by Andrew Rowe
When Sera appeared, I turned to her immediately. “Exactly how tough was that dragon?”
“Why?” She glanced around. “And is that a dead Tyrant? I thought you weren’t going to fight him?”
“I liked his hat.”
“Corin.” Sera folded her arms.
I chuckled. “He was already in the room as soon as we opened it this time. And, from that and some other clues...”
The sound of a roar interrupted me, almost as if on cue.
I continued, “I think the dragon is awake.”
Sera clenched her hands into fists. “Too tough to beat outright, I think. Marissa and Patrick are stronger now, but...”
That was all I needed to hear. “Then let’s go help them.”
She picked up the return bell from the floor, but I shook my head.
“Not like that. Got enough mana to make us levitate?”
Sera nodded, then pointed at our feet. “Float.”
I felt a slight pressure beneath my feet, but that was it. When I glanced down, though, sure enough I was no longer touching the floor. “Huh. Okay, let’s hurry.’
“Where?”
I tucked the red key away in my pouch. “There.” I pointed at the Tyrant’s room. “Follow me.”
I ran. Sera followed.
Just as we expected, the vines didn’t respond when we entered the room. They weren’t activated if we never touched the floor.
“Oh, the false wall, you think it leads—”
I nodded. “Ready?”
“Go.”
I tapped the glowing wall with my sword.
It vanished.
In front of us was a tremendous chamber, probably a hundred feet wide and long, and at least thirty feet tall.
In the center, atop a pile of treasure, was a dragon.
It was the first dragon I had ever seen. Dragons were broadly believed to be mythical offshoots of more conventional serpents like Seiryu and Mizuchi. Rather than having snake-like bodies, dragons were built more like gigantic lions with scales instead of fur.
Both dragons and serpents were usually winged, although some serpents were wingless and capable of flight through other means.
This dragon had bright red scales, indicating a strong association with fire.
More importantly, it was awake, aware, and angry.
As I watched, it took a breath, and exhaled a wave of flame that enveloped nearly a quarter of the room.
The next thing I saw was Marissa, flying upward above the fire, then soaring downward with a gleaming fist.
“Star descends from sky!”
Then she punched the dragon in the face.
The dragon staggered back at the impact of her fist.
That was an image I would not soon forget.
Marissa landed, launching a series of punches and kicks against the creature’s neck without pause. Then she jumped aside to avoid a swipe from one of the dragon’s claws.
A blast of lightning struck the dragon on its side, and it hissed and turned its head toward a new target — Patrick.
At that point, I was done waiting.
“Sera?” I turned my head to her.
She was already forming a globe of ice in her hands. She replied in a still-scratchy voice, “Let’s give it a try.”
We had hoped to avoid fighting the dragon, but we’d always known it was a possibility.
Hitting it with small attacks was never going to work, especially since we were short on attacks with its weakness — ice.
So, we’d formulated a way of hurting it a little more reliably.
I drew my sword and presented the blade to her.
Sera whispered as she moved her hands closer to the sword.
“Child of the goddess,
I call upon your aid,
Summon all your power,
And breathe ice upon his blade.”
She plunged the globe of ice forward and it spread, enveloping the blade.
I nodded in thanks as Sera slumped, holding her throat. That had taken a lot out of her.
As I turned back to the dragon, it was breathing fire again.
Patrick was, impossibly enough, deflecting it with fire of his own.
Like deflects like, Teft’s words echoed in my mind.
But Patrick was falling back, and he was clearly struggling. He couldn’t defend himself for much longer.
Marissa landed on the creature’s back and slammed her fist into it again, but it just shook her off.
I activated the ring of jumping and blasted myself forward, landing in a pile of gold.
Marissa, struggling to stand, caught sight of me. “Corin?”
I nodded to her. “Secret door. Help me flank this thing.”
“Got it,” she replied in a determined tone.
We rushed the dragon from opposite sides.
The dragon ceased breathing fire for a moment, turning toward Marissa.
I stabbed it with my frost-covered sword. The blade sunk in to the hilt.
The dragon howled, whipping its tail toward me with surprising speed. Instinctively, I activated the ring of jumping, taking me over the tail and safely out of the way.
Unfortunately, I’d left the sword embedded in its side.
The dragon turned and swiped at me with a claw before I even had a chance to land, but a blast of lightning hit it in the eye. The claw still connected, but it was a glancing blow.
Even then, it was enough to knock me out of the sky.
Fortunately, between the levitation spell and the ring’s own effect, I just bounced harmlessly in the air before I slammed into the ground.
I could see cracks in my first barrier from the dragon’s claw impacting against it, but that was nothing to worry about.
The dragon turning toward me and opening its mouth was a far bigger concern. I could see a sphere of flame forming between its open jaws.
Then Marissa was in front of me, waving her hands in a circular motion.
The flames blasted over us, but a circular barrier appeared in front of Marissa, blocking the flames. It cracked more and more with every passing moment, but each second, Patrick was blasting the dragon from the side with more lightning.
It eventually turned its gaze away, and Marissa slumped to the ground, shuddering from the effort.
“Th-thanks...” I managed to mumble, pushing myself to my feet.
“Up to you for a bit.” She stumbled backward, and I caught her.
“Got it. You rest.”
Marissa nodded and steadied herself as I rushed forward.
The dragon was turning toward Patrick again, but that didn’t mean it was safe to approach. It was thrashing wildly now, its tail threatening to crush me as I ducked under it and avoided a rear claw.
I tried to grab for the sword embedded in its side, but it just smacked me aside with a claw, moving too fast for me to avoid. I tumbled down the gold pile, my shield cracking further.
The dragon breathed again, in Patrick’s direction. I doubted he could deflect much more — he’d already looked exhausted.
Without the sword, I didn’t have a good weapon to fight with.
But I did have tools.
I grabbed the magnetic cane from my bag, angled it carefully, and then activated a different rune from last time.
Hundreds of pounds of coins, weapons, and other bits of metal were propelled forward, slamming into the dragon’s side.
The dragon teetered, its head turning upward, the flames harmlessly enveloping the ceiling.
Then it was looking at me again.
I turned off the rod and ran.
The smashing sounds behind me were a good indication that I was being followed.
I heard a whir. On instinct, I activated the ring of jumping just in time to blast myself out of the path of a swipe from the creature’s tail.
Unfortunately, I aimed it poorly, and I ended up falling forward. I hit the ground hard this time, indicating that Sera’s levitation spell had fina
lly expired.
When I managed to flip myself over, I found my cane was missing, having slipped out of my grasp.
The dragon loomed over me, fangs bared to strike.
Marissa ripped the frozen sword out of its side.
The dragon howled straight into the air, swinging its head and slamming it straight into Marissa. She flew backward, bouncing as she landed. Her phoenix sigil’s barrier cracked, then shattered entirely.
She still has one more barrier, I assured myself. But it won’t last long. And if we keep fighting this thing, neither will we.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one with that impression.
“Run!” Patrick shouted.
That was not a very helpful suggestion, given our precarious position, but he did add a bit right after. “Sera found the key!”
That was good news, at least.
The dragon was moving toward Marissa, and she was still on the ground.
Unmoving, as far as I could tell.
No sword. No magnetic cane.
I glanced from side to side, but I couldn’t see it. There was just too much junk in the pile.
No choice, then.
One.
I picked myself up, beginning to charge transference mana in my right hand.
That was when Patrick jumped on the dragon’s back, his entire body shrouded with lightning. “Go!” He shouted.
The dragon writhed in agony, trying to shake Patrick free. In a moment, I understood why — he was inside the dragon’s shroud. His lightning attacks hadn’t been able to hurt it much from a distance, but up close...
I ran toward the dragon at first, still charging my fist.
Two.
Then I saw Marissa, still down for the count.
And I prioritized.
I let the mana leave my hand, turned, and rushed to Marissa’s side.
She was moving, but only barely. A trail of blood was running down her forehead — she must have impacted the ground even harder than I realized.
Without hesitating, I ducked down and scooped her up from the ground. “We’re leaving.”
She was just aware enough to wrap her arms around me, making her easier to lift. She’d dropped my sword, but at the moment, that wasn’t a priority.
I blasted us forward three times in rapid succession. Given that she probably had a head injury, that might not have been good for her, but I judged that it was better than being splattered by a dragon.
We landed not far from the entrance to the Tyrant’s room. Sera was already running across that room, apparently having levitated herself again.
I spared one last look back at Patrick, then blasted Marissa and myself half way into the Tyrant’s room.
The plants on the side of the room twitched.
I tried to activate the ring of jumping again...
...And nothing happened.
Apparently it does have a limited amount of mana. Oops.
The plants rushed inward.
I ran.
A vine was just about to grab me when Sera cut it in half with a blade of ice, then helped pull us through the doorway into the room where I’d started.
The dragon roared in the distance, but what I heard after was something far more surprising — the gentle sound of a ringing bell.
A few moments later, I realized what had happened as I set Marissa down on the floor.
We took a few deep breaths, then Patrick appeared in the room next to us. “That was fun! Anyone need a break?”
Marissa raised a hand. “I...think I hurt something.”
Sera passed her the return bell that Jin had used. “Go take a rest, Mara. We’ll take care of things from here.”
“Mm. Kay.” Marissa grabbed the bell and rang it, vanishing immediately.
Marissa sounded like she was pretty badly shaken. I hoped that whoever was monitoring the exam would take a look at her head wound now that she was out of the testing area for a while.
We had a more urgent problem to deal with, though.
The dragon had lost its target, and now I could hear its footfalls heading our way.
I picked up the fallen bell, just in case we’d need it later.
“Uh, can we close this door?” Patrick pointed to the entrance of the Tyrant’s room.
“Not sure how to force it shut.” I looked at the opposite side of the Tyrant’s room, where the false wall had been dispelled. “I don’t think it can fit through there, though. We should be—”
A claw smashed away a huge chunk of the wall, making the gap wider.
“—moving as quickly as possible.”
I pointed at the flame statue room.
“On it.” Sera headed toward the room, inspecting it from an angle. “I don’t know if I have enough mana to block all of those.”
“Get what you can.”
She nodded. “Wall. Wall. Wall.”
She pointed, and ice walls appeared, blocking jets of flame.
Jin appeared in the room a moment later, glancing around. “Hm. You have acquired a Patrick.”
“Hey Jin!” Patrick waved enthusiastically.
Jin just gave him a curt nod. “And there’s...that’s a dragon, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, we’re leaving now.” I pointed at the flame statue room. “Want to lead the way?”
“If I must.”
We headed into the chamber.
Sera had managed to block almost all of the statues.
Unfortunately, her ice walls were melting pretty fast, and I doubted she had enough mana to renew them.
I pulled the red key out of my bag. “Remember, the statues can turn. Be careful.”
The two remaining statues were breathing flames across the room in a predictable sequence...at least, predictable until they deliberately changed it when we tried to cross.
Fortunately, we were ready for that. Patrick waved his right hand and deflected the jets of flame out of the way, then stumbled. Jin caught him and dragged him forward.
“Thanks!”
“Keep moving.”
In spite of Patrick’s perpetual cheer, I could tell he didn’t have a lot of mana left himself. Blocking fire from both the dragon and the statues had taxed him close to his limit.
We reached the other side of the room.
I turned the red key in the door.
Nothing happened.
“You have to be kidding me.”
Jin pointed. “There’s a key over there, behind one of the statues.”
I shook my head. “I got the key from this room before and tried it. It didn’t work.”
“I will retrieve it while you try other options.” Jin moved forward, dancing between blasts of flame to head toward the key. I winced, remembering the first time he’d been blasted with the flames, but he was lighter on his feet this time.
And he had his full Sunstone shroud to protect him if he did get hit.
I withdrew the red key from the door. Before I had a moment to consider other options, Sera had slipped by me and she was turning another key in the lock. One with a dragon’s head.
The door clicked open.
“Ooh, nice.”
Ahead of us was a room with a familiar sight — a single central fountain, filled with shimmering blue liquid.
Those of us in the doorway slipped inside, and Jin followed us a moment later with the key from the previous chamber. He’d managed to retrieve it without a scratch.
I scanned the room carefully with my attunement active, but I saw no signs of magic in the room aside from the fountain and a single door on the other side.
“I don’t see any traps. It’s probably safe in here.”
We approached the fountain, but I waved a hand to halt. “That looks like a mana fountain, but let’s be careful here.”
I grabbed a coin out of my bag and flipped it into the water.
It didn’t sizzle on contact. So, probably not acid, at least.
“Jin, can you...?”
He walked over t
o the water and knelt down, then tentatively reached a hand over to touch it. “It’s mana water.”
We all breathed a sigh of relief.
I also briefly wondered how the examiners had access to a fountain just like the ones in the spire, and if I could figure out a way to make one of my own. Mana water wasn’t nearly as potent as a mana restoration potion, but it was still incredibly useful.
Everyone took a minute just to rest and drink from the pool.
“Should we go back and fight the dragon?” Patrick asked.
I shook my head. “Don’t think we can beat it.”
“Agreed.” Sera added.
“Never fight dragons.” Jin said, without any further explanation.
I agreed, of course, but he sounded almost like he had experience at it.
One more mystery.
“Okay. That,” I pointed at the door, “Is almost certainly going to be a floor guardian room.”
“Oh, right! They’re usually next to mana fountains like this, right?” Patrick sounded excited, and I couldn’t blame him. He hadn’t actually gone on the spire expedition with the rest of us.
He hadn’t nearly been impaled by the limbs of a giant spider, while running from an Emerald-level Soulblade.
Sera, Jin, and I all looked a little more...cautious.
“Plan?” Jin asked.
We had discussed all the rooms we’d already seen, as well as made some other more general plans, but we hadn’t discussed a scenario quite like this. “I think we should run for the stairway if there is one. Even with the mana water, we’re in bad shape.”
I took another drink, considering. “Let me recharge everyone’s phoenix sigils before we go.”
The sound of a gong echoed in the distance.
“...Or maybe not, because I think that means we’re running out of time. How bad of shape are you in?”
“I am intact,” Jin offered helpfully.
“I’m unhurt. You all took the dragon’s attention,” Sera added.
“Uh, not great, honestly,” Patrick admitted. “Phoenix sigil is out, other sigil is bad.”
“I’ll recharge it for just a second, then.” I walked over and grabbed onto Patrick’s sigil, flooding mana into it. It would take minutes to recharge completely, but I could recharge it a little bit in just a few moments. It would be better than nothing.