Dragon Fire

Meanwhile…

“Tch… Again?” Arja mumbled within his mask as the young man in dragon armor avoided another burst of hot wind from the humanoid bird monster.

In his head, the plan was foolproof. To let his new ally learn how to subdue the curse by himself, via actual combat experience. And it went well — Renji had managed to transform using his Stigma, but perhaps that was… too well. Enough so that Arja was seeing double again, as the same crazed Vritra had emerged from the young man from the other world.

“And this annoying thing as well!” Thrusting his dragon head towards the bird monster to usher in a great flame, the young man raged. The fire coiled and spun, as if having a life of its own, before ramming in the monster and wrapped it around.

The bird creature shrieked in pain, writhing in the air trying to shake off the fire. However, the more it moved around, the more the fire squeezed and crushed it. The wind had long settled down, replacing it was the smell of burning feathers and flesh alike. Without its wings spread out, the monster fell to the sand, still struggling to move about.

“Now, let’s close it out.”

Arja raised his dragon head up in the air. A burst of flame erupted from the ground, and along with it, the dragon head flew out from his hand, behind it now a trail of fire and lava making a long, serpentine body. The fire dragon flew around above his head for a second, before its head bit onto the fiery body it had just created, making a perfect circle. The dragon circle spun and spun in the air, slowly descending back into Arja’s hand — the same hand where the dragon head flew from.

As the fire from its body died down, the dragon was no more — what lay in Arja’s hand was a rounded blade that was nearly his entire body size. It was a chakram with a fiery dragon motif, the body was one pure red, while the eye portion was glowing a bright gold.

Grabbing the chakram, Arja pulled it back, making a long line on the sand.

“Burn my rage, o’ chakram!”

As the young man let go of his hand, the chakram spun by itself, charging up while igniting itself into fire again. Meanwhile, Arja jumped towards the sky, twisting his body in the air before landing directly on the chakram with a flying kick:

“Agni Fire!”

Finally given the boost it needed with Arja’s kick, the chakram flew away, leaving a blazing trail and the sound of grinding sand on its path. The flame wheel crashed straight into the bird monster, bursting it into a giant explosion right as the young man turned his back towards it. Arja raised his hand towards the sky once more, and from the remnants of the explosion, the dragon head flew right back out, merging with his hand good as new.

“Well, that takes care of one thing…” Arja let out a sigh, his eyes diverting to the other side of the battlefield.

The strange otherworlder named Tatsumiya Renji had already slaughtered all of the Kalas, and was bathing in their fluids — both blood and purplish slime alike — while facing the sky as if reveling in all the process.

“Now, this problem…”

“Oi!” Arja called out towards the young man. “Ren! Ya still there?”

The figure slowly turned back. Even from behind the helmet, Arja could still feel the chilling gaze that Renji’s eyes sparked towards him. Almost as if those golden eyes were enough to freeze him on the spot.

However, answering him was still Renji’s voice. A bit confused, but ultimately gentle and harmless.

“Yeah, I’m here!”

“What… did ya do just now?” Arja asked.

“Hm? You said that I should transform, right? So I did.” Renji answered, still unfazed.

“And ya didn’t… feel any different?”

“I mean, should I? You sound the same, right?”

“Well, yeah, but…”

“Eh, it’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Renji waved his hand as if swatting an imaginary fly.

“Okay, I trust ya on this…”

“Cool. Now, about this whole thing…”

“Undo yer transformation.”

It was a clear order, without any joke to it.

“... Huh?”

“I said undo it.”

“How do I undo it?”

“Oh, right… Uh, focus on the tattoo on yer arm for a while, and think back to yer old body. Ya should be able to retract the armor.”

“Oh, okay.” Renji nodded, raising his right arm forward. One minute passed. Then two… three… but nothing happened.

“Oi, Ren,” Arja clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Why aren’t ya changing back?”

“I, uh… I’m trying!”

There was a slight hesitation in Renji’s words.

“Ren. Change back.”

“I am!”

“It shouldn’t be that hard! Just change back!”

“... Okay, fine! I’m not changing back! Why should I?”

It was the only answer Arja needed.

“I knew it,” the young man kicked up the sand in frustration. However, it was only a feint.

As he kicked lightly with his left leg, Arja quickly switched his center of gravity, returning his left side to the ground with a stomp and kicking his right left upward as hard as he could. Sand flew like a storm towards Renji’s eyes, blinding the young man in an instance.

Just enough of an instance for Arja to move towards his back.

“Agni!” The young man screamed.

The dragon head on his hand charged up a tiny ball of fire. But as it made contact towards Renji’s armor, the resulting explosion was bigger than any other Arja had made in his battle with the Garduda. The orb of fire engulfed the entire area, swallowing Renji and even Arja himself in its devastating blast.

As the fire died down and the dust settled, both sets of armor were gone. All that was left was a Renji lying unconscious on his face, his back suffering from a giant burn mark, revealing another set of thick, dark blue scales — his transformation into a monster had sped up compared to before.

Next to him was a standing Arja, who was suffering from multiple burn marks all the same — even his white shirt now had blackened spots and rips all over. Putting Renji’s arm over his shoulder, the young man carried his new companion on his back, shaking his head in fear and anxiety:

“Vritra… No, all Stigmata is like a poison. The more ya use it, the more yer dragged into it. Steel yerself, Ren, lest ya lose control… like her.”