Dust from the fallen building rose like a cloud into the air as the cursed lizardman goliath raised its arm and turned to face the crowd of humans straight on. Just as it was about to begin its powerful downward swing, a wall of light appeared right below its elbow, blocking the arm''s momentum.


    "Nice! Eli shouted, looking around for, and finding, Samantha in the gloom, near the debris from the smashed house. The sound of hoofs rapping against stone reached their ears as something massive raced by them, followed by something even heavier with claws scraping against the street. Amy''s moose, Bill, and Princess, charged the goliath''s leg as Samantha lobbed a large bomb of light at the monster''s head. The moose slamming into the goliath with primal force sent a shiver down Eli''s spine, and he watched as the monster''s knee buckled under its own weight.


    A mist of light sprung up around Samantha and Eli saw the twinkling stars race into the crowd of humans, revealing invisible rogues waiting for an opportune moment to strike. Only one managed to sink its blades into a lone victim before Eli triggered Aura of Suppression, slowing them down before turning to the party screen and finding the members in dire need of healing.


    It was the others'' job to deal with the revealed enemies. They had the tools to do so, and Eli needed to let them figure out a way. He''d merely bought them some time. Samantha focused on applying as many damage-over-time stacks of her light affliction as possible, casting the beam of light with one hand while lobbing bombs with her other. He hadn''t even known such a thing was possible, but here she was, doing it.


    The lizardman goliath dropped its enormous sword and fell to the ground with a heavy thud, then immediately pushed up with its hands, trying to get up. Another wall of light appeared at its back, blocking the monster''s movement.


    In the distance, the rest of their group finally killed the second priest, but they were now stuck in the middle of a huge mass of cursed lizardman knights and mages.


    Eli healed them as best he could, while Yvonne''s less effective heals were used to top off everyone else who was hurt.


    Samantha: I just got a new spell. I think you might want to close your eyes.


    Eli raised his arm to block his own vision as blinding light erupted from the still-prone lizardman goliath. It let out a wheezing cough as all stacks of the damage-over-time effects Samantha had added to its health bar were consumed into one massive burst of damage. Damage on the primary target wasn''t all. Motes of light drifted in all directions. Whenever they struck an enemy, the mote did some damage and applied a blind debuff, and when a one landed on an ally, they regained a small measure of health.


    Eli: That was awesome. What is it called?


    Samantha: Blinding Fountain of Light.


    Samantha: This class is finally starting to get some good skills and synergies.


    Yvonne''s still-active afflictions on the cursed lizardman goliath, along with Amy''s animal companions furiously attacking the injured monster, and many other mages turning their attention from blocking and attacking the lizardman archers on the rooftops to finishing off the goliath, it finally met its demise under their combined efforts.


    Ding! You have reached level 45.


    Eli looked at the small group of people still fighting for their lives in the middle of a crowd of lizardmen and got an idea.


    Eli: Samantha, I''m kicking you out of the party temporarily.


    Samantha; What did I do?


    Eli messaged Roy.


    Eli: Leave your party now.


    A second later, he was able to invite Roy to the Ravenous Barbarians. Then he made sure Aegis of the Dying Light was still active and rushed into the mass of lizardmen.


    He avoided one blow from a mace, ducked under the swing of a sword, and finally, his Aegis blocked a second strike before he judged the distance was short enough. Eli cast Warp, choosing only to bring along those in the group ahead. They warped back to Amy and the others by the goliath, where he''d marked the location before rushing off to save their friends. Panting from the exhilaration, he kicked Roy out and invited Samantha back in.


    “That was outright inspiring,” Dana said.


    “And dangerously stupid,” Amy added.


    “I have been known to do dangerous, stupid things,” Eli said.


    “You have?” Samantha asked.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    The death of the lizardman priests and goliaths marked a turn in the battle, and they focused on holding the rest of the troops back through a combination of Simon and James being unmovable obstacles and Samantha''s walls of light cutting off the area between them and the houses.


    They focused and finally killed the lizardman archers. Then, on Sasha''s instruction, they waited as the inevitable, though irritatingly slow, doom that was her familiar made its way to the small army of lizardmen. Its acid, gelatinous form slowly but surely made its way into the lizardman lines, taking their bodies into itself and dissolving them in acid while they flailed, still alive. Each lizardman it consumed made Sasha''s familiar larger and more effective at digesting its prey.


    “You can make that thing stop, right?” Yvonne asked Sasha.


    “Of course she can,” Amy said, before turning to Sasha herself. “Right?”


    “We are working on that,” Sasha said with a forced smile.


    In the end, she had to unsummon the familiar to make it stop. By then, it''d grown to almost the size of one of the goliaths. Finally, the battle ended. Even with all that chaos and desperation, they''d lost only two archers since joining Yvonne and her group, who by themselves had unfortunately lost almost a third of the two parties making up their ranks.


    “Now what?” Dana asked after they''d stood around in silence for a moment, after the last of the lizardmen died.


    Eli messaged Guy.


    Eli: Are you holding up? We''re on our way.


    No reply came.


    “We need to hurry and help the others,” Eli said, pointing west.


    Simon sheathed his sword, but kept his shield on his arm. “Eli''s right, we should move out right away.”


    “Hold on a moment now,” Yvonne said. “Do you mean to say we should rush into another fight?”


    "Yes. Like Eli said, they need our help. What if we hadn''t come here?" Simon asked. "We don''t leave anyone behind."


    "I understand that," Yvonne said, as everyone gathered around, everyone except for the rescued prisoners.


    They stood off to the side, talking amongst themselves. Eli was about to reply to Yvonne again when he saw one of them approach, a man in his forties with light hair, intense eyes, and an air of competence around him. "Gratitude flows through our very souls for the help you have provided when coming to our aid. Taking up arms to fight against the lizardman scourge is a matter of honor, but many of our friends and family are still held captive. The wish to continue burns in my chest. Please, we must go on!"


    Eli coughed awkwardly, then shifted on his feet as he turned to glance over at Simon, who just shrugged and nodded.


    "Of course we''ll go on," Eli said.


    Yvonne was about to raise her voice again but stopped, an orange light accompanying a look of wide-eyed surprise as her gaze fixed over Eli''s shoulder. He turned and saw what''d prompted the reaction. A massive, fiery blaze raged in the western corner of the underground lizardman city. Flames billowed outward from an epicenter, powerful enough to heat the air all the way over to where they were standing.


    Amy mouthed a single word. "Dragon."


    None present had seen such a powerful attack over such a large area before. The only reason Eli could think of to cast such as a spell was out of desperation. Not good. The rushing flames must''ve traveled several blocks before finally dying out. Only silence was left in its wake.


    "We''re going," Eli said, not giving Yvonne the chance to complain before he set off running.


    Several smaller, roaming groups of lizardmen stood in their way, but the increasingly large group of humans crushed them with overwhelming force.


    The epicenter of the torrent of flames was easy enough to find. Every single surface was blackened by the fire and anything not made out of stone was either on fire or smoldering. The air itself carried the lingering sense that a massive amount of mana had been used in that single spell. Following the bodies of dead lizardmen, they soon encountered the building they were looking for.


    With only a single story, it wasn''t tall. The building did, however, cover quite a bit of ground, and it looked like a storage facility of some sort. Piles of dead, blackened, and sometimes still smoking lizardmen could be found everywhere. The street was full of them, and from the look of things, they''d been trying to climb the walls and get up on the roof, because they lay in droves along the walls. All in all, there had to be more than a hundred of them.


    "Whoa," James whispered as everyone gathered around.


    Eli pointed. "Up there. They were trying to get up."


    Just as they were about to climb up, the door to the building opened, and a whole lot of frightened looking humans poured out. Quite a few of them were prisoners that ran into the arms of those brought by Eli and his group, but most were from Infinite Innovation Solutions. They''d taken shelter on Guy''s orders while he himself had stood against the horde of lizardmen. No one knew what''d become of The Dragon.


    Eli climbed the next building over, then was able to leap to the roof. Even up there, he had to step over and around dead lizardmen. Amy and Sasha joined him, lifted over the lip of the roof by Bill the moose.


    In the middle of the roof, the stone itself was half-way melted from what had to have been incredible warmth.


    He moved in closer, having spotted something. "What is that?"


    It wasn''t a corpse. Eli could see that much. His eyes told him what he was looking at, but he didn''t believe it. Not until he stood over it.


    "Is that an egg?" Amy asked.


    Phoenix Egg.


    "It is," Eli said, getting down to half-sit on the back of his heels in an awkward squat. He touched the egg carefully, then pulled back. "It''s hot."


    The egg was larger than a basketball and was a solid, matte black with red lines running across its surface, almost like lava pouring down an active volcano.


    Amy joined him, saying nothing.


    Eli stood and looked around again, finding no other trace of Guy. He returned to the egg. "Mr. Thomas, are you in there?"


    "You think your old boss turned into an egg?" Sasha asked.


    "It wouldn''t be the strangest thing that''d happened to us since coming to Aryxia," Eli replied, touching the egg again. It was still warm, but he could hold his hand against it now without burning himself.


    Unsure what else to do, he picked it up, straining a little against the surprising weight of it, then put it into his inventory. "I''m bringing it," said, looking over at Amy, who was frowning. The head of the owl on her shoulder kept looking around, up into the air.


    "What?" Eli asked.


    Amy sighed heavily and shook her head. "My birds. More lizardmen are coming. A lot of lizardmen."


    "How many?" Sasha asked, coming over to stand next to her.


    "As far as I can tell, every single one in this entire city."