As the dragon flew past us, Senan immediately began his experimentation of whether powers were affected by magic resistance. Which is to say, he attempted to freeze the dragon, to variable effect. Somehow it maintained breakneck speed while flying between trees, despite the presumption that they should limit its mobility. Then again, why would such a creature choose to live in a forest if it couldn’t manage the terrain?

Ultimately, about half of his attacks missed, condensed motes of ice impacting branches or flying off into the distance. Another large portion hit the creature directly in the chest, which while a reasonable target was also not terribly effective. Layers of ice atop scales simply peeled off, indicating to me that some amount of magic resistance applied. The bits that struck the creature’s wings seemed more effective, though we were unable to capitalize on the opportunity. The dragon was already far past us when the ice spread over its wings and it still managed to avoid crashing into the trees.

Though with its wings restricted, we were able to see how it dealt with the forest. Seeing it nearly clipping trees, its body rolled and more importantly its claws scraped along the powerful trunks, allowing it to maneuver even with a massive wingspan. The ice on its wings shattered before it got far and it was able to fold its wings, but if Senan could get a little more it might actually cause a helpful disaster.

“Should have brought a bow,” Izzy commented as she saw it fly past. “Or a gun. Hey Turlough-”

“Do you have a license? Or training?”

“I’ve seen them used.”

“Then no,” I said. “You cannot have my gun.”

“Tch. Guess I’ll have to do this the hard way.” Even as she said that, she was scampering up a tree, weapons stowed at her sides.

“What kind of ranged stuff am I supposed to have?” Ceira said.

“Dunno,” I admitted. “I think the tree magic worked, though. If you could time it with Ice Guy, we can bring the dragon to the ground. Hopefully hard.”

I wasn’t as concerned about range as I was about hitting it. It moved fast, and not fully in straight lines. Firebolt was certainly worth trying- the trees wouldn’t catch, and it was cheap on mana. Green dragons weren’t particularly fire resistant. Sonic Lance would be more effective, if I hit. While the speed of sound was indeed quite fast, it actually took a moment for the spell to function, so it was harder to properly effect a fast moving target. Maybe I could get Shockwave to help me with target practice later… if I could hit them, I could hit anything. Obviously with Energy Ward.

But I was getting distracted. Chain Lightning would seek out a target, but it was expensive. And given my current mana situation, I was hesitant to use it. Manawise, I could use it three times. But drawing upon so much all at once was bound to be bad for me while I was still suffering from crystal overuse.

The time for thinking came to an end when the dragon circled back around. Midnight and I had the same thoughts about Firebolt, it seemed, and we actually managed to hit the creature directly in the chest. We certainly left scorch marks atop its scales, but it didn’t even let out a grunt of pain. Not sufficient. I gathered more mana as it continued to approach, while doing my best to take cover.

With another great roar, a spray of green covered the area. Midnight got behind a large root, and I was most of the way around a tree- though it spread around that barrier slightly. Ice Guy had formed a sloping ice barrier, which if it were a bit larger we should have all taken cover behind. Perhaps the next time.

Ceira was… the least experienced in these matters. She certainly tried to reach cover, but she was slow to recognize the attack. I felt the Energy Ward around her dissolve completely, and the Force Armor crack.

At least she’d been gathering mana, and held onto her spell. As it flew directly over us, trees and vines bent to wrap around it, slowing it briefly. Enough for Senan to launch attacks of his own, specifically spikes of ice piercing through its wings. As it tore out of the entangling vines at a slower pace, he managed to clip it with an orb of ice near the joint connecting its right wing to its body, reducing that flexibility.

I only had time for one more Firebolt, hoping to at least damage its wings. At the same time, I felt a wave of emotion from Midnight, seeing him begin to climb up the scraggly bark of a large tree. He never looked down. Even I was shaking, and not from fighting a dragon but from the rolling waves of emotion. How brave. Too bad I couldn’t climb quickly.

“Stay behind this,” Ice Guy said as he formed a thicker shield in front of Ceira, adding onto the cover of a nearby tree for near complete protection in every direction. At least, any the dragon could be expected to return from.

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And return it did. Roaring now in anger rather than confidence, I saw blood running down its wings. Far from lethal, and not enough to prevent it from flying, but real damage nonetheless. I gathered mana for a Sonic Lance. Perhaps it had some sense of magic itself, because it swerved away from my attack. I managed to only clip its chest, cracking some scales with a glancing blow. Midnight, however, had a better angle. He got it right in the chest.

Prepared to release its breath, that drew its ire to Midnight- and Izzy. I’d lost track of her until the very moment she leapt through the air towards it. Either it had better senses or simply picked a lucky angle. As she flew through the air, she was well within the area.

Mana gathering for another spell, my chest tightened. I didn’t want to see either friend hurt, but I couldn’t do anything in that moment. But I was not the only one with abilities. The flow of mana around Izzy twisted my vision, and somehow she managed to avoid some of the cone of acid, despite still clearly being in the area. I felt a large part of the Energy Ward fade away, but she still landed on the dragon’s back without injury, swords slashing towards its wing.

Midnight chose a much less elegant route to avoid the incoming attack. “Catch meeee!” he yelled. I was floored by his overwhelming fear and confidence in me twisting together. And though I wasn’t close enough to reach him, wasn’t that what magic was for? I had about a second for it, and fortunately the spell I needed was both familiar and low mana cost. Mage’s Reach formed a hand that flew towards him, and as my hand wrapped around his chest, fingers under his front legs, I was glad that my hands were proportionate to my height. It was still barely enough, but I arrested his fall- though along the way he’d lost all of his energy ward, and I thought I saw a patch of melted fur.

At least Ice Guy continued to show his experience, being prepared with dozens of small ice shards that he peppered the dragon with- even avoiding Izzy who had suddenly appeared in his attack radius. Most impressively, instead of just making holes in the dragon’s wings, the shards lodged themselves halfway through. Whatever magical resistance the dragon had couldn’t just erase his ice, merely preventing some from piercing its flesh.

With the extra weight of a halfling as well as numerous holes and the weight of ice, the dragon dipped slightly. As it careened towards a tree, it flicked its tail to rotate its body, extending its claws to push off. And then… it suddenly yanked to a halt. From the dragon’s strained cry, it seemed to be surprised about that. The tree didn’t seem particularly happy about the situation either, groaning and cracking as its bark was rent asunder.

Having lost most of its momentum, the dragon could do nothing but fall downward. “Yessss!” Ceira yelled, “I did it!”

Indeed she had. Somehow, she’d focused all of the mana for a wide area entangle spell into the point of contact the dragon made with the tree, forming an instant shell of bark over its grasping claw. Either magic resistance or physical limitations of the tree meant that it broke immediately after, but the results were clear. It crashed to the ground, landing on its right wing with a horrible snapping sound. Izzy was still there, but she rolled free- blood on her small swords.

If only the dragon had been dead, we could have celebrated our victory. But while it most certainly would not be flying any time soon, it was still clearly a threat as it thrashed about, standing to its feet and towering over Izzy. Even Great Girl wouldn’t have been able to match its height on her own. Though if my understanding was correct, this was far from as large as dragons could get as it should be around the beginning of adulthood and capable of significant further growth.

The dragon was certainly slower on the ground, because as it snapped at Izzy she simply danced away from it. Not wanting to assume she could do that forever, I flung a Sonic Lance at the extended neck of the dragon. It would have been nice if that snapped its neck, but instead it shoved its head to the side and cracked some scales. Midnight did the same aiming for the body, and Senan launched a barrage of ice, overcoming its spell resistance through force and creating layers of ice on the topside that would weigh it down.

Izzy was crazy enough to dodge in and out of the thing’s reach, slashing at the thing’s face when it tried to bite her. And Ceira… tried to hold onto mana without releasing it. The good news was that she passed out a good distance away from the dragon and probably didn’t have enough mana to seriously hurt herself.

The dragon was beginning to look ragged. The fall had clearly not been good for it, and the various broken scales were revealing bits of vulnerable flesh. A state Izzy seemed quite capable of taking advantage of, darting beneath the creature and stabbing one of her blades into its side. That was deep enough to cause some real trouble, but I was fairly certain its most important organs were even deeper.

Having seen the cycles between when the dragon could make use of its breath and feeling the flow of mana in the area, I knew it was going to be ready again soon. And while we were spread out so that it could likely only target one of us, Midnight was vulnerable and Ceira was unconscious should it want to simply cause harm at the edge of its potential. Izzy also had little Energy Ward left and likely couldn’t avoid its breath forever, especially as she seemed to be fatiguing herself.

So a faster finish was better. I gathered several times as much mana as for a Sonic Lance, reaching the threshold for Chain Lightning. Not really meant for a single target, but hopefully better at punching through its scales. I aimed for its head, the lightning happily coursing towards an eye. I knew the spell should only attract to a single enemy once, but I still tried to make it bounce towards its wing or its tail or anything that wasn’t Izzy around there. Somehow, I felt I almost accomplished what I wanted but it was going to take much more work than that. Ultimately,, the remnants of the spell arced into the ground… and then into the small sword left behind in its side.

The creature convulsed and collapsed- but Ice Guy wasn’t the sort to just assume it was dead. Instead, he created a spear of ice which he lobbed through the eye of the creature into its brain.

“Well. That could have gone worse,” I said. “And it was worth great experience.” So close to reaching a level. I looked towards Ice Guy, held up a finger, and vomited a small mouthful of blood into a nearby bush. “Oh right. I was going to tell you. I do have Sending so we can try to contact home.”