Fire came again, and it scarcely danced out of the way of its distant torrent. Soot and smoke clung to its lungs and the heat was starting to scorch the purple into more of its body - mostly down its lighter sides and forelimbs. Eyes watering but otherwise still narrowed, it yowled up, "I WAS LEAVING A MARK!"

With a roar of "HE WAS WWWWWWWWEAK!" it mustered a slicing whirlwind from the dust and decay of Canis. The glass spun round and round Alpha, reflecting firelight and the toxic glow of its eyes, "COME DOWN HERE AND FIGHT ME. FIRE WON'T STOP ME!"

Was it intentionally goading to get Dread to come down? Absolutely not. Don't give this chunk of rock that much credit.

Round: 3/5?
Attempt: Slicy slicy whirlwind to deter any dragons wanting to swoop by. :)
Defense: being part of the world's saddest chick fight
Injuries: Boiled, Grilled x2 (but lightly the second time)

@Dread

He was weak.

The world seemed to stop.

Wingbeat.

Alpha, snarling, the glints of glass swirling around him, the shift of one front limb. The gentle clatter of toxic quills.

Wingbeat.

His own breath, an inhale, the slow beat of his heart behind it. He wanted to sweep down, but those shards would not let him. He wanted to shatter the ground, and drop Alpha into a hole from which it would never escape, and then fill that hole with fire.

But the glass stood in his way.

Wingbeat.

The inhale, filling his chest with air. Rage, fury, frustration, boiling over. Dread's head snapped back, and he roared, a deep and echoing cry of primal intensity that throbbed with magicka. His voice thrummed with it, and the magic vibrated with his roar. Resonated. Amplified.

The cave began to shake--all of Canis, trembling; and while Dread, at its epicenter, seemed unaffected, all around the ceiling threatened to fall in. It was not as strong, or as far-reaching, as it could have been: but stalagmites began to crash down, here and there, pointed, heavy, crumbling.

"HE IS A CHILD," Dread bellowed--which was not entirely accurate; but Svartis was his child, and was relatively young, untrained.

Round: 4/5?
Attempt: Earthquake
Defense: Flying as high as possible
Injuries: --

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Thunder echoed from the dragon's lungs, and the earth yielded to it. Canis shook with the force of it, overly amplified by magicka. There was an ominous crack from above, and down came a massive stalagmite split clear into a number of pieces. Alpha hauled itself forwards, twisting slightly to track the falling rocks's trajectory as they smacked painfully into various parts of its body. It stumbled from the impacts and the complete lack of steadiness from the ground underfoot.

Radioactive green started dripping down its flanks, spurting out from those shattered pieces of carapace with every pulse.

Glass went tink! ti-tink! as rocks continued to fall, glinting blinding light as it whirled around. Acidic eyes glanced down, feeling around for a fist-sized stone. Claws wrapped around one, a grunt sounding as another rock smacked into it.

It stumbled again, taking an shaken step ahead and shifting weight onto all feet but the one holding the rock. The glassy storm fell abruptly. "IT WAS A SPAR!" Alpha roared up, raising its arm as high as it could and wheeling it to hurl its stone at any part of this damn dragon. It would've liked to aim for his upper half, but its world was being rocked too hard to be certain.

Round: 4/5?
Attempt: Hurling a rock at Dread's upper half (with... absolutely no precision whatsoever.)
Defense: being part of the world's saddest chick fight
Injuries: Boiled, Grilled x2 (but lightly the second time), Clobbered by falling rocks.

@Dread

Dread thought nothing of the beast picking up a rock; he barely noticed it. The world down there was shaking, tumbling stones smashing into Alpha and he considered his point nearly made--and then, aghast for the fraction of a second that he had to process it, he watched as the stone soared his way.

It impacted his chest, a crushing blow that sent him beating his wings and falling backward in the air; a pained bellow erupted from him, escaping a moment later. It sounded hurt, and he'd felt the smash against his scales--armored or not, that would leave a mark.

It dropped him in the air, as well, the dragon missing a beat of his wings and falling so low that bladed tail swept the ground for an instant; and rather than pull himself up, Dread turned, and fixed his eyes on Alpha.

And inhaled.

The flame-glow lit in his jaws, close as he was, and then he breathed out: neck extending, fins raised, eyes shimmering in the reflected glow of the flame-torrent that now swept out to engulf Orthoclase-Alpha, assuming the creature didn't move fast enough to avoid it. And, with Dread lower, it was closer now, and more intense.

"I WILL LEAVE A MARK!" he roared, and moved as if to fly back higher--as if that, in his mind, was that.

Round: 5/5?
Attempt: Fire
Defense: Flying
Injuries: Hit with a rock in the chest

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Dust continued to fall, stones collapsing intermittently around it as the earth churned to a standstill again.

The rock hit home somewhere - Alpha lost track in all of the dust and soot - and a bellow erupted from the dragon. It squinted through the smog and watched his descent, fall towards the ground... into arm's reach.

It would press that advantage, looking for the wind beneath its feet to carry it towards Dread... until that dreaded orange glow resurfaced from his jaws. In a split-second, the orthoclase had to decide whether it'd like to be grilled, smoked, or relatively unscathed.

Flames blasted out towards it, and it skidded to a halt, lurching towards the side and trying to throw its weight forward in an angle still heading towards the dragon - but not quite so... close to the fire. The column's trajectory shifted, and Alpha finally felt the full brunt of the beast's fury.

And it screamed.

Alpha immediately turned tail, trying to claw its way out of the blaze.

Disappointingly, its last thoughts - if any - weren't going to be a frantic I'm going to die here. No, it would be a bereft I'm a fucking failure, keened out across its consciousness as it otherwise went into full survival mode.

Round: 5/5?
Attempt: Skirt around the fire towards Dread (not like, a full dodge but as close as you can get faced with a flamethrower at point-blank range lmao) sike
Defense: being part of the world's saddest chick fight
Injuries: Boiled, Grilled x3, Clobbered by falling rocks

@Dread

Vargas saw it coming. Even with his speed he couldn't get there in time to stop it--but he still lurched into motion, a blur of toxic green and violent violet, barreling rapidly toward Alpha and aiming to smash it out of the path of flames. Not in time--but before it got completely annihilated, at least.

He hissed at the brief, unpleasant sear of flames as he passed through them.

"ENOUGH!" he bellowed, skidding and turning to stare up at Dread, tensed to fight. "You have made your mark!"

His tail lashed behind him and he skittered back a few paces--out of flame-range--spiderlike. "Tell me, dragon, will your child live-?" And then, aside, to Alpha--in a loud hiss, a warning--"Stand down."

Dread opened his jaws, intending to take another deep breath for another roar, but felt a sharp, intense pain in his chest. The wince was visible, flameglow eyes briefly narrowing, rigid lips half peeling back, and rather than roar he lifted higher in the air.

Wary.

Unwilling to stay close.

"I THINK HE WILL LIVE. IF HE DIES, I WILL EAT YOU," he added, in Alpha's direction. The toxic color and quills probably implied that doing so would be unwise, but Dread was uncreative in his threats.

"SPAR MEANS NOT HARMING LIKE THAT. I WAS ATTACKED BY A CHICKEN," he added, angrily, "THERE IS NO REASON FOR IT!"

Honestly, why did everyone want to beat up the dragon family?!

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Some, getting full-force tackled out of the way by its Overseer hurt less than taking a full blast of flamethrower like a fool. Alpha's body went hurtling to the side, limbs flailing weakly as it lost a match with gravity. Landing harshly on its side, it heaved - and sent itself into a pained coughing fit. Toxic green dribbled from between its teeth as it pitifully wrenched up onto its stomach, shoulders quivering with even that effort.

Even if it was mentally able to go for another round, the orthoclase wasn't sure it could manage. It wanted to keep screeching and raging, to finally land a hit on that dragon with its own teeth and claws instead of with a rock.

It hissed softly in pain as it twisted, trying to look over itself and finding - yet again - smashed carapace and general havoc wrecked on itself. Nearly all of its flesh was showing through as an angry purple, inflamed and broiled beneath chitin. Tentatively pressing against its side with a set of claws, the orthoclase gritted its teeth.

Magic, however tentative, wove out at the scorched flesh. It spread no further than its stone, and seemed to almost make everything worse.

Acidic eyes closed as it exhaled, head lowering and looking for all the world like a kicked dog as it watched on hesitantly, claws driving into the stone floor to still its trembling self.

Failure - I should've done different. Should've learned - fuck, I'm a failure, I can't fight like this.

@Vargas

Vargas squinted. He remembered Dread being a blunt, base creature, but-...

Chicken? The Overseer's thought process went something like: ????????????????????????? and then, "-Chicken?" Weren't those tiny birds-? "Where is this chicken?" he demanded; "What happened to it?" But-... he was getting off-track.

Vargas focused, teeth gritted. He rocked back on his hind legs and lifted his right forelimb, parroting it... struggling to grip control over the dragon's very blood: to force him to the ground, and pin him there, for a moment. "Understand this, Dragon: I am the Overseer of these caves, and if I wished, we could destroy you now. But-" and here, he tightened his control, for emphasis-

"We hold no hostility toward your family. In fact, in time, I will ask for your cooperation! We require pieces of your stone-"

"I ATE IT. IT CAME BACK. IT WAS A STONE." Dread was still angry, but admitting you ate someone was nice and dangerous, and-

-and suddenly his limbs were working against him, his wings shuddering and dropping him to the ground, splaying out there. The Overseer was talking, but Dread felt fury well up in him, and the instant the control began to slip, he snapped up his head with narrowed eyes.

The fire did not come, and he bellowed impotent rage--shrieking from his point on the ground, struggling fruitlessly against the grinning Overseer's control.

@Orthoclase-Alpha