Chapter 677: Living Comet
"He made it!" I cried, jumping up and down, forgetting I was a thousand feet in the air. Borealis had made it!
A shockwave ripped across the landscape below, radiating from the impact crater where Borealis held the dragon. It tore trees apart, stripped soil from bedrock, and started landslides on every ridge and peak. The clouds fled the sky as it burst skyward, leaving me floating in an endless, unbroken sea of blue.
The dragon roared and struggled, but half of its bones were covered in earth. Borealis jerked free with a flap of his wings, shaking his feathers in a shower of rubble. He pulled the dragon after him, spinning about and slamming it into the cliff face behind them. The mountainside collapsed, burying both in a tsunami of earth.
As the valley fully disappeared beneath the mountain, my heart skipped a beat, filling with dread. Even if Borealis had made it, he’d dropped a mountain on Korra. Soltair had survived it, but could she? And if she had, would she be crushed beneath the battling titans?
Borealis surged from beneath the rock, letting out a triumphant shriek. He clutched one of the dragon’s bony limbs in his talons, throwing it high into the air. He landed and raised his wings, channeling immense infernal energy. Mana flowed across his feathers, gathering on his wingtips. With another cry, he released a pulse of mana that flowed outward like a shockwave, encasing everything in a dozen feet of solid ice. The wave hit the arm on its descent, and the bone shattered. The black mana flowed from the bone, dissipating harmlessly in the air.
"Borealis..." I groaned, "You’re supposed to save them, not just kill the dragon!"
I closed my eyes and pictured Korra’s face. There was a brief moment of weightlessness before the visions stabilized, and I found myself deep underground. A soft blue light illuminated the space, revealing a cramped cave with the ceiling an arm’s length away. Korra and Gayron were huddled in the middle.
Korra’s eyes were closed, her body surrounded by a flowing aura of water mana. Sweat beaded on her forehead, making her hair stick. Gayron had an arm wrapped around her, holding her head to his chest. Their breath misted, and swirls of frost scrawled across the rubble.
"...heavy..." Korra mumbled, "And cold..."
"You’re carrying the literal weight of a mountain. Let me know when, and I’ll take over," Gayron said, smoothing her hair back.
She shook her head. "No, I got this. Just...where did that dragon come from? And was that a demon?