Title: Dragons of Valor
Author: Smenzer
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Ares/Gabrielle
Archive: Yes, please. Let me know if you take it, OK?
Teaser: This is Part 9 of Dragons of Despair
Disclaimer: The characters are not mine. They belong to Studios USA or
Whoever owns the Rights to Xena: Warrior Princess. This is just for fun.
WARNING: Contains "Jurassic Park" type violence

Ares, Hercules and Iolaus gasped when they saw Dahok. He was the most hideous
and frightening thing any of them had ever seen. The Pit Fiend stood twelve
feet tall with red scaly skin. It's body; legs and arms were extremely thick
and bulging with huge muscles. Each limb was as big as a tree trunk. The
fingers on each hand were twisted with swollen knuckle joints and razor sharp
claws, yet there was no doubt that the hands worked extremely well. A huge
pair of bat-like wings grew out of his back and a muscular tale thrashed the
area behind him. This in itself was frightening, but Dahok's face was the
worst.

His glowing yellow-orange eyes were sunk in deep pits surrounded by ridges of
bone. His widely flared nose was above a gaping mouth filled with pointed,
tartar stained teeth. Most of his teeth were normal sized except for a set of
tusk-like fangs. These curved outward and downward from his upper jaw all the
way to the center of his chest. Green slime constantly dripped from the fang
tips and when it splashed onto the stone floor, the floor sizzled and smoked.
The fangs, like the other teeth, were stained yellow but also had dark brown
streaks running down their entire length. His skin was not smooth but covered
with a variety of bumps, warts and assorted bony ridges. A stout pair of
horns grew from the top of his head as well as a large pair of pointed ears.
The thick fleshy ears were not on the side of his head like human ears, but
grew from the top and were located right behind his horns.

"WHO DARE SUMMON ME?" Dahok's voice boomed. It sounded like boulders grating
against each other. His eyes locked onto Ares with murderous rage. "YOU! YOU
ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD! SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO RIP YOUR GUTS OUT. THEN OLYMPUS
WOULD BE DEFENSELESS AGAINST ME."

Ares placed a hand on Gabrielle's warm dragon forearm. Now Dahok's order made
a bit more sense. He wasn't after more Destroyers; he had wanted Gabrielle to
kill him! So if he had attacked her, she would have ripped his guts out
somehow. Perhaps she had had just enough power stored in her body to grow
dragon claws in moments of extreme danger. And after falling down that pit
and surviving the magma, her dragon abilities were more awakened then ever.
Ares shivered at the thought. He still knew very little about her dragon
abilities. "Hey. I told you I don't do that sort of thing."

Dahok screamed in rage and rushed forward. He collided with an invisible
shield and hot sparks filled the air. He tested the wards for any mistakes
hoping to escape from his invisible prison, but it was drawn perfectly. "HOW
DARE YOU TRAP ME? I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU AND THEN ESCAPE. I AM FULLY ON YOUR
PLANE NOW, FLESH AND BLOOD. I WILL SOON RULE OVER THIS WORLD!" He began
speaking some words in a strange guttural language and a green mist soon
hugged the floor.

"He's casting a spell!" Gabrielle warned the others. She held one of the
lightning wands in her huge hand and let loose a bolt of electricity at
Dahok. She wished she could use her breath weapon but he was immune to dragon
fire. The electricity hit Dahok on his chest and zigzagged over his body. A
moment later a lightning ball from Ares struck him in the same spot. Dahok
shrieked, a terrible sound as loud as an avalanche, and doubled over in pain.
But the Pit Fiend lifted his head and laughed. He had completed his spell
before the attack had reached him.

The green mist collected into two pulsating balls that drifted five feet
above the floor. The mist suddenly exploded outward and vanished, revealing
two ugly creatures. Each stood seven feet tall and had a similar appearance
to Dahok except they had green scaly skin. Their bodies were thinner and they
didn't have the big tusk-like fangs. Instead they had long snouts filled with
sharp flesh tearing teeth. The claws on their hands and feet were three times
as big as Dahok's and more curved. The demons' thrashed their longer,
snakelike tails and focused their eyes on the humans.

"KILL THEM, MY ABASHII!" Dahok ordered.

The Abashii spread their wings and leaped toward the humans.

"Oh-oh. Here comes company." Hercules said as he readied his sword. One of
the green Abashii dove at him, its huge claws fully extended. He ducked under
the claw attack and spun around on one heel. Then he swung his sword at the
demon's retreating back. The blade struck one of the wings and created a deep
slash. A foul smelling black ichor dripped out of the wound and coated the
sword blade.

The other Abashii leaped directly at Iolaus, perhaps sensing he was the most
vulnerable of the lot. Iolaus gulped and leaped into the air above the
charging creature. He was just about ready to go into a spin when red-hot
pain bloomed in his right leg. The Abashii had clawed him. Iolaus crashed to
the floor, landing on his back. Blood pumped out of the gash in his calf. He
looked upward and saw the Abashii was ready to leap on him again. He lifted
his sword and pointed its tip at the creature, but the sword drooped. The
intense pain was making it difficult to keep the sword upright.

Giant jaws swooped in above Iolaus and gripped the Abashii in mid-leap.

Iolaus' heart pounded crazily from sheer fright. A few moments later he
realized it was not a new enemy but the dragon. He was mesmerized as he
watched the strong jaws bite down on the green Abashii. The lesser demon
screamed as the large teeth bit into it. The dragon thrashed its head
sideways and Iolaus was sure he heard bones crunching.

Don't look! Don't look! Iolaus' brain screamed at him. He didn't want to
watch but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the gristly sight. The dragon
tipped its huge head upward and the demon's green scaly feet disappeared from
sight. A fat bulge traveled down the dragon's long neck.

"I'm going to be sick." Iolaus moaned. He struggled to sit up and examined
his wound. It was deep and still bleeding. In fact, there was already a small
puddle of blood under his wounded leg.

"Iolaus!" Hercules spun around and saw that he best friend was wounded. He
hurried over and took a quick look at the leg wound. "What happened? Did it
scratch you?"

"Yeah." Iolaus moaned. It thumped like crazy! It felt like someone had poured
liquid fire on his leg. "Don't let those things scratch you, Herc. It really
hurts - bad."

"Iolaus, those claws are poisonous." Hercules frowned as he remembered what
Gabrielle had told them about Dahok earlier. "A fatal poison."

"Oh, that's just great." Iolaus moaned. "No wonder it hurts so bad."

Hercules twisted around and watched Ares throw another lightning ball at
Dahok. The lightning crackled over the Pit Fiend's body but Dahok ignored it
and kept chanting. "Drat! He's casting another spell!" Hercules said.

"Herc! Watch out!" Iolaus called.

"Whoa!" Hercules ducked just in time as his Abashii flew at him once more.
It's long tail wrapped itself around Hercules' neck and yanked him off his
feet. Hercules clawed at the muscular tail and dropped his sword in the
process. It clanged loudly as it hit the stone floor and was left behind.
Hercules struggled for air as the tail tightened around his throat. The
Abashii flapped its wings and dragged him across the floor toward Dahok. He
felt a tiny prick as the tip of the tail brushed against his hand.

"Hey! Let go of my little brother!" Ares leaped forward, easily covering the
distance in a single jump. He landed next to the Abashii and swung his silver
Demon Slaying sword downward. The tail was sliced off the creature's body.
Black ichor poured out and gushed onto the floor and Hercules' head. The
demon howled in pain and turned toward Ares. It lunged forward, it's jaws
wide open.

Hercules sputtered and tore the still twitching tail off his neck. Then he
wiped the black goop off his face so he could see. He climbed to his feet and
almost slipped in the pool of black demon blood. The stuff was extremely
slippery! He turned to help Ares with the demon, but saw Ares yank his sword
blade out of the creature's open mouth. It thudded onto the floor lifeless.

"Thanks." Hercules told Ares. It felt odd being saved by Ares. Before his
brother had always tried to kill him. Now for a change they were both on the
same side. He lifted his hand to pat Ares on the shoulder but saw his hand
was coated in demon blood. Hercules knew how Ares worried about his
appearance so he decided he better not get his brother's clothes dirty. He
wanted this peace between them to last longer.

Gabrielle, still in dragon form, used her lightning wand again on Dahok. The
energy left a black scorch mark on the Pit Fiend's chest. A narrow stream of
black blood began to drip from it. But once again it was too late as green
mist floated above the floor.

"YOU ARE LOOSING AND NO ONE CAN SAVE YOU. YOU WILL ALL DIE AND I WILL WIN. I
AM ALREADY WINNING. FIGHTING ME IS USELESS! I HAVE DOZENS OF LEGIONS OF
ABASHII WAITING FOR MY SUMMONS. YOU CANNOT DEFEAT THEM ALL." Flames leaped
off Dahok's body as he raised his hands in front of himself. Fire formed in
his hands and rapidly focused into a ball. Dahok gripped the fireball in one
twisted hand and threw it at Ares and Hercules. The fireball rapidly grew in
size. It started out as large as a melon and a few seconds later easily
dwarfed a wagon.

"Shit!" Hercules jumped onto Ares and knocked him to the floor. They were
huddled together as the fireball passed by overhead still growing in size.
Hercules felt the heat of it rush over him and he sweated heavily. They
should have been burned from it, but the rings saved them. Neither of them
had ever seen a fireball so large before. It was as large as a barn when it
finally hit the wall and exploded. Hercules lifted his head and saw the back
wall was undamaged. Not even a streak marred its surface. "Whoa. She wasn't
kidding when she said nothing could damage this room."

"Oh yeah." Ares got to his feet and yanked Hercules up. His dark eyes shifted
to the green mist as it gathered into two large balls. "Look, we have to
concentrate more on Dahok. If we don't, he'll just keep summoning these
lesser demons to wear us down."

"You're right. Can you do anything about poison?" Hercules asked Ares as they
hurried over to Iolaus. The Golden Hunter was pale-faced, his breath ragged.
He was stretched out flat on the floor, his face twisted up with pain.

"I can heal his wound, but that's it. Apollo is the God of Healing and
Medicine. And I'm not sure even he could cure that demon poison." Ares placed
his hand on the gash in Iolaus's leg. As weak as he was, his whole body
jerked from the light touch. A golden glow appeared under Ares' hand as he
healed the injury. Ares straightened up and gripped his sword. "Company's
coming."

Hercules picked up his sword and sliced at another demon. He had to protect
Iolaus while his friend was still alive. His fingers tingled and his whole
hand felt hot. Hercules switched the sword to his other hand and continued to
slash at the green demon. He jumped backward as the Abashii's claws got past
his sword and raked across his enchanted breastplate. "I must be getting too
old for this or I'm a more tired than I thought."

Gabrielle swatted the two Abashii with her tail. She was getting annoyed.
They crashed against the far wall with a sickening thud. She pressed her
belly close to the floor and crouched. Her glowing eyes focused on Dahok.
Gray smoke drifted up from her nostrils and her tail tip twitched. She had
tried to hang onto her human half during the battle, but her control was
rapidly slipping. If she slipped any further, she would be only the dragon.
She didn't want that to happen, but she sensed she needed to be the dragon to
defeat Dahok. Already his chest wound was healed and he was chanting again.
It was time to finish this.

"Oh oh." Hercules moved backward. He suddenly found himself in the room with
a very large predator. "I hope I'm not on the menu." He grabbed Ares and
yanked him over by Iolaus.

"Oh, this is going to be good! I finally get to see my dragon in action!"
Ares watched as Gabrielle opened her cavernous mouth. He didn't know what she
had planned for Dahok, but he intended not to get in her way. He leaned
against the wall and waited.

Gabrielle clicked off her options in her head. Her first weapon of choice,
her dragon fire, was useless against Pit Fiends. Her second weapon of choice,
spells, was pretty useless too. Most of her spells were fire-based anyway.
And the wands were just scratching him. That only left physical attacks.
Perhaps if she was quick enough, he wouldn't have a chance to bite or scratch
her. Perhaps she was being too cautious, but you don't become an ancient wyrm
by being careless. But maybe her breath weapon could still be handy.

She opened her mouth and sent a jet of dragon fire at Dahok. The force of it
flattened him out. He was crushed against the other side of the invisible
barrier, unable to move. He blinked his eyes as he tried to see through the
thick wall of flickering flame.
Gabrielle pounced on him like a giant red jungle cat. Her huge hand pressed
him into the floor as she chomped on him. She spitted the half in her mouth
out against the far wall. The other half got crushed flat as she rested her
entire weight on her one hand. Pit fiends tasted terrible! Ugh! It would
take forever to get the horrible taste out of her mouth!

Well, at least the Abashii didn't taste too bad. She figured they were no
worse than goblins and she had eaten plenty of those before. Not her
favorite, but acceptable. In fact, her favorite meal was....Gabrielle shook
her head to stop that train of thought. She did NOT want to go there. She was
beginning to think like a dragon and that was bad. She glanced around and
realized all the Abashii were gone. Well, at least she had a small snack.
They didn't come anywhere near to filling her empty stomach though.


"Gabrielle. You were magnificent!" Ares told her as he stepped forward. "I
knew you could beat that old Dahok!"

The dragon focused her blazing eyes on the small creature before her. She
lowered her big head and rubbed against him. Ares almost fell over from the
force of it, but he managed to stay on his feet. She rumbled loudly in her
throat.

"Umm...can you do something? Iolaus is poisoned!" Hercules pointed at Iolaus.
His buddy leaned against the wall but he was sitting up. A little of the
color had returned to his face. "That demon scratched him."

Gabrielle blinked her fiery eyes. "The Abashii claws are not poisonous. Only
Pit Fiends have poisonous claws and fangs. On the Abashii, it's the stinger
on the end of the tail that has the poison."

Hercules swayed on his feet. He felt dizzy. He held his hand up and stared at
it. He could just make out a tiny red bump. His vision blurred and he
collapsed onto the floor.

To be continued.....