Okay, it's official... I suck at writing fight scenes. This took me way too long. *head-desk*

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Fire.

Fire in all directions.

Is this a dream? Or is it a nightmare?

I had heard several religious people say before that I belonged in a place like this. "Hell", they called it. A place reserved for people who do horrible things. Wulvari too... just because.

I knew it was just a forest fire, but the fear and anxiety I was feeling made it so much worse.

I got separated from Milena shortly after the fire started. I had no idea where Wormy was and I didn't see Roland or the king either.

My hat was flying off deeper into the burning forest and I had no choice but to chase after it. I couldn't go back to town without it. Something was strange, though. The intense heat was causing the wind currents to shift. That much I understood. Worse, this high up the mountain, it was mixing with the clouds or cold air or some other thing I didn't understand and causing a lightning storm.

But that wasn't the strange part. The strange part was that my hat was flying against the wind.

With my ears still exposed, I didn't see a point in hiding my tail down my pants. In this chaos, though, it didn't really matter. No one had any time to worry about anyone other than themselves. I kept seeing shadows of men running back the other direction. I could barely hear them yelling about this or that over the roaring flames. Every once in a while was also the roar of a really pissed off dragon.

I hacked and coughed as the smoke burned in my chest and the heat stung my eyes. But no matter how much it hurt, all I could do was continue to chase that stupid hat. Eventually, I came to another clearing.

There was a large cave opening here. I couldn't see far into it's depths, even with the blazing forest fire providing plenty of light. All the grass that was here was completely burned away already. Some trees were completely burned out and were now just big black poles sticking out of the ground with glowing red embers inside. The most striking feature of this area, though, were the big claw marks all over the ground and around the mouth of the cave.

This was the entrance to the dragon's den.

I didn't have time to worry about the dragon, though. Thankfully, I could still hear it roaring and thrashing around in the distance. No, I had a much more immediate problem.

That problem was a black cloaked man standing in front of me. Something told me that this was a different person than the one that had been stalking me before. This guy was bigger and it was far more obvious that he was a man. Broad shoulders, thick arms and a chin big enough to look like he could dig a hole with it. And they call me a "beast".

He had my hat.

"Looking for this?" he taunted me as he waved it in the air.

"Give that back!" I demanded.

He grinned and put it in a small pouch attached to his belt. "No, I don't think I will," he said. "You won't be needing it anymore, anyway."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked as I drew the monster blade off my back and fixed my stance, ready to fight for it if I had to.

"Because you're going to die here, of course," he said.

He drew the sword from his waist and took a stance of his own, slowly circling me around to my right.

I circled to the left and matched his pace as I questioned him. "Why do all this!? I saw what you did. You attacked the dragon from behind and started this mess! All those humans died and more are going to die! All just so you can kill me!?"

Instead of an answer I got a wind blade straight to the face! I quickly drew the broad side of the monster blade up to block, but I couldn't defend against all of it. It cleanly sliced a large cut over my right eye.

"You conceited little brat!" he yelled. "Do you think the world revolves around you!? And no, I did not start this. You did!"

I was completely stunned. I had no idea what he was talking about. He didn't let that opening go to waste and continued to send one wind blade after another at me.

"My parents were killed in a wulvari raid when I was young! Years later, my wife and son were taken, too!" he yelled.

"That has nothing to do with me!" I yelled as I charged at him. I knew I couldn't keep blocking them forever, and even that wasn't very effective. My clothes were being ripped to shreds and cuts were opening up all over my body. But I closed the distance and I swung with an overhead strike.

He blocked it with a quick shield spell and slashed a good chunk out of my left shoulder with his sword. Then he jumped back a step or two, taking the time to keep yelling at me while I was reeling from the pain.

"There are many of us!" he continued. "I'm not the only one! Wulvari have ruined ALL of our lives! We begged and pleaded for the king to come to his senses and wipe out you bastards once and for all!"

He punctuated every one of his sentences with another wind blade, ripping my uniform and my body to shreds. I charged again and swung from the right this time. But thanks to losing a lot of blood, there wasn't as much power in it and he blocked it with his sword.

He stopped using magic at this point and he tried to take me on in close combat. He had longer reach because he's an adult, but my larger weapon made up the difference. He was good with the sword, but nothing compared to Roland. He couldn't land a single hit on me anymore. I just needed to keep him too close to cast spells. The fact that the overly emotional idiot kept talking only made it easier for me.

We exchanged one blow after another. I may have been bleeding all over the place, but I could tell that my heavy weapon was wearing him down, too. I got a shallow cut across his chest and another on his leg. Soon I'd take him apart.

"It wasn't long until we gathered enough people to convince the king. Plenty of the nobles had joined our cause. If we could get Captain Firth to join us as well, it would be only a matter of time until the king gave in! But then you came along!" he bellowed.

Right when he said "you" he suddenly kicked me right in the face and I fell onto my back. I quickly rolled to my side as he gouged out the ground where I was only moments before with his magic. He quickly backed up, knowing full well that I could beat him if I kept close. I wouldn't let him win that easily, though. I felt my muscles tighten as that frenzy thing activated again in response to the danger.

I took him by surprise with my sudden burst of speed and strength and shattered his shield spell with a heavy swing from the side. Unfortunately, he managed to block with his sword too at the last second. I knocked him clear off of his feet and he soared away from me. It felt great... until I realized the mistake I made.

I had knocked him too far away. Even with the frenzy, I'd never make it in time to stop his next spell... wait... spell!

Right when he unleashed his magic, I took the risk and tried to cast my own. A spell shield. I didn't have to know what my affinity was if it was this spell. It works for everyone.

Right when I threw out my hand and invoked the spell, I felt a huge amount of mana suddenly rush forward and form the sigil. A massive wall made of mana appeared between me and him. It was so huge it stuck into the ground.

Whatever spell he had sent at me crashed into it and blew back right into his face, knocking him into a small boulder. He coughed up a large amount of blood as he looked at me with an astonished look on his face. Or as much of it as I could see... Unfortunately, I wasn't in any position to enjoy it.

I felt the effects of the frenzy immediately end. Worse, I felt incredibly tired. It was mana exhaustion. I didn't intend to, but I had used up all the mana I had in that one single spell. With no mana to fuel it, of course the frenzy would end. I fell to my knees as all the pain came rushing back twice over.

"Haha... This isn't even funny. You really are a monster," he said. "Well, it doesn't matter. Because of you, the captain won't even talk to us anymore. He was to be our trump card, and you ruined it. So now, we have to take drastic measures."

I struggled to stay upright and glared at him, breathing hard. I felt exhausted and despite the raging fire all around the area, I felt cold too. I could only think that I was dying.

"Killing you is just the start. We've been given orders to kill the king and have it blamed on you. Then when the prince is crowned, we'll go straight to war. In the confusion of this forest fire all the evidence will be burned away. All we have to do is kill anyone who'll speak in your defense," he explained with a sneer.

"N... no..." I grunted. He's going to-

"That's right. I'm going to kill that girl, too!" he said.

Using the last of my strength I heaved the monster blade as hard as I could straight at him. It quickly spun through the air right on target. But right at the last second he dodged to the side and it stuck through his cloak and stabbed into the boulder behind him.

"...Dammit..." I cried. I had failed.

I was going to die and I couldn't even take the bastard down with me. I finally used magic, just like I dreamed I would someday and all it did was get me killed. And now this jerk and his friends are going to chase after Milena and the king and kill them too.

He scoffed at me and raised his hand to get ready to finish me off. As his hand began to glow, I was distracted by a large shadow that seemed to be growing behind him. The fire was starting to die down now, and the light was diminishing. But a bolt of lightning revealed what it really was. The dragon was back!

Right before the sigil formed, the dragon lunged forward and roasted the bastard alive with it's fire breath! The fire was so hot, it melted my monster blade right into the boulder. The man's cloak and clothes quickly burned away, freeing him from the boulder, but that didn't really do him any good, as he was now a human torch.

His screams of agony as he flailed around quickly faded as the dragon repeatedly blasted him over and over again. He tried to run, but it didn't do him any good. He soon fell to the ground, but the dragon didn't seem to think it was enough and continued burn his corpse until there wasn't even any ashes left. He really must've pissed it off.

Satisfied, the dragon huffed and swept away the spot where he fell with it's tail, completely wiping away whatever, if anything, remained. It then turned and looked at me.

Well, it was obvious that it only came here to get revenge on that guy. It really had nothing to do with me. But with him dead, Milena, Wormy, Roland and the king all had better chances of getting out of this alive. I was done for regardless, so I just smiled at the dragon. Whether it intended to or not, it had helped me out.

The dragon just stared at me as it came closer. Strangely, it didn't seem all that threatening to me anymore. I guess when you know you're going to die anyway, nothing seems scary.

Unable to keep my head up anymore, I collapsed and passed out.

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