The Dragon's Scale (COMPLETE, EDITING)

18.3 || Unrestful Night

The creature appeared as formless darkness, the edges of its being shimmering. Certain movements and patches of darker, dancing black provided what little form it did have, creating the faint outline of a cloak. A patch broke away from the rest, and what must have been a hand of black energy reached from the lighter black cloak toward them.

The reaper, according to the boy. Quite the fitting name.

And less than a few hundred feet separated them from it.

"Attack!" Cale barked.

The chains that bound them in place snapped. Mara shot her arrow, Cale summoned a spike of earth that sped upward, and Josh blasted a beam of light. The reaper's form grew faint, almost transparent, and the first two attacks passed through the creature.

The beam, however, collided with its middle, and its form darkened once more. Wails like hundreds of nails against chalkboards split the night air. It slimmed into a straight line as it writhed in the sky.

"So, light works," Josh said.

"Good, so we—move!"

The reaper swerved and plummeted to the earth.

Josh darted, but the shock wave of its collision with the sand sent him flying forward. He forced back the instinct to tuck and roll, hitting the ground chest first. Sand stormed around them. The boy screamed.

Twisting, Josh squinted through the dust cloud. Cale and Mara had met the same fate as him but recovered faster without a kid on their backs. The reaper's form had spread out, but now it rushed back together.

"I'm sorry," the boy murmured into Josh's shoulder. "It's going to get you guys now."

Flashes illuminated the night as Cale and Mara channeled beams of light at the reaper. It squirmed around most of them, letting out its ear-piercing wail when scraped by the attacks.

"We've got it," Josh said, pushing himself back up. "See? We're already holding it back."

The boy shook his head. "It isn't enough."

Josh frowned. He turned to face the reaper, focusing light into his hands. As much as he wanted to say everything was fine, the sheer terrified certainty in the boy's voice unnerved him. "What do you know—"

The reaper screeched, and the moment Cale and Mara flinched, it moved like a whip forward. Its form slammed into the two, sending them flying back.

Josh released his light blast. The reaper squirmed out of the way and dodged subsequent beams as it moved closer. Josh released his hold on the light and sprinted out of the reaper's path. A biting gust brushed past his back, and the boy yelped.

"You okay?" Josh asked as he hurried in Mara and Cale's direction.

"It stung, but yeah," the boy said. He continued on with his apologies and warnings, but Josh tuned it out. His focus needed to be on keeping the boy alive so he could continue making the excessive remarks.

The moment Josh reached the others, Cale exclaimed, "Draznik terrath!"

Earth shot up from the ground and formed a dome around them. Cale dropped to his knees almost at the same time the top of the dome sealed closed. He panted, and even with no light, Josh could see he'd gone pale again.

Their small rest hadn't been long enough.

The reaper slammed into the earth. It shuddered and cracks spread across its surface, but it held. For now.

"What's the plan?" Josh asked.

"If only light works, we blast it and don't stop when it breaks through," Mara said. She peered over Josh's shoulder. "Unless the child knows anything."