Fire filled the air as the Lesser Drakes closed the last few feet, trying to burn them at the last moment before contact.

  Familiar with the tactic, Aspen and Jake dodged, while Nepthys blocked with her shields. Then the leading attackers were on them.

  Jake rose sharply out of his dodge, his spear leading the way as he poured Wyrd into it and impaled the Lesser Drake with a single sharp thrust.

  Dauhaust’s Root seemed to drink Jake’s Wyrd and the monster’s blood alike, thrumming with power as Jake pulled it free and moved to engage the next monster.

  Enhanced monsters were powerful opponents, but Jake had killed an Awakened monster and was about to fight another. Creatures such as these were no longer the threat they had once been.

  One by one the monsters fell, their disorganised charge insufficient to overwhelm the classers. If they’d all come at once, and hadn’t been strung out thanks to the obsidian, then the fight would have been different.

  As it was, the dozen who made it alive to them arrived in dribs and drabs, giving Jake and the others chance to deal with them individually.

  It was a delicate balance to maintain, they had to be aggressive enough to kill each creature swiftly, but not so aggressive that they were injured needlessly.

  Dauhaust’s Root seemed eager in Jake’s hands as he took the life of another monster, only to freeze as he saw movement in the distance.

  “Jake!” Alan’s cry shook Jake awake enough to dodge the flaming orb that one of the monsters had spat at him.

  “Alan, bring it down!” Jake shouted, backing away as he pointed to the distant boulder.

  The Drake was finally moving.

  The huge creature had risen to its feet, the quills down its spine flaring with an ominous red glow as it roared out a challenge.

  An answering hissing sound like steam escaping a kettle came from somewhere behind them and Jake felt a cold premonition run down his spine as the Drake climbed down from its perch with surprising grace.

  The Awakened creature was big, bulky and physically imposing, but if anything, it seemed more agile than its lesser brethren.

  One of the last surviving Lesser Drakes spat a ball of flames at Aspen, but the mad spearman just took it in stride with a manic grin, driving his spear down into the monster before it could recover.

  Jake half expected Aspen to be burnt and injured, but then he remembered that Aspen’s Class gave him resistance to flames. Between his armour and his Abilities, Aspen seemed unbothered by an attack at that strength.

  “Serpents coming out of the lava!” Gargan shouted from behind them as the Drake began to move towards them, ignoring the obsidian shards around it.

  Jake watched in disbelief as the Drake crushed the obsidian underfoot, uncaring of the incredibly sharp rocks. Like its lesser brethren, the Drake’s claws had taken on an obsidian-like appearance, and Jake had no doubt they would cut. They would kill.

  Glancing back over his shoulder, Jake saw five Fire Serpents slithering up out of the lava, leaving a trail of liquid rock and flame in their wake.

  “Alan, Nepthys, Gargan, you three take the serpents down as quick as you can. Aspen, you and I will hold off the Drake,” Jake said, pitching his voice to carry above the shrieks of the final Lesser Drake.

  Wrenching his spear from the corpse of the monster, Aspen nodded, his eyes bright with excitement as the Drake approached them. It didn’t rush, instead maintaining a slow but steady pace.

  The huge creature’s head swung from side to side as it considered the two of them, and the quills on its back began to take on a dull red glow.

  “It’s going to breathe flame,” Jake said, his eyes not leaving the Awakened monster. “When it does, whoever it doesn’t attack should go for its flank. If we can get it to turn and keep crushing these shards, it will make out life easier.”

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  “Got it,” Aspen said, and then it was on them.

  The quills turned bright red as the drake inhaled, before flaring into a vivid crimson as the drake turned and exhaled a cone of fire at Jake.

  Leaping to one side, Jake rolled to his feet with a cry of pain that had nothing to do with the wash of heat that he’d barely escaped.

  Splinters and fragments of rock had dug into Jake’s arm from his roll, and he wiped his other hand down his arm, pulling as many free as he could as he got back to his feet.

  True to Jake’s plan, Aspen was dancing among the obsidian, menacing the Drake with his spear. The Drake’s quills had faded to the same dull colour as the rest of its body, which was a relief.

  The pamphlet had said it needed time to marshal its strength between exhalations, but it had said nothing of the serpents in the lava, so he was taking its words with a grain of salt.

  With a growl of anger the Drake turned, whipping out with its tail in a low arc that went to knock Aspen’s legs out from under him.

  Obsidian shattered as an entire section of spikes was broken apart, leaving behind a cloud of settling dust as Aspen landed from his backwards flip.

  Even with the impromptu acrobatics, Aspen had only just avoided the attack, and Jake knew that he had to get in there and support his friend.

  An Awakened monster was more than any of them could handle alone.

  Roaring out its rage, the Drake turned and reared up slightly as it clawed at Aspen before lunging forward in an attempt to bite him in half.

  Jake lost sight of the other classer, instead heading for the Drake’s abdomen as he packed Wyrd into a piercing infusion for his spear and lunged forward. With all of his magic and physical strength behind it, Jake’s spear sank deep into the monster’s side. Nowhere near as deep as he’d been hoping, though.

  The drake arched in pain and whirled to face Jake, a front foot coming down in a fast move to try to cut Jake open from shoulder to hip.

  The very tip of the Drake’s claw caught Jake as he tried to dodge the blow, carving a furrow across his infused armour but not breaking through.

  Blessing Varin silently, Jake slashed at the foot before the Drake could pull it back and then dove away once more as it snapped at him.

  Aspen must have attacked on the Drake’s other side as it turned away with a angry roar, leaving Jake to find his footing.

  He’d struck it twice, but the second strike to its foot had done nothing. Its scales were just too thick, too resistant. It was no wonder that the thing could walk through all this rock with such little care.

  Infusing his spear had let him break through, though, which was good. Still, from an objective point of view, it had been a poor exchange.

  Jake had narrowly escaped being badly injured, and in return had landed a single, albeit deep, wound to its side.

  They needed a better plan, but Jake wasn’t sure what to do. His wands would have the magic to potentially hurt it, but its scales were thick. Maybe too thick for his thorns or icicles.

  Deciding it was worth checking, Jake drew his thorn wand with his off-hand and infused it with piercing Wyrd before firing at the Drake.

  To Jake’s surprise, the thorns did manage to penetrate the Drake’s scales, but only when he was also infusing his wand to empower them.

  Smoke curled from the Drake’s mouth as it turned from trying to kill Aspen, its quills glowing menacingly red as it inhaled heavily.

  “Shit!” Jake turned and ran, but the Drake simply held its breath, chasing after him before unleashing a torrent of flames.

  Jake dove to the ground to try and avoid the worst of the attack, feeling a wave of heat flow over him that threatened to blister and burn his exposed skin.

  The heat hurt, but it was far less than the torrent of flames had promised, though, and Jake looked up to see Gargan stood above him, his hands outstretched.

  Bright grey Wyrd shimmered around the caster as he parted the Drake’s breath around them.

  Abruptly, the flames ended, and the Drake was distracted by Aspen, giving Jake chance to get to his feet and pull a few bloodied pieces of rock out from where he’d hit the ground.

  “I can’t do that too many times,” Gargan said in a strained voice as the Wyrd in the air faded away. “My Skill isn’t strong enough to combat an Awakened monster directly more than once or twice.”

  “Then I’ll make sure you don’t need to,” Jake said, giving the other man a thankful nod before rushing back to aid Aspen.

  A quick glance told him that Nepthys and Alan had killed three of the serpents, which is why Gargan was free to aid them.

  Taking up the role that Jake had been filling, Gargan began to rain a barrage of icicles down upon the Drake with his wand.

  With everything Jake had done, and the few wounds Aspen had been able to cause, the Drake was bleeding from several places, but it was still tough.

  Realising that that needed to change, Jake dismissed his spear and activated Hunter’s Grace, focusing on hunting the Drake as he did.

  Power flowed through Jake as he sped up, closing the distance with the monster as quickly as he could. Not turning from Aspen, it whipped its tail out at him, but Jake leapt into the air, pushing as hard as he could with the boost from his Boon.

  The very top of the scale clipped Jake’s leg with a cracking sound, and he grunted in pain as he landed off balance and almost snapped his ankle as he tumbled.

  Grunting, Jake pushed himself up and covered the rest of the distance to jump on the Drake’s back as he conjured his Hidden Fang.

  The fang dagger appeared in his hand as he landed on the rear of the Drake and he stabbed down as he pushed a hasty piercing infusion into the blade.

  It was a crude working, and his Wyrd was leaking everywhere through the rough weave, but it gave him enough power to pierce the Drake’s scales.

  Poison pumped into the beast from his blade, enough to kill an Enhanced monster. The Drake roared in pain and bucked, trying to knock Jake free.

  Jake went with the motion, flying free and leaving his dagger embedded at the base of the Drake’s spine. The Hidden Fang would keep pushing out poison into the Drake for as long as the Manifestation lasted.

  Hopefully, that would be long enough.