Joseph sat in his seat with his arms crossed and his legs spread wide open. Within the same room as him, there were five other people. Although their outfits were different, they all had one thing in common: they were made with dragon scales. Of the five people, two of them were woman while the remaining three were men.

One of the men looked around. “Well?” he asked. “Is anyone going to tell me why we’re gathered here like a bucket of crabs and not outside gambling and drinking? I was on a winning streak, man. The goddess of fortune didn’t just bless me with luck, she slathered it over me like honey.”

“Shut up, Keith,” Joseph said and glared at the man who just spoke. He looked around at his other party members. “The Edward family is moving against us.”

“Why?” Keith asked. “Which one of you morons provoked them? Fess up. Was it you, Danielle? I know you can’t help yourself if you see a guy with two arms and two legs.”

“I will slit your throat in your sleep,” Danielle said with a blank expression.

Keith brought his hands up in front of himself and wiggled them. “Ooh, I’m so scared,” he said and rolled his eyes. “So, it wasn’t you? Then it must’ve been—”

“Shut up, Keith!” Joseph said and brought one arm down, slamming the flat part of his fist against the lower part of his armor. He looked around again. “I don’t know why they’re moving against us, but since they are, we can’t sit on our asses and let them bully us. We—”

“Can sit on our hands?” Keith asked and snickered. The rest of the group turned to look at him with exasperated expressions.

Joseph turned towards the woman who wasn’t Danielle. “Silence him,” he said, gesturing towards Keith with his head.

“What?” Keith asked, his eyes widening. “Is there a need to—”

The woman pointed at Keith, and although his mouth moved to finish the rest of his sentence, no one could hear anything. Joseph nodded at the woman before clearing his throat. “As I was saying,” he said. “It’s clear the Edward family wants to make a move against us. I wouldn’t put it past them to hire the other SSS-ranked adventurers to deal with us. We have two options: retreat or strike first.” His eyes narrowed. “Those in favor of retreating, raise your hands.”

The woman who silenced Keith raised her hand. She was the only one. Joseph looked at the remaining party members. “This shouldn’t be an issue, but just in case, who’s in favor of striking first?” he asked. Everyone except Keith raised their hands.

“Keith didn’t vote,” Danielle said, pointing out the obvious.

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“It doesn’t matter,” Joseph said. “The vote’s already three to one.”

Keith opened his mouth and rolled his eyes. Unfortunately, no one could understand what he was saying. His eyes widened, and he slapped his armor before pointing at his neck. When he saw no one was paying attention to him, he reached over and grabbed the woman who silenced him and pointed at his neck again in an urgent manner. The woman furrowed her brow before undoing the spell. She kept her finger pointed at him. “If you’re going to say something stupid, I won’t let you speak for a week.”

“Get ready for battle!” Keith said, practically shouting. “Something extremely dangerous is heading straight towards us!”

Joseph furrowed his brow. “What is it?” he asked but still stood up. He went to the corner of his room and picked up a large sledgehammer.

The rest of the party prepared their weapons while Keith went to the window. He opened the shutter and looked around. “I don’t know what it is,” he said. “But it’s dangerous, and it’s heading towards us very quickly. If we had time, I’d try to convince some of you to change your votes to retreating, but at this point, I think it’d be smarter for me to leave without you.”

“It’s that serious?” Joseph asked, his face becoming solemn. “This isn’t your way of getting back at me for silencing you, is it?”

Before Keith could respond, there was a loud thumping sound. The building shook, and the windows rattled. A wall of blue blocked Keith’s vision, and a well-dressed man came into view. The man nodded as if to say, “Yes, this is the correct place.” A moment later, the man and the wall of blue rose upwards, revealing a giant eyeball with golden irises and a slit pupil.

“Dragon!” Keith shouted and fell over backwards.

The dragon reared its head back, and Joseph’s eyes widened. “Barrier!” he shouted. “It’s going to use its breath!”

Wordlessly, the woman who silenced Keith tapped the butt of her staff against the floor. Silver runes spread out from the spot she tapped, and they crawled along the floor and up the walls like worms. Within seconds, they had filled the room, ceiling included. A shimmering light encased the party of six, and not long after, the walls and ceiling were blown apart. Hundreds of icy shards struck the shimmering light, piercing halfway through but unable to continue any further. A layer of white frost crawled along the barrier, obscuring the party’s view.

Keith gulped, his throat bobbing up and down. The tip of an icicle was less than an inch away from his eyeball. If the barrier had been formed just a second later, there was no doubt in Keith’s mind that he’d be getting an even better view of the sharp object. In fact, maybe it’d be the last thing he saw. He took a step back and looked at his stunned party members. “No, seriously, fess up. Which one of you provoked the Edward family? I think we can still resolve it peacefully if we feed the troublemaker to the dragon.”

Joseph’s expression darkened. “It’ll be difficult, but we can kill it. Have you forgotten our party name?”

Keith shook his head. “There’s a huge difference between ambushing a dragon and being ambushed by a dragon.” His eyes widened. “I figured it out! It must’ve been you! You harassed one of the Edward ladies, didn’t you?”

“Shut up!” Joseph said. “This isn’t the time for this.” He swung his hammer, and the icicles poking through the barrier were shattered, revealing the view outside. The dragon was standing on its hindlegs, and above its head, in the sky, three meteors were falling down, getting larger with every passing second.

“We’re so screwed,” Keith said. He glanced to the side at Danielle. “What are you looking at me for?”

Danielle fiddled with the dagger in her hand. “I’m wondering if I should cut your throat now because it doesn’t seem like I’ll have the chance to do it in the future.”