"Move out of my way peasants!" the noble screamed at Philip, his eyes wild with terror. "I am a well-known Baron! Save me first! I will pay you two silver pieces if you carry me to the palace gates!"
Philip looked at the fat noble, then looked at the two terrified kids in his hands.
"Baron of what, motherfucker’s double chins?" Philip grunted.
Philip reached out his leg and kicked the fat noble squarely in the stomach, sending the screaming man flying backward into a giant pile of wet cabbage bags behind the vegetable stall.
As the noble tumbled through the air, Philip’s lightning fast fingers casually snatched a thick gold signet ring right off the noble’s thumb.
"Consider that your emergency rescue tax fatty Baron," Philip muttered, sliding the shiny gold ring straight into his pocket.
He turned back to the two kids, dragged them across the street, and kicked open a heavy iron storm door leading down into a stone bakery cellar.
"You two! Get down there and don’t come out until the screaming stops!" Philip yelled through his clown mask, shoving both kids safely inside the dark cellar before slamming the heavy iron doors shut and throwing a steel bar across the latch.
Over in the central plaza, the parade was completely destroyed, but the high ranked Mage Knights were finally stepping forward to make their stand.
Their silver capes flapped wildly in the blistering heat as they formed a wide semicircle, raising their golden staves high into the air.
"Form the grand barrier!" the Grand Master Knight roared, his voice echoing over the roaring flames. "Channel your artificial mana cores! Do it now! Protect the royal palace at all costs!"
"Show this filthy beast the power of state certified mage!" Sir Valentino shouted, striking a heroic pose in front of the cheering crowd of trapped citizens.
Dozens of elite mages joined hands, channeling their manufactured mana to summon a giant, translucent blue shield barrier directly above the market district.
When the dragon’s falling blue plasma fire slammed against the barrier, the sky erupted in a blinding flash of white light that made the whole city look like daylight for three seconds.
"Look at that!" a knight cheered from the back. "The barrier is holding! Human alchemy reigns supreme!"
Philip stood behind a ruined stone fountain, leaning his shoulder against a pillar while watching the dramatic scene with his arms crossed under his tunic.
"Count down from five," Philip muttered under his wooden mask, shaking his head. "Five, four, three..."
Right on cue, a loud, terrible grinding sound began echoing from the knights’ golden staves.
BZZZZZZZZT!
The glowing blue runes on their shimmering silver armor began to flicker wildly, sputtering like broken lightbulbs in a thunderstorm.
High Master Valentino’s golden staff started shooting thick black smoke out of its bottom handle, and the giant translucent barrier above the city began cracking like cheap glass.
"What’s happening?!" Sir Valentino panicked, shaking his smoking staff violently. "My core! My sky diamond core is losing power! It’s draining really fast!"
"Mine too!" another high mage screamed, dropping his staff as the metal handle turned red hot and burned right through his gloves. "The mana density from the dragon fire is overloading our intake valves! The cores are melting inside their sockets!"
"Hold the line!" the Grand Master yelled, but it was already too late.
One by one, the elite Mage Knights fell to their knees on the hot cobblestones, coughing up black blood as their artificial core implants short-circuited inside their armor.
Because human beings in this world were not born with natural magic roots, their manufactured power reserves were completely incapable of handling the extreme energy output required to block an S rank dragon.
Their expensive, state-certified cores overheated, cracked, and burned out completely, leaving the absolute top defenders of the kingdom lying helpless on the ground like broken toys.
CRACK!
The giant sky barrier shattered into a million sparkling blue pieces, raining harmless mana dust over the plaza.
"We are ruined," the Grand Master sobbed, staring at his golden staff which had just crumbled into a useless pile of grey ash. "Our cores are dry! There is no mana left in the entire city!"
High above the burning rooftops, the massive metallic dragon circled slowly through the dark smoke clouds.
It let out a low, victorious rumble that vibrated through the stones beneath Philip’s boots.
The beast turned its giant ugly head, its glowing yellow eyes locking directly onto the lower slum district of the capital empire.
The dragon opened its cavernous mouth wide, building up a massive ball of supercharged blue plasma fire aimed directly at the poorest neighborhood in the kingdom.
Philip casually leaned out from behind his stone pillar to see where the beast was aiming.
He tracked the dragon’s gaze down the narrow cobblestone avenues, past the butcher shop, past the cheap tavern, and right toward a specific small intersection.
Philip’s eyes widened in absolute, blinding horror behind his wooden clown mask.
"Wait a second," Philip whispered, his voice trembling with sudden, violent realization. "You motherfucker! That’s fourth street! That’s the alley behind Brandon’s shop!"
He squinted through the rising black smoke. The dragon was aiming its ultimate flame attack directly at Brandon’s Magic Junkshop.
"MY THUNDER CORES, YOU BITCH!" Philip shrieked at the top of his lungs, slamming both fists against his head in pure panic. "MY UNREFINED METALLIC SCRAP! MY WHOLE DAMN STASH IS IN THAT BASEMENT!"
He didn’t care about the royal kingdom. He could care less about the nobles, the king, or the grand palace on the hill.
But the thought of three whole crates of unstable, highly toxic, incredibly delicious thunder spear fragments being turned into useless ash by an oversized lizard made his blood boil with apocalyptic rage.
"You overgrown iguana!" Philip screamed, pulling his wooden clown mask tight against his face and sprinting straight toward the burning plaza like a total madman. "If you touch my magic trash, I am gonna turn your scales into tea leaves!"