Caleb stared in shock at the Dragon he could only see while in Time-state. He was blue, the blue of the River of Time, and serpentine, coiled around the shimmering blue crystal in the chamber’s center. But he wasn’t a lithe serpent, instead bulky, with six heavily-muscled legs ending in long, black claws that clutched the crystal possessively. His head was as big as Caleb’s entire body, and lidless eyes gazed at Caleb with a glittering, predatory amusement.
“Now you’re getting it,” the Dragon said, chuckling in a low voice.
“You’re… why I’m here?” Caleb asked.
The Dragon laughed. “Now why would you think that?”
“I saw this place during my Trial. So you’re why I’m here?”
“Exit Time-state.” The Dragon laughed again, maliciously. “You will need your friends for what comes next.”
Caleb did as he was told, exiting Time-state. He could see the crystal now even outside of Time-state, floating just above the glassy pool in the chamber’s center. But he could no longer see the Dragon.
“My name is Jiryu,” said the Dragon, his voice booming through the chamber, “Dragon of Time. And you face now a Trial by Combat. Touch the crystal, Time Mage — you and all those you bring with you. Face me in combat to learn what comes next.”
“Fight… you?” Caleb asked. “Wait, I don’t want to fight. I just want to know why I’m here, why I saw this place in my Trial.”
“Did you think your Trial was over?”
Caleb raised an eyebrow. “What…?” Then he shook his head. “No, look, I don’t want to fight. I just want to know what I’m supposed to learn by being here, why I saw this place in my trial. Why do you want to fight?”
“Must you know the purpose before the deed is done?”
“Kinda, yeah,” Chelsea said. “If you have something to teach him, just spill it. We have a lot to do, and no time for pointless fights.”
Jiryu laughed. “Pointless? How can you know its lack of purpose before seeing what lies at the end? Leave if you wish. The Trial is always a choice. But then you would have come to the Timespan for nothing.”
Caleb gritted his teeth, glaring at the crystal. A trial by combat? A fight… with a Dragon? What the heck was this? Why hadn’t Mister Midnight said anything about it? He knew about the Timespan… did he really not know about Jiryu?
“Fine,” he said, pulling out his pocket watch and spinning it on its chain. “But we can’t all fight.” He looked back at Addie. “And I won’t leave her unprotected.”
“It is safe here,” Jiryu said.
“Because you really sound trustworthy,” Chelsea said. She nodded towards Addie, and her owl Summon flew over landing on the girl’s shoulders. “He’ll keep you safe, kiddo.”
“Not alone,” Will said. There was a rustling in his hood, and then out popped ultraviolet Trevain, who deftly clambered down Will and bounded over to Addie, climbing up to her shoulder and nestling between Chelsea’s owl’s foot and Addie’s face, nuzzling against her cheek.
Addie giggled, petting both Summons. “I feel safer already,” she said.
“So we’re all going in?” Caleb asked, looking at the others.
“Well I’m going with you,” Chelsea said, lighters in hand, twirling them in her fingers.
“Same,” Will said, stepping forward.
“We’re all going, aren’t we?” Gwen asked. “Aside from Addie, of course.” She brushed a finger against the collar of her jacket. “Teammates, right?”
“Let’s go,” Lorelei said.
“Right,” Caleb said. But first, he stepped over to Addie, knelt in front of her, and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll be back soon, okay?”
“Kick the Dragon’s butt,” Addie said with a giggle.
Caleb smiled. “Sure thing.”
Together, Caleb, Chelsea, Will, Lorelei, and Gwen stood around the crystal. At Caleb’s signal, they all placed a hand against its glowing surface.
Immediately, they were transported. All was the blue of the River of Time, but light from the brighter crystal in the center, rippling outward in waves, helped give shape and shade to the various forms throughout this new space. The ground was water, yet so still, placid, and shallow that it didn’t seem like water as they walked atop it. Drifting slowly through the air were various rocky formations, like little stone islands of various sizes and shapes.
And above it all, leering down at the five, was Jiryu.
“Well,” Chelsea said, staring up at him, “he sure looks like a Dragon.”
“So… what’s the trial?” Caleb asked. “What are the rules, and when does it…
“…start?”
Caleb’s eyes went wide. In the space between the second-to-last and last words of his question, Jiryu had vanished from his high point in the sky, to appear right behind Caleb. Caleb jumped, forming a Mobility disc that bounced him away, and sent weighted attack chains surging towards the Time Dragon.
“We’ve already begun,” Jiryu said, laughing as he batted away the chains like a cat playing with a ball of yarn.
Will hastily wrote GRV in the air, his pen Talisman forming the letters in glowing blue light. But his control of gravity wasn’t turned on his foe. Instead, Will’s body began to glow with a pale blue aura. And a moment later he’d flipped, shooting up into the sky feet-first, morphing gravity for himself to afford him new mobility. He landed on the bottom of a higher rock formation, stuck to it like glue, and began writing.
Chelsea and Lorelei immediately sent powerful blasts of fire and ice at Jiryu, while Gwen dashed away, tossing out silver needle-swords that trailed faint, nearly invisible lines of silver thread.
Jiryu zipped away, and Caleb realized that the Dragon hadn’t vanished and reappeared earlier. He was just that fast. Now that he watched him intently, he could just barely track the Dragon’s movements, but for such a large creature, he moved impossibly fast, rocketing around the arena. His tail lashed out, shattering Will’s rocky perch, but Will was gone before he struck, rooting himself to a new rock, while lances of white light zoomed towards the Dragon. Jiryu dodged them with ease, and flew towards Caleb, emerald fire and cerulean ice missing him by a wide margin.
Caleb formed a network of Mobility discs and rocketed from one to the next, never moving in one direction for long. As he bounced around the arena, he sent volleys of weighted attack chains for Jiryu while also forming nets of chains to try and trap or slow down the Dragon. But Jiryu didn’t evade Caleb’s attacks like he did those of the others. He shattered Caleb’s chains with his mighty claws, batted aside other chains with his huge tail, and smashed Mobility discs by charging straight through them.
Way too fast!
Caleb ran out of space, and Phase Stepped to pass straight through the Dragon.
Only…
“Ngh!” Caleb grunted, gritting his teeth over a cry of pain, as a mighty Dragon forelimb snatched him, clutching him tightly, pinning his arms to his sides.
“Foolish young Time Mage, you have so much to learn.” The Dragon’s voice was mocking, and a series of amused chuckles followed. He carried Caleb for a little while, snaking his way around the various attacks thrown his way, and then tossed Caleb with such a casual disregard that Caleb had plenty of time to right himself, using Mobility discs to maneuver around the rocky formations in his way.
He’s just gonna toy with me unless I can do something substantial to him!
While Caleb bounced and leapt all around the spacious arena, Will moved a little more slowly and methodically, but still had fairly free reign in the air thanks to new applications of his gravity abilities.
Meanwhile, Chelsea, Lorelei, and Gwen were grounded. Chelsea and Lorelei were, without a doubt, the powerhouses of the team, but mobility was also their weakest area. Chelsea managed to leap aside from a Dragon charge in a beautiful, Enhancement-Magic-assisted cartwheeling flip, but it wasn’t a regular ability in her repertoire, and despite the grace with which she pulled it off, it took her a moment to resume her previous assault.
Gwen, meanwhile, was stunningly fast. When Jiryu charged at her, lashed at her with his tail, or swiped at her with his claws, she sprang aside, rolled underneath, and resumed her own plans — plans which likely involved the very calculated laying of traps, since almost none of the needles and thread she cast out were aimed directly for the Dragon himself. Every evasive maneuver she took, she remained close to the ground, not leaping high, and Caleb knew exactly why.
The longer you spend in midair — if you don’t have a way to alter your trajectory in midair like I do — the more vulnerable you are.
Stay low, stay more mobile.
And Gwen was excellent at that method of evasion. With Chelsea and Lorelei backing her up closely, and Caleb and Will from farther away, Jiryu couldn’t constantly focus on attacking her, either, so she didn’t exhaust herself with such moves. But even so, she had a remarkably keen eye, tracking Jiryu’s movements and carefully, yet within the span of milliseconds, choosing exactly the right course of evasion to avoid harm.
“What’s this supposed to teach me?” Caleb asked, narrowly bouncing away from a tail swipe. He twisted in midair, sending out a barrage of gleaming chains, but he was far too slow.
“Do you fear death?” Jiryu asked.
Fear… death? Wait, what the heck? Is he seriously trying to kill us?
“Ah, but you fear a great many things, young Time Mage,” Jiryu continued, laughing.
“Shut up!” Chelsea shouted from below. Darts of flame zipped towards Jiryu. He dodged them all… save one. Caleb saw it strike true along the Dragon’s scaly body, and while Jiryu let loose no cry of pain or discomfort, the tiny dart of fire left a sizzling black mark on the Dragon’s scales.
Jiryu turned to charge Chelsea, but Lorelei was ahead of him. Walls of ice went up, supported by a Diamond Dust, a blast of icy spray, and Jiryu spun away, targeting Will instead. Another wall of ice went up, and when Jiryu smashed that — and the rock that Will was gravitated to — Lorelei formed a series of icy towers to give Will footing until he could find a new gravitational target and fly towards that.
But Jiryu didn’t pursue Will. Flames rocketed towards him, so he veered away, coming back towards Caleb. Caleb decided to test just how strong this Dragon was. Mobility discs formed by the hundreds, stacking together, while chains laced through them, strengthening the shielding wall. Dozens of feet of heavily reinforced white magical constructs lay between Caleb and Jiryu…
And Jiryu smashed straight through them.
Caleb bounced away, watching with a pang in his heart as hundreds of discs and chains faded away in shattered, glassy fragments.
I know I don’t use Guardian Magic, so they wouldn’t be the most powerful defensive efforts…
But I put so much training into them for defense, not just offense. And they’ve worked well against other foes.
That was a weakness that Caleb noticed in their team. No one here used Guardian Magic. Caleb and Lorelei had trained to apply their own magic to defensive purposes when the need arose, but ultimately, this was a team built around offense.
And against a foe like Jiryu, the lack of a strong defender for all of these attackers was striking.
Will hadn’t applied his gravity manipulation in any way to Jiryu, but that told Caleb a lot.
Will’s so good at analyzing situations. He must have figured out some reason why that won’t work. It’s not like Jiryu flies by normal means, so he probably just ignores gravity. And my Time Magic can’t affect him at all. Phase Stepping didn’t just fail to let me phase through him, I also didn’t stop time at all.
So. What’s the next play?
Jiryu charged Chelsea and Lorelei again, but Caleb’s chains, Chelsea’s powerful counter-offensive, and Lorelei’s icy walls deterred the Dragon. Here came Jiryu towards Caleb again, who barely dodged a tail swipe, only to turn around and be clutched in one reptilian foot. It lasted just for a moment, though, as once again Jiryu tossed Caleb aside with casual, easy disregard, and Caleb righted himself easily.
He’s…
Oh.
Suddenly, perching on a Mobility disc and watching the Dragon’s movements, Caleb understood.
It’s a test. He’s only pushing me to learn things. But he’s not really pushing against us.
So I just have to figure out what he wants, right? What is it that he’s testing? If I just —
“Don’t assume you understand the game, child,” came Jiryu’s voice from right behind Caleb. Where had he come from? How had he moved so blindingly fast yet again? It was all Caleb could do to build a cage of Mobility disc shields around himself, just as a vicious tail swipe sent Caleb flying, his shields falling apart after the fact, having just barely negated the force of the blow.
But it was a vicious attack. Caleb spun round out of control through the air, and only avoided careening into a rocky island thanks to an impromptu ice slide from Lorelei which carried him up and over it, and helped him get his bearings back.
He bounced away off a new disc, rocketing at full speed just in time to avoid another lashing tail swipe from Jiryu that split the rock he’d been carried over in two.
And Caleb kept bouncing away, full force, rocketing this way and that. It was all he could do, as the Time Dragon raced after him with startling, terrifying speed. Jiryu’s whole demeanor had changed, and Caleb felt a powerful pressure from the beast that bore down on him. This was a predator, a predator which had been toying with its prey like a house cat at the start. But now the playtime was over. The claws had properly come out, and bloodlust resonated from Jiryu. He moved faster, with more aggressive, powerful force than before. Chelsea landed a few darting shots of flame on his skin, but that was likely because Jiryu wasn’t even bothering to try and evade.
He was entirely focused on Caleb. With murderous, terrifying intent.
Up, down, all around, Caleb bounced all over, wind ripping at his face with every new bounce from a disc. He started to send chains surging at the Dragon. Not just from him, from his watch, though those were the most powerful attacks he had. He materialized them all around, lashing towards Jiryu from all directions. Many, the Dragon evaded. Others he batted away. But there were some that struck true, and also struck Caleb with a powerful sense of futility.
All his training, all the strength he had built up, all the progress he’d made under Mister Midnight…
And his chains were completely useless against the Dragon.
And now he’s actually trying to kill me! How do I win against him?
A split second later, he might have laughed, had he not been desperately fleeing a rampaging monster.
Honestly, Caleb. You’re not fighting him alone.
Hundreds of Mobility discs gleamed in the air, and Caleb zipped from one to the next as fast as he could. He changed direction with every new leap and bounce, but his overall trajectory angled towards the ground. He could feel Jiryu on his tail, heard the shattering of Mobility discs, saw the blasts of fire and ice and lances of light from his allies.
A rocketing leap, a twist, a pause on a Mobility disc, tensing to jump again. There was the Dragon, vicious maw open wide, lidless eyes blazing with fury and wrath.
Caleb waited just a moment longer. He tensed as if to leap upward, but then, at the last moment, he dismissed the disc he was standing on, at the same time forming a new disc above him, one that bounced him earthward. The Dragon flew over him, committing to the feint. Caleb lashed dozens of chains to Jiryu’s legs, anchored them to Mobility discs, and then formed a circle with half a dozen more chains that constricted tightly on Jiryu’s mouth, snapping the jaws shut.
The chains that held Jiryu’s legs held only for a second, snapping. But those holding his mouth shut held longer, and Jiryu shot skyward, writhing and tensing to break his mouth free. Lances of white light from Will struck along his hide twice, gouts of emerald flame struck three times. Jiryu was so large that the wounds left didn’t appear significant, but being able to wound the Dragon was enough to know there was hope.
Though…
Caleb found himself hesitating as he landed on the watery ground between Chelsea and Lorelei.
…I don’t want to cause him too much pain. I don’t even know why we’re fighting. Is he going to try and make us kill him? But why?
What’s the point of all this?
Jiryu finally burst free of the chains holding his mouth shut and veered around, zipping past a barrage of magical attacks.
And then a voice arose above the din — a voice that Caleb never expected to hear.
“Don’t lose focus, kid! It’s not over yet!”
Caleb wheeled around. That had sounded like…
“Mister Midnight?” he asked, looking all around. But…
He didn’t see his teacher anywhere.
“Caleb!” Chelsea cried, and Caleb spun around to see Jiryu surging towards him, water spraying up in his wake from how low he flew. Caleb bounced skyward, but also formed a series of discs to bounce Chelsea and Lorelei out of trouble, and catch them so they didn’t just go careening out of control.
He himself wasn’t quite fast enough, though, and barely got up a series of shields as a powerful Dragon’s tail lashed at him. His shields shattered, and he went tumbling end-over-end before his shoulder clipped hard against a rocky formation and he finally righted himself. Pain lanced through his upper arm, and he knew either his shoulder was dislocated or he’d fractured something. Or both. Along with what would likely be some pretty nasty bruising.
But he didn’t focus so much on the pain, because his mind was still awhirl.
Why did I hear Mister Midnight? Is he here? Hiding somewhere? But why? Why would he be here? And if he was, why wouldn’t he be fighting, too?
Again the Dragon was in hot pursuit, and again Caleb was in desperate retreat, bouncing every which way. He brought forth chains again and again, now knowing he could at least have some impact on Jiryu.
But as he bounced away again, he lost sight of the Dragon.
“Caleb, behind you!” cried Chelsea.
Caleb wheeled about, but there was nothing there. A moment later, he felt the Dragon’s presence, and twisted back around, but…
“Too slow, Time Mage,” purred the triumphant Dragon, as he gripped Caleb tightly in his scaly foot. Caleb flexed and twisted, struggling to get free, but he had no way to fight against Jiryu’s incredible strength.
Then he looked up into the Dragon’s eyes. At that clever, cunning face. Calculating, always calculating, always looking ahead of what was happening. Slowly, understanding began to dawn on him.
It was Chelsea, down below, who confirmed what Caleb suddenly suspected: “He just used my voice!”
“You can…?” Caleb asked, staring.
Jiryu’s mouth moved, but it wasn’t the Dragon’s voice, but rather Mister Midnight’s, that spoke. “Come on, kid. You know I can’t be here. I’ve got work to do elsewhere.” At Caleb’s wide-eyed look, Jiryu laughed.
“Ah, young Time Mage, you should never underestimate your foe.”
A second later, though, Jiryu and Caleb both let out cries of surprise, as the Dragon’s swift flight came to a sudden, lurching stop. Jiryu looked all around, writhing and twisting, but it was Caleb who figured out what had happened first.
Silver thread.
Hundreds and hundreds of fine, gleaming strands — nearly invisible unless you knew where to look — had closed tightly on each of the Dragon’s legs, around his tail, around the middle of his body, and around his jaws, snapping them shut.
Gwen’s long game had worked. Her trap was completed.
But Caleb was still in the Dragon’s clutches. And as Jiryu struggled against his bonds, his grip tightened, and Caleb cried out in pain. Something popped that shouldn’t pop, and his shoulder especially screamed for release.
“Caleb, give me a clear shot!” Chelsea shouted.
Caleb understood immediately. He couldn’t escape, not even with a Phase Step.
But that didn’t mean such an ability couldn’t still be useful.
Enhancement Magic helped him dull the pain somewhat, enough to focus on Time Magic, and he Phase Stepped. As before, he still couldn’t escape the Dragon’s clutches, and time didn’t stop around him in this place.
But just because he couldn’t phase through the Dragon didn’t mean he couldn’t phase through other things.
Fire, for instance.
Emerald flames roared around him, blazing with fury all across the foot and leg that clutched Caleb. With them came spinning, bladed discs of cerulean ice, slicing across the leg, drawing blood. Jiryu squirmed and roared, but his bonds held. A moment later, he dropped Caleb, who was all too glad to use Mobility discs to shoot himself far away from the beast.
Jiryu was alight with emerald flame, assailed by cerulean ice. He writhed and twisted, but still it took a long struggle to finally break free from Gwen’s threads. As soon as he was free, he shot high into the sky, away from all attacks. He didn’t stop until he was small above them, barely large enough to make out the gleam in his eyes.
“Clever, clever warriors,” purred the Dragon, low and menacing. “But it ends here.”
Jiryu blazed with blue light, light that radiated off of him like flames, and then took shape in the sky around him. Each tendril of flame became a blazing meteor, and they hung in the air, dozens of them, for just a moment.
“Farewell,” Jiryu said.
The meteors pulsed with light, and then shot towards the earth.
Caleb stared in shock for only a moment. Then he formed the largest Mobility disc he could right beneath his feet. “Everyone, come on!” he called. Chelsea was there first, and held his hand tightly. Gwen joined them, needle sword in one hand while she held onto Chelsea with the other. Next was Will, and Caleb held onto him so that his pen hand could be free while he held Lorelei with his other hand.
All five stood on the Mobility disc, holding tight to one another, brandishing Talismans and weapons where they could.
The meteors came soaring down. But they didn’t run, or try to block the powerful attack that approached them.
Instead, with a thought from Caleb, the Mobility disc shot the five skyward.
Chelsea and Lorelei combined their attacks, focusing on one of the meteors. Fire and ice flashed against its surface, but otherwise had no effect. They couldn’t destroy the meteors, then.
But Will had an idea. Swiftly writing MTM in the air, he then tapped the letters, which pulsed with light and then vanished.
Each and every meteor then pulsed with the same light…
And reversed course.
“So it works against them, but not the Dragon himself,” Will muttered thoughtfully.
Caleb and Chelsea both cheered with triumph, and Caleb used several more discs to launch the team higher up, pursuing the Dragon. Jiryu roared, evading his own projectiles before slipping past them and starting his descent towards the five.
“I’m not totally crazy about a collision course,” Chelsea said.
“Neither am I,” Caleb said. “Hold on tight, everyone. It’s going to get a bit frantic, here.”
Dozens of discs appeared, forming a zigzag route for the team to zip along. When opportunities presented themselves, Chelsea, Lorelei, and Caleb blasted at Jiryu with fire, ice, and chains. The Time Dragon was still startlingly fast, evading what came his way, but that slowed him down, and with the right attacks, they were able to force him off-course, away from them.
The five and the Dragon shot past each other.
Now Caleb and his team were above Jiryu, and they turned, throwing all of their might at the Dragon as he turned back towards them. Fire blazed across his scaly body. Ice and needle-swords slashed and stabbed at him. Chains snagged at him, slowing his momentum.
But then Jiryu put on a burst of speed, of that insane speed he only showed sparingly. He nearly vanished as he shot around the five, and above them, and Caleb launched them from their disc just as the Dragon’s mighty tail shattered it to pieces. The five were in freefall, but only for a moment. Disc after shining disc caught them, bounced them away, steadily moving towards the ground, where they finally landed, panting, exhausted. High above, Jiryu hovered, watching them.
“Let’s try that again,” Chelsea said softly. “I almost had my aim just right, and with another pass, I think I can nail his eyes —”
Jiryu laughed, and all five stared at him. “Ahh,” he said, sounding rather pleased. He floated high, hovering in the air, watching the five with a somewhat bemused expression. “Well done. You pass.”
Caleb, panting alongside the others, nursing his shoulder, gawked at the Dragon, eyes wide. “What?” he asked, incredulous.
“You lasted for the time limit,” Jiryu said, chuckling. “And so you pass.”
“You never said there was a time limit!” Chelsea said.
“If I had, you would have fought with it in mind. Instead, despite all the odds against you, you fought to win, to the very end. And so I say: Well done. You pass.”
The world inside the crystal faded away, until they were back in the chamber. The crystal gleamed dimly before them, its light reflected in the glassy pool.
“You’re back!” Addie cried, happily racing forward. She hugged Caleb, then Chelsea. Chelsea’s owl flew up to meet her, hooting happily, and Trevain joined Will, nuzzling against his cheek for a moment before leaping to Lorelei’s shoulder and giving her the same treatment.
“Yeah, we did it,” Caleb said, exhaustion and pain suddenly weighing down on him as the adrenaline and focus of battle began to fade.
“And now you can learn what knowledge I protect,” Jiryu said. He was invisible again, likely only visible to Caleb within Time-state now. The Dragon chuckled. “Ah, brave Time Mage. But your teacher would be very proud.”