I find myself on a small platform made out of the mountain’s grey mass. There’s space of about six times six metres square in here, making it hard for a ranger to find any good position to fight around here. It is from this place that I could feel both auras of the other two dragon hunters as well. One is somewhere behind my current opponent and the other to my left, coming from the staircase leading up towards the peak.

  The familiar figure of a bowman dressed in red appears before me, about four steps away from me, immediately shooting another arrow at me. I dodge it with ease and conjure a sword.

  Another blink to close the distance and the dragon hunter’s head gets cut off by my blade.

  Aleiana finally manages to connect to us, with her bow ready to fire at any time. She gives me a surprised look upon seeing the scenery.

  ‘How did you do that back then?’

  ‘A blink spell. Very handy to move short distances during combat, although it consumes a lot of mana. Useful against ranged combatants like this one used to be.’

  ‘Where's the rest?’ As soon as she asks, two summoned wolves appear and lunge at me, recognizing me as the bigger threat to their master. A single blow defeats both of them, leaving their creator completely defenceless a few steps away in the direction from where they jumped out of.

  Overcome with fear, he turns around and runs, trying to find shelter behind a nearby rock.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  ‘Not so fast,’ says my comrade, releasing her arrow and landing it right into the dragon hunter’s heart. He drops dead without any sound.

  The last remaining one was an axe warrior. I can sense him taking cover behind the large rock his magician friend tried to run towards.

  Probably realizing the futility of his situation, he walks up from behind the rock. Boiling with rage, you can see his breath coming out from beneath the large plate helm cowering his head. A sound almost like a wolf’s growling comes out as his grip on the axe tightens.

  Without further delay, he charges towards the elf, violently lunging at her in hopes of taking out the weaker one of us with him.

  At first, she intuitively steps back a bit in fear, but then realizes she’s standing on the edge of this small platform where we have been clashing. The berserker closes the distance with his attack, his huge axe getting closer to her head every moment…

  And she steps aside. The dragon hunter cuts the air with his weapon and, overwhelmed by the weight of his massive armour, he falls off the edge. His loud scream in a strange mix of desperation and rage slowly fades as he gets closer to the ground.

  After a few seconds, a loud sound of his body dropping dead down there echoes through the mountains. There is no way he could have survived that fall, even a demigod would most likely suffer fatal damage in his situation.

  Now we can finally assume our way into the dragon’s lair is clear.

  Exchanging a few words, our party then ascends the mountain all the way to its peak to finally find ourselves at the mouth of the dragon’s lair.

  The entrance is just an ordinary crack in the mass of this grey mountain.

  Well, it would seem ordinary if not for the obscene size of the hole, making it large enough for even a dragon to enter and leave whenever it wants to. The wind is really strong here, blowing both of our long haircuts all around and almost shoving us in various directions.

  ‘Now, our final stage is finally set.’