“Well well well… look who do we have here.” Zökr beamed sarcastically at the gathered group of boys. “Nice to see you again, Kyungsoo. I happen to remember a great partnership the last time we met… looks like your friends have mended just fine.” Zökr eyed Kai and Sehun, both glaring back with equal resentment. “I look forward to working with you again in defeating your friends.” Zökr winked at Heria who smirked back.

Silence greeted the air as two arrows were shot at Zökr and Heria. They would have hit the targets too, if not for the alertness of Kyrûller, who swatted the attack away with his tail. “You have got to do better than that, Avatar.” Zökr sneered. “I know what you came for Zökr. You’re not getting your filthy hands on it. My friends and I will make sure of it.” Kyungsoo spat. The two sides stood in a face off, neither party willing to make the first move.

Jongin, listen to me. Kyungsoo felt Kai stiffen beside him, acknowledging that he was listening before Kyungsoo continued. Heria can turn anyone’s allegiance just by the touch of her palm. I need you to use your powers to prevent her from getting too close to any of the boys, including yourself! If, and I mean if, she turns me… and I become a threat… I want you to kill me before I hurt anyone. “NO!” Kai shouted and glanced desperately at the boy beside him, drawing the attention of everyone in the cave. You must! You’re the only one that can get that close to actually spring a surprise attack on me. You have to stop me before I hurt someone else. Kyungsoo stared desperately at the younger. “I can’t, hyung.” Kai pleaded. I won’t hurt you… I rather kill myself than harm you with my own hands. Kyungsoo sighed and broke off eye contact with Kai.

“What’s going on?” Sehun asked to Kyungsoo’s left. “Nothing.” Kyungsoo dismissed his best friend’s question before turning back to stare at their enemy. “Saying your last goodbyes to your friends, Kyungsoo? How touching… That’s just too bad. You see, after I’m done killing you all… I will have all the time in the world to search for the precious dragon egg somewhere within these cold ice walls. You can’t stop me.” Zökr sneered. Heria unsheathed her own sword, a telltale sign of the imminent attack. “DIE!!!” Zökr yelled as both his palms lit up in fire. Kyrûller let out an ear-piercing roar and dived into the cave, aiming straight for Midnight.

Everyone jumped out of the way, trying their utmost to avoid the crashing bodies of two large dragons. To avoid dealing any damage to the boys, Midnight sped out of the cave and into the outdoor sky with Kyrûller in tight pursuit. Hunter flew out of the cave too to offer assistance to Midnight who, as compared to the black dragon, was less experienced and much smaller in size. Despite having two dragons fighting Kyrûller himself, things were pretty evenly matched.

Meanwhile, at the very back of the cave… Minseok, Baekhyun, Luhan, Chen, Tao and Lay were desperately scratching at the ice walls. Tao had mentioned that the green egg was hidden within the walls of the cave, so the five boys resorted to the tiresome manual way of locating the egg. They didn’t dare use their powers in fear of damaging the delicate egg. Also, Luhan couldn’t phase through the thick block of ice, the boys didn’t let him for they didn’t know how thick the ice was and they didn’t want to risk him getting stuck within. That left them scratching the surface of the walls, eyes wide open to spot any green within the pure white snow and ice.

Further in front of that group were Kyungsoo, Kai, Sehun, Chanyeol, Yifan and Suho, who were desperately repelling Zökr and Heria’s fire alongside Whisper. Since Kyungsoo’s compelling mind power and pain inducement didn’t work on both, the said boy was reduced to using blue fire to keep Heria back. They didn’t want her near enough to do some real damage. Kyungsoo and Suho were teleported to the other side of the cave by Kai. This allowed the group to attack Zökr and Heria from both sides. Whisper was using his fireproof hide to protect the group of boys on egg-locating duty.

Kai was drawing up his rare shadow portals to absorb the stray bolts of fire in the cave. The dark lord had been pleasantly surprised when the fireball he had thrown flew into nothing but black shadows created by Kai. “Another Shadow-bender huh? The last two of your kind… How nice it would be if both you and Kyungsoo join me to rule the seven nations. What do you say?” Zökr quirked an eyebrow while dodging Kyungsoo’s attack. “That will never happen!” Kai spat out as he teleported around Zökr, trying to take the older man by surprise with his knives at the ready. Heria almost landed her hand on Kai’s shoulder before the boy teleported away to safety with Kyungsoo’s warning.

Zökr was now fighting Kyungsoo, Kai and Suho, while Heria dealt with Sehun, Chanyeol and Yifan on her own. Occasionally, Whisper would step in to help the fighting boys… but his first priority was to watch over his rider and the other boys in the searching party. “I sense something here!” Minseok beckoned for the rest, his palms still resting over a particular patch of ice. The other boys gathered hurriedly, though half their minds remained casted over the fight just a few feet away from them.

“Whisper! Melt the ice.” Luhan called for his dragon’s help. Whisper complied and pretty soon, the ice wall was melting gradually from the heat of the dragon’s fire. “Look out!” The boys gathered around the place where the egg was hidden turned around and ducked just in time as a ball of fire sailed pass their heads. Injuries were averted thanks to Chanyeol’s warning. “We need to stall for time!” Chen raised his voice exasperatedly as they stared at the slow process of Whisper melting through the thick ice to the egg.

Just then, a loud pained roar from outside the cave sounded. “Hunter!” Tao cried out, as the rider sprinted for the cave entrance, desperate to see what had happened to his dragon. Yifan cursed as he ran alongside Tao, waving off the fire that Heria was throwing at them and protecting the distracted boy. Outside the cave, Midnight was still putting up a valiant lone fight against the bigger black dragon as Hunter struggled to land near the cliff. Tao gasped at the gushing wound on his dragon’s foreleg, it was the leg that he previously injured; the once healed wounds had now reopened. “I need Lay out here!” Tao yelled. His voice barely carried above the racket of the fight, but the boy knew that someone, or at least Kyungsoo would have heard his plea for help.

Kyrûller knew I had a bad leg, Tao. He got me when Midnight and I were distracted. I won’t be able to stay in flight much longer till the wound heals again. We need to get Whisper here to help Midnight… Kyrûller’s too strong. Tao nodded as he came to a halt beside his dragon. “We need Whisper out here as well! Midnight needs help.” Apparently Kyungsoo had heard his yell prior, for then came Lay, rushing to the injured dragon’s side. “A dragon is much harder to heal as compared to all other living creatures… I’ll try my best.” Lay sighed as he went to work, palms glowing a soft hue of blue and laid onto Hunter’s open wound.

We can’t spare Whisper, Tao! He’s helping us melt the ice to get to the egg. “They need your fire. Go take Whisper’s place!” Tao shoved Yifan towards the cave. A loud roar from Midnight drew everyone’s attention. Tao, Yifan and Lay, the only boys outside who had a clear view of the two fighting dragons watched wide-eyed as Kyrûller clamped down his sharp teeth onto one of Midnight’s wing. In a matter of seconds, a flash of white sped out from the cave and clashed into Kyrûller. Whisper’s appearance forced Kyrûller to release his hold on the other dragon. Yifan! The said boy jumped at Kyungsoo’s call and ran back into the cave to aid in recovering the egg.

It was chaos back in the cave. With the dragons outside, Zökr and Heria had made use of the temporary absence of Whisper to target the boys at the ice wall. Zökr conjured up a huge wave of fiery fire and launched it at the unsuspecting boys. “Watch out!” Kyungsoo shouted. He wanted to run there and yank the boys away but he was busy fighting Heria with Sehun and Chanyeol. Kai jumped and grabbed onto Suho before the two boys appeared at the other side of the cave. The inferno was incoming but Suho created a magnificent wall of water to douse the flames and eliminate the danger. “You need to get to the egg faster!” Kai shouted at Yifan before jumping to the other side to battle Zökr once again. Yifan furrowed his eyebrows and doubled his efforts.

“What do we do?” Baekhyun bit his lower lip in anxiety. He, Tao, Chen and Minseok weren’t useful in helping Yifan get to the egg. “We need to help them!” Chen yelled, before shifting into his wolf form and pouncing into the fray. Chen managed to knock Sehun out of the way of an incoming fireball. “He’s right. I need to help.” Baekhyun determined and assessed the battlefield. He closed his eyes in deep concentration as he worked on creating several visions of himself, circling around both Zökr and Heria. Both the dark lord and witch were confused for a moment, their minds still not wrapping around the possibility of it being a trick. That allowed Kyungsoo and co. to launch a surprise attack on both of them.

Kai actually managed to draw blood from the arm of Zökr before he was knocked away by one of Heria’s fire blast. Seeing Kai’s body being flung aside drove out the anger in Kyungsoo. His entire arms were doused in blue fire as he lunged at the witch. He wasn’t avoiding Heria’s palms this time. Instead, he sought for them. “What are you doing?!” Heria screamed as Kyungsoo tightened his grip on both her hands. Shocked, everyone watched on as the blue fire crept up onto both her arms.

Both Kyungsoo and Heria were screaming aloud in agony. Everyone looked on, not knowing what to do, as blue fire and black shadows from dark witch magic engulfed the two beings in the center of the cave. Sehun and Chanyeol tried to get closer to pluck Kyungsoo out, but they were repelled by a combination of blue and black that whipped out at anyone who dared neared the pair. Kyungsoo was trying to burn the witch so that no harm could ever be doled out from those evil hands. However, the black magic of Heria was fighting back against the fire. Kyungsoo furrowed his eyebrows, determined to char the hands of the witch till it was beyond repair. It was working; an acrid smell floated in the air… the pungent smell of burning flesh. Everyone held back from retching as they watched on.

The black magic was slowly creeping around Kyungsoo’s neck, gradually choking the boy and cutting off air supply to his lungs. Yet, Kyungsoo did not relent from his grip on Heria. The witch’s eyes flared blood red as she let out an ear-piercing scream. Kyungsoo’s own eyes wer