John ran as fast as his gryphon body would take him. The sound of the large elephant-bulls hot on his tail only motivated him to run faster. The street’s few inhabitants got out of the way long before he reached them. The noise of the stampeding creatures making it very obvious things were very dangerous for them.

He looked over his shoulder and saw the woman had collapsed on his back, and he felt through their connection that she suffered greatly. There was little he could do, though, so he focused on getting them out of the city as fast and safe as he could.

That became far more challenging when he saw a large gathering of hooded figures blocking his way down the large road. He looked around for any way out, but there were only buildings on either side. He could try the alleyways, but he knew that he’d get lost in no time at all.

So forward it was.

He didn’t know how he did it, but he repeated the action in the chamber where they bound him and sent his tails forward to attack the hooded figures. Just like last time, it slammed against an invisible barrier.

He wasn’t surprised and decided to take a detour, jumping onto the closest building and jumping on the taller one next to it. He kept ascending buildings, sometimes having to jump down to gain a new vantage point, while keeping track of the hooded figures below.

Magical bolts whizzed by, many stinging from their close proximity. He looked away from the hooded figures to scout the giant gate that led to their safety and saw an even larger group of hooded figures.

‘They’re definitely not making this easy.’

He stopped at a build next to a large, spiral tower. It had a coned top and reached the same height as the large wall. He hurriedly thought up a plan. With a running start, he jumped forward, extended his wings to glide forward, and lashed out with his tails to root himself in the wall.

He slammed against the stone wall of the cylindrical building and groaned internally as the impact knocked the wind out of him. Deep claw marks provided great grip as he ascended the tower, albeit very slowly and carefully.

His tails wrapped around the woman to keep her from falling and continued to climb until he reached the top. By now, the bolts from the hooded figures below didn’t come even close to where he stood atop the large tower.

He stared down at them and noticed how they ran towards the stables. He heard roars and shouts before a red dragon came shooting up into the sky.

‘Oh, that’s not good.’

He looked at the wall with grim determination, backing himself as far as possible on the roof.

‘It’s now or never.’

He only had enough space to take two steps before leaping as far as he could into the open air, flaring out his wings. He glided forward fast, though it felt like he hung in the air for ages as the red dragon flew towards them.

He started to descend, falling below the edge of the wall, but he just needed to get close. One of his tails lashed out and pulled him the rest of the distance, his claws finding a safe hold in the wall. He worried about the dome above, but it looked as though it was more supportive of outside attacks.

The dragon got closer and closer, but he finally pulled himself up over the wall.

‘Let’s see if the inside is as tough as the outside looks.’

He unwrapped the woman and stabbed forward with his tails methodically, watching as the pointed tips began to wear away at the dome.

‘Too slow!’

The dragon bore down on them from where they had ascended and tried to grab John, but he lashed out with his tails in defense. They were incredibly sharp and pierced through the scales of the dragon.

It shrieked in rage and circled away, returning to face him. He continued his flurry of attacks on the dome with renewed vigor until cracks spiderwebbed across a large part of the dome.

‘It’ll have to do!’ he thought as he saw a large fireball forming in the throat of the red dragons as its throat opened wide. He struck twice more before rushing headfirst into the damaged dome, feeling slight resistance before the sound of shattering glass resounded through the air.

His wings spread wide and he glided forward in a partial dive, wanting to cover as much ground as possible. He hoped that his dark feathers would help camouflage them in the moonless night’s darkness.

His troubles with the dragon seemed to be finished for now, as it was far too large to enter through the small hole he’d broken through.

‘They probably have bigger issues than finding me now that I’ve busted a hole in the dome. That has to be some kind of security disaster.’

With the lack of pursuit, he disappeared into the darkness of night.

-

“How is this even possible?” one of the Tribunal asked in awe.

“I really don’t know,” another answered quietly. “These domes have kept us safe against far stronger monsters, yet it got through it in no time at all. This…”

“Yes, it’s what you think. The variant has some kind of magical mitigation.” The hooded figure from the chamber where Amelia Contracted John stared at the hole stoically. “Tell the Lord that we’ll repair the damage done and send out a recovery party. Keep in mind, the girl must be kept alive, though that doesn’t mean she needs to be whole. Do whatever it takes.”

“You can’t be serious? This damage will cost us-”

“Don’t question me. See to it that it gets done.”

With that, the lead figure vanished from sight to reappear on the outside of the dome, floating in the air casually. They pulled back their hood.

It was an exact replica of Amelia staring off into the distance at the back of the obsidian gryphon.

“What game are you playing, kid?” They stayed there and watched the gryphon run across the land until they could no longer see them anymore. “Amelia, I hope you know what you’re doing.”

They returned their hood and vanished once more.