Meera looked to Kalrina. "You better not run, witch."

She huffed. "If I do, those pointy teethers will make a meal of me, thanks to you." Then, venom dripped from her voice. "I'll be sure to repay you for this, dearie."

Meera was reminded of the old witch who had toyed with her after she broke her Mirrors of Dorheia. If the sorceress betrayed her now, Meera would be sure to slice her throat before she went down.

Kaxus was a little bigger than her sister. Now that Meera knew the difference between male and female, she could see that Kaxus had a bigger frame than her sister, a greater wingspan, and even a broader jaw, which meant more teeth.

Meera littered the area with tiny mirrors, and to her credit, the witch did the same, though she put up big, oval mirrors all along the boundary. Meera frowned a little, but she figured they could be used to get out of a bind.

Surprisingly, Kaxus's first attack was not a column of flames or even a flame attack. It was something so similar to one of her skills that Meera first thought he had used Smoke Eclipse. But instead of smoke emanating from his body, it came from his mouth. Instead of flames, a smoky breath snaked out of his maw.

"That doesn't look like smoke," Kalrina muttered.

Meera zoomed in with her eyes, and the witch was right. It wasn't just smoke. There were dark, thin particles, along with smoke. Meera wouldn't be wrong to say that it was, in fact, ashes.

"Oh, we really shouldn't breathe that in," Meera agreed.

But before they could do anything, the dragon flapped his wings and sent the ashes flying to wash over them. Meera took half a breath, and her lungs burned something fierce. Immediately, she was coughing. She had never smoked before, but she felt like she was a chain smoker whose lungs had just about given up.

She used Mirror Step to the farthest mirror she saw, hoping it was out of this ashen cloud. It was not.

"Enough!" Kalrina roared between her coughs. She created a giant fan made of mirrors and swung it using Mirror Wing. It was enough to blast the ashes and smoke back at the waiting dragon, but the dragon wasn't there.

He lunged for Meera. His claws glowed red with heat. His sister had used the same attack on her. She wasn't about to tank this hit when she could teleport away. She got out of the way and put a Death Mark on the dragonling. A skull appeared on his back, shining white on his dark scales.

The dragon noticed her right away. He swung his tail at her while he turned to unleash a flaming breath at her. Meera got out of the way again, but Kaxus immediately swung his head to her at blinding speed.

She moved behind him. A massive mirror spear passed an inch from her nose to shatter against the dragon's tough scales.

Meera didn't know whether to glare at the witch or thank her. She settled for a murderous glance to which the sorcerous gave her a mischievous smile.

Kaxus groaned as the force of the spear pushed him back several feet. The spear was strong but not strong enough to dislodge a scale, although it did damage several. With a start, Meera realized she had never tried out her chakram on the last dragon's scales. She reached around and hurled a level 2 chakram, which had become her default go-to chakram. Her regular ones might as well be pretty bracelets at this point.

She excelled its speed with Mirror Wing. The chakram became a blur. Some of Kaxus's friends called out in dragontongue. She didn't understand it, but she knew it was a warning for him to watch out for the chakram. But the warning had no effect.

Kaxus had barely recovered from Kalrina's blow when her chakram landed in the same spot as Kalrina's spear and cut that scale in two. Then it went spinning along the length of his body. A slight smile spread across Meera's lips.

The chakram sliced the dragonling's scales in two, revealing the softer flesh underneath.

Even the other dragonlings were flabbergasted. They did a very human-like gesture—their jaws dropped.

Kalrina looked at Meera wide-eyed. "Well, this dragon might not be as difficult as we thought."

Meera was not so sure, even if they did have a long strip of revealed flesh for target practice. The dragon's head toward Meera in a rage. She turned her chakram around mid-flight to attack his underbelly, but the dragon jumped aside and fired a volley of small fireballs at her.

She raised a Mirror Tower Shield, which stopped the first four but shattered after the fifth. Meera was long gone before that. She teleported to the dragonling's side to rip open his exposed skin with a shower of Mirror Shard Barrage. It would have been an excellent play if not for Kaxus's friends, who announced her arrival the second she appeared.

Kaxus swiped his tail. Meera activated her Tower Shield, but the tail crashed right through, sending Meera flying. She rolled into one of the burning trees, which was the boundary. One of her arms landed outside this boundary, and a dragonling pounced like a dog on a juicy bone.

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She teleported away in time to save her limb.

"Are you going to do something?" Meera barked at the witch but kept her eyes on Kaxus.

"I am, love," Kalrina replied. "I am preparing for my ultimate move. I need you to buy me some time."

"Why does that feel like an excuse to stay out of the fight?"

"Oh, don't be so cynical, dearie. I would never leave you alone in a fight to the death."

Then she disappeared. Not teleported to a mirror anchor, no she simply disappeared. It took Meera way too long to realize she was casting an illusion on herself.

"If you were going to do that, then why ask for the distraction," Meera muttered.

Kaxus's form glowed with a dark glow, while Kalrina was nowhere to be found. Meera had to stop the dragon's attack, and if she couldn't get close to him, then maybe they could.

She activated Spectral Dominion, brought forth two shadow warriors, and sent them to do her dirty work. Kaxus glow shuddered a little when her warriors fell on it. He slashed at them, dissipating some of their smoke, but they could hold on for a bit. They pushed the dragon back as they went for the opening in its side that her chakrams had created.

Meera thrust her hands in the air and decided to call on another of her great finishing moves. If it could help melt the great fortress of Azeria, then it could definitely harm a dragon. But she didn't get enough time to finish charging it.

Kaxus roared such a mighty roar that a shockwave released from its jaw. Her shadow warriors dissipated at once, and Meera froze. An intense terror made her heart beat like a drum. Sweat dribbled down the side of her head as she stood frozen. She had faced this attack from Kaxus's sister, but it was nowhere near as powerful.

The storm clouds she had started cultivating overhead were nothing more than wisps of smoke. The seconds that Meera was frozen was all the dragonling needed to finish its attack.

The dark glow coalesced into its throat, which traveled up and exploded from its jaw in a torrent of dark flames.

The dark flames were unlike anything Meera had ever seen. They seem to drink the light of the other flaming trees. Meera looked around, trying to find a spot with a mirror that would be safe to teleport to. The only safe place to teleport was directly beside Kaxus or outside the boundary, where four more dragonlings awaited.

"I'm going to need some protection here, dearie," Kalrina said, reappearing in the same place where she had disappeared.

"Are you serious?" Meera cried.

The dark flames were about to consume her. Meera teleported to the witch and raised Mirror Tower Shields all around them. Then, she created two more layers, for a total of three, and she hoped this was enough.

It was not.

The first two layers shattered almost instantly. Meera jumped back a step and raised two more. The preceding shields held for a few seconds. The flames were slipping through the cracks, and the heat was unbearable. She felt herself burning, and the fire hadn't even touched her.

She cried out when a little bit of the dark fire grazed the tip of her finger and melted the flesh off her bone instantly. She activated Vitalize while jumping back and adding two more layers of shields.

She was practically hugging the witch, who hadn't moved. Kalrina was chanting furiously with her eyes closed.

"Witch, you better hurry up," Meera cried. "We're almost cooked."

Kalrina continued chanting. Another tongue of fire licked her arm, making Meera scream. The flames were so hot that they had dissolved her armor, muscles, and part of her bone. She cradled her arm as Vitalize worked to recreate the missing parts.

She activated Bastian Strength. If she survived this firestorm, she would use all this damage to amplify her counterattack. A dark flame broke through her shield and bathed half her face. Meera flew back from it, but the pain was so intense that it made her blackout for a few seconds. She fell behind Kalrina, trembling and waiting for Vitalize to regrow her face.

"Okay, I'm done," Kalrina cried. She looked at Meera and winked. "Time to give this dragon a dose of its flames."

Meera tried to frown, which sent a jolt of pain through her. She was sure she was missing her eyes as well. Thanks to her mirrors, she could still see. Meera's Tower Shields shattered to bits, and the flames rushed in.

The witch spread her arms wide, welcoming them. "Mirror World."

Just as the fire reached her, it bounced off and went in the opposite direction, back to Kaxus. The dragon shot more dark flames from its mouth, but they bounced back when they hit the other flames. He tried getting out of the way, but the dark fire touched the mirrors that Kalrina had set up around the clearing, and the mirrors amplified the flames as they surrounded the dragon.

Kaxus backed up, but it was no use. The fire rushed around him and swallowed him whole. The dragon roared and wailed. His screams were horrifying. He tried to escape into the air, but the flames destroyed his wings. The dragon squealed as it crawled away. The dragonlings outside came rushing in and roared ear-deafening roars, and the dark fire finally dissipated.

"Anyone else would like to give it a shot," Kalrina cooed. "I have a lot of juice left in me."

Kaxus looked about as well as Meera expected. His whole form smoked. The majority of his scales had melted and fused with his skin. His wings were just plain sad. The leathery part that helped him fly was gone. He wouldn't be flying any time soon.

The witch looked to Meera. "I would constitute that as a victory on our part."

Meera felt around her face and flinched. She still had a lot of healing to do. She activated Mirror Phantom and sent out a phantom that looked like the normal her. Her phantom walked to the dragonlings.

"We have defeated Kaxus Silentshadow," the phantom declared. She waited for the dragonlings to refute, but no one said anything. "As per our agreement, we are free to go."

The dragonlings' eyes burned with rage and hate, but no one contested her claims.

"K-Kill me…" Kaxus croaked.

"Our accord was to defeat, not death," the phantom replied. "I do not wish to give your mother, brothers, or sister more reason to hate me."

"Are you sure you want to leave all that experience?" Kalrina asked, making all the dragons snap their head to her.

"Yes, because who will hold them to his word once we leave." Meera's phantom looked at the defeated dragon. "You said dragons are better than us humans. You said you keep your word. Now is your chance to show us. Take your friends and leave. This feud is over."

"You would let me live with this shame." He looked down at himself, trembling. Each word of his reflected his pain. "You are far crueler than I thought."

"And yet you will live. Now go in peace."

Two dragonlings came forward and hooked their arms underneath his. Kaxus winced and cried out as they lifted him and flew back towards the city.

A rust-colored dragon remained. His yellow, slitted eyes glared at Meera. "This is not over. This forest will hunt you."

"We took care of one of your friends, and we'll take care of the others as well." Kalrina blew him a kiss.

The dragonling growled and flew off.

Kalrina dropped to the ground with a loud huff. "Oh, thank Midiea. If he had lingered a moment longer, he would've seen…well, this."

Meera's phantom dissipated, and she peeled herself off the ground. "This truly is not over. We must get to this Saint at once."