Before the skies of Jos, Nigeria...
It was a hot day for the residents of Jos. People were out and about, ignoring the warnings of the invasion taking place all over the continent. Fear was not absent. However, life had to continue. A feeling that was not unfamiliar to those around and abroad at the current moment.
However, nothing could prepare anyone for the loud, earth-shattering roar Va'oria had released through the sky. She was still far off, yet the wave of hostile iko still managed to reach them. Causing wildlife and all those going about their normal lives to freeze, then immediately begin running for safety.
On the outskirts of the city, flames grew to the size of buildings and consumed everything as Va'oria continued to burn her way across the country. She was unopposed and determined by duty. Her Prince gave her one order, as it had always been when they came to conquer, and with every conquest, she had always brought back more glory and freedoms for her people.
'No one can best him in space.' She thought of the elder dragon who would inevitably bring Kiros victory, then glanced up to see five humans falling out of a ship towards her. Their creativity and courage always impressed her. However, in the end, it had always amounted to nothing.
Her raider escort separated from her first, aiming to target the Aeromachs and disrupt the Nigerian military blockade set in preparation for her. The obstruction to her Prince's orders would take no time at all.
She started to go invisible and fly towards them; however, before the thought had crossed her mind, she felt a sudden yank of chains of ice pulling her down, followed by a massive double-sided hammer that rose out of the ground, along with an arm swinging it down into her back. The force nearly brought her down as she was taken by surprise, but she fought back with a yelp, keeping herself afloat before she finally noticed what the humans were up to.
Every raider jet had been destroyed, and instead an elemental pillar of stone, fire, and electricity, was encased, pressurized and strapped against a large arrow of ice half of her size. Then she heard Jacira and the Guardians in the sky with her, yell. "Combo Series: Firework!"
With the help of a lightning strike, the arrow rocketed into the dragon's neck and struck the giant stone hammer with the pillar, erupting a bone-shattering explosion that finally brought Va'oria down.
Seeing her blinded by the inferno and panicking in a state of confusion, several Guardians took the chance to attack her neck through the smoke. However, to their dismay, her jaws appeared through the fog and swallowed them. Then she whipped her tail around to kick stones and dust into the others on the ground level, causing them to scatter.
'Fear the might of Kiros and surrender, or be burned to ashes.'
Her thought echoed through the minds of those opponents, causing them to freeze. However, Jacira and a few other Guardians adamantly yelled back. "Never!" Before continuing to launch hundreds of elemental volleys at the dragon.
'Then feel the weight of your choices.' For those above, Va'oria had started to gather flames in her mouth, cooking a core to an extreme heat.
However, before she could fire, dozens of African state drones surrounded her and released a high sonic frequency to hinder her thoughts, movement and made her scream. A high-pitched dragon's cry, which was quickly drowned out by a large area encompassing a laser pouring on her without notice, like a divine pillar from space. The Guardians on the ground level retreated from the area of impact, but from a safe distance, they watched with their allies above as the dragon struggled against the beam instead of perishing.
Then they watched it, dive out of its range, with steam rolling of her scales blackened with soot, yet she moved as though she had barely been harmed. Despairingly, Jacira and the Guardians, floating with her, braced themselves as Va'oria suddenly leaped towards them, but to their surprise, she was not aiming for them.
She was still shaking her eyes clear of the dust and flash of light she had been exposed to, but when her vision finally registered, she had just passed by the Nova and the Guardians. Taking Jacira in with contempt as the Nova stared back, terrified, but unwavering, before her wings pushed the group back with a massive gust following her.
Their goal was to subjugate the Va'oria before she reached the city, but now, as she climbed further into the sky and became unreachable, they wondered what would happen to the mission and where she was going. However, before she broke past the darkest clouds, they watched her cover herself with a mouthful of fire.
Each scale, plated with versilium armour, held the flames with an intense violet heat that resisted the lightning strikes and last elemental volleys her assailants had continued to strike her with. She ripped through the clouds and stratosphere in a matter of moments and took in the view of the Sky Hammer that threatened her.
The Guardian manning the satellite could not believe his eyes for a moment. He had seconds after seeing the flaming dragon on radar and then through his wide side window, before he teleported out of his seat towards the sky below.
He was stunned as his body floated in free fall while he watched the satellite blow up hundreds of kilometres away, before the dragon swerved back around and dove down towards him. It knew after a recent jump that the Guardian would need time to jump once again.
A terrifying thought, as he felt the pressure, then the flames from its mouth with Va'oria opening her jaws wide and nearly in range. Then suddenly his scenery changed, as he succeeded in teleporting himself at the brink of his death.
Far off in the sky as he floated, he heard the dragon's roar as it dove through the clouds and headed back into the country below.
He shook his head, then fell into despair and pain. His stamina was completely out, and although the flames had only smothered him for a second, it was more than enough to fry his Guardian suit. With no working parachute, he faced the looming surface below him, wondering how he would make it back to the ground safely.
Back on the surface, on the outskirts of Jos...
Jacira and the remaining Guardians gathered together to debate what to do. Then, suddenly, through their comms, Saphyra delivered their next instructions.
"Scatter!"
They had just picked up the overwhelming presence and began to retreat, but it was too late. Va'oria landed with flames, first breaking her fall and catalyzing the electric shockwave explosion she released, like a ripple with her violet flaming armour.
She was pleased with many things that Kiros had done for her kin, since the fall of the dragons, starting with reparations and treaties. The kings had tasked hundreds of scientists with enhancing the versillium armour each dragon typically received as their birthright. A metal that grew with them, which they called mitalhart.
Now, as she sensed the paralyzed, squirming humans on the ground through the smoke, she knew she could not fail. One by one, she lunged, splatting and devouring those that could not get away. Then, in the middle of her rampage, she felt large icicle spikes aiming for her eyes.
However, they could not reach her. The pressure and force she was now exerting surpassed nearly everything she could feel on the continent, and the residents felt it. She was no longer going to hold back.
Jacira watched as her distraction only made things worse. It felt as though she was choking and could not escape the gaze of the beast before her. Within moments of Va'oria releasing her presence, the Nova and the survivors had lost all control of their abilities. Forcing them still like statues as she stomped her way closer.
The terror and silence of their thoughts made things even more terrifying to them, but Va'oria did not plan to leave them in what she thought was a last merciful peaceful trance. With one leap and an explosive gust of force from her wings, she sent herself soaring high above them.
For a moment, the remaining attacking force was freed, but they never got to register her in the sky as the massive violet incoming fireball that she had sent crushed all remaining hope.
'It's a pity, you all would have been good warriors for Kiros,' was the last thought the dragon left them with as their last seconds became brighter.
They thought they were hallucinating as everything became surreal in the face of so much heat. However, cracks began to form in the air before them, then out of nowhere, Tai and a Shadow division member appeared, blocking the blast from reaching them any further.
Then the shadow teleported the remaining flames into the back of the dragon, bringing it down to the surface in a land-shattering crash.
"That's all I can help with. I gotta go help the others." He hastily turned to Tai to say.
Tai nodded, then looked back at Jacira and the Guardians as the Shadow teleported to another side of the continent. "Can you guys still back me up?!"
He looked battered, but his confidence and tone gave them a bit more motivation. Nevertheless, Jacira was happy to see him. They nodded as their fears dispersed even as they watched Va'oria get back up.
One by one, they each turned to each other and gave each other elemental reinforcements, then centred most of their might with Tai.
Va'oria roared, shaking them, for only a moment, before they started to move. There was no longer anything to lose; it was all or nothing, they collectively thought. Volleys soared into Va'oria from all directions, blinding her as she swatted around.
'Gnats eventually die quickly.' Her voice thundered through their heads.
"Oh yeah?" Tai replied as he sank his sword, covered in fire, deep into her neck. "Then, don't give us a hard time."
She screamed and grabbed for her neck as more volleys bombarded her. 'How can he hurt me?' She wondered to herself, as she looked down and saw the Nova in first gear, with each of the Guardian's elements reinforcing him.
She snarled at him and acknowledged the threat he posed, but before she could leap at him, she felt her feet frozen to the ground. A combination of Jacira and the Zambian Guardian, aiming to keep her down, while the others continued to send waves of attacks into the dragon's sides and back.
Enough of a distraction for Tai to breeze through with a storm of slashes. Singing each cut deep as Va'oria wailed. She was beginning to get tired of this.
She whipped her tail and clawed at Tai and each Guardian, scattering around her. However, they continued to come back, more emboldened and delivering much more pain. Even the flames she breathed didn't keep them away.
Giving her only one option left. 'You leave me no choice.' She voiced through thought, as they tightened their hold on her.
"Now!"
"Let's finish this!"
All at once, they attacked her as Va'oria started to close up her body within her wings and crouched herself down. Several elemental volleys made their mark as Tai went in for the kill.
"Ignite:-"
There was only a moment to register what was about to happen, and Tai didn't hesitate to use every second of that moment to switch to defence. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as Va'oria released her scales.
She had breathed flames under her to shroud every scale in fire, then flexed out her entire body in one reflective burst. A simple motion for a giant, but devastating for the humans facing it.
The scales ripped through everything, leaving nothing but silence except for the dings of the versillium scales magnetically reattaching themselves back onto her. Both Novas had fallen, and the Guardians could no longer get up.
She snarled, semi-satisfied with the battle, just to make sure they wouldn't follow her, she started to flutter up slowly into the air, with a mouthful of fire. She always made sure of all of her conquests.
"Va'oria, return to me. I require your aid." It was sudden, but her partner's orders were absolute. Within moments, the survivors below watched the dragon be enveloped in cracks before vanishing in thin air.
Down below, Jacira groaned, but every ounce of movement resulted in tremendous pain. She wondered how she was able to survive the attack. Then remembered the wisps of fire that had manifested in front of her, almost completely redirecting the scale targeting her.
She panicked, then reached her senses out to see who was still alive. Smoke and dust covered the area as flames continued to rage through the forest behind them.
"Tai."
It felt as though she was getting weaker by the second, but she did not want to give up. "Tai!" She yelled as she finally got up on her feet. There was no iko that remained with the Guardians that had been torn apart all over the field.
'Where is he?' In her current state. It would take her far too long to search the field, and her headache wasn't making things easier for her to search with her mind through fire and smoke. So she resorted to the only thing she could do at the moment, and that was to speak to him.
"Tai, you have to get up!"
Where Tai laid, it wasn't just defeat that kept him down, but his whole mind. 'What's the point?' He thought, fully leaning into his despair, as he thought of all of his losses.
Arcah, Dacaari and now Va'oria. Three losses in a row, where he had narrowly survived. He no longer wanted to lift his head, voice or strength anymore. The ground felt comfortable. There was no pressure, expectations or responsibilities.
However, a minor, inconvenient itch kept gnawing at him as he allowed pessimistic thoughts to take over his mind. It was subtle, but noticeable enough to keep him awake and hear Jacira's voice.
"Tai! Remember what you said to Nate? You know as well as I do that we have to do more than that. If we fail here, we'll also let those at home down, too." Her voice was starting to break, as she struggled to continue looking for him tried to find him. She did not know with what stamina she was speaking with, or if she even had any more strength to fight, but at the very least, she thought she might be able to heal him.
If he still wanted to be found, she thought as she struggled her way to the faintest familiar iko among the flames.
Tai regretted what he told Nate, in front of the group, even as he said it, but the Nova just sounded too naive with the situation the World was facing. Even now, the thought of pulling back to protect his nation seemed like the more obvious choice for him. He was a soldier, a cadet, but still a soldier who swore an oath.
Yet another defeat laid out an eye-opening perspective for him. 'I'm not capable enough. What if I fail again... I'm not like the other Novas... I can't even be called a Nova...' He did not know how long he had been crying, but he was only able to take in the bliss of the sky above him through his left eye, as his right had popped from impact.
The bliss calmed him from the pain of the giant gash, down his torso, along with the wide cut on the outside of his arm, all from blocking a scale he could not avoid. He did not want Jacira to heal him, but when she finally made it to him and aligned within his vision, he started to doubt his mind even more.
He was not sure if it was because he was at death's door or if it was just an illusion, but as Jacira spoke, billions of voices spoke with her. The aura of all those participating in Tobi's technique surrounded him and made the area warmer, while each word she uttered felt like it carried the weight of billions of raindrops.
"We need you, Tai. Please get up!"
Tai was speechless. He was already out of words, but the phenomenon he was now experiencing shocked him beyond comprehension.
'Was he still alive? But he wouldn't be able to do this if he wasn't.' Shots of thoughts streaked through his mind as the people helped him get up, and Jacira closed up his wounds with ice.
Tai looked around and saw the mesmerizing sight of all the souls that had come to support him. From the ancestors of the first generations to those awaiting in the ethereal and those who had watched him fight before, for them all across the world, they all believed in him. They wanted him to rise again.
"If you all still believe I can... then of course I will." He smiled at everyone as he clasped his fist in flames before him, then released it.'Besides, if even he's asking for help.'
Power unlike any he had felt before coursed through him and replenished his diminishing strength. His hair brimmed completely silver as he watched an even mixed half of Jacira's beginning to glow.
Before they could say anything to each other, cracks appeared in the air near them, then the Angolan Guardian, a woman by the name of Elaisa, appeared out of nowhere. Coughing and seizing in spurts but still holding on.
The Novas, however, knew she should not push herself anymore. They remembered her being one of two Guardians, teleporting them around to safety against Va'oria. Surprising them with how she's lasted so long as telekinetics burned out faster than the other elements.
However, as they saw, the white-silver vein marks coursing the surface of her body along with an even mix of glowing silver hair, they knew she had earned her strength on her own.
"I know what you did... Thank you for saving me and another, that I have just returned to base." She was shuddering, but the people helped to calm her tremors still. "Let me help you one last time!"
Jacira smiled, while Tai, although she could not believe what was happening, smiled and nodded with her. "Please do." They both said in unity, before the Guardian placed her hands forth and surrounded them in cracks of light. Then suddenly they vanished, leaving her to fall back and struggle to catch her breath.