About five minutes later I saw a faint shimmer of light ahead. There was more magic visible as well.

“Stop. There is a change in magic ahead!” Tilly raised her left hand.

“And some normal light as well.” I canceled my light spell.

“A faint blue light comes from an opening ahead” Caroline whispered.

“Blue?” I dimmed down my magic vision.

“The magic connection to the illusion ends there.” Tilly leaned forward, her eyes starting to glow purple in the dark.

“It’s enough light to see reasonable.” I stepped beside Caroline.

“Tilly, you are visible for everyone looking our direction!” Loraline covered Tilly’s eyes with her hand.

“Eeep!” Tilly canceled her magic sense.

“It looks like there is a large cavern ahead. We should sneak a peek at what in there.” I put down my backpack.

“Lilly!” Milly furrowed her brows glaring at me.

“We can look for another shelter now, even if it is much worse than this cave. We won’t be able to do that when the storm is raging outside.” I crossed my arms below my chest.

“Okay, but try to avoid triggering some ancient magic curse. I’ll won’t forgive you if you die.” Mill propped her hands on her hips.”

‘You won’t. ‘I’ll keep an eye on the magic though.” I stepped up to Milly and gave her a hug

“Please be careful Lilly.” Milly gave me a peck on the cheek.

“I come back soon.” I started to sneak up the tunnel.

The entrance of the cave was about 50 meters ahead. I walked about half the distance, trying to keep quiet.

Then I got to the ground, slowly advancing on my knees and my elbows. The clothes won’t like that on the rocky ground though.

The entrance seemed to be above the ground. After a while I reached the entrance to the cave. There was no magic visible on the ground. As I reached the entrance of the cave I could see the whole cavern. Suddenly I knew where I had seen this blue light. It was brighter as I remembered it, which probably had to to with my enhanced vision.

The cavern had about 100 meters diameter and was about fifty meters high. The entrance was about 10 meters above the ground. It looked roughly like a donut without the hole in the middle. A giant one.

In the middle of the cave was a giant skeleton of a lizard with with wings glowing in an eerie yellow light. A dragon? Probably. Five large blue crystals were evenly spread around the circular floor of the cave, glowing in a bright blue light.

Focusing on the magic all the glowing stones were magical and connected with each other in the form of a pentagram with the crystals at the tips and the dragon skeleton in the pentagon in the center. The center was brimming with magic and the magic connection feeding the illusion outside vanished right in the center of the structure.

Another abused dragon soul! Albeit this was on a much smaller scale than we had in our dream. We had to set it free!

The cavern was empty otherwise and had no further visible exits.

I started to crawl back a few meters. The I got up and walked back to the others.

“What did you find?” Tilly looked at me with wide eyes.

“Something troublesome. I know that face.” Milly crossed her arms below her chest.

“I don’t think it will trouble us tonight.” I locked eyes with her.

“And what did you find?” Tilly looked at me tilting her head.

“Another imprisoned dragon soul.” I bumped my fists together in front of my chest while furrowing my brows.

“Shit!” Milly looked a me with wide eyes.

“What is this all about?” Loraline looked at me puzzled.

“This is a longer story.” Milly looked down at her feet.

“You people are full of secrets.” Caroline looked at me shaking her head.

“You know many of them. And this one is a weird one. I didn’t expect to find something similar in a cave in the mountain. It was always clear this dream was more than just a dream though.” I smirked at Caroline.

“We still can’t tell the full story, can we?” Tilly rubbed her nose with her index finger.

“We can’t.” I scratched my head.

“We have to let out some personal stuff.” Milly nodded.

“Well long story short. Milly, Tilly and I had a dream which was quite peculiar. I perfectly remember any detail from this dream even one and a half year later.” I looked at Loraline and Caroline.

“It was the night from 13. day in the fall in the year 3042 to the 14.” Tilly interjected.

“Interesting was we were somehow all in the same dream, which we each remember from our own perspective without any inconsistency. We found a place surrounded by five glowing blue crystals spread around a yellow light, much larger than this.

There was an ancient soul of probably a dragon trapped by the magic of the crystals. It was used by the empire to drain the magic still generated by that soul to power magical artifacts. We believe the soul was trapped there since the beginning of the age of the second sun.

We freed that soul and there was a bright purple aurora that night. Those crystals can be smashed but some kind of magical guardians will appear from every standing crystal to defend them. The first fight was tough, but it was easy in the end since those guardians are quite stupid. We don’t have the weapons we had in that dream though. I think the guardians are beatable, since we learned a lot, even without the weapons we found in the dream.

I want to destroy this thing for the soul to move on to wherever dead dragons go. Another point is to annoy the empire for enslaving me and burning this slave mark on my sternum.” I looked down the tunnel at the cavern.

“The night with the aurora? I remember that night!” Loraline looked at me with wide eyes.

“You never told me anything!” Caroline gave me an accusing look.

“I want to destroy this thing as well, even if it’s magical. It’s wrong to imprison a living being eternally.” Tilly stepped up beside me.

“I don’t like this, but as we have to wait for the storm to wear out to move on, we should have time for it. You two don’t have to join if you don’t want. It may be dangerous.” Milly gave me a nod.

Caroline and Loraline looked at each other.

“I’m going to help! Can’t leave you dealing alone with this guardians.” Caroline said after a while.

“I don’t know if am able to do much, since arrows are bad against most magical constructs, but I’m not going to stay back. At least I can check for the wounded.” Loraline stepped up to Caroline.

“Let’s go to cavern and have a look.” Milly looked at two girls.

“Sounds good.” I picked up my backpack.

We slowly walked up to the entrance of the cave. For a while we all stood there taking in the eerie view of the cavern.

“There are more connections to the center which seem to be inactive at the moment.” Till pointed at the ceiling.

“You two still want to go down?” Milly looked at Loraline and Caroline.

“I’m not sure if it’s wise to release the soul of a dragon, but I think it’s cruel as well. You seem to be personally invested though.” Loraline looked at Milly.

“It’s personal, yes, but I don’t want to elaborate.” Milly gave her a solemn look.

“Helping someone to get free from the clutches of the empire can’t be that bad.” Caroline put down her backpack.

We all set down our backpack beside Caroline’s.

Caroline hammered in a spike into the floor to attach a rope. Then she threw the rope down into the cavern.

We all climbed down and walked to next glowing crystal. The crystal was thinner than I remembered, only a base with half a meter square. Everything else was similar.

“The guardians appear as soon as the crystal is damaged. We used tripped them and then finished them off. They are strong but not very nimble.” I looked at the crystal.

“I going to try to trip it with my ax. Caroline, help getting it to the ground first and focus on the legs then. They fight without a head. The others try to butt in however they can. When you don’t do damage stay back. We switch weapons when needed. Loraline, keep an eye of the approaching guardians from the other crystals. Milly, you trigger the first batch. Questions?” I stepped beside the crystal.

They shook their heads.

Milly moved between me and Caroline and hit the crystal with the pommel of her sword. The crystal flashed brightly accompanied by a flash of magic as the guarding left the crystal. The maces were more effective damaging the crystal.

Milly stepped back parrying as the guardian tried to pummel her. As the thing followed up I got down and hooked his left leg with my ax supporting the momentum of the ax with my body weight.

Caroline hit the back of his head with her hammer a moment later, leaving barely a scratch.

“Timing!” I cried.

“That hammer does way to few damage!” Milly tried to stab it with the sword.

“The other four stones flashed and four more of these things are on the way.” Loraline had her bow readied and fired an arrow at at one of the next guardians.

Our guardian stumbled a bit but managed to stay on its feet though.

Tilly focused and cast a spell while touching the guardians arm.

The guardian turned to her and hit her with its fist at the chest. There was crack and Tilly was sent flying a few meters away where she went to the ground screaming.

I looked at the guardians arm and noticed a magical rune engraved. Brittle. Oh Tilly! Nice idea, but don’t lower your guard.

I went for another try to pull the creatures leg. This time Caroline’s hit with the hammer came in sync. The guardian lost half of its head with this hit while I badly cracked its ankle! I noticed a flash of magic from the guardians arm.

The guardian went down with a crash, sporting a few new cracks. Milly jumped on its back and tried to jab it with her sword. Just a few scratches.

Loraline loosened another arrow while Tilly sat up trying to regain her wind.

As the guardian tried to get to his feet again Caroline smote down on it’s damaged ankle, but the damage was not really impressing. It was enough to keep it on the ground for now.

I hardened my skin with my magic and noticed the next two guardians closed in to about half of the distance from their stone.

Milly got down to her knees, claws growing at her fingertips. She raked them along the guardians arms leaving deep furrows!

“Claws!” she cried.

The guardian got on his knees and arms and shook off Milly from its back. She fell down on her just beside him. Caroline smashed its ankle again using all her weight for more impact. She left few small cracks.

Tilly got back to her feet, her skin starting to glow magically.

“They closed in half the distance!” Loraline fired another arrow.

I grew my enhanced claws and stabbed one in the damaged ankle, separating its foot. “Take the ax to bring them down.” I tossed the ax in Loraline’s direction.

Milly raked the guardians thigh while rolling away to get back on her feet.

The guardian let himself fall into Milly’s direction while kicking at my shin. I dodged and raked the leg while it was pulled back. The lower leg crumbled to dust!

Caroline smashed the other leg. Then she stepped away.

Tilly came running back to us while Loraline picked up the ax. She tossed her bow out of the way.

I jumped over the sweeping legs of the guardian while it pushed up his torso with its arm. I tried to stab his belly with my left claw while raking one of its arms. The claw managed to penetrate the crystal leaving a few holes while its arm was seriously damaged.

Milly stepped in and destroyed the damaged arm completely while Tilly damaged the other arm heavily, severing the arm at the elbow.

Caroline started to smash the crystal with her hammer. It seemed to be less resistant than the guardian. Loraline skirted around the guardian on the ground to Caroline, her lips pressed together firmly.

The guardian on the ground tried to pummel Tilly with its remaining arm while falling down to the ground again, failing to hit anything.

“Tilly. Finish it off! Milly. Take the rest to take the one over there down. I try to slow down that one.!” I rolled back over my shoulder and got to my feet.

Tilly shredded the remaining arm with a rake and buried her other claw in the guardians thigh while Milly got to her feet, raking the rest of the other leg.

“You two keep back on both of my sides while I draw it in for the trip!” Milly pointed at Loraline and Caroline.

I met the next guardian a few meters away from the crystal. There was the noise of splintering crystals from behind me. The guardian came at me at full speed. I dodged to the side pushing myself out of the way from its incoming arm while stabbing its hip with my other claw. As he went by I raked its arm with my claws. It stopped to turn to me.

On the other side the guardian was stumbling, while Milly was lying on her back swearing.

Tilly had disabled the legs of the first guardian. She had stepped away and was assessing the situation.

I kept my distance to the guardian in front of me, staying out of his range while sidestepping it. He tried to pummel a few times. I managed to rake its hand as he pulled back one time.

Tilly raked the crystal with both claws from the top to the bottom.

Caroline and Loraline had finally brought their guardian to the ground, while it tried to molest Milly who was struggling to get back on her feet.

As my guardian turned to continue to the crystal I attacked its left leg with a flurry of stabs. He turned and hitting my shoulder. It pushed me back a few steps. My shoulder hurt like hell.

A weapon with reach would have been nice, but our weapons didn’t do much damage to the things.

The guardian fighting the others was still struggling on the ground and had lost a leg. Tilly had joined the others.

Moving my left arm hurt like hell. My guardian had turned my way again, but was slightly limping. I dodged all it attacks while trying to stay out of his striking range.

The guardian on the ground lost another leg and Tilly was again laying on the ground nearby.

The remaining two guardians had passed the crystals next to us in the meantime.

My opponent tried hitting me again. I kept my distance while moving toward the center of the cavern.

The on the ground guardian didn’t move anymore.

The pain in my shoulder slowly went down a bit as I evaded further to the center of the cavern.

The next approaching opponent on my side hadn’t turned to my direction, still heading towards the others.

“Go for the one on your side!” I cried.

The others hesitated briefly, but started to move away from me toward the next guardian. The other guardian passed me, while the others had reached their second opponent. Loraline and Caroline sent it to ground while it tried to attack Milly. She destroyed one of its arms with her claws as it lost its balance. Tilly jumped on its back touching it with a flash of magic.

As My guardian turned away again I dashed in for a rake its damaged leg again. I dodged downwards while its arm passed over my head. I had it’s attention again.

The guardian on the ground seemed to be utterly destroyed, surrounded by the others. They turned to next approaching guardian while I tried to keep mine busy. As its balance seemed to be slightly off I managed to get in another rake while it brushed my hip with its fist.

My left arm seemed to recover slowly, but it still hurts to move it.

While the others closed in to the other standing guardian I put some distance between me and my opponent. I started to move closer to my friends again.

The other guardian hit Milly while she managed to destroy one of its arms as Loraline and Caroline sent it sprawling. Tilly put another rune on its back, fueling it with some mana.

My guardian turned to the others again. I let it go this time, following close up.

While we approached the other guardian was destroyed completely.

As the last guardian approached my friends, they managed to take him down without problem. While they finished the guardian off I started to tear down the crystal.

They disabled the last guardian without taking a further serious hit. Milly came over to me then.

“Tough again. Without the weapons we had in the dream they’re quite a bit tougher.” Milly started to help me destroying the crystal.

“Trying the claws turned the fight. Nice move!” I smiled at Milly.

“The sword was simply useless against the things. Had to try something else or stand back watching you fight.” Milly chipped away another chunk of crystal with her claw.

Tilly had squatted down in front of a torso from of a guardian and was analyzing it with charged magic sense.

Caroline and Loraline destroyed the remaining parts of the guardians with some effort.

“We continue?” I looked at Milly.

“We do. The next badge will be easier and fewer and we have a decent way to bring them down now.” She smirked.

After destroying the crystal we went over to the next one. My shoulder was still hurting but I would be able to ignore the the pain in a fight.

We all recharged our armor and claws. It was stupid to ignore at least the armor power before starting the first fight. Maybe I should use these claws more. They lacked range, but they somehow felt right.

“Anybody home?” I stabbed my claws into the next crystal.

The guardian came out from the crystal with a flash. I retreated while it went after me. Loraline and Caroline made it stumble. I demolished its right arm while stepping to the side. Tilly stabbed her claws in its shoulders from behind bringing it down finally. Milly shredded one of its calves with her claws as it went down.

It rolled to its back kicking Tilly. She was already too far back to take the full force of its kick, but she stumbled back a bit. I took out its second arm while Milly destroyed the rest of its damaged leg.

Caroline and Loraline stepped back.

“Three incoming!” Loraline cried.

The guardian tried to kick Milly who dodged while raking the leg. Tilly got back her wind while I made short work of the remaining leg.

“Let’s move up to the next one.” I pointed at the approaching guardian.

Since the guardians from the far side avoided the center of the pentagram they wouldn’t reach us simultaneously. We took the next one out, but it managed to punch my thigh hard. The others finished off the remaining ones before I done limping over to them.

“Let me have a look at your thigh.” Loraline knelt beside me.

“It’s not broken. Aahh.” I grit down my teeth.

“It’s a bruise mostly, but it broke your skin as well.” She looked up at me concerned

“The magic connections going to the destroyed crystals changed.” Tilly looked at Milly.

“I will make a quick bandage.” She pulled out a strip of cloth and a small jar.

“Go ahead Loraline. What did you find out about the guardians, Tilly?” I sat down on carefully.

“Magically enchanted weapons are needed to damage them properly.” Tilly grinned.

“An our claws are enchanted?” I looked at my claws.

“Only the ones enlarged by mana. The hardened skin power reinforce the bones and muscles as well” She sat down beside me.

“I didn’t even know you had these claws at all.” Caroline pouted a bit.

“I believe these powers come from dragon ancestors.” Milly smiled at Caroline.

“We wanted to keep it a secret. Having weapons our enemies don’t know about may save our skin some day. ” I grit my teeth as Loraline bandaged my leg.

“Dragons, huh.” Caroline scratched her head.

“There are people born with draconic essence. They’re not really special normally, but the empire is known to hunt them down. Even abroad. It’s wise to hide such a trait. They tend to have powerful magic though.” Loraline packed her bag again.

“Let’s take down the rest. I wouldn’t complain about powerful magic.” I got back to my feet.

I’d slower than the rest, but so far there were no surprises. The short rest helped a bit with my thigh.

The next crystal produced three guardians. We put them down without getting injured further. The magic of the cavern changed again as we tore down the next crystal, the magic dimming down noticeably.

We took out the rest of the guardians. They were too few to be a threat.

Finally we took down the last guardian.

“Should we try to go to the center and talk to the soul?” Milly looked at me.

“Good idea. The crystal won’t run away and another guardian should be manageable.” I smirked at Milly.

We went over to the dragon skeleton in the center of the cavern. Caroline and Loraline hesitated but followed us after a few moments.

“sroy ystls ree rward up” garbled thoughts entered my brain as we were close to the pentagram.

“We destroy the crystal, we just wanted to say farewell and check if there is something we should know” I thought back.

I hoped it was able to understand me. The yellow glow around the skeleton started to flicker.

“FREE ME AND I WILL OPEN A PATH UP. TAKE ALL YOU FIND THERE!” suddenly a loud booming voice assaulted my mind.

Loraline and Caroline went down to their knees.

“Let’s end this once and forever.” Milly looked at me furrowing her brows.

“You will be free soon.” I turned to get back to the crystal.

Loraline and Caroline struggled to get back on their feet. I offered them my hands and pulled them up. The were staggering while we went back to the last crystal but recovered soon after we started to tear down the crystal. Finally the last chunk was shattered into piece.

A flash of light and magic came from the center of the cave. The magic of the crystals faded out. Then the remaining magic was sucked into the yellow light which slowly raised above the ground.

After a few moments the ground started to tremble. A few stones fell down from the ceiling.

“Look up!” I cried.

A few moments later, all of the magic in the cavern swirled around the yellow light which still looked vaguely like a dragon. Then the light flashed to the back of the cavern and somehow crashed into the arc connecting the wall and the ceiling.

With a loud rumble tons of stone came down from the ceiling at the far side of the cavern stirring up a large cloud of dust. Heavy tremors shook the whole cavern for a while. My leg gave way and my waist crashed down on a small rock laying on the ground. Stars were dancing around my head as I screamed in pain. I barely noticed that Loraline went down to the ground as well.

The pain subsided a bit while I tried to get back my wind. Why does breathing hurt! I need the air!

Loraline came back to her feet after tremors subsided after.

The yellow light slowly faded away. The magic dispersed filling the cavern while slowly fading away into a barely noticeable aura.

“It’s over.” Milly pointed out after a few minutes without a change.

“I check for the entrance.” Caroline went over to the rope which was still hanging there fortunately.

“Next time we don’t leave our stuff that far away.” I tried to get up but pain exploded in my waist and stars danced before my eyes.

“Stay down!” Loraline knelt down beside me.

Milly was still checking the ceiling while Tilly sat down beside me, exhausted.

“My mana is gone and I took some bruises as well.” trembling she laid herself down on the ground.

“I have some slivers left, but that will change soon.” I moaned while Loraline was checking my waist.

“We will need light sooner or later. I won’t be able to sustain the magical one soon.” I closed my eyes. Speaking hurts as well.

“We can see in the dark to a degree. I’m nearly out of mana as well.” Milly sat down at my other side.

“The entrance is clear but illusion at the entrance is gone. There’s a group of people approaching from the west though. They’re still far away. Three to four days at least with our speed. The storm is closing in as well. I’ve recovered our grappling hook for now.” Caroline stood in the entrance of the cavern.

“We’ll need our backpacks. I think we’re done for the day.” I groaned as my waist was trying to kill me.

Caroline and Loraline took care of our backpacks and started to setup our camp.

“You should rest for now.” Loraline soft pushed me back as I tried to get up to help.

“You three should sleep tonight. We Loraline and I take care of the watch.” Caroline sat down looking at us.

“You don’t see a thing.” I protested.

“We do have ears though.” Caroline looked in my direction.

“There shouldn’t be anything around here tonight. There will be the storm outside and I think nobody knows about this cave.” Loraline tucked us in.

It took some time to fall asleep tonight though.