Sollen did not seem affected by the fear gripping the three who had come with her, if it was any consolation for them she proceeded to explain their predicament to them. "Annik was one one of the mightiest kings of the tower, till he rebelled against god and was hunted down. His tail was severed, his wings clipped, his fire plucked out. He was left chained here to serve as an administrator to new crossers."
Aerith was not one to fall for such ludicrous stories. "I am not fighting a dragon? Don't you have another test?"
Emilia added in her own angry way. "Fire or no fire, a dragon's a dragon."
Nasha kept mute but Aerith could feel her body trembling right next to him.
A few seconds of silence passed before Sollen spoke. "You will not be combating the dragon, simply touch his egg and leave to the next level."
"His egg, that even worse." Aerith said alarmed, it was hard to go through with any of it. But he had to remind himself that he would be forfeiting his life if he refused, which would not make any difference as things stood. He paused and tried to clear his head, he looked at the massive beast and then it's egg. It's look gave a new meaning to the word rage itself it made him shudder just by locking eyes with it. Then he looked at it's egg.
"Why doesn't it go to the egg and protect it?" He asked out loud.
The groundskeeper tapped her staff gently on the ground before speaking. "Annik is chained to the cage, unable to move unless new crossers cross into the cage. Only then will he be free to move."
Aerith shuddered one more and trembled as he spoke. "Are you trying to say that the only time he gets to touch his egg is when people enter. That's no dragon, that's a pissed father."
His mind went haywire, the thought that the dragon could only stare at it's egg at the distance and wait for people to enter before it could see it's egg was sickening for him. That meant it would be really desperate to have people enter and tear them up, if they touched the egg and passed it would not be able to see it's egg. This would mean that it would kill them before they could get to the egg and at best leave one of them behind, maimed so it could enjoy the presence of it's egg a while longer.
"What sort of fucked up person clips a dragon and drops it in a cage like this?" He groaned inwardly.
The groundskeeper did not mention a time limit for the trail or when they should enter. What did that mean? No matter how he thought about it, even if they rested for a full day there was no way they could put run a dragon. They were in bad shape, leaving their only chance of survival to fall to him and Emilia since they were the only one with abilities in the group, but we're his abilities of any use at all? In the end it came down to Emilia who had the only offensive power in the group but could she handle a dragon in their current state.
Could anyone really handle a dragon?
Emilia seemed to know what he was thinking of she came to the conclusion on her own, she tugged at him and said. "I can do it, mess with his systems at best."
He locked eyes with her and spoke in a hushed tone. "I don't want to endanger you."
She just stared at him with fearful eyes and smiled.
Nasha spoke in her cold monotonic voice for the first time in a long while, surprising them both. "I voucher to keep you both safe and that is what I will do. I'll draw the dragon away long enough for you to capture the egg."
Aerith gave her a long hard stare before finally saying. "No offense but you won't even keep the dragon busy for the seconds, you like a toothpick to that."
"We don't know how long we can waste staying here, the dragon is going no where and neither is the egg." Nasha's words did make much sense.
They did not have time to waste.
Aerith hated being responsible for the decisions, especially those that had the lives of others on the line. "Here's the plan, we rush in as fast as we can and stay together. Em, I want you to mess with the dragon's senses if you can. I still don't believe we can live through this."
They all agreed on the plan thou reluctantly, Sollen tapped her steel staff on the ground giving a loud bell ringing sound announcing the start of the trail, the dragon let out a loud roar. "I wish you luck." She said coldly.
Aerith noticed how she did not specify whether it was the good kind or the bad kind of luck she was wishing. He tried not to think about, he took on deep breath and in one quick burst they sprinted for the space between the huge bars which were clearly created to keep the beast in and not humans out.
Aerith's hand hovered over the bars. There was a warmth pulsing through the metal, like it was breathing. He didn't know if it was the cage… or something else alive within.
"Fucking hell- this is it." Aerith said as they crossed through the barrier between the metal bars, he felt a funny feeling like walking through jelly, warm and slippery but he chose not to dwell on it, the goal was ahead of him.
As all three figures crossed into the cage, they found themselves in a desert, the ground covered in billions of grains of golden sand. The change of scenery was so sudden it shocked them and stunted their advance, but Nasha quickly recovered from the shock and jerked them both back to reality.
They knew they had to move fast, Annik was coming. They could hear the chains screaming as he sprinted forward on all fours with huge massive claws powerful enough to split boulders. Aerith did not expect to be facing off against a dragon.