Dragoncarnation: Good or Evil? Who cares?

E9: The Escape Plan

As we ran I peeked behind to check and see our situation better. Nat was easily keeping pace, no surprise from one who's aspiring to be a knight. Iris is...well she's keeping up. Seems like she switched from running to leaping with magic. Yeah, that suits her style of movement better anyways.

Behind us is; one, two, three...twelve knights following us? At least three of them are mages too.

"You three! Halt!" A knight called out to us.

"When has saying that 'ever' worked?" I retorted.

"Gaaaaaaaah!"

The sudden scream from a distance caused me to light up. Someone just yelled deeper into the treeline. It doesn't take a genius to know it was the dragon in question.

"Sounds like your dragon friend ran into the knights." Nat says

That's not good. If we heard that, then the knights definitely heard that. That means they'll quickly head towards the sound to surround him. I look back to my two friends to see Nat sharing a look with Iris who simply nods.

What? So, these two can work together?

Iris turns around opening her book as Nat suddenly lunges forward grabbing my waist.

"Strengthen. Accelerate." Iris casts.

As soon as she does Nat glows slightly and then we're off like a shot from a gun.

"Gnn!" Nat kept running with me under arm before swinging me around to carry me bridal style. "Okay. Better."

"Nat what are you doing?" I ask.

"That snake decided to stay behind and slow the knights down." She explained, "I'm going to get you as close as possible to your dragon, as crazy as it sounds."

"You figured this all out with a single glance?" I asked surprised.

"I know the snake better than you think. We do fight every day afterall." Nat grunts out

Is this an example of love and hate not being opposites?「Danger Detection」

Before I could think about it any more, danger detect's warning caused me to light up. "Nat--!"

Nat was already jumping back, right as a cluster of earth spikes started to rise from the ground. The cluster then continued running along a path before being cut away by something. That something turned out to be the little dragon. It was very fast and quickly cut down each spike that came up to target it while making his way to a nearby tree. It then began jumping over the treeline before someone I didn't want to see stepped forward.

It was Asceline, wielding her lance. When she pulled her lance across her body readying to swing I turned to Nat. "Brace yourself!" Asceline's weapon glew for a second before she quickly swung at the air in an open space. A white crescent of white launched out from the sword's path towards the air at a quick speed.

The crescent hit the dragon and knocked him out of the air with a single slash.

Air Cutter. A skill used by swordsmen to attack enemies at a distance without use of magic. Its no simple skill to use especially with a piercing weapon like a lance, however Asceline is no simple knight.

Is it alive or dead? After an attack like that I have very little idea and frankly don't want to find out the latter. However from that height and impact even if it survived I doubt it would be able to avoid recapture.

"Nat! Throw me!" Nat looked at me like I was crazy. Which was fair. It's a crazy request but we didn't have time. "Nat! Quick!"

Nat grunts as she crouches slightly only to toss me upward. I quickly twist into position myself before kicking off a tree while calling out "Wind". With wind surrounding me I launch towards the free falling dragon and catch him in my arms. I pull him close to my chest, rotating mid air and cradling his head before rolling across the ground coming to a stop as my back hits a tree.