Headed by a Snake

"I need to see it," Coraline Heartsong told her senior.

"And I need to *not* bleed out," Gilchrist said with a whimper.

"Move your hand," Coraline ordered-- "but carefully."

"Ergh... Alright."

There was a large gash in the side of Gilchrist's coat... but thankfully, the actual injury wasn't as bad as Coraline feared. The crossbow bolt from earlier had just grazed her.

"Newbie!" Gilchrist yelled, "G-go ahead and cauterize it!"

"What?"

"Do it! I can take it! I have the BALLS!!"

Coraline pursed her lips, "Yeah, I'm not gonna do that. You'll be fine."

Because of Gilchrist's physique, the wound was already beginning to heal.

"But it hurts so much!!!" she cried.

"And so will cauterizing it!" Coraline argued.

"I am your su-PErior!" Replied the indignant womanchild.

"And I PASSED NECRONOMICS!!" Coraline countered.

The ground shook again, interrupting the stupid argument between Coraline and a Glamour Mage who had, against ALL ODDS, failed the easiest course in the Tower!

Something landed nearby.

--and that *something*... was very, VeRy large.

Coraline quickly led Gilchrist into the closest building for cover-- or, rather, what was left of it.

Then, she extended her senses toward where the enemy had landed.

Even at the distance, it was easy to sense...

It felt... red... and... dense. And it also... burned... like an open flame?

Coraline was familiar with many types of fire, magical and non-magical. She considered herself a fire connoisseur of sorts.

Yet... the thing that landed wasn't made of any fire that she knew. It was especially nothing like Beatrice-- and her fire-mana was as pure as newly-birthed flames from the Plane of Fire, itself.

And, even worse, while Coraline was trying to figure out the nature of the weird fire-abomination she was looking at... her ears twitched.

She heard the shuffle of boots, quickly approaching.

Coraline shut her eyes, cursing her luck underneath her breath.

Running into another squad of Making troops was bad enough.

...But if that huge and largely unfamiliar blob of mana was what she thought it was... this squad had a dragon.

"Ho, what smells like cracklin's? Haha! Check it out, boys! Someone's smoked our elf."

A round of villainous laughter went off.

There were at least 6 of them, but the low laugh of humans and elves and whatnot were nowhere near as intimidating as the distorted wheezing of a certain red-scaled behemoth.

"No good, Sarge," Shouted a different voice. "The girl can barely breathe, much less talk."

"Weird," The first voice said. "Now, I wanna say that our crispy elf is the b*tch responsible for toasting those other shmucks from 'Rare' to 'Congratulations...' But from my understanding, Mages that play with fire know how to *not* get burned."

Listening to the Sergeant's logic made Coraline absolutely furious.

How was it that the enemy had so many smart people in charge?

"Oi, keep your chin up, Newbie," Gilchrist whispered. "We'll get through this."

There were tears pooling at the corners of Coraline's eyes; her senior didn't realize that *she* was the reason for her depressive state!

"EYES!" The enemy Sergeant yelled.

""OPEN!!!"" His squad responded.

"EARS!!!"

""OPEN!!!""

"And mind yer dispersion, y'all!" He ordered, "The enemy's got AoE potential, so try and be smart about it!"

"[STAND BACK,]" An echoey voice commanded, cutting through the chatter.

"You heard 'im, boys and girls! Get some distance! Move, move, move!"

Coraline clenched her eyes shut, trying to actively suppress her mana signature. According to the lore and tradition, Dragons were magical beasts with uncannily keen senses. Thus, if the red dragon's Metal-Rank was within one stage of hers-- or rather, Beatrice's, then she and Gilchrist were doomed.

Or if the red dragon was stronger... which, according to lore and tradition, every dragon *absolutely* was... then the two of them were doomed even harder.

The sound of a concentrated inferno burning Selvia to ash made Coraline's stomach turn.

"...Hey, Heartsong," Gilchrist said in a quiet voice. "I changed my mind."

"About what?"

"I don't want my cut to be cauterized."

"...Right."

Gilchrist wiggled in place, checking her gear before brandishing two wands-- one in each hand.

"Things are lookin' pretty bad, huh, Newbie?"

Coraline nodded before doing similar, wielding her favorite wand in her main hand and a utility knife in her left. (The knife was more for aesthetics than anything else.)

"Would you believe me if I said I've survived worse?"

"Psh," Gilchrist scoffed. "No. No, I would not. Wanna do it the Laney way?"

"Hmph, alright," Coraline smirked. "Blood and thunder?"

The phrase brought a frown to Gilchrist's face, "Who says that?"

"N-nevermind," Coraline said, bowing her head.

She stood up, wand pointed forward. Quickly identifying six targets, she made a few manual adjustments to the Spell before running it through her wand.

"⌈Fire Bolt: Beta Pattern!⌋"

Six spiraling arrows of flame sped towards their bewildered, chain and leather-clad targets.

A lizard stood amongst them, four-legged, with crimson outer-scales and a golden belly. It stood about 13 fulms high-- not including its tail, but including its long snake-like neck. Maybe it was a younger lizard... but whatever it was, it seemed just as surprised to see Coraline.

--or maybe the six dudes taking ⌈Fire Bolts⌋ to the face were more surprised?

"What the f*cking F*CK did I say about DISPERSION!?!" A certain Sergeant shouted.

Some of the crossbowmen aimed down their sights to fire back. Some of the smarter ones were running to find cover.

"Honor and glory!!" Gilchrist sprinted out of cover, sliding in the rubble before turning and activating her wands, "Eat sh*t and die, you Making bastards!"

That was not how the Sapphire Tower motto went.

The warcry did have a certain ring to it, though.

Gilchrist shot off several ⌈Mana Bullets⌋ and what Coraline identified as a modified and weaponized version of the ⌈Leap⌋ Spell. There was one casualty, which was a nice bonus-- but Gilchrist was casting so many Spells in succession as a distraction.

Coraline had quickly carved a Spell Formation in the road as best as she could. If she was at the temp base, she would have had access to various Spell reagents for stability or power. But because she wasn't, she was forced to use her wand as the ritual's primary focus.

The problem was... her wand had a strong affinity for fire. Its effectiveness would be almost nil on a red-scaled lizard-- a creature with a *notoriously* high affinity to fire. Thus, Coraline had-- in what pathetically limited time she had, reworked a Spell that would blast a tunnel of hot air at the creature.

If successful, it'd blow the lizard away, while also devastating any humanoids in its path.

...But because of the rework's experimental nature, Coraline gave her and Gilchrist a 30% chance of survival.

"Hey, you! How 'bout ya DO somethin', HUHH?!?"

Instead of aiming down the sights of his crossbow like an idiot, the Making Sergeant gave an... infuriatingly rational command to his dragon.

That was not what Coraline wanted to hear.

The lizard turned its serpentine neck... and honed in on where Gilchrist was taking cover.

Coraline... found herself caught in that moment.

She needed another 7 or 8 seconds to complete her Spell Formation... but could Dessi survive so many seconds of a concentrated Spellblast? And from a magical beast as big as a house?

Thinking logically, though... the lizard was the most powerful unit on the field. Completing the Formation would significantly improve the chances that Zeta Squad would at least survive the next bell.

Gilchrist-- she'd understand. If she survived, she'd b*tch and complain to no end... but she'd probably understand.

--but by the time Coraline realized that, she had already changed her mind.

"⌈Fire Colonnade!!⌋"

Three rising pillars of whirling firestorms rose up to block the lizard's vision.

Coraline's fire wand shattered-- which was something she was more than okay with. If she used her own mana circuits as a conduit, the resulting mana feedback might have put her in a coma for a week.

The lizard began to roar in frustration.

"[YOU STUPID B*TCH! FIRE DOESN'T DO SH*T TO DRAGONS!!]"

...Well, yes.

Coraline agreed with the notion. However, she was kind of offended that the red-scaled monster in front of her was so over-the-top rude.

It made her not want to call it a dragon.

It was just a big, dumb lizard.

"[NOW... LET ME SHOW YOU WHAT REAL FIRE IS!]"

Ah.

It was a big, dumb, *angry* lizard.

It was sudden-- but all of Coraline's extraneous thoughts cleared out of her mind.

She watched her hand move. She definitely willed it-- yet she was fascinated by it. It felt like she was watching an expert flawlessly execute a practiced sequence of gestures.

Quick. Clean. Without hesitation. She was casting a Spell that seemed to write itself.

But it wouldn't be enough.

The lizard was mid-inhale.

If Coraline had a few more seconds of time, a ⌈Fire Shield⌋ would have been appropriate... but, assuming she was dealing with actual lizardfire, that wouldn't nearly be enough.

Beatrice was still focusing on powering the ⌈Fire Collonade⌋-- otherwise, she had more than enough magical *oomph* to fend off the beast.

Coraline noticed she was biting her upper lip. She tasted blood.

She was going to die.

--though thinking on it, it wasn't out of the ordinary for a Fire Mage to die in a blaze of her own element.

It was probably... expected of her.

Coraline wondered...

...if, in the afterlife...

--she'd see her boyfriend.

...So she could smack the sh*t out of him.

Suddenly, a strong arm wrapped around her shoulders... and the scent of... lemon-herb shampoo filled her nostrils?

"Brace yourself, Heartsong," said Zashleigh Yates, wearing a hero's smile. "This is gonna hurt like a b*tch."

",