The WindRunner soared through the air leaving contrails in its wake, its underbelly fin just grazing the clouds below. The cold air nipped at Avery's nose, but fortunately, it wasn't too cold. The Windrunner had a built-in shield-generator that covered the top of the small vessel to prevent that strong winds from affecting the people onboard. She had also noticed that what looked like a gondola that had been outfitted was actually a specialized vessel. Strangely enough, the design appeared to be similar to a few of in-game mounts that were given out in special competitions and contests. She had never won one, but she had flown in one that one of her guild members had won.

The inside looked similar, but this one didn't have that polished finish. The in-game one was made entirely of meteor-metal. This one was made out of wood like a normal boat, just with Magic Propulsion Engines, similar to jet engines, but with less power. If she had to estimate using the clouds, they were travelling just under eighty-mph (128 kph). Fenrir was enjoying the ride as his muzzle was plastered to the front wind barrier. Desmond, on the other hand, was sitting at the back. Around him was more magical devices with displays similar to the status screens, though unlike the status screen, others could see the content.

An expression of deep concentration was on his face, his brows furrowed as he clumsily tinkered with the display and kept pulling at something by his feet. Avery, who sat in the middle feeling a little bored, moved over and sat by him in an open spot that would allow her on his left. With both of them sitting there, it wasn't cramped, but they were cozy sitting shoulder to shoulder. Desmond was surprised by Avery suddenly sitting next to him and tensed up. Avery, however, was enjoying the extra warmth. Desmond was elated that a beautiful girl was sitting next to him, but it also made him more nervous. It became more apparent just how inexperienced Desmond was.

"Have you flown this thing before?" Avery asked as she leaned forward a little to see his expression. "Y-Yeah, plenty..." Desmond grew antsier as her face was only a foot away from his. "What are you looking for?" Her eyes turned to the two displays in front and to his right. Her gaze then travelled to his feet. There was a joystick attached to the floor, but neatly folded." Just checking a few things..." His face was turning pink as he spoke. His pale skin only emphasized his embarrassment more.

"Oh? Then can you tell me what's that by your feet?" Avery pressed against him more as she teased him, pressing her shoulder more against his. She wasn't oblivious to what she was doing as her playful tone was sung out. Be it that Desmond wasn't used to the opposite or he was just really nervous, she was amused by teasing him. " That's the piloting stick, it folds away when the Windrunner is in autopilot mode." He spoke with forcefully, as if he was avoiding something. "Ohh? So that's what you were looking for. It's on the right display towards the upper-left." She pointed to it with her left arm reaching across him.

Desmond tensed up even more as her sweet scent was caught by his nose. He turned his head quickly to try and get away from that lovely scent. Unfortunately for him, he turned to where she was pointing and felt even more ashamed. There was a square prompt, one inch by one inch with the words Autopilot Engaged. In that moment, he just wanted to throw himself over the side and be done with life. Avery had a lovely smile as she watched several different stages of his embarrassment flash across his face. Feeling she teased him enough, she leaned back and let him be.

After a few moments, Desmond calmed himself. He turned the autopilot off with a press of his finger and the joystick shot up straight. A prompt telling him that manual piloting was engaged, the Windrunner shook slightly before it tipped slowly forward as the nose dipped into the cloud. Then all around them turned white as they cut through the clouds with Desmond's control. Avery let out a breath of awe as she looked all around her as the clouds parted around them. Behind them, there was a clear path that soon began to fill as the air-vortex created by the Windrunner pulled in the surrounding fluffy clouds inwards.

After a minute, the Windrunner had broken through the underbelly of the clouds. What greeted them was large rocky-black stone mountains with snow-covered ridges. Between the mountains were a sea of green trees with tints of brown and yellow. A large river also snaked its way through between the mountains. Avery had never seen this place in the game before. Fenrir, having noticed Avery's awe and confusion, moved back to speak with her.

"This is the Grey-Stone Mountains. It's not from our time. Much of the land's makeup has changed." Fenrir turned to look at Avery. She nodded, her playful expression changed to a serious one. "How much has changed?" Avery asked as her eyes wandered over the scene below. " I think about-" Fenrir was cut off as Avery cut in " Hold up! Desmond!" Avery's eyes landed on a large pillar of smoke in the distance towards the side of the mountain. Multiple spells were shot, glowing through the smoke, but she couldn't see, as the smoke had created a smoke screen around the area.

The WindRunner had a noticeable drop in speed as Desmond's attention was pulled away when Avery called his name. That's when he too, had noticed the distant scene. The smoke wasn't high yet, indicating that it was fresh. He too also saw the glowing spells flowing faintly through the smoke screen. Understanding that Avery wanted to go check it out, he refocused on his Mana control and dipped the ship at a soft angle to gradually pick up speed.

After a few minutes, the Windrunner had reached the edge of the smoke. The speed dropped dramatically so they could get a better look.

RUUUUUOOOOOO!

A deep roar bellowed from within the smoke, clearing away the smoke on the that lingered on the ground. What was revealed was a Dragon, twenty feet wide and fifty feet long. Its scales weathered and scared, and its wings folded behind its back to protect it from the onslaught of spells being launched at it. "That's the Heaven's Cloud!" Desmond, who didn't have to concentrate too much on controlling the Windrunner now, pointed towards the source of the smoke. A large wooden boat with different inscriptions and devices attached to the hull lay on its side, smoke billowing out the rear, where the magic propulsion devices were located.

The Windrunner shook violently as the barrier and the engines had sputtered as the mana fueling them had been cut off."Desmond!" Avery yelled out his name to get his attention, but his ashen face was too focused on his mother's ship down below. "Desmond!" Avery shook his shoulder hard."Ah! Sorry! Sorry!" The sudden jerk of his body from Avery pulled him from his dazed state as mana began to pour back into the Windrunner, but they had fallen too close to the ground as they crashed into the trees.

Desmond only had enough time to activate the barrier as leaves and branches broke around them as the Windrunner crashed through the forest canopy below. He quickly tried to maneuver a crash landing as they crashed into the ground. Dirt flew everywhere along with other debris on the forest floor before it came crashing down again all over the barrier. Desmond and Avery were fine as her high-strength held them down as she held them both down to the seat below. Fenrir, on the other hand, was less fortunate. His paws couldn't exactly grip anything as he flew forward with a yelp as he crashed into the barrier. He was fine, but it still took the breath out of him.

The barrier then fizzled away, Fenrir and Avery were quick to recover, but Desmond was shaken up pretty bad. His eyes were swimming in their sockets and he puked off the side of the wrecked Windrunner. Avery and Fenrir both stood at high alert as just a couple hundred feet away was the battle between the ship's occupants and the dragon. "Quickly, Desmond!" Avery pulled on Desmond as she stepped out of the wrecked fuselage. He was still a little dazed but sobered up as another roar echoed through the trees, a fierce gust of foul smelling wind crashed into them.

Avery did a quick check of her inventory and equipped the set of armor she had worn at the festival. Light Particles converged around her limbs and chest. The armor quickly materialized under a second and a short sword was in her right hand. Desmond was stunned by the quality of her armor but forced himself out of it. He also equipped some armor, but black with gold-ornate decorations. His large overly exaggerated robe was replaced with a lighter long jacket. His legs were covered with greaves that matched the armor. In his hand was a staff with a large reddish-gold orb held by three large ornate metal wires.

His outfit seemed more for display while Avery's was more for movement. Fenrir also glowed slightly as armor appeared on his back and head. Without delaying, Avery and Fenrir shot forward, their backs slowly disappeared into the distance while Desmond stumbled after them on the uneven forest terrain. Neither of them noticed he couldn't keep up.

Avery and Fenrir slowed down at the edge of the clearing. Before them was a wide clearing over hundreds of feet. Broken trees and other debris littered the clearing as Mages hid behind fallen trunks and in craters. The Dragon was a lot more imposing up close, but Avery didn't feel fazed as she quickly charged in. The Dragon appeared to be methodical as he targeted his prey as if looking for something and only attacking when he didn't find it. Most of the defenders could escape from its attacks as it didn't use any Area of Effect attacks, only using its front claws to swipe away at the trees and at the humans below.

"Hold the dragon off!" One of the mages was equipped in armor like Desmond, but it was duller and made of steel. "The Empress is almost out of the ship! The precious cargo is with her!" Another knight shouted over the chaos and screams of the dying. Avery blocked it out as she charged at the Dragon. Noticing someone much stronger had appeared, the Dragon, with his glowing red eyes looked at her. Before it could register she was an attacker, Avery swung her sword at its right arm with all her might. The ground below it exploded as her sword cut through its limb and stuck the ground below. Burning red liquid covered Avery as its limb fell to the ground. The Dragon swung its stump of a limb around, flinging blood everywhere like a fountain.

Avery didn't have a chance to move before the left arm fiercely stuck her, sending her crashing into the standing trees. Fenrir chased after her, disregarding the dragon and the stunned fighters around it. "Master!" Fenrir managed to catch up to her, running quickly through the trail of broken trees and branches. Avery had flown until she hit the ground, leaving a large groove in the ground. A little bit of blood drizzled down from her cut lip. Her body was covered in dust and her hair was a mess, but thanks to her high defense, she got out with just that being out of breath from the hit.

"I'm fine.." Avery took a deep breath before realizing she had lost her sword. Her body that was caked in the Dragon's blood was now also covered in wood splinters and dirt. She looked like some zombie homeless person now, but she didn't have time to think more about it as the dragon let out an ear-piercing roar as light particles began to converge in its mouth. Having seen such attacks by boss monsters in the game, Avery quickly summoned a Holy Barrier that took the shape of a large Templar shield that stood taller than Avery and was wide enough to cover her.

A large beam of light shot out of the Dragon's mouth and within a blink of an eye had shot towards Avery, crashing into the Holy Barrier. The beam struck into the shield, but only managed to push her backward. Her feet dug deep into the ground and left a trail as the beam pushed her, sparks jumping out and molten mana dropped onto the dirt below before disappearing. Even though she had the barrier in front of her, she could feel the intense heat of the beam. She felt that it was a hit she didn't want to take, even with her stats and equipment.

The beam lasted for almost ten seconds before it died down. The injured dragon, now missing a limb, was dead-set on killing Avery. Its roars were filled with pain and hate as its wings spread out, shaking with anger. "Fenrir! Go check on the Empress, I’ve got this!" Fenrir nodded, disappearing into the thicket and wormed his way over towards the ship. Avery turned her attention back to the Dragon.

It brought its head towards its stub of a limb and let out a large breath of fire, searing the wound and cauterizing the wound like it happened before. It took a few moments, but it worked. The blood stopped flowing, leaving only a pool of blood below. The pressing matter was over, so it turned back towards Avery. It exhaled loudly before jumping into the air and taking off, Its wings flapped quickly. It rose slowly before it got to a good altitude and charged towards Avery.

"Crap!" Avery could tell it was going to do something so she kept the shield up, despite a pounding headache she had from having to keep it up from that last attack. The dragon dived towards her while releasing a large breath of fire that engulfed the area.

Desmond had finally made his way out of the forest as the dragon dive-bombed over Avery in the distance, but he didn't know what was going on. He only went up to the closest mage that was huddled behind a fallen tree. "You! Where is the Empress?! Where's Avery?!" The mage only shrunk more as was holding himself in the fetal position" I don't know! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" the mage just kept repeating himself over and over again. Desmond felt annoyed. These mages were supposed to be the top mages in his school and in the Research Department at the Palace. The one before him was a Researcher.

"Frick!" Desmond cursed out of frustration. Useless! He stuck his head over the tree trunk, but what greeted him scared him to his core. Mangled bodies of his lifeless school mates laid just on the other side. Crushed by the large claws of the Dragon. Their faces displayed the sheer horror they felt in their last moments. He quickly ducked back over, his face even more ashen than before. His mind was blank as the scene was burnt into his retinas. Fear numbed his body as he kneeled behind the trunk...

Avery, on the other hand, was fighting for her life. As the dragon past over her, she closed the barrier and noticed her mana bar was displayed just towards the bottom left of her view like in the game when entering combat.

[550,000/1,000,000]

Crap! Barriers worked in a sense that she could summon them for a lost mana cost. With the Holy Barrier, it only cost around a thousand to summon and could withstand a lot, but should the damage it takes to go over its summoned threshold, the Holy Barrier, like other higher-leveled barriers, would take from the summoner’s mana to keep it going. In her case, since it was such a strong attack, it took just under half her mana with those two! She was even more on her toes now, not wanting to find out which one did that.

Her surroundings were charred black, the trees on her sides set ablaze as the dragon banked around to attack her again. It was an all or nothing moment, summoning one of her strongest magic, Helio's Hammer, which was actually a bow. It cost just shy of two-hundred thousand to use one shot and was used to half raid bosses at the cost of sending a player into a fatigued state for a few minutes.

Summoning Helio's Hammer, Avery put her arms out like she was drawing a bow with an arrow notched. The air around her began to swirl as, like a vortex, her body began to glow brightly. The Dragon sensed that something was coming dangerously was happening and also prepared another Light beam, aimed for her. A phantom bow appeared in Avery's hand and an arrow in the other as she aimed for the dragon as it came barreling towards her. The phantom arrow solidified into an arrow made of glowing gold flames.

At the same time, the Dragon had finished its spell and launched it towards Avery. Feeling that the spell was done, Avery unleashed the arrow. An explosion like a sonic boom burst out from the front of the bow as the arrow left Avery's hand. The arrow zipped through the air like a bullet. The light beam and the arrow collided...