Chapter 77: A King’s Pride
Jagón barely managed to dodge another breath of fire from the overwhelming phoenix, rolling forward in his lunge as he hurried back to his feet.
A good deal of the fire had been cast upon the stands, and many a spectating, wailing beast and the lifeless bodies of the fallen alike were already being consumed by the insatiable flames.
The skilled knight continued his sprint, circling around the bird and drawing its attention away from his sons as he closed in range of the great opponent.
The panther held his longsword out to the side and slashed at the blackened leg of the beast with everything he had, barely cutting even an inch deep into the tough flesh.
The phoenix screeched loudly in pain, and flapped its giant, burning wings once more, kicking up heavy dust as more waves of that engulfing heat rocked forth, knocking the panther away with a harsh gust of wind.
The phoenix crouched a bit and kicked off, rising high into the air on those troublesome wings as its tail fluttered behind it like a trail of burning crimson ribbon. Cortist and Talan were already running to their father.
Talan yelled his question as he was nearly to the older panther.
"Father! Are you alright?"
Jagón quickly got to his feet, answering his oldest son as he pointed up to the phoenix that was now circling the arena. If the beast began raining down fire from that height, the panther wasn’t sure there would be anywhere safe to run.