Dragon's Last Hope

Chapter 6

The first hunter appeared at the chamber entrance—black tactical gear, silver-lined visor, a crossbow that hummed with electromagnetic energy. Maya felt the wrongness of the weapon like acid on her skin, but instead of recoiling, she found herself calculating angles and vulnerabilities with a predator's instinct.

"Seven dragons," the hunter announced into his comm unit, his voice mechanically distorted. "Confirmed light dragon manifestation. Requesting immediate backup."

"Too late for that," Maya said softly, and let her human form finally dissolve completely.

The transformation was nothing like the gradual awakening she'd experienced upstairs. This was instantaneous, reality bending around her as flesh became scale, bone became wing, and her consciousness expanded into something vast and terrible and beautiful. Golden light erupted from her draconic form, temporarily blinding the hunter's equipment.

Around her, her seven mates underwent their own transformations—Leon's sleek shadow-wreathed form, Kai's flame-crowned magnificence, Kieran's crystalline ice-armoured bulk, Cassius's storm-wreathed serpentine length, Darius's mountain-sized earth-scaled mass, Lucian's radiant light-touched wings, and Xander's reality-bending void-touched presence that seemed to exist in the spaces between dimensions.

The chamber, which had seemed spacious for eight humans, suddenly became impossibly cramped with eight full-sized dragons. Yet somehow the ancient stone walls expanded to accommodate them, the magic woven into the foundations recognising what they had become.

The hunter's weapon discharged, silver-core bolts screaming through the air. But Maya was no longer the terrified analyst who had stumbled into this world hours ago. Her dragon-enhanced reflexes allowed her to twist away from the projectiles, her golden scales deflecting the ones she couldn't avoid. The silver burned where it touched, but the pain only sharpened her focus.

*Together,* she projected through the bonds, and felt seven minds respond as one.

Leon's shadows engulfed the chamber entrance, blinding the hunters' technological advantages. Kai's flames superheated the air, making their breathing apparatus malfunction. Kieran's ice created treacherous footing on the stairs above. Cassius's lightning fried their electronic equipment. Darius caused the museum's foundation to shift, throwing off their coordinated assault. Lucian's radiance overwhelmed their visual sensors. And Xander simply... erased three hunters from existence, folding them into void-spaces between reality.

But more kept coming. Maya could hear reinforcements flooding into the museum above, and smell the ozone discharge of heavy weapons being deployed. These weren't ordinary dragon hunters—they moved with military precision and carried equipment she'd never heard of.

"They're prepared for us," Leon's mental voice carried grim admiration through their bond. "Someone's been studying dragon combat patterns."

"Then let's give them something new to study," Maya replied, her consciousness touching each of her mates simultaneously.

What happened next had never been attempted in the recorded history of dragonkind. Seven elemental powers, channelled through a light dragon's harmonising resonance, merged into something that transcended their individual natures. Maya became a conduit, her golden energy weaving shadow and flame, ice and storm, earth and light and void into a unified force that reality itself seemed to strain to contain.

The combined power erupted outward, not as destruction but as transformation. The museum's foundations didn't crumble—they evolved, stone becoming crystal, metal becoming something that sang with harmonic frequencies. The hunters' weapons didn't explode—they simply ceased to function, their silver components rejecting the harmonies that now permeated every molecule of the building.

Above them, Maya heard cursing in multiple languages as twenty of the world's most elite dragon hunters found themselves armed with expensive paperweights in a structure that had become fundamentally hostile to their presence.

"Withdrawal!" someone shouted. "The target has achieved full manifestation!

Boots thundered across the museum floors above as the hunters retreated, but Maya could sense their withdrawal was tactical, not permanent. Through her enhanced hearing, she caught fragments of radio chatter—coordinates being called in, heavier equipment being requested, something about "Protocol Seven authorisation pending."

"They'll be back," Leon said, his massive shadow-wreathed form shifting restlessly in the transformed chamber. "With bigger guns and friends."

Maya felt the truth of it through their bond, along with his tactical assessment of their situation. The Order of the Silver Chain didn't retreat—they regrouped. And if they were calling for Protocol Seven authorisation, that meant they were escalating to weapons designed to level city blocks.

"How long do we have?" she asked, her golden scales still humming with residual energy from their combined power display.

"Hours, maybe less," Kai replied, his flame-crowned head turning toward the chamber's multiple exits. Through their bond, Maya felt his restless energy, his desire to hunt their enemies rather than wait to be hunted. "Depends how quickly they can mobilize their heavy assets."

Vivienne, who had somehow remained human throughout the chaos, approached Maya's draconic form with careful respect. "The bonding worked," she said, wonder evident in her voice. "Seven equal bonds. It shouldn't be possible, but the resonance patterns are stable."

"More than stable," Cassius observed, electricity still crackling along his serpentine length. "I can feel her anchoring all of us. Our individual powers are enhanced through the connection."

Maya tested the bonds experimentally, letting her consciousness drift along each thread. Through Leon, she experienced the tactical possibilities of shadow manipulation. Through Kai, the fierce joy of flame given form. Each connection offered access to abilities she'd never dreamed of, while her light-based powers seemed to amplify theirs in return.

"This changes everything," Darius rumbled, his mountain-sized bulk making the crystallised chamber walls vibrate. "A seven-way claiming bond... the political implications alone—"

"Can wait until we're not being hunted by militarized fanatics," Kieran interrupted, his ice-armored form radiating cold that turned the air itself into visible mist. "We need to move. This location is compromised."

Maya felt agreement flow through all seven bonds, but also something else—a protective instinct that made her dragon nature bristle. These males were hers now, just as she was theirs. The idea of running from threats felt fundamentally wrong.

"Or," she said slowly, testing an idea that was forming in her expanded consciousness, "we could end this. Permanently."

Xander's void-touched presence shifted in ways that hurt to observe directly. "You're thinking like a predator now. Good. What did you have in mind?"