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His Weight in Bronze

Chapter Ten

[Yjay]: A fifth volley of frozen liquid splattered on the floor in front of Xyo, almost directly atop the one before it. It had been almost 10 minutes since Samantha had left to check on the cattle, a very arduous 10 minutes. The overweight drake had resorted to practicing with his breath weapon, something he neither had the time nor reason to do in the tundra. As opposed to the thicker fog which he'd produced before, the much denser concentration of frost caused what to Xyo appeared to be miniature clouds to form on the high arched ceiling. If he closed his eyes, the white dragon could almost imagine he was back in his cave in the mountain... However the weight strapped to his middle which was distributed against the chilled stone floor reminded him of where he actually was.

After a long moment of hesitation, Xyo dragged himself to his feet from where he lay, although not without shifting the many projectiles still lodged in his hide. A small wince was the only reaction shown by the drake, with the rest of his mind focused on figuring out where Samantha had gone. Her smell was still traceable on the cracked floor of the chamber, and with visibility improving it did not take him long at all to find Samantha. His slower gait was taking some getting used to, Xyo's white stomach swaying from side to side as he walked with various stone shards and arrows still lodged in the abundant flesh. Had he been thinking clearer, he may have noticed the slightly reduced pressure on the leather straps around his neck...

The first trace of Samantha the dragon found was one of the cows they were sent to retrieve, however he immediately noticed just how profoundly overweight the creature was, with it resting on its massive stomach and breathing hard. Upon noticing the predator, the bovine let out a startled moo and tried to escape the massive drake. It did not get very far as once it had stood up it collapsed almost immediately back down after just a few tremulous steps, dragging its underbelly over the smooth floor, but ultimately unable to support its own weight for any further distance. Xyo passed this creature as it lay panting with fear and exhaustion, sitting without a moo or bellow as the dragon's imposing figure went by. "Samantha?" he called out loudly, momentarily forgetting about the persistent presence of bandits within the fortress.

Her head popped up from behind another one of the morbidly obese cows, looking tired but unharmed and unscathed. Xyo quietly let out a sigh of relief he hadn't known he was holding. He was about to say something else when Samantha suddenly put a finger over her mouth, telling him to keep the noise down. "Ah right, the bandits... There might still be a few around..." the white drake thought to himself, silently issuing an apology to her. A twanging sound suddenly caught his attention, with his vision snapping to an arrowhead which had imbedded itself in one of the crudely made posts of the pen. Instantly Xyo was alerted to the presence of many figures, scattered around the ruined chamber who were hiding barely out of his line of sight. The bulky dragon knew immediately that these were the bandits who they'd partially dispatched not 20 minutes earlier, and that there was certainly more than had been outside during their first attack. Samantha instantly raised her bow with Xyo inhaling deep within his chest, another volley of his fatal weapon in preparation for use.

[Shalion]: Reginauld walked softly with Bernard through the twisting corridors of the old fort, mist swimming about his knees as the fog worked its way down into the guts of the stone fortress. The chill in his legs reminded the bandit leader of the deadly breath of the opponent they were facing and of the men who had already died as well as those were not quite as fortunate as that... The two men said nothing as they paced quickly to their assigned location, the sounds of the other men already faded to nothing as the group separated to their assigned tasks.

Up two flights of stairs, Reginauld managed to squeeze his body through a crack between fallen rocks that blocked further progress into the collapsed upper levels and then helped Bernard squeeze his own thicker form through. They found themselves on a slender ledge overlooking the stolen herd of cattle, not that they could actually see any of the animals, what with the pervasive mist concealing everything, including themselves. Without speaking, Bernard handed Reginauld the ropes and they set about laying the trap. So it was that Reginauld first became aware of someone down below when there was a loud scraping of someone moving aside the pen gate. Reginauld just knew it was the dragon-bitch, but he held onto his temper, finishing the arrangements. In fact, it was a good sign, he had known that they would come here eventually. He busily scanned the white fog for any sign or shadow of his real prey, after all, the girl could be dealt with at any time once the beast was dead. He waited for some time willing his eyes to see clearer. Then there was another loud moo and then something disturbed the shape of the mist, a large figure causing the air to swirl around its mass. 'There you are!' thought Reginauld viciously as he moved the ropes. Bernard on the opposite side of the big room moved also, though Reginauld could not even see him from his location. The crossbow bolt was the signal the bandit leader was waiting for and both he and Bernard let go of the heavy thing they had been holding simultaneously.

Samantha heard the crossbow twang and hit a wood post beside Xyo, but had no way of telling where it had come from. She started to run towards the magnificent white beast, but just then a shadow fell from the ceiling, landing with an iron clatter on the ancient stone floor. Samantha saw Xyo's shadow writhe from under the big tangle of ropes that had landed on him, the ends weighted down with iron balls. The net itself had not harmed the big drake, but then the air was filled with the sounds of arrows being loosed, albeit most of them missing for the pervasive mist. However, Samantha gasped with alarm as she saw four men approaching Xyo's trapped figure cautiously and spread out so as to not to be all caught in one breath of frost. They were carrying long polearms clearly with the intent on impaling or gutting the large bodied drake. Samantha forced herself to run forward even as she notched an arrow in her bow. She too was hampered from shooting by the mist. But she figured if she could just put herself between Xyo and the polearm men, that might just buy him enough time to work free of the net... She gave no thought to the value of her own life in this judgement, now just acting on instinct.

[Yjay]: The writhing drake struggled to break free as the resilient rope held strong, pinning him in place. Xyo let out a grunt of frustration as he fought futilely to escape the bonds which held him where he stood. The glint of steel caught his eyes as four figures emerged from the swirling mist, long metal javelins in hand. The white dragon knew that it wouldn't do him any good to use his weapon to kill only one of men, as even one stab inflicted by their spears could be fatal. "Think Xyo, think!" he thought urgently to himself, not seeing an easy way out of the situation...

"Thoughts..." was a word reverberated through the white drake's skull, sparking an idea for what he could do. Almost as if he had been turned off like a light, Xyo stopped struggling against the ropes which were tangled around his various chubby limbs. The four men advanced forward in a steadfast manner, the shine of their weapons glinting through the wispy fog.

No more than a dozen feet away in the mist, Samantha saw the white dragon's abrupt halt in his struggles. She wanted to run faster, to go forward and to stand by the side of the magnificent dragon, to protect him with her life. Samantha was still too far away to help when the first man swung with his polearm, the tip aimed straight at Xyo's heart...

The spear hit it's mark, the sound of metal ripping through flesh piercing the near silent air. "No!" she yelled, sprinting over to where the figure of the white drake lay. When she reached him, she expected to see the glinting metal spear piercing the dragon's scales. The long pike had indeed taken a life, yet it was that of the man's own ally who lay dead with the weapon's sharp point driven through his bloodied chest.

[Shalion]: Samantha watched with as much understanding as any of the men standing near the trapped drake, especially the one with the long weapon lodged in his chest. He coughed weakly, dripping blood down the front of his shirt before collapsing.

Someone shouted from above through the mist. "Kill the damn thing already!"

The other two men with the long shining weapons came at the tangled white drake and again Samantha watched him go still, watching the two men intently with his large eyes. The weapons came down and...

It happened so fast Samantha was not sure what had happened. One moment, the two men had seemed just about to impale Xyo's large belly with the deadly weapons, the next their weapons were swinging around crosswise to strike each other. Both men howled with pain and dropped the polearms, having inflicted serious injuries to each other. The man whose blade had struck the first man back away suddenly from his fellow's dropped weapon he had been reaching for. "D-d-demon!" he cried as he quickly backed away several more paces into the mist. The two injured men were not far behind him as they clutched their deep wounds.

"Don't be a lot of damn cowards!" shouted the same man from above as before. "You can overpower any tricks that beast might have with enough steel!" There was a loud twang and Xyo found his soft flab being stabbed by yet another small bolt which was impossible to see coming through the thick mist.

Samantha pulled back her family's longbow and launched her arrow in the direction of the sound, but heard her missile strike cold stone in the mist shrouded shadows above.

"Ignore the girl!" shouted the man, who was now beginning to move about the ledge inside the large chamber. "Turn that beast into a pincushion!"

And the arrows and crossbow bolts began to fall around Xyo, many missing, the drake being a mere shadow inside the mist, and yet his large figure made him an easier than average target. Samantha desperately tried to locate the archers around the room, not all of them were above her, some were on the ground with her, but she could not see them!

But just a few moments after the rain of sharp steel began, there was a sudden burst of light in the room. At first, Samantha had no idea what it was, then she felt the heat flash against her face, making her and many of the men cower and turn their faces away from the source. The remaining cows moaned in terror and those that could move stumbled away out of the pen gate. The pervasive mist was finally burning away, revealing... Who was that dragon? Samantha felt as though she knew her, and then she recognized the violet eyes and the shape of the nose and wings, that and little else.

"Protector?" she muttered, not able to believe with her eyes that the huge lumbering creature she had worshipped her entire life had been so transformed. Seeing her clad in a trim coat of lustrous bronze scales was enough of a change from the blobby grey skin that had mostly covered her figure. As well, this version of the Protector was stout and rippling with muscles, even the long tail was thick with it. Samantha watched with trepidation and awe as the bronze dragoness walked forward and casually flicked her tail, the force of which sent the three men who had fled Xyo's rebuttal flying into a nearby wall, not to rise again.

"Who dares to attack my subjects?!" boomed the dragoness and from her mouth came another great blast of flames belching up into the chamber, choking the ceiling with terrible greasy smoke. The light and heat were so intense, Samantha had to hide her face again. Now men were screaming. Three of them fell from the upper level, perhaps just to escape the heat of the fireball, one of them was wholly covered with flames and he ran about madly before stumbling and failing to move again as his body burned. Samantha cowered at the show of force and death, feeling she might be sick, she rushed to Xyo's side, embracing his thick, soft neck, feeling weak and pitiful, and more than a little frightened of the display of power from the Protector who now launched herself up to the third level like a cat, grasping a man there in her foreclaws before falling back to the main level, crushing him instantly. Samantha buried her face against Xyo's soft body, unable to watch the rest of the carnage while his dense, fattened form provided shelter from the bursts of heat and light that were the goddess's rage.

[Yjay]: Xyo thought that he was dreaming when Ylssa had burst into the room, svelte and robust as she began to slaughter the remaining bandits. He discovered that it was indeed real as he felt the massive wave of heat wash against his white scales, causing him to have to shield his eyes with one of his wings. "How is this possible?" was the first thought that occurred to the surprised drake. The last of the dragoness Xyo had seen was her bloated and grotesquely overweight form falling from the sky, but her figure was now about as muscular and well built as one could be. Ylssa dispatched bandit after bandit as if she were squishing ants, not a single of one them managing to make a scratch on her lustrous bronze hide.

The white drake did his best to move away in an attempt to escape the heat, yet his efforts remained pitiful as the tangled net prevented him from moving from where he had been trapped. Xyo was suddenly aware of another figure contacting his flabby form, who he quickly made out to be Samantha. Despite the powerful odor of the cows and bandits in the room, the white dragon could physically smell the fear coming off of her. Using his body as a shield, Xyo shifted the best he could to offer protection, and possibly some comfort to the small human. The drake kept watching in awe, morbidly curious as to what had caused Ylssa's form to shift so abruptly. She'd become everything Xyo had wanted to be back home, a fighter, feared by all and revered for their strength. However it was the once morbidly obese dragoness who had gone from a walking pile of lard to a well built and unstoppable dragon, not the white drake who had instead gone from a skeleton to an overweight pile of scales in a matter of weeks. And that got him thinking...

The thought process was cut short as a bandit ran past Xyo in a desperate effort to escape, screaming for his life. Not a few moments later, the dragoness in question swooped down from above with unbelievable agility, striking him with a claw and his body flying like a ragdoll. The man landed just a few feet from the exit he so desperately desired but he had died before he even hit the ground. Ylssa barely batted an eyelash at the battered and trapped drake, the same going for Samantha who still had her head buried in his soft flank. There were few bandits left alive in the chamber, with a good portion of those who were already on death's door. A duo up on the third floor caught his attention as they silently attempted to retreat, Xyo drawing the connection that one of them was the leader who had been ordering the others around earlier. Neither of them got very far before Ylssa launched herself up to the high terrace with ease the white drake could only dream of having, while simultaneously destroying any opportunities for escape that they would have otherwise have had.

[Shalion]: The two men up on the terrace were brave, but foolish to have waited so long before retreating. Ylssa leapt up to the third level, in between the two remaining men and the exit, propelling her still rather heavy self up the last few feet with an assist with her wings. As fast as she had been just now, the bronze dragoness could tell that she could be even swifter without a lot of the mass of muscle weighing her down right now. Sure, the muscle added strength, but as could be seen from the ruined bodies and gory splatter below, the strength she had now was mostly overkill.

Ylssa paused in her relentless slaughter to stand tall over the two men, her claws and fangs dripping with the blood of their fellows. Not all of the bandits had been killed, she knew, but they had been destroyed and routed nonetheless. It would be a long time before they regrouped, if she understood human psychology at all, but as she looked down her long snout at the two men staring defiantly up at her, she thought it would be worthwhile to better understand what had brought them here in the first place. By his finer clothes and equipment, this one before her was probably the leader. Leering at her, he began to lift the big, strange bow weapon up towards her.

"Ah, now that would not be a smart thing to do." said Ylssa raising a bloodied claw.

The other man, thicker and with a bushy black beard tugged on the leader's waistcoat. The bandit leader ignored him, raising the black crossbow up towards Ylssa's head. "You expect me to believe you'll give us quarter?" he said. "Right now, I feel like my best option is to give you a scar that you'll remember for the rest of your immortal life and have that be my lasting mark upon this wretched world."

Ylssa raised an eye-ridge at the well-spokenness of the bandit leader. She snorted, "If you think your life is worth so little, you are welcome to try, human." And together they stood poised like that for many seconds, their eyes piercing into each others'. When the man failed to trigger his weapon, Ylssa said, "How about I give you a different option."

"What's that?" asked the man from behind the crossbow.

"You serve me. Put your skills in service of my goals, and you may live a long and happy life here." rumbled the large, shining dragoness.

"Heh, that's rich," laughed the man, though he actually dropped his crossbow a couple notches. "As if I would willingly become a slave to an inhuman creature such as yourself. And why would you even trust me?" he added, "I'm nothing but a common wood's thief anyways."

"I think we both know you're more than that, and if nothing else, I intend to get the story of why you came here and what you were planning on doing out of you."

"And why would I do that?" drawled the bandit leader.

Ylssa smirked and slowly closed her raised paw, turning it into a finger which pointed towards the larger man at the leader's side. Ylssa was filled with certainty as she mouthed the Dragon Pearl under her tongue and said, "Him." The man in question took one step back and then steadied himself before the great dragon.

"Threatening us won't work, you living nightmare!" shouted the man with the black crossbow. "We're both ready to die."

"Ah, but are you ready for... this?" she asked and focused her stare on the man. She knew it would work this time, but for the life of her could not say how she knew. And there before everyone, the man Ylssa was pointing towards began to grow. The already heavyset man's belly began to bulge outwards over his belt, quickly falling while the buttons on his shirt began to strain and pop. Meanwhile, Ylssa's remaining store of fat slowly dwindled, the remaining stuff on her large body easy enough to make a blob out of the smaller man.

"Wh-what the fuck?!" yelled the big man as he clutched his midsection with increasingly flabby arms.

The leader lowered his crossbow altogether, gaping at his lieutenant. "St-stop whatever it is you're doing!"

Each passing moment, the man got heavier and heavier. Ylssa said "Swear your fealty to me."

"N-N..." stammered the man, still too confused by what was happening. Now his friend was easily over 500 pounds, the weight still climbing, he staggered and ripped at his overly tight clothing which was constricting his limbs.

"Do you really want to see how far this goes?" said Ylssa airily, still pointing at the man now struggling to remain upright.

At that, the man threw down the shining crossbow and fell to his knees. "I will be your wretched thrall. Just stop this madness."

Ylssa smirked and relented, lowering her paw while the now bloated Bernard staggered to the near wall and leaned against it, his clothes hanging around his rotund figure in rags as he breathed heavily. There was surprisingly little fat left now on the muscular dragoness, leaving her big muscles outlined in exaggerated swells beneath her scaled hide. "Now, you'll start by helping me clean up the mess you made..." she said still wearing the same smirk. Ylssa had not felt this good in a very long time.