The Risen dragon’s jaw snapped shut with a chilling click, its wings beating in a slow, deliberate rhythm. Its body rose and fell with each beat, the air tearing through the forest with hurricane-force winds. Borealis shrieked, his feathers rattling in the wind, while Fable braced his paws on the ground. He lowered his head and nipped my sleeve, pulling me to him. The Risen’s eyeless skull turned to me, and it let out an earsplitting roar. The dragon was far from the glory of its ninth-level self, reduced to a husk that stood at the peak of eighth level. But still, the sheer force of its aura was suffocating. My tail lashed on instinct, and I huddled against Fable’s leg, clutching my chest as I struggled to breathe. The sound cut off, and I gasped, sucking in air. "Th-this was a bad idea," I muttered. Fable whined softly. He nudged me onto his back and dashed into the woods, racing out from under the dragon. Borealis followed close on his heels, his icy blue and gold light leaving a wake behind him. The Risen dragon roared again and dove, its wings tucked tightly to its sides. I screamed as the world around us darkened, the sky blotted out by a titanic claw. A gust of wind buffeted us as Borealis launched off my shoulder, streaking toward the descending dragon. His wings flashed, and a torrent of golden-ice crystals sprayed out from his wingtips, blasting the dragon’s scales and bone. The force of the attack knocked it off course. A talon larger than the Windserpent smashed through the trees, scoring a new valley into the forest. As the dragon attacked with its other claw, Borealis exploded with stars, rapidly swelling into its true form. The dragon still dwarfed him, but he was much stronger now than his last evolution. His talons met the dragon’s with a thunderous crack, his wings beating furiously as he was forced back a few hundred feet before stabilizing. "He needs you," I cried, tugging on Fable’s fur. The wolf came to a stop, his eyes burning with fighting spirit. I groaned inwardly, sensing his anticipation through our bond, and quickly slid off his back, stumbling back as another dragon roar shook the ground. Fable leaped into the air, mana flooding from his body. Just as Borealis, he transformed into a towering, majestic wolf, some two hundred feet from head to tail. Almost double the last time I’d seen him. Fable’s eyes flashed gold as he lunged at the dragon, jaws clamping down on its hind leg. The Risen twisted, swiping at him with its front claw, but Borealis intercepted the blow. Their auras clashed, sending shockwaves that flattened the surrounding trees. The dragon’s jaw snapped, nearly biting Borealis’s wing off, but the bird flew in a dizzying circle, dodging between the dragon’s wings. His claws lashed out, leaving golden gashes in the shadowy membranes. Mana gathered in the dragon’s maw, condensing in a pulsing ball of dark red. It shot out in a beam of black mist, and Borealis let out a shrill cry, taking the attack in the chest. The bird spiraled out of the sky, crashing through the canopy. The ground shuddered, toppling me onto my back. I winced as my tail bent unnaturally and rolled to my knees, summoning my staff. With a thought, I added Borealis and Fable to the Nexus, followed by a dozen more wards and spells. There was little I could do against the raw power of the dragon, but I could, at the very least, protect them from indirect hits and glancing blows. Golden stars burst from the tree line, and Borealis flew up, supported by the shimmering barrier of golden light. He engaged with a series of swift, sharp maneuvers, darting between the dragon’s claws, using his smaller size to his advantage. Fable had managed to find footing on the dragon’s back and now dug into its spine, tearing into the bone. Chunks of rotting biomass crashed through the canopy, striking the ground around me like meteors. Nearby currents of Black Mist reacted to their presence, flowing toward them. The bone sucked it up like a sponge, gradually turning black. Cracks erupted across their surfaces, breaking into fragments that formed together into monstrous husks. Undead elementals. The elementals clacked and scraped, moving listlessly in awkward gaits. Their forms had no pattern nor design, some with too many limbs, others with not enough. Even their size was erratic, ranging from cat-sized to some as big as houses. But as they familiarized themselves with their features, they began to move toward me, letting out low hisses and clacks. "Borealis!" I cried, reaching out to him through the mark. The bird wheeled away from the dragon, thundering toward me with the crack of ice and stars. I ducked behind the crystalline trunk of an ancient tree, covering my head as his aura slammed into the icy clearing. The tree cracked and shivered, but held. The undead elementals weren’t so fortunate, being tossed aside like ragdolls. Borealis’s landing shook the ground, but he quickly condensed to his smaller form, becoming a ribbon of thin, gold and blue light. He streaked past me, punching through the core of a carriage-sized elemental. He emerged from its backside in a shower of bone and black mist, leaving the hulking monstrosity to collapse back into fractured biomass. With Borealis on the ground, Fable was left to face the dragon alone. There was no fear in our bond, only determination. And...excitement. The dragon’s roars shook the skies as it continued to twist and turn, its serpentine body writhing in an effort to shake the wolf loose. Without scale and muscle to hinder them, its short, clawed limbs were surprisingly nimble. When one couldn’t reach Fable, it simply coiled its body in a different way, bringing him in range of another. As often as not, the great, flailing swipes smashed into its own bone, but the dragon didn’t seem to care. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡⁂𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⁂𝙣𝙚𝙩 The recklessness eventually caught up with Fable as a massive claw tip caught him across the side, drawing a long, crimson line from his shoulder to his hind hip. He yowled, spinning off the dragon from the force of the impact. My heart leaped as he slammed into the trees almost a mile away, leaving a trail of destruction in the forest. Pain flooded the bond, accompanied by a sharp, hot sting. The soulspeak was fragmented, but it seemed like the wound was already festering, allowing the Black Mist an avenue to invade and begin draining his life force. "Purify!" I cried, soul casting a sixth-circle spell. Life magic flooded the nexus, and Fable’s discomfort immediately lessened. Purify was one of the few countermeasures Selena and R’lissea had managed to develop against the Black Mist. It purged the body of all of its effects, as well as burning out disease, infection, and other taints. I let out a relieved breath as Fable returned to the air, slamming into the dragon. The impact knocked it off balance, sending it careening to the earth. A massive dust cloud obscured the area they landed, but from the constant tremors running beneath my feet, the battle hadn’t slowed in the slightest. As they continued to battle, more and more chunks of bone and rotting flesh continued to rain from above. They coated the ground beneath where Fable and the dragon fought, forming into new elementals every few seconds. I’d gotten far enough from the nearest villages and city that there was only one source of life force for them to turn to. I bit my lip, my gaze shifting between the warring dragon and wolf, and the ever-approaching swarm. "Not good," I mumbled, gripping my staff tightly. I reached out through the Nexus, checking the strength of the bond with Korra. It was still there, but I couldn’t quite get a reading on her situation. All I could tell was that she was fighting, and her soul was blazing brightly. It was a little frustrating not to be able to see through her eyes like I could with the demons. Was she fighting Connor? Had something I hadn’t foreseen happened, and R’lissea actually lost? I pushed the thoughts aside. There was nothing I could do for them now, other than grant them the benefit of the spells I gave Fable and Borealis. Another glance at the approaching elementals made up my mind for me. "Borealis, we need to clear these things out." The bird let out a shrill shriek, a flicker of annoyance in its soul. He’d just finished killing the initial wave that had landed close to me and wanted to join the fight against the dragon. But he obeyed, flaring his wings and rising a hundred feet into the air. Waves of gold and blue washed over me as he regained his full-sized, blasting the black mist from the fringes of my aura. "I know," I said, smiling as he passed over me, "I’ll make it up to you."