Wicked War of Mine (Overworld Chronicles Book 9) (6 page)

At first, the Templars moved nearly twice as fast as the Blue Cloaks since they were gifted with supernatural physical attributes, but the Arcanes must have cast a fleetness spell because they began to outpace them. Eleven minutes and thirty-two seconds later, both forces were through the portals.

"Yes." Shelton pumped his arm. "Templars barely edged them out by two seconds."

"Well, what did you expect?" Elyssa said in a curt voice.

"Hah, you were rooting for them, weren't you?" he said.

She shrugged. "I couldn't help it."

I would have chimed in with a smartass remark, but anxiety gnawed at my stomach. I went through the portal. The troops remained in a quad-file formation, two columns of Templars next to two columns of Blue Cloaks, hugging the curving forest fringe. Once we left the cover of the trees, a wide grassy field offered no cover between here and our objective.

The Dark Forest was a foreboding place anyone with common sense would avoid. Naturally, I'd been in there a couple of times, once to save Shelton, and once after I'd thrown Aunt Vallaena into a tree. Many of the trees had trunks as thick as a bus standing on one end and towered several stories high. Smaller trees and thick underbrush took up every other square inch of space. I'd only seen a few of the creatures lurking inside that dark place, and they were enough to keep me from going back in unless I had no choice.

The forest spanned a mountain peak behind Arcane University, a massive Romanesque castle with huge round towers at all four corners. Its many soaring spires met the sky to our right. To its left, the library, a long oval building with a glittering diamond dome, stretched along a landscape usually covered with lush gardens. Many of those gardens looked trampled and burnt. Almost directly in front of us loomed Colossus Stadium. Roman columns and arches supported the circular structure. It was easily five times the size of the largest football stadium I'd seen. It had to be large to support the Grand Melee, an annual event where giant golems battled equally huge robots from Science Academy across the valley.

"They really did a number on the gardens," Shelton said.

My eyes followed the swath of destruction across the grassy field and toward Greek Row where the mansion had stood only a few days ago. Daelissa's army had marched straight from the stadium to destroy my home.

Shelton, Elyssa, and I marched to the front of the formation. Michael and Captain Takei talked in low tones, their eyes on the stadium. They turned to us when we reached them.

"Waiting on intel," Michael said.

I looked at the stadium surroundings and couldn't help but reminisce about my first days here. It had been quite a shock and a pleasure all at the same time.

"I don't see many guards," Elyssa said. "They must have committed the bulk of their forces to protecting the way station."

A distant boom sounded and the ground beneath us tremored ever so slightly. A few seconds later the sound repeated itself. A silver marble zipped through the air and hovered in front of Michael. He snatched the ASE—all-seeing eye—from the air and gave it a twist. It spun in mid-air and projected a holographic image recorded inside the stadium.

Michael panned the view.

"Holy farting fairies." Shelton took off his wide-brimmed hat and ran a hand through his hair. "What in the hell are they planning?"

I couldn't tear my eyes from the video. Stone golems three stories high marched through the Obsidian Arch in the center of the stadium, vanishing to an unknown destination. Each one bristled with crystal shards capable of firing destructive spells in all directions.

Arcane university was being used to manufacture unconventional magical weapons.

Chapter 5

The color of the giant golems varied wildly. Some looked jade, others onyx, while the majority appeared to be constructed of gray granite.

The ASE dipped lower for a view through the arch. I recognized the destination almost immediately.

"They're going to Thunder Rock," I said.

Elyssa blew out a breath. "I count at least ten."

As the last monstrosity thudded through, a group of stout golems maybe a third the size of the leviathans returned through the arch, each one bearing blocks of gray granite.

"Construction golems," Shelton said. "They must be importing stone through the arch and building those monsters here."

"The stadium has all the tools they need for building golems that size," Takei said. "They can easily import the raw materials through the arch."

"I see only a skeleton crew." Michael rotated the image, marking locations of people as he went. "We need to lock down this place now before the rest of the enemy forces make it up the mountain."

"Agreed," Takei said. "I dispatched a flying carpet to keep an eye on the retreating forces so we'll know when they're on the way."

The faint sound of crackling branches and the thud of heavy feet caught my ear. This sound wasn't coming from the stadium, it was coming from the Dark Forest. The noise of the departing golems must have caught the tragon's attention. I'd used the creature to fight a giant stone golem once. Used was something of an overstatement. I'd goaded the tragon into chasing me inside the stadium and very narrowly missed becoming its next meal thanks to Elyssa knocking it out.

"Let's hit them hard," I said.

"Those construction golems have been modified," Shelton said. He pointed to large gemstones set in the faceless foreheads of the bulky humanoid shapes. "They're weaponized."

Captain Takei grunted. "He's right. We'll need to take down the golems first."

Michael rotated the recorded image. "I count six."

"We don't have any siege equipment," Takei said. "If we focus all our firepower on the leg of one golem, we might bring it down quickly, unless they've also added magic-resistant charms to them."

"Dollars to donuts they did." Shelton frowned. "There's no sense adding weaponry to those things if they don't have armor."

A distant roar echoed through the forest. I looked in the direction it had come from and sighed. "I think the answer to our problems is on the way."

"Not the tragon again," Elyssa said. "Do you know how many Lancer darts it took to knock that thing out before it ate you?"

A flock of spider-bats burst from a giant oak tree near us with shrieks of panic as the thud of breaking branches grew closer. One of the freaky-looking creatures smacked into the shield surrounding the forest and plummeted onto the ground only a few feet away, all eight of its legs twitching.

I shuddered and turned back to my girlfriend. "I'm not sick with the vampling curse like I was last time, plus I have a few more tricks up my sleeve."

The ground trembled beneath us. A group of saplings bent to the side and a red-scaled reptilian snout poked through. It sniffed the air, plumes of smoke rising from nostrils the size of manhole covers. The rest of the muzzle pressed through the foliage followed by a creature the shape of a Tyrannosaurus rex and nearly twice the size. Tiny wings fluttered uselessly atop the monster's bony, ridged back.

The tragon saw our little army and bellowed loud enough to wake a deaf corpse.

Shelton backed away a few feet despite the shield keeping the tragon inside its forest prison. He looked up at the looming beast and shivered. "You're insane if you think you can make that thing fight for us."

Lowering its head level with us, the tragon regarded me with one beady eye. Seeing its head this close gave me a better appreciation for just how massive it was. Its mouth looked large enough to swallow a car in one bite. It huffed. A blast of fire splashed against the shield. A low rumble built in its throat. Its muzzle parted to display rows of sharp teeth.

"Do you remember me?" I asked it.

The tragon growled louder.

"I think it does." Shelton shook his head. "And it ain't a happy kind of memory." He glanced toward the stadium. "All this noise is going to attract attention."

"Doubtful," Takei said. "The noise from the golems in the stadium attracted the tragon in the first place. I'm sure this isn't the first time it's come here and made a scene."

"A territorial reaction," Michael said. "It sensed something threatening in the vicinity and challenged it."

The tragon wasn't as large as the colossal golems, but it was easily larger than the construction golems. Maybe I was feeling cocky. Maybe I felt a little bit too cool for school after my fight against Aerianas. Maybe I felt like I still had something to prove. Whatever my reason, I decided having the tragon fight for us was the way to go.

The shield was designed to keep monsters in. It didn't keep people out.

So, I stepped across the line.

Before I had a chance to do anything, the tragon ate me.

Even with my supernatural reflexes, I was barely fast enough to put up a bubble shield before everything went dark. I heard teeth grinding against the shield. The tragon's mouth opened and closed as it tried to bite down on the barrier of Murk keeping me alive. It sounded like someone cracking their teeth on a jawbreaker.

I caught a glimpse of Elyssa's stunned face as the tragon opened its mouth wide and chomped down again. My view spun as the spherical shield rolled in the creature's mouth.

"How stupid are you?" I shouted.
How stupid am I?
With an effort of will, I flexed the shield, making it larger and larger until the tragon could no longer keep it in its mouth and dropped me on the ground. It took every ounce of concentration I had to keep the shield in place as I moved. Using the bubble like a giant gerbil wheel, I rolled away from the tragon.

It stalked around me like a cat looking in a fishbowl, obviously trying to figure out how to eat me. It whipped its long tail around and sent me and my shield tumbling through the trees. My concentration broke. The shield vanished. I landed on my feet just as the tragon leapt, claws extended. I dodged behind a tree. Wood splintered as the monster shredded the trunk.

I gripped a fallen tree and swung it hard over the tragon's head. It hit with a loud crack. The impact jarred my arms but did absolutely nothing to hurt the tragon. It was like hitting a person with a toothpick.

The beast reared back its head and roared. I formed a giant slab of ultraviolet murk in the air and slammed it into the monster's head. This time, the tragon staggered backwards. I threw a volley of boulder-sized Murk spheres at the tragon. Each one knocked the monster back a few yards.

"Stop trying to eat me!" I shouted.

It lunged forward. I channeled a solid beam of ultraviolet and speared it into the tragon's snout. The creature made a whimpering sound and fell against a tree, toppling it in the process. Before it could recover, I ran around the monster and used the bony spines on its back like a staircase. The beast spun like a dog chasing its tail in an attempt to throw me off.

I shot a rope of aether at the topmost spine and pulled myself forward. The tragon whipped its head and the tether jerked me forward. My feet left the tragon's back for an instant. Somehow, I locked a foot on a spine and kept myself from falling off. Using the aether rope for balance, I jerked myself back up and made another run for the tragon's head. The beast bucked and roared but I lassoed its top spine with another loop of magical energy, ran between the bat-like wings, and anchored myself.

Judging from the creature's un-tragonlike reaction when I'd nailed it in the nose, I took a slightly informed guess as to how I might maintain control of the thing. Once I took it out of the woods, I definitely didn't want it eating any of my friends or allies. I channeled a solid ring of Murk around the tragon's mouth just above the nostrils.

The creature tried to roar, but its mouth was clamped shut. The sheer power of the monster's jaw pressed against my spell, which, in turn, squeezed my head, much like when I'd fought the stone elemental Aerianas had used against me. But like an alligator—a really, really big alligator—this thing didn't have nearly the force when trying to open its mouth as it did when closing it. Its wings swooshed the air. Relative to the creature's size, they looked ridiculously small. Up close, each one spanned about ten feet—enough to knock me silly if I didn't stay out of the way.

The tragon shook its head violently. Slammed against trees. Ran in circles. Flapped its wings like crazy. I held on tight to its top ridge. I began to wonder if maybe the creature was too stupid to realize it was beaten. For all I knew, it'd keep on running and bucking until it collapsed from exhaustion. It took another several minutes, but the tragon finally stopped and stood still, a high-pitched, unhappy growl in its throat.

"Had enough?" I asked. I'd firmly anchored to the spine at the top of its neck.

It snorted and stomped the ground.

"I know your relatives, the earth dragons," I said. "We get along okay. There's no reason you and I couldn't."

It simply stood still.

"How would you like to destroy a bunch of stuff?" I asked.

Its head tilted and a parietal eye regarded me.

"I can get you out of the forest." I pointed toward the stadium. "We could go on a rampage in there."

It snorted and looked where I was pointing.

I nodded. "Destroy. Kill. Much fun."

"Do you really think it understands you?" Elyssa said from behind me.

I almost jumped out of my pants. I looked back and saw her gripping one of the spines just below the tragon's wings. "When did you come in here?"

"Just now." She shook her head and sighed. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Imagine how Daelissa's people will feel when they see me and Trago coming."

Her forehead wrinkled. "Now it has a name?"

"
He
has a name." I patted the tragon's neck. "Let's kick some ass, Trago."

"You are the absolute worst at coming up with names." Elyssa situated herself between two of the spines. She kissed my cheek and whispered in my ear. "You're so sexy when you're wrestling giant dinosaurs."

I squeezed her hand. "If I didn't have a war to fight, I'd take you on a ride through the countryside."