Bandits, Orion was prepared for. Even for a repeat of his trip to Valderun, and the chance of them appearing inside the carriage.

  His mother alone would now be enough to wipe out a force similar to the one that had waylaid them during their first trip, and he would have even welcomed their presence, as it’d give him something to release his pent-up emotions on.

  Monsters were the next most likely option he considered. After Pauline’s fight with the sea serpents, it would have made sense for more of their kind to come their way, especially since the Floating Bridge was much farther north and thus closer to the sea where they originated.

  He hadn't, however, expected an actual dragon to be after them, especially not one that made every other danger he’d faced in this life seem like child’s play.

  The creature was only visible for a second, but that was enough to send shockwaves of fear through those trying to cross the bridge.

  Some carriages rushed ahead, desperately trying to cross before it breached through the cloud cover. Meanwhile, others screeched to a halt, the beasts pulling them freezing in fear as the dragon’s presence began making itself known.

  Orion was used to being around powerful people. Whether in the Sanctum, when learning from a Veil Priestess, or more recently with Yue and his mother, he had learned to control the instinctive reaction that everyone had when in front of something that could crush them like a bug.

  The dragon was worse than that. It was powerful, but that wasn't the most shocking part, no. It was the hunger. The primal fear that arose as the clouds bulged when it once again passed over them robbed him of his strength, and he could do nothing but stare up, desperately hoping it would leave them alone.

  How could Seraphina possibly believe that Eire would be enough to handle that?!

  The thought was partly hysterical, but it also forced his brain to restart, and knowing that the most powerful witch of the current age wouldn't send someone who couldn't do anything, he unfroze.

  “You will stay here,” Asteria commanded as she grabbed his arm. Orion met her eyes, ready to argue that they all needed to come together to fight the threat, but the words died in his throat.

  There was a look of fierce love and utter determination that told him she was willing to do anything if it meant he wouldn’t have to face the dragon.

  He nodded, clenching his fists so tightly that if his body hadn’t been strengthened by the stats he gained in the past month, he would have broken skin.

  Asteria pressed a soft kiss on his hair and brushed it back. “You’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. I just need to tell that overgrown lizard to get its ugly mug out of here. Just stay with Pauline and Eire, and I’ll come get you once I’m done.”

  The two women almost materialized at his sides. Both looked grimly determined, and [Hypotheticism] told him that they were already performing a series of preparatory spells for whatever was coming next.

  Asteria disappeared a moment later, and he forced himself to follow his temporary protectors’ example. [Light Exoskeleton] formed around his body, guided by the CC into a smooth, sturdy shine that would protect him from nearly anything a tier-two enemy could throw at him.

  Of course, the dragon above them was much stronger than that, but it was better than doing nothing.

  “Should we fortify the carriage?” he eventually asked, and Eire shook her head as she opened the door.

  “Under normal circumstances, that would be ideal, but the Floating Bridge has survived nearly everything you can imagine. Its defenses are superior and more resilient than anything money can buy.”

  It was counterintuitive to abandon shelter, given the flying predator they faced, but in this case, he couldn’t agree more with his ex-teacher’s point. Mobility was much more important than any protection the coach could provide.

  The moment they stepped out, Eire began unleashing the spells she’d been preparing. The air shimmered and twisted as particles of dust, humidity, and even gases fell under her magic.

  Four sentinels appeared moments later, their bodies like polished stone, their features smooth but still recognizable. They resembled the one that had defended the classroom during the ghoul attack, before Orion’s life started to spiral out of control, though these newer versions were larger and more robust.

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  A moment of study with [Hypotheticism] revealed to Orion that their composition was unnaturally tight, enough so that they definitely should not have been able to move, but since they were made of a living stone that almost felt like lava, they would be much quicker than any enemy would expect.

  “You can enchant them during the casting?” he muttered, and Eire gave him a surprised look.

  “That is what animation is, yes. It’s a pretty advanced topic, usually reserved for older students, but I guess I should have expected you to be familiar with it, given your accomplishments.”

  Before they could explore what promised to be a fascinating topic, they were suddenly reminded of where they were, as the dragon above them roared.

  It was a wall of sound so overwhelming that Orion was certain a typical human would have gone deaf, and perhaps even died from it.

  Yet at the same time, it wasn’t enhanced by any magic. It was simply the physical result of a body that measured at least two hundred feet, but probably even more, if the tail was in proportion to the rest of the body.

  The clouds parted as sound waves rippled through the air, revealing their hunter in all its glory and giving a brief glimpse of the blue sky above the storm.

  The dragon was a shimmering, iridescent sapphire. Its scales could have easily passed for precious gems in color—and probably in hardness—while each of its wings spanned hundreds of feet, made of a tensile membrane that Orion suspected was far more resilient than it appeared.

  Emerald green horns resembling the antlers of a stag, but sharper and more sinister, crowned its head, reaching ten feet into the sky. Dark, menacing eyes swept over them without pausing, as if searching for something.

  Or, more likely, someone.

  “We are dead!” someone shouted from one of the grounded carriages. It was a man in full plate armor, likely a guard of sorts, who definitely didn’t inspire confidence in the wealthy-looking family he was supposed to be guarding. But given the situation, no one reprimanded him.

  It was a common feeling, after all. The dragon was too massive, too powerful. Even tier three warriors and mages wouldn’t be able to do anything but wait for their death.

  Orion couldn’t stop the frantic pounding of his heart. He trusted his mother wouldn’t lie when she said she could handle it, but a primal part of his brain, one he thought he had subdued long ago, insisted that it simply wasn’t possible.

  Yet it was proven wrong as a wave of silver light slammed into the dragon’s neck, sending it careening back hundreds of feet.

  It roared once more, this time with anger instead of hunger, and dark blue mana pooled in its maw.

  Orion stared, feeling [Hypotheticism] working at its peak to try to understand the powers being used, despite the distance and immense complexity.

  In a moment of frustration with how difficult the data was to parse, he activated his glasses and encountered another surprise.

  Behenien - Matriarch of the Frothing Sea Flock

  Class: [Draconic Ruler of the Frothing Sea] [A-rank]

  Level: 172

  Mind: 1381

  Attunement: 2108

  Body: 1615

  Traits: ?? [A-rank]; ?? [A-rank]; ?? [A-rank], ?? [A-rank]

  That was neither one of the beastly creatures he knew ruled over the high peaks of the Sanctum’s range nor anything like the sea serpents Pauline had dispatched, despite their similar color scheme.

  No, this was a thinking being, one that had to know exactly what it was doing when attacking the Floating Bridge.

  Whether it was a rogue, the leader of a splinter faction of draconids, or a member of the Dragonspire Dominion here to finally express the faction’s displeasure at the ascension of a new speaker who was so closely tied to the Sanctum, he couldn’t know. Still, this entire situation had escalated from a natural disaster to a politically charged event.

  Then Behenien spewed her blue flames, and all concern for the consequences of her actions disappeared.

  Orion watched the dark blue spread across the sky in all directions as the dragon twisted, obviously trying to flood the area to hit Asteria.

  But she wasn’t the youngest witch to reach tier four in centuries for no reason, and Orion sighed in relief as he saw a sickly yellow shell surround her form and withstand the corrosive effects of the blue fires.

  “Come on,” Pauline said, grabbing his arm and pulling him away. “We need to reach the midway station. It has active defenses.”

  That sounded like a much better idea than just standing still, and a quick look around showed that the lights at the start of the bridge were roughly the same distance as those at the halfway point. That direction also lacked the dozens of people crying, screaming, or staring blankly at the battle raging above them.

  They ran for it, the four knights Eire had summoned forming a cordon around them that reminded Orion of the Basilisk Fang, and he couldn’t help but think that with Seothyn and Elodie by his side, he’d feel much better about this whole situation.

  If I had completed the teleportation spell, I would have a way out. It’s a pity it’s only half done now.

  Another roar echoed, rippling through the air and silencing the howls of the storm raging around them. Orion looked up as he ran, trying to find his mother, but the clouds had melded back together, sealing the sun away and leaving him with only the occasional lightning bolt to remind him she was still fighting.

  Nevertheless, he found hope in knowing that Behenien, despite being stronger on paper, was poorly matched against Asteria, whose entire skillset was to handle extremely corrosive and overwhelming energies.

  He could even see her force the dragon away, giving herself enough time to build up the poisons she was no doubt releasing during the fight.

  Predictably, the moment he started feeling better about the whole thing was when he heard more screeches.

  Further ahead was one of the few carriages that had been lucky enough to avoid the pileups. Its fate hadn’t been any kinder, and Orion saw several writhing monsters swarm around it.

  “More sea serpents?” he asked aloud. There was no mist as far as he could see, but it was possible that it had been a skill unique to the flock Pauline defeated. Unfortunately, he was not very familiar with aquatic reptilian monsters. That was a weakness he would fix as soon as he gained access to the Sanctum’s library.

  “No,” Eire said firmly. “They’re worse. Wyrmlings.”

  The distinction between Wyrms, Wurms, Dragons, Drakes, and Wyverns was a topic of heated debate, as far as Orion knew. Not because people disagreed that they were separate categories, but because everyone seemed to have a different idea of what set them apart, especially since some could shift into other subspecies depending on their class evolutions. In his mind, a wyrmling was simply a young member of a draconic species.

  Blood splattered as a body was thrown from the carriage window onto the bridge, the dark crimson pooling rapidly on the transparent glass-like surface.

  Orion took a glance at the poor soul and felt his face tighten. It was a young woman dressed in long robes. Her face was a wreck, mauled by sharp teeth, but enough was still recognizable to identify her as a witch. Maybe not a powerful or skilled one, but still a witch. And she was now dead.

  A wyrmling slithered out from behind her, blood dripping from its maw, and let out a challenging hiss.

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