As different as the various species of Ezma are, there is one thing they all have in common. The moment when someone else turns a blind eye to a person's suffering, an avalanche of insults descends upon them. The Elkif citizens and militia alike did precisely that. Almost everyone from the nearby vicinity knew who Glavas was. After all, the title of a Moonscourge could only be held by a single individual at a time. In a sense, it carried along a certain celebrity status. So when the people saw the infamous Unode hunter run away from battle and seemingly abandon the city, they didn't hesitate to go for insults.

"Shut up! All of you!" Alma screamed at the people, but they paid her little attention.

[What is going on? Are they panicking?]

"Worse. They think Glavas abandoned them."

[Nonsense! But... where did he go?]

"I don't know. But we're supposed to keep it busy. That's what he shouted at us."

[At us, or at the city?]

"Hmm... probably the city. But these fuckers won't listen to him!" Alma stomped her foot and turned to the nearest crowd. "He isn't a traitor, you assholes!"

To her great surprise, she wasn't the only one shouting at the citizens. The booming voice of the militia's captain reached everyone's ears and quickly forced them to obey.

"SILEEEEENCE!" he shouted and it didn't take long for the elves to quiet down. "Doesn't matter! We protect the city. We fight! Everyone who wants to join us, get ready! Those who want to escape, RUN!" The residents blinked a few times before their brains finally processed the captain's commands. The evacuation then quickly resumed, with Glavas' name only sometimes reaching the children in the form of a whisper coming from the passer-by.

"Alright, now, before it can strike again! ATTACK!" the old elf yelled and the rows of men and women gathered behind him quickly did as he asked. Magical projectiles lit up the sky in all the colors of the rainbow. It didn't matter that someone wasn't a wizard. If you could toss anything harmful at the monster, then you were a viable soldier. And so the elements crashed against the massive, furry body with sizzling, splashing, and whistling. It didn't take long and the eye of the Granitar emerged from its body, looking once again at Elkif. The scary elven hunter was gone, and right now, the itching the spells of the militia were causing was far worse for the creature than anything Glavas could do. For a moment, the beast examined the area. There were so many tiny people running all around. It would be practically impossible to get rid of them all with just the spikes. And so the Granitar turned to a slightly different approach. At the very top of its body, there were three horns, curving away from the creature before turning back and pointing their tips to the sky. Accompanied by a loud, periodic humming, the horns began flashing with a yellow light that appeared to travel from their very roots and all the way up to the tips, where it flew outward, forming a steadily growing, yellow orb above the Granitar.

"Oh shit..." the captain mumbled to himself once he saw the magic grow larger than most of the nearby buildings. "Folk..." he called out to the soldiers, pausing for a moment, choosing carefully between retreat and standing ground. "Defenses up! All you have! Let that magic run wild!" His orders were clear, and yet, poorly thought out. The magic of the different elves began forming a protective shell around the outer rim of the city, but it was too big of an area to cover effectively. The shield was fragile and the mismatched elements used for its creation were slowly canceling each other out. "Hold it! Come on!" he yelled at them, unsure what better thing to do.

The humming stopped, along with the pulsating energy. The Granitar let out a few faint gurgles before the massive orb took off, descending right onto the city. As it hit the barrier, the shell bent and stretched, like a sheet of fabric trying to stop a cannonball.

"COME ON! HOLD IT! LIVES DEPEND ON IT!" the captain screamed and tried his best to help out with the little magic he knew how to use. It did not matter. The orb tore through the shield, shattering it to pieces. The soldiers fell to the ground, thinking back about their loved ones, hoping to die quickly and with happy memories in mind. Then the ground shook. It was the kind of shaking that didn't feel natural. As if the earth itself wanted to split in two and swallow the whole district. Then, when the yellow sphere was just a few meters above the ground, the buildings around it melted. The material they were made of lost its hardness and quickly turned into its original honey-like form. The liquid then began flowing together, wrapping itself around the raging yellow magic like a protective shell.

"Layer it up! More layers toward the people. The back can stay open!" Glint's voice called the nearby workers to action. The terrified people looked around, spotting an army of geomancers from the construction guild. Their movements were much more reminiscent of a trained army. They acted in complete unison, listening only to the several squad leaders, who were shouting simple, one-word commands their way. Behind them, atop one of the buildings, stood Glint, passing down the instructions and letting the people carry out his requests.

An explosion shook the entire city. A pressure wave knocked almost everyone to the ground and there wasn't a single elf whose ears wouldn't be ringing. The orb exploded. The liquid rock that was supposed to contain it got splashed all over the streets, but it seemed that as far as injuries go, nobody suffered any grievous ones.

"Now! Attack! We can't block another shot like that!" Glint screamed as soon as he regained all of his senses. The elves picked themselves up from the ground and began tossing whatever magic they knew at the Granitar. The creature was furious at this point. Not even its strongest magic managed to wipe the city out. But it wasn't going to stop there. The small critters occupying the city were no longer scuttling about as much as before. They were growing weaker. Another blast like this and they would be gone. And then, finally, the Granitar would be able to feast. With its mind set on the image of devouring the buildings, the animal's horns once again began flashing yellow. Hope soon started leaving the eyes of even the most loyal soldiers as more and more started running for their lives. Suddenly, people were once again calling out the word "traitor", but this time, not aimed at Glavas.

Alma picked herself off the ground. Her vision was blurry after the explosion. She touched an aching part of her forehead, discovering a small, profusely bleeding cut.

"Ugh... Surdi?" she mumbled and looked around. Her eyes widened when she finally saw her friend just as he was climbing up one of the nearby buildings. "Surdi!" she called out to him and threw a small pebble his way to grab his attention.

"I need to stop it. Or they'll die!"

"Fuck this! Let's get out of here!"

The dragon shook his head. "If there ever was the time to have faith in me, it's now," he shouted back and turned around, continuing his climb. Alma stayed there, snarling about how stupid and irresponsible the young dragon was, but at the same time, she did nothing to stop him.

Surdi reached the top of the house with relative ease, thanks to the makeshift ladders attached to almost every building. The roof was at least four stories above the ground, and so he had to fixate his sight on the Granitar to keep himself from panicking.

"Alright, it's fine. Stay calm. Plenty of space over here. Just don't look down," he thought and took a couple of deep breaths. "You can do this. There is nobody else who can." He grabbed his tunic, and in one swift motion, he took it off. The cold wind hitting his scales almost made him shiver. "Feel it." He closed his eyes. "Feel the mana flowing around you. You are a dragon. A DRAGON! You're not like them. Magic doesn't control you. You control it! You can't go big, but that's okay. It's not about size. It's about persistence. There is a hard limit to what you can do... But absolutely no limit to how much you can do." He felt as if every scale behaved like a sponge, sucking up all the magic it could. Faint tingling ran all across his spine and then spread through every inch of his exposed body. From the large scales on his chest, through the thin membranes between his arms and body, all the way to his waist. "There is no limit. It's not a dragon's breath. You don't need to breathe it. You just need to let it out!" His mind returned to Peldo. To the day he met Glavas. And to everything that happened on that single afternoon. He searched his thoughts far and wide until he found the one perfect memory he wanted.

The desperate soldiers and fleeing civilians all began turning their heads around. Without a warning, a massive cloud of orange smoke burst out from the roof of one of the nearby buildings and headed right toward the Granitar in the form of a powerful stream. Surdi felt himself slowly sliding backward. His claws left behind several scratch marks before he finally managed to get regain balance and get used to the spell's recoil. His whole body felt a sensation that was so new. Massive amounts of mana were leaving him all at once, making him feel tired and weak, only for the energy to be quickly restored not even a second later, bringing along sweet relief and rejuvenation. These feelings were crashing against him like tidal waves during a storm. One quickly followed another before his mind could fully process which one he was currently experiencing. It wasn't painful, but one wouldn't be able to call it comfortable either.

"Calm down. It's not your breath. It's just magic. Breathe, but keep it coming. Breathe, damn it!" he scolded himself, struggling to successfully take in the necessary oxygen while the stream of orange spores continued to exit his mouth. Eventually, he succeeded, but the breaths he took were shallow and faint. It was almost as if he was drowning with only a few tiny bubbles of air entering his lungs every now and then to keep him alive.

"AREN'T YOU FUCKING EMBARRASSED?!" the captain shouted at the soldiers behind him. His voice carried so much strength that even the most determined of deserters quickly stopped to at least listen to what he had to say. "That there is a guest! A tourist! A FUCKING CHILD! And he's doing more for this city than all of you... no... all of us! Get off your asses! Are you afraid your magic will take over your mind?! Who the fuck cares?! We have a city to protect! Save your people! Save your loved ones! You can hug it out, cry it out, or scream it out later! Think bigger!" His remaining hair lit up and he spat a rubbery orange orb into the palm of his hand. "If you, trained soldiers, can't match the firepower of a fucking dragon whelp, then you should all consider yourself a disgrace to the militia!" He grabbed the orange orb with his other hand and stretched it out into a long, gummy sheet. "Do anything you can to stop it from moving! Smother it in that fog!" he yelled out and let go of his spell. It flew out high into the sky, growing in size, before descending down into the confused and dizzy Granitar, wrapping around its leg and gluing it to the ground. It didn't take long for the other elves to follow. Those who were previously running for their lives turned around and rejoined their comrades. A sea of glowing sorceries and incantations began drowning the monstrous animal in as many debilitating effects as one could think of. It could hardly move, let alone strike back. The orange mist around it was not disappearing. In fact, it was only growing thicker with each passing moment.

Surdi had no idea what was going on in the streets below. He was only happy to see others help out. However, something wasn't going according to plan. His vision was slowly getting blurry. His hands, which were previously raised to the level of his chest, were now hanging almost completely limp, and the once large river of orange smoke was reduced to a mere gentle stream. At first, Surdi tried his best to ignore such feelings, simply attributing them to the continual usage of his magic, but when his memories started giving him hints, he realized what truly happened. He had to stop. The spell disappeared, dissolving into thin air, only leaving a slowly-clearing cloud of smoke around the barely-conscious Granitar.

"Alma?! Alma!!" the boy shouted while desperately looking for her. When he couldn't find her anywhere in the streets in front of him, he tried turning around. His legs, however, had a different plan. His knees bent and buckled, no longer able to support his weight. "Al..." he wanted to shout again before two small hands grabbed him from behind and pulled him backward to the ground. Instead of hitting his head on the hard roof of the building; however, Surdi found himself being gently put down onto Alma's lap.

"Alma!" he shouted at her, not knowing how loud he was until she showed him a finger placed against her mouth.

"You forgot to take safety precautions, didn't you?" she asked him.

"Safety... Yeah. Your own fire can burn you. That's why we used candles. I forgot.

"That's okay. You were lucky it wasn't a lethal poison though."

"The creature. It..."

"Unconscious. Or so it seems at least. Congratulations, buddy. You just single-handedly saved a city." Alma smiled and began slowly stroking the dragon's head, right between his horns. "You could've saved some spotlight for the rest of us though! Hehe. Say, what does it feel like to be a hero?"

"Heh, fantastic." Surdi smiled back before his eyes fluttered shut.