Got to say brands old body seems Very sturdy. Hmm kinda makes me wonder how Powerful Volcano dragons are. Like are they on par with the Queltz?
The dragons are like tanks - slow, but very strong, and they can soak a ton of damage. The quetz are DPSes. Fragile, fast, and can dish out damage like nobody's business, but they fall quickly to determined opposition (See: Suzocon-sama). You might be confusing the quetz in general with Taran. The Prince is as tough as nails, but he's their biggest gun and he's the son of a major deity, ala Hercules. He's also, just like the dragons, not very maneuverable. But he packs a WALLOP. Suzocon absolutely owned their fight until he got cocky and left his guard wide open. Then he suddenly found himself in a
real fight.
Saida shows signs of being just as durable, considering her body took a full power White Materia hit from Taran and survived. She's actually better suited to being a dragon than Brand is a quetz! Just watch the Aves, Saida-hime...?