by Max Jager
"Mendelen!" One of the small groups of soldiers quickly approached them.
"Yes?" Mendelen turned to the soldiers.
"We found a nest with some relatively big eggs a few blocks from here. We can only assume they belong to the dragon. What do we do?"
Mendelen sighed and rested his forehead on his hand for a moment. "Damn it. I really wish this could have been avoided. We don't really have much choice, it would be inhumane to leave them there. If they hatch with no mother to feed them the baby dragon would just starve to death, that's a horrible way to die. The best thing we can do for them would be to destroy the eggs."
"Do you think Sarah would know another dragon that could take care of the eggs?" Drake asked.
Mendelen shook his head. "She's upset enough about us killing the dragon, let's not make it worse by telling her the dragon had a nest of eggs. Plus we have no reliable way to move the eggs over a long distance."
"If we had some earth mages, they could make a big bowl of stone. We could put the eggs in the bowl and have the earth mages levitate it alongside us as we walk." Drake suggested. "I've done that with my ice before, for smaller things."
"Yeah, I know. But what if we get attacked along the way? They'd have to drop the eggs. It would be too risky. It isn't really worth risking lives over a few eggs. I would have gladly used that idea if the dragon was alive and agreed to move to the new home, but there's not much point now. The best thing we can do would be to destroy them. That way they don't hatch and suffer." Mendelen answered.
The soldiers seemed unsure, they hesitated. "I can do it if you are not comfortable doing it." Mendelen reassured them.
The soldiers nodded. "Yeah, thanks." One of them said before the group left again to resume their work.
"You coming with?" Mendelen asked Drake.
"No. Don't feel like getting dragged into being a part of any cities, armies, or anything. Remember?" Drake replied "Good luck." He turned and began walking away from the city.
"You too. Be safe." Mendelen summoned another tiny bomb in his hand, then he focused on it and it slowly began to grow. When it was about the size of a basketball he began walking off to destroy the eggs.
* * *
It took Mendelen and the soldiers sixteen hours before they finally cleared the city of most of the monsters within it. Seven of the soldiers died trying to take the city back, but everyone from Mendelen's specially selected forces who stayed survived. However, that group was disbanded immediately after the city was taken back. Drake had already left, Maya also wanted to travel the world alone, Amanda and Em set out to resume traveling together, and Sarah never returned.
For the next week they would be cleaning up the city. Removing all the bodies, cleaning the messes the goblins left behind, patching up the buildings. By the end of the week their hard work was paying off, the city was functioning again. With some solar panels donated from Zanath the city had power, and most of it had been cleaned up enough for people to live in.
Mendelen was working near the soldiers, helping them clean up one of the untouched sections of the city. He stopped and sighed when he heard the familiar clanking of metal boots behind him.
"A second city? One in the middle of the open field at that?" Kaden questioned.
"You saw me take it back. And if you're spying as much as I assume you are with those tiny portals, you should already know about this Kaden." Mendelen stated as he stood up and turned to face him. He noticed that Kaden had a new accessory. He was now wearing a black cape, added to his black spiky armor it just made him look even more menacing and intimidating.
"Well yeah, I knew about this a long time ago. But I mean, can't I at least pretend you don't know I was spying on you all? When you found out about it there was no big reveal, no real surprise. I was expecting something like 'Gasp! Kaden is spying on us! Why would he do this? What is he up to? Let's go investigate!' Or, you know, let's go say hi. Something like that." Kaden made his over dramatic imitation of what he thought they would have said, then shrugged. "But no, you saw me spying and just kinda shrugged it off, as if this was no big deal. That takes all the fun out of it you know."
"This isn't a game Kaden" Mendelen flatly stated.
"I dunno about you but I'm having my fun. Maybe you'd be less stuck up if you had more fun." Kaden jeered.
Mendelen gave him an unamused look. "I am busy saving lives, this isn't meant to be fun. It's hard work."
"In what way is taking this city back saving lives?" Kaden questioned. "This city is even less defensible than the other village, it's in the middle of an open grassy field that's full of monsters. You're just boxing up all these people to be snacks for the neighbors."
"You see all these soldiers marching through the streets?" Mendelen gestured to the streets. "That's what will keep this city safe."
"Yeah, take the guards out of Estell's village. Great idea." Kaden shook his head.
"She has her own guards." Mendelen argued.
"Yeah, and I was telling you that with both your armies there you couldn't defend it. Now you split your armies up. That's worse, not better." Kaden pointed out.
"Well, we have defended the village for a while now. It's still in one piece, and it's been attacked before, by some pretty tough monsters at that. Zero casualties." Mendelen smirked. "So that right there proves you wrong."
"What? You need me to go start stabbing people to prove myself right? I can, if you need proof." Kaden grabbed his scythe, then paused "Well, maybe not stabbing people. More like slashing them, but same difference."
Mendelen immediately summoned an undershield clone beside Kaden to block out his magic. "No Kaden, I have more important things to deal with."
"Huh. That was the fastest you've ever summoned one of those on me. You have an itchy trigger finger today, I'd expect that from Estell, not you. Stressed much?" Kaden questioned as he walked out of the undershield.
"How could I not be stressed Kaden? I'm trying to build a city, trying to save these people, and trying to manage a small army at the same time. You watched me fight the dragon, I had to go against my morals to kill that thing. That wasn't an easy call to make, but lives needed to be saved, it still doesn't sit well with me." Mendelen snapped back.
"Congratulations, you made your first big boy decision. Welcome to the club." Kaden shrugged. "Want a cookie?"
Mendelen shot him a glare. "Don't be an ass. You knew the dragon needed to die, and you knew I didn't want to do it, why didn't you come help? It isn't like you care, you could have killed it yourself and then it wouldn't weigh on the rest of us as much. It wouldn't weigh on your conscious."
"What do I look like, your janitor? I'm not here to clean up your messes, nor am I here to do your dirty work." Kaden scoffed. "Yeah, I knew what was going on. I heard Sarah's conversation with it. And I knew about the eggs before you fought it. But I wanted YOU to kill it. I thought that maybe if I forced that on your conscious, if I made you make the tough choices for once, that you'd wake up and realize you can't protect these people. Yeah, I know, that's a pretty big jump, figured it wouldn't work but I tried. Seems like you're still stuck in your fantasy land."
"Am I?" Mendelen questioned. "Is it really everyone but you that's stuck in a fantasy land? Because everyone else agrees that the people are safe in these cities. It's been proven. You're the only one who thinks they aren't safe. And you need to go pulling stunts like this, 'forcing' me to do things to supposedly wake me up? Maybe I'm not the one who needs to wake up."
"You're wrong." Kaden replied. "The weak may believe the cities are safe, but the strong, the people who live out there and see what the world is really like. They mostly agree with me. I've met many of them. There's a reason why all of those top tier soldiers you had assist you with the dragon left. None of them felt safe within a city, none of them believed in it."
"You assume they left for that reason, but you don't know them. I knew them, they are adventurers at heart. They didn't leave because they th
ought it was unsafe, they went out seeking adventure. To better themselves." Mendelen argued.
"That's not what Amanda said." Kaden stated coldly.
Mendelen stood up straighter and stared Kaden down. "Yeah, and? You speak to Em? Maya? Drake?" He questioned.
"No, just Amanda. I did not have interest in the others." Kaden answered.
"Well there you go. Em fully believed in the protection of the city, she only left because she wanted to stay with her wife. Drake and Maya also believed in the safety of the city, otherwise they wouldn't have helped, they had their personal reasons for leaving." Seeing as he won the argument, he turned and resumed trying to repair a door to one of the houses.
"Wife?" Kaden questioned curiously. "That's why she wouldn't leave. Maybe I should have invited them both."
"Invite them to what?" Mendelen turned back to Kaden and gave him a questioning look.
"Your spying level is not high enough to know!" Kaden smirked. "You'll have to find out later."
Mendelen gave him an unamused look. "Really Kaden?"
Kaden sighed "Come on Mendelen! It's no fun when you don't play along."
Mendelen rolled his eyes and went back to work.
"You're no fun." Kaden grumbled. " 'Kaden is being so secretive and mysterious! What could he possibly be up to! I should go investigate!' " He broke out his over dramatic tone again, speaking for Mendelen.
"I'm not interested Kaden. I have work to do, actual work, not games." Mendelen replied.
Kaden sighed. "Well, let me know when you open your eyes and see the truth." He said as he turned to walk away.
"I already see the truth, we all do. We are just waiting for you to catch up Kaden." Mendelen replied.
"If you say so." Kaden shrugged, before he opened a portal and started walking through.
"Kaden." Mendelen stated, and Kaden stopped. "You took the eggs, didn't you? I found the nest, it was empty."
"Maybe" Kaden smirked.
"Kaden. Those baby dragons are going to starve to death when they hatch. That is cruel and inhumane." Mendelen stated.
"Maybe they will, maybe they won't. Anyways, it's almost time for me to bring the next batch of cookies to the village. Gotta go." Kaden just shrugged again and walked through the portal.
"Why are you making them cookies?" Mendelen asked, but got no answer. The portal just closed behind Kaden.
Once Kaden was gone Mendelen was able to resume working without any further interruptions. With everyone coming to help, and with the use of magic, the city would be fully cleaned and repaired in a few days.
* * *
Next Chapter: The Writing On The Wall.
Chapter 24: The Writing on the Wall
- Immersion Chapter 24: The Writing on the Wall -
Mendelen walked through a dark cave. The cave was empty as far as his lantern would let him see. He paused for a moment to lean back against the wall of the cave then took a notebook and a pen out of his bag.
"Let's see…" Mendelen murmured as he skimmed through the list. "Dragon scales, check. Golem cores, check. Mythril, check. That just leaves the shapeshifter blood. Good, this is my last stop for today." He pulled out a few diamonds that were about half an inch wide from his bag and inspected them. There were elemental spirits sealed inside of the diamonds, they were slamming their fists against the walls of their prison, screaming something that couldn't be heard to anyone outside of the diamond cell. "And they are all still alive, perfect."
Mendelen put all of his stuff back in his bag and focused for a moment. A clone of himself appeared in front of him, this clone carried no weapons and did not have his armor. The clone ran ahead of him into the cave, while Mendelen himself slowly trailed behind it. It took a few minutes of walking, but they found it. In the blink of an eye, a creature lunged off the wall and slashed the clone in half with its razor-sharp claws. The clone immediately burst into a cloud of poison and the creature started to cough and choke on the gas. It quickly ran out of the poison cloud to catch its breath.
The creature had a humanoid shape, it's hands had long claws growing out of where its fingers should have been. It's feet also had short but sharp claws. Its three foot long, spiny tail had a sharp, pointed tip. The tail was the only part of the creature's body to have an exoskeleton. It's back also had long bone spikes sticking out of the spine. It turned to Mendelen, growling and revealing multiple rows of deadly fangs.
Mendelen grabbed his shield and his spear, then with a wave of his spear three additional clones of himself appeared between him and the shapeshifter. These clones were heavily armored, they carried large shields and maces. Two of the clones moved around the monster's sides to flank it while the other stayed in front, and Mendelen stayed behind the front clone.
The shapeshifter hesitated and looked around at the four attackers. It waited for them to make the first move. But as it waited a layer of bone began growing over it's skin, little by little covering the creature in bone armor.
"Now!" Mendelen gave the order and the two flanking clones rushed in from the sides, trying to ram the creature with their shields to pin it between them. The shapeshifter growled at them but quickly lunged forwards at the clone in front of itself, dodging out of the way of the shield attacks. As it moved in it swept its claws at the clone in front of it, and as expected the clone blocked with its shield. While the clone blocked the claws, the shapeshifter's tail grew an extra two feet in length and lashed out at the clone. The tail reached around the shield and the sharp, pointed tip stabbed upwards, slipping underneath the clone's helmet and stabbing it in the head. This wasn't the monster's first encounter with an armored foe, it clearly knew how armor worked and knew how to pierce it.
The clone was dispelled and faded away. The moment it started to fade away Mendelen thrust his spear through where the clone had been, catching the shapeshifter off guard and stabbing the shapeshifter in the head. The creature went limp and stopped moving, but Mendelen did not move any closer, he cautiously kept his distance for a moment.
From the moment his spear made contact with the shapeshifter, many small blue sparks of electricity kept surging from the creature's body, up Mendelen's spear and into Mendelen's signet ring. His signet was slowly draining the creature's stamina and replenishing his own; but upon landing the killing blow, the energy didn't stop draining like it usually would. Mendelen wasn't falling for that one.
Suddenly the shapeshifter's head detached from its body and the body lurched forward, taking a swipe with its razor sharp claws at Mendelen. Mendelen twisted his spear to block the monster's claws, striking the beast's hand with the metal handle and pushing it away from his body. Upon contact with the creature's hand Mendelen stole a little more of its energy. The creature lashed out with its other arm, but it was blocked in the same way as the first attack.
The shapeshifter crouched down and went to stab Mendelen with its tail, but before it could reach him one of the shield clones grabbed the tail and restrained it. As it turned to attack the clone, Mendelen stabbed his spear into its back. Piercing through the creature's bone armor. Every time he made contact with the shapeshifter he stole some of its energy. But the beast didn't slow down, with incredible strength it threw the clone off itself, then pulled itself off the spear and stepped away from Mendelen. The stab wound on its back immediately healed, as the creature used shapeshifting to rebuild that part of its body. It's head also immediately regrew.
As the shapeshifter's bone armor finished growing over its body, a second layer of bone armor began growing over the first. It was little by little making the armor stronger and stronger, intent on eventually strengthening the armor enough to be immune to Mendelen's spear.
Mendelen took a stab at the shapeshifter from behind, causing it to spin around and grab his spear by the handle, blocking the attack. But upon contact with the spear Mendelen began sapping its energy again. While the shapeshifter was distracted the clone that was still standing rushed in from behind and went to slam i
ts mace into the shapeshifter's back. But the attack didn't go unnoticed, the shapeshifter tail doubled in length and stabbed at the clone before it could get too close.
The clone quickly raised its shield to block, but the pointed end of the bone tail pierced through the shield and the clone's armor. The shapeshifter had been sharpening its tail, and it was finally sharp and dense enough to pierce through the metal armor. The clone immediately disappeared.
Mendelen's last clone was starting to get back up, but was moving slow due to all the heavy armor. Before it could get back on its feet the shapeshifter's tail lashed out at it and stabbed through its chest, dispelling the last of his clones.