Bella lets him.

The man they see downstairs appears to be playing the part of the confused patron who didn't realize they were closed - the door's standing open, unbroken, the sign's flipped. It'd be a very convincing act if he didn't look so familiar.

Bella turns around and goes up the stairs again as fast as she dares, converting her arms into paws too for better speed.

Max doesn't act the way he wants and make a hissing noise in the back of his throat. Or immediately start slinging spells. He will - try to be pleasant.

"Can I help you?" he asks.

Brrr. Don't be weird, don't be weird. You are not supposed to know this man is a dragon, just - ordinary customer. Carry on.

"Yup! But honestly, I think we're just going to drop out and start doing this full-time, so our hours will get more conventional."

"An array of places - I can give some recommendations if you want them, sparse as they are. It's a pain to find people to teach magic. But, once you get the basics you can self-teach from there."

Stall. Stall. Bella's doing something, he's sure of it, his job is to be the distraction.

"That's truly interesting," says the dragon, and as the last syllable ends he lunges past Darren for the stairs, materializing a tail to knock him over with as he goes.

Of course it is red and scaly.

He's not surprised in the slightest. Winded, knocked over, yes - but surprised, no. He coughs, rights himself, and manages to gather enough air to shout.

"Bella!" he shouts, to Bella upstairs. "Dragon's coming! He knows!"

And then he starts scrambling up and retrieving scrolls and trying to figure out how the hell they're supposed to take on a dragon.

The dragon may be faintly heard saying -

"Pantheon."

Fuck.

Meanwhile, Bella doesn't hear Darren yelling at her because she was already in Pantheon herself.

"CAM! ADANA! DRAGON!"

Unhelpfully, it's Idania that responds.

"Wait, what?!"

Wings flaff out of her back. "He won't know how -"

He does know how.

Here he is, mostly human except for the tail and the claws.

Phix flings herself into the air, only for him to finish transforming and easily snatch her out of the air and slam her back down to the ground.

Oh.

"Rae!" she hisses, to the vial of sand. "Dragon, dragon in the Belfry, grab the daeva, I am going to be very very busy."

Let's see. Dragon. How does one fight a dragon - she's more maneuverable than he is, she bets, but what can she use on a dragon? Nasty concoctions are the best bet. Or magic, but she doesn't have easy access to that and her boyfriend has left for home. The nasty concoctions are something she knows. Just - can't get to right now. Right. First priority - make sure Phix doesn't die.

"Hey, ugly!" shouts Idania, retrieving a woefully insufficient knife from her boot. "Your mother was a toad and your dad was really fucking desperate! C'mon, going for the sphinx, first? Bring it, bastard, I can take you with my eyes closed."

That is a lie. She is pretty sure that even fully outfitted, she could not manage to take the dragon. But. Not like that's going to stop her.

Idania is swatted. Yup, that is definitely painful. Is that a fractured leg? Probably, good thing she doesn't need to walk. She can fly.

"Ow," mutters Idania, floating herself back up instead of pushing herself off of the ground. Right, maneuverability, maybe not actually a strength she has when the dragon is not flying. Where the fuck are the daeva?

Okay, offense, she can do an offense. Obvious weak points - eyes, ears, underbelly, genitalia. Wait, do dragons have-? Nevermind, not important. Less obvious ones - probably any of the dragon's joints - she has a particularly vicious visual of introducing her woefully insufficient knife to between the joints of the dragon's claws. Hey, all's fair in love and war. This one is definitely under the 'war' category.

Eyes are high value, but he'll protect those like nobody's business. Let's not. Not yet, anyway. Can she - aha, look, the scales overlap but if she tilts the dagger just so, she can just -

Stab. Oh, did you need that tail? So sorry, it's bleeding now.

That'll earn her another swat.

Phix seems to be trying to say something but she's a bit too squished.

This time, Idania actually sees it coming and barely, barely manages to dodge. Ow, bad leg, stop being pain, Idania's working here.

"Yoohoo, ugly, scaly bastard! You missed!"

What was her plan again? Oh right. Get its attention. Gulp.

And that is when Max makes it through the portal, scroll in hand.

He and starts muttering a chant, glaring daggers at the dragon.