One by one, Blue-Sabre lost sight of the other teams. They'd ran so fast and so far into the woods they'd become lost, with only the wind to tell them which way was which. They followed it North, past the hundred year young volcano shrouded in legend. Eventually, they came to a clearing by a pond, and set up for the night to clean themselves and recharge. But they couldn't sleep. As night fell, they risked a fire and sat together in pairs around it. Any noise could've been any creature, and startled them each and every time. Every cold breeze and twig snap kicked them into high gear each time, it was impossible for them to get any kind of relaxed.

As soon as the moon hit the very top of the black sky, the wind stopped.  Nothing moved but the flames gracefully dancing between the four Stirnish students. That's why when a the brush and trees began to gently wave beside them, they pounced to their feet with fight coursing through their veins. There was silence. Then a little more shuffled in the nature. Then little chittering chatters between the trees and bushes. Black turned, quickly picked a log from the fire and lobbed it into the wildlife. Almost instantly, the fire burst to life, setting the surrounding trees aflame. The brush burnt bright and sent the chittering into loud screeches of small sounding creatures. To the humans it seemed like Black had just burnt lurking animals to a crisp. "Black!" Scarlet scolded him, her kind heart may have forgotten the odds of coming across a creature that wasn't prepared to kill them were lower than a student passing their exams without taking them. "We don't even know what they were!"
  "Eh, who cares. Bravo, I say!" Alex exclaimed, sitting back by the fire.
  Scarlet looked to Jack for support, but neither of them were nessesarily wrong. She scoffed and crossed her arms, "can we just make the decision together next time?"
  "Very well. I meant no offence." Black bowed his head and returned to the fire with Alex.
  However, the smaller, ginger boy got back up and pointed to the clearing fire. He looked petrified. "How's that happened then?"
  The group all looked to the fire, growing smaller by the second, chunk by chunk. The darkness birthed a pack of greedy blood red shining eyes that set their sights on the fire behind them. Jack drew his sword to break the devastating silence, and yelled to his team to take defensive positions. "Imps! Get together!"

Rapidly, they came together. Jack in the middle, his right shoulder touched Alex's left, who equipped his sunrise orange dragonic armour for battle. Off his back he unslotted a large handle and off his thigh and shin guards he put together a great sword decorated with dragons just like his armour. Scarlet juxtaposed Jack's stance, her left shoulder touching Alex's right and holding her one hooked sword together in her right hand. At the back, Black with his dual blades watching the rear, but a close eye on the enemies ahead. Together, all four had every direction covered except for above and below. Ironically, above is exactly where the first attack came from. A croaky ferocious roar broke their positions as a familiar dragon nose-dived at them. Jack shoved Scarlet aside and dived his own way, ordering his shapeshifting friend to take care of the fellow winged beast. Alex capably rushed his next armour onto him, a thick rhinosaurus-themed black steel suit with the matching impact of the high powered attack from the sky. The nose of the dragon and Alex's fist battled for dominance over power as Black efficiently took the sky, igniting his beak to create a sharp flaming blade that tore a hole in the dragons right wing. It was forced to give in and leaned out of the collision, resorting to batting the heavily armoured combatant back. As Black came around for another blow, Jack rushed to stabilise the toughest teammate and get him back on his feet. At the same time, the dragon braved it's injuries to swoop down and open it's claws to decapitate in one swipe. Scarlet luckily had a counter plan - she shot her hook as far as it could go, the string crossing the space between her friends and the dragon. It soared above the trees, shining in the moonlight at Black, who caught on to the improvisation fairly fast and glided across the sky to catch it. Once doing so, he pulled it away with all his might. Simultaneously, Scarlet aimed it toward a tree and put all her strength into the mighty throw that stuck the bottom blade into the trunk. The rope between blade and hook was now an invisible improvised trap that the dragon would trip on and plummet into the earth, making Jack and Alex vault over the neck of the beast and let it continue rolling into the nest of enclosing imps. "Two birds with one stone! Woo!" Scarlet cheered as she managed to pull the blade from it's placement and reconnect it with the hook. The four rejoined to high five each other. But such a high level beast wasn't defeated so easily.

In the midst of celebration, a gleaming red shine of eyes overthrew the fire beast's body and rushed the team like leaking water down a hill. At the same time, the eyes of the dragon felt the same rush of power and ignited with a replicating bright light that was in the eyes of the Imps. It's head snapped toward the students and paralyzed them in fear.  They were terrified to defy the eyes that bullied them into submission, the luck of Alex's overly rebellious nature may have kept them from certain death. He managed to shake Scarlet out of her trance who could whisk their friends away one by one. She only had time for Black however, for the Imps had since set aflame and boosted themselves into lightning speed. Alex knew escape was pointless and, instead of taking the brunt of a burning hot attack from countless tiny little creatures, he decided to take the chance to bash them away before they came near. He quickly equipped an extended longsword that called upon raw Power particles in the air to maximise the reach of his swing. One great big swing was all he needed, removing the first row of Imps from the equation. The first row smacked into the second row and the third row ducked under the blade and ran at their feet. A common tactic for smaller beasts, take out the legs and attack vital organs when they fall. They weren't stupid animals like some ignorant fighters believed.

As well as a barrage of compact fiery menaces, an adult dragon prepared a breathe of flames for it's human targets. When all hope seemed lost, Scarlet and Black braved themselves to aid their friends and quickly managed to beat down the little army with large swiping attacks. There was one brief second where the world was still, then a monstrous beast crashed into the three puny beings, nothing but a broad sword and a blue body to block them. Jack had aid in his veins and even though he knew the consequences, nothing could stop the instinct to put others in front of him morally and put himself in front of others physically. But a dragon's charge was a force to be reckoned with. A boy such as Jack, not so physically strong and weak in Power, handling a one-handed sword as a shield at the young age of fifteen, he might as well have headbutted a boulder rolling down a hill. Despite the good attempt at a block - the point of the sword between the eyes and the other forearm balancing the blade in position, the dragon fulfilled its charge and the students were knocked plenty of feet over the river. Luckily, the further the dragon went and harder it came at them, the farther the sword dug into it's face and eventually shattered it's skull to peirce it's brain as it crushed Jack against a cliffside. For the second time in a day their leader looked to be lost to them, all three of his companions owing him their lives once again. The dragon fell to reveal his sword buried inside it. Only the handle stuck out, the ribbon waving calmly against the gentle breeze. Like the sword in the stone, Jack's weapon stood erect in the sunlight, and firmly inside a legendary creature's brain. It's user fell flat on the dirt.