On the other side of the battlefield, where Erend and Eccar faced the mad havoc of Orzhal-Kur, the air itself had turned hostile.
After whispering a prayer to her unseen master, the ancient Forest Witch seemed to ignite with a second phase. Her gaunt body that was torned before suddenly vibrant with unnatural strength.
Her orange fire blazed brighter and roaring viciously, and the green vines she summoned turned bigger and more alive until it looks like serpents, their surfaces gleaming with hardened bark that snapped like whips and cracked stone.
She attacked with no pause, no rhythm, no regard for defens for her own defense, just an overwhelming surge of elemental fury.
Firestorms swirled from her palms in wide arcs, forcing Erend and Eccar to split and dodge while vines erupted from the earth in waves, seeking to pierce or bind them.
Erend gritted his teeth and countered with his own Magic power. Lightning burst from his fingertips like jagged spears, dancing across the vines and searing through the debris.
He swept his other hand across the air and calling a coiling torrent of water that spiraled into his lightning, turning his strikes into explosions of steam and cracking power.
Each bolt slammed into Orzhal-Kur with a booming sound, shaking the battlefield, making the vines recoil and the flames hiss. But she just kept advancing.
"You will not stop the rebirth! I am rooted in the will of the Ancient One!" Her laughter cracked through the air.
She threw both hands forward and a massive burst of orange fire spiraled out then twisted mid-air, becoming a fiery serpent with a hissing vine spine.
It struck Erend square in the chest, sending him skidding backward across scorched ground. His Dragon scales absorbed much of the blow, but steam hissed off him as his body slammed against a ruined pillar.
"Erend!" Eccar roared, stomping forward and slamming his palms into the ground.
The earth churned in response. Twin stone slabs erupted in front of him like shields, deflecting Orzhal-Kur's next flame blast.
He then lunged forward and swinging a massive club of compressed earth toward her stomach.
She leapt back and sent vines that snapped from the ground to meet him, and one wrapped around his leg, yanking him hard.
Eccar grunted and tore it free, but another came followed by another one in quick succession.
"She doesn't care if she gets hit. She's just pressing the attack!"
And it was true. Orzhal-Kur's body bore several deep wounds now. Black ichor staining her bark-like skin and fiery cracks running across her shoulders. But she ignored them entirely. One of her arms was hanging at an odd angle from Erend's last lightning strike. It's somehow not fully healed. She just screamed and hurled fire with the other hand, faster and harder than before.
The vines surrounding her writhed like snakes protecting their queen.
Erend rose, steam rising from his shoulders, his red and black Dragon scales glowing faintly under the crackling arcs of energy building around him. His eyes narrowed.
"No choice," he muttered. "Time to push back."
With a roar, he thrust both arms forward and released a fusion of lightning and water in one massive torrent.
The water spiraled like a raging cyclone, arcs of lightning snapping through it, turning the stream into a whip of crackling plasma.
It smashed into the mass of vines and flame in front of Orzhal-Kur, sending steam erupting into the air like a geyser.
Orzhal-Kur was thrown back but still managed to land on her feet and crouched low, like a beast ready to pounce again.
"She's not stopping!" Erend growled, chest heaving.
"She's not trying to win," Eccar said darkly, "she's trying to burn us out."
As if to prove him right, Orzhal-Kur hurled herself forward once again with a roar, a column of molten orange fire erupting behind her like wings.
Her eyes burned like amber coals and her scream echoed with madness.
Erend and Eccar braced themselves. They were not fighting a sorceress anymore. They were facing a fanatic willing to tear herself apart to resurrect her master.
Erend sighed as the scorched wind buffeted his face. He could feel the battle dragging.
His hand clenched at his side, scales crackling faintly.
"This has to end," he muttered lazily. "I will turn."
Eccar turned to him and stared into Erend's eyes and saw the decision already made.
He gave a lopsided smirk. "Alright then," he said, stepping back. "I'll just sit and wait."
Erend gave a nod and walked forward slowly. The air around his body rippled and shimmered. Then came the light.
A sudden flash of crimson flame and golden brilliance erupted from his body. The explosion of heat knocked dust and ash into the air. When it cleared, Erend was no longer merely a man.
Where he stood now loomed a Dragon, though not in his form. He held himself in a partial transformation, just over ten meters in size. His scales gleaming like living fire and wings curling back like searing storm clouds.
His eyes was molten gold and each breath he exhaled sent plumes of embers spiraling through the air.
Even holding back, his presence distorted the air around him. The ground cracked under his foot.
Orzhal-Kur, who just a moment ago fought relentlessly now faltered
She felt a soul forged in flame and fury and sealed behind eyes that burned like suns. She took an involuntary step back, a tremor twitching in her fingers.
"No…" she rasped, the first sign of fear crackling in her voice. "Not again!"
Erend's wings snapped open, fire spiraling from his limbs.
Orzhal-Kur screamed and hurled fire at him, a dozen lashing tendrils of orange flame and clawing vines. But they never reached him.
Erend surged forward, claws dragging fire through the air. The first swing of his arm shattered the incoming fire, sending a shockwave rippling across the forest.
The second tore through the vines, burning them to ash mid-air.
Orzhal-Kur screamed again, but this time it was not triumph or anger, it was defiance mixed with dread.
Erend's Dragon form slammed into her with a roar like a volcanic eruption. The impact sent Orzhal-Kur flying, smashing through stone and wood.
He leapt again. His wings propelling him forward with a thunderous beat as flames built in his throat.
Orzhal-Kur scrambled to rise, but the fire came.
The blast engulfed her in a spiraling vortex of red and gold. The vines tried to shield her but were incinerated before they were able to do anything. Her screams were lost in the roar of the fire.