You finally decide to act and lauch yourself into the fire. You give out a huge roar and with your wings wide you try to force the man onto the ground.
The man looked in your direction to find a huge black dragon racing towards him. A look of surprise crosses his face and he narrowly dodges your claws.
"A dragon! And I thought this magic book was crazy!" you hear him say. You roar again and launch a ball of pure magic energy at him from your jaws. As it was about it hit him, it suddenly dispersed, as if hitting a barrier.
You hear him laugh and you watch as he summons another ball of fire and launches it at you. You were too slow, and give a pained cry as the fire ball burns you heavily , knowing that your tough scales were the only thing that kept you alive.
You attempt trying to fly up, but realize that one of your wings was badly injured. You won't be able to fly out of this one.
You made sure to protect both your backpack and the satchel as much as you could though that was hard when you were currently fighting a fire throwing bank robber.
You begin to circle the Mage, like a predator does with it's prey, making sure to watching for any sign of another attack. By now the flaming fire and the sounds of the nearby emergency services drew ever closer.
The Mage watches you circle him, not making any move to attack, a confident smile on his face.
Then an idea popped into your head, you couldn't beat him as a dragon, but maybe you could beat him as something else. With one paw you reach into your satchel and pull out the Book of Myths.
The man's eyes widen and was about launch a fireball but before he could you roar the words
"Greater Shift"
A intense fatigue washes over you. You had never cast a spell as advance as this one.
You feel your scales disappear and you slowly leave your dragon form. You feel your legs thin and turn into a four clawed bird feet. Your arm elongate and grow majestic feathers colors raging from a deep red to a light organge. Your snout morphs into a hooked beak and your entire body soon also gets colored feathers. Before long you have turned into a full Phoenix.
Your eyes glow with a intense flame and suddenly your wounds heal as you see that the heat you once felt.... was now comforting and healing. Burned skin regenerated. You gave a fierce cry as your wings ignited covering yourself in a aura of fire.
The man in a panick tries to throw another fireball at you, but once the fire hits, it only helps energize you even more. Like how a bird picks up a worm, you grab the man with your beak ignoring his cries, and you fly away, soon becoming a bright star in the distance.
Later, the emergency services search the scene but find no trace of the robber and begin putting out the fire.
You begin your flight back home, arriving after several hours due to your Phoenix form not being as fast as your dragon form. You land in the forest near your hometown and start dimming down your flaming body. A few minutes pass and your bright fiery body cooled into a dim glow in the darkness of night
You place your captive down to the ground and then realize that mid flight, your fire had burned him to a crisp. Only the book and the huge bag of money he carried remained.
The robber's corpse was black and stained his clothes almost melting into his skin, looking closely you see the flesh under the burned layer of skin bubble. You weren't sure how to feel. You wanted to feel guilty but you knew that the robber wouldn't feel the same if you had died instead.
Instead you do what any bird would do to a worm and in one gulp you swallow the man's corpse. It tasted a bit like bland chicken.
Then...