Chapter 29

Keiara flew around inside the cloud of sand and dust. She couldn't see that well because the tiny particles always managed to find her eyes and cause them to burn and water. After a little while, she just gave up and closed them until the sand settled. She relied on her other senses instead, both natural and magical. Her dragon hearing was phenomenal, as was her sense of smell. They were so heightened that she realized quickly that she barely needed her sense of sight at all. Not only that, but there was another sense that she felt inside her but this one was in tune with magical energy. She could sense the Basilisk's power which enabled her to roughly estimate the creature's whereabouts at almost all times.

She was still learning. Still trying to figure out her power. Sensing magical energy was an even newer power and she wasn't exactly an expert with it yet. But she was getting better already. She was able to control her power with greater ease and less concentration. She was also getting stronger. She could use her power for extended periods of time with less exhaustion.

The Basilisk was starting to understand that as well. It was mostly trying to stay away from her but Keiara wouldn't let up on it.

She didn't want to fight the Earth Sentinel. Her world, everyone's world, depended on the insanely powerful creatures. To seriously injure or kill one was to doom Purga and everyone on it. Which made her job much more difficult. Not that she wanted to injure the creature or kill it. She would gladly let it walk away from the fight altogether, but the Earth Sentinel was also Niku, and the prophecy predicted that the three of them would defeat Blak and the world could live again. The chaos would be gone and everyone could go about starting to heal.

The Basilisk hissed loudly, spraying venom through the air. Keiara rose a few feet higher and shot a lance of searing fire right back. It lit up the sand cloud in hues of red, yellow, and orange. The fire met the venom spray and instantly vaporized it. But Keiara was already diving down. She sped through the air and flew through the vaporized venom just as her fire hit it. She spiraled, her wing tips leaving a whirling pattern of vapor in her wake and crashed into the Basilisk. She clawed it with methodical precision. Her aim was to incapacitate, not to kill. It was hard though. The Basilisk was strong and its thick scales gave it a huge amount of natural armor. There was also its deadly venom to contend with as well. She could feel the patch of rough, stony skin on her neck like a brand and she wasn't anxious to repeat the experience a second time.

The Basilisk lunged suddenly and slipped out of her grasp. It slithered away from her with eerie speed and stopped. There were numerous gashes along its body and mud-colored blood poured out of the wounds and fell to the desert sand.

The Basilisk looked at her with baleful eyes before it turned again and tried to escape. It rose the first two thirds of its body into the air before diving straight at the ground.

It was trying to burrow again.

When it rose into the air, the back of its head was momentarily exposed and Keiara clearly saw...something on its neck. She couldn't see it very well because her eyes were still narrowed mostly closed to protect them from the sand.

What she saw was a small creature and she wouldn't have noticed it but whatever it was suddenly moved, as if it was trying to gain a tighter grip. The movement drew her attention and after a brief bit of confusion, it dawned on her that what she was seeing was one of the disgusting spider-things attached to the Basilisk's neck like a nightmare parasite.

Heari was right. Blak is controlling Niku with a croatoan, she thought to herself. I have to get it off him.

Her determination renewed itself. She focused on the croatoan clinging to the Basilisk's neck like a leech. She flapped her wings and flew at the giant snake creature like a missile. She felt the air slide past her skin. The dirt and sand around her were blown outward by the force of her wings. She was able to open her eyes now and when she did, she opened her maw and a massive column of fire erupted outward. It crashed into the fleeing Basilisk but the Earth Sentinel caused a huge column of rock to explode out of the ground. The fire washed into the rock column, leaving the Basilisk unharmed. It whipped up into the air again and then dashed forward, straight toward the ground. It dived into it like the sand was made of water. It burrowed deep underground and left Keiara wondering where it went.

She flapped her wings and rose higher into the air. She scanned the ground, waiting for the Basilisk to resurface. She knew this move. She remembered it from the first time she'd met the Basilisk in battle. This time, however, it wasn't coming back out to finish the fight.

What's it doing? she asked herself.

The answer came to her a second later, however. It was waiting her out. It wasn't coming out because it knew it was outmatched and with Rone keeping Blak busy, it wasn't going to get fed more power. It would lose.

That won't work, she thought to herself. She glided through the air over the spot where the Basilisk went underground and scanned the area, looking for some sign of it. She couldn't see anything at first. The only thing she saw was sand blowing across the desert from a gust of wind. She wasn't having any luck finding where the Basilisk was hiding.

Keiara was growing increasingly frustrated and impatient. Time was a factor here. Rone couldn't keep Blak and the croatoans busy all day. Their window was shrinking.

Enough of this, she told herself, forcefully.

She suddenly dove toward the ground. When she was a couple feet from the sand, she shifted back to her human form. She flipped forward and landed in a crouch. The sand was hot and burning but neither of those things bothered her. She ignored them and leaned forward with her eyes closed, placing her hands in the sand. She spread them apart and felt the grains stick to her slightly sweaty skin. Then she spread her awareness out into the world around her. It felt the heat from the sand and sun. It felt the hot, dry air around her. It felt the heat from the rocks and boulders near her.

She took a breath and pulled all of that heat toward her. She sucked it into herself and felt it swirl inside her, bashing against her awareness as it struggled to get back out.

It hurt. A lot. Her body felt like it was on fire. Her head suddenly felt very dizzy and she thought she was going to pass out.

She focused intensely on what she needed to do. She kept her hands buried in the sand and then pushed all the heat she'd taken from the world out of herself, through her hands. It rushed out with frantic eagerness, almost like a living thing. It went straight into the ground so fast that Keiara was thrown back a couple feet.

It didn't hurt though.

She got up and stared at the spot where she'd been a second before. Nothing happened for a few minutes. Then heat waves suddenly appeared in the air above the sand. Quickly after that happened a little over half a dozen columns of steam erupted out of the ground along with a loud, hissing scream of pain.

The Basilisk burst out of the sand. Its green-brown scales trailed curls of steam. Its forked tongue darted in and out. Its mouth was opened wide and it was still screeching in pain. The spider thing on its neck looked pale and sickly, even more so than usual. Keiara saw it for a brief second and realized something important.

The mutant things did not like heat.

The Basilisk landed on the ground and instantly whirled on her. It opened its maw and sprayed venom everywhere but Keiara threw out a hand and a wave of fire flew out and hit the venom in midair. There was a cloud of steam as the fire evaporated the Basilisk poison.

The Basilisk reared back as the superheated gas cloud was suddenly blown into its face. Then it slammed its tail on the ground and deadly spires of rock started bursting out, right where Keiara was.

She didn't wait around for the rock spires to spear through her. She jumped into the air and shifted back into her dragon form. She flapped her wings, got a little higher, and then dived straight down at the Basilisk before it could escape again.

She collided with it and they both rolled across the desert. She tried biting at the croatoan but the Basilisk was doing everything it could to keep her from killing the spider.

It tried wrapping itself around her like a boa constrictor, but Keiara bit it and it backed off. She grabbed it. Her talons slid past its scales and gained purchase in its flesh. As soon as she felt it, she flapped her wings. The effort was enormous because the Basilisk weighed a lot.

She kept going though. She rose to a height of about fifty feet and then twirled in the air and let the Basilisk go. She watched as it sped toward the ground. A second later and it crashed. Its head slammed into the dirt with a loud, jarring thump and the back half of its body flipped over its head. Its tail landed heavily in the sand and just twitched a little.

Keiara didn't waste her opportunity. She dove again and slammed into the Basilisk while it was still reeling from its forced crash landing. She went straight for the spider-creature on the back of its neck. She growled deep in her throat and then her head darted forward. Her maw opened wide, her sharp teeth glistening in the sunlight.

She bit down on the Basilisk's neck.

It screeched and jerked in sudden pain.

Keiara could feel the croatoan squirm against her teeth and mouth. She suppressed a surge of bitter disgust and kept biting down. A second later, there was a satisfying pop as the disgusting thing's body burst like a rotted carcass left in the sun.

Keiara jumped off the Basilisk and backed away. She spat the foul creature's body out of her mouth and then she waited.