The draenei immediately seized Krasus and, exerting herself as much as she could, dragged him in the opposite direction.
The Wetlands there suddenly exploded. A second later, the huge form of a dragon appeared. Although Iridi could see no difference between it and the previous visions, she was certain that this was the second of the monsters.
It opened wide its mouth to snap up Krasus... and Iridi in the process.
She tried to raise the staff, but it was entangled with the unconscious mage. Iridi concentrated, seeking another course of action.
Krasus's eyes snapped open, the energy of life causing them to glow briefly.
Before she could speak, he shoved her from him. Startled, the priestess tumbled.
A roar split the skies, but it was a different one from those she had heard before. Iridi blinked her gaze clear.
Where Krasus had stood, a huge, crimson form now towered. The red dragon Korialstrasz spread his wings, a wondrous sight of such huge dimensions that his mere presence made the shimmering monster hiss and retreat.
'Yes! You would do best to flee from me!' Korialstrasz proclaimed. 'For I show no mercy to those who threaten my friends!'
'Foollsssh morsssel...' snarled the cowering monster, but it backed farther yet, clearly intimidated... which was as Iridi knew the red dragon desired.
From the previous direction came a roar that marked the second of the two macabre beasts. Korialstrasz immediately turned his huge head, snapping at the air.
He was weaker than either of his foes knew, and the draenei prayed that they would keep their ignorance. If they sensed in the least that his show of might was partially bravado, then they would quickly turn on him.
Korialstrasz roared back at the darkness... and the other dragon formed. Like the first, it was cowed. As the red dragon spread his wings wider yet, the shimmering form dropped to the ground, taking up a position like its twin.
Iridi's gigantic companion glanced down at her. 'Leave this place,' he murmured. 'Leave cautiously, without showing any fear, but leave it now....'
'But, what about you?'
He turned his gaze back to the two dread behemoths, his failure to answer the draenei answer enough. Korialstrasz was only concerned with her life, not his.
The priestess could not leave him to face them alone. She had many skills and the staff at her command. There had to be some manner in which she could aid him—
Although his eyes continued to monitor the two nightmarish dragons, Korialstrasz suddenly made a movement with his tail that the draenei realized was directed toward her. The red still desired for her to depart.
One of the shadowy creatures also noticed the movement... and proved cunning enough to understand what it meant. Monstrous orbs measured Korialstrasz anew.
A scowl replaced the cowering look.
The amethyst beast let out an ear-jarring cry and launched itself at the red dragon.
The other followed only seconds later, echoing the first's cry.
Letting out a roar of his own, Korialstrasz beat his wings hard. Iridi feared that the two attackers would turn immaterial again, but, so close, they apparently assumed that their prey was doomed. Instead, though, the red dragon not only stood his ground, but struck with all his might.
The heavy wings battered the dark dragons. One spun back, uprooting trees and ripping up more ground. The second dove headfirst into the dirt, its snout drilling deep.
Korialstrasz twisted his head around to the second and bathed his adversary in flames.
The shadow dragon—no, that title did not seem quite right to Iridi, for they did not so much resemble shadow, but rather the day turning to night—shrieked as it pulled its maw free and belatedly returned to a ghostlike state. The amethyst shimmer increased as it shifted.
Then, a savage paw came down where she stood. Only the heightened instincts of one of her order enabled the priestess to leap aside before she would have been crushed into the soil.
Iridi turned the naaru staff against her attacker. This time, the beast reacted too slowly. Blue lightning crackled around the fiendish leviathan. The dragon shrieked.
The draenei's hopes surged. Perhaps she and Korialstrasz would yet defeat this unsettling pair, who felt to her senses so wrong and yet somehow still bound to that which she hunted.
But suddenly the crystal ceased glowing. Stunned, Iridi glanced at the tip.
The dragon against whom she had fought let out a brutal laugh.
'Yessss!' it called. 'Feed me mmmmorrre!'
It lunged at her, but Iridi knew that it was the staff that the creature sought. Aware what power still lay in the gift, the draenei feared what would happen if her attacker devoured its full essence.
She would have turned to Korialstrasz for help, but the red dragon was in dire straits of his own. The other monster had not only turned incorporeal, but had vanished beneath the ancient leviathan. Korialstrasz spun about, seeking some trace, however minute.
From behind him rose a purple specter. Iridi tried to warn Korialstrasz, but it was already too late.
The twilight dragon—yes, Iridi found that the name better fit the dread beasts—fell upon Korialstrasz's back. The red fell forward, the sudden weight catching him off guard.
“I will feed!!!' the red's tormentor declared yet again. However, it did not bend down to bite through Korialstrasz's neck, but rather sank its claws into his back and wings.
The ancient flier moaned. A sinister purple aura enveloped Korialstrasz.
The dark dragon gleefully inhaled... and a crimson glow arose from the writhing red, a glow that the purple behemoth immediately ingested. The vampiric beast inhaled again, drawing forth more of what could only be Korialstrasz's life energies. Despite clearly trying not to, the red finally unleashed a terrible roar of agony.
Korialstrasz's scaled form began to shrivel, as if he were a fly being sucked dry by a spider. He scraped at the air, trying feebly to escape as his foe ingested his essence.
There was nothing Iridi could do to stop the terrible feasting. Her own pursuer lunged again at her, nearly snapping up both the staff and the draenei together.
The ground shook as the dragon behind her tore at it. Iridi stumbled, then completely lost her footing. She fell forward, the staff flying from her grip.
The twilight dragon let out a cry of triumph that quickly turned into one of childish frustration as it watched the staff vanish. It could not have known that the naaru's gift would soon vanish when not held by her.
'Wheerrre isss ittt?' the beast called.'Wherrrree?'
She felt the monster looming over her. In the background, Korialstrasz continued to moan.
There came from the heavens
The one near Iridi only had time to acknowledge its twin's fate before a new dragon alighted on to it. The twilight dragon immediately transformed, yet although it should have then avoided this startling foe, the new leviathan's claws hung tight. Iridi belatedly noticed that those claws glowed themselves.
'You like to fight those who can't fight you, don't you?' snarled the newcomer. His voice, his tone, were those of a much younger but more hot-headed dragon. From him emanated magical energies such as the draenei had sensed only on one type of dragon.
'You want to feed? Feed on this!'
His unsettling foe shrieked anew as bright, burning energies poured over it. In the light of those energies, the young dragon's flight was identified.
