Ignivara's eyes burned with a fierce, unyielding light. Despite the crushing weight, despite the agony of the gravity and the exhaustion of her transformation, she refused to give him the satisfaction of a silent death.
"It... will... not... help... you..." she hissed, the words forced out through a haze of steam and golden blood.
Rex let out a short, sharp laugh, his eyes locking onto hers with a terrifying, clinical hunger.
"It is already helping me," Rex said, his grin widening. "Every time you perform above my estimated capacity, I learn something new about the upper boundary of what a half dragon can generate."
"You aren't just an opponent, Ignivara... You are extremely useful data."
The fire erupted again, but the sheer, crushing weight of the ninefold gravity was fighting the very nature of the flame. Instead of a soaring pillar of destruction, the fire was forced downward, a heavy, viscous torrent of molten light that curved toward the earth like a waterfall of sunfire.
