Valerie was about to leave. Luke would find a way to stop the curse, she just needed to find who created it in the first place. A lot of people would die from something like this, and there would be blood for that. One of her skills activated, and her head shot up. A Call for the Soul was one of her best skills. It wasn’t as good as foresight, but it gave her a sense of position. A sense that told her that she was about to be involved in something.

It happened an instant later. The sky didn’t so much as split as it broke. It was as if the sky was a glass pane, and someone had just thrown a rock through it. The effect seemed to be overlaid over the real world. Five people appeared as the sky normalized. They stepped out of nowhere with what could only be described as a saunter. She didn’t need a special sense to understand who they were.

Luke rose to his feet, leaving the boy to Toroken. He glanced up at them. His body shone with golden light like a second sun. The light poured over everyone, and their bodies began to glow too. Valerie felt her senses sharpen. Her breathing came more easily, and her body felt stronger too. It was enough to at least help if a fight broke out. The problem was the numbers. Luke didn’t seem bothered and shouted up at the crowd.

“What do you want?”

Luke’s contempt was obvious from the way his shoulders were squared. He was never one for weapons, but he had very large, very intimidating arms. She caught a glimpse of his face and saw the smoldering anger blazing behind his eyes. The people floating above didn’t react to the hostile expression at all. One of them, a man wearing a plain blue robe descended slightly, a crown made of three silver diamonds floated a few inches above his head. She recognized him immediately. Loran the silver prince was, in fact, a king.

She only recognized one other person in the group. A man with orange, blond hair, that seemed to move like it was made of fire. Evan of the Scorching Sands was a descendant of the king of flames, an adventure famous for inheriting his grandfather’s fire. He was dangerous, but she felt a little relieved. Igan would’ve made the fight impossible. The other three were unknown to her and that might be worse.

Loran stopped his descent a good fifty feet from Luke. His face was as impassive as a carved piece of metal.

“We cannot let this alliance exist so freely. Offer us the dragon’s life, and we will allow this nation to exist.”

Loran’s voice was too nasally for his muscular build, and it was nowhere near as deep or intimidating as it needed to be for that statement. Her response came quickly, and she strode up beside Luke with confidence.

“You have no say here.”

Her voice was firm, unwavering. Loran didn’t look at her, didn’t so much as acknowledge her existence. He just talked on as if she hadn’t said a thing.

“Dragons are our enemy. He is already infected, killing him will be simple now.”

Luke’s face was cold, and Loran ignoring her only made him angrier. His response was like a biting viper.

“Valeria is right! You have no say here. Dragons are just like any other people. No, they are better. Your people have been far worse to mine than any dragon.”

Valeria smirked up at Loran, whose eyebrows knit together sharply. Her eyes smoldered with unhidden fury as she gave Loran her best glare. The elven prince’s face reddened as he responded.

“Did becoming a god make you a fool? Dragons have long since been the enemy of our kingdoms. How can you forgive their crimes?”

Valerie’s sharp tone and tongue cut his incredulity apart.

“Your kingdoms and your crimes. They were never mine.”

Loran couldn’t ignore that, and his angry eyes darted toward her for an instant.

“Enough of this, you can die with the dragon then.”

The prince swiped his hand to the side. A hand of silvery light flashed into existence beside her, and she braced for an impact that never came. Luke’s soul grew and morphed around her into a dome of radiant golden light. The silver and gold clashed in an eruption of blinding light. She was painfully aware of the fact that Luke’s soul didn’t actually touch her. It made her want to reach out to it, but that would spit in the face of what he was doing to protect her. She hated being the one who needed protection. And she wouldn’t let it stay that way.

Valeria’s class wasn’t the most dynamic, but she was good at hitting above her weight class. Luke’s buffs only amplified that effect. She raised her left palm up at Loran. It flashed purple and she twisted her wrist sharply. The prince let out a howl of agony, as visible cuts appeared across his body and part of his robes were stained red. He clutched at the robes on his chest tightly as if his heart was in pain. She was attacking something much deeper than a heart though, and there were few things that could defend a soul from her attacks.

Loran moved through the pain in a sharp motion. His arm swung down and a beam of silvery light big enough to consume a small town fell upon them. Her head spun toward the rest of the beach. Her people would be unable to block or survive an attack like that. Luke’s soul radiated out of him like an umbrella. Golden light formed a protective shell around everyone and met the incoming silver power. The two collided and sparks of multicolored light filled the air. It looked like a dozen stars exploding. Even under the light of the sun, the collision of power was blinding.

She still had a hold of Loran’s soul and twisted it further. Loran’s silver beam faltered as he cried out in pain. He was yelling for his allies, who also seemed to enjoy Loran’s pain. It seemed like the prince had a bad relationship with his group. One of the groups did move though. A bow of flowing flames formed between his arms, and he knocked an unseen arrow. He lost but nothing came out. She glanced toward Toroken assuming that he was targeting someone else, but the dragon wasn’t there. Although she didn’t have the time to wonder where he had gone.

The air around her arm went from warm to scalding in an instant, and a line of fire exploded through her arm. She let out a high shriek of pain like the wails of cat and pulled her arm back. It hung uselessly at her side, as the skin around her elbow had turned black. The bone beneath was visible, and it had melted together into a disgusting mass. She swallowed her cries as the golden light around her body already began healing her wound.

A shadow fell over her. She looked up to see a bronze sheet of metal blocking out the sun. It took her an instant to even see the full thing, and she realized it was a wing. She traced it with her eyes to find Toroken in the air above them. He was heading toward the five, and her mouth fell open at the sight. Toroken was massive. Each movement of his wing sounded like a typhoon and the wind buffeted the ground as he charged forward. The dragon’s scales shone with a bronze radiance, and his mouth was wide open as if to devour the elven prince. He was more than big enough to swallow a small house whole, and she could see Loran struggle to evade.

Her attack had staggered the prince, and she could see the color drain from Loran’s face as he looked toward the dragon. Evan reacted the fastest of the bunch. The bow in his hands vibrated as bursts of flame exploded across Toroken’s scales. Toroken didn’t seem to care at all.

Toroken’s chest began to glow with a reddish light. It spread from the dragon’s belly and flowed through his neck. The spines that crawled down his back began flashing red. Everyone knew what was coming. It was the kind of legendary image that stories were told of. Evan dove out of the way but the other four remained and braced for the attack. A silvery hand formed between the group and Toroken. Crystals of every color grew out of the other’s body like a fungus and created a sharp wedge-shaped shield.

Valerie expected Toroken to release a breath of hot fire. All the previously recorded fights with dragons led her to believe that. It was wrong. Toroken’s beath was not flame, but sand. It was the same black sand she had seen on the beach, and it came out in a rush. A line was so dense and black that she only noticed it was sand by the small grains that fell upon them like rain. The bar of darkness touched the silver palm and tore through it. it cut through it like a blade and shattered the crystal shield as if it were glass. The final barrier was one that she hadn’t been able to see.

The sand crashed into the invisible shield colliding against the very air in an explosion of sand. The black sand spread over the sky like a dark cloud, it outlined the final shield as it fell around it. It was as if the air itself had hardened into a large pentagonal shield. Why would someone use that shape? It was a dumb question to have.

It was time to return to the fight, and her eyes darted to the left of the group where Evan was preparing to fire more arrows. Time for some vengeance. Both of her hands glowed purple. She could barely move one, but it did move. Luke’s healing worked quickly, and she could ignore some pain. She made a grabbing motion at Evan, and his head instantly spun toward her. Valeria smiled like a wicked witch. Luke had often said that it was a smile to frighten children, but she couldn’t control it. She loved the adrenaline that came with a fight, and it was burning within her like a bonfire. Leaving the group to Luke and Toroken, she decided to pursue the one who was alone.

Valerie pulled on Evan. The higher-level man held his ground but sweat built on his forehead. Everything she did targeted the soul, and they hurt. It was akin to pulling on someone’s organs. Even if they held strong, it would still hurt. The pull had the reverse effect though, and she used it to propel herself across the sky. Wind raced past her and some of the sand in the air scratched her face as she closed the distance rapidly.

The bow in Evan’s hand changed to a sword, and he swung quickly. The sand in the air saved her. She was able to see how his swing burned across the air in a projected wave as the sand it touched melted. She kicked to the left, her boots creating an artificial foothold for her to push off of. She spun around the incoming wave and pulled again on Evan’s soul. She was about to touch him, but her hand instead passed through him. Her whole body went right through the man. The light burns across her exposed skin made her turn. She had gone over a dozen paces past him, but the effect was obvious. The man’s body was made of fire, and he was grinning at her.

“Did you really think I would let you touch me? The famous Witch of Black Hands.”

His smile quickly vanished as he noticed the skill that made her famous. Her hands were coated in a black liquid as if she had pulled her hand out of a bucket of ink. Although the drops that fell from her hands turned into a mist long before hitting the ground.

“You know you’re the second person with a full body skill like that, that I have fought. She died making the same assumption you did.”

She stood hovering in the air and moved before the man could attempt to do anything. Thrusting her hands out in front of her, she pictured them tearing through the man. Her hands were spread open, her fingers were like claws that dug into the very air. Evan’s face had lost its color, and she pried her fingers apart. She left black trails in the air. The streaks reminded her of torn paper. Evan was staring at her clutched at a body that was quickly failing him.

He had been torn in two at a fundamental level. Few things had the ability to restore their soul or live in such a state. Evan was not one, though he was trying. Flames danced between the two halves of his body. Desperately attempting to connect the two pieces together. She wouldn’t let that happen. Her fingers thrust out again, and this time she moved her hands vertically. Evan’s body split again, his life left him as her mana rapidly vanished.