“You damn bitch...”

“Oh, I’m the least of your problems right now.”

Just as she had said that, they heard it again. A loud, furious growl coming from ahead. Both Tessandra and Naptunie looked ahead, while Cessilia was still glaring at Jisel.

“Sir Dragon!”

“...That wasn’t Krai, Nana,” said Tessa, cutting her hopes short.

The young woman’s expression sank. She had noticed the growl was different from usual, but she hadn’t even thought it could have been another dragon. With horror, Naptunie watched as a large, dark-scaled creature appeared on the other side of the cave. This time, even Cessilia had to turn her head, her heart beating fast. There truly was another dragon, glaring at them with terrifying black eyes.

“What is it, Princesses?” chuckled Jisel. “...Never seen a dragon before?”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me...” muttered Tessandra.

Fighting men, no matter their number, was still conceivable, and offered chances to actually survive. However, with a dragon in the mix, their chances of survival were cut drastically short. Tessandra was trying hard to think of something, an opening, but right now, she was exhausted from swimming, still not properly able to use her Dragon Fire, and they still had to care for the two that couldn’t fight behind them.

“...Meet Jinn,” said Jisel, as if it was a normal introduction. “Isn’t my dragon wonderful?”

“He c-can’t be your d-dragon,” hissed Cessilia.

“Oh, right. He’s actually my dead brother’s... but he is still very much attached to me. And after all, who cares about the details? If I tell him to kill you, he will.”

“Who are you r-really?”

“Is that really what you care about right now, Princess?” said Jisel, raising an eyebrow. “You’re going to die here.”

“I want to know b-before I get rid of you.”

“Not today.”

Jisel then launched a new salvo of needles, but this time, Cessilia saw them coming. In an impressive movement, she swung her arm and grabbed all four right as they were about to hit her. Her glaring at Jisel hadn’t changed; this time, if she wanted a real fight, that woman would have to stop trying to cheat. Jisel grimaced and stepped back. Either she wasn’t confident in fighting Cessilia, or she preferred to see her killed by the soldiers or her dragon, it was hard to tell. She simply left the small lake at which they had arrived from via the opposite shore, never turning her back on the group of four, but also cautiously stepping back.

While Jisel wasn’t engaging in a fight, there was a lot more to be worried about upfront. The first soldiers had already arrived at Tessandra, and she had to use her very best fighting skills to keep them at a distance. It wouldn’t be enough, though. If she had been alone, she could have gone deeper into the crowd and fought with circular movements, but in this case, she still had to protect Nana and the King. Right behind her, Cessilia glanced at the situation ahead, and quickly pulled Ashen further out of the water, but closer to the cave’s wall behind them.

“Nana, s-stay here,” she said, tightening Ashen’s bandages again. “J-just watch the K-King for me, alright?”

“I understand,” nodded Nana.

Her voice was shaking, and she was visibly scared, but she was putting on a brave front, and that made Cessilia smile at her, loving the brave Nana even more.

“Put p-pressure on the injury,” added Cessilia, quickly showing her. “Th-the other side is b-blocked but he c-can’t lose more b-blood, alright?”

“Yes!”

Happy to have something to be useful with, Naptunie put all her focus into applying her hands on the King’s injury. She tried to ignore the blood that almost immediately stained her palms, or how pale the King was looking, and simply focused, staring at it as if her gaze could keep the blood from flowing out.

Right after that, Cessilia got back up, and ran into battle next to Tessandra. She only had the needles she had just stolen from Jisel, but as an experienced fighter, any weapon in her hand was deadly. She was moving incredibly fast, and in such a perfect combo with her cousin, it was as if their fighting power had been tripled instead of doubled. The men were even reluctant to approach the deadly duo, as they seemed to quickly get rid of any opponent. The two of them were perfectly complementing each other, covering any blind spots, watching each other’s back, and standing like an impenetrable wall between their opponents and the King. Their main issue was the number of fighters that kept coming at them, no matter how many they killed, and the dragon that was behind them, lying in wait but growling furiously. Cessilia was moving like a relentless tornado, swinging left and right, the two needles in each hand acting like sharp claws that sliced and stabbed her enemies in a deadly silence. Tessandra’s style was much heavier and brutal. Her sword was drenched in blood, and she wasn’t picky about her own precision; she was inflicting large injuries, chopping off limbs and rendering her opponents useless if not dead.

Both of them were keeping a close eye on the foreign dragon. It was their first time encountering an enemy dragon, but they both knew enough about those creatures to analyze what they saw. It was a large creature, but smaller than most dragons they knew. It wasn’t adult size, more like a teen dragon, about the size of three men. It had the body of a water dragon, long and sleek, which explained how it had gotten there without trouble. While fighting, they had spotted boats stranded on the seashore, somewhere behind those men, further past the cave’s large opening. Most of the people they fought were even a bit wet, and so was that dragon. Was that where it had been hidden all along? Underwater?

“...A bit big,” grumbled Tessandra.

“His real owner’s d-dead,” nodded Cessilia. “He c-can’t grow more, b-but...”

“Yeah. Still fucking big...”

Cessilia grimaced. Despite her poor choice of language, Tessandra was expressing both their thoughts. Fighting an enemy dragon was completely unexpected, and neither of them knew how they’d do that. The creature suddenly stopped growling, and seemed to be breathing in, preparing to breathe out. Tessandra swung her sword wide to keep the enemies at bay, and did just the same.

Both her and the dragon breathed out a large plume of fire at the same moment. Their flames hit each other, creating a massive heat wave in the cave. Dust fell from the walls and ceiling, making everyone cough and blink, but at least, Tessandra had countered the dragon’s fire for now. It was bigger than hers, but with the distance, all they noticed was a strong smell of something burning and the temperature jumping up. The men under the area where the fires had collided were far less lucky. Others were still on fire, running before throwing themselves to the ground, and rolling in the sand to try and extinguish the flames. Tessandra was out of breath, though, and glaring at the beast that was growling back.

“How cute,” chuckled Jisel. “You think you’ll be able to keep my dragon at bay, Princesses? For how long? All you have is a sword, a useless Dorosef girl, and little to no energy left.”

“Just you watch,” grunted Tessandra. “We’re saving you for last!”

Just as she said this, she kept fighting, pearls of sweat appearing on her forehead. The heat in the cave was less responsible for that than the monstrous amount of energy she put into her fight. She seemed a bit tired, but comparatively, the men fighting her in the cave, even as they tried to relay each other, were clearly unable to best her. Next to her, Cessilia was moving just as vividly, her green eyes going all over the place to try and find a solution. They were stuck between the cave’s wall, the lake Jisel was standing on the other side of, and a large sea of men in front of them, with a dragon standing right in the middle of the cave entrance. They were slowly clearing their way, but the fact that Ashen couldn’t move was keeping them from truly escaping this place. With the underwater passage being a huge no, they were basically stuck, unless they found a way to get rid of all their opponents...

“Useless?”

Unknown to the two cousins, Naptunie had been glaring at Jisel. She could endure a lot for her friends’ sake, but being called useless was too much for her. Suddenly, her little, black eyes circled the cave too, but her way of thinking was miles away from Cessilia’s. After a short moment, Nana pulled over two large, flat rocks with her leg, and quickly swapped them with her hands to put pressure on the King’s chest. Just as she had calculated, the weight was almost the same as what she had been applying all along. She then quickly moved to rinse her hands in the water, and ran toward Tessandra and Cessilia.

“Nana, what are you doing?! Get back!”

However, for once, Naptunie was not going to listen. In fact, she barely heard Tessandra at all. She was frowning, and gathering some stones around her, grinding them together quickly to create a little mound on a larger, flat stone.

“Useless, she says. How dare she call me useless?! She can call me a bookworm, weak, library rat, pedant, bookish, even brainish, but how dare that wretched vixen of a woman call me useless?! You’ll see if I am useless!”

She then got back on her feet, carrying her little mountain of freshly ground dust, and walked toward Tessandra.

“Prepare to fire!” she shouted.

Before Tessandra could even answer, Naptunie suddenly threw her dust in a large and wide arc, in front of them. Immediately grasping what was going on, Tessandra spat fire.

The reaction was much bigger than she had expected. From the small fire she had put out, as soon as it reached Nana’s dust, it spread in a wave of sparks and explosions, blowing exponentially bigger on their enemies. The deflagration was so progressive and large even Cessilia and Tessandra had to jump back to avoid getting injured themselves. The cave was suddenly filled with small booms, cracks appearing everywhere and the force shaking the surroundings. Some stalactites even fell down, injuring more people. The damage done was considerable, and a bit frightening too. Once the smoke and dust began to clear, they saw the terrible injuries inflicted on their opponents, some had full body parts burned, or the flesh exposed in long bloody patches.

“Dang, Nana. ...You should get mad more often,” scoffed Tessandra.

“Just because I can’t wield a weapon doesn’t mean I can’t fight,” grumbled the young woman. “Sorry I didn’t notice before we had all the elements and conditions for a dust explosion. I knew the principles, but I never created one in real life.”

“Don’t apologize for being the smart one, Nana. I’m mind-blown!”

“C-can you do th-that again?”

“Not so soon.” Nana shook her head. “It’s dangerous, as it consumes the air and makes it harder to breathe. We might get intoxicated if we don’t wait a bit...”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Tessandra. “You already helped us a ton...”

She was telling the truth. In front of them, out of the dozens of fighters they had been facing, only a few had been spared by the explosions. If some only had minor injuries, their burns still seemed to be incredibly painful, and none were in a hurry to get back to fighting those women. Perhaps they also feared another wave of explosions, and they were not looking forward to running to the front line. It didn’t solve their problem, though. Cessilia glanced back. Ashen seemed stable from there, but there was no telling when his heart would give up from the blood loss. Only a few minutes had passed since they had emerged from the lake, but it wasn’t enough.