Dawn saw Dolgra running at crazy speed towards the basilisk. As soon as she was five feet away from it, she leapt from the ground, turned in the air and her weapon, a spiked iron ball attached to a chain, landed on the basilisk's neck on the side. Unfortunately the ball landed on its scales. It bounced back; Dolgra fell to the side and the serpent thrashed at her with his heavy body. She rolled over immediately to protect herself but Jorcrut swished his powerful tail on her, flinging her in the air. Dolgra crashed on the golden bars of the cage and fell unconscious.

Dawn noticed that Volara was standing quietly towards the tail end of the basilisk as she held her weapon—a long iron rod.

​​

Suddenly Erdaaz charged towards the basilisk. And Pia slowly charged towards Dawn.

The crowd started cheering her frenziedly.

Now was the time.

As the noise in the crowd ebbed, only the loud hissing sound of the serpent could be heard.

No one noticed the changes in the weather. The sky turned dark—a steel grey. Brilliant flashes flickered and died. The bolts that flashed were not streaking to the land, but they were just the glimpses of what was to come.

Dawn closed her eyes and plunged into the tumultuous mind of the basilisk. She picked his recent nightmare of a woman running towards him and throwing an iron net forged with witches' powers, and created an illusion for him.

The basilisk went berserk.

Jocrut's head turned to the sky as he opened his large mouth. Erdaaz was already holding on to its outer scales like she was so used to her kind. She sat on his neck and was about to plunge her sword in him, when the basilisk jerked her down and started to coil his body around her rapidly. Within a few seconds she was gasping for breath. She darted her forked tongue out to attack him, but all she was met with his stony hard scales. And now the basilisk was closing in on her to dig his fangs in her and swallow her alive or dead.

Pia came with her weapon to Dawn but she dodged her by going near the serpent. Pia bared her fangs, not wanting to go closer to the beast.

All at once the clouds burst with a crackling boom as if someone had fired a gunshot near the ear. In a few seconds a rumbling thunder came and with it the rain began to fall.

Dawn's sword—the perfect bolt of lightning, flashed on her back.

Ixoviyans, who saw the sword, fell silent.

All at once, the clouds cracked and the rain fell. Dawn broke into a trot, her boots squelching with each footfall. She was soaked completely. Like she owned the terrain, she dashed forward towards the basilisk.

As Jocrut was busy battling his illusion, wrapping the woman who had thrown the net towards him, Dawn took the advantage. Holding one of its scales, she sat on its head and took her hand back to extract the lightning bolt. With one neat movement in an arc, she sliced its neck. Head of the basilisk rolled onto the floor as black blood spurted out like a fountain, splashing on her.

Dawn jumped down from there, dashed to its open mouth and cut the fangs off him.

She put the bolt back in on her back and it disappeared.

Picking the fangs up, which were heavy like iron weights, and held them up to show to the queen.

It all happened so quickly that both Dolgra and Pia didn't know what to say or do. They stared at her bounty blankly looking like fools. In fact everyone was gazing at her with wide eyes.

All at once, the crowd cheered.

And Ileus—he was busy collecting all the gold that he could. Within a few moments there was an icon of gold coins next to Dawn's names that had some vulgar number in front of it.

Jorcrut's body became limp. It stilled with its prey still tightly held in the center.

Dawn walked to Erdaaz to help her out but she noticed that her face was now the color of her blue lips. There was a sliver of basilisk's venom on her tongue, which was lolling out.

Erdaaz had died.

The rains stopped and the clouds cleared revealing the bright sun behind them, which cast its golden glow on the land. Everything glittered.

Dawn shuddered. What had she signed up for? She shoved those feelings and walked back to her place where she stood there tall with the fangs in her hands. Her breathing was ragged.

Brenda ran to her and hugged her tightly. "My Luna…"

Dolgra, Volara and Pia stood there rooted to the ground as they watched Erdaaz' body, which was still wrapped in the serpent.

Dawn could see that Sedora was seething with fury on the inside as she posed calmness on the facade.

Sedora got up with as much grace as she could muster, from her throne and announced, "The first round goes to Dawn Wyatt!"

Suddenly, a woman next to Daryn's throne shouted in agony. She was lying in a pool of blood in Daryn's feet and he was looking at her with hatred.

Dawn gaped at him. What had he done? Did he use his claws to kill her?

Sedora gazed at him and her eyes became icy. She waved her hands. The servants came to pick up the woman. She turned her face to Dawn. "Now that you have won the first round, whom would you like to eliminate?" she asked in a chilling voice.

A deathly quiet fell upon the women over there except Brenda. She had opened her mental shields. "Choose me Luna, and free me from this agony."

Dawn shook her head. She knew Sedora would interfere with her illusions. With a smile on her blood-spattered face, she replied to Sedora, "I won't eliminate anyone today because the basilisk has taken care of that part." She pointed towards Erdaaz with her chin. Her smile broadened. "However, please remember our deal."

Sedora's nostrils flared. "Yes, I remember the deal. You can spend your night in Daryn's chamber." She started to walk out of the podium.

With a drumfire and reverberation the crowd tossed confetti over the contestants in the gold cage. Dawn's popularity soared on the first day.

As Dawn walked out of the entrance gates, she gave a cursory glance to Brantley who was leaning back in the seat and smiling. She blinked her eyes in the form of thanks.

When Dawn was fighting against basilisk, she badly wanted to change the weather. However, only her dragon could do it for her. She wondered if Brantley could help her. She had given a cursory glance towards Brantley and taken her hand behind the back as if to indicate to him what she wanted. Within a few minutes the sky was overcast with grey clouds. She was amazed by the kind of power he wielded even though most of his magic was curbed.

When she reached her tent, she found Ileus was lolling on her bed with his face towards the ceiling and one leg crossed over the other. "Because of you I've become very rich, Dawn!" he said and sprung up.

"And how is that?" she asked as she went to fill water in her bathtub. She was very hungry.