Oliver closed his eyes and prepared for an intense pain. Nothing happened. He opened his eyes. The giant demon was frozen from head to toe like an ice statue. Oliver punched the ice and it shattered. Emma stopped screaming. Her eyes widened at the frozen statue.
"Woah," she breathed. "You did that?" Oliver nodded. The rest of the demons ran away in fright. They stood up, then slipped. Oliver had not only froze the demon, he had also turned the ground around them into ice. Slowly, they got up and walked toward a dead tree to rest.
"The next part should be right behind a thick grove of trees," Oliver said, looking at the map. "It's called the Den of the Dragon."
"But dragons aren't real," Emma said. "Well, considering we have met demons and traveled through temples, dragons don't actually seem that unlikely." They walked until they found the grove of trees. A branch smacked Oliver in the face, and he yelped. Emma laughed so hard that she fell in the ground, into a sharp thorn, and screamed. It was Oliver's turn to laugh. After a while, they were catching their breath.
"Okay," Oliver said. "Back to focus." They walked into the grove and out through the other side. The heat that met them was scorching hot. A mound of rocks was sitting right in the middle.
"Where's the dragon?" Emma whispered. Oliver shrugged. They heard a roar in the distance. Oliver could see the exit. It was about thirty meters away, surrounded by red rocks. The rocks started moving.
"Those are no rocks," Oliver said. "That's the dragon!" The red dragon stood up. It was the height of a house, with leathery wings that were each the length of two cars. It had backward facing horns, and a long, spiked tail. It breathed a plume of fire at Emma. Emma had the power of fire, so she was practically fireproof. She blasted fire at the dragon, who flew into the air.
"Watch out!" Emma shouted to Oliver. The dragon shot fire at Oliver. He quickly put up an ice shield, which melted halfway. Oliver then shot ice spikes at the dragon, and they sizzled on its scales. The dragon bellowed, and scorched the ground with fire. Oliver focused his power in the dragon, and ice spread along the ground to the dragon's legs. The ice crept onto the legs of the dragon, making it impossible for it to move. Whenever it tried to melt the ice, Oliver froze it again. Emma was doing much better, shooting fireballs the size of a basketball. The dragon spread its wings, shielding from the fire. Its wings absorbed the energy and it shot its own fireball. It hit the ground, leaving a giant crater and making the ground shake. Trees all around were catching on fire. Oliver did his best to extinguish it.
"Get the dragon!" Oliver shouted. "I'll take care of the fire!" He started killing the fires with ice, but that didn't stop the dragon from breathing more. Emma threw ropes of fire at the dragon, harnessing it, and causing it to stumble. Oliver closed his eyes, creating more and more power. The trees waved, the wind blew faster, and Oliver was getting stronger. He let go of all the power he was saving, and a his power caused a huge shockwave, which knocked the dragon off its feet, and Emma. The ground turned to ice, as well as the trees. There was no fire in sight. Oliver looked down. He was standing in the middle of a giant snowflake, which was sending power through its tips. His power ceased, and the snowflake disappeared. Oliver ran to Emma and helped her up. She had no injuries, and the dragon didn't either. Oliver was about to finish the unconscious dragon when Emma grabbed his arm.
"It deserves to live," she said. "Let's go, the exit is right over there." Oliver took one more glance at the dragon, then they both left through the exit. They took the map out, and looked at it again. The next section was called the Tower of Darkness.
"Let's rest first," Oliver said. "We used up our energy, so we might as well take a break." Their break was about half an hour. When their break was over, the walked through a forest of dense trees, until they reached a tower the color of a midnight sky. The tower blended in with the darkness of the night.
"We have to climb it," Emma said, looking at the near endless flight of stairs. They got to what was about the fifth floor, before they decided to sleep. Oliver set up barriers to block any dangers from outside. They both fell asleep soon after.
———
In the morning, they continued to climb, eating a few more bananas that they saved from the banana tree. Soon, they realized they did not have the stamina for long walks, so they took it a little at a time.
"Wait," Oliver said. "There must be something at the top right? Why would we have to climb all these steps if the next section is below us?"
"There will be a way to the next section, don't worry," Emma said, cheerfully. "There wasn't an exit at the bottom, so it must be at the top." They reached the top a few minutes later. It had to be at least 25 floors. The view at the top was outstanding. Well, not really. All they could see was miles of trees in all directions.
"Do we jump?" Oliver asked. "Or what? Because I don't see an exit here." They looked down. A fall from this high up would surely kill them.
"No, I think the whole point about climbing this high is to find our own way down without getting killed," Emma said. What happened next surprised him. She grabbed Oliver's hand and held it tightly. "We'll go down together." The gripped each other's hands and jumped.