Dragon Emperor

by Eric Vall

  “As much as I’d love to know too,” I interrupted the moment between Alyona and Julia, “this is not the time for that. How long can you hold the barrier up?”

  “Three, maybe four hours.” Alyona’s eyes hardened as she looked out past the battlement. “I’ll hold it as long as I can.”

  “Laika.” I turned to the wolf-girl Warrior. “Do you think we can take them?”

  “Hey!” Ruslan growled out as he flexed his claws. “You’re not stopping me from getting a piece of those assholes.”

  “Indeed,” Julia murmured behind her fan as she glanced at the angry fox next to her. “While we cannot tear into miasma, these enemies are made of flesh and bone.”

  “And flesh and bone can easily break.” Moskal’s pale blue eyes glittered with barely suppressed rage. “We will fight on the ground.”

  “That’s still eight of us against three hundred.” I lifted one of my eyebrows as I stared at Ruslan in disbelief. “Even if some of the survivors and villagers join us, we need a solid plan to fight them.”

  “I don’t see anything wrong with it.” Ruslan shrugged as he smirked and continued pacing. “You’re a dragon, just swoop down and breathe fire on them. They’ll melt in their armor, and we take care of the stragglers.”

  “I can’t breathe fire,” I clarified as I waved my hands in the air. “All I can do is heal people and control stone now, but I’ve never used it in battle.”

  “Change of plan.” Ruslan stopped pacing and glanced at all of us for a moment. “Each of us needs to take down thirty-seven of those assholes before three hours are up.”

  Laika and I exchanged a glance at his words. His plan might work only if it were hand to hand combat, but I was pretty sure there were more than a few mages in that army.

  My mind raced to find a way to fight the army at our doorstep, and a memory of one of the many afternoons I spent poring over classical literature with Aunt Emma came up. Aunt Emma would have me memorize sections of different pieces, from Machiavelli to Tolstoy to Sun Tzu, and if it was ever going to come in handy, it would be now.

  “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting,” I murmured quietly to myself.

  “What was that?” Laika’s ears twitched as she took a step closer to me. “What did you say?”

  “I’ll literally level the playing field.” My eyes widened as the idea took form inside of my mind. “I’ll break the stone underneath them, catch them off guard, and then we take care of the stragglers.”

  “I’ll be on the ground with Anton and Polina.” Laika tilted her head at the guild members. “Trina and Marina will stay on the wall and provide additional support.”

  A roar of cheers went up outside the wall, and I glared in the direction of the army. Asher was no doubt riling them up further, but I found it strange they hadn’t attacked yet.

  “Is there anyone who isn’t here that has long ranged abilities?” I glanced back toward the Elders as I spoke. “Maybe among the villagers or the survivors?”

  Julia glanced at Ruslan, and he nodded sharply in the direction of the smithy.

  “Find Leon and Afra,” Julia spoke as she turned to face Marina. “They should be gathering all the bows and arrows we have already made at the smithy. Find them first and then go for the others in the store rooms.”

  Marina nodded and took a running leap off the wall toward the smithy.

  I felt a trickle of relief at that, just having two, and possibly more, fighters on our side made it seem like we had a fighting chance against the army of adventurers.

  A wave of cold air burst past us, and the smell of sulfur buffeted my nose. It had been a cloudless night, but now black clouds swirled in the sky as thunder roared in the distance. Then strikes of lightning hit the ground in front of the main gate.

  I ran out onto the battlement to figure out just what exactly had happened. My heartbeat had gone crazy again, and drums echoed in my ears.

  In front of the army of adventurers, Asher had his sword buried in the ground before him as he knelt.

  “Armored might and cruel strength, I call to you from these forgotten plains.” Asher’s eyes glowed a putrid green as he continued his chant. “Siege the walls before my eyes and tear down all the obstacles in my path. Be my wrath and fury, make way for the blades that will come. Break and shatter stone with unforgiving power. Let no mercy be shown to my enemies.”

  Up in the sky, above the space between the walls of Hatra and the Green Glass Sect’s army, was a summoning circle burnt into the sky. It was almost exactly like the summoning circle we had found back in the Asura’s former villager. Seven smaller circles were strung together to create a much larger circle, but this time there were more shapes and runes involved.

  “Oh fuck,” I groaned at the sight of the vaguely familiar black summoning circle in the sky. “That can’t be anything good.”

  “A behemoth,” Laika breathed out next to me as her face grew pale. “He’s summoning a behemoth.”

  “A behemoth?” I turned to the wolf next to me as trepidation filled the air.

  “It’s a beast, a living siege weapon.” Laika’s hands were on the battlement, and she dug her claws into the stone. “There are spirits, and there are demons that are behemoths. The demons are usually the ones contracted by summoners.”

  My muscles tensed as I drew in my power, and I was ready to shift and take to the sky the moment the behemoth emerged from the summoning circle. I didn’t know what the behemoth would be like, but if the mere sight of its summoning circle was enough to shake the courageous wolf, it definitely was going to make this battle even harder.

  A burst of pure power emanated from behind me, and I turned to see Alyona on her knees. Silver runic circles glowed in her amethyst eyes, and a field of stars sparkled around her.

  “O ten great stars in the northern sky, your child of jade beseeches you!” Alyona’s hands were placed on the stone of the walls, and her entire being glowed silver as she continued to chant. “Merciful gods that dwell in the heavens above, saints and sages that live upon the earth below, with your great authority and virtue raise a wall that protects! Let no sword or shield break through your might and let the stars guide us!”

  A barrier rose around the entirety of the city of Hatra and, unlike the barrier she used to protect the city from the miasma, this one was a blue so pale it was almost silver.

  Suddenly, lightning came down from the sky and struck the barrier, and the electricity crackled on the surface of the barrier as its energy was dispersed throughout the glowing dome.

  I took a step forward and placed a hand on the barrier, and the energy fizzled underneath my hand but did nothing to harm me.

  “How do you take down a behemoth?” My jaw clenched as my eyes went back to the summoning circle that seemed almost burned into the sky. “If you know what it is, then you have to know how to defeat it.”

  The air around Laika’s hands shimmered, and two swords appeared in her fists.

  “They are weak against the elements of water and ice.” Laika tightened her hands around the hilts of the two swords. “Our only hope is to somehow shatter their natural armor that’s said to be almost as strong as dragon scales, maybe even more.”

  “Better or worse than facing the stone giants?” I asked as I rose on the balls of my feet and concentrated on pulling up the power to control stone.

  “Assuredly worse,” Laika breathed out in a mockery of a laugh as she placed one foot on the edge of the battlements. “Their armor is said to be impenetrable.”

  The air shifted, and we all knew the moment had come. The priestess behind us had brought up the barrier just in time as the behemoth had begun to emerge from the shifting summoning circle in the sky. An armored reptilian head pushed through, and dark red eyes peered down at the city. Then, clawed limbs pushed at the edges of the summoning circle, and a green light floated the giant alligator-like creature down.

  It was immense, easily four times my size
in my dragon form.

  The scales of the creature were the size of shields, and there were jagged spikes scattered along its body. Still wet blood glistened with each lightning strike, putrid and black against the scales of the behemoth. Each claw was a gleaming drill that dug up the earth as the monstrous creature moved toward the main gate of Hatra.

  “Repent!” Asher laughed as he pulled his sword out of the ground and pointed it at the main gate. “Repent for your sins, and perhaps the heavens will one day forgive you. That is, if anything is left of you after we destroy your walls.”

  “I’ll take care of the behemoth,” I promised as I felt my power squirm inside of me. “Wait for me to tear up the ground and then attack them.”

  I couldn’t let that thing get anywhere near Hatra, and I let go of the power that had been coiling inside of me. With one jump and a roar, I was already halfway through the barrier and into the sky as my body shifted into my dragon form.

  My body slammed into the behemoth, and I felt the air rush out of my lungs as we rolled into the ground and formed a massive trench. I growled as my claws sought purchase on the thick armor of the beast, but I only managed to give the creature a few superficial scratches.

  “Brothers and sisters!” Asher’s shout filled the night as the adventurers shouted in triumph. “Do you see their lies? The black dragon dwells in Hatra. It will burn cities to the ground and lay waste to everything we have known and loved.”

  As I rolled over with the behemoth, I saw the adventurers running toward the barrier. I roared, drew on the stone power inside of me, and focused on yanking the ground upward in giant spikes. A moment later, screams filled the air as jagged columns of stone rose up from the earth in front of Hatra’s walls.

  Then the behemoth shook me off, and I was thrown into the air before I could figure out just how many of the invading army of adventurers I’d managed to take out.

  I hovered on shaky wings and stared at the massive creature underneath me as it took one slow step forward in the direction of Hatra. It had to have been the size of two football fields, and its weight had been nothing to joke about. What Laika had warned me about the armor had been right, there was no way I was strong enough to break through those thick scales. It would have been like trying to peel off my own scales or crack a turtle’s shell with a pebble.

  I had to be smart about this.

  “Come on, think of something,” I muttered to myself as I steadied myself in the air. “There has to be a way to take down that glorified lizard.”

  Wait a moment.

  Birds of prey would let rocks falls on turtles from a great height so their shells would crack, and they would be able to tear at the soft, exposed flesh of the turtles. Even the so called impregnable armor of the behemoth would have to give way to that type of immense force if I used something heavy and sharp enough.

  Gravity was nothing to fuck around with.

  My eyes darted to one of the spiked columns of stone that had emerged from the ground, and I pictured it crushing the behemoth or, at the very least, cracking open its armor so I could get to its internal organs.

  That had to work.

  I flew to a column and wrapped my forelegs around it. I’d never used this power in battle, only for building and fixing walls, but it couldn’t be that much different. I just had to think of the different shape that I needed.

  The stone sung as I shifted its shape until the column ended in a jagged point. The column was insanely heavily, but I forced myself to fly higher and higher until I was nearly in line with the summoning circle and just above the slow moving behemoth.

  From that height, I could see everything beneath me.

  The Blue Tree Guild and the Elders fought on the front lines as the attacking adventurers broke on them like a wave would on a rock. The three Elders fought with an oiled precision that impressed me. They were barehanded as each one of them steadily ripped apart the attackers who dared to face them.

  I understood now why Ruslan had been so confident that the eight of us would have been able to take the army before the behemoth made its appearance.

  It seemed cultivation had other benefits besides longevity.

  Polina and the wolves didn’t disappoint either. Their movements were sleek and without hesitation as they covered each other’s backs. My eyes went to the other two dryads and the priestess on the wall. Villagers had joined them, and some of them held bows in their hands as they took aim at the attacking army. Among them, I saw Natalya as she rapidly and furiously let loose a barrage of arrows.

  The battle was turning. I just had to take care of the behemoth.

  More lightning struck the barrier, and one of the strikes barely missed one of my wings. The sudden strike startled me, and I nearly dropped the jagged spear point of stone I had clasped between my forelegs.

  A sense of foreboding filled me, and I glanced at the summoning circles to see seven more behemoths emerge from the smaller circles that made up the immense array.

  “Fuck!” I cursed loudly as I flew over the first behemoth and aimed carefully with the jagged piece of stone. “Can’t we get a fucking break here?”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the light of the barrier flicker for the merest of moments. Just as that happened, I let go of the sharp stone I had carried above the behemoth.

  “Come on,” I gasped as I kept my eyes on the stone’s descent and prayed to whichever god was listening. “Please, hit the mark!”

  A loud crack ensued, and a hole formed in the behemoth’s back from where the jagged column had struck it. Most of the column had shattered on impact, but the point was embedded deep inside of the behemoth, and the creature roared and moved sluggishly as blue blood dripped from the wound I had made.

  As Asher’s frustrated scream filled the battlefield, I dove toward the behemoth I’d wounded. My claws were ready to tear into that tender flesh and close in around the behemoth’s heart.

  All the anger inside of me was let loose in that moment as a cold spray of blue blood splashed onto my scales. Once my claws were inside of the behemoth, it was over for the creature.

  I ripped out the behemoth’s massive heart and threw it into the midst of the attacking army with a savage roar.

  In front of me, the barrier flickered as the seven smaller behemoths threw themselves against the magical dome. Even though each push into the barrier caused their scales to sizzle just from contact, the creatures kept throwing themselves against it. It seemed like they were blind or immune to pain.

  With one flap of my wings, I was airborne again as I soared toward the behemoths. These armored beasts were smaller than the one I had just taken down. Even so, each behemoth was the size of one football field and still easily more than twice my size.

  But I’d already figured out how to break through their armor.

  Suddenly, a wave of power emanated throughout the battlefield as the barrier glowed brighter, and I grew closer to the blue dome.

  With my enhanced senses, I could clearly see and hear Alyona as she continued to chant. There was something off with her energy, though, like she was gathering whatever was not put toward the barrier and storing it inside of her as she waited for the right moment.

  “Oh Twelve Guardian Deities and Five Great Wisdom Kings, wrathful manifestations of the Five Gentle Sages,” Alyona called out, and silver blood trickled from her lips, “guard us against the erroneous teachings of these wicked beings who make themselves as saints. Strike down the gates that have been opened, shatter the pathway that has been built, and follow my will!”

  As my claws closed around another jagged column to use as a weapon, a white light stretched across the summoning circle in the sky. The individual circles that formed the array shattered into a fine dust, and relief ran through me. No more behemoths would be able to come through those circles, and I hoped there was too much chaos for Asher to be able to create another summoning circle.

  Suddenly, an anguished scream that I recognized to
be from Asher filled the air, and it was sweet music to my ears. I turned to see Asher standing in the middle of the battlefield, and he was staring up at the space where the summoning circle used to be with despair in his eyes that no longer glowed. It was easy to guess Alyona destroying the summoning circle had harmed him, and I smiled at the idea.

  Then I drew upon my healing power and let out a roar as I focused it to only heal those I considered my allies, only the people who had made Hatra their home, and the Blue Tree Guild. As the cloud of glitter shone in the night, glowing with its own light as it settled on the people I called mine, I felt a sudden wave of exhaustion hit me. My vision doubled for a moment as a rush of information of cuts and bruises and broken bones being made new again filled my mind.

  I shook my head and focused on the stone I had my claws in. There was still enough power inside of me to last the night if I was careful.

  “Time to take care of you fuckers,” I growled out as I ripped up the jagged column and shaped it with my power so it formed a spear point.

  Just as I ripped out the stone, I was pulled back down to the ground by the behemoths. It was a repeat of what had happened with the Corrupted Corpses when they swarmed over me, only this time I couldn’t easily shake off my attackers.

  One of the behemoths pinned down one of my wings, and I roared in pain as those tendons and thin flesh were stretched. I flailed and flapped my free wing in an attempt to break free, and my claws scrambled to find purchase on their thick armor.

  In the distance, I heard a faint mocking laughter I knew had to have come from that bastard Asher. He’d disappeared from my view, and I wondered if he was somehow controlling the actions of the behemoths. They functioned almost as one, and their size made it difficult to evade their movements when the behemoths mobbed me.

  As I struggled beneath the beasts, the smell of a crisp, winter morning filled the air as the surrounding temperature dropped.

  Pure glacial ice covered the behemoth that had pinned my wing, and I was able to shake the creature off of me. When my claws scraped against the ice, the behemoth shattered into pieces. The other behemoths backed off with a hiss as they shifted their eyes around to find what had happened to their brethren.