1.5 Teleportation part two.

When he whipped his head around to look away from his burnt home, he pointed at Luz and shouted angrily: "You… You lied to me."

Filled with the feeling of betrayal, he raised his voice. He ignored the way his voice wobbled and hitched with every word he spat out with venom, and the way his throat tightened and his nose tingled: "They...They aren't safe. They...They are all dead!"

"Yeah, they are all dead. The last thing our parents would want is us also being dead, right? So shut the f*ck up and follow us," Luz replied coldly, even when his heart stung at Az's ruthless words. In an effort to look strong, Luz quickly wiped away his own freshly-fallen tears before continuing to lead the path.

Seeing how Az's words affected Michael, Luz clutched his hand tightly before dragging him alongside him. The latter also began to cry as he was harshly tugged by Luz. At this point, the youngest one had lost all his will to live, and Luz had to coax the little one by whispering some sweet words: "we all are going to make it, and I'll do anything to protect you guys." But even these words weren't really helpful or reassuring to Michael, who expected the worst.

As they ran deeper into the forest, the ground began to tremble less and less, and Luz's hopes of surviving with his siblings grew. By now, his mind was filled with one question. 'Where should we go? There is no city or any other village anywhere near us.'

To their misfortune, the dragon's sense of smell was pretty good. From its rage, it wanted nothing more than to kill every villager: even the innocent people who didn't participate in the hunt. And so, it didn't take long for the siblings to end up under the shadow of its majestic wings.

"Shit, shit, shit," muttered Luz with a frightened face as he saw the fear-inducing dragon descending down onto the group.

Once its massive figure had landed on the ground, the ground shook upon his descent and the siblings fell to their knees from only a singular flap of the dragon's wings.

The dragon roared so loud that the five brothers scrambled to hold their ears in an attempt to block out the sound, though that did nothing as blood began dripping out of their ears. Even after the dragon had snapped its jaws shut, smoke drifting out of its nostrils as a signal of its angry roar, a loud ringing was still echoing in their sensitive ears.

A mighty black dragon with a body about hundred meters high and a wingspan just as large stood before them. Each one of its scales was the size of an adult man's skull, and they rattled with every movement the dragon made. His eyes were crimson red, much like the blood that simmered under the boys shivering skin, and the breath leaving the dragon's snout was hot enough to leave some burn marks on Luz.

Gritting his teeth, Luz mumbled silently. 'Sorry, village elder, but I have to use this spell… I know I promised not to but…'

Luz stared fearlessly into the dragon's eyes. He didn't know where his sudden courage came from (perhaps it was because all of his younger brothers -who he swore in his heart he'd protect with his life- were staring at him as a collective group or because he was so close to death that he had nothing left to do). Luz continued to think as he began to move: 'The situation right now… It's way dangerous…'

Seeing Luz's movements, Gab asked in shock: "Luz, are you really planning on using that spell?"

But Luz ignored his words and bit his finger, trying to get himself under control to cast a spell that was well beyond his league. With the blood dripping from his fingertip, he began to hastily draw some mysterious runes onto his palm while the dragon stared at Luz's actions with amusement. It was like the dragon was staring down at him with condescension, though the dragon made no move to stop the human boy. It was like the dragon was toying with Luz before it would inevitably kill the boy and his brothers.

When Luz deemed the runes complete, he pressed his bleeding thumb against his palm, uttering the spell. The dragon's red slitted orbs narrowed and its amusement abruptly vanished after it realized what was happening. Quickly, the dragon ran out of patience and prepared his volley: the same attack that had resulted in the complete eradication of most, if not all the villagers.

Thus, the dragon opened its gigantic maw that was adorned with jagged teeth that stunk something disgusting -the size of its teeth, when measured, were each as large as Luz's forearm- and began the process of gathering black flames in the form of a ball that gradually grew bigger and bigger.

"Gab, what is Luz trying to do?" asked Raph, who at this point gave up on entertaining the idea of running away. Young as Raph was, he was very realistic, and he knew that no matter what he'd do, he would die anyway.

Gritting his teeth, Gab replied: "He's trying to teleport us but he's using his life as fuel for that spell."

Hearing Gab's word, Az involuntarily shouted in shock: "Luz, no, don't do it! Brother, I… I'd rather die with you than live without you!"

Tears streamed down everyone's faces as the dragon shot a volley of black flames that slowly flew in the direction of the siblings. Everyone closed their eyes as the volley was shot at them, and the only thing Luz heard was a loud crack as his mana core cracked.

The pain was so unbearable that Luz opened his eyes in hopes of getting burned to ashes by the dragon just so he didn't have to bear the abrupt pain anymore. Unfortunately for him, he ended up falling from the sky, screaming for his dear life, with the pain still running rampant in his body and his veins filled with adrenaline.