Scott was the first one to recover his senses. He waved his hand to get everyone's attention then motioned toward the staircase at the east end of the hall. It was the only known way down. Since the dragon was on the west side, the stairway was clear. I think.

We crouched down, trying to minimize our presence, and crept down the hall. The dragon’s shadow didn’t move, indicating that it was staying in place, but the tension in air caused me to naturally want to shrink into a smaller target.

A hot, foul smelling wind swooshed down the hall from behind, accompanied by the sound of a large nose snorting the air. God, the dragon was smelling inside the building. It was an A ranked monster, so its senses were strong enough to feel every single living thing inside the building from the outside. The question was, did it want to use the effort to dig us out?

Even though the dragon's aura wasn't actively attacking, its pressure was still heavy. My feet felt like lead, and my bones creaked with every slow step. The nymphs were in hiding, so it was a clear path to the stairwell, but it felt like it took forever just to reach it.

I paused at the doorway, looking at the pitch black hole. I'd already trekked up those stairs, so I knew how treacherous they were already – and that was with two torch orbs to help see the obstacles. But right now using a torch orb was out of the question. Anything that attracted the dragon's attention was an absolute no. But how was I going to get down, given how slick and sticky the metal and crumbling concrete steps were?

I glanced at the shadow blocking the windows on the west half of the hall. I couldn't go back. There was only one option – forward.

The Star and her team didn't have the same hold up. They only paused for a second before walking in a single file into the black hole.

Star grabbed my wrist, dragging me behind.

A chill covered my body. Was she planning on hauling me all the way to the bottom? Because of her higher level, I knew the darkness wasn't as bad for her. And if her Hunter aura also included spatial awareness around her like a select few – not just locating other breathing things like most Hunters – she could easily make it to the ground without a hitch. Even dragging with dragging me behind.

The problem came from my end. I didn't trust her enough to allow her to guide me. To me, it was just as terrifying as the dragon outside. Would she actually safely guide me? What if she allowed me to fall? Or purposefully made me trip? Someone her level could handle falling down five flights of stairs, but I couldn't. That wasn't a risk I was willing to take.

If I did fall, it would be my fault, and my fault only.

I dug my heels in, refusing to let her pull me past the door frame. The abrupt move jerked my wrist out of her grip.

Star paused. She was far enough in the stairwell that I couldn’t fully make out her expression. "What are you doing?" she whispered. "We gotta hurry."

My mind raced for a reasonable excuse, while trying to keep my face as friendly as possible. It’s not like I could tell her the real reason. "If you're guiding me, you could slip," I said, acting like it was all for her benefit. "Don't worry about me. I can do this myself."

"No, I'll–"

Pepper cut Star off. "Come on!" I couldn't see her in the dark, but she was obviously already on the staircase.

Star tsked, then her lips pressed tight as a sharp line. I remembered that look. She had the same expression when I interrupted her conversation with Pepper on the roc. Finally, I recognized the emotion. Irritated impatience.

"Make sure you keep up," she insisted, her voice forcefully light, as she turned and disappeared into the darkness. A second later, I heard her step onto the first step.

Finally alone, I moved forward. Without my vision, the only thing I could rely on was touch. I trailed my fingers along the wall, trying my damndest to ignore how dirty it was. Although I wore gloves, I could practically feel the buildup forming on my finger tips. Ugh. Using my memory and the wall, I made it to the railing, which marked the top of the stairs.

A cluttered thump sounded below, followed by Scott's muffled curse. He'd fallen down the stairs, though not very far, from the sounds of it. That part didn't alarm me. No, what did was that the sound came from farther away than I was expecting. The others were at least to the bottom on the stairs and I hadn't even started. Shit.

I pressed my lips together and suspended my foot into the black void, praying that I didn't miss the step. My fingers were so tight on the rail, they ached. Slowly, I lowered my foot. Just when I started to think I overstepped, my toe touched a flat surface. Gingerly, I shifted my weight down and moved to the next step. How did blind people handle stairs every day? It was so nerve-wracking. Sporting a new appreciation for the disabled, I worked my way down, step by each agonizing step. After a bit, I developed a pattern and it became easier, but it didn't make me any faster.

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I could tell by the sounds that the others were still pretty far ahead.

With a grimace, I forced myself to speed up. No matter how insecure I felt, I couldn't lose them. Unfortunately, going even a little faster came with a price – my balance on the slippery steps. All I could do was grip the rail tighter and press on. Just completing the first staircase down felt like a major accomplishment. Unfortunately, there were more ahead of me.

"Ria, hurry up!" Star stage whispered from far below.

I hadn't even caught up a little, I realized despairingly. If anything, I fell farther behind.

I stepped down, trying to hurry. My toe contacted something spongy and slick. My foot slipped out from under me in a second, and I felt a sickening weightless flip in my gut. The motion forced my grip to slide down the rail, but I clung to it with everything that I had. My fall stopped and my body slammed painfully on the stairs. Gasping for air, I took a second to calm my stuttering heart. My ear was on fire from slapping against an edge in my fall and a bruise was forming on my hip, but I was otherwise okay.

With a painful moan, I stood up and kept going. I'd like to say the rest of the way down was smooth, but it would be a lie. I slipped again on the last step and added a bruise on my left knee. I struggled up and felt my way to the top of the next staircase.

Suddenly the building swayed and groaned. I gasped and gripped the railing with both hands. I did not want to fall down from the very top of the stairs. All at once, the wall shuttered. A crack formed right over my head to the right, letting in a stream of light. Instead of feeling relieved that I could see, it filled me with horror.

The crack grew, ripping through the brittle wall, letting in more and more light. With a snap, the one crack splintered into five, spreading and reaching down past the lip of the stair landing like hellish fingers.

Shivering, I inched back, but I didn't dare make too big of a move. What if I unbalanced the structure? Did I even weigh enough to affect it? I couldn't risk it.

A low groan rumbled behind me, followed by a gust of hot putrid air. My heart stopped as I turned my head towards the dark hole behind me. The landing I was on opened up to a hall most likely lined with classrooms and whatnot, based on the rest of the building's layout. All I could see was a long stretch of darkness between my place on the stair landing and a glimmer of light from the foyer in the distance. The dragon's huge shadow moved and blocked out the foyer's skylights. It was coming this way. Oh god.

Boom!

A heavy step sent the building swaying like a straw house. The cracks along the wall snapped wider, raining bits of dry paint and drywall.

Boom!

My foot slipped on the grimy landing. If I had any less than a vice grip on the railing, I would have tumbled right down the stairs. I clung to the metal bar, mind numb with fear. Oh my god, the dragon was coming. It was getting closer.

"Ria! Get down here now!" Star called softly from the ground floor.

"Goddamnit, just leave her already!" I didn't know if Scott knew, but the stairwell caused his quiet voice to carry up to me.

"No way, I haven't got her armor yet," Star hissed back, her voice barely audible.

I froze, my eyes widened. I knew for a fact she hadn't meant me to hear that. And I couldn't un-hear it.

"I told you to just kill her already, but you had to go play house. Again!" Pepper snarled.

At the same time, Scott whispered, "I'm not dying over a couple hundred bucks of ruined armor."

"But if that armor got fixed up, it would be worth a small fortune," Star insisted.

Their words meshed and blended in the echo, but fully told the story. Now I knew why Star had been so adamant that I came. I knew something was wrong, by how she swore up and down that she would protect me, and then didn't. She even egged the larvae on with her banging and yelling. She was trying to get the monsters to kill me, so she could take my armor. Instead of using her own hands, she was forcing another being to do it so she'd stay 'clean.' How ... disgusting.

Suddenly the sun from the wall cracks disappeared as a huge shadow fell .... and a breath of putrid, hot air hissed through the gaps, right on me.

One part of my brain screamed in terror, but another part reacted instantly. I turned and sprinted into the dark hall with every ounce of speed that I had.

A second later, a huge dragon head crashed through the wall. Its mouth gaped open as cement, metal and brick crumbled like sand around its ugly face. The landing I had been on collapsed into dust under the force, and the dragon's head kept coming, smashing through the walls of the classrooms as it snaked down the hall. The building slowed the dragon's attack, but didn't stop it.

Heavy A ranked pressure flooded the hall with the dragon's roar, stealing the air from my lungs and sapping the strength from my legs. I collapsed mid-sprint, skidding painfully on the ground. Gasping for breath and ears ringing, I turned over and watched at the huge mouth aimed at me. God, its tongue alone was twice my size.

Desperately, I forced my trembling foot up at a low angle. The bottom of my boot connected with the dragon's chin just below its fleshy beak-like lip. So much building material was piled up around the dragon's head, it couldn't shift down to bite me. The force of the attack slid me across the floor as ceiling tiles, glass shards, and pipes rained down from overhead. Bruises and cuts littered my body, but I didn't get eaten.

After what seemed like forever, the dragon's mouth clomped closed. Its large, oval nostrils flared and contorted as it breathed out hot air, trying to suffocate me with its breath. Suddenly the dragon pulled back, leaving me laying boneless in the middle of the hall. But my troubles weren't over yet.

When the dragon pulled back, the whole side of the building collapsed.

*******