The Dragon's voice carried far. Its cry of "Wait!" rang out into the distance, but Sera and the others either didn't hear it or chose to ignore it. No answer came.
"Your friends ran off."
A curvaceous female Dark Elf walked up, parted her alluring red lips, and let out a tinkling laugh. "Black Dragon, why don't we become friends? I'd never abandon my companions."
"Are you rich?" The Black Dragon regarded her through his small, protruding dark eyes, a trace of disdain in his gaze.
When Sera had used a Scroll to Dispel the Temple's projection, the force preventing him from opening his mouth had vanished with it.
The female Dark Elf froze.
"Are you richer than the Church of Night?" The Black Dragon landed, his disdain deepening. "No, you aren't. So drop the disguise, lowly Ooze. Your stench makes me want to vomit."
"Greed, the Black Dragon."
As the female Dark Elf spoke, her face suddenly changed. A six-foot-tall Ooze, resembling a heap of sludge, appeared before the Black Dragon. "Not one of you will escape being offered as a sacrifice to the great Lolth, Spider Queen."
The Ooze glared at the Black Dragon with blood-red eyes and began to pray.
"O God, turn your gaze upon us. Let your power descend..."
A sacred power descended. Black Dragon Bamas felt a malicious gaze settle on him.
"I hate creatures tied to Gods most of all."
He opened his mouth and blasted the charging Ooze back with Dragon Breath, then beat his wings and fled at once.
His long life had taught him that creatures bearing titles such as Divine Attendant, God-Touched, or Godspawn were never easy to deal with. They could draw on a God's power to strengthen themselves, and they had a God behind them.
On the