The cavern had gone silent.
No flames crackled.
No molten rivers gurgled.
No wind moved.
Only two figures remained locked in a silent, burning stare—
Shaurya, standing atop a floating fragment of fractured stone,
and
Lorgann, circling high above with vast wings slicing the heated air.
The human smiled, calm yet fierce.
The dragon snarled, molten embers leaking from its jaws.
Their eyes did not blink.
Not once.
Lorgann's chest expanded.
Its wings tightened.
A low, volcanic growl vibrated through the cavern walls.
Then—
FWOOM—!!
A flamethrower burst downward like a river of molten wrath.
Shaurya vanished—
FWIP! FWIP!
Aerial Steps left golden streaks behind him as he leapt from floating rock to floating rock,
dodging the inferno with agile sweeps and flips.
The flame followed him,
chasing him like a crimson serpent.
Lorgann roared and dived—
a falling mountain of magma and fury.
Right before smashing into the stone floor,
it spread its wings—
BOOF—!!
