The group rejoined the others back in the mayor’s office. At this point, the mayor was merely waiting for them to decide what to do with him, but the situation was tricky.

“Can we really leave him alone?” asked Cain. “The dragons might go to him first and if one of us is caught alone, it’s curtains for them.”

They all looked at the mayor, who raised his hands.

“Listen. I don’t want to die. If they approach me again and demand information, I’ll reveal everything I know on the spot.”

Nobina shook her head. She understood the idea of not wanting to die, but coming from the mayor, it felt more shameless. If there was even a chance of getting hurt, she knew the mayor wouldn’t hesitate to work against them.

“I mean… we can’t leave him here, right?” asked Nobina.

Fay shook her head.

“He’ll have to come with us for negotiations. When the dragons come and check, they’d likely head straight for the manor once they see Duven isn’t here.”

They all looked at Duven, who raised his hands again.

“Let’s just get this over with,” he replied.

The group gathered up and headed to Harton’s manor. All of them were on edge the whole time, keeping their eyes partly on the sky as they awaited contact with the dragons. A few of them split off to get supplies for the night, but most of them stayed in the group.

“You think they already are back there?” asked Nobina to Fay.

“I doubt it,” she replied back. “If Harton’s mate was close, then he would have just roared out for her. She must be doing something farther away.”

Nobina began to wonder why those two were separated in the first place, but she had nothing to really go off of.

It didn’t take long before they all reached the manor. Nia told the group she’d remain outside while the rest of them remained on standby inside.

Once inside, they cleaned off an area, and all sat down in the living room. It was decently dusty, but Nobina remembered she had something for cleaning. Taking out her ring, she used it to clean the living room, leaving it free of dust. Everyone was in awe seeing the ring in action, with Duven being the most impressed.

“Amazing,” said Duven. “The ability to clean in a snap? You must sell me that ring.”

“Sorry,” said Nobina, putting the ring away. “This was a gift.”

Duven looked dissatisfied but didn’t press her.

“Another Gaze item?” asked Fay.

Nobina gave a nod.

“I have a lot of their gifts with me, some more useful than others. Like I have one that gives me the ability to force a dragon to land as long as its weak enough.”

Fay’s eyes glisten hearing that.

“That’s so amazing. Was that your…”

Fay shut her mouth immediately, realizing how she shouldn’t reveal their origins.

“Yes,” nodded Nobina, understanding what Fay was going to say.

“Sweet. All I got was a special ability. It isn’t too special though,” she replied, looking at her own hands. “Though, I guess it allows me to…”

Immediately, Fay drew her sword, prompting everyone to stand as she jumped back. The Gaze bag fell to the ground, glowing red.

“Not now,” said Fay, ready to strike at any moment.

Minutes passed before the glow disappeared, calming everyone down.

“What in god’s name was that?” asked Duven, the most confused of everyone.

“Nobina’s bag can produce horrific monsters sometimes. The last one came when the bag glowed red, so we were just being cautious,” replied Fay back.

The group tried to calm down, but the situation was now more tense than it should be.

“Say,” said Nobina, trying to break the tension. “So, you said that we could negotiate with the dragons, right? What exactly are we negotiating?”

“We… didn’t really hash that out,” replied Fay. “However, I believe it’s mostly a ruse to get the drop on the dragons. Whatever we negotiate, it will likely involve them wanting the egg fully hatched after absorbing all that magical energy. If that happens and they can secure the dragon’s safety, they’d either leave us alone or burn this town to the ground. Regardless, in both cases we cannot let them leave with a magical dragon. It’s too dangerous.”

Nobina understood that, but if there was no other choice but killing them, it would likely result in some of them, if not all of them dying. There had to be a better way about it.

“Is there really no word where we accept their negotiation of leaving in peace?” asked Nobina, failing to hide how sad she was feeling.

Fay placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking her head.

“These are dragons Nobina. They hardly fear us and will do anything they please. One day they might promise peace, but the next they might choose violence,” replied Fay.

“But the queen of the dragons keeps most of them in check, right? If peace with the dragons couldn’t happen, then we’d be at war with them right now. Not only that, but these are intelligent creatures. They surely must know how beneficial peace is,” said Nobina.

In her mind, fighting them should have been a last resort at this point. Sure, when there was one dragon it made sense to only go for the kill. It was in retribution for their destruction of the village and forest. Now that they were at a disadvantage, fighting them to the death seemed like the wrong way to go about it.

Nobina continued to give it more though before a knock came at the door. Opening it, Nobina saw it was Cain, Marve and Helios, who had gone to get the supplies back in the scout base. Once the supplies were set down and every began eating, Mimiki gathered everyone to discuss the plan.

“I’m putting Fay in charge of negotiations with Nobina and Helios backing them up. No one else is to say anything unless spoken to,” said Mimiki, her eyes full of focus. “Any questions?”

“One question,” said Helios. “We are using these negotiations as a ruse right? We cannot let them fully hatch the magical egg.”

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“Yes,” said Mimiki.

“No,” said Fay.

Everyone turned to Fay, confused by her response.

“There might be a situation where we will absolutely die if we confront them. If that becomes the case, I do not want one of us throwing our lives away for nothing. Rather, we will let them leave with the egg,” said Fay.

“But…” said Mimiki.

All of them went silent before Cain spoke his mind.

“She’s right,” said Cain. “There is a likely chance we can’t kill both of them. If that’s the case, we should retreat to fight another day. If we had even a day or two or more time, perhaps reinforcements would be here, but that’s unfortunately not the case. I say that, if Fay determines it, we negotiate for our safety.”

They all looked at each other before mostly agreeing with the plan. Only Lila didn’t agree, but she didn’t really voice opposition either.

“If I can’t fight them now… so be it,” she replied.

As she said that, Nobina saw the Gaze spew out an item. All of them looked at it before Nobina recognized it.

“Wait, that looks like…”

Nobina picked it up and noticed it was an old token of the Nameless Knight Token.

“Amazing,” said Fay, looking at the token. “That looks like an expired Nameless Knight Token.”

“Expired?” asked Nobina.

Fay gave a nod.

“A few of these have appeared in history. They basically grant the user the strength of the Nameless Knight. Few know how strong they really are, but history has revealed that even the queen of dragons failed to defeat them.”

Nobina eyes opened widely hearing that. She reached into her special bag and pulled out the token she received, causing Fay to cover her mouth.

“How did… Did the Gaze give you that?” asked Fay.

Nobina nodded her head.

“Nobina. Can you request items from the Gaze?”

She shook her head.

“I tried once, but it didn’t really work. I think these are entities that operate at their own drum. They give me items as they please and whether it helps or not is up to them.”

Fay’s curiosity grew immediately. If Nobina had such a powerful tool at her disposal, then they really did have a chance against the dragons.

“I can use the token to deter those two dragons for sure,” said Fay.

“Likely?” Helios responded, cutting in.

“The Nameless Knight never goes on the offensive. They will attack me and fail to. Not only that, but I will be striking fear into them to retreat. Of course, I doubt this thing will last long, right?” asked Fay.

“Ten minutes,” replied Nobina.

“In those ten minutes…”

A large boom could be heard, with the glass windows of the building shattering. Moments later, she heard Harton call from outside.

“Humans,” he yelled, drawing their attention.

“Ah hand me that,” said Fay, taking the token,

The group headed outside, where they were all immediately struck in fear.

Outside the manor was Harton in human form. Right behind him though was a dragon that was almost three times the size of an elephant with wings. The blue and black scales glistened in the fading sunlight as the sky was slowly darkening. It stood directly behind Harton, with its eyes staring intently at Nobina.

“She’s dangerous,” said the dragon. “We need to get rid of…”

“Woah hold on there Sina,” said Harton, who was seeing the murderous intent from Fay. “We came here to talk first, remember?”

“Please forgive us,” said Helios, speaking up. “We mean you no harm, but we must discuss your goals here. Please help us understand why you are doing all of this.”

Harton nodded his head vigorously.

“Understandable! Two dragons appearing and terrorizing weak humans is so odd right? Especially since our queen forbids it. Well, let me tell you a tale. See… Me and my mate Sina want to one day make it big in the world. However, our queen exiled us while we weren’t mates. Things happened and we eventually did become mates and…”

“God please don’t tell the full story,” roared Sina, causing everything to shake around her.

“Ah sorry my love,” he replied back.

“Long story short, we were exiled and wanted our kid to have a good future. Being a magical dragon guarantees that. Simple.”

He was giving the biggest grin, but all of them could tell that Sina was getting close to just blowing them away with her dragon breath. There were even visible flames in her mouth, yet she kept it closed.

“So, you know our purpose here. Only one question. Will you oppose us?” smiled Harton.

“We are willing to leave if you leave once this egg is hatched,” replied Fay.

“Perfect! Is that good with you, my love?” smiled Harton as he turned to Sina.

“I don’t trust any of them. They will stab us the moment we let our guard down,” he huffed, more flames coming from her mouth.

“Now Sina… I rather not harm our child in the process. Can you just patiently keep watch as I finish incubating the egg? It should only take like… two more days.”

Sina’s eyes turned to Nobina, causing her to shiver in fear.

“She must die then,” said Nobina.

“Absolutely not,” said Fay, standing in front of Nobina.

“What’s one life for the many?” replied Harton, trying to calm everyone down. “If you won’t even promise us one life, how can we trust you with ours?”

Nobina was frozen in fear, realizing how close she was to death. Even with Fay in front of her, she couldn’t help but want to run at this point. After all, Sina had so much murderous intent that it was impossible to sense anything else.

“Nobina,” said Mimiki, stepping to her side. “We will protect you.”

Harton sighed, shaking his head.

“Is this what you call failed negotiations then humans? I’m being very generous right now not killing any of you, but you are leaving us no choice. I am quite strong and Sina even more.”

Fay could see past Harton’s smile. He wanted all of them dead but was merely holding back because of the egg.

“I guess there’s no choice,” said Fay, holding the token.

Sina hissed, roaring into the sky.

“Why does that girl have that,” she roared. “Harton!”

In a single motion, Harton snapped his fingers.

Before Fay could even react, the token disappeared from her eyes.

“What?” responded Fay, trying to find it desperately.

As Fay looked, she saw Harton was right next to her, clashing his claws with Nia’s blade.

“Clever,” he hissed. “Waiting for this moment.”

He hopped back, turning to Sina.

“Go,” she said, with Harton saluting.

“I shall be back.”

Harton bolted for the building, with all of them now turning their attention to Sina.

“You humans think that that one token will be enough? Foolish. Foolish!” repeated Sina, becoming more rageful by the second.

Sina’s breath began forming fire once again, but soon, a powerful bolt of ice slammed directly into her mouth, dispersing a blast of electricity from within it.

She reacted immediately, backing off as she took to the skies. Nobina, trying to recover, could turn just enough to see Helios preparing another spell.

“We are lucky that the egg is preventing a massive fire blast, but as long as…”

“Dragonrend!” yelled Nobina, snapping out of her fear.

Her voice echoed a massive amount of power, her focus towards Sina. Seconds later, they began falling from the sky, roaring before smashing directly into the ground.

“Go,” Nobina huffed, finding herself barely able to stand.

All of them nodded to each other as Fay, Nia, Helios, and Lia went for Sina. Cain, Marve, and Mimiki stayed behind to watch over Nobina.

“Are you alright?” asked Marve.

“I… feel so tired,” said Nobina.

Using the Dragonrend had drained her of most of her energy. She knew she didn’t have much in her to keep going, but she couldn’t faint right then and there.

“The berries,” she told herself.

Going into her special bag, she looked for one of the berries. Finding it, she ate it and found her energy revitalizing. It wasn’t a moment too soon either, as she saw Mimiki’s black collide with Harton’s claws, knocking back.

“Damn it,” said Harton, eying Nobina. “You had to block my way. Well then…”

“Axe slam!” yelled Marve, slamming his axe where Harton was standing.

Harton was about to say something when everyone froze in fear. An ominous fear-inducing whisper, one appearing both male and female, began speaking in their minds.

“A gleaming stitch in the fabric, loose, waiting – waiting for my hand.”

Suddenly, Nobina noticed the Gaze Bag, which was left behind by Fay and glowing a dark red, shot out a golden thread. It began traveling in the direction of Sina and everyone heading towards her.

Harton was still frozen in fear, but he immediately reacted moments later.

“Sina my love! Are you ok?”

Nobina turned to see Sina standing up. However, there was an eye on the dragon’s forehead. It looked like one of the ones that appeared on the Gaze Crawler.

“Get away,” she roared, building up the fire in her mouth. All of them braced for the worst before hearing someone scream out.

“No! The child,” yelled Harton.

Harton immediately jumped up and began transforming into a dragon. When he did, he used his body to block Nobina’s group and the manor from harm.

“Ah!”

The flames were intense, not being held back in the slightest. Despite the skin of dragons being somewhat resistant against dragon fire, Sina was far more powerful than Harton in terms of offensive power. Harton couldn’t move, merely lying there as he said Sina’s name softly.

Nobina didn’t know what to do, but she noticed something appear on the ground next to her.

“The token,” she yelled, grabbing it in her hands.

“What is going on Nobina?” asked Mimiki.

“I don’t know but…”

“You must stop Sina,” yelled a familiar voice.

“Nonomo?” said Nobina.

“You cannot let that mark fully take her over. Go!” yelled the voice before Nobina felt a headache.

The Gaze power weakened significantly. She could tell that was a warning she shouldn’t ignore.

“We need to stop Sina now,” said Nobina. “We can’t let whatever is influencing her win.”

Mimiki gave a nod, fully trusting her.

“Then let’s go together,” said Mimiki.

All of them nodded, ready to stop Sina no matter what.