I watched in awe as Barion's form changed. His eyes grew larger, turning the same colour as his mana, the same menacing orange. His blood-red hair grew longer and longer until it reached the floor and two strands, one on each side, almost seemed to fuse to his skin, encompassing both of his arms, making them longer and much stronger looking. I saw his bare chest grow as he became more muscular than before and some blood-red hair grew all over his body. He had turned into something resembling an ape... and the mana that gushed forth from his body was terrifying. It easily surpassed Commander Lestul.

I wanted to make my way over to those two, I wanted to help the commander. But he raised his sword high.

"This fight is mine! Help out Altair if you want to help!" he called out as more mana burst forth from his body, violently whirling around him.

I growled as I turned to watch Altair. If I weren't in this form I would have scoffed. Spells were already flying towards the massive drake, whose chain had disappeared, probably with the death of the woman that had ridden the mammoth. But the draconic beast just stared at them, its eyes cold as he opened his maw once again. Inside I could see just a sliver of the boiling saliva. Shortly after flames spewed forth from the beast's jaws, stopping the spells approaching it in their tracks. Altair's thorn tendrils were the first to go. All I could do was watch as I slowly retreated towards the rest of our army.

My body once again burned up as I turned back into a human. It took a while for me to revert back and by the time I did I was a mess, breathing heavily and writhing in pain on the ground.

"Ivory!" I heard Evergreen yell as she came running towards me.

Besides a few cuts and bruises here and there she looked fairly fine. Servil and Nara on the other hand... Servil was missing an arm and Nara seemed to have broken most of his limbs. With the help of Evergreen, I managed to get to the rest of the army where I could get treated by a few sorcerers. All I could now do was watch. About three people besides Altair were still capable of fighting the Drake. Elsa, Smoke and Duwal, who had similar magic to Barion, who was currently in a heated exchange of blows with Commander Lestul.

"You think we have a chance of winning this one?" Evergreen asked as she sat down beside me as I was healed.

"No idea," I answered. "But it's really only those two, right?"

Evergreen chuckled.

"One of those two is a demon lord that took Servil's arm clean off without even looking at him and the other is an enormous drake that is capable of wiping all off us out and just hasn't done so for whatever reason..." Evergreen said, defeat filling her voice.

"We have Altair," I said, trying to sound as hopeful as possible.

"Oh please, I know you love that apathetic idiot but even he can't beat that thing with the help of only those three..." Evergreen said.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I blushed.

"I-I don't love him, shut up," I said so quickly that I nearly stumbled over my own words.

"Oh please, I'm pretty sure that even he already knows," Evergreen said.

At that moment I heard a roar so loud it shook both the earth and the heavens. My gaze wandered towards the drake. It had gone onto its hind legs again, ready to create another earthquake.

"Oh no, you won't!" Smoke yelled loudly. "[World of Smoke]!"

Smoke burst forth from his body and gathered beneath the drake, just as it did to catch us hours ago. When the drake eventually brought his feet down to the ground again he hit the cloud of smoke instead of the ground itself and even seemed to stumble a little. Altair used that opening to conjure at least a hundred thick thorn tendrils from the ground. Those thorn tendrils wrapped around the drake's neck, binding it to the floor. He then conjured more of them, right in front of the drake's face and formed them into two arms with large fists. Both of those thorn fists crashed into the drake's head at the same time, one from each side. The draconic beast roared loudly and was hit by a spear made from smoke, a spike made from stone and multiple orbs made from various elements.

"We can do this!" Grand Sorceress Elsa yelled loudly as she raised one hand and her spirits all began glowing at the same time.

"[Grand Finale]!" she yelled as loud as possible as another orb, consisting of various elemental combinations, flew towards the drake's face.

It didn't respond to it at all, it just watched as the orb made from flames and lightning and water and wind and stones and much more approached it. When the orb crashed into the drake it exploded, mírroring the explosion caused by Elsa's fireball earlier when she sent it flying into the, according to Smoke, toxic wall of smoke. For a second I worried about Altair but then he appeared next to the three others that were attacking the drake actively.

"You guys got a plan?" he asked.

"Kill ourselves now so we won't have to burn alive?" Duwal joked.

"Sounds good to me," Smoke answered.

Elsa sighed.

Altair suddenly chuckled.

"I have a plan..." he said.

"What is it?" all three of them asked together, sounding quite excited.

"First we'll need to get rid of that demon lord over there," he said, pointing towards Lestul and Barion, who currently had the upper hand.

"And how are we going to do that? Commander Lestul said that was his fight," Smoke said.

"Oh he'll live, you three make sure that lizard doesn't get in my way and I'll take care of that red-haired ape over there," Altair said.

I wanted to get up, to run over to him, but I couldn't, my leg was as good as broken. He charged towards Commander Lestul and Barion while the other three turned towards the drake. At this point even the few dozen enemy soldiers that were left were gone now, either dead or just gone, which of the two it was I didn't know.

"So maybe your wonderboy has the solution for everything..." Evergreen said as she smiled at me.

I chuckled.

"You better go and tell him after all this is over or else someone else might just snatch him away first," Evergreen said.

"Oh be silent already, this isn't the time to talk about this sort of thing," I said as the medic finally finished bandaging my hurt leg.

"Really? We're either going to win or lose this whole thing, winning means we live and losing means we die, if those are the options why not just pretend everything's going to be fine in the end?" Evergreen said.

I chuckled again.

"Maybe you're right," I said. "Maybe we should just pretend everything is going to be fine."

That was the moment when a loud crash interrupted our conversation. I looked across the battlefield and saw Barion surrounded by debris, Commander Lestul on the ground not too far away and Altair standing over both of them. He cracked his knuckles. Suddenly the human-like spirit appeared and everything turned dark once again, just like at the beginning of the battle. I heard nothing, saw nothing, felt nothing, smelt nothing, tasted nothing. I merely existed.