“L-leaving? No! You can’t! You can’t just give up and die like this!” George protested. Remian blinked. “Who said anything about dying? I’m just going south.” “What does that mean, exactly?” George demanded. “More time with Phoebe, mainly. We’re going to investigate the Black Ruins all over the Wildlands.” Remian paused. “Don’t worry. We’ll have the Eagle Lord for support.” “Isn’t that… beneath him?” George asked, weakly. “Actually, it’s more like his wife supporting us.” “Ah. That’ll work.” George suddenly thought of something. “This sudden retirement to the south… it wouldn’t have anything to do with Mandy arriving tonight, would it?” Remian froze. “You’re running away!?” George blurted. “I’m not running! It’s just… I’m going south. That’s it. That’s all.” “Who are you trying to kid? You decided to drop everything and run the minute you heard she was coming to town! What are you afraid of? Your girlfri

Remian met him at the airship docks of Fal’Herim. “Hey, Tim. Sorry for asking for help so suddenly.” “It’s fine.” Tim waved it off dismissively. “So, you’re really going to challenge the Flaming Salamander Lord to a duel?” “Yeah, we can’t afford to offend the Wood Emperor. Kor’ag-dras was quite clear on his demands.” Remian winced. “At least he gave us a fighting chance.” “Literally.” Tim rolled his eyes. “Well, if it’s books you want, I’ve got you covered. I have the best collection of magic books in all of Fal’Herim. In fact, it’s safe to say I have THE collection of Fal’Herim.” “What did you do?” Remian asked, eyes wide. “Tim, did you steal everyone’s magic books?!” “No, I bought the national library.” Tim answered. “It was going for cheap.” “You BOUGHT the library?! Is that even legal?!” “Apparently Asda needed to raise disaster funds.” Tim shrugged. “She’s started selling off a lot of public property. The national library, the airport, half the schools, the entire sewage sy

Meanwhile, the Flaming Salamander Lord snorted. [A humaaan…? A humaaaan wants to challenge meeeee?] The word had reached him three days ago. But he didn’t care. Snoozing in the sun, the Flaming Salamander thought for a moment of how roasted human might taste. [Hmm. Maybe better not use too much fire. I might burn the meat.] The Flaming Salamander Lord thought. [I think… medium-rare would be best. Yeessssss… medium-rare.] *** The day before the duel, Phoebe brought Remian to her quarters and said, “Take off your clothes.” “What?” Remian blinked. Wordlessly, Phoebe handed him a thick and padded package. “What is this?” Remian opened it. Inside was a suit of leather armor. “Fire Wyvern leather, reinforced with dragon scales. Had to ask Darian for help to get the materials.” Phoebe said shortly. “Might itch a bit. Try it on.” “Dragon scales… did some dragon die for this?” Remian eyed it dubiously. “A

Markus leapt to one side as the paw came crashing down again. The ground shook as it landed where he’d stood a moment ago, causing him to stumble as the Golden Lion Lord tried to paw him once more.Half-panicked, Markus dropped his sword and his shield, giving up on blocking entirely and focused on running. He dodged the paw, leapt aside as the ground shook from the impact, rolled as far and as fast as he could, only to fail to escape the next slam. Pieces of Frame went scattering across the field.Astonishingly, though the veteran legionnaire had the wind knocked clear out of him, as far as injuries went, Markus wasn’t all that hurt. Was his armor really that good? Markus had a moment of doubt before he glanced at the Golden Lion Lord and saw the big cat actually yawn.Looking at it from the lion’s point of view, Markus suddenly had a burst of insight and felt all the more miserable for it.The Golden Lion Lord was just toying with him!

“Target spotted!” “Ready all ballistae!” Song Chen ordered. “Range?” “Three kilometers!” “Keep me updated!” Song Chen studied the Cyan Python Lord through his spyglass. “Load explosive bolts!” “Explosive bolts!” the order was echoed from ship to ship. FDF personnel set bolts inscribed with explosive runes into the ballistae. This was going to be an expensive affair. Explosive bolts, unlike those fitted with runes like Penetration or Impact, were one-use items. Once they hit their targets, they would explode and the bolts themselves would be shattered into countless shards. Song Chen hesitated for a moment, wondering if all this was going to be worth the cost, but George had been quite clear; spare no expense to take down the Cyan Python Lord. “Fire at five hundred meters!” Song Chen barked. “That close, sir? But the range of our ballistae can easily hit it from thrice the distance!” “That close! Those scales on that sna