestyly say I'm shocked to see your stir, let alone rise. Congratulations, I suppose. Too bad your celebration will not last long." The dragon loosed a breath of flames. "Because I shall cut you down here, in your moment of triumph!"

There was a dry cracking sound, and Ketos's jaws slowly parted, the burnt skin and flesh along them splintering and falling away. What emerged from the dragon's yawning maw were not words, nor a roar or bellow. It was a scream, piercing and primal, like the cry of the very first beast to walk the land. There was something ancient and frightening about the howl as it spit the sky, echoing across the open plain like the ring of a church bell. It was old. It was raw. It was survival in vocal form.

The Demon of the Deep slammed two sets of spread talons into the earth, his sapphire sabers tearing loose soil and dirt, and the dragon's hydrokinesis reached down, deep down, and spread far, spread everywhere. The sea monster growled in effort, strain visible on his mutilated muzzle. He wasn't mere grasping a portion of the water here. He was gripping all of it. Every single drop. A ripple seemed to warp the grassland, a wave of shriveling shrubs and tress as Ketos drained this dry landscape for everything it had. He would need all of it. He wanted all of it. The cruel leviathan's eyes flashed, and the sea beast roared. The entire savanna shuddered under the bellow, a tremor shaking the earth like a child does a toy that's angered him. Great furrows gouged the grassland, soil thrown up wildly not in a straight line, but on a curving path that snaked around the scarred area that held the two dragons. Thanatos peered about in bewilderment, staggering as the world seemed to go into spasms beneath his claws. The big bull stumbled suddenly, almost thrown to the ground, and he recognized the floating sensation that had possessed the entire span of earth the two rivals occupied.

Flight.

"No," came the incredulous whisper from the Crypt Dragon. "Impossible."

Hefty wings shredding the earth, Lord Hurican trotted towards the edge of the ravaged battlefield, where the landscape seem to be left behind at the great rips in the flatland grass. The thick leathery wings of the bull unfurled, and he hurled himself form the section of soil, not onto more solid land, but into open air.

"Impossible!" A roar of disbelief now.

Ketos was floating a roughly circularly cut of the savanna that had to weight several million tons hundreds of meters up, on a mass of dirty brown groundwater just as wide.

Riding atop the levitating mountain of soil, Ketos suddenly slid one handful of claw to the side, his blazing eyes flaring even more fiercely. From the grand column of water that supported the mass of earth, a jagged liquid hand stretched out. The clutching mitt of water wrapped around Thanatos before the Crypt bull could react, the winged dragon too stunned to attempt any escape. Spitting and snarling, the King of Ash was pulled into the towering pillar of brown water, his dark hide vanishing in the murk. Ketos, his claws now clenched tightly, as if holding something necessary to his very existence, gave a rough breath of satisfaction. It was not the vain boast or bloodthirsty crow the arrogant dragon would usually bother with, simply an acknowledgement that he had his foe where he wanted him. He was beyond pride now. Now, it was about surviving. The trembling sapphire talons relaxed, falling into limp rest.

The charred sea monster let his island of earth drop.

The massive mound of airborne soil dropped for a few second, its descent slow and ominous like the fall of an era-ending asteroid to the planet's surface, and then the entire world shook as if being assaulted by a whole arsenal of nuclear weapons, a dusky mushroom cloud sprouting towards the heavens. The bloom of sediment blocked out the sun for a moment, briefly untouchable to even the fearsome winds that suddenly kicked up. But imperviousness faded to resistance and then to vulnerability, and then the cloud was no more, only a few specks of dust on the breeze. The terrain was reproduced with shocking accuracy, the fleeting flight of solid soil and rock only evident by a few ragged tears in the plain. In the midst of these tears stood Ketos, tall and unmoving, only blankness of his face. The blue behemoth remained like this for several minutes, the sole motion around his form coming from where ash swirled from his wounds.

Then the laughter began.

It was slow at first, a mere giggle, but it soon grew in both volume and viciousness. It graduated to a chuckled, then ripened into a savage chortle, and, finally, it matured as a wicked cackle. The mad laughter rose to the dirtied sky like the spillings of Satan himself, and the dragon soon collapsed in his unhinged laughter.

He was so preoccupied in his laughter, he took no notice of the smoking earth behind him.

In the middle of a particular shrill, breathless gasp, the savanna erupted, and out tore Thanatos, badly battered and painted red with blood, but still very much alive. Alive, and angry. The berserk dragon, his snarling skull decorated with his own essence and the jagged shards of his shattered horn, swooped for Ketos with a vengeful trumpet.

"DIE!" shrieked the Crypt bull as he rammed his once horned head into the smaller male, tearing into his exposed innards.

Ketos squealed as his cooked insides were slashed and chewed, Thanatos using his claws and fangs in a rapid flurry of violence, but a second explosion of earth rocked the grassland. Unlike the first, it was no wrathful Crypt Dragon that rose from the bowels of the planet, but a great stream of water, all the water. The brown geyser of a billion gallons pushed Thanatos aside and embraced Ketos, wrapping around him like a blanket. As the other male stumbled away, the sea monster was elevated in a monolith of water and sediment, the filthy mass stretching into a towering spire. The writhing pillar of ground water twisted and molded, forming a shape, much like the fire of Thanatos had before. But this was no ancient enemy or ruler of old. As the water fully took shape, the dirt and filth within it expelled from the organic form's forearms in dark jets. The liquid vehicle, pollution banished from its volume, cleared into the purest of crystal blues, and its likeness became just as clear.

It was Ketos himself, rising from the savannah at the waist, many hundreds of meters tall, nearly two thousand.

Thanatos, despite his gruesome injuries and boiling anger, couldn't help but curl his lips in mocking. "Who is the one stealing ideas now?"

The great beast of water peered down, Ketos floating where a heart would be, and its dripping jaws opened. "IT IS HARDLY THEFT TO IMPROVE SOMETHING THAT REQUIRED IT SO DESPERATELY." The watery likeness of the dragon did not holler or yell, but the voice echoing from deep within it was so deafeningly, so awe-inspiringly, so thunderously loud, it shook the air like the most terrible of storms. "NOW PERISH."

The liquid monolith's words were drowned out by the rumble of a thousand waterfalls, and a massive geyser of crystal water lanced from the thing's open jaws, much like what Ketos could do normally, but increased in size and power infinitely. The great jet engulfed Thanatos in an instant, and the bull could not even manage as scream as his flesh and hide was stripped clean away. As the screaming dragon tumbled from the brutal flow like a fleeing ally cat, bone gleamed from all over his crimson form, nearly all his skin gone and washed away. Each step, each breath, each twitch of his bare muscles- utter agony. The dragon's shrieks rang with more terror than anything heard off a movie screen.

The watery Ketos-monolith laughed, the cackling of the dragon himself coming from within and amplified greatly, but the attack had come at a cost. The might geyser had used the very essence of the liquid likeness, pumping directly from its mass. Without that extra fluid to support it, the hydrokinetic vehicle was falling apart, its body splashing and sloshing as it marched towards the whining Thanatos. Within the titanic vehicle, Ketos snickered.

Time to end this.

With one last roar, the liquid monolith lunged down and snatched the King of Ash in a great hand. The Crypt bull howled as the massive weight crushed down on him, bubbles streaming from his open jaws, but his cries were cut off as the liquid fist froze, encasing the winged one in a clouded orb of ice. The frozen sphere plunged to the ground, now out of Ketos's control, and the rest of the hydrokinetic vehicle followed, falling apart and leaving Ketos slumped on soaked earth. The dragon gasped in pain, the effect of such an effort catching up to him, but he still cracked a grin as he spied Thanatos in his numbing prison. In truth, the Tyrant of the Seas did not like ice. It was cold and inflexible, not like the hot, fluid element he favored. He could influence solid water to a degree, but simply did not practice it much. Why bother when the superior power of liquid water beckoned? Ice did have one impressive redeeming quality though- it expanded as it formed. Not only was Thanatos trapped, he was smother. The many cracks and bubbles that polluted the frozen orb were filled with crimson, the Crypt Dragon shredded even further by the compacted prison of ice...

(Holy shit. That might be the single most epic match post I've ever made. Hope it counts for something. Aka, either way, damn fine match.)

[Deleted]

(Likewise. Seems you, Omega and MM are always good for a hardcore romp. I wonder who won, though... or if a tie. SUSPPEENNNNSEE!!)

[Inferno Rodan]

Before the prideful dragons can continue their brawl, the voice of the UCA rolls across the plain.

"ATTENTION! Cease combat at once! This match has been declared a draw! Congratulations to both fighters! Now report back to your quarters immediately!"

----------

As I expected, was a helluva fun read. But both sides gave and received damage in equal measure, so it's a draw.

[Deleted]

When the voice boomed, Thanatos slowly looked up... A draw? An equal fight? No winner? ...how? On the other hand, the wars before the great dying were about the same. Dragons always did have a hard time killing each other...

Pointing his head down, Thanatos let the flames fly, destroying the ice around him. Boy, was he sore... sore as he has ever been since battling that accursed train.

Turning away, Thanatos glared over his shoulder at his foe... Neither would admit it now, and probably never would... but he nodded at the blue one.

Acknowledgement.

Not anyone could match Thanatos like that. Not a dragon, but close enough. With that, he slowly limped into the light to recover...

[Fainis the Sadistic Pansexual]

Ketos sneered. A draw. Not a loss, but it wasn't a victory either. Slowly, the curled-lipped scowl curled into a thin smile. Well, at least he had taught that oversized lizard a lesson. The Demon of the Deep rose with a low growl, and he rolled his shoulders greatly.

Never mess with a real dragon!

The sea monster's steps were shaky and spaced as he limped away though, and he groaned as his body ached. The winged one had done quite the number on him, although it was nothing he couldn't take. He had survived worse. As he was engulfed by a pillar of light that whisked him back to his quarters, Ketos's thoughts wandered to the bet. He supposed a draw negated the deal they had made. Each got to keep their own jewels, and no degrading words would be spoken by either. Pity. He was allowed to keep his gems and dignity, but so was that uptight false king...

The blue behemoth vanished in a flash.