“Even when we were still together, Lith would never charge in blindly. When he saved me at the Feymar mines, he took his time setting the stage.” Phloria said.
“He knew there was no point rescuing me if he couldn’t keep me alive and this time is no different. Except he knows that I only have to kill myself to escape. I can roughly predict what he’s planning to do and the True Queen helped me play around it.”
“Neat.” Ufyl nodded. “By the way, we have company.”
The Seven Headed Dragon and Phloria jumped to their feet while unsheathing their weapons. Phloria used a mix of body casting, true, and fake magic to fill Reaver as fast as she could.
At the same time, Ufyl used Invigoration with one head while the others took a deep breath, ready to unleash Origin Flames. The breathing technique not only replenished their mana and stamina but also accelerated the digestive process, flooding their bodies with nutrients.
The seven pairs of Dragon Eyes could read every magic rune in the air and the seven brains of the former Hydra processed them before sharing the essential information with Phloria via a mind link.
By the time Friya and Quylla Blinked inside the Blue Mermaid, the Dragon Knight already knew their position and what spells they had at the ready.
“Look who’s here! The crybaby and the slutty one-trick pony.” Phloria lunged at the exit point of the Blink, discovering it was just a diversion.
Friya’s Dimensional Ruler spell gave her absolute control of the space around her and after she had upgraded it to a Spirit Spell, not even dimensional sealing arrays bothered her.
“You have to do better than that if you want to hurt our feelings, Thrud. We’ve both heard much worse from people we care much more about.” Friya appeared out of a bunch of sparkles of light that coalesced enough to let her through.
At the same time, Quylla’s Bloodbind burst from below the floor. The Adamant chains wrapped around Ufyl, discharging several spells at the same time right inside his armor.
He still had the mass of a Divine Beast but Bloodbind’s strength was fueled by Quylla’s mana and her core was close to reaching the bright violet. On top of that, after studying Lith’s life force for years, she considered herself an expert on Dragons.
The tier five spell Ice Coffin covered Ufyl in black ice that sapped both his heat and vitality. Bolts of lightning from Stormfront made his throats spasm, losing control over the Origin Flames that burned him from the inside.
Unfortunately, he survived. After being killed in one shot by Lith, Ufyl had learned never to fully conjure Flames from so up close to an opponent.
Friya’s rapier, Dreadnaught, and Phloria’s estoc, Reaver clashed several times in a fraction of a second. They knew each other’s style by heart because they had practiced together ever since the academy and because Orion had taught them both.
‘Usually, I wouldn’t risk a frontal assault but Mom was right, there’s still hope. Phloria is still in there.’ Friya thought, noticing that her sister’s body showed all the tells that Phloria had worked hard to get rid of over the years.
Her shoulder raised a bit before a lunge, her front foot twisted before a slash, and her eye squinted during a feint. Phloria no longer had any tell but she was exposing them on purpose.
It was an act of free will from the part of her that had yet to surrender to the slave array.
“Do you really think that the True Queen has time to waste inventing quips about a nobody like you?” Phloria said with a burst of deranged laughter as she pressed her sister into a corner. “I may be enslaved, but these thoughts have to come from somewhere.
“I mean, Quylla is nothing but a petulant child who killed one person and cried a river for years. As for you, Friya, the only thing that makes you better than Tulion is that you know how to use birth control.”
“I can believe that Phloria thought these things when she was angry, but I know she never believed any of it.” Friya said with a snarl.
Enslaved or not, those insults still came with Phloria’s voice and they held enough of Friya’s insecurities to hurt.
“Get over here!” Ufyl yelled as he grabbed Bloodbind and pulled at it with all the strength he had.
Yet instead of making Quylla’s body crash through the floorboards, he only got more chains.
“What the f-” Bloodbind wrapped around him, the links positioning themselves so to press over his nerve bundles and ribcage.
When the Seven Headed Dragon tried to brute strength his way out, the chains kept his lungs from expanding, sealing his breathing. Also, the pressure on the nerves sent his body into spasms despite darkness fusion shutting down the pain receptors.
“I may be a crybaby, but you don’t deserve to be a Dragon. You are dumb as bricks whereas Dragons are supposed to be wise.” Quylla’s voice came from the holes in the floor since she had no intention of getting close to a Divine Beast.
“We’ll see about that!” Ufyl Blinked away, knowing that the dimensional fissure would cut through the Adamant, freeing him and destroying the enemy weapon with a single spell.
And he would have been right if not for Dimensional Ruler. Friya hijacked the space, making the entry point blast into the Dragon’s face.
“As I said, dumb as bricks.” Quylla said as Friya escaped with a timely Blink before her sister nailed her to the wall.
Phloria could see the exit point but attempting to Blink to exploit it would end no different than Ufyl’s spell.
“Damn lizards. They are all so needy.” Instead of wasting time with a chase, she struck Bloodbind with a powerful lightning. It hurt both Ufyl and Quylla but Phloria had used enough power to mortally wound solely a human.
For a Divine Beast of Ufyl’s mass, it was barely a tickle.
Quylla screamed in pain and was forced to retract the chains due to Phloria pumping more electricity by the second.
“Get up, dumbass. If they want us, let’s play hard to get.” She dragged the Seven Headed Dragon away, Blinking the moment she escaped Dimensional Ruler’s area of effect.
‘Dammit! Enslaved or not, Phloria knows all of our tricks and habits.’ Friya inwardly cursed via the mind link.
‘It’s worse than that. She knows all of our weak points because we worked together to overcome them.’ Quylla replied while using Invigoration to heal her wounds and recover her mana.
Outside, Phloria kept Blinking as far as she could, her body aching from mana abuse and exhaustion.
‘That runt is smaller than one of my claws but she bites like a damn Dragon.’ Ufyl used Invigoration as well to recover from the beatdown, but it restored less than 70% of his full power.
‘Never underestimate my sisters just because they are humans.’ Phloria reprimanded him. ‘They have fought opponents stronger than themselves their whole lives. They’ve seen shit that someone like you who spent most of his time in a lab can’t even imagine.’
