I felt a lurch as the benefits of both Adrenaline, and Focus left me and I had to resist falling to all fours and vomiting. I had a tendency to burn through all of my abilities to put an end to any fight as quickly as possible, it was a weakness that I'd known about for some time, but I'd leaned into it in order to provide a good show for Ran. I was now stuck behind enemy lines exhausted, with a minotaur approaching to squash me like a bug, the height of drama. My assumption was that Ran would likely not let things go that far. I was surprised to find when the minotaur finally got close enough to take a swing, it was with easily enough force to kill me.

I threw myself backwards as far as I could, my body screaming in protest. It wasn’t a clean dodge, and I fell back struggling to stand back up as the Minotaur took another step toward me and made another swing. I dodged between his legs, and cast invisible step multiple times, using up all of my mana and climbing quickly until I was about five feet above the minotaur’s head. I made myself as still as possible and did everything I could to quiet my breath.

The minotaur looked around, confused. He spun in a circle, made a few loud confused grunts, then actually tucked his head between his legs to see if I was still there somehow.

I thought for a moment about plunging down onto him and attempting to run through his skull with my sword, but climbing the steps alone had felt almost impossible, and I wasn’t sure I could drive a blade through that thick of a skull. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck raise, and looked over to see Ran. She had a mischievous smile on her face, seemingly taking a break from her overdramatic screams and flattering positioning. That’s when I remembered that the minotaur wasn't real. It’s just something Ran summoned to play out this scenario. I'd attempted hiding out of instinct, but anything she could see, he could see.

“Fuck,” I muttered as the Minotaur turned it’s attention upward to look directly at me.

He made a leap with his club behind his back and swung it downward onto me. I rolled off my invisible step and fell, gracelessly, to the ground, the air leaving my lungs as I landed hard.

The minotaur’s club slammed down hard, but didn’t hit me, the length of it, and his leap meant that the end of the club instead wound up hitting the ground a couple of feet above me. He raised his club again, and I shot a pleading glance to Ran, but saw only an amused smile on her face. I may have made some assumptions about her I shouldn’t have.

I forced myself to look up at the minotaur, and started willing something to happen. A portal opening to activate my Borne of Two Worlds buff, Ren getting off his ass and helping me directly instead of cosplaying a CEO, gaining the ability to become intangible. Nothing happened, at least nothing I was praying for. The Minotaur’s club started to come down again, and I gritted my teeth.

At that moment, I heard a roar and a scream. Zevarck slammed into the minotaur’s chest like a hawk diving for prey and unleashed a torrent of flame point blank into him.

The beast let out a primal roar, stepping back and stopping his club mid-strike. As he did, Patience leapt onto his back, stabbing her daggers into his back down to the hilt while screaming. Her usual relaxed and wry expression contorted into one of rage. She began pulling more daggers from her coat, her boot, even her hat, driving them deep into the Minotaur as he spun around, trying to remove both her and Zevrack.

You know, it hadn’t occurred to me in all my silent and quick prayers to ask my friends to save me. That likely said some things about my psychology that would take years of therapy to fully understand, but I’d save psychological concerns for later, and focus on the more immediate, physical ones, for now.

Eventually, the minotaur managed to shake off both Patience and Zevrack, but just as he moved to make follow-up swipes at them, he began to be peppered with arrows. I strained to turn my head and saw Nica, stepping over goblin corpses and moving closer while firing at the creature.

Tiberius was behind her, and when the minotaur began moving in her direction, Tib smashed his sword on his shield, took a low stance, and charged. The minotaur was surprised by his ability to close quickly, and lifted his club to block it, but was pushed back several yards. With him distracted, Zev and Patience were able to renew their attack, slashing at him with their claws and daggers, respectively.

While they were fighting, I dragged myself to my feet and gripped my sword tightly in my hand, taking a step toward the struggle even as I panted and stumbled trying to move forward. I felt a hand grasp my shoulder and looked to see Tristus standing behind me. He shook his head at me. I tried to take another step, and he pushed down, lighter than I would’ve expected, and I fell back down into a seated position. I tried to stand again, but Tristus’ hand felt immovable. I looked around, and realized that all of the goblins were dead, and only the minotaur left.

Millicent came to stand next to me, green blood stained her dress, and she was panting almost as heavily as I was. She began speaking under her breath, and moving her hands through a series of strange and intricate motions. I felt a surge of magic, and rock spikes shot through the minotaur’s foot.

He let out another scream, and in that moment with his guard dropped, Tiberius batted his club to the side with his shield, and drove his gladius deep into his stomach. Covered in stab wounds, burns, and arrows, the beast let out a final roar as he fell to his knees and succumbed to his wounds.

Everyone stood still, panting and exhausted from the fight. I moved to push myself up again, and this time Tristus let me. I walked over to the stone tower, climbed the steps up to the top, stepped behind Ran, and cut the ropes that had her tied to the pole. I then took her by the hand and helped her to stand, though I had the impression that she was holding me up rather than the other way around.

“Are you alright my lady? I hope that the beasts didn’t do you any harm.” I said, not able to keep at least a small amount of sarcasm from leaking into the statement.

She straightened herself up, tilted her head back, and started laughing. It was a heavy, hearty laugh, and as it came from her, she began expanding. She very quickly filled the majority of the valley we’d found ourselves in, the stone tower and corpses all fading into nothing, and her body wrapped around the rest of the party while I now found myself standing in the palm of her hand.

She was absolutely breathtaking. Each of her scales was a different color and each caught the light beautifully, lighting us all in rainbow colors of that reflection. I found myself looking into eyes that shifted color second to second, and a mouth full of teeth as tall as I was, as she continued laughing for a few moments, pausing for only a brief moment to wipe away a single perfect tear that had formed at the edge of her eye while she’d been laughing.

When she’d settled down, she gently placed me back onto the ground next to my friends, and I fell over and needed to be steadied by Patience who helped me to my feet. In my awe I had temporarily forgotten my exhaustion.

The dragon stretched out her wings for a moment before curling a bit more tightly around the party, though we still had roughly twenty feet in which to maneuver. She looked at us with a warm smile. “You have to be the most entertaining group I’ve met so far.”