Carlos stared open-mouthed at the vision his scrying spell was showing him. High enough in the sky above to look like a gaming miniature figure from the ground, the majestic winged creature flew with deceptively little motion. Its leathery wings, extending dozens of feet to either side of its body, mostly held steady, adjusting course with minor changes in angle and only occasionally flapping. Its silver scales shone in the sun, daylight reflecting off of them like they were metal. Each scale was tiny, and they fit together in a wonderfully flexible overlapping mesh. Its neck seemed almost like a particularly shiny snake as it bent in one direction after another, letting the creature's head look at whatever it chose without unduly disrupting its flight path.

Its four legs, two front and two back, were tucked in tight to its body in flight, but they looked strong and had sharp claws. A long tail lazily trailed behind it, fluttering in the wind of its own aerial wake. At the front, its head held a jaw filled with sharp teeth. Two slits for nostrils sat above the mouth, with a pair of eyes a little higher and farther back. All of it exuded menace and power, seeming to promise death to anything that dared oppose it—though that impression might have been influenced by the mana pressure it was exerting on everything in the area.

Carlos blinked a few more times, then snapped his mouth shut and shook himself. He turned to Lorvan, who was standing as straight and ready as ever in their little concealed hollow, and with a wave of his hand, he conjured an image of what he was seeing. "Just to make sure, um… Is that a dragon?"

Lorvan nodded immediately. "Yes. Do you still want me to attempt to fight it?"

Carlos hastily shook his head and waved his hands in denial. "No, no, I'm already convinced you'd be terribly outclassed. But, um, can you tell me anything about its capabilities and the best tactics for fighting it?" He looked around at the rest of the hollow and raised his voice. "Actually, that goes for all of you. Any information or advice for fighting a dragon?"

"Haha!" Haftel caught himself and settled into a grave expression. "Lord Carlos, with respect: Kid, any adventurer worth the name would give you only one piece of advice for fighting a dragon. 'Don't do it. Run. Run and pray that it doesn't care enough to bother chasing you.' Fighting dragons is for fools and, well, for nobles. If anyone here has the kind of advice that nobles give to their own, it would be only the royal guards."

Carlos stared at him and raised an eyebrow quizzically. "Wouldn't people just respawn? Even if death is almost certain, that seems a bit extreme."

"You really haven't heard?" Haftel cocked his head, then shrugged. "Okay, I guess this is your day to learn. If a dragon eats you, sure you'll respawn, but you'll be missing more than just one level. A lot more. And you'll be sore and aching in your soul for weeks. It's the kind of thing that can turn someone off of adventuring entirely. So, since you're apparently an unlucky bastard who has to fight one, make sure you win. And for that…" He shrugged again. "I hope Lorvan has something for you, and that all your noble… stuff… works out for you. Good luck, and all that."

"Thanks, I think." Carlos turned back to Lorvan. "So, got anything for me?"

Amber interrupted before Lorvan could respond. "You– you've at least heard that they can breathe fire, right?"

Carlos arched an eyebrow at her, silently reminding her that he was literally from another world, even as he pretended nonchalance in his answer. "Well yes, of course, but I don't know what parts of what I've heard are factual and what parts are just rumor and legend. Lorvan?"

Colonel Lorvan cleared his throat. "I can tell you the standard briefing that royal guards are given about dragons, but I don't know if it will meaningfully help you." He paused briefly for Carlos to nod his understanding, then started reciting. "Dragons are fearsome foes, fit only for nobles to fight at remotely equal levels. Even for reaper class creatures, dragons are exceptional, flying at the very peak. A force of royal guards may be a match for a dragon, but only if they both out-level and outnumber the dragon significantly. Dragons…"

While one of Carlos's minds interrogated Lorvan about dragons, another continued focusing on actually watching the dragon, so he noticed and reacted immediately when the dragon's serpentine head suddenly moved to look directly at his scrying sensor. He hastily withdrew his spell to a much farther distance, just in time to escape a grasping talon of essence that lashed out from the dragon and tried to grab the spell. He couldn't see the large intake of breath that immediately followed, but the sound that came next could not possibly be missed.

An angry buzzing rumble filled the air like a dozen crashes of thunder combined. The mighty roar echoed across the landscape, carrying wisps of mana with it, and Carlos almost shivered as the rumble pierced through his senses and into his mind. He felt a spike of what felt like pure distilled panic trying to hammer its way into his soul, but he was tempted to laugh when he realized his mental inverter was kicking in, transforming the actual effect into incongruous determination and resolve. Maybe I should even leave it be? Then again, it's pretty potent. Oof, Level 59, and feels more hard-packed than even the royal guards' souls. If I give it too much time, it might actually dig its way through the decoy layer to my actual soul. … And it might give the dragon a connection to find me by. My essence is still packed more strongly than this, but no point taking chances. He unceremoniously evicted the spike and outright dismissed his scrying spell, electing to instead just ask Purple to share his senses of the developments. Purple, for his part, had been hit more directly and comprehensively by the roar's effect, but had quickly shrugged it off and was busily skipping between various aether absorption paths.

"Dragons' roars strike fear into the souls of any who hear."

When Lorvan got to that point in his recitation, Carlos mentally checked it off. Yup, experienced that one already. Good thing my soul is so sturdy and resilient. He watched through Purple's senses as the dragon continued trying to track where all the aether was going, but Purple kept dancing one step ahead of the dragon's searches, abandoning and cutting lines just as the dragon found them. To any senses not tuned to the various forms of mana, nothing much was happening; the dragon flew in circles high above, craning its head in various directions and occasionally roaring, but that was all.

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With no pressing need for immediate action, Carlos took a step back and started planning. "Alright, it seems clear that anyone not noble will be only a liability in this fight. Kindar… well, you can try if you want, but it will be a big risk for you. Everyone else, stay out of it. Even Esmorana—I wouldn't put it past this thing to track your wind techniques back to you and out-speed your retreat. Got it?" He looked around, and everyone nodded solemnly. He nodded back, then took a deep breath. "Now then, for Amber and I…"

Purple managed to delay the dragon with false leads long enough for Carlos, Amber, Kindar, and himself to all reach Level 49 after about an hour. They waited a few more minutes to let their souls settle and adjust for the new level of power, and then it was time to strike. Carlos felt not the least bit inclined to fight fair against a reaper-class monster 10 levels above him, and an old term from his gaming days had come to mind: "scry and die."

He and Amber recast their scrying spells for a direct view of the mighty scaled beast and immediately reached their mana through it to form blades of invisible force. The spells took form in an instant and flew for the dragon from either side, but the dragon reacted quickly. It rotated in the air and took the hits on its strongly-armored body instead of its relatively vulnerable wings. Carlos and Amber tried once more, this time from ahead and behind, but the dragon responded instantly and much more viciously. Its head shot forward on its long neck to let its deadly jaw snap shut on the forward force blade, overwhelming the spell with sheer power, and simultaneously its tail slapped down on the rear force blade with crushing strength. Both spells shattered before they could even try to cut anything, and Carlos winced in unison with Amber.

"They are both strong and dangerously clever. If you use the same attack against a dragon repeatedly, the dragon will learn to counter it."

Carlos cursed under his breath as part of Lorvan's warnings echoed in his mind. "I suppose 'twice' minimally qualifies as 'repeatedly.' Alright, we're going to have to get to where we can cast without going through a limited channel like that. Kindar, if you really want to fight this thing yourself, now is the time. The dungeon will help you, but honestly, you'd be doing well to just distract it."

The young swordsman adopted a defensive stance, tower shield held high and forward as he hovered with the Flight spell Carlos had already cast on him. "I'm ready. Send me."

"They breathe fire fit to melt enchanted steel. Their claws are as sharp as the finest sword. Worst of all, consumption by a dragon inflicts injuries to the soul, and even a sizable group of royal guards will likely take casualties against a dragon. It is usually best to retreat, report, and call for appropriate noble action."

Carlos hesitated, the last of Lorvan's warnings running on repeat in his head. Before he could snap out of it, Amber beat him to the punch. The essence net of a Teleport spell wrapped around Kindar, and he vanished.

Carlos kept watch through both Purple's shared senses and his own scrying spell, waiting for an opportune moment of distraction to take advantage of. Two dozen winged horses and their riders flew up from the trees to challenge the dragon, Purple's elite minions full-size this time, and their weight borne aloft more by magic than by their wings.

The armored pegasus-riders ascended above the treetops and began their assault immediately with a volley of enchanted arrows. The dragon just beat its wings once, almost contemptuously, and a powerful gust of wind blew the entire volley off course. Even a few of the pegasi were blown about and struggled to rejoin their compatriots. The rest tried one more volley, then settled into a flying wall with lances set to charge.

Carlos nudged Purple with a reminder of the royal guards' advice, plus a suggestion, and Purple expanded his domain into the sky to cover the area of the fight. An exertion of the dungeon's will overlaid the aerial battle, and suddenly things changed. The pegasi picked up speed, and their riders leaned closer into the wind, accelerating as if they were suddenly charging down instead of up.

The dragon tumbled wildly for a moment, but then its wings snapped out in a new posture, and its position stabilized. It glared at the onrushing dungeon monsters. Then the dragon's nostrils flared, its chest expanded, and suddenly the air was fire, even at the hundreds of feet of distance that the pegasi still had to cross. Carlos winced at the intensity of the light, even observed through a scrying spell. He watched with bated breath as the fire blazed, but then it stopped after only a couple seconds. The fire cleared, revealing the wall of pegasus-riders unscathed and continuing their charge.

Purple's voice rang in his mind, calm but tense. [My domain control and the super-heavy-duty temperature wards handled that, but it still took a big chunk out of my mana reserves. And I got the feeling the dragon wasn't trying particularly hard.]

The dragon's eyes narrowed, its chest swelled again, and Carlos dimmed his view through the scrying spell just in time to avoid being blinded by the incredible brilliance of the white-hot flames that erupted from the dragon's mouth. The dragon looked much more focused on the effort than before, and with a quick nod exchanged with Amber, Carlos teleported himself to a spot a thousand feet above the dragon and the same distance to its left. Amber teleported at the same time to a spot equally distant on the dragon's other side. Both of them hovered in the air, surrounded by transparent bubbles of force.

Carlos squinted, trying and failing to make out anything through the glare of the dragon's fire that just kept going, and going, and going. He managed to feel the essence of a pegasus and its rider wink out, a fraction of it streaming to its killer. Then another one died, and another, and several more faltered in their course. Still the flames continued, and more and more pegasi died or fell out of formation even as those that remained drew closer.

Carlos got a light filter spell in place just in time to see the lead rider finally break out of the flames and reach the dragon. A rider with no mount, he still flew, his enormous tower shield held in front where it bore the brunt of the fire. Instead of a lance in his right hand, he held a sword, and he thrust forward straight into the dragon's mouth. It was Kindar. Any ordinary sword seemed a laughable weapon against such an opponent, but Kindar's sword extended to 8 feet long as he struck toward the inside of the dragon's mouth.

For an instant, it seemed like the gambit might work, but then the dragon jerked its head back before the sword's tip could cut it. Then the dragon snarled and snapped at Kindar and lashed out with the talon of its right front leg, scoring deep rents into Kindar's tower shield. The dragon tore off a third of the reinforced and enchanted shield with one brutal strike, then slammed the remaining portion so hard that Kindar careened 50 feet before he could regain control.

The dragon continued its snarling, mixed with a relatively quiet roar, and something about the sounds tickled at Carlos's mind. That's too complex and sometimes quiet for just a threat display. Is it…? After another moment, his comprehension aid fed him words.

"Where is your master, whelp? Your absorption is but a fraction of the theft!"

Carlos paused, stunned at the revelation that dragons had a language. Amber, however, continued with her planned battle tactics. With the dragon distracted, she cast a full-power Force Bubble around the dragon, then shrank it as much as she could.

The dragon's limbs all lashed out at once, making the Force Bubble's compression slam to a halt against the dragon's front legs, rear legs, wings, tail, and neck. It turned its head to glare up at Amber.

"Trying to crush me? Insolence! You are not Sandaras."

The dragon flexed everything at once, shoving its mana against the Force Bubble as well, and the spell tore apart.

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