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“It’s so pretty! Look at all the lights and shiny stuff!” Emile flapped his wings, causing Tafel’s hair to tangle up on her horns. He hopped up and down on her shoulder. “Look, look! What’s that?”
“That’s a leviathan skeleton floating in the sky,” Tafel said, squinting at the object Emile was pointing at. “Then that means Mr. Skelly is openly announcing their presence? I wonder how the holy dragons are going to react.” She nodded as she continued walking along the road leading to the decorated city. “It’ll be a good show.”
“Eh? Don’t you have to fight a holy dragon too?” Emile asked as he fixed Tafel’s hair with his beak. “I think that’ll be an even better show. I’ll cheer for you.”
“At least one of us is looking forward to it,” Tafel said and sighed. “I hope my plan works. Those skeletons had better placed the runes in the right place, or I really might cry.” She turned her head to the side. Emile stopped mid-preen and blinked at her. “Do you think she’ll notice us since we have phoenix-like auras?”
“What do you mean phoenix-like?” Emile asked, puffing his chest out. “We’re real phoenixes. And, yes, she’ll notice us. She’s flying towards us now if you haven’t realized.”
“Huh?” Tafel asked, freezing mid-stride. “Really? If that’s a joke, it’s not funny.”
“I only play pranks on Percy,” Emile said and sniffed while tilting his beak up. “She’s over there, see?”
Tafel looked up. A silver dragon was flying towards her with a grin on its face. It let out a roar while spewing silver fire out of its mouth, lighting up the sky. “That was fast,” Tafel said and bit her lower lip. Her horns flashed, and the scenery changed into a field of grass with silver runes decorating it. She exhaled upon seeing them. “The skeletons did a good job.”
A voice shouted from nearby, “You can’t avoid me forever!”
“Go somewhere safe, Emile,” Tafel said, nudging the phoenix off of her shoulder. She took in a deep breath and clasped her hands behind her back, straightening her posture. A slow exhale left her mouth, and she closed her eyes as tendrils of mana snaked from her feet into the ground, spreading out like a web to touch the silver runes. Her eyes snapped open. “I can do this.”
Gusts swept over Tafel, her hair flying parallel to the ground, as the silver dragon approached, every beat of its wings displacing the air. It landed in front of her before looking around. “A trap? That’s fine too.”
“You’re really determined to fight me, huh?” Tafel asked, biting her lower lip. “Well, listen up! I’m not going to give up on Vur. He’s mine, and you can’t have him. So what if you’re a dragon? I’m, I’m not scared!”
“You’d be more convincing if your knees weren’t knocking together,” Lulu said, pointing at Tafel’s shaking legs. “I do feel a little bad now, but that can’t be helped. There’s so few dragons out there; I might have to wait a thousand years if I miss out on Vur now.” She tilted her head and sighed. “You really won’t give up on him?”
“This is my answer,” Tafel said as she crouched and pressed her palms against the ground. The silver runes around them lit up. “When I married him, I swore to stay by his side for better, for poorer, in sickness and in health. A dragon’s not going to change that!” She gritted her teeth as her horns flashed with a white light. “Have a taste of my resolve!”
Emile shielded his eyes from the light, peering at the glowing field through the feathers on his wings. Lulu was approaching Tafel, but before the dragon had even taken two steps, the light disappeared along with Lulu. Emile blinked twice and looked around before staring at the ground. “Big sis teleported her into the earth?”
Emile flew off the branch he was perched on, but Tafel shouted, “Stay back, Emile. It’s not over yet.”
“Huh?” Emile hovered in place and tilted his head. He flew back onto the branch before shrugging. “If you say so.” He hummed to himself while waiting for something to happen, but Tafel was still crouching in place without moving. When he was about to yawn, Tafel dove to the side as the ground underneath her broke apart, a silver dragon head popping out of the earth.
“What the heck!?” Lulu shouted. “You buried me alive! If I wasn’t a dragon, I would’ve died. That was really—”
“Go back down there!” Tafel shouted as her horns flashed white. Lulu disappeared again, leaving behind a hole in the ground. She muttered as she manipulated the earth with magic to fill itself in, “It’s because you’re a dragon that I have to use this kind of method.”
Emile blinked at the scene. He stared at the ground, then at himself. “If I was shoved down there, could I get out?” He rubbed his head with his wings. “Maybe if I knew Mom’s world of fire ability…”
A few minutes later, the ground by Tafel shattered, revealing Lulu’s head again. She gasped for breath and glared at the demon with narrowed eyes. “Alright,” Lulu said, “now you’re making me—”
“Sink!” Tafel shouted, banishing Lulu before she could finish her sentence. She exhaled as the dragon disappeared, and used her mana to fix the hole Lulu had left behind. “If I hadn’t seen Exzenter teleport away that worm-infested dragon, I’d never have come up with this idea for myself.” She snorted and glared at the ground. “If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for being a dragon. Who told you to be impervious to nearly all types of magic?”
Emile scratched his head with his talon upon hearing Tafel’s words. “I never knew big sis could be so spiteful; she sounds jealous of dragons.” He shook his head and puffed his chest out. “Who cares about dragons? We, phoenixes, are their equals. Big sis is proving that right now!”
Lulu’s head burst out of the ground again, slower this time. She panted for breath. “Listen up you! If you do that one more—”
“Begone!” Tafel said, her horns lighting up. She placed her hands on her hips as the earth filled itself in once Lulu disappeared. “This is a little … fun.” Her eyes widened as she dove to the side, barely dodging a pillar of white lava that shot out of the ground.
Lulu burst out of the pillar with a roar. “Is this your only—”
“Teleport!” Tafel shouted, pointing at Lulu. The silver dragon disappeared along with a portion of the pillar of lava.
“She doesn’t even have to be touching the runes?” Emile asked. He shouted so Tafel could hear.
“Nope,” Tafel said. “With these runes, I can manipulate any space within a hundred meters of me. If your, err, our mom didn’t imprint me, there’s no way I’d be able to sustain something like this for long, but since she did…” She shrugged instead of finishing her sentence.
“Big sis!” Emile shouted. “I never knew you were so amazing! Why’d you run away from Lulu the first time then?”
“Who wouldn’t run away from a surprise dragon attack?” Tafel asked with a snort. Cold sweat ran down her back. “But this time, I’m ready. Even if I’m still terrified.” She glanced at the ground. “Ah, she’s getting close again.”
The ground was torn asunder as a silver claw broke through. Before Lulu could even stick her head out or say anything, she was teleported back into the ground. Pillars of lava erupted from the ground around Tafel, but she managed to avoid them all by teleporting around. Lulu appeared a few more times, but she was always forced back the moment she showed a single scale.
Emile munched on a mushroom he found growing on the tree while watching the fight. “If big sis and Mom fought, Mom would win. So big sis isn’t super strong; it’s the dragon that’s weak.” Emile nodded to himself before his body stiffened. The mushroom fell to the ground as his body tilted and landed on the branch before rolling off and dropping into a nearby bush.
Tafel panted as sweat rolled off of her due to the heat coming from the lava. She tensed, waiting for Lulu to reappear, straining her ears to hear better. There weren’t any sounds or vibrations coming from beneath her. “She didn’t die, right?” Tafel muttered, pressing her ear to the ground. Her eyes widened as a dragon roared, the sound coming from the sky. Tafel raised her head in time to see a silver dragon swooping towards her.
“How dare you!? My daugh—”
The silver dragon disappeared once Tafel pointed at it. Tafel patted her chest and exhaled, a chill running down her spine. “From above? Jeez, that scared me. How’d she sneak—?”
“I give up!” Lulu’s voice shouted from far away. “How about we negotiate? I’m going to approach you, so please, don’t teleport me back into the ground. It’s really tiring climbing out. Okay?”
Tafel froze and stared at the direction Lulu’s voice was coming from. Then she lowered her head. The ground was vibrating beneath her. “If Lulu’s on the surface…” Tafel’s face paled, and she teleported next to Emile’s petrified body. She swallowed her spit as a pillar of white light rose out of the ground, obliterating the field she was just standing in, runes and all. A massive silver dragon, nearly twice Lulu’s size, flew out of the field-turned-pit. Tafel grabbed Emile with her clammy hands, and she dove to the side, avoiding a beam of light that disintegrated the bush. She wanted to cry. “How many dragons did Vur woo!?”