The Systems Challenge

Owen wasn't sure which he noticed first: the fire shield that appeared partway up the hill to their left or the column of blue and purple flames descending on it. Either one was rather noticeable, even in the early afternoon light.

Yet, while he was pretty sure he was the first to notice it, Leon and Elwin were the first to react to it. Which was a credit to their training. That they see a potential threat, they're able to respond much more quickly than Owen and Bart. Which is also why he was confident he noticed it before they did. If they had noticed it first, he was confident that they'd already be halfway to the fire shield by the time he would have noticed.

When Owen turned to head towards the battle that was commencing, Leon and Elwin were already at the halfway point. How they were able to move so fast, wearing such heavy armor, uphill, Owen wasn't sure, just that they seemed to be able to do that without breaking a sweat.

Not seeing much other option, Owen took a moment to string his bow and nock an arrow. Though he didn't see the point in getting it ready, since he was pretty sure that the arrows he'd shot at it on their first encounter with the dragon burned to ash before even getting close enough to actually even bounce off.

Still, he felt like it would be good to have it ready just in case he saw a n opportunity to hit the dragon. Or maybe on the off chance that the dragon wouldn't be the only thing that they might have to face.

While he could use his system's abilities on the dragon, he first wanted to be sure that he had a clear shot at it, since he certainly didn't want to hit anyone on his team or those who were already fighting the dragon, since he couldn't say who it was right at that particular moment.

It felt like it was a full minute before he noticed Bart starting to run up the hill after Leon and Elwin, making Owen shake his head. He'd wanted to keep Bart from getting caught up in any danger from the fire dragon, but at the same time, he didn't want to be blatant about it. So, since Bart hadn't noticed the dragon, Owen hadn't seen the need to inform him about it, but he wasn't going to openly try to stop him from engaging it either.

The battle seemed to move quickly. Just before Elwin and Leon reached the dragon after it smashed through the shield, Owen saw someone flying through the air, the flames on their clothing quickly going out, leaving his clothing singed and smoking.

Owen had a pretty good idea that it was Patricia and Patrick who had been attacked, given the shield of flames from earlier and the ice spears sticking out of the ground, in addition to an occasional wave of icicles falling about the dragon, only to get melted and then evaporating before they even brushed against the dragon's flames.

Which gave Owen an idea. He had a few things of his system that he didn't usually use, since it required other's abilities to be in effect already. Which wasn't something that he had figured out how to work with Elwin and Leon's system. Partly because they didn't always try to use their system over using their melee weapons.

Which he'd verified through experimentation with Elwin and Leon's assistance when they had a calm period in regards to potential combat.

For Bart's system, his didn't seem to have anything that Owen's system could assist or directly affect to help, but with Patrick and Patricia, Owen was confident that his system would be able to enhance some of their abilities beyond what seemed to be their limit or current strength.

Naturally, since they weren't part of the same group, it was clear that they hadn't had times where they could test and verify that from, but the hunch Owen was working with was that his system might affect energy spells or abilities. Which was clearly something that Patricia's and Patrick's systems were.

Elwin and Leon's system wasn't so much energy, but rather something that affected a kind of magnetism that would have their enemies as well as other things around them move as they wanted. Such as being able to pull an enemy towards them or push them away, no matter what the opponent was or had on them.

Owen wasn't sure how it might work on systems that used 'magic' as their base element, but that was something to work with later on. He didn't see how it would be beneficial to spend time thinking about it right now when there were other things that were more immediate to worry about.

So, as another batch of icicles formed, Owen did his best to enhance them, mostly with how cold they were. Trying to keep them frozen against the heat from the flames. He couldn't be sure if it would work or if he needed to get closer, since his tutorial was a little obstinate about some of the finer details about his abilities.

Yet, as these icicles fell on the dragon, they lasted long enough to pierce through its back. Not that it was clear if that did them any good. As it seemed like it had as much effect as before. Only, Owen was confident that it had an effect, it just wasn't apparent what that was at that particular moment.

Owen started to move closer, not sure if it would matter or not, since he couldn't think what he could do himself to begin with. Outside of being a support for the battle, which seemed to be going against the fire dragon.

Yet, as Owen saw the dragon's form start to swim, like the air did in the distance on hot days. Which alerted him to the fact that something around the battle was heating up in a different manner than the phrasing usually meant.

He wasn't sure what it was, but before he could call anything out in way of warning, it felt like a blast of heat launched out from the dragon. The blast wasn't especially hot, but it did have the force of a sonic boom that left a first degree burn over all of Owen's exposed skin. The blast had also launched everyone else back at least ten feet from where they had been fighting the dragon, which made Owen wonder if it might have been getting overwhelmed.

At that moment, the dragon seemed to be hesitating. Owen recognized the look, even though he couldn't quite place how he knew. It's expressions weren't something that he was used to seeing himself, so he couldn't explain how he knew the dragon was uneasy. Nor was there any reason he felt that he should be able to in the first place.

For a brief moment he wondered if he might be able to have tapped into the dragon's mind somehow. Even though his tutorial told him that he couldn't read the minds of creature's who were too different from him, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was able to pick up on something through the dragon's mind.

Shaking his head, he quickly aimed his bow and drew the arrow back, unsure if this would have any actual effect. Just that he couldn't see how it would hurt at the moment. Especially if the dragon was about to do what he thought.

As he let the arrow fly, a burst of light flared around the dragon, so Owen couldn't say if his arrow hit the dragon or anything. Just that he couldn't see for a minute. Then even after his vision started to return, he still had an afterimage of that light clouding almost the entirety of his vision.

He couldn't say that he was surprised, but what he found oddest was that while the dragon was gone, there was a large amount of fire burning on the hillside where the battle had been raging. Patricia was trying to put it out with the help of Elwin, Leon, and Bart, but for some reason, it didn't want to go out, despite there not being enough fuel for it to be burning that much in the first place.

He could hear them talking among themselves, though he couldn't make anything out. Yet, he was fairly confident that they were discussing where those flames had come from. Which Owen would like to know as well.

The only thing that came to mind was how when the fire dragon was 'cut' by a sword or anything, it dripped a kind of 'liquid fire' in place of its blood. Which then burned for a period of time, depending on how much came out.

What Owen wondered was if his arrow had actually hit the dragon when it was leaving. If that was the case, did he hit it in a particularly vulnerable location or was it because he hit the dragon at that particular time? He wasn't sure himself, but he knew that they might have just learned something rather important that could help them slay the fire dragon.

Assuming that was what they were facing, that is.