"SERAFIN! NATASHA!" Devlin screamed at the top of his lungs while carrying Lucian as they caught up. When Devlin tried to enter the barrier a figure in all black shot a bolt of lightning at him.
"Enter and die." The voices hissed in warning. As if on cue all the beasts that had been following the groups suddenly stopped chasing them, darting into the trees.
Lucian narrowed his eyes on the figures, to his amazement something rose out of the ground. A horse made of earth and stone was running beside the barrier, Devlin dropped him into the saddle. Since they were still traveling at a full gallop through forest, Lucian had to quickly grab the surprisingly flexible reins and shift himself forward in the saddle.
"Explain." Lucian ordered glancing back at the four figures tossing spells at the land dragon. The fact that they were alive was a miracle. The flashes of brown earth and white ice spears looked almost playful from a distance.
An eerie laughed echoed from the six figures, "Your foe escapes, our flame burns bright, your children safe, at least this night. Son of dragon, a choice to make, will you fall, or will you fight??"
Lucian glared at the figures; Devlin had taken a moment, but landed on the horse behind him. To his surprise the horse became larger to accommodate them. "Did you make this?" Lucian asked as the horse accommodated them both comfortably, another saddle complete with foot rests formed under the sweating Devlin.
Devlin used a fourth-tier mana stone to replenish his reserves. Flying fast enough to catch up to the land dragon, while carrying Lucian had been no easy task. "Ha, Ha, No. Not mine." He wheezed as he watched the four other figures slamming fourth and fifth level tier spells into the land dragon repeatedly. He also noticed a similar horse running in front of the beast while Ashton... was covered in dragon blood... as he continued stabbing the dragon in the eye...
Lucian was also silent as he saw Ashton. Suddenly one of the figures looked at them, then in the blink of an eye appeared beside their horse. Lucian almost drew his sword.
"The beast our task, your mage to unmask..." Ashton informed using a deeper version of the golem's eerie singsong voice, he then let himself fall back to finish the lizard off.
The substitute repeatedly stabbed the eye until it couldn't absorb anymore mana. It was then caught by one of the golems when a claw tried to swipe at it.
The substitute was dropped in the saddle as Ashton started channeling power from all ten golems. While the spell wouldn't take too long, four minutes of chanting was usually a death sentence for any mage. This wasn't just any spell though, this would be a physical representation of his soul.
The red spell circle went from the size of his palm to being twice as large as the land dragon at the halfway mark of his chanting. If Ashton wasn't also trying to keep his seals firm, he wouldn't need to focus so much. But for all the eyes watching, this had to be done to look separate from this body.
The substitute was the only obstacle to the land dragon gaining on them. By throwing enchanted weapons to make the land dragon hesitate, while the other nine all channeled their mana into him as he then channeled it into the spell. It was an incredibly delicate balance of not overfilling his vessel with mana, but also keeping up the needed mana to continue to spell. Ashton's body was like a scale, if too much mana flooded his channels they would burst, possibly destroying the body, but not enough and the scale would collapse to one side.
While Ashton could reset the scale, it would be more delicate than before, and time was not on his side.
The spell then separated into three parts; one immediately engulfed the land dragon wrapping it up like a cocoon of white symbols of power that passed through the scales causing its flesh to sizzle. Steam rose from boiling blood dripping from between the scales making the dragon half scream in agony, half roar in frustration.
The land dragon immediately gave up the chase to thrash around as the second brown layer then wrapped around its neck. There was a burst of green light that shattered, green flames falling to the ground as the spell of control was broken. Immediately after another collar wrapped around the dragon's neck. Unlike the formless spell, this collar was made of earthen stone.
The collar extended to wrap from shoulder to the under the head, not a single scale of the neck visible. Blood started to drip as the land dragon thrashed its head from side to side. The inside of the collar had grown hallow spikes that were syphoning blood, then turning that blood into mana to power the collar. The stone continued to grow, wrapping around the mouth of the land dragon like a muzzle.
Ashton was dripping sweat as he continued to chant. Unlike traditional spells, this one was still actively forming, growing and adapting for his needs. If he was distracted for even a moment... it might not be the dragon that died today. Ashton forced himself to continue, he'd not rest his control. There was an ember waiting, and... well... it was time to return... a flash of gold darting past drew his sight up toward the sun for only a moment.
Ashton refocused his attention on land dragon. Two would wait, two would see, this time on the ground, how he'd grown, how stubborn was he. But for now, he was still bound...
Now wasn't the time.
The stone collar then grew spikes that shot out anchoring to the ground so only the whipping tail and claws were of any real threat. Keeping a safe distance, Ashton faced away from the imperials. While they might not understand, seeing his eyes go from blue to silver was not a hint he was willing to risk. At least, not until his Ember arrived.
Ashton pealed back part of his sealed soul mana, his output and even all the golems combined weren't enough. Not for the final burst. Still, there were ways to improve his chances.
Unseen from the surface, was that each spike from the collar expanded underground, burrowing deeper the more blood it syphoned. Stone chains wrapping around stones, roots, anything they could anchor to.
While the land dragon thrashed in agony, flames could be seen beneath the scales, where the white symbols continued to burn. Considering dragon hide was highly resistant to mana flames, a human wouldn't even have ash remaining.
Finally, the last part of the spell was ready. With the dragon immobilized, he just had to be quick. The flames from beneath the scales rose up over the dragon, taking the shape of a bird with tail feathers longer than its body.
Ashton didn't put much effort into the shape, so long as the generic form could do what was needed. The temperature rose so rapidly, snow immediately started to steam from the surrounding trees as leaves curled back. The flames continued to merge until the bird body was about the size of the dragon's head. Ashton couldn't release the seals any more than this, not if he wanted his body to last long enough to get out of the empire.
Resealing his soul image was like trying to close a door with water rushing inside. Ashton's knee buckled from the strain, but his chanting didn't falter, fortunately the construct was now able to use the dragon's blood as an alternative source of power.
Though only half the dragon's size including the tail, the heat had some of the trees bursting into flame as patches the steam created a sauna in the otherwise winter forest. The red flames gave a single piercing cry as it rose into the sky.
As his soul construct reached the clouds, Ashton finished the last syllables of his chant. The command was simple, but effective.
Where only two birds took notice, a tiny hummingbird sized eagle landed on the beak of the flames. Then as if only passing by, the tiny eagle continued to fly toward the sun.
The bird of flame paused just long enough for everyone to focus on it, the light of the fire could see seen for hundreds of miles as the wings of fire extended for just a moment.
After the moment passed, it dove it straight down toward the land dragon. Shrinking to the size of a man the bird of flames pierced directly through the chest of the immobilized dragon.
The impact made the forest shudder once again, the land dragon twitched, but with its head still anchored there had been little room for it escape. Even with the man-sized hole from its back to the ground, the dragon wasn't dead, not yet.