She resumed her firing position, but even as she did so the monster leaned back and summoned a Force Barrier of its own.

A shimmering green barrier of light appeared between us and the cobra, just as Astrid unloaded on the monster and Selena blasted fireballs at it from her gun. The shimmering green barrier buckled, but it held, and the cobra let out a disgusting roaring that sounded uncomfortably like human laughter.

“It’s a mimic!” Astrid yelled. “It will copy spells we throw at it. With each new spell we use, we’ll only get one chance before this fucker learns to copy it and throw it back at us!”

“Better make this count, then,” I muttered grimly, and drew three times upon my Flora Whelp strands.

Chapter 25

The three Flora Whelps seemed to come out of their portals primed for battle. They exploded out into the clearing, their scales rippling with livid color and their teeth flashing. I’d never seen Flora Whelps in battle before, and the aggression that they came out with was amazing. Vicious snarling noises emanated from their throats as they charged the Putrefied Cobra.

But a full-scale frontal attack was not what I was aiming for here. I couldn’t risk losing my Flora Whelp to the Cobra’s fangs. If a Whelp was killed, I would not be able to summon another one during this battle, and I’d have to start from scratch with a basic, unevolved Dragonling once we got back to the mansion.

Keeping this in mind, I commanded the three Whelps to leap around the Cobra, diving in to nip at its tail and sides while keeping out of the way of its deadly jaws. I was on the lookout for another poison spray attack from the Cobra, but it didn’t seem able to muster another one just yet. It would take a bit of time, I guessed, before it could build up its poison stores again. Even as I watched, it seemed to be flexing the sacs beneath its jawline, as if trying to speed up the process.

For the moment though, my tactic with the Flora Whelps was working. The Cobra seemed unable to focus on any one of them, but it was distracted from attacking us for the time being. It was bleeding green sticky ooze from multiple bullet wounds, and Belinda’s flail hung from the creature’s side where the spiked head had stuck. Even with all these wounds though, it still didn’t seem even close to being defeated.

However, we had a moment’s breathing space to check in with each other while the monster focused on the Flora Whelps.

Selena stood at my back, her magitech rifle at the ready. Behind us, Astrid had dragged Belinda back into the mouth of the cave. Now, however, the two women came rushing back. They looked pale.

“Belinda,” I asked. “Are you ok?”