Aurrea looked on helplessly at the fallen Rio, who's breathing was ragged and choppy, dark inky blood oozing with alarming speed out of the wound in her side. The imp murmured gibberish in her native tongue, but earned no response from the fallen headmistress. She didn't need to look behind her to sense that Viiper was loosing his patience, and fast. It'd only be a matter of time before he decided to bond again with the stolen dragon heard he wore around he neck. Her tiny paws held Rio's massive, dark head, feeling utterly useless and powerless to do anything to help her injured companion. Rio's white eyes looked right at Aurrea and yet seemed to gaze beyond her, staring at nothing.
Aurrea's mouth was pressed into a thin, flat line, her eyes grim as she thought about the consequences of what she was about to do. First, she didn't know if it would work and if it did, how much time Rio would have. Next, if she didn't do this, Viiper would get exactly what he wanted: He'd kill her, then Rio, then slaughter the entire island before once more resuming his quest to coat the world in dark magic and turn it into a festering ground perfect for growing demons galore. Slowly, Aurrea moved around Rio's fallen head, approaching her chest, watching it heave and her muscles spasm and twitch. Rio was slowly bleeding to death, and yet if Aurrea followed through with this Rio would be gambling her life again. But what else was new? While Aurrea contemplated, Rio mustered enough strength to shakily nudge Aurrea closer to her chest, seemingly aware of what the little dragon was going to attempt to do. Aurrea cast one more look at her companion, seemingly dead to the world, still bleeding from her abdomen, before reaching forward with her claws and began scooping flesh away from the chest, carving a hole into Rio's demon body.
Viiper, unaware of what was happening behind him, having been to occupied with what was going on in front of him, opened his maw as if to retort before freezing. And no, it was not the ice. Much like Aurrea, he didn't need to turn around to sense the sudden spike in an energy behind him. He wasn't aware of the powerful bond between the headmistress, her dragon, and the headmaster, but all he knew was he sensed that powerful magic suddenly explode to life, and it burned him. Quiet literally, his skin on his back, since it was facing Rio and Aurrea, began to sizzle and steam. With a great roar of fury, he quickly seized Sammy again upon realizing she had nearly escaped, and completing a full 360 turn he smashed the ice surrounding him, using the small girl's even smaller body as a cushion for his sensitive tail. In the end, Sammy was flung off, where Viiper couldn't care less, but luckily for hear she would only be sporting a lovely collection of bruises.
Snarling, the snake realized he was much too late to stop exactly what he had fear just happened. Standing tall, Rio's overall appearance, physically, hadn't changed from her demon form. Only, rather than a demon, you could see the dragon that had been underneath. Her scarlet scales seemingly glowed with fire, and her tendrils had turned to golden feathers, and her eyes were bright green with unsurpassed rage. Of course, in the center of her chest, was her heart, glowing fiercely with a low and audible sound between a hum and a scream as the power coursed through her. She truly was a magnificent, terrifying, sight. A bright red dragon, covered in pale scars and burns that stripped many places of her body of their scales, mangling her body into some twisted, living trophy of many battles that had been won. Rio snarled right back at the demon snake above her, dropping onto all fours much smoother than she ever had before, before she slowly started to circle the massive throne.
"Tch, I didn't think Aurrea would be so foolish as to completely bond your souls together, even after she preached why you, a mortal, couldn't ever hope to use all her power." he spat, though his red eyes betrayed how unsettled he was, even though he covered it quite well. Rio merely growled in a foreign tongue in response, eliciting quite an expressive response from Viiper. Of course the snake wasn't unfamiliar with the language either, screaming something back at Rio, before he slammed his palm against his necklace, driving the diamond shaped dragon heart into his chest. He roared in pain before laughing, eyes glowing with the stolen power and purple runes shaped like eyes appeared on the king cobra like crest on his head.
The evil being leapt from the throne, a black, Egyptian scythe appearing in his clawed hands as he slammed the blade into the ground where Rio's neck had once been. The sword cut the stone like a hot knife in cold butter, being removed just as easily. Snarling, thrashing his deadly tail, he quickly pivoted to see Rio charging at him on all fours with a feral roar. The scythe was knocked out of his one handed grip as Rio's bowed head gutted his abdomen with her horns. Impaled, Rio snarled before thrusting her head up, blue black blood spewing from the gaping ravines she dug out of Viiper, ending just beneath his chest muscles.
Rio leapt back and away from Viiper's reach, still on all fours and seemed quite content to stay on them. Nothing remotely human was left in her. Of course, she was still Rio, with thoughts and memories that belonged to her, and she was in complete control of herself. But anything human in her was burned away and replaced with pure dragon instinct and rage. With a roar, she charged again while Viiper foolishly had his back turned to her for the few seconds he needed to pick up his sword, and screamed in agony as her jaws clamped down on his shoulder. There was a distinct sound of ripping as her back claws dug into his hips as leverage for her to cling to his back, her claws wildly thrashing and hitting whatever flesh they could. She tugged and shook her head, before kicking out her legs and thrusting her head up again, backflipping away as Viiper screamed again. Rio skidded to a halt from the strength of her retreat, Viiper's arm firmly clamped between her jaws.
The black ink surrounded the bleeding stump on Viiper, covering itself in purple runes and forming a crude, replacement arm. With a war like cry, he rushed Rio as she spit out his arm, bringing his sword down on her, scoring a long cut from should to hip diagonally across her. Rio punched the snake in the face and made him skid back. Looking back to the new cut on Rio, it did not bleed. Rather, it glowed golden in light, pulsing and glowing with the same intensity of her heart. Rio faltered slightly, the distinct sound of cracking sounding through the cavern as the flesh around her heart took on that same golden glow as cracks spiderwebbed their way around the edges of her heart on her skin. Looking back up to Viiper, her eyes were overcome with gold, glowing as she roared louder than she ever had before, the cracks around her heart becoming worse and more cracks forming around her eyes like a mask. She and Viiper charged each other once more, clashing with tooth and claw against sword and poison, already in the quick clashes did their wounds multiply quickly, and yet neither party ceased as they continued to match each other in one on one combat.
Yet it was clear, Rio always made sure that she was the one between Viiper and her students.