Luke cut into Leslie without hesitation. He'd come this far, and if he let go now, he might never get the chance again. The thread in the Solarian's brain disintegrated, as did the ones in the heart and meta-heart, forced out by Leslie denying them despite Luke's best effort to keep the threads intact.

  One thread stuck around long enough to do actual damage. The femoral artery spewed blood as fire lashed out at Luke, burning another hole in the beautiful cloak he'd looted off a Skeletal Archon, before continuing to his arm.

  Flames still licking his flesh, Luke threw a punch. His knuckles crunched into Leslie's nose, and the Solarian fell back with a yelp. Physical violence had turned out to be a good opener against almost all types of spellcasters, since they didn't expect it coming from a healer.

  Leslie's stumble made him lose focus. The barrier of flames surrounding them winked away, and air rushed up against them again. With his feet still anchored to the dragon's back, Luke kept his footing. His opponent did not. Tumbling back, Leslie spun in the air, hurtling toward Luke again. They crashed together. Seizing the opportunity, Luke grabbed Leslie's arm to keep him from falling out of reach and lashed out with Needle of Life, cutting a neat line along the bastard's throat, and another to stab through the meta-heart. Blood spewed out, as in slow-motion, when Leslie activated the barrier spell. It was the same one he'd deactivated before, so Luke could touch him.

  Flames sprang to life, obliterating the threads of mana, dancing across Luke's hand and forearm. The pain was too much. Luke let go. Leslie's tumbling continued, and he dropped away, falling without making a sound. Was he dead? For a moment, Luke considered jumping after, but a message made him discard the idea.

  Hannah: "I'm inside the keep again. The wall won't hold much longer. Heading to the mages now."

  Hannah: "I think the dragon, the big one, I mean, is doing something."

  Luke: "Working on it!"

  Luke gathered himself and peered into the distance, ignoring the now visible other smaller dragons off to the right and below them. No Integrated fought against them, not anymore. Free to do whatever they wanted, they seemed to have chosen to head to the wall, too. Like Hannah said, the keep wouldn't hold for much longer. Naxaramus was gathering itself to cast a huge spell. Even from this distance, Luke saw the spellweave. Fire. So much Fire. He was starting to dislike fire spells, and who could blame him?

  The dragon Luke clung to still flew high up in the air, twisting this way and that to try to shake him off. Healing the burns by brute forcing the wounds, pouring healing mana into them, he noticed some remaining even when the wounds closed. It was just for a moment, but it had interesting implications. Now, as he held on for dear life, it was not the moment for experimentation, though. He had a job to do, killing Naxaramus, and perhaps a way to make that a reality. The problem was how he would even get over there.

  With a beat of its wings, the dragon beneath his feet rose in the air, then banked right, twisting so Luke found himself upside down. Crying out, arms wheeling in the air, he bent up and reached for the dragon's hide, anchoring his arms as well to keep himself from falling. Four threads of mana just to keep himself in the air wasn't great, but Luke didn't have much choice.

  Holding on like that, focusing and willing the threads to hold, he got a sense of the dragon's mana channels. Delving deeper with two more threads, he siphoned mana from the monster, careful not to overextend, remembering what'd happened with Naxaramus. This dragon was far from as powerful, but its strength surpassed the one they'd fought in the cavern where they found the communication gem.

  This dragon's mana channels extended to its wings. Interesting. That gave him an idea. Reaching in to feel along the channels, the dragon attempted to rebuff him, flexing its monster core. This time, Luke was ready for it and held on.

  Boon of Potential grants you an attribute point (+1 Willpower).

  "Who do you think you are, little human?" the dragon growled in a hissing voice that pierced the wind currents.

  It became a struggle of wills, the dragon doing everything in its power to push Luke's body off its back and his threads of mana out of its mana channels. Luke's head throbbed, but he held on. If he failed now, he wouldn't get another chance.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Boon of Potential grants you an attribute point (+1 Willpower).

  The boon recognized the struggle, and for the first time, the added attribute points made a noticeable difference, easing the pressure of the dragon's will. Still, the battle over the monster's mana channels continued.

  Boon of Potential grants you an attribute point (+1 Willpower).

  Little by little, Luke won out. Breathing hard, head swimming from concentration and sheer grit, he took the upper hand, stabilizing the threads of mana inside the dragon's mana channels.

  Boon of Potential grants you an attribute point (+1 Willpower).

  Whether flexing Willpower meant he trained it, or if it was the other way around, he didn't know. At that moment, it didn't matter. The final push gained him that last attribute point, and the dragon's resistance dropped away all at once. Struggling to fill his lungs with air, Luke steadied himself. Warring on that level with the dragon had made his head spin and throb, much like when he was low on mana, but this time, he was topped up, having siphoned as much as he was able from the enemy.

  "No!" the dragon hissed. It made another attempt to push Luke out, but it was pathetic compared to the struggle preceding it, and he shut it down with a firm denial.

  "You're mine," Luke whispered, knowing the dragon wouldn't hear him.

  With free rein of the dragon on the metaphysical plane, killing it was within the realm of possibility. That was, however, not why he'd done it.

  Far back, when he'd healed Aaron's spinal cord injury, he'd done something on instinct, something that he hadn't given much thought in the weeks after, despite it having awarded him a skill.

  Part The Weave [Passive]: The boundary between states of being is no barrier for the experienced Lifeweaver.

  That skill, along with many others, was gone now, absorbed into Weaver's Perception, meaning the ability it awarded him still rested within Luke.

  Pulling mana channels out of the metaphysical realm and into the physical was how he acquired the skill, by using Aaron's own mana channel, pulling it into the physical realm, and working with them to disable a nerve cluster. It was the metaphysical affecting the physical.

  Now, he did the same thing to the dragon. Not to dampen or remove pain, but to gain control of its movements. With tremendous force of will and focus, Luke shifted mana channels in the dragon's wings to the physical realm, wrapping them around bone, sinew, and muscle.

  "No!" the dragon hissed, struggling. "Fool!"

  Ignoring the monster, Luke continued. The wings were not enough. More threads, he needed more. Soon, he'd gained control of its four legs and even the dragon's neck. Overextending himself like this wouldn't work for long. Concentration wavered. Luke held on. It felt like moving a mountain, but managing a tremendous flap of its incredible wings sent the two of them higher into the air, and he righted the dragon, steadying it. Even with that, they lost altitude.

  "You cannot hope to hold control!"

  Pressure built inside Luke's skull. It felt like his eyes would pop out of their sockets. Blood ran down his nose, and bile rose in his throat. Tears flowed. Body temperature rose. Even his heart struggled to maintain function.

  "I can!" Luke shouted, defying even his own body screaming at him to let go.

  Another beat of its wings set the course straight for The Dread Dragon Naxaramus.

  Fire rained down from the enormous dragon, pelting those below, man and monster alike. Luke hoped the Integrated was well out of the spell's reach at that point.

  Dry-heaving, Luke steered the dragon he rode, forcing his will with an iron fist, overpowering it with sheer willpower, using its own mana against it. Still, they lost altitude.

  "I will swallow you alive, human!"

  The dragon formed a spellweave, but Luke reached out from its own mana channels, thrashing it in an instant, having felt the spell's conception even before its thread began weaving the patterns. That was it, the reason for their dropping lower and lower. Luke was no expert in steering a dragon, of course, but that wasn't the sole reason for their descent. Magic was. Even with the incomprehensible wingspan of the dragons, their bulk should have made it impossible for them to stay in the air. So, they used magic. Of course they did.

  The question was, could he do the same? Would he be able to form spellweaves from within the dragon? Sensing the spellweave just before made him think that maybe, just maybe, he could. All spells materialized from the meta-heart. Dragons didn't have one of those, but monster cores were similar enough to make him think they were indeed the source of monster spells.

  Holding on and doing his utmost to keep them from descending farther down, Luke forced the dragon to flap its wings again and again. He diverted some of his focus and delved into the center of the monster, to its monster core. Rather than slice it free and grab it like he'd done to so many other monsters, Luke brought a thread of mana to its surface, then ever so gently, pushed it inside. Without Needle of Life, this didn't cause an injury. What it did was create a connection of sorts. Through this connection, perhaps he could force spellweaves out of the dragon. This was uncharted territory.

  Perhaps experimenting like this was not the best idea, considering the situation, but he was desperate, grasping for any solution, willing to try anything. But, as it turned out, overpowering a monster's core was a far more difficult undertaking than ensnaring it in its own mana channels.

  The dragon roared, and all flashed white.