[Earthborn candidate #254726, Function increase level 5 cluster]

  Name: Finn Race: Human Class: Mage Subclass: None

  Level: 13 Experience Energy: 89% to next level

  Strength: 17

  Stamina: 21

  Endurance: 23

  Dexterity: 22

  Intelligence: 36

  Wisdom: 33

  Charisma: 18

  Health Points: 364 Mana Pool: 276 Mana Regen: 3.512 MP per minute

  Carry Weight: 492 lbs Potion Sensitivity: 22 (level 4)

  Survivability Index: 19.9992%

  Skills: Tracking level 11, Enchant Item level 2, Craft Spell level 2, Surge level 2, ????, ????, ????

  I was still smiling when we got to the opening, an extremely bright hole that caused us to shade our eyes. We left the tunnel and took the time to adjust to the sunlight, resting while doing so. The little dragon had covered her eyes and was slowly removing her forepaws in wonder at the new world spread out in front of her. She was almost impossible to look at, as the sun made her scales blaze with the sun’s reflected glory.

  “Back to Mining Camp?” Harper suggested.

  Jerseil, who had said little all morning, shook his head. “Not quite yet, I think,” Jerseil said and looked at me intensely. “Finn, I’ve been thinking about this all night and all morning. We need to settle this. That dragon hatchling cannot be allowed into the world. It will ruin everything for me… and everyone else.”

  I stiffened, fresh anger rising at this renewed verbal attack. “What is wrong with you? Her mother had lived peacefully underground for centuries. There is nothing indicating that she did any of the things you have said. Nor does that mean that this hatchling will become the monster you claim. Let it go. I will not kill her, and neither will you,” I said, menace building in my voice.

  He shook his head sadly and slowly dragged his sword out. “You need to get more powerful, Finn. And that monster needs to die. If you’re going to turn away the power to do what you need to do and refuse me, then I must stop you here,” he replied. Jerseil sounded sad, yet furious at the same time.

  Harper quickly stepped between us. “Jerseil, what the fuck are you doing? Finn’s your friend. He’s my friend. You’re not making any sense!”

  “Get out of the way, Harper. I’ll explain it later, but Finn has to be stopped,” Jerseil said with a gentleness I’d only heard when he was talking with her.

  “You will explain it right now, Jerseil!” she shouted, irritated.

  Jerseil cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders. “Damn it, Harper. You want to know? Fine!” he yelled back and pointed in my direction. “If that dragon isn’t stopped, I can’t get the immense power of the Light. I am done with being a minor demon. I’m tired of having to do what the Lords, the Princes, and the King of Hells tell me to do. We are sick of it!” There was a strange, dark undertone in his voice, a harsh growl shadowing his words that increased as he talked.

  “What the hell are you saying? I don’t understand,” Harper responded and took a couple of steps away from him.

  “Hells, Harper. Hells!” he corrected, shaking his head. He moved in her direction, changing as he did. Between one step and the next, he grew taller. His skin became darker green with streaks of red, his horns longer and more curled. A second set of horns grew from his head, and his teeth lengthened. And his hair increased in length and fullness. When he spoke again, his voice was deeper. “How did you not know? I —” he stopped himself and shook his head. “We are a Demon. We are Vexarith. And Finn is the only person who might be able to stop me from getting the Light Prismatic.”

  Harper shook her head in horror and took another step back. She tried to speak, but nothing came out.

  Jerseil or Vexarith looked past her to me. “We could still make a deal, Finn. We could change it, so you wouldn’t become corrupted. No need for you to become a monster, and I—We like you. The dragon hatchling cannot survive this deal. We must know your choice… now,” the demon said.

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  I looked at this monstrous caricature of my friend, and I understood. All the talk about power. The conversations about how I could help if I had more power. But he protected me, helped me. God damnit, he’s my friend!

  It was all manipulation. Everything he had done was part of his plan to get me to take a deal. “Jerseil. Vexarith,” I yelled, resting my hand on the hatchling. “Whatever the fuck you want to call yourself, I don’t care. I refuse your deal. You will not harm her!”

  For a second, I thought I saw regret in his eyes. But it was gone when he pushed past Harper and came at me. I cast Phantom Wing. The buckler of wings, feathers, and force formed almost instantly on my left arm. I rejected the idea of pulling my short sword; he was way better with the sword than I could ever hope to match. But I had my magic. There was the new spell Jerseil didn’t know about, and it was my ace in the hole.

  “You have refused Us for the last time, Finn,” he snarled before rushing me.

  The sword in his hands was much larger than the one he had drawn, and I swung my shield to stop his lateral slash at my head. I almost wasn’t fast enough. His sword slammed into my magic buckler with enough force to push me back a few feet. I grunted in pain as I caught my balance. My arm felt like it had been hit with a sledgehammer and tingled like I had pinched a nerve.

  But I could still move it.

  The demon was rushing me at a speed I had not thought possible, his sword raised to strike me down. I quickly cast three surged Ice Shards to slow his approach. He effortlessly dodged the concentrated mass of ice. That left me with 52 mana points, if my quick math was correct. It stopped his forward movement, and I used that to cast eight Poisonous Shots. I downed a mana potion while he attempted to dodge the seeking green bolts. The hatchling clung to me like a rock in a storm, meeping and growling.

  The poison bolts didn’t appear to slow him down though, as he lunged at me. I tried to dodge to the right, buckler up. The blow scraped the shield, and he pivoted, turning the stab into a swing and throwing me off my feet. I rolled a couple of times through the undergrowth before I stopped and got up. I didn’t feel the weight of the baby dragon and didn’t have time to look for her.

  The demon was right there and started hammering my buckler with blow after blow. My arm’s ache became outright pain with each two-handed strike, Vexarith roaring in anger. I surge cast Chain Lightning right into him, causing him to pause as he screamed in agony. I poured all my anger and pain into it. It only stopped when my mana pool emptied. I blinked, surprised, as I felt dizzy. It had used my entire mana pool, something that had never happened before when I surge cast.

  Smoke curled off of him while he stood there, eyes wide for a moment. But then he laughed. “If you had done as We had told you, that could have been much worse for me. You might have stopped Us. Now it’s my turn,” the demon crowed.

  “Crap,” I groaned and raised my arm to block the blow. I felt my shoulder pop and screamed, falling to my knees. The demon’s grin had too many sharp, long teeth as he looked down at me. His hair moved with a breeze I could not feel. That plus his horns made him look like one of those death metal music covers, and I wondered if my last thoughts were going to be of this instead of my family.

  The hatchling landed between us and roared at the demon. It wasn’t very loud or frightening, but I knew that this baby dragon didn’t care. She was going to do her best to protect me, which likely wouldn’t amount to much. She was going to die with me. The demon grinned even more and chuckled.

  “This is too easy. I am sorry it came to this, Finn. The System will just get another Mage, but it will be too late. But there isn’t another dragon that We are aware of,” said Vexarith. He raised his sword to kill my ward and me. “Goodbye, Finn!”

  Then Harper was there, turning his blade with her rapier with all her skill. Her opponent, her former lover, stumbled to the side with the parry and looked at her with surprise.

  “Harper, why are you stopping me? This must be done,” he said, surprised. “Get out of the way, and you and I will talk after. It’s okay, my love, everything will be fine!”

  “No,” she stated coldly. “And you don’t have the right to call me that!” Her voice was oddly calm, but as she turned her face slightly, I could see the wetness on her cheek. I got the impression that she was so enraged that the heat in her anger was gone. Then her blade seemed to flicker; she was attacking faster than my eyes could follow. The demon struggled to block the cuts and stabs, retreating under Harper’s onslaught.

  Vexarith’s blade shifted from the heavy, double-edged monstrosity to a slimmer, shorter blade that he moved quicker in his defense. Though he was better able to block, she still pushed him back with her cold, concise movements. I immediately drank down both a health and a mana potion, gritting my teeth against the pain of my shoulder, pulling itself back into place with a schlocking pop. The hatchling turned with a whimper and leaped crying into my arms.

  I stood a little wobbly, trying to ignore the ache in my arm and shoulder. Harper and Vexarith fought fifteen feet away, their blades a blur.

  “Harper, please! Stop this. I don’t want to hurt you!” the demon pleaded, his face contorted in worry. It was weird that he couldn’t seem to decide how to refer to himself, in the first or the third person. Like he was still stuck on being Jerseil.

  Then Harper pushed his blade aside and out before stepping closer to slap him. Hard. He stepped back, bringing his hand to his face in shock. “Harper! I—”

  “You don’t get to talk to me, demon. Not like you know me,” she said softly, disarming him. He looked at his sword flying to land point-first into the soil. Harper struck at him then, a vicious slash to his chest.

  The blow never landed, however, as he seemed to flow away into nothing and reformed thirty feet away. A surprisingly vulnerable look of longing and loss crossed his face as he looked at her. And then he was just gone. Harper dropped to her knees, still holding the rapier. She just stared at the point Jerseil/Vexarith had been.

  The hatchling squirmed out of my grasp and approached Harper tentatively. She nosed under Harper’s left arm and chirped at her. Harper looked down at the baby dragon for a moment before dropping the rapier and sweeping the concerned dragon into her arms. She sobbed then, an ugly sound I recognized only too well.

  Loss.

  Grief.

  She didn’t look up as I sat down next to her, scanning the surrounding forest as I moved. “I… I’m here, Harper,” I said and gave her a side hug, squeezing her shoulder. She nodded and leaned against me. She didn’t speak, and I supported my friend, just being there in commiseration. We had lost yet another person in our lives.

  It wasn’t getting easier.

  Harper have retrieved the beast and defeated the demon! For now.