Fia wriggled backward in the bush, but she was unable to pull her eyes away from the Dragon Slayer who held two brown dragon eggs. What are the humans going to do with them?

No response came from Diwa or Viliant. Their silent, horrified minds did not want to go through the wretched thought process necessary to produce one.

All too knowing, Sage Rokirith remained silent and grim. A single idea crystallized in his mind. I won't stand idly by and let it happen again. The sage abruptly got up, the top half of his body fully exposed over the boulder. Sage Rokirith did not need a hiss to express his dire command. Diwa, take the dragonets away from here.

The green dragoness swept Fia and Viliant back under her stout wings and ushered them away. Hurry!

All four dragons were now visible if any of the humans looked this way. However, they kept their attention dedicated to the Dragon Slayer who delivered an address in front of the chasm. Fia, Viliant, and Diwa distanced themselves from the preoccupied humans while Sage Rokirith alone lingered closest to the regiment. His claws clacked over the boulder as he hopped up. There, at his perch, he tucked his wings into his body. Despite being the largest and strongest of the four dragons, the sage cowered to make himself seem like the smallest and weakest.

Diwa gave pause and snapped wordlessly, What are you doing up there? Come down! Come with us.

Although Fia tried to halt beneath Diwa's wing, Viliant nipped at her heels. She'll catch up. So too, Sage Rokirith could run faster and fly higher than the younger, smaller dragons. No matter where they went with Diwa, the sage should be able to rejoin them. Fia did not understand why the dragoness frantically implored the sage to come with them, unless he had no intention to follow at all.

He's making sure we have a chance to get away! Fia restrained her loud, breathy gasp of realization—not that the humans would have heard her. Nevertheless, their proximity made her chest tighten so that she could hardly breathe. Fia wrenched her neck back to the sage and marveled, He's the most heroic flying ace in the world.

Do not remember me for bravery or kindness, Sage Rokirith snapped in response to her unbearable admiration. I am none of those things. I am a coward and a traitor.

When the sage broadcast this message, Viliant dragged his claws through the ground in a sudden stop. No, he's trying to use us as a diversion—!

Diwa's lithe frame twisted around and shoved Fia and Viliant back into motion. Move it. Rokirith would never do such a thing!

As they turned their tails on Sage Rokirith, Fia could no longer see the humans' ceremony.

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The Dragon Slayer and a contingent of black-robed nature mages treaded onto the jagged overhang, looming into the chasm. At the center, the Dragon Slayer thrust out his arm with the first dragon egg. All the mages closed their eyes, concentrating their power together. Even the Dragon Slayer lent his aid with a neutral veil of magic extending into the chasm, charged and ready to unloose the force of gravity. From the coven of humans, the presence of mana in the dry air shifted—humid and humming with energy.

The Dragon Slayer released his hand, dropping the egg. Its ovoid shape tumbled in the air until it disappeared into the pit. Shortly thereafter, the Dragon Slayer untucked the second one from the crook of his arm. He spurned that egg into the abyss just as he did the first.

Fia bore witness to none of this, but she did hear the air pummeled by Sage Rokirith's wings. The great dragon took off, flying straight toward the Dragon Slayer at the heart of the human forces.

A warning squeal split the jaws of the brown dragoness, alerting them to the sage's intrusion. His thunderous roar announced his own presence and put to shame the one from the humans' dragon. Sage Rokirith drew dangerously close, both for the enemy and his own sake.

The Dragon Slayer turned and lifted his palm to the brazen dragon, as if a gravity orb should appear at his fingertips. Instead, he dropped onto one knee and hung his weary head—mana exhausted after the cultist ritual that he had partaken.

Before the Dragon Rider could jump on her mount's back and rush to her husband's aid, the brown dragoness abandoned her human to fulfill that very role. The brown, serpentine body contorted around the vulnerable, human one and braced herself for Sage Rokirith's raid. This dragoness was willing to use her scales to shield the Dragon Slayer where his metal armor would fail.

However, Sage Rokirith did not spend any precious seconds to overpower the dragoness. He shot like a comet into the canyon.

The brown dragoness uncoiled herself from around the Dragon Slayer and leaped to suspend herself in the air. Each wingbeat brought her to hover up and down, awaiting Sage Rokirith's return back into broad daylight. The beat of war drums started in the same time as the dragoness's wings. The soldiers, now recovered from the shock of Rokirith's charge, prepared their spells and weaponry. Each aimed for the maw of the abyss where the dragon had disappeared.

By this time, Diwa and Fia had wrenched their necks to behold the sage's headlong dive into oblivion. Awestricken by his unparalleled bravery to go after the dragon eggs, this would burn in their memory as the sage’s final moments. A mournful thought lingered in Diwa's mind. Roki…. However, she kept the dragonets moving. They had not a moment to spare in honor of his sacrifice lest they wanted to squander it.

No longer did Diwa try to covertly slink away with Fia and Viliant under her wings. All three dragons took off in a sprint, only to pause so that Diwa could shepherd Fia from behind. The pink dragonette lowered her horns and flapped her wings, desperate to do everything possible to run faster. Despite every one of her muscles straining, closing her eyes from the effort, Fia could not catch up to Viliant.

Hop on my back! Diwa yelled in her mind. The dragoness's talons scratched across the earth and kicked up dust in the middle of her path.

Fia flung her eyes open alongside her wings as she leaped onto green scales. The dragonette clung onto the base of Diwa's neck. Now, the dragoness freely dashed to catch up to Viliant and paced herself with him. Even after all the ground that they had covered, the tips of the dragons' tails turned cold.

An explosion of blackfire roared to life. The interior shadows of the chasm ripped upward, rivaling the sage's descent of the chasm's walls. Rock blasted away in vast sections, unleashing more blackfire. This was the power of a fully awakened blackfire dragon, all his scales ablaze as he rose from the dark inferno, screaming above the destruction which he wrought.