Sariel ducked into the stone courtyard, listening to the pounding steps of the dragon draw closer. She was far enough to the side for the jet of flames that would otherwise come to miss her and strike the mansion instead. But she had a nagging feeling that wouldn't be the case.

She listened to the beast draw in a deep breath, quickly followed by a bright orange glow as the flames spewed from its mouth.

Carefully, she peeked over the fence, watching as the wall of fire before her splash across an invisible force. Like bubbles in water. She could pass through them, but the fire and smoke was left outside. Sariel tamed her excitement, running along the perfect line that cut through part of the grass and enveloped some of the shops, all of the structures unmarred by the carnage of the beast. Cody would be very excited to know about this bubble.

She eyed the statue, barely making him out through the shifting clouds by the glow of his red sword.

He was facing a massive shadow, the dragon's head rearing back as its chest flared.

Sariel aimed the crossbow, the arrow whistling through the air to perfectly strike the dragon in the neck. But it didn't move to chase her, rearing up before Cody as she frantically tried to reload her weapon. But she wasn't nearly fast enough, the arrow she was trying to load bouncing from her hands as the panic spurred her sloppiness. As she bent down to grab the arrow, an orange light scattered across the ground, a terrible light from the flames that had completely consumed her friend.

She stopped, her legs refusing to move as she watched the flames shoot across the ground and lick at the wall of protection she had found.

His hair was fire.

He had to be fire proof.

She grabbed the arrow, frantically jamming it into the weapon. A whimper escaped her throat as the arrow didn't load. She knew she was doing it wrong, but she couldn't remember the steps. There was no time for the steps.

He had to be fireproof.

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

It was dark, muffled and suffocating.

Everything around Cody was shrouded by a thick black cloud. He was on the ground, his body had gone numb from the adrenaline, or perhaps there were no nerves left to cry out in pain.

Or he was dead.

He lifted his palms, suddenly registering his blurry vision from the stabbing smoke. It invaded his next breath, clawing at his lungs and forcing out a cough.

Ghosts didn’t need to breathe. He flexed his palms, feeling the dry dirt topple through his fingers. His skin was still on his bones.

It was impossible.

His shield had broken immediately. He had felt the fire rushing forwards, its bite stilling to an empty coldness as soon as it had him in its hug. He had assumed it was his mind’s way of protecting him from an agonizing death. Alina’s magic hadn’t swooped in at the last moment either. The goddess had favourite followers, and watched them die all the same when they didn’t have time to make a trade.

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He shifted around, his shoulder brushing the blade he had planted in the dirt, still intact despite the flaming assault. As he moved to touch it, something tickled his wrist and tumbled from his sleeve.

The bracelet Sariel had woven him met his gaze, split into dried and shrivelled pieces.

He tried to focus his vision, his body freezing as he saw the large shadow move in front of him, a hissing breath blasting even more of the smoke in his face.

"Cody!" He snapped back to reality at Sariel's voice. She was near, somewhere in the thick and stinging smoke.

Cody tried to answer her call, his voice coming out in painful gags. He could see the silhouette of a person fast approaching, ignoring the deep hissing growl that shook the air next to Cody as the dragon flexed one of its claws in the dirt. Without his voice to aid him, Cody waved his arms frantically to try and shoo Sariel away, his heart squeezing as he heard the scraping wheeze as the dragon drew in a deep breath.

Sariel came through the smoke, planting her feet over Cody to face the glowing maw of the drake. She whipped up the crossbow, her next shot travelling point-blank down the dragon's gullet and exploding. The beast gagged out a plume of black smoke and congealed blood, throwing it's head to the side to whine in pain. Cody stared at the beast, flabbergasted.

Cody felt Sariel lift his collar. He grabbed for the sword, catching the cold hilt and ripping it from the dirt. Everything was still a painful blur as Sariel dragged him through the haze, every breath coming out in a cough or dry wheeze. But through his blurry squint he could see an orange glow revive, refracting off the dark clouds around them as the dragon readied another shot.

And they were directly in the firing line.

Sariel resisted as he tried to pull them to the side, her superior strength forcing him to stumble after her and through the dark veil. He caught his balance with the sword he was holding, his teary eyes adjusting to the strangely bright area just as he saw the jet of flames come straight for them. His entire body lurched back on instinct, but the flames butterflied out, splashing across an invisible wall that was also holding the smoke at bay.

Some sort of forcefield. He fell to his knees as soon as Sariel released his wrist, trying to dry his stinging tears with his sleeve. Despite the cough still stuck in his throat, the air he was now sucking in was clean, giving him a much needed break from the entire fiasco. When he had taken enough clean breaths to recover some of his voice, he looked to Sariel, the woman distracted with jamming the last arrow she had into the crossbow.

They caught gazes, the concentration in Sariel's face immediately melting as she dropped the weapon and latched onto him with a tight hug. "Knew you were fire proof! Thought I'd step in before testin if you were squish proof though."

Cody didn't have the strength to struggle out of the affectionate gesture, even if he had wanted to. His near death experience was looping in his mind, the flames ripping through his shield. Had he been brave enough to stare his doom down, he may have known what came to his rescue. His gaze wandered to the invisible wall holding the smoke at bay, a massive barrier.

He pulled away, sizing Sariel up as his mind did laps for an explanation. "Did you... do this?"

Sariel looked around, finally clueing in on what he was referring to. "Knew you'd like it Cody! But not me, can't blow a bubble that big. Don't got the breath."

He hummed in disbelief. "You mean it?"

"Swear on the slice o cheese in my pocket, Cody." Sariel assured.

Cody coughed out a weak laugh, grounded by the absurdity of her promise, and how believable it was coming from her mouth. "Why is there cheese in your pocket?" He accepted her assistance in getting back on his feet, giving the shielding enchantment another inspection. If not Sariel, then someone else had raised the barrier. And with no other allies in sight, it was likely that one of the houses and shops the barrier was protecting housed the sorcerer that had been pulling the strings on Bervolt.

Cody watched the large shadow of the dragon sway about in the smoke, its body lowered to a prowl as it searched the smokey arena for Hord'anne. Barrier or not, Cody couldn't turn his back on a living dragon and risk the sorcerer revoking the barrier.

He grabbed a piece of chalk from his satchel. He had saved the blade, and where there was dirt or stone, the symbols could easily be redrawn.

That dragon was finally going down.