As they walked, Arad started to get a weird feeling. Aella stared at him with a worried face, “Aren’t we taking a bit too long?” She stopped, looking around.

“She is right. We should have reached the well a while ago.” Jack stopped, looking around, “I can’t see shit!” He still can’t see in the dark. Otherwise, he would have tracked their path.

“That can’t be. There is a single path that we follow. We can’t be lost.” Arad scratched his head.

^Mom. What do you think?^

[I don’t have sense other than you. If you can’t feel the difference, I can’t. We might have been walking a bit more slowly than usual. Let’s keep going for a bit.]

“Let’s keep going for a while. I bet we were slow.” Arad suggested while taking the lead.

The two followed him, but the air got hotter. “Arad, it’s getting hotter, and I don’t feel right.” Aella shook her ears, saying, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Me too, chief. I wouldn’t say I like this.” Jack said with a worried voice, trying to look around.

[Be careful.]

As they walked, the heat kept increasing, and they saw the light at the end of the tunnel. “Is that the well?” Jack asked.

Aella strained her eyes, looking far ahead, “No, the light is a bit red. It’s not sunlight.”

Arad pulled his sword into his right hand and held the staff in his left hand, “I will take the front. You two follow behind me and stay alert.”

The three of them approached the light with careful steps, making sure to make as little noise as possible.

Arad then stopped, having seen what lay behind the light. “Big lizards on fire, are those the salamanders?”

“They are salamanders! Did we walk the other way around?” Aella gasped.

“No, we walked past the frog’s blood. We certainly took the correct route.” Jack said, pulling a dagger, “Mounting those things will be painful,” He can’t leap on their back as he did to the frog. His rear end will get scorched.

“As I said, stay behind me.” Arad said with a confident face, “I will distract them while Aella arrows them from the back.”

“And what will I do?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know. Make sure we won’t get attacked by surprise. Watch my back.” Arad replied, and Jack smiled.

“You can count on me, chief. Even if my ass burned to ash.”

“Let’s go,” Arad said, crawling on all four.

“What are you doing?” Jack asked from behind him. “Keeping low, we might become harder to spot.”

In that way, they approached the salamanders and hid just behind a stone. Arad slightly peeked his head to take a look.

One, two, three, a lot of them! Arad’s expression changed. ^Can we take all of those on?^

[You alone in the draconic form should be able to win, but in the humanoid form, it will be hard.]

^Why?^

[Salamnder are shorter. Your draconic form can face them better. It will also be hard to protect your identity in this fight, as your fire magic is useless against them.]

^So only if I could use void magic or other elements would we win easily?^

[That is hard to tell, especially since you need to be more experienced in fighting with your draconic form.]

^I should have used another element besides the fire.^

Arad sighed and took a deep breath, “I will charge. You support me.” He whispered, “If things got bad, run!” He glared at Aella and Jack.

“I will never leave you back, chief!” Jack said with a proud smile.

Aella understood that Arad wanted to fight in his dragon form, so she grabbed Jack, “We run if things got bad,” She glared at him, “Yes,” he replied.

BAM! Arad stood in an instant, running toward the salamanders, “Here, you bastards!” He screamed, taking their attention.

The monsters immediately looked at him, running like crazed lizards while growling flames.

Aella stood immediately, “Jack, I want you to retrieve my arrows.” BAM! BAM! BAM! She fired three arrows, killing one salamander and blinding another one.

GROWL! The monster growled, and Jack rushed ahead.

Arad turned around, leaping above the burning, jaw-clapping salamanders, and stabbed the blinded one. “Got you!”

Jack pulled the arrows from the corpses, “Bad news. It’s slightly burned!” He yelled.

“Bring them back. I will get a few extra shots from them!” Aella shouted at him.

At that moment, the salamanders turned toward her. All at the same time. SCREECH! They growled, rushing at once.

“Why?” Arad pointed his staff at them [Firebolt][Firebolt][Firebolt]

KA-DON! KA-DON! KA-DON!

As the flames exploded on them, the salamanders remained uncaring as they rushed toward Aella.

“Damn it!” Arad growled, remembering they were immune to fire.

Jack turned toward Aella, throwing a stone at the creature to try and distract them.

^What should I do!^

[Use the void walk to teleport to her. I doubt Jack would notice that]

Aella lifted her hand, “I call thee, spirits of winds.” Flashes of the dead elves crossed her mind, shaking her magic, “I ask thee to form a wall of wind,”

‘You killed us. Your magic is cursed.’ The voices kept growling in her head. CRACK! Her spell shattered, “Not again, focus!” She cried, trying to build the magic again. Biting her lip to stay focused. CRACK! The spell failed again.

Arad stepped forward, fazing toward Aella.

In the blink of an eye, he stood between her and the salamanders. Stabbing his sword inside the mouth of one of them. “BASTARDS!” Arad growled, glaring into a salamander’s eye, “HANDS OFF!”

The purple glare of the infinite abyss in his eyes sunk deep into the salamander’s eyes, taking the shape of death. The salamander ran away, but a whole horde remained.

Aella pulled her bow, “Sorry for the trouble!” BAM! BAM! BAM! She fired three arrows, killing two salamanders and wounding one.

Jack rushed in and stabbed one in the tail, “Follow me, lizards!” He shouted, trying to get the monster’s attention.

“Don’t use magic if you can’t. Focus on what you can do now.” Arad said, swinging his sword and staff around to scare the salamanders.

“I should be able to pick them up with an arrow. Please keep them away from me.” Aella replied, and Arad nodded.

“Heard her, Jack? We’re the bait!” AGRWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Arad screamed his lungs out. Their mission is to get the monsters’ attention.

[Firebolt] [Firebolt] [Firebolt][Firebolt] [Firebolt] [Firebolt] [Firebolt] [Firebolt] [Firebolt] [Firebolt] [Firebolt] [Firebolt] [Firebolt] [Firebolt] [Firebolt] [Firebolt] [Firebolt] [Firebolt]

KA-DON! KA-DON! KA-DON! KA-DON! KA-DON! KA-DON! KA-DON! KA-DON! KA-DON! KA-DON! KA-DON! KA-DON! KA-DON! KA-DON! KA-DON!

Arad waved his staff, flailing spells left and right like a crazed mage. “Die! Die!”

“Chief gone wild, me too, me too!” Jack smiled, pulling a second dagger, HOOORAAAAAAAA! “On us, smoked crocks!” He shouted, sitting on the ground to wet his rear end, and he then leapt on top of a salamander and started gouging his back.

The two went crazy as Aella started picking the monsters one after the other.

As the fight heated, the ground started shaking again. “Is this another collapse?” Jack shouted.

Aella immediately fell flat, listening to the ground, “Something big is coming!” She yelled at the top of her lungs.

As Arad started, the ground shattered, and a massive salamander emerged. It was at least five meters in height and flashed brightly with crimson flames.

“You’ve done my children dirty!” The monster growled in a language that only Arad understood.

[He speaks draconic, be wary!]ｂ𝚍ｏｖ𝚕．𝚝