It was a quiet day, until the bones came scattering, until the breaths--heaving? had it been running?--of Alpha reached his ears.

The Overseer turned, and if he could have perked a brow, three eyes on his crest would have been graced by this. As it was they popped a little wider as he peered toward Alpha's approach.

Vargas made his way forward, to meet the child.

"Orthoclase-Alpha," he called, to alert it of his presence, of his location. There was, Vargas noted, a faint odor of blood on the air--was it Alpha's, then, or that of something else-?

"Report."

@Orthoclase-Alpha

To date, Alpha had never run so fast. Even vanishing into the depths of Tunnel K, it didn't stop. Even when the wind stopped picking up beneath its feet, it didn't stop. All of those sprints in the middle of the night weren't enough to deal with this.

At least, in the relative safety of Canis, and without the menacing thump of wings behind it, the orthoclase could slow its pace and catch its breath.

Vargas's voice rang out, and it obediently trudged in that direction, sides heaving and tongue lolling out of its mouth as it panted. Foam was forming at the corners of its mouth - apparently where all of its breath was going instead of either one of its lungs.

Acidic eyes stared up, and it stifled its heavy breathing for long enough to swipe its tongue over its teeth and swallow. Alpha reported between heavy breaths, slowly steadying out, "there's -" (breath) "- I defeated a dragon in Orion -" (breath) "- and was leaving a mark and it called out -" (breath) "- and three more came. Two of them were grown -" (breath) "- one shot fire at me and the other was on fire."

@Vargas

Vargas listened, bemused, trying to puzzle out the words tumbling from Orthoclase-Alpha's mouth.

As far as reports went, this one was a doozy. Dragon..s? Multiple? Vargas squinted six eyes. Raheerah-? he wondered. But multiple dragons-? "Can you describe them?" the Overseer asked, pushing up to pace around Alpha, to look it over closely.

It looked perhaps a little battered, here and there, but overall, good enough. "Was the one you defeated grown, as well? Is it-"

ROAAAAAAAAAAR.

Vargas flicked his gaze up, eyes widening, to see the mouth of Tunnel K blooming in orange light.

"...dead," he finished through gritted teeth, tensing himself for battle.

This thing had attacked his child. Forget the rage of a dragon: this was the fury of a father bellowing through the caves. Protective, indignant, merciless, fury.

The dragon's wings snapped wide as he left the tunnel, launching himself back skyward, a bass wingbeat thud punctuating the echoing remains of his roar. Ember eyes picked out Vargas below--and Alpha, close beside it. Dread did not wait, but inhaled, magicka flaring in him, his gut igniting with white-hot flame. He was high--he'd learned his lesson from Vargas prior--and he came in fast, folding his wings into a half-dive, sweeping over them like a bird of prey. His jaws snapped open, a snarl fixed on his face as flame roared forth in a crackling torrent, aiming for Alpha. He ignored Vargas, for now--he did not try to hit him, but nor did he avoid him.

His pass took him lower, some three meters off the ground; and then his wings snapped back open, aiming to bring him back up, and around, in a soaring glide. He bellowed as the flames faded.

"YOU! YOU HARMED MY CHILD!"

Another ear-splitting roar sounded on the tail of it, as Dread flapped higher, banking for another pass.

Round: 1/5?
Attempt: Flamethrower on Orthoclase-Alpha
Defense: Flying as high as possible
Injuries: None

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Alpha opened its mouth to respond, but its world was presently going orange.

More accurately, fire was taking over its world, slicking down its hide and sticking to its quills. The orthoclase gave a shriek of surprise, whirling around and trying to pat out its smoldering quills. Sooty and enraged into defensiveness, it roared back, "IT WAS A SPAR!"

Gnashing its teeth through the burning sensation crawling out from its back and nape, it glared holes into Dread's flight path. The orthoclase started pacing side to side, a haphazard serpentine while keeping him within its line of sight.

He wasn't going to fly close enough to get grabbed, and Alpha knew it couldn't jump high enough to even come close to catching a stray limb. It cast a brief, worried glance towards Vargas, before reaching out to unfamiliar magic.

It swore it could smell ozone, but maybe that was the residual burn of fire around it.

Round: 1/5???
Attempt: Give Dread a case of arrhythmia??? ?
Defense: ... carapace + kinda pacing side to side
Injuries: Boiled (preexisting injury lol), grilled.

@Dread

Vargas scurried out of the way, at first--a strong leap--and then walked a little more sedately a bit farther away. He hopped up onto a pile of bones, and then turned, tensed, to watch the fight.

He wouldn't help his creation; not unless things looked particularly dire. No; he wanted to watch this.

Everything was a test, after all.

Dread felt a strange thud in his chest--an unpleasant flutter, and then, abruptly, pressure in his head, in his chest--a lightheadedness... He remembered, abruptly, sickness.

Remembered lying in Orion, half-grown and gasping for breath as illness threatened to consume him.

"NOO!" he bellowed, perhaps a little theatrically, shaking his head and blinking. Had his heart been slowed, perhaps he would have been grounded; as it was he shrieked and swept down again for another pass, urgency now in his eyes as well as fury.

His breaths came quick, and it was hard to inhale deep enough to breathe his flame; he rose back up again, shaking himself and coughing embers.

Round: 2/5?
Attempt: Flamethrower on Orthoclase-Alpha
Defense: Flying as high as possible
Injuries: Raised heart rate (is that an injury??)

@Orthoclase-Alpha

[Uh, M for a bit of corpse dragging/blood]

And here he was, having such a good day. But... Nope! No. The bloody dragon was back.

The roars, at first, caught his attention as he held his catch in his maw. It was but an instant when he froze mid-step and twisted around, a soft 'mrrp?' trilling from his full mouth. Another roar followed the other, and he cringed this time, backwards with his feet scooting ahead of himself.

'It's back.' Dread (hah) filled his mind as his heart raced of its own accord, feet picking up speed. A gout of flame later in the corner of his vision, and he was bookin' it for home, uncaring now how hard he bit into the corpse, uncaring of how much blood was dripping down his jaws.

'Not today! Thanks! Bye-bye!' His mind gave as many denials as it could as he dashed to the tunnel on a quest to return to the altar.

;exit unless stopped

It was... doing something?

Even the charred quills on its neck pricked, acidic eyes furrowing in confusion as it tried to maintain - whatever this was. It was keeping the dragon from casting his magic, so maybe it'd ground him and put them on... relatively more even footing.

Alpha continued to pace ineffectively in the meantime.

It probably looked incredibly stupid to its Overseer.

Round: 2/5?
Attempt: Arrhythmia... TWO!
Defense: Carapace and continued pacing lol
Injuries: Boiled, Grilled

@Dread

Dread came around again, and stopped to hover, shaking himself one last time and then fixing eyes on Alpha. The thing was lower down, and Dread wasn't sure that it'd been behind whatever had just gripped his chest--but it hadn't ever happened before, except with getting really sick so it was probably magic.

He didn't take the time to think all this out logically, though--it was a snap decision. His head craned briefly back, his lungs filling properly this time, the spines and fins along his arched neck raising, the powerful wingbeats keeping him more easily aloft now that the chest-pain had faded.

A deep breath, then.

He was far, a little too far perhaps for a full, engulfing torrent, fearing drawing too close to the pair: but still he sent the guttering flame down, crackling heat, arching for Orthoclase-Alpha.

And then, shouting:

"YOUR TEETH WERE IN HIS THROAT!"

Some spar.

Round: 3/5?
Attempt: Incinerate on Orthoclase-Alpha
Defense: Flying as high as possible
Injuries: --

@Orthoclase-Alpha