Tafel took in a deep breath. Her horns glowed blue, and hundreds of thin ice pillars emerged from the ground. She turned towards Vur. “Turn off your fire.”

Vur grunted, and the phoenix flames enveloping the area dispersed. With all the ice pillars around, unless the kirlopion was the size of a small puppy, there was no way for it to move without breaking anything. As expected, there was a crunching sound, and a line of ice pillars were destroyed, the destruction clearly heading towards Tafel.

Tafel stood her ground and opened a portal in front of the invisible creature’s path, but like the thin pillars of ice, the purple portal shattered like glass. Tafel’s eyes widened, and she dove to the side. A burning pain cut across her back, and she let out a shout. She gritted her teeth and scrambled back onto her feet before promptly diving to the side again. A gash appeared on the ground where she had just been standing. Heavy footsteps thudded, and four footprints were left in the ground.

Vur snorted, but before he could do anything, Tafel shouted, “Don’t come over!”

“You’re planning on fighting this alone?” Emile asked, his head popping out from Tafel’s collar. He struggled free and burst out of her robes. “Don’t bring me to die with you!”

Tafel glared at the empty space in front of her, and her horns glowed silver. The faint image of a clock’s face appeared beneath her feet. The second hand on the clock ticked faster and faster until it was speeding around, practically turning into a silver circle. Tafel’s image became blurred, and she stepped to the side. A second later, the ground exploded where she had been moments before. Ice pillars grew out of the ground in the blink of an eye, and multiple lightning bolts flew out of Tafel’s hand, shooting the space the invisible creature occupied.

“I already told you, magic doesn’t work on a kirlopion,” the Recordkeeper said.

“I still have to try,” Tafel said, her words coming out of her mouth so fast they almost sounded like a single syllable. “I can’t believe everything you say.”

The ice pillars in front of Tafel shattered, and she dashed to the side, leaving afterimages as she went. She had spaced the ice pillars a little further apart than before, trying to obtain an estimation of the invisible creature’s size. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that large. At most, it was the size of a baby dragon like Gloria or Ramon. Something as large as that could wrestle ten dragons at once? She didn’t believe it, but there wasn’t really a way to test it.

Tafel retreated while throwing fireballs made of phoenix flames at the invisible creature, but there was nothing to indicate if she was doing damage to it or not. No marks were left behind, and the creature didn’t let out any sounds. Ice, fire, and lightning had no effect. Portals couldn’t affect the beast either. If she had her sword, she could try stabbing it, but she had forgotten to retrieve it and take it with her thanks to her sudden meeting with Vur. After all, when she had Vur, why would she need a sword?

“Do you want my help?” Vur asked from the sidelines. The two phoenixes were perched on his shoulders, evidently having determined him as the safest place to be.

Tafel pursed her lips. “Let me try a few more things first,” she said. Hundreds of portals opened around her. Most of them allowed black mist to leak out of them, but luckily, one of the portals she opened achieved her desired effect. Water gushed out of the portal, and Tafel erected a hollow column of ice around it. A large cone protruded out of the side of the column, and with that, she was able to direct the flow of water. A steady stream gushed towards the invisible creature, and for the first time since the fight started, the kirlopion seemed to have been affected. The water pushed it back, causing it to crash through two ice pillars.

A shriek echoed through the cavern, and Tafel raised her hands to cover her ears. The sound was comparable to a banshee’s scream. Blood seeped out of her eyes and nostrils, and she could feel a warm liquid running down her palms. However, the shriek was quickly cut short by a thunderous crashing sound. Two giant rocky arms extended from both walls of the cavern, their hands pressed together on the spot where the kirlopion had been like a human squishing a mosquito.

“Too noisy,” Vur said with a wrinkled nose. The phoenixes were covering their heads with their wings, and even the Recordkeeper was plugging her ears with her fingers.

Tafel stared at the hands and furrowed her brow. There was no way the kirlopion was dead, right? However, there didn’t seem to be much movement happening either. “Can you sense if it’s still alive?”

Vur clenched his hands and grinded them together. The rocky hands copied his actions, and scraping sounds filled the cavern. Vur frowned. “It’s still alive.”

“And it can’t escape?” Tafel asked, raising an eyebrow. She glanced at the Recordkeeper. “I thought you said kirlopions could wrestle ten dragons at once. How come this one can’t get away from an earth elemental?”

“I’m not a mere earth elemental,” Diamant said. “I’m a mountain elemental.”

“Right, right,” Tafel said. “But the question remains the same. It’s not like a mountain elemental can hold down ten dragons.”

The Recordkeeper stroked her chin. “Well, look at the size of this thing,” she said and gestured towards the rocky hands. They were taller and wider than her by nearly five times. “It’s obviously not an adult. If it was an adult kirlopion, it wouldn’t have eaten just my wing to announce its presence.” After a moment, the Recordkeeper clicked her tongue. “In fact, it might not even be a kirlopion.”

“Oh, hey,” a voice said from behind the group, coming from just outside the cavern. A black dragon’s head was hovering at the entrance. Grimmy blinked. “What are you guys doing here?”