Bwarm.

The dragon's back shook beneath Alex as a massive beam shot off into the distance from Drake's maw. He held onto the spine nearest him, using it to keep his feet planted as he searched the horizon. He hadn't even seen what Drake was targeting, but assumed it was Miss Malone on the retreat.

"He better not of hit Artur."

"What?" Grayson yelled from a few spines behind him, holding his hat with one hand while the other had a death rip on the tall jagged spine.

"I don't think we're going to make it!" Bolton held onto two spines, his body laying flat between two of them, and his legs wrapped around one. "How'd I let you idiots talk me into this?"

Alex smiled, just a little. Despite the severity of the situation, it wasn't every day that someone could say they rode on the back of a dragon. Dragons weren't even real where he came from, just stories cooked up to explain unearthed fossils and strange creatures.

"But he's right," Alex whispered as the beam clashed with a massive blue shield in the distance.

It didn't give off a sound, but sparks flew as the beam met the shield. Artur was out there with Miss Malone, and behind them was the massive stone square that opened up to the chasm. It was large enough to fit an entire navy of slipships through it, and a second after the beam faded, the entire structure filled with bright green light. The darkness parted, and a green sea of light filled its place, snapping out of the center.

Alex watched as a speck fell into the sea of light, and knew they were too late.

"He needs to go for the gate!" he yelled.

"You think he has that much control?" Grayson yelled back.

Alex frowned. Drake still flew toward the gate, his wings pumping as he gained altitude, but he wasn't going directly for the open portal. If he was going to go through, he would tuck his wings in to gain speed as he plummeted toward the open gate.

They couldn't have much time.

"I'll handle it!"

Alex pushed his hand back and focused. He was making something custom to the occasion, and needed to see it in his mind before he conjured it into reality. He imagined coating the spine behind him in metal, and his mind drew uneven lines of metal around the spine.

"Junk Spine."

Bzzt.

Blue lights flashed out around his hand, wrapping around the spine and wrapping it with various jagged bits of metal. It was a sloppy job, but it would do. Steeling himself against the wind racing past his face, he jumped and put all his force in a forward push against the metal spine.

"Step!"

Alex couldn't fly. He was comfortable in the air. He could float and push himself to high speeds using tricks with conjured metal. But he could not fly. So long as he could pull those tricks, he was fine. He shot off the spine, throwing himself toward Drake's head. His hand reached out to grasp a spine closer to the captain's face. He needed Drake to drop.

He grasped hold of the nearest spine down the long neck from his jump, reappearing in roughly the same line he jumped off at.

He clenched his teeth, but he was only about halfway there. He needed one more and pulled himself against the wind as Drake continued his ascent. How many seconds were there before the gate closed? How long until Artur was lost to them forever?

"Junk Spine!"

Bzzt.

"Step."

He disappeared, surging forward for one final time and reappearing near Drake's head. His hand reached out, catching the final spine and forcefully pulling himself down to plant his feet against the scales. He took in a deep breath.

"Drake!" he yelled. "Go through the gate!"

He didn't know what he had expected. A creature the size Drake had become wouldn't sound normal. Even the vocal cords would be so much larger than a human's. Could he even make words in his dragon form? Alex suddenly regretted not having hammered out the details of the plan before asking Drake to transform.

Roar.

Drake continued his ascent. Higher and higher they flew, up and above the gate. Alex grimaced. He didn't think that Drake was going to swoop in. Maybe he was going to use the height and distance to destroy the gate. Alex didn't know, but he wished Drake would give some sort of sign.

Roar.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Alright." Alex looked down and let out a sigh. "We'll do this the hard way."

He closed his eyes and focused, forming the image of a metal arm in his mind that was roughly triple the size of his normal one. Combining the Path of Might and his curse, he was going to make sure that Drake felt what he was about to do. Everything else beyond that was just freefall.

"Junk Arm."

Bzzt.

Light flashed around his arm as it expanded, becoming far too large for his body. Metal formed in jagged crisscross patterns across his skin, various pieces from impossible cogs to long sheets of steel coming together to form a massive hand. Alex held onto the spine, raising up the hand and bringing it down.

Thump.

His fist slammed into Drake's head, and the force sent him into the air. Alex let go of the spine and followed the momentum. He shot through the air and released the arm. It faded in a shower of blue sparks as he fell toward the open portal below.

He hoped Drake would chase him, but couldn't guarantee it. Either way, the plan was to get through the portal. If Drake followed him, he'd have three allies in the fight. If he didn't, he would face Miss Malone alone. He closed his eyes as the wind embraced him.

"Or you could go splat against the ground at the bottom of the gate."

Whoosh. Roar.

He opened his eyes to see that Drake now followed him, closing his wings as he plummeted through the sky. Alex smiled and tucked his arms in tight. Due to size, there was no way that Drake could compete with his speed. While he had mass, objects fell at the same rate, minus air resistance.

Alex had the advantage there.

He turned his gaze to the ground and saw the green light below shimmer and sparkle. On the far side of the portal, like a tearing curtain, the light cut, leaving only darkness behind. It didn't fade all at once, though. Power called into the Real wouldn't just fade back to the Surreal. It would force itself to outstay its odd welcome as long as possible.

"Not like I can change it." Alex couldn't hear his own voice in the rush of the wind. "Simple as that."

He closed his eyes as the water-like portal collapsed in front of him. Whatever happened next, he didn't have to watch it.

Thwoop.

It wasn't like hitting water, which for him was fortunate, because he was certain he was past terminal velocity. A stray thought in the back of his mind wondered how landing would work. He hadn't thought about that before he jumped. He had been too caught up in the moment.

He didn't even know what was on the other side, though he assumed it was not solid ground. It wouldn't make sense for slipships to go through if there were any sudden stops. With the size of the portal, that would cause so much collateral damage if there were ever a wreck.

Not that anything on Erth seemed like it was planned out for safety.

Alex opened his eyes as an electric tickle spread across his skin. Ahead of him, he saw a single light glowing down a tunnel filled with a kaleidoscope of colors. Red, green, blue, orange, and yellow lights danced across his vision in a flurry of patterns. Lights that were dots stretched and warped.

He liked science fiction movies, and one scene that he remembered was a scene of an astronaut going beyond Jupiter. The scene didn't quite live up to what he saw, but it was a close approximation. Alex risked a look back, away from the portal in the distance and back the way he came. A dark winged form fell after him, barely visible despite the cascade of lights crashing past him.

Drake had made it through, now they just had to make it out the other side.

A final thought scratched at the back of his head, but it made sense when he thought about it. There should have been no air in the strange in-between he found himself in. However, he found he could breathe perfectly fine. It was no different from the nightsea, which never made sense to him to begin with. Unless there was a way to exchange oxygen, nitrogen, and the various parts that humans breathed, people should have suffocated, but no one questioned it.

"Magic doesn't need reason."

The words flew past him faster than he could finish saying them.

The circle beneath him wasn't growing, and that was concerning. Usually, when falling toward something, it would grow lager and larger as the distance reduced. However, as he looked down below, the circle was getting no larger. He didn't need a degree in physics to guess why. It was getting smaller because the hole was getting smaller, even as he fell toward it.

Miss Malone had cut the path when she had reached the other side. Everything else was just the consequences of that falling into motion. At least he knew there was something he could do to land on the other side. Miss Malone had just hopped in after all.

The light rushed at him, and Alex closed in his arms. He forced his eyes to stay open even as he rushed into the bright light. He needed immediate information when he reached the other side. The light covered his vision even as the hole shrunk.

Pop.

Like coming into an island, he crossed the threshold, though he did it without the benefit of a slipship. He blinked the dazzling colors out of his eyes as he looked out across a new horizon. The first thing he realized was that he was no longer falling vertically. Well, he was, but he also had a massive amount of horizontal momentum. He had come out of a circle in the sky. The edges frayed as it shrunk, but it was clearly the end point of the portal.

The second thing he noticed was the massive sea of green out in front of him. Treetops stretched out into the distance, and the humid air wrapped around him like a heavy, wet blanket. Alex rocketed toward the jungle below and quickly realized that he was going to have severe difficulty landing.

Snap.

Even as he thought that, Drake sailed past him, snapping his jaws where Alex had just been with his wings unfurled. Alex reached out with one hand and took in a breath of aether. He didn't think. He only acted.

"Steel Wall!"

Bzzt.

The moment it appeared, he pushed against it, sending him sailing toward the passing dragon while kicking the momentarily stationary wall in the opposite direction. Alex reached for a spine, even as Drake's red bulk crashed past him. It would be close, and he wasn't sure he would make it.

Clap.

A hand grabbed hold of his own, and Alex's arm tried to tear away from the sudden change in direction. Alex followed along to see Grayson holding onto him, his teeth clenched as he held onto Alex.

"Abyss, boy, what was that?" he demanded as his hat flew off his head. "Anyone ever tell you, you're insane?"

"Sometimes they call me an idiot." Alex smiled as Grayson reeled him in. "I don't always disagree."

"It's deserved," Grayson said, helping him onto the spine. "Now the real question is where we're at."

"That's what I'd like to know," Alex whispered as he looked out over the horizon.

In the distance stood two mountains. One had a massive mollusk eating its peak, a large shell carved of stone rising into the sky. The other had a mostly intact woman, holding her hands up to the sky with a massive orb suspended above her.

It looked far too familiar, far too similar to the island in Death's Yard.

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