Izuku knew this was a dangerous assumption that taking in Katsuki's blood would trigger this transformation, let alone trigger anything at all. Their Kingdom's entire fate was on this one assumption, either a bloody death and total destruction or salvation. That wasn't even including what could possibly happen after if they win this fight, Katsuki could completely abandon him, horrified at what he had taken on as a mate and at what his fated mate even was. There was no way to see how this will turn out until he made his move, and he was willing to take that risk if it meant possibly protecting their Kingdom, their people, but most importantly, protecting Katsuki.

There was no pain during the transformation, only a numbing feeling at first which was quickly followed by a deep burn inside him that neither hurt him nor comforted him, only fueled him to do what he needed to do in order to protect his mate and their lives.

When the light faded and he gets the feeling of his new form, he's shocked himself at what he transformed into, as like what others were told, dragons were thought to be mere myths. Little bedtime stories to tell to children to get them to sleep so that they're not up all night. But here he was, the fire-breathing beast himself. It takes a moment for him to get a feel of his new body, he even startled himself a little when his tail crashed into the earth and made the ground rumble, then he shifts his wings curiously and looks around a bit. However, upon seeing the sight of the frightened enemy knights before him, his chest vibrated in a deep growl, he remembered why he transformed.

Izuku spreads his massive wings and lifts them higher but arcs them downwards towards his enemies, a clear sign of intimidation, before he inhaled through his nose then let out a deep, guttural roar from his powerful maw. He could see the fear in his enemies and though there was a small part of him that felt bad for them as seeing such a sight will surely cause endless nightmares, especially when staring into the face of it as an enemy, but then he reminds himself that these people are planning to hurt his family, regardless of what he was before or what he is now.

"I-it's i-impossible! D-dragons are m-myths!" King Endeavor heard one of his knights stutter out, their voice completely overcome with primal fear, many of his knights shared the same fear and disbelief as many of them stumbled back, trembled uncontrollably, or dropped their weapons, no longer able to wield their weapons as if gravity itself had shifted at the mere appearance of a dragon. "W-what do we do a-against a m-myth?!"

King Endeavor couldn't tear his eyes away from the dragon that was Izuku, both in shared fear with his men, but also a small fraction of amazement. However, this amazement wasn't one of wonder but rather something fouler, this amazement stemmed from his imagination of the dragon being a part of his army. Like the fool he is for continuing to stand there while his men cowered and practically begged to run back home to avoid the wrath of the dragon, he remains an even bigger fool for having such a thought staring down the snout of a very protective and very angry dragon.

Katsuki and all of his own Kingdom's knights are also in shock, most also in fear at the sight, however their fear was not even a fraction of King Endeavor's knights, as they know Izuku would never hurt them if he could do anything about it. The blond King stared up with widened eyes at his fated mate, his mind going blank from such a sight, he had to make sure that he wasn't dreaming, or dead yet, by shifting his wounded left shoulder. The pain that seared through him convinced him enough that he was for sure awake and seeing what he was seeing, but even then, his mind couldn't wrap itself around this situation. Never in all of his life had he even had a mere thought he'd ever see a dragon, yet here they were, with the Izuku dragon on their side. In a twisted way, he saw flashes of his first meeting with Izuku as if he was seeing flashes of his life before death, and his mind wandered to "what if's" of that meeting.

What if he hadn't been walking around that area to see the fight? What if he didn't step in to stop, or try to stop, Izuku from beating up those Alphas? What if Izuku refused to open up to him, or even what if he didn't even accept to stay in the castle with Tokoyami at first? Too many unanswered questions filled his head all at once. However, a ear-deafening roar from Izuku shot all those thoughts down and his focus was placed entirely on the dragon before them.

His roar was beyond loud—loud was insulting to call it. Izuku's roar felt earth-shattering, as if the mountains themselves crumbled from how booming his roar was, the ground itself trembled in fear. Nothing had been as ear-splitting as this, not even a clap of thunder directly next to any of them would be as loud as this, that was mere child's game. Every single person here in the battlefield had to clasp their hands over their ears to prevent their eardrums from being blasted, and when the roar finally ended after a few grueling seconds, they were brought back to reality and remained faced with a green-and-black dragon.

After the roar, King Endeavor's scowl returned and he raised his hand to command his knights. Though he believed this was a real dragon, he needed to make absolutely sure, and if that meant that a few of his knights had to die today, then so be it. Their deaths will prove to be for a better cause in the future once he's successfully gotten his hands on this legendary beast.

"Push on! Do not let an illusion defeat you! Dragons do not exist! They are mere children's tales, do not let fear overcome defeating a false enemy!" King Endeavor's voice called out to his knights who looked back at him as if he were mad, but they only knew him as a very successful and strong King despite his cruelty and so, they tried their best to shake off any fear and though still trembling, picked up their weapons from the ground, raising them once again. They looked nervous and unsure, but their King's words echoed in their heads and if his call was right, then they would be able to defeat the enemy now rather than be scared off by what may be an illusion.

"Charge!!"

And with that battle cry, the knights of the Todoroki Kingdom rushed forward towards the Bakugo Kingdom, each knight letting out their own battle cries as they held their weapons tightly, intending to inflict pain upon Izuku that stood between them and the remaining Bakugo Kingdom.

Izuku hoped that his display of intimidation along with being a literal dragon would be enough to scare them off, but when they regained themselves and charged forward without a glint of regret in their eyes as they were trained to serve their Kingdom and their foul King, Izuku knew that he only had one option.

They approached rapidly and Katsuki and the others behind him looked unsure of the situation, most of the knights were concerned since they didn't know at all if Izuku truly was a dragon of if he was a mere illusion like King Endeavor said, but that didn't matter to the Queen. All that mattered was protecting his family and his home, at all cost.

Izuku didn't know how to do everything that dragons have been told to do, he didn't know how to breathe fire, use his wings properly, nor did he even know how to move around quickly, but he would do his best to learn fast. With the enemy forces approaching fast, Izuku let out another but smaller roar and when they got close enough, he lifted his right claw and made a might sweep to the left with it, easily taking out multiple rows of knights with a simple claw swipe. The enemies didn't seem to care now that they had already charged into battle, so Izuku didn't care if they would get hurt or killed now, they had a chance to turn back even if it meant going against their King, they didn't take it so they will face Izuku's wrath.

The dragon now used his left claw to swipe to the right, taking out multiple rows of knights before he realized he swung too much, if he tried swinging with his right claw again, he would be too late, so he risked it by following through and turned around. However, as he turned around, he did his best to control his huge tail and it payed off as his tail whipped around with his rotating body and smashed right through the heart of the battalion. Izuku didn't dare look at his own people, afraid he'd get distracted or he'd see a particular look on a particular man's face, so he kept his eyes locked with his enemies and kept rotating his body until he returned to facing his foes.

He saw how he had knocked most of the knights out or away from him, with some still remaining on their feet, and those who weren't knocked out only got back on their feet, though shakily, and rushed back towards Izuku once more. He still couldn't believe that these knights would risk their lives for a lowly King such as Endeavor, and it was worse seeing their determination to try and win a fight they could never hope to win, and he didn't need to read their minds to know that some of them knew they weren't going to win.

Izuku doesn't realize that he was just standing there doing nothing until he heard metal clashing behind him, which he whipped back and saw that some of the enemy knights must've snuck past him and were now trying to attack the still wounded Katsuki whom was being protected by Kirishima and his knights. Izuku grit his teeth for how frustrated he was at not being able to keep them completely safe with such a powerful body as he's still struggling to learn how this form works and moves. He's not as fast as he'd wish to be, but now was no time to complain.

He lets out a loud growl and reaches over to grab the enemy knights with his mouth before whipping his head again, tossing them through the air as if they weren't grown men in metal armor. Izuku tries his best to aid Katsuki and their people fighting the enemy knights off as some seemed to realize that they didn't need to fight the dragon if they could go around and try to kill the King instead. He finally clears the enemies from his people only for pain to course through his back as more enemy knights impale his back with their blades. Izuku grits his teeth in pain and tries to shake them off but he's not as successful as he'd want to be with only a few of them falling away, and the ones that did fall away left their swords impaled into his back. Blood dripped down his fresh wounds as the ones still close to him dug their blades in deeper.

"Izuku!!!" Katsuki's cry for him snapped something in Izuku and with a sudden strength he didn't realize he could wield yet, he thrashes violently and shakes off all the knights off and away from him.

Izuku ignores the remaining swords still penetrating his fresh on his back and turns to face the knights trying to recover from the thrash, but he doesn't give them a chance as he lifts his head up and fury boils deep inside his stomach. He feels something else burning deep inside him and he feels the instinct to let it free at his adversaries. The knights charge him once more, and for their final time just as Izuku thrusts his head forward after lowering it down, parts his jaws, and lets immense heat spill from his mouth.

Intense waves of bright, red-orange fire spill from Izuku's maw and towards his enemies with the flames closer to his throat being a ghostly blue to show the heat difference. The breath of pure heat smash into the knights and those closest were practically reduced to ashes almost instantly, even Katsuki and his knights behind him could feel the intense heat that radiated from the deadly flames. Izuku sweeps his head slowly to the left, raking his flaming breath across all of the enemies, not daring to spare one after they sealed their fate continuing to be here on the battlefield, his toxic green-colored eyes blazing with rage.

The sweeping of red, orange, and yellow engulfed the entirety of the battlefield in front of Izuku, and though it didn't go all the way where King Endeavor remained, at least half of his knights had been killed in the initial blast of fire. Those who weren't disintegrated immediately could only run away in fear of losing their lives as well to the sea of raging fire, and that did work for the most part since Izuku couldn't control his flame breath and so, this wasn't even half of what he could do.

After a full sweep in front of him, Izuku shut his jaw after he managed to stop breathing fire, then he raised his head once more to examine the decimated field. Not only had the knights closest to him been burned to the point that not even their bones remained, but their rather heat-resistant metal of both weapon and armor had melted into silver pools of nothingness. And if that wasn't showcasing his power enough, then the earth was now charred and scarred where his breath of red-orange touched, leaving the burnt ground practically unusable for anything. Nothing could've survived such a blast of intense fire that close.

King Endeavor on the other side of the battlefield, completely safe, simply smiled, though Izuku could see the sweat dripping down his face and how shaky his smile looked. He was afraid.

Any of the knights who survived the onslaught of fire fled back and ran past their King, completely fearful of what they had seen and experienced, and of what became of those who were too close to the blaze. None of them dared to stay back with their King, even those who didn't engage at all were terrified and though they didn't flee, they could be seen desperately begging their King for a retreat, none of them wanted to face the same fate as their fellow knights.

Izuku stared King Endeavor down, not breaking eye contact with the man that caused all of this death and trauma to those who survived his fury. The Queen knew they had won the fight and now, King Endeavor would think twice before deciding to try and siege the Bakugo Kingdom.

After a few more moments of silence apart from the fading cries of terror from King Endeavor's fleeing men and the light flickering of small embers floating about the charred battlefield, the enemy King turned away on his horse and led the rest of his men back to their Kingdom, he didn't acknowledge his defeat, simply broke eye contact with the dragon and left with those who survived.

Once the Todoroki Kingdom's fleets vanished over the horizon back to their territory, Izuku let exhaustion finally catch up to him and he began to slump over. Halfway of collapsing, his body quickly reverted back to his human body once more then he hit the ground. The blades that pierced his back had fell free from him but his wounds remained and he had blood staining his back where deep cuts dug into his flesh. Izuku could barely have a thought about Katsuki before darkness surrounded and pulled him into unconsciousness.

Katsuki finally moved when Izuku's body hit the ground, all of them being completely stunned and paralyzed from the fire their Queen had spit at the enemies. He pushed Kirishima and Tokoyami away so that he could run over to unconscious Izuku, ignoring his painful wounds in favor of reaching his mate to check on him and make sure he wasn't dying. All that death, Izuku being able to shift into a dragon, none of that mattered more than making sure he was alright and safe.

Izuku was his mate first and foremost before anything else.

———

(2833 words)

A/N: Ahhhhh, finally! Motivation, an update, and some action! I'm so sorry for taking so long! I had so many things going on and if that wasn't in the way, then motivation to write was a big issue. I'm tired, it's 3:00am, and I wanna sleep. So, I hope you enjoyed the update! Let me know how you feel about the story so far with this update!

Thank you for reading! I really appreciate it! Go Beyond! PLUS ULTRA!

-Thorn/Thornsight