The first thing that struck Tristan about the Wild Realm was the heat. It was palpable and all encompassing. Thanks to his glut of fire dragon blood, he was very resilient – but he immediately began spinning and venting his crucible to provide a cool breeze in an aura around him.

The skies above were the second thing that caught his attention. They were deep, blue, and vast. Almost like the ocean, with cresting clouds that undulated in billowing waves; the breakers causing areas where the sun did not shine through.

They had emerged outside a large city. Massive stone walls dredged up from the earth, covered in metal plates with spikes sticking out protected the place. A huge gate was open before them, and was absolutely filled with market stalls.

Bertram rode up alongside Tristan and briefly explained, "They do their market outside the city, and seal up at night when things get really dangerous." He chuckled and turned his white, pristine unicorn to the left, heading south. "Come."

"Where are we going?" Felicity asked excitedly.

Rory rode up alongside Bertram and replied, "Into the wild, as they call it. The Wild Realm is…odd. It does not have a structure, per-se. Not like the Mortal Realm. It is constantly fluctuating outside of certain locations." She pointed back to the walls with her spear, "Like that city. Look at the ground at the base of the walls."

Tristan narrowed his gaze and did see a brief color shift from the packed, brown, cracked stone as it shifted ever-so-subtly to a light grey hue. "I think I see what you mean. Stone shifting colors?"

Rory nodded, "Good eyes on you. Yes. The grey stone does not shift along with the Realm."

Bertram seemed keen to kick the unicorns into a full gallop, and he looked back to Tristan with a smile on his face. "I want to see how fast we can go. Do you mind?"

"Onyx?" Tristan asked as he leaned forward.

The unicorn replied, "We can gallop for miles upon miles."

"Then let's go!" Bertram said before letting out a whoop and gently nudging his unicorn with his heels. The majestic creature did not need the motivation, as it let out a neigh before rushing forth.

Tristan scooted up more towards Onyx's front shoulders, and ducked himself down low toward his mane as he gripped tight, deep into the hair. "Go on. Really let loose."

Onyx let out a snort of affirmation before taking off, kicking up dirt clods and stone chunks as the trio raced across the badlands.

Felicity held onto Tristan's head with her front paw-claws and was letting her wings flutter in the breeze. "They can run so much faster than I can fly!" she shouted.

The trio of riders traveled for miles before the world began to distort and warp around them. Bertram shouted out, "This is going into the wild! Focus on what you want to find! Unique dragons!"

Tristan nodded and focused his intent on the idea of finding a dragon that he had not encountered. Ideally, he thought, I'd love to find a mind dragon. Giving myself resistance to mental spells seems like something that is going to be really useful.

Bertram glanced back at him, "What we hunting, brother?"

"Mind dragon," Tristan shouted back.

Bertram nodded, "Haven't hunted one of those before." He turned to face the front.

Tristan kept focusing on the idea of finding one of those dragons and the ground beneath them became a texture less, flat surface that expanded to infinity. The sky was the only constant.

Then, it shifted. The ground beneath turned to sand, and an ocean appeared to their right. The deep, rolling, purple waves glistening with green, glowing creatures off in the distant surf. Onyx slowed alongside the two other unicorns.

Bertram dismounted and drew his sword, "Well, we went into the wild. Why a mind dragon?"

Tristan dismounted as well as Felicity flew off his head and turned invisible, flying high up above him to scout. "I don't want what happened to grandfather happening to me."

Rory nodded tersely as she unfolded her spear and locked it into the lengthened configuration, "Makes perfect sense." She began sniffing the air, "I do not smell much aside from the salt air." Tristan shot a curious glance at her to which she replied, "Those with Drakonid heritage can sometimes sniff out dragons."

Bertram reached into a hip pouch and withdrew a small, metal stick.

"What's the stick for?" Tristan asked.

"It's got some divination spell stored inside." Bertram tapped the slightly pointier end, then set it flat on his palm. "You push some essence into it, and…" The metal rod spun to their left and pointed inland. "There we go. Dragons be that way." He pocketed the tool and began walking that way.

Tristan looked back to Onyx and the other unicorns, "Keep us in line of sight, but stay out of harm's way."

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"Of course, Lord Tristan."

The trio of warriors headed up the small, sandy beach and up the lip where some short, tough grass that gave way to a field of strewn boulders. Bertram glanced back to Tristan, "Why don't you take the lead. Let me see what you've learned."

Felicity flew down and landed on Tristan's head, making her paw-claw biscuits. "I found something that might be a dragon. It was u-g-l-y. Long and purple- like a worm!" She made a disgusted noise. "Bleh. Nasty." She pointed out in front of his face, "Over that way, the boulder that looks like a bell. About a thousand feet away."

Tristan drew his sword and nodded, "Right. Take off and circle above. If you see me needing it, force feed me elixirs."

"I can do more than that," Felicity replied as she reached into her extradimensional storage space and pulled out some cotton fluff from the crafting area. "I can transmute this into something super heavy to drop on it!"

Tristan frowned, "You might be invisible, but I would bet if it is the mind dragon I'm wanting to hunt, it could sense where you were anyways. Just…stay back…and stay safe."

"F-i-n-e."

Bertram spoke up, "Your gal invisible?"

Tristan nodded and pointed to the direction Felicity had shown him. "Over there." He grabbed the bow off his back, strung it, and looped it over his shoulder and chest in case he would need it. Making sure his cloak was tucked into the belt and out of the way, he began moving that direction.

The rock came into sight quickly enough. He spun his essence crucible faster, and poured the power into his armor, activating Scales of Our Foe, Armor of Ice, Near Miss, and Lucky Instinct all with the singular surge of energy. He did the same for his pommel, the bastard sword extending in length as Dragon's Doom activated.

He could hear a rustling behind him, and glancing back he saw Bertram's orange armor had grown to cover him fully, and his large great sword had become even larger and bulkier. Rory, on the other hand, did not use essence-weaving. She slunk along next to Bertram, a shadow in his bulky mass.

The boulder couldn't hide the bulk of the creature behind it. But it was unlike any dragon Tristan had seen before. Thick, leather skin almost like the demon dragon, but it was not a hide. Rather, it was more bulbous and fleshy in appearance. It sent a wave of revulsion through his body and he felt the urge to expectorate but held it back.

An idea popped into his head, and he gently, carefully, clambered up the well-weathered and full-of-holes stone, getting to the top of the promontory as his allies crouched below. From above, he could see the full size of the creature. It was coiled up and lounging in the shade of the rock, seemingly asleep. Ten feet from tail to snout. If I was estimating its size compared to the traditional sized ones, he thought, this one is a juvenile.

He took a deep breath and leaped out over it. As he reached the apex of his jump, Tristan activated Elemental Imbuement on his blade, willing it to become raging ice. At the same time, he pushed essence into the cross guard to use Winter's Wrath. The icy torrent exploded around him, and he stabbed down into the crux between the wings and the spine.

The creature woke immediately and opened its maw, but no shriek came out. Instead, Tristan felt his body seize up in place. No matter how he tried to move, his limbs wouldn't respond. The creature began to move, but Tristan could still spin his essence crucible. He kept churning it through the cross guard, and Winter's Wrath expanded and grew ever more dire. The ripping ice and bashing hail forming a tempest around him that continued to chill and even freeze the flesh of the creature below him.

It bucked, and Tristan was only able to stay in place thanks to the fact that his feet were now frozen to its hide. It rolled, and he could only watch as the ground came up to meet him and pray that his armor kept him safe. He could feel the crunch as it rolled, and felt his limbs bending as it got onto its side. The pain coursed through him, and he had no way to move.

I have to stop its roll! He could feel his essence low from the very intensive ice storm, and pushed his remaining power into the hilt to cast Rime Blast. The cone of ice shot down his blade, exploding inside the creature and cutting off the silent roar as his limbs finally came back under his control.

Right in time for it to roll all the way over and on top of him. He was able to lean forward enough to flatten himself, and the ice that had accumulated around him kept him from being fully crushed – but when it rolled back up, he could feel the bruising along his back and groaned in pain.

Bertram ran into sight, and he used a single, massive chop to decapitate the creature. "Got it! Sorry it took so long, couldn't move."

Tristan coughed and broke himself free of the constraining ice, letting all of his spells fade. "Mind if I-"

"I'm not a good essence-weaver," Bertram replied as he went toward the center of the torso. "You get the crucible, we both get the blood. Seems fair enough." He grinned as he stabbed his blade in, "Remember what grandfather said. Blood first."

Tristan chuckled, "You don't have to tell me twice."

He could hear Rory and Felicity chatting behind them, and as he prepared to drink from the now flowing wound, he heard Felicity comment, "Well, dragonslayers will be dragonslayers."

Rory replied, "Yes, but the whole drinking blood part is quite off putting."

"Especially for Tristan, he's a vegetarian!"

Rory exploded with laughter at that, "You mean he cannot eat meat? What type of life is that?"

"Hey! Starberries heated up taste just like beef!" Felicity replied. "But yes. Elves with their weak constitution towards meat. Me? I like a good steak."

"I'd hope you like meat, given your nightly activities," Rory replied.

Tristan just chuckled and took several deep breaths before putting his face to the wound and gulping down as much of the blood as he could quaff. The taste was very off-putting, like copper mixed with salt. It sent a wave of revulsion through him, and he had to swallow that back by just sucking down more of the blood.

Once he had his fill, he pulled away as Betram took his spot and sucked down the horrid nectar from the corpse.

Then, the pain came. Tristan felt the worst headache of his life. He staggered backward and screamed as it felt like his head was going to split in two. The pressure built, and built, and his vision went white as he heard static in his ears. Then, it ceased, and he gasped in relief.

Bertram was still sucking down the blood, and Tristan shook himself once before glancing at the ladies, seeing their concerned expressions – but both had seen their respective dragonslayers go through it before, he knew.

"Mighty beast which now lays slain, I take from you what you can no longer use and is mine by right of conquest." Tristan intoned the words, spinning his very empty crucible, and bringing the heels of his palms together as his fingers formed that claw-like shape. He shut them, and the silvery glow surged out from his body, encompassing the corpse before pulling the essence back to him.

Felicity flapped over and landed on his head. "Good job! Another type, done with! What type was this?"

"Mind dragon," Tristan replied as he watched Bertram go through the same wicked headache as the man staggered back to the corpse and leaned against it.

Felicity giggled, "Mind dragon…pff. I could make a joke about that."

Rory walked past the duo and crouched next to the corpse, "We butchering this, or what?"

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