With a whole lot more willpower and focus than last time, Luke managed to force a little more time from the spell carrying him through the air. As he hurtled toward the dragon at incredible speed, but unable to make minor adjustments, the effect lessened, and what had been effortless before grew clumsy and forced, like he carried an impossible weight on his back. High up in the air, he didn't have much of a choice. Catch The Dread Dragon Naxaramus or fall to his death.

  The gap between them shrank by the second, but Luke slowed down too, and the effect withdrew from his body little by little. First a leg, then an arm, making it even more difficult to keep himself upright and pointed in the right direction. Still focused on his destination and the speed to reach it, blood oozed from many wounds on his body. Healing himself while attempting to stay afloat was an impossible task. One small mercy was that he outpaced the other dragons.

  Hannah: "Are you almost here?"

  Luke: "Trying my best! The spell is wearing off!"

  Hannah: "Mine too! Hurry up!"

  Luke: "Almost there!"

  The dragon's large bulk grew closer and closer, but he didn't dare slow down and risk not reaching all the way. That meant he slammed into its left side with enough force for Luke's arm to break in two places. Ignoring the injury, he reached in with Threads of Mana, clinging to the scales. Only then, secure and still alive, did he allow himself a moment to heal. Another health potion and mana potion helped a little, but they were far from enough.

  Wind whipped at him, and the beating of its wings sure didn't help.

  Hannah: "Saw you. You still here or did you fall?"

  Climbing even as he forced the bones in his forearm back into place, Luke groaned, reaching with Threads of Mana.

  Luke: "I'm here. Still alive."

  Hannah: "How did you even beat the Archfiend? That thing was awful. Did you see what it did to me?"

  Luke: "Yeah. I got a taste of the flesh-melting spells, too. Not a fun time."

  Hannah: "But you still beat it."

  He climbed up to the dragon's back, closing the last of his injuries, panting with the headache coming back. His mana was low, far too low.

  Luke: "I did. Somehow. Undead don't like it when you turn them back into people."

  Hannah: "Huh?"

  Luke: "I'll tell you later. Are you dealing with the wing?"

  Hannah: "I'm trying, but it's slow going."

  Desperate for more mana, Luke used Threads of Mana again, this time to reach into the dragon with the intent of siphoning from it.

  That, it turned out, was not such a great idea.

  Luke withdrew a second later, gasping as his meta-heart and mana channels filled to the point of almost bursting.

  "So much power," he gasped.

  Touching the dragon had been like trying to drain warmth out of the sun. Incomprehensible stores of mana and power, perhaps more than he'd ever seen in all other monsters combined. Just that brief glimpse told him everything he needed to get a clear picture of what they were trying to do here, and the plan they'd settled on.

  They were fucked. Utterly fucked.

  No wonder Naxaramus himself didn't even seem to notice them walking around and fighting on his back. They were ants to it. No, not even ants, bacteria. Harmless. Shaking his head, Luke still got to his feet, keeping himself anchored with Threads of Mana. What was he going to say to Hannah? How could they move forward from this? One look into The Dread Dragon Naxaramus told him the best they could hope for was that the beast wasn't intelligent enough to exit through the portal. If it reached Earth, if it could somehow fit through, all the nukes in the world wouldn't be able to stop it.

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  Mundane, if a nuke could be said to be mundane, weapons didn't hurt monsters. That was the long and the short of it. Panic rising, Luke trudged toward Hannah, who he now saw standing right next to the dragon's right wing, trying in vain to even pierce its skin.

  Luke looked to his right, behind The Dread Dragon, to see the smaller dragons catching up. They'd soon reach them. Then what?

  Clenching his fists, Luke shook his head. No, this had to stop. Feeling sorry for himself wouldn't solve anything. Think. He had to think. There was a way through this, or the portal wouldn't have opened. Guide wouldn't send them an impossible challenge. He'd grown increasingly sure the enigmatic being was directing all this from the shadows, or from behind the system itself, and if that was true, not everything he'd experienced since becoming Integrated was random.

  A solution existed. Somewhere, somehow, they could come out of this dungeon victorious.

  Still unsure what that solution would be, Luke made it over to Hannah and helped as best he could. Needle of Life, it turned out, was sharper than Hannah's shadows. Pushing himself, extending several threads, made it through the thick scales and hide to make a small incision. It was no wider than a couple of inches, but it was something, at least. No blood followed. Instead, a horrible stench of sulphur and rotting flesh oozed out of the gap. Both of them stumbled back, Luke holding on with Threads of Mana and Hannah with her shadows, their flying spells now having worn off.

  She dry-heaved, turning away.

  Hannah: "What is that?"

  He moved his nose under the collar of the dark robes he wore, breathing through his mouth.

  Luke: "Smells like The Dread Dragon Naxaramus is rotting inside."

  Hannah: "It is controlling the undead. Maybe it's undead, too?"

  Luke: "Maybe."

  Pushing with Needle of Life, he was able to make the incision a little wider, but it took incredible effort. The dragon beneath their feet shuddered, and a massive head turned around to look at them, fire gleaming in a pair of eyes larger than Luke was tall. Naxaramus opened its enormous maw, showing row upon row of long, sharp teeth. A spellweave inside its gullet, one Luke recognized.

  Luke: "Fire! It's going to burn us!"

  Hannah: "What do we do?"

  Turning to look at her, Luke's eyes widened, and he pointed just as a smaller dragon crashed into them, its claws raking over Naxaramus's scaled hide. 'Smaller' in this instance was a little misleading, since it was just smaller in comparison to The Dread Dragon. This new monster still dwarfed them, and its landing brought such a powerful impact that both Luke and Hannah lost their hold.

  Undead Northern Dragon. Level ?

  Hannah tumbled over the side of Naxaramus with a cry as the undead monster twisted and turned, trying to right itself. It beat its wings in a frenzy, tumbling back and then up and away from Naxaramus just before it released a bout of fire so powerful it scorched even its own scales.

  Luke, hanging on to the undead dragon's front leg for dear life, could only watch as his friend fell.

  Luke: "Hannah!"

  Hannah: "Falling is not fun! Don't worry, I won't end up as a wet spot on the ground!"

  Luke: "Huh? You have some way of not dying? I'm stuck here!"

  Hannah: "I'll dive into a shadow on the ground! No way for me to get back up to you, though! You're on your own!"

  Luke: "What if I fall?"

  Hannah: "I'll try to catch you, I guess. Please don't fall!"

  The undead dragon shook its leg, trying to get Luke off even as it flew away from Naxaramus, who'd resumed circling over the keep and town. Unable to even wrap his arms around the dragon's thick leg, he'd once again been forced to use Threads of Mana to dig into the monster, anchoring himself.

  "Human," a voice hissed, and the dragon's neck twisted down and to the side, showing the dragon's head, its face twisting into what might have been a smile. "It has been a long, long time since someone attempted to ride me. Such folly. First humans pestered us in the sky, now this?"

  Swallowing hard, Luke circled the leg, so it was between himself and that mouth full of sharp teeth. He'd not expected the dragon to talk, much less address him. Moving did him little good. The leg moved forward, bringing him even closer to the dragon's head, near enough to smell its horrid breath. Death and decay, like the time he'd found a dead raccoon in the middle of summer.

  "Don't eat me!" Luke shouted back at it, clinging on to the leg for dear life, again moving to put the leg between himself and those teeth, but the wind snatched the words away. This terrible situation was just getting worse now, and the asshole dragon seemed to find the whole thing amusing.

  A spellweave formed in the undead dragon's gullet, the same one Luke had just seen a moment earlier. It was going to burn itself just to get to him. Fire blossomed, and the warmth was almost unbearable, burning Luke's back. He screamed, then reared back as the dragon let out a screech of pain. Rather than the dragon unleashing its attack, someone else had attacked it, and done so with fire, hurting it enough to burrow a hole in its scaled side.

  Turning, Luke saw a flying Integrated approaching, leaving a trail of fire as he blazed through the air.

  Integrated Leslie. Solarian. Level 26.