As James grit his teeth in frustration, against the indomitable dragon in front of him, he saw arrows fly towards the Dragon and hit it, Emma was trying her best to be as far away as possible while supporting the team
Emma's Arrow do almost negligible damage physically but all the Mana in the arrow seem to be drained.
James: Wait a minute...
James, thinks in the few seconds he's in the air. He's heard of dragons before, the more stronger and powerful ones can absorb Mana around them. If this Dragon can do that, then any Magical attack the team throws at it will become useless and only fuel the dragon.
James: I have to buy time for Isaac's Mana restrictors to launch.
James notices that the place is getting darker, looks up and sees a funnel of wind, from the clouds, closing in on the Dragon. James looks at William and understands, it's his spell. He signals William to wait, to not launch it at the Dragon yet. William nods in response, keeping the funnel at bay.
James looks to Emma, shouting at her to stop firing. She doesn't question him so she stops.
But James then notices Alice running towards the Dragon but she doesn't know about the Dragon's Mana absorption skill.
Alice uses her Earth Magic to conjure a rock trap around the Dragon's legs so it cannot move and jumps to strikes its face. In that moment, for a split second, the Dragon seemed to smile. The Rocks holding the dragon's legs disintegrate and the Mana from that allows the Dragon to create a beam of fire, aimed at Alice.
But James catches Alice just in time and both of them fall to the ground. The Dragon turns himself to aim his flaming beam at the two who fell.
James: Aqua Speculum!
A pane of ice forms in front of James and Alice, blocking the Fire beam for a second. But the ice pane breaks.
James: Aqua Speculum!
James casts it again but this time thicker. It breaks after 3 seconds. The Dragon increases its Mana output for the flame, making it much more hotter.
James: Aqua Speculum!!
James casts it again, this time, its smaller so it only focuses on the Beam. James struggles to keep the ice conjured up against the Dragons Flame. But just then, he hears a shout from Isaac.
Isaac: JAMES! ITS READY!
James, with his little strength shouts,
James: GOOD! WILLIAM! HIT IT ON THE DRAGON WHEN ISAAC CREATES THE BIND!
William: You got it!
James turns to Alice as the Ice is about to break.
James: Hold the dragon in place when Williams funnel hits! Can you do that!?
Alice: Y..yes!
Alice replies with fear but she pulls herself up to do what James tells her to do. Then, the Ice Breaks and James conjures it for one last time,
James: Aqua Speculum!
He jumps up but the Dragon doesn't notice that he's jumped until a moment later, the newly conjured ice doesn't break now that the dragon has turned its head up. Isaac speaks in a runic language and shouts,
Isaac: BIND!
Yellow Light shines from the ground beneath the Dragon, it can feel its Mana drained and locked, its power decreasing. Its Fire beam slowly fades away
Alice: De suǒ!(Earth Lock in chinese)
The rocks formed from the Earth beneath the dragon begins to envelop the dragon, starting from its Legs and tail, holding it in place with the Earth. The dragon tries to move but it doesn't budge. It roars in anger but no matter what it does, it cannot move for now.
Isaac trembles and falls down in fatigue,
Isaac: DO WHATEVER YOU'RE ABOUT TO DO NOW! I CAN'T HOLD IT FOR MUCH LONGER!
Williams cool air funnel, now fully charged up hits the immobilized dragon, The Dragon itself is momentarily blinded. Everyone gets far away from the funnel's range, everyone except James Mgrath.
While the Dragon is immobilized, hit with a mini hurricane, temporarily stripped of its Mana absorption, James, from high up in the sky, falls with the intent to swing his Obsidian sword, now covered in Ice of his own making, towards the Dragon's face and cut it up.
The Dragon finally looks up, noticing James jumping towards it.
The whole time the Dragon fought the raid team, it's eyes showed a sense of invulnerability. Now, however, all it showed was fear.
James swings his sword , cutting off the Dragon's right horn. The dragon lets out a final, gut-wrenched roar that pushes James away. William catches him mid-air and the entire team see's as blood pours from where the horn was cut and the Dragon falls.
James's sword falls upright, immersing itself into the ground, near the dragon.
James gets up from William's arms and address's the team.
James: Thank you... everyone, I done it without you. Especially you Isaac. Your binding sorcery saved our asses out there
He turns to Emma,
James: Even you, Emma. I wouldn't have realized the Dragon's power if not for your arrows.
He turns to William
James: Will, I don't think we were the first raid the Empire sent.
William: What?
James: My guess is, the empire knew something powerful was here, it didn't wanna sacrifice its own troops, it sent multiple raids, at least one raid team and they died. The patch of land with burnt trees is probably where they all died and turned to ash.
Isaac: Fucking hell. Isaac sits on the ground from the fatigue
Alice: Is the Empire that heartless?
James replies,
James: The Empire needs to make it military look tough and rough, just in case our neighboring empire, The Romans, try to do invade us for the Leyline.
Alice: What Leyline?
James looks at her a bit shocked, like she should know this but she seems completely oblivious.
James: There's a small patch of land that acts as a land border between us and the Romans. Beneath that land is a leyline of mana so massive, it's worth going to war over. Ever since both sides found out, either side has been trying all ways to get to it first and claim it as their own.
Emma falls to the ground, hands to her eyes,
Emma: So we're just pawns in a political game? We almost died for that?!
Everyone goes silent. No one can deny the truth. They were all pawns in the Empire's game, whether they like it or not. Just then, The Dragon wakes up, its roar losing all energy.
James: Not again....
James just puts its hands up, everyone one else readies themselves in position. But the dragon looks at the team, or at least, looks at James fiercely and it flies in the opposite direction.
William: Wha-
Isaac: What the fuck just happened? I mean- I'm not complaining but, excuse me?
James: The Dragon didn't want to deal with us again. And since we're already at the Empire's borders and its flying in the opposite direction to us, we won't be dealing with it either.
James walks towards his sword and pick it up, there he sees the huge fallen horn of the Dragon. James shouts,
James: This horn is mine! If we show this horn to the guild, they'll give us the reward as well!
The young Alice looks at the James in awe. Who was this man who'd saved her life?
Present day - 1244
Alice finishes reminiscing that raid's memories. It's late now, the skies have darkened quickly and the stars shine like a bright ruby. Its been a few hours since James and Alice talked over beer and soup.
James gets dressed in his usual attire and heads out,
James: I'm going out for a walk, I'll be back in an hour or two
Alice: Wait what-
James shuts the door. Alice could follow James and tell him to come back but in her medical assessment that evening, it should that he was perfectly fine now with no poison in his body but still- she wanted to spend time around James but she couldn't give that as a reason to James, so she stayed quiet, sipping her Honey Ale, watching the night sky.
James walks past the busy streets of Lorwin. Even though it was late-evening, a town like Lorwin can function in some areas till the early morning. James finally finds a nice, quiet road to walk on when he hears a voice behind him.
Voice: Sir James Mgrath.
James turns around to see a old man, maybe early 50's, balding grey hair, wearing a black tunic and black pants, all embroidered with golden thread that symbolized the Empire's Crest.
James: Who are you?
The Old man bows
Old Man: I am Ian Thrawn, Servant to the Alunas Royal Family.
Of the 3 Major Royal Families of the Selvarian Empire, The Alunas Family were the current ruling family, with John Alunas being the current king, who took the throne from Marius Strabo, the previous king who belonged to the Strabo Royal family. The final Royal family, hadn't had its family sit in the throne for over 300 years yet it is still recognized a major Royal family due its immense social power, this being the Spes family.
James: Okay? What does that have to do with me?
James readies himself for a fight. Even without his sword, he was still combat ready. The Old man laughs,
Thrawn: I am not here to fight you, Son of Leon.
James pauses,
James: How do you-
Thrawn: I also know your mother's name. Lisa.
James clenches his fist,
James: You better start telling me who you are.
Thrawn: The Major and Minor Royal and Noble families are being called to Fortuna, The King plans to propose a peace treaty with the Romans such that the fought over leyline remains a neutral land. This requires for us to summon every royal and noble families, such is tradition.
James: What- What you're not saying-
Thrawn: Yes. James Mgrath, of the House of Mgrath, you have been summoned to Fortuna!
James's eyes widen with rage as the Empire that gave him up now invites him back for its own needs.