Jake wanted to scream in joy at the sight of the white sand curve up towards a beach. This had to be the island! He stuck his head up, water clattering back on the surface, the ruins of Gobtown sprawled not too far away. That meant the river wasn't too far away!

Like a torpedo, he shot along the coast until he reached the mouth of the river. It had taken half a day to arrive here from the island last time, but he had been with the Kobolds. Now he was alone!

He rushed forward, sticking close to the bottom of the river. Faster, faster! He tried to push himself on, the water around him changing into a churning mass as he left a trail of bubbles in his wake. An hour later, at most, he saw the river widen, signaling he would arrive at the lake. Traces of blood were in the water, and he prayed it was from Goblins.

As he swam into the lake, he passed dozens of floating Goblin bodies. Some drifted towards the river, taken by the weak current.

Shit, they are here already? Jake's heart skipped a beat, and without waiting, he swam forward. Almost at the edge, he shot up and out of the water. As he landed on the muddy sand, the sounds of war, shouting and screaming, came from the far side of the island.

Running through the bushes, Jake slammed into the wooden wall. He grabbed the edge and crawled over, the three-meter high barrier barely slowing him down. At the top, he froze. A milling mass of Kobolds, Goblins, and Orcs fought inside the walls in front of one of the gates. The number of bodies on the ground almost matched the number of those left standing.

Jake scanned the battle. To the side, and away from the main clash, Gria and Lyra battled the giant troll, all three bleeding. Although the kobolds were half the troll's size, the spears stabbing from his gut and chest showed they were holding their own. Jake was about to run there when he saw something that made his blood curdle. A bit to the side, an Orc held up a dark and purple scaled figure while a second beat it with a club.

Melissa?

Jake's dragonic roar caused the wall below him to vibrate. He landed away from the wall with a leap and rushed across the open ground. Unlike the last time, his roar didn't cause the battle to seize. Instead, it caused the Orcs and Goblins to fight more viciously, and only the orc that was about to strike Melissa turned.

The sight of Peltmans ugly mug infuriated Jake even more.

"Damnit, can't you stay gone, you winged Gekko?" Peltmans growled, and he threw Melissa's unmoving shape towards Jake.

The Kobold flew towards Jake, who barely managed to grab her, rotating in the air as he did. He managed to get one look at her when a shuffle made him look up, and something slammed into his side.

Peltmans wrung his massive muscled arms around his neck, and Jake felt the other try and choke him. The second orc slammed him in the chest, reaching up to the sides of his head.

"Get lost!" Jake shouted, slashing his claws across the orc's face. The orc screamed in pain, pressing his hands in front of his bleeding face. Jake trampled across him, slamming down with his massive hind legs and squishing the orc's head like a melon.

"Danny, stop toying with those two and come help me!" Peltmans roared, a tinge of panic in his voice.

Who the hell is Danny? Jake wondered, reaching behind to grab the orc. He thought he felt something inch out of the way, but he couldn't get a grip.

Peltmans arms squeezed tighter, and Jake stumbled. He slammed his tail into Peltman's exposed back while slashing with his claws, hoping to get a hit in.

"This not easy! No complain to me. You do self!" The troll's rolling boulder voice sounded from somewhere beside him, quickly followed by a strangled cry.

Dark spots began to appear around his vision, and Jake jumped around, slamming his tail against the orc.

Turning full circle, he caught sight of the troll, clutching at a spear in his throat. Gria rolled up behind him and turned to Jake, waving him off.

"Kill their leader! We've got this!" she yelled before she nimbly dodged below a ponderous slap. Lyra stabbed a spear at the troll's kneecap from behind.

With more and more dark spots appearing in his vision, Jake wondered how she had expected him to help in the first place. Suddenly, his scrambling hand got a hold of one of Peltman's dangling feet.

"No, let go, you stupid snake!" Peltmans roared, but the fear was obvious in his voice now.

Jake, exasperated and afraid, squeezed and pulled at his ankle, trying to rip Peltmans off. The orc howled and squeezed even harder, so hard that Jake could barely breathe, the air whistling as it wheezed through.

Draconic rage washed away the fear, as primal anger took hold of Jake.

How dare this little orc? The furious thought came from his dragonic side, and a desire to rent and kill followed it.

With a sudden movement, Jake rolled his hand up and punctured the ankle with his long nails, slicing through skin and flesh. He continued pressing down until he felt the bone. At the same time, he bucked and rotated violently, like a wild horse.

Peltmans howled in agony and released his hold on Jake's neck, grabbing for Jake's wrist.

Jake dodged away from the orc, slamming him into the ground. Stepping back, he leered at Peltmans as the orc scrambled up and hobbled away, cursing and howling for help.

Get back here!

Jake jumped forward and reached the fleeing orc in one bound, knocking him over. He gazed at the struggling form below his front paws. The memory of Tergin, lying on the ground unmoving, popped up in his head, followed by the unmoving Mellisa as she was beaten to a pulp. With a snarl, he bit into the back of Peltmans head, causing the orc to screech in utter panic. The hot, stinking blood flooded his mouth. He ignored the outcry and ripped the entire backside of Peltman's skull off, silencing the flailing orc.

He took a step back and stared at the bleeding, mutilated body. Did he just kill the leader of the goblins? In a rush, he looked around.

Gria knelt next to Melissa, a worried look on her face. Behind her, Lyra was repeatedly stabbing her spear in the head of the twitching troll. At first, Jake thought she was angry or raging, but then he saw the calm look on her face.

A hot mess of a battle still raged in front of the gate, but more Kobolds lay on the ground than were left standing. Even more, goblins lay between them, and even a half dozen orcs. But not all. Five Orcs still rampaged in the thickest of the battle.

Jake saw that a group of spear-wielding Antracii tried to reach them from one side of the battle, but the last of the Goblins blocked their way. Wanting to end the massacre as fast as he could, he ran forward, barrelling through the group of goblins and sending them flying like bowling pins.

In the group of Kobolds stood Bolyr, breathing heavily and dozens of bloody wounds across his arms and torso. He had cracked spear in his hand and just nodded once.

Glad to see the other alive, Jake turned to the orcs. They glared back at him, all five covered in wounds but a hungry look in their bloodshot eyes. A few dozen goblins were all that was left standing, and one of the orcs stepped forward and pointed his spear at Jake.

"Kill that Dragon, and the battle is ours! Attack!" The orcs and goblins ran forward, ignoring the small pockets of fighting still waging around them.

Jake crouched down, ready to pounce when he felt a hand on his flank, followed by a soft voice. "Let them come closer!"

Bolyr looked at the orcs, such a calm look in his eyes that it caused even the raging fire inside Jake to cool. Taking a quick look around, he saw that on each of his sides stood Antracii, gripping their spears.

"Wait for us to engage them. Grab and kill the side most orc." Bolyr's spear barely motioned to the left-most orc.

"We will make sure the others don't interfere!"

"Alright," Jake said. They had no time for long debates.

A second before the goblins arrived, screaming and brandishing their spears, the kobolds jumped forward. Like a well-oiled machine, they stabbed and blocked for each other, and the incoming goblins slowed to a crawl. The orcs, however, weren't deterred. They grabbed at the spears and tried ripping them out of the hands of the kobolds.

One of the Antracii slipped between the spears and speared the left-most orc in his leg, causing the large green brute to reel back. Jake saw his opportunity. He jumped between the moving figures, knocking Kobolds and Goblins aside, and grabbed the orc's neck, yanking him back like a fish. Two solid fists struck his chest, but he barely felt it. With a quick motion, he bit through the orc's throat.

He let go, thinking it over, when something slammed into the side of his head, inches away from his left eye. Jerking it back, he saw the orc was flailing around; a snapped spear clutched in one of his fists. He stumbled around like headless chicken before finally keeling over.

The knock against his head woke Jake from his rage, and he realized if it had been a bit further, he might have lost an eye or at least got a black one.

"Jake, hurry!"

He saw the orcs were heavily pushing the Kobolds, and even though the latter had better combat skills, the orcs were more powerful.

What followed was a dangerous game, where Jake waited for the last moment to grab an orc, sometimes at the cost of another Antracii life.

It took almost two minutes, a short time for many things, but not for anything involving death and mayhem, but finally, Jake jumped on top of the last orc, disemboweling it with his claws.

Stumbling back, Jake realized he had never been this worn out in his whole life. Not just physically. As he watched the Antracii rush around, destroying the last pockets of goblin resistance, adding more bodies to those lying on the ground, he felt numb.

Glistening blood colored the soil all around him, and the sweet sickly scent almost made him want to vomit. If not for the changes becoming a dragon had given him, he knew he would have probably fainted.

As the last goblin died, his scream cut short by a spear in the eye; the momentary silence seemed absolute.

Jake raised his long neck to look around and saw that only kobolds were still standing. Most were Antracii, with only a few dozen earthlings still up. He recognized them immediately, from their troubled and confused gaze as they looked around.

The Antracii, instead, moved through the carnage purposefully. Sometimes they viciously stabbed down into a still breathing goblin, and at other times they gently dragged or lifted wounded kobolds away.

Feeling weary to the bone, Jake wanted nothing more to lie down and sleep. Even the ever-present, normally almost overpowering impulse to head to the sea seemed distant and vague. He knew he had to do something more important first, but his mind was so foggy.

As he looked around for a spot to lie down, a high pitched scream caused him to jerk upright and look around. A rush of adrenaline jogged him enough to realize that the sound came from the insectoid hive, still present against the base of the heart tree.

Getting a bad feeling, Jake ran towards the entrance, arriving at the same time as Gria, Bolyr, and four spear-wielding Antracii.

Bolyr stared inside with a tired look, mirroring how Jake felt. He had a few half-finished leaf bandages around one arm from which blood seeped.

"Whatever that was, it can have come from only one place. We've blocked all the passages besides the one to the mana-well, " Bolyr said before letting out a sigh and walking inside.