"The thing about dragons is, they don’t care about your rank or your family name. They just care about how you taste." — DaMiLaRe.
The sound wasn’t something any of them expected.
It wasn’t mechanical, and obviously, it wasn’t human.
It was a roar so deep and loud that the entire vault shook, making the walls tremble around him.
It came from the rear of the vault.
Behind the destroyed server racks, behind the collapsed ceiling panels, and behind the ruins of the Stone-Ape’s crater, a section of the far wall had cracked open.
It wasn’t by accident. Something had pushed through it from the other side.
A shape emerged from the darkness.
First came the head, wide and flat, covered in scales so dark they looked like pieces of black stone stuck to a skull.
Two horns curved backward from the sides of its head, each one as long as Micah’s arm and sharp enough to run a man clean through the chest.
Then the body came through, and it was enormous. Bigger than the Stone-Ape.
Every inch of it was covered in black scales, each one as big as a dinner plate and sharp around the edges.
Four thick legs held up its huge body, each ending in clawed feet that dug into the concrete with every step. Its heavy tail dragged behind it, sweeping across the floor and sending a server rack crashing to the ground.
But the worst part was its mouth.
When the thing opened its jaws, the temperature in the vault spiked.
Heat came from its mouth in waves, and its teeth were long and sharp, glowing orange at the tips. Magma dripped between them, hitting the floor in thick drops that hissed and sparked.
Micah’s Beast Analysis fired on its own, even though his Flux was nearly empty.
[WARNING! HOSTILE ENTITY DETECTED!]
[Threat Class: APEX PREDATOR.]
[Designation: Obsidian Drake.]
[Flux Equivalent: 50%.]
[WARNING: Fire-breathing capability confirmed. Lethal range: 20 meters.]
[STRONGLY ADVISE IMMEDIATE RETREAT.]
Fifty percent Flux? A fire-breathing, scale-armored, magma-dropping nightmare that could turn all three of them into ash before they reached the tunnel exit, and it was standing directly between them and the only other way out.
The vault had two exits. The main tunnel behind Dexter and Myra, and a secondary passage at the rear of the chamber that led to an old emergency stairwell.
The Drake had just blocked the second one, which meant the only way out was through the tunnel behind Dexter and Myra.
The tunnel was actually clear, but that didn’t matter anymore because the Drake was looking right at them. All three of them.
The Obsidian Drake let out another roar, louder than the first.
Fire burned between its teeth, bright orange and white, throwing shadows across the walls. The heat hit Micah’s face like opening an oven.
Dexter’s reaction was immediate and pathetic.
His broadsword clattered to the floor, the sound ringing across the vault like a dinner bell. He took two fast steps backward, putting Myra directly between himself and the Drake.
He literally hid behind a woman.
The color drained from Myra’s face. Her grip on her short blades tightened, but her hands were shaking so badly that the steel rattled against itself.
Her eyes locked onto the Drake, then darted to the tunnel entrance, then back to the Drake. She was calculating the distance, the speed, and the odds.
They were terrible odds.
"Get behind me," Dexter whispered from behind Myra’s shoulder.
Myra turned her head just enough to give him a look that could have stripped paint off a wall.
"You just dropped your sword."
"I’ll pick it up."
"Then pick it up now."
"I can’t, it’s too close to the Drake."
The sword was literally three feet behind him, but he didn’t want to reach for it because it meant turning his back on the thing.
Micah watched this exchange with a mixture of disbelief and dark amusement. The academy’s second and third ranked recruits, the pride of the elite class. One was cowering behind the other, and the other was too scared to move.
"And these are the people who called me a coward."
The Drake took one step forward, then another. Its claws dug into the concrete, while magma dripped from its mouth in thick drops, leaving glowing puddles on the floor.
Its eyes were fixed on the nearest target, which was Myra.
It drew a deep breath, and its chest expanded as the obsidian scales spread apart to reveal the glowing orange tissue underneath.
The air around its mouth bent and warped from the heat. It was charging a fire blast.
"If that thing breathes fire in here, we’re all dead. The tunnel is only few meters away, and none of us can outrun a fire blast in an enclosed space."
Micah looked down at his tactical pack. The Astral Prism was inside, humming against his back. He’d felt it the entire fight, pulsing with raw, compressed Flux Energy, and the system had warned him that unfiltered absorption could rupture his meridians.
He didn’t need to absorb it though. He just needed to wake it up.
He reached into the pack with his left hand, and his fingers closed around the Prism. It was warm and vibrating, alive with more energy than his broken body could handle.
He didn’t care.
He funneled every scrap of Flux he had left into the crystal, not to absorb it but to activate it. To trigger whatever dormant ability was sleeping inside.
The Prism responded.
The hum grew stronger, and the vibration traveled from the crystal into his hand, up his arm, and into his chest.
A wave of pressure spread from his body, hitting the walls, floor, ceiling, and everyone in the room.
The Obsidian Drake stopped charging.
Its jaws snapped shut, and the magma dripping from its teeth began to cool. Its eyes had been fixed on Myra, but now they turned toward Micah.
The Prism’s energy was ancient. The kind of raw, concentrated Flux that hadn’t existed in the world for centuries.
Micah planted his feet and locked his eyes on the Drake.
"Step to me, motherfucker!"