"Are you sure this really going to be okay?"
I vocalized my thoughts as I began to walk side by side with Therese, a worried look on my face.
Quite some time has passed ever since our group has decided to take Old Glenda with us back to Taunborough Cavern as she requested. We presided over traveling the same pathway we found earlier, only that the sun has completely set down at this point. Old Glenda refused to go tomorrow and simply cannot wait to meet this Dragon again.
For that matter, the four of us were stuck together tonight as we passed through some level 6 monsters, then some level 7 along our way. I gained two levels just from these random encounters but I refused to allocate any ability points I've collected from advancing my level to anything in my ability sphere yet. The situation is too dire for me to do so.
Therese smiled. "Of course, Aron. Let's just give Old Glenda our trust." she said without losing her iconic smile.
I nodded my head to her in comprehension of what she just said, and continued to walk alongside my companions back to the cavern where we discovered a Dragon's nest earlier.
The travel time to our destination was no shorter than an hour because of the growing threat of monsters that lurk the forest in darkness. For grinding levels, this sure is a blessing, but we can't afford to put Old Glenda to harm, hence we have no choice but to only cut down enemies that are closer to our positions rather than chasing them down on our own.
Soon enough, after gaining few more levels, I finally reached level 12, and accumulated more ability points than I ever did before. I made a mental note to check my sphere later when I finally get the chance. It was also around the time that our group made it to the mouth of the Taunborough Cavern, although the sight didn't wash away our anxiety one bit.
Old Glenda steps forward, towards the opened cavity before us. She smiled through cracked lips and crooked teeth. "It is just as I remember it." She said in a shaky voice as she looked at us as if sending us a silent message.
"Shall we go in?" I asked, exchanging glances with my companions in the process. Laurance nodded at me while Therese kept her smile on her face. Old Glenda tapped her cane to the ground twice, and all of us ventured out to the cave together once again.
The inside of the cave was as we left it earlier, muddy and dingy, however Old Glenda was kind enough to have made a magical light shine on a specific radius around our group, giving us a bit of illumination in the darkness of the cavern. Her magical light shine brightly between our group that no normal torch may hope to become, somehow helping alleviate the feeling of dread that slowly eats away from within me.
We pressed on to our destination in silence, our footsteps and the sound of Old Glenda's wooden stick tapping against the stone the only sources of noise we have within our group. We made sure not to step into the muddy surfaces of the cave this time, but doing so meant that we had to stay on the rocks situated on either sides of the dungeon's walls, and it sometimes required us to hop and skip over some dangerously looking platform.
Not long after, we found the same branching pathway leading to one side of the cavern, and the other downwards to the Dragon's nest. We made for the latter, and passed through several chasms full of Spring Green Hemaedonite in order to reach our final goal, the place where we found the Dragon to be deep in slumber.
I noticed from earlier that the cave will occasionally shake at random times during our travel, and wondered if it was going to collapse on us and cause player death, but won't that mean that another NPC will suffer the fate as well? Nevertheless, we pressed on with little to no comments about the situation from me.
"The shaking is getting violent, wonder what that means?"
An inquiry that made my eyes widen in surprise. It was Laurance who vocalized his opinion as he raised both eyebrows in question.
"Come to think of it, it didn't shake this much during our initial visit, not at all." Therese responded with an observation of her own, making me smile inwardly because I didn't even have to pronounce my concerns about our environment, since my friends already pointed those out.
"We should probably proceed with caution then. I don't want us to get trapped here and turn into fossils!" Laurance blurted out while laughing and scratching the back of his head.
With that concern out of the way, the four of us cautiously approached the nest, each careful step allowing us to feel the shaking which started to become more intense as we get closer and closer to the site. Fear will begin to exude from within me as we began to hear the sounds of yelling too, putting me in high alert.
A turn to the left has been made and we reached the dome we identified to be the Dragon's nest. Here, the shaking is too intense that it was practically similar to a magnitude 5 earthquake at this point. The noises of battle from earlier seemed to have come from this place as well, something that didn't escape the watchful eye of our elderly companion.
"Woah, what was that?!" Laurance exclaimed as he sprinted towards the room when the earthquake stopped. He did not even stop to look back to his companions as he did so, but Therese and I were both under the same impression that we quickly followed him through.
The scene that preceded was grim to look at. Blasts of fire and the noises of steel colliding with steel overwhelmed my senses as I watched the event unfold before my eyes. A giant dragon stands across the room, its silvery scales keeping it protected like a natural body armor. Its tail that is long and heavy were curled around something that glows, and without getting closer to it I immediately found it to be the same glowing blobs of Spring Green Hemaedonite we found beforehand. It seems to be protecting its eggs.
Meanwhile, a man cloaked in black robes float from behind him, watching over a party of over five men fighting against the dragon though they don't seem to chip away health from it fast enough as they were slowly being wiped out.
"AAAAAAAA!"
Shouted the voice of a boy, young and innocent, as the Dragon's hand scooped him in its clawed fingers, his body helplessly squeezing itself to get away from the firm grip of the enemy.
"Alek!" yelled another voice as the lone figure of a Rhothar male who attempted to raise his bow and fire three arrows to the Dragon at the same time. Its grip tightened up and the boy named Alek struggled to free himself from it even more. I just knew then that the flimsy ranged attacks done to the dragon won't be enough to get the boy out.
I let out a sigh, summoning my spear to my hand and immediately leaped into action. I used the power of my legs to jump higher than what that players can do, and unleashed a focused thrust with my weapon in order to make a powerful, but non-magical attack that collides with the exterior of the dragon's arm.
It didn't cause any damage to its health points, but I seemed to have gotten its attention and attempted to shake me off when my spear landed over its extended arm like an anchor for my descent. Luckily, my position is now close to the player which was called Alek earlier. He's still stuck in the dragon's firm grip as fear is on his face, giving me an idea towards reassuring him now that I am nearest to his location too.
"Hang in there" I will tell him as I raised my spear and immediately targets a small, yet open cavity between the scales that protect the dragon from our attacks. My weapon immediately sinks itself to the flesh underneath, causing the dragon to whine and to let go of the player in its grip. I began to lose balance and fall from my position too. I closed my eyes and braced for impact that never came, because a blanket of magic strings swathed our fall.
"Are you okay, Aron?!" A voice from afar called out, but nevertheless very familiar. It was Therese who had both hands raised to the same level as her shoulders, her eyes glowing and her hair turning blue as she exudes magic from her avatar. She must be the one who caused that magic strings to catch us earlier.
I stood up from my vulnerable position to give my companion a thumbs up as I looked towards the player I saved, realizing it really was just a young boy. I extended a hand towards him and smiled, momentarily forgetting about our predicament as my world becomes wrapped around the two of us alone. "Are you hurt? Drink a potion if you can."
The boy reluctantly took my hand and I helped pull him off of his seat as he answers my earlier question. "I... I'm okay now. Thank you for saving me, Mister."
I was about to reply to him, when I heard the noise of Laurance shouting something at me. I raised an eyebrow and turned to look behind me, noting the incoming fist that collided immediately with my body, causing me to fly across the room, away from the boy who was called Alek.
The impact that happened after my back harshly smacked against the wall was incredible. I watched helplessly as pain shot through my backside like a thousand needles, and my health points gradually dropped to 65%. I attempted to raise my chin, but the pain that spread across my body was too much for me to move just yet, and I found myself wide eyed as an old woman entered the scene, bravely striding across the room and towards the rampaging dragon.
Old Glenda! It was Old Glenda!
"No... stop-" I groaned as I used all strength that remained in my body to extend my arm forward and try to reach the old woman who inched closer and closer to the Dragon still fuming in rage.
I looked towards my companion, seeing Therese tend to the young boy earlier, while Laurance gripped his weapon tightly in his hand. He was gritting his teeth and he seems to be teetering to the edge of self control too, but I saw how his face changed the moment Old Glenda passed the point where he was standing.
"Oi, Grandma!" He yammered at her, but it seems that his words didn't reach her perception because the latter continued her approach to the Dragon without saying anything.
I closed my eyes momentarily, then opened my inventory menu to drink two lesser health potions and regain the health I lost just a little while ago. I felt the sensation of control ploddingly return to my arms and feet, the throbbing at my rear no longer as painful as it was before.
"Wait!" I called out to Old Glenda as I sprinted towards my friends as well. "What... What are you trying to do?"
She paused. She paused and steadily turned away from the dragon to look back towards our group. There is a look of mystery that clouded her face, disallowing me, perhaps including my friends, from seeing what she is trying to convey.
Then, she returned her gaze to her front, and began to walk towards the Dragon once again, with the latter raising its head and preparing to blast fire from its mouth. Everyone around me stood still as we watched red fiery substance reach out from the Dragon's opened cavity, while Old Glenda proceeded with her steady approach.
Closer and closer she went, the flames that erupted from the enemy licked its surroundings like wildfire, but it never touched its intended target who passed through it safely, like the mythos about ocean splitting apart to let people through. Old Glenda was glowing all the while this was happening, stunning as she didn't even faze through the sound of danger around her.
"All of you, listen to me carefully!" She then shouted, pulling us back from our own worlds so that we may focus our perceptions to the small but nonetheless stout figure of an old woman who stands before the Dragon that threatened our lives. "This ancient dragon means no harm to any of you."
Silence enveloped the group upon hearing what Old Glenda had to say. No one seemed to believe what she stated, especially after they've seen what the Dragon was capable of doing just a moment ago. Even I was shaken down to the core by what happened too.
Underneath this silence, I can feel something emanate from our group, something that feels thick and heavy. It was something that feels that it would spiral out of control if left to itself, but I can't put my finger on what it was. Was it fear? Anger perhaps? Jealousy? I ransacked my brain and used all the energy I could muster to figure it out but to no avail. My mind was too clouded with thoughts about the situation to properly process this feeling.
"My... my, aren't you a persistent one, Grandmother?"
A voice boomed from before us, catching my undivided attention as I raised my chin to look above us, noting the floating figure of a cloaked man, the same cloaked man from before. "Well, this Dragon is now under my control, and I won't just let you take it away from me." He added shortly after, giggling devilishly in the process.
"This dragon is possibly the last of its kind! Why do you have to weaponize it?" I asked, letting my voice echo within the cavern as loudly as it possibly can. "We will never forgive you!"
"Do you really think that I care about something flimsy such as your forgiveness?" The cloaked man replied in a boastful tone. "I'll end you here and now, then I will take control of the rest of Arkadia, liberating my fellow brothers and sisters from being shunned out because of our skin!"
He raised his hand into the air, now holding a wooden staff as he started to give off an aura that made our surroundings feel like freezing near absolute zero. All of us huddled closely together, our eyes trained towards the event unfolding before our eyes, especially when Old Glenda tapped her cane to the ground twice, making the chilling sensation vanish in an instant.
"Is that all you can do, child?" She said, mocking her opponent in the process. It made the latter growl in what I hope is annoyance, raising his staff once more, but this time to exude control over the Dragon that had been silent throughout this confrontation.
Without another word said, the Dragon unleashes a large blob of fire magic, possibly nearly as big as a comet, then brings it down to our group, making us all panic only if we weren't kept within the boundaries of a magic barrier that wrapped its tender arms around us. I looked over to Therese to see if it was her doing, but it wasn't, so it made my eyebrows furrow in confusion.
"Aron, Laurance, Therese!" Old Glenda called out to us that halted my thoughts from developing to give her my utmost attention. "I will keep the Dragon distracted, but I want you three to do something about that man. Eliminate him how you see fit."
"Are you going to be alright here, Grandma?" Laurance asked afterwards, granting himself a smile from the latter.
"I am counting on all of you to put an end to this. The Dragon has suffered too long from my absence, I have to take responsibility for that." She said not long after. "Do everything in your power to put a stop to this madness."
Laurance, Therese, and I exchanged glances for a moment, then my eyes shifted towards Alek and his group as a silent agreement is done between the two of us. I nodded my head to Old Glenda.
"Then... let's do this."