“What are you all still standing around for? GET MOVING! It's been four days since the army returned, if the dragon toys with him he might still be alive.” Grandmaster Alosrin yelled before continuing to talk to the king. The adventurers quickly left soon after that. The adventures that were chosen by the grandmaster were all S-rank at the lowest, with one of them being a myth rank. 

“It's been a really long time since we all teamed up together, huh.” One of them said, trying to start a conversation between all of them. “It seems everyone is doing fine as well. especially you Ryan, congrats on being made myth rank.”

“What, oh yea, thanks May, and it's good to see that you're doing well,” Ryan responded, obviously trying to distance himself. 

“So how are we going about killing this dragon then? I don't think we can still use our old strategy, since... you know... Liz's death.” Another said, causing Ryan to stop in his tracks. “Listen, it's no one's fault that she died, and if anyone takes the blame it's everyone here's fault.”

“You are right Lucas,” Ryan sighed “you always were even back then, but I don't think we really need to change our plan all too much. I'm much stronger than when my sister died, and I think me and May should switch positions.”

“Do you really think you can handle taking most of the dragon's attacks,” Lucas asked.

“Yea, I know you are much stronger now, but we still worry about you.” Another one of the group said.

“What about the missing soldier, while there is a chance that he is alive like the Grandmaster said, it's very slim.”

“If he's alive after the dragon is killed, Aerith will ride with him to town immediately cause he will probably be near death. Come on, we should probably hurry and ride full speed.” Ryan said, getting onto a horse. They had already made it to the gate while they were talking. The first part of their journey they kept a steady but quick pace, resting when they needed to. When they arrived at where the soldiers met the dragon, they had arrived a day earlier than expected.

“Hey Aerith, are we in the right place?” Lucas asked, stopping his horse.

“Let me check,” Aerith responds, beginning to cast a spell. As her spell finished casting waves of mana emitted from her as she continued to chant. As her chanting faded so to did the waves of mana. “Yea, this is the right spot, the coordinates match the ones we were given. Let's start looking around for any kind of tacks. A dragon as large as the one they were describing had to have left some sort of trail.”

The party got down from their horses and began to search the area. It had not rained in several days, and the ground was not wet when the soldiers encountered the dragon. After around two hours of searching, they had finally found something. A small trace of the direction the dragon had left in. After setting up camp for the night to rest and prepare for possibly running into the dragon, they got to talking.

“Hey guys,” Lucas said, “I know it's kinda late to ask this but I have been racking my brain on this the past several days. Who was that woman with his majesty, she was using magic to make herself look human.”

“Yea, I noticed that too, what was up with her,” Aerith asked. 

“I think I actually know her, she's a beastkin from my hometown named Hikari.....” May said trailing off as if she just realized something. “Okay, the likely hood of Arthur being alive is zero.”

“Arthur?” Ryan asked, “whos that and what does he have to do with the soldier?”

“Arthur is Hikari's wife, and if that was Hikari there with his majesty, then that means that Arthur is the soldier, and if Arthur is that soldier, he is almost one-hundred percent dead because he is a null.”

“Not necessarily,” a member of the party said.

“What do you mean Tegba?” Aerith asked, “everything I have heard about nulls is that they are weaker than an infant and if he's fighting a dragon then his attacks won't do anything cause he can't use magic.”

“I heard a rumor about how a null was able to give the head of the royal guard a run for his money in a duel without using any magic.”

“Then wouldn't he just be talented then?”

“Well, Arthur is extremely talented, he was deemed a swordmaster when he was sixteen,” May interjected, she may not have grown up with Arthur, but she knew of him.

“Holy crap, yea that guy is extremely talented.”

“Hey guys it's getting late, we should wrap up this convo and go to sleep,” Lucas said, heading to his tent. As the next day began the party packed up their camp and set off following the tracks. After a couple of days of following the tracks, they came across the entrance to some sort of cave system.

“Holy shit, I think we're here.” Ryan said, “hey Aerith can you activate a lodestone spell and give us copies of the physical connection?”

“Yeah sure, give me a minute,” Aerith said, beginning to cast a spell again. As she cast her spell a stone made of magic appeared at the entrance to the cave, and 6 fragments broke off, one for each member of the party. Once everyone had a fragment of the spell they ventured into the mouth of the cave, ready to fight a dragon. After venturing in for a good distance they came to a place where the wall had been broken down, it was the same wall that Arthur had run through, before.

“What the hell is this,” Ryan said, stopping everyone. “Hey Zak, what do you think of this.”

Zak looked up from his book which he had been reading the entire time. He has never once been the type of person to talk or really interact with others. He began to investigate the rubble that leads into another, more defined chamber. “This wall was broken in from this side, someone did this within the last couple of months or so. The walls are much older than my magic can tell me. The only thing that I was able to find out was this place's name. It's called the Sealed Labyrinth of Dudhawud.”

“Dudhawud, what the fuck is that, and why was it sealed away?”

“If I knew, I would tell you Ryan but I don't and you're just going to have to deal with it. Now let's get going, we got a dragon to slay,” Zak said rather abruptly before stepping over the rubble. Ryan and the others were quick to follow him, marking their path as the go. As they traveled further and further into the labyrinth, the feeling that there was nothing within the labyrinth grew until they came across a large chamber with some sort of nest in the middle. On the nest, there were fragments of dragon eggs, that had been broken and destroyed, some of which had been close to hatching.

“What the hell happened here, who could have done this,” May gasped. She was horrified at the sight of what she had seen. She has met with several dragons in the past, not part of a subjugation quest, and saw how those with eggs were very protective of their eggs. “I think this is why the dragon went on a rampage, we need to find the dragon now and work out some sort of deal to capture the fucker responsible.”

“Agreed,” Ryan said, his voice extremely calm despite him being a father himself. The party quickly left the chamber and began searching for the dragon once again. Several hours passed before one of them spotted something and stopped the rest of the party.

“Guys stop, there is something large up ahead,” Lucas said quietly, hoping not to wake whatever was ahead of them. This was a mostly straight hallway, and they had not seen any doorways or entryways yet either.

“What is it,” Ryan responded lowering his voice as well.

“There is something up ahead, it looks kinda like a tail but I'm not too sure. We should proceed with a lot of caution until we figure out what that thing is.”

“Agreed, May to the front with me, Aerith, Zak, stay in the back, Lucas, take the middle, and prepare to flank the creature.”

“Right,” they said in quiet unison. As they quietly made their way to whatever it was they were all extremely tense. Even the weakest dragon is still strong enough to handle most adventurers, even with a myth rank in the party.  As they made their way closer to the object, Ryan stopped everyone saying “this is the tail of a dragon.” As the party readied their weapons in case the dragon did not want to talk, they made their way to the dragon's head.

“Wait a minute guys,” Lucas said in a rather normal tone, “something is off. Even if the dragon is sleeping we would at least see its side moving ever so slightly, but this dragon's side isn't moving at all. Hey, Aerith can you cast a life-detection spell?”

“Yeah sure,” Aerith said, beginning to cast the spell. Once it was cast Aerith was able to sense the life force of any living thing within a mile of her. “This is weird, I'm not getting any sign of life from this dragon... but I am getting something further ahead. I think we should check it out, it might be another monster.”

“We should still be careful, it might have killed the dragon,” Ryan said. The party continued their way down the hall following the rest of the dragon's corpse when they encountered a mostly closed portcullis. “Hey Lucas, go ahead of us real quick and see if anything is on the other side of that portcullis.”

“Okay,” Lucas said, moving towards the portcullis and looking through the rusty bars. “HOLY FUCK!” He exclaimed, “there's someone on the other side, it's a person.”

“What! May come help me lift the portcullis up, Aerith be ready to go in there and start first aid. Once they are safe enough to move, take them out of here.” Ryan said, beckoning May over to him. As soon as they had lifted the portcullis up Aerith made her way into the chamber as the rest of the party began checking for traps, which had already been triggered by the person.

“Hey May, is this guy Arthur?”

“Yea it is Aerith. How the fuck has he survived this long,” May said kneeling down next to Aerith who was using healing spells on Arthur's missing arm.

“I think I can answer that, he has been eating parts of the dragon, to survive,” Ryan said. “Aertih is he safe to move?”

“He will be shortly,” Aerith responded. “We got a problem, my healing magic is barely stabilizing him. He is malnourished, suffering from dragon poisoning, and has lost a lot of blood. I'm going to have to leave now, even if he's not ready if he has any chance of surviving.”

“Okay do so, be safe on your way back to the city, we will handle everything here.” Ryan responded, “inform the Grandmaster that it was Arthur that killed the dragon, not us when you arrive.”

“Will do,” Aerith said, picking Arthur up before rushing out of the labyrinth. “Please don't die,” Aerith thought as she loaded Arthur onto the back of her horse and set off in a straight line towards the city.