Page 69 of Mantle

Embers burned in its throat.

Its eyes were nothing but white-hot cracks of fury.

Kai cursed.

Ariana called out to us.

Nyx pulled up short on heading to the portal site.

“Go,” I told them, rolling my shoulders, then gathering my dragon fire.

The beast noticed my challenge and ran at me, full force, the ground rumbling, everything melting and crushing from the force of his power and wild movements.

The place was collapsing.

“Run!” I yelled over to the others.

Thankfully, I caught sight of Kai grabbing Nyx and helping him away toward Ariana.

He turned back with Ariana, wanting to help.

But I already had it.

I knew how to end this quickly.

A magma beast—right up my fucking alley.

I concentrated and remained still as it ran at me, closing in.

And then I deployed my dragon fire.

It rose from my chest, a searing beam of fire shooting from my mouth.

It hit the beast in the center of its torso, pushing it back.

It roared in fury—but it didn’t get closer.

I twisted my palms and redirected my fire into a spiraling arc that curved around it, and then with a final push, it disintegrated the being into nothing but ash.

“Damn,” Nyx choked.

“Very impressive,” Kai said.

I smiled and made my way back to them.

“Impeccable control,” Ariana praised me.

“A long way from that class where I nearly set the whole wall aflame, huh?”

She beamed out at me. “An incredibly long way.”

Kai thrust the medallion into the air. “Mission accomplished! Tous!”

We all gave a post battle cry of satisfaction and excitement.

And then we stepped back through the portal.

Professor Veyna Morrigan was waiting and actually clapping, her eyes shining. “Excellent work. Your tactics, your teamwork, your problem-solving,andmagical knowledge base were all top-notch. We’ll debrief in more detail once I attend to an unfortunate situation. In the meantime, please take a well-earned break.”

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