Daeron

  "Go to the main chamber!" I shouted to the squad. "Jump over the debris!"

  We scrambled over the pulverized bedrock of the shattered wall. I carried the crippled Mathilda on my back, my boots slipping on the loose gravel as I pushed my speed to the absolute limit.

  The dragon whipped its massive, spiked tail. The impact shattered a stagmite, dropping a shower of boulders that completely blocked our path forward.

  "Don’t look back!" I yelled, my eyes darting frantically through the settling dust. Through the gloom, I spotted a narrow, jagged fissure leading out of the massive main chamber. "Go this way!"

  I dashed forward, struggling to keep my bance as the ground shook violently beneath us from the dragon's constant thrashing.

  "PATRICE!!!" Kenny screamed.

  I stopped dead in my tracks. Looking over my shoulder, my blood ran cold. Patrice hadn't followed us. She was holding her ground near the rubble, gripping her battleaxe, desperately trying to buy us time by facing down the dragon.

  "PATRICE!" Hoiler yelled, abandoning his retreat and jumping back into the fray to stand beside her.

  "Kenny! Carry Mathilda and head for that tunnel!" I roared at the spearman.

  He turned toward me, completely shaken and paralyzed by fear.

  "COME HERE, NOW!" I bellowed.

  The command snapped him out of his trance. He sprinted toward me, and I quickly transferred Mathilda from my back onto his. "Go! Run to that narrow pathway! Move!" He nodded frantically, adjusting his grip on the elf, and sprinted toward the tunnel.

  Freed of my burden, I dashed back toward Patrice and Hoiler.

  The two rookies were actively dodging and striking the dragon together. Even though their chained attacks were fwlessly coordinated, the massive beast was completely unfazed by their weapons.

  Desperate, both of them ignited their auras. A violent surge of blue energy coated their bodies as they leaped onto the dragon’s sweeping tail, using the momentum to scale up onto its colossal back.

  Damn it! That won't work! "PATRICE! HOILER! STAND BACK!" I shouted, but the deafening rumble of the colpsing cave drowned out my voice.

  I pushed my speed to the maximum, sprinting toward them. Both rookies continuously chained their aura strikes against the dragon’s thick back scales. Annoyed, the beast began to thrash and rumble, trying to shake them off like insects.

  When the spiked tail swung low toward me, I jumped, grabbed hold of the thick scales, and began scaling the beast to reach them.

  But before I could close the distance, the scales along the dragon’s throat began to glow with a terrifying, blinding heat.

  "BOTH OF YOU, JUMP!!!" I roared.

  A millisecond before the fire erupted, Hoiler reacted. He grabbed Patrice by the waist and threw them both off the beast's back, plummeting toward the cavern floor.

  "GROOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!"

  A torrent of dark, scorching fme spewed from the dragon's jaws, washing over its own back where the rookies had just been standing. The sheer heat radiating from the dark fire was suffocating, even from a distance.

  When the dragon realized its prey had jumped, it tilted its head downward, tracking them while the dark fire still fred from its throat.

  I leaped down from the tail, hitting the ground in a dead sprint toward Hoiler, who was gassed out from carrying Patrice.

  Just before the sweeping wave of dark fire reached them, I hit them with a full-body tackle, unching us all sideways. We tumbled hard, managing to take cover behind a thick outcropping of the cavern wall just as the fmes scorched the stone beside us.

  "What the hell are you doing?! Come on! Move!" I yelled, hauling them up.

  Patrice and Hoiler were on the edge of unconsciousness; igniting their auras so aggressively had drained their stamina entirely.

  FUCK! "Listen to me! Catch your breath, then run toward Kenny's position! I’ll distract it."

  "Bu—" Hoiler tried to protest, coughing heavily.

  "DO IT!" I roared.

  Leaving them behind the rock, I jumped out from cover. The dragon was already crawling toward our position, its massive cws gouging the stone. With pure adrenaline taking over my mind, I dashed directly toward its front leg.

  I gathered every ounce of physical strength my body possessed into my right fist, pnted my boots, and unched a devastating, bare-knuckle blow directly into the joint of its leg.

  The impact was sickening. Blood spurted from my knuckles, and the skin on my forearm ripped away under the sheer kinetic friction. But the raw, physical force disturbed the monster's center of gravity. The dragon lost its footing and crashed heavily to the cavern floor.

  Ignoring the searing pain in my arm, I drew my dagger, dashed toward its lowered head, and vaulted high into the air. With a feral shout, I drove the steel bde directly into its glowing eye.

  "GRRRRROOOOWWWLLLLLL!!"

  The beast shrieked in agony. It shook its massive head furiously, the violent whipsh unching me backward through the air, sending me crashing into the very center of the main chamber.

  I rolled through the dirt, struggling to regain my footing. When I looked up, the dragon was already leaping toward me.

  I threw myself sideways, rolling wildly to avoid the crushing impact of its massive cws.

  Despite its colossal size, the dragon's movements were blindingly swift. It relentlessly pressed the attack with sweeping cws and its spiked tail, thrashing through the cavern debris to systematically corner me against the far wall.

  Through the dust, I caught a glimpse of Hoiler carrying Patrice toward the narrow fissure. Good. I successfully lured the dragon far enough away.

  But I had miscalcuted. Dragons are incredibly intelligent creatures with terrifyingly sharp senses. While I jumped back to brace for another strike, the dragon abruptly ignored me and shifted its trajectory toward the tunnel.

  "HOILER!" I shouted with all my might.

  The moment my boots touched the ground, I dashed toward them at top speed.

  A sickening sound of ripping flesh and shattering bone echoed through the cavern. Time seemed to slow to a crawl.

  A massive geyser of blood erupted into the air. My eyes locked onto the small, stout figure who had bravely stepped in front of Hoiler, raising her axe in a desperate attempt to block the sweeping cw.

  Patrice had been cleaved completely in half.

  "PATRIIIIIIIIIICCCCCCE!"

  Hoiler’s desperate, agonizing cry roared through the cavern, echoing off every wall of the massive chamber.

  Driven by pure, unfiltered grief, the blue light around him vanished. A sudden, violent surge of votile Red Aura ignited from his core.

  No. No. No! Patrice! I gritted my teeth, forcing my burning legs to sprint faster.

  In a split second, Hoiler vaulted high into the air, his bde completely engulfed in bzing Red Aura. I caught a glimpse of his face. Tears of blood were raining down his cheeks as he drove his glowing sword deep into the dragon’s neck.

  The dragon unleashed a deafening, shrieking roar of absolute agony.

  Using his falling momentum, Hoiler dragged the bde downward, brutally tearing open the dragon’s thick throat. But a terrifying heat was already building deep within the beast's chest.

  "JUMP!" I screamed.

  For a single, fleeting moment, He looked down at me through the bloody tears... gave a sad, final smile.

  "NO!"

  The dark fire detonated prematurely.

  BAAAAMMMM!!!!

  It exploded outward directly through the gaping wound in the beast's neck, bsting Hoiler at point-bnk range and obliterating his body into ash.

  The shockwave knocked me to my knees. When the smoke cleared, the dragon was still standing, bck blood and dark fire spilling from its exposed throat.