Eutherys let out a deafening roar. His flame breath narrowly missed Raiya’s ankle. She responded with her own, grazing his right claw. She was now running at him. Her whole body was in pain, but she did the best she could to ignore it. Her mind was too busy focusing on her target.
She quickly dodged around another lash of Eutherys’s jaw and jumped on his back, “Die!”
She plunged her dagger into the wound on the side of his neck. Her father unleashed a scream that would have shattered bullet proof glass, “Amzer’ial, help me!”
Amzer’ial was standing next to Auirn’s body. She had nudged his head to see if there was any life still in his body. After confirming that he was dead, she’d laid down next to him. When Eutherys called for her, she looked up and growled, “You’ve earned your fate many times over, Eutherys. How fitting that the daughter you so despise is the one to herald your end.”
Eutherys hissed as he jerked his head to the side in an attempt to throw Raiya from his back, “You would turn on me as well? So be it!”
Raiya quickly slid down and grabbed on to the scales next to the wound she was working on. She withdrew that dagger and stabbed it even closer to his head, “Die!”
Eutherys cried out in pain as he put all of his strength into on last jolt, “You will not… end me!”
Raiya could feel the impact coming. She closed her eyes as she waited for it. Even at full strength, she wouldn’t be able to hold on.
The impact hit her like a pile of bricks simultaneously striking her. She fell to the ground and rolled a few feet away from Eutherys.
She was badly hurt. Her nose was bleeding, her scales had been cracked and stained in blood, her stomach still hurt, and she was unable to feel her legs. She had no fight left in her.
Eutherys stood over her triumphantly, “I would have expected more of a fight than that. Even with a human mother, you should have been able to do more than this!”
Raiya pushed herself up on her palms. Blood dripped from her lip as she clenched her teeth, “Just get it over with!”
“As you wish…” The dragon replied.
Eutherys growled as he lowered his head to Raiya. She waited and watched as his mouth drew closer. He wasn’t going to burn her, he was going to eat her.
Apparently Eutherys wasn’t going to take any chances on her surviving another attack. Seeing the pink inside of her father’s mouth gave Raiya an idea. She only had a split second to plan and one chance to make it work. This was it, the next few seconds would determine who walked away from this fight.
Using the last ounce of her strength, she leapt past his teeth. It worked, her feet landed on the fleshy gum inside his mouth. She clenched the dagger in her right hand and drove it up through his upper jaw, into his brain.
Blood rained down from the roof of Eutherys’s mouth. Raiya crouched down and waited for whatever was to come next. The beast let out a loud cry and fell to the side. The impact produced a shock that collapsed the council’s perches.
Raiya rolled from Eutherys’s mouth as she hit the ground. She lay on the cold stone, staring up at the sky, “It’s over…”
She let out a deep sigh and closed her eyes. Her fight had finally come to an end. The pain was too much. She’d won, but her victory had come at a heavy price. Her arms and legs would not respond, and her eyes forced themselves closed.
Chapter 28
Commander Bhatia watched in horror as a pair of elder dragons attacked their armored units. The tanks fought back as best they could, but the heat was proving too much for them. The shells from the tanks were too slow to hit the fast-moving elder dragons. This isn’t looking good!
BOOM!
The commander turned to see a massive dragon with green scales land in front of him. Given its size, there could be little doubt that this was a dragon lord, “Oh shit…”
Eric quickly ripped open the hood to the command Humvee and detached the fuel cell, “Good… it looks like it still has more than half a charge.”
He quickly jumped between Commander Bhatia and the ancient dragon. It looked at him and scoffed, “Brave… but foolish… You’re completely outmatched.”
“Think so?”
The dragon jumped towards him with its claws out. The beast was obviously trying to end the fight quickly, “Die!”
Eric tried to jump out of the way, but one of the dragon’s claws caught his foot. He cried out as blood poured from the wound. There was no getting away. He was pinned to the ground by the dragon’s claw.
More out of spite than attempting to kill the dragon, Eric plunged his dagger into its leg, “See how you like it!”
The dragon lord kicked free and turned to face Eric, “You’re dead!”
Eric could only watch as the beast lunged at him. His right foot was too badly damaged, so he pushed off with his left. It wasn’t enough.
The dragon grabbed him by the leg and sunk his teeth in. Eric’s leg went numb as he hung upside down in the dragon’s mouth. He was losing blood quickly and his eyes were blurring out.
The dragon jerked its head back, flipping him into the air. Eric closed his eyes, bracing for what was about to happen as he hugged the power cell close to his chest. A barely audible screech left the device as Eric set it to maximum output.
The dragon closed its jaws around Eric. The jubilant smile on its face was hideous. He was about to open his jaws to finish Eric off when his bottom jaw blew clean off.
Commander Bhatia had spent the last of his rounds and could barely move. There was little he could do but watch in complete horror as the dragon gyrated and let out a mournful cry. Eric’s remains were nowhere to be seen. The explosion had likely blown him to pieces inside the dragon’s mouth.
The dragon lord thrust its head to either side before it collapsed. A massive cheer went up from the soldiers on the ground. Most of them had never seen a dragon lord, let alone heard of one being killed. This was a major victory for them, but the battle was far from over.
Captain Suen saw the events unfold from her fighter, “Woo hoo hoo!!! One big boy down!”
Her joy was short lived when the radio chatter picked up, “Daoji leader, this is Freedom One. Chiyou and Wraith wings are down. I’ve lost Freedom Three…”
“Copy that, Commander Travers.” Captain Suen replied. “I’ve lost all but one wingman. I don’t know how much more good we’re going to do up here. We should commence strafing runs on the ground. If we’re going down, at least we’ll do give our boys down there a better…”
She didn’t even have a chance to finish the sentence. A small fire ball punched the wing of her fighter. The HUD went red and warning lights flashed all around her, “Fuck… I’ve been hit! This Daoji leader… you guys are on your own! I’m going down!”
Captain Suen quickly punched the eject lever on her cockpit. The canopy shot open with a loud hiss and she was propelled up out of her plane. A white and orange parachute shot out of her backpack. The tug on her chest was tremendous, but it succeeded in slowing her descent to the ground.
Three wyverns flew overhead and drove in to attack. The first one missed, the second one barely cut one of her cords, but the third one successfully cut enough away that she was severed from her parachute.
Suen hit the ground hard, but uninjured. The three wyverns landed around her in a triangle formation. She only had a split second to act before they ripped her to shreds. Her wing had trained for this, but it was a totally different feeling when it actually happened.
Captain Suen pressed on the clips, releasing the heavy gear, ripped her helmet off, and pulled a large, scimitar-shaped machete from her back. Her dark hair came loose from the bun on her head and dropped to her shoulders.
Grasping the blade in her right hand, Suen quickly grabbed a 9mm pistol from her pocket, “Want to play?”
The dragons all charged at her together. She drove the machete into the mouth of the first one to get close enough. A second one lunged at her, intending to pin her on the ground. She q
uickly ducked out of the way and put four rounds into its head. The third one charged are her with its mouth open, but before it could bite, she slashed its lower jaw, severing it.
The dragon roared in pain as it fell backwards. Captain Suen couldn’t stand the noise and quickly severed its head with the blade. Just die already!
As the wyvern’s head rolled away, Captain Suen wiped the blade on her sleeve and sighed, “Not over yet!”
She quickly ran through the raging battle, past men and women fighting for their lives, to the Humvee that had been deemed forward command, “Commander Bhatia!”
The commander was struggling to keep his forces together. His mouth was practically on top of the radio, “Central Command, we’re getting beaten down badly… we’ve been surrounded!”
“Copy Commander we’re prepping more fighters to try to cover your retreat, ETA twenty minutes!”
“I don’t think we have twenty minutes!” Bhatia yelled as he threw the radio back into the Humvee.
“Commander Bhatia!”
He quickly turned to see the young Asian running towards him, “Who are you?”
She gave him a quick salute, “Captain Suen, sir.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I got hit… I lost my fighter. How bad are things?”
“We’ve been surrounded, our armored division is gone… most of our fighters are gone… and we’ve been cut down to a few thousand soldiers. It’s about as bad as it can get here!”
The officers watched as their troops were surrounded and quickly forced to into a pack. Captain Suen frowned, “I didn’t think it would end like this.”
“Me either…” Commander Bhatia agreed.
“Maybe it doesn’t have to.”
“Oh?”
“Our mission was to buy time for your people on the mountain, right?”
“Right.”
“Well we’ve done that. So, who says we’ve been beaten? I say we’ve still got some fight left! What do you say?”
At first the commander looked at her like she was crazy. Then he looked at the worn, tired, and scared faces of his men. Was this really how he wanted to go out? The idea of dying while huddled together with his men in fear was completely unacceptable.
He smiled at Captain Suen and nodded, “I’m Sai, by the way.”
Captain Suen smiled, “Luli, Suen Luli.”
Sai smiled as he reached into the Humvee and quickly switched the radio to its megaphone setting. He spoke into with as strong a tone as he could, “Everyone, I know it looks like this fight is over. I know you’re tired and you’ve lost friends today… but our job was to help our friends and we’ve done just that! We bought them priceless time! As far as I’m concerned, we’ve won the day… now what’s say all of you? Do you want to go out huddled together like cowards or do you want die putting up a fight that even the dragons will have to remember?”
Cheers went up from the crowd, ending in a resounding ‘fight!’
Sai jumped down from the Humvee and turned to Luli, “May I borrow that sword?”
Luli nodded and handed the machete over to Sai, “My honor.”
Sai took the sword and pointed it towards Mount Whitney, “Forward!”
The large group of soldiers began running forward. They collided with a line of wyverns and drakes. Miraculously, they managed to break into the line of bewildered dragons and started cutting them down.
Even with the sudden moral boost, there just were not enough of them left to take on the dragon horde. They were quickly getting cut down to nothing. Luli stood with her back to Sai. She quickly grabbed her last clip and loaded it into the pistol, “This is it!”
Sai closed his eyes, ready for the end. He’d fought hard and accomplished what he’d set out to. There was nothing left for him to do.
SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
The blood-curdling cry from Mount Whitney made every dragon’s head cock to the side. They immediately looked back to the mountain. The fighting stopped as each dragon’s eyes widened.
Sai opened his eyes and looked around the group. The dragons had stopped fighting, despite still being cut down by his forces. Whatever that scream was, it had caught their attention.
One of the elder dragons quickly roared, “Eutherys has fallen! Everyone, back to the mountain!”
The massive horde of dragons took off and flew into the clouds. Gunshots and rockets trailed after them.
“Cease fire!” Sai shouted as a gun went off next to him. “Cease fire I said!”
Captain Suen Luli looked at him oddly, “What do you think just happened, Commander?”
“I don’t know… I think we just won!”
A deafening cheer went up from the crowd. Bodies and debris littered the land. The smoke was so thick that it almost blocked out the sun. A scene of death and destruction surrounded the soldiers, but none of them seemed to care.
The remaining two fighters circled overhead. Lt. Commander Ryan’s satisfied voice came over the radio on the Humvee. Commander Bhatia hadn’t bothered to turn it off. The megaphone projected across the field, “Westcon ground forces, this is Freedom One. It looks like the dragon horde is in full retreat. We’re low on fuel and requesting permission to fall back.”
Commander Bhatia ran back to the Humvee and grabbed the radio, “Understood, Freedom One. Thanks for all your help.”
“Acknowledged, Commander. One hell of a job you guys did down there! This is Freedom One, signing off!”
Raiya’s eyes opened to see a group of dragonlings racing around her. Two of them had bandages in their claws and were carefully patching up her wounds. She tried to sit up, but still didn’t have the energy to do so, “I’m still… alive?”
“Better than alive.” A voice replied. “You’re alive and you’re going to be just fine.”
Raiya’s eyes widened and she forced herself to sit up through the pain, “Jagger!”
Jagger smiled as he placed his hand on her back, “Easy…”
“You should be laying down!” Another stern voice said from behind.
Raiya turned to see Andy standing behind them, “You’ve had considerable trauma and your body is going to take some time to heal. Even with that dragon plating of yours, you’ve taken a beating!”
Raiya smiled as she looked around, “Andy! You made it…”
Then she noticed that someone was missing, “Wait… where’s Eric?”
Jagger frowned, “I’m sorry Raiya, he didn’t make it.”
“What?”
“He fell while taking down one of my brethren. He fell destroying one of the dragon lords.” A deep voice said from behind.
The dragonlings quickly scattered as a much larger dragon came into view. Raiya’s eyes widened, “You… the dragon lord!”
“The last one, it seems.” Amzer’ial said sadly. “Your uncle shared my cave for many years… even before we were banished here. I will mourn his loss for the rest of my days.”
Amzer’ial growled as she spoke, “Drakin Raiya… as I look at you, the blood in my veins burns. In my heart, I would kill you for what you did.”
Jagger had to help keep Raiya balanced as she struggled to her feet, “Yet you haven’t.”
“No.” The dragon replied. “Killing you now would not bring my people peace, nor grant me any honor. It does me no good to continue this war. It is obvious to me that there will be no winner in the end.”
“So then… what happens now?” Raiya asked.
“Now… we try for peace, as Auirn wanted it. Our horde is leaderless. We have no council and I am the only remaining lord. We have no direction and no path forward. I do not wish to see my race face extermination… we will agree to a cessation of hostilities if your people will agree to help us get off this planet.”
To Raiya’s shock, Amzer’ial lowered her head and the other dragons followed suit. This wasn’t something that Raiya hadn’t expected. It was an uncomfortable feeling. Suddenly she’d been thrust into the role of diplom
at.
When she didn’t respond, Jagger stepped forward, “On behalf of the Western Coalition, you have my word that I will bring your request to Central Command. I believe that the U.S. remnant still has that technology. We’ll work something out.”
“Thank you.” Amzer’ial replied. “We could expect no more.”
Raiya’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Jagger, “So now you’re back to being an officer in the Westcon?”
“For now, maybe…” Jagger replied. “At the very least, I need to keep being one until this is actually over.”
“I see…”
Amzer’ial nodded, “Then I will accompany you back to your command in order to flesh out the final details of our plan.”
“First, we should probably get Raiya down the mountain.” Andy replied. “She’s going to need some time to rest and heal.”
Raiya frowned, “I’m fine, really…”
Jagger gripped her arm as she tried to walk, “Sure you are. You’ve done your part, now let us handle the rest.”
“Jagger?”
“Relax.” Jagger said with a smile. “It’s over now.”
Denver City
Capital of the Western Coalition
Formerly Colorado
Chapter 29
Loud cheers erupted throughout Denver. It was a day that would be long remembered throughout the land. Representatives of the Western and Eastern Coalitions joined with the U.S. Remnant to sign the Denver Peace Accords.
The entire event took a week to plan and was as big a celebration as either Jagger or Raiya had ever seen. Jagger found it quite fitting that the peace accords would be signed on the steps of the Western Coalition’s capital and was happy to see that the city survived.
Countless ceremonies had taken place since Eutherys had been killed. Both Jagger and Raiya were forced to live through diplomatic speeches, heroic welcomes, and citations. It seemed like everyone wanted to be the first to congratulate them.
Today was no exception, before the signing of the accords, Raiya and Jagger were paraded around the city to cheering crowds. Raiya smiled and waved, as was expected of her. She appeared happy, but inside she was a mass of quivering nerves. She’d never spent this much time around people and wasn’t used to the attention.
Drakin: The Story of Raiya Page 32