Gaby's entire body wouldn't stop throbbing.

It hurt to walk, it hurt to talk, it hurt just to try to breathe.

She tried her best to finish her fight with as little damage as possible, but the moment she saw Dorothy, who she knew was very important to Kurt, getting harmed, she just decided to throw caution out of the window and started to recklessly fight while injuring herself with her own talent.

"Guys..." she mumbled while limping back to the jail cell with the grey owl in hands, "Little help?"

Kurt began to bang his hands against the bars while screaming at his brother upon seeing that scene, "Hugh!! Open this! Right now!!"

The boy almost trashed the bars by himself with his metal claws but Saramin reminded him about Leon's life still being in danger at their hands.

The red-haired boy glared at his older brother who just kept chuckling while observing his boiling anger.

"Little dude, little dude! You have to chill out! This is a happy moment! You guys won!"

"Just open this cell! Gaby needs help!"

"Yeesh! Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today..."

Gaby finally couldn't sustain her own weight anymore and dropped on the bridge between the arena and the prison, "Ugh!"

Kurt finally had enough and just tore apart the bars with his silver claw as if they were made of chocolate in order to come to the girl's aid, "GABY!!! DOROTHY!!!"

He finally reached the two with Saramin and Trevor coming right behind and all three began to adjust her position in order to check her wounds.

"Kurt! Can you heal her??" Trevor asked.

The lad raised his hand and tried to conjure his healing flames, but all that resulted in was his metal claws growing even more and covering more parts of his arm.

"Come on!! Come on! Heal!! I need to heal!!"

The boy kept screaming at his own hand, but the usual flames simply refused to come out.

Gaby opened her eyes and noticed the kid holding her head above his lap and staring at her face with teary eyes.

"Gaby!! Gaby, I'm here!! You're gonna be okay! Just hang on for a moment!"

The lass could barely move a muscle due to the exhaustion and her injuries but still managed to glance at the three students looking desperately while trying to help her.

One week ago she never imagined anyone would ever cry or feel worried about her, not since all members of her family vanished from her life.

And yet, there she was, realizing that she still was cared about despite everything, seeing the first boy who was ever kind to her struggling so hard to make her pain go away.

Kurt began to feel desperation taking over him. The one time he truly needed his healing flames and they were nowhere to be seen for whatever reason. He needed help. He needed his mentor. he needed Dorothy. But just by looking at the fallen winged creature, he realized she also was in a critical state.

'Dory!! Dorothy, are you there??' the boy shouted towards his pet owl using his mental connection.

'...'

'Dorothy!!'

'...'

"Dorothy!! please wake up!!"

"Kurt! Calm down!!" his sister yelled while holding his shoulders.

"But, Sara!! I can't heal them!! I can't use my flames!!"

"No..." Saramin agreed before raising her chin and staring at Hugh, "But I know someone who can..."

Hugh noticed her stabbing glare and returned it with a wide grin.

"Kurt. Trevor. Take Gaby and Dorothy back to the cell. I'll fight next" Sara declared while walking towards the arena.

"Are you sure?" Trevor wondered.

"The sooner we beat this stupid game, the sooner we get out of here! Plus, if I can memorize Hugh's healing ability I can treat them myself. Now go!"

The two boys nodded and did as she told.

Kurt carried Gaby in his arms in a princess position and trusted Trevor to handle his owl.

Trevor dreamed so many times about getting the chance to carry Dorothy, and yet, now that he could, there was no feeling of joy to be found.

As the two walked away from Sara, the two girls that had fought with Gaby suddenly started to glow with a strange golden light and proceeded to disappear.

Sara recognized that light. It was the trademark of the one responsible for all of them being there right now, Park, and his teleportation ability.

The boy with black curly hair and chestnut skin waved at her with a big dumb smile as if replying to her silent guess.

"Hey, kid... You do know I'm a princess, right? You really think I'm gonna let you go this easily once we are done here?"

"Oh, please..." Park laughed, "Don't try to look tough, thats' just embarrassing. Everybody knows who you are... "

"Oh!?" Saramin was the one who felt something shaping inside of her this time just by hearing the boy's tone of voice, "By all means! Enlighten me! Who am I, exactly?"

"You are the fourth child of the emperor. Saramin Garen...

The mistake."

Kurt and Trevor froze for a moment after listening to that comment. The two looked at Saramin and began to notice she was trying to hold herself back from twitching.

"The f**k did you just f**kng called me you little b***h!??" she shouted while accidentally using Gaby's talent and covering herself from top to bottom in lightning.

Park simply enjoyed her reaction as he continued, "We all know about you...

You are the daughter of the emperor's political marriage. The only dragon he was forced to be with among all the dragons he choose to be with. The only lady he never loved... Or even cared about for that matter... Both you and her are just a pair of things that were forced on him and that he can't get rid of."

Small bolts of lightning began to fly out of the girl all over the dungeon, causing pieces of debris to fall from the wall and into the pit.

"On top of that, you were one of the only children that failed to inherit the emperor's invincible healing ability. Instead, you got a talent that doesn't even work if you don't have someone to watch before beforehand. That's why you try so hard to get people to surround you all the time, just so you can copy their powers when you need them."

Saramin's lightning began to grow stronger. Sparks began to hit the chained axes and caused them to drop on the arena.

"Because you know that by yourself, you are nothing! The daughter of the emperor that needed to be carried by everyone else to make her way to the top.

The deadweight princess!"

Once Park was finally done with his speech, Saramin took a deep breath while moving her glare away from him and tried her best to tell herself to calm down and not lose her cool.

"Yeah, no... I can't do it..." she whispered.

She then proceeded to raise her arm and unleashed a massive bolt of lightning aimed at Hugh and Park's platform, causing a huge explosion to take place.

A pile of smoke rose from the impact and once it was gone, revealed Hugh standing in front of Park with his arm covered in red scales with a big black mark where the blast landed.

"Whoa!!!" Hugh commented while using his flames to heal his arm, "Calm down, sissy! No need to take it out on my little dungeon!"

"Quiet! Both of you!" Sara ordered while shifting her elemental ability to a body ability and covering her arms with Kurt's metal scales, "Either of you is fine... Just send me someone to punch! Now!"

It was the first time Kurt had seen his sister so angry. He had seen plenty of angry women in his life, Dorothy, his mother, Gaby, Nala, the weird black knight lady that kidnapped him when he was a kid... Each of them had the atmosphere of someone that could seriously hurt you if you pissed them off.

But this was the first time he felt someone could honestly end up dead if they messed with Saramin in that state.

Park knew exactly what to say in order to get Saramin just like he wanted. Even now, he and Hugh were doing all they could to play them right into their hands.

"So Sissy wants to fight... I see, I see... I wonder who we should send to face her next then. What do you think Parkpark?"

Park just nodded up and down like a doll while playing along with Hugh's little antic, "Indeed. Indeed. She seems way more serious than the previous competitor... Female dragons are already known for being overly emotional. Perhaps this might be a case of- Gaagh!!"

The two of them were suddenly silenced after Sara launched a second lightning bolt at them which just like before forced Park to hide behind Hugh like a little kid.

"I don't care which..." Saramin muttered while changing a fist engulfed in electric energy to a metal gauntlet once again, "One of you get down here right now so I can murder you already! I'll show you who's a deadweight..."

The two dragons smirked at each other and finally decided to obey Sara's command.

The lass then widened her eyes once she saw who her opponent was going to be.

A small black-haired boy with thin arms and legs who wouldn't stop trembling in front of her.

"Ah- Ah... Hello..." Leon whispered while avoiding looking directly at Sara.

The girl started to shift her gaze from the shivering lad to Kurt, who was just as shocked as she was, to Hugh, and finally back at Leon again.

"Is this some kind of joke??" she wondered.

"They freed Leon?" Kurt gasped.

"Ah!" Saramin finally recovered from her shock and clutched her fist on Leon's shirt, "Screw this then! Kurt, let's grab this kid and go home! We're done here!"

She began to drag the boy back to the jail cell but Leon slapped her palm away from him.

"Ouch!? What gives, kid!"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry... But..." Leon whispered.

Saramin began to direct the rage she accumulated from before at his reaction, "'But' what?? We only came here because of you! Hugh doesn't have any hostage now so what's the holdup?"

"Who says I don't have a hostage?" Hugh laughed from his platform.

Saramin, Kurt, Trevor, and Nala all looked up and saw Park and the shaved hair boy holding Gabriella and her ponytailed friend by their necks as the two remained unconscious.

"Hugh? What are you doing to them?" Kurt asked.

"Whatever the hell I want!" he giggled, "Go ahead and take Leon with you. You do that, and I'm gonna drop these two into this pit. I'm sure it will make a very fun sound once they reach the bottom!"

"What!?" Kurt screamed.

"But-" Trevor chocked, "Aren't they on your side?"

"My side...?" Hugh repeated while taking a more serious colder tone, "The weak has no right to walk by my side... The only ones that I'll accept are those that manage to reach their lowest point and come back from it!

Like you, little dude!"

Kurt could not believe what this lunatic was coming up with right now. To use his own allies as hostages right after making them fight until they passed out, just how heartless could this guy get.

"Who exactly were you... Before you came into this world?" the young prince mumbled.

Hugh looked bewildered for an instant and then started to smile once again, "Ah! You're finally taking an interest in me, little dude? I'm flattered. I'm also really curious about the kind of guy you were like before turning into a dragon.

Once you officially become a part of my group, let's have one nice long chat about our pasts! I'm sure it will be really fun!"

"I'm not gonna become a part of your goddamn group!"

Hugh raised the corner of his lips even further, "You will once I'm done with you..." he quietly mumbled.

The lad then gazed at Saramin and Leon again and nodded for them to start their fight.

It seemed like times for negotiations were over. It was obvious that Hugh was just doing whatever the hell he would come up with at this point and completely ignoring what anyone had to say.

Regardless, he still had control of the situation, so they needed to play along until they could find a safe way out. If Saramin tried to escape with Kurt and the rest of the kids while taking Leon, the two girls that Gaby nearly died to defeat would end up killed.

Saramin herself was so irritated right now. She was playing a game she didn't want to play, set up by someone she hated, all because of a boy she barely knew and now had her back against the wall because of two lasses she didn't even like. And any second she wasted was a second that placed Gaby's state in more danger. They needed to treat her as soon as possible.

If only she could take out that anger on someone, at least that would make her feel better, but even that was taken away from her as her opponent turned out to be the very boy they wanted to rescue.

And as if that wasn't enough, the one that she really wanted to vent on, Park, was just having fun watching her agonizing herself after setting her mood on fire with his small personal attack on her private life.

"AAAARGHHH!! THIS. IS. SUCH. A. PAAAAAAIN!!!" she groaned while scratching her hair as if it was covered with ants.

The girl began to evaluate her options and almost wondered if it would be really that big of a loss if she just let Hugh kill the two girls, but Kurt would probably not be very happy about it considering his soft attitude.

"You owe me, big time, apple head..."

She finally gave up and decided to just do the stupid fight after aiming her glare at Leon, nearly causing him to faint from the terrifying look on her face.

"Look, kid, I don't wanna hurt you..." Saramin commented, "Actually, now that I think about it, part of me does want to hurt you a lot since this is all happening for you but... Whatever... Kurt likes you for some reason and I don't wanna make him sad so... Just pass out after I punch you, okay?"

"Ah- Bu- But-"

"Great! Now clench your teeth" she suggested before raising her fist and preparing to smack him.

Sara tried to hold back but she couldn't deny that she was really craving for something to punch right now, and sadly, poor Leon was all she had at the moment.

"Uughhtch!"

Before the poor boy could even react, her fist was suddenly shoved into his mouth, causing him to drop on the ground like a sack of potatoes and falling into the world of dreams.

"Sorry, kid... Nothing personal..." she mumbled while rubbing the back of her hand, "Alright, Tweedledee and Tweedledum! Let's get this over with!!"

Hugh and Park saw the girl talking to them, but their expressions remained unchanged.

"Over? Nah, sissy... The show is just about to start!"

Saramin raised an eyebrow, "The show...?"

She then heard a strange sound coming from below and noticed Leon suddenly standing up.

"Ugh... Kid, read the room! Stay down so we can all go home sooner!"

Leon didn't respond and just continued to lift himself up while keeping his gaze aimed at the floor.

"Oh... Did I hit him too hard? Kid, you okay?" she asked while approaching him with concern.

The girl was about to check if he was injured by pressing her palm against his forehead, but Leon suddenly grabbed her wrist and lifted his face in order to glare at her.

"Eh...?" Saramin whispered.

Leon then raised his fist as well and delivered his own punch on Saramin, who was so shocked by the sudden attack that she instinctively covered her arm with metal scales in order to block it.

She realized she made the right decision for as soon as his fist came in contact with her gauntlet Saramin was sent flying like a torpedo and smacked against the walls of the dungeon.

"Guaaaghhh!!!!" she cried as blood starts to spill from her mouth.

Kurt, Trevor, and Nala looked in shock at Saramin and next at the boy who nearly killed her with a single attack.

The red-haired small prince, in particular, was having trouble recognizing him for the expression on his face had completely changed to a level of hatred he had never seen him show before.

"Leon..." Kurt whispered, "Is... Is that you?"