Snow held tightly onto Quetzal's scale before he completely escaped. The others snagged onto him as well, hitching a ride upwards. Bright light doused their very eyes, blinding Snow temporarily. She flopped around like a ragdoll, holding on tightly to Quetzal’s every movement. 

Eventually, able to open her eyes, she saw buildings were being pushed aside, destroyed by the destruction that Quetzal was causing. Some buildings caved towards the very ground, falling into the open pothole. 

Fast approaching, a jagged metal was coming straight towards Snow. Quickly, she swung her body to the side, trying to get out of harm’s way. The metal rushed past her, making her gulp. If she was a second too late, she knew that she would have been impaled. 

“Human!” Quetzal hissed, roaring with fury. Blood dripped out of its damaged eye. “You shall pay for this!” 

Quetzal started to curl up, heading straight towards her with open jaws. 

In alarm, Snow detached herself from Quetzal’s aim. She dropped a few seconds early, allowing her to slide down his side—her body bang against the jagged edges of stone slabs that were broken out from the ground. 

Even in her armor, she could still feel the impact of the rough terrain, jostling her around. Being thrown off the side wasn’t something she would ever get used to. 

Finally, touching the floor, she rolled in a tight circle. She sprung up, a bit rattled and bruised. Her blade, White Gryphon, clattered on the ground next to her. She reached over, grabbing onto it. Looking up and around, she saw all her teammates scattered all around. 

Red and Mr. Rogers were hopping around from one building to the next, trying not to get squashed. One would have thought a movie shooting was taking place at how Mr. Rogers was jumping through the air as if it was nothing. His aerial acrobatic was superb, especially being able to hold onto Red without any difficulties. They landed not too far away from the group.

Red shouted some incoherent words that no one understood besides herself. Magic flourished under her command. Giant icicles the size of a bus were thrown against Quetzal’s body, shattering the ice into small pieces. Once destroyed, the ice shifted directions, slicing and hitting against Quetzal in the attempt to break through the thick skin. 

 Rodney and Mike were furious, attacking Quetzal with their own power on the ground. Dairen was sprinting around, assisting wherever he could to drag or completely throw off Quetzal’s senses, which he succeeded a couple of times. 

The swarms of undead rose out from Dairen’s shadow once again. This time, there was something different about them. They didn’t move recklessly as before. In their skeletal hands, they had a thick black rope that Snow didn’t see before. 

One of the skeletons twirled the rope in its hand, over its head, and threw it over to the other side of the Quetzal’s body. A flying skeletal bird snatched it in the air and swooped down below. Letting it go, it handed it to another skeleton, who brought out a large nail. It’s bony hand, morphing into a giant hammer, struck down into the ground. 

The rope tightened and snapped as more and more black ropes were thrown one after another. The army of undead was quick to move by the silence of Dairen’s order. While Dairen, Mike, and Rodney kept Quetzal’s head busy, the army went into work. 

Snow rushed up towards Quetzal’s body. She jumped, grabbing hold of one of the black ropes that were thrown up in the air. A bird swooped down, catching her and the rope at the same time. 

With a mighty flap of its wings, Snow was lifted up into the air. Her feet flapping below, her hand gripping tightly, waiting to drop down below. The wind blew, whistling against her cheeks. Snow squinted; she let go. 

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Magic spat out of her body, swirling around to help lessen the fall. The wind uplifted and tightened around her body when she touched down and rolled. She was finally once again on top of Quetzal’s body. 

Laid out before her were thousands of tightening black ropes, quickly pinning Quetzal down. 

Snow noticed that these black ropes were a bit different. She hadn’t noticed as much until she had a closer inspection, and each rope had jagged edges that hooked into the Quetzal’s scale. It wasn’t just one or two spots, but millions of small little looks that grabbed onto anything that it could hold. 

Snow raised up her blade, coating it with her magic. She smashed down, but a small clink like sound was heard. Looking down, she frowned. There were barely any scratches. Was this the extent of her sword and herself? 

Frustrated, the back of her tail thumped downward a few times. 

“If I can’t break the scale, I’ll go after something much weaker again.” Snow mumbled underneath her breath. She sprinted off, heading straight towards Quetzal’s head where everyone else was. The closer she got, the more she heard her teammates shouting at one another. 

“How much longer?!” Mike shouted. He had a shield in his hand, bracing in front of him as Quetzal spat out a torrent of fire. With a grunt, he covered Red, who was chanting an even stronger spell. 

Red couldn’t answer. Her eyes glued to her finger, where a swirl of red and blue energy tighten, tighter and tighter. Her face paled as magic drained quickly from her small body. Eventually, she couldn’t hold the magic anymore. 

The massive ball of magic sparked out uncontrollably, hitting Red in the process. 

Mr. Rogers stepped in, “I told you not to use this magic.” He growled at her, yanking her backward. The magic disconnected, and she slid across the ground. His hand outstretched, he wrapped his own blood magic around it, tightening it into a small spiral. 

“I can finish it!” Red spat out, blood dripping down the side of her lips. She was trying to get up, but she couldn’t. 

“No.” Mr. Rogers denied. The blood magic condensed the Red’s magic into a small ping pong size ball. He grabbed hold of the ball and threw it into the air. His magical scythe appeared once again, snatching the ball in the air. With a ferocious roar that sounded close to an ear-splitting shriek, it gobbled up the magical ball in one gulp. 

A flaring of magic clashed against each other, Mr. Roger’s scythe cackled. Enlarging in size, becoming more demonic-looking than before. 

“Mr. Rogers!” Red shouted, trying to stop him. She stumbled. 

“For christ sake, do something!” Mike wasn’t having a good day. The constant flaring of the fire was causing a first-degree burn, and he was sweating inside his armor. He didn’t know how long he could last. 

Rodney threw throwing stars, aiming at its bleeding eyes. Each one didn’t make any dent and bounced off its thick skin. He switched his tactics, this time changing his tactics. With a grunt, he summoned up a powerful fire spirit. Its hulking body was a giant bird. Flying through the air, it smashed into Quetzal’s face, pushing the fire breathing monster slightly to the right. 

The fire that ravaged Mike was slightly abated, but even then, Quetzal turned around and snapped the bird that Rodney had summoned in one gulp. 

“Thank you for the meal.” Quetzal cackled, the grumble in his stomach growled. He pulled back his head, ready to snap up another torrent of fiery breath. 

Mr. Rogers swung his scythe, the blackened blood scythe slashed into the side of Quetzal's neck, intending to cut off its head. If Quetzal didn’t pull back, it would have lost its head. 

A large gashing wound was present, blood spilled from the side. Anger lit its eyes. Magical sigils whirled into life all around them, all aiming at the group. 

Snow could feel the intensity of the magic that was being poured into the very air. Pulling magic from her core, she rapidly mixed her magic together. With outstretched hands, she sent out a small barrier condensed heavily on top of each other towards everyone that she could. 

The blast of magic from Quetzal was released. A hailstorm of magic flew down from the sky and onto the ground. More buildings screeched and howled from metal breaking and collapsing. Screams of people dying could be heard, who was too late to escape. 

Snow covered herself with multiple barriers. The first barrier broke through, going through seven more and stopping luckily on the last eight. She was flung into the sky, falling onto the ground. She tumbled a few times before she was stopped short by a broken wooden door. 

Blood seeped out of her lips. Snow groaned. A sharp pain electrified on her shoulder and side. 

Her bones were broken, and she couldn’t get up without yelping in pain. Her eyes watered, making it difficult to see around her. With slow but deep breath, she tried to control her pain from blinding her. It took a bit of time, allowing her to have a bit clearer vision. 

All around them, destruction was present. 

Both Red and Rodney were out cold. Snow could sense that they weren’t severely injured. Mike and Dairen were both stumbling to keep awake, blood seeping out of their sides and body. Mike had an arm torn off, losing blood fast. 

One of Dairen’s half-beaten skeletons ran over Mike's arm that was still clutching his sword. 

Dairen was being propped up by his other remaining skeletons that lost limbs. He was coughing up blood. His eyes closed, unable to see as they were bleeding. 

Out of the most injured, Mr. Rogers was against the wall. Impaled by quite a few metal beams. How he was still alive boggled Snow’s mind. 

Time was ticking; Snow scored through her watch, taking out one of the expensive potions. She threw back her head, guzzling it down in large gulps. Already, she could feel her body mending, but it wasn’t as fast as she wanted. With a staggering step, she got up. 

Her concentration was erratic. It took everything out of her to focus, and with a loud command, she said, “High-Heel.”