The Angry Lizard

Smoke and dust flooded the dining hall and my vision blurred as a ringing more painful than a banshee's cry echoed in my ears. My throat tightened from the sudden spike in temperature and I gagged on my food accidentally spitting it onto the table.

"Is someone fighting again?" I groaned, wiping my gravy-covered lips with the sleeve of my blue robe and turning to the source of the disturbance. A twenty-foot hole had been blown through the marble wall of the dining hall, but it wasn't the hole that drained the blood from my face. It was the nostrils of the red dragon forcing its way inside..

Splattered blood covered the once pristine floor hidden under the table-sized chunks of stone and mutilated bodies of the students unlucky enough to have been sitting nearby. My stomach churned, forcing the rest of my dinner out and onto my lap as I watched several students crushed under the fractured stone beg for help while clawing at the ground in a futile attempt to get to safety. The few students still standing near the epicenter of the attack frantically tried to help their friends, and a few even had enough sense to use their magic. Most just fled, abandoning the people they had just been sharing a meal with. abandoned their friends. Then there were the ones who were in shock, staring at the carnage and the snout of the dragon in a dazed stupor. Halfway across the dining hall I did the same, my knees trembling and threatening to give out while my brain fought through my terror to comprehend the situation.

"I need to get out of here," I thought, trying to force my legs, or any part of my body to move. But it didn't. I was glued to the spot like the others, paralyzed by the insanity I was witnessing. "This can't be real," my mind reasoned. Dragons inhabited the wastes between the Human realm and the Demon King's territory, hundreds of miles to the south. It was inconceivable that it had made it this far north without anyone spotting it, especially since this was a red dragon, the second largest known breed. Judging by its size it was still a juvenile, but a seventy five foot tall, hundred foot long monster was still dangerous enough to destroy an unprepared city the size of the Humonon capitol.

"Alva!" Remmi screamed as Yssa ripped me from my chair and threw me behind her. Just in time to save me from the searing flame a hundred times more powerful than Yssa's tier three flame spell.

The oxygen in the room vanished as stone melting fire enveloped the room, washing over the three of us, only leaving us intact because Remmi and Yssa had managed to throw up a combined shield spell at the last moment.

Fire enveloped the small bubble barrier that protected the three of us, though the heat was strong enough to make my skin feel like I'd gotten the worst sunburn of my life. My lungs screamed in sharp agony with each oxygen deprived breath I took. Even Yssa and Remmi struggled, panting for the absent air, their eyes glazing from hypoxia while they fought to maintain the thin magic veil keeping us from becoming ash.

Only a blackened wasteland was left when the sea of death finally receded. The tables and chairs had disappeared, not even leaving ash behind. The screaming injured had vanished like they'd never existed. A few dozen survivors lay scattered around us, some struggling to extinguish themselves as the remnants of the dragon's attack cooked them alive. Others were barely breathing charred bodies splayed on the ground. Even Yssa and Remmi had collapsed on their knees from the exhaustion rapidly expending mana caused. Everyone else had just been vaporized. The only students who had come out relatively safely had been the ones directly behind us, their barriers protecting them while our barrier took the brunt of the damage.

The dragon's massive yellow eye stared at us, narrowing in what could only be described as annoyance, but the brief respite had been all Yssa and Remmi had needed. Blinking across the room they flanked the monster, raising their wands in tandem. The tip Yssa's ivory wand shone a blinding white while Remmi's heavy black tungsten wand glowed an artic blue for a fraction of a moment before furious bolt of white lightning and a nearly transparent lance of ice the size of a horse scorched and pierced the dragon's eyes, forcing it reel back in agony with a room shaking roar.

The assault continued as the other survivors and I rushed through the hole in the wall after the geniuses of the school. The dragon was clawing blindly at them, spewing flames in random bursts while spells of every element bit at its thick scales.

Blinding the crimson lizard had been a meager victory when even tier five spells were only scratching it. I joined in with several other students, firing spells from a safe distance with Yssa and Remmi taking the role of vanguard. But we were all exhausted both from the mental toll of the ambush and casting more spells than we would have cast in a month.

"Remmi!" Yssa yelled, panting, her bright crimson ripped and dyed wine red from her injuries, the worst being a deep gash on the shoulder of her casting arm. Her normally sparkling blue eyes were dull and empty; it was a miracle she was still standing. "Take Alva and run."