Entharis stepped forward, “This is bad… very bad. If word spreads about Raki’Agr’s fall, it will boost morale amongst the human forces.”
“It would be worse than that…” Eutherys said, having finally calmed down. “This could bring together the coalitions, nomads, and the nationalist forces.”
“What are your orders?” Amzer’ial asked.
“The city they call Denver. It’s the capital of their forces… Entharis, take whatever force you need with you. Go there and wipe them out… all of them.”
Amzer’ial looked concerned, “Attack the coalition’s capital city head on? Is that wise?”
“Are you questioning my orders?”
Amzer’ial shuddered a little under Eutherys dark stare, “Normally no, but you’re asking us to attack a heavily fortified city. The humans are not going to just roll over and die. We’re going to take heavy casualties trying to take them down.”
“Desperate times call for desperate measures. We can no longer afford to wait and wear them down. Circumstances have changed too much. I know how you feel about our young, but many more will die if the human forces unify. That is not a risk I can take.”
Entharis stepped forward, “I agree. I am not worried about it. I will take our forces ahead and crush the pathetic fools.”
“Do not allow your lust for blood blind you!” Amzer’ial hissed. “Have you forgotten that you are dealing with a species that have proven themselves to be resilient and resourceful many times over? They will not go down as easily as you think!”
“Such dribble.” Entharis replied.
“The humans are a formidable foe.” Amzer’ial said angrily. “Only a fool would think otherwise.”
“You sound as though you admire them.” Entharis said through a sneer.
“I respect them.” Amzer’ial replied. “Their skin is soft and offers almost no protection against the elements. Their brains are nowhere near as developed as ours and they are a pathetically primitive species in every measurable sense. Yet they have survived and here they are offering true resistance to us. Even knowing that they may lose, they still continue to oppose us at every turn. That is a species worthy of respect.”
“Amzer’ial speaks wisdom.” Eutherys said as he sat on his perch. “You would do well to follow her advice.”
“As you wish.” Entharis said as he bristled his sharp scales. “I will take my leave of you now to rally my forces.”
Eutherys nodded, “Victory to you, my friend… good luck!”
Amzer’ial hissed as Entharis flew down the mountain, “Fool…”
Eutherys turned and looked at her, “Speak plainly my friend. No one will hold it against you.”
“I am entirely loyal to the horde… you know that.” Amzer’ial replied. “However, this decision to send him… He is blinded by his blood lust… Years of warfare have clearly clouded his mind.”
“You think I made a mistake?”
“I think he’s going to get a lot of drakin killed.”
“Maybe…” Eutherys said. “Or maybe it will rid us of a loose cannon. Only time will tell, I suppose.”
Denver City
Capital of the Western Coalition
Formerly Colorado
Chapter 21
“Watch him!” Jagger shouted as Raiya grabbed the attacking wyvern by the neck.
“Watch out for yourself!” Raiya replied. “I got this.”
Raiya tightened her grip and jerked her arms to the left. The wyvern cried out in pain as its neck snapped. It fell lifelessly to the ground with a loud thud.
Raiya turned to see how the rest of the group was doing. Jagger was holding his own with his bolt gun. He’d brought one out of the sky, but a second one came swooping in behind him, “Jagger, watch out!”
Jagger quickly turned and pointed his gun at the wyvern when three bolts struck it out of nowhere. Raiya turned and looked back at the jeep to see where the bolts had come from. Andy was standing next to the truck with a nervous look on his face as he held the pistol.
Jagger nodded, “Thanks!”
“You’re welcome.” Andy replied as he ducked back down with Miranda.
A loud boom made Raiya turn and look behind him. A drake lay on its back, barely moving. Eric was hard at work trying to pry his knife from its chest, “One less of these!”
“Nicely done, Eric.” Jagger replied.
With all the dragons dead, Andy took Miranda by the hand and led her out from the cover of the jeep, “That was the third attack since we started heading north. They’re becoming more and more numerous.”
Raiya nodded, “My father… He must be getting nervous.”
“If that’s the case, why hasn’t he sent anything bigger after us?” Jagger asked.
“Maybe he doesn’t know where we are? He must have patrol upon patrol looking for us and has his forces spread thin.”
“That might be to our advantage then… but it won’t be for long. We need to get to Denver.”
“How far away are we?” Eric asked.
“About an hour.” Jagger replied. “That sign we saw said that we were in Colorado Springs. I believe that’s only about an hour away… but I’ve never been here, so I’m not certain.”
“All right, let’s go.” Raiya said as she jumped into the jeep’s passenger seat.
“Is that smoke?” Andy asked.
“That’s smoke…” Raiya replied. “Shit, they’re under attack!”
Denver quickly came into view. Like every other city they’d visited thus far, it had a large metal wall around it with fortifications every few feet. They couldn’t see over it, but the few buildings that still poked out from behind the wall appeared to have been damaged recently. At least two of them had been set ablaze.
Jagger kept his eyes on the sky above them as the jeep approached the city walls, “Holy shit, look!”
A massive gray dragon flew down out of the clouds and perched on the taller of the two burning buildings. He let out a massive roar as several static bolts flew past him.
“That’s a dragon lord!” Raiya shouted. “No doubt about it… and he’s not alone!”
As the cloud of smoke passed, they could see massive groups of wyverns, drakes, and even beta dragons attacking the city. They appeared to be forming into packs as they dipped down to strike.
Jagger watched as the city’s defenses attempted to fight the dragons off. They were successfully bringing down some of the smaller dragons, but nothing they did had any effect on the leader. As expected, his hide was just too strong for their weapons.
Jagger slammed his foot down on the gas and blew right through the city gates. Eric held onto the roll back in the back, “Jagger, be careful man! What are you doing?”
“I’m not letting this turn into another Foxborough! Hopefully no one told them about what I did in New Framingham.”
The jeep raced down the surprisingly well-maintained road to the main city square. Like most of the cities they’d visited, this one had been destroyed and rebuilt several times.
They passed by smashed buildings, rubble, and small shanties that had been built as makeshift homes for several refugees. It wasn’t the most pleasant sight, but to see that several buildings were in the process of being repaired did instill hope for the future.
The jeep finally arrived at the Denver City Hall and County Building. This had once been the capital building of the city, but had long since been converted into Westcon Central Command.
The solid gray building was covered in black ash and burns. It had seen several attacks, but had stood defiantly against all of them. Even the small clock tower on top had survived everything that had been thrown at it.
Around the massive building was an open field. Where once there were finely trimmed trees and beautiful flowers, now stood only ash and dead branches. Several gunner positions had been dug into the ground around the command center. Soldiers were running to various positions to assist with fending off the dragon attacks.<
br />
Jagger pulled the jeep to a halt and jumped out as a group of soldiers passed by. He called out to one of the soldiers, “You there, who’s the officer in charge here?”
The soldier stopped in his tracks and looked at Jagger, “Identify yourself.”
“Lieutenant Jagger Bishop, Westcon eastern front.”
“Identification?”
Jagger pulled his ID out of his pocket and handed it to the soldier, “Here you go.”
The soldier looked at the paper and handed it back, “This way, sir.”
Jagger followed the soldier as his friends jumped out of the truck and ran to catch up. They were led to one of the gunning position where an older man stood under a small canopy. The massive anti-air laser array continuously fired at the dragons overhead. It made a loud humming sound each time it fired, making it hard to hear anything else. The soldier had to shout to be heard, “Commander Bhatia, this is Lieutenant Bishop reporting from the Eastern Front!”
Jagger stood straight and saluted the commander. The older man ignored the salute, “Welcome to the fray, lieutenant. What can I do for you? As you can see, we’re a little preoccupied here!”
“At the moment, I’m here to help. We can talk about what I need once the dragons are gone.”
Commander Bhatia stepped forward and pointed at the dragon lord, “Do you see that? You know what that is?”
“Yes, I do. It’s a dragon lord.”
“Then you know that unless we can ward it off, we’re all pretty much dead, right? My goal is to hold out as long as we can until we can evacuate.”
“Evacuate the capital? Is that even possible?”
The commander frowned, “We’ve trained for it… but we’ve also brought in several refugees since then.”
“Commander, with respect… abandoning the capital…”
“Will throw the coalition into chaos, I know. This could wind up losing us the war.”
Jagger glared at the commander, “Sir, we can kill it.”
“Excuse me?”
“We can kill it. Give me the chance and I’ll save the city.”
“How? Nothing’s been able to penetrate its hide. There’s no way to kill one of them.”
“I’m not going to penetrate its hide. If you hit it from the inside, you can kill it.”
“How the hell are you going to do that?”
WROOOOOOOAAA!!!
“There’s no time to explain!” Jagger insisted. “Please sir, just give me command!”
Commander Bhatia looked oddly at Jagger. He clearly didn’t believe a word of any of this, but what choice did he have? Likely everyone was about to die anyway. He scratched the short gray hairs on his head as a fireball took out a nearby gunnery emplacement, “Fine… what the hell… What’s the worst that can happen?”
He reached over the radio that was attached to the laser array and tapped the black button on the side. With a look of disgust on his face, he picked up the speaker, “All units not currently engaged in evacuation, this is Commander Bhatia. I’m relinquishing command of the capital ground forces to Lieutenant Bishop. You are to follow his orders until instructed otherwise.”
Commander Bhatia immediately handed the speaker to Jagger, “What are your orders, sir?”
Jagger quickly looked around. He had gone from being a rogue junior officer to the commander of the capital defense force. At least a million people lived in this city. Everything rested with him, “All fighters out of position, get to the wall and keep the citadels firing. All defensive arrays and turrets are to focus on the smaller dragons. Take down as many as you can. Do not fire on the dragon lord, I repeat… Do not fire on the dragon lord.”
No one responded over the radio, but clearly they heard him. The turrets switched targets and quickly began to bring down huge numbers of wyverns and drakes. The guns were so powerful that one quick strafe typically took down five or six wyverns.
Jagger turned to Raiya, “All right, partner. You’re clear, get that thing’s attention.”
Raiya nodded and ran out into the open field with a determined look. Jagger turned back to the commander, “Do you have any G1 medium-sized power cells?”
The commander nodded and opened the case on the side of the laser, “G1s were kept in reserve… I never thought we’d be desperate enough to use them. Each laser has a spare, just in case.”
Jagger grabbed it and stepped out from under the canopy, “Commander, get everyone who’s nearby to safety. This is going to be a tough fight.”
Commander Bhatia nodded and turned to a few of the men that were out in the open, “Roger that… –You men, get inside the command center, now!”
Eric appeared next to Jagger with the bolt gun in his hand, “What can I do?”
“Just be ready to be a thorn in that beast’s side if Raiya looks like she’s losing. We’re going to need everything we’ve got.”
………………….
Raiya ran out to the open field and clicked her teeth together. She screamed as a stream of flame emanated from her lower jaw. The flame shot into the air and acted as a beacon.
Entharis grinned when he saw it, “So… you actually did come here. I was so hoping you would. It saves me the trouble of hunting you down.”
Raiya ceased her flame as the dragon lord hovered close to her. A look of disgust entered his eyes, “Is this it? Is this really what Eutherys has been so worried about? This pathetic creature?”
He quickly landed and rested his tale on the ground, “I find it hard to believe that something so small could cause such problems.”
Raiya found herself surrounded. The dragon had curled its tail so that while its face was locked with Raiya, its tail was at her back. She stood with her chin out, defiantly, “I’m tougher than you think!”
“We’ll see! I find it impossible to believe that you succeeded in killing my brethren, but I will not be so easily felled.”
Entharis raised his head over Raiya and snapped downward. Raiya jumped out of the way of his jaw and darted behind the dragon. It quickly turned, jumped back and snapped again.
Raiya smiled, “I’ve seen faster wyverns! You’re going to have to try a lot harder than that to make me a meal!”
“As you wish.” Entharis replied. “I like my meals cooked anyway…”
The dragon lord opened his mouth as wide as he could and unleashed an intense wall of flame. The heat from the flame felt like a sunburn to anyone standing nearby. The flame moved quickly, but not quick enough.
Raiya dodged out of the way and clicked her teeth together. Now it was her turn. A stream of fire sprayed at the massive dragon, striking its neck.
Entharis looked more annoyed then hurt as he turned into the flame and deflected it, “So it is true…”
He again unleashed his fire breath on Raiya, forcing her own fire back. This was much stronger than any of the other dragons she’d fought so far, apart from her father. She didn’t expect it and didn’t have time to counter.
As before, a massive fireball appeared between the two flames. It fed off the energy that was being supplied by both streams of fire, but this time it was being pushed back towards her. This dragon was attacking with full force. She pushed harder and harder until her throat became horse. There was nothing she could do. She had lost this round.
She ceased her attack and attempted to dodge out of the way, but the fireball was too close. The sheer force of the explosion sent her flying backwards out of control. Her spine struck a piece of metal debris that looked like a telephone pole. Her body snapped back from the force of the impact. She hit the ground with a thud.
“No… –Light him up!” Jagger screamed as he dropped the power cell.
The group attacked the dragon lord with everything they had. Eric used the bolt gun while Jagger unloaded both pistols. Entharis ignored the attacks like they were little more than annoying fruit flies. He was focused on more important prey.
………………….
Raiya lay nex
t to the post where she had impacted. Her back pulsed as she turned and lay on her side. Every movement she made extremely painful. Her body no longer had the strength left to stand.
As Entharis approached, she sprayed the last of her fire breath at him in a vain attempt to hold her ground. She knew that it would likely do her no good, but it didn’t matter. She wasn’t about to just lay there and die without a fight.
Entharis shook it off as he stood over her, “I expected someone that even Eutherys feared to put up more of a fight than that… too bad…”
The dragon lord opened its mouth widely and lowered its jaw over Raiya. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Raiya embraced the fact that she was about to die. After the life she lived, she wasn’t scared of death, but she did feel some remorse about leaving her friends behind. Jagger… Miranda… I’m sorry… please take care of yourselves.
“No!”
A shrill voice broke Raiya out of her haze and startled the massive dragon. Miranda ran between Raiya and Entharis, holding the power cell. She grabbed the dragon’s tongue. She quickly turned and smiled at Raiya as the dragon pulled its tongue back into its mouth, “Goodbye.”
Raiya’s eyes went wide, “Miranda, what are you doing? Stop!”
She reached out and tried to grab Miranda, but Entharis jerked his head back. His mouth closed with Miranda inside as he appeared to be gagging. “What is…”
Before he could finish the sentence, a shrill ringing sound entered his ears. He didn’t have time to think before the object that was stuck in his throat exploded.
Raiya cried out in despair as Entharis’s head was blown clear off his body, “No! Miranda, no! Please!”
Boom!
The massive head hit the ground, rolling a few feet from the body. The upper part of the neck was badly singed and smoking. It darted back and forth a few times before hitting the ground.
Jagger dropped to his knees, “No…”
Eric stood with his fists at his side, “Miranda… no… no more babies…”
Andy ran to Raiya’s side and knelt down next to her, “I’m sorry… she got away from me! I had no idea she was going to do that.”
Drakin: The Story of Raiya Page 25