Chapter 31

“Now!” Theanna ordered as her dragon placed her onto his back and immediately took flight. Damian, Hezin and her entire Royal Guard took to the air to follow her lead. Theanna wore no armor, held no weapons beyond the metallic claws that adorned her hands. Appearing human except for her horns, she looked small and defenseless.

Seeing Reniac below, she jumped from Ryuu's back, determined to take him by surprise. “They must have broken through the gate, my liege,” she heard one of Reniac's wizards assume as she fell silently from above, landing on her feet with the grace of a cat a mere hundred feet from where the giant king stood.

Reniac was easily fifteen feet tall, a good ten feet taller than herself His silver hair was long with many ornate beads designating his status. His cruel face and cold eyes sneered at her like she were a bug to be swatted. If she were a bug, then she had a mighty sting that would take him by surprise.

“Yeah, no. You couldn't have really thought I'd be that easy to defeat, did you, Reniac? The Dark Realms are mine and will never fall to the likes of you!”

In perfect timing, Damian landed at her side and behind her Hezin and her Royal Guard landed as one, snarling at them. Wearing a wicked smirk, she demanded, “Now, where are my Lycans?”

“Your Lycans? Little Daemoni Bitch, you may profess yourself to be Queen but the traitorous 'Lycans' as you call them are where they belong, filling the slave halls of Talos. You can go ahead and surrender to me now and I may be merciful to you and give you a quick death, or I'll parade you naked throughout all of Talos until I throw you to my soldiers to let them have their way with you, my wizards keeping you alive until you beg to die,” Reniac smirked at her.

For several long moments, Theanna simply looked at him, no emotion in her eyes. “Oh, wait... was that supposed to scare me? Damian, was I supposed to be terrified of his threat?”

“I think so,” he replied with a wicked glint in his eye as he watched Reniac fume. An angry Reniac was one that would react with emotion, making mistakes.

“I'm so sorry. I didn't realize I was supposed to be scared.” Theanna watched as Reniac started to growl at her.

“Oh shit, I think he really was serious, Damian,” Theanna started to giggle. “Seriously, Reniac, much greater enemies than you have threatened me similarly. They didn't succeed and neither will you. Do you think I rule the Dark Realms yet I'm weak and defenseless? Do you think so many would swear blood loyalty to a Queen that would be afraid of mere words? I'm not nearly what you believe me to be. I have to ask though, so few men? I would've thought you'd have learned from our last encounter and brought your entire army. Or is this it, all you have?”

Just as Theanna asked, Titan blades started to fall from the sky, each and every one of them landing straight down into the ground between Theanna and Reniac. As the blades landed closer and closer to Reniac and his men, all but Reniac started to move back. Reniac himself refused to show fear of any kind and simply snarled at this impetuous Queen that he was going to thoroughly enjoy breaking before finally allowing her to die.

“I return the swords of your soldiers back to you. Now would you like to make this simple and surrender or shall we get on with it?” Theanna asked. At Reniac's growl she noted a subtle movement from Damian. His eyes pointed to a wizard that had slipped off to the side and was murmuring what she could only assume was a spell against her. “Tsk tsk. None of that!” she stated as if talking to a petulant child.

Theanna smirked as Damian, using the blades in the ground like stepping stones, flew at great speed and sliced through the wizard with his sword. Damian casually walked back and stood beside his mate and Queen once again, an evil glint in his eye.

Reniac watched with detached curiosity as the wizard screamed before turning into an explosion of ash. The Daemoni bitch had a trick up her sleeve, but there was no way she could take out all of his men, no matter how fast and powerful she was.

While she was distracted taking out his wizard, one of many he kept with him, his hidden warriors moved to trap Theanna and her Royal Guard. “It's my turn to ask you, so few warriors? I know we were able to kill many at our last encounter but really, this is just insulting.”

Theanna laughed wickedly as she made a show of noticing the supposed trap. “Oh Reniac, I truly haven't had this much fun in ages. You just can't get past that mental block of yours that a female is more than you, can you?” With a simple mental command to all of her Generals, every Daemoni warrior appeared out of the fog that had been closing in. Her legions had maneuvered so that they now surrounded Reniac's soldiers in a trap of his own design.

As the battle began behind her and without so much as an eye movement to acknowledge what was happening around them, Theanna and Reniac stared at each other, neither giving an inch. “I want Reniac and his Generals alive,” Theanna stated simply. As Damian and Hezin made ready, they grunted in acknowledgement.

“I thought perhaps to be 'kind' to you and 'your Lycans'. Now you've made me angry. I'll enjoy making you suffer,” Reniac snarled.

“Once again your ego has made you underestimate me. You're a fool, Reniac. I shall enjoy making an example of you to my subjects,” Theanna smiled at him calmly.

With a howl Reniac attacked her, swinging a sword larger than Theanna, while his chimera snarled and snapped at her. She hated the idea of hurting the poor creature but she had no choice. So with a swipe of her claws, the creature convulsed and threw Reniac from atop him as he burst into ash.

Reniac landed on his feet and watched as Theanna released her Daemoness fully. “This is going to be fun,” she hissed with a wicked smile. Calling forth her sword, the one Reniac wanted to get his hands on, she growled “Let's play, barbarian traitor.” Theanna and Reniac flew at each other while Damian and Hezin broke off to keep all others from attacking Theanna's back.

Their swords clashed to a spray of sparks as Reniac was surprised by the sheer power that the small annoying Queen hit him with. He actually struggled to maintain his foothold and not take steps backwards. Almost immediately she flew at him again, her speed just another aspect that took him by surprise. Again sparks flew but this time he actually was pushed back. With a snarl, he swung his overly large sword down to try and slice Thea as she came at him.

Thea spun and flipped and avoided his hit with ease before flying through the air and slicing so that his long white hair fell to the ground. “I hear that the length of your hair is a status symbol... you've just been downgraded!”

Reniac howled at her and immediately tried to slice and swing at her as his anger fueled his strikes which Theanna easily dodged without even breaking a sweat. Taking him out would be easier than she could have hoped and was way too tempting. With a blink of an eye, the silver claws on Theanna's hands vanished and instead her Daemoni poison dripped from her nails as an evil smirk filled her face, showing off her sharp teeth.

Deciding to surprise him one more time, Thea brought forth her large dark purple wings. “I may be a 'hybrid' as you call me, Reniac, but it's the hybrids that are the most dangerous because they're always underestimated,” she snarled as she flew at him. At the last second flying past him before spinning around and jumping up as her claws elongated. She pierced them down into his shoulders and neck, releasing her poison into him as she held on and releasing every bit that she could.

Reniac tried to free himself of her hold to no avail. As his eyes rolled up into his head, he collapsed onto his knees before falling forward and face-planting the ground. With an evil laugh, Thea finally released her hold. As her silver claws returned onto her hands, she patted his head dismissively before she turned her attention to the wizards. Retracting and putting away her wings she called forth, “Ryuu... help me destroy these wizards. They're annoying me.”

Theanna smiled as she heard his screeching roar in response. Running on top of the heads of the Titans still fighting, she headed for the wizard closest to her. With a single swipe of her Ash-filled claws, she couldn't help but cackle as he fell to the ground writhing as the poison took hold.

Immediately moving on to the next wizard, she began to laugh even harder as Ryuu chomped down on two wizards of his own. One by one, Theanna and her dragon took out each and every wizard despite their mediocre attempts to stop them with their spells. Standing above the battle on an elevated cliff, Ryuu joined her as he once again wrapped his tail around her waist.

She watched to see where she was needed. She smiled wickedly as one by one her Daemoni took down the Titans. The sights and sounds of this battle were very different from the first one. This time, more than anything, her legions had to contend with the powdery ash that filled the air. With a slight movement of her hand, a breeze filled the air, taking with it the remains of the Titans.

“What do you think of our plan, Ryuu?” she asked her dragon.

'Excellent! You, best Queen. You, only Queen!'

“Aww I love you too, buddy. Thank you for your help as always,” Thea smiled as she patted his tail.

'Always'

Appearing next to her, covered in dusty gore mixed with the green slime that was the Titan blood, Damian smiled, “Hezin and Lazerin have secured Reniac in the special chains that Chaos provided.”

“And the Generals?”

“Some didn't survive, but that may have been my fault,” he smirked.

Theanna laughed. “Had a bit of fun did you?”

“Perhaps...”

“Did any survive?”

“I saved you four to show off,” he chuckled as he planted a gross kiss on her cheek.

“Ewwww!” she groaned as she wiped dirty slime from her cheek as Damian laughed. “While that was not necessary, I thank you for saving me four, Dnirya,” she smiled at him with a wink.

She sent a message to Hezin saying, 'Secure the Generals but keep Reniac separated from them.'

'Yes, my Queen'

Looking at the entirety of her forces she sent out the message, 'We have taken their King and Generals... teach the rest what it means to attack the Dark Realms!' To the resounding roar, she smiled as she watched her legions quickly dispatch with their enemies.