As soon as I stepped into Nenvari’s kingdom, a book popped into existence in front of me. I sent it to my inventory and readied for a fight. We had appeared within a crowd of soldiers. At first, I thought I’d been betrayed, then he called out to the people around him. From that point, I knew I had to watch Nenvari’s back. Sure, the guy was a cannon, but even those couldn’t fire when sabotaged.

In short order, we teamed up and took care of the mob.

When the last man fell to my bow, I looked around. Fear gripped my heart. Where was Matt? Wasn’t he supposed to be here?

“Matt?” I asked softly then yelled, “Matt!”

The bushes behind me rustled, and I turned. My brother dressed in some kind of indigo Fae robes burst out of the foliage and darted over.

I grinned and widened my arms for a hug, counting on Nenvari to have my back. He jumped into my arms, and for the first time in, to my point of view, months I received a proper familial cuddle.

A shadow fell on my face, and I opened my eyes. A Light Fae assassin held a sword above his head and began to stab down at my defenseless brother.

I saw Nenvari out of the corner of my eye gather electricity, then a blade of cold steel stabbed through the soldier’s chest and he disappeared. Behind him, holding the weapon, was an Asian teenager with bleached platinum hair. He grinned.

That was when text appeared in front of me.

You have killed Light Fae Warrior x7 you have earned 35 experience

“What the?”

“You see them too?” He asked and flicked at something invisible. I followed his lead and did the same to my text. It disappeared in a sparkle of light attributed mana.

“Yeah.”

“Ignore those,” Nenvari said stepping a little too close to me. “You’ve promised you’d help me.”

I hugged Matt closer. “I will. But first…” I turned to Platinum. “Who are you?”

“He’s Orin. My friend. We found a way to escape the garden, and we were trying to get there.”

“In the middle of this battle? Are you crazy?” Orin opened his mouth to respond, but I cut him off. “Don’t. I don’t care. Get Matt to the exit. I’ll come back soon.”

“What about the other children?”

I grinned. “They’re going back home, though they won’t remember any of this.”

“You defeated the boss?!”

“Hey, Prince Nenvari, did I defeat you?”

He snorted. “Only in that, you killed me three times as per our agreement.”

“See? I won!”

“Dude, Matt, you didn’t tell me your sister was a bad—”

“We don’t have time for this.” Nenvari flicked his sleeve behind him and nearly flew to the doors of the main palace.

I ran after him but called back, “I’m trusting you to get Matt to safety!”

Orin and Matt ran after me, and I scowled.

“I’m coming too. We’re not leaving without you!”

“As the little dude says,” Orin explained.

The prince flung the doors open, and a wave of fire burst out to envelop him. He vanished and reappeared several... blocks? away floating in midair. It was going to be hard to start using feet and yards again.

A ball of energy appeared at the tip of Nenvari’s sword.

An enormous metal dragon stepped out of the hallway, growling like it was about to eat us all for dinner. The scales on the beast were made of silver, and shimmered beautifully in the daylight. Its mouth dripped molten steel, and each claw made an indent in the marble steps.

I ran to Matt and used my body to shield his.

Nenvari flung the energy ball at the dragon. The blast turned the creature’s head but didn’t make a dent. The monster flapped its wings that looked like liquid mercury.

I grabbed Matt, Orin held out his hands for him, so I passed him to the fellow teen. I took out my bow and fired the rest of my weapon’s energy at the Dragon. One of its scales looked a tiny bit singed.

“Just when you think you’ve seen the strongest thing something else always comes along,” I said.

Nenvari chuckled.

A bolt of energy burst from Orin’s fingertips. I doubted that it even tickled its scales.

“Good thinking.” Nenvari created another ball, this one naturally filled with a lightning storm but far stronger than the one he’d used against me. He threw it at the dragon, and it went down but didn’t die. The prince soared so quickly that I figured he’d cast some kind of super extra quick haste to improve his speed. He stabbed his sword into the dragon’s gold eyes. It vanished.

You have helped kill an Adolescent Metal Dragon x1 you have earned 75 experience

I looked at Orin who nodded. He too had gotten the same screen. I flicked mine and wondered again at how I was able to defeat such a person. Right, the rules of the mine must have really handicapped him.

Said person then flew to the entrance of the palace. I tried to fly as well and nearly fell flat on my face.

I heard him snort and looked up. He peered at me with a raised brow. Apparently, Nenvari was using some kind of spell. I could fly in the mines only because the rules of that country bubble allowed it. See I was smart. I could figure things out eventually.

It took us a several more minutes, and I earned quite a few more experience points by the time we reached the Queen’s chambers.

“What makes you think the queen is in here?”

“Because this attack is too well planned. I believe she asked them to attack us to give her time to murder my father.”

“And since you were under her thumb she believed she could take you out at any time.”

“Shhhhh,” he said.

The doors opened, and we stepped into the room.