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“Alright, Chompy,” Stella said and patted the dragon beside her, “get out there and kick their butts.”

Chompy shook his head.

Stella’s expression fell. “Huh? Why not? Didn’t you say you’d help me?”

Chompy let out a low growl before snorting twice.

“What? It’s too troublesome?” Stella bit her lower lip. She clenched and unclenched her hands before exhaling. “This is a matter of life and death, Chompy. If this is too troublesome, then we’re both going to die because of your laziness. Sometimes, we have to do things even though we don’t want to. That’s life. And this is one of those things, okay?”

Chompy curled his feet underneath himself, lowering his stomach to the ground. He rested his chin on a nearby table and rolled his eyes up to look at Stella. A puff of smoke escaped from his nostrils, and his tail swished back and forth, clearing the furniture behind himself.

Stella’s eyes narrowed, and a vein bulged on her forehead. She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. Then she exhaled and flew down, landing on Chompy’s head. She opened her eyes and smiled at him, relaxing her body. “Okay, Chompy. I understand. You’re scared of them.”

Chompy stiffened.

Stella pretended as if she hadn’t noticed. “If I were you, I would be scared of them too,” she said and sighed to herself as if she were performing in a play. “After all, they have magicians, archers, warriors, and really large numbers of them too. I’d tuck my tail between my legs and run away, letting them do whatever they wanted to my home as long as I could survive. Like a cowardly dog.”

Chompy shot to his feet while growling. Stella clung to his scales, nearly falling off of his head as he pushed open the shutters blocking the window and leapt outside. Chompy let out a massive roar that nearly caused her to go deaf, but Stella whooped and cheered instead. “That’s the way to do it, Chompy!”

The army below was like a river of red. Chompy hovered in the air above them and opened his mouth, blowing out a breath of purple mist. People screamed out for the magicians to save them, and a gust of wind blew the purple mist over and away from the army. Stella’s eyes lit up. “Over there, Chompy! That’s where the mages are.” She pointed at a cluster near the center of the ocean of people. “You have to crush them first.”

Chompy let out another roar and flapped his wings twice, jerking up into the air as if he were pulled by strings. Then he folded his wings against the side of his body and fell towards the cluster of magicians like a boulder. They screamed for barriers, but Stella took in a deep breath and pointed at the magicians who were in the middle of casting. The wind cut against her face and caused tears to stream from her eyes as Chompy fell faster and faster, but that didn’t stop her from silencing all the magicians who were creating barriers.

The soldiers screamed as Chompy landed on top of them. He spun around in a circle, sweeping his blade-like tail around in an arc, cutting apart everything in its path. As he spun, he exhaled out a breath full of icicles, poking holes into thousands of soldiers in their way. With a roar, Chompy stood on his hind legs and fully extended his wings in one swift motion, creating little vortices of air around him that interrupted the arrows aiming for his head. They tumbled through the air and missed even though the mutant dragon was such a large target.

“Get that archer next!” Stella pointed at Lord Briffault. “Armies are like rats! Once you cut their head off, their bodies stop functioning!”

“Um, isn’t that the case for nearly every living creature?”

Stella flinched and turned her head. Mervin was sitting beside her. “Mervin? What the heck are you doing here?” The two bobbed up and down as Chompy galloped towards Lord Briffault, barreling through the soldiers who were trying to stop him with their shields and spears. Little by little, more and more spears embedded themselves into his paws and ankles, but Chompy ignored them and leapt forward, reaching Lord Briffault in a single bound. The noble’s eyes widened, but he didn’t retreat, aiming his bow at the mutant dragon standing over him. Chompy opened his mouth wide, and Lord Briffault released an arrow, aiming for the dragon’s eye. A red claw shot out of Chompy’s shoulder and snatched the arrow before it could hit him, and Chompy blew a breath of purple mist underneath himself, corroding all the soldiers it made contact with, turning them into nothing but flakes of dust. Lord Briffault stared at the dragon, who now had five legs and five claws, and shuddered as his vision was covered by a wave of purple.

Stella and Mervin turned their heads towards the red claw that had stopped the arrow. It was red and didn’t look as if it belonged to a dragon, looking much like a bird’s talons instead. “What’s this?” Stella asked, pointing at it. Chompy followed her finger with his eyes before snorting. A sixth leg sprang out of his other shoulder. It was red and unscaled, like a gorilla’s arm. “Did you get this from the chimera queen?”

Chompy puffed his chest out as if to say that were natural.

“Lookout!” Mervin shouted.

A ball of flames flew towards Chompy’s head. The dragon reached up to stop it, but before it made contact with his claws, it exploded. Stella screamed and curled up into a ball, shielding her face with her arms, but the impending pain didn’t come. She opened one eye and saw a figure towering over her. Mervin was kneeling in front of her with his arms and wings spread out to the side. There was a weak smile on his face. He opened his mouth and closed it again without saying anything. Then he fell forward on top of her, his back burnt from having taken the brunt of the explosion.

Stella tilted her head. “Mervin…?”

But the genie didn’t respond.

“Mervin!” Stella shouted and grabbed the genie king. Her hands clenched around his burnt clothes, and small cracking sounds echoed out of her mouth from her teeth grinding together. “Chompy! Kill them all! Don’t let a single one live!”

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