I stood atop the dragon scale, feeling its vibrations beneath my feet. I glanced east toward Anne and Octavia, whose shapes were still visible through the green cloud of my noxious breath. I could barely make out the shape of Anne's armored ants as they held the line to the north and south of the ever-dissipating cloud.

"What do we do?" I asked.

Anne turned to Octavia, appraising her. "Are you sure you can't go back in there to finish laying down your web?"

"She already told you she can't," I said.

"I asked Octavia," said Anne. "Please permit her to answer. Now. Can you go back in and finish laying down those webs?"

"No," said Octavia. "I'm already down to less than half my health. If I–"

"Understood," said Anne. "In that case. Drew, can you move Octavia's webs?"

I looked down at the webs that Octavia had left to the north of the scale before she had made her retreat. "I can certainly try."

"Do that," said Anne. "And make sure to lay down another layer of that gas if you need to."

I hopped down from the dragon scale and did my best to hook Octavia's web with my claw, dragging it along the ground. Unfortunately, while some of it did come along with me as I walked west, most of it clung to the ground, with the web ripping apart as I pulled on it. I backtracked, doing my best to lift the web from the ground, but the sticky parts adhered to the ground as lifted, ripping the web further.

"Drew," called Anne. "Maintain the breath cloud."

I walked around to the west side of the elder dragon scale, closest to the fire ants, which were waiting patiently in a line just outside the radius of my breath attack. I exhaled again.

SP: 15/18

This time, the edge of my breath attack was close enough to the fire ants that the front row of them had to back up. That gave me an idea.

I turned back to my two companions. "I can advance the front line," I said. "I can cordon off the west side of the dragon scale, and create a barrier."

"A fine idea in concept," said Anne. "But what you describe is not so easy in practice. I cannot advance on our southern and northern flank, not without risk to my own forces."

I glanced to the flanks at the north and south side of the elder dragon scale, where the black and red ants were still locked in stalemate.

"Anne," I said, "the fire ants can only hurt your armored ants because of the dragon scale buff, right? I can use my breath attack to push them all outside the radius. Then, your ants can win in a fair fight."

"That would result in chaos," said Anne. "For now, we stick to the old plan."

"We're already deviating from the old plan," I said. "And I'm not confident in my ability to do Octavia's jobs. Her webs are…difficult for me to control."

"We won't know until you try it," said Anne. "And in the meantime, I can devise a contingency. Do what I say and give me time to think."

I turned back to Octavia's web, doing my best to lift it without shredding it further, but despite my best efforts, most of it was doing exactly what Octavia intended it to do: it adhered to the rock, while the tangled bits that covered my claws only tore away when I attempted to lift it.

As I struggled to do anything with Octavia's webs, my poison gas cloud began to wear thin again. I turned back to Anne with a frustrated expression. "This isn't working."

"We have a fresh web," said Anne. "Octavia, are you ready?"

"Yes," said the spider, raising her two front legs and displaying another freshly-spun web.

"She can't come back in here," I said, walking up to the edge of the gas cloud. "She's hurt."

Anne nodded. "She won't go back in. You will be the one to apply her web. Now, lay down a fresh gas cloud."

"As you wish." I returned to the dragon scale, and exhaled another round of noxious breath.

SP: 14/18

I dutifully walked back to Octavia, poking my head past the thin edge of the gas cloud, where Octavia held freshly-spun web.

I looked at Anne. "How am I supposed to hold this? I can't walk on only two legs."

"You have jaws, yes?" said Anne. "Walk backwards and drag it behind you."

"Dragging it won't work," I said. "It's going to stick to the ground. I need a way to hold it that won't let it touch anything, and it's too big for me to carry it."

"Bundle it up, then," said Anne. "Drew can carry the bundled web and unfurl it on the west side."

"It doesn't work like that," said Octavia. "If I roll the web up, it will stick to itself. There's no way to 'unroll' or 'unfurl' it."

"Try it anyway," said Anne.

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It was getting harder to conceal my annoyance with Anne. "Octavia just said it's not going to work. I think she understands her own web."

"We won't know for certain until we try," said Anne.

"Octavia has years of experience," I said. "You think she doesn't know her own webs?"

Anne pounded the ground with her front legs. "Drew! This is not a discussion. Remember? My plan. My battlefield. My command."

"Yes, ma'am," I said, mustering all the sarcasm I could. I opened my mouth as Octavia did her best to bundle up the web and place it in my jaws.

I carried the bundle of web to the west side of the elder dragon scale and spat it out. By now, the gas cloud had grown dangerously thin yet again, so I refreshed it.

[SP: 13/18]

I did my best to try and "unroll" the bundled web, but it was like trying to untie a knot with no loose ends: the "bundle of web" was more of a sticky mass than anything resembling a "roll." Worse still, the outside part of it wasn't even enough to do its job: my saliva had robbed it of most of its stickiness. I clawed at the web bundle. Under my clumsy touch, it twisted, squished, and it flopped. The thing it failed to do was unspool.

I ran back to Anne and Octavia. "The bundle is useless," I said. "I can't 'unroll' it. It's not useful for anything."

"Just like I expected," said Octavia. "So, Anne. What's the plan now?"

"Let me think," said Anne.

"Did you consider my idea?" I asked. "I can create a bunch of gas clouds around the scale, enough that nobody except me will be able to get close to it. With four or five gas clouds, I could blanket the entire area in gas. Then, with the fire ants pushed far away enough that they can't feel the elder dragon scale's damage buff, they'll have no way to damage your armored ants. You can trounce them."

"What you're suggesting would be chaotic," said Anne. "Lots of things could go wrong. I prefer an approach with more finesse. We may not need to actually fight the fire ants to escape with the elder dragon scale."

"This doesn't have to be some precise surgical maneuver," I said. "You're acting like we have to sneak away with the scale and steal it from under their noses, but as long as your armored ants are fighting them away from the dragon scale, we can win!"

"My definition of 'winning' doesn't require us to kill the enemy," said Anne. "Don't lose sight of our goal. We're here for the dragon scale. That is the objective. Not glorious battles."

"We can win by killing all of the ants," I said. "And when they're all dead, we can take this dragon scale and go home. I think that would actually be easier than trying to sneak away with the scale."

"It's risky," said Anne. "We can consider that as a contingency, but let me weigh our other options."

"You'd better think fast," I said. "Every minute you spend thinking is another point of SP I need to spend. My plan will involve spending a lot of my stamina. As it is, I can give you around two minutes of time alone with the fire ants."

Anne's antennae twitched. "Please be quiet," she said. "And go breathe on the dragon scale again. Your breath is dissipating."

I glared at Anne, then marched back to the elder dragon scale. This time, I climbed on top of the massive scale to give myself a better vantage over the battlefield. The thrum of the scale under my claws now felt oddly comforting.

Elder Dragon Scale aura buff: +100% to all offensive abilities

I studied the shapes of the dead fire ants touching the west side of the dragon scale as my gas cloud thinned. Over a dozen of them. They had died so easily under the touch of my noxious breath.

I glanced over my shoulder. "What's the plan, Anne?"

"Wait," she said.

"This stalemate has lasted long enough," I said. "We can win this. Just how much longer are we planning on waiting?"

She snapped. "Just give me a minute to think! Do your job and use that breath of yours."

"Oh, I will." I looked down again at the remains of the fire ants that had died to my first breath attack and grinned.

I watched as the gas cloud had fully dissipated, and the red fire ants began advancing. I held my breath.

"Drew!" Octavia and Anne both yelled in unison. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to win. Stand back."

Anne continued shouting, but now, I was only focused on the advancing wave of fire ants in front of me. I waited until the first of them touched the dragon scale. Then another touched it, and another, surrounding it as if they were going to lift it.

"Drew!"

I took a deep breath. When the fifth fire ant touched the dragon scale – with a row of a dozen more fire ants behind it – I let it rip.

Noxious breath. Then poison breath.

SP: 10/18

Within a second, the air around me was bathed in a thick layer of yellow-green gas. I inhaled deeply, smelling that familiar sickly sweet odor as I saw the first of the notifications as the fire ants collapsed to the ground.

Fire ant defeated! 1% exp gained toward class ascension Fire ant defeated! 1% exp gained toward class ascension [...]

Dozens of notifications flooded in as I watched the red fire ants choke and die by the dozens in front of me, and I watched as my exp meter filled from 70%, to 80%, to 90%. And then…

Class ascension requirements met

I felt a surge of power course through my veins, and my body began vibrating so violently that I collapsed on top of the dragon scale, bathed in the green wisps that surrounded me. As I hit the scale with a thud, I felt an energy surge within me, starting with my core, and then expanding through my limbs. I looked down at my front claws, and my scales began to pulse – the very surface of my scale exterior seemed to pulse. I felt individual scales begin to expand and harden, and a throbbing sensation overtook me.

I howled as my body shook, and I felt a sharp pain in my spine as I suddenly felt a prickling sensation near my spine for the first time. I flexed new muscles for the first time, and the gas around me swirled as if disturbed by some unseen wind. It took me a moment to realize that I had been the one to disturb the gas cloud, and I moved those brand new muscles again, feeling the sensation of the air flowing around my newly-formed tissue.

My wings.

Class: Drake Level: 10 Exp progress toward next level: 2% HP: 29/40 SP: 10/30 Claws: level 2 Scales: level 5 Mouth: level 11 Wings: level 1 Traits: Carnivore, Kin sensitive, Carrion feeder Learned abilities: Sprinting, Noxious Breath, Poison Breath, Paralyzing Breath, Harden Scales, Roar, Speech Active Quests: 'Locate an embercore' / 'A plea for help' / 'Emergency excavation request'