The rumbling coming from the outside was so powerful, that the entire inner part of the city, sitting inside the mountain, was shaking to its core. The last few members of Ruun's little "army" were gathering at the front entrance to see what was causing all the commotion.

"I-Is that a fucking dragon?!" one of them exclaimed when it finally got close enough to allow them to fully see its silhouette through the dense fog.

"Umm... should we, like, do something?" another one asked.

"Like what, go die out there?"

"I meant something like helping."

"We've been strictly told not to leave our posts and stall the hunter."

"Yeah, a hunter! Not a bloody dragon!"

"That makes no difference. We knew this was a suicide mission the moment we agreed to stay."

"So then what do we do? Just wait for death?"

"We set up an ambush. Make sure everything is brightly lit so Glavas can't surprise us with that dark magic. Then, gather everything useful we have. Potions, bombs, enchanted weapons, that kind of stuff. Then find suitable hiding spots. He has to go through the middle, so–"

"SEAL THE ENTRANCE!!!" someone shouted from the outside, yelling so loud it seemed like his lungs would explode.

Outside, things looked like something out of a history book. Namely, out of a chapter describing a great catastrophe. The glowing line of light, which Clive projected across the main street, was progressively moving further and further. Reinforcements were called countless times, and yet, only a few of them managed to actually arrive at the battlefield.

The door to a cellar opened and four rather muscular men stepped outside, leaving the prisoners safely secured down below. All it took were a few steps before the shoe of the group leader slipped on a tiny misplaced metal orb. As he fell backwards, the man behind him stopped and caught him, however, that only served as the perfect distraction. By the time a sound had just managed to leave his lips in the form of a first syllable, Clive had already thrown another one of his orbs.

"OW!" the man yelled and stumbled backwards, dropping their leader on the floor and bumping into their third member, who caught off guard by the whole ordeal, fell down the long staircase. A few more strategically placed metal orbs then floored the staggered second man, leaving only their leader to deal with. The moment the man figured out what was actually going on, he got up from the ground and tackled Clive, sending them both onto the floor. With the detective beneath him, the man felt confident. His fists landed on Clive's arms numerous times as he used them to cover his face. When the man pulled his arm back for about the seventh punch, however, something hit him in the back of the head, ushering him into a world of darkness. An orb of much greater size had fallen from the chandelier above them, dealing a near-fatal blow to the mercenary.

Clive pushed the concussed and unconscious man aside and let out a long sigh. "Fuck... I timed it wrong. I'm getting rusty," he mumbled to himself before getting up and eventually leading the prisoners from the cellar to safety. Like this, Clive's yellow line of light magic, which he had used to tell Glavas which areas were casualties-free, moved again ever so slightly.

"Look, the line moved again! We can keep going!" Sizzy exclaimed just as the dragon had crushed another mercenary beneath its feet, staining the bones red even more than they were before.

"Chief! Plan?!" one of the people yelled at the elderly wizard at the back of their group.

"I-I'm trying! I have no idea what works against necro dragons. Heck, I don't know what works against any necromancer!"

"Then what should we do? Just die?!"

"No. We... we should run."

"Run?! And what about the people inside the mountain? We'll be leaving our clients to die and the deaths of our comrades would've been for nothing!"

"Not for nothing. No necromancer can keep this up forever. Once the dragon is down, we'll go back for the hunter. You just tell the people behind us to block the path."

"Block it from the dragon? How?!"

"Tell them to blow up a part of the mountain. Cause a cave-in."

"To seal them inside completely?!"

"We'll come back for them once the dragon is dealt with."

"Now move! They're almost at the gate!"

The mercenary did not feel too optimistic about his leader's plan, however, years of experience had taught him when to put faith in his ideas. If he claimed this to be the best course of action, then that was precisely what he needed to do.

The man crossed about three streets when his eyes suddenly spotted something at the very edge of his peripheral vision. He looked to the left, into a smaller side alley, only to spot a group of prisoners, currently being let outside by a man in a black poncho.

Clive's eyes met the man's and his heart rate picked up. One thing he did not expect was for them to retreat and run away. Not to mention that if the running mercenary was perhaps going to ask for reinforcements, it could cause Sizzy and Glavas more trouble than they needed.

The moment the man saw Clive rush at him at full speed, he turned back towards the entrance to the mountain and broke into a full sprint. He had to make it in there with the message. If he was defeated right here and now, nobody on the inside would know what they were supposed to do and gods know how many would die because of that.

Clive reached into his pockets and began throwing his enchanted orbs left and right. At such a speed, he did not have the time to carefully aim. All he could do was toss them out in heaps and pray that one of them would hit the man in any important spot that would at least slow him down.

When the mercenary saw the orbs raining down around him, he panicked. Some of them were leaving behind glowing patches, which made the other following projectiles bounce off of them, hitting him from the sides as well. He quickly raised his arms and put them around his head, hoping that he would at least safely make it close enough to be heard. The orbs clinked against his fingers. He felt the tiny bones snap under the magic's force, but he kept on running anyway. A couple more metres and a few attacks managed to strike his shins and ankles as well. As much as he tried to push through the pain, he could tell that he was slowing down, judging by the sound of Clive's footsteps, which seemed to be getting closer and closer. It was clear that prolonging this struggle any longer would put him at risk of getting killed. Therefore, he decided to change his approach completely. He turned around and put his arms in front of his face, protecting himself from the rain of orbs while his lungs filled with as much air as possible. Then, as if he knew those were to be his final words, he screamed as loud as he could: "SEAL THE ENTRANCE!!!"

For a moment, the people inside the mountain wished to wait for him, but when they saw a silhouette of a man collapse to the ground with an unknown person standing behind him, they quickly abandoned their heroic thoughts. Right now, it was about survival and nothing else.

"MOVE!" one of the bystanders shouted and ran over to a rather massive box of explosives that they managed to haul from the storage of an old dwarven mining company.

"Chudavez!" the man yelled and a small gust of wind picked up from beneath the crate, rocking it gently, yet refusing to lift it up.

"Come on! Move! Chudavez! Chudavez!" he kept on chanting, hoping that his magic would eventually listen.

"Help him! Whoever knows air magic, help him!" another member of the mountain squad called to the others. Only with her words did the few capable spellcasters force themselves to move and help lift the crate.

Shivers ran down Clive's spine. It was too late. He failed. The man he was pursuing still managed to pass his message. When the detective's eyes then spotted the box floating towards the top of the entrance, he immediately put two and two together. His hand reached into his pouch and picked up a few of the little enchanted orbs, but he quickly changed his mind. It was safe to assume the crate was full of explosives or anything else that was capable of sealing the only entrance to the mountain. Should his projectiles light a spark or somehow trigger whatever was in the container, he would do the exact opposite of what he wanted. Caught between a rock and a hard place, he had only one hope left. He turned around and screamed into the streets.

"GLAVAAAAAAS! GET INSIDE! NOW!"

The hunter had no idea what was happening at first, but hearing Clive call to him so desperately certainly made him worried. He imagined his children being in immediate danger. Such fear then moved him to act in ways most people would call reckless.

"Throw me!" he shouted at Sizzy.

"What?! Are you nuts?"

"I need to get in there! Throw me, now!"

Sizzy wanted to argue that such an idea was beyond dangerous, but when a loud explosion echoed through the streets, she quickly decided that perhaps there was no time for playing it safe anymore. A skeletal hand gripped Glavas with its bony claws and the dragon stood up on its back legs to allow her to aim a bit better.

"It's not good at throwing," she explained.

"Doesn't matter. I just need a speed boost," Glavas replied and prepared himself.

With the creaking of bones, the dragon moved, tossing the hunter with as much force as it could muster. The tendons holding the creature together were snapping as Sizzy pushed it far beyond its limits. Should it be a real creature, it would probably suffer countless injuries to its joints.

As soon as Glavas was airborne, his hand pulled the gun from his holster and began firing continuously behind him, the bursts of fire propelling him forward at an even greater speed. It didn't take long until he could finally see the entrance, along with sparks and flames flying off from the centre of the explosion. The entire mountain was shaking. The people inside were running as far away as they could. The rocks blown loose by the box were crashing down, quickly piling up at the bottom of the main gateway.

Glavas reached for his chain blade and quickly tossed it out, using it to change his trajectory ever so slightly. All the muscles in his body clenched as he flew inside, his body narrowly scratching against the rocks as they fell.

"YES! Go get them!" Clive shouted the moment he saw his friend disappear inside.

However, Glavas could not celebrate yet. His mind was now filled with a whole lot of other problems. The entire cave was shaking. The explosion damaged its stability a whole lot more than he had anticipated. However, the thing bothering him even more at that point was the question of how to land. He picked up a truly tremendous speed, so stopping was not at all simple. His blade flew through the air countless times, allowing him to somehow manoeuvre around the cave, while more carefully aimed gunshots were gradually slowing him down. However, doing all that while also avoiding the rocks falling from the ceiling of the hollowed-out mountain was not an easy task.

The two guards standing near Surdi's holding cell watched the havoc spread while Glavas, in the form of an unrecognizable black stain, was flying all over the mountain, accompanied by bursts of flames fired from his gun.

"H-Hey, Yurna?" Kras asked, his voice trembling.

"I know, he's here."

"No, that's not what I mean. I think I have a plan."

"A plan? Of attack or of escape?"

"Attack. But we'll need disguises."

"Right now?! There are rocks falling all over the place and you want me to make you a disguise?!"

"Yeah. I know it's dangerous here, but if we wait for the hunter to land and find us, then we will surely die. This is the only way I can think of for us to survive or maybe have at least a small chance of killing the guy. So please, make two disguises. For both of us."

"Okay. What kind though? I don't have time nor resources to make anything super complex."

Kras' eyes turned towards the cell.

"The kids?"

"Exactly! Can you make us look like the hunter's kids?"

"I-I guess. But I only saw the girl briefly."

"That's okay. He hadn't seen her in a while either. Just make me look like the dragon and you take the girl's look. Then we can approach him and maybe stab him when he's all happy we're reunited."

"But how do you even want to find him? Look at that bastard! He's flying all over the place! How can we know where exactly he'll land?"

"We don't. Once we have the disguises, we'll split up. Whoever finds him then joins his side and waits for the right opportunity."

"I have a really bad feeling about this."

"And you have a better idea?"

She sighed. "No, I guess not." Yurna nodded and began weaving her magic around them.