Taking on a Bully...?!

Nullawhy was waiting for them by the edge of the village, standing calmly with her arms crossed before her mostly red and yellow dress.

"I heard... so is it Grasis?"

"Yes..."

Lygawa said with great annoyance.

"And he's as tough as always..."

"Well it was nice while it lasted..."

Nullawhy slumped in her stance.

"What?"

The two looked very dejected, while Mai was stunned, seeing both in that state.

"So what's going to happen now?"

"Grasis is undefeated, so we move on elsewhere... while we can."

"Just like that... we have to go?"

Mai didn't believe her eyes or ears now, seeing the two mighty creatures so down and disheartened.

"Usually a dragon declares a challenge, to evict another from an area or nest... and it frequently turns into a fight, then the winner gets the spoils..."

Nullawhy explained more of the dragons' tendencies to Mai, while Lygawa stood quietly in thought.

"There are two here though?"

Mai pointed them out.

"My guess is that he's already noticed both of us, but is coming to take this area for his own anyway..."

Nullawhy said grimly.

"Which probably also spells doom for all the other inhabitants here too..."

Mai briefly recalled her past 'visions' of the area in ruin, but she wasn't getting anything from that 'gift' presently.

"Well I can't just let that happen... surely two dragons are better than one?"

The two reptiles looked to one another briefly.

"Usually only one dragon faces down another..."

"But like you said before; usually there is only one dragon per space... well you two get along, for the most part now, so?"

They looked at the other again, but still seemed disappointed, while the red dragon spoke for both.

"We don't really think we have a chance though, even combining our attacks, he has too strong a defence, always has - so it would yield the same result... probably..."

"He uses some kind of blocking magic shield; none of our hits have ever landed!"

Lygawa added with frustration.

"Can you not just undo whatever spell he uses for a barrier then?"

Mai suggested, not wanting to merely just throw in the towel and walk away from the lovely village and surrounds.

"You speak as if dis-spell magic was an easy magic to cast..."

Nullawhy huffed, before carefully staring at the human amongst them.

"Are you saying that you can perform this magic?"

"Well, yeah... I can..."

Mai hesitated then; yes she could, fairly well in fact - so was this another part of her blessing of 'many abilities'? Since she'd come to this world she had done well figuring out the different magic's she'd tried, with a little practise she'd managed to handle fire, water, a little light and ice, with a dabble into some disruption type magic too, while meaning to get a little more acquainted with the other types later.

"...is that not normal?"

"Indeed, it is quite unusual."

Nullawhy looked at her with renewed suspicion, while Lygawa finally beamed with a smile.

"Then all we need to do is have Mai break his barrier, then he'll easily fall with no problems, yes!"

But that sounds like...

"You don't mean that I should join in this fight too?!"

Mai asked tentatively.

"I don't see why not, you evaded him once before, yes."

"Well I did... but..."

I doubt a single tree will be enough to hide behind if it comes to a real battle...

"...perhaps we can do this another way...?"

Lygawa stepped over and smacked her shoulder lightly.

"I think this all lays on you this time Mai, yes!"

She leaned in close with an extra sharp grin.

"I believe in you, yes, you can do this!"

Lygawa then moved over toward Nullawhy, still smirking.

"We just let him make his move, and I'll bring him down - finally!"

While the smaller silver one spoke confidently now, as she pasted the bigger one back toward the village, the other still didn't look overly convinced.

"This dis-spell..."

The red dragon took one of Mai's arms gently as she went to pass, to step aside with her, but Lygawa jumped back to press in between them.

"Hey - hands off!"

She stared up at close range into the others orange eyes, who slowly released Mai's arm.

"It's aright Lygawa; she just wants to talk..."

The silver one backed up a step.

"How about you go to the house and get whatever you want from the cooler box. I'm sure you're hungry again, from your fight before, right?"

Mai smiled at her, giving permission to freely eat what she wanted from the houses icy 'refrigerator'.

"Alright..."

Lygawa walked away, backward - to keep her eyes on the remaining pair for as long as possible.

"What did you want to know?"

Mai asked the taller dragon-lady after she'd disappeared amongst the buildings.

"How do you use this rare magic?"

Mai thought about it for a second, and gave her best explanation.

"I see the magic I want to use it on, then I target it while thinking of the incantations, I focus, then it shatters the magic I've seen..."

Nullawhy nodded along, before leaning closer.

"I wish to see this done... so please come along."

They walked back a little further away from the village, just out of sight of the nearest houses, when the other dragon stopped and tuned to face Mai, who had followed obligingly.

At this suitable spot, the dragon suddenly leapt backward about thirty meters in one single bound.

"Now be ready Miss Mai..."

Suddenly a fire swirled before her open mouth, small at first, but then it grew, blocking view of her face, before it was sent spiralling toward Mai.

Mai did her usual thing, imagining the spells incantation clearly inside her head, targeted where she wanted the energy to be directed too and 'pushed' her summoned energy quickly in that direction.

About two-thirds of the distance toward her, the quick and bright fiery ball wavered, then burst apart, harmlessly shattering and dissipating into the air between them.

Nullawhy already had another one ready to go, firing it off toward her once more, but more or less the same result happened again.

"Huh, very impressive..."

The dragon strode back over with a smile.

"A very handy spell to have it seems."

She then looked away, and as Mai followed her sight, she caught a glimpse of a silver-haired head, quickly duck behind a bush, just near the faint path they'd taken to get there.

"The problem is - you need to see the magic, correct?"

"Yes."

She looked back as the red and yellow dressed one finished her approach.

"Then there is a big problem we must solve, how do you see what cannot be seen?"

"Huh?"

The dragon stopped before Mai and leant down to look closely into her dark-blue eyes.

"Grasis uses wind magic, while I specialize in fire; and while you can see the fire approaching ..."

She stopped to let Mai speak the rest.

"... I can't see the air."

The dragon returned fully upright with her hands on her hips and nodded.

"So how do we resolve this?"

She asked, looking toward the distant forest again, leaving Mai to think aloud.

"I just might have a solution..."

Giving Brian the news that a very dangerous rampaging creature could be on its way, and while he offered his assistance immediately, Mai explained it would need subtle action, from the villagers best hunter; the recently arrived Nullawhy, along with her own directions to prevent disaster from coning into the village.

Taking the hint, Brian organised for someone to be by the warning bell, atop the hall building, so at all times it would be ready, and would direct everyone into their safest shelters at a moment's notice - so as soon as Nullawhy indicated the threat approached, the bell would be sounded, and everyone would take their positions.

Sure enough, that very afternoon, the red dressed lady, who had been waiting in clear view in the town's small square, suddenly jumped to her feet and sprinted off - at a fast humans pace, for the upper valley, after hearing or sensing something of the other blue dragon.

With a dozen rings of the warning bell, the village went from quiet to totally silent.

Mai was given another quick piggyback ride to the forests edge by Lygawa, where she was deposited while the other two took up their hidden places.

Then came the wait.

Alone in the vast open space of grass, near the small stream that trickled by, Mai felt utterly exposed, with nothing decent to hide behind at all.

I really hope this works... if it doesn't... I'm probably going to die - again!

Mai couldn't hear or see this new dragon coming yet, while she was sure the other two had their sharp eyes on her, as she couldn't see them either, but they were both nearby somewhere, so she felt a little support at least.

The seconds seemed to drag into minutes, with nothing to do but dwell on what could happen, or what might not, it was an agonising time to bear.

It was still scary - going up against something so immensely powerful and so far yet to even fail to another of its own kind, let alone a totally average, mid-twenties, lady from Japan.

But soon enough Mai caught sight of the creature as it swooped in from the forested hills.