"The hell?" Pepper snapped, waving her monkey wrench. "Stop trying to jinx us!"

My stomach twisted in painful panicked knots, making my voice a little sharper. "I'm not. That really is a dragon. I've seen the pictures, I know what they look like."

I pointed to the 'moving hill.' It's not like there were trees or rock clusters to hide it stalking across the desert landscape. I mean, what did a dragon look like? Death. For a group this small and under ranked, they looked like death. This one had the body of western dragon, with a short triangle head, a long neck, rounded body, and sweeping tail. It wasn't as flashing as the dragons in the Monster Manual, which depicted a vibrant rainbow of colors – and types. This oncoming dragon, however, was a brownish green color, not much different from the foliage around it. But it was still undeniably a dragon. It didn’t have wings, sure, but neither did most eastern dragons and they could still fly.

"You're just seeing things," Scott insisted, his face pinched in denial. He shot a glare in Star's direction. "I told you it wasn't worth the effort, bringing a newbie."

Star ran over and looked where I pointed. Her face went white under her summer tan. "Oh, my god. We need to get out of here."

The other two paused, their annoyance shifting to alarm.

"You're shitting me," Pepper insisted. "It's just a joke, right? There's no way a dragon is here." She was at our side in a flash. She let out a sharp breath as her eyes widened in fear. Even she couldn't deny what I saw. The huge monster was clearly visible, and getting closer with every minute. Why it wasn't flying, that was anyone's guess.

Pepper whipped around. "Hurry! Get the rest of the panels. Now!"

I ran to where Star had dropped my tools earlier. With quick decisive moves, I started removing the screws on the back of the panel. Beside me, Scott directly gave up on taking the heavy duty ground bolts from his panel. He stood up and started kicking the metal box until it was ripped right off with a loud squeal.

"We need to leave!" Star insisted. "We have seven panels. That should be enough, right?"

"The contract is ten, idiot," Pepper hissed, working on her own panel. "If we don't have ten, it's a breach of contract and we might not get paid at all."

I clamped a screw with the monkey wrench and started pounding on the handle with the hammer, forcing the rusted screw head to move. "Come on, come on," I muttered like a prayer. "Go faster, go faster." With a metallic whine, the screw suddenly loosened and I whipped the monkey wrench around at high speed until the screw fell out. I caught the wrench and started working on the next one.

The ground started vibrating with each heavy step the dragon took. At first it was just a little wiggle, barely noticeable as if it was just wind making the building sway. As the dragon got closer, the vibration got more and more obvious. The dragon walked to the river that cut through the middle of the city, its head swaying back and forth on its long neck. After a second, the dragon turned and faced the city. Unfortunately, it was on the east side of the river – the same side the campus was on.

"Why does that dragon look so weird?" Star asked, her voice barely more than a whisper as she ducked behind the short wall. I'm sure the monster couldn't hear her from here, but it was hard to not be cautious around an A ranked monster.

"What the hell are you doing?" Pepper hissed at her. "Get over here and help!"

Star ran over and started helping her.

I finally got the last screw off and stood up. "Kick it off," I told Scott, motioning to the stand of my panel. I didn't need to waste time to know that I wasn't strong enough to do it.

He scowled at me and I didn't spare him another glance, I just hurried to the one he was unscrewing. He snorted, but started kicking my metal box.

The dragon stood up on its hind legs and lifted its head high, suddenly becoming taller than any building in the entire city. Even though it was still technically outside city bounds and a distance away, I couldn't help but duck. No matter what, I didn't want it to know I was here. Dragons were intelligent enough to trick and toy with their prey. Some even tortured smaller beings for sport, not to eat. There's no saying what would happen if it found us.

My hands started to shake as fear, each tremble almost taking the wrench off the screw I worked on. I gritted my teeth and forced my hand to steady and finish the job.

Scott hovered over me, waiting for the last screw to come out. "Hurry. Hurry!"

The two women on the other side of the rooftop weren't going much faster.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw the dragon drop its mouth open and a roar ripped through the air like a sonic boom. At the same time, its oppressive, apex aura washed over the city like a flood.

A painful ringing nearly split my head open and vertigo wracked my vision. I flinched and covered my buzzing ears, falling to the ground. The breath seized in my lungs. No matter what I did, I couldn't seem to expand my chest. The others also slumped down, but I was obviously the worst one affected by the dragon's aura. After all, there was a bigger difference in its level compared to mine.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The dragon stopped roaring and dropped back down the ground. An earthquake rippled out under the weight of the monster. Dozens of buildings across the city collapsed from the movement, sending up clouds of dust into the air. I'm sure it was loud, but I couldn't hear it over the ringing in my ears. Our own building swayed for a sickening moment, but thankfully didn't crumble under our feet. The dragon's aura receded with the sound of its roar.

I laid on the filthy rooftop, gasping for air and weak all over. Oh my god, just its roar nearly killed me from miles away. What would happen if it was even closer?

Suddenly, the city burst into activity. Weakly, I turned my head and watched as monsters spilled from abandoned buildings, houses and stores. Some scrambled out of the newly collapsed buildings or bolted from nesting holes in the ground. Through the ringing in my ears, the sounds of wings flapping frantically, thundering hooves and feet pounding on ground echoed everywhere, as hordes of monsters fled south out of the city, away from the dragon. Any creature close enough to the dragon became bite sized snacks in its teeth.

A low humming grew under my feet, so loud I could hear it over through the ceiling I laid on. Seconds later, over two hundred gigaroaches spilled out of the Science Initiative building, joining the migration. Most of them carried a limp larva or nymph in their arms. The sight twisted my stomach painfully. Thank god we didn't run into the main colony earlier.

Scott thumped my shoulder painfully, drawing my attention back. His mouth moved, but I couldn't quite understand him – his words were too muffled. Wait, it seemed that all the noise I heard came only from the right side. My left ear was ringing too much to hear clearly. Was my hearing damaged? Experimenting, I turned my head, so that my right ear faced him.

"Hurry!" he growled, his voice finally clear enough to understand. "Get the screws off!"

"Right," I whispered and pushed up. I was still dizzy, but I forced myself to concentrate on what needed to be done – get the panel off the metal pole. My hands shook as I gripped the screw head with the wrench and started pounding on it with the hammer to force it loose.

The ground started to ripple again. I glanced over my shoulder to see the dragon walk into the city. It brushed against a department store and the whole building collapsed, causing a few straggling monsters to flee the rubble. The dragon didn't seem to mind the cloud of dust and noise, it simply snapped at the monsters, its neck weirdly stretching to reach the faraway monsters. Was that normal for dragons?

Just seeing the monsters flee from the dragon, and its indiscriminate killing, brought up an alarming thought. "Will the roc land in the city if the dragon is here?" I asked, my voice shaking more than I wanted it too. When no one answered, I asked again.

"The roc goes to wherever the homing beacon is," Pepper snapped, finally wrestling her panel free and storing it in her Items Bag.

The beacon itself was nothing more than a fancy eight-foot tall stake in the ground. It looked sturdy, but I just watched the dragon crash a building with a bump. I didn’t know how the magic worked on it. Would the roc go to a damaged beacon?

With one last smash with my hammer, the screw finally popped out. Scott didn't wait for me to back up before he smashed his boot into the metal box. I stumbled away from his violent actions and stored my tools back in my Items Bag.

"Come on, come on!" Star urged, her head like a spinner. One second she was looking at the dragon and the next she looked at Scott.

Unfortunately, the shaking ground made it harder and harder to stand still as the dragon got closer and closer. Scott wobbled mid-kick, his shoe slipping on the glass shards underfoot. He reached out and grabbed Pepper to stay up. With one last smash, the panel ripped off the ground. Scott slapped his hand on the panel and transferred it into his Items Bag.

"Let's go!" He ordered and booked it for the rooftop exit. It took him all of a couple seconds to disappear through it, the other two women on his heels.

Frantic, I raced after them but the higher ranked Hunters were a lot faster than me. Never mind the dizziness that still plagued me, my speed just couldn't keep up with theirs. "Wait," I gasped, too afraid to yell loudly. The dragon was still getting closer, and there could still be monsters in this building.

By the time I got down the stairs, the three others were already halfway down the hall. My worries were correct – there were still monsters in here. Dozens of giant nymphs pooled in the hall, lunging at the Hunters trying to run through. The others swung their swords as they pressed forward, taking out two or three nymphs with each swing. Luckily, the fighting slowed them down enough for me to catch up.

Scott shot me a glare. "Slow," he barked.

What do you expect? I'm almost thirty levels lower than you! I wanted to yell back, but I held my tongue.

Star grabbed my wrist, her fingers biting into my skin through my under armor. "Keep up!"

Without another glance to see if I was okay, she started dragging me behind her as they hurried through the hall, killing as they went. Even at the slower pace, I was still pressed just to not trip over my feet from the harrowing pace. I didn't bother trying to fight at all – it was hard enough to simply not slip on the carcasses and guts left splattered all over the hall.

Suddenly, the whole building swayed with a sickening groan.

The nymphs that were clambering to eat us alive paused. Without a sound, every able one turned and fled the hall, either scurrying across the walls, over the rails to the floor below, or hurrying to hide in the neighboring classrooms. The injured ones scrambled to follow, but couldn’t.

"What the...?" Star whispered, her grip tightening painfully on me.

I winced and jerked my wrist, trying to get her to let go before she broke my wrist.

She blinked at me as if she forgot we were connected and released her hold, but didn't apologize for hurting me.

There was no need to check, I could already feel the bruise forming.

The building rattled again, and a massive shadow fell over the west side of the hall, right where we just came from. I froze as my heart stuttered to a stop. The others looked just as alarmed as I was. It was obvious what the shadow meant.

The dragon was right outside our building.

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