Chapter 19 – The Scorched Sky
The wyvern's roar tore through the rift like thunder breaking bone.
Heat warped the air until it looked alive. The ground shimmered, trees blackened, and the scent of burning steel filled every breath.
Auron's thoughts fractured into fragments: run, strike, protect. Nothing remained but instinct.
"Left flank!" Verric shouted, his voice like gravel and command.
Rin darted through the ashfall, eyes narrowed against the wind, loosing arrows that vanished in the inferno. Ela whispered incantations, her voice cracking as runes buckled under the weight of the wyvern's aura. Milo and Kale moved together on the far side, blades flashing pale against smoke that glowed red.
The wyvern's gaze followed them. Its remaining eye burned with intelligence and rage, like a dying god unwilling to fall. It inhaled.
The world turned white.
A blast of fire washed over the battlefield. Auron's body lifted as if gravity forgot him, then slammed back down into the cracked stone. His armor screamed as it warped and smoked. He rolled, choking on burnt air, fingers clawing at the scorched ground.
"Rin!" he coughed. "Answer me!"
No reply.
Through the wall of flame, Verric charged. His spear found the half-healed wound along the wyvern's chest. The tip bit deep. The monster shrieked and lashed out, one wing snapping open like a hurricane. The shockwave hurled Verric across the clearing. He struck a stone pillar hard enough that Auron heard the crack of bone over the roar.
"Verric!" Ela screamed, stumbling toward him.
The wyvern's tail came down.
Auron lunged and grabbed her arm, dragging her away as the tail split the ground where she had stood. Shards of molten rock peppered his back. Ela's spell fizzled in her trembling hands, sparks falling like dying stars.
"It's too strong!" she gasped, tears of frustration cutting through soot on her cheeks.
"No choice!" Auron shouted. "We keep it busy! Milo, Kale—"
A blur of motion cut his words apart. The wyvern's claws slammed down, the impact cracking the ground open.
Milo barely rolled aside, his short sword shattering in two. Kale's chain-blade caught on one of the talons and yanked him into the air.
He screamed as the wyvern jerked its leg, throwing him across the rift. He hit the ground hard. When he tried to rise, his right hand was mangled, blood pouring from his fingers.
"Kale!" Milo stumbled toward him, but the wyvern exhaled again. Fire carved a trench through the rock, forcing him back.
Ela's magic flared one last time, six spinning runes forming a radiant lattice. "Aegis Spiral!"
The breath struck.
The barrier held for half a heartbeat before it shattered like glass. The blast flung Ela across the stone. She hit the ground rolling, her staff breaking in half. Auron felt his stomach twist.
From behind a fallen arch, Rin rose again. His bow was cracked, most arrows gone. He drew one last shaft, whispered something Auron couldn't hear, and loosed.
The arrow flew straight through the smoke and struck the wyvern's ruined eye.
It screamed. The sound wasn't noise; it was force, crushing everything within reach. Blood like molten gold spilled down its face. The creature reared back, snapping stone spires apart in rage.
Verric moved. Despite everything shattered armor, bleeding from the mouth he pushed himself upright, bracing on the broken half of his spear. His eyes burned like twin embers. "Form up!" he roared. "On me! We end this together!"
Auron staggered to him. Milo pulled Kale along, Rin limping, Ela crawling with what little strength she had left. They came together, six half-dead figures in a cruel world.
Verric lifted his weapon. "Ela, slow it down. I'll strike high. Auron, hit the legs. Rin, blind it again."
No one argued. There was no strength left for words.
Ela's sigils came alive again, a chain of binding magic that wrapped around the wyvern's limbs. It struggled, wings beating against the invisible hold. Verric sprinted forward, leapt, and drove his spear into its neck.
Auron followed, sword cutting across its knees, sparks and blood flying in equal measure. Rin's arrow struck the throat wound again, deepening the tear. For a moment—a single breath it worked.
The wyvern fell to its knees, the ground shaking beneath it. Hope sparked. They thought they had done it.
Then the world decided to slap them in the face.
The mana in the air thickened until it was liquid. The wyvern's chest split wider, and from within its wound, light brighter than the sun burst out. The bindings snapped apart.
Ela screamed as the backlash ripped through her, magic veins bursting along her arms. She collapsed, blood streaming from her nose and ears.
The wyvern swung its wing. Verric turned just in time to take the blow on his shoulder. The sound of breaking bone echoed through the rift. He was thrown into a wall of crystal, the shards cutting deep.
The wyvern rose, staggering but alive, glowing from within. Its body was falling apart, yet its rage held it upright.
It inhaled again, drawing fire and mana until the air around it began to melt.
"Down!" Auron yelled, but the breath came faster than thought.
Flame rolled outward like a tidal wave. Everything vanished in red.
The ground shattered. The sky screamed. For an instant, Auron knew nothing but sound and pain. Then darkness.
When he woke, half his armor was gone. His sword was meters away, edges molten and warped. The Lion Bracelet still glowed on his burnt wrist, pulsing like a heartbeat.
The others were scattered. Rin lay face-down in the ash, unmoving. Milo was crawling toward Kale, who bled from his shoulder and mouth. Verric was on his knees, trying to stand, his spearhead broken off. Ela was kneeling near him, whispering weak healing charms that flickered and died.
The wyvern stalked closer through the smoke. One eye gone, scales cracked and smoking, but it lived. Its breath rasped like a forge.
Auron pushed himself upright. His legs trembled, his vision swam. He raised his sword though it burned his hand to hold it.
He could not let it end here.
He ran, each step agony, and swung with everything he had left.
The wyvern's tail struck first. It caught him in the ribs and threw him through the air. He hit hard. Breath left his body. He tried to move and couldn't.
Verric's voice reached him through the haze, distant and broken. "Fall back! Get him out of there!"
"No," Auron croaked. His lips bled. "No running…"
The bracelet pulsed again, brighter. His whole arm burned with it, veins glowing faint gold. Deep inside, he felt that strange resonance again, like the echo of a roar waiting to be unleashed.
But he was fading. The light dimmed.
Ela fell, her magic gone. Rin coughed blood, his bow snapped in half. Milo screamed something that turned to static in the roar.
The wyvern lowered its head. The single eye focused on them. It opened its mouth, light gathering once more.
Rin's voice broke through the chaos, hoarse but defiant. "We're not done yet!"
He fired his last arrow. It struck the wyvern's tongue. The blast went off early, fire spilling sideways. It missed them by inches.
That heartbeat of mercy was all they had.
Auron crawled, dragging himself to Verric's side. He hooked an arm under the noble's shoulder and pulled. Milo grabbed Kale and hauled him along. Ela stumbled beside them, her hands glowing faintly, trying to heal as they moved. None of it worked. Her magic faltered with every step.
The wyvern came after them, limping but relentless. Its blood boiled across the ground, burning through stone. The air around its chest shimmered, gathering light again.
The rift began to collapse. The floating stones sank, and the sky above folded in on itself like torn fabric. Gravity tilted sideways. The whole world was dying around them.
They ran anyway.
Auron risked a look back. The wyvern's ruined face filled the horizon, the light in its chest building toward one final breath.
"Down!" he shouted, throwing himself over Verric.
The explosion swallowed everything. Flame, smoke, light, sound. The rift cracked open like glass.
When the storm passed, silence fell.
Auron's body was broken. He could not tell if he was breathing. The Lion Bracelet burned against his wrist, pulsing again and again, a living rhythm that felt like something ancient hammering at the gates of his soul.
He closed his eyes, the world flickering between black and red.
And somewhere beneath the roar of dying fire, he heard it.
A heartbeat that wasn't his .A lion's growl. A promise.
Then nothing.