The swamp was worse in the midst of the dragonflight, somehow. The trees didn’t just move—now they sometimes swung branches at people. Leo, with his telekinetic sight, and Neha, who teleported from danger, weren’t much bothered.

On the other hand, the number of times a fox had gone yelling through the air to splash twenty feet away was absurd. Sadly, the trees weren’t affected by Lily’s illusions, which made the trip a bit more challenging, as they ejected people from the illusions.

Huge tracks of the mobile trees were also burned, frozen, or melted—in a few cases outright blasted apart, with the detritus sitting on the top of the swamp water like the detritus of some tiny navel battle.

And the smell of rotting vegetation, thick in the humid and bug-filled air, had never left.

But they were close to their destination, staring at the base of a mountain that rose higher than Leo could see, past clouds. Like the mountain that surrounded the Empire of the One Land, the mountains surrounding Dragon Swamp were unlike any Leo had ever seen, on Earth or Toth.

“How come we’re not defending the cities?” Neha asked suddenly. “I mean, I want to become more powerful, but I feel like we’re just being bandits.”

Neha rode Juri through the swamp. The plants and gunk seemed to press away from the leaftail den mother, leaving her fur sopping wet but otherwise clean, and Neha was mostly untouched by the environs.

Leo was simply floating above it all now. “At a certain level we are. But we can’t possibly fight what’s coming for the cities. Perhaps we could go to some tiny town and defend it if only weak dragons attack, but even then, we’d be taking a huge risk for… very little. This way, however, we are striking a genuine blow against our enemy, and at the same time, we’re significantly increasing our own capabilities. The dragons opened the door to violence—they can’t complain about what comes walking through.”

“Even if it’s a tiny thief mouse,” Zun said and snorted.

Leo laughed along with her. “Even if it’s a larcenous rodent, yes.”

“That makes sense, although I wish we were being more heroic,” Neha said, sounding very much like Leo to Leo’s ears.

“Remember our fight with Chester?” Leo asked.

Neha shuddered and nodded. “That was horrible. Our first team death. Hopefully our last.”

“Well, we are to Chester what Chester would be—”

“To these dragons?” Neha said.

“—to a dragon that would be still abut forty levels below what’s headed for Dayblossom. No one we know can possibly fight back. Some of these dragons are on par with your mother, or a touch stronger, in power.”

“Uncle Hugh said you always find a way,” Neha said.

“I did say that,” Hugh commented. “But, for the record, I’m down for the dragon hoard raid.”

Lily snorted. “Once again, I dub thee ‘vulture dragon’”

Hugh laughed.

Leo answered Neha. “This is my way—I’m finding a way for us to ‘win’ even as we lose.”

“Hmm…” Neha said but offered nothing else.

For a few minutes the group squelched along through the swamp.

Hugh broke the silence, turning to Ru. “So, tell us again about this lair we’re going to?”

“It is the lair of Zhuge Lung, called the egg-layer, use name Zhu,” Ru said pedantically as he carefully stepped in the least deep places, his nose wrinkled.

Leo chuckled. Boy has been out of the swamp for a tenday and he’s already fastidious about it. He’s gonna be a fussy old man dragon for the next thousand years in our university.

Ru was still talking, “She is, even by dragon standards, fat and indolent. But she has existed hundreds of years and raided few elven caravans in that time. However, a couple hundred years ago she was part of a group that happened to raid the great gift of peace between the Empire of the One Land and the Great Northern Vale. There were hundreds of thousands of gold in that caravan, most of it in magical items, magical crystals, gems, and jewelry. I don’t know what her share was, but every dragon hears of that famous heist sooner or later, and wistfully wishes they had an opportunity like that.”

“So very easy to transport, very high value stuff,” Leo said.

“We get it, ya birdbrain,” Hugh said.

“How much further is it?” Neha asked from where she rode Juri, her and the fox still completely clear of swamp detritus. Remy, who walked beside them, was by contrast covered in gunk, his white fur nearly green. He was muttering about his life and its inequities as they walked, never very loud.

Ru answered her. “We’re close. Zhu managed to get a large cave at the base of the mountain, and never made the effort to fight for a better cave higher up as she gained power. We could see it at any moment,” Ru replied.

Leo hoped they would—he was very tired of walking through the swamp.

A few minutes later, Neha pointed toward the mountain. “Dad, look!”

Leo followed her hands, squinting. It took a moment, but he saw a speck of gray on the mountainside. After staring at it for a moment, he could make out the shape of a dragon sunning itself on the rocks—a two-headed dragon.

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He turned to Ru. “Who, and what, is that?”

Ru was staring as well. “That’s a twilight dragon, name of Jo Liu Lung. That’s one of the many children of Zhu.”

“How powerful?” Hugh asked.

“Maybe a touch stronger than you—he’s almost a hundred years old, but has few levels,” Ru responded, crouching slightly as he watched.

“So, during the dragonflight, he’ll be a real challenge,” Leo commented.

Ru nodded.

“Breath weapon?” Leo asked, fingering heartseeker as he stared at the dragon.

“Two, a different one for each head. A cloud of inky black shadow that will stick to you, blinding you and slowing you, from the shadow head. A beam of powerful and deadly Light magic from the white head.”

“Other powers?” Leo asked.

“Shadow movement and glare. It’s far more mobile, and relies far more on tricks, than most dragons in a fight.”

Two of us fight entirely without the need for actual sight, and another one teleports. But…

“Lily, can I ask you to sit this one out?” Leo asked.

His paramour frowned. “Why?”

“Everyone else here can likely survive a bad hit—but you can’t,” Leo said, then took a deep breath. “I’d… really rather you not die. And with a fast moving dragon, I might not be able to intercept a hit.”

Lily frowned. “I can’t keep sitting fights out. I need to increase my level or I’ll never be able to fight by your side. It’s a vicious cycle.”

“When we find something that can’t one shot you, okay?”

Lily’s frown deepened and her eyes narrowed, but eventually, she nodded. “For you. But we need to find a way around this.”

“Maybe add a level or two of the actual Toughness power, as well as Toughness? Just get to a point where your health is extremely high.”

Ru held a single claw up. “So… we’re going to be attacking Jo? That’s what this conversation is about?”

Leo pulled heartseeker and twirled it with his mind. “Yes.”

“Can I join your mate in the ‘able to be one shot’ crowd?” Ru asked nervously.

“Even with the dragonflight buff?” Leo asked.

“Um… probably not,” Ru aadmitted. “At least not since you got me multiple levels bug hunting.”

Hugh laughed and put his foreleg over Ru. “Suck it up, buddy.”

Ru exhaled hard, disturbing the water of the swamp beneath him.

Leo, still floating above everything, pointed with Heartseeker. “Leeroy… Jenkins.”

He flew forward, and his team followed. It actually took about seven minutes to close, making Leo regret his Leeroy Jenkins call, but they left the swamp onto the grassy hills that started up the shockingly sloped mountain face and then onto a large, exposed stone slope headed for the outcropping where the two-headed twilight dragon rested.

It saw them coming long before they got there, of course. It raised to its feet, staring at them.

Probably trying to decide if Hugh, Zun, and Ru mean we’re a friendly dragon party despite the mortals and foxes also charging up the cliff.

“Spread out so it can only aim for one with its breath weapon. Unless you’re Neha you’re almost certain to be hit, so be prepared to try and get behind a boulder and I’ll come give you a regeneration or perhaps leave you out of the fight.”

A moment later, as if Leo’s words had been prophetic, Jo decided they were enemies. His white head leaned down and a beam of light almost four feet in diameter briefly connected his mouth and Hugh’s chest. Hugh roared in pain as the scales on his chest were burned away, deep enough to briefly reveal ribs.

But Hugh was the one member that had so much Health he didn’t need to hide afterwards—he just kept charging. Leo flew closer to him and touched him, pushing regeneration into the dragon. He hit his friend four times as they ran up the mountainside.

Another blast flashed at Juri and Neha. Neha disappeared, re-appeared a few feet away, and then teleported to Sumoon’s back. Juri was very nearly destroyed, her skin badly scoured and her tail blown almost bare of leaves, but she survived and crawled behind a rock outcropping.

“I’ll be back for you!” Leo called, putting on a burst of speed and leaving his team behind briefly.

He flew at the dragon, who breathed a huge cloud of inky black shadow across Leo. But Leo had been expecting it—he was instantly blinded, and his movements slowed a bit, but he was already moving extremely fast and he focused entirely on his telekinetic sense. He aimed for the head that had faced him to use its breath weapon.

Leo flew alongside it. He pulled a boulder from the opposite side to force the dragon’s head toward him and then triggered his brutal reaction ability. The boulder slammed into the dragon’s head but didn’t move it far enough forward for Leo to get the eye-strike he had been trying for. Instead, he landed a blow to the eye-ridge, splitting it open, and then another to the back of the neck as he flew past.

The damage was high, but not insane—this dragon was tough.

The white head followed his movement, and a Light magic breath barely missed him as he flew in a curving arc behind and below the dragon. He landed and swung his sword hard into its ankle, slashing it open.

At the same time, A shower of small boulders under Zun;s control began pelting the dragon, and Hugh rushed forward covered in crystal and raked the already damaged shadow head with his claws, marring the face terribly. The twilight dragon screamed.

We have it! Leo though, bringing his sword back for a power blow to sever the foot he was attacking.

The twilight dragon disappeared, and a huge shadow slithered up the mountain, reforming into the dragon. Its white head came down and forward.

“A pox on your house!” Remy called as he ran up, and Leo felt a magic he wasn’t familiar with—a magic that saw the threads of chance and twisted them. Even as the dragon leaned out to blast the group, a rock its foot was planted on shot out from underneath it, and the dragon fell forward. The Light beam hit the ground in front of it, and the stone of the mountainside exploded.

He finally got his cursing powers, Leo thought, even as Neha gave him a thumbs up and said, “Bad people don’t get nice things. The punishment fits the crime.”

Leo laughed wildly as he flew up at his enemy again. Neha appeared behind the dragon and touched it right where Leo had chopped the back of its neck. More of the neck disappeared, and this time it must have gotten to something important, because blood fountained from the wound.

A cloud of inky black covered everyone as the head spit its darkness breath weapon.

Leo slashed the dragon along it’s White face, cutting it from tooth to ear, leaving its entire maw slashed open, and then went sailing back to land behind it. At the same time he yelled out, “A few degrees left, Hugh!”

Hugh, who had been blinded while charging up the mountain, corrected instantly, his trust in Leo and long experience fighting as a team helping them coordinate near perfectly. He ran into the twilight dragon awkwardly, but this time he got a grip on it in the scramble—which would prevent it from shadow-slipping away. Blood flew from both the dragons as they rolled and Neha disappeared from what her magic must have interpreted as an ‘attack.’

Andul, who had been riding Zun, leapt off and came sailing down, his glowing axe slamming down on the White head and chopping it clean off. Hugh managed to tear into the bottom of the shadow head, and Leo chopped to the bone of the back leg. The dragon went woozy, half-pawing at his assailants. A few minor blows later and the dragon collapsed.

Despite a fight that had required their entire team, Leo only got a few experience. “What the heck?”

“Dragonfight, remember?” Hugh said. “I wasn’t leveled for the system purposes, even though I’m far stronger. I think it’s the same.”

“What a crock,” Leo muttered, but then turned to the cave mouth he could now see. Lily and Juri—now healed—we’re walking up to them. “Well, shall we at least go get the treasure?”

“Daddy needs a new hoard,” Hugh said, rubbing his foreclaws together.