The drake spread its enormous wings, rising to the air in a single, fluid motion. The remnants of the Final Fist dispersed from Seira's shaking palm, and the other arm she had thrown into the air sagged. Her knees nearly buckled, but she forced herself upright. If for no other reason than pride, she would keep fighting. She released her shroud technique, letting the channeled mana pool back into her core, settling next to the half-spent infused water. If she was going to keep this up, she needed to be as frugal as possible.

A barrage of spikes rose from the ground, and she pulled a talisman from her pocket. She carried one on her at all times, but this one had already been strained in her earlier skirmish. It deflected a few strikes, but quickly crumbled before the assault. She cursed. Now the only thing standing between her and a good skewering was her agility. She weaved left and right, trying desperately to distance herself from the looming monstrosity in front of her.

She had already found out that punching it out wouldn't work, but just because it was ten times larger than her didn't mean that it had ten times the mana. If you cannot best your opponent based on power and skill, your only hope is to outlast them. That was a saying from one of her many faceless tutors, one that she had found to be incredibly untrue. There were many other ways to win a fight, like diplomacy or surprise attacks, but she remembered this proverb nonetheless. It was very applicable to situations like this.

A flurry of stony quills shot towards her, and she was forced to disintegrate those that she couldn't avoid. This drake was smart — much smarter than those she had read about. It had recognized that she was trying to tire it out, and it had switched to a more efficient means of attack. At least it hadn't coated them in the same golden metal it had used for its scales.

She gathered mana in her palm, backpedaling. If only the battle hadn't taken her to the side with the spirit-beasts, she would have been able to run away. Now, it was likely that the drake would command them to attack at the first sign of flight.

It roared once more, and suddenly it was glowing at twice the normal intensity. Had it been holding back this entire time? Chunks of earth gathered around it as it slowly advanced towards her, a golden light emanating from its mouth. The rest of the beasts backed away, but she couldn't tell if they did so out of fear or reverence. Whatever the case, she could recognize a powerful attack when she saw one. She raised her lead-filled arms, preparing to throw herself out of the way.

The drake locked eyes with her, triumph evident by its expression. However, unlike her, it didn't celebrate prematurely. It steadily advanced, forming a cyclone of stone around it until its ginormous shadow encompassed her fully. She sighed. This was it. She looked around, but Aer was nowhere to be seen. Yet… a flaming fist crashed into the drake, crushing it to the ground in a single blow. Rynn leapt away from it, bands of water, earth, and fire binding his limbs.

"I heard you required assistance, Brave."

She stared at him, dumbfounded. "How did you do that?"

Kiro arrived next to her, a full-blown flaming shroud enveloping him.

"Sorry, Rynn was being difficult!" he huffed. "I came as fast as I could."

The drake struck back, swiping at them with still-onyx claws.

Rynn met a strike with a stone-covered fist, and though he was knocked back, he was ultimately unharmed.

Seira shot a blast towards the other one, knocking it away. "Rynn! You haven't answered my question!"

He conjured a gust of air, blowing her and Kiro back.

"Away from us! I don't want you getting hurt!"

She sputtered. Getting hurt? She had fought this thing for longer than he had! She drew again on her mana, launching a ball of concussive force towards the creature.

It attempted to block with a gilded wing, but her new aspect could not be contained so easily. The air cracked as her attack exploded outwards… or was that its wing? Rynn shot a boulder of his own towards the drake, and as the dust cleared her suspicions were confirmed. So it could resist her destructive flames, but blunt force shattered its bones? How interesting.

The boulder was met by a wall of stone, and the drake's light intensified once more. The wing righted itself, but as it was being healed, Rynn crashed a lance of flame into its eye.

"Fire won't do much," she said smugly. "You'd be better off using your rocks again."

Rynn flashed her a look, and intensified his fire. He launched himself into its chest, all of his mana focused on outputting pure heat. She smirked.

The drake thrashed, trying with all its might to dislodge its assailant. On its scales, where he had grabbed it, two molten holes remained. Then, with a final shout, he conjured a giant boulder, crushing it with its own attack. The glow around it flared, reaching new levels of brightness. There! She knew it couldn't have been killed so easily.

Seira waited expectantly, but other than a few twitches, the beast stayed dead.

Rynn was really starting to get on her nerves.