Ethan felt a sudden stab of fear, one so profound that it could only be magical in nature. The Twilight dragon was terrifying enough on its own, but it had an aura coming off of it in waves that threatened to paralyze him. Tomo’s spectral form was there in a blink, and Ethan saw the other team members’ Spirit Familiars reacting as well. Still, they froze for a long, anxious moment as the dragon ponderously forced itself to its feet.

  It had been lying against the far wall, blocking a final, resplendent door. By its size, it had to be the innermost section of the city. Ethan recognized the layout as a reflection of the hidden basement in Fort Dralis. If it was truly the same layout as that much smaller ruin, inside would be one more chamber, and potentially a vault like the one he’d found empty in the mountains.

  Now the dragon was turning to face them, and they saw with shock that it was brutally injured–and Ethan could guess why. Its enormous bulk had been hiding a rift, one that looked far too small for the dragon to fit through comfortably. It appeared to have squeezed its way through anyway, heedless of the damage done to its body. Its right wing was missing entirely, and its back leg on the same side ended in a burning, bloody stump. Its whole side was torn and covered in wounds, as if it had been sliced by a giant razor.

  The dragon’s blood was everywhere, and turned out to be the source of the ominous green light. The viscous liquid burned like oil, with sickly light emanating from the beast’s injuries, and covering it in a layer of toxic looking flames. Still, its grievously wounded state seemed to be the spark that finally broke the paralysis they felt.

  “It has to be nearly dead,” Ethan said through gritted teeth. “A third of its body is missing. Valanor, can we do this?”

  The knight looked from the dragon to the team he’d die to protect. “If we can, we need to get it done quickly. I can hold it for a time, but if we’re close to my breaking point, you have to get them out of here.” He looked at Ethan meaningfully, and the timeframe suddenly made sense.

  Ethan’s first instinct was to refuse, but he’d gotten to know Valanor over this last year, and the conviction in his voice was unmistakable. He understood what protecting others meant to him, and though he’d take risks for Prince Calevaro and Savilar, Valanor wouldn’t throw away the lives of those standing behind his shield. All this passed between the two men in a single moment, leaving Ethan only to nod.

  The Shield Knight charged forward without another word, growing larger with every step he took.

  “What’s he doing?” Selina said in shock, never having seen this ability before.

  “It’s his trump card,” Ethan said gravely. “We don’t have much time.” The dragon let out a roar as if to punctuate the statement, only to have a shield the size of a pickup truck slam into its gaping mouth. Valanor was nearly twenty feet tall now, clearly having poured as much mana as possible into the powerful ability.

  His glowing white warhammer had grown with him, and unleashed blasts of explosive light with every strike. The dragon was enraged, and began its counterattacks immediately. Its arms slashed out with enormous talons, but they were too easily caught on its opponent’s gargantuan shield. Next it put its remaining wing to work, the apex of which was covered in long, gruesome spikes. When folded up, it could lance forward to stab with terrible force. When opened, the dragon actually used it as a shield of its own, absorbing the titanic strikes of the enchanted warhammer.

  The real danger, though, ended up being the tail. Ethan had assumed the dragon breathed fire–something had clearly swept into the previous room and melted the stone itself. Valanor had even forced the creature to turn away from the group, likely to protect them against that very attack, but Ethan quickly saw the true threat.

  The tail was long, and whip-quick, but didn’t appear particularly effective as a weapon itself–at least against someone as heavily armored as Valanor. Instead the dragon would slap the tail against its own injured side, coating it in blood and flames. It would then strike forward, crashing into the shield knight, and leaving a line of green fire on the man that seemed to burn like acid.

  Selina reacted immediately, she and Tibby both working to keep shields of light in place. She simply didn’t have the power to protect Valanor in his giant state, sadly, and resorted to keeping the flames under control as best as she could. It was a losing battle, however, as the obsidian heavy armor was already sporting an alarming number of small holes.

  Ethan looked meaningfully at Cara. “It’s on us. That thing is ready to fall, we just need to dump as much damage as possible on it before Val shrinks down again. Give it everything you’ve got!” He barely caught her solemn nod as a rift took him above the dragon, and he fell toward the long sinuous tail.

  He’d used Last Resort in a number of ways as his strength grew, and discussions with Tomo had made it clear that its real power was mostly locked away at Dawn rank. Nevertheless, he’d allowed seven runes to charge in his earlier battles against the demons, and combined with [Knife in the Dark], he’d actually begun to see its value as a first resort.

  The red blade left its scabbard, black energy dancing across it as he cut deeply into the thick, scaled meat of the dragon’s tail. As expected, it wasn’t much against a Twilight rank demon, even an injured one, but he’d come to appreciate the value of an opening in otherwise steel-like armor. The dragon’s hide undoubtedly qualified as that and more, but his slash had still managed to leave a sizable divot in the thrashing tail.

  Ethan didn’t rift away as he might have done in the past, knowing he didn’t have time for that kind of strategy. Instead he leaned into the madness of the moment, using dozens of strings of [Karmic Threads] to physically lash himself right above the injury. His legs held him up while the threads pulled him down, and despite the threat of air sickness as the furious dragon swung its tail from side to side, he managed to stay in place.

  It helped that he wasn’t too far past the demon’s hips, as trying to cling closer to the tip would be madness–especially as it was still being used to fling burning blood at Valanor. Ethan had similar issues to his friend, as the wound he’d opened up was likewise igniting beneath him. He had to trust in Selina’s protections as he summoned the [Many-Faced Blade] in its new, Dusk rank Odachi form.

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  The massive two-handed blade was unquestionably a giant-slaying weapon, all the more so as he fed mana into it, adding the telltale glow of [Mystic Echo]. Thus prepared, he went to work like a lumberjack, enormous blade hacking over and over into the burning, bleeding gouge. He ignored the small goblets of blood eating into his armor; he had work to do.

  While Ethan was settling on the tail, Cara had been busy as well. The first thing she did was focus on her Vampire Affinity. She knew the group would need every advantage possible, and her [Leaching Arrow] had recently reached First Dusk. She fired a number of them into the dragon, the ability’s evolution allowing its effectiveness to increase the longer one was embedded in the target. She used multiple arrows as they almost immediately began burning away. Ethan could feel the small bursts of vitality with every swing of his sword.

  Cara didn’t bother with poison, likely dismissing its value with so little time, though she clearly loaded the dragon with other small debilitations that would help keep Valanor alive. This included another Vampiric arrow that polluted the blood and slowed the target down, as well as a nature ability that created nets made from sharp quills. They weren’t sharp enough to pierce Twilight protections, but could be anchored to the ground, and hampered movement.

  Once those were in place, Ethan saw her switch to pure damage. She began by putting a few arrows into the dragon’s face, though it had some kind of membrane protecting its vulnerable eyes. After that she focused entirely on the wing it was using as a shield. While the scaly black appendage did a surprisingly good job of absorbing the impact of Valanor’s warhammer, it was far less capable of handling her piercing attacks.

  Ethan knew her [Rapid Fire] ability had reached First Dusk, and thanks in part to her piercing bracers, the wing soon began to look like swiss cheese. The sinewy membrane was erupting into small patches of fire, and the Valanor’s attacks were increasingly effective as his heavy hammer tore into the gaps she’d created. Obviously looking for every ounce of damage she could dish out, Cara’s Vampire bat Familiar also made a rare appearance, sending out little blasts of dark energy.

  Ethan saw all this in flashes as he continued his relentless attacks against the tail. He was barely a quarter of the way through, and at least five minutes had already passed since the battle started.

  Valanor wouldn’t last much longer than fifteen.

  Hoping to take some pressure off the knight, Ethan summoned Revan, expecting the fire to be little obstacle to the Dusk rank Guardian. The powerful Guardian appeared with a challenging roar, managing to distract the dragon enough that it took a crushing blow from Valanor for the mistake.

  Revan used that moment to leap forward, his teeth and claws digging into the much larger beast’s long, scaled neck. It was a bit like a housecat fighting a lion based on their relative sizes, especially as Revan’s Flare powers weren’t particularly effective. But he was still physically powerful, and the enchanted collar he wore enhanced his claws with a slowing venom; the team could use every advantage they could get.

  Toby made an appearance as well, the Obsidian giant further defending Valanor from the dragon’s wounded, burning right side. By this point the team had used up almost half the time they had for the battle. No one was under the illusion that the shield knight could withstand Twilight rank attacks once his powerful ability ran out, and each member was pushing themselves to the limit.

  Even as Ethan slashed and hacked away, he continued to cycle through his Affinities. While channeling Dimension, Deevee appeared and blasted with multiple beam attacks, and Ethan’s [Hydra’s Reflection] would briefly join him in severing the tail. When Tomo made his brief appearances, slashing expertly with twin blades, Ethan would send Ghosts to intercept attacks, and deal retributive damage.

  Only his Flare abilities were found wanting, but that meant Ethan could feed as much mana to Revan as the Familiar could use. The beast’s horns glowed as it sent out blasts of fire, often touched with lightning. Seeing the damage those attacks inflicted, Selina’s voice quickly came through their communication runes.

  “Did you see how the dragon reacted to the lightning? I think we finally found its weakness!”

  “I can probably cast a bolt or two,” Ethan said. “But it’s a Dawn rank ability and it's as much fire as it is lightning. Anyone else?”

  “Nothing Dusk rank,” Selina said sadly.

  “Then we–damn!” Valanor’s deep voice cut in, pausing as another blow got past his defenses. “Then we keep going as we have been. I can hold out a little longer. Do your best, and run when it’s time!”

  Ethan could only growl at that. This was simply going too slowly. He was nearly through the tail–at least to the point he could [Obliterate] it, and Cara had left the wing as little more than scraps of bone. But that would only weaken the dragon, not kill it. They were running low on time, and as he hacked and slashed with increasing desperation, he began to wonder if he’d need to use his own trump card.

  Gaining [Karmic Threads] had done one other thing: it had completed his Bonded ability set. That had allowed his remaining Ruin ability to manifest as well, and it was the good stuff. Unfortunately it had special conditions, and its strength and duration were determined by how much damage he’d done with Ruin. He could feel the power pulsing inside him, waiting to be unleashed. But if he did so now, there was practically no chance of having it in reserve against whatever else this place had in store.

  As Ethan finally called upon that same Affinity to slash down with [Obliterate], he considered that even his ace might not be enough. He still allowed himself to grin in triumph as his odachi sliced through blood and bone, black energy erupting around it to leave the thirty foot tail crashing to the ground. That would buy Valanor some breathing room, and allow he and Cara to focus on taking the beast down.

  Unfortunately, Ethan wasn’t familiar with draconic rage. As the enormous demon felt its tail severed, it reared back, balancing on one leg and one fiery stump. It bellowed a pained roar, and the flames covering its wounded body doubled in size and intensity. Ethan had to drop his threads and scramble up the massive, scaled back to escape the eruption from the now-ruined tail.

  The enormous beast slammed back into the ground, creating a shockwave of green fire great enough to knock down even the living wall of steel that Valanor had become. Toby and Revan had likewise been thrown back like small children from the incredible display of power, and there was nothing between the charging dragon and the downed shield knight, who lay vulnerable on the cold stone.

  And then there was.

  In a flash of yellow light, another large scaled beast had appeared. Having barely managed to hold on to the spikes on the demon’s back, Ethan was shocked to see a Dusk rank thunder drake facing off against the dragon. It charged as well, long, sharp horns poised to ram into the larger beast, who roared in fury and outrage at this new opponent.

  The dragon was unprepared for this smaller dragon-kin to live up to its name, however. When the two clashed, a bright flash of lightning accompanied the blow, sending the larger foe reeling backward in pain. No sooner had it done so that a figure descended from above, twin blades wreathed in lightning of their own. The armored figure crashed into the side of the exposed neck, electricity arcing out across the beast’s bloody scales.

  Prince Calevaro had arrived.