Dragon Alliance Dark Storm : Dark Storm (51 page)

Mkel signaled Tegent to move behind and to the left of Gallanth, both to protect him and to allow him to help them when necessary. Tegent’s griffon was the most agile of any of that noble species to ever take flight, often almost knowing which way Gallanth was going to maneuver. Likely, it was that his griffon had studied the gold dragon’s wing positioning and musculature as he flew over the last several years and could detect the small changes in his posturing to anticipate the next maneuver. As he loaded, cocked, and readied Markthrea, Mkel could feel Gallanth tensing underneath him. He knew his dragon was preparing another all-out barrage, but he had already used several of his more deadly spells. While Mkel was aware of Gallanth’s powerful spell-casting ability, he also knew that unlike his breath weapon and sunburst beam, he was limited to using one type of spell per day. He hoped his friend had enough still left in him for this fight.

Gallanth then roared and fired the deadly bright beams of light from his eyes which struck and shattered the magic shield of one of the red dragons before delivering its remaining energy into the chromatic’s body. In rapid succession, he sent a plasma fireball hurtling toward another chromatic, which smashed the blue dragon’s shield and burned its lower neck, shoulder, and flank. He uttered a short incantation in Draconic and sent a barrage of six glowing fiery meteor like projectiles toward the chromatics. He struck three of the other evil dragons with two apiece to both wear down their shields and keep them off balance. Mkel fired three of his special bolts at those same dragons, delivering a penetrating explosion to each of their magic shields, severely weakening them.

The chromatics’ response was poorly coordinated but deadly nonetheless, as the demon dragons sent their final enhanced breath weapons at Gallanth. The powerful darkened rays of almost pure evil streaked toward the gold dragon. He totally dodged the blast from Infernex as he was too far away for an accurate shot. Vorgash’s purplish beam glanced off Gallanth’s shield, and the dark lightning bolt of the demon blue dragon hit his magic defensive bubble at full strength. With his magic shield at just above a quarter of its strength, he and Mkel decided to move in and use his speed and firepower to his advantage. However, just then, Vorgash called out to him in a loud but less angry roar to get him to talk prior to the fight. As the lead demon red dragon broke from his fellow chromatics’ formation to converse, Gallanth immediately started to track the other five; he could simultaneously follow twice as many if he needed to. Mkel also kept an eye on any chromatic that got too close to them.

“I want to congratulate you on your victory over the white dragons’ wheel attack. This is the first time that we have ever seen that tactic broken. You would be of utmost importance to Queen Tiamat if you were to follow us to Aserghul,” Vorgash uncharacteristically complimented his superior foe.

“That dark crystal next to your evil heart must be affecting your judgment, chromatic. You fear my and my rider’s strength, for we metallics derive greater power from the human emotion our rider’s freely give to us. You feed off of fear; we are nourished by love. Fear is forced. Love is given. You and your five-headed aberration of a queen will never understand this and are doomed to defeat. For freely given emotion is tenfold the power of forced terror,” Gallanth quickly replied as he and the large red dragon began to circle each other slowly. Both he and Mkel noticed that the other five chromatics had spread out and encircled them and their lead red dragon. Gallanth knew what the red was trying to do, set him and Mkel up for an ambush as the others would breathe their breath weapons and charge them in hopes of overwhelming them.

“We are the ones who embraced freedom. To do what we want, kill what we want, and take what we want is exhilarating. This is our right as the supreme and most powerful and wisest creatures in the world. Why would you be subservient to the talking monkeys who are no more than ants to us?” Vorgash kept trying to entice the gold dragon.

“Again, this demonstrates that you and your species are fools. You will never know the true freedom and power we gain from the soul bonding with our riders. True freedom lies in that love, which flows through us and demonstrates how dragon-kind and man are inexorably linked. How really free are you and your kin? Free to kill and destroy, only the freedom to harm others and then under orders of your queen. What freedom can be attained by licking the talons of Tiamat and doing her bidding when called upon like a lapdog, only to be put back on your leashes,” Gallanth countered Vorgash’s statement.

He hissed but kept his temper. “Gold dragon, the exhilaration of laying your enemies to waste, taking what you wish is our right. When are you going to throw off your chains, your yoke of servitude to the talking monkeys? Exorcise the curse of being linked to a human rider?” the blue demon dragon countered.

“And ensuring all of your judgments are dealt out today is my right and responsibility, so prepare yourselves. You have forgotten the pledge we all gave as a race to better the lives of all those creatures that crave freedom. We are made strong only for a certain time. As dragons with the blessing of our long lives, we can extend this but should only use our strength to help others,” Gallanth quickly answered the chromatics’ false statements.

“Why should we not dominate all we see? And having that parasite constantly on your back is a curse, not a benefit,” the red dragon behind Vorgash argued.

“Dominate all you see? How is this possible when you have to view it from Tiamat’s shadow and from behind the sorcerers of the Talon Covenant? Your
human
masters,” Gallanth emphasized his last point knowing it would enrage the red.

“Silence, metallic! We have no human masters!” the red roared back.

“If I am a curse to my dragon, then how did our combined power defeat so many of your weak kin and send them to their judgment as one would swat an insect?” Mkel injected.

“Silence, talking monkey, I need not your insolent words!” Infernex angrily snapped a reply to Mkel.

“That is funny, for your brother said the same thing before we sent him plummeting to his death, and his hide now provides armor protection for our soldiers and legionnaires,” Mkel continued to help Gallanth goad the chromatics into an angry attack that would desynchronize them. At the same time, Tegent started to sing a song, which further incensed the chromatic dragons.

“Hey, you, traitorous son of a worm, you’re part of a world that will soon be dying, and I know, everybody knows, you try to be like us, but even at your best, you couldn’t be equal to half of us. We are realizing that you’ve lost your simple ways, and now that it’s here and we see it oh so clearly, you’ve come face-to-face with the enemy, your superior enemy.

“You! You’re another false-talking worm to me. You’re a living inspiration for what we never want to be. I see you’ve been blinded by what you believe; now back up and sit down and act like you need to be. Now come to us, the enemy, so predictable; you’re the reason why we fly, simple decision took me to choose for you, to die, checkmate!” Tegent sang his song, amplified by his dragonstone lyre, further enraging the chromatics.

“Puny vermin, I will silence your blasphemous mouths,” Vorgash’s guardian red dragon roared out and immediately changed his flight path, charging toward Gallanth, preparing to breathe out his fire.

“No, not yet!” Vorgash roared, but it was too late and his guard was already committed to the attack. With this, the two blue dragons launched and even Infernex moved slowly toward the gold dragon. Mkel swung his crossbow over, lined up his sights, and fired at the charging red dragon before he could get in range of his breath weapon. The mithril-tipped bolt streaked through the air and struck the red dragon at the base of its neck. The small arrow penetrated the red’s thick, armored hide and exploded with a terrific force diverting the chromatic’s flight path and causing it to breathe its fire to the side of Gallanth.

The three blue dragons’ lightning bolts streaked out trying to find their mark. Gallanth dove quickly and was only struck by one of the deadly electrical strikes, which his shield absorbed, but it was weakening. He fired a sunburst beam at the guardian red dragon, hitting it directly in the chest and underbelly. It roared in pain from the multiple strikes, severely injured by the successive attacks. Vorgash and Infernex turned and dove to pursue Gallanth. The three blue dragons also turned and began to chase the gold dragon; however, it wasn’t long before Gallanth started to put distance between himself and his pursuers. Mkel also stretched back as far around has he could and managed to fire and hit one of the blue dragons, which shattered its remaining magic shield strength and slowed it down.

Vorgash saw that the large gold dragon they were pursuing was starting to outdistance them and called over to his wingmate to swing wide and move to intercept Gallanth. He protested, for he was severely injured and weak, but at the threat of retribution, he started to fly on a parallel path away from their fight. Gallanth began to perform a tight turn to move to attack the chromatics from an oblique angle, which they tried to match but could not make the maneuver. Gallanth fired a sunburst beam at Infernex, striking his magic shield with full force and then directed a plasma fireball at the demon blue dragon, which shattered its magic shield and slammed into its indigo hide with its remaining energy. Mkel fired two mithril-tipped exploding bolts at the two blue dragons closest to them. The small, thick quarrels found their deadly mark on both with the explosions disabling their chance to fire their lightning bolt breath weapons for a few seconds.

Only Vorgash was able to return Gallanth’s attack; he breathed a cone of fire that partially struck the gold dragon’s shield, almost causing it to buckle. Vorgash and Infernex together then cast a force wall spell at Vorgash’s guard dragon, which forced him directly into Gallanth’s flight path. The two dragons collided midair with a tremendous thud; Gallanth quickly grabbed the red with both talons, his long claws sinking deeply into the chromatic’s front leg and shoulder, and with a horn smash to knock the red dragon’s head out of the way, he struck the base of the chromatic’s neck with his immense fangs. This was enough to slay the red dragon, but just as Gallanth let out his victory prayer roar, the other chromatics pounced on him.

Vorgash and Infernex’s sacrifice of their kin worked in that it forced Gallanth to slow down and allowed them to mass on him. The two large red dragons hit Gallanth on his right side, and two of the blues slammed into him on the left. Gallanth swung his tail upward and struck the third blue dragon in the chest as it tried attacking him from the rear. The blow from Gallanth’s tail plate both sliced into the blue dragon’s indigo hide and sent it end over end trying to regain flight control. The other dragons attempted to bite Gallanth but were only marginally successful as he turned around and bit down on Vorgash’s shoulder, raking all three of his other attackers with one of his claws.

Mkel fired a bolt at one of the blue dragons at point-blank range and struck it in the back part of its jaw, causing it to reel back, roaring in pain. The blue chromatic hissed out, “You will pay for that, talking monkey,” and lunged forward. His jagged fangs were only partially open because of his wound, but it was enough to do Mkel major injury if he connected. Mkel was desperately trying to load Markthrea but didn’t have time, so Kershan sprang from its scabbard and positioned itself for a downward strike.

Mkel grabbed it with both hands and swung hard as the blue dragon’s head reached him. The mithril blade cut down through the blue chromatic’s protruding nose horn and into its nostril, the dark-green blood spurting from the gaping wound.

Mkel was desperately loading his crossbow with a magazine of mithril-tipped bolts as the weight of the three chromatic dragons was causing them to lose altitude fast. Their tactic to bring Gallanth down to the ground to negate his advantage in the air and where they could call for reinforcements was working. He felt the pain Gallanth was experiencing with his multiple bite wounds and talon strikes and felt fear for his dragon and that they might not make it out of this fight.

Just then, an icy beam struck Infernex on the lower back, frozen chunks of his hide and flesh shattered and fell off, causing him to break grip on Gallanth and dive away. A sunburst beam then struck the demon blue dragon locked onto Gallanth’s left flank, the deadly ray burning a large hole into the indigo hide of its shoulder. The blue chromatic also broke off and flew away from this unseen surprise attack. A powerful lightning bolt then struck Vorgash on the back and was quickly followed up by three smaller bolts to his wing and side, causing him to let Gallanth go and dive backward to get away.

The attack from above was even more successful, because all three of the chromatics that had any strength left in their magic shields were too close to Gallanth to activate them. Just as Mkel and Gallanth looked up to see who had saved them, the silver dragon dove fast and struck the third blue dragon that was moving to attack Gallanth. The silver metallic hit the blue hard with its talon strike and forced the chromatic to veer away quickly.

Mkel and Gallanth realized that it was Silvanth and Annan who had come to their rescue. Gallanth spoke out to his mate, “Silvanth, you should not have come; you are ready to nest.”

She replied in her usual casual manner, “My dear mate, I would not want you to miss the bonding of our daughter.

“You took too high a risk, but I thank you for coming to our aid, my love,” Gallanth replied with a rare caring sentiment between dragons, for they were usually very pragmatic when it came to each other, even mated pairs.

“Anything for you, my mate. Now, send those demon dragons back to hell,” she replied as she prepared to teleport back to the weir, for she had used a great deal of energy with her opening barrage to clear the chromatics away from Gallanth.

“Thank you, Annan. It is always good to see my beautiful wife astride her magnificent dragon, but especially now,” Mkel spoke to Annan through his seeing crystal, her long, gold-streaked brown hair blowing lightly in the late autumn air as they slowly flew next to Gallanth.