It was a good thing Zeter already had his barrier up. The dragon attacked so quickly that there was no way Zeter would have had enough time to react. Even still, the force of the blow sent them all flying backward. Only Kasyn remained near the dragon, his invisibility failing as the dragon fought to shake him off. Immediately, Zeter refocused his barrier around Kasyn to keep him from being beaten to a pulp. That left him and Damarys exposed but for now, at least, the dragon was focused on Kasyn.

“Spread out,” Damarys instructed as she put some distance between herself and Zeter.

That would prevent the dragon from being able to get both of them in a single attack again. Arrows began to pelt the dragon around his eye, distracting him from simply biting Kasyn in half and ending him then and there.

Backing up to put more distance between himself and the dragon, Zeter took cover behind a pile of crates, left over from before the Tower of Light’s assault on the city. He couldn’t get too far away or else his barrier around Kasyn would weaken but at least he was out of claw range.

As an arrow struck the dragon’s right eye it roared in frustration, although it didn’t appear that the arrow had done much damage. As Zeter watched, the dragon blinked and the arrow fell away from the eye, the small scratch healing rapidly. Regardless of how superficial the damage was, the dragon turned its head and stared at Damarys as the heat radiating off of it increased rapidly.

“Take cover!” Zeter shouted, though Damarys was already diving behind a small shop that was built up against the side of the wall.

He doubted the shop would do much good, and the rings given to them were likely not meant to block dragon fire, so he shifted his barrier to Damarys, hoping that while the dragon focused on Damarys he wouldn’t also continue to thrash Kasyn.

The world turned blinding white as fire poured from the dragon. It flowed almost like liquid and Zeter felt his barrier struggling to withstand against the onslaught. As he hoped, the dragon’s tail slowed and gave Kasyn a brief respite. When the fire stopped, the shop was gone along with everything else in a hundred foot line behind it. Damarys, covered in soot but otherwise unharmed, stood up and fired an arrow straight into the dragons open mouth.

It must have been one of the dragon tooth arrows since it tore all the way through the back of the dragon’s mouth, ripping scales off of the back of his neck as it exited. The dragon reeled, retching and clawing at it’s throat and neck. This time, the wound did not close at once. With the dragon distracted, Zeter cast blindness onto dragon, further frustrating the creature.

All the while, Kasyn had stood by the tail, still connected to it with the chain. Zeter didn’t know what the delay was for but he didn’t doubt Kasyn was doing his best. Unfortunately, with his sight now gone, the only target left to the dragon was Kasyn and he swiped his claw along his tail to scrape Kasyn off.

Zeter barely got his barrier back in place before the first strike hit Kasyn. The force of the blow made even Zeter rock back and he felt the now familiar pressure in his head beginning to grow. The amulet was helping, but he couldn’t rely on it for much longer with how strong the dragon was.

Damarys loosed another of the dragon tooth arrows and tore a chunk from the the dragon’s shoulder, halting his next swipe at Kasyn

“Come on Kasyn,” Zeter muttered through gritted teeth.

For his part, Kasyn was continuing to hold on, sometimes looking more like a rag doll than a person. If it weren’t for the occasional spells thrown out by Kasyn, Zeter would have thought Kasyn was dead, barrier or not.

The blindness spell wouldn’t last very long, especially on a creature as powerful as a dragon, so they needed to make the most of the situation. He waved for Damarys’ attention and when she looked at him he pantomimed shooting an arrow and then pointing at the dragon’s head. If they could kill it, then they wouldn’t need to worry about Kasyn and his chain taking control of it. Yes, they’d lose a strong defender for the city, but at the rate he was pumping out magic to keep Kasyn alive he doubted their likelihood of success if they relied on that course of action alone.

Damarys drew her third dragon tooth arrow and fired. To Zeter’s dismay, it only sank a short way into the dragon’s head before stopping. Apparently his skull was too thick for the arrows to penetrate. That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt the dragon, though, and it let out another deafening roar. He tried to breathe fire again but with the hole in the back of his neck still not healed the fire sprayed out on both directions, sputtering and unfocused. Even luckier was the fact that the dragon missed hitting any of them anyway.

For a moment the dragon was still, catching his breath and squinting his eyes as the blindness spell began to wear off.

“Fine,” he growled, and plucked Kasyn up with both front claws.

Kasyn and the chain were still connected to the dragon’s tail but he didn’t seem to care anymore. With Kasyn in his claws, he began to squeeze. Zeter’s barrier kept the dragon from being able to immediately crush Kasyn but the concerted effort on the dragon’s part was quickly burning through Zeter’s magical reserve. Another dragon tooth arrow pierced the dragon’s hands but he ignored it, intent on crushing Kasyn.

The sound of rushing water filled his ears as Zeter drew nearer and nearer to over-channeling yet again. It had taken the fiends several minutes of concerted effort to get him to this point but the dragon was far more powerful than they had been. His heart ached and his head throbbed and something inside of him told him he would not survive over-channeling again so soon. He had to let go of his barrier soon. If he didn’t, then both he and Kasyn would die. But could he just drop his barrier and let Kasyn die? Save himself at the expense of Kasyn? No one would blame him, surely, but what then? Kasyn was the only one who could find and repair Akumu’s runes.

Seeing his efforts at crushing Kasyn thwarted, the dragon threw him down to the ground and began to pound on him over and over with both claws.

“I’m almost there!”

It was the first sound from Kasyn this entire time and it was a high and frightened voice, yet still determined.

Zeter’s magic was all but spent. Without thinking, as the dragon’s next claw began to descend, Zeter took off at a sprint. He dropped the barrier around Kasyn in order to use his final burst of magic on himself. The world around him slowed as his mind and body sped up. There was Kasyn, his chain sinking ever so slowly into the dragon, the dragon’s claw coming down with a certain finality, Damarys aiming her final dragon tooth arrow, and all Zeter could do was rush forward and push Kasyn out of the way. There was nothing else he could do. Even over-channeling wouldn’t allow him to maintain his barrier any longer since the strain would kill him. It was a simple calculation, really. There was no guarantee that this would buy Kasyn the time he needed but it was the best Zeter could do.

He reached Kasyn and shoved him up and over to the other side of the dragon’s tail. There wasn’t enough time or magic for him to turn and get out of the way of the claw, however, so he instead looked up at the dragon and smiled. Being this close to it, at least he didn’t feel cold.

There was a roar as his magic ran out, the world shook, and darkness took him.