Welcome to Gaia! ::

Part 1, Chapter 1

- ”Victor, I’m worried about you.” the man behind the desk said. “Your test results are as good as they could be, but your teachers say you don’t pay much attention in class.”
The seventeen year old boy named Victor sighed in response. He was quite tired of these discussions. If he did what he was supposed to do, what was the big deal? Quite simply, he didn’t find school challenging enough, but all people around him seemed to see was someone who didn’t care. Of coure, he had to admit to himself that he didn’t really look like someone who cared either, with his blue, worn jearns, once white but now gray sneakers, his tie-dye shirt, long black hair and blue eyes that seemed like they were only able to show boredom.
- “I’ve been talking to your parents, and they don’t seem to know what’s the matter either” the other person contiued.
- “You could try to give me something else to do than listen to endless repeating facts and people that can’t seem to understand that I need a challenge” Victor answered.
- “We’ve been talking about this over and over again, Victor” the other man answered. “The school dosen’t have that kind of resources.”
- “All I want is a book or two” Victor answered. “Is that really too much?”
- “We can’t treat any students differently, you know that.”
- “That’s exactly my point. Why do I have to be held back?”
- “We just want you to understand that we are worried about you..”
- “I understand. You think I’m a troublemaker and have given up on me. The only reason you are still calling me here on a regular basis to make it look like you’re doing your job. Can I go now?”
The other person sighed heavily and nodded. It was obvious that he wouldn’t get trough to Victor, and he had too muh to do to argue with one of his students about these matters.

Outside of the principals office, Victor sighed and was going to leave when the secretary suddenly said something.
- “I heard you wanted some books.”
Victor looked at the woman. She was in her late fifties, and even if the years had been nice to her, there was no doubt that she was old. Victor had seen her every now and then when he was told to see the principle, but he had never seen her wear anything other than the grey dress that matched her hair.
- “Yeah, I’m tired of the stuff the school gives us. I’ve already learned all that crap.” Victor said.
- “Then I think I have something for you” she said with a smile and opened a drawer.
She took out an old book that looked like it hadn’t been read in many many years and handed it to him. It was bound in brown leather and on the cover was in large black letters written “ALL DREAMS COME TRUE”.
- “It looks like some kind of story book.” Victor commented.
- “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t give you this book if it wasn’t because you want to learn” the secretary answered.
Victor was going to ask what kind of book it was when his cell suddenly rang. He talked for a few moments before hanging up and putting the book in the shoulder bag he had with him.
- “Thanks, I’ll tell you what I think of the book when I’m finished” he said as he rushed out.

Later that evening, Victor was in his room trying to kill some time to give the impression he was doing his homework, even if it had been done a long time ago, when he remembered the book. He noticed now that it felt a lot heavier than it really should, but he shrugged it off as imagination. He was very curious to know what kind of book it was, and could barely contain himself. The first few pages were empty, as they always were in books. He flipped the pages, but was surprised to find that not only the first three pages were empty. He flipped trough the whole book, back and forth a few times before he put it down dissapointed.
- “Great, she gave me an empty diary” he said to himself. “I bet she was trying to tell me that should fill these pages with whatever it is that I want to learn or some other kind of moral stuff.”
He leaned back in his chair and yawned. As he opened his eyes, however, he found himself high up in a tree. He fell backwards out of surprise and hit several branches on the way down before he finally landed in the middle of a dirt road.

- “Well, well, I never knew men grew on trees” a voice said.
Victor quickly got up on his feet and looked at the one who had spoken while brushing the dirt off his clothes. It belonged to a woman, probably a five to ten years older than himself, who was carrying a sleeping child in her arms. Her clothing was a simple blue robe with a hood that together with her brown-blonde hair framed her pale face. Her eyes were hazel, but the dark circles around them and her blueish lips gave the impression that she was sick, despite the friendly smile.
- “We only do that on Tuesdays between 5 am and 6 am, and even so only if we’re bored silly.” Victor answered.
- “What were you doing up there anyway?” she asked him.
- “Good question, I would like to know that myself” he said and looked up. “I was sitting in a chair in my room only a few seconds ago when I suddenly found myself here. Where is “here” anyway?”
- “You’re on the road to the village Anlis” the woman answered. “Where are you from?”
- “Anlis? Strange, I’ve never heard of that place before. I’m from Stockholm”
- “Stockholm? What kind of place is that?”
Victor looked at her with surprise at first, but then shook his head to himself.
- “It seems like something very strange has happened to me, so if you don’t mind, can we talk about that later? Right now I think I’ll need some help with food and lodgings.”

A few hours later Victor and the other woman, who had introduced herself as Mariah, were having dinner at her house. The atmosphere was a strange mix of past and present at the same time. While everything looked rather old fashioned, like the dirt road and the horses and wagons in the village, surprisingly much was actually modern equipment, such as electric light and running water. He had told her what had happened, or what he knew and thought had happened at least, and she seemed to understand surprisingly well. Apparently, she knew a thing or two about otherwordly travelling since she had studied magic since childhood. She was seen as a prodigy by other people, altough she herself explained it as the result of hard work. Victor knew how it felt; he himself was often seen as a prodigy even if he had spent many hours on learning what he knew.
- “You know, if there’s a way to get you here, there probably is a way to get you back too” Mariah said when he was done.
- “You really think so?” Victor asked.
- “I’m sure” Mariah replied. “I don’t know how myself, but you should be able to figure it out if you tried studying magic. It works different for everyone, and I’d be interested in seeing what someone like you could do with it.”
- “I don’t know... I’m not really interested in magic” he answered. “Besides, it sounds kind of risky.”
- “So is falling our of trees” Mariah replied. “I know you didn’t chose that, so what makes magic worse? The fact that it might become useful?”
Victor thought this over for a secod before he stood up.
- “Where do I sleep?” he asked.
- “There’s a sofa in the living room. I already took out the pillow and sheets when I put little Isah to be. But what do you think about learning magic?”
- “See you in the morning then” he said before he went out of the kitchen and left Mariah there, shaking her head annoyed.

Part 1, Chapter 3

Chapter 3

As Victor finally woke up, he felt a terrible pain halfway between his right elbow and hand. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at the face belonging to Mariah.
- “Good, he’s coming around” she said and turned to someone else. “Bring me some ice, Cara.”
- “I’m on my way” Cara answered, probably from another room.
- “How do you feel?” Mariah asked Victor.
- “My arm hurts more than anything I’ve ever been trough before.” Victor answered. “I can’t even feel my hand any more.”
- “That is to be expected. I had to cut it off.” Mariah answered bluntly.
Victor blinked for a moment before he felt with his left hand at the stump halfway between the hand and elbow.
- “Don’t touch it, it still needs some time to heal.” Mariah told him.
- “What happened? Why did you cut my arm off?” Victor asked shocked.
- “In order to stop the dam from breaking, you used magic to fix it. However, you somehow melded your hand into it at the same time. If I hadn’t cut your arm off, you would’ve died there within minutes.”
- “You were there?”
- “I arrived just in time to see you perform that spell. I can’t explain how your magic works to you, it’s too different.”
- “I think I remember now... It felt like a little of my power seeped out of my arm and returned with the stone.”
- “So you used tho stones own power to transform yourself? Fascinating.”
- “My hand is gone. I don’t think the right word in this situation is ‘fascinating’”
- “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make it sound like that...”
- “Here’s the ice.” Cara interrupted.
- “Thank you.” Mariah answered and took the small bag with ice and placed it on Victors hurting arm.
- “This whole magic thing has turned out to be a bit more dangerous than I thought” Victor said. “I don’t think I want to do this anymore.”
- “I can’t force you, but I don’t think you should stop just because the first attempt didn’t go the way you wanted to.”
- “If it was just a setback, I would’ve agreed with you, but I lost my arm in case you didn’t notice. Who knows what I’ll lose next time.”
- “Don’t get this wrong, but it’s a bit too late for that. You need to lean how to control your power, or it might have random bursts like this one again. It was lack of control, not lack of magic power, that cost you your arm.”
- “So you’re saying that this will happen again if I don’t keep on training?”
- “Yes. Though I think it’s time that you start studying it practically instead of theorethically. Unfortunatly, I don’t think you should stay here while doing that. I have a friend in Gran that could help you. Besides, that way you’ll get ranked without the hassle of going trough a lot of extra tests.”
- “Ranked? What’s that?”
- “All the mages are ranked based on skill, power, who their teacher or teachers were, their status in society and so on. It’s mostly just to keep track on them, though most higher ranked mages are more capable than the lower ranked ones.”
- “What rank do you have?”
- “94. Out of one hundred at the max. And since I’m high ranked, you should get a relatively high rank as well.”

A week later, the preparations were done for Victor to depart. He couldn’t help but feel a little sad as the whole town came to say good bye. Mariah had decided to stay at home, since she had to take care of Isah, so instead Cara was coming with him. She too knew Gareth, the mage he was supposed to meet there, so she was going to introduce them. She was very talkative during the trip, altough since Victor couldn’t help having a sickening feeling in his stomach, it was more or less a monologue. For some reason, he felt like a dark cloud was waiting above his destination, waiting until he was inside so it could swallow hime whole. The gloomy weather didn’t really help either. When they finally arrived, it was late. There weren’t any people outside, and the only company they had was the street lights. After they had passed the slums that always seemed to belong with large cities, they approached what Victor immediatly understood was the homes of the upper class. In less than a minute after they had entered the finer areas, a voice behind them suddenly interrupted the silence.
- “Took you long enough” the male voice said.
Victor and Cara jumped in their seats, and Victor accidentally managed to set the mans cloak on fire. Panicked, the man quickly removed the cloak, threw it on the ground and managed to focus a beam of cold air to kill the flames.
- “What the heck was that for!?” the man asked Victor.
- “Sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose” Victor answered apoligetically.
- “Man, I agree to let you come and train with me, and what do I get? A burned cloak.”
- “Come on, don’t be like that” Cara interrupted with a grin.
- “Yeah, yeah, I suppose I’ll let it go. It was an old cloak anyway” the man sighed.
- “I take it that you are Gareth?” Victor asked.
- “Yep, the one and only” Gareth answered proudly.
- “Is that guy really as reliable as Mariah said?” Victor asked Cara sceptically.
- “Hey! What’s that supposed to mean? In case you didn’t notice, I just teleported myself onto this wagon without you noticing.”
- “And accidentally caught fire” Victor added with a dry voice.
- “Don’t mind Victor” Cara said. “His glass is always half-empty.”
- “Thanks a lot for that Cara” Victor said sarcastic before he sat down. “So, are we there yet? I’m getting tired of sitting here. I’d like to start unpacking as soon as possible.”
- “Yeah, it’s just around the corner” Cara answered.
- “I sure hope we’ll learn to get a long better soon, or this is going to be a looong time ahead of us.” Gareth said with a sigh.
- “Well, at least we already agree on one point. That’s a good start, don’t you think?” Victor answered with a sigh.

Part 1, Chapter 5

It was only natural for Victor to feel nervous, he knew that, but that didn’t help. Everywhere he looked, the other non-ranked mages were sitting or standing in groups and talking. Maybe it was better not having to face any friends in this tournament, but Victor found it very unsettling to be all alone here. As he was called out for his first battle, however, some familiar faces were waiting for him by the entrance to the arena.
- “Mariah! Cara! Gareth! What are you doing here?”
- “You didn’t really think we’d miss the grand debut of our prodigious student, did you?” Mariah answered with a smile.
- “I got something for ya back from the village too!” Cara added and gave him a small chain of silver. In the chain hung a small carving a scorpion.
- “How did you know that I liked scorpions?” Victor asked.
- “Oh, we figured since you’re almost always in a bad mood” Cara answered with a grin.
- “That, and I bet Mariah helped with a Seeing” Gareth cut in.
- “Well, we just wanted to say hello. We’ll be rooting on you from the spectator stands, but don’t waste your time looking for us. Concentrate on fighting” Mariah said.
- “Thanks guys, I’ll make you proud of me.”
- “That you already have” Gareth said with a nod.
- “Gaah!” little Isah agreed. Or at least Victor took it that way.

As Victor stepped out in the sunlight, the crowd cheered him and his opponent on. The first battle turned out to be fairly simple. Since the rule was that they fought until either one of the opponents gave up, was defenseless or left the ring, Victor had prepared himself for a lot of toe-to-toe battling. The first opponent opened with a clumsy attempt at a fireball spell that Victor easily sidestepped. He caught the spell with his left hand and sent it back towards its caster who fled over the edge of the battling area. Surprised at the easy victory, Victor shrugged and went back to the waiting hall. As the day passed by, Victor engaged several more novice mages, some that proved to be quite a challenge, and others that were just as much of a dissapointment as the first. He was slightly surprised when he at the end found himself in the finals. Who he was fighting was however no surprise.
- “Ready to get ya a** kicked?” Valencia asked.
- “Only if you’re up for the challenge” Victor answered.
- “Oh, I’m up for it, all right, just wanted ta give ya a chance to go home before ya got hurt.”
- “Just concentrate on not losing too quickly.”
As they stood there, facing each other with grim looks in their faces, the signal for them to start was heard. It didn’t even take a second before the first spells slammed into eachother with a loud bang. Victor tore up the ground and made a dustcloud envelop them, when suddenly something flashed above him. He jumped back and just barely managed to avoid the huge chunk of ice trying to crush him. Behind him, however, he foundhimself trapped in a binding circle.
- “Ya givin up?” Valencia asked.
Victor answered by creating a pillar of stone that shot him into the air. He swept down with his good arm and sent a wave of flames towards Valencia to cover his landing, but as soon as he had recovered, he was forced back into defence. A barrage of force bolts was sent towards him, and even tough he managed to shield himself against them, each hit pushed him closer to the edge of the arena. Even if he managed to get out of this pinch, he knew that in a battle of sheer power, she would without doubt have won.
- “Do you yield?” Victor shouted over the noise.
- “Ya makin me laugh” Valencia answered.
- “Well, then I guess I’ve got no choice.”
He pushed away the sleeve from his right arm and placed the arm onto the ground. As he did so, it melded with the ground and a moment later, spikes shot out around and beneath Valencia.They retracted almost without harming her, but her clothes were torn and didn’t hold up any longer. She yelped and tried to cover herself, but that left her defenceless. Duncan dashed towards her and knocked her out cold with a powerful kick.

The whole world stopped spinning for a moment. All was silent as he was staring down at the helpless bundle before him. Then the crowds cheering got to him, and he looked up at the masses. Not good. He had humiliated Valencia in public, and he knew she’d never forgive him for that. There wasn’t much he could do now however, and he wondered what the resulting retribution would be. The judge stepped onto the arena and proclaimed him winner, but that only made him angry.
- “Can’t you at least take care of her first?” he asked. “She’s the one in need of medical attention.”
- “That would be far more humiliating than leaving her here, don’t you agree?” one of the judges, a slightly overweight middleaged man, answered. Victor reconized the insignia on the robes and understood that this must be the famous Limberry.
- “Fine, then I’ll just have to do it myself!” Victor said with an angry voice.
He lifted Valencia onto his backand marched off towards the nursery. As he went, his friends joined him.
- “You know, that was probably the worst idea you could’ve had” Gareth told him.
- “What was I supposed to do, leave her?” Victor asked.
- “She might’ve gotten over it if you had left her there” Mariah told him. “Now, she’ll always hate you for the pity you felt for her.”
- “But this isn’t pity!” Victor objected. “I’m just doing the right thing!”
Gareth took Valencia from his back and covered her in his cloak before they continued.
- “That’s not how she’s gonna see it when she wakes up. You do realize that you’ve humiliated her far beyond words. That is one of the gravest crimes you could’ve commited towards her, since her pride is everything to her.”
- “I know, but what should I have done? Rolled over and died?”
- “That’s not what I meant. In fact, that was a very clever move there, picking out her weakness like that.”
- “Now, now, let’s not argue” Cara interrupted. “What’s done is done, and we can only do what we’re doing. Alright?”

Hours later, a large explosion shook the arena, and probably large parts of town as well. Victor had just been invited to the victors banquet later that evening and was thinking about how to politely decline when it happened. He saw that it had come from the nursery and immediatly knew who had caused it. Panic erupted around him as he ran towards the nursery, but even so he noticed he wasn’t the only one doing so. Several of the other mages were also heading that way. When he arrived, he saw several more of the mages there, some trying to save the life of a male nurse that had been caught in the blast, others checking up on another man that was in a state of shock. Apparently he had been caught in the blast too, and Victor recognized him as Limberry. Putting one and one together, he could almost guess what had happened, but he would have to wait until the nurse woke up to confirm his theory. If he remained here, he’d only get in the way of the others, so he followed the stretcher taking the nurse away.

- “So that’s what happened” Gareth said later that evening when Duncan told them what he had heard from the nurse.
Apparently, Limberry had come in and been very upset at Valencia for not winning. She was still going to get a higher rank than Victor, but to Limberry that seemed of less importance. He had humiliated her even further, and to a degree that Victor never could have, before she finally snapped and blew the whole place apart. Limberry had managed to shield himself from the blast, and the nurse, who had been close enough to also get protected, had only been injured. Everyone else in the room had been burned to ashes.
- “What do you suppose they’ll do with her when they find her?” Victor asked.
- “They’ll do what’s necessary” Mariah told him. “Even if... even if it means killing her.”
- “But... She’s just a child!” Cara protested.
- “She might be a child, but a rampaging mag is no small matter” Mariah answered. “Either way, we’re not involved in that, so there’s no reason for us to worry about her fate.”
- “Not involved!?” Duncan asked with an upset voice. “It’s my fault, all of this. Of course I’m involved. It’s my responsibility to fix this mess. If she comes back without resisting, he punishment will be lightened, right?”
- “Yes, she might even get a pardon since she’s so powerful” Gareth said. “No one would want to carry out that kind of sentence and possibly make an enemy like her. But don’t even think about going after her. She just laid low one of the strongest mags in the land and vanished without a trace. You’re no match for her.”
- “Still, I managed to beat her once” Victor said in his defence.
- “All the more reason for you to stay away” Mariah said with a stern voice. “She’s likely to berserk, and tearing apart her clothing won’t stop her twice.”
- “She’ll probably come after me anyway” Victor said. “If what you’re saying is true, then she’s probably hell-bent on revenge. I might as well seek her out and try to convince her to come back peacefully.”
- “No! Didn’t you hear them? It’s dangerous!” Cara objected. “What if you get killed?”
- “...you’ll need more spells” Gareth mumbled.
- “What?” Cara and Mariah asked at once.
- “He’s right. She’ll come for him” Gareth said loudly. “He, and we for that matter, are safer if he goes to her. But he’ll need more tricks up his sleeve. Considering the pace he’s learned things so far, it’ll probably only take a month or two for him to learn everything we know if he studies continuosly with only breaks for sleep. Still, that’s a month or two we’ll need to lay low.” He gave Victor a stern gaze. “And you won’t go until we allow you to. Agreed?”
Victor nodded with a serious face. He would need all the help he could get if he was going to do what he had set out to. Hopefully it would even be enough to stop her if worst came to worst.

Part 1, Chapter 7

A searing blast shot trough the air towards Victor. At the last moment, Gareth threw himself in front of it. For a second, the world stood still. Then the gears of time started moving again, and Gareth was lying on the ground with a severe burn across the chest.
- “One down, two to go” Valencia said without emotion in her voice.
- “I’ve got an idea” Victor told Mariah. “Take Gareth, and leave now. I’ll try to stall, but you two need to get as far away as possible before I do this.”
- “You can’t take her on alone!” Mariah objected, clearly torn between helping Gareth and helping him.
- “I know what I’m doing, now GO!” Victor roared at her.
- “I don’t like this, but I’ll do as you say” Mariah hesitantly answered.
Suprisingly enough, Valencia let Mariah carry away Gareth without trying to interrupt. When they were finally left alone, she grinned at him.
- “Just the two of us now” she said. “Just the way I want it.”
- “I know how to beat you know” Victor answered coldly. “You don’t stand a chance.”
- “Oh ho? Then show me what ya got!”
Victor answered by just standing still. He didn’t as much as shield himself. At first Valencia was tense, then it turend into suspicion. When her patience ran out, she did the same attack as she had done in the beginning. As the rays headed towards Victor, however, they were all blocked before they could hit him.
- “How...?” Valencia asked surprised.
- “Just something I thought of now” Victor answered. “I’m wasting too much energy on continous shields. I don’t have enough power for that.”
- “I see. So yar really goin’ for stalling tactics are ya?”
- “I told you so before, didn’t I?”
- “But ya can’t beat me that way!”
Victor grinned smugly.
- “But that’s not how I’m planning to do it either.”
- “Bah! Ya were just bluffin ta make ya friends leave.”
- “Actually, since I’m just going to stand here anyway, isn’t there any way I can convince you to come back without a fight?”
- “Fat chane, considering how much ya like dirty tricks!” Valencia spat back.
- “Listen! I only did that because it was my only chance of winning!”
- “Do ya have any idea how humiliating it was for me?” she asked him with fury in her voice. “Even lord Limberry looked down at me after that. Do ya have any idea what that felt like? And then havin’ him tell me that ya left me there without clothes for everyone to laugh at without as much as a second glance!”
- “I’d never leave anyone like that” Victor answered, gravely insulted. “How else do you think that you got to the nursery in the first place?”
- “Lord Limberry brought me there. Now shut ya lyin’ yap!”
She bombarded him with fireballs while he simply stood there, rage boiling inside of him but not dropping his guard for a second.

As the spells rained down on him, growing in intensity all the time, Victor closed his eyes. He was hard pressed to focus on both his shield, remade to save as much energy as possible, and the powers he sent seeping trough the rock, reaching into the magma at the bottom of the cave. How long had he been there since Mariah had left? Two hours? 15 minutes? He didn’t know. He wishedthat he had brought a watch, altough hindsigt didn’t do him much good now. An elbow connecting with his face sent him sprawling onto the ground.
- “Pfft! Ya didn’t even see me comin’ at ya” Valencia said.
Victor knew that he couldn’t wait much longer. He could only pray that Mariah and Gareth had gotten themselves to safety.
- “Check mate” Victor answered Valencia.
The whole mountain started shaking, and the room got drastically hotter. Valencia turned to see lava rushing into the room at a high speed before Victor managed to get a grip around her ankle. The next moment she crashed into a patch of forest. Before she could get up, a boot planted itself on her neck.
- “Don’t even think about it” Victor told her. “Just to make things clear, if I wanted, I could’ve left you there to roast. But I’m not like that. I’m going to give you a chance at coming with me peacefully, but if you don’t...”
Victor didn’t need to finish. Without the volcano to draw power from, she was weaker than either of his friends alone, and even if he wasn’t near her measured in pure power, he had still beaten her twice.
- “I know all about ya” she spat at him venomously. “And ya can forget that I’ll ever stop comin’ after ya until I’ve sent ya back where ya came from.”
Victor was taken slightly aback by this.
- “Is that all there is to this?” he asked. “The only reason I learned to use magic was to find a way back home! If you’ve found a way, then by all means, use it!”
Valencia cast him a ditrustful glare.
- “That sounds a bit too convenient, don’t ya think?” she asked him.
- “I’m dead serious” he told her. “There’s nothing I want more than to come home right now.”
- “If what yer sayin’ is true, then I suppose we should help each other.”
- “Just one moment. What do I have to guarantee that you won’t stab me in the back? You did kill those other people that were in the same room as you back in Gran.”
- “That was an accident. Come on, don’t tell me ya’ve never had one of those with magic. Ya’ve got yer arm shortened thanks ta it.”
He had no choice but to trust her.

The two of them managed to find cover beneath a rock where they slept trough the night. In the morning they were hungry but rested, and together they tried to find Mariah and Gareth. They didn’t find them, but their trail ended in the residues of a teleportation spell, no doubt cast by Gareth. Relieved, Victor transported them both as close to Garn as he could. They still had to walk for the rest of the day on empty stomachs, and Valencia had to support Victor trough half of it, but at last they arrived at Gareths house, half-dead from tiredness. Of course both Mariah and Gareth were shocked and not little surprised that Victor had brouht Valencia with him, but he answered them with a triumphant grin and told them about their truce. Not sure if this was good or bad, Gareth let her in. After all, it wasn’t like she had anywhere else to go, now that Limberry had gone home to his own town.

Part 1, Chapter 9

- “I was right, there was a powerful beast trapped between the worlds” Limberry said. “It will be mine!”
Before anyone could react, he summoned two creatures, one that looked somewhat like a wolf, the other something Victor would’ve guessed was an angel with a five foot sword in his hand. They charged the dragon with all their might, but they were no match for it. Limberry sent creature after creature to attack, but to no avail. The dragon gobbled them all up, and Victor could feel it get stronger all the time.
- “Hurry, I’ll distract it while you go trough the gate!” Valencia said as the dragon started moving towards the exhausted Limberry.
As she ran towards the dragon and flung a heatray at it, Gareth charged it from the other side with a spell of his own. He noticed from the corner of his eye how Mariah handed Isah over to Cara and told her to run before she, too, joined the battle. This was not the time to run away. A chain of lightning bolts shot towards the dragon and it turned it’s head to scorch Gareth, however a wall of stone shot out from the ground to block the flames. It collapsed as soon as Victor pulled his arm from the ground and joined in the fray, but it was enough to let Gareth get away.
- “What are ya doin’!? I told ya ta get out!” Valencia shouted at him.
- “Now, now, I can’t let you have all the fun for yourself” he answered with a grin. The only thing that showed that he was serious were his eyes, full of determination.
The dragon spread it’s wings, and in the small room it managed to knock Gareth and Victor down. Valencia fired a beam of light into one of the crystals on the walls, which in turn hit several more crystals and so it chained until hundreds of rays were raining down on the dragon. It pulled its wings back to its back in order to protect itself, giving Mariah an opportunity to fire icicles towards it. They pierced the thick scaled hide, but the wounds were shallow and the dragon barely felt them.
- “Here I learn a prime icicle spell, and it turns out whanever I use it, it’s useless” she shouted with frustration.
- “Don’t say that” Garet chipped in and sent a bolt spell towards the protuding icicles.
The dragon certainly felt the shock, though it only served to make him angry.
- “Uh-oh. Sorry about that” he said before grabbing Mariah and teleporting across the room.
Flames licked the wall where they had stood. Meanwhile, Valencia and Victor had combined two spells and smashed the dragons tail with a gigantic hammer. The hammer broke, but so did the bones in the dragons tail. As the dragon turned its head towards them, they both jumped aside in different directions to get away from the flames. Melding his arm with the cave again, Victor smashed a large chunk of stone at the dragon from above. The blow was however not nearly enough to harm the dragon, so he quickly pulled the arm out again so he wouldn’t be left defenseless. Fangs snapped at Gareth as he tried to get close enough to stun the dragon with a more powerful, rangewise severly limited, shock spell. The icicles had since long fallen out and melted, and to their dismay, the tail already seemed to have healed.
- “Blast it! Dosen’t this thing have a weakness?” Victor asked.
- “If ya find one, ya tell me!” Valencia answered from next to him, shielding them both from the dragons flames by absorbing the heat. At least she had found an effective way to defend herself.

Victor went trough what he knew about dragons while they fought. It was all stories, none real, but they were all he had. Most of the stories usually included an armour clad knight riding into battle with a sword. The sheer madness of wearing an armour, something that would not only slow him down but also offered no protection against a beast such as this, made him consider those stories less than useful. Besides, he didn’t have a sword either, not that it mattered considering that he had no idea how to use one. The rest of the stories usually included either poisoning the dragon, breaking an enchantment, trapping it under something big and heavy or piercing the heart. They didn’t have any poison, and as far as they could tell there wasn’t any enchantment on the dragon either. He had already tried trapping it under a large chunk of the roof, and not only did he have no idea where the heart was, getting close enough to be able to aim true was madness. He had tried to impale it from below by using his special arm, but it had been more or less without effect. The eyes would be a better bet in that case, but if anything that was an even more impossible aim. Dodging under a swiping claw and teleporting himself out of range, he spent a half second surpised at how nimble the past year had made him. Then he realized it.

- “All attack at once!” he shouted. “Keep it busy, I’ve found a weak point!”
The others didn’t waste time to ask him what his plan was before the fired at it with all they had. Victor used this opening to teleport himself onto the back of the dragon and hesitated for a moment. If it worked, it would hurt so bad that the mountain would sing about it for another hundred years. Not giving his doubts time to root themselves, he placed the stump on his right arm against the scaled skin of the dragon and took a deep breath. Fusing the arm was the easy part. He could feel every muscle, every sinew, every breath the dragon took. The spells had immediatly stopped when they had discovered that he was on top of the dragon, and he could hear his friends shouting with shocked voices. Then he did it. The dragon exploded from the inside out, splattering everywhere on the cave walls. The gate was still open, Victor now noticed trough a haze of pain. He had somehow managed to keep a piece of the dragons skin intact, enough to keep himself from beeing splattered with dragon innards and blood. The same couldn’t be said for the others. They were covered from top to toe in a bloody mess, and simply stood there in a state of shock before the victory clicked into place.

- “Heh, we beat it” Gareth said.
- “Ya’ve got more guts than I thought” Valencia told Victor.
- “You’ve surpassed every hope I ever had for you” Mariah agreed.
- “Ouch” was all Victor could manage.
Blowing up the dragon like that had cost him another inch of his arm. The shock was still numbing him pretty good, but soon the pain would strike with all its might, and when that happened, he would doubtlessy faint. The others seemed to understand what was going on and helped him towards the gate.
- “Ya know, I’ll kinda miss havin’ ya around” Valencia said.
- “Don’t get all mushy on me now” Victor answered.
- “Meh, be that way then” she said with a frown. “I was thinking of maybe tryin’ ta visit ya someday, but not if yer gonna be like that.”
- “I’ll take care of things here, so don’t you worry about us” Gareth added. “I’ll make sure to spread the tale of ‘Dragon Victor’ around though.”
- “Please don’t” Victor told him as sternly as he could. “But make sure to tell Limberry what an a** he is and to never do something this stupid again.”
The pain in the arm was ever increasing, and the bloodloss didn’t really help. It wouldn’t be long now until he’d collapse.
- “You’ve done more for me that you know” Mariah told him with a smile. “I’ll give you something in return before you leave us.”
She reached for his wounded arm and placed her hand over it. The pain increased drastically for a moment before he passed out and fell backwards into the gate.