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    Chapter 0782


    Exchanging a quick nce, the panther and I weaved through the mayhem, our eyes locked on our ultimate target -M.


    She rose from her throne, her expression twisted into a mask of fury as she witnessed her carefully constructed facade crumbling around her.


    "Fools!" she screeched, her shrill voice cutting through the chaos. "You think you can defy me? I am your queen, your ruler, your goddess!"


    With a feral roar, the panther leapt towards her, his ws extended. I followed close behind, my jaws snapping, ready to tear into her flesh.


    But M was faster.


    In one fluid motion, she drew a de from her silken green skirts, the wicked metal glinting in the torchlight. The panther''s momentum carried him forward, straight onto the tip of her knife.


    A guttural cry escaped his jaws as the de sank deep into his side, right between his ribs. I skidded to a halt, my ears ttening against my skull as I watched him crumple to the ground, blood pooling around him faster than I thought possible.


    With a strained grunt, M pulled the de from the panther''s side, using her foot on his now-limp body as leverage. I felt my stomach flip as I watched the blood, a sickly greenish color rather than red, dripping from the tip.


    The panther was dead. Just like that. He didn''t even have a chance to close his eyes, which now stared lifelessly up at the ckened abyss above our heads.


    M''s gaze snapped to mine then, her yellow, slitted eyes narrowing, "Traitory," he hissed, her wordsced with venom. "After all I have done for you."


    Then, with an evil snarl, she held the knife up... and she licked the panther''s green blood from her de. Something changed then.


    A tremor ran through M''s body, and suddenly, her skin began to ripple and shift, scales erupting across her flesh. With a deafening roar, she rose to her full height, her body twisting and contorting until a massive green and yellow dragon towered over me, its yellowed, cracked talons crushing the obsidian beneath her feet.


    Screams filled the air as people saw their tyrant queen in all of her glory. A few dropped to their knees in front of her, shrieking and begging for forgiveness.


    She paid them no mind, and merely scooped them up in one of her great ws, tossing them into her mouth with a series of sickening crunches.


    The crowd fell silent, frozen in terror as M''s piercing screeches filled the air. I crouched low, a growl rumbling deep in my chest as I prepared to pounce. Not that it would have made any difference, of course; one of her ming eyeballs was nearly asrge as my head, even in my wolf form.


    For what felt like an eternity, M simply blinked down at me, her slitted pupils fixed directly on me. As she breathed in, her throat crackled and rumbled like a door with creaky hinges, steam ring from her nostrils.


    Then, as though a switch had been flipped, chaos erupted again. The great tyrant queen was stoking the fires in her throat, and the crowd knew it. I felt bodies m into me, jostling me and making me lose my focus.


    Somewhere across the crowd, I saw a sh of lightning-Luke''s magic-and a lithe red wolf, Nina, carrying Tyler on her back.


    Good, I thought to myself. Let them get out. If no one else, let it be them.


    With a sweep of her massive tail, M sent a shower of debris raining down upon the crowd. Screams erupted as bodies scattered, the rebellion losing its momentum in the face of M''s overwhelming power.


    But I refused to back down. With a mighty leap, Iunched myself towards her, my jaws opened wide to mp down on her scaly hide.


    Of course M saw meing.


    With a twist of her body, she brought her tail around, the massive appendage mming into me with the force of a battering ram. I felt the air leave my lungs as I was sent hurtling backwards, my body crashing to the ground in a heap.


    Stars danced across my vision as I struggled to rise, my bones aching from the impact. Through the haze, I watched as M unfurled her wings, the powerful gusts of wind nearly knocking me off my feet once more.


    With a final, earth-shattering roar that shook the very foundations of the mountain, sheunched herself into the air, her massive form bolting up, up, up, until...


    She crashed through the very top of the mountain, showering an earthquake of rocks and blinding sunlight down


    on us.


    I could only watch, helpless, as her screeches filled the air.