Over the remainder of the prep time, I made fourteen firebombs, a half dozen healing potions, four strength potions, and four of my blended strength and regeneration potions. I would have made even more, but I needed to overcharge my mana to handle the higher gate materials, and in the case of things like the firebombs, materials were limited.

When we could see the knight – who was literally in shining armor – approaching over the horizon, I handed one of the strength and regeneration potions to Mallory, one to Araceli, and drank one myself. Even if the strength they granted was illusory, bound only to this realm, it felt nice, and with that compounding my magister’s body, I thought I’d be stronger than most people who weren’t using focused, strength boosting spells.

As the knight grew closer, the dragon curled around the tower cracked an eye open, and then rose, letting out a bellowing roar.

I immediately teleported all fourteen of the firebomb potions into the dragon’s throat.

It was a cheap shot, and not something I would have done normally.

But as the dragon’s mouth snapped shut, the potion vials shattered, and fourteen simultaneous fireballs erupted inside the mouth of the monster.

Dragons are tough. The older or stronger they are, the tougher they are. This dragon was a full two gates above the potion, and judging by the raggedness of its scales, it was old too.

Alchemy also doesn’t tend to live up against a spell of its own level cast by a competent mage. If I’d been in a competition with one potion against a fireball thrown by Liz, with her well constructed mana garden, then Liz’s fireball would have been far more impressive.

But even with all of those factors, there aren’t many things that can prepare you for fourteen simultaneous fireballs exploding inside your mouth.

Flame exploded from the dragon’s mouth and nostrils, and it let out a bellow of pain.

Mallory struck then, diving off of the top of the tower, shadowy claws extending from her hands. She landed atop the dragon’s head and drove her claws down at the dragon’s eye, while her shadow morphed and twisted, forming into a shadow wolf that attacked the other.

With the element of, she got off a single good attack, which caused the dragon to shake its head wildly and throw her off, before gray cavern dragon armor spells flowed out of the dragon.

The knight thrust his lance aloft then, and shining white light built around its tip, before blasting out in a tiny prick of fire, which struck the dragon’s stomach and erupted into a fireball.

Mallory summoned her broom from her storage ring, and barely managed to skim over the trees before she crashed.

I glanced at Araceli, then turned back to the fight. I’d burnt a lot of my spatial mana casting fourteen simultaneous Transport Item spells, so I couldn’t resort to my standard tactics of teleporting around and being an overall pain.

What could I do? Other than protect Araceli, of course.

I had bought extra strength, but that wouldn’t be enough to match a dragon, at least not while it was still this strong.

The knight’s lance, one the other hand, was clearly enchanted. Maybe that could help?

I quickly cast a spell, and a shade slithered out of the forest, landing on the parapet next to me. I whispered in its ear, then handed it a potion vial. It swept down towards the knight, delivering the strengthening and recovery potion, while delivering my message explaining what it was.

Mallory had flown back into the fight at this point, and circled the dragon, peppering it with her ice blades, but when she saw the potion delivery, she landed, several of her strengthening spells burning out around her as she slashed down at the dragon’s head. I released a scattershot of bones and briars, targeting the wing of the dragon, but they did little more than bounce off the reinforced membrane.

My Fungal Lock spell proved to barely be any more effective, the armor of the dragon resisting the mycelial tendrils.

Mallory’s attacks only scraped at the monster, and I expected it to open its mouth for another dragon’s breath, but it didn’t, instead making several slamming attacks down with its tail. Mallory dodged and rolled most, but when the dragon’s claw lashed out, it struck her in the side and threw her back.

Mallory’s suit was stronger than mine, and that was probably the only thing that turned the attack from deadly to merely severe. Blood wept from the wound, even as my healing potion set to work, and she cast her own regenerative spell.

But the knight had used the time to drain the potion I’d given, and slammed his lance into the dragon’s side, enhanced by the power of the potion. The dragon let out a roar, then cast a spell that I’d never seen any of its lesser draconic kin use before.

I supposed I should have expected it. The dragon was an arcanist – of course it would have spells that I didn’t recognize.

Thick plates of stone appeared, overlapping the dragon’s scales, horns, and claws, and the enhancement spell that ran through its body, claws, and tail suddenly redoubled, as if it had been overcharged by some new power.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The knight’s lance struck out at the dragon and cracked, a chunk of the metal tip flinging off into oblivion.

At the same moment, the dragon flapped its wings, and gravity began to warp around us. It wasn’t an increase in the pull, like what Ed could manage, but rather a complete change in the way gravity worked. Mallory shot into the sky like she’d cast a flight spell, and had to start actively using her broom in order to avoid being sucked away. The knight, on the other hand, suddenly pulled sideways, his feet lifting off the ground as he accelerated off into the forest, like the entire world had been rotated ninety degrees for him.

I frantically looked back at Araceli, but she was still working.

I let out a curse, feeling worse than useless as the Dragon materialized a giant claw out of magic, easily as large as my own body. This claw, too, was enforced by the strange thick plates of stone that the dragon was using, and I couldn’t figure out why.

I layered on multiple overcharged Fungal Locks, but they did nothing. Mallory conjured a pair of her wolves, but they were caught in the twisted gravity domain, and she dismissed them.

The dragon started flapping its wings then, and I bit my lip. We couldn’t allow that…

If this was real life, this would be stupid, but in a simulation?

I downed the remaining strength potions, all at once. My body exploded with the pain of the simulated mana toxin shredding through me, but I ignored it, leaping down off the tower.

I didn’t have my cauldron or broom, but I was caught in the gravity domain, and plummeted like a stone. The double gravity worked in my favor, though, as I slammed a kick into the dragon’s wings, one of the only parts not coated in stone.

There was a tearing sound as I slammed into the ground, and pain exploded through my legs. I was already in screaming pain from the simulated mana toxin.

My vision was starting to black out, but I quickly cast the spell that Meadow had taught me to block out pain as I downed four healing potions, back to back.

My vision restored itself as my ankles crunched back into place, and I saw a tail coming down on me. I couldn’t dodge out of the way in time, I barely had time to raise my hands over my head in a block.

I held the tail for just a moment, my strength contesting against the dragon’s spells. The dragon was stronger, even with all the power – more than I should have been able to hold – flowed through me. The energy in my body was being wicked away, and my Magister’s Body started to cannibalize mana from my other gates, just to keep me standing.

That probably wasn’t good, it had only done that once before, when I’d drained my body dry chasing the thief.

But still I stood, resisting the weight of the tail.

It was probably only a few seconds, but it took everything I had and more, and I almost cast Burn Future, just to get through it.

Then the knight appeared and knocked me out of the way. The tail crushed down on the knight’s armor, which cracked and glowed.

And then a beam of light and fire came thundering down from the tower above, as if sent by an angry magi. It struck the nose of the dragon, where it was already weak, and I looked up to see Araceli, the lenses she’d been building from the very start of the battle cracking under the power of the blow.

The warp in gravity vanished as the enforcement of the dragon redoubled, trying to resist the power that Aracali channeled. I was dry on mana, out of potions, and in extreme pain, but I still drove a fist into the dragon’s side.

It did nothing.

But Mallory, the third gate mage that she was, wasn’t out of mana. As she fell from the sky, her claws forged, her black aura that had fed from all the wounds and battering she’d taken concentrating and providing mana.

She slammed into the dragon’s neck, and for just the briefest second, the dragon’s thick stone enhancement that empowered all its other spells was gone.

It was enough. Acaeli tilted the lenses, even as they cracked and shattered, and the beam of dragonfyre crunched into the dragon’s skull.

I let out a cheer of victory, then passed out.

I awoke to find myself in an altar room. I called out to Dusk, then remembered she was gone, and called out to Idyll, before remembering she was… Something.

The pain in my body was gone, thanks to the fact that it had been nothing but an illusion, but my mana was only a quarter refilled. It hadn’t been that long, then.

I glanced at the altar, biting my lip. I didn’t know how much the Craftsman had changed things up, but there was a chance this held a growth item. There was a chance that it held something else, too, something even better. I wasn’t sure – that last challenge had been tough, but had the challenge been fourth floor or trial level? I didn’t know.

But there was a chance it was something else, too. Maybe more destiny elixir, or a normal magic item. I didn’t think that would be the case, I fully expected the Craftsman wouldn’t have sent us to an island with challenges we’d already completed, but I could be wrong. Maybe it had been truly random.

With a sigh, I started forcing open a portal to Dusk’s realm. Regardless of what the prize was, giving some sacrifices could only be a good thing. I had about a day left before the spatial cracks reached the point where I’d have to leave, so it wasn’t like I’d have the opportunity to attempt another trial.

It took me a long time, but I finally opened the portal, and strode into Dusk’s vault, nodding to the ghostly armored guardian.

I’d had a plan for when I cleared the third floor, and there was no sense in not using it now, so I retrieved everything I needed, and then approached the altar.

First, I put down my mana sense enhancing monocle, since it was the basis of what I hoped to accomplish, then followed it up with the royal jelly that I’d found. I set down the fourth gate mental and knowledge energy accumulating orb that the War Root had been clutching onto for power, then the strange, energetic binding-knot that I’d found in the mad mage’s lab.

The mage had been obsessed with the energy found in plants and in animals, after all. That might not be a useful component for most people, but for me? It was perfect.

Finally, I placed down the broken crystalheart.

A true crystalheart that allowed for the doubling of mana and energy would be perfect for me, but I didn’t know how to repair this, I was no enchanter. Even if I’d gotten someone like Ivy’s dad to perform the operation, as Octavian had pointed out, I would have a lot of soul bonds: Dusk had been firmly reinforced, and hopefully both the beastgate mark and a growth item.

One strong bond, like a growth item, with maybe one weaker – like the beastgate mark – was considered the normal, safe threshold. I did get to bend those rules a bit, thanks to my full-gate spells stretching the strain over my body as well as my spirit, but I thought that a crystalheart might be a bit much to add on top of all of those things.

But as a sacrifice? Even damaged, it was a powerful energy and mana battery, and if the enchantments of the altar took the energetic binding knot into consideration…

I considered what else to add. I could add my mind shielding ring, but that felt a bit too foolish – there was no need to put all of my eggs in this basket. My recording stone? No, recording crystals had been too valuable for me to give up.

With a spark of ungated mana, I activated the altar. My sacrifices vanished away, and light erupted beneath the sage’s staff.