A blinding white light filled up the entire clearing and was followed several seconds later by a deafening explosion. Fabian was blown off his feet by a massive shockwave and found himself tumbling head over heels through the air. He smacked into the branches of a nearby tree and fell to the ground. Whatever had unleashed the explosion seemed to have released him from the ropes as he found himself free once again. His head felt like someone had smacked him with a frying pan, but he appeared to be all in one piece. There were residual spots in front of his eyes from the flash of light, but slowly his vision was starting to return. Brandon was still floating in the air on his magic carpet. He seemed to have a sheepish look on his face. Delroy and the princess had both been knocked off their feet as well but appeared to be mostly unharmed. Where Jaana had been standing was nothing but a smoldering crater. There was no sign whatsoever of Fabian's former traveling companion.

"Good job, Scrote. You annihilated the hell out of that evil chick. And believe me, she had it coming."

"What have I done?" Brandon stammered.

"You saved the day, buddy. Not to the same extent that I did obviously, but you did help a little bit. Now let's grab the princess and get out of here before that wizard recovers."

"Say, what's that rumbling noise?" Princess Wartha asked as she stood unsteadily to her feet.

Several trees nearby that had somehow survived the blast suddenly broke into splinters as a gigantic dragon with four heads remaining burst into the clearing. The thief Surgeeyoh clung to one of its necks and Briawny, Sir Mikael, and Rupert came charging after it.

"You idiot, Scrote. You drew the attention of the dragon! Way to screw everything up, moron!"

"I see you have rescued the princess!" Briawny said. "Good work. Now help us to slay this foul monster and we can complete our quest and attain the glory that we have rightfully earned!"

"Hey Scrote, do that thing you just did but this time point the wand at the dragon!"

"No way, sir. I'm never doing that again."

"Fine, then toss me the wand and I'll do it."

"This wand has caused enough harm already," Brandon said as he snapped it in half.

"Way to destroy our best weapon against the ridiculously deadly dragon, moron! Did I tell you that you're a moron? Because you totally are, you moron."

"He has weakened the wizard considerably," Briawny said. "Now he should prove no further threat to us. Good work, young Brandon."

"Yeah, but he can still make those energy ball things with his hands," Fabian said. "Although to be fair he didn't seem to do much with them. They're probably just some stupid little balls of light that look pretty. Still, somebody ought to keep an eye on that guy while the rest of you battle that really dangerous looking dragon. I will selflessly volunteer myself for that job even though I could totally whoop that dragon's ass. Never let it be said that Fabian is afraid to take on the unglamorous but totally necessary tasks."

"Speaking of Fabian, when the heck is that guy going to show up and save the day?" the princess asked.

"Honey, as far as I'm concerned, Fabian already has saved the day. Now let's stay out of the way and let those idiots risk their necks battling that oversized lizard."

Fabian watched as Sir Mikael charged astride Rothchild straight towards the dragon's belly. It leaped aside and one of its remaining heads opened its mouth and blew out a massive blue and white flame right towards Fabian. He managed to duck out of the way just in the nick of time as an icy blast of bitterly cold energy flew over his head.

"Hey, that almost got me!" Fabian shouted as he picked himself up and dusted himself off. "You guys really need to stop slacking and start chopping more heads off. Come on!"

Rupert was attempting to sneak up behind the dragon with his axe drawn, but a quick flick of the tail sent the large man flying through the air. He landed with a thump right by Fabian's feet.

He peered up at Fabian and extended his hand. "Help a brother up, will you?"

"Uh, no thanks. It looks like your hands are covered in blood and I really don't want to contract any weird dragon diseases. You can get up on your own. Just dig deep, Rupert. I believe in you."

Rupert pulled himself to his feet with an audible groan. "This bloody beast is hard to kill. We could really use a little more help here."

"Yeah, some reinforcements would really be nice right now," Fabian said with a nod. "Too bad we don't know any other fighters or warriors in the area we could call on for help."

"Where's Jaana?" Rupert asked. "I haven't seen her in awhile."

"Huh?" Fabian said. "Oh, right. Jaana. Yeah, that guy killed her." He pointed at the wizard Delroy who only just appeared to be regaining consciousness.

"What?" Rupert let out a bellow of rage. "I will kill him right now!" He lifted his axe above his head and let out a war cry as he rushed towards the wizard.

"Say, you might want to watch out for that-"

One of the dragon's mouths opened and a blast of green mist suddenly engulfed Rupert. He turned into solid stone in mid-stride, toppled over, and shattered into a pile of rubble.

"-dragon head." Fabian finished. "Oops. Should have listened to me, Rupert."

Briawny leaped through the air with a holler and sliced right through the neck of the head that had blown the mist on Rupert. The head fell to the ground with a thump and the light went out of its eyes. Meanwhile the thief Surgeeyoh had succeeded in cutting the head off of the neck he had been clinging to. As soon as it fell he leaped to another neck and began cutting furiously with his dagger. There were two heads remaining on the dragon, but everyone was beginning to look as if they were getting physically exhausted.

"I'm not sure how long this can continue," Sir Mikael said as he wiped sweat off his brow and turned Rothchild around to begin another charge at the dragon.

"Just hang in there, Mikey. You can do it."

Fabian suddenly noticed that one of the remaining dragon heads was staring right at him and licking its chops with a long forked tongue.

"Why is it looking at me like that?" Fabian asked. "Somebody chop that head off right now."

The dragon suddenly charged straight at Fabian. He didn't even think twice before he turned around and took off running. He zigzagged back and forth hoping to shake the dragon off his tail, but it continued to pursue him relentlessly. He spotted the wizard's tower up ahead and thought maybe if he could climb it quickly, he might be able to find safety. He reached the base of the tower and was just beginning to climb when the dragon opened its mouth and a bright red blast of energy shot out and slammed into the tower. It trembled for a moment and then simply blew apart. Stones started falling all around as Fabian ducked and dodged, trying to avoid getting flattened by the debris of the tower. He avoided the biggest chunks of rubble, although a sizable brick managed to catch him right between the eyes and he toppled over.

The dragon pulled back its lips revealing rows of sharp teeth that were each longer than Fabian's forearms. It opened its jaws wide and started dropping towards Fabian in an effort to swallow him whole. A few seconds before it could snap its jaws shut on him, Brandon came whizzing by on the flying carpet with his cutlass drawn. He managed to cut clean through the dragon's neck in one fell swoop. The head dropped sideways and missed Fabian by mere inches, although he managed to get thoroughly soaked by the geyser of blood that was flowing out of the dragon's neck.

A few seconds later Surgeeyoh finished cutting off the last of the dragon's heads and the great beast toppled to the ground. Surgeeyoh landed on his feet and hoisted the head up in the air. "I, Surgeeyoh the Great, have saved the day."

Fabian hurriedly ran over and thrust his dagger into where he imagined the dragon's heart was. "No you didn't, loser. I, Fabian the Mighty, have delivered the fatal blow. Now buzz off. All of your loser friends are dead. And if you even look at me funny, you'll be dead, too."

"You dare to threaten the great Surgeeyoh?" the other thief said with a wild look in his eye.

"Yeah, I do," Fabian said as he drew his dagger out of the dragon's body and wiped it off. "You don't look so tough to me. Also I almost forgot. You stole my gold! Give it back, you jerk!"

"Come take it, hombre," Surgeeyoh as he gestured at Fabian with his hand outstretched.

"No, you come here and give it to me," Fabian said.

"Okay, you asked for it." Surgeeyoh did several flips and cartwheels across the ground in a matter of seconds before he landed on his feet and punched Fabian right in the throat. Fabian fell onto his back and the other thief leaped right on top of him. His fists were a blur of motion as he punched Fabian in the face over and over again. Finally he pulled out his dagger and raised it above his head. "Now you will die at the hands of the great Surgeeyoh!"

He thrust downward towards Fabian's chest, but the dagger never reached its goal. There was a metallic blur of motion and Surgeeyoh's hand went flying off into the weeds, lopped off at the wrist by Briawny's sword. "That's enough," she said. "Let him go."

Surgeeyoh grasped the stump of his arm with his good hand. "You will pay for this! All of you! This Surgeeyoh swears!" He whirled around with a flourish and took off into the trees.

"Thanks for distracting him long enough for me to pick his pockets and get my gold back," Fabian said. "Plus a little extra gold he had in another pouch."

"And for saving your life," Briawny said.

""What are you talking about, lady? I had that situation completely under control. I would have totally killed that guy stone cold dead in less than ten seconds guaranteed."

"Sure you would have."

"Obviously. That guy was like a total henchman. Great heroes like me don't get taken out by second tier losers like that. I would have easily dispatched him."

Brandon floated down on his flying carpet. "Hey guys, I don't want to alarm you or anything, but I can't find Delroy or the Princess Wartha."

"Aw crap," Fabian said. "I told you we needed someone to keep an eye on that guy."