Nobina and her group ran past Harton but dodged right behind him as they avoided another blast of fire. Harton once again screamed in pain but held firmly.

“Girl! I swear on my soul to surrender to you. Stop Sina from killing our child!”

At that moment, Nobina felt something etch into her soul. She didn’t know much about dragons, but she did know dragons could make promises that couldn’t be broken. If this was that feeling, then Harton meant every word.

“Go now,” said Mimiki, tapping Nobina’s back.

The flames subsided, and the group continued to approach Sina. It wasn’t a moment too soon as they saw Fay fly into the air and land a summersault kick into Sina’s skull. The sheer power of it was awe-inspiring, but it was short-lived as Sina reacted immediately.

“Go away,” she roared, firing a blast of fire in Fay’s directly.

Fay managed to avoid it, and then barely dodged the tail swipe that came afterwards.

“My eyes,” yelled Sina as Nia appeared on her head. Two daggers had hit their mark, blinding Sina. However, Sina rolled to her left in the direction of Helios in response.

Unlike those two, Helios wasn’t able to dodge. Before he could be crushed, Fay appeared in front of Helios and punched directly forward towards Sina.

“Hammer Fist!” she yelled.

A powerful bang could be heard as Sina stopped mid-roll. Reacting to the punch, Sina stood up and turned her head towards them.

“Die,” she yelled, firing off a massive blast of fire in their direction.

“Lightning Cut,” yelled Lila, cutting a blade of lightning into the fire attack. It didn’t stop it, but it disrupted the flames enough that it avoided harming the group.

Nobina, seeing all this, knew the group was being pushed to its limit. All of them were visibly drained, and if it continued, Sina would win.

“I’m stepping up,” said Nobina, holding the token.

She pressed it against her heart, hoping something would happen. However, only time passed as the battle waged on.

“Nobina,” yelled Fay, seeing what she was doing. “Imagine you’re an unstoppable force and do it again!”

Nobina nodded, pressing it against her chest one more time, imagining herself as a knight who could not be stopped. Soon, she felt as if another entity was surrounding her. An armor of pure black formed around her, and her vision went dark for a second. However, soon her vision was only a single slit out of the black armor that surrounded her head.

For a moment, a red glow appeared on that slit but soon faded. The glow appeared a few times but faded after a few seconds each time.

“Why won’t you die,” Sina yelled, firing off her strongest flame blast yet.

From the outside of the armor, all of them except Fay looked in horror as Sina fired a flame blast point-blank into the black knight armor around Nobina. The sheer heat left a glowing mark on the ground around Nobina. However, Nobina was still standing firm, showing no signs of damage.

Fay could see that Sina was huffing, barely breathing, as she then attempted to stomp and slash Nobina. Each stomp caused more harm than good to Sina, as Nobina remained still. Sina was becoming more visibly fatigued and hurt with each strike.

“Nine minutes,” said Fay mentally. “We need to strike now before it wears off. Everyone. Prepare your strongest attacks now!”

All of them made a nod as they began preparing their skills. Helios was forming his strongest spells, draining every single ounce of his energy. Both Nia and Lila were moving into position, targeting Sina’s head. Fay herself was preparing her strongest spell as well.

“We are here too,” said Mimiki. Cain and Marve were there as well, preparing for their final strike.

“Thirty seconds. Strike now,” she yelled.

All of them charged the dragon, firing off their strongest attacks one after another.

Sina, who was already fatigued, was unable to fend off the attacks, merely roaring in pain as each one was taken. The last to hit her was Fay, who struck her head with her strongest attack.

“Final Strike,” she yelled, slamming a fist directly into Sina’s head.

The dragon was blown away, falling on its side. The mark vanished on her head, causing Sina to relax. Despite all those attacks, Sina was merely out cold.

Fay and the others were preparing to act once again, but Fay saw all of them begin to fall over. All except for Nobina, who was finally free of the black armor. She looked at all her friends and teammates, running to their side as she feared the worst. When she reached their side, she was relieved to see all of them just asleep.

“Ah… This is going to take a while to heal,” came a voice behind her.

She turned to see Harton standing there, looking decently roughed up. His clothes looked still clean, yet the rest of his body showed bruises all over.

“Despite using my Human Form skill, it doesn’t really hid these injuries well,” he chuckled.

Nobina took a step back, suddenly fearful again. However, she noticed there was no hostility from Harton whatsoever.

Suddenly, a voice came into both of their heads. Once again, it was a whisper like before.

“How stubbornly you cling to the unwritten. But I have patience. Even the strongest prose bends to the editor’s hand.”

Nobina could see the red from the Gaze bag finally disappearing. Along with it, an evil presence she hadn’t noticed existed previously.

“Editor?” wondered Nobina.

“What is that voice referring to gir… Nobina, right?” asked Harton.

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“I believe it’s… one of the Gaze entities,” she replied back.

It was the first time Nobina was fearful of the bag itself. It had given her the power to deal with this threat, yet it was also the cause of it in the first place. Part of her was relieved that the bag itself was being handled by Fay, but now she had another thing to worry about.

“First my destiny, and now this evil entity. What am I going to do,” she wondered.

There was a lot to do, but the first thing to do was handle the situation with Sina and Harton.

Nobina turned to Harton, who gave her a smile.

“Well, Nobina. It looks like all of this ended pretty well all things considered. Of course, that bag seems very much something I want destroyed, but I can tell some god is protecting it. At least I didn’t have to kill all of you and now I feel comfortable letting all of you live. Not that I have a choice, but it makes me feel better having the illusion of control.”

“What do you mean?” asked Nobina. “You just surrendered to me, right? What does that… exactly mean?”

“Until you do something to break our bond, I consider you an ally. Of course, Sina isn’t under this bond, but we are mates for life so…. She wouldn’t do something to break that bond and get me killed. Dragon promises are tricky like that.”

Nobina gave a nod.

“Anyway, Sina needs to be healed, then I’ll release your friends from that illusion spell.”

“Illusion spell?” asked Nobina.

“Yes. They are currently under one of my skills. I can only use it once a month and it’s called Mass Illusion. I used it to put all of them to sleep for a good hour, but I can break it sooner. I was saving it for a more dire situation like a human army hunting us, but it couldn’t be helped. Didn’t want your companions killing Sina.”

Nobina gave a nod. Hearing that Harton had such a skill up his sleeve, Nobina realized how outclass they really were. If both were truly trying to kill them no matter what, they’d be all dead.

“Now then… Uh… Do you have anything that can heal Sina?” asked Harton, rubbing the back of her head.

She went to check her bag, finding she had only a few berries left.

“I… might? But I was saving these for special occasion,” said Nobina.

Harton explained the berries, giving them a nod.

“Ah it’s fine. Sina is a strong dragon compared to most. Her Draconic Regeneration is particularly potent so she should be up in the hour.”

Draconic Regeneration. Nobina knew that was another rare Path ability of the dragons. It allowed dragons to recover their wounds in exchange for their energy. It meant that Sina would be fine but unable to really defend herself.

“I believe that the evolution is… Dragon Knights?” asked Nobina.

“Right. Her Path is Dragon Knight, and she has a few abilities that suit it. Like that fire blast she has is boosted by her other passive, Draconic Flames. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Sina is the protector of this relationship.”

Nobina could see Harton was really proud to be Sina’s mate. It made Nobina wonder though. Her ability affected Sina, which meant there were dragons far stronger than Sina out there.

“The world is a truly fascinating place,” said Nobina out loud.

“Oh yeah,” he smiled. “Well… Let’s uh… Get everyone up and about.”

Nobina headed to each one of them one by one. Harton dispelled the skill on each one of them as Nobina began explaining everything. Most of them wanted to know about what happened with her Gaze bag, but she told them she’d talk more about it later. Thankfully, they didn’t do anything reckless and merely accepted Nobina’s explanation as she gave it. Soon, Fay was the last to wake up, hugging Nobina and crying her heart out.

“Nobina… I’m sorry. I’m so… so… sorry.”

“What for,” said Nobina, surprised by Fay’s tears.

“I couldn’t protect you. You almost died while I was supposed to make sure no harm becomes you. I… I’m… I’m…”

Nobina gave a soft smile, speaking gentle words into Fay’s ear.

“Fay… Thank you for everything.”

Fay began to calm down, pulling herself together as she nodded.

Soon, the two stood up, with the whole group now facing Harton. Their eyes were also on Sina, who was almost fully done regenerating. She was still fast asleep, though they knew it wouldn’t be long before she would awaken.

“So,” said Fay, eying Harton suspiciously. “Just like that? We move pass all of this?”

He nodded his head vigorously.

“Of course! Me and Nobina are like friends now! Well… Kinda. The relationship needs work, but we cannot harm each other and certainly we don’t want to harm those we care about, right Nobina?”

Nobina nodded her head.

“I’m just thankful this dragon incident is mostly resolved. Though… Kind of not at the same time. I know that Navira and the guild still want your heads for… well… burning down that village. Plus you did kill a lot of people and….”

“Ah… yes. Human logic. I committed so many crimes that I must either be enslaved or killed. However, I will say that animal logic has the cycle of life. You don’t kill wolves for killing animals to eat, right. Same thing… surely.”

Nobina could tell Harton was really trying to justify his action somehow, but no one would side with that logic at all. That being said, they couldn’t really kill them at this point. Everyone was worn out and needed rest. The link was the only thing preventing even more deaths.

“Tell you what,” said Harton. “Me and Sina will just… take our child and go far north. You never need to see us again.”

“Promise?” asked Fay.

“I swear to Nobina once again,” he smiled.

Nobina gave a nod.

“Well… I guess we just wait for a few days till the eggs done, right?”

“Yeah! Also, I…”

Immediately, Harton froze. Nobina didn’t know why, but soon it became apparent. She saw Hammy appear with Spot on his head. Right behind them was a bunny Nobina knew well.

“Hammy! Spot! Pausers! You’re here!”

Harton didn’t move a muscle as Nobina ran to her bunny. Pausers gave a few hops as she picked him up. She then went to Harton, who looked extremely pale.

“Are you… ok?” asked Nobina.

Looking closely, Nobina could tell he was out cold.

“Not again,” she sighed.

Nobina turned to Lila, who was also frozen.

“Not you as well! Oh god…”

Pauser turned their head to Nobina before nuzzling against them.

“Well… I guess we got another deterrent.”

The group began assessing the situation as both Sina and Harton were knocked out. Pausers was likely capable of finishing them off if necessary. However, it seemed Pausers had no inkling of hostility towards those two.

“So... you won’t kill them Pausers?” asked Nobina.

Pausers shook her head, causing Fay to sigh.

“I guess we just let them go, huh,” said Fay.

“I think it’s for the best for now,” replied Nobina. “Though, you did say that Magical Dragon was a threat, right?”

“It will be one day, but it seems like we have a few bigger issues. Mainly your bag and resolving the aftermath of this battle. For now, we should prepare to head back home and report the situation. The dragons fled with their magical egg, and we weren’t able to stop them,” said Fay.

“Actually,” said Mimiki. “I think its best that those five report and we head home.”

“Home?” questioned Nobina. “Why would we not go back to Navira?”

“Well… It’s going to make things messy if we go back and explain everything,” said Mimiki. “You got Pausers, remember? A bunny capable of destroying the city.”

“Ah…” replied Nobina. “Well… What if… Uh… Yeah…”

Nobina was good with going home. With everything that’s happened, she wanted to go back to Agora anyway. However, it felt wrong not to wrap up everything back in Navira first.

“Squeak,” said Pausers, turning to Nobina.

“What is it Pausers? Should I go to Navira instead?”

They squeaked again, making Nobina nod.

“Uh… I have an idea. We’ll head back, but can you and Pausers wait outside of the city? I’ll resolve everything with everyone else and we’ll head out as soon as possible. Plus, we need a carriage and stuff,” said Nobina to Mimiki.

“Shouldn’t be too difficult,” Mimiki nodded. “Anyone have any issues with the plan?”

“Good with me,” replied Cain and Marve.

“Shoot. I guess we can’t have our duel for a while,” sighed Lila, shaking her head.

“I’ll miss that book,” sighed Helios, showing more sadness than Nobina had ever seen.

Nia didn’t say a word, but she gave a nod.

“Sounds like a plan,” smiled Fay.

With the plan sorted, Nobina went back to Harton. It didn’t take long for him to wake up, with Pausers now a decent distance away and being held by Mimiki.

“My goodness,” said Harton. “You have an Alpha Death Hare under your command? I’m so glad we didn’t kill you.”

“Yeah… It’s… complicated,” said Nobina.

“Well, glad we can make this less complicated with leaving. Once the egg is done, we are gone for sure. Though… it will take two days so… You’re going to be here till then, right?” asked Harton.

Thinking about it, they did have to wait for Harton and Sina first. During this time, Nobina knew they had stuff to resolve here as well, like the destruction of the battle. Not only that but if reinforcements arrived, they’d have to explain everything.

“I guess we get a few days of rest,” smiled Nobina, ready to finally relax.