The Descent: A Middang3ard Series (Dragon Approved Book 6)

by Ramy Vance

  Brath pushed off Jim’s hand. “Have they come out of anything this bad before?”

  Alex had to interject here. “Honestly, we don’t even know how bad it is,” she admitted. “I mean, we know that they say it’s a suicide mission, but we’re kinda scant on the details. Maybe Manny’s right. We’re flying in the dark here.

  There was a loud beep, and Alex checked her HUD—a message from Manny. It read, “Big briefing in a few minutes about Roy and Toppinir. Find out if you can see anything. Be safe.”

  Alex could read between the lines. More importantly, Manny thought this was worth supporting. She knew that if Manny didn’t think it was possible, he wouldn’t have bothered sending her this. It was a sign of faith—a pallid sign, but a sign nonetheless.

  “Scratch that,” Alex said. “Manny’s with us. What else do you need?”

  Jim’s mech started shrieking a beep three times louder than the one that had gone off on Alex’s HUD. “Obviously to pay attention to the swarm of drones heading toward us,” Jim shouted as he ran to his mech.

  Jim jumped in and closed the cockpit behind him. The mech rose to its feet and lumbered over to the mouth of the cave. “Gill, I’m going to need a visual from you for when to fire,” he shouted.

  Gill climbed onto Timber’s wing and poked his head out of the cave.

  The swarm of drones had recombined into the nanotech cobra and it was heading right toward the cave. “Oh, I can see why you said this was a problem,” he murmured before returning to the cave and shouting, “Fire in five!”

  Jim flipped through a couple of holographic menus in his mech before finding the manual switch for the EMP bomb. He flipped the switch and positioned his mech so its mouth was facing out of the cave.

  As the swarm of drones flew past, Jim pulled the EMP lever and a glowing ball of electromagnetic energy flew out of the mech’s mouth into the middle of the swarm of drones. The bomb detonated instantly, and a pulse of energy rocked the drones.

  There was no physical damage, but the drones shook for a second before shutting off and falling out of the sky.

  Jim pulled his mech back into the cave. “I’ll now respond to either ‘hero’ or ‘savior of the day,’” he said, smiling as Gill gave him a high five and Brath scowled approvingly. “Whatever makes you feel more comfortable. I prefer ‘savior.’”

  Alex punched Jim on the shoulder on her way to Chine. She didn’t want to make his head any bigger, though it was good to see him finally start acting like himself in front of the other riders. He was almost like the Jim she had played with in VR, if a little more serious.

  Alex reached out telepathically to Chine. Hey, how strong can you boost my ability to see through someone else’s eyes?

  Chine answered, Substantially. But you may not need my help. If you’re trying to reach Manny, you may be able to do it on your own.

  How?

  As I said, your psychic powers show potential. We should work on honing them. For now, concentrate on Manny. Try to imagine him in your mind’s eye. Once you can see him, focus on seeing through him, then open your eyes. But you must concentrate. Push everything else from your mind.

  Alex closed her eyes. She pushed every thought in her head away. Ignored Gill’s cute butt. Tried not to think of Brath’s endless pacing, or whether or if Jollies felt comfortable around her. Forgot about her parents. Myrddin ceased to exist. The only thing in the universe was Manny’s eyes.

  When Alex reopened her eyes, they were the foggy green of Manny’s. She watched what Manny watched, trying to memorize everything she saw. She let Manny’s many eyes flood her with information and concentrated on every moving thing. When Manny left the room, Alex closed her eyes and returned to her own sight.

  Above, Brath had finally gotten tired of waiting. “All right, we should just go! We have the coordinates,” he complained.

  Alex whistled for the attention of the other riders. “Oh, trust me, we’re going. But now I have a plan.”

  Chapter Seven

  Gill uploaded the coordinates Jollies had stolen from the facilities war room, and Team Boundless was off. Alex still hadn’t explained the plan to the rest of the team, but she knew what had to be done. She had seen what kind of fight they were headed toward through Manny’s eyes.

  Every second spent talking and explaining was wasting time they needed. Alex just hoped she had the trust of her team. That was the most important thing at the moment. She hadn’t had much time to prove herself to them, but she didn’t think she’d disappointed them so far. Today wasn’t going to be any different.

  Alex kept Team Boundless close to the ground as they flew away from the mountains, heading toward a green valley. Beyond the valley was a dying forest, trees gnarled and breaking apart, roots lifted from the ground, fighting for life.

  Gill and Brath were having a hard time flying that close to the ground. Their dragon’s claws kept scraping it, slowing them down. Brath was getting audibly more annoyed, grumbling loudly and not bothering to turn his comm down.

  Jollies and Jim, on the other hand, weren’t having a problem. Amber was small enough that it didn’t matter what height she was flying at; her speed was not affected. And Jim’s mech seemed to be able to take whatever you threw at it. The thing wasn’t fast, but it was stout.

  Alex didn’t mind the closeness to the ground. She hadn’t noticed it, but she often took her flying skills for granted. It hadn’t crossed her mind that the other riders might have trouble staying so low without losing speed. That was something she’d have to keep in mind for the future. What good was trying to lead if you forgot about what everyone needed?

  Brath’s voice broke through Alex’s musings. “Okay, I’m just going to say, this is idiotic,” he grumbled. “Why the hell are we staying so low? There’s a whole sky above us. And last time I checked, we were riding dragons, not horses.”

  Gill sighed over the intercom. “For once, I am going to have to agree with Brath,” he joined in. “It makes no sense to be this low to the ground. We are moving slower and less efficiently.”

  Alex countered, “Not everyone is moving slower. You two just need to concentrate and keep up.”

  When Brath spoke, you could hear the sting in his voice. “’Just concentrate and keep up?’” he repeated. “Not all of us are riding micro-dragons. Furi is huge! Do you know how much it takes just to keep him from nosediving into the ground right now?”

  “That’s not what, I mean, Brath. Sorry. I just meant, if you pay attention to—”

  “Trust me, I’m friggin’ paying attention.”

  Alex took a deep breath as she tried to find the right words. She was doing that thing where she got flustered and tried to explain herself. The right words just didn’t come.

  In fact, they were the exact opposite; they were the wrong words. Most of the time, Alex felt like she could convey her thoughts and ideas to other people, but every so often, she started to stick her foot in her mouth and forgot how to pull it out.

  “Just because you have some freakish gift and are an amazing rider who doesn’t have any problem doing anything other than impressing everyone around you—”

  Brath had gone off the deep end. He was ranting faster than Alex could listen. Luckily, the rest of Boundless wasn’t patched into the channel because it would have been embarrassing for everyone. Brath was really letting her have it.

  Part of Alex wanted to say that this tirade was just him being insecure—projecting his worries and fears onto her—but she knew that wasn’t true. This plan hadn’t considered anyone’s comfort or skill level other than her own. Brath had every right to be upset.

  The best thing to do was listen—to hear him out and let the gnome get everything off of his chest. Hopefully, that wouldn’t take too long. Besides, they still had a ways to go.

  Before they had left, Alex had gone over the map and its coordinates with the whole team. The initial route they had planned would have brought Boundless to Toppinir’s and Roy’s locatio
n within thirty minutes. It would have been a straight shot.

  After seeing through Manny’s eyes, Alex thought it was a bad idea to take the direct route. She wanted to go a more roundabout way, maintaining that staying low was the most important thing, regardless of how long it was going to take.

  Initially, everyone had thought it was a bad idea. After a few minutes of arguing, they still thought it was a bad idea, but it was Alex’s idea. They had decided to trust her.

  Now Gill was pinging Alex on top of Brath. Alex told Brath to hold on and answered Gill. “Yeah, what’s up?”

  “Why are you having us stay so low?” Gill asked. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Oh, my God, you too?”

  “Would you prefer we follow you blindly? We’re a team, and I am not going to follow without being given a good reason.”

  Gill had a point. Expecting everyone to listen to her without giving them a reason wasn’t the best idea. Alex had figured it would be a waste of time to go over every detail of her plan, but now, it seemed like at least two of her riders were doubting her judgment. “Okay, hold on, Gill,” Alex said before switching back to Brath, who was still ranting.

  Alex combined Gill’s and Brath’s comms and then patched the rest of the team into the conversation. Brath continued ranting until he was breathless and panting. “Okay, Brath,” Alex said. “I’d prefer you didn’t use that language about me, but I can see you’re mad.”

  Brath let out an exasperated shout. “You’re damn right, I’m mad. What the hell are we even doing?” he shouted.

  Jim stepped in. “Just hold on, Brath. Alex is one of the best strategists I’ve ever played with. We can trust her.”

  “That you’ve played with? Excuse me for remembering this is not a human VR game, and so far, all of Alex’s strategies, if you want to call them that have been, have been to rush in and try not to die.”

  Alex was stung by Brath’s words. What came next hurt even more. “Brath has a point,” Gill seconded. “Many of Alex’s plans have relied on her extreme skill, placing the rest of us at risk if we couldn’t keep up. I’d like to know this isn’t another one of those.”

  Jim chuckled as he shook his head. “Okay, guys, are you listening to yourselves? Alex has been doing great so far. That’s why we’re here right now.”

  “Exactly. That is why we are riding into what could be a death trap with little or no understanding of our odds or why we are taking such an impractical route.”

  The comm went silent. Gill’s cold logic was much more painful than Brath’s boisterous complaining. Gill had hit the nail dead on the head. Then a voice cut through the comm. It was Jollies. “That’s not true,” she squeaked.

  Gill took a deep breath and said, “Please explain to me where my argument is faulty.”

  “Alex has been making tough calls. She got us out of the Nest because she was willing to take risks. It has nothing to do with ignoring what we’re capable of. She’s willing to risk it all, and that’s what’s gotten us this far. And that’s what’s going to save Roy and Toppinir.”

  No one replied. Alex was surprised and glad Jollies had spoken up. It was all Alex needed to be reminded of what she was doing. She was making a call, and it was the right one. “Trust me, guys,” Alex said. “I’m not going to ask you to do anything crazy.”

  Brath scoffed and countered, “Anything crazier than what you’re already asking, right?”

  “Right. Nothing crazier. Now come on. We’re getting closer. We need to focus.”

  Alex took the lead, pushing Chine ahead of the others. The dragonriders followed, Jollies moving up toward the front with Alex. They looked at each other briefly, and Jollies smiled brightly. “Thanks, Jollies,” Alex said gratefully.

  Jollies’ smile brightened as her body shimmered yellow. “No problem,” she said. “You see things we don’t. I get it.”

  That was when Alex remembered Manny. He was close to where the action was happening. She mentally told Chine to keep going in the same direction as she closed her eyes and focused on seeing through Manny.

  Alex slid into darkness for a second, but when she opened her eyes, she was seeing through Manny’s many eyes. She took the situation in. It was worse than she’d expected from her first viewing, but it wasn’t anything Boundless couldn’t handle.

  Slipping back to her own eyes, Alex took the reins back from Chine and pointed to a hill in the distance. “Right over there. That’s where we’re going,” she told the other riders.

  The dragonriders crested the hill in no time, and all of them stopped at the scene that unfolded before them. There were dozens of dragonriders in the sky fighting bats nearly the size of dragons with no visible riders.

  The sky was blood-red, and the clouds were black. Jagged streaks of lightning flashed and thunder boomed. Above the clouds, there was a meteor that looked roughly the size of the Wasp’s Nest. Lightning was flying from the meteor, but there was something inside.

  Gill wiped his eyes as Jim popped out of his cockpit. “What the hell is that thing?” Gill asked.

  Alex pointed at the meteor. “That’s where we’re going. That’s what this whole battle is about.”

  Jim looked at Alex, confused. “I thought they weren’t sending any reinforcements to get Roy and Toppinir?” he asked.

  “Sort of. They couldn’t afford to send any more reinforcements. Myrddin’s been throwing everything he can at this battle. There’s just no one else left to go. That’s why we’re here.”

  “You really think we’re going to change the tide?”

  Alex nodded as she gritted her teeth. “It doesn’t take much to turn a storm into a hurricane. Come on.”

  Alex sped upward, and the rest of the team followed her. As they were closing in, Brath said, “Shouldn’t we be going over there? That’s where the fight is. If they need help, that’s where they’re going to need it.”

  Alex doubled down on Chine and sped up. “Not yet. Trust me. We’re going to get to the fight. Just not yet. There’s something else we have to take care of first. We have to get under it.”

  “Under the meteor? Are you crazy?”

  Alex didn’t respond and kept going. They were getting closer. She could smell sulfur in the air from the dragons and bats above. It was impossible to see who was winning, and she had no idea where Toppinir or Roy was, but she knew that meteor was the whole purpose of this mission.

  Team Boundless was directly under it. “All right, now!” Alex shouted as she ascended, heading straight for the hunk of space rock. She zoomed in between dragons and bats who were fighting, not letting herself lose any speed.

  The rest of the dragonriders were right behind her, Jim taking the rear and Gill staying next to him. They fired at any bats that tried to take advantage of Jim’s lack of maneuverability.

  Team Boundless burst through the last dregs of the battle beneath them, heading straight for the falling meteor.

  Chapter Eight

  The meteor was still a couple of hundred feet from Team Boundless, and the battle raging beneath them was trying to fight its way up. Bats had seen the new dragonriders and disengaged to attack Boundless.

  Alex did her best to avoid the bats, trying not to get distracted from the meteor. It was difficult, though. The bats were out for blood. Even with her speed, Alex still had to fall back a few times to blast bats who were getting too close.

  It didn’t look like the bats had riders. They must have been creatures whose only purpose was to serve the Dark One.

  At the rear, Jim was taking the most heat from the bats. Luckily, his mech was built for this kind of thing. He deployed his concussive shield, which created a barrier around him so bats hit him and fell away, like birds flying into a window.

  Jollies was also doing her best to keep the bats away from the group. She flew, faster than the other dragons, in a circumference surrounding Boundless. As she circled them, Amber generated electricity, creating a sort of lightning cage to ward off t
he bats.

  Brath flew up to Alex’s side. He didn’t look happy about what was going on, but Alex could tell the gnome was all in. You only took point if you were ready for whatever was coming.

  When Alex had watched through Manny’s eyes, she had seen the meteor, but there had been something off about it. Manny’s eyes saw different spectrums of light and heat, as well as different planes of existence. There was something in that meteor that didn’t fit with the rest of reality.

  In Manny’s sight, it had looked like flashes of red hot light came off of the meteor but only in one spot. Alex was willing to bet her life on that spot being the meteor’s weak point.

  This was the same meteor Myrddin had shown Alex when she had first been recruited weeks ago. Alex and her parents had watched this meteor rocketing toward this realm. Myrddin had said it had the potential to turn the tides of the war. He’d said it was the most important campaign at the moment. There had to be a reason Myrddin had shown it to Alex.

  Nothing the wizard ever did was without reason. Myrddin had made it a point to show that meteor to Alex. He had made it a point to choose Manny and his eyes to be paired up with this blind girl. And there had to be a reason Chine, with all of his psychic abilities, was bonded to Alex.

  Alex raised her hand without thinking. It just felt like the right thing to do. And she slipped back into her mind, focusing on seeing through whatever eyes were within the meteor. She had to know this was more than just a hunch.

  A sharp pain wracked Alex’s head. She felt nauseous and dizzy, and she stomped her foot down on Chine to make sure she was properly anchored. For a second, she had seen through eyes in the meteor. There was someone in there—someone who felt familiar. Someone who was waiting for something.

  Alex pointed to the lower left quadrant of the meteor and shouted, “Concentrate all your fire on that spot on the left! All of it!”

  Brath turned to Alex, his eyes wide with confusion. “Wait, you just want us to shoot at the rock? It’s too big! We’re not going to be able to make a dent in it. That thing could crush us!”