Chapter Four
Coral watched as the ball was thrown into the air, firmly between the two combatants. Damon grinned and leaped up into the air with an eager look on his face. Coral watched as Damon’s tattoos seemed to grow and stretch along his body. Kalin leaped forward and hooked his injured arm around Damon’s neck. In mid-shift, Damon was too pre-occupied to throw Kalin off, which gave Kalin time to adjust his position.
Wings sprouted from Damon’s shoulder blades and his neck elongated up toward the ball’s position in the air. The throw had been firm and the ball’s arc had nearly reached the top of the vaulted warehouse ceiling. The Wyvern’s jaws enclosed around the ball as the two soared upward through the air. The first contact had been made.
The entire premise of the game involved obstructing the opponent's ability to navigate the open space, all while successfully attempting to centralize the ball between a series of marked circles on either end of the room. There were no nets, as in traditional hockey, and because the players were Shifters, the rules were much different as well.
Essentially, there were no rules, except that you couldn’t fatally injure anyone in the place. This meant that all bad blood had to stop at the end of the game and it also meant that all of the members of the crowd needed to look out for themselves. This was the primary reason why the rule of ‘no spectators’ had been established, though there were significant other reasons for the guideline as well.
Hefted up into the air and soaring downward now on the back of the Wyvern, Kalin held on with incredible poise. Coral noticed that even though the Wyvern was executing barrel rolls in order to throw Kalin off balance, his focus was exclusively on securing the ball from the mouth of the Wyvern. The two hurtled toward the arcane circle on the corner of the warehouse designated for the Dragon Shifter to score. All the Wyvern needed to do was place himself within the context of the circle and wait there for one complete breath.
The crowd was up in arms and invested in what was happening on the court. The Bear Clan was silent in suspense — even Ryder had no words for such a quick match.
Just as the Wyvern was about to land within the circle, Kalin managed to shove both hands inside of the Wyvern’s mouth. Just then and not a moment too soon, he shifted. The transformation finished just as the referee was about to blow the whistle. Kalin’s transformation pushed the ball down the throat of the Wyvern, forcing him to transform back or choke to death.
While Damon was transforming back into his primary form, the ball slipped out from between Kalin’s paws. Rolling on the ground, covered in acidic dragon saliva, the ball had burned Kalin’s paws and was rapidly sinking into an oblong shape. Kalin batted the flattened egg toward the other side of the room and bounded after it, doing his best to ignore the searing pain on the skin of his paws.
Damon was furious and began sprinting over toward the other side of the court. The ball was malformed at this point and it was difficult for Kalin to utilize his practiced techniques in order to tame the ball’s trajectory. Both Shifters seemed to be engaged in a wild chase for the ball until Damon’s trajectory was modified — ever so slightly.
“Oh no…” Coral whispered. “He’s going after Kalin.”
Sure enough, Damon’s pattern of movement was headed straight for Kalin’s body — his wounded shoulder no less. Kalin made a dive toward the ball and Damon made a dive toward Kalin’s neck. The trajectories of their movements were different, though. The bear’s dive was with his paws stretched outward toward the sphere while the dragon had inverted his body during the course of the flight.
Both of Damon’s heels connected solidly right between Kalin’s injured shoulder blade and his spine. The fact that Kalin’s paws were outstretched for the ball made the bear all the more vulnerable to Damon’s attack. Kalin was giving the game everything he had, but since all of his attention was on the ball, the strike went hard and deep. Kalin’s chest was pummeled into the floor. Damon allowed his weight to fall after the strike and put the bear in a choke hold.
The Aryan’s muscles flexed and gripped tight, cutting into the thick fur. Pain shot through Kalin’s left arm, and a temporary numbness seized his limb.
A cry sounded out from the Bear Clan while a cold-blooded, shrill screech came from the Wyvern Clan. Kalin strained his other paw to grab a hold of Damon. He wanted to rake the skin on the Aryan’s back, to cause blood to pour out onto the clay floor beneath them, but Damon was too quick. The Wyvern had already moved into a partially shifted state once more, causing his skin to be sheathed in a thick collection of magical scales.
Claws dug into either side of Kalin’s spine and the edges of the scale formed the equivalent of a dull knife blade at the Bear Clan member’s throat. Damon hissed a taunt of victory in Kalin’s ear and clenched his hold on the bear even further. Kalin struggled, arching his back and pushing himself off of the ground, but the key strike had served its function and the reptilian had wedged his position of dominance into the melee. Knowing that he held a defensible position and feeling the bear weakening within his grasp, all Damon needed to do was exercise some patience and he would have Kalin’s submission.
The crowd roared in Kalin’s ears, though it was difficult to tell the difference between the crowd and the rushing blood which coursed through his veins. He struggled alternatively to scratch Damon and throw him off, but neither attempt succeeded. The Wyvern could only dig his claws into the bear so hard, but the dragon had managed to find key points in the nervous system of his victim. Kalin’s struggles climaxed and he shifted back into his human form — a sign of conceded defeat while under the pin of another Shifter.
Damon leaned in toward Kalin and whispered something demoralizing in the draconic language. After retracting his claws from Kalin’s back, and spanking his ass with a barbed tail, Damon cleared the floor. Rising up on his hind legs, he shifted back into his human form. Coral was uncertain that the look was directed exclusively at her, but Damon definitely turned one slitted eye toward the Bear Clan and winked before walking back to his own Clan.
Coral noticed that Damon’s cock was erect.
Probably gets off on dominance and humiliation, Coral thought, looking at Kalin’s fallen body on the warehouse floor.
The image of what his cock might look like while in his dragon form gave Coral a deep sense of revulsion. The members of the Bear Clan had all left her now and were surrounding Kalin in a supportive way.
Coral felt terrible.
She decided to let the other Clan members take care of Kalin and made her way back to their room. There were other matches to be held that night, but her mind was drowsy and she could hardly focus. She may not have managed to find her way there twice. By luck and intuition, she made the right turns and ended up back at her seat. She tried to rest her head on the table because she had already worked a full day. Coral was tired and wanted nothing more than to be in her own bed. The noise from the crowd following the game bled through the walls. The sounds of the crowd’s raised voices faded into black and Coral fell asleep.