“Why not simply attack her now and go after her directly?” Lana asked.
“She’s too well guarded at the moment. There are many dragon shifters who are afraid to join us because she is powerful. Her family, who rules the other dragon kingdom, is also powerful. However, once everyone sees us destroying everything in the shifter realm, the other dragon shifters will fall in line with us. Together we will take back what is rightfully ours,” Dizag said.
“Wow. You have completely lost your mind, haven’t you?” Lana said. “You really think that this idiotic plan of yours will work?”
“I know it will. As you can see, we have already started. The shifters will be so afraid of us, that they won’t fight back and we will conquer everyone and everything. I was destined to be king,” Dizag said.
Lana looked over at Nick and said, “I think he has gone stark raving mad.”
Dizag said, with an exaggerated whisper in Lana’s ear, “Every shifter in the world will bow down to me, starting with you.”
Lana started laughing hysterically. It caught everyone off guard. The dragons and her parents looked at her as though she were the one who had gone completely insane.
She looked right in Dizag’s eyes and said, “You are an idiot. You have gone completely insane and your stupid plan will never work.”
Lana continued laughing and didn’t see Xutin approaching her. He reached out a huge claw and slapped Lana across her face. The blow knocked her completely off of her feet. His talons cut huge scratches on the same part of her face that had just healed from the burn.
Lana flew across the cave and hit the wall, slumping down to the floor. As the loud thud from her body echoed around the cave, her mother screamed, “Lana! No!”
Nick lunged straight at Dizag, still in his human form.
16
Lana
Lana was sure that she heard a rib crack as she tried to stand. Blinking several times, she tried to orient herself. Her face was bleeding heavily where the talons had ripped deeply into her face.
A loud commotion on the other side of the cave caught her attention. She focused on the area that the noise was coming from. Nick. He had been cornered by a couple of dragons. His back was against the wall and he was fighting, but he was no match for two of them.
She jumped the dragon nearest to her, taking him by surprise. She wrapped her front paws around his neck and her back legs around his waist.
Kyrse tried to shake her off, but Lana was strong and held on tightly. She used her claws to slice open the dragon’s throat, hoping to at least slow him down, if not kill him. Lana was jubilant when she saw a rush of blood explode from his neck.
The dragon shook harder trying to dismount her, but Lana held on. She didn’t see Kerog advance toward her. With one hard slap from his claw, he sliced open Lana’s side and sent her flying across the room.
She roared loudly and landed with a loud snap on the floor. Her mind was foggy, and she was dazed.
Nick screamed out her name. He briefly turned his attention to her, which was enough time for Dizag, Kerog, and Xutin to surround him.
“Did you ever watch the children playing the game London Bridge at the park? One person would stand between two others and the two people on the outside would push the inside kid back and forth between them until the bridge fell?” Dizag asked Nick.
Nick didn’t answer. He was trying to figure out a way to escape from the trap he was in.
“I think that would be a great game to play. The kid in the middle will be our good friend Nick here, and we can just push him back and forth until the bridge falls—or he falls,” Dizag said, delighted as though he had just told everyone that they could have some ice cream.
Lana tried to pull herself up off the floor, but she was weak. She had lost a lot of blood.
Her eyes wandered over to Kyrse, who had fallen from her attack. She slowly approached him and saw that he was dead. Her claws had hit the mark.
Nick raised his paw and had slashed Kerog across the face, leaving five long blood streaks.
Kerog yelled, “You miserable little lion. You think you can hurt me?”
He puffed up, building up fire.
“Stop. You can’t kill our little play thing just yet. Let him suffer first. I want him to beg for death,” Dizag said, his smile belying his words.
Just then, a loud noise from the entrance of the cave made everyone’s head turn. Several lion shifters, as well as some wolf shifters and bear shifters, had come to join the fight.
Dizag looked at the herd of shifters coming toward them. “You guys want to play? Well you’re too late. Playtime is over.”
He pointed his talons at the group rushing in and yelled, “Destroy them all!”
Teeth gnashed, and claws tore flesh. Steam and fire burned fur and flesh. Screams and yells echoed around the cavern. The entire cave was shaking from the brawl, and Lana was afraid that it would collapse on top of them.
Soon, the fight spilled outside of the cave, which gave the dragons the advantage. They flew up into the sky and swooped down, blasting the other shifters with fire. They tore open flesh with their talons. Dizag had stayed in the cave and faced Lana and Nick. Both of them were bleeding heavily and were stumbling, weak.
Dizag laughed, loudly. Lana thought that his laugh didn’t sound quite as strong as it had before, as though Dizag already realized that he couldn’t win. However, he would never give up.
“You think that you and your pitiful friends can beat me. Well, let me tell you something. There
