When I opened my eyes, dust obscured everything. I sat up and tried to take a deep breath. Bad idea. I coughed, nearly choking on the heavy particles clouding the air.

“Shun?” I heard Kanata say. “Is that you?”

“Yeah!” I called, and then coughed again. I held out a hand, trying to feel if there was anything around me. I felt a large stone slab above my head.

“Where are you?” Juden asked.

“Under the stone slab,” I told him. I tried to push it out of the way, but it was too heavy.

“I got this,” Juden said. He grabbed the stone slab and heaved. He managed to pull it up by about 10 inches, but it wasn’t quite enough. He let go, and the stone fell back into place. “I don’t got this.”

“I’ll help,” Kanata said. She and Juden both gripped the stone and pulled. I pushed as well, and it raised by about a foot.

“It’s not enough,” I said, and they both let go. Kanata panted slightly in exhaustion.

“I’ll help,” Ariel said. She crawled into the space with me. And again, we all tried to lift the stone. And again, it slammed down.

“Why is this stone so heavy!” Ariel said, huffing.

“Any idea?” I asked.

“I got nothing,” Juden said. “And if I go mega, I’d crush you all.”

“I have an idea,” Ariel said. “All of you guys, back up.” She slipped out from under the rock.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Fireball,” she said. I heard a woosh, and then a fireball crashed into the ground underneath the stone. The heat and force from the fireball sent the stone slab into the air. Juden and Kanata grabbed me and pulled me out from under the falling slab.

It crashed to the ground, cracking into three chunks.

“Close one,” I said. And then I got a good look at our surroundings.

The classroom was destroyed. Something had exploded near the left side of the room, leaving it exposed to the outside world.

The stone wall had fragmented into many pieces, two of which had blood trickling from under them.

“Where’s Arya?” I asked.

“She rushed outside,” Kanata said. “We weren’t able to follow her.”

“I can help with that now,” Juden said. “Stand back.” We all backed up, and he concentrated. Suddenly, two spiral marks on Juden’s cheeks lit up red. More patterns appeared, spreading to cover most of his body. Then they flashed. The outline of his body blurred, and he grew.

When he was finished, he was massive. He stood at around 45 feet tall, his skin a brick-red color. His tail, which usually was thin and had a black spike at the end, was now much thicker, with a row of spines down the center and a large triangular scale at the end.

“Climb aboard,” he said, crouching down and holding out his hand. We climbed on, and he stood.

“Over there!” Kanata said, pointing. I turned to see Arya running across the grass field toward something on the other side of the building. Juden followed, his footsteps shaking the ground.

“Arya!” I shouted down. She stopped and looked up. I waved. Juden crouched down so she could join us.

“Where were you going?” Juden asked.

“There’s an earth wyrm on the other side of the school,” Arya told us.

“Worm?” I asked.

“No, wyrm,” Arya said. “An earth type.”

“What’s a wyrm?” Kanata asked.

“A dragon,” Ariel said. “I’m a sky wyrm.”

“Oh,” I said. “So there’s an earth dragon.”

“Yeah,” Arya said. “Let’s go.”

“Right,” Juden said. He walked toward the school. Just before he turned the corner, he stopped. “Time’s up,” He said, setting us down. His form blurred again, and he changed back to normal.

“Let’s go!” Arya said, dashing toward the dragon. The rest of us followed. And then immediately stopped in our tracks, seeing the massive beast before us.

The dragon was at least a hundred feet tall, its scaled green skin glimmering in the sunlight. Bursts of colorful spells shot toward it from the school, but they all fizzled out on the thick scales.

I pulled my sword from its sheath, ready to fight. “Let’s do this,” I said.