Brittanya gritted her teeth as she watched Yannika fall unconscious again. She also clenched her fists tightly before running toward the deeper part of the cave.

"Hey, shouldn't we go after her? But since it's dangerous, maybe we should stop her instead, right…?"

Alecsia looked at Jaegar, who was staring at Brittanya as she got further away from them.

"Let's go."

Jaegar then ran after Brittanya. Kryllo immediately followed suit.

"What are these idiots doing?! They really do have a death wish!"

Leonze let out a huge sigh before walking toward the direction the others ran to.

"I know these guys aren't what they seem like… But this seems too dangerous even for them… I need to see this for myself…"

Alecsia talked under her breath as she watched the rest of the party go toward the dragon's supposed location inside the cave. She then finally ran after the others.

"H-hey, healer! Can you at least heal Yannika first…! And she's gone…"

The female warrior tried to call out to Alecsia but to no avail as she had already gone deeper into the cave.

---

At the other end of the pathway from the cave entrance, there was a large cavern that had a high ceiling with large stalactites hanging down. The ground also went deeper as if there was a crater in the middle of the dormant volcano. Some light entered the cavern through some crevices on the walls and ceiling.

In the middle of the said crater-like surface, a humungous black dragon stood on its four stumpy legs. It had glistening black scales covering its entire body, from its long neck to its stout body and long tail. Silvery spikes protruded along its back following its spinal bone. It had two huge wings, with each wing spanning its front leg up to its tail. The horns on its head twisted outward, like that of a ram or goat.

As Brittanya ran toward the end of the pathway, she finally reached the large cavern. She looked around her and saw that a party was indeed battling the black dragon.

There was a knight, two warriors, two mages, an archer and a healer in the said party. They were scattered around in different directions while surrounding the dragon.

The male knight and a female warrior were with a female mage on one side. The male mage was with the male warrior and female archer on the other side. The female healer was hiding behind the rocks that seemed to have fallen from the hanging stalactites.

The knight's group was focused on protecting the mage from the gusts of wind the dragon made. Even with their protection, the female mage was not able to cast her magic, as she also desperately tried not to be blown away.

The archer's group was preoccupied by the dragon's tail attacks. The archer moved around while hitting the dragon with arrows to attract its attention. The male warrior defended the male mage of incoming attacks and falling debris.

The mage, with the warrior's protection, concentrated on casting his spell. A red aura enveloped him as flames shot out of his open palm that was directed toward the dragon.

The flames hit the back of the dragon's neck. It turned its head toward the mage who casted the fire magic. The dragon growled loudly and then flapped its wings toward the male mage and warrior. The two of them flew toward the walls due to the strong wind. They both got stuck on the walls for a while before slowly slipping downward to the ground.

While the dragon was preoccupied, the male knight and female warrior attacked the underbelly of the dragon. The knight struck his sword upward while the warrior jumped off the ground and kicked the seemingly vulnerable part of dragon.

The warrior felt like she hit a very hard surface, like that of thick steel. Meanwhile, the knight's sword snapped in two as it hit the belly of the dragon. Both of them backed off to create some distance from the dragon, but it somehow was able to quickly turn around and swing its tail toward the two. The knight and the warrior got hit by the dragon's tail whip and they crashed close to the ceiling of the cavern.

Upon seeing the fates of her party members, the female mage lost all strength in her legs and dropped to the ground. She was grasping her wand in front of her with both her hands as she looked up at the fierce dragon. Her whole body started to feel numb as she shivered in place. The tail that hit the knight and warrior was on its way down to hit the female mage.

Suddenly, the female archer jumped up and shot three arrows at the same time. The arrows hit the membrane on the dragon's left wing. The arrows just bounced off and fell to the ground, as if hitting a very hard surface. The dragon subsequently flapped the same wing downward, then swallowed the archer within the wing and slammed her into the ground.

The dragon paused its tail attack at the moment, but the tail was still in position to crush the female mage. As the dragon turned its head toward the female mage, it readied its tail once again to swing downward.

As the female mage watched her impending doom while frozen still, all she could do was close her eyes.

---

Brittanya picked up a large piece of broken stalactite and threw it toward the tail that was on its way down to crush the female mage. The tail got hit and knocked off its path downward. The dragon immediately turned its attention toward Brittanya.

"Finally, you're looking at me."

Brittanya smirked at the dragon. It howled and directed the roar toward her.

"Hurry up and get them out of here! While I got its attention!"

Brittanya then shouted without looking at the healer who was hiding earlier. She was crawling on the ground while on her way to the male mage and male warrior.

The dragon then swung its wing downward at Brittanya. She was able to jump up and evade it. But the dragon anticipated for her to jump up, as it had its other wing ready to swing sideways. When Brittanya saw this while she was in the air, she then grabbed a hanging stalactite and tore it off the ceiling.

As the other wing was on its way to hit Brittanya sideways, she swung the stalactite and swatted the dragon's wing away. The stalactite immediately got smashed upon impact.

Brittanya landed on the ground behind the dragon. She called out to it mockingly. The dragon then turned around its body to glare down at her. She managed to keep the dragon's attention away from the female healer and her unconscious companions.

---

Back at the pathway where Yannika and the others were hiding at, she regained consciousness while lying down beside the female warrior. Yannika grunted for a while before finally opening her eyes.

"D-did they run away…?"

Yannika turned her head to look at the female warrior.

"No… They went to help the others. Hopefully they can do something about that dragon—"

"We have to stop her…"

Yannika forced herself to sit up. The female warrior tried to stop Yannika from moving by holding her by the shoulders.

"Hey… Don't force yourself. And those guys have a mage with them, so it'll be fine—"

"No, it won't! She… she can't use magic…"

Yannika clutched her clothes tightly as she stared directly into the eyes of the female warrior.

---

Jaegar and the others finally reached the large cavern. They immediately saw Brittanya jumping around and throwing rocks and stalactites at the dragon.

"I-it's true… It's a d-dragon! Let's get out of here!"

Leonze turned toward Jaegar and shook him by the shoulders.

"You can run if you want. I'm going to watch her do this."

Jaegar brushed off Leonze's arm out of his way and then stood closer toward the dragon.

"Watch her?! Watch her do what?! You should be helping her!"

Alecsia glared at Jaegar's back.

"She wanted to do this by herself. She wants to prove something."

Jaegar didn't turn around to look back at Alecsia. He kept his gaze on the fight going on in front of him.

"She can't prove anything if she's dead! And didn't that guy outside say Brittanya couldn't use magic? In fact, I haven't seen her use magic even once since I've been with you guys! Then she can't hurt that thing if it's true—"

"I wouldn't take her with me on my mission if I didn't think she's the greatest mage alive. Just watch."

Jaegar turned his head sideways and smirked at Alecsia.

"Fine. I don't get where your unwavering confidence is coming from. But, at least, can we help those weaklings who are already lying down on the ground?"

Alecsia pointed toward the unconscious male knight and female warrior near beside them.

"Yeah, sure. Go do that. I said I'm going to watch this."

Jaegar waved his hand at Alecsia before crossing his arms in front of him.

"Ugh. He really does march to the beat of his own drum. It's irritating."

Alecsia shook her head and then grabbed Kryllo and Leonze by the arm. She then dragged the two of them toward the knight and warrior.

"Hey, where are you taking me?! I'm going to run away, remember?!"

Leonze tried to get out of Alecsia's grip.

"Make yourselves useful! I can’t carry those two! I'm going to get that mage who's sitting on the ground!"

Alecsia then pushed both Kryllo and Leonze forward and then she headed toward the female mage.

"Why doesn't she just heal those two so they can walk on their own?"

Leonze scratched the back of his head as he and Kryllo went to get the knight and mage.