LO Round 1 Pg.3

Vulcan spied the sparrow flitting about in the sky and tracked it towards a window. He grinned and bounded towards the entrance, bashing aside a moldy wooden door in a hail splinters. The stairwell was directly ahead; clambering to the upper floors was a fantastically easy prospect. It almost seemed too easy, but success was rarely a thing beyond the ability of the fell creature.

Oh, little eye in the sky.

He slowed his pace and listened for sounds of movement. It only took a moment for him to sense a rattling of tile and falling of stone. His ears perked up as he scaled one final flight of crumbling steps and emerged into a massive room that stretched the entire length of the building. At one end, he saw a poorly concealed red form that could only be that of Tenebre.

"Hello, little thing," snickered Vulcan. "I must thank you for leading me to you."
"What?!"
"Your little bird companion there was quite helpful. I might've just walked right past you else wise. Now I'll get to drag whatever's left of you to the tower."

Tenebre made a mock show of screeching at the tiny blue sparrow as Vulcan bounded across the room. He skidded to a halt as he felt the floor creaking ominously and leapt clear moments before it collapsed.

"Oh come now! Were you expecting to trick me?"
"…Yes."

Tenebre sprung up from his crouched position, wrapping his claws around a sturdy cord on the ceiling and yanking downwards with all his might. The cable came loose and dragged down a number of heavy metal fixtures with it, all of which smashed into the ground simultaneously with a tremendous clatter. Vulcan jumped to avoid the ploy, but its spread was far too great to be avoided. He howled as a chunk of rusty steel slammed against his back and dug a deep gash into his flesh. The pain disabled him for a moment, preventing him from evading the remainder of the cabling and pipes that followed. It seemed as if the entire ceiling were falling on him.

The noise settled a minute later, leaving Tenebre and Sussurro standing motionlessly.

"See anything?" muttered Tenebre.
"No, not at all."
"We ought to get moving, then. I don't want to miss the deadline."

They crept across the room, passing by the limp form of the dark furred creature.

"Still breathing," sighed the red dragon. "He'll be back up before long. Think I ought to do something about him?"
"Why bother? All you have to do is get to that tower at midnight."
"Well that's exactly it. If he comes to before then, we might have an angry monster chasing us all the way to the top."
"You could just throw him out the window or something."
"I suppose. We're pretty high up. Oughta' keep him down for a while."

Vulcan was indeed stunned, and he was not fully prepared to resist when the red dragon struck him with a heavy blow that sent him toppling off the edge. He lashed out wildly, but failed to secure a grip on the window frame before he tumbled beyond reach. The ground rushed up to meet him in seconds, sending a jarring shock through his body. He yelped as several of his vertebrae cracked under the strain, although he remained largely intact. The force was enough to knock him unconscious for a brief minute.

He whimpered as he came to, finding his entire body aching and a trickle of dark blood running from a snapped tooth. The red dragon seemed to have departed along with its little companion, leaving him behind to lie in the street.

No, no, no he hasn't.

He felt a twinge of fury wash through him, but suppressed the violent urge and forced himself to ignore the pain of his limbs. It was surprisingly easy to rise up once this was suppressed, and he began to work his way towards the clock tower.