Watching Rhonin raise a crystal toward the sky and begin casting, chanting an incantation as he did, Aaron looked on with considerable curiosity. Mages in the game had no such skill, after all, since players communicated through various channels. Aaron found it quite novel.
But Rhonin suddenly stopped casting and rubbed his eyes, as though he had spotted something. Then he shook his head and resumed the casting process, but this time...
"Hey, wizard, what are you doing?" A knight on patrol noticed what was happening. Wary of mages and mindful of his duties, the young knight came over and rather roughly demanded to know what Rhonin was doing.
Aaron was just about to explain on Rhonin's behalf when he felt the wall beneath his feet shudder violently. The stone wall seemed to be starting to collapse.
Then Aaron saw an immense black shadow surge toward them from the horizon, looming over the wall like low-hanging storm clouds. As the shadow drew closer, the wall beneath their feet shook more and more violently.
Smelling the strong stench of sulfur spreading through the air as the shadow approached, then seeing its enormous head, its signature full-body black metal armor, and the red glow flickering in its belly, Aaron immediately identified it. This was definitely Deathwing, that old Black Dragonflight who could never leave well enough alone.
Seeing both men at a complete loss, Aaron first cast Blessing of Sacrifice on his employer, then placed a Divine Shield on the Paladin who had been caught up in this. As for himself, he activated the Paladin defensive skill: Ardent Defender.
Looking at the ring of silver Holy Light surrounding him, Aaron breathed a sigh of relief. He believed that as long as the old Black Dragonflight did not attack him, he would not be in too much danger.
If the Black Dragonflight really went mad and attacked him, Aaron's optimistic estimate was that he would not leave an intact corpse.
But that was all Aaron had time to do. After approaching the wall, Deathwing snatched up Rhonin and left. The most despicable thing about this dragon was that he could not even leave properly: a sweep of his tail knocked down half the stone wall.
Unable to react in time, Aaron crawled out of the rubble left by the collapsed wall, covered in dust and dirt. Even though he had activated a damage-reducing defensive skill beforehand, he still felt utterly awful.
Aaron could not help bursting into curses. "Damn you, Deathwing! You deserve to die without an intact corpse and have your entire family wiped out..."
Only after venting at length did Aaron settle down. Having finished cursing, he patted his chest. Despite how freely he was swearing now, he was actually badly shaken. When he had been buried under the rubble, he had truly felt that his death was imminent. His venting now was really just a cover.
Turning to look at the Paladin he had saved, who looked as though he had narrowly escaped death, Aaron forced a smile.
But his smile soon vanished. After all, Ardent Defender only reduced damage rather than negating it. With the damage transferred from Rhonin through Blessing of Sacrifice on top of that, Aaron felt unbearable pain, as though some gigantic beast had run him over.
While he had been cursing so vigorously, Aaron had ignored the pain. Now that he became aware of it, he felt pain in every part of his body. His legs immediately weakened, and he nearly sank to the ground.
The Paladin Aaron had saved apparently noticed that he was in bad shape. He hurried over to support Aaron, gathered a ball of Holy Light in his hand, and cast it onto him.
After the Paladin's healing spell eased some of his injuries, Aaron felt a little better. He then cast Light of the Protector on himself to heal his wounds, finally freeing himself from the unbearable pain.
"Brother, I owe you my life," the Paladin said gratefully as he helped Aaron away from the rubble left by the collapsed section of wall.
"What happened here?" The commotion had naturally alerted the other guards. Several hurried over and, seeing Aaron and the Paladin beside him covered in dust and dirt, hastily asked what had happened.
Aaron gave a truthful account of what he had just seen: for some unknown reason, Deathwing had attacked Rhonin and carried him away. As for the two of them, they probably amounted to nothing more than optional extras in Deathwing's eyes.
After hearing Aaron's account, Vereesa and Duncan, who had rushed over from the dining hall after being alerted, both looked incredulous. "Deathwing? Wasn't he killed by the mages of Dalaran long ago?"
Aaron knew perfectly well that Deathwing would not die so easily. He still had to make some big news that would affect all of Azeroth. How could he die so easily? But how was Aaron supposed to explain that? Say that Deathwing would come out to cause trouble sooner or later? Who would believe him?
Fortunately, the Paladin Aaron had saved also confirmed his account, finally convincing the others to some extent. But Duncan's prejudice against Rhonin seemed truly deep. Even then, he speculated, "Could Rhonin have contacted Deathwing himself, and then..."
"Impossible. Rhonin told me he wanted to contact Krasus, an Archmage of Dalaran."
"My brother, what if that wizard was lying to you?" Duncan was still doing his utmost to imagine Rhonin as a schemer. It seemed the followers of the Holy Light's prejudice against magic really could not be dispelled in a short time.
Aaron thought for a while, then suddenly said with a serious expression, "Sir Duncan, an elder once told me that people should not judge those different from themselves rashly. I think we should wait until we have more evidence before deciding whether Rhonin is guilty. Otherwise, this is nothing more than conjecture."
At Aaron's words, Duncan's expression stiffened as though something had struck a nerve. Then he gave a knowing smile. "That elder has indeed said that more than once. Very well, I should not have slandered your companion like that. Lads, let's go find that mage, provided he hasn't already become Deathwing's snack."
At Duncan's order, the Paladins scattered, searching for traces of Rhonin near the road to Hasic. Both Aaron and Vereesa believed that if Rhonin managed to escape, he would surely still find a way to reach Hasic.
Yet despite searching along the road for a long time, the group found no trace of the red-haired mage. Only as evening approached did Sir Duncan gather his men and prepare to pitch their tents. Vereesa dismounted, stood beside Aaron, and asked worriedly, "Aaron, did you really see Deathwing last night?"
Aaron nodded. "I don't believe any dragon other than that damned old Black Dragonflight would wrap himself in metal armor."
"Then, in that case, Rhonin..."
"It's all right, Lady Vereesa. I believe Rhonin will be safe. He will." Although Aaron was very certain of this, he could not tell anyone where his confidence came from. To Vereesa, he probably seemed to be offering pleasant words merely to comfort her.
After hearing Aaron out, Vereesa said nothing more. She merely nodded and began helping the Paladins pitch their tents. When it came to surviving in the wild, rangers were the professionals. Under Vereesa's guidance, the temporary camp took shape in an orderly fashion.
As an injured man, Aaron was initially made to rest off to one side by the Paladins. But watching everyone else bustle about left him feeling a little guilty, so he got up to help the other knights pitch their tents.
Just as the temporary camp was nearly finished, Aaron suddenly felt an unnatural gale come howling toward them. There was even a faint, familiar stench of sulfur in the wind. The gale blew over more than half the tents everyone had spent so long putting up.
Bracing against the fierce wind, Aaron looked up just in time to see the Black Dragon King spreading his wings and departing again. The dragon was extraordinarily fast, disappearing in the blink of an eye before anyone in the temporary camp could even react.