Seraphic Wings

74. Beasts and Figures

After Casus left both of his nephews and took off, seeing that figure slightly jarred him but he had to put it to the back of his mind. Arcana, his black horse, landed on a building near the source of the destruction. The shadowy dragon had totally destroyed the Cathedral, but it still stood there, only moving occasionally.

"I've got to admit, I said we would handle this, but... I have zero idea on how...." He admitted to his companion.
"The Umbra balls are controlling this thing?" Arcana questioned him.
"There is a high chance...."

As they were talking, the dragon's head turned to face them. It's soulless, somehow borne in Casus' soul, as it stared right at him. The beast then started to actually physically move, crashing into any other buildings that stood in its way.

"Oh.. Would you look at that, you're messing up the place...." Casus commented, with a sigh, as he observed the extra amount of destruction.
"It's not something you should be concerned about...." Arcana chimed in.
"Yeah, well... Eh?" As Casus looked up, he saw that the dragon had moved its head back and, in that split second, he made a decision. He turned Arcana and took off from the building. As he looked back, he saw that the dragon had set fire to it, with pure black flames. "Well.... That could've been worse...."
"Should we separate it from the orb, you reckon?" Arcana asked him as they hovered in the air.
"That could do it."

Raising his hand, a card materialised in between his index and middle finger. Briefly looking at it, he smiled to himself and sent it flying directly at the dragon, as it started to turn around. Giant vines started to wrap around the creature, slowly enveloping it. At the same time, Casus kept summoning extra cards, and also sent them flying. All the different cards were doing different attacks.

"Wait, don't use so much!" Arcana warned him.
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained...."

Eventually, Casus stopped summoning cards, but he looked drained. The dragon was enveloped in a massive ice-fire ball.

"Did that work?" He wondered.
"No! Look!"

As both of them looked on, the giant ball started to crack, and the dragon tore through it, letting out a bellowing roar that caused Arcana to falter slightly in midair.
"'Cana?" Casus asked the horse with a tinge of worry in his voice, but the horse didn't respond, and he fell slightly.

The dragon let out another shockwave which hit them straight on. This caused Casus to fall off of the black horse. As he fell, he grabbed the side of a building but, as he turned, he saw his own steed plummet to the ground, and land with a loud thud.

"Tch...."

Pulling himself up, Casus saw the dragon staring right at him again.

"I was lucky that the cards were mostly all upright, but..." He looked down at his hand, and summoned one card. It floated in the palm of his hand. "I do hate reversed ones..." The fool was staring right at him, but it was reversed. "The fool, huh... Risk taking.... How ironic...." Turning his attention to the dragon, he grinned to himself and he started to run right at it. He then started gathering speed, so that he could jump off the side of the building and, in midair, he threw the reversed fool card and it hit the dragon straight on. The dragon roared in, what sounded like, pain and it recoiled in on itself as a pure light hit it straight on.

As Casus fell, something caught him midair. As he looked down, he saw black fur.

"What good timing...."
"I would rather you didn't though... Plus that card was reversed...."
Arcana had arrived in the nick of time but, as they flew back to the top of the building and hovered there, they saw that the light disappeared and the dragon looked normal.
"Well... I had to try... But I do get the feeling that this thing is WAY out of our league..."