The Steel Dragon (Steel Dragons Series Book 2)

by Kevin McLaughlin

  “I told you, my name is Hall!” Kristen roared at Obscura, rolled off of Constance, and transformed into her dragon form.

  The shadow dragon, true to her promise, opened her throat and unleashed an inferno that threatened to envelop her entire body it was so large.

  She didn’t have time to dodge, not with her injured leg that still ached even in this body. Instead, she fought fire with fire. When the blast of flame surged toward her, she unleashed her own. The two jets of flame collided with a roar like a freight train filled with welding torches careening toward another. All around them, Amythist’s garden burst into flame. The two pillars of dragon’s fire didn’t spread but the heat that radiated from them was enough to make many of the shrubby plants spontaneously combust into orange fire.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Kristen saw Constance scramble to her feet, glance once at the handgun—now trapped between two raging infernos—grimace, and run into the woods.

  She couldn’t follow her. Hell, with the fire pouring from her throat, she couldn’t even tell her to stop. Not for the first time, she wondered what kind of help the assassin had on her team. Did another mage protect her from this heat? Was someone waiting nearby on a motorcycle to whisk her away? So many questions seized her mind while her massive dragon lungs ran out of oxygen and then fire.

  Obscura had started first, so she stopped her blast seconds before Kristen did, much to the Steel Dragon’s relief. If she hadn’t, she honestly didn’t know how much longer she would have been able to maintain the flames.

  Her adversary was already in motion and prowled like a cat trying to get behind its prey without being noticed. She pivoted to face her and knew she should pace too—or better yet, attack the larger dragon—but her leg was a mess. Obviously, the bullet that Constance had shot her with was still buried in the wound. She would be at a severe disadvantage in either of her forms.

  But only if they were on the ground, she realized. If they were in the air, she wouldn’t have to put any weight on the leg. She wouldn’t be able to attack with it but that seemed like less of a disadvantage than not being able to walk.

  She tried to push up and off the ground and pumped her wings as she leapt, but with her back leg wounded, she wasn’t able to jump at all, so had to rely entirely on her wings. Still, she had the strength of a dragon—strength not entirely given by muscles and brawn but by magic as well. She managed to thrust herself into the air.

  Her efforts proved too slow and the black dragon lunged forward, bit her tail, and hauled her back. She thrashed her tail and shook her loose—after all, her tail was made of steel and had an ax blade on the tip—but her opponent didn’t seem intimidated. Far from it, actually.

  Kristen tried to fly higher and this time, the shadow dragon let her go.

  “Where are you running to, little whelp?” Obscura demanded as she took flight. Already, she had achieved greater height. Her legs had propelled her into the sky and her wings carried her motion. Still, now that they were in the air, Kristen might be able to hold her own.

  Unfortunately, the older dragon was a far more experienced flyer. That fact was immediately and painfully obvious.

  While Kristen struggled to gain altitude, Obscura swooped and gained speed before she elevated again and slashed at her legs.

  She didn’t kick out—it would’ve hurt far too much—and instead, swung with her tail, which only unbalanced her as tails were an essential part of dragon flight.

  “The little Steel Bitch is wounded,” Obscura said as she dodged Kristen’s tail.

  Dammit. She cursed silently. This was a bad plan. Her adversary was a good enough flyer to be able to diagnose her injuries in flight. But was landing the smart choice? She didn’t think so. It would be far better to draw her away from there so Jim didn’t get hurt.

  Kristen tried to flee and for a moment, it seemed Obscura would let her. But the hope was short-lived and she sensed the dragon above her growing closer. Claws struck and ripped her wings. She could still fly but it was more difficult like swimming with your shoes on.

  She tried to fly lower and the shadow dragon followed and even went so far as to put her back feet on her without her claws. Rather than dig her talons into her back, she simply shoved her into Skyjewel’s mansion and used her face to break brick and roof tiles. She tried to get her feet under her and run along the roof but again, her back leg screamed in pain so she took flight.

  Her adversary seemed to have expected this as she caught her in her massive talons. It wasn’t exactly a death-grip as she wasn’t so big that she could force her to the ground, but she stabbed her and squeezed so Kristen didn’t dare to do anything lest the talons puncture her organs. Obscura guided her into the iron fence that surrounded the estate and used her skull to destroy metal. The Steel Dragon found that iron was indeed a formidable substance and it hurt like hell when she hit it.

  Airborne no longer, she tried a different tactic. She whipped her tail in an attempt to catch her opponent with the side that was the ax blade.

  The black dragon dodged but at least she looked wary.

  Kristen hissed at her and struck out with her tail again, but Obscura fought back with her own tail. It lacked an ax blade but it was longer and the older dragon seemed more adept at using it like she was with so many dragon abilities. She was able to parry her strikes, such was her level of control. The Steel Dragon tried to strike again and again but her adversary knocked the blade away effortlessly and pounded her spiked tail into the base of Kristen’s near the wounded leg. The force of the blow was such that one of the spikes actually pierced her steel skin.

  She screamed and pulled away, stumbled back on her three good legs, and used her shredded wings to aid her retreat.

  Obscura didn’t push her offensive, however, and only laughed. “Oh, little Steel Bitch, how foolish you are. Do you know tail dueling was quite popular in Europe in the twelfth century? It’s been some time since I practiced but one doesn’t simply forget these things.”

  “Don’t you see you’re being manipulated?” she asked, hoping to distract her and earn herself a few seconds.

  “Yes, by you and poorly. Honestly, do you expect to distract me?”

  The black dragon pounced and for a moment, Kristen was back in the sewer tunnels where she’d fought Shadowstorm. He too had been a massive dragon who was able to move faster than his bulk should have allowed. The memory was shattered as she rolled through a burning bush of rosemary. There’d been no organic matter in her battle with Shadowstorm, only hot steam and brick walls.

  “You cannot beat me in flight, Steel Bitch, nor with flame or tail. You are strong, yes, but you lack the technique I have acquired over millennia.”

  “Then we fight.” She lunged forward and tried to snap her jaws around her opponent’s throat.

  Obscura rolled and caught her with her front legs. She sank her claws into her shoulders while she kicked her in the gut with her back legs. In the frantic tussle, she felt like a bird trapped by a large, malevolent cat.

  The shadow dragon threw her aside and once again, she tried to take to the air. Her adversary flew above her in an instant, crashed into her back, and sank her teeth into the back of her neck. Her massive weight forced her to the ground while she once more shredded her wings with her claws. She was a ruthless fighter and no doubt enjoyed her barbarism.

  Kristen impacted with a greenhouse tucked around the side of the building. The glass and metal frame shattered under her bulk but did nothing to her steel skin. What hurt was not the collision but the massive dragon biting at the back of her neck and trying to shred her wings with her tail.

  She swung her tail and Obscura released her.

  In the wreckage of the greenhouse, she pushed painfully to her feet. Broken glass and plants were strewn everywhere.

  “I came ready for quite a fight but it’s obvious that the little human really weakened you,” the black dragon snarled. “I suppose with the oath I swore to end your miserable l
ife fueling me, I’m simply too powerful. I had expected a real battle but I’ll lower my expectations. If you can draw my blood, I’ll pull off.”

  Kristen knew it was a lie. It couldn’t be anything else. Her enemy didn’t know mercy and she didn’t know restraint and yet, what was she to do? Refuse a chance to live through the day? It was stupid, but she decided to change her tactics.

  She lunged weakly and the larger dragon dodged easily but this was what she wanted. As soon as Obscura moved to the left, she whipped her tail at her and forced her to hold a forearm up to block the steel ax blade. She hissed when it sliced into her flesh.

  “You’re bleeding, you old bitch,” she said. She knew she should have said something more clever than simple profanity or that she should have tried to call upon her honor or sense of history or something, but that wasn’t who she was. The challenge had been thrown at her and she’d risen to it. She’d dishonored her foe, at the very least, and ended the fight at the very best.

  “I was lying, obviously,” Obscura said and launched into another assault. This time, she didn’t tackle her, though. Instead, she came close enough to be barely out of the reach of her claws and rained blows upon her.

  Kristen’s steel skin did nothing to stop her. She felt each swipe of the claws as keenly as a little girl skinning her knee. None of them were lethal or even close to it considering how difficult it was to kill a dragon, but the pain added up. Strike after strike drew blood on her forearms, her shoulders, her ribs, and her back. She had no idea how the black dragon was able to slice through her steel skin so easily. Was it because she was weakened or because Obscura really had sworn a magical oath that made it easier to hurt her?

  Either option seemed equally negative.

  She tried to fight back but she could feel herself becoming sluggish. Her adversary’s blows were too fast and also strange coming from a dragon. When she sparred in dragon form with the members of Dragon SWAT, they mostly focused on powerful, forceful blows that would be lethal if properly delivered.

  That wasn’t how the other dragon was fighting, however. She was merely inflicting as much pain as she could. None of these scratches or slashes would kill a dragon and all they would do was hurt. It was yet another technique she might have learned over the centuries that Kristen simply didn’t have any experience with.

  But the Steel Dragon knew enough to realize that she couldn’t last in an extended battle. She had to end this.

  Unfortunately, Obscura also seemed to wish to end the battle.

  She pushed forward and given their close quarters, this was enough to put her shoulders into Kristen and knock her back.

  The shadow dragon landed on top and proceeded to savage her neck with her teeth.

  All the little scratches she had previously experienced—hell, the gunshot too, for that matter—suddenly seemed like nothing but minor irritations. No pain could compare to dozens of dragon teeth sinking into her throat. There was no terror like having a larger and stronger dragon attempt to saw her head from her body with its teeth.

  Kristen struggled and thrashed beneath her assailant, but her attacker was so large, she couldn’t dislodge her. She whipped her tail, but Obscura simply knocked it away and pinned it to the ground with one of her spikes.

  With no other options and the pain at her neck making it practically impossible to think about strategy or even cause and effect, she once again tried to incinerate her enemy. Flames came up her throat and out her mouth and blasted the larger dragon in the face.

  Obscura released her and flew away, blowing the flammable magic venom off her face with her wings.

  Yet again, Kristen had done more damage to herself. Some flames had come out the wounds that had been inflicted in her neck. Now, the new flesh wounds stung like hell. The other dragon was off her—which was good, obviously—but the wounds she had inflicted burned worse than ever.

  Still, she shook her head and tried to keep her mind in the fight.

  “You are a persistent one, I’ll give you that,” Obscura said. “I think I’ll rip one of your wings off next.”

  “Fuck y—”

  Before she could finish, the shadow dragon attacked once more. This time, she leapt forward and used her shadow powers to get behind her.

  She tried to turn but Obscura sank her teeth into one of Kristen’s wings.

  Although she tried to pull it free, her opponent simply didn’t allow it. Instead, she crushed the bone in her teeth and shoved her with her back as she ripped the wing away at the bone.

  Kristen screamed and Obscura flapped her wings and pulled up on her wing, taking half of it with her and pulling the weakened membrane apart as she did so.

  Without thinking, she pulled her wing back and helped her enemy to rip it. She tucked it close to her back and felt her blood dribble down her back.

  “I haven’t done that in centuries, my dear. Thank you.”

  “All I was doing was trying to protect the people I love,” Kristen cried. “I didn’t want to kill your son but he left me no choice!”

  “Well, we have that in common, at least. I have no choice in your death, not anymore. Not with the oath I swore and my benefactor relying on me.”

  “Who is your benefactor? I’m sure that whoever he is, he’s not kind. Tell me what you know and you can join our side. What you did to my brother was wrong, but we all make mistakes.”

  “None as large as when you hurt my son,” Obscura hissed.

  “I never wanted to hurt him.”

  The black dragon smiled cruelly. “We’re different in that regard. I very much want to hurt you.” She lunged again.

  Kristen was barely able to get her tail up in front of her body before her assailant drove into her and the two tumbled together. She had recognized that attack. It was intended as a killing blow. Obscura had hoped to pierce her heart with her claws.

  Thankfully, she had got her tail up and thus saved her life. Defense against killing blows was something she had practiced.

  They rolled until they collided with the side of the mansion. The black dragon came out on top and used the position to rake her claws across Kristen’s face.

  Compared to everything else she had done to her, being scratched in the face was negligible. She tried to fight, scratching and clawing at Obscura as the dragon’s heavier weight once more rested on her chest.

  “Did you know that even a dragon’s eye can regrow?” Obscura said and thrust her clawed thumb into her eye socket.

  Again, for what felt like the hundredth time in this fight, Kristen knew a definition of pain she’d never before experienced. That half of her vision simply winked out as the pain intensified made the sensation even more horrible.

  Her enemy punched her in the gut before she slid off her.

  She pushed to her feet once more. It was a struggle, but she would not go down. It wasn’t her life on the line, after all, but the fate of her family, her friends, and perhaps mankind itself. If Obscura killed her, who would stand against her? Lumos hadn’t been able to. She might have if she hadn’t been injured, but who else could even hope to? Stonequest, if he had his team with him, but what if her benefactor had more dragons under his influence?

  If she couldn’t stop her now, war could erupt. She couldn’t stay down and definitely couldn’t die, not today.

  Grimly, she faced Obscura once more.

  “I think we must sever your tail and then we can finish this, yes?” She spoke as if addressing a child about the missing components of an arts and crafts project.

  “You know, if you beat me, your oath will fail you and when Dragon SWAT arrives, they’ll finish you off.”

  “Finish me off?” Obscura laughed loudly at that. “Finishing me off implies that I’m injured. I’m not, my dear. The only reason you’re still alive is because it’s entertaining to break your body one piece at a time before I finish you.”

  “That won’t happen.”

  “It hasn’t happened yet but like I said, your t
ail still functions.”

  Even though she knew exactly what the shadow dragon would do, she couldn’t stop it from happening.

  The huge dragon surged at her and she tried to keep her body between the larger, more experienced fighter and her tail. Obscura moved left and she mirrored her, then right and she followed. Then, she whipped her across the face with her spiked tail with enough force to make Kristen’s neck pop. She’d also struck her on the side of her face with the wounded eye, so to say the pain was blinding was actually accurate.

  Cold, cold dread clutched her heart when she felt her adversary take hold of her tail. She tried to shove her off but of course, that was impossible with her injured leg. Desperate, she flapped her wings and the bloody stump of the one that had been brutalized struck her enemy with a wet sound. At least it didn’t hurt. She now experienced pain in too many other places to notice the bloody stump of a wing.

  She did feel Obscura drive her claws into her tail, however—one on either side, about halfway down. In the next moment, her back legs were on Kristen’s back and she couldn’t even fight. She felt like a professional wrestler locked in one of their ridiculous holds. All she could do was move with her attacker’s movements to stop what pain she could, even though she knew even more was soon to arrive.

  The black dragon pushed on her back as she yanked viciously on her tail. Truly, the pain was less than many of the injuries she had already suffered, but the sensation was sickening. She felt the bones dislocate from each other one by one as Obscura yanked again and again.

  Finally, the larger dragon released her clawed hold and flew up and away to land across the burning garden from her.

  Kristen stood slowly. Her tail was dead weight. It was completely limp beyond the point that had been injured. The only feeling came when she moved forward—normally, she used her tail instinctively to balance—but now it was only pain and then nothing. It was a disadvantage so severe for a dragon it might have been even more debilitating than her injured leg, but she wouldn’t stay down. She stood, as ready for the next attack as she could be.