Zoe watched from further down the mountain. She held a telescope to her eye that brought the battle to her view with magic. She watched as the others fought. She winced as Arthur was thrown and then Ronny was as well. Then the bow they had prepared was destroyed and Ronny was injured further with ice.

Behind her, the trackers waited and a few also watched in anticipation. Then she watched Arthur get tackled by the dragon. The claws dug into Arthur for a second before his body was tossed away near the outskirts of the clearing away from the others in the fight. Arthur lay in the dirt frozen and unmoving. Zoe put down the telescope and looked to the trackers.

“I need you to open the last box for me. It will be the one marked with my name. They need my help now and I don’t think that they will make it without me.”

One of the trackers nodded and ran to alert the others further back. The crate was brought forward and cracked open in front of her. She moved the packaging aside and helped remove her weapon from the box.

Back at the fight, Kendra was moving around Sylvia. Kendra rushed the dragon after Arthur was thrown to protect Ronny who was barely on his feet. The fire elemental wrapped around her as she flew around the air near Sylvia’s face. Fireballs and a few blasts of constant flame hit Sylvia’s face and shoulder if Kendra was lucky.

Lucas moved in to also attack Sylvia, but Kendra didn’t last very long while hovering so close to Sylvia. Sylvia forced out her cold aura and smothered Kendra in it. This caused Kendra’s flames to dwindle and the flame magic supporting her flight to extinguish. She fell to the ground and hit the ground uncomfortably. Her legs twisted and broke from the fall. She held back screams from the pain. Sylvia cast another spell and Kendra’s body became fully encased in ice. Sylvia looked at the frozen Kendra in disgust and kicked it away with her foot towards Arthur like trash.

She continued her march towards Ronny. Aria wasn’t sure what to do but she focused first and foremost on her sister. She left Lucas to the dragon walking away from them as she rushed to her sister. When she got to Kendra she produced an [Ethereal Blade] that she used to chip at the solid block around her sister.

Ronny swayed unsteadily but met Sylvia with his sword. Sylvia accepted the minor pain as another small cut was made on her. With her free claws on her other paw, she dug into his armor much like Arthur. The armor held for a moment before collapsing. Ronny dropped to the ground and Sylvia went for his feet with her cold breath and fangs.

Arthur awoke in a daze and barely noticed the pain of his metal exterior breaking. Following Sylvia’s suggestion, he used [Obfuscate] almost immediately. He felt his mana leaking from all of the holes in his body and the now quite substantial gash in his chest. His arm was also twisted awkwardly along with his legs. While he kept the spell active he locked down the leakage. He cut his exterior’s access to his mana so that the broken runes would not break further and leak. To the outside world, his body would be offline with some activity in his core. Due to shutting down most of his systems his ability to watch the continuing fight stopped.

‘I hope that they can hold on for a bit longer. I need to completely rebuild the metal core around myself. I see now that they have been completely inhibiting my full power. It is also why Zoe stopped me from investigating my core further.’ Arthur focused on identifying the runes on the inhibitors and adjusting them as quickly as he could. At the same time, he began work on repairs. He cast [Plant Growth] and his internals improved quickly from the tears from Sylvia’s claws and the cold. As he worked he noticed that he was able to split his mind and focus much easier than in the past. ‘Probably another imposed limitation of the inhibitors and controls’ he thought.

Once the plants inside of him were finished repairing he started on repairing his metal outside. When he focused his mana on the metal he noticed how much easier it was to repair this time around. He felt the metal liquefy and set into place while the blue rune lines reformed and reconnected the lost pieces once more. As he worked on repairs he suddenly felt a sense of fear and chills. He couldn’t really put words to it other than that he wished he could leave the battlefield immediately. Arthur moved his repairs to reestablish sight as quickly as possible to see what was happening

Ronny yelled and swung down his sword as his legs were removed. Then suddenly Sylvia suddenly stopped. She dropped Ronny leaving him unconscious and bleeding out. She turned around and looked down the path towards where Zoe and the other bystanders waited. She snarled and her instincts told her to put up an ice barrier. As the barrier formed two daggers on fire shot out from seemingly nowhere. The first went right through her hastily made barrier while the second stuck in the barrier. The dagger sunk into the flesh of her uninjured arm. She tried to shrug it off, but the dagger suddenly activated a second ability and drained a portion of her mana pool. With this change, she was even more surprised. She took a step back and looked around. The daggers both disappeared from their locations.

“Where are you dungeon abomination!” she shouted into the air. The ground shook with her voice and Aria and Lucas were shocked by both the words and unexpectedness of the action.

Lucas took a step back unsure of what to do next. He was the last one left. Aria still cut away at the ice slowly exposing her sister. Aria also looked back at the dragon when it spoke, wondering why it cared so much about Arthur and who had hit it with daggers.

Sylvia turned her head back and forth and then she looked up when she felt the pulse of mana. Someone blurred and appeared holding the two daggers. Sylvia adjusted her shielding before sending an ice spike flying towards the attacker. The attacker raised one of its daggers and cut through the ice cleanly. Before Sylvia could react it flew towards her and stabbed at her open wounds. She reacted by rolling to throw off the attacker. When that move was complete she was finally able to see the dungeon abomination clearly.

The metal golem was clearly built like Arthur but was made a head shorter and thinner. Sylvia also noticed that the metal used by the dungeon golem was lighter than Arthur’s version. The new golem stared at Sylvia emotionless. Its face only held pale white crystal eyes. The same blue rune designs covered its body. Sylvia’s roll had dented one of its arms, but it reformed quickly with a bit of magic.

Sylvia sent a blast of ice at it and raise a barrier, but the golem charged right through it. [Mage Armor] coated it among many other spells that boosted its speed and power. As soon as it was past the ice barrier it sped up, blinked past her head, and stabbed its blades into her neck. Sylvia tried to claw at the golem, but it blinked away when she got close. She pulsed her aura and dropped the temperature further, but the golem coated itself in flames in response.

Arthur watched the golem in horror as it fought Sylvia single-handedly. Sylvia was having a hard time dealing with the speed, smaller size, and the myriad of enhancement spells the dungeon golem was using to combat her. Arthur still lay down recovering unsure of how to deal with the evolving situation.

‘So, this was their backup plan. Just throw another dungeon golem at Sylvia or whatever other problem may come up because what? I can’t be relied on to solve the problem. I may fail or go rogue? How long have they been planning on making a second golem? Now I’m even less sure of what to do. Looking at Aria and Lucas they did not seem to know that backup would be coming but this was clearly planned. How did I not realize sooner? I must have walked by this golem sitting in its box several times over the last few days. What do they expect me to do after I see this recreation of myself? Roll over and accept that I am just a tool for them to use. Maybe they will find a way to wipe my memories a second time. I can’t let that happen to myself.’

The golem stabbed at Sylvia and was starting to make her bleed considerably. Each time it stabbed both magic and blood flowed out to fuel the golem. Away from the battle Zoe watched and controlled the golem. She wore magic leather gloves that flowed with magic. She was sitting down her mind in the golem. It moved how she willed it and cast the spells she programmed into it. She had not had much time to practice using the golem but as she fought using it her capabilities grew.

Sylvia was slowly growing weaker as the golem attacked her. She tried to get into the air, but the golem followed her and used the opportunity to throw its daggers at her wings. The wings tore and bled. She couldn’t use her paralyzing breath because the golem was inorganic. As she attacked she occasion scratched the golem up, but she found that its healing abilities were limitless. If she were to take it down she would have to do so quickly and in a powerful strike.

While the two of them fought in the air, Lucas ran to Ronny. Frostbite tipped his appendages, but the cold also slowed the blood loss. Lucas left the greatsword and picked up what was left of Ronny’s body. Lucas felt Ronny’s faint heartbeat as he carefully brought him away from the fight. On the other side of the fight, Aria was cleaning up the ice from her sister’s body. She had cleared the largest areas of ice and was now carving more carefully to avoid breaking the skin. Tears rolled down her face as she tried to get Kendra free.

Arthur looked over at Aria after the battle had moved into the sky. He still felt that not everything was in the correct place within himself as he healed. Reforging his metal core was taking longer than he expected as the runes got more intricate and complex. He checked over his boy regularly and found that he might be able to move a bit more albeit slowly. He looked over at Kendra and Aria. He could feel her lifeforce with his magic. He realized that she would die soon.

Arthur lifted himself up with a hand and started moving towards the pair.

“Bring her to me,” he whispered weakly. “I can help her. She will die otherwise.”

Aria stopped and looked over at Arthur who still had a small hole in his center and a twisted arm. She nodded and with a magic push she slid her sister over to him. Arthur cast [Fireball] but changed its properties to lower the heat and coat his hand. He started to melt the ice quicker until he could get a hand on her body. He made careful work of warming up her body before he started on [Lesser Heal]. Arthur adjusted the mage glove and pumped as much mana as he could into the spell overcharging it and the glove as he worked.

Sylvia’s battle with the golem was escalating in the air as she pounded it with magic until she could not sustain her flight. Tears covered her wings as she came crashing down with a thud. Shard of ice and dust spread out as she hit the ground. Sylvia covered herself in a shell of ice as the golem came down on her and spun its daggers over her body.

Sylvia smacker her wing against the golem and sent it spinning but it only gave her a temporary reprieve. It reset the injuries it had received and returned to deal out more damage to her. Sylvia’s mana dwindled further as she realized she was much closer to death than ever before. She focus on the last of her mana and spoke to Arthur telepathically.

“It would seem that we have both failed to do what we hoped. Maybe a few of your friends will survive. I could never have anticipated that they would have brought a second dungeon golem to kill me. It would seem to me that they are adamant about killing me today. I can feel your pain as you try to heal your friend and you can see that there is no way out now that they have unleashed the second golem. I feel nothing from it as it is merely a shell with no thoughts of its own. But that is a problem for you. Now that this fight is over accept these memories and take care of her. Protect her. She will need you.”

Arthur froze when he heard the message and turned to see the fight going on. He saw her laying over weakly. He felt the memories of the egg's location enter his mind and he accepted them completely. He focused his mind to send his thanks and final words, but her life force was gone. Faded away. Sylvia the silver dragon was dead.