(And, I'm back! I should be able to post every day, with breaks every so often.)

Adykon had seen the entire exchange between Rughoi and Meerat from a distance. Part of him wanted to leave the kobold to his fate, but something in him just couldn't let that happen. Usurper or not, he was still someone in need of rescue, and the two armies were fighting side-by-side against a common foe. Cursing himself for what he could only imagine was overwhelming heroic stupidity, the dracon charged the beast which was now Meerat, blocking the next blow. Then, he ignited his sword, burning the tendrils away. Such a display was something he'd hoped to keep secret, as it was dangerous for anyone to know the extent of his abilities. Secrecy was one of the only protections for his family, as any knowledge about himself or them could and probably would be used against him at some point. 

"Get back, you monstrosity! Rughoi may be a traitor, but he's still [i]our[/i] traitor! He's of this world, you have no place in this plane!" Taking the initiative himself, he continued to slice away at the darkness, his two-handed sword finding its mark over and over, burning and cutting in equal measures. He knew that none of it would permanently destroy Meerat, any more than such blows had stopped Dememoras some decades before. 

He also knew that it didn't have to.

Ophion and Aerta saw that Meerat's physical form was diminished, albeit temporarily. Just long enough for them to cast a powerful abjuration spell around him, keeping Adykon and Rughoi just outside of the spell's radius. The spell itself looked very much like a spherical ball of glass, colored a light blue and divided by green lines which ran horizontally and vertically, curving with the sphere and dividing it into many curved rectangular segments. The "glass" was transparent to an extent, so they could still see Meerat thrashing against the edges of the sphere. 

Several other dracon mages joined in the spell, adding their power to it and buttressing the sphere. Whatever control Meerat had over the other beasts was cut, as they suddenly became unfocused and uncoordinated. Then, they began to shrink the sphere down, decreasing the area their spell had to cover while maintaining the same amount of power overall, this giving the sphere more energy per unit of volume. The result was that Meerat's "cage" grew stronger even as it grew smaller, but not all was well. Several of the mages began to waver, even fail in their efforts due to energy depletion. One of them even passed out. 

"Are you alright, Rughoi? I don't know if this will work, but we've got to exploit our advantage while we still can!" Adykon offered the self-proclaimed emperor his hand. "Also, I don't know what the 'Son of the Dragon' looks like, but I'm pretty sure that our resident abomination over there isn't him."