The students hiked back to camp at a brisk pace. In the silence of the forest, Evran’s anxieties grew taller than the surrounding trees. What would cause the academy to recall the students early? Another Ravager sighting made the most sense, or maybe some hostile nation wished to lay claim to the island in defiance of Sygelic tradition. Maybe a particularly dangerous monster took down a team of students? Whatever the reason, Evran wanted to be back in camp as soon as possible. His pace quickened.

  “Look, smoke!” said Kaila, staring at a thin strand of black cloud billowing from the forest beyond. It seemed to come from the eastern peninsula, not too far from their destination.

  After only an hour of brisk walking, the group had already made it halfway back to camp. The distant smoke had thickened, and more columns were erupting in various places across the horizon. Evran heard the faint rumble of explosions in the direction of the camp. A terrifying thought slowly dawned on him — they might be heading into battle.

  “This looks bad,” said an apprehensive Lerrum. “Be ready for a fight.”

  Soon there was more smoke, more explosions, more anxiety. An indecipherable noise saturated the forest, obscuring Evran’s hearing as the leaves did his vision. When he finally rounded the last hill between them and the camp, the cacophony of sounds came into sharp focus. It was the crackle of the entire campsite on fire.

  Evran felt the intense heat on his skin, though it was not unbearable. The camp had mostly been constructed of stone, so there was little fuel to maintain a fierce conflagration. As the students burst through the gate, they took in the scene of devastation around them. There was black smoke rising from nearly every structure, flames dancing out of every opening. The dining pavilion had collapsed, and the stall by the entrance was reduced to a burning pile of wood. Even the grass had been burnt through, leaving brown and black stains across the ground.

  “The ship’s gone,” said Depri, staring through gaps in the smoke at the void on the horizon where the Glory of Aldea once occupied.

  There were fewer things more dreaded than being marooned on an island. The guardians of labyrinths, though unreliable, could keep islands afloat for at least a few Tempests. Unfortunately, a team of adventurers was currently en route to kill theirs. Still, they had years until the next Tempest, and the people of Aldea knew the location of this island via pigeon. A rescue would certainly come in time; there was no need to worry.

  Depri took off through the smoke, running to the edge of the island. Evran and the others chased after her, compelled by instinct to stick together. They emerged through the ashen haze. Coughing, they stood in the clearing where the ships had been docked, eager to see what had become of their way off the island.

  One of the two schooners was still in its shallow port, consumed in fire. A few meters from shore, a pillar of black smoke rose from the void below, suddenly trailing off when its source had passed beyond the barrier. Was that the other schooner? Evran peered out towards the horizon. There, a few hundred meters from shore, the Glory of Aldea sailed desperately off into the eastern sky, a trail of smoke in tow. A large gray dragon circled above it.

  It was the first time Evran had seen such an enormous monster. Dragons were fiercely territorial creatures and would hunt down any other living thing on whatever island they made their roost on. It was unlikely the dragon had been here this whole time, otherwise, it would have attacked them days ago. The dragon must have recently arrived and decided to kick out the current inhabitants of the island in order to claim it for herself. Unfortunately for Evran, he was one such inhabitant.

  “A falling dragon!” shouted Kaila. “Oh, gods, this is bad!”

  “That thing is going to hunt us down when it gets back,” said Evran. “We need to hide.”

  “It’s not attacking the ship, just chasing it off,” Depri muttered. The nervous girl knelt to the ground and fastened the tip of her new cloak to her boots. She pulled an emergency float harness from her pack and strapped it around her waist. There wasn’t a hint of fear in her eyes, only a profound sadness.

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  “What in the skies are you doing, Pri?” Lerrum asked.

  “I’m sorry, Evran is right. I… I won’t risk staying here. Good luck, you guys!”

  A column of earth erupted from beneath Depri’s feet. The blunted stone lance launched the small girl high into the sky, and a magical gust of wind filled her cloak with air. The makeshift sail carried her off toward the distant ship.

  “Damned fool,” shouted Narro, watching with nervous anticipation. “Godspeed,” he whispered under his breath, fiercely hoping she’d survive.

  Depri had made it a whole three quarters of the way to the ship before the dragon took notice of the poor girl. Then it dove at her. She had clearly been hoping that the dragon would simply allow her to leave as it appeared to be doing with the ship, but she had guessed incorrectly. As it passed by her, the dragon let loose a torrent of flame from its deadly mouth.

  From back on the island, the students watched helplessly as their friend was attacked by the dragon. The fourth-year prodigy had managed to dodge the first stream of lethal dragonfire, but the cruel beast doubled back for another pass.

  There was nothing any of them could do. No attack was likely to bridge that distance, and even attempting to project a barrier that far would result in an instantaneous depletion of one’s mana pool. Not that a barrier spell would do much against a dragon. Their superior mana density would allow the draconic magic to tear through whatever feeble magical construct the apprentice mages could throw at it.

  In that respect, dragons were a magic user’s worst enemy. An entire ship full of mages and spellblades, one capable of routing a massive Ravager attack, was utterly helpless against the might of a single dragon. They may have stood a chance with the combined force of their handful of Aldean knights and the adventurers, particularly that dragoon woman, but they were busy delving into the labyrinth when it attacked. Their situation was truly hopeless. Evran couldn’t even blame them for fleeing, leaving dozens of their finest students behind.

  The dragon once again flew past the flying student, this time much closer. Depri twisted her slight frame and changed the angle of her wind spell, but it wasn’t enough. The dragonfire washed over her legs.

  Kaila screamed as she watched their friend catch fire in the air. Depri’s burning cloak came free from her boots, and the girl plummeted toward the void. Her float harness slowly arrested the girl’s fall once she passed beneath the float limit, then gently pulled her back up it. Despite everything, the desperate girl had made it within a few meters of her destination.

  When all hope had seemed lost for her, a mass of ropes shot out from the ship and wrapped themselves around the burning girl, followed quickly by a stream of water. The ropes pulled Depri onto the ship as the water slowly extinguished the flames.

  “Thank the gods, she made it!” said Kaila, finally releasing the breath she’d been holding.

  The dragon, angered by the success of its opponent, renewed its assault on the fleeing ship. Dragonfire crashed into the powerful barrier protecting the Glory of Aldea. Even against the immense power of a dragon, the barrier held, if only barely. The sheer quantity of mana it consumed must have been enough, but the ship only had so many mages on board. They would run out if the dragon continued its attacks.

  “You there!” said a hoarse female voice coming from the burning camp behind them. It was Professor Merrilus. Her face and hair were covered in a thick layer of soot, but her hands and robes were slick with blood. “You need to find shelter immediately — before the dragon returns! Tell any others you see the same. Hold out as best you can until help arrives, and it will arrive! Now go!”

  “What about you, Professor?” Lerrum asked, concerned.

  “Someone needs to distract that dragon before it brings down the ship. Don’t worry, this old girl’s got a few tricks up her sleeve.”

  The students all wished their beloved professor good luck, then took off through the camp. Evran led the way, using air magic to part the thick wall of smoke before them. They sprinted through the air corridor and made their way outside the protective walls of the camp. Just as they did, the dragon passed high overhead.

  “Damn it, it’s coming for us!” shouted Narro, finally encountering a foe he was unwilling to face.

  “Where should we even hide? The old ruins?” asked Kaila.

  “No, there’s no way we’ll make it there in time,” said Evran.

  The apprehensive students had stopped running right outside the gate, frozen in place by indecision. There was nowhere to go that could protect them from a dragon. No where except…

  “We could go into the labyrinth,” Lerrum suggested. “Not too far in, just camp inside the entrance. It’s not far from here.”

  “No,” said Evran, panicking. “I… we can’t.”

  “I know how you feel about this, Evran, but we don’t have much of a choice! What would your mother tell you to do in this situation?”

  As much as his instincts protested, his rational mind knew it was their best chance at salvation. Even though a labyrinth on an island this size would contain terrible monsters, the adventuring party had just recently gone in to clear it. Most of those monsters would already be dead. Lerrum was right. Though it would mean breaking the vow he’d made to his mother, he needed to enter the labyrinth.

  “She would tell me to go,” he said. Evran took a deep breath to steel his resolve. They still needed to search for the entrance, and to do so with a dragon circling overhead. “Alright, let’s go then.”