Chapter 34

I kept pulling Sarah as she groaned, starting to come to. I turned to our leader. His shirt was shredded, not from the dragon’s claws but from the stabs, fragmented and pointed bones curling and sticking out of his body in a monstrous form. I gasped, momentarily just watching in sickened awe as he reached up. His shoulder blade stabbed out of his body like quills, and he snapped one of them off, hurling it at the fire dragon. The bone sped up as it soared through the air, accelerating until it punctured the fire dragon’s neck, sinking in deep. It screamed, a horrid, pained sound that shook the trees.

Against just a kite dragon, running into the forest around the mountain was a potential escape; even if it followed us overhead, it was too big to chase us in the foliage, and we could possibly get away. But with a fire dragon present, the trees would only be a danger to be around. The flames it already blew when it first attacked us were spreading, trees billowing smoke into the air. It was clear that we needed to stay out of the forest or risk getting trapped in a blaze.

Sarah grunted as she finally stood, rubbing her eyes with one hand while Christopher and I pulled her by her other. The kite dragon stood in front of us, heavily bleeding, a wing torn, struggling to stand on its two feet, leading almost entirely on its one good wing for support. It looked broken, bones piercing its scales from both directions. It looked at us as he started running to the right, along the forest edge, and threw itself into our path, nearly tackling Christopher who was in front. He jumped back, bumping into me as I tried to skid to a stop. Sarah kept running, jumping on the green dragon’s head. It had far fewer horns than its partner, only a single pair that followed the natural curve of its head, but she managed to grab onto it as she kicked it in the face. The dragon grunted, clawing at her with a bloody talon but she dodged, dropping to the ground under it.

The dragon stabbed into the ground, driving the talon into the shallow soil where Sarah stood. She barely avoided it, the claw slicing at her arm, sliding past her skin. I could see blood on her, though whose it was I couldn’t tell. Three daggers surged through the air, two of them failing to sink between the scales while the third found a sheathe in the arm of the wing. The dragon bellowed, swiping with its other wing at the charging Christopher as he swung his blade, giving Sarah a chance to back up to safety. I froze, panicking, though the dragon seemed content to ignore me, focusing on his opponents that were capable of fighting back.

Two white spears soared from behind us, stabbing the dragon in the chest. I looked behind us as Brontus faced away from his fiery opponent. “I said to RUN!” he shouted, and we did, circling around the kite dragon as it pulled itself back up. Two bone spears curved in the air, speeding downward to pin the massive wing membrane. The green dragon screamed, tearing itself as it hobbled around to face us while we ran the length of it. Its tail swung, sweeping the ground, about to slam into us when it just stopped.

I looked up at the dragon as we ran. It cried out, a hollow, pained sound, as it stiffened and jerked. The bones sticking out of it shuttered, slowly sliding deeper into itself. Brontus held his hands out, grunting as he restrained it, giving us time to run past.

Sarah skidded to a stop as soon as we were past the dragon’s reach. Christopher didn’t, grabbing her wrist and pulling her along. “Stop!” she yelled at us, fighting his grasp. “We can’t leave him!”

Brontus continued to stand there, holding the kite dragon back as it stared at us. The fire dragon behind him yelled, its body too like a pincushion. But I watched, unable to look away, as it rose from where it was slumped, and engulfed Brontus in flames.

“No!” Sarah screamed. She pulled and yanked and tugged at Christopher who simply overpowered her. Her magic was gone and I felt her mana right beside me sending out little surges that immediately died, fully spent and exhausted.

I didn’t know how to feel in that instant. A week ago, I would have been horrified. A day or two ago, I don’t think I would have minded as much. But he had held off the kite dragon for us.

The dragons slumped, each letting out a wail before their heads hit the ground. We didn’t stop though, running further along the mountain side. After a good ten minutes, our spent legs circled around a boulder, and a crack pierced the mountain, no taller than a human. “In here,” Christopher urged, helping Sarah, who had resigned herself to following us after the red dragon’s last flaming attack, inside the cave.

It was cold. It was wet. It was dark.

We three who made it all collapsed, sliding against the cave walls. Sarah slumped over, crying softly, her arm still dripping blood. Christopher, even in the low light, looked shellshocked. I felt… numb. My mind blanked and my body shut down. I couldn’t feel my hands, not really, but my knuckles still registered the sensation of the rocks under me. I just slid further, scraping against the rough stone bottom until I felt my head thudding with a dull echo onto the same level. The cool air was almost relaxing. It was relaxing. Soothing even. I slept.