Once in a Dragon Moon - Ophelia Bell Page 0,33

sand with a grunt. Then she manifested her wings and shot backward and up. landing atop one of the high pillars. She had speed and agility in her favor, whereas Ksenia’s biggest strength was brute force. But she’d never seen Ksenia in action before. Gunther’s little dragon had skills few others he’d ever seen possessed.

Ksenia launched herself to her feet in a smooth, graceful leap, then was in the air as fast as Astra, hurtling toward her with wings flashing brilliantly as if they were made of flames themselves.

The crowd roared as Astra tried, but failed to prepare for her opponent’s meteoric speed. A second later, Ksenia hit, throwing Astra off the pillar and following her to the ground. Astra barely got her wings out in time to fly away, but Ksenia was too close, easily smacking a hand on the illuminated marker before soaring past her, triumphant.

“Fuck yes!” Teague roared, high-fiving Jacob at the announcer’s call of the point to Desert Flame.

Across the arena, Midnight Star regrouped, looking put out, but determined. The next point went to Midnight Star in a rage-fueled tumble that proved how skilled a fighter the reigning champion was and left Ksenia scowling. They were even now, with three possible points to go before the match was decided.

The lighting shifted, shadows growing darker in several corners, the darkest of them cast across the cracked and rocky walls of what might have been a repurposed temple ruin. The pair circled each other for several moments, each one seeming to stake her claim to a different corner, though this wasn’t a capture the flag fight—those were reserved for the exhibition matches. The tournament matches were all contact.

Ksenia tilted her head left and right as if assessing Astra’s intent, trying to predict what she might do. Gunther glanced at Jacob and caught a pleased smile on his face. Jake and Ksenia spent many nights watching all of Astra’s past matches, so he must have an idea what was in store.

When she broke into a run for the shadows, Ksenia let out another battle cry and charged, wings out to speed her along. She blurred past them, beating Astra to her hiding place and the announcer’s voice boomed over the speakers. Another point to Ksenia.

From the stands around them, Gunther started hearing the fans’ awed murmurs asking who this woman was. Was Midnight Star about to be unseated in the first match of the tournament? As disappointing as that would be, he couldn’t help but rejoice that Ksenia would fulfill her dream in spades.

But Astra pulled off an agile stunt when Ksenia went in for the next point, catching her off-guard for just long enough to balance the score again.

The announcer’s voice echoed through the arena again, this time adding, “Whoever wins the final point advances to the next round. Will our reigning champion be forced to step down?”

Both fighters looked hungry, like they’d be prepared to draw blood if it were within the rules to do so. Down on the sand, Ksenia made a gesture toward Astra, calling out to her. “Let’s make this more interesting. What do you say, Midnight?”

She stretched out her wings again, but this time didn’t stop there. Her body grew and shifted, the shimmering armor stretching to accommodate her, but leaving a mesh-like pattern across her scales where the fabric expanded, the membranous layer looking as if she had a second set of scales overlayed across her natural ones.

She was enormous, but the arena was huge for a reason. Midnight Star followed suit, and soon there were two huge beasts facing off in the center, their suits invisible but for the pulsing red glow on each of their chests—the markers for the final point.

Midnight Star let out a roar that shook the stands, and Ksenia answered with a bellow of her own that made Gunther’s cock harden uncomfortably in his pants.

“Fuck, she’s beautiful,” Jacob breathed. “And she’s going to fucking win this thing, I can feel it.”

Then they charged each other, and there was nothing but a whirlwind of tails and wings and talons. Ksenia tumbled Astra again, but in dragon form, Astra was easily able to escape, using her wings and tail as leverage to shoot up into the sky. She circled with a roar and Ksenia followed, rocketing up and snapping her teeth at Astra’s tail.

The spotlights followed up into the night, and tiny drone cameras buzzed around to capture closeups of the fight for the vid screens. But Gunther kept