"BASTARD!" I roared.

  My mind completely clouded over. I jumped directly onto the dragon's exposed throat, ignoring the searing heat of the dying dark fire. I plunged my bare hands into the massive, gaping wound Hoiler had created. Driven by sheer, unfiltered rage, I began ripping out anything I could grab.

  Thick, bck blood sprouted like a geyser, painting my armor and the cavern floor red. The dragon thrashed violently, trying to throw me from its neck. Its massive cws raked across my back, shredding my leather armor and my skin underneath it, but I didn't stop tearing at its throat.

  Until the colossal beast finally went limp and colpsed.

  I crawled out from beneath the massive corpse. I kept crawling through the dirt and blood until I reached Patrice’s broken body. Gently, I pushed the two halves of her together and closed her eyes.

  Tears burst from my eyes uncontrolbly, leaving clean tracks through the soot and blood on my face.

  My eyes darted around the debris. I found a jagged, broken piece of Hoiler’s bde. I crawled over to it, dragged the heavy steel back to Patrice, and id the broken bde across her chest.

  "I’m sorry... I’m so, so sorry." I buried my face in my bloody hands. A sharp, suffocating pain twisted deep inside my chest. My tears kept falling. I couldn't stop them.

  "Mentor..." a weak voice called out.

  I looked up. Kenny was standing near the rubble, carrying the unconscious Mathilda on his back. His face was streaked with tears and ash.

  I aggressively wiped the tears from my face. No. I have to stay strong. Kenny and Mathilda aren’t safe yet.

  I stood up, taking one st look at Patrice’s body and Hoiler’s broken bde.

  Cp. Cp. Cp.

  I snapped my head forward. The mysterious, red-haired man was casually standing on top of the dragon’s corpse, slowly cpping his hands.

  "Fascinating... Very... dramatic..." A dark grin spread across his handsome face.

  My jaw clenched hard. The overwhelming, paralyzing fear I had felt when I first saw him was completely gone, repced by a cold, hollow fury.

  "You... must be proud," he said, tilting his head to inspect the dead dragon beneath his boots. "Not many... mortals…. could kill a dragon."

  My patience vanished. I drew my dagger and hurled it at his face with every ounce of force I possessed.

  Snap!

  He caught the spinning bde effortlessly between two fingers. "Impatient..."

  Without a moment's dey, I was already airborne. I unched myself at him, throwing a devastating, full-power punch. He didn't even flinch. He simply swatted my fist away with the back of his hand, completely shattering my bance and throwing me to the left.

  Using the momentum, I spun my body mid-air and unched a brutal roundhouse kick at his head.

  He blocked it with a single, open palm. With a simple, almost gentle push against my leg, he unched me violently backward through the air.

  Craaack!

  I smmed brutally into the cavern wall.

  My ribs fractured instantly. A sharp, blinding pain shot straight down my spine as I colpsed onto the cold stone floor.

  "Mentor!!" Kenny screamed, running toward me. His hands shook in pure terror as he knelt beside my broken body.

  "Kenny... Listen to me. I need you to run. Take Mathilda and run," I wheezed, struggling to stand and ignoring the extreme, burning pain radiating through my chest. "Please, Kenny..." I locked eyes with the terrified boy. "Move."

  He nodded frantically, his eyes wide.

  Suddenly, a sphere of dark fme shot toward us. I threw myself forward, violently swatting Kenny and Mathilda out of the bst radius.

  BOOM!

  The dark fireball detonated, completely obliterating the thick cavern wall right where we had just been standing. The explosion blew a massive, jagged hole straight to the outside world. Daylight spilled into the cavern.

  "There is... your way out," the red-haired man smiled, gesturing to the smoking hole. "If... you can reach it." He ughed, the sound dark and booming in the enclosed space.

  "Go!" I commanded Kenny, pushing him toward the light. "Move!"

  Kenny grabbed Mathilda's unconscious body, hoisted her up, and sprinted for the smoking hole.

  The man sneered. He casually raised his hand and tossed another massive, condensed fireball directly at Kenny's retreating back.

  I threw myself directly into the line of fire. I pnted my boots firmly into the scorched earth and thrust my open left palm toward the incoming inferno.

  When the fireball collided with my palm, I absorbed every single drop of it directly into my core.

  I gritted my teeth as a crucifying pain flooded through every vein in my body. The extremely dense, votile magical energy threatened to tear my core apart.

  I gred down at the mysterious man. The arrogant grin had completely vanished from his face, repced by genuine shock.

  In a blinding fsh of speed, I unched myself across the cavern, materializing directly in front of him. I drove a devastating right fist straight into his sor plexus, unleashing his own dark fire back into his body with multiplied, kinetic force.

  BAAAANGGGGGG!!!

  The concussive bst unched him backward like a cannonball, his body crushing through stagmites and stone walls as he flew across the chamber.

  Blood immediately began to spray from my pores. The sheer force of channeling that much high-level magic had torn every muscle fiber in my body apart. I completely lost control of my limbs and colpsed heavily onto the ground.

  Slowly, my consciousness began to slip away into the dark.

  "A Void…. meister..."

  My eyes widened slightly. I weakly raised my heavy head toward the voice.

  Through the settling dust, the mysterious man was still standing. A massive, smoking scar was burned deeply into his chest, but he was alive.

  "Impressive," he breathed, his reptilian eyes glowing in the dark as he stared down at me. "You... should be very proud... to leave this scar... on me."

  My head slumped back against the cold stone. My vision finally blurred into nothing. The heavy sound of his voice vanished from my ears, and everything faded to pitch bck.