A reunion.

We were hiding between mountain rocks with our land dragon,
just waiting until something happened.
Ideally, the bald bastard wouldn't show up yet.
I just wanted to see Mateo running into the rest of our classmates.

Astra: Leo, the land dragons are getting closer to the western gate of Rida. They will be there in a few minutes.

Faylinn: I don't see anyone suspicious in town. I only see some farmers and a few merchants.

Leonel: I see a small caravan going toward Rida from the east. I wonder if Mateo is in it.

Faylinn: I can't see inside a caravan's wagons, sorry.

Leonel: Don't worry. Just keep watching out for any suspicious bastards.

Eventually, my classmates reached the western side of Rida, but they stayed there, just outside of town. It seems they were discussing something. They are probably discussing how to search for us.
There is no chance they will find us here though.

Faylinn: Leo! I see a humanoid figure wearing a black robe on a rooftop! His head is covered by a hood though. It could be a random assailant, but there is still a chance it's the guy we are looking for! What do we do?

Leonel: Even if it's a random assailant, that's enough of a reason for us to intervene. We are going now!

Faylinn: Ok, Astra, time for a lava slide! Give me your hand!

Faylinn and Astra stood in front of our land dragon and were... basically holding hands.
Faylinn's right hand was holding Astra's left hand.

Their hands slowly started to shine with an orange light.

Faylinn: Leo, look at this! It's called unison magic. My fire-type magic can turn rocks into lava, but I would never be able to control their flow.

Astra: And my earth-type magic can control rocks to a small extent, but once they become lava, my control over them is greatly reduced.

Faylinn: So, we merge our magic in our hands, to temporarily use lava magic. That's how we can create a lava slide!

Faylinn and Astra, still holding hands, pointed their hands forward. Part of the mountain, all the way from where we were standing to the ground level, started to become lava and turned into some sort of lava river.

Faylinn: Astra, now we need a stable rock for our land dragon!

Astra: Leave it to me.

Astra gathered lots of tiny rocks from the surroundings with her magic, essentially creating a large rock in front of the land dragon and placed it on the lava river.
We got on the land dragon, and then had the dragon stand on the large rock.
Then... the dragon we were riding essentially went down a lava slide while standing on this large rock.
It took like two seconds to go down the mountain, and since Astra was controlling the rock we were using as a "surfing board", she slowed our descent once we got close to ground level so that we wouldn't sink into the lava.
This was a very creative way of using magic.

Then we started riding at full speed toward the town of Rida which was like one minute away from this mountain.

I could not see the assailant on the rooftop that Faylinn mentioned so I decided to go toward the girls, since Maria was probably his next target.

Leonel: Faylinn! Go straight toward the girls!

Faylinn: Ok!

Just when we were almost there... we saw it...

The fire pillar reaching the sky...

I immediately knew what it meant.
Someone had died.

It came from approximately 20 meters east of my classmates.
They were still alive. I could clearly see them.
There was only one possibility... Mateo must have already been in town... I assumed he hadn't arrived yet. I was wrong.

Once our land dragon got closer, we saw the faces of my classmates. They were terrified.

But then, we saw him. The bald bastard. And a red shining crystal hovering over a pile of ashes...

I quickly opened my backpack, ready to use everything we had in our arsenal.

Leonel: Girls, get ready! He probably won't be able to use his fire spell for a while, this is our chance!

Faylinn: We will get him for sure now!

We were approximately 35 meters away from him. We could have reached him in just a few more seconds, but he had an ace up his sleeve.

Faylinn was commanding the land dragon to go directly toward the bald bastard, but then, he pulled out something from within his black robe.

It was a gun. More specifically, a revolver. The same kind of weapon that the blacksmith of Rida could not make for me because it would have required an alchemist with metallurgy skills.

He quickly aimed at us and fired at us.
Faylinn was hit. She lost control of the land dragon and we crashed against a random building.
We tried to get up as soon as possible to check up on Faylinn, but then, 2 more shots were heard.
I felt something piercing through my legs. He fired at my legs. This was on purpose.
He probably wanted me to stay alive until he could use his fire spell again so he immobilized me so that I could not stop him.
And with Faylinn wounded, no one here had a chance of fighting him.

Leonel: Astra! Focus on healing Faylinn! I'm fine, but she got her chest pierced by a projectile!

Astra quickly started to cast her regeneration spell on Faylinn.
But that's not all. She moved her huge tail to cover me as I was on the ground.
Her tail was covered in scales and those scales were supposedly practically indestructible.
She was basically using her tail as a shield to protect me, while using the rest of her body to cover Faylinn.

But Faylinn was different. Her body didn't have as many scales as Astra's, and the shot pierced through her chest, which was a part of her body that had no scales at all. Her body was always vulnerable to frontal attacks.

We then heard a voice. It was coming from behind us.

"You are not dying today. But I will come back" was what we heard.

Then, smoke started to fill the area around us.
He probably used a smoke grenade. Just like he did after he killed Marcus.
There was no point in trying to fight back; I could not move, and the rest of my classmates had no way of defeating him.
We had no choice but to let him escape...