As the dragon who Eutychia had identified as Tefrathok plummeted towards the troops on the ground below, Jadis was faced with several options. She did not spend any time considering any of them. Instead, she reacted with her gut instinct, acting upon the situation with a swift and decisive response.

Dys punched the dragon.

As instant a reaction as it was, Jadis still put some small amount of thought into the punch. She recognized that her Dys self was the only one not carrying a person and therefore was the freest to act. Dys was also the closest, relatively speaking, and so could get to Tefrathok the fastest. And perhaps almost as important, she needed to respond to the fact that the skull blob Demon was, despite having been chased by Severina many miles away not ten minutes ago, somehow on the ground right next to their marching lines.

As Dys flew at the diving dragon, Jay shot towards the ground, aiming for the location the spell trajectory indicated the Demon was hiding. She did not go as fast as she possibly could, not when Meli and Thea were on her back and definitely not when she wasn’t certain that she’d be able to pull up in time to avoid a crash landing, but Jay still flew with a speed that had to have knocked the breath out of her two lovers. At the same moment that Jay was touching down in an explosion of dust, Dys’ fist was connecting with the side of Tefrathok’s head.

Dys’ bones rattled as she slammed into the purple beast. Scales cracked from the blow and his head was knocked to the side, but Jadis could immediately tell that she hadn’t done major damage to the dragon. In fact, she hadn’t even succeeded in knocking him out of his dive. What she had successfully accomplished, though, was to get Tefrathok’s attention. That, she most definitely had.

Tefrathok did not roar in rage at her attack. Instead, the beast let out a low, loud hiss that sounded a hundred times more menacing. Eutychia had said that the dragon was young, which Jadis had no reason to doubt, yet the creature had certainly mastered the art of intimidation. Spreading his wings wide, Tefrathok halted his dive and banked upwards in a sudden, surprisingly agile motion. Whipping around in a backwards somersault, the dragon’s long tail sliced through the air like a titanic scythe. While Jadis was certain that she had the speed to avoid such an attack, the move surprised her both in its execution, and by its reach. Despite backing off from the dragon’s attack, she was still struck by what felt like two-ton sword crashing into her from right hip to left shoulder.

Dys was sent hurdling through the air, struggling to recover from the powerful blow. As she tumbled away, Tefrathok adjusted his flight to give chase, no doubt intending to follow up on his attack. He wasn’t given the chance. Before his wings had flapped for a second time, Syd crashed onto his head with resounding force. Wrapping both her arms and legs around the beast’s snout, she clamped his jaws shut to prevent him from unleashing any sort of breath attack. Naturally, the dragon responded by attempting to rip her off with his massive claws. Only attempted, however, because of the angry Paladin hanging onto Syd’s back.

“You are an insane woman!” Lucia shouted as she used her sword to slash at the dragon’s talons, keeping the beast at bay.

“I am well aware!” Syd shouted back as she desperately struggled to keep Tefrathok’s mouth shut.

The golden light that shone just outside of Syd’s line of sight concerned her for a moment, until she realized that the glow was not coming from another demonic attack. Two figures of divine wrath struck the dragon simultaneously, both hitting him from the right at the same time. Severina’s sword landed on the crown of Tefrathok’s head with a catastrophic impact that caused pieces of horn to splinter off like shattered glass. Wilhelm’s golden arc of light smashed into the dragon’s wing, causing one of the thinner bones to break with a sickening snap.

The muffled roar of pain that came from Tefrathok’s throat vibrated Syd like an earthquake, but she kept her hold on his snout.

“Are you going to kill the dragon?” Meli asked, having just leapt from Jay’s back to land on the ground, still in her spider form.

“Trying not to!” Jay replied as she scanned the ruined landscape around her. “Might not have a choice! Thea, are you okay!?”

While Jay couldn’t see her shy lover’s face thanks to her helmet, the way the shieldmaiden was holding her stomach made her think that she was close to losing her lunch. However, Thea visibly straightened up and waved Jadis’ concern away, her spear and shield raised and ready.

“Alright, where is that fucking Demon bitch hiding?”

As she and her allies struggled with the dragon in the air above, Jay searched her surroundings for any sign of the skull blob. She knew that the spell-casting Demon had to be in the vicinity of where she had landed, since the Divine bolt it had cast had shown no ability to move in anything other than a straight line. This was the spot where the spell had to have come from. However, as Jay looked around, she saw no sign of any Demon, at least not living ones.

The corpses of dozens of mire hounds, simulacrums, and other Demons littered the ground. All had been slain recently, as the watchdogs who guarded the soldiers did their job. To the south of her, only a few hundred yards away, the main line continued to head east, maintaining discipline and order despite the awe-inspiring display of power happening over their heads. To her east, Jay could still see Noll and the Dryad Stamatis dealing with the Demons who had attacked, though it looked like the enemy had been greatly diminished. A figure was running towards, likely Halvor considering the speed that he was moving, but no skull blob. Every other direction she looked was just ruined farmlands and a light haze of toxic miasma.

“There!”

Jay’s head whipped around at Thea’s warning call. Following the line of her spear, she spotted what the shieldmaiden’s sharp eyes had found. Forty yards away, hidden in the slight shade of several olive trees that had fallen against an outcropping of rock was movement. Mist pooled around the shadows, obscuring easy sight of whatever lay within the cover, but there was movement.

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Meli was already racing forward with Thea on her back towards the threat, but Jay got there ahead of them both as her wings carried her over the broken landscape. With a mighty upward swing of her hammer, she knocked away the small trees, sending their rotted trunks flying in a spray of wood chips. Without the cover of the broken branches, a jagged hole in the ground at the base of the rocks was revealed, as was a squirming mass of filth.

Belgramathr, a revolting form of Demon, stole the skin and hides of the dead, turning them into flapping bags of rot that continually exuded toxic spores and other poisons into the air from the many orifices that dotted their disgusting bodies. Some number of them, it was impossible to tell an exact number with how their terrible boneless forms slid and squirmed across each other, were filling up the hole under the boulder. If Jadis had not just been attacked by Divine magic, she might have assumed that the Belgramathr were just hiding in a convenient pit, waiting for the army to pass. They were not the most physically capable of Demons and would be easy pickings for even the greenest of soldiers. However, Jadis did not doubt that the slug-like abominations were covering up the retreat of another Demon, likely the one who had just shot at the dragon to provoke a fight.

Moving quickly, Jay began to club the Belgramathr, squashing them with her hammer before tossing their fetid corpses out of her way. Thea and Meli helped as well, striking the Demons with spear and claw alike. In only a few seconds, a tunnel that extended far beyond the surface level was revealed. Unfortunately, while the tunnel did not appear to have been collapsed further in, it was far too small for Jay to fit without crawling on her hands and knees. Not the most tactically advisable stance to take when fighting. Worse, the miasma that the Belgramathr exuded had filled the space, turning the air into a thick soup that couldn’t possibly be breathable.

“I can go in,” Thea said, moving to dismount from Meli’s back.

“No,” Jay held up a hand to stop her. “Too dangerous. We need magic to clear this miasma, and someone who can keep the tunnel from collapsing on our heads. I’ll get Ammy and Tier—”

“Out of the way!”

The bellowing order had barely reached Jay’s ears when the solid, muscular, bare-chested mass of Halvor flew past her. The barbarian roared a wordless rage as he dove into the tunnel, either unaware or uncaring of the dangers. Jay couldn’t help but notice that the blue tattoos that covered his back, chest, and arms had changed color and style, morphing into a deep crimson color with jagged edges.

“Or we can let him deal with it.”

Jay stood watching the dark tunnel entrance for only a few seconds before she turned and grabbed hold of both Meli and Thea. The two let out yelps of surprise as she clutched them against her armored chest and darted away from the rock outcropping with as much speed as she dared. Their shouts of confusion turned to screams of alarm as a massive, draconic form crashed into the ground only a moment later, sending dirt and debris flying everywhere.

“Sorry, didn’t have time to warn you,” Jay murmured an apology as she let the two go so she could face the flailing form of Tefrathok.

The fight in the sky had barreled on while Jadis had been searching for the Demon below. As Syd had held the dragon’s mouth shut and Lucia had protected her from reprisals, Severina and Wilhelm had battered the beast with their smiting blows. The constant abuse had enraged Tefrathok and he had swung his claws and tail at the two with fury, but no blow had landed. The dragon was fast and powerful, but the combined assault of so many powerful warriors had him on the backfoot. The fact that Lucia was shining like a beacon on his face probably wasn’t helping, either, as her glow was bright enough to affect even Syd’s vision, and she was facing away from the Paladin.

The deciding blow came in the form of Dys rocketing at nearly top speed into the dragon’s stomach with her shoulder, trigging a Mirrored Strikes. She heard something crunch inside of Tefrathok’s body on impact, and the beast involuntarily curled in on himself, stunned. Without wings or conscious effort to keep himself in the air, the dragon plummeted to the ground, landing on his back almost directly on top of the hole that Halvor had disappeared inside of.

While Syd maintained her hold on the dragon’s muzzle, Lucia was thrown aside by the rough impact. Not that she landed poorly; the pale therion balanced on the balls of her feet as she landed a few yards away, her large sword still in hand. The bright glow surrounding her faded somewhat, but the woman stalked forward with purpose. That purpose became clear as she raised her weapon high, preparing to strike Tefrathok at the base of his skull, where the head met the neck.

“Hold on!” Jay shouted, practically teleporting next to Lucia with how fast she moved. She put one hand on the woman’s arm, preventing her sword from falling upon the downed dragon. “He’s down now, we don’t need to kill him.”

“It is only temporarily stunned,” Lucia responded calmly but with steel in her voice. “It would be best to kill the beast before it recovers and causes serious harm to any of the soldiers.”

“Under other circumstances, I would agree,” Jay replied, not letting go of Lucia’s arm. “But he’s on the ground, he’s stunned, and we’re pinning him down.”

“For now. There is no guarantee he will not break free and attack again.”

“Look, we’ve got a lot of Dryads here, and they can talk with this guy. We can work this out without killing this dragon. I’m on good terms with Villthyrial and I do not want to spoil his opinion of me and my allies by needlessly slaughtering one of his favorite creations. Stand down.”

Lucia did not growl or fuss or complain. For a brief moment, she stood still as stone. Then, with measured calm, she backed away, giving Jay room and setting her blade aside.

“I will stand guard between the marching line and the dragon, in case your attempt at peace fails.”

Without another word, Lucia dashed away.

Jay watched the woman go with a sigh as Taube landed on the ground nearby and Wilhelm leapt from his mount’s back. He, too, had his sword to hand, but he did not raise his weapon to strike at the fallen beast. As he approached the dragon with clear concern, Jay was reminded of the man’s origins, and how he very nearly chose Villthyrial as his patron god when becoming the Hero.

“I believe we can contain him, for now,” Wilhelm said as he observed the stunned and slowly writhing dragon. “But I would not bring either Jocelyn or Eir near for healing until we are certain he will not attack again.”

“Agreed,” Jay said her other two selves moved to secure the dragon’s head and keep it from flailing.

Others were approaching, including Severina and Eutychia, and Jadis was sure Noll would be joining them soon. With so much force on their side, she was decently confident that they could restrain the young dragon long enough for one of the Dryads to explain and talk some sense into him. If not… hopefully the god of nature would understand the necessity of felling an unreasonable threat.

“Did you find the Demon who shot the spell?”

Jay shook her head, then motioned with her hammer in the general direction of the tunnel entrance, which was covered under several tons of dragon.

“Sort of, but I think the Demon got away. Unless Halvor—”

At that moment, the purple dragon’s left wing was pushed to the side as a mohawked man’s head poked out from underneath. His tattoos had turned blue again, and there was a mix of mud and black blood spattered across his bare chest. One hand held an axe, while the other dragged the corpse of what appeared to be a scythe wight.

“Hva faen? What did I miss?”