Jasper looked down at the creature, it seemed to be distracted. It was absentmindedly swishing its tail while standing still among the smoking wreckage of the forest. Even in these burned-out areas, the ambient temperature was well above normal. It did not appear to have spotted them and he decided they would make full use of this.

“Malithar, Lesano stay up here and prepare the strongest ice spell you can. Don’t worry about friendly fire, we will be prepared. We need the surroundings cooled with persistent anti-fire spells. Danfer and Kilp, we will land as a distraction. Cover me with cold auras and barriers, ill fight it.”

He felt the mages begin to channel their mana and softy chant, his two mages began to cause their decent, their speed rapidly increasing with powerful telekinesis.

They landed with a thud and Jasper felt the telekinetic grip on him release. He roared a challenge and unsheathe his sword charging at the surprised dragon. It let out a piercing roar that made his chest vibrate but he powered through it using his skills to give him an extra burst of speed. He used a combination of strong blow and dash to approach and send a powerful swing at the dragon.

Despite its surprise and unreadiness, the dragon responded with surprising speed, turning away from the blade and slashing ah him with its tail. The beast was far faster than their last encounter. His swing, to powerful to be diverted missed completely, shifting his balance enough for the tail to hit him. The appendage was not designed to deliver powerful blows but the dragon was not small and its tail was as thick as his meaty arm even at the tip.

It struck one of his legs and made him slip on the soft ash, he stumbled but did not fall. In this moment of weakness the dragon turned to face him and let loose a blast of fire, it radiated intense heat as it exploded towards him. Thankfully one of his support mages erected a glowing barrier that parted the fire and protected him from the deadly blast.

As the fire faded he saw the dragon with what he could only interpret as an infuriated snarl on its face. He could feel the temperature rapidly increasing, becoming painful. One of the mages must have felt this as well for they sent a cooling blast of frigid air that washed over the battle. It cooled Jasper and the dragon, it flinched and stumbled from the cold. He felt it using mana and its surrounding seemed to shimmer with heat as a bubble of heated air expanded pushing back against the frigid environment.

The mage not to be outdone by the dragon used even more mana, maintaining all the area up to a foot from the dragon at a comfortable temperature. At this moment Jasper used dash to reach the dragon while it struggled to generate heat, he swung his sword using strong blow and his momentum to launch a rapid assault on the beast flank. Its speed was impressive and higher than his base, but with dash, he outmatched it just.

The blade connected with the dragon’s side and scraped down the dragon’s scales. A few scales were ripped and cut but the beast was mostly just pushed away from him. It yelped in pain but no real damage had been done. It was in his moment of shock that Jasper failed to react to the bite that was sent in retaliation, the dragons head slithered up to his leg and clamped down on his thigh. There was a screeching of metal and he felt a huge pressure descend on his leg.

The thick metal of his armoured leg buckled under the huge strain and deformed to crush his leg. He felt a vice-like pressure as the dragon continued to crush his limb, to avoid further injury he raised his sword and went to bring it down on the dragon’s neck. It saw this coming at retreated, preventing its more vulnerable neck from being injured. Jasper focused on his leg after he and the dragon backed off, his friendly mages shielded against another powerful blast of dragon fire, this one tinged with the effects of magic.

It burned and degraded the shield but the mage altered the structure to optimise its protection, allowing Jasper to focus on his leg. The armour had not been punctured but the leg was tightly restricted by the bent metal and he had sustained heavy bruising. It would restrict him during the fight, but he only needed to buy the mages in the sky time to cast their artillery spell. Red dragons were notoriously bad at dealing with cold, the few that survived to a venerable age residing in deserts and volcanic areas. Jasper released a war cry as he powered forward to continue the fight.