The Odd Dragon Out: Reckoning of the Cinder-Born

It had truly been a while since Ginger had felt this sensation. Well, rather than a sensation, it was much more proper to dispense with such a vague identification and just call it what it truly was; cruel torment.

Ginger's stok inflated, suddenly overflowing with Kardia that he was sure was far more than double or triple his usual amount. The bloated sack produced a scalding heat that the plump dragonling swore had instantly begun to fry his lungs and every organ wherever else it leaned towards as it expanded.

"ARRRGH!" Ginger let out a scream.

The pain was so phenomenal that it tore away his concerns – and focus – on his previously acquired wounds from the fall and made him hasten to his feet, only to drop to his knees and clutch his chest.

Ginger's fingers quivered, and before he could control himself, he was already trying to tear away his Light Gear so that he could rip open his skin, break his ribs and strangle his stok!

'Shunting…Ahhh! Why…Why is this happening again?!'

The plump dragonling hunched over until his chest met his knees.

He had experienced this only once before; back during his First Burning in Professor Alexandros' office, when he had been cast into the golden flames from the Rebounding Seether.

This feeling had only lasted a few moments back then because he had instantly been pulled out of the fire by Professor Mara.

He hadn't quite tasted this agony quite as wholly as now though. Worse yet, the overwhelming quantity of Kardia and its intensity wasn't the only ordeal Ginger had to fight against.

As it turned out, what caused the plump dragonling to hunch over wasn't just pain. It took Ginger a second to figure that out himself.

His flesh, his bones…

They suddenly grew heavier, and if his ability to discern the changes to his body could be trusted, the boy also felt as though… as though he had become tougher. It was impossible to tell if this was a good thing or not for Ginger, as his first, fright-induced diagnosis for himself had been that he was turning into a rock from the inside out.

Or was it more apt to say that he felt like another frame identical to his own had been superimposed on him in the worst way possible?

'What… is this?'

Ginger grunted bitterly.

Besides these two sudden experiences he was going through, Ginger felt something else. Perhaps this was the thing that staggered him the most.

His eyes suddenly felt different, and it wasn't because they too felt twice as large.

RAAAAAAAR! RAAAAAAAR!

Right as the demented roar of the greater Blighted came – sounding even more furious than before for some reason – its steps even more menacing and impactful, Ginger snapped his head towards the beast as fast as he could.

That was when he noticed that what he saw now, wasn't what he had been seeing before.

The green-scaled frame of the beast, scarred and scratched, was nowhere to be seen in his vision. Instead, there was only an assembly of massive bones hurtling towards him, a thin fiber outlining them!

Ginger recoiled.

Sweat oozed like rain from his body and he struggled to lift his torso as he ground his teeth.

'Is that … Why are my eyes suddenly…?' Ginger questioned with his hearts which felt cramped against both his lungs, thrumming wildly.

The collection of huge bones grew nearer, and with each step, Ginger realized that it was not just the bones. He saw more. There were two large hearts within the beast's body, stowed behind a surprisingly even rendition of a ribcage; one showing a faded connection to blood vessels, and the other connected to a long, ghostly membrane that held a bluish substance with a cloudy texture.

Kardia!

'I can see…!' Ginger thought, but he couldn't have continued to admire this sight for a second longer.

The enemy was only five meters away, and it opened its maw which swelled with reddish-orange flames immediately. Worse yet, the beast was going to add the paste-making force of its limbs to its wrathful assault as well.

Ginger roared as he heaved his torso up with both hands.

This was hopeless!

How was he going to stand up if this much was a heavyweight-tier chore?!

The blaze came right then, acting as the mild preamble, and Ginger gnashed his teeth while trying to keep the thoughts of certain death at bay.

It didn't work.

But then…

Ginger could have sworn he saw something laced with Kardia soar over him with impressive speed and shoot straight into the large Blighted's eye after a shocking curve!

The creature didn't quite manage to blink in time.

It let a low grunt as its mouth swayed, its bellowing flame lessening.

"You idiot! Why are you just sitting there?! Get over here!" Ginger heard Alcaeus' disembodied voice cry out.

Right.

He wasn't alone here.

The large Blighted seemed to remember that too as it gave an evil glare somewhere beyond Ginger, but quickly looked back at him and leaped right at him.

Ginger was aggravated. He was still the prime meal for this bastard!

However, that momentary distraction saved him from giving in, as ironic as that seemed.

'Come on! I have all this Kardia… Surely, I can…' Ginger thought as he focused on the searing burn in his chest.

Indeed. He did have all this Kardia, and as it turned out, the uncanny weight his flesh and bones attained helped a bit in lessening the furious pain such a thing had instilled.

A glimpse of hope flashed in Ginger's eyes, and instead of trying to stand, he pushed himself to lay back on the ground while facing up.

That was all he could do before the massive maw of the great Blighted fell on him!

Ginger screamed horribly. The Blighted's bottom jaw pressed against his thighs with crushing force and continued to push.

Surprisingly, as painful as it was, Ginger found that his bones did not break.

Somehow, they held!

He only felt the excruciating pain of being squeezed between the skeletal jaw – as he saw it – and the tough ground.

The large, yellow teeth of the creature were on full display, as was its atrocious breath, and the prospect of another fiery breath incoming.

The creature crunched the ground with its top sets of teeth to close its mouth shut and end Ginger for good.

Things were looking grim.

Ginger felt so too.

…However, the pain and stink only drove lucidity straight back to him and made him more desperate for victory.

His mind churned and he found himself pointing his charred, right hand into the maw of the skeletal behemoth before him.

Glimpsing the rock Alcaeus threw, laced in his Alien-type Kardia, made Ginger… and his Kardia remember something he had wished to do since learning about the potential of Alien-type Kardia in Kartile.

And he did it without a second thought.

The Kardia in his stok was driven into his second heart and projected out into his body. From there, Ginger made it all adopt Alien properties, and it gushed as an awry blue beam from the two fingers he then erected!

BOOM!

Ginger heard a bitter screech unbefitting the mighty creature he had feared all this while and a flood of hot blood fell on his body.

He felt himself get tossed violently from the Blighted's mad convulsion before landing further away.

After he spat out the repulsive Blighted blood and wiped off some of it from his eyes, Ginger saw the chilling scene of the creature – a mass of bones – knocking itself against the walls.

The plump dragonling had hoped to kill the thing with that one blast, but he hadn't done the best job with his aim, it seemed. He deflated.

Rather than damage its spine, Ginger had done more damage to its flesh, though, a whole section of the beast's jaw was shattered beyond repair.

He couldn't see much with this strange new vision, but he could detect Kardia rapidly leaving the beast's stok and getting channeled furiously through its body.

The Blighted was trying to do something; something reckless.

There was no way it could live with such an injury, so perhaps…

'I still can't move!' Ginger screamed in his mind. And indeed, it was so. His stok had definitely lost a lot of its Kardia, but he still felt terrible. 'How am I going to get out of this one?'

The Blighted thrashed violently, and its sockets – as it appeared to Ginger – turned to him again.

'Not again!'

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

RAAAAAAR!

The creature shrieked and fire exploded from both its mouth and the disgusting hole behind its head as it charged.

Ginger's breath hastened, but right then, he felt a grip on his collar, and then his body was dragged away quickly.

'What?' he thought in surprise.

"What in the world did you do?! How did you do that?!" Alcaeus' voice came again. He was panting, running away with Ginger deeper into the chamber.

The plump dragonling's first thought was to wonder if he didn't weigh a ton or more to Alcaeus right now, but he discarded the thought.

"Ah, forget it!" Alcaeus grumbled after a second without an answer. "Don't go dying before actually doing something useful! There's a reason we're a pair, you know, and I just found it!"

Ginger couldn't believe what this apple head was saying!

A pair?!

Useful?!

He was so flabbergasted that he made an effort to look at Alcaeus before attempting to fire his furious insults. Coincidentally, the Doukas boy turned to glance at him before he spat his own venom.

Both boys froze at what they saw in one another.