I thought Star and her team were buried in the bottom of the Science Initiative Building. Clearly, I was wrong. They obviously survived the dragon attack and got here with enough time to dig out the beacon. Now they were several miles away from the city, and getting farther with each passing second – at a rate I couldn't catch.

Now Pepper's words, 'The roc goes to wherever the homing beacon is,' made perfect sense. They were planning on taking the beacon away the whole time, ever since the unknown dragon showed up. I just didn't know about that plan.

Honestly, Star and her team had screwed me over so many times in the last couple hours, I was starting to become numb to it all. Every time I thought they couldn't get worse, they came up with a new low.

Like hell was I going to sit here like an abandoned puppy. I gritted my teeth and ran after them. They were a long way off, but they'd still need time to load onto the roc. Rocs were trained to wait for thirty minutes during the pick up time before they took off. I might be able to catch up during that time. If Star wanted my armor in exchange for getting on the roc, fine. I'd like to see how she responds when Uncle goes ballistic on her.

Or I could wait until I was strong enough to take revenge for myself – although the idea of letting her take advantage of my armor made me sick. The thought caused a smirk to twist on my lips. Wow, I guess I was finally starting to get a Hunter mentality. Too bad it took this degree of betrayal to finally learn.

No matter how much my body hurt, I gritted my teeth and kept running, aiming at the colorful figures slowly getting farther away. How far much farther were they going to go? Dry long grass whipped at my hips and tangled in my legs. It blocked any view I had of the ground, causing me to trip on the uneven ground. Still I kept running – my very life depended on it.

I barely reached the old, crumpled interstate when a roar exploded through the air from behind. My chest tightened so badly, I couldn't even whimper with fear. Before I could look over my shoulder, a heavy A ranked aura rolled out like a tidal wave. It washed over me, draining all the strength from my body.

I collapsed to my hands and knees onto the hot concrete, gasping for air but my lungs were too paralyzed to let it in. Just when I thought I was going to pass out from hypoxia, the unknown finally stopped roaring. I sagged limp, panting and shaking. The concrete was hot everywhere my skin was exposed to it, but I was powerless to do anything about it.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The ground shook more and more, with each unknown's steps. It was getting closer at an alarming rate.

Shaking and breathless, I slowly turned and looked over my shoulder. A part of me wanted to convince myself it wasn't coming this way, but it was a lie – and I knew it. I just wanted a little hope. I got none.

The unknown dragon was walking very purposefully, mowing over any house in its way, its pure black eyes locked in my direction. It saw me? And actually cared enough about one small snack to put in this much effort?

I couldn't fight it. I couldn't outrun it. But I didn't want to lie down and wait to die either. Determined, I struggled to my feet and forced my legs to move. I got a couple steps before my knees gave out. Even though I stumbled like a newborn raindeer, I refused to fall down. I bit my lip until I tasted blood, straightened up, and kept going.

I was going to die, but I'd do it on my feet.

God, my death would break my family's hearts. They'd be too traumatized to ever let Micah out of the city walls, if he did manifest as a Hunter. I was going to ruin his future, all because I wanted to know why Mom died. Because I couldn't accept that I might be the reason why, like the damned person I was.

A small tremor rumbled through the ground. It wasn't until it knocked me to the ground that I realized that it didn't come from behind me.

It came ... from ahead.

The river erupted.

A geyser as tall as a skyscraper shot into the air, the white water glittered against the blue sky, then curved and fell down, raining over an area that covered almost three hundred feet. I flinched as the droplets soaked my back and trickled down my face. Several small fish landed on the concrete not far from me, eyes wide like their death was shocking.

From the center of the dissipating geyser rose another dragon.

Unlike the unknown monster behind me, this dragon had an eastern body, over a hundred feet long and twenty feet wide. The blue-green scales shimmered opalescent and the water droplets clinging to it glimmered like diamonds. Its slender triangular head was crowned with four fin-like horns in the back, while its mouth was open wide to display the huge teeth inside. Just behind the horns were six twenty-foot long feathery looking appendages. They were darker in shade and flared out, waving independently behind the dragon to make it look bigger – as if it needed the help. Its short legs ended in fingered feet that sported ten-foot long claws. A row of large pale blue spikes trailed all the way down its spine until the body disappeared in the river. It was truly a beautiful dragon – and absolutely terrifying to see up close. Over its head, a red title flashed: [Leviathan Lv 54].

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I gaped at the terror, all too aware of the nightmare behind. Two dragons. One was bad enough, but two? How was I going to survive?

The leviathan roared, the very air rippling with its A ranked force.

I groaned and collapsed to the ground, panting in pain.

Boom! The unknown's foot landed right next to me, so close that I could reach out and touch the thick scales on its blunt foot. The cement cracked up under its weight and bits of shrapnel popped up, peppering me. The unknown didn't even notice I was there. It roared, as if trying to drown the leviathan out, and charged forward.

I glanced behind and rolled out of the way, seconds before the unknown's back foot landed right where I was. Flattened under the pressure of the two monsters' aura, all I could do was tremble as I lifted my head and watched. As scared as I was, I needed to know what was happening.

The unknown was like a battering ram as it rushed the water dragon. Its blunt head leveled down, leveling out with its bulky body. It wasn't the fastest moving monster, but its size enabled a horrible attacking strength. It covered half the space between them in seconds. The leviathan rushed out of the river. A tidal wave accompanied it, washing across the dry ground and sweeping away anything in its wake.

The water reached the unknown first, gushed around its legs, trying to lock it into place. The unknown stopped its foot, breaking the hold and creating a hole that the water pooled in. The dirt and water mushed together, contaminating the water and weakening the attack.

The unknown kept charging ahead, tenaciously aiming for the leviathan. The monsters collided with the deafening bang and their roaring finally stopped.

I gasped, finally able to breathe. Just when my head stopped spinning enough to dare sitting up, a small water wave lapped close enough to wet my hands. The fight was coming closer. No, I realized, it's not that it was coming closer, the fight simply took over everything. These two goliaths were determined to kill each other, and it didn't matter what was in the way. Because they were so big, they didn't have to move much to take up a lot of space. Unfortunately, nothing they did was small.

The unknown's head suddenly shot at the leviathan, moving so fast I could barely keep up with the action. The unknown's neck was like a rubber band, stretching beyond what I thought was possible. Its beak-like jaws clamped on the side of the water dragon's neck, just behind the feathery appendages, before it attempted to retract its neck while trying to take a chunk of the leviathan with it. The leviathan thrashed around, its huge body sweeping dirt and tattered brush yards away. It roared and grabbed the unknown's face with its huge claws, trying to rip the monster off. In the process, a large blue claw stabbed down into the unknown's closed eyelid. The unknown let go and retracted its head, leaving a bleeding gash on its stubby face, but the eye was otherwise intact. The unknown stomped on the ground in agony, leaving deep holes, and continued to attack the leviathan. The leviathan responded in turn, trying to kill the unknown.

I was way too close to the battle and needed to move. Their A ranked auras were flashing out like knives, but it was all focused on the other monster, trying to force the other to submit. Because of that, even though my body still felt heavy from the residual oppression in the air, I could still move. I staggered to my feet, and stood on shaky ground, looking around.

The problem was, I couldn't go to where I last saw Star and her team. I didn't know if they cleared the battle ground with the beacon and were getting farther away, or if they got caught up in it and the beacon was laying somewhere under the mess the dragons were leaving in their wake. But one thing was clear – I wasn't getting the beacon no matter what happened to them. Not with two dragons in the way.

The only option left was to retreat to the city. And hope the dragons didn't take their battle in my direction. Again.

I pressed my hand against my aching side and hurried back to the cluster of damaged buildings as fast as my battered body enabled me to. It was hard because the ground was shaking so much. Roars, grueling sounds of meat colliding with meat, and tearing flesh echoed in my ears like a horror soundtrack I couldn't un-hear.

My Hunter senses wailed and I instinctively dove flat. A half second later, a huge chunk of concrete sailed over my head close enough to rain dust on my back. The concrete smashed into the ground and rolled, crumbling and leaving chunks behind as it went. Those pieces would have been covered in my brains if I'd been a second slower.

Trembling, I couldn't resist looking over my shoulder.

The leviathan was wrapped around the unknown like a constrictor, the sleek muscles on its long body shaking and squeezing with all its might. The unknown rolled around the ground, trying to thrash and rub the leviathan off. Its tail whipped up and smashed in the leviathan's body, each hit leaving a horrifying boom. Scales glittered in the sun as each thump ripped them from the eastern dragon's body and sent them flying like nightmarish snow. The leviathan snapped at the unknown's neck, but the western dragon's head was retracted in like a turtle and its head was too wide for the leviathan to get a good grip with its jaws.

A faint movement attracted my attention behind them. Barely visible, because of the distance and all the movement between, I could make out the roc dipped to the ground. The roc's movements were jerky, like it was freaked out by the dragons, but it still landed.

I gasped and struggled to my feet. If I was closer, I could get on it. I could leave this hellish place. There'd be no more dragons, no more backstabbing Hunters, no pain. My family wouldn't have to grieve and worry for me. I could just pretend that none of this happened, and go back to working solo, just Shiva and me, on tasks I had control over.

But I couldn't. No matter how much I wished and longed for it, I couldn't get to the roc.

Scarcely a minute after the roc landed, it jumped back into the air. Barely visible on its back were three figures. Star and her companions.

My knees gave out as I hopelessly watched the roc rise in the sky and flew away.

*****