darkSpyro

Slumber too heard the roars and to the untrained eye she seemed unfazed but deep dow she had no idea on what Shade was referring to and the terrified her

"what are thees things you speak of?" she said in a calm but interested tone

Latnok telekinetically pulled his bow to him, in a mix of both fear and excitement. This was the sort of moment he lived for... perhaps too much. His own fear often excited him and gave him a rush that he could find nothing else to match.
"Those are what we know as storm claws," Latnok said. "They can carry a dragon away. Pretty nasty things, from what we know. But you cut them, and they bleed like everyone else. Godfather Sere and I intend to use the moment after the storm to capture one - if we can, it may help us predict future storms through its changes in behavior, which will make our journey much safer."
Veris once again tensed up at the roaring, but he did not make any further noise.

Slumber pondered an idea before chiming up " do they ever sleep?" she asked intrigued.

a plane was forming in her mind as she continued to speak "if they can i could act as bait and lure them close then then breath my sweet dreams breath, knocking them out for around 5 to 10 minuets....most likely 5 do to there size" she mumbled her thoughts more to her self and Shade to anyone else

"Sleep? I would guarantee it," Latnok said confidently. "Creatures that big and strong would waste a lot of energy by staying up with nothing meaningful to do. That may work... though I wouldn't be TOO bold. Don't want you to get captured, after all." The new dragon hadn't been here long, but she was already trying to be helpful. The troll could learn a thing or two from her... Latnok thought.

Raclaw quickly stepped in and joined in with his own fire breath, still alert from before. "If you're going to do anything-- now's the time!," the fur dragon said looking at Slumber.

He had also noticed Angora earlier, but had decided to give the troll some much needed space.

"You can't be... ugh, I'll grab them when we start chasing it down," Latnok said, too occupied to be angry about it. He quickly charged up and launched a force bolt at the creature's wings in an effort to ground it.
"Veris, halt for now. Be ready to move in on my command!" Sere ordered. Grimbane would be pretty useful right now; unfortunately, most of its power was blocked by the area. He called down a ray of light, focusing on the storm claw's eyes, as he called down shadows from the stalagtites to pierce the creature's wings.

"Heh, I knew his attention wasn't going to last." Angora said bitterly, having waited to see how Veris would've reacted to her last comment, but the untimely arrival of those storm beast triggered the wyvern's instincts, prompting him to ignore her completely. Still feeling depressed, she believed that a little action is the medicine she needed for her to snap out of it. She usually avoided violence at all costs, but since these flying creatures proved to be dangerous and unreasonable, she knew they would give them no choice. She would attack with the intention to kill, not caring if Latnok or Sere wanted it alive. She doubted Veris would allow them the chance to study it anyway, so there was no point in keeping such a murderous beast alive, though it seemed like Shade was taking good care of the problem...

Slumber nodded then snuck her way past Raclaw, shade and around the Storm Claw and opened her mouth ready to exhale a large amount of the sparkly purple mist like sleep sand onto the vile stormy creature

Latnok and Sere watched the disaster which was Shade's slip-up. Seeing him knocked out on the floor, they knew they would be in for a bit of a rough time. Well, at least her breath works, Latnok thought. Shade's drowsiness, though it was felt via the mental connection, was completely shaken off by the adrenaline. There was some setup to do, though...
With his bow, Latnok began rapid firing arrows around, but not directly on, the storm claw. Sere, understanding fully well what Latnok intended, telekinetically pulled his halberd from his bag. "Veris, take it down, but we should keep it alive!" Sere called out. On command, Veris immediately charged at the storm claw, aiming for its various extremities with his tail, claws, and fangs.

Angora saw everyone fighting, and believed it was her time to get on the action. Since Shade was disabled and Veris was fighting it, Angora activated only part of her sword, and since she couldn't get a clear shot, she climbed the struggling Veris and onto the monster's head, stabbing it in one eye and then trying to get the other. It won't be able to fight well if it couldn't see what it was attacking...

The swipes hit their mark - while some were deflected by Veris' scales, others made their way through. Veris bled, but fought on nonetheless with no complaints.
Latnok, after having the last arrow set up, immediately cast the spell he had been planning - Arrow Web, the spell he had been preparing to use on Shade the other day. Thin but solid strands of some visible form of energy formed between the arrows, which would ideally make motion to those it was connected to extremely difficult.
Sere, meanwhile, decided to supplement Latnok's ability with his own shadow binds, aiming to pin the creature's legs, as he ran up to the creature and attempted to stab and hack at one of its wings with his halberd, trying to use its reach to keep out of the creature's range.

While the others helped trap and slash at the storm claw, Raclaw served as a distraction-- flaming the beast and making himself the target so that the others were less likely to be hit. "Come on... over here you foul beast!," he taunted doing his best to keep its claws and swipes away from the others. His actions and words were partly inspired by the strong emotions sent over the links, in particular those of Latnok and his excitable state.

From the head, Angora was mostly safe from the creature's claws, but she still couldn't get a good hit of the other eye. She had to hold on to one of it's horns to avoid falling. Or were they spikes? Nevertheless, she hold on tightly, waving at Veris so that he could see she was there and prevent him from biting the storm claw's head and accidentally hurt her along the way. As she struggled, she was partially caught by Latnok's net.
"Idiot!" she muttered, though not very surprised he would be the one to mess up something. With the limitation and struggling, she couldn't reach the other beast's eye...

Latnok, his excitement hard to contain, let out a triumphant shout. "Wow, amazing! Thanks for the help, everyone! Even you... Angora. That's the sort of initiative and quick thinking I like to see." Had to offer the carrot as well as the stick - however, with Angora not biting at most carrots, it was hard to do. He wasn't going to let his guard down yet, though - his combat prescience remained on.

"Veris, to me." Veris was actually partially caught in the arrow web - Latnok negated the bonds which were holding him without any additional prompting. Veris, walking off of the storm claw, came over to Sere. "Show me your wounds." Veris rolled over, revealing the claw wounds on his belly. They were still bleeding somewhat, but nothing near life-threatening. Sere grabbed his bag, reaching in it for a few ingredients - the tooth Veris granted him earlier, and a grass which grew over in the room with the Tree of Vitality. "Latnok, do you still have that brine?"
"Yeah, it's on the tarp, with the other food for Slumber," Latnok said. Sere walked over and grabbed it, then began crushing the tooth into a powder using force magic. With the tooth pulverized, he threw the ingredients into the vial, closed it, and focused a beam of light on it to start boiling the concoction.

"Oh shut up." Angora said bitterly, leaving the monster's head and it's other eye intact, walking to her corner as she took off the pieces of net that got stuck on her body. It was harder than usual since Veris' residual drool from earlier made her extra sticky. She returned to her gloomy sulking as she continued cleaning herself, watching with some recoil as Sere prepared the concoction. Humans were pretty pathetic creatures if they needed objects and animal parts to be powerful and have their so called special magic.

Latnok ignored Angora's sulking, expecting as much from her. Regardless, it was his duty to let her know both what she was doing wrong and what she was doing right, to improve their ability to succeed with the mission. "Now we just need to wait for the next storm to see what indications it gives of their approach."

Once the concoction had boiled, Sere opened the vial and mixed the contents with his finger, casting an enchantment on it as he did so. After a brief period, the mixture began solidifying into a paste. Once it had reached an acceptable texture, Sere pulled some out, as it cooled rapidly. With care, he began applying the paste over Veris' wounds. Veris wimpered as the concoction was put on him, but did not struggle.

As the battle came to a conclusion, Raclaw turned his attention towards the unconscious Shade. "If you have any extra of that stuff, you may want to take a look at his leg as well.," Raclaw said inspecting the visible open wound on Shade's leg. He, himself, was fortunately uninjured and had managed to avoid the nets having suspecting some of their moves via the mental links.

The same couldn't be said for Shade, to whom he felt partly responsible for due to the influence he constantly had over the dragolet's emotions. He honestly wasn't sure whose emotions were stronger, his or Shade's. The last thing he wanted was for Shade to suffer anymore than he already had to. And he himself was beginning to understand exactly how he felt more and more on a daily basis.

Sere grabbed the rest of the concoction and, with urgency, stepped over to Shade. "It is best if I use as much of this as possible right now," he said. "After the reaction is concluded, the compound has about 10 minutes before it's completely cured and unusable. Wyvern teeth and brine aren't hard to get - but the plant material comes from our stronghold, and I have enough to make only one more mixture after this one."
Grabbing a handful of the concoction, he began applying it to Shade's wound - good that he was sleeping, because it would sting quite a bit before it solidified. "Once the compound cures, the wounds will start regenerating in a similar manner to how they would when exposed to the Tree of Vitality. After a few hours, the cured compound will eventually start flaking off."

The little troll remained in her corner for a while, doing the thinking she so urgently needed. When everybody went distracted in trying to wake up Shade, she entered the crevice again and picked Veris' tooth, statching it away in the same hiding place. She was still angry and bitter, but she was much calmer now, and she wasn't willing to lose the only proof that indicated that Veris still had a mind of his own. He gave her that tooth with nobody's permission, and Angora wasn't willing to throw such a precious relic away because of another one of her whims.

With the gift safe and sound, Angora realized she fought the beast without her armor, wondering if she took too much of a risk. She had forgotten to activate it in the heat of the battle. Nothing went wrong thankfully, but it was still a potentially dangerous oversight. It didn't matter now. The beast was secured, but she started to feel sorry for it just like with Veris. Who knows what kind of horrible experiment those two sadists were planning. She was almost tempted to cut the net and release it, but wanting to avoid another hurtful arguing with Latnok, she desisted. Instead, she observed everyone trying to wake up Shade, and remembered the days where she would poke him with a stick to prevent him from sleeping. That was quite fun, and wondered if she should do it again just to have a little amusement...

"All alright Shiny o Mighty." Angora replied, wanting to get the first word. She looked at Shade again, still sleeping, thanks to the sudden newcomer. To have a little fun, but also to distract herself from the beast's struggles, she decided to do things her way.
"Out of my way. This is how you wake up somebody!" she said, getting in front of the sleeping Shade, but instead of using a stick or something similar, she kicked him hard on the snout, feeling rather good doing so.

"don't kick him!......" Slumber was visibly appalled by Angora's actions
"he should wake up if he gets a nightmare........" she commented calmly as she turned over a few pebbles to distract her from her problems

Angora sighed, irritated that didn't worked. It always did the trick before. But no, there had to be a newcomer who made things worse than they already were. What's more, it had to be another dragon. Despite Angora not hating dragons as much as before, she despised how so many of the group were them. Just how many dragon subspecies the land had? In her nomadic life, Angora barely saw any dragons. They were either endangered or very well hidden, but it was as if many of them planned this reunion. She felt so tiny and insignificant among them. She didn't want to imagine how the foxes felt. Even though she didn't initially think much about the newcomer, it agitated Angora the way she dared to scold her when she didn't even knew her. She had enough receiving insults and scolds from Latnok to have someone else do it.

The troll paced, ignoring the new dragon and her sad attempt to distract her. She gave the others chances to wake up Shade. Why didn't the Slumber dragon didn't do anything if this was her own doing? As she wondered that, she was still thinking on how to get the sleeping dragon up and at it again, at the same time keeping the occasional eye on the creature.
"Well, you and your silly potions. Don't you have anything with a horrible taste?" Angora asked Sere, almost in a mocking tone. If a kick didn't wake him up, she was certain a bitter taste would do the trick. She would gather something herself, but this was a strange realm that she knew nothing about and she didn't want to risk getting anything that turned out to be poisonous.

Dex had made his usual trick of getting out of the way of the fight. Now he made his way to Shade. " Does anybody have a idea what that attack really is? If it is a poison, I think I can help." He said with a voice more thoughtful then usual.

Angora was slightly startled by Dex's sudden appearance. The poisonous fox was so secretive, that whenever he decided to make an entrance, he would always do it without any announcement.
"No, I didn't say poison. I said potion. And what have you been doing anyway?" Angora asked, but then new that wasn't important.
"Never mind that. No, this... dragon inhaled some sort of magic that made Shade sleep." Angora calmly explained, avoiding insulting the new dragon, especially since Latnok really seemed to like her. With Dex appearing, Angora suddenly wondered why Latnok hasn't argued with the black fox yet. He's always scolding her for not pulling her own weight, but Dex has done practically nothing ever since joining the group and Latnok has never picked on him. The racist human must really hate trolls if he made her his only target.

Dex looked at Angora " Are you a expert or something? Even if it is magic it can still be poison which is causing the effect. And that was my question. You dont know even half of my tricks, so dont act like you do. All I want is answer, so that I know can I do something about it" Dex said with clearly frustrated voice.

"Well, look who finally decided to show up..." Latnok said to Dex. "Still rattled after your previous encounter with one of those things? A little combat never killed anybody..." Latnok chuckled to himself after that last line. More typical Ardent Guardians-style human. "Anyway, you're going to help us keep an eye on this thing. Congratulations, you've been conscripted. Either that, or I start playing around with you on watches to make up for the lost times." Latnok liked the idea. Even if Dex was shady, there was no way he was going to willingly release a creature like that, and he most likely knew that Latnok would kill him if he deliberately killed the creature.

"Nothing that I have the ingredients for," Sere replied to Angora. "If I could gather some more information about the flora and fauna in this land, perhaps I could figure something out. As it stands, though, my medicinal arsenal is limited." With Shade's wound patched up, Sere left him and returned to Veris, who, still on his side, was moving his head to eat up bits and pieces of flesh that flew off the storm claw that were within his reach. "Well, now I KNOW you're fine," Sere said jokingly. Still, he continued inspecting the area around the wound, making sure that none of the various bugs or other parasites that had been seen on him before were attaching themselves to the wound.

"Somehow you have succeeded to become more cocky then ever. But just to make a point, you can not order me. I only speak the language of price and right now there is nothing in for me. And would you really leave an assassin in a watch? So if any of you are not going to answer my question this conversation is over" Dex said now looking at Latnok, then turning away from the group.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not giving orders," Latnok said. "Just strong suggestions. Believe me, I can keep a pretty good eye on you during the watch, and we can... make it really fun. Besides, I'm sure the troll would appreciate someone with senses a bit sharper than hers to keep her company while I keep tabs on our newest pet," he added, only half-sarcastically.
"If you're really interested in money, then I'm sure we can pay you after this is done," Sere offered. Latnok sulked, disliming Sere's kinder offer, but didn't respond, knowing his place.

taken aback by Angora mood, Slumber felt even more guilty for putting Shade in a deep sleep
"why are you always so upset?" she asked Angora in a tone mixed with curiosity and concern
"he will most likely wake up in a bit..... he might even heal slightly" she commented

The nightmare only intensified. Not only did Latnok didn't use the same tone of voice he used to her, but he was thinking of pairing her up with that fox to do the night watch. What's more, he offered the fox a reward when he barely have done anything. And it infuriated her how Latnok considered the creature practically another pet to exploit. It annoyed her to no end. But she didn't want another mountain of insults, so Angora proceeded to answer the new dragon.
"Ask him!" Angora said as she pointed to Latnok, then proceeded to answer Sere.

"Well, we can't rely on the ingredients of this place. We don't know how they work of if they're poisonous. If anything, the newbie should be the one to wake him up. After all, it was her magic that did this to him. We can't wait for a nightmare to happen! We don't know what that might do with the corruption!" Angora said rather roughly, knowing that practically one third of the group was connected to Shade, and upset at the slumber dragon for causing this mess. Her small hostility to the human was due to still being angry at Sere for forbidding Veris to spend time with her. Even if they wyvern tried to be there with her against his master's rules, it would've simply made things worse for the both of them.

"h-he is corrupted?!" Slumber said in a fearful tone as she backed away a bit
"you....need to wake him up before a nightmare happens...... and if you cant.......i must go my own way" she was shaking a bit as she said this in a scared tone

"Yes! The dragon you put to sleep is! And the humans, and the fluffy dragon there! They all dumbly linked their minds!" Angora explained with frustration, and get at the newcomer for messing with things she didn't understand. But before letting her reply, she spoke again to voice the main concern.

"But what the heck! You didn't know! Now we need to wake up Blackie before something horrible happen Sa! Now you did this! Are you telling me you don't know how to undo your own mess?" Angora asked, almost accusingly. The troll didn't want to be angry at the slumber dragon too, especially since she only tried to help earlier, but she was so frustrated and bitter, she was taking her anger on everybody.

"Yeah, don't mind the troll, just a real ray of sunshine," Latnok said, rolling his eyes under his helmet. "I'm not afraid to call her out on the problems she has, and she resents me for it. As for Shade's corruption, Raclaw and I are keeping it in check, for a time, anyway. I'll try to wake him up - long story, but I, Shade, and Raclaw have a three-way mental link." With that, Latnok focused on reaching out to Shade. "WAKE UP, NOW" he blasted telepathically.

OOC: Nearing the end. Should end the last post on a cliffhanger, just so it feels proper, then we'll make a new thread.

OOC: Just so you know Sumber, topics on DarkSpyro automatically lock after 50 pages or 2500 posts.

"Relax... we did it! Your leg has a chemical compound on it-- I know it hurts, but its expediting the healing process and should take no longer than a few hours.," Raclaw quickly said sending calming images to Shade to help calm him down. He could sense the aggravating pain the poor dragolet was in; and even more so with the mental link. He could also sense some of the fear felt by Slumber and wondered if she could see the growing corruption that was slowly consuming him partly thanks to his open mental connection.

Sere expected as much - the medicine burned, but it would do the job. "You just have to put up with the pain for a few more minutes," he said. "The medicine allows wounds to heal very quickly, but this batch will cure soon, and I will only be able to make one more after that.
Not forgetting the storm claw, he walked over to it. "Well, then... let's see what potential, if any, you have for medicine." Placing a hand near one of its wounds, he closed his eyes and focused, sending a small pulse throughout its body - and a small ball of blood flowed out of the creature, hovering in midair. The same spell the Guardians used to gather dragon blood for the Ascension ritual. Sere put a finger to the ball - first trying to scan for any magical properties, then putting the finger in his mouth to sample it.

"See? Nothing to worry about," Latnok said. "Like I said, don't mind her, she's just upset that I can't call you out for being a self-serving dead weight who'd rather let allies die than take on a watch responsibility we all share." Angora still being her old self. Back to the stick. "Hmm, I wonder what we should name this thing... Any ideas?" he asked, indicating the storm claw.

OOC: Stick? You know she doesn't have a stick, right? Unless that is a saying I don't know about?

Angora had desisted from saying anything to Latnok after the first comment, especially since she was even willing to help Shade not to feel any pain, until he talked again, once again trying to stain her name in the worst possible way to the newcomer.
"There, now you're seeing it to yourself newbie! He talks whatever crap he can about me! Oh, but he's so kind to you because you're a dragon! Suck it up to the big and mighty while he steps on the small and ugly! And the rest just will-lacking pets...." Angora looked at Veris.

"... or just dumb animals you either murder or experiment on! I have done plenty already. I did a nearly full night watch the other day! I babysat this corrupted dragon even though he could've killed me, and I even fed the stupid wyvern like HE asked me to, but noooo, neither of those things matter! He just keeps bullying me and pushing me around every chance he gets! And Dex, that black fox, he hasn't done anything! Yet I barely see the human arguing with him! Cause he's adorable perhaps? I'm always the one receiving the worst end... all because I'm a troll. And I don't even want to tell you what my main mission is! All the stress I have!" Angora yelled to Slumber, hoping that the odd magic dragon could see why Angora was the way she was. She didn't even told her she had the fate of the entire world in her hands, preferring for Latnok or somebody else to tell her just so the dragon could see what a horrible human he was, mistreating the one who had the stress of their lives and every single other being.

OOC: It's an expression.

"This might have some potential, though I would need to study it some more," Sere said after his analysis. Unfortunately, he did not have any of the compounds that the Guardians would typically use to enable the preservation of blood for any meaningful period of time - the rest of the blood just went on the floor. He returned to the wound, suppressing the creature with shadow bindings while drawing out some more blood in an effort to tire the creature out, taking care to not go too far.

"Like I said, I call her out when she doesn't put in the same work everyone else does," Latnok said dismissively. "I don't call her out for being a troll - I call her out for being selfish and uncooperative, which is true. Despite all the crap I've given Dex, shooting him once, he at least risked his life for someone - the troll won't even give two hours of her life to keep her allies safe. You, meanwhile, just showed up and are already eagerly offering your help." There was another matter at hand, though. "Raclaw, any chance you can give the creature directions? I'm afraid our telepathy only works on sapients. If you can, let it know that we will feed it if it cooperates, and... punish it if it doesn't." This thing just might be the key to making it all the way to the end in one piece...

Pleased with how Shade was settling down, Raclaw turned his attention towards Latnok and the storm claw. "I can try.," he telepathically responded looking down at the creature with slight pity. He could feel how trapped and scared the poor thing felt-- and knew that it's life would never be the same again. Regardless, he was their best hope in calming the creature and ensuring it's corporation for everyone's sake.

He recalled the simpler times in hus life and flashed back to when the only creature he could verbally commicate with was that of a dog-- a simple pet to the humans just as this storm claw would soon become to the Guardians. Flashing back to reality, he opened his mind and started a connection to the more primitive mind of the captured storm claw. "Hey there-- I know you're scared, but we don't want to kill you. If you choose to cooperate, we will keep you fed and we will take care of you. If, however, you choose not to-- then my human friends here will see no choice but to hurt you and to do whatever it takes to force you to cooperate. I don't want to see that happen anymore than you do, so please make the right choice. For both our sakes.," he said via telepathy actually showing some sympathy for the creature.

After venting with the new dragon, Angora returned to her corner, wanting nothing else to do with the newbie or the rest of the group. Shade was awake, and Raclaw was taking care of the Storm Claw, so she felt like she wasn't needed anymore. There she was in that cave prison, tolerating every kind of abuse from Latnok, and nobody ever did anything about it. Raclaw tried once, but lead to nothing and he gave up too fast. Didn't anybody care that she would be the one to save them all? Nobody cared enough to defend her? Being a troll was really a curse, and there she was in a group where almost everyone was a dragon, and two humans who seem to have it in for her.

Only one being... one being alone, ever had a blind faith in her. Someone that wasn't even part of her blood family. He made Angora have morals, and taught her about the most positive aspects of life. She has tried to live a happy life despite of the circumstances, but ever since joining that group, she was losing all hope. Not even carrying the fate of the world in her shoulders was enough for her to have an ounce of respect. Despite the many days she has spend with everyone there, the only one she had managed to befriend was the pet, an animal that was blindly obedient to the cruel humans, that forbade her to continue the only being that made her feel so good. Angora grasped the wyvern's tooth, sorrowful about everything that was going on. If she ever manages to survive, would become of her life after she destroys this evil being? Was she still going to be hated? Would no one ever care for her and see beyond an ugly, little troll?

Latnok and Sere watched as the storm claw struggled in futility. It was too late for it now - even if it did somehow manage to free itself, it was too weak and crippled to put up any sort of meaningful fight. This was where the Guardians were in their element - the neutralization of foreign monsters, whether it be by killing them... or breaking them.
In an ideal world, this wouldn't be necessary. In an ideal world, the decisions would be easy to make. But this wasn't an ideal world. Not yet. Maybe one day... Sere thought. But it would not be today. This was a creature which was trying to prey on one of them - they had just played the game better, and the hunter became the hunted. In this world, something has to die for something else to live. Despite knowing that, every death he had experienced, every kill he had achieved, it never got easier.
He reached for Grimbane. Though polearms were his preferred weapon for the space they granted him, Grimbane was a legendary relic acquired by the Guardians a long time ago, and currently in his possession as he had the capability to wield it. A sword which drew its power from the wielder's resolve - from their determination to look for what was right, but to do what they had to. And that was what this all was. In order to achieve the ideal, sometimes sacrifices had to be made. Despite it lacking much of its magical capabilities here, he could still feel its faint presence, reaffirming his duties. His obligation was to his fellow men; ideally, it would be to not just them, but the world - he had to draw the line somewhere, though. However, the line was already being blurred in some respects. For as many dragons as they had fought, they had gotten along with just as many, if not more. Mermen and elves were common allies - they would often fight to protect them just like their fellow man. How many races would they eventually be able to have a meaningful peace with? Sere didn't know, but that wouldn't stop him from trying to find out, even if he had to cut a bloody path to do it.

Latnok kneeled to look at the creatures in the eyes, defiantly, showing how little he cared for its struggles. "Sorry. But THIS is what a real apex predator looks like. You will get to know that soon enough. That will either be a good thing for you... or a bad thing. The choice is yours."
It may take a while. But every creature had its breaking point. Just like every trainee had their breaking point. What mattered was whether they would still be useful by the time they reached that point. Latnok looked at Angora in the corner. Just some troll who found some random trinket and thinks she's hot stuff... What a pathetic attitude. He had seen that sort of thing way too much in trainees before his brief departure from the ranks of the Guardians. They all ended up either giving up or adapting. Either way, it didn't continue.
But Angora couldn't just give up. Her own life was on the line. So he would do what he had to. Just a troll... but imagine if I could make her something better... If only. But he was the superior one. He was sure of it. He could sleep more efficiently. He could fight longer, harder, and stronger, he was sure of it. At least before Neo came into play.
Perhaps I have been looking at this wrong... No, that couldn't be it. His methods were tried and true. But this was something different. Perhaps her stubbornness was just a test for him. Orion did say that this would be both physically and mentally demanding. If he was everything his confidence told him he was - if he was worthy of promotion to Adjudicator - he would find a way. Even this troll could be turned into something useful - great, even. Maybe Neo wasn't just insane. He would find out in time.
As the corruption nibbled away, he had more and more uncertainty about his ability to tolerate things. He never liked showing weakness. It undermined his ability to have obedience. But would it cost him one of these days? The nightmares still came and went, despite his training in getting proper sleep. The new dragon - Slumber, was it? That may be something she could help with. But that wasn't his concern for now.
"So, what will it be? Will you come with us easily, save everyone, and be more than you ever could be in your simple life... Or will I have to break your bones and drag you to hell with us?"