The obsidian arena cracked as Kael's transformation tore through the air. His body swelled, muscles stretching into sinew and scale. Wings erupted from his back, spanning wider than the court itself. Horns curled upward, glowing veins of magma searing across his hide.
The crowd fell into reverent silence. Even the dragon lords bowed their heads. Kael was no longer a man—he was fire incarnate.
He roared. The sound shattered stone and rattled the heavens. Flames poured from his maw, turning the night into daylight.
Aric shielded his face, the heat blistering his skin. His bond with Serenya flared brighter, wrapping his body in crimson-gold light. The sword in his grip no longer felt like steel—it thrummed, alive, forged by their joined souls.
"Stay with me, Aric," Serenya whispered from the sidelines, her voice trembling but resolute. "Our fire is one."
Kael lunged. A claw the size of a carriage raked across the arena, stone exploding in its wake. Aric leapt, barely avoiding annihilation, his burning blade slashing across Kael's forearm. Scales cracked, but the wound was shallow.
Kael laughed, a thunderous, bone-rattling sound. "You wound me like a gnat wounds a mountain."
Aric's chest heaved, sweat and blood mingling. But his grip never faltered. He lunged forward, dodging another claw, rolling beneath Kael's chest. He drove his blade upward, plunging into a seam between scales.
Kael roared in pain, flames erupting violently, hurling Aric backward. The bond glowed fiercely, keeping him conscious where any normal man would have been reduced to ash.
From the stands, dragons shifted uneasily. The impossible was happening— a mortal striking a dragon lord in full form.
Aric staggered to his feet, coughing blood, sword still blazing. "I don't need to slay a mountain. I just need to make it fall."
Kael's molten eyes narrowed, fury replacing arrogance. His wings spread wide, flames spiraling in a vortex around him. The arena trembled, chunks of obsidian breaking away into the abyss below.
The final clash was inevitable.
As Kael ascended, readying a storm of dragonfire that could erase the arena, Aric lowered his stance, sword glowing like a newborn sun.
The bond between him and Serenya pulsed—once, twice—before erupting into a torrent of power.
The end was coming.