Princess Rupert awoke from her daze, gently flickering her eyelashes, instinctively reached out, and searched for her sword among the rubble. But her fingertips had just touched the cold cross-hilt when she suddenly stopped.
In the sliver of her opened eyelids, she saw that beam of brilliance, dazzling, radiant, azure like emerald, piercing through the shadow wings spread by Lifegard. The tall figure wielding the lance was like a knight forged from steel, with four steel spikes extending behind streamlined shoulder armor, flickering dimly in the dark.
The giant dragon let out a shriek, as if drawn by that beam of light, its massive body veering to one side. Yet it still flapped its damaged shadow wing, sweeping towards the knight with a claw from the other side.
