“Run! Run!” Yelsa cried. “I will battle Docrun over taking on an Elemental Dragon! Just get me out of here!”

“What’s an Elemental Dragon?” Zalan asked, backing away from the hulking creature as it embodied the entire chamber and spread its wings. Its black visage took over all the light entering through the hole in the ceiling, causing the room to feel like it had become overcast in seconds.

“Bad! It is very bad!” Rep said, backing away from it and heading to the door.

“But what is it?” Zalan asked more urgently.

“Normal dragons are known to breathe fire from their mouths, able to emit enough to engulf a building in moments,” Gorb stated. “But Elemental Dragons have no set Element that they breathe. They cycle between Elements like lightning, fire, ice, water, and others. There is no guarantee.”

“But if you watch its eyes, you will know which Element it will produce!” Fran said excitedly as she hopped her way forward, the only one going away from the entry door. Gorb placed a hand in her way and made a face.

“We are leaving, Fran. Do not force me to fight you. I am almost completely exhausted of all my energies,” Gorb said.

“I would normally agree that we should leave, but I do not believe we can,” Fran flicked her head back to the door.

Rep and Yelsa were pulling powerfully against the bent scepter stuck in the door, but couldn’t pull it free. Yelsa was sweating and Rep was gnawing at his lip in their efforts.

“It will not budge!” Rep called desperately. “What do we do?”

“Guys!” Zalan called, his focus on Hatewing’s eyes. “The eyes stopped on a color! They’re blue! Like… like the sky! What does that mean?”

Hatewing was breathing in, the sound of it like a giant balloon sucking all the air out of the room. Its light-blue eyes looked upon them with rage and malice.

“Run away! Get behind something!” Rep screamed, scrambling toward the nearest tall pile of gold.

Zalan looked around and did the same, diving under a small pile of Artifacts and goblets near him. Something white flew overhead and crashed into the door, causing the entire chamber to tremble. Zalan found himself shivering. He twisted his neck to see the door was frozen solid with shards of ice sticking out, a few Roaches dead and frozen as well.

“Gorb and I are fine! Everyone alive?” Fran’s voice came.

“I’m good!” Zalan called back.

“Alive!” Rep replied.

“Get me out of here!” Yelsa screamed.

Zalan saw that Roaches on the wall were skittering all over the place now, racing up and down walls in panic as the violence commenced. He still couldn’t help but flinch when they got close, the immediate danger of the Elemental Dragon not enough to overtake his disgust toward the creatures. He zapped one that got too close, killing it before it could try to bite him in the frenzy of energy sweeping the room.

“Gorb, can we jump out the window and you catch us with your power before we hit the floor?” Rep asked.

“No. I am almost completely drained of energy. I will lose consciousness if I try to slow even one of us, much less all of us at once,” Gorb said.

“What about the moat!” Yelsa said, feeling brilliant.

“There is not enough water!” Rep replied. “We saw it from the bridge! It was almost dry!”

“Maybe it’s higher at other points in the moat!” Yelsa said, sounding desperate.

“A fall from this height would kill you even if you fall into water!” Zalan called back.

“Are you sure?” Yelsa asked, disheartened.

“Dark blue!” Zalan boomed.

“What—”

The sound of Hatewing sucking in air overpowered the room, making it clear that Zalan was talking about the newest color of its eyes. It blasted out a torrent of water, washing hundreds of pounds of gold and water in the general direction of the travelers.

“Up! On the piles!” Gorb demanded.

The five adventurers had to put themselves in an exposed position above the piles they hid behind in order not to be swept away. They held on as the deluge smashed against the stone wall with enough force to kill them instantly. Zalan watched various tools and weapons in the hoard get crushed like soda cans in the wake of the fast flow of water. Hatewing roared in frustration at not having killed the travelers and watched them as its eyes began cycling once more.

“I think we have to fight it,” Zalan announced uncertainly.

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“Finally, someone says it,” Fran said confidently.

“An Elemental Dragon requires multiple members of your party to be over Level Ten, Fran! We will not stand a chance,” Gorb said to her.

“According to whom? Those who are too scared to try? There are no set rules for how powerful one should be to kill anything!” Fran declared confidently.

“Fran, please, do not agitate it!” Yelsa pleaded.

“What more could be done to agitate it? It is already attacking with intent to kill. We should return in kind! Hit it with lightning, Zalan!” Fran ordered.

“On it!” Zalan replied.

“I will get in close to attack with flames,” Fran said.

“You are in no state to move that fast!” Gorb cried.

“Then assist me!” Fran screamed back. “I am not going to lay down and wait for Hatewing to decide on the best way to kill us when I can be doing something! Either assist me or go hide in a corner!”

Zalan was breathing in deeply, concentrating as much power as he could into his next attack. Hatewing’s eyes stopped cycling at an orange hue. It swung its wings to buffet them all with air as it breathed in. Zalan fired the largest bolt of lightning he could muster—about an inch thick. Hatewing twitched, barely singed by the attack, and continued to breathe in menacingly.

“My lightning barely scratched it!” Zalan said as he hopped off his pile of gold to get behind cover.

“Better than not affecting it at all!” Fran replied jovially.

Hatewing’s mouth erupted in an incinerating wall of flame, headed right for Zalan.

“Excellent!” Zalan heard Fran say as he tucked himself down tightly beneath the gold.

“Fran, get down!” Gorb screamed.

Zalan felt the heat intensify to an unbearable degree, immediately breaking him out in sweat, then suddenly the heat felt like it was swept away. He heard Fran laughing maniacally. He peeked his head out from behind his shelter to see Fran redirecting the wall of flame with her Elemental ability, hysterical at the display of her own power. Gorb was holding her upright, allowing her to focus on the task of shifting the fire.

“Yes! You are powerless, Hatewing!” Fran goaded as she twisted the fire into the ceiling where it dissipated harmlessly. Zalan, Rep and Yelsa watched in awe. The fire would have reduced them to ashes the moment it came in contact with them, but Fran was enjoying changing its direction. Zalan couldn’t help but take pleasure in seeing the Roaches that were on the ceiling burn up.

Hatewing finally stopped its onslaught, looking over its adversaries with its multicolored eyes. Its black and purple eyelids narrowed, confused as to how everyone was still standing. It roared loudly in frustration, swishing a wing at them and sending a dangerous amount of gold flying their way. Zalan ducked back down under his pile of gold and waited for the attack to subside before he got up to dive behind the next closest pile of treasure, hoping to be able to do more damage to the dragon the closer he got.

“I will find some arrows!” Yelsa said in frustration, finally quitting her attempts to open the frozen door.

“I am coming to assist you, Zalan,” Rep called from behind him.

It seemed the entire group had agreed to fight the dragon now, no other choice making itself clear.

Zalan threw another bolt of lightning at the dragon’s wing, trying to aim for a joint to do enough damage to stop it from sending another burst of air at them. The wing twitched and the dragon looked at him in annoyance. It took a massive stomp toward them to shake them off balance. Then it retreated a step furtively.

“Look how it keeps its distance!” Fran pointed out. “It has never had to deal with close-combat encounters. It relies on its Elemental power!”

“What does that mean for us?” Rep asked, having just caught up to Zalan’s shelter of gold.

“I have no idea!” Fran admitted.

Hatewing’s eyes were a shiny yellow. It reminded Zalan of the Elemental that granted him his lightning power.

“Yellow!” Gorb called out.

“I think it’s lightning!” Zalan told his friends. “Stay away from anything metal! And water!”

“Everything here is metal and water!” Yelsa screamed, stepping over a puddle that was left from the dragon’s second attack.

As Hatewing breathed in, Zalan felt all the hairs on his head and neck begin to stand, the air feeling charged. He was certain the next Elemental blast would be lighting. He stood up, intending to redirect it like Fran did. Rep pulled him aggressively to the floor.

“She has trained to manage large columns of flames for years! You cannot redirect the same amount of lightning!” Rep told him.

“I took on lightning from the sky!” Zalan countered.

“Accidentally! And you would have died if we were not there!” Rep said back.

A thunderous crack boomed across the chamber as Hatewing emitted an electrical, destructive wave. Zalan got a different idea at that moment and held one arm away from him and one arm on Rep’s back. Rep looked at him, confused, but remained put so long as Zalan was kneeling behind the pile of gold. The rush of lightning grazed the pile they sat behind and traveled through to Rep and Zalan. Zalan pulled the energy out of both himself and Rep. Wincing, he channeled it within him threw it toward the ceiling, leaving them both unscathed.

“Thank you,” Rep said as soon as the blast died down and he understood what Zalan did.

“Everyone all right?” Zalan called.

“Gorb threw us into the air for a few seconds. We are fine!” Fran called from her pile on the other end of the room.

There was no reply from behind them, where Yelsa should have been.

“Yelsa?”

“He got me,” Yelsa said, her voice overwhelmed with pain. “But it is not so bad. Do not come back for me. Find us a way out of here!”

Zalan nodded and threw another bolt of lightning at Hatewing’s face. Hatewing’s eye blinked in annoyance as Zalan’s bolt made contact with its lower jaw. Zalan blinked, his battles with the Nargs and Docrun coming to mind at that moment. Hatewing’s eyes cycled as it decided on its next Elemental attack.

“I have a plan!” Fran said.

“I have an idea!” Zalan called at the same moment.

The monster’s eyes landed on an ominous, shining white color. It breathed in deeply and each of the allies ducked down, not sure what was coming. A blinding light exploded above them like a flashbang, harmlessly passing over them. It occurred to Zalan that Elemental Light must have been part of the monster’s cycles. Fearfully, he wondered what else the dragon would throw at them that he hadn’t encountered before.

Each of the allies stood back up, looking at one another. Fran looked uncertain.

“My plan was to get it to shoot fire at me in hopes I could send it back to its open mouth,” Fran said. “But to be honest, I do not think that will actually work when I can not rely on what power will emerge. Is yours any better?”