Deathwing the Destroyer
Deathwing loomed over Riku for a while longer, staring hard at the young ninja, and then craned his neck back, stepping back several times as he did, ?Why are you here??
Riku swallowed, and then yelled out, ?I was sent by Vidar, the sage of??
Deathwing cut him off, ?Of all animals except us? And I suppose that his fancy little shrine told you that you can summon us, eh??
?Well... yeah... kind of.?
?You don?t seem half the ninja that Lance was, but let?s get to it then, I?ll make your death as quick as possible,? Deathwing said, and Riku could have sworn that he saw his ominous mouth curl into a devastating grin.
Riku saw that Deathwing wasted no time, his claw went up and slammed down onto the platform where Riku was. Riku jumped forward in a mixture of a lunge and a roll near the end of his jump. The claw slammed down behind Riku, and in a fluent motion, he turned around and brought Soul Eater to slice at the dragon?s foot. His blade, and his arm, bounced back as soon as they touched the scales.
Riku heard a booming laugh from Deathwing, ?You must be able to do better than that,? he said, flapping his wings so that he rose up from the platform and was back over the pool of lava.
Throwing his head upwards, lava began to form in the dragon?s mouth, and then he brought his head back down, as a blast, a mixture of fire and lava, shoot out onto Riku, who was already making seals, and suddenly a large amount of water appeared before Riku, and then rushed out towards the blast of lava. The two forces clashed, and Riku let out a breath of relief upon seeing that his water jutsu had sufficed to vanquish the lava. Suddenly, though, Riku saw a smoke... no, gas, coming from where the clash of water and lava had taken place.
?I suppose you don?t know much about lava. Cool it down enough, and it releases poisonous fumes,? Deathwing said, obviously satisfied.
Deathwings next attack didn?t even seem to take any effort, it seemed like he was just blowing out his breath, but to Riku it was a giant blast of wind that forcibly pushed the poisonous gas towards him, and pushed him down to slam onto the platform. A second later, Deathwing?s clawed foot, or as much of it that could fit without covering the boy?s head, slammed down onto Riku?s chest, holding him in place while Deathwing rose his head up again, charging even more lava this time. In a fluid motion, Deathwing?s claw was picked up while his head jerked forward, releasing a flow of lava onto Riku.
But when the flow of lava ceased, Riku was no longer under the wyrm?s claw. The dragon frowned, and looked around furiously, but saw nothing.
Riku stabbed his blade into Deathwing?s neck as powerfully as he could.
The second between when Deathwing released Riku from his grip and when he shot the lava was more than enough for Soul Eater. Its power running through Riku, he had been able to get away quickly enough. It wasn?t as much as the fight with Thane, though, Riku knew. It might have even been less than when he fought Kabuto. It was enough though, enough to keep him alive, and enough to allow him to pierce this creatures skin.
Deathwing let out a shriek of pain, louder than the one that Shadow had released earlier. Quickly, though, he regained composure and slammed backwards onto the side of the volcano. Riku had just managed to jump forwards and turn at the same time so that he was now back over the platform and facing Deathwing. The dragon released a fireball this time, like a giant meteor coming at Riku. Instead of making handseals this time, he made several quick slices with Riku. With each slice, a crescent-shaped blast of ice was released from the sword, which at first kept the fireball at bay and then dissipated it.
Riku took a quick glance at his blade in the midst of battle, ?That?s new.?
This, however, released more poisonous gas. The gas was starting to fill the volcano, now, and Riku knew he didn?t have much time. Landing back on the platform, luckily not being over a spot that was covered in molten rock and magma, Riku began coughing, the poisonous fumes beginning to get to him.
Deathwing shook his head, still a bit shaken by the attack on his neck, and impressed that this boy could even penetrate his harder-than-steel scales. The dragon wasted no time though, he willed the lava on either side of Riku to rise up. Two columns of lava swirled by Riku?s sides, rose up like giant funnels, and then turned to slam down on either side of him. Riku stabbed Soul Eater in the ground quickly, though, and four ice spikes rose up at each side of him, making a small tent around him, the lava slamming on the ice but not destroying it. Riku allowed the ice spikes to go back down, only to find more poisonous gas, and he fell forward, catching himself on one knee, as he began coughing again. Through bleary, wet eyes, Riku looked up to the opening of the volcano. It was the only way. He couldn?t keep fighting in here, he had to get out.
Deathwing let out a ball of lava, and instead of blocking it, Riku disappeared and reappeared on the dragon?s giant head, and then crouching down, he jumped up as high as he could so that he landed on the side of the volcano, and it apparently had less lava oozing on the side than Riku had originally though, though the nearby mountains still had quite a bit of lava on them. He looked around for a moment, they were extremely high up; he couldn?t even see the ground or the ocean. A moment later, Riku heard a large flap and backed up a few steps as Deathwing lunged out of the volcano. He was even larger than Riku had thought, towering over the boy, casting a shadow over him that lasted for miles. His wings covered a span of numerous meters, in both height and width. Deathwing seemed just as happy to leave the volcano as Riku did, finally able to stretch out to its full glory. The dragon flapped its wings again, and then went rushing towards Riku.
And from then it became a game of cat and mouse.
Riku jumped to one of the mountains, landing agilely on its spiked peak, and as a giant claw swiped at him, Riku jumped again, flipping once and landing on yet another mountain side. Deathwing was so powerful that his claw destroyed the entire section of the mountain that it hit, and wasting no time, Deathwing shot a fireball towards where Riku stood. Riku turned and jumped at the same time, feeling Soul Eater gradually flowing more and more power into him. Swinging his blade wide, a giant crescent blast of ice rushed through the fire, and even continued to attack the great dragon directly. Deathwing used his claw, still on the now broken, more of a very small plateau at this point, mountain to push himself upwards while swinging his wings for an extra boost.
Deathwing went back in quickly, then, swooping down with his wings out to his sides dangerously, and they leveled every mountain that the large dragon went by as he flew towards Riku. Instead of landing, though, Riku simply allowed his fall to continue, and finally stabbed Soul Eater into the side of a mountain while Deathwing just barely swooped over the peak, and then turning back around.
The battle continued like that for a while, Deathwing charging in and Riku jumping to another mountain, occasionally shooting another lava blast which Riku usually dodged as well, but sometimes making another one of the crescent blasts or using a water jutsu, and then jumping further away to evade the poisonous fumes. Eventually, Riku had jumped to a mountain near the edge of the island, and to avoid one more fireball, he jumped downwards, landing on the water with chakra-imbued feet.
Deathwing seemed to rear back as he noticed that he was charging towards the ocean, and Riku immediately knew that his guess was correct.
Deathwing couldn?t survive in too vast of a mass of water. The dragon could probably shake Riku?s jutsu off quickly, but in the face of a large enough body of water, Deathwing would lose his power.
The dragon released another fireball, and Riku, yet again, disappeared; leaving Deathwing to look around after the blazing fire subsided. Within a moment, the dragon felt a great pain in his neck, and then let out another shriek, louder and more powerfully than ever.
Riku jumped, landed on Soul Eater, and then jumped off of the blade again, pushing it further into the dragon?s scales. As he was in the air, Riku shot both of his hands out, and one after another, he released a torrent of air blasts. First shooting from one sleeve, then the other, and then the first sleeve, and then the other again. Deathwing tried to turn, but was quickly smacked in the face by another blast of wind, and then a torrent of crescent-shaped blasts from Soul Eater.
The great dragon couldn?t fight this powerful assault, and swung its wings backwards, unleashing a whirlwind from behind him that pushed Riku backwards, sending him flying into the mountain. The dragon, though, apparently hadn?t thought the move through. The wind pushed the dragon down, sending him face-first into the ocean, and he flailed, shaking his head and wings wildly to get out, but he seemed like he could barely even move. Blasts of fire flew out of its mouth, as did curses directed towards both Riku and the ?accursed demon liquid,? as Deathwing had called it.
?Free me! I demand that you release me from this infernal fluid!? the dragon cried out to Riku, who had now landed on the edge of the lightning, recovered, though not fully, from the crash into the mountain.
Riku, figuring that he had won, made a few consecutive handseals and then said calmly, ?Water Style: Ocean Fissure.?
The ocean seemed to split right down the middle, opening up a pathway for Deathwing as he flew out of the ocean, soaked and drained. The dragon was a sore loser, though. Quickly, it lunged out towards Riku. This was nowhere near as quickly as before, and Riku simply rolled forward to dodge. The dragon, unable to redirect itself and having only done that attack in a fit of rage, slammed down into the mountain, and as all of the smoke that was risen from the mountain side and the sand subsided, Riku saw him as he lay on his side, panting heavily. The water had weakened him too much.
Soul Eater disappeared from Riku?s grasp as he walked up towards the dragon, but it was Deathwing who spoke, ?It seems that you are much more powerful than I thought, or perhaps I simply underestimated your intelligence, not many can figure out my weakness so quickly,? he paused, panting for longer, and then with closed eyes, admitted, albeit bitterly, ?I have been bested.?
