Frenzied Dragon Bayle flew into a rage at the crowd's sudden appearance. He rose into the air and roared like thunder, "I was exiled for ten thousand years, then driven from my own homeland. Now you dare trespass on my territory? You are courting death!"
As his words fell, his skeletal wings spread wide, stirring up a storm of red lightning far more imposing than any ordinary Ancient Dragon's. Electricity leaped between the wing bones, gathering into bolts of crimson lightning that bathed the summit of Jagged Peak in the light of a blood-red hell.
The Tarnished looked grim. He raised his shield to cover their retreat. "The enemy is too strong to fight head-on. Escort Trina back to Shadow Keep immediately. Don't linger!"
Everyone nodded. Rellana scooped up the purplish-red flower bud-Trina's incarnation-and the others surrounded her as they slowly backed away. Twelve Crucible Knights formed a fan-shaped shield wall, with Blaidd and Bernahl guarding the flanks and Messmer and Morgott supporting the center. Their formation was tight, every step measured.
But while the Tarnished and his companions wanted to leave, Bayle had no intention of letting them.
This savage, vicious Ancient Dragon had lived since the Dragonlord's era. In all his tens of thousands of years, he had never suffered such an insult-a bunch of insects gawking at him in his own lair? How could he tolerate that?
"Trying to run? Dream on!" Bayle thundered. "I'll kill you all!"
BOOM!
A thunderclap exploded as Bayle swooped down, wreathed in lightning and fire. With a beat of his enormous skeletal wings, his whole body-his whole dragon body-came hurtling down like a cannonball. Red lightning formed a web around him, while flames erupted from his mutilated body. From a distance, he looked like a falling meteor.
But that meteor wasn't