"Who's there?", Kidd shouted and took out her dagger. Her eyes stared straight at the unknown being. It was too dark to see who it was, but as it came closer Kidd immediately took a few steps back, recognizing him. The light of the fire fell onto his face and she saw it was the Fire Dragon in its small form. He held the familiar rod in his paw and came even closer, looking over to Harle.
"I see she is in a bad condition. Poor little thing.", he said without the slightest hint of emotion.
"Shut yer trap! Whaddaya want?", Kidd shouted fiercely despite her fatigue. Just looking at him almost drove her mad with anger.
"I am going to take her with me. She belongs to us." The dragon calmly walked to her and grabbed her arm.
"Take yer bloody mitts off her!" , Kidd yelled and threw her dagger towards the dragon's face, but he simply stepped aside without even looking at her and the dagger hit the tree behind him.
"Crap! I tell ya, ya'd better leave, otherwise I'm gonna kick yer arse so hard you'll kiss the moons!", she shouted, it being the only thing she could do at the moment, with her dagger gone.
The dragon walked towards Kidd with a gleam in his eyes, laughing. "Tough words for a lady. Do you really think you could beat me? We are much stronger than you know us to be!"
Kidd walked towards the dragon now, leaving only a gap of a few metres between them.
"Stronger, huh? Well, the black dragon wasn't. So I don' expect ya bein' stronger either. Anyway, if ya don't leave, I'll kill ya. Ya won't get Harle 'til ya get rid of me!" With those words, she ran as fast as she could towards the dragon and leapt over his head, the dragon being to slow to react.
She quickly retrieved her dagger and turned to the dragon, feeling a lot safer now.
"You are indeed fast. But how will you manage this?", the dragon spat and soon after was illuminated by a bright fire which turned him into his big form.
Kidd had known this would happen, eventually. She quickly checked the elements on her grid. There were only two Ice Lances and one Aqua Ball. That wasn't a whole lot. She'd have to count on her dagger, again.
"Take this!" Kidd jumped over the dragon's head again stuck her dagger into his back, but the dragon seemed unperturbed and turned around to hit her body with his giant paw. Kidd smashed to the ground painfully. She had to fight off unconsciousness but managed to stand up again. As quickly as she could she cast Ice Lance it hurt the dragon more than she had anticipated. The dragon was trembling and Kidd didn’t intend to waste one second. She threw her dagger right into the dragon's left eye, catching him completely unaware.
The Fire Dragon roared and stepped back, but Kidd was too fast for him. She cast the second Ice Lance, ran over to him and took her dagger back from his eye, the blade now smeared with blood. The dragon bled heavily from his back and the left eye and he seemed not to be able to stand much longer. He swung his tail blindly into her direction, but Kidd simply jumped over it. However, he still managed to hit her feet hard, causing Kidd to fall to the ground once again. Her feeling told her that at least one of her feet was broken, because she could feel the dull pain spreading over her entire foot and ankle. She could hardly stand, said foot not being able to support the weight completely. The dragon came closer and closer, looming high above her. Kidd felt there was no other way but to use the aqua ball element and hope this would finish the dragon off. She cast it on the dragon, but it seemed like he had expected this. It hardly hurt him. He took Kidd with his right paw and lifted her up.
"Are you still optimistic about this battle?", he asked, showing an ugly grin. Kidd noticed his heavy breaths. He didn’t look it but Kidd knew that he too had to be tired. At least she hoped so. His eye looked terrible, and even knowing that she was the cause of it didn’t make it any easier to look at.
"I know there aren't any useful elements left on your grid. You've lost this battle.", he said with a snort, his voice having lost nothing of its venom.
How right he was. Fireball, Fire Pillar and Pilfer weren't useful at all. Kidd cursed her situation. How had she gotten herself into something like this? She should have known that sparing that little devil could do her no good.
"I think I should bite your head off. Then I'll take her with me.", he said and looked over to the unconscious jester, "She will be very amused if I tell her how I killed you!" He opened his jaws widely, Kidd being so close she could count his teeth. Which she had little desire to do, at the moment.
"No way yer gonna do that, ya bastard!", she shouted, but had to wonder where all this anger came from. Did she really care if the dragons took Harle away? Was she really okay with risking her life for someone she would just end up killing?
She had no time to think of such things now. She took one of her elements off her grid but instead of casting it she threw it with all her might into the dragon's left eye. Almost instantly the dragon roared in pain and let go of Kidd, who fell all the way to the ground.
Without thinking about it she landed on her feet, but upon feeling the white-hot pain shoot through her body cried out. She just wanted to cry, it hurt so damn much. But there was no time for crying.
She focused on the dragon's head and just in the moment he turned to Kidd she threw her dagger again and hit him right between his eyes. Without another sound the dragon sank to the ground.
"You... murderer!", he hissed but then vanished in the same way the Black Dragon had. Kidd hobbled weakly over to the spot where he had died to get her dagger back. She never felt safe without it. Suddenly remembering Harle, she tried to get back to her to see if she was alright, but she collapsed on the way and immediately fell unconscious.