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Hey y’all! Remember how I promised fight scenes this week? If you didn’t catch the excerpt from Submerged‘s Maritime Massacre you can read it here.

For those who don’t know, the Dance of the Elements series features a group of people known as Fire Dancers: individuals enslaved and forced to fight dragons with their unique abilities to manipulate fire. Here is an excerpt from Ignited illustrating one of these such encounters:

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The dragon roared and turned toward Timber, simultaneously swatting Kindle with her gigantic tail. Kindle bounced off the arena floor and was still. Timber’s weapon was stuck in her scales so he twisted backwards, performing a series of twirling leaps to stay in motion.

            To the crowd, the fire just appeared around Timber’s twirling form but to Ash it was a thing of beauty. A Fire Dancer’s ability lay in their power to manipulate the flames to move around them. So long as the Dancer anticipated the moves of the dragon and understood their body, fire was as harmless to them as it was to the dragon.

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Timber pulled the flames from the dragon and held on, bonding the fire to him. He became a tornado of flames, spinning ever faster and the crowd screamed in exultation as Timber released the fire at the dragon. The flames wouldn’t hurt her and were mostly for show but what a show it was.

             Timber was so seamless that even to Ash it looked as if he was creating fire. The notion was impossible, but the thought had Ash grudgingly admitting to himself that Timber was as good as he’d claimed. Better, even. Wildfire spit fire back at Timber in retaliation and Ash watched him pull it around him and shoot it up toward the dome. The crowd went crazy, stomping their feet and screaming.

             Timber leaped forward to retrieve his assegai and yanked it from Wildfires chest causing blood to spray across the dirt. The dragon bugled in pain and spit another ball of fire that Timber deflected easily with a twisting leap. The fire curved around him and hit the dirt near Kindle’s still form. Timber shook his assegai in the air and the crowd chanted his name. Ash was so caught up in the fight that he didn’t care. Let them call out Timbers name for in this moment he was a god and Ash was living through him.

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            The dragon continued to blow fire at Timber but he had caught the rhythm of her breathing now and she was no match for him. When she reared up on her hind legs he took the opportunity and plunged his assegai deep into her exposed belly, ripping it open. Blood and gore spilled across the arena floor as Wildfire gave a final cry before collapsing into the dirt. Sand billowed up in a porous cloud as the dust settled. Timber straddled the fallen beast and raised his assegai to the chanting crowd. His eyes met Ash’s and the retired gladiator suddenly felt impossibly cold and rubbed his arms against the chill…

I hope you enjoyed this excerpt from chapter three of Ignited! Was this post just an excuse to utilize all these awesome images I found on Pinterest? Maybe…either way, tell me your thoughts in the comments below!