I felt the cold chill run strongly down from my nape to my boots.

Without hesitation, I reached towards the satchel that held my spellbook; there were five slots across its face, each held a single and rare potion.

I had always done my best not to use them unless I had to. They were expensive and hard to replace, but even worse was that they were incredibly potent; they were powerful, but I could drink one, two at most, before potion poisoning would set in.

Still, I downed it as another roar shook the skies.

It felt like cold mint and ice water had infused my entire circulatory system.

I watched as my Mana and Faith counters refilled completely.

[Mana: 300/300]

[Faith: 30/30]

Sadly, I knew that I had far too little health to stand before what was coming.

[HP: 60/60]

I gripped my staff hard as the majestic and horrific beast crashed into the face of a nearby cliff face; its massive claws dug deeply into the stone and sent boulders breaking down into the sea of stars below.

I raised my staff and the ground below me rose up to carry me to stand before the arrived creature.

It perched itself like a lion observing its prey. If there had ever been honor in its gaze, now it was a cold cruelty that had taken its place.

"You come to the Cravens, woman?" its words were deep and rumbling with a rhyming accent; it would have been attractive, if it didn't come from the maw of a giant lizard.

"For one of the few reasons someone would," I said, "for family."

It snorted its wide nostrils and a noxious brimstone smoke spewed out from its airways. "I left mine behind ages ago. It's better that way; they lead you to make foolish decisions and to go where you shouldn't."

"How did a dragon come to serve the Rulers?" I asked slowly.

It raised its voice then and I felt the [Dragon Fear] turn my bones to ice. "Do not mistake this, little girl. This is a favor owed and already paid; it is not servitude that brings me here."

"Which one?" I inquired who its master might be; there were only twelve entities that I knew of that something as powerful as a dragon might serve.

"Not for you to know, pointless for you to ask," it replied and calmed itself somewhat.

A pause and a silence.

"Will you die easy?" the dragon inquired. "Or hard?"

"Hard," I said through gritted teeth.

"It will hurt then," it said; it wasn't a threat, but an indifferent warning and observation.

"You probably will kill me," I admitted.

My eyes grew as cold as the mythical beast's were uncaring. "But there's still the distinct possibility that you don't manage that before I tear those wings off of you for this."

A deep booming sound resounded in the chest cavity of the dragon. Was it laughter?

"We. Will. See!" the dragon roared and threw its head up into the air to shake the sky in a way that it hadn't before.

I cast [Resist Influence] right away and on instinct.

[You have resisted [Greater Dragon Fear].]

[Greater Telekinesis] was still in effect and this fact, along with my reactive casting, was the only thing that saved me in those first few seconds.

The dragon's flames cindered in its raised maw, the heat screaming in ignition, and then it was barreling towards me in a shot of blaze.

At my will and that of my telekinesis, the earth beneath my feet broke off into two chunks that rested below each of my boots.

This granted me a greater maneuverability that let me spin away from the beast's flames in an evasive maneuver.

The breath of fire instead hit what remained of my original footing of temple flooring. It all but turned the stone to running grey streams upon impact.

My body swirled up and around the fire; it wasn't hitting me, but I felt the heat cooking my bones from the outside-in nonetheless.

[You've lost 2 HP.]

I was going to die. I was sure of that.

But, like I'd promised the dragon, I wasn't going to go easy.

My heart screamed as I surfed the air with the two pieces of rock beneath my feet.

I raised my arms and my eyes shook with blue electricity.

For as versatile as I'd striven to be, I'd always be a mage of the tempest; I'd been born with an affinity to storm spells. They did extra damage and cost me much less Mana.

It was a talent that had saved my life many times. I had no such hopes that it would do the same now, but it could at least let me punish this mythical bastard.

The static energy crackled and spun up from my core and across my arms, and then supercharged itself as I pumped more Mana into it than I normally ever would've.

The massive stream of pure power spiraled up from my body and flared through my staff to launch an upcasted [Lightning Bolt].

The boom of thunder was deafening and caused the dragon to turn its head toward me and to open its toothy maw.

As my spell broke the air, the sound of ignition returned.

It must've passed its recharge roll. That was too quick for my Luck to have been anything but terrible, which it wasn't.

I cursed under my breath, paralyzed in this split-second in time as my body acted as a channel for my attack.

For all my experience, I wasn't sure how my spell would stack up against a Hellfire's Wyrm's breath weapon.

I mentally prepared an [Arcane Shield], for if things went wrong, but knew that I might not have but a half-moment to get the spell off if it was needed--and that might not be enough.

The flames erupted from the dragon's mouth.

The [Lightning Bolt] met the inferno.

The mystical light that erupted as the two magical attacks met was blinding.

The dragon bellowed in a mighty pain.

I, on the other hand, felt the shockwave almost before I realized it was coming. [Arcane Shield] encircled me and covered my body in a bubble of azure protection as I flew off of the foot-sized rocks that I had held myself upon.

I felt my my body rock and shake and heard the sound of sundering stone.

I went so fast that I don't know how far I had flown, but I had connected with the chunk of rock with enough force to cripple me under normal circumstances. Thankfully, my [Arcane Shield] flashed and flared but did not break as it, and I, tunneled through and out the other side of the floating boulder.

It was good that I hadn't died immediately upon crossing blasts with a dragon, I would admit, but I still had no desire to fall endlessly through an infinite void.

[Blink] coursed through my body and I became a million, delicate particles of mana. My broken apart form shot through the air and reformed on a nearby section of solid ground; I was panting already.

My [Arcane Shield] fizzled out of existence back where I'd left it.

The dragon, meanwhile, was righting itself with its wings. Its eyes found me then.

It said no words to me. I could see the animalistic rage, that made even the greatest of kings fear the dragons, roaring in the beast's gaze.

The creature swung its tail underneath itself to allow it to hover upright as it raised its right arm.

The beast's massive maw moved as the words of power filled the air with an echoing authority.

Above the dragon's taloned hand, a [Fireball] spun into existence from its Mana.

I broke into a run. Not away from, but straight towards the dragon.

I jumped into the air and, throwing all thought of Mana consumption to the wind, cast [Fly] as my feet left the stone below them.

"[Counterspell]!" I screamed at the beast and activated the spell.

The unsuspecting dragon's eyes grew wide. It'd been a fool to try and send magic my way, mythical beast or not.

The flaming ball the dragon had constructed faltered and, with a powerful boom, it exploded against the side of its conjurer's body.

Much as I had been, the dragon's massive form was sent flying into a nearby rockface.

The beast tore the stone apart with its weight and crashed into another segment of mostly level ground.

I threw my arms out to the side defiantly and flared into a bolt of pure lightning. [Greater Lightning Ride] carried me and slammed my bespelled body, now briefly transformed into what amounted to an area of effect [Lightning Bolt], directly towards the dragon's massive head.

With a mighty applause of force, I felt my energy smack into the dragon, whose long neck was forced with a violence to crack the stone beneath it as I thundered down upon the beast with all my mystical might.

As they reformed from the Mana stream, my hands reached from the lightning bolt to grab the dragon's scales.

"Arrogant mage!" the dragon roared.

[Greater Polymorph] was the second strongest shapeshifting spell that I knew to exist. It nearly cut my mana down by a fourth when I was fully rested, which I was not, but it would be worth the cost--I was running low as it was, I didn't have much time left in this fight anyway.

My hands were still the only thing that had emerged from the [Greater Lightning Ride] that was still flaring brightly.

With the casting of my final spell, my fingers and forearms began to shift and change; they grew larger and I could feel my skin becoming almost as thick as the dragon's scales.

My feet emerged from the stream of dying lightning next; they were now already massive, imposing and intimidating.

My now towering head came last, before my stone-skinned body was finally revealed in its entirety as [Greater Lightning Ride] dissipated.

Even the dragon began to crush further under my unexpected weight, which was now that of a stone giant's.

With an angry shout, I grabbed for the beast's wings.

It was the arrogant one. I'd told the dragon exactly what I'd planned to do if it chose to keep me from my family.

I began to tear with a mighty force at the beast's flesh, but, even in my now shockingly powerful form, I still doubted I'd be able to rend aged dragon flesh quickly enough.

The beast below me began to struggle upwards and I felt myself shift further.

[You have failed to grapple Hellfire Wyrm.]

I pulled with everything I had; seeing the World Spirit notification, I knew I didn't have much time. The dragon was still stronger than me; I'd only managed to surprise it a moment ago.

The dragon roared and I gave the last of my strength, just as I felt the wings begin to give.

The roar then became one of the most pained wails that I'd ever heard.

Instantly the dragon stopped trying to fight against my weight and I felt its body instead shift and change.

But it was too late; I also felt the wings crack and warp, just as the crippled appendages were pulled into the quickly shrinking creature's back.

With the dragon's body now very suddenly pulling from below me as it shrank further, I fell to the earth below.

My own body begin to shrink as [Greater Polymorph] ended and I came to stand, in my sweat-covered true form, across from a very angry looking, now also elven, woman.

The transformed dragon's orange eyes were pools of hate and rage. She clenched a mangled arm with the other and stood hunched and hurting; a flow of blood seeped out from her hairline.

Her beautiful, ash colored hair swayed as she raised her one still working hand in an instinctive hatred towards me.

"I will make you suffer!" she screamed.

The earth around me grabbed my legs. I didn't have the Mana to stop it. Instead I grasped for one of the four vials that remained atop my bag.

I felt myself be forced to my knees and secured completely via the use of her [Earth Bind].

"This was not personal, not until you crippled me, you wench!" the draconic elf cursed me. "I felt you crack them. I will never fly again!"

Her eyes flared with a red aura. Flaming, ethereal swords were born into existence over her shoulders; all of them were pointed and poised to execute me.

"Do you even comprehend what you've taken from me?" she raged. "What's it's like to lose something so dear to your very identity and being!"

I looked into her eyes. Images of Castien and James flashed into my mind.

I comprehended perfectly.

She grimaced when I didn't answer; murder covered her visage. "What do you have to say before I end you, mage? Or maybe I'll just take your legs and leave you here for the demons."

My hands were just as bound as my legs were. Her spell had been thorough. Still, I could close my fist at least.

I crushed the thin glass of the mana potion in my palm, rather silently, and felt some of the liquid seep into my skin. The magic of the powerful potion was indeed as potent as it was toxic. It didn't need to be consumed directly to confer at least some of its vast benefits--and some was all I needed.

I looked to the dragon, with the very magical swords floating so near to her exposed head.

Her ears perked up and her attention instantly shot to my hand. Her nose quickly scented the wind and her eyes soon grew wide as she stared at the blue liquid seeping down between my clinched fingers.

She truly was arrogant to underestimate me, even after I'd wounded her so. Then again, arrogance was many a dragon's most fatal of flaws.

The mystical swords and the dragon's hand flinched towards me in both alarm and aggression, but it was too late for her to stop me, or for the spell to at all get away from her.

She should've killed me the moment she had the chance.

I smiled at the bitch.

"[Counterspell]."