It was him.
ELEVEN recognized who it was almost instantly.
How could he not?
There has only ever been one other creature in ELEVEN's memories who possessed such features.
But back then, he couldn't fly and was the weakest of them all.
That seems to have changed with the passage of time.
The humans knew him as Specimen A7, the 'ace' of the Anti-Air Dragon Specimens, but for ELEVEN, he was kin.
Despite their dramatically different anatomies, SEVEN and ELEVEN were brothers.
Maybe not by blood, but definitely by bond.
Yet the only things the Dragon felt after the shock of their reunion were anger and frustration.
Why is this guy so fast now!?
Back then, he had always teased his avian brother about his lack of mobility. SEVEN could not fly back then as his wings had yet to mature, and due to his anatomy, running on foot was extremely awkward, akin to a waddling penguin.
Whenever they played simple games like tag, this guy would often pull the short end of the stick and be targeted simply because he wasn't fast enough to catch up.
And when he desperately tried to, it provided ample entertainment for ELEVEN as he would mock and ragebait the waddling SEVEN by staying put and only taking casual steps back when he got close, sporting the reptile equivalent of a grin on his face every time he did so.
How ironic it was that the roles were now completely reversed.
"What am I doing? What am I doing?" The Sky Dragon repeated as he cackled in the air, the blood dripping down from the cow's mangled corpse as he lowered himself only to fly back up when ELEVEN went in with a striking leap.
Suffice it to say, he ended up falling on his ass with nothing in his jaws, an expression of utter scorn and betrayal marking his features.
"Get back here with my prey!" The Sea Dragon shouted as his brow ridges formed a frown. "How am I supposed to catch you when you keep flying? This isn't fair at all..."
He doubted his boiling breath would hit accurately given SEVEN's aerial mobility, and he wasn't considering using it anyway since this was his brother.
ELEVEN wouldn't kill his brother just for food, at least, not at his current state. If he was genuinely starving, then maybe it would be different.
Not that he was absolutely sure it would be enough to kill the other Dragon, but it was definitely far more dangerous than his usual shoving and clawing.
"Isn't fair at all! Isn't fair at all!" SEVEN's repetition of his own words against him served to further aggravate ELEVEN as he roared in outrage.
He wasn't just repeating ELEVEN's words, but perfectly replicating his growls and roars, down to the intonation and everything.
The cockatoo DNA within his genetic makeup was certainly playing its part.
This was a valuable trait, meant to be used in the battlefield by replicating voices and sounds to cause confusion in enemy lines. At least, that was how the scientists had reasoned it when they made him.
But now, still in the enclosure, the Sky Dragon found a better use for it as he baited ELEVEN's wrath out of his cold heart.
The taste of revenge turned out to be even sweeter than blood.
But as they often say, don't count your chickens before they hatch. SEVEN had gloated too early, and he was so immersed in the ragebaiting that he became distracted.
Distracted enough not to see the several dozen tons of scale and muscle charging at him from the other side of the clearing.
ELEVEN's eyes widened as he took a step back and clenched. His memories returning in flashes of emotion as he recognized who it was.
The Sky Dragon stopped laughing as he briefly realized that something was wrong due to ELEVEN's change of pace, but...
He was far too late.
With horror in his eyes, SEVEN gaped his maw in shock as the new intruder leapt into the air with agility that ELEVEN would not be able to replicate and curled into a tight ball of huge quills.
"—CAAAW!"
A shrill shriek resounded through the savannah as SEVEN felt as though he had been slammed by a mountain, his eyes glazed with stars in them before he was promptly evicted from his domain in the air.
The Sky Dragon fell.
And with him came the beast that now clung to his torso as they both plummeted onto the earth.
The crash was meteoric as it sent clouds of dust flying in all directions.
ELEVEN could barely suppress his befuddlement as he gazed at the scene before him.
So it's him...
The one who had dragged SEVEN out of the air was another familiar sight.
He was a Dragon who stood on all fours, with powerful legs that ended in claws, each combining the attributes of elephants, sauropods, and other reptiles.
The colour that primarily dominated his body was a mixture of sandy yellow and terracotta. However, just as ELEVEN made that observation, it began to rapidly change into darkish black for his back and gunmetal gray for his underbelly. No doubt his true colours.
As an Anti-Land Dragon Specimen, he was expected to be the most directly involved in the battlefield and the one most prone to receiving attacks.
In order to avoid the possibility of overbombardment, he had been given the DNA of the cuttlefish and chameleon to acclimate to the surroundings and hide himself in plain sight.
If that wasn't anough and he ended up being spotted, the enemy would most likely already be dead as his powerful limbs possessed enough force to accelerate him to speeds faster than warplanes.
Although not the overall fastest among the Dragons when in their respective domains, that title belonging to the Sky Dragon he had just tackled, he was absolutely the fastest on land.
His form was covered in dense armour that could even withstand mortar shells, adorned with spiky quills that were a result of his porcupine DNA. In addition, growing out of his back was a thick tail that ended in a spiked club, which was powerful enough to shatter alloy with a single hit.
His head was structured in the images of the pachycephalosaurus and triceratops, with a helmeted head utilized for charging and a crown of plated horns. On the other hand, his beak was sharp and pointed, like that of an eagle, and his eyes, just like his two brothers, were golden yellow and possessed a high degree of emotional expression.
Maybe even more than the other two considering his current demeanor.
"YOU GUYS ARE BACK!?" He shouted with uncontained excitement. "I missed all of you so much!"
Seeing this only made ELEVEN chuckle as he shook his head.
Yeah, that's him alright...
It was another one of his brothers, who the humans knew as Specimen B9, or NINE.
And currently, he was licking SEVEN's incapacitated face like an excitable dog that has just reunited with its owner.
Shamelessly, ELEVEN walked over and snatched the dead cow that had fallen not too far, munching on his favourite snack as NINE then glanced at him with a grin.
"WOAH! You got so huge... like two of me type of huge! What were you eating out there?" NINE asked as he hopped away as SEVEN shooed him away with a thrash, approaching the Sea Dragon as he eyed him curiously.
To that, ELEVEN only had one thing to say.
"...I'm built a little differently than you two." He responded smugly in between swallowing the large chunks of beef as the entire cow soon vanished into his stomach lining.
That was the truth, wasn't it?
NINE furrowed his brow ridges in confusion.
He was upset that he couldn't tackle and bring ELEVEN down just like he did with SEVEN.
That was supposed to be his thing!
But seeing the current size and mass of his brother, NINE made the calculated decision not to. He would definitely hurt himself if he were to fall on ELEVEN's dorsal spikes at his usual speed.
SEVEN cawed to catch the pair's attention as he hopped and repositioned himself on a ledge.
He glared at the Earth Dragon with exasperation.
"You bastard, why'd you hit me!?" SEVEN spoke in his true voice, which came out as a blend of cawing and growling. "I had him by the tips of his toes! He would have definitely jumped..."
"I would not." ELEVEN glowered with finality, earning the Sky Dragon's side eye.
"Oh, you absolutely would." SEVEN batted his wings in provocation as he hopped closer with a smirk.
The Sea Dragon's dorsal spikes bristled at that statement as he bared his claws in a growl.
The two seemed ready to rumble yet again.
NINE slammed his clubbed tail against the ground as he bore a frown. "Come on you two! We haven't seen each other in so long and this is how you guys act?"
The Earth Dragon had missed his brothers dearly, and now that the Sky, Earth, and Sea Dragons had finally reunited, he couldn't be any happier.
Yet they seem more occupied with their beef more than anything else, how unacceptable!
SEVEN merely scoffed at the Earth Dragon's words, but chose to hold back as he quickly shut up. On the other hand, ELEVEN gave a smirk at SEVEN's defeat, not minding that he too was also brought down.
With their attention now apparent, NINE's body relaxed.
SEVEN and ELEVEN had always been frequently at odds, but NINE knew they would have each other's backs when the other truly needed it.
It was their headstrong personalities that made them hard to tolerate, especially to one another.
How ironic it was that it was NINE saying that considering his own head was reinforced by tough carapace.
And so, the three Dragons stood at council, each occupying their own ledge as they stared at one another.
"How come we're meeting again?" Came the question on everyone's mind as SEVEN voiced it out loud.
Now that was an inquiry that none of them knew the answer to.
When they were initially separated, the trio were mere juveniles, ranging from the age of 1 years old to a half more than that.
The number that they were given signified the chronological order of their birth, so despite being the largest, ELEVEN was indeed the youngest out of the three.
However, it didn't really make much of a difference because they were all roughly born within the same 9 months, as the scientists had formulated all of their genes before moving on to creating them one by one.
As infants, they grew alongside each other. The scientists had found it emperically necessary that they recognized who was who and didn't mistake one of their own as an enemy.
However, after reaching the age in which the Dragons started to fight each other to carve their own territories, they were forced to be separated as the risk of an accidental or even intentional murder was too high.
None of them thought that they would meet each other ever again, and while some took it better than others, the majority were very distraught with the whole ordeal.
Yet here it was—the Sky, Earth, and Sea together once more.
"Who knows what those monkeys are up to," ELEVEN shook his head. "...And where are the others? Why are we the only ones here?"
That's right, there were 18 Dragons in total, yet only 3 were here in this expanse.
What was this place anyway, were they supposed to live here now?
ELEVEN suspected otherwise. If the humans bothered to reunite them just for that one reason, why even separated them in the first place? Why reunite them now that it was significantly harder to do so?
There must have been a special reason for it...
"I think," NINE suddenly interjected. "That they thought we would fight each other."
The other two widened their eyes at that.
That was an incredibly probable theory considering their own recent experiences.
NINE then asked the other two just to make sure. "Were you two given large, skull-headed serpents as prey too?"
ELEVEN recounted the bland taste of Skullcrawler flesh as he nodded. SEVEN did much of the same.
What did that mean though? They were supposed to fight each other? For what?
"No," SEVEN shook his head. "I think they wanted to test if we were going to fight or not, not necessarily that it was their intended outcome."
***
Sorry for the delay! School matters...
Next chapter will be later tonight, I'l release it as fast I can!
Power Stones, if you will!