Page 114 of Dragon 7

But Yoichi and Rin, they stayed.

I sneered. “Get off of the fucking stairs!”

Yoichi snatched off his mask. “Call your spirit beast back. He’s rested long enough.”

I blinked.

What? He can see and hear him?

I had no time to break this new information down. Goryū, come back.

The engines roared louder.

The propellers bit the air.

The plane accelerated forward, and the staircase rattled like a chain being dragged across concrete.

We were now too high in the air to jump. We either would fall to our deaths or get inside that plane where many armed men remained with Akiro and my father.

Goryū exploded from the dark below the plane.

Black smoke poured upward along the fuselage and his massive body reformed in the air above the hatch. His wings spread wide. His gold-fire eyes blazed brighter than before, as if the rest had fed him rage instead of calm.

He opened his jaw and shadow-fire flooded the hatch opening from above.

The men inside the doorway screamed. Three of them stumbled backward into each other. A fourth threw himself sideways and missed the ramp entirely—his body tumbled into open air, arms spinning, and the dark swallowed him before his scream finished.

Two more staggered out of the hatch clutching their faces. Their legs buckled on the top step. The wind caught them and peeled them off the staircase like leaves torn from a branch.

They fell without sound.

Hiro and I were able to rush up.

Goryū poured more fire into the opening, and I got a good view inside. The men still in the plane scrambled deeper into the cabin bay, away from the hatch, away from the shadow flames, tripping over each other and their own weapons.

The doorway cleared.

That is all I have for now.

Rest again. Come back when you can.

Goryū's body thinned. The gold eyes dimmed. He dissolved into the wind along the plane and was gone.

But the hatch was open and empty.

The tree line approached. If the plane gained enough speed it would rise over them. If it rose, the staircase would fold or break away and anyone still on it would fall.

We were running out of ground.

A few remaining men rushed out, and I knew Akiro was probably running out of men at this point.

"Move!" Rin's voice cut through the noise like a blade through silk.

I grabbed the railing with both hands and pressed my body flat against the left side.

Hiro threw himself against the right railing.

Up in front, the twins dropped to the steps and hugged the metal, and Reo stayed out of the way.