Waving his arms in the air, Luke struggled to right himself as his feet lifted off the ground. The wind still screamed in his ears, but something about the spell the mages had just wrapped around him and Hannah made it so they resisted being pulled away on that invisible, but powerful, current.

  Hannah: "You're not a bird, Luke."

  "What do you mean?" he shouted at the top of his lungs, then felt stupid.

  Luke: "What do you mean?"

  Hannah: "It's a spell. Use your mind and tell it where you want to go."

  She hovered in the air above him, keeping still while he rotated at a slight angle to the roof below. Focusing, he found the controls, if you wanted to call them that. It was as simple as a thought, and he rose in the air to match Hannah's altitude.

  Hannah: "There you go."

  Below them, the mages just up and left, not even glancing into the air.

  Luke: "How long do we have?"

  Hannah: "What makes you think I know that?"

  He grinned at her.

  Luke: "You're the flying expert, apparently."

  Hannah: "The expert in me says probably not long, so we should get going."

  Luke: "Right. The wing."

  Hannah: "The right wing?"

  Luke: "No, I mean. Well, yeah, sure. Let's go bring it down."

  Hannah drifted away, climbing higher.

  Luke: "Wait a second. Can you take this into your inventory?"

  He followed and held out an enchanted spoon, which she accepted.

  Hannah: "A Spoon of Wisdom?"

  Luke: "I'm an Enchanter now."

  Hannah: "Using your talents for important things, I see."

  The spoon disappeared into thin air.

  Hannah: "It's in my inventory."

  Luke: "And you haven't purchased the upgrade that lets you store anything?"

  She shook her head.

  Hannah: "No. What is the point of this? That reminds me, you still have my bag."

  Luke: "I'll give it to you if we survive this next part. I just wanted to check if enchanting something turns it into a system item, or whatever you want to call it."

  Hannah: "Seems like it does."

  Luke: "Yeah."

  Hannah: "Can we go now before the spell stops working?"

  Luke: "Oh, shit! Right! Let's go!"

  Flying with whatever spell they'd cast on him was simpler than he'd imagined. With a thought, he shot higher into the air with incredible speed. Hannah followed, and together they set off chasing Naxaramus. The Dread Dragon circled in a wide area around the town, keeping a simple route while observing everything below.

  Its attention was locked on Luke when he approached, but it lost interest just as fast and returned to its surveillance.

  The Dread Dragon Naxaramus. Level ???

  Luke: "It doesn't even care we're coming."

  Hannah: "I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

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  Luke: "There's something on top of it."

  He saw Hannah shake her head with a look of disbelief.

  Hannah: "It's monsters. The damn dragon is carrying mages on its back."

  Luke: "That might complicate things."

  Hannah: "You think? They have shadows, so I'm going ahead. See you there."

  With that, she moved so Luke was between her and the sun that had emerged from behind the clouds, meaning he cast a shadow on her. Apparently, that was enough, because she disappeared, folding in on herself in a way that made his stomach lurch.

  Peering ahead, Luke saw a small dot appear next to the present ones on the dragon's back. Willing himself to go faster, he hurtled through the air. Unable to help himself, he held out a fist in front and struck a pose. This was his first time flying, after all, so of course he had to imagine himself as a superhero.

  Even with the ponderous flaps of its wings, the dragon flew through the air with incredible speed. Having a wingspan twice the width of a football field helped with that, Luke imagined. Still, he was catching up. Little by little, the distance between himself and the massive, winged death up ahead shrank.

  A loud shriek made him jump and peer over his shoulder.

  "Oh no. Oh, hell no."

  The smaller dragons were coming, and they were fast. While they were smaller than The Dread Dragon, they were by no means small. Even at this distance, Luke saw them in comparison to the Integrated giving chase and, in his approximation, they were about the size of the one they'd killed before.

  Speeding up, Luke focused with everything he had, willing the spell to carry him to the destination. So far, it wasn't diminishing, but there was no telling how long until it stopped working, and down was the only direction he could fly. With that single-minded focus and use of his willpower, Luke soon closed the distance. Landing was a shit-show of trial and error, but once he got his feet planted on the dragon's back, near the right wing, he pushed into the enormous beast with Threads of Mana to keep himself tethered.

  Hannah was there, on the middle of the dragon's back, locked in battle with two Skeletal Archons who. By the looks of it, they protected a taller figure behind them who busied itself casting a strange spell with symbols Luke had no hope of understanding.

  Archfiend. Level 38.

  Humanoid, but much taller than Luke, it wore a robe similar to the Archons', except this one was of a thicker fabric, and runic letters in gold and glowing purple covered large portions of it. With its hood up, only a pair of pure white, empty eyes stared out, all its other features obscured.

  It was twice his level, but hesitating would do him no favors. Letting the tethers go, Luke held himself still in the air as the dragon flew forward, which brought him closer to the fight.

  Luke struck out the instant he passed the Archons, slamming a thread of mana into one's monster core, scrambling it. That gave Hannah an opening, one she did not waste. Tentacles of shadow wrapped themselves around the monster, but he didn't have time to see what happened next, because it was his job to deal with the Archfiend. Slicing at its spellweave cut through some of it, but before the weave fell apart, the monster reached out a skeletal hand, touching the weave, and the whole thing came together again in an instant. It was smaller, but just as intricate.

  Speeding up rather than slowing down when he approached, Luke slammed into the monster, pushing it back, but it did not stumble. Having pushed himself up against its body, it was possible to tell there wasn't much bulk to it under there. A skeleton through and through, like the Archons, then. The spell finished, and the Archfiend unleashed it in that instant. Luke reared back but found himself untouched.

  Hannah screamed.

  He shot a glance over his shoulder and saw her eyes bubbling out of her head, skin melting off her bones, revealing the skull beneath. Luke screamed as more and more of her flesh oozed off, bone appearing, like with overcooked meat. The skeleton that emerged looked up, its empty sockets staring at Luke, who couldn't stop screaming. An instant later, the skeleton and what parts of her flesh that hadn't fallen away in the wind, turned the darkest black and dropped into a puddle of shadow from which tentacles reached up, continuing the fight by squeezing whatever life kept the Archons going out of them. She was fine, he told himself, breathing a sigh of relief.

  A flash of force made Luke stumble back, but did little damage. Bringing out the Tempered Staff, Luke swung. It put him off balance, and he almost flew off the new tethers he'd sunk into the dragon's back, but the strike still found its mark, slamming into the Archfiend's head. Even with the air whipping around them and a sudden roar from the dragon, a satisfying thunk reached Luke. Rather than crush the bone beneath, though, the staff shuddered with the impact, as if he'd hit concrete, and pain shot up his arms.

  "Gah!" Luke grunted, putting the staff back into his inventory. Brute force would not work on this one.

  As Hannah dispatched the Skeletal Archon's Luke relaunched his assault, stepping in close and ignoring the Archfiend's disinterested glare. In reach with Threads of Mana, he pushed several threads into the monster, entering its mana channels. Just as he was about to gain access to its monster core, searing light rebuffed the threads, pushing back and threatening to disintegrate them. Rather than just straight up losing them for nothing, Luke used Weaver's Rupture, hoping to do at least some damage.

  The Archfiend stumbled, losing its footing. Rather than fall, though, it rose into the air, levitating.

  Luke reached up with a single Thread of Mana, grabbing its skeletal foot, just as it slammed another spellweave in place, not giving Luke a chance to destroy it. A purple haze streamed from within its hood, drifting toward the dying Skeletal Archons. It reinvigorated them in an instant. They, in turn, cast a spell that made zombies climb out of dark pits that opened in the air itself, as if pulling the monsters from another plane of existence.

  "This is bad," Luke said to himself as he watched Hannah reform from her shadows and take a step back to avoid the oncoming group of undead.

  That momentary lack of attention to the Archfiend cost Luke dearly. Unimaginable pain wracked the arm he'd extended to grab hold of the monster, and when he watched, he saw flesh drip from bone, like it'd turned liquid in an instant. Again, he screamed. This time, however, he didn't let the fear grab hold of him. Weaver's Renewal restored the arm, but he'd lost hold of the Archfiend, and the monster now rose higher into the air.

  Gritting his teeth, Luke left the dragon's back behind, following.