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  Trial by Fire

  Essence poured through my shard into Saber’s tree. Azure eyes in the east watched it happen. Just like Saber, Skul’s gaze burned. And though his fires were cooler in nature, the hunger behind them was the same.

  It was just his luck, then, that meals strolled around aplenty.

  I turned away from Skul with an exhale. ‘Are you sure?’

  There was no doubt in my mind now that the garden was wailing; the cries were so shrill they dripped into the real world, where they dogged my steps, haunted my advance through the Tomb. Why else was I constantly feeling like someone was watching me?

  And that was after only my second drake. What would happen if I consumed more?

  …

  Could the dream be true? Would I turn into a killing machine hunting down every disciple inside the maze?

  There were no answers. Only more questions. Why was I hesitating this much? Had Mother not told me not to do so? And what kind of hypocrite was I? I’d opted into the war with the drakes. Growing cold feet now was no use—they’d hunt me down even if I dropped to my knees and kissed their feet.

  Yet I couldn’t shake the doubts from my mind.

  ‘Don’t think about it.’

  Bigger fish were on the menu. Three abilities waiting for me to master them: Spirit Leech, Calm Mind, and Flame Shroud. Of the three, Spirit Leech would have to wait. I needed to find a target for Skul to use it on before I could even think of emulating it. But Calm Mind and Flame Shroud? Those should be possible for me to get a hang of. Then there was my class skill. Reaching a higher degree of mastery in it should allow it to upgrade.

  That said, I didn’t dive into training Keeper's Prerogative or any of the other abilities. All were less important than the grand weakness of my current skillset.

  I inhaled deep and drew a bundle of shard energy to my fingertip. I didn’t paint on the world. Instead, I closed my eyes and envisioned it. A sphere of fire. Of alien heat that could rip through reality.

  I flexed my mind, willing it to move.

  There was no shift in the air as the bundle kept hovering over my digit.

  ‘It’s just like when you unlock a new summon.’

  I’d spent hours trying to learn Ashwing’s flame cutter, and that wasn’t a class skill I’d been trying to learn.

  My thoughts traversed the invisible line of power connecting the energy to my shard. Perhaps there was another stage I could try first.

  The index finger on my free hand reached out for the sphere as if I was trying to get an ant to latch onto my skin. The flame warped like liquid at my touch. I couldn’t get it to stick, but it was a start.

  Half an hour was too short, though, and Raven called out the end of our break.

  He palmed his locator. “There’s an approaching signal.”

  I checked my own beacon and frowned. “It’s strong.”

  At least five signals in one. Given that my locator was only linked to the most important members of the pillars, the approaching party was likely far bigger than that.

  “Good chance Duke is among them,” Raven said.

  “Unfortunately,” Kayle chuckled.

  We could tell the signal of party members apart only if they hadn’t merged with another, bigger beacon. Moreover, since the ice shrine muddled locations more heavily than the previous shrine, there was no telling how far away they were. Could be a minute, or an hour.

  Either way, we’d hold our position.

  I was about to return to my practise, when my shard pulsed. A call from inside. Hands flourished and opened the gate. Skul and Saber exited. My lips curved. Skul was the one who’d asked for my attention, but Saber wasn’t having him come out by himself.

  All eyes turned towards my summons, specifically the new addition.

  “The new member I was telling you about,” I said.

  “It’s a…dragon?” Raven said. “Or at least the head of one.”

  “I don’t fully understand myself yet either,” I said.

  Saber lied down at my side while Skul floated through the air like a literal ghost, his snout brushing over the myriad of flowers sprouting from the island. His nostrils flared, and near invisible wisps drew from the flora into his body.

  ‘Spirit Ash…they’re made of soul energy?’

  Skul’s snout passed over more of the flowers, and the scales on his head grew a deeper shade of blue. Essence passed through our connecting back into the garden. Some also escaped into the air.

  That loss wasn’t a result of inefficiency.

  ‘He needs to feed continuously to keep up his increase in strength.’

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  How much stronger could he get? Would he form a full body at the height of his power? If so, while he was weaker now, his base form would no doubt surpass a Saber at early tier.

  ‘I’ll have to wait and see.’

  Despite the prospects, powering him up in a fight may proof to take entirely too long.

  Kiran’s head snapped towards one of the entrances. “We’ve got company.”

  “They’re early.” Raven followed his gaze.

  “I don’t think it’s them,” Rin said.

  A glance at my locator made me jump to the same conclusion.

  Kayle put away her tea set, Kiran vanished, Rin drew her trident, and clouds poured from Raven’s skin, which shaped into his familiar.

  ‘So it’s a part of his power?’

  Maybe that’s why I hadn’t seen it in a while.

  I tore my gaze away from the pair just as a set of blazing eyes appeared in the entrance opposite us at the far end of the cavern.

  Claws gripped onto the edge of the exit and dragged the hulking shape forward.

  [Bronze Drake Whelp - lvl. 18]

  Skul glanced up from his feast on the flowers.

  More drakes followed the first. Lvl, 16, 17 and one of 18. Behind them another three, these all lvl. 17.

  “Everyone remembers the escape route?” Raven said when a figure jumped down and landed in a crouch.

  I had trouble recognising drakes. But this particular elite had made an impression on me.

  “Blessings to the Mother,” the elite said, her speech having improved by miles already. “I was hoping to meet you.”

  “Glad to see you again, too.” I glanced over my shoulder.

  There were three exits: two tunnels, east and west respectively, from which the streams feeding into the pool emerged. The third was directly behind us and seemed to vanish into the earth. Some type of drop.

  I turned back.

  ‘Seven regular drakes and one elite…’

  The matchup was tough but doable—

  The jaws of the drakes opened in unison. Sound combined to form a single, shattering wave that broke the stalactites hanging from the ceiling.

  Essence reinforced my ears but was barely enough to keep me from going deaf.

  When the echo of their roar faded, the elite spoke, her face emotionless. “We have no feud with the Dawnflame clan. Leave the girl before my clan is here, and we won’t give chase.”

  Her tone and stance were relaxed. Yet the fire simmering behind her gaze couldn’t be hidden, not from one so inexperienced with facial expressions.

  Beside me, Saber got to his feet, his fur bursting into flame. Skul reared, his head looming over my shoulder like a guardian deity.

  The salamander corpse was enough to bring Skul halfway towards middle stage. Two. If I absorbed two of the lvl. 17 drakes, he should reach middle—

  Answering roars clattered through the tunnels and shot from multiple entrances.

  Raven’s arms crossed. “It’s common courtesy to give the other party time to discuss.”

  “My offer was courtesy enough.”

  “The offer is just to waste our time,” Kayle whispered, keeping the smile on her face from straining.

  “We need to split up,” Rin said. “But entering these tunnels alone is suicide. A single one of the Scorn will take us down.”

  “The eastern tunnel is too small for the biggest drakes,” I said.

  So only the lvl. 16 and the elite could get in. But it was also opposite to the direction from which our allied signal was coming.

  “I’ll go down that way,” I said.

  I was their target, so if anyone had to be bait, it should be me.

  Raven nodded, then said to the air: “Kiran, you’re the fastest. Head west, see if you can find our allies.”

  The question that remained was: Who was going with me?

  A shuddering quiet built between Raven and Kayle. The two shared a glance—

  “I’ll go,” Rin said.

  The two Dawnflames turned towards her with a tilt of the head.

  “You don’t have to,” Raven said.

  Rin huffed. “I won’t pass up a chance to kill some snakes. Go with Kiran.”

  There wasn’t a hint of hesitation in her stance as she discretely stepped towards me.

  “I’ll be honest,” I whispered. “I don’t think I can kill an elite.”

  Not without bleeding for it.

  “That makes two of us,” she said. “Are we gonna stay here until the rest of their squad shows up?”

  Raven addressed the drake woman. “We’ll take you up on your offer.” Then his expression grew sombre as he laid a hand on my shoulder. “You understand, don’t you?” Cloying essence built within his palms.

  “Spare me your horseshit,” I snorted, and took a deep breath.

  His clouds burst forth without warning and shrouded the island.

  The ground trembled with the drakes’s roars. I didn’t pay them attention and ripped out of the cloud, but someone slapped my shoulder right before I exited.

  Shadows shimmered around the edge of my sight, and I caught a hint of Kiran’s smile in the darkness.

  The elite didn’t jump into action. She calmly raised her chin, let her nostrils expand, then locked onto my position.

  My lips tutted. Guess Kiran’s ability doesn’t obscure every sense.

  Ground cracked underneath the elite as she burst into a run. Three drakes stomped in her wake, the other four splitting off to chase Kayle and Raven.

  Kiran’s ability dissipated as we reached the mouth of the tunnel, where two walkways crept along on each side of the stream going uphill.

  “The path will slow down the drakes!” Rin yelled from the opposite walkway.

  My boots rushed over the ice-pavement. I risked a look behind me. The elite was on our heels, but the drakes lumbered forwards; they had to use both walkways at once lest they stepped into the stream and lost their footing.

  “We’ll turn and fight once we’ve gained enough distance!” I yelled back.

  Flying beside me, a low growl escaped Skul’s throat.

  ‘To think he can keep up with us.’

  His lack of a body may not even be a negative.

  My summon whirled around so his snout faced the elite but kept soaring up the tunnel. Azure light flashed in his vertically-slit pupils, and a thin wisp siphoned out of the drake’s hide, making her stumble. Blue lines of fire snapped into existence on Skul’s head, which coursed through his scales like a thousand interconnected waterways.

  The elite caught her balance with a roar, leapt ahead of the rest of her pack, and slammed into the ground mere steps behind me.

  Rin spun around. A three-pronged blast ruptured from her trident. It was sharp enough it almost cleaved the air in two. The art bounced off the elite’s scales but sent her toppling.

  I wasn’t getting a better opportunity.

  “Saber!”

  Nails freed their sheathes and carved through the ice as Saber suddenly changed direction. The tunnel funnelled his roar so it shocked the ears dozens of times in succession. My insides roared with him, and we shot forward at the same time.

  The elite rolled to her feet. Flames gushed from her arm in the shape of a serpent, a miniature version of Erri’s art. There wasn’t enough room to cleave through the art so I had to pierce—

  Skul zipped past me. His jaws clamped shut around the flames and slammed the construct into the wall.

  Then Saber arrived. He lunged for the elite’s head, who bend at the waist and let Saber shoot past her. Her manoeuvre once more got her off-balance.

  Red fang’s tip gleamed like hot iron. I released my breath, and jammed the blade through her chest. Only the elite pushed off with her tail so the tip went through the side of her stomach instead.

  I closed my eyes against the spray of blood.

  ‘I can hurt her?’

  That +18 strength title bonus was doing wonders—

  A flash of bronze rose from below and slammed into my face. I rocked back, and though I didn’t lose the grip on my blade, the metal didn’t dislodge from the drake’s abdomen.

  Her tail rose again, so I let go of the hilt and jumped back to create distance.

  The drake grinned. I wasn’t going to make it—

  Steam whistled past me like a cart that’d lost its wheels at full speed, and the condensed blast of water rammed into the elite, temporarily hiding her from view.

  Saber rushed back up the walkway on the opposite side of the tunnel. Skul dug himself out of the wall as he slurped up the last bits of serpent-fire.

  Rin’s art ended, revealing the elite. The attack had hammered Red Fang deeper into the drake’s stomach. She wasn’t removing that.

  Or so I thought.

  Her tail wrapped around the hilt, yanked the weapon out, then flung it to the side. My mother’s heirloom clattered to the floor and slid down the tunnel.

  I…stopped myself from rushing forwards as the sword vanished beneath the lumbering footfall of a drake and tumbled into the stream.

  My gaze whirled on the elite as she popped a green pill. She was grinning.

  “Let’s go!” Rin yelled, dashing on.

  I swallowed my grimace and ran after her.

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