Warning: The Darkest Hour

Horrick reached the bridge to the refinery. An abandoned line of traffic flowed to the city interior. A line of refinery workers in coveralls hurried past. Work boots caked with dusty oil tapped the cement.

“Hey you!” shouted a tall dragon in oil-stained overalls, “Get to the high ground. We’re going to the municipal building to tough it out. Join us.”

The municipal building across the bridge and down the block was made of stone strong enough to survive the flood. It could serve as a possible rendezvous point from which to conduct searches after the tsunami.

Horrick peered over the horizon past the red and white striped towers. The wall of death roared behind them. No moon lit the dark wall’s froth. He looked for any sign of Jorseph on a dark horizon. The inky silhouette blended with the night through his binoculars. He saw no sign of the rendezvous team, not even a sealing commission drone among the world government devices. He remembered his drone sitting atop Grabby’ library with a frown.

Nothing could be accomplished here. He’d be putting himself in near certainty of death. Horrick put his hands in his pockets, four of them, and rubbed his mane with another.

The Sealing Commission lost this battle before it started. Rising Sun was World Artifact territory. Worse, Jorseph was in danger because of his actions.

“Yeah, I’d like to come with you guys if you don’t mind,” he pulled out a badge with his name, “Don’t worry about the gun. I’m a police detective.”

Jorseph, whatever you’re involved in, for the Sun God’s sake, please don’t do anything stupid.

-----

“Leave me alone!” Zenobia screamed.

A trail of condensation followed her diagonal dive to the tidal onslaught. The water spout acted like a tail as it pulled the bubble holding Darius. An elemental rose at the head of the tsunami with mop raised. Fronds coiled into the three spikes of her trident.

Waves enveloped burning tanker wreckage. Sheets of steel gave nature metal claws. Oil lit fires behind the foam. Rumbling ocean coated in flames roared forward.

Jorseph flew in front of it. He clutched the book against a furiously beating heart, “How do we stop it?”

“I’m not powerful enough.”

“Dragons are going to die if we don’t!”

Lilly sounded monotone, “I’m not powerful enough, we’re not powerful enough. I don’t have anything more powerful than the gravity anchors. Can you make a thousand of them in the next couple minutes? No? That’s what I thought. We can’t do anything about it,” her voice picked up slightly, “But we can do something about Zen. There’s an earth spell on page four, barrier of clay. Cast it, quickly!”

“Page four, got it!’ Jorseph hurried to the page. His claw scrolled along the incantation. It proved easier than the other spells. The focal point of bare ocean floor rumbled just ahead of Zenobia.

A pillar of earth, wet sand, clay, and rock rose against the tide. The ocean wall crumbled it. However, Zenobia slapped into clay that folded around the mop. It hardened, tightened into a ball, rumbled as it struggled to contain her. Compressed water escaped in tiny spouts.

The earth ball floated. It rose above the raging ocean with Darius dangling unconscious by a glimmering thread.

It burst. Sandy mud spikes flew from the crumbling mound. Zenobia took her shape back. A few brisk shakes released clumps of clay from the mop fronds.

“Throwing mud, that’s just like you.”

Jorseph tensed as winds swirled about clenched fists, “Really! Really! Of all the things Lilly ever hated, you were never one! She hated me, but she never once hated you!”

The mop released a sharp spray. Clay burst from the fronds.

Swirls of wind summoned with a thought swirled around his claws like protective mitts. He caught the projectile against the wind and sent it back. It splashed through Zenobia’s chest. Clay projectiles continued until she shook her mop clean.

Flowing wind armor surrounded Jorseph’s dragon body. He burst forward and bit her head off. The mop and Darius remained floating as it reformed.

Zenobia swung from behind. The three prongs of fronds moved like extending tendrils. They tried to latch onto Jorseph, but Lilly’s secondary form slammed the mop. 

Lilly dove with it. 

Zenobia's water elemental followed her true form. Lashing fingers ripped at the back of Lilly’s inky silhouette to tear her symbols out. Inky paper tendrils clutched the mop’s handle.

Refinery towers collapsed in flames along the shore. A plume of flames with acrid black smoke mushroomed into the clouds. A secondary explosion shook the earth. A roaring reverberation disrupted the atmosphere. Shattered metal shot outward from the explosion into the city and the tide.

They plunged into the ocean as they assaulted each other. 

But Lilly’s secondary form disintegrated in salty water.

Zenobia’s mop burst from the surface followed by the murky figure wielding it.

Jorseph swooped to bite her, only to get caught in a squid like entanglement of mop fronds. His wind armor became a mild breeze. They latched onto him as leaches and drained his body. Scales faded, limbs withered, blood spurted from between clenched teeth. He swore he heard Grabby’s shrill voice yelling his name from a distance. A chill overcame him and he passed out.

The spell book dropped into the ocean with his withered body clutching it. The ruby glowed into the depths. Ink and symbols bled from pages soaked in corrosive water.

Zenobia stood upon the surface to watch them sink. Oily fires with billowing black clouds rose from floating rubble.

Reflections of a city ablaze flickered over darkness. Zenobia turned to face the fallen refinery and continued. 

Sirens wailed from the shore.