Dragon Alliance Dark Storm : Dark Storm (74 page)

Her powerful legs took the impact well, and she skidded along the grass field beside the road. It was painful, but she fared much better than her enemy, while also protecting her rider from any serious injury in the rough landing.

“You did it, my love,” Heathiret told her dragon after they had come to a rest.

“No, my rider,
we
did it, along with our new friends from Draden Weir,” she replied.

“Are you all right?” Heathiret asked in a concerned tone.

“I have pain from their talons and fangs and bruises from this crash, but we are the victors, not them. We must get back into the fight now,” the copper dragon answered.

“Not until you shake this off, my dear. That was a terrific battle we had,” Heathiret answered.

Toderan had goaded Reigngrim into moving away from the others of his weir to prevent him from interfering in those fights. While the death knight’s wyvern was exceptionally large, it was still not much bigger than his winged horse, and he knew that Alvanch was faster and much more agile.

“Well, Death Knight, how about we conduct an old-fashioned joust, if you have any honor or courage left in you?” Toderan yelled over to Reigngrim.

“Ha, I’ve not seen an Alliance paladin’s blood on my sword in some time. It will be good to see you plummet from that shiny winged horse,” Reigngrim answered.

“Then let us begin,” Toderan replied as he spurred Alvanch forward and Reigngrim did the same. Both quickly gained aerial speed as they flew toward each other. Toderan gripped his lance handle tightly and balanced it on the top of his shield. He knew the heavier wyvern would hit harder than Alvanch, but his winged horse was much more maneuverable. He nudged the sides of the horse with his heels and directed him to angle down slightly. Then, at the last second, the paladin had his faithful flying mount swerve up so he could get a downward strike as well as keep the wyvern’s tail stinger from hitting his mount.

Reigngrim lowered his shield in preparation for Toderan’s downward charge. The white demon skull standard of his and Dreadstone’s province showed menacingly on his black shield to remind others that they were well known death dealers. It was of typical Morgathian shape, being a small, round device, but as he was a provincial warlord and top death knight, it was made of black iron. The death knight’s skull-shaped black-iron helmet also looked menacing, but Toderan was more concerned with his lance as they closed in on each other. The wyvern roared as Alvanch angled up and then dove down just as they met. The added speed from the quick maneuver enabled Toderan to hit Reigngrim a little harder than the death knight expected.

Reigngrim’s black-iron pointed lance hit Toderan’s shield on the lower left, causing him to wince and be shifted in his saddle. His riding straps managed to hold him in place as he thrust his mithril-tipped lance with all his might directly at the death knight’s chest. Reigngrim moved his shield just in time to stop the shiny silvery point from hitting his breastplate. The special metal punched a shallow hole in the shield, much to the Morgathian’s surprise and knocked him back. As the two mounts passed each other, Alvanch turned tightly to avoid the bite attempt and the wyvern’s tail stinger as it whipped around to strike the winged horse. He deftly kicked the wyvern’s head with his left rear hoof as he turned to fly away. The dragon-like beast roared in pain as his head was jerked back from the kick, which also opened a nasty gash.

Reigngrim immediately felt the pain in his arm from the impact of the paladin’s lance, which had cut through the shield and slightly into his arm through the black-iron armor. He couldn’t believe his black-iron shield was compromised, for it had always proven impenetrable for him. He also noticed that the black-iron tip on his lance was bent, another surprise! They both turned in a wide arc to come back at each other again. Toderan knew he had slightly bested the death knight but would have liked to knock him off his mount; he had deduced that this evil
pogasch
was no stranger to the joust and aerial fighting in general. He started to maneuver Alvanch in a side-to-side weaving pattern as they moved toward Reigngrim.

The winged horse swung to the right, as would be the customary attack angle one would expect, but then sharply turned left to come around right in front of the wyvern’s nose, and Toderan struck Reigngrim from the left. This caused the death knight to have to shift his shield over his body at a bad angle to take the impact of the lance. As Toderan’s lance punctured the black shield in the forehead of the demon skull device, it drove it right off of the Morgathian’s arm. The paladin pushed his lance to the left with the impaled shield and thrust it into the wyvern’s tail. As Alvanch flew past the beast, Toderan’s lance snapped off in its tail, the black shield nailed to its hide. While it did cost Toderan his lance, it rendered the wyvern’s tail stinger useless.

Again, Alvanch quickly veered away from the dragon like steed so as not to allow it to use its talons against him. Toderan drew his holy sword; its dragonstone started glowing in a bright, scintillating red. He repositioned his grip on his shield. It had taken a slight dent from his opponent’s lance, which was splintered from the impact. The red keystone and gold dragon embossment standard of Draden Weir was still showing well on his shield, however.

Toderan had Alvanch perform a very tight turn, and they came up facing a surprised Reigngrim and his wyvern. The vicious pseudo dragon clumsily lunged forward; however, the winged horse was ready for this and quickly reared back, just avoiding the bite. He then brought his front hooves down on the wyvern’s head and nose, the horse’s mithril shoes slicing into its hide. Alvanch then lunged forward, and Toderan swung his mighty holy sword down as Reigngrim raised his dark crimson/purplish vampire blade. As the two opposing swords met, a small explosion of light and sparks emitted from the contact. This was the reaction of the extreme positive and negative energies coming together.

Toderan and Reigngrim exchanged blows; the paladin let it go on, as he knew he would wear the death knight down and eventually gain the advantage. The wyvern then attempted to turn his head around and bite Alvanch’s hindquarters. The winged horse deftly kicked his head away with his rear legs, the sharp hooves scoring into the dark, brownish-green hide on the side of its skull. After blocking another blow from Reigngrim with his shield, Toderan brought his powerful sword down and cut into the black-iron armor and into his opponent’s shoulder.

The wyvern then tried to bite Alvanch again, but Toderan turned back and to the right in his saddle and swung down to cut the wyvern across the back of its head. While not a killing blow, the wound was deep as grayish-black blood poured from the gash. Reigngrim took quick advantage of this and struck Toderan on his upper right leg. The dark-purplish blade didn’t penetrate the paladin’s mithril armor but put a sharp dent in it.

Toderan swung back and hit the death knight in the side, his blade again slightly penetrating the black-iron mail. The wyvern then started to have difficulty flying and began drifting to the left. Alvanch matched the slow twirling descent to keep his rider in the fight with the death knight. As the winged horse repositioned himself, Reigngrim swung down and cut into the pure white hide. A thin stream of reddish-green blood began to ooze from the wound, which would have been much worse if it weren’t for Alvanch’s quick reflexes.

This angered the weir paladin, and he angled a hard downward stroke that knocked the vampire blade away in a crackle of light and then thrust his blade into the black-iron chain mail above the thick breastplate. The shimmering blade drove deep into Reigngrim’s upper chest. As the two opposing knights locked stares, Toderan could see the pain in his opponent’s eyes even through the demon skull-shaped helmet.

“Your reign is over; now I offer death to the death knight,” he said coldly as he withdrew his blade and nudged Alvanch to pull away from the pseudo dragon mount. He watched the wyvern gain speed as it started to grow weak from blood loss, and his descent soon turned to an outright plummet. The paladin quickly took a small vile from his saddle rig and spread aloras salve on his faithful mount’s wound. He then laid his hands on the winged horse to add his own paladin healing power to stem the flow of blood. The dragonstone on his holy sword glowed intensely; after the light subsided, he removed his hands to show the almost healed wound.

“Thanks, Alvanch, you performed admirably in the fight. Senior death knights don’t go down easy, and he was no exception. You deserve a few more apples when we get back to the weir. Now let’s see how our friends are doing,” Toderan said to his faithful winged mount as they started to make their way to where Mkel and Gallanth were fighting.

Gallanth had flown a wide circle to get distance between himself and Doomshadow but was now moving back to fight the demon dragon. Mkel quickly came up with a plan, “Gallanth, I have an idea. You are faster than Doomshadow, and we must keep them at a distance for a while and wear him down, at least until you’re ready to pull him in to finish him off. Can you counter his dark energy beam with your sunburst ray?” Mkel asked his dragon.

“Yes, I believe I can, my rider,” Gallanth replied.

“Good, then when you do this, you must immediately follow up with a plasma fireball. Jodem, we must split up, for I need you to keep that Covenant sorcerer busy long enough for us to concentrate on the Usurper dragon he is riding,” Mkel continued his plan.

“I will do my best, my young friend,” Jodem answered him through his seeing crystal as Vatara started to turn away from Gallanth to take a wider path to get behind the demon black dragon.

“Mkel, I need two more gems if I want to fulfill my end of this fight; my synthensium is getting low,” Gallanth explained. Mkel quickly reached into the small pouch on his vest that was over his jacket and grabbed two gemstones, which he handed to Gallanth’s waiting tongue. He then loaded his last magazine of mithril-tipped exploding bolts. Jodem directed Vatara to fly off to the side and away from the gold dragon. Gallanth then moved toward Doomshadow, who was already bearing down on them. As soon as the Usurper dragon fired his dark-energy-enhanced breath weapon at Gallanth, the gold dragon immediately countered with his sunburst beams. He had to aim very carefully for his brilliant golden rays of powerful light to meet the dark-purplish lightning-like bolt of the demon dragon. As the two rays met, a tremendous explosion and thunderous concussion echoed across the sky and caught the attention of all in the air and on the ground. All the dragons of the Capital Weir looked over to see what had caused such a reaction, as did the dozens and dozens of chromatics that were fighting them. The massive battle stopped to watch this titanic duel.

Falcanth looked over to Valianth and quickly said, “The winner of that fight will determine the course of this battle.”

“I agree, Falcanth. May the Creator give them strength, for I know the power of their foe,” Valianth replied. Gallanth quickly followed up his sunburst beam with a plasma fireball that streaked through the air, with a bolt from Markthrea right behind it. They bracketed the top and bottom of Doomshadow’s shield, as he could not dodge both; the double impact caused him to turn hard to the left. Dreadstone cast a meteor-storm spell at Gallanth, and twelve boulder-size spheres of deadly energy shot out from his outstretched hand as his staff glowed in an intense purplish light. Gallanth immediately started to fly an evasion pattern, but five of the twelve struck his shield. The Covenant sorcerer then fired an ice ray at Jodem, and the back-to-back spell casting took him by surprise. His spell shield took the full impact of the bluish beam and forced Vatara to bank right.

Jodem hurriedly cast a battery of magic missiles back at the sorcerer, but only one found its mark. This did allow Vatara to fly out of range before Dreadstone could fire again. Doomshadow gave an immediate chase to Gallanth. His gaping, toothy black jaws opened, and he fired off another dark-energy beam that partially caught the gold dragon’s shield.

“Gallanth, let him close in on you if you can dodge his next death ray. When he is in Ordin’s range, he’ll throw Donnac and I’ll fire—” Mkel started to share his plan when Gallanth chimed in, as he understood his intention.

“Then I’ll turn tight and come up underneath him and hit his underbelly hard as we pass. This will keep the sorcerer from effectively retaliating as well,” Gallanth finished his rider’s thought.

“And I’ll keep Dreadstone busy from their tail,” Jodem also stated through his seeing crystal. All were in sync now as Gallanth slowed down even more, which allowed Doomshadow to gain on him. Just as the demon chromatic was about to fire an enhanced energy beam, Ordin began to shout but didn’t even get half of the word
Gallanth
out as the gold dragon violently barrel-rolled to avoid the deadly blast of purplish light. Mkel and Ordin looked up as Gallanth rolled around the beam that passed just over their heads. They could even feel the power of the deadly ray through Gallanth’s and their own magic shields, like ants crawling over their skin.

When Gallanth completed his roll, Mkel fired a bolt that exploded on the front of Doomshadow’s weakening shield. Dreadstone was about to cast a disintegration spell, when a bright beam of the same type hit his shield square to his back, as Jodem maneuvered around and behind the black dragon. The Covenant sorcerer then redirected his spell toward Jodem, who was ready for it and had Vatara immediately dive; they took only part of the sorcerer’s spell’s energy.

“Sorcerer, concentrate on the fight to our front. That is our biggest threat; we’ll deal with the wizard later!” Doomshadow roared at Dreadstone.

“Only protecting your back, Lord Doomshadow; he’s slowing down, so you must have weakened him. Now finish him off!” the sorcerer replied sarcastically as he prepared another spell to cast at Gallanth. The Usurper dragon was now close enough that he couldn’t miss and opened his jaws to fire another death ray. Mkel then yelled for Ordin to throw, and the dwarf hurled his dragonstone hammer. It twirled toward the black dragon, crackling with power, and Mkel fired another mithril-tipped exploding bolt. Both struck the chromatic at the same time causing his head to rear up and back.