Fire poured out of the dragon. It enveloped the battlefield and set the griffin's wings ablaze.
"No!" Noble's thoughts were screamed by someone else.
All at once, a ball of energy dug into the Dragon's eye, forcing his head aside.
The molten earth opened, widening its cracks.
Momentarily blinded and off balance, the Prince slid into the crevice. The earth closed around him, entrapping his back legs.
Glancing over her shoulder, Noble saw Helie and a partially transformed Syrce. But the two women weren't looking at her, they were racing toward an outcropping of rock where the griffin had been downed.
"Roan, Aether!"
Noble joined the ladies on the ground.
Already, Helie was pulling the two men from under the injured echo.
Roan coughed.
"We are alright. My echo is augmented with a charm, so he took most of the heat."
Aether's armor glowed red-hot, but his voice came out even. "Indeed, we are fine."
The same could not be said for the griffin. It was in bad shape, with one of its wings burned almost entirely to ashes.
Roan patted the echo's head. "You did well," he whispered. "Thank you."
The man dismissed the griffin to heal in his soul sea with a wistful expression.
Noble recognized that look. She had the same feelings toward Helios.
Noble regarded the two women. "You were supposed to leave!"
"She ran off without me." Helie shrugged.
Noble wondered if the brunette had allowed the escape. Helie was a warrior. She didn't want to be sidelined with babysitting duty.
"These are my people!" Syrce waved her hand. "I will not abandon them! I will not abandon you!"
Her fervent speech was all that they had time for. The burial had been a momentary delay for the Prince. Almost instantly, he broke free of the earthen bonds and decimated the hilltop with the force of his struggle.
Noble lifted the four others in the air as the Remnant stalked them. Helie summoned her bow and hit the creature with an explosive arrow. It dug into an open wound and detonated, but no damage was done.
"Do you have anything more powerful?" Noble asked her, knowing her own arsenal of arrows was sorely lacking.
"That's my most powerful one, but it needs time and essence to charge. We don't have that kind of time." Helie lamented as she dismissed the Memory.
"Then we will make some." Noble had no clue how she would accomplish that.
Helie nodded and summoned the arrow. She filled it with essence and stowed it in her quiver. Then she moved on to her less potent arrows, pelting the dragon with them one after the other.
Aether flung another net of pure starlight at the monster. This time, it caught the dragon around the neck, but the creature scraped it off before it could do any damage.
"Still not quite right," the man pressed his lips together.
Lightning came down, striking the dragon on the nose when he snapped up at them in the air.
"I cannot keep this up." Roan already had sweat on his brow. "Put me down. I'll face him on the ground."
"Me as well," Aether nodded.
Without the griffin to help them maneuver, the two men could only control their own movement from the hillside.
"I can't." Noble frowned.
How could she lower her companions when the ground itself was being reshaped almost constantly by the Dragon Prince's tirade?
'If only he would poke a hole through to the mirror maze, we might be able to divide and conquer!'
Alas, there was no such luck. Only mundane earth was being overturned as the Remnant tried to obliterate his human adversaries.
"We will manage. The longer we take to make a decisive move, the more tired we will become."
Roan had been in more than his share of battles. He knew that exhaustion led to mistakes. The group was already tired. The cohort leader balled his fist.
"Something has to change."
Noble couldn't argue with his logic.
Roan continued, "Drop me by his legs. I can navigate the lava and get him tangled on himself then—"
"He will crush you." Syrce raised her hand. "I am not going to sacrifice you for my cause."
The group was interrupted as the Dragon spread his wings to attempt another flight.
"Excuse me," Noble sent her cohort flying away from the danger as she dove at the Prince.
Her Zenith gleamed ominously in the moonlight as she sailed forward. Fire flamed, following just behind her path as she moved to punch a few more holes in the Remnant's sail-like wings.
But the Dragon had grown wise to her tactic. As she drew close, his wings folded closed, ready to capture and crush her between their webbed spines.
The trap sprang with frightening speed, pulling Noble toward the dragon's razor-sharp scales.
'Time to get out of here!' Noble activated the hummingbird's wings. She escaped as the last bit of night sky was about to fade from view.
The crash of the wing against the Prince's body sent out a thunderclap.
Noble raced back to her cohort, narrowly avoiding the talons of the Prince's front claws. He waded through the molten rock to chase her, and she left him in her dust.
"Well, that didn't work," Noble sighed. "But at least he will think twice before trying to fly again."
"Bel!" Syrce released her Transcended aura on her friend. "Don't leave us like that again!"
"Sorry…" Noble had left her team sidelined and unintentionally restrained. If something had happened to her, only Syrce would have had a way to keep from crashing to the ground.
Roan stoked his chin. His analytical mind had already moved past his frustration.
"It was reckless indeed, but the idea was there. We need to take away his ability to maneuver. Then we can subdue him."
"The spines prevent me from making the holes too big." Noble wished her Zenith were strong enough to hack through the thicker parts of the wing.
"There is an easier way than taking away his flight." Aether's skin shimmered with starlight.
Helie raised an eyebrow as she nocked another arrow. "You mean his sense of sight?"
Aether nodded. "I have seen where you have been aiming. He's already blind on one side. If we can take out the other eye, then he will lose that sense entirely."
Roan nodded. "I was thinking the same. Bel, can you get us in position?"
Noble did some quick calculations in her head. "I think so."
The floating Master was no stranger to attacking an enemy's eye, but the last time the monster had been slightly more stationary.
"Get us in low. I can direct my lightning better when I am closer to the target." Roan's fingers crackled with arcs of light.
"Same with my starlight." Aether smiled.
"My arrows are ready at any distance," Helie challenged with a wink.
"My orbs do my will. You can count on me," Syrce allowed part of her body to glow in partial transformation.
"I'll do my best." Noble balled her fists. "Let's blind a Remnant."
The Dragon roared, daring them to come. Together, they answered the call.