The Oracle

Chapter 30: The Last Dragon Slayer

AKARI

"Uh, Headmaster?" Clea frowns as she looks around the dispatch center, Raciel, Evory, and Darius standing with us as we face Carmin. "Where's Gambit?"

"Gambit had some other matters to attend to," Carmin clears his throat, his brown eyes flickering across each of us, his words making me frown as they don't sit right with me. "Due to this, I've requested for Merrick to go with you instead. He should be coming down soon."

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your nose, Carmin?" Evory raises her eyebrows in concern as she points out the white bandage across the bridge of his nose.

"I had a little training accident and fractured it," Carmin smiles. "Nothing to worry about, I assure you. Isabella took care of me."

"Are we ready to start this thing or what?" Merrick yawns as he walks over to us and stretches his arms above his head, some of his black v-neck rising up as he does so, the rest of his outfit being dark grey cargo pants with thigh holsters for daggers and black combat boots, a white and gold jacket tied around his waist, and a golden arm band around his right bicep.

"We're ready," Darius nods.

"Alright, let's get this party started then," Merrick cracks his knuckles before he walks through the gateway to Saria.

Carmin bodes us well as the five of us follow after Merrick and I throw one last glance at Carmin before we're through the gate, knowing deep down that something must've happened with Gambit.

Before us, Saria is a giant city in the sky with tan cobblestone streets lined with wooden buildings with vendors, a beautiful blue sky filled with fluffy white clouds, rolling hills of green grass in the distance with rivers running through valleys, windmills, and a temple in the distance where a storm constantly swirls overhead.

"It's so nice here," Clea smiles as she looks around the city.

"The city's ever continuing storm fuels the windmills so that they have constantly green electricity," Merrick says as we begin walking through the streets. "The runestone will be in the temple, guarded by a dragon."

"Let's go," Darius says. "We have no time to waste."

"Right," Evory nods.

The six of us begin to head to the temple and on the way there I begin to feel as if someone is following us. I try to brush the feeling off, but for some reason I just can't shake it. We eventually make it out of the city and begin traveling the path that goes through the hills and to a small wooden bridge that goes over a pond where koi fish swim. As we're walking over the bridge, Merrick stops walking and glances behind him with a frown.

"Merrick?" I frown.

"Nothing," Merrick shakes his head. "Keep going."

Darius and Evory exchange a knowing glance while my frown deepens and Clea, Raciel, and Merrick continue on before being followed by the rest of us. We step up to the temple, which is a tall white structure with multiple white columns surrounding the entrance way. Lightning and thunder crackle overhead in the dark black sky that swirls only over the temple. We pass through the entrance to the temple and are immediately met with two pairs of white spiral staircases, one on the right and one on the left. Three of us take the left while three of us take the right and we walk up the spiral building until we reach the roof of the temple where the staircases converge into one and meet at an archway that leads outside.

Through the archway, it's easy to see the monstrous black and purple dragon that guards the open roof temple. The roof itself is surrounded by white pillars and the heart of the storm rages overhead, lightning occasionally crashing into some of the pillars. The dragon slowly stirs and the floor groans as it climbs to its feet on the black and white marble tiles, its claws cracking tiles and its feet making the room shake as it approaches us, the slinking of the chains that tie it to the temple clattering against the ground behind it. Its green eyes focus on us as its pupils turn into dragon-like slits and it roars as thunder crashes.