“Watch the fire!” Duman barked as he dodged a ball of fire just barely by a hair. A very large snake, later identified as a python, had breathed a ball of fire just now. Being a python, it had no fangs and no venom, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t any less dangerous. It was huge and physically very strong. Ayaan had broken his arm already by its tail swing, and Roseline had to cast a high level healing spell to put his bones back in shape fast.
“God damn it!” Meizei growled in frustration. She had her tower shield in front, blocking any fireballs from striking her. However, as her shield endured endless fireballs, it was becoming too hot to handle. If it wasn’t for the leather handle, she wouldn’t be able to touch it even. Some part of her shield was turning red.
“Rose, some water please!” She shouted for help, and Roseline cast one of the most basic water spells which was just conjuring some water out of thin air, but it was a godsend in this scenario. Meizei dragged her tower shield upwards and had it flat toward the sky at which point a bucket of water dropped onto the shield, releasing steam and instantly cooling her shield.
“We are what, only half way to the top?” Ayaan complained, “We can’t make it like this.”
“We need to rest. I need to rest,” Roseline said, panting. She had been casting spells nonstop for hours. Even though the spells she had been casting were low level ones, her exhaustion was accumulating.
“Can we even set up a camp here?” Amanda asked aloud while looking around. The North was a very cold region, yet due to the lava, the area was uncomfortably hot. Sitting down wasn’t even an option without burning their buttocks. This also meant that they would not be able to get sleep. Ironically, this heat was preventing giant eagles from harassing them.
“You know, my feet are sweating like crazy,” Ayaan complained again. “And my footing is very slippery as a result.”
All of them wore hardened leather boots which had good insolation which was backfiring at the moment. Duman scratched his hair in frustration. They had to push forward, but it was looking increasingly clear that they may not be able to do so. As if the monsters were aware that the searing temperature was affecting them, they kept a distance and barraged them with small fireballs only, frustrating them even more. Only Duman and Roseline were somewhat effective against them. The former used a crossbow and the latter used water spells. Amanda’s fire magic was completely useless because the monsters they had been fighting were pretty much immune to fire.
“We need the airship,” Amanda blurted while looking around nervously to avoid any incoming fireballs from afar. “We cannot go on like this. We will exhaust ourselves even before encountering the dragon.”
“We don’t even know where he is now,” Duman replied, also looking around fanatically to watch out for any incoming fireballs.
“We could climb down. We should be able to rest at least,” she replied.
“That won’t accomplish anything, Amanda.”
“Neither would this,” she retorted.
Climbing back down would defeat the purpose of climbing up in the first place since they would be going back to the starting point. At the same time, continuing seemed rather futile as well. They were apparently stuck in a hard place.
“How about we use the airship to reach the dragon?” Roseline suggested as she wiped balls of sweats off her forehead with her sleeve. “We don’t have enough water to last, Duman. We cannot go on.”
“We could. It’s just that we won’t be able to go back down,” Meizei said. She, too, was sweating bullets. They had to make a decision. Pushing ahead would exhaust their water supplies and they won’t be able to climb back down and perish due to dehydration. If they were to go back, this was the moment.
“We are not going down. If we go down, we are forfeiting our mission,” Duman declared while pointing up with his index finger. “Our only way is up.”
“Who is going to save us then?!” Ayaan raised his voice in anger. “The kid? He has never succeeded in anything in his life!”
“True, so far. If odds are anything to go by, he has got to succeed at least once. We must count our lucky stars that this is the one time he will succeed.”
Ayaan looked flabbergasted. “Dude, we are fucked, don’t you realize that?”
“We were already fucked the moment we took this job, don’t you realize that?” Meizei argued. “This is a lottery. Whoever survives, wins.”
They looked at each other in silence for a moment with Roseline breaking the uneasy silence.
“Then… we march on, I suppose,” she said, shrugging.
Deep down, everyone knew what they signed up for. It was just frustration getting the better of them. Ayaan did have a point, however. Counting on someone who had never succeeded in anything to make the getaway was indeed a brave call.
“Take that!” Duman fired his crossbow. The bolt pierced through the mouth of a fire python to the back of its head, killing it instantly. Meanwhile, Ayaan was utilizing his throwing knives more than his primary weapon. He threw a knife at a fire orc right on its forehead. When another fire python threw a small fireball at them, Meizei dashed in with her tower shield to block it from doing any harm. Amanda, having become useless, had become a scout to look out for monsters and incoming fireballs. Slowly and sweating bullets, they made their way toward the top. The whole area was pitch black due to volcanic ashes and hardened lava, and the intense heat was coming from below. Worst of all, there was barely any wind which made escaping the heat virtually impossible. It took them two days of climbing to reach near the top during which they were unable to camp, meaning they hadn’t slept for days. Their water supply was already gone half a day before, and they were pushing on with just their will powers.
“At least…, I think it’s getting cooler,” Ayaan said weakly. His lips were dry and cracked. Each step felt extremely heavy.
It wasn’t getting cooler in fact, but there was wind.
“We are… almost there… but at what cost…,” Roseline muttered. Meizei was dragging her shield because it had become too heavy for her. Duman was the only one who was somewhat alert but even he was at his limit.
“We are almost there. Let’s push on,” Duman said. Encounters with monsters were becoming sporadic as they climbed higher. In fact, they hadn’t run into any monsters for a while at the moment.
“I would kill for a full waterskin now…,” Ayaan muttered.
“I am sure that the airship has some,” Amanda said and quickly added, “Do you see the airship by the way?”
The group stopped for a moment and they all looked up, searching for the illusive airship. Due to the dark gray clouds, it was already quite dark. With no sun to track, they didn’t know what time it was also. In fact, they weren’t sure whether it was day or night even. The visibility on the ground, however, wasn’t so bad due to lava streams which were illuminating the ground.
“Hard to tell. Can’t see shit,” Ayaan muttered.
“He … couldn’t have just run away, could he?” Meizei asked carefully as if she was afraid of her fear becoming a reality. If Faro did indeed flee, they were done for. And nobody knew the answer obviously. They knew that he was unlikely to have fled. It was just that fear and frustrations were getting the better of them.
“Let’s just push on. We do our job, and he will do his,” Duman said, urging others to push forward. The journey wasn’t what they expected really. They expected tough monsters to battle and fight their way through. What they got in reality was environmental damage: Searing temperature, harassments from monsters that didn’t seem to want to fight them directly, and the lack of available water.
“We are … finally here,” said Duman who was still more motivated than others. For example, Ayaan was making his steps so slowly that a turtle could overtake him. He looked as if he couldn’t care less about anything. Amanda, Meizei, and Roseline weren’t faring much better, either. Under more pleasurable circumstances, they would have enjoyed the view as well. Siwen mountain was one of the tallest mountains in the world, and the view would have been nothing to scoff at although there was nothing but dark gray world to look at for the moment.
“Where is the goddamn dragon… Let’s get this over with,” Ayaan said weakly, completely overlooking the fact that he was probably no match against it. It didn’t take them long to locate it because it was such a large creature with prominent features. In other words, it stood out.
“That is … the dragon?” he raised his voice in shock.
A huge winged creature was standing on top of an isle within a pool of lava. It looked as if its skin was leaking lava underneath its scales as well. One thirds of its tail was submerged in the lava, and it didn’t seem to bother the creature.
“It’s … looking right at us,” Meizei remarked. Indeed, the dragon was clearly aware of their presence already. Its menacing eyes were fixed at Duman and Co. Balls of fire, tens of them, were being conjured in the air around it at once.
“Oh…, shit!” Ayaan exclaimed. They may have been exhausted, but the immediate danger woke them up from their semi-slumber.
“Spread out!” Duman shouted while he aimed his crossbow. However, he threw it away upon a swift realization that a mere crossbow wasn’t going to hurt it. Instead, he drew out his arbalest from the back. It was already loaded and ready to shoot, so he did. It was a lucky shot because the bolt hit a softer spot between scales. The dragon roared in pain and began to bleed. However, the stuck bolt on its skin was soon burnt to ashes, and its wound was seemingly healed in a matter of seconds. Making an angry face, the dragon turned to face the adventurers. At the same time, the fireballs launched at them.
“Spread out!” Duman repeated as he began running. The others did the same. They were all exhausted and were suffering from mild dehydration, but adrenaline soon kicked in and they became active and alert.
“It’s chasing us?!” Roseline exclaimed. Generally, running away from a spot was the way to evade fireballs. However, these balls of fire weren’t exactly like the spell fireball because they were homing.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Ayaan shouted like a madman as he kept on running to evade a fireball that was chasing him. Meizei was the only exception where she had her tower shield positioned in front of her and took two fireballs head on. She was pushed back by sheer force from the two fireballs.
“Oh, my God…!” she uttered while pushing her tower shield with her whole body. “These are much more powerful than I thought…!”
Seeing her withstand the fireballs, the others ran to her as well to seek shelter. However, Amanda couldn’t outrun a fireball that was chasing her and took the full brunt when it hit her from behind. A large explosion occurred as she was blown forward violently. Screaming only briefly because her face was soon buried into the ground, she stayed down without any further movement. The back of her robe was burnt to crisp, revealing her skin that was red with burns. Roseline was about to dash out to help her, only to be stopped by Duman when he grabbed her arm.
“Not now!”
She grimaced, realizing that he was right. Meizei was taking on the fireballs, turning around as needed. The dragon conjured more fireballs as needed.
“You know, I can’t do this forever!” Meizei shouted. She had to shout due to explosions muffling her voice. Duman, after finishing loading his arbalest, made another aim and made a shot. The bolt cut through the dragon’s wing membrane which healed pretty much instantly.
“Water!” Roseline shouted, creating a large load of water above them and pouring it down on them. They managed to drink some water this way, but it was her last spell as she kneeled down from exhaustion, panting hard.
“Lure it out, huh. Well, it looks like we can’t do that even,” Duman lamented. Amanda was down. Roseline was too exhausted to cast spells. A close range warrior like Ayaan couldn’t even approach it since it was on an isle in the middle of lava. Meizei could still fight back but she was busy defending them from homing fireballs.
“We’ve got its attention, though. Just need the airship to get the hell out, it might follow,” Roseline said weakly, panting and sweating bullets.
“Where is he anyway?” Ayaan asked to which nobody answered. When eventually the barrage of homing fireballs stopped, Roseline crawled herself toward Amanda while Duman and the others attempted to find some way to retaliate.
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“Amanda, oh Gods…”
The wound on her back was more serious than she thought. It looked a bit red in the distance but, in reality, her back skin had largely peeled off, and her raw muscle was exposed. She wasn’t bleeding because of the burn, which probably saved her from bleeding to death. With such a wound, she couldn’t dare turn her around. Instead, she turned her head around a bit to see whether she was breathing.
“Oh, thank God, she is breathing. Amanda, can you hear me?”
All she could hear was a painful groan.
“Elementals of earth, heed my call! Shoot out from the ground to show the wrath of soils: Spear of earth!” Meizei chanted her spell incarnation meanwhile. The hardened soils in the shape of a spearhead were largely ineffective against the dragon’s scales. The dragon, looking somewhat annoyed, swung its tail as soon as it lifted it up out of the lava pool, splashing hot searing lava droplets onto the group. They made an attempt to evade the droplets, but Meizei had to endure a droplet with her tower shield, and it melted right through her shield, leaving a rather large gaping hole.
“Fuck…,” she uttered in shock. “Elementals of earth, grant me protection: Stonekin!” Her skin immediately looked dried up for a moment before returning normal. Duman fired again, meanwhile, landing a shot near its throat which penetrated its skin slightly but not enough to do any significant damage.
“God damn it! Get over here!” Ayaan was running around the edge of the lava pool. As a close range fighter, he simply could not approach the dragon and give a piece of his mind. “Fuck this shit! We can’t even reach the god damned thing!” He threw his knives in frustration, but they didn’t even reach the dragon, falling into the lava hopelessly. The dragon, taking notice of Ayaan running about not far from him, opened its mouth and began breathing fire. He ran back to avoid being roasted, but the dragon tracked his movement.
“Meizei, give me a cover!”
“My shield is literally melting!”
Regardless, she provided cover with Ayaan standing right behind her.
“Oh, my God! This is not ordinary fire!” She was pushing her shield hard so as not to be overwhelmed. The edge of her shield was already turning red.
“Elementals of earth, heed my call! Grant me a wall of stone for protection!”
Earth shot up to form a square wall made of volcanic ashes and loose rocks, providing much needed relief from the relentless fire breath.
“Out! Run! Get out of here!” She urged Ayaan to flee, which he complied. Because her shield was becoming way too hot to handle, she let it go. Besides, she was becoming too exhausted to handle it any further. Taking a deep breath behind the temporary wall of stone, she exclaimed.
“Elementals of earth, heed my call! Shake the earth to its core! Earthquake!”
Just as she finished her spell incarnation, the wall started to crumble, and fire engulfed her.
“Mei!” Duman was about to make a shot but he saw her being engulfed in fire from the side of his eyes. Lowing his arbalest and throwing it away, he dashed toward her only for the ground to shake violently, making him tumble to the ground. This forced the dragon to lift itself into the sky since the isle it was sitting on crumbled apart. This time, the dragon was casting tens of wind blades. Crescent-shaped green translucent blades were flying toward them. Roseline dived down to protect Amanda. Ayaan pulled out his small round shield for whatever protection he could get. Duman rushed toward collapsed Meizei who was still on fire behind the crumbled wall of stone which provided some protection against the wind blades. It was this moment that they realized they had absolutely no chance collectively.
“Go! Get the fuck outta here!” Ayaan shouted while pounding his sword with his round shield to create noise. His armor spotted numerous cuts by the wind blades. “I will hold that shit!”
However, neither Duman nor Roseline was in any condition to retreat swiftly. The former was in dismay due to Meizei’s condition, who was still burning. The latter had tens of sharp and deep cuts on her back, bleeding badly. She had collapsed on top of Amanda and was barely hanging on. Ayaan stood still for a moment, vacantly looking over the others in distress or potentially already dead. Then he looked up at the flying dragon and shouted.
“GET THE FUCK DOWN HERE, YOU COWARD! FIGHT ME!”
As if the dragon understood his words, it made a violent landing, shaking the ground. However, instead of fighting him, it swept its tail at him. He did his best to react to the sudden attack by positioning his shield against the tail, but the difference in force was too much, and he was pretty much sliced in half.
“Fucking bull shit…,” were his last words as his internal organs scattered all over and his upper body flew and fell into a pool of lava, leaving just his lower body to stand for a few seconds before collapsing. The dragon, looking satisfied with the result, was about to breath fire to finish all of them off. Just as it inhaled deeply to breathe fire, the fat lady slammed into one of its eyes, appearing out of nowhere, it looked like. The dragon roared in pain as blood gushed out of its eye socket. There was a faint trail of green light from the rear of the airship. Faro had apparently overloaded the ship to fly fast enough to bypass the giant eagles. It was flying so fast that even the dragon didn’t have much time to react before it slammed into its eye. In fact, it was mostly distracted by the adventurers. Grabbing the airship and pulling it out of his eye, it slammed the airship onto the ground violently, deflating the ship, but it wasn’t destroyed. Still, its front looked absolutely smashed, and blood was dripping out of it. Whether it was the dragon’s blood or Faro’s, it wasn’t clear at the moment.
“The… fat lady is here…!” Duman told Meizei who was unresponsive. She wasn’t burning anymore, but her entire body was charred. “Mei, it’s here! Let’s get out of here!”
While Roseline was unresponsive and was bleeding badly, Amanda had regained consciousness somehow. She was confused for a moment but was quick to make sense of what happened.
“Rose, you tried to save me…,” she said with a labored breath. The pain from her back overwhelmed her almost. She crawled and turned around to get Roseline off her and began dragging her toward the fat lady. Meanwhile, the dragon had its eye covered with its hand. It looked like it was trying to get splinters out of its eye socket, which was hindering its ability to heal. This was buying them precious time. The airship, in spite of being slammed into the ground, was inflating again and it was starting to balance itself.
“That’s one … tough motherfucker!” Duman cried while carrying Meizei on his back. Amanda wasn’t too far away, dragging Roseline across the ash ground. When Duman opened the door and reached into the cockpit, his eyes went wide and he dropped her to the wooden floor. The front wall of the cockpit completely crashed. It was basically gone. But the podium with the control wheel and levers were present. Perhaps the more important thing was Faro whose left side was crushed utterly. His left arm was barely in the shape of limbs, and it looked like all of his ribs on his left side were broken as well.
“Hey, ki… Faro!” Duman ran up to him in a corner that was painted with blood. He tried to shake him but was afraid to do so due to the severity of his wounds. It looked like just shaking him might shatter his arm and what was left of his chest. Amazingly, his eyes shot up at once upon being called. Looking sideways to see the unfortunate condition of his body as well as the cockpit, he grimaced in pain. Interestingly, he didn’t seem to be in panic.
“Is everyone here?” he asked rather casually to Duman’s utter amusement.
“Ayaan is dead. Mei … is probably gone, too. Amanda and Roseline are going to be here soon…”
Faro blinked his eyes a few times in either confusion or pain, perhaps both.
“Faro -”
He stopped him by raising his hand. “Please be quiet. Give me a sec.” It was as if he was trying to determine something. “Okay, the airship is still working. I can hear the balloon inflating. Let’s get out of here.”
Duman dropped his head, tears forming his eyes. “Faro, you are not in a condition to …”
“I don’t fucking care,” he interjected and stood up at once, dragging his loose dangling arm. Duman was amused. Whatever pain he was feeling, he was simply ignoring it. At one point, his left arm simply fell off, but he didn’t care at all and reached the podium and pulled up the altitude lever slightly, and the airship jolted a bit.
“The fat lady is still very much alive,” Faro said with a satisfied grin. “Whoever constructed this was a genius.”
“Faro…” Duman was too shocked to make a proper reply. The fourteen year-old boy was acting completely different.
“Please help Amanda and Roseline to get in. I am going to take off whether they arrive or not. At least someone needs to survive.”
It was the cold hard reality after all. He was right, Duman felt, and dashed out to assist the two women to get aboard. He glanced at Meizei’s charred body as he went out. There was no time to mourn.
“Just go,” Amanda said while handing Roseline over Duman at the door.
“What?”
“Somebody has to earn time for the fat lady to get away. I will do it.”
“But your fire magic is …”
“I am going to cast sacrifice. It should work. It’s probably the only spell that will have an effect.”
“Amanda…” Tears welled up in his eyes at once.
“How is Faro?”
He couldn’t tell her the truth. “He’s fine.” And she beamed a tranquil smile.
“Good, at least he will live. He really did come. He really did come…”
He nodded weakly and repeatedly. “Yeah.” His heart ached hard.
“I have one last request.”
“Yeah?”
“Please write good things about me in the history book. Let it be known that I was a beautiful fire mage with perfect skin.”
He fell to his knees slowly, choking in tears. “God damn it…”
“How is Mei?”
He shook his head slowly, sobbing.
“We knew not everyone would make it,” she told him softly while patting his head. “Farewell, Duman.” He couldn’t talk back; tears overwhelmed him. In fact, he was sobbing uncontrollably.
Walking slowly toward the dragon who still had its eye covered with one of its hands, Amanda grimaced every time she took a step. The pain was excruciating.
“Heh,” she laughed weakly regardless. “I never got to cast spells on the way here. So, I should have …” she grimaced due to pain and continued, “should have more than enough stamina to make this work…”
Standing about 50 meters from the dragon that was preoccupied with getting splinters out of his eye, she spread both of her arms wide. The dragon had noticed her presence but was largely ignoring her, downplaying her significance. Her face looked determined and firm with her eyes fixed at the struggling dragon.
“Elementals of fire, heed my call! I give you my life. In exchange, grant me a miracle! Grant me a spell that will harm this dragon in front of me - SACRIFICE!”
Glowing red salamanders appeared all over her body, soon digging into her flesh and inflating her body. Within seconds, her whole body had become like an inflated balloon ready to pop; it was an ugly sight.
“I have lingering attachments, but at least I go down on my own terms,” she said just as her body exploded. Where she stood before, there was a huge ball of fire that propelled toward the dragon. This was not ordinary fire and, as soon as it collided with the dragon, the fire acted as if it had life of its own and engulfed the dragon, dragging it into the ball of fire, it roared in pain, rolling on the ground to put it out. However, the fire persisted, and its scales started to melt. In the distance, the fat lady was in the air already and was becoming smaller rapidly.
“Rose, can you hear me?” Duman needed to check on her to make sure that she’d make it. Thankfully, her wounds were just deep cuts on her back. She didn’t look like her internal organs were damaged. She did lose a considerable amount of blood, but her condition looked to be manageable.
“I think you will live,” he said eventually after checking her out. Then he walked toward Meizei. He could smell the burnt flesh; her whole body was charred.
“Mei, can you hear me?”
There was no response.
“Mei, please answer me.”
Again, there was no response. He placed his hand near her nose and mouth to see whether she was breathing. There was no sign of life. He closed his eyes for a moment before moving into the cockpit.
“Faro…”
The cockpit was wide open since the front was completely destroyed when it rammed into the dragon’s eye. Therefore, Faro was taking the full brunt of the cold weather. His lips were pale blue, and it looked like snow had accumulated on his skin. The left side of his chest was badly deformed. He was most likely bleeding internally. However, his eyes were still brimming with life. Ironically, the chilly weather was prolonging his life because his blood was partially frozen at this point, preventing rapid bleeding.
“Who made it?” he asked rather casually with his eyes fixed forward and his lone arm at the control wheel.
“Just Roseline.”
“So, two out of six.”
“... Yeah.” Faro wasn’t including himself in the mix, which was a telling sign.
“I am still amazed that the fat lady survived the ramming and then the crash,” he said with a weak smile.
“I didn’t even see you coming… How did you get here without being noticed?”
“I threw like ten wind crystals into the pipe. Overloaded the hell out of it, it flew so fast that I could barely target the dragon’s eye… but I managed it. The giant eagles probably didn’t see the airship flying through.”
Just as Duman was about to approach Faro to tell him that he did a very good job, he heard something. It sounded like something was flying and chasing the airship.
“What?” He wondered aloud. It looked like Faro heard it as well.
“I think the dragon is chasing us,” he blurted.
“Fuck…! It’s not over, huh.”
Opening the door, he confirmed the suspicion. The dragon was indeed chasing them. Its eye was yet to be healed and was still bleeding. It looked somewhat melted to him.
“And it looks fucking pissed,” he said. Soon, he had a look of resignation on his face. He was exhausted both physically and mentally; he was done. “Whatever, we did what we could. We lured it out. Mission accomplished.” Then he smiled. “Mei, I am joining ya soon.”
And then -
“Huh? I am hearing something.”
He looked in the opposite direction and saw something approaching fast. Clenching his eyes, he attempted to make out what was approaching.
“The fuck? The duke?”
Kamil looked angry. He looked pissed. His eyes were glowing in green and there were countless wind and fire elementals with him. More importantly, he was flying at an inconceivable speed. When he flew by the fat lady, he could hear his angry shout.
“YOU MOTHERFUCKER!!!”
And he was flying right at the dragon.
“What the hell is he doing?! Alone at that!” Duman shouted. However, the unthinkable occurred. The dragon which they could barely harm was punched right in the face and then began to plunge. Then Kamil shouted, drawing his magical bow downward at the falling dragon.
“HURRICANE ARROW!”
Trails of green and red light intertwined as it shot right down on the belly of the dragon, piercing right through. Massive amount of blood and internal organs poured out literally. But he wasn’t done. Pointing at the falling dragon, he bellowed.
“THE IRE OF ELEMENTALS!”
Elementals around him turned into arrows immediately and rained upon the dragon. It wasn’t as powerful as the hurricane arrow but it was still piercing its half-molten scales.
Duman, with his eyes wide open, uttered, “What the fuck is going on here? How … Just how in the world…?” Then he clenched both of his fists. “... Go, Duke. Go get that fucking thing.” Tears filled his eyes. “Avenge my friends!”