Fury crashes down in front of us. Literally crashes. As the dragon was flying away from the glass dome, a light beam blew through the dragon's wing, destroying his ability to fly. My black scaly friend barely reached our position before plummeting into the earth. The impact from the dragon crash shakes the ground. Cru nearly loses his footing.

To the goblin and his spider's credit, none of them flees. Instead, they foolishly stand by my side, preparing to fight a dragon. Lucky for us, it's not a dragon that pulls itself from the deep crater. Fury is in his dragonoid form and holding the massive hammer I gave him yesterday. Armor thicker than my legs covers the dark paladin templar. He looks so cool walking out of the smoldering crater he created. Best entrance of the day. Bar none.

"Hello, Fury. Great entrance." I greet my friend with a compliment even though I know he isn't present. He earned it. Fury's eyes are hazed with a gray fog, and a nasty cancerous rot is growing from his neck. The paladin doesn't respond. I take that as an invitation to remove the corruption from his neck. Wishful thinking leads me to believe the rot allows Fury to be controlled. Selfishly, I don't want to look at the gross mass.

My movement is fast and unpredictable. The arrow flies true and knocks the growth clean off. There is a gross leaking of fluids that I try to unsee. Thankfully the hideous sight is gone. Unfortunately, Fury still isn't present. I let out a bit of a sigh and prepare for another fight. I don't have much time because the dragonoid runs right at me.

Tendrils of darkness reach for me. I cut through them immediately. The pressure of night thickens, trying to seize my movement. Even with the aid of Goldi’s anti silencing rune, I have to push out and resist the power of the dragon's domain. Luckily most of his attention is on me. Neither Cru nor his spiders have to face off against these restricting spells allowing them to focus on fighting the swarm of dark beings being created out of the nether.

Fury drags his hammer, leaving a deep rut in the forest ground. His saunter is slow. Each step shakes the ground. Even though I'm not face-to-face with a dragon, all his might and power are still here. A black flame forms over Fury's head, and three more appear. With a casual point, his death balls fire at me. Cru and his spiders wisely split from my side. I can’t decide to go left or right, so I stay. It’s a bad choice. Sure.

With the rise of my hand, which is a bit unnecessary, but I'm lost in the moment, a fortress wall enforced by mind energy is summoned. My shield nearly shatters from the blast of the four burning black balls of destruction. It takes all of my willpower to keep the wall strong. When the wave of power relents, I kick the thick flaming wall towards Fury.

Usually, I'm not one to boast, especially during a fight. But the flaming wall punt must definitely be a top-ten move of the week, for sure. Unfortunately, my highlight is diminished when Fury's mighty hammer smashes easily through my wall, and I have to repeatedly side-step away from flaming bone chunks of danger.

“Effing wall-busting dragon,” the curse slips out. Now I'm deflated.

I guess I had some unrealistic expectations for this fight. I shattered the tumor. Shouldn't that be an automatic win? Then I out-trumped the dragon's trump card. Sure, my awesome play ended up getting reversed on me. But, still. I was going to save the dragon from the burning rubble of bones, and we'd be friends again. We'd hug it out or give each other fist bumps, and that would be the end of the day's fighting. Maybe we'd even make jokes about it over desserts or something.

I really don't want to do this. Would it be so bad if I sit this round out? Maybe I die and get a little bit of a rest. No. I can't leave this problem to others. Besides, I'm trying this living stuff out, and I don't want the lame lecture hounding me to do better when I recycle after death. One more fight, it is. I swallow my crushed expectations and size up the monster of a man before.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Like Roxi, Fury is still inexperienced regarding his new body and power level. Though the paladin is still powerful. Not only is his dark mana thick and crippling to intruders like myself inside this domain, but Fury's physical strength is on another level. I feel like a hill compared to his mountain of strength. I blame it on my lack of dragon blood.

I begin reinforcing my body with my mental energy to even the odds a little more in my favor. The once ivory-tinted mana, now a shade of purple, courses through my body. Not just my channels but through my bones, skin, muscles, and mind. Before, when I was sharing the energy with Panther, I wasn't sure if the mental mana or death mana was boosting the cat. My answer became more evident when I enhanced my swords with mental energy. Now, the answer is obvious.

I might not be a mountain of strength, but I'm much closer than before. My mind is clear. The world seems to slow to a crawl. I can track each dust particle kicked up from Fury's dragging hammer. The Dragonoid's breath lingers in the air.

I almost feel like I can grab it and rip it away. Of course, I don't because that's not a nice guy move — which I don't care about when I'm fighting, but Fury is a friend, and friends get benefits. I take a couple more breaths allowing Fury to get closer and refocus my mind.

With each step the dragonoid takes, I become more attuned to my enhanced strength. I take another breath, accept the grim task before me, and summon a pair of shadow swords with bleeding purple edges.

Fury begins to bring his hammer forward now that he is much closer. Even though my mind mana greatly enhances my strength, the paladin is still faster, stronger, and more durable. What I lack in power, I make up for in skill. Before his off-hand grips his weapon, I strike.

I close short distances in nearly an instant. Pairing that with shadow steps, it is like I'm teleporting. I'm not teleporting, I still have to run the distance, but I'm quick. Add the time dilation from shadow, and my perception mask creates the illusion.

My swords cut into Fury rapidly. His armor is thick, but each strike slashes him in the same spot. The paladin is knocked off balance from my attacks. Before he regains his footing, I'm behind him again, attacking the growing weak spot. He stumbles, and I strike. Again and again.

Surrounded by burning black flames and a few heartbeats since the start, I land the thirtieth and final blow. As my giant friend falls to the ground, I feel his energy returning to the dungeon core. Only then do I finally feel at ease. It sucks having to fight a friend. Hopefully, when he returns, he will be in control of himself.

I look at the husk of his body on the ground. It's probably wrong for me to absorb his corpse, but I do it anyway. If the dragon is upset, he can kill me later to make amends. Besides, letting the body rot or wither seems like a waste. It's good to be practical about these types of things.

Karma or whatever judging system does not allow me to gain the dragon wings I want, nor the dark manipulation or silencing spell. The only option I get is to upgrade my scales to dragon steel. I take the upgrade and the admonition that friends don't absorb friends.

"You good?" I ask Cru and his spiders, who all have shocked expressions — not that I can actually read the spiders' expressions. Call it an educated guess. I probably should have been more subtle about what I was doing… or not have done it at all. Oh well.

"It's what the dragon wanted." I fill the silence with nonsense. It's not technically a lie because I believe it. Spiders and Cru give me a nod, their disbelief still visible in their eyes and open mouths.

"Come on, let's go meet the others." I prod them along so we can escape this semi-uncomfortable situation we happened into. Maybe I should feel bad. I can't say that I do. If Fury didn't want to get absorbed, he shouldn't have gotten mind-controlled. I pick up his hammer and lead my party to the academy, trying to think up a way to strike up a conversation.