by Eric Vall
“Yes, ma’am,” I muttered. “But you’re first tonight.”
“No, Deya’s first, then me,” Aurora countered.
“Deal,” I chuckled. “Now, stop distracting me from my work. You’re so unprofessional.”
I dodged Aurora’s kick as she narrowed her emerald eyes, and I snickered my way back to the metal dragon. Then I finished the second wing while the two of us altered ten more of Abrus’ terrible decisions, and by the time I began assembling the last portion of the dragon’s hindquarters, we’d gone through most of the stack. All that was left for us to do was finalize the roster of soldiers for each post and decide on who our other generals would be, but we left those details for another day since Aurora was itching to get our metal dragon up and running.
“I’ll get these over to the castle right now, but don’t ride that dragon without me!” Aurora said as she gathered up the papers and headed for the Mustang.
“It’s not for riding, it’s for defending Mors Pass,” I clarified, but the half-elf just wiggled her ass for me to avoid acknowledging the statement.
I grinned as Aurora climbed into Bobbie and brought her to life, and she blew me a kiss with her blood red lips before the Mustang growled its way down the lane and toward the road to Serin.
It only took me another twenty minutes to finish the final assembly details, but somehow, getting each serrated tooth into place took the longest to accomplish. I had to swap out dozens of the teeth because I forgot what order I’d meant to put them in, and I ended up just reforming the whole jaw with the teeth already mounted. Then I stepped back to admire the final product, and at this point, I was on the verge of being turned on by my own damn self.
Fully assembled, the metal dragon towered over me with its horns nearly reaching the top of the mansion, and the shadow he cast covered most of the clearing. The jagged spikes I’d added just behind his jaw and along his wings made him look more formidable than any dragon I’d seen in this realm, but I had a feeling his glowing eyes would increase the bone-chilling effect once I had his channeling gem mounted.
I was so excited to see it in action that I sprinted into the house like a kid in a candy store, and I didn’t slow down as I caught the sound of Dragir’s swift footwork shuffling across the floor of my training hall.
When I got there, the silver-haired elf had my double flail in hand, and even though I’d been impressed with Aurora’s prowess with the deadly weapon, Dragir’s skills honestly made her look like a novice.
The striker heads blurred around him as he handily flipped the staff over his forearms and from one hand to the other, and he seemed to defy gravity as he leapt and twisted midair in the process. My memory of the elves in action must have skewed since I’d left Nalnora, because I didn’t remember them being this swift on their feet, but it was mesmerizing to watch Dragir seamlessly coordinate his movements so the striker heads could come within inches of his limbs without making any mistakes.
I still waited until he noticed me before I said anything because I was on edge just watching how close he was to bludgeoning himself, and he smirked at my slack jawed grin.
“This is a very nice flail,” Dragir grunted as he took a few final swipes.
“Thanks,” I chuckled. “It was another gift. I take it you needed a break from the engravings, huh?”
“No, I have finished your engravings already because I am better than you at rune magic,” the elf informed me, and he headed to the wall to mount the flail in its proper place again.
“Does this mean we’re good on the metal magic thing?” I asked.
“Yes,” Dragir replied. “You may control metal like no one I have ever seen, and this is okay. I create weaponry unlike any other and am the king of rune magic. This is a good balance.”
“Alright, then,” I chuckled. “Would you mind using some of that rune knowledge on another project of mine before we start the next batch of pistols? I could use your input.”
“Ahh, you require my assistance?” Dragir strolled over with a smug grin. “Yes, that is to be expected when one wields a superior power to your own.”
I furrowed my brow. “I don’t know if I’d say rune magic is superior to magery.”
“It is,” the elf assured me.
Then he clapped me on the shoulder before he stooped to grab a fresh mug of Rosh off the floor, and I didn’t argue since I accidentally threw the guy into an existential crisis over my magic today. At least he bounced back as quickly as Deya had said he would, though, and there was a good chance he’d be eating his words in a minute anyway.
I couldn’t contain my grin as I followed him to the entryway, but he abruptly stopped before we made it to the door, and he looked around with the same crazed look he’d had when I ran into him outside my room this morning.
I furrowed my brow as I came to a stop. “You alright?”
“Do you hear that?” the silver-haired elf whispered. “It is … light. Almost like a flapping.”
I did hear it, and as I slowly looked up, I saw Stan on Solana’s back. He was hovering in the shadows of my vaulted ceiling, and I was about to point him out when he raised his little metal hand to keep me quiet. My gaze drifted back to Dragir, and the elf was feverishly scanning all around him like he thought he was hallucinating.
“Do you hear it?” he demanded again.
“What are you talking about?” I asked as I tried to appear confused.
“I keep hearing this sound,” the silver-haired elf muttered. “It follows me, and then it disappears only to show up in every corner of this home. It is light, but distinct, and--”
Dragir abruptly clamped his mouth shut when he looked my way, and he drained his mug to change the subject.
“Never mind, it is nothing,” the elf decided as he promptly headed out the door, and I grinned up at Stan before I followed him.
Apparently, my little metal buddy was enjoying having a visitor over, and after seeing Dragir’s crazed expression, I really didn’t want to ruin his good time. So, I left the door open just a crack in case he felt like flying out to fuck with the elf in the clearing, too, and I slammed right into Dragir’s back while I chuckled at the toes of my boots.
The silver-haired elf was standing stock still with a toothy grin on his face, and he raised his arms out wide while he took in the sight of my giant, metal dragon in the clearing.
“Yes!” Dragir bellowed. “This is more like it! If I had powers such as yours, I would only do this. Except bigger, and scarier, with the bazookas for his eyes.”
“Yeah, my women were thinking along the same lines,” I admitted, “but I’m keeping it simple just for starters. I wanna figure out how to have him spew enchanted flames from every orifice on his face. Mouth, nose, and eyes if possible.”
“I will do this,” Dragir said without me asking, and he shoved his empty mug into my arms as he headed for the dragon. “I will make flames like this Master has never seen, and they will spread like hellfire to consume everything in sight. Every being who sees this beast will be haunted all their lives from the sheer horror of his might.”
The elf didn’t hesitate to scale the dragon’s jagged arm, and once he got a good grip on the demonic horns, he heaved himself up onto the skull with a diabolical grin.
“I don’t mind doing the runes,” I told him. “I was just wondering if you had any advice--”
“No, I will do this,” Dragir assured me as he lovingly patted the metal skull. “This is what I was born to do.”
“Uh, okay.”
“Does it fly?” he asked.
“Hopefully,” I replied as I came over. “I’ve designed him with that as my primary goal, but we won’t know for sure until I get his channeling gem mounted and test him out. I wanted to sort out the flame thing before that, though, just so he can get accustomed to wielding his runes right from the start.”
“He will fly,” Dragir decided, and he pulled his engraving tool from his pocket. “We will make sure of that, and w
hen he does, he will fly over the world like a plague sent to destroy everything in his path.”
“Well, I didn’t really build him to terrorize the world,” I clarified. “He’s going to be guarding the dragon nesting grounds for me since the Master keeps trying to possess all the dragons. It’s a long story, but it’s crucial I prevent that from happening, and a massive metal beastie seemed like a good way to go about it.”
“You mean you have crafted this beautiful specimen only to put him where no one can see him?” Dragir asked, and he looked personally insulted by this.
“Just for now.” I shrugged. “The Master’s forces will see him when they show up trying to fuck with Deya’s dragons, though, so that’s all that matters.”
“Deya’s what?”
“I mean the dragons,” I corrected. “Deya just likes dragons a lot so I sort of attribute all dragons in my mind as being hers.”
Dragir furrowed his brow suspiciously, and I did my best not to look guilty while he studied me for a moment.
I knew Deya had weaseled her way out of teaching her brother how to transmute before she left Nalnora, but more importantly, I was positive he’d wring my neck if he knew I’d been riding his sister into battle lately. That was the opposite of putting her safety first, even though I knew she was a total badass in the field.
So, I casually busied myself with checking each serrated claw even though I knew they were all in place, and Dragir turned his attention to his engravings instead.
I smirked as I listened to him quietly talking to the metal dragon like it was already alive, and he made all kinds of promises about the glory it would achieve once the Master was destroyed. The elf mumbled on about freeing the beast from the nesting grounds and allowing it to roam as it pleased, and by the time Aurora drove up in the Mustang, Dragir had gone so far as to name my dragon after himself.
I calmly ignored his suggestions while I installed a razor-sharp death machete mechanism at the tip of the tail for my women, and Aurora squealed all the way from the car to the dragon. Then she switched to giggling while she ran in circles around the legs and under its belly, and when she finally flung herself into my arms, she couldn’t stop shimmying her legs in the air as she squealed some more.
“I love it!” the half-elf giggled. “I love it, and I love you! My dragon is the most perfect thing I have ever seen!”
“Almost perfect,” I chuckled. “We still have to make sure it’ll fly.”
“It will fly,” Dragir called out from his spot on the skull.
“Gods, I can’t wait to see that!” Aurora exclaimed as she leapt out of my arms to run a few more circles around the dragon. “When do we wake her up?”
“Him,” Dragir corrected, and my half-elf halted to cock a brow at me.
I cleared my throat. “Apparently, this dragon belongs to everyone but me now. How did it go at the castle?”
“Mason, I wish you could have been there,” Aurora gushed as she trotted over to grab my arm. “I’ve never felt so much like you in my life! I walked into that castle, and the king dropped everything to meet with me. Ten guards escorted me through the halls, and the nobles bowed to me! They fucking bowed!”
“They better have,” I said with a proud grin.
“Ahh, you received some bows,” Dragir mused as he craned his neck over the edge of the dragon. “That is good, you should teach Mason to respect the bowing. Did their eyes betray their fear?”
“No,” Aurora chuckled. “They looked respectful, and what really got me was they were happy to meet me. They didn’t stare at my ears or anything! It was so nice.”
Dragir shook his head. “You should entice some fear from these nobles.”
“Should I?” the half-elf asked, and a sinister grin came to her face.
“No, you shouldn’t,” I sighed. “Don’t listen to him, you’re doing great.”
“But I want to be feared.”
“Oh … yeah, okay,” I said with a shrug. “Did the king have any objections to the laws we altered?”
“None,” the half-elf assured me. “You don’t have to gloat, but you were right. He was so impressed he did the thing he does to you when he just stares and nods along. I can’t believe you walk around feeling this awesome all the time. I feel like I could murder ten people in the streets and those nobles would still be bowing for me.”
“Oookay, let’s not let all the power go straight to our heads at once,” I suggested as I caught the greedy glint in her emerald eyes. “Senseless murder is still frowned upon. If I have to full-on murder someone, I definitely don’t do it in the streets.”
“But you could,” Aurora mused. “I bet I could, too, now. I bet I could do anything I wanted. I’m the girl version of you!”
“Yikes,” I muttered. “Why don’t we focus on the dragon again? Dragir, how are those runes going?”
“These runes will be my masterpiece,” the silver-haired elf assured me.
I nodded “Great. I’m gonna go get the channeling gem I set aside for--”
Aurora gasped as a Halcyan dagger suddenly struck the dirt between our boots, and I whipped around to glare at Dragir only to find him staring down in utter confusion.
“That one was not from me,” he called out.
“Do you hear that?” the half-elf hissed.
I hollered over to Big Guy and Jenik to halt their training, and we all remained perfectly still while we strained to listen more carefully.
Far in the distance, I registered the thrum of boots across the earth, and when I realized they were growing louder, I flipped around.
“Jenik, get the merchants into the shelter and alert the scouts!” I ordered.
My squire took off at a sprint down the lane to warn the town, and Big Guy diligently stationed himself at the edge of the western woods as he unsheathed his sword.
“Mages?” Aurora guessed.
I was about to respond when Dragir jumped down from the dragon’s skull, and he was pale as he sent me a loaded look.
“They’re elves,” he answered. “The Houses must already know what you have done.”
The clanging of the bells on the towers broke out as the shouts of my Defenders rose up in the streets, but I shook my head as I zeroed my attention in on the forces approaching at an ungodly rate. They were fanning out now as they scaled logs and leapt over boulders with incredible ease, and my adrenaline spiked as I realized I’d sensed that kind of movement before.
“No,” I muttered. “They’re moving too quickly. Those are the Master’s elves.”
Chapter 5
“The Master has taken more elves?” Dragir shouted above the clanging of the bells.
“Some of the mages we’ve recovered from his hold reported elves being dragged into his fortress,” I replied. “I’d say there’s at least a hundred of them coming this way.”
“And they have the audacity to use my own weaponry while serving this shit Master of theirs?” the silver-haired elf exclaimed. Then he shook his head as a murderous grin spread across his face. “Very well. I will get the flail for this one.”
Dragir ran toward the mansion just as my other women made it to the clearing, and I summoned spare magazines from the atrium as they all checked their pistols.
“There’s about a hundred possessed elves coming from the west, but they’re already fanning out to take us from all sides,” I told the women. “Be prepared for how fast they move once they’re runed, and don’t let your guard down for even a second. The mages aren’t used to handling fighters as swift as this, and they’ll be counting on us to take on the bulk of it.”
“Yes, Mason,” Cayla said with a nod.
“If you can, try to draw them toward the battlements so the troops can pick them off from above,” I continued, “and Aurora, now would be a good time to burn some men alive for me. In bulk.”
The half-elf grinned as she holstered her pistol. “I’d love to.”
“Good,” I chuckled. “Let’s fan out and cover t
he town so we can finish this fast. They’ll be here any minute now.”
My women nodded diligently, and while they headed for the lanes, Deya hopped up to kiss my cheek before she vanished. I’d just turned toward the western woods to take my post at the front line when Dragir appeared at my side again, and he smacked me on the arm as he looked at me like I was an idiot.
“Ow,” I hissed. “What was that for?”
“You would allow my sister to battle in her condition?” Dragir growled.
I didn’t have time to respond as possessed elves broke through the trees on all sides, and Dragir ran straight at them with the double flail already whipping around his hand.
Then he let out a maniacal laugh as he began bludgeoning every elf in his path, and I could hardly look away as the spiked striker heads impaled skulls, guts, and limbs in rapid succession. Daggers were flying at me now, though, so I ducked and fired on three elves coming my way, and the mages’ revolvers began firing in the distance as chaos broke out in Falmount.
The possessed elves pouring into the streets wore all manner of garb from different Elven Houses, but some of them were the simple merchants I’d seen working in the cities of Nalnora. It didn’t matter what they wore, though. They all fought like animals as they flew through the air and struck out at everyone within reach, and the look in their serpentine eyes was hollow and menacing as they began diving right through the windows of homes.
Everywhere I looked, possessed elves were jumping onto my mages’ backs to gouge their eyes or drag their blades across their chests, and I shot at every opportunity as Defenders lined the streets to head off the incoming troops. Then I ducked under the metal dragon’s frame and doubled back to catch six elves who were a good foot taller than I was, and when I buried six lightning laced bullets into their backs, they still hurled their daggers as they flipped around to get at me. I was perched on the metal dragon’s haunches when the charring of the lightning bolts finally overcame them, and from up here I could see the streets were littered with dead elves already.
Still, more were filing in, but as I took down more of the incoming troops, I sent my Terra powers through the ground, and I knew this wasn’t another endless fleet. The last of the elves would be here any second, so I kept my post and fired on all targets until the western woods were cleared, and then I jumped down to the dirt to reload my magazines.