Page 41 of Ava’s Legacy of the Dragons (Of Dragons, Love, and Destiny #1)

If she hadn't immediately raised the dagger, it would have hit her directly in the chest. Even so, the impact was intense.

Her hand holding the weapon slammed against her chest, and part of the magic surged into her body.

A paralyzing weakness coursed through her, her legs gave way beneath her, and she fell to her knees.

Simultaneously, her opponent prepared the next barrage of attacks and laughed loudly.

She couldn't hesitate, couldn't catch her breath, or it would be over.

She clenched her jaw as she gathered her strength, then ran her hand through the sand once again, hurled a load at him, and dodged the attack, but the mage reversed the direction of the sand so that the grains flew towards her.

She ducked, squeezed her eyes shut, and raised her arms for protection. He was too strong for her. But she saw one last way out. Quickly, she turned to the audience. "I don't want to fight!"

The mage jutted out his chin. "You don't stand a chance against me anyway!"

"Why are we even fighting each other? Because Elora commands it? I didn't realize when we became enemies!"

"We mages can't trust anyone!" her opponent roared and formed the next attack.

The audience didn't react, or at least no one intervened. As far as she could tell from the occasional fearful expression, they didn't dare to.

She raised the dagger and jumped to the side. This time, she managed to deflect the sphere, but the projectile flew towards the audience. It landed with a loud bang on a chair that a spectator had just jumped away from just in time.

Startled, she raised her hands. "I don't want to hurt anyone!"

A murmur rippled through the spectator stands, prompting Elora to stand up and raise her right hand. The spectators immediately fell silent.

"Don't let yourselves be manipulated. She's not on our side, I can assure you, otherwise she wouldn't have befriended the dragon fighters who are the king's henchmen!"

Angry shouts erupted, and individual fists were raised in the air.

Some remained silent, however. But Ava couldn't focus on this small group, as the mage was already hurling the next attack.

She managed to deflect the first projectile, but the second followed so quickly that the blood-red lightning struck her arm unimpeded.

She staggered back, the dagger slipping from her hand and falling to the ground.

Although the pain hissed through her body and threatened to paralyze her, she stretched out to grasp the weapon. She reached the handle just in time. She didn't know where she found the strength, but she reacted instinctively, raised her hand, and deflected a red bolt of fire.

How long could she keep this up? The possibility that she only needed to endure this for a certain time to secure her release was out of the question.

One look into Elora's merciless eyes was enough to recognize the truth.

The sorceress would not let her escape this arena.

Even if Ava were to miraculously defeat her opponent, Elora would never dream of letting her go.

Her gaze met Elora's, and all she saw was hardened callousness. Nothing but the unrestrained will to do whatever was necessary to make the sorcerers the new rulers of this world.

"Finish this!" Elora demanded of Arthur, causing a cunning grin to appear on the sorcerer's face.

He had only been toying with her until now?

This realization hit Ava along with another attack, mercilessly revealing her chances of success. Unless a miracle happened, she wouldn't leave this arena alive.

A miracle...

Suddenly, she thought of the little dragon.

He was a miracle, not just for her, but for all the inhabitants of this realm.

She thought of the moment when he had hatched and allowed herself to feel those emotions.

She felt the deep connection they shared, remembered the moment when they first looked into each other's eyes, recalled the warmth in her heart, his heartbeat, and believed she could sense it again.

The feeling gave her power, new energy, so that she had the strength to withstand the coming attacks.

Hold on, he seemed to say, though she might have been imagining it. Still, the words helped her. Maybe that was all this was about. Holding on. Holding on until... She didn't know what could happen, what would help her, but she would hold on.

The thought of seeing the dragon again spurred her on.

It felt as if a wall inside her was breaking apart, releasing unimaginable power that she didn't know how to handle at first. After taking a breath with this new energy, she reacted faster, dodged the attacks, and deflected them with the dagger, even though the assaults grew stronger and stronger.

The sorcerer's face hardened as he conjured the next magic ball.

What she read in his eyes was ice-cold calculation.

The final blow.

While she concentrated on the energy bolt between his hands, he whipped one of the iron chains around. At the last second, she dodged before the metal struck her face with full force. And as she ducked underneath it, the sorcerer hurled his energy ball.

She had provoked him. He had only been toying with her, but when she had started to escape his attacks, the game was over for him, and he just wanted to see her on the ground. Defeated. Maybe dead.

As if in slow motion, she saw the magic ball flying towards her. Too close and too big to dodge.

Just before it hit her, the sound of loud wingbeats filled the air. A gigantic shadow spread over the arena, and the wind grew fiercer, like a hurricane. A massive club-like tail swept past her by a hair's breadth and slammed the sorcerer aside.

Everything happened slowly, as if time had slowed down tenfold.

Nevertheless, she had to focus on the attack that was racing towards her unimpeded.

Surging with new power, she raised her hand and deflected the energy ball with the dagger.

She didn't need to look up to know who had come.

She did it anyway, just for a millisecond.

When she saw the red gleaming scales and the gigantic body, she smiled.

Thalara descended, and a figure appeared on her back, throwing down a rope to her.

Kilian.

"Hold on tight!"

"The dragon fighters!" the spectators screamed in panic. Terror-stricken, they scattered about screaming and tried to leave the arena. "How did they get through our protective barrier?"

Elora quickly raised her hands and formed a protective dome, which she spread over all the spectator stands in record time. It glowed red and seemed indestructible.

"Kill her!" Elora shouted to the sorcerer.

Arthur got up, spat into the sand, and fixed his gaze on Ava.

It took him less than a second to conjure a new bolt.

His fireball hissed towards her, but she jumped away, grabbed Kilian's rope, and swung to the side.

Thalara shot into the sky with a jerk so that her feet didn't touch the ground, and soon she was flying higher than the top of the arena.

But Elora wouldn't let them escape so easily. For a moment, she broke the protection and hurled an attack at Ava.

Quickly, she gained momentum and swung to the side, but the sorceress hadn't aimed directly at Ava.

Rather, the bolt shot straight into the rope she was holding onto.

It tore, and Ava fell into the depths. A scream escaped her throat as she expected a hard impact any second, not knowing if she could survive a fall from this height.

Just before she hit the sand, two claws grabbed her by the upper arms.

Kilian's dragon.

Immediately, Thalara shot upwards, faster this time, so that Elora's next attack missed Ava, as did the following ones.

The arena below her grew smaller and smaller until it looked like a miniature landscape, as did the battlefield, the sorcerer, the spectators, and the castle where the sorceress resided.

But all of this was no miniature landscape. It was deadly serious. And she had just escaped her seemingly certain death sentence as if by a miracle.