The blood mage was dragging her feet as she followed the others out to where Grasidia's giant leaves lay waiting. Work was already a pain to begin with, let alone when it had a high chance of mortality thrown in. Lavinia liked being alive, spent most of her free time being alive, and the prospect of potentially having to stop being alive was something of a turn-off when it came to her immediate motivation.

There was no getting out of it, though; her guildmates would get suspicious if she tried to stay behind. Besides, shouldn't she think of this as an opportunity? After all, someone was likely to die on this mission. If that happened, then no doubt the others would be plunged into despair... And that kind of shock made people easy to manipulate and corrupt! The sadistic sparkle reignited in her eyes. Yes! I'll play along, do my part like a good little mage. And then, when someone inevitably kicks the bucket, I'll take everyone's sorrow and twist it into a vindictive grudge against the entire world!!

There was only one uncertain detail in her ingenious scheme: who to let die? Lavinia's brow furrowed as she contemplated the issue. Obviously it couldn't be Ria, since she was a sweetheart and also made sandwiches which were very tasty. She could rule Gwen out too, partly out of respect for Ria and partly because Lavinia secretly enjoyed the views she got when the ice mage was boldly strutting about. Grasidia was... tempting. But then, it would be a real bummer if the S-Class were to die before Lavinia got to carry out her plans for vengeance!

Maybe Holly, then? No, she was too cool to die. And Felix was only a child; even a completely irredeemable villain like Lavinia had to have some standards when it came to children. Luke kept to himself and rarely annoyed her, so she supposed he could live... And Lilliana was a walking mystery, no way could Lavinia let her die without getting a chance to figure her out.

Lavinia's frown deepened as the options narrowed down more and more. Leon? Too useful, she might need a strategist on her side one day. Zenith? He had a wit about him, she'd miss his sharp tongue. It'd be useful to have Marduk taken out of the picture, but at the same time he was one of the only people aware of how much of a threat Lavinia truly posed, and for some reason she kind of liked having someone validate her that way. Asher... nope, his smithing skills were too valuable for the guild. And even if Cloven was a bit odd, she couldn't help but feel a kind of kinship with the strange boy.

"Aaaaaaaaargh!" She cursed to herself, scratching at her head with one hand. Damnit! I don't want to lose any of them just yet! Maybe she could, like, let them come really close to dying but then swoop in at the last second to save them, and then exploit the trauma of a near-death experience to corrupt them? Or something like that?

She was still pondering the problem as she stepped onto one of the leaves, where she stood tall and proud until the sudden take-off bowled her over onto her butt.

---

By the time they reached Era, she'd somehow managed to find her feet again and was standing right at the front of her big green vessel, arms folded firmly across her chest in an imitation of a cool pose she'd seen Holly do one time. Ahead loomed the burning city, the horrifying monster, the imminent prospect of certain doom.

Okay, Lavinia, you can do this. She took a few deep breaths, digging deep into her reserves of villainous bravado. Is the future Dark Empress of Fiore going to let herself be intimidated by one measly dragon? NEVERRRR! As Grasidia went zooming off to begin the attack, the blood mage shouted out in her wake, addressing the dragon directly:

"I shall give you one chance, you unsightly little lizard! Surrender now, and I might let you live on as my pet!"

The beast was clearly terrified by her pompous threat. Having briskly dispatched Grasidia, it flapped its wings and produced a gust of wind that sent the giant flying leaves hurtling off in a chaotic spiral— but alas, the dragon struck too late. Lavinia had already leaped off into the air, her robes billowing out behind her as she summoned her favorite book of all.

"Sanguine Grimoire... Impaler!"

A crimson flood burst from the pages of her magical tome, coalescing beneath her feet in the form of a massive spike more than six feet long and one foot wide at its base. She balanced on its edge with practiced elegance, pointing with her free hand and calling out once more:

"Hellsing!!"

Her makeshift lance shot off like a rocket, and Lavinia went right with it, riding it as if it were a surfboard as she hurtled past the dragon and extended her grimoire out towards it. A thick spray of blood blasted out from the ancient volume, painting a line of splattered red across the monster's head, wings, and body; anywhere she could hit. Some of the fluid would mix with the smoke particles around its face, forming a viscous mixture that would be hard to shake off, and any that missed or dripped away end up falling to the ground to feed the growth of Grasidia's plants.

Without pausing for even a second after her strafing run, Lavinia vaulted off her ride and came crashing down on a nearby roof, hopefully escaping any immediate retaliation. Her blood-spear, however, flew onward... streaking straight through one of Marduk's portals. Assuming he'd kept the exits on target, that dragon was about to receive one hell of a poke in the eyeball!

Holly had boarded one of the leaves quickly and without hesitation, though her mind was occupied as to the thought of how well she could fare against a dragon. She had only read about them, never seen one for herself, but she had heard stories about their power. In truth, Holly was worried; not because she feared the power that it had, the damage it could do, but because she feared what it could do to her Guildmates. She had taken very strong foes before, and she knew how to deal with things that she outclassed and, more importantly for this particular situation, deal with things that outclassed her. Some of her Guildmates, she feared, wouldn't know how to properly deal with the threat and ensure their own safety.

It worried her more than she wanted to dwell on. Holly wasn't stupid; stories could lie, could make things up for the thrill. At the same time, a story could hide the real truth. Dragons could be as weak as a pigeon, or could very well be stronger than anything she had ever imagined. She wasn't going to take any chances, she was going to fight that dragon the best that she could to try to ensure that the threat lasted the least amount of time possible.

---

It was when Holly spotted the smoke on the horizon that she began to snap out of her thoughts. Thinking about something so much was never so good, especially when the situation and any plan that she could make could change on the fly. It definitely looked like the dragon was putting a hurt on the city, all the more reason to make sure it was slain as fast as possible to minimise collateral, both in the structures of the city as well as those who resided within - she did hope that they had the sense to evacuate, at the very least to the opposite side of the city that the dragon was on. She had no idea how long it had been there however, so it could very well have flown a big circle around the city by now for all Holly knew. By the time Holly first saw the dragon in all it's majesty, Grasidia was already in combat with the creature. The thing was massive! All the more a danger, and all the better to slay for Fenixtear to grow in publicity.

Holly watched as the massive tail whipped, making the assumption that something was making the dragon pissed off: Most likely Grasidia. She could see the glimmer of the scales even from a distance away, and knew that she would have tough luck penetrating the body of the dragon. There was a weak spot that Holly spotted immediately, one that most avian creatures shared; the wings. She had to try and clip them, to make sure the thing couldn't lift off and go crazy in the skies, or use them as weapons - they certainly looked heavy enough to seriously injure someone just by slapping them.

Or cause their transports to whip around and flip over, which was exactly what happened. Holly was sent flying, but she kept her composure - any less, and she would slam straight into the ground. Instead of repositioning herself to land safely, she did the complete opposite: She aimed to stay in the skies, at least for the next few moments. She twisted in the air, arm extended with Shadowbane pointed just above the dragon's wing, and then yelled, "Thrust, Racing Spear!" Holly's momentum redirected entirely, and instead of heading toward the ground she was sent flying toward the dragon's wing at high speads. She had no doubt that the dragon would try to flap it's wings to strike at her, and so she reaped the benefits of Racing Spear's speed and flew straight past it - and upwards into the sky above it.

It was the beginning of the fight, and so she was willing to exhaust herself just a little: She didn't understand why villains never used their full potential at the start of the fight. "Thrust, Attack Projection!" She yelled. Still in the air above the dragon, she had a perfect vantage point from which to lay down strikes. She spun in the air, slashing with her sword as if she was right there within swordfight range. Each slash and cut from Shadowbane echoed through the air in arcs which glowed a slight white hue. But, the key to fighting a powerful foe was to keep them on their toes, to never relent, to not give them a chance to adapt to their foe. Holly changed things up again. Still under the effects of Racing Spear, she was pinged back in the direction of the dragon's wing like a rubber band. As she fell toward the wing, she slashed down with her sword, sending out another projection strike, but kept her sword forward. "Thrust: Guardian's Throw!" She yelled, just as she slammed into the wing of the dragon, Shadowbane stabbing straight through. With the timing of her Guardian's Throw, the debris under the wing of the dragon shot straight upwards, into the underside of the dragon's wing.

Holly was putting a lot into the fight already, but in her eyes, it was worth it. While she was hoping that the Guild eliminated the dragon, sitting in the spotlight for everyone to see, Holly was concerned about the bigger picture; having people to look at that spotlight in the first place, or even having a working spotlight that wouldn't be broken by a prolonged engagement with the creature they currently fought. Holly pulled Shadowbane from the dragon's wing, and with swift usage of a Pounce, leapt forward and away from the dragon. The next thing she was going to do was risky, but she thought the risk worth it. Landing on a building's roof, she turned back to face the dragon. Her Guildmates were throwing their attacks at it, making them all targets, but she had other goals in mind for the dragon. She wanted to try and keep it's mind on her, to keep it off of her Guildmates, to make it prioritise her over them. With a twirl, she slipped Shadowbane back into it's sheath, and then lifted her hands into the air like she was doing a spooky impression of a vampire - or like a spooky impression of Lavinia.

"Thrust, Lockdown!" Holly yelled, bringing her hands down hard, as if she was holding the dragon down. In reality, that's quite literally what she was doing - the dragon was far too large and strong to truly hold down, but she focused the Lockdown on the wing she had just been attacking, pulling it down as hard as she could and refusing to let the dragon move it - and if it did want to move, it'd have to drag the wing across the ground like dead weight until she let go, and she wasn't going to do that until it tried to go for her. "Fenixtear, focus on the wings and the head!" She yelled.

Leon remained silent whilst his guildmates debated whether or not Felix, the youngest of them, should attend the mission or not. It wasn’t as though he didn’t have an opinion on the matter, he himself did not feel great about putting a kid on the front lines. He just knew it wasn’t his place to voice such concerns. Especially since Felix, prideful as he was, really didn’t need to be lectured by a mage with not even half his level of skill and experience. To be outclassed by someone nearly half his age. How embarrassing.

Deciding he ought to change into something more appropriate, Leon began to slink away to his room when Holly and Marduk voiced their trust in Leon’s capabilities to protect the others. His stomach fluttered with both delight and trepidation.
They’re counting on me. Me. It took everything to repress a childish giggle from escaping his lips. Instead he waved his hand back behind him as he ascended the stairs - keeping his back turned as to hide his stupid grin.
“Naturally. I’ll keep you all safe.” Leon clenched his fist to his allies, disappearing down the hall with a skip in his step.

---

Leon was wiping away a dead insect that had decided to kamikaze itself into his spectacles, visibly disgusted by the presence of bug guts. The trip to Era had his mind racing with so many uncertainties. The confidence he had shown to his guildmates back in the tavern was slowly fading as the sky began to turn black with thick plumes of smoke. His mind was plagued with doubts. What if he couldn’t keep it together and someone got hurt? Or worse. Despite having never seen a dragon before in his life, the history books described them as truly fierce beasts. Very few creatures boast such power as to spawn an entire group of mages dedicated to keeping them at bay.

As Era approached, Leon couldn’t help but freeze in horror at the sight of burning buildings and smoldering debris. It wasn’t long ago he called this place home. He could see some of the districts he’d frequent, now reduced to rubble and ash. If he had remained a student of Era, it could just as easily have been him fleeing for his life down there. He gulped. Bringing his palms up to firmly slap himself in the cheeks in an attempt to bring himself back to reality.
Come on man, get it together! You’re a Fenix… tear… m- His attempts to rally himself up crumbled immediately at the sheer sight of the dragon itself. It was fear incarnate, a most horrifying beast that vastly exceeded anything Leon could have imagined reading a history book.

“We have to fight that thing?!” Leon threw all composure to the wind, just as he saw Grasidia engaging in combat. Panic gripped him. She was going to get herself killed! Despite all her power, there was no way she was a match for that monster. As if on cue, Leon watched the mighty dragon’s tail swat the plant mage from the sky not too dissimilar to how Leon had been handling the bugs that flew into his face on the way here. That’s what they were to a dragon. Insects.

It suddenly became harder to breathe, the sounds of his guildmates becoming more and more distorted as the rapid beating of his heart thumped in his eardrums. He wasn’t ready for this. He couldn’t imagine he ever would be. Then suddenly, an intense gust of wind sent the leaf carriages tumbling over and Leon found himself hurtling towards the pavement - frozen in terror. He had accepted this would be how his life would come to an end, just as a thicket of vines enveloped him and halted his fall.

Leon watched as his friends jumped straight into the action without a moments’ hesitation. Clover readied himself with a strange certainty, Lilliana unleashed a barrage of Nullfire whilst Holly and Lavinia took to the skies to rain death from above. Through it all, Marduk’s voice helped pull Leon back into the moment. He heard him loud and clear. Provide healing to Grasidia. The words he and Holly had spoken to him back at the guild rang through his head. There was still so much he was afraid of, but for a brief moment he felt he had a purpose. A reason he was here with the other guild members.

“Y-yes Sir!” Leon bumbled, finally breaking free of the vines with only a slight struggle. Falling to the ground, he landed with a clumsy roll into a kneel, scanning his surroundings until Grasidia came into view. She was injured. He could help.

Pushing off from the ground, Leon began to rush towards his ally with his codex at the ready.
“I need your help Lorelai!” On cue, the familiar sphere of light leapt from the cover of his tome, darting forward towards Grasidia in the blink of an eye. The little light flew in front of the plant mage’s face before bursting into a much more serious looking Lorelai. The pixies wings began to flutter with the intensity of a hummingbird, and she darted around Grasidia in elliptical orbits while cascading a golden dust over her.

Lorelai had already begun healing Grasidia, but Leon knew she’d require more urgent care than what Lorelai could offer right now. After a few moments he arrived beside her, holding the codex in front of him.
“Please stay still while I patch you up.” Leon sounded a lot more assertive than his body language dictated, his fingers trembling and struggling to open up to the right page. Lorelai noticed his hesitation, stopping her embrace for a brief moment to flutter down to Leon’s fingers and gently clasp her hands around his thumb. He looked down at his friends and saw the reassurance in her eyes. As if she was telling him everything would be alright.

With a curt nod, Leon held his codex open in front of him while the pages magically turned to the desired spell.
“Physick” Leon uttered, a complex algorithm of various geometric shapes conjuring above the pages, boasting a resplendent green light. It was a bit hard for Leon to focus with everything going on, so his healing wouldn’t be as effective as if he was somewhere calmer. Nonetheless, the light poured over Grasidia from the tome whilst Lorelai resumed her own efforts to heal her injuries. Slowly but surely, the pain would start to ease itself as he channeled his curative magics.

Everything happened analogous to a domino as the guild reached Era almost instantly, in courtesy of Grasidia. She also worried that Felix might rush like an idiot towards the Dragon as the rest of the guild plowed through with overpowering force with their magic. Silence is gold, speech is silver — Gwen remained calm amidst the destruction.

Gwen caused the ground to shake and flicked her wrist. This created a tall icy high ground foothold of about 10-meters long. Now's the time to let worries best. Gwen acknowledged Astoria's independence in battle yet she feared the safety of her sister and Luke. To think that stratagems suddenly changed, it didn't affected Gwen's planning completely. "Don't charge in like an idiot or else..." She expressed with an anger born worry tone and looked at her team with a glaring-glowing slitted purple eyes.

'Zeroth Eye' With her Slayer magic activated, Gwen saw vivid colors of magic around her including the Liliana's draconic signature, Astoria's wetness, Luke's inherent savagery, etc. The Dragon on the other hand has caught her attention and saw ethernano particles that were strangely ominous.

"Luke, Ria and the rest of you get behind me. Gwen warned them the impending danger not only pertaining to the Dragon but herself as well. Her siblings would then know the meaning behind those words.

As Holly signaled the vital organs of the Dragon, the wings and the head seemingly. Gwen arrogantly chuckled and said, "Fool, my eyes can see clearly on the approach that we ought to do likewise this is a very Slayer thing to do. Overwhelm them as much as you can, that's if, you don't run out of magic." Gwen got to her fighting stance, inhaled and exhaled.

Out of her breath brought forth a humongous charge of magical power to that of a nuke. "Ice Devil's Rage!"

---

A monster? Luke tried to conceptualize what kind of monster a dragon would appear as in his mind. He fought many different types of monsters while he was hopping from guild to guild, but the way Grasidia seemed to emphasize that word was special. He tried to understand what she conveyed to him, but any potential answers came up blank.

Unfortunately, he didn't have any more time to mull over that as his other guild mates came pouring out with a variety of expressions on their faces. Those who were grinning with anticipation, those who were worried, and those who were completely serious with a grave complexion. Luke seemed to be the odd one out with no special feelings being expressed on his face.

He seemed more interested in the vehicle that Grasidia conjured up as he hopped on it and pressed his hand on it to feel the texture. When he sat down on it, it accelerated at surprising speeds. The buffeting winds almost undid his short ponytail and knocked his headphones off.

Luke just looked forward.

---

Something that resembled a flying lizard, but blown up to gigantic sizes came into view. It seemed to be enjoying its ravaging of the city. Luke glanced at Gwendolyn and Astoria before having his attention stolen by more destruction below.

His eyes widened a mite as Grasidia went even faster and took off to the dragon that seemed to being revving up a devastating breath attack. He was thankful she managed to save people from getting butchered, but he was a little worried at her being sent flying by the whip of the dragon's tail.

He and the rest of his guild were getting closer to it, which was when it fiercely turned with murder in its eyes towards their direction. The gargantuan reptile merely flapped its wings once and displaced everyone on the leaves with the strength of the gust it conjured.

Blue.

Just for a moment, all Luke saw was the wide blue sky that possessed an unmatched beauty. His attention from the battle was snatched away for just an ephemeral moment before it came rocketing back with the feeling of gravity that began to act on his body.

Below him, Gwen created a platform. He righted his body in midair and lightly dropped on it. He had a nice position to view the battlefield. He saw the dragon that his guild mates were already engaging, and then he saw civilians trying to run and civilians that couldn't run.

"That's not good at all." He jumped off the chilly platform and headed towards those injured civilians. With his strength, he moved heavy rubble out of the way.

"Are you...alright?" He titled his head slightly, a calm mood resembling a person who seems completely out of place in this chaos. The people in front gave a shaky nod, which he responded to with the same.

"I'll carry you all out of here. Get on." He lifted multiple people out. Luke provided relief and aid to those that needed it. In the corner of his eye, he saw Felix doing the same with people in another area.

He smiled softly as the last batch of people secured themselves on him. His image paints a somewhat comedic picture with people piled on him. "Hang on tight." He jumped out of the danger zone to a more safe area away from the dragon. He glanced back at the battlefield to see the dragon standing strong.

---

The Dragon by its sheer instinct indiscriminately started attacking bystanders with miniature roars in a form of volleys. In doing so, it shrugged off the magic attacks that its enemies did to its scales, but it lost one of its eye, and received significant damage by losing one its wings. The Dragon and its roar, crimson flames that comes scorching its paths

Its roar was big enough to scorch multiple city blocks to cinders.

Will they defend in time or not?

Asher had to hand it to Grasidia, these leaves of hers are one heck of a way to travel. He had not been prepared for the sudden speed they had shot off towards Era, having expected the leafs to float more so than fly. He quickly learned that sitting was for the best as the wind buffets into his face.

In what seemed like no time at all, the city of Era began to appear ahead of them. And with that came the signs of destruction, as smoke and flame became more pronounced. But even the destruction didn’t hold his attention to long as the very cause of it caught his eye. The Dragon. The very one they are here to stop. He had heard tales of such creatures as he was growing up, but now actually being able to see one for the first time? Well, the stories couldn’t fully catch the feeling of it, he felt.

He watched as Grasidia leaped from her own leaf, taking the fight to the dragon and landing a mighty blow, which impressed Asher quite a bit. Though the dragon proved it was no pushover, wincing as it in turn smacks her down in retaliation. But then it saw them coming in and with a mighty wing flap, Asher finds himself tumbling onto the ground before.

Covering his head, he tucks and rolls, minimizing the impact as much as he can. But he couldn’t let the soreness of the fall stop him, as that would most certainly lead to his death. Lifting himself up with a nearby fallen street lamp, Asher starts to channel his magic into its metal frame.

“Forge.” Starting from where his hand has taken hold, the metal frame of the light began to take on an orange, molten hue as it began to heat up. Once the whole thing had taken this effect, it began to move. It began to compress into a smaller form, taking the form that Asher envisioned in his mind. With the form cooling, the previous lamp’s new shape is realized, as two spears now rest where it once had fallen.

Taking up the first one, Asher brought the spear tip up in front of him. With his other hand, he rushed his finger along its edge. “Tempered Touch.” Similar to how the whole thing was before, the edge in where he touched began to glow as it heated up to near melting temperatures. There was little time to admire such a sight, as once it was completed, Asher quickly changed his grip onto the spear’s shaft and, pulling his arm back, threw the first sizzling tipped spear towards the dragon’s head.

But as he was preparing to do the same with the second one, the dragon lets out a mighty roar, casting forth a great stream of flames around it and towards them. “Damn!” Gritting his teeth, he takes the spear in hand and slams it into a pile of other various debris. “Forge!”. Once more, the spear takes the molten hue it had before. This time however, the other various bits and broken pieces of metal within the pile also began to glow. With no hesitation, he willed the affected material to form in front of him. Like half of a rounded shield sticking out of the earth, a large half circle metal wall took shape across a large part of the street. As it begins to harden, he yells out to those that are near him. “I got some cover up over here! Quickly, get behind it if you can!”

---

---

---

---

Luke got the people off of his back and mostly away from the danger zone. He chose to immediately head back to the rampaging dragon and look for anyone else that needed any help. His eyes tracked the dragon rapidly gaining injuries and becoming more and more incensed.

It was the loss of its eye that triggered the beast to go completely berserk. It fired off multiple roars in quick succession that destroyed more of the wonderful city. It wouldn't be out of place as a historical art piece depicting a war zone. Luke clenched his fists as he got closer. Another roar came ripping through the air to blow him away.

"It's getting to dangerous..." So, he has to end this now.

Luke closed his eyes as the ethernano in his magic container became lightly disturbed like a rock falling into a still lake. His red eyes opened and he felt an immediate slight drain in his reserves.

"Configurate." He felt his physical strength rise and he kicked off the ground with an enhanced force strong enough to break it. The dragon's roar whiffed him, for he was already high in the sky. With gravity pulling him downwards, he navigated his descent to break on the dragon's nose. One of its wings were clipped and Grasidia was repeatedly trapping it with vines. Add that with it being focused purely on letting its fury out through aggressive attacks, it was wide open.

With his enhanced strength, Luke crashed his feet onto the dragon.

All roads lead back to Era; it's where his trial for the false crime was held and where he brought the scandal to the papers. Now it was burning to the ground. It's always something with this bloody city.

He never had seen a creature as large as this before; it had to be two, no, three times the size of his Azure of the Deep and five times as long. The legends surely did not live up to the real thing; the ferocity and pressure it exuded surpassed any story he heard and let's not forget about the unprecedented level of destruction that this monster casually raised by just existing. Those Rune Knights may as well have been lamb to the slaughter as they made a futile effort in trying to defend against the dragon's wrath until Grasidia too the initiative and attacked the dragon with a brutal strike before she was flicked away like a mildly annoying bug. It then turned its attention upon the rest of the guild. Fuck.

Hurricane winds tore through the air and knocked everyone off Grasidia's leaves. At least he was not like his gravity challenged guild mates; dark brown wings with a massive wingspan formed from his back and he was able to glide down to the ground with ease to the rest of his companions. Marduk barked orders to back Grasidia up; she was already binding it down and Holly legit tore the beast a new one. He better not be shown up by them.

"Sky Emperor!" His whole body was warped by a white light and then from it came a lion with unnaturally deep brown fur with the claws and wings of an eagle, and a scaled tail. It was not long before he was in the again air, his wings beating to keep him afloat as the flames of the dragons roar burn the city blocks into ash. He was about to begin his own assault, but there was something wrong, there was something should not be near that dragon: Felix. "Oh for fuck's sake!"

He dove down straight down to the boy as fast as he could and grabbed Felix by the scruff of his jacket with his talons before the boy was swooped into the air. Fuck why the hell is the kid burning up? Felix was burning his hands! "Dammit Felix! You had one job!" They should not have brought him! Felix was too much of a liability.

Once they were far enough, Zenith placed him down on a building and reverted back into his regular form, grabbing him by the collar of the boy's shirt and lifted him off his feet. At this point he was too angry to even care about the heat radiating from his body. "I will say this once and only once. Disobey orders and I will turn you into dragon feed." The older mage dropped him and ran, transforming back into the Storm Emperor as he leaped off the building and back towards the fray.

As he flew closer, he focused his magic into creating clouds of grey above the dragon, rumbling as lightning flashed above it. Bolts of lightning began to rain down from the sky down on the dragon repeatedly.

---

Riding on the leaf was quite the surprising experience. It was remarkably smooth yet she had no desire to look over the edge. Ria could feel it in her chest how fast they were going, and it was certainly a lot faster than she felt a human really should travel. Maybe they'd get a ride back the normal way instead of speeding through the sky with naught but their magic to protect from a fall. To say her thoughts were preoccupied by the travel conditions and left her oblivious to anyone around her was an understatement. Especially when she realized just how close Cloven was sitting to her only when they were thrown by the leaves.

She didn't think twice about the decent, instead reflexively casting "Water Make Cushion" as she fell toward the ground. Water swirled up to shape into a dramatically over-sized pillow and helped soften the impact to let her land delicately - though not entirely caring of the fact she was in a skirt and hadn't bothered covering up the fact that wind didn't work with gravity in a fall.

Smoldering buildings, bits still on fire, the dragon readying to roar. She stood still and swept her surroundings, trying to take everything in at once. There was way too much to process. Just like home. Her pulse quickened but it felt like a lump of ice filled her chest. Her eyes widened as she fought to keep her breathing normal. You're stronger than last time. You can do this. You have more control than last time. You can do this. She told herself enough lies for other things, and ended up believing them. Theoretically, this lie should work too, right?

Gwen yelled something, taking her attention back to the chaos before her. "Right." She nodded. Fires could go out later. The important thing right now was making sure it couldn't cause any further damage. Especially when it was blowing more fire.

Ria ran and slid on her feet to stop behind Asher's cover. The way she stopped had her feet braced perfectly for her spell. Her eyes narrowed as she scowled at the huge beast. "Cyclone!" Thrusting her hands out together, a torrent of water shot forth - spiraling larger and larger the further away from her hands it got - to engulf the flames being shot at them and hopefully put them out. If this worked, she knew what she'd be doing from this point out.

---

It was fortunate that nobody from the guild got hurt after the dragon knocked them from the sky. That was one less thing to worry about, but now they had the dragon in front of them all. And it's only been getting more and more enraged. Grasidia wiped the blood from her brow right as Leon's little pixie appeared before her. The dust it sprinkled about felt soothing in a way, but Grasidia couldn't help but feel as if he was wasting his effort on her. If he's trying to help me, someone else weaker might need him, she thought, bringing her attention up to the dragon. The combined attack from Marduk and Lavinia had gouged its eye out, leaving an especially dark crimson streaming down the side of its head. Holly's attacks had badly damaged one of the wings that Grasidia kept pinned, permanently removing its ability to fly. This is almost too easy. This thing is going to do something soon...

Right as she lifted her hands to prepare another curse, Leon himself appeared before Grasidia. She was surprised for a moment, it was strange that this human was trying so hard to help her. It reminded her a lot of Torys' own benevolence. But then the seriousness returned. And Grasidia felt the anger begin to bite. "What are you doing!?" she barked at him, probably surprising him. It was very unlikely he would've ever heard her raise her voice before. She placed a hand on Leon's shoulder and gripped him tightly, more than enough to make him uncomfortable. She wasn't trying to hurt him but to get his attention. "Don't waste yourself on me! I'll be fine!" With that she released him from her grip and took a few steps forward. The healing he had already done so far was noticeable, though she was still in a world of pain. "Go!"

She took a deep breath, bringing her hands in toward her gut as she took the moment to regain composure and calm down. The boy was just trying to help, he thought she was human and would be more hurt, he did nothing wrong. Just as soon as she exhaled her frustration the dragon before everyone let out a terrible screech. The volume alone was incredible but the sound itself was painful, even to Grasidia. She winced and brought her hands up to cover her ears as the dragon continued it screech. Others in the guild with strong senses would surely find this even worse than Grasidia did. But she kept her gaze on the dragon, watching as it coiled its tail to its side. That tail is too long and powerful, but I don't think my curse can immobilize it. Someone is gonna have to do something about it or it'll kill someone with that tail. And just as soon as she completed her thought the dragon stopped its screech, but rapidly unfurled its tail in a wide swing. It began swinging its tail around its body in a near complete circle, forcing everyone on the ground nearby to have to flee or take the hit. And none of them can take that hit!

Grasidia raised her hands towards the dragon again. "Eden! Garden Snare!" It took a second after casting but more vines burst out of the ground beneath the dragon, this time underneath its head. They quickly wrapped around its throat and began to force their way into its jaws, attempting to choke it from spreading inside. The vines around its neck not only constricted to try and choke it as well but also pull its head to the ground. This move was supposed to shift the dragon's balance and make its tail swing into the sky harmlessly rather than across the pavilion where her guildmates were standing. Grasidia had been on the receiving end of a tail whip from it and didn't want her guild to share the experience. The second part of her strategy worked as its tail did swing upwards for that, meaning everyone just had to deal with the wind pressure rather than dodging it entirely. But while she hoped she could just strangle it to death that wasn't going to be the case.

Maybe it was rage, maybe it was desperation, but the dragon's remaining eye began burning. The white glow turned red, then orange and appeared like a flickering flame. An inferno spewed forth from its jaws, incinerating the vines that had worked their way down its throat before they could do any real damage. Thankfully its flames were pointed mostly towards the ground in a harmless direction thanks to the vines around its throat, but those too began to snap and release the beast. How did it... Then she noticed. The dragon already had many black spines across it so she hadn't realized, but it was growing more. The spikes on its head started becoming longer and more twisted as the creature righted itself. The vines that were tripping its legs were no longer a match as the new spikes would cut them before they could grip. Even the vines binding its wings were severed. Its good wing fanned out as the dragon stood to full height, and then it stood up onto its back two legs.

What is it doing? Grasidia wondered, looking up high to keep her eyes on the dragon's face. When stood up like this the sheer size of the dragon became even more apparent. While it had been taking some damage it seemed that it was already... beginning to heal. Its other wing, once it was spread out and had the sky as a backdrop, was clearly repairing itself. Its damaged eye didn't appear to be fully healed yet and the wing wasn't either, but they were definitely healing. Grasidia raised her hands towards the dragon's feet, trying to get her vines to trip it while it was only on two legs, but it was to no avail. Oh great, I'm becoming useless. That was when she realized something. A gut feeling, something she couldn't explain. She knew what the dragon was about to do.

Grasidia looked around the battlefield, taking a quick headcount of where everyone was. They were all fairly scattered from the fall, which was a good thing anyways for their own safety. The only one in the air right now was Zenith, in some kind of takeover form, but the rest were all on the ground or near the ground. She brought her hands low and then lifted them up. "Eden! Bramble Wall!" All across the pavilion there sprung up from the ground massive, dense thickets of thorns. These walls all came up immediately in front of each one of her guildmates, minus Zenith. The defensive spell may come as a surprise but Grasidia just knew that she needed to do this. And her suspicions were confirmed. Hardly a second after she raised the walls the dragon pointed its snout straight down and let loose another torrent of flames. But as it did so it flapped its wings, sending the wave of fire in every direction sweeping across the ground.

The bramble walls held up to the flames and the wind, providing shelter to her guildmates that she was able to protect. Zenith, being in the air, only had to worry about the sudden burst of wind since he was above the flames already. Behind her own bramble wall Grasidia could still feel the intense heat from the flames passing by her. Every time it has used a flame attack it has grown larger and larger in scale. Based on the regeneration the dragon was doing and the increasing durability and power, it was finally clear to Grasidia what was going on. "It's growing stronger," she said to herself, though the sound of the flames drowned out even her own voice. But the moment the flames stopped that damn dragon let out its blood-curdling screech again. This time even louder than the first! Grasidia fell to her knees, clutching at her ears and leaning against the bramble wall as she tried to protect her hearing.

And while she was temporarily incapacitated the dragon made its next move. It flapped its wings one more time, deliberately trying to hit Zenith and knock the flying mage out of the air, and then it finally dropped back down to all fours. Only it was less of a "drop" and more of a powerful "crash". The impact felt like an earthquake and the ground underneath everyone was very quickly disturbed and warped. This sent rubble flying and upturned the very stone most everyone was standing on, but Grasidia couldn't protect anyone from any impacts from below. She herself was fortunate enough that the ground underneath her didn't break apart and damage her, but many of her guildmates wouldn't be so lucky. The dragon only finished screeching once it was back on all fours. Now, unrestricted by any pesky vines and with its eye now fully healed, it was primed to begin its assault. Grasidia was still picking herself back up off the ground when the dragon began another tail strike, sweeping its tail across the ground. Any bramble walls that didn't get destroyed by the earlier ground impact would stand no chance at stopping this tail. The only way to dodge would be to jump high enough to clear it or to get far enough away in time. Or perhaps even going underground. Grasidia was forced to choose that last option, using her Leaf Fake spell to quickly dart just underneath the surface of the ground to regain her bearings. Is it getting smarter too?

As the dragon unleashed destruction all around, Lavinia kept herself well out of harm’s way, dashing across rooftops and leaping deftly from one to the next. Unlike some of her more intrepid companions, she was perfectly happy to fight from a safe distance and let others handle the less-than-enjoyable task of withstanding the furious assault of a giant rampaging dragon.

This turned out to be to her benefit, since all those tail sweeps and that wave of fire were all targeted at the mages on the ground, thus sparing Lavinia from the worst of carnage. A quick Bram served to protect her from the stray flames and shockwaves, and those irritating roars she swiftly dealt with by filling her ears with blood. The fluid acted as a cushion, protecting her eardrums from the noise without completely shutting out her sense of hearing. See that, Grasidia? I can take care of myself! Hmph!

That said… Her problems weren't over yet. Somehow her pathetic and morally uptight guildmates (whom she totally didn't care for and wasn't worried about at all) had managed to survive that barrage of attacks, but now the stupid lizard was powering up and healing itself. Healing itself! The absolute nerve of the thing, thinking it could just undo the damage Lavinia had so gracefully inflicted upon it! Such impunity called for immediate and disproportionate retaliation, to be carried with the favorite tool of any good villain:

Gratuitous fucking violence!!

That last attack she'd made? That had only been the setup. Now it was time for her to put her plan into motion, and murder this thing harder than Grasidia's social skills murdered any attempt at polite conversation. “IMPALER!” she shouted, clenching her fist. And the dragon's body erupted all at once.

She'd scattered blood all over it with her opening salvo, and the wounds inflicted on its eye and wing by herself and Holly had made it bleed. Now, all of that blood spread across its body simultaneously began to extend horribly sharp spikes in every direction. Across the dragon's side, crimson thorns shot outward, pushing at its scales and spikes and prying them apart. Its bloodied wing was torn apart even as it regenerated, any further healing stymied by massive blood clots that now looked like a horde of giant crimson sea urchin. Its eye socket, and for that matter the entire side of its face that had been stained by the bleeding from that wound, would be likewise engulfed by a mass of seething murderous stabbery, tearing apart its newly healed eye as soon as it was formed and quite possibly driving into its mouth and gums as well.

All in all, a solid return on her investment... But wait! There was more!

"HELSING!!!"

All those bloody spikes embedded in the dragon's head simultaneously accelerated to terrifying speeds, driving themselves into its skull from point-blank range. Even if they didn't quite penetrate to its brain, the sheer force of their sudden change in velocity would whip the dragon's head to one side, quite possibly snapping its neck or at the very least leaving it concussed and momentarily vulnerable to further assault.

How'd you like THAT, you filthy animal?! Lavinia grinned maliciously, enjoying the sight of its suffering. Even if her move just now likely wouldn't finish it off, she'd made a very clear point: she wasn't going to let it heal from any attack that made it bleed. With any luck, her guildmates would get the message, and paint the damn thing red from head to toe...

Holly was glad that her Guildmates were putting their all into the fight, and took her time to quickly look over the situation while the others kept the pressure up on the dragon. Some of her Guildmates were fighting, whilst others - mainly the supportive mages - were helping the civilians and the general populace. That was a positive, Holly would not have been happy if in all the fighting they had forgotten to actually help people. She knew that she would not have liked to be left in the rubble, even if she was watching a band of mages take on a dragon before her.

She had definitely done more damage than she thought, as that wing was not looking healthy. She released the lockdown, both to conserve her own energy and because it wasn't worth it to hold the broken thing down any more - if anything, it could just get used to the pain that she was giving it by dragging the thing down. What the Guild was doing though was clearly not enough - the dragon continued to spit out fire, scorching the ground. As she began to re-strategize, she heard (and quickly spotted) something that disappointed her greatly: Felix, going straight for the dragon. She did not try to help him however, as he made his choice, and she could do more just by continuing her attacks on the dragon. Felix better hope he perishes within the dragon's flames, because it's nothing compared to the dragon I'll become when we get home, she thought to herself, gripping Shadowbane tightly in her hand. She thankfully was not forced to think too much about Felix, as Zenith took him away to a nearby building.

Things definitely went south from there. Holly moved her hands to her ears to cover them, despite the fact that her helmet did so and she wasn't able to really cover them - but even through her helmet the screech was just such a terribly loud thing to behold. It was a blessing when it finally ended. The armoured mage quickly cast her gaze back to the dragon, and it took her a few moments to realise that the thing was growing more spikes. She wondered if it was some kind of ability of the dragon, or if this was just some kind of young dragon and it was actually just growing up before her. She settled on the former, because the dragon definitely seemed like it knew what it was doing, which made her question all the more why it was deciding to stand on it's back legs.

Holly's confidence lowered immediately as she realised that the thing was actually regenerating it's wounds - mostly she cared about the significant damage that she had done to the wing, which all seemed pointless now. She began to shake her head clear, trying to rebuild her confidence, before a wall of thorns came up before her; one of Grasidia's spells. Knowing that Grasidia had picked up on something that she hadn't, she remained behind the wall, but readied herself for what was to come, which she presumed was an attack directed at her: She was partially right, but the dragon let loose a torrent of flames everywhere. The heat was so intense, and even though the wall was holding up against the flames the heat alone was starting to get to Holly. She was thankful when it stopped, and was about to act before she was sent to the ground in horrible agony from another yet much louder screech. She felt a headache coming on quickly from the sound alone. She had not recovered by the time the dragon crashed down and the building Holly was positioned upon, already weakened, crumbled beneath her and she quickly began to fall to the ground. "Thrust, pou-"

Too late, Holly hit the ground, still holding Shadowbane tightly. She knew better than to stand there though, and despite the sudden pain that she felt she stood just in time to see the dragon starting to run it's tail through the ground. This time, there was plenty of time to say the words that she needed to avoid getting hurt (or at least, more hurt): "Thrust, pounce!" She yelled, propelling herself airborne at rapid velocity - high enough so she didn't get hit by the tail. She spun in the air, falling to the ground and landing like a metallic cat. The dragon was really starting to annoy her now. The tail swipe meant that any remaining cover was destroyed as the dragon's tail plowed through it.

If the dragon was regenerating any damage they did to it, they had to make sure it died as fast as they could, to do as much damage as possible. Maybe they wouldn't be able to kill it at all, but Holly knew one thing for certain: If she could regenerate infinitely, she wouldn't like feeling pain over, and over, and over again. If all she got was pain, it wasn't worth it to keep going, and instead she would flee. She hoped it thought in a similar fashion - because right now, she wanted to give it all the pain it could get, more than getting cooked inside her armour, more than falling off a roof. Holly slipped Shadowbane back into it's sheath, this time without any theatrical twirls.

"I'll show you, you scalie, gigantic, horrible creature!" Holly roars, slowly spreading her arms wide upwards and downwards, like a jaw. "You've destroyed the homes of many, ended the lives of many more. And now, I'll take you on, with everything you've just given me! You won't hurt anyone else, and you won't hurt this Guild!" She focused hard, pouring herself into this attack. Usually when doing something like this, there wouldn't be too many objects to grab, too many to propel, but the dragon had just given her a lot of ammunition from the debris all around it, which it had created. "Thrust: Guardian's Implosion!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, slamming her hands down together, making a singular clap.

If she had done a Guardian's Throw, Holly would still have launched a sizeable chunk of debris at the dragon. However, the Guardian's Implosion took all of the debris from around the dragon, and threw them all at speed, causing it to be peppered from everything to dropped swords, a few stalls, and even debris from the buildings it had swept through with it's tail. Not only that, but the air around the dragon changed course, pummelling the dragon with strikes from the sudden wind. It's eyes, it's head, it's wings, it's tail, everything was assaulted by a hail of debris as small as bricks and buckets to large chunks of debris that had fallen off of buildings. Holly had never affected so many objects before with a Guardian's Throw let alone a Guardian's Implosion, and it was a massive display of the S-Class mage's power. Even so, Holly doubted that it would kill the dragon, it was much too strong for that, and had she been fighting alone she would not have risked such a powerful spell. With her Guildmates there, she knew that doing as much damage to the dragon in the shortest amount of time was the goal, so that she could let them finish it off or drive it off before it regenerated whatever damage they did to it again.

"Don't let up, hit it with everything you have! Do it before it regenerates everything all over again!" Holly yells - mostly because she wanted them to pay attention to it, rather than the fact that she was now stumbling. She began to retreat, making distance from the dragon. She had never effected so many objects before in an Implosion, and it took a lot out of her. Just as it occurred to her that perhaps throwing several blocks worth of debris all at once might not have been a good idea, she collapsed onto the ground, taking heavy breaths. She didn't even bother trying to get back to her feet, wanting to conserve what strength she had, and grit her teeth, refusing to let out a cry at the pain that overwhelmed her as the spell and the amount of objects she had effected with it took it's toll on her.

@datadogie | @Anza | @j8cob

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Luke's attack didn't do as much damage as the amnesiac mage would've hoped. He felt the dragon slightly buckle under the weight of the impact before pushing his head up and rebounding him sky-high. He flipped three times before righting himself, but the weightless feeling was still there.

How high up am I? He had a bird's eye view on the whole field with the dragon rampaging from the pain of its injuries and his guild mates continuing to add more. Though the fight looked even, a closer eye would reveal the fight to be in slight favor to the dragon with its newly revealed regenerative powers making themselves apparent.

"All that fire... Astoria?" The city blazing like a rapid conflagration of magma painted a very ugly picture. It was relieving to see one of the twins putting out some of those fires in an effort to preserve the city. With the dragon taking more and more damage along with the city's fires being put out, it seemed like the fight was coming to a close.

"It's getting stronger and healing itself..." So. of course bad news at to sprout up at the worst time. At least Lavinia and Holly reapplied some heavy damage when it was healing itself. He had to focus his eyes to just barely see them from his altitude.

"Felix...!" Luke shouted in a mixture of surprise and concern. The tail whip smacked him head on. That may have been the strongest emotion he's felt before.

The Dragon's screams were insanely loud. It was only thanks to Luke's headphones that his ears weren't ringing. He was falling closer and closer to the dragon that opened its mouth in preparation for a breath attack. Luke was incapable of maneuvering in midair enough to get away from the line of fire, so he had no choice but to take it head on.

"Conditional Variance." He could feel the inside and outside being warped by his magic. He braced himself.

The dragon's flames crashed into him head on with its power strong enough to go through the resistance. He felt his clothes getting singed and the shape of his headphones getting warped by the scalding blaze. It still wasn't enough to take him out. He braced himself enough to still be battle-ready.

Unfortunately, the concussive force of the roar sent him flying into a building. He stood up feeling a bit woozy. He took a deep breath and his vision cleared up. He attempted to take a step forward and then he nearly fell over. He barely caught himself. Blood leaked from his head onto the ground.

He could feel the insides of his head create strange squelching noises. He ignored them.

"What can I do?" Luke wondered to himself. His eyes traveled over the rubble he haphazardly made when he crashed into the building. He still had the strength enhancement going on, though he wished he applied a durability enhancement as well.

He very easily picked up those heavy pieces of concrete and threw them at supersonic speeds straight towards the dragon's eyes.