There was no blocking whatever was building up in Tigris's throat. Lainor, the lying rat, was the first to run. He jumped off the roof and made off down the street. Meera looked to Kalrina, who just shrugged at her.

She had nothing to say to her as they both had been had. "Well, I hope you can still teleport because I'm not wasting my time saving you."

"Oh, please, dearie, as if I would ever need you to save me," Kalrina retorted.

The witch formed many daggers made of mirrors and stabbed the ice that confined her. The blades twisted, and the ice broke into tiny shards with a resounding crunch. Then she was gone, using the tiny mirrors that Meera had planted for her jumps.

Meera waited a moment longer to confirm something. The dragons did not care about Kalrina. They were focused on Meera, so they let the witch escape. The glow in Tigris's neck reached his throat, and right before he blasted, Meera jumped to the farthest mirror she could find, which was right behind Kalrina.

Behind them, the night lit up like day as a torrent of flames erupted from the dragon's jaws. She hoped her plan had worked and the dragons would think she was ashes. She doubted the dragons would rummage around the hole in the ground that Tigris was making.

Her hope was dashed as one of the dragonlings craned its neck her way and spoke something in a tongue that sounded like it was gargling with rocks. It must've been the dragon's language. Tigris clenched his jaws shut, and the flames vanished, plunging the world into darkness again and leaving a massive white spot in that part of Meera's vision.

Tigris roared and the dragonlings sprang into action. They took to the air, pivoted towards Meera, and shot off.

To Kalrina's credit, she hadn't stopped to gawk, but then neither had Meera. They had reached the end of the mirrors that Meera had planted. The witch was blasting out more and teleporting, but it wasn't as fast.

"The dragons are going to catch up soon," Meera reminded her.

Kalrina cursed, finally breaking her serene demeanor. "I really should not have bothered bringing you along. You're trouble."

Meera grinned and gave her a two-finger salute. "I can't say it was nice knowing you."

She was about to take off when Kalrina cried. "Wait! You can't get to the man in the forest without me."

Meera gritted her teeth so hard, she feared she'd chip a tooth. The witch was right, and she hated her for it. "Follow me."

Meera used Mirror Wing to fly towards the gate and peppered the area with mirror shards from her armor along the way. Kalrina used them as jump points for her Mirror Step. She was right behind Meera, but they were not fast enough, or rather, the witch was slowing her down. The dragonlings had almost caught up to them.

"Listen up, witch, they're after me. Let's do the same plan. You go to the gate and raise a mirror, and I'll distract them. Hopefully, we can lose them in the woods beyond."

"Okay." Kalrina formed a disc under her and zipped off towards the gate, lying low to street level.

Meera was right about the dragons only being after her. She took a sharp right turn, and all the dragonlings followed. Unlike last time, they also threw fireballs at her, lighting the buildings on fire. The only one who hadn't moved from its spot was the black dragon, for which Meera was thankful. She did not want him after her.

Please don't be preparing something terrible. Was the first thought that came to Meera as the dragon's red eyes watched her evade his minions.

With the noise they were creating, it was only a matter of time before more of the dragons from the hill came to join them. She wondered if Leonel would come after hearing all this commotion. It was considerably more than last time. It would be better for Meera if he did, but what could he do against the might of these dragons?

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A small round mirror appeared to her right in between the city's ruined gates.

Well, what do you know, the witch actually came through.

The dragonlings were so focused on hunting her that they hadn't noticed the mirror, but she couldn't be sure about the Charred Dragon. His red eyes were still on her, but who's to say he didn't get a quick peek? Something told her that he was planning something, but being inexperienced with dragons, she couldn't be sure what.

She had to make them think they killed her before she made her escape. She flew around a little more until she found a two-story building with a hole facing the gate. She dived down into the building, pretending to take cover.

The top of the building was missing, so she saw the massive columns of flames coming for her. She didn't teleport right away. She waited. The fire came closer, and the air grew so hot that she thought her flesh was burning. Then, at the last moment, before the building caught on fire, Meera teleported to the mirror between the gates.

The cool night air was like a bliss upon her heated body. The building where she had taken refuge was nothing more than a burning heap crumbling upon itself. The dragonlings flew around the burning building, waiting to see if Meera would come flying out of the building.

"Oh, that was good," Kalrina said, slipping out from behind the massive broken gate hanging from only one hinge. It had slashes along its length. "I didn't think you were coming out of that one."

Meera snorted. "Unlike you, I do have a little—"

Two beams of light, like laser beams, ripped through Meera's abdomen. They also nearly took off Kalrina's arm just below the elbow.

They both screamed. Meera was driven to her knees as she clutched her bleeding stomach. Kalrina clamped a hand on her wounded arm. The blood seeped from between her fingers.

Meera activated Vitalize. Kalrina pulled out a green Health Potion from her Belt and downed it quickly.

"Get up," Kalrina barked. "Before it—"

She quickly ducked, and it saved her life as two more laser beams crashed through the door behind her, leaving two smoking holes the size of her head. This time, Meera saw what it was. The lasers had shot out of Tigris Grandbreath's eyes. They were so fast that they might as well be instantaneous.

She tried getting up, only to cry out. She clutched her gut to make sure none of her organs spilled out. She knew she had to move. Tigris had started to charge another attack. The dragonlings had seen through Meera's ruse and were coming for them.

But the pain was so intense. The last time she had felt like this was when Melas had ripped out her innards and killed her, but that time, she had Brison to bring her back.

"Get up, dearie." Kalrina hooked her good arm through one of Meera's and pushed her to her feet. "I'm not dying to a dragon."

Meera clenched her teeth and groaned as she stood. Kalrina raised three Mirror Shields behind them. Vitalize was working overtime to fix her, and it dulled the pain enough to give Meera enough coherence that she added three of her Mirror Tower Shields to Kalrina's, giving them a six-shield defense.

It still wasn't enough.

Tigris's laser beams shattered all six shields like they were nothing. The only thing that saved them was that they had moved on—luckily behind the left side door while the beams crashed through the right door.

Kalrina gripped Meera tightly, making her flinch and cry out. "Easy. You're going to kill me."

"On the contrary, I'm trying to save you, dearie. If we don't make it to the cover of those trees, we're dead."

"You have a spare Health potion?" Meera asked. "I'm barely holding my organs inside me, which, if you can believe it or not, is not the first time that's happened to me."

Kalrina groaned. She shoved a hand in her Belt and produced a Health potion. "It's my last, so let's ensure we don't get blasted by any more instantaneous eye beams."

Meera gulped down the potion, ensuring she didn't spill any from the corners of her mouth. This thing was better than any Health potion she had ever had. The holes in her abdomen closed in mere seconds. Not even the potions that Pallas made were as good as this.

"What is this stuff?" Meera asked, staring wide-eyed at the sorceress.

Kalrina smiled a self-satisfied smile. "That was my personal batch. You can think of it as the best of the best. A super Health potion."

"You've got to teach me that."

"Maybe later. For now, let's get out of here."

Meera put an arm around her, activated Druvis Power, and blasted off towards the trees. When the dragonlings arrived, all they saw was a trail of dust leading to the trees.

They retaliated by lighting up the trees on fire. Meera stayed low to the ground to avoid the branches. She swerved through the trees carefully and put as much distance as possible between them and the dragons. But they would not give up that easily.

A heavy thud shook the branches, and Meera was sure the big one had landed somewhere on the city wall.

"Go north," the witch commanded. "We'll be safer there."

"Which way is north? If you hadn't noticed, it's hard to tell with all these trees."

Kalrina rolled her eyes and huffed. "City girls." She pointed to her right. "We need to travel in that direction for a hundred miles and hopefully find our Cosmarian."

"Oh, yes, that should be easy. It's not like we don't have one of the strongest dragons on our tail."