Cian/Maria - COMPLETE!
It was working. He was going to have to start wasting cards once he ran out of dice - a damn shame, but what could he do? - but it was going to work. That damn dragon was going down. It was a challenge now, and he never backed down from those.
With a grunt, he tossed another pair of dice; when it exploded in flames, he calculated, decided to take the risk, drew the last pair. This was going to be the lucky one. "Give me half a second!" he shouted.
He never finished the throw.
One of the serpent's coils exploded from the water and slammed into the edge of the bike. He cursed and tried to hold on, but he couldn't even tell which way was up as they hurtled through a cloud of ice - fucking dice exploding in the exact wrong place - and he had to close his eyes or have them stabbed out by icicles.
He never saw the paling approaching, never even got the chance to scream. They hit it - the bike, then him, then red on top of him in all her armor - with a loud and sickening crunch. He did scream then, his mouth filling with blood, as they slid down the invisible protective barrier to the ground.
Then, darkness.
When he awakened, sometime later, it was to the tingle of healing magicks working under his skin and red's face swimming into focus above him. It was quiet - or were his ears damaged? He wanted to ask if the battle was over. But when he tried to speak, the pain was so intense that he nearly went under again. Fuck.
He closed his eyes against the too-bright light and the too-sharp pain, and let her work.