Realization

Screeeeeeech!

Jarak did not bother to shield himself from the violent gusts of hot air, his purple hair fluttering along with the wind. Blaze was the same, as she did not need to protect herself since they weren't directed towards her direction. Instead, she narrowed her eyes, focusing on the intruder dressed in unfamiliar clothing. 'Who is he?!'

Though she didn't know the identity of this strange man, Blaze knew a few things about him. First was, he wasn't scared of the mother Earth Wyrm. Second was, he came into the dungeon knowing full well about this Mother Earth Wyrm, calling it a 'Quindragon'. He even came to slay it by himself as if he grew bored killing all those Earth Wyrm hatchlings before coming here. But more importantly, Blaze could sniff out faint traces of Winter Ashkin off of him.

D- Did he kill Winter?!

Kaiser and Colleen hugged, holding each other tightly upon hearing the Quindragon's sudden, vicious screech. Although they were not the target of the Quindragon's fury, the loudness caused them to flinch.

Scared of dying, Kaiser pulled Colleen closer to him, staring directly at the woman's burning face, her expression looking almost at loss. Tears welled up in her eyes as she heard the cries of death from the other dragon-slayers echoing around them.

Were they up next?

"Colleen…" Kaiser leaned forward and kissed her soft lips gently. This time, he wasn't as excited as before, when he acted like a man possessed by his hormones, and Colleen could tell from his resolve. It was as if he no longer gave a f*ck about what was happening around them, no longer giving a f*ck that they were about to die, and was only savoring the last moments of his life using her lips.

And at that moment, Colleen forgot about how much she hated Kaiser and kissed him back, swirling her tongue onto his. His thing continued to poke her from below, but she didn't mind at all. Hell, she even pushed her hips towards it more, riding on Kaiser's body as she wrapped her legs around him.

In response, Kaiser carried her up, enjoying the moment as his hand groped her butt. He sucked on Colleen's tongue, and she held his face with both hands, their kiss deepening…and-

"What the f*ck are you two doing?"

The two stopped, waking up from their incredible little fantasy. They opened their eyes, lips still pressed together. Slowly, their eyes shifted towards their right, where they found Blaze standing in bafflement, her mouth hanging open in speechlessness.

A lonely breeze blew past the three as they blinked at each other, eyes as wide as an owl's. An awkward silence lasted for a few moments in the space between them before Kaiser and Colleen immediately pushed away from each other, faces burning a bright red.

Blaze rose a questioning brow at Colleen, and her best friend was frightened under her gaze. She wanted to explain, but no words came from her mouth.

And when the silence was broken, it was Blaze who was the first to speak, letting them off by not pressing further into what they were doing. "Cowser, help our subordinates. Now!!"

Kaiser glanced nervously at Colleen, wanting to help her explain, but Blaze caught him with a squint of her eyes, prompting him to return to his usual, cowardly self as he ran towards the others.

When he was gone, Blaze turned to Colleen and said, "We'll talk later. For now, watch Kingsley. I will go help that man." She pointed at Jarak, who was gleefully toying with the Quindragon as he easily evaded each strike from its deadly mandibles.

Blaze's stern tone of voice left Colleen unnerved, her body moments stiffening up. She didn't have the face to face her best friend after being caught in the act, and so she shifted her attention to the stranger to avoid her gaze.

Her eyes narrowed, distracting her with the question of who was that person battling the Mother Earth Wyrm, alone, nonetheless. Instinctively, she turned to ask Blaze but caught herself before the words slipped out of her mouth…she couldn't look Blaze directly in the eyes. She felt ashamed.

But little did she know that Blaze was in fact, silently laughing behind her back; she couldn't believe what she saw them doing, especially in a situation like this. Blaze smirked victoriously, knowing that she just gained an upper hand in their relationship. Colleen knew almost everything about her, even her secret sexual relationship with Winter Ashkin, and she always made fun of her because of that.

But now, her smirk widened into a devilish grin, laughing inwardly as now she finally had something she could counter her teasing with too! Who would have known that Colleen Valanar would do such a thing during an expedition?

Without looking back, Colleen hurriedly ran towards Kingsley to escape from the awkward situation she was stuck in.

After making sure that Colleen had Kingsley's safety secured, Blaze's eyes turned back to the Mother Earth Wyrm, her grip on her dragon-slaying javelins tightening till her knuckles turned white. It was only a second, but the atmosphere around her instantly dropped to a level of intimidation.

Wooosh!

Specks of dust clouded the spot she was standing in just seconds ago; she already took off at lightning speed.

Blaze wanted to use the intruder as a diversion to take down the Mother Earth Wyrm herself…she could not let go of this chance, could she?

Besides, nearly all of them lost their lives earlier. If this new guy died fighting the beast too, then that would only mean their remaining chance for survival was lost forever.

She stealthily clambered onto the Quindragon's shaky body as it continued to crash its head on the ground, producing small craters as it hatefully failed to hit Jarak each time.

'What is that woman doing?' Jarak noticed Blaze climbing the dragon's lengthy body and clicked his tongue in disapproval, annoyed that someone else was trying to do his job for him. So instead of using the opportunity to team up and strike down the Quindragon together, he backed off to see what she was planning to do.

"Hey, woman!" Jarak called at her apathetically. "After you've finished whatever stupid sh*t you're doing, go dilly dally somewhere else from the Quindragon, you hear me?! Don't get in my f*cking way!" It was as if he knew whatever she was trying to do would inevitably fail.

Determined to prove he was wrong, Blaze jumped from the Mother Earth Wyrm's body and whirled herself in the air to create momentum before she landed on the dragon's vulnerable neck, striking her javelins against the flesh.

Kwiiiiiisskkk!!!

Filthy green blood burst from the open wound at the neck, showering onto the ground as the Quindragon let out a piercing roar.

"!!!!???"

Blaze leaped off the dragon's back and landed on the ground. She instantly turned around, extremely shocked that the Quindragon's head was still intact. She couldn't penetrate past a certain point with her weapons, even though the Earth Wyrm's neck was the most pregnable. It was supposed to be its weakness!

'How can it be so tough?' she thought in a panic.

After this unknown man came in, she thought they finally had a chance to win with the help of good-conditioned reinforcements, even if it was just one man.

But now she realized that the attack she put an effort in did nothing except anger the Mother Earth Wyrm.