Farnír's POV

"Today or tomorrow, the world may end. This is the culmination of two lifetimes of effort, practice, and study. If we fail, countless lives will be lost, and Atmosia will wither and die." I stared out over the fields and forests, up at the mountain's peak. Dragon's Hoard, the site of two great battles involving dragons. One of which was lost to time, and one yet to happen.

"So… steady winds then." Nine said. He and I were relaxing. Everything was done now. All the preparations were finished a few hours ago. Now, we needed to rest. We sat and ate some kind of pair-like fruits. He was perched on a small log I'd pulled close to me. My legs were propped up on the other end, and my back rested on the fort's wall.

"You got guard duty later?" I asked.

"No, I already finished it." He said.

"How's your new familiar?"

"She's good. Did I tell you what it was?"

"No."

"It's a Salamander, if you can believe it."

"Oh, wow. Isn't that a pretty good one. I remember fighting a noble that had one once."

"Yes, it is a very high quality familiar."

"Where is it?"

"The tunnel."

"Oh… sorry." I said.

"No, if it can slow the dragon down more, the having high quality familiars is exactly what we need." He said. "So, when do you think it will happen?"

"At any time. Once the dragon breaks free, the signal spell will be cast, and everything begins." I said.

"Will there be any… I don't know… warning?" Nine wondered.

"Well, last time the portal opened, it was really loud. We may be able to hear it. But we have Neame in the tunnel watching, so we'll know immediately."

"Good. Every second counts."

"You know, I've always wanted to ask about this. How do Neame know about seconds and stuff? How do you measure time here?"

"What do you mean? We just… do." He said. I pulled out my phone, and told him to count to ten seconds, and I would time him. I did, and he was almost exactly right. Then I did a minute, then five. Every time he was right.

"That is so cool." I laughed. About then, Suma flew up.

"Nine, Captain Gigoales has requested to see you at storage dugout one." Suma said.

Nine sighed, said goodbye, and flew away. "Hey Suma, wanna rest for a moment with me?"

"That sounds nice." She said, and perched on my shoulder. At some point, she and I drifted off to sleep in the grass.

I had an unusual dream. One of being a cloud, drifting behind a boat. Nearby, a song was being sung, but since I didn't have ears, I couldn't really hear it anymore. I just knew there was singing. And I knew the person singing was sad.

"Farnír!" Suma yelled in my ear, startling me awake. I jolted, and fell to my side. She fluttered off quickly and landed on the ground.

"Frick! Ow Suma. My ear." I complained.

"The dragon is coming! Right now!" She yelled. Horrified, I looked up into the sky, expecting to see the blue and green flames that were the signal of the portal's opening, but the sky was clear. Only the normal orange with a few pink clouds.

"What? But the signal isn't-"

"Zachariah is dead." She said simply, urgently. "I know it." I felt a flash of confusion, then sadness, then fear.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Certain." She had a deadly serious look in her eyes that made me trust her. Without hesitation, I cast the signal spell into the sky, and the flames danced. Other spells were cast all over the base in response. It was time. The fort erupted into chaos as every Neame was awoken and began to report to their designated locations. I summoned Chariot, and Suma flew to the healer's tents. Just as I got into the air, a sound like ten thousand thunder cracks rang out from the direction of the tunnel, and the trees and blue grass shook below as the ground shook. The air filled with the panicked and rushed squawking of thousands of Neame racing against time. Chariot doesn't turn quickly, so I was not dodging anyone on the flight there. Instead, they flew around me, and one poor Neame got caught up in the wind tunnel and flung out of the bottom. He was okay. The same thing happened to Nine, and he was alright. I landed at my position, an overlook with the rest of my squad, near the tunnel. Dozens of Neame circled above us, hundreds of feet in the air. The chatter of orders being given out faded into the background as the thumping of my heart filled my ears until than started ringing. I summoned my armor, shield, and new handaxe with a spell to prevent healing magic that myself, Ciel, and Sela-Car finished yesterday. I placed the axe on my hip, just in case, but summoned Destiny to my hand. And then, we waited.

"Do you feel that?" Lieutenant Datahu asked, looking a bit uneasy.

"That is a lot of mana." Twenty, one of the newest team members, said.

"Is that from the dragon? It does not feel right." Ungi, the other newest member, said.

"That does not feel like Farnír's mana, or normal mana." Captain Gigoales said. "It is more like a daljar."

"Neutral Aether." I said. "The portal is open." My mind flashed with images of what was likely happening. If the plan was working, then the moment he emerged from the portal every familiar down their would open fire. Of course, they'd be nearly instantly killed. But then he'll move towards the nearest opening, straight into the kill box; where more familiars, and runes, and traps awaited. They will all fail to stop him of course, but they will hurt him, make him burn through mana, make him heal himself, and some would even absorb the ambient mana directly. From the tunnel, we all heard the sounds of distant explosions, cracks of lightning, screeching; a battle was being waged.

"BLOW IT!" Someone near the tunnel yelled as the sounds of devastation got closer. Multiple runes were activated, and the tunnel collapsed. He'll need to heal himself, and use magic to dig his way out. That was it, the last line of defense before his escape. Now was the time.

The earth split, erupting upwards with a violent fury, like a chasm opened. A purple light emanated from between the cracks. "Begin ritual spells!" Another voice called out from somewhere behind me. Multiple voices began to chant various spells. It would take time before they would be able to activate. But so far, everything was going according to plan.

And then we all heard it. Emanating from just below the ground, a roar. Not from injury, or fury. This was triumph. Victory. He was claiming it before the battle had even begun. And from the cracks, a single massive claw jutted up. Then another. Slowly, he rose from the ground, like a corpse coming back from the dead. He looked like one too. His skin was gone. We did not see scales or hide, only the muscles and tendons. We watched his blue blood pump through his body, up his mangled arms, to the rising head, and then to the raised wings. Quickly, his scaled began to regrow, almost in the blink of an eye. And we were frozen, all of us. Too terrified to speak, or move. Until one single Neame, very near the front of the formation, almost at the foot of the dragon, called out a single command.

"All squads! Attack!"

Seemingly, everyone was shaken out of their terror at once, and those thousands of Neame opened fire with so many spells that the dragon was nearly hidden by the dust they kicked up on impact. Occasionally, the dust and smoke would be blown aside by an impact, revealing the freshly re-mangled form of the dragon. His limbs broken, wings torn off, face burnt away. But each time this happened, the old injuries would be gone and replaced, like the old ones were only ever an illusion waiting to be changed once the smoke covered him again.

"Railguns!" King Hidra called out. Before now, the dragon had not bothered to cast a single defensive spell, but the moment our railgun barrage began, he made his first move. Without a word, he cast a spell, not unlike the one I use. All of the attacks that had been ripping into him before were either stopped dead, or pushed to the side. As soon as the first Railgun was cast, it was stopped. Not immediately, but before making contact with him. And then, he spoke his first words.

"Ah, so you learned of magnetism while I was away? How impressive. And the power of those spells! Good! Very good indeed!" He swung his massive head, glaring out into the crowd that surrounded him. Then he looked at me, and stopped. "Farnír… did you teach them this? Then watch me. I shall teach them a lesson of my own."

"He's casting spells! Five total! Be ready!" Chancellor Aye-Aron said through a massive psychic spell. It was like an announcement to every creature within range.

"ROT!"

Five castings of one spell; it devastated the first wave. Our vanguard of over a thousand close combat familiars and who knows how many Neame began to whither and scream. But that attack was the signal we'd expected, trained for. The moment it happened, the floodgates opened and the Neame took to the sky. All those Neame, which had been in perfect formations surrounding the dragon broke ranks and started attacking. The dragon can cast spells in a wide area, so staying bunched up was suicide. It reminded me of what I saw on The Island Sangu Dragon, when Harbinger invaded with her army. A cloud of Neame filled the sky, pulsating in and out, spells being fired at every angle. But instead of going in all directions, each spell had a single target, right at the center of the swarm. I summoned Chariot and took to the air too. But without the maneuverability of a Neame, my role was different. A group of us, seven total, all who'd learned Railgun, spread out so that we couldn't be caught in the Rot spells as a whole, and began to open fire.

Parts of the cloud of Neame fell to the ground dead as they unknowingly flew into the dragon's spell, and left massive areas the rest began to avoid. "Railgun!" I said, and launched an attack. It hit the dragon, who had to shift his focus to defend against attacks from all angles. That was the major flaw of the magnet shield spells, they can defend your whole body all at once, but that would eat through mana reserves too quickly, even for a dragon. Knowing him, he'd figured that out, and had switched to relying on his healing to tank most of the damage, and using small amounts of magnetism to defend against the big spells. Which is why we had to rely on numbers to distract him, and overwhelm his defenses. He can cast five spells. That's one for healing, and four small magnet shields at most. In the distance, I saw the others fire theirs as well, all at the same time, just like we'd practiced.

Seven cracks of thunder, three strikes. One very injured dragon. "AHHHHHH!" He yelled in pain for the first time. Entrance holes the size of ball bearings, but exit holes bigger than human bodies. A quarter of his body was annihilated but it hardly slowed him down. Instead, it caught his undivided attention. He opened his mouth and a magic circle appeared in front of it. I shot another Railgun, as did the others. Black flames leapt from Neame to Neame, burning a path through them. Some were fully incinerated, other were only partially caught in the blast, and fell to the earth below; probably dying on impact. I saw more than one get bisected by the flames. Half their body turned to ash, and the other falling. He wasn't aiming at me though, but at the closest of the group, everyone else was just in the way. The flames caught him, named Tuttugu, one I'd named personally. I felt our connection severed in an instant. By the time the flames disappeared, there was nothing left of him.

Then the dragon opened his wings wide and beat them down so hard the closest of the Neame got caught in the suddenly generated downdraft and hit the ground. He took to the sky slowly, but not for long. Now it was time for step two. Just as he focused his attention on the biggest threats, the Neame who got names and made familiars, but couldn't learn the Railgun spell in time moved in. Bolts of lightning larger than any Neame had probably ever cast before struck the dragon's flank and wings, temporarily paralyzing him. He seized, and fell back to the ground with a heavy impact. He head cracked the ground hard, and I took the shot. Well, we all did. The remaining six of us fired for his head, a deathblow. But each was stopped midair. All of the attacks were suddenly being stopped. He'd recast a full body magnet shield spell.

"Dang it!" I yelled. That was probably going to be our best shot, and I doubted we'd get another like it. He slowly rose, healing fully. Those chunks of flesh we'd torn off, burned, and shocked back to normal.

And then, an announcement came through our minds, "The Chaos Dragon's total mana has been reduced by ten percent."

I couldn't help but think, (All that for ten percent?) Looking around, we'd lost a fifth of our forces in that skirmish; mostly to the dragon's initial Rot spells. I could only imagine how hopeless this fight would have been if we'd tried to fight him fresh from the portal. If we'd tried our first plan of desperately trying to keep him in the portal rather than fighting him here after draining him of mana, we'd be dead already.

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"Four spells incoming!" The voice said, and we all began evasive maneuvers. I pushed Chariot hard, rolling to the left and back. The others did something similar, but faster.

"Betray!" The dragon said. Suddenly, some of the Neame started to turn on themselves, firing spells wildly at one another. This caused confusion and broke the swarm, forcing the Neame to spread out to deal with those under the dragon's control. But my team never stopped firing, landing four more solid blows on the dragon. He'd protected his head, and other vital organs, but we managed to blow off his arm, leg, trail, and wing. But it didn't matter. The heat was off him for just a moment, and that is all he needed. He beat his one wing, and his stump, and took to the sky I full.

"They're for show?" I said aloud.

"Alert, the Chaos Dragon is airborne! He is using magic to fly! Move to phase three!"

"Farnír!" A voice in my head called. "Get clear!" Then I felt it, a tingling as all the hair on my body stood on end. It wasn't fear though… it was static electricity. Banking hard, I dived down and away. Then pushed mana into my armor, just in case I needed some healing. The dragon noticed it too, but also too late. The others were faster, so I had to rely on them for this part as I frantically tried to move. I heard them though, four cracks of thunder, and then five, six, nine, fifteen. I turned and saw a lightning storm of at least twenty bolts all strike the dragon at once.

The dragon was knocked out of the sky. Bolts of electricity arched around his body like it was trapped though. He'd tried to put a shield up again, but that much lightning punched right through. He fell and fell, cooked and burst in places like popcorn. But he didn't hit the ground. He started to heal before ever landing, and righted himself before impact. His attention turned to the east, where many of the ritual spells were being cast, like the one that just lit him up. He pointed himself at them and flew, ignoring all the attacks along the way. But then I noticed, he wasn't really ignoring them. They weren't hitting anymore. He was keeping the shield up around his whole body. I leveled out of the dive, and cast a spell to increase my speed to keep up with the dragon, who was rapidly getting faster.

"SUMA!" I called through our connection.

"Farnír! Are you okay? I can hear the fighting-"

"Tell them the dragon is flying for the east ritual circles! They hurt him, and he's going to take them out!"

"Right! Yes!" She said.

I thought about firing another Railgun, but knew it wouldn't work. "The dragon's mana has reduced to seventy-five percent." The voice called out psychically. East ritual units, be advised, the dragon is moving to you by air from the South."

"Think Farnír! Think! What were all those physics classes for if you can't figure out a way past a magnetic field?" I said to myself. "Railgun can't break it, it absorbs fire, and redirects everything else… wait!" I got an idea. I couldn't break his shield, but I can warp it. One powerful magnetic field can warp another. My shield can beat his… maybe. I cast my own spell, but instead of surrounding myself with it, I put it in front of me. I couldn't feel anything, but something seemed to catch his attention, because the dragon's head whipped around towards me.

"WHAT?" He yelled, confused. I cast a fireball using my Chaos Magic and caught him directly on the spine. He roared and started to fall from the sky. I saw him struggle over something, look confused, then glare at me. "Inversion mana?! You insect! I can't fly!" Unfortunately, caught in the warped magnetic field, the same was true for Chariot; I undid the seatbelt and jumped.

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Suma's POV

"Another wave of injured! Clear the dead and make room!" One of the other healers said. There was a nearly constant inflow of two things in our tents right now: filled daljars and the mortally wounded. As for outflow, that mostly consisted of empty daljars and the dead. The Chaos Dragon left few with injuries that my constitutes could heal. Which left the burden of healing the most fatally injured to me. Two of them had already given up on trying to heal, and focused solely on either fetching daljars for me, or giving me their mana to keep up with demand. I could not regrow their lost limbs like Farnír could, but he had taught me how to treat the Rot spell's effects. And as of now, there was no shortage of those suffering from them.

Just as I finished with one Neame, two more would take their place. "SUMA!" Farnír called through our connection.

"Farnír! Are you okay? I can hear the fighting-" I tried to say, but he seemed to be in a panic.

"Tell them the dragon is flying for the east ritual circles! They hurt him, and he's going to take them out!"

"Right! Yes!" I said. "You!" I called to one of my assistant healers. "Take a message to the communicators at once. The dragon is flying for the East ritual casters."

"How do you-"

"At once!" I yelled, resuming treatment one the injured Neame. One had lost all of his feathers to the spell, and the other was nearly burnt to a crisp. In the end, there was nothing I could do. They both died, and were replaced by more. "Please… please survive." I whispered, frustrated. "There must be something I can do."

"There is."

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Farnír's POV

"All that mana, and so powerful at that, yet you lack skill." The dragon said, rising from the ground. He'd fallen hard, broken bones jutted from his body. Chariot was just as bad off. It had slammed into the ground and broken to pieces. All that was left was twisted metal and shattered runes. I used the spell that creates updrafts to land safely, and then summoned all my upgraded Jericho armor and Aegis shield. Then, I summoned a weapon, Destiny, and hoped all the new runes would work. "More weapons? Did he not give you the memories of how that went last time?"

"You still talk too much." I said.

"I could take you home, you know. Back to your world. Once I cleanse this one, end this foolish experiment, I can study the portal and we can both leave. Do you want to die here? On this false world?"

"Do you?" I readied my stance, and charged by runes till just under their activation point.

He snorted. "Two lifetimes, two faces, same arrogance. But there is no portal for you to drag me into this time."

"Alert, the dragon landed just short of the East ritual circles. All units, converge!" The voice called out.

"They squawk so loudly. Do they not?"

"You have no hope of winning." I said, trying to psych him out.

"Why?" He laughed. "Because you taught a few of them about magnetism? Tell me, how far has your world come? That spell was rather complex. Have your people finally learned to tap into Aether naturally? Have you begun exploring its limits?"

"A thousand years of isolation sure made you chatty." I said, hoping back up arrived quickly. I really didn't want to fight him alone.

"And yet these creatures have fallen. Look at them. I saw those marks. You even went and made them your familiars. How many do you have now? A dozen or two? Or are you their king? They could do worse."

"Fire!" A voice yelled, and multiple spells impacted the dragon. His legs were tied up by vines, and his tail was severed. Then he was struck by fire and spears of ice along his back and head. I recognized the tactic. I'd seen two Neame I'd named, Sjau and Átta, do it multiple times in training. They couldn't learn Railgun, but did get a lot stronger and faster. The dragon barely reacted. Instead of casting a spell, he waited and watched them closely. I'd seen this look before, and a pit formed in my stomach.

"Stay back!" I yelled, but it was too late. Átta, a younger Neame with pale blue feathers, dived close to do another blast of fire, but she didn't have a chance. The dragon swept out one of its claws and sliced her into three pieces.

"Átta!" Sjau yelled, but was smacked out of the air by a crack of the dragon's other claw. He hit the ground in a splatter of blood and skipped like a rock on a lake against the ground. A trail of blood and feathers marked his path as he went.

"And now the master." The dragon said, opening his mouth and creating a magic circle again. I raised Aegis, and knelt behind it as the runes activated. A wall of air like a cushion was created, and intercepted the black fire that roared toward me. It hit, and began to slowly push the cushion back. I expected it to be hot, expected the air around me to heat up and sizzle, but no. Frost formed on the ground, and a chill hit my skin. The attack ended, "Ah, right. Your Inversion mana is still inside me. Even after a thousand years I cannot escape this curse." Then I noticed it. A burn. Not on me, but him. Where I'd struck him with my fireball earlier, he was still burned. In fact, it and his tail, looked rotten. The bones he'd broken in the fall never healed, but had turned brown and cracked. Even the burns and punctures from Sjau and Átta's attacks looked bad; festering despite being fresh wounds. In that moment, I saw a way to win.

"Railgun!" I said, casting the spell and aiming for nonvital areas. But he knew what I was doing. The bearing stopped, and fell to the ground. Two bolts of lightning hit the shield as well from behind, a massive bolt of fire, and then two more Railguns.

"Farnír, we're here!" Nine called out. In the sky, I saw Nine, Lieutenant Datahu, Captain Gigolaes, Lauric, and Suma.

"Squad, formation three!" The Captain ordered.

"He can't heal anymore!" I told Suma though our connection, casting another Railgun spell.

"I will tell them." She answered.

Formation three was simple. I kept the enemy's attention and they strike from the shadows. Now it was a battle against time. Would we run out of mana before he did, or would he work my mana out of his system before the battle ended?

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Suma's POV

We dove into the forest, using the shadows and flora to our advantage. This is what we trained for… more or less. Farnír told me the dragon cannot heal. I needed to find either the Captain or Lieutenant to let them know. And I thanked Ashem that Queen Ompera sent more aid to the tent so that I could come help Farnír. I was shocked to see her in the tent, but more so to see so many healers arrive with her. Apparently, many of the other tents and injuries were being redirected to ours since we were closest to the East, and they were expecting more inured soon.

"They need a skilled healer on the battlefield. Go, at once." She said, and I did.

Weaving in and out of the trees, I followed our pattern, and cast another Crimson Bolt as I flew up from the canopy. It was only a glimpse, but I saw Farnír's battle. It was like watching two dragon's duel. Neither could land a clean it on one another, but the surrounding environment was being destroyed. As the dragon began to dodge Farnír's attacks rather than block them, he would move behind boulders for cover, only to have them blown apart by Farnír's spells. The dragon would retaliate with black flames or powerful swipes of his claws, by they would be stopped by Farnír's runes, armor, or even his own spells. Instead, the ground was torn apart, leaving craters behind.

Diving back into the canopy, I spotted movement. It was Captain Gigoales! I flew after him, and called out. Using telepathy, he contacted me. "You are out of formation, Specialist!"

"The dragon cannot heal anymore!"

"What?" We flew by one another through the forest, not slowing down. "I understand. Squad, switch to formation seven. Farnír will keeping holding off the dragon, we are going to get more aggressive. It has lost its ability to heal." He nodded and switched direction, and so did I. Formation seven was similar to three, but with tighter attack patterns and less stealth.

I heard two cracks of lightning in the distance, but then passed Lieutenant Datahu moving in the opposite direction. There was no way Captain Gigoales got there so quickly, so it must have been Nine. Out of the corner of my eye, as darted out of the forest and cast another Crimson Bolt, I saw the Lieutenant creating a golem, and setting it on the dragon. It was not large, and was just made from vines and mud, but she must have thought it would make for a good distraction. Just then, I felt a massive swell of mana from Farnír and the dragon. "Nine, get higher!" The Captain said through the telepathic connection. Just then, a burst of force exploded, destroying a large swath of the forest in the other direction. It made a clearing of felled trees and torn dirt. My blood ran cold, as I quickly flew out to check on everyone. Farnír lost a leg in that exchange, but it was regrowing. The dragon lost both of its wings now, and had holes punched through its entire body.

"Suma! Stay in formation!" The Captain called.

"Dodge Suma!" Farnír yelled. And then I saw a blast of black flames leaping toward me. I closed my eyes, expecting the worst, but it never came. When I opened them again, I was surrounded by flame. It arched and faded away. Farnír had his hand outstretched, casting a barrier around me. He also had the dragon's claw piercing through his shield, armor, and body.

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Farnír's POV

I was impaled, but Suma was okay. Nine was too far, I couldn't save him. Hopefully he was okay, but the dragon cast some kind of powerful airburst… Being impaled really hurts by the way. Like, a lot. Blood poured from my mouth, stomach, even my butt. Blocking all of these attacks was draining my mana fast, but I think the same is true for him. He was blocking more after all. I tried to pour mana into my armor, but it was shredded, the runes unusable at this point. Even the mana channels I'd added were destroyed before I really got to use them.

"Now you die." The dragon said, the wounds on his body slowly starting to heal. I guess I got my answer, he worked on my mana before he ran out altogether.

"Maybe, but you made a serious mistake."

"Oh? Will you make some final speech about how you will protect your master until your dying breath? Because if so, rest assured… you have already taken it." The dragon said.

"No, you just shouldn't have gotten so close." I said, and grabbed the axe from my belt. When I filled my armor and shield with mana, it filled up too. With one swing, I buried it up to the handle into his arm.

"Hahahaha!" He laughed, not realizing what I'd done. "Is that all? A feeble last attempt to slay me with this?"

He flung me off his claw and sent me flying. I expected to slam into the ground, but didn't. Instead, I felt something warm grab me. When I managed to focus my eyes, I saw Captain Gigoales had caught me with mana wrapping and was carrying me into the forest. Suma found us there too. She flew up and landed beside me.

"Farnír!" She said, and immediately started healing my wounds. My armor was wrecked, my body spent, but at least I would be fine. I sat up, and heard the dragon. He was mocking us.

"All that effort, gone to waste. What? NO!" He cried out, realizing what my axe, with runes that prevented the use of healing magic, did to him.

"Got em." I smirked.

"He's casting a spell." The Captain said urgently.

"Wait, he is flying away." Suma added.

"Is he retreating?" I asked. Lieutenant Datahu found us about then, and landed nearby.

"Our forces will not be able to intercept him. Too many of them were injured in the initial attack." Datahu said.

"What about the other ritual casters? Can they reach him?" Suma asked.

"Not from this distance. Only East could, and they have yet to recover after their last strike." The Captain said.

"How high is he?" I asked, summoning my bow and the atomic arrow.

The Captain glanced up, towards the dragon. He knew what this arrow was, and why I was asking. "Very. And getting higher and further. He is flying away extremely quickly. He will be over the horizon in less than a minute." I stepped out of the forest and looked up. He was barely a dot in the sky now. He knew what we did, and that this battle was lost. "If he escapes, we will never be able to beat him again."

"Everyone! Seek cover! Shield yourself with stone immediately!" The Captain said using telepathy. Though, I think he said it to everyone within range, not just us. I took solace in the fact that anyone in the fort would be okay behind its walls.

I pulled out one of my last few ball-bearings, and used magic to mold it to the arrowhead. Then knocked the arrow. The two sets of runes from the bow and the arrow activated. And I cast a spell… Railgun. Taking aim at the dragon, and running the magnetic trail all the way too him, the Captain chimed in, "He just cast that shielding spell again."

"Everyone… look away." I said, and loosed the arrow. It fired from the bow with a deafening crack of thunder. The moment it was fired, the Captain created a barrier of stone between us and the explosion.

Using magic, I guided the arrow. Even with my eyes closed, I could almost see it fly through the air at supersonic speed, and hit his shield spell. A few moments passed, and all the shadows around disappeared. Except the one cast by the stone that our team was taking cover behind. Then came the explosion. My eardrums burst despite the fact that I was covering my ears and wearing a padded helmet. I cast a healing spell on all of us, and by then, the light had faded. Everyone had blood trickling from their heads, Suma and the Captain had fallen to the ground stunned. But we were alive. I looked up, and saw pulsating lights like an arura filling that section of the sky, and a cloud of flame like a pillar rising.

"Not even a dragon could…" The Lieutenant mumbled.

"Agreed. Nothing could survive that." I said.

"I think she was going to saw 'do' not 'survive.'" The Captain said, righting himself.

"Is it over?" Suma asked.

I looked to the fading form of the mushroom cloud… "Yeah. It's over."

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