The two men loomed into view, their silhouettes equally distinct. One was a mountain, broad and tall. The other - a tree, lean and willowy. She darted towards the skinny man first, flashing claws and teeth with snarling abandon.

He could barely see her as she swept past, but the deep gash that opened on his cheek told him that she had been there.

Jin, the skinny man, whirled around and watched nervously as Yvet turned back towards them in a great, swooping arc.

"What is that thing!?" He shouted, eyes wide.

Red scales and wings, he had never seen anything like it.

SkullFist grunted, watching Yvet with narrowed eyes. He seemed able to follow her flight path, his gaze never quite slipping off her. Every move she made was locked in his vision.

Muscles twitched along his hulking shoulders as his empty hands clenched into fists. He didn't have his hammer, having abandoned it when fleeing the burning wreckage of his tribe.

As he ran through the events, everything clicked into place.

Yes, this beast had not shown up right as everything he had ever built collapsed coincidentally. It was responsible, somehow. His already narrowed eyes squinted even further.

Yvet felt the wind under her wings. She felt how it carried her. She felt the intent in it. As she reached the apex of her turn, she called upon the wind, and it whispered back. With but a thought, gusts of billowing air pushed against her wings, sending her hurtling back towards the pair who had frozen in shock.

Eyes narrowed, teeth bared, she went straight for the big one this time.

Only, as she neared his menacing figure, she noticed that he was watching her. His eyes were clear, and followed her every move doggedly. And she saw his big hairy hand as it slowly reached up with all the inevitable momentum of an iceberg.

In a blur, she cut past SkullFist, opening a wound on the side of his arm. And, right as she passed him, his hand snapped shut like a bear trap. It closed on empty air just a second after her tail passed through his mitt.

Yvet's heart raced as she flew past and went to turn again.

That had been close.

Too close.

She had felt the rush of air as the hand closed not an inch from her tail. If he had managed to grab her…

Once again, she wheeled around, allowing the invisible eddies and streams of air to guide her.

This time, as she dived towards the pair again, they started running away.

Yvet didn't target the big man. She went for the slender one, her claws slashing at the backs of his legs. Blood spurted out, dark red landing on the vibrant, chalky red of the rock that lined the Rift.

She beat her wings, continuing back up.

From above, she could see everything.

All the way on the other side of the Rift, she could make out Bo scaling the crumbling cliff face like a madman. He was almost at the bottom…

Smoke started to rise from her nostrils, and her tail flickered dangerously, almost putting her off balance.

Why wouldn't he just take care of himself? He would get killed if he fought these beasts… she would need to hurry and deal with them before he arrived.

Yvet turned on the fleeing pair once again and began her descent towards them, gaining speed constantly. She was so fast that she was barely a red blur by the time she reached them.

They ignored her harrying attacks, making a beeline straight for the far side of the Rift. There, huge boulders lay before a gaping cavern that cut into the side of the Rift wall.

She continued to slash at Jin, but to his credit, the man ignored the many gushing wounds, desperately trying to make it to shelter in time. All he had to do was reach the cavern, and Yvet's attacks would be made impotent.

SkullFist completely ignored both Yvet and Jin. He focused on his loping strides single-mindedly, ignoring both attacks and his companion's faltering steps.

Right as the pair reached the boulder field, Yvet got Jin's ankle. She sliced clean through it with a single claw, and the man's leg buckled. He sprawled to the ground, slamming his head on a sharp rock with a dull, sickening thud. Blood and gore splattered the rock like fleshy rain, and the man went still.

His vacant eyes watched as SkullFist disappeared into the boulders without so much as a glance back at him.

Yvet landed on the first boulder, watching anxiously as the huge man vanished into the sea of red stone. Occasionally, his head would rise above the swell as he neared the cavern, but it would promptly dip down beneath the stone once again.

She turned nervously to check on Bo's progress. He was nearing the bottom, and she watched with horror as he lost his footing and plummeted like the boulder she was perched on towards the ground below.

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For a moment, as he fell, Bo was weightless. It was just him and the wind. As he hung there, he could feel every inch of his body, every scrap of clothing, every stray hair.

And then, the moment passed.

He was falling, tumbling, screaming toward the waiting ground below.

When he had lost his footing, he had been almost twenty metres above the Rift floor, and every single one of those metres was now rushing up to meet him.

His thoughts went blank as he fell, drowned out by the blaring screams of terror that echoed through his consciousness. He would die if he hit the ground. He just knew it.

Death was hurtling towards him, and it looked like red stone.

But even as he neared the ground, two things happened.

One, his perception of time dilated. He could feel his mind thinking so quickly that the speed of his fall slowed.

Two, his connection to the world around him strengthened.

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Perhaps it was due to his racing heart pumping blood and Mi around his body in a frenzy, or maybe it was the sheer magnitude of Mi that lay like a swirling, rainbow mist on the Rift floor.

Whatever the reason, as his connection strengthened, Bo felt a soft tingle on the fringe of his perspective. It was cooling, wafting over him like a gentle breeze.

He reached out, merging with the flow of air.

It rejected him, but far less vehemently than previously.

He tried again, coaxing it, pleading with it.

The ground was barely a few metres away, and he was approaching it at a speed that would leave him as a stain rather than a corpse.

It clicked.

He wasn't sure what it was, but something clicked. His hand touched the stream of wind and diverted it, syphoning a portion to succumb to his whims.

Suddenly, he was jerked upwards by a torrent of air, soaring almost ten metres back up the cliff face. He reached out desperately, scrambling to get a hold on the crumbling rock that disintegrated beneath his cloying fingertips.

And then he was falling again.

He rushed back towards the ground so fast that he got whiplash. But this time, he was ready. This time, he didn't push so hard.

Holding his hands beneath him, he called upon the wind, beckoning it. For a moment, there was no response, but soon, it whispered.

Slowly, gradually, his fall became a measured descent. He wrestled back control from gravity and piloted himself to the Rift floor.

The second his feet touched the ground, his knees gave out. He felt the solid, stable stone beneath his feet and nearly wept. A crazed grin spread across his face, and he started to laugh madly, his fingers digging trails in the dirt that lined the floor as though holding on for dear life.

"Bo! Are you alright?" Yvet's shout rang through his consciousness like an alarm, waking him from his crazed state.

He raised his head, noticing that the little dragon was perched on a massive boulder on the other side of the Rift. She was maybe half a kilometre away, but his eyes still picked her out with ease.

Were they even his eyes anymore? He wasn't sure.

Bo stumbled to a standing position, waving at the dragon. He wanted to shout something, but she was probably too far away to hear him, and he didn't know what kind of danger she was in.

An idea occurred to him, and he started to try communicating with his mind again, but before he had the chance to send his thoughts across the gulf to her, Yvet had turned around and vanished into the boulder field.

For a moment, he was stunned. What did she think she was doing?

And then he started running.

He tore across the desolate, long abandoned riverbed with manic energy, his legs blurring as he skimmed over the ground. He was moving so fast that his feet barely touched the floor. He felt the wind rush through his hair and called upon it, pushing him forward ever faster. All he could do was hope he wouldn't be too late.

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Yvet glided over the boulders, making sure not to get too close to the ground. Every time she passed over one of the enormous rocks, images of the brutish man hiding in wait flashed through her mind, and she made sure to fly far above the sea of stone, revelling in her bird's eye view.

But, despite her extended vision, there was no sign of him.

Only the cold, gaping cavern mouth that loomed over everything. It was too dark to see what was inside the gloomy cleft in the cliff face, with shadows cloaking all that lay within.

She flew into the murk, swallowed whole by the hungry cave.

It narrowed and shrunk the further she went in, but still, there was no sign of SkullFist. The giant had seemingly vanished.

Further still, she went. What was once a massive, airy cavern had shrunk into a claustrophobic tunnel. It was so narrow she was forced to fly close to the ground, with her wingtips almost touching either side of the tunnel walls.

And then she saw him.

The colossal man lay crouched in wait at the end of the tunnel, clearly unaware that dragons could see in the dark. His mammoth figure looked strange, almost contorted as he had been forced to ball himself up in a small nook so as not to be conspicuous.

She stopped moving, watching him with narrowed eyes. Her luminous orange pupils glowed like embers in the darkness, watching the hidden giant with detached curiosity.

Eventually, she took a deep breath. Mi rushed through her lungs like a tidal wave, the immense scale of it almost overwhelming her. She started to hiss, emitting a squealing, grating sound like tearing metal.

The noise echoed down the tunnel, and SkullFist heard it.

He shifted, unfurled himself and stood up slowly, menacingly. He couldn't see much in the gloom save for the two glowing orange pinpricks that watched him with unnerving intelligence. The sound was coming from beneath those two eyes, building evermore.

Without pause, he rushed towards her, moving far faster than his bulk should have allowed. Yvet kept building her flame, unable to release it prematurely.

The sound she made was growing higher and higher in pitch, but it wasn't growing fast enough.

She could feel the immense figure barrelling towards her, feel the massive lungfuls of air he took as he ran.

He was going to get there before she could attack.

SkullFist slammed into Yvet with enough force to tear down a small mountain. She was picked up and hurled against the tunnel wall, bouncing off with enough force to break bones… human bones, anyway.

Her vision went blurry, and her head spun as she felt one of her wings twist the wrong way.

Yvet desperately tried to get up, tried to fight back. She couldn't let him win. If this monster defeated her, Bo would be next.

As she tried to stand on shaky legs, a hand that could crush stone closed around her back, pinning her wings against her side. She could feel the strength in that hand. Unforgiving. Boundless.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she turned to look up at the beast that had caught her. He was breathing hard, bleeding from a cut on his arm that spilled blood down the side of his leg. His eyes were dead, lifeless little pinpricks that observed her with cold, calculated fury.

Her breathing caught as she looked into those eyes, seeing malice so boundless it was suffocating.

He was going to kill her. And then he would kill Bo.

Just as she felt the hand around her begin to tighten, right as her life began to be compressed out of her, she heard footsteps.

And then she saw him.

Bo was running like he was being chased by the spectre of death. He looked genuinely terrified, and for a moment, Yvet was worried he was being followed. But nothing appeared behind him.

For some reason, although the timing was odd, she felt a strange comfort when she realised that he looked that afraid, not for himself, but for her.

Right as she saw him, he saw her. After that, he saw the man about to crush her.

Bo froze, his glowing eyes moving along the enormous silhouette. They had to travel quite a ways to see SkullFist in his entirety, a journey that only made the man all the more frightening.

Before the giant, Bo looked so very small. He stared up at the man, and the man stared back, lifeless eyes boring a hole through the boy's head.

Bo's tongue flickered out, licking dry lips.

"Run, you idiot!!" Yvet cried.

For a moment, he didn't respond, closing his eyes like he hadn't a care in the world.

"I said run! This monster isn't someone you can fight!"

Bo opened his eyes again, watching as SkullFist's muscles bunched up like coiled springs. The big man was getting ready to pounce, and despite all Bo's inhuman strength, he wasn't confident, not when the man had Yvet's life in the palm of his hand.

"Yvet." The word was quiet, barely a thought at all… but it reached her.

"What?" she couldn't quite believe it, even as the big man shifted, getting ready to attack. When had he figured out how to talk to her?

"Are you… fire… proof?"

His thoughts were jerky and slurred, but she got the gist. "I… It takes a lot to burn a dragon."

Bo nodded, raising a hand to face SkullFist.

And, as the monstrous, terrible demon lunged towards Bo, a bulging, swelling avalanche of raging flames burst out to greet him.

For an instant, every scrap of darkness in the tunnel was expunged, replaced by blinding heat and light.

For a brief moment, the only sounds were the howls of swirling fire and wind and the bestial roar that SkullFist made. It was animalistic, primal, an inhuman scream of blazing agony.

The giant dropped Yvet and ran, slamming into the tunnel wall with enough force to shake rocks loose. His whole body glowed orange, consumed by a hungry inferno.

He desperately rolled on the ground, but despite his best efforts, the fire wouldn't go out.

His suffering might have gone on forever if Yvet hadn't run a claw along his neck, snuffing out his life in a single, bloody instant.

For a while after, they stood panting in the tunnel as tiny flames flickered all around them. Yvet observed Bo, and he her.

"Are you okay?" He asked, his voice hoarse.

"I... I think so..."

He smiled and nodded slowly. "Thank Qui."