“Well, this is… a lot more tiring than expected,” Sam panted, his breath catching as he forced one stubborn foot in front of the other.
The trio was currently clawing their way up a punishingly steep hillside.
Back home, Sam had never been particularly athletic, but attempting this on a completely empty stomach was a whole new level of torture.
Every muscle in his legs screamed for him to stop.
“Here,” Mira said, hovering down toward Sam with her arms extended.
He gripped her hands.
Her wings beat furiously against the air, straining against his weight, but with a determined grunt, she managed to lift him off the ground.
Keeping only a few feet above the slope, she flew the remaining distance to the top of the hill and gently set him down.
“Thanks, Mira,” Sam breathed, leaning against his knees to catch his breath.
“You’re a lifesaver.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, offering a small, breathless smile as she folded her wings.
Not long after, Alice reached the summit.
Even after days without food, her monstrous endurance carried her up the incline with barely a complaint.
“Well, this is it,” Mira said, stepping forward and pointing out toward the horizon.
Sprawled out below the hill was a surreal, sprawling forest.
Countless slender trees with smooth, green bark stretched toward the sky, crowned with vibrant, glowing blue leaves.
Dotting the landscape beneath them were dense bushes of the same luminous hue, making the entire valley look like an ocean of sapphire.
“Whoa! It’s beautiful!” Alice cheered, already bolting down the hillside.
“Maybe we can actually find some food here!”
“Wait, Alice! We still don’t know if it’s dangerous!” Sam called out, throwing a helpless look at Mira before scrambling down after her.
Once they finally skidded to a halt at the bottom, the sheer scale of the strange forest closed in around them.
They began frantically combing through the vibrant foliage, but their optimism quickly vanished.
Neither the slender green trees nor the thick blue bushes bore any fruit.
Refusing to give up hope, they pushed deeper into the sapphire woods.
Surely there had to be something edible hidden somewhere in this massive valley.
But as the hours dragged on, they found nothing except more glowing trees stretching endlessly in every direction.
“Maybe we should call it quits,” Alice said, her voice dropping into a rare, defeated whisper as she slumped against a green tree trunk.
“I’m so sorry, guys,” Mira muttered, her head and wings drooping in absolute guilt.
“I really thought this place would help.”
“Don’t worry about it, Mira,” Sam said, forcing a reassuring smile despite the hollow ache in his chest.
“It was worth a shot. We’ll head back to the river. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky, and the fish will be back.” This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Disappointed and thoroughly exhausted, the trio turned to begin the long trek back to the riverbank.
But they didn’t even take a single step before a violent, localised hurricane erupted out of nowhere.
The sheer force of the wind blast slammed into them, knocking all three straight to the forest floor as blue leaves stripped from the branches swirled chaotically around them.
As the dust settled, a towering shadow loomed over them.
Standing in the centre of the clearing was a magnificent, terrifying dragon.
Its massive body was armoured in shimmering sapphire scales that perfectly matched the forest, and its piercing green eyes locked onto them with predatory intelligence.
It unfurled four colossal wings that blocked out the sky, while two long, barbed tails whipped menacingly through the air behind it.
“There are more of you?” the dragon asked.
Its voice was a deep, resonant rumble that vibrated through the ground beneath them.
More of us?
Sam’s mind raced despite his exhaustion.
Has it already run into other contestants?
“Why are you here?” the dragon demanded, its piercing green eyes narrowing as it leaned down, casting a massive shadow over the trembling trio.
“We were brought here against our will,” Alice spoke up, standing tall despite her trembling knees.
“We were teleported to this island by a god named Nexis.”
The dragon stiffened, its piercing green eyes widening slightly at the name.
It slowly drew back, a low, solemn growl vibrating in its throat.
“Nexis…” the beast rumbled.
The hostility had vanished from its voice, replaced by something far older.
“So… he has chosen my grounds for his competition once again.”
“We mean you no harm,” Alice pleaded, her usual fierce bravado cracking into genuine desperation.
“Please… just let us go on our way.”
The dragon closed its massive eyes for a brief, heavy moment, letting out a breath that smelled of ozone and ancient earth.
“I am sorry,” the beast rumbled, its glowing green eyes now cold and resolute.
“But if Nexis is the one who sent you here, then I have no choice but to eliminate you. Do not take this personally.”
Without another word, the dragon lunged.
Its four wings snapped shut, propelling its massive body forward with blinding speed as its cavernous jaws opened wide enough to swallow all three of them whole.
Mira rocketed straight into the air, narrowly escaping the dragon’s snapping jaws.
Sam wasn’t fast enough.
They skidded across the dirt, gasping for breath.
Looking up at the towering beast, Sam realised running was out of the question—the dragon was too fast, and they were too weak.
Their only option was to fight.
But in their current, starved states, it felt like a death sentence.
Alice was the first to strike, thrusting her hands forward to launch a barrage of fireballs straight at the dragon’s face.
But instead of her usual roaring torrents, the flames sputtered, leaving the projectiles noticeably smaller and weaker than before.
They burst against the dragon’s scales with muted explosions, doing little more than causing the beast to flinch slightly.
The lack of food had severely drained her of power.
The dragon dug its massive talons into the dirt, lowering its head as its sapphire belly suddenly began to glow with a brilliant, churning orange light.
Having devoured countless fantasy novels and games back on Earth, Sam knew exactly what that meant.
Fire breath.
Panic flared in his chest, but a memory quickly overrode it.
Alice had told him before that her fire abilities gave her a natural immunity to heat.
If she could absorb or negate the incoming blast, she would be completely fine—but he and Mira would be turned to ash.
However, what erupted from the dragon’s gaping maw wasn’t a torrent of flame at all.
Instead, a blinding, concentrated beam of pure laser energy tore through the air with a deafening screech.
That’s not how dragons are supposed to work!
Sam screamed in his mind.
Alice moved on instinct, throwing up a blazing fire shield to intercept the attack.
The laser slammed into her defence, the sheer kinetic force grinding her boots into the dirt.
For ten agonising seconds, the shield held—and then, with a sharp, glass-like crack, her weakened shield shattered.
The remnant of the beam struck her squarely in the chest, sending her crashing backward into a green tree trunk.
“Alice!” Sam yelled.
He scrambled toward her, his heart in his throat.
She was still breathing—thankfully, the blast hadn’t been fatal—but a steady trickle of crimson was already matting the thick red hair at the back of her head.
Alice was their only real fighter, and she lay unconscious at the foot of the tree.
She just needed a few minutes to recover.
We have to buy her time, Sam realised, his chest heaving as he looked from Alice’s bleeding head back to the massive dragon.
But how?