Enraged after the rockslides, the dragon army was eager for combat. They regrouped once through the pass and charged. By Fortus’s rough estimate, this was the entirety of the remaining Dragon Tribe army, somewhat less than one hundred thousand men after the rockslides did their damage.

Fortus gave General Baatar a quick nod, and they ordered the army to retreat into the woods behind them. Thinking that they would pick off the injured alliance soldiers as they ran, the dragon army followed them in.

It was dark in the woods where the pale moonlight was further dimmed through the filtering canopy. Fortus hoped to capitalize on this. Moving as quickly and silently as possible, the alliance led the dragons to where Ulana was waiting for them. Here, the alliance army split in half, one half following Fortus to the left, the other half following the Phoenix General to the right.

Ulana was straining to listen for Fortus. She had concealed herself up a tall tree, just waiting for the signal as she watched the alliance army run by and the dragon army approach. “Alright, Fortus, any time now. They’re practically underneath me. Fortus, where are you?!”

“Ok, Ulana, showtime.”

“Finally!”

From her perch in the tree, Ulana threw a series of fiery projectiles at trees circling the dragon army. The confused dragons quickly found that every escape route had been blocked off by searing flames, and their army fell into chaos. As the soldiers scattered, seeking their own ways through the blaze, they were cut down by the alliance army that had curved around to surround the circle of fire. Ulana climbed down her tree, jumping the last little ways with all the drama she could muster, landing amidst an incredible ring of red, hot fire with her wings held high behind her and her eyes glowing a bright orange. If they weren’t terrified before, the dragon soldiers most certainly were now, tripping all over themselves to get away from her and find a way out of the hellfire she’d created.

Ulana quite enjoyed all the things the frightened dragons called her as they fled: angel of death, firebird, and, perhaps her favorite because of the oxymoron, demon angel. “One step closer to eternal infamy,” she smiled to herself and drew her sword.

Finished with her meditation, Lolo opened her eyes again to try and stand back up. She was still dizzy and had to lean against the large stalagmite column behind her just to get upright. Steadying herself, she glanced up at the fight. The Black Dragon had pushed Tamkhee and Standig back, and the boys kept having to reorient themselves to not get trapped against a wall. But they were still hanging in there. Lolo closed her eyes to breathe through her dizziness.

Lolo heard someone hit the ground and looked up again to see Tamkhee lying on the hard floor. Standig was now fighting alone, and the Black Dragon smiled broadly at him. While their fight raged on, Lolo staggered to where Tamkhee had fallen to drag him to the side.

“Tamkhee, are you ok?” Lolo was frantically patting at his cheeks and shaking his shoulders, not sure if he was conscious or not.

He groaned a little as his eyes opened. “Lolo?”

Lolo exhaled from relief. “Stay here.” Before Tamkhee could protest, Lolo rose to her feet again to try and help Standig. Her head was spinning less, but her eyes were still having a hard time focusing. She couldn’t tell how much of it was her blurry eyes and how much of it was actually their blinding speed, but Standig’s and the Black Dragon’s swords were moving so fast, she could only see occasional sparks fly.

Deep breaths. Lolo geared herself up to join the fight. Standig had to be getting tired.

Suddenly, Standig grunted from pain and staggered backwards as the Black Dragon’s sword found the joint between his breastplate and right pauldron. It was his sword arm, and the amount of blood was impressive.

The fear and panic overwhelmed her, and Huo Lohse howled.

Here in the lifeless cave, Lolo’s silver lights didn’t appear, but the captured souls of the fallen woke up, and they were angry. Clustering together to form a giant wrecking ball of light, they went after the Black Dragon, giving Lolo the chance to help Standig find a seat next to a semi-conscious Tamkhee.

“Lolo. Lolo!” Standig tried to get her attention as she inspected his wound and sobbed. “Lolo, listen to me.” He caught her chin with a bloodied hand to lift her face up and meet his gaze. “Lolo, it’s just a flesh wound. I’m going to be ok.”

She nodded, still unable to speak through her tears and panic.

“Lolo, I can’t fight anymore. Take my sword.”

Her head was shaking frantically, and Standig caught the fear in her face. She was panicking. But she was the only one left standing.

Starting to become woozy from the pain, Standig didn’t have much time. He caught Lolo’s face again and brought his forehead down against hers. “Breathe with me.”

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

Standig showed her images of all the people she loved and cared about. Her brothers, her parents, her team, her many, many friends…. Finally, he reminded her of Philige, flashes of the memories she’d shown him of their walks to the apple orchard, the way she’d felt calm and peaceful.

“Lolo, they’re counting on you to protect them. Don’t let them down.”

“Take my sword,” Standig managed through gritted teeth, handing her his sword with his left arm after the merge ended. “I know you can do this. You always find a way.”

Shaking, but calmer and no longer dizzy, Lolo accepted his sword and stood up to face the Black Dragon.

As he dispersed the cluster of souls, the Black Dragon looked around angrily, eventually laughing to see Huo Lohse standing defiantly between him and her friends. “The last line of defense is nothing but a little girl. Pathetic. You know that you are the reason they got hurt in the first place, right? They wouldn’t even be here if not for you.”

“Don’t let him talk. He will say anything to break you,” the Silver Wolf warned.

Lolo knew that the Silver Wolf was right. With a shout, Lolo charged. The Black Dragon hissed nastily as their swords made contact.

He was unbelievably powerful, at least as strong as Standig, but shorter with a lower center of gravity. He was also quick and precise; he didn’t have to rely on his towering strength to eventually overwhelm her because he matched her maneuverability. Even dual wielding, Lolo was hopelessly outmatched. She had to fall back on her speed and agility just to not get hit. She evaluated him for weaknesses to exploit, old injuries, points on his body that he tended to leave exposed, anything.… She came up dry. She’d have to wait for him to make a mistake, and hope that she didn’t make one first.

She was left waiting a long time. Twenty minutes ticked by, and the Black Dragon continued to battle her flawlessly. Forty minutes, Lolo felt herself becoming tired, and her head was throbbing where her gash was above her forehead. An hour, he showed no signs of relenting, and now both Tamkhee and Standig were drifting in and out of consciousness. She couldn’t maintain this, and if she couldn’t defeat the Black Dragon, if she went down, her friends, her loved ones were going to die. All of them.

A brutal shiver accosted her body as she made her decision. She dropped Standig’s sword to hold her own with two hands. The clang jolted Standig back into an alert state.

The Black Dragon laughed. “Getting tired, little girl? Good. I’m going to kill you now.” With that, he swung viciously, knocking her sword out of her hands.

“LOLO!” Standig shouted and began a nearly futile scramble to find his feet as the Black Dragon ran her through.

Grabbing her by the scruff of her neck, the Black Dragon pulled Huo Lohse’s face to his until they were nose-to-nose, his mouth curling in a horrible smile. “You lose.” He was confused to see her smiling back at him until he felt something sharp plunge upwards just below his sternum and into his heart. Her dagger struck true and had found the weakness in Durfein’s armor.

“I never drop my sword unless I want to,” she gasped through the pain as both of their faces went pale. “The real winner of a fight is the one who survives or protects the ones they want to protect. So, actually, you lose.”

Standig froze. He had heard Lolo tell him that before when she cheated in a sparring match all those years ago, and a grim numbness enveloped him as it registered that she had sacrificed herself intentionally in order to protect everyone... them... him.

The light left the Black Dragon’s red eyes and his body tumbled backwards onto the floor.

“Go,” Lolo whispered as she dropped to her knees, the Black Dragon’s sword still stuck in her gut.

The Silver Wolf emerged from her chest as Lolo raised a shield. This shield wasn’t created to keep danger out. It was specially designed to trap it inside. As the Black Dragon spirit emerged from his host’s body, the Silver Wolf attacked.

Standig felt the Black Bear spirit leave him to aid the Silver Wolf in the vicious fight against the Black Dragon, but she couldn’t break through Lolo’s shield. Together they watched in horror as Lolo swayed on her knees, fighting for all she was worth to stay conscious long enough to keep the dragon trapped until her wolf spirit could finish him off. Unaided by the Silver Wolf, using her ultimate burned through her spiritual energy twice as fast, and her nose started bleeding yet again. To make things worse, the Black Dragon had the Silver Wolf caught by the back of her neck in his fangs.

“Lolo, let us in!” Standig worked desperately to catch her attention. “At least let the Black Bear in to help!”

She had to concentrate unusually hard to adjust the shield and allow the Black Bear through it, but she stubbornly refused to let Standig anywhere near the fight. With the Black Bear’s strength added to the mix, the Black Dragon was forced to free the Silver Wolf. He was overpowered, the Black Bear pinned him, and the Silver Wolf began shredding him to pieces. The sounds of this primordial execution were harrowing, so much so that Tamkhee was roused from his delirium in time to watch the Black Dragon spirit dissolve into nothingness.

The battle now over, Lolo dropped the shield and swayed to the side, falling for what felt like forever.

Those few dragon soldiers that weren’t killed surrendered unconditionally to the alliance, and the alliance armies went to work securing the prisoners.

“Ulana, you were incredible,” Fortus praised her openly, something he hadn’t done much of before.

“It was your genius idea,” she grinned. “Have you checked in with the others?”

“I was about to.”

“Fortus, Ulana!” Philige found them to congratulate them. “That was-” Philige collapsed to his knees, clutching at his chest and choking on a sudden bloody nose.

“Philige?” Fortus had only seen this type of thing happen once before and knelt down next to the Bear Tribe leader to support his shoulders.

Philige was finding it hard to breathe, his chest hurt so badly. Somehow, he just knew that something terrible had happened. Specifically, something had happened to his wife. “Lolo,” he gasped, hoping that Fortus would understand.

Quick as as wink, Fortus grabbed Philige’s arm and dragged him to his feet, snagging Ulana as he broke into a run.

“Jadu, grab four horses and meet us by the pass. Hurry.”

“Ok.”

Fortus terminated the connection before Jadu could ask any questions.

“Fortus, what’s going on?” Ulana asked anxiously.

“Lolo is in trouble,” he didn’t even try to hide the panic in his voice.

Unable to connect with Lolo, Fortus tried Standig. “Status?”

Standig didn’t need to say anything. The visual link told Fortus everything he needed to know. Through Standig’s eyes, he watched the Black Bear and Silver Wolf finish off the Black Dragon and Lolo drop her shield and collapse with a sword through her belly.

Jadu could not arrive quickly enough. They mounted their horses and tore off through the pass toward the palace.