Seventh Talon_Dragonrider's Fury

by James Patton

  Whatever was in that room was cunning, and she might have overestimated her abilities. It had enough intelligence to lure her here and almost trap her. Whatever else might be in there, she did not dare to find out. She was already on borrowed luck.

  Calling forth her pixie magic, she bulked up and rose off the floor. Creating a door and room was impressive, but it gave her a clue as to some of its capability. The floors, walls, and ceiling were not safe.

  The bunker was compromised and was no longer a haven. It was a death trap, and she had an idea of what was going on but feared to be right. Geo was going to answer some questions.

  The other corpse started to rise and stop her, but she grabbed her shotal with her other hand. The scythe-shaped blade cut the corpse’s head off. The rest of the corpses were in that side room, but they were too far away to stop her.

  Tactical retreat is what the soldiers called it, and that is what she was doing. Her pixie magic was probably the only thing that had saved her life in those few moments. The ground below her cracked like an iced-over lake.

  The pit traps triggered without her touching them, and the floor fell away revealing stone spikes below them. The spikes had small sharp barbs, like the one she just removed from one of the bodies.

  She flew over the trap towards the exit. Putting the pit trap between her and whatever was in that room. Backing away, she ran right into Geo and nearly screamed.

  “What are you doing down here?” He asked, and while it was a simple question she felt it was a loaded question.

  “What have ya done?” She questioned back, feeling an itch between her shoulder blades as she left her back exposed to whatever was behind her.

  “My duty. I did as instructed, something you would not understand. Your kind has always been butchers and answer to nothing but your own whims. I like you Aila, so I am going to ask you once to stay out of it.”

  “I’m not gonna interfere, but when Boh gets back, we are gonna leave.”

  “I am afraid that is not going to happen either. She swore allegiance to Haase; she is mine to command.”

  Her shoulders started bouncing as laughter rose up from deep inside. A laugh escaped followed by a snort, and then she kept laughing.

  “What is so funny?” Geo asked.

  “Have ya met Boh? Good luck taming that wild dragon, and make no mistake, inside that girl is the heart of a dragon.”

  “You will support me on this.”

  “No. I won’t. Ya a big dumb oaf.”

  “Aila, we are at war. I do not mean with the drakes, but they will probably destroy us too. Even if we survive the drakes, Brocard is going to come and wipe us out afterward.”

  “And I’m gonna say it again, slowly. Ya an idiot, the worst kind. Brocard and Haase fighting? Lemme tell ya the story ya don’t know- the Monarchs of both Talons are hatch-mates. Their sire was one of the dragons killed during the Usurper King’s climb to power. He was a loyal subject of Osric, as are his hatchlings.”

  “That is not true,” Geo growled, but his posture conflicted with his comment. The half-giant was a man torn between duty to his country and his honor. They both knew it.

  “Whatever it takes for ya to sleep at night. Just stay away from Boh and me, and kill that thing down the hall- before it is too late.”

  “I am not sure I can, it has already killed at least six of my men. Two of them had dragons, who may not live the night.”

  “Ya gonna tell me what it is?”

  “A Core.”

  She had to pause at that because a Core was rare- extremely rare. It was a bold move using it here, and she could not fault the logic of doing so. Crosspointe was growing fast, and had the drakes held off the core might have awoken on better circumstances. There was no way they could have predicted the incoming horde.

  A Core could develop into a City or Dungeon Core, and both were equally dangerous. This one was behaving like a Dungeon Core, and it was right in the middle of a town that was distracted by an invasion. Killing creatures within its influence was providing the Core an endless supply of energy.

  She suspected a Core from the way it raised the corpses and the pit trap. A City Core could do the same thing to protect itself, but it was the way it killed its residents and then used their bodies that gave her doubts about it being a benevolent Core.

  “That- we are all gonna need to evacuate.” She told him. “The rate it is getting knowledge, growing and gaining power, I give ya days. Days, not weeks or months, before it takes over this entire area.”

  “I cannot give that command. I have my orders, one of which is to protect that Core at all costs.”

  “Then ya really are an idiot. No general in, in all the history of the Talons, woulda fought a war inside a dungeon. That is beyond stupid, think about it ya damn fool.”

  “Sir.” A voice called down the ramp to them. Geo did not acknowledge at first, and he stared at her. She could see the cogs in his brain turning, and finally, he turned to the soldier that addressed him.

  “What is it?”

  “Best if you see it. The town- it rose like seven feet. Or maybe the area out there sunk?”

  Geo and looked at her, and they both went running for the walls.

  Geo

  Chapter 68

  The General

  My Drache Bond with Raldora was strong from day one. Even trust started abnormally high, and our connection had only grown more intimate. Lovers always treated Raldora as a threat, and it pained my dragon every time they left. I would sooner remove my arm than get rid of my dragon.

  -from Geo, Audio Roll 1075

  Aila flew alongside him as he climbed the ladder to the battlements. Looking over the wall he was struck by the massive changes, and then he was worried. These kinds of changes were dangerous.

  “By Rune!” Aila swore softly.

  “Is it a City Core?” Geo asked hopefully.

  “I honestly do not know. It heard our conversation, that much I am certain. I believe this is another tactic to preserve itself.” Aila had not looked at him, and he inspected the land before him.

  Spinning he took in the terrain all around them and found that the ground had flattened considerably all around the city, and looking back towards the attacking drakes he realized Crosspointe was on a small plateau now. It was not natural, as shown by the seven-foot interlocking stone wall that went east and west for maybe a mile in each direction.

  The palisade was right against the wall, giving his town a considerable advantage. Few drakes could jump the wall at this height. He could no longer call it a palisade, it was more like a parapet.

  “Did that thing eat a defense planner?” Aila asked softly.

  “Yes, a sapper too. Does it gain their knowledge?”

  “Partially. Enough obviously. Before ya ask, and I know ya gonna, it does not mean it’s a dungeon.”

  A road wound upward towards the gates, and could maybe fit two dragons side by side. A section of the road right before the gates was an impressive bridge over the glass smooth lake or moat. The water did not extend the length of the wall, but it did make the approach to the outpost a lot more difficult.

  On either side of the road on the other side of the lake, there was a steep grade that used the same interlocking stone as the walls. Anything on foot had to follow the winding road to reach the gates, fly, or swim the lake and scale the wall.

  Crosspointe existed at the junction of several roads and built in front of the pass that led to Haase. Dragonriders could potentially go over the mountain ranges, but the altitude, cold, and thin air were dangerous for a rider. Crosspointe guarded the safest routes into the heart of the Second Talon, which is why Haase survived despite being the smallest Talon.

  Dragonrider armies had to pass through here, or risk depleting their numbers. Several invading armies thought they could go over and lost the war before they even engaged Haase. Crosspointe made an ideal defensive outpost.

  The drakes could go around the town to the wes
t, but the forest and hilly terrain were full of rocks and debris that made it a challenging trek. Dragonriders could go around, but regular patrols could spot anything for miles in the sky. It made it impossible to sneak through.

  Tactically speaking, what the Core had done was amazing. The issue is he lacked the numbers to hold this place. His strategy involved letting quite a few of them pass by unmolested and trying to thin them out. Not to try and stop the flow, which is what the Core had done.

  Instead of being a knife in their side as the army passed, they were now forced to meet most of the flow head-on. He sighed.

  “This is bad,” she told him, and he frowned at her. “Don’t get me wrong. The change is impressive. The amount of energy it has from the dying drakes must be impressive. It’s bad because resources are not just gonna appear. No amount of magic can do that. The Core hadda bring the stone from somewhere, and removing that much from the earth is gonna make the ground unstable around here.”

  “I am aware,” he told her, and for the first time, he felt the cracks of doubt seep in. “City or Dungeon, it acts like a child, acting on a whim. It does not think through the consequences of its actions.”

  “The Core is trying to help, but its gonna take more than that to convince me it’s a City Core. I believe it is just trying to placate ya.”

  “I have other problems. I had no intention of stopping all the drakes. I wanted them to flow around the town allowing us to thin them out, that is no longer a possibility.”

  The pixie started sparking next to him, and he stepped back when he saw her face go sour. Electricity was still crackling across her when she spoke.

  “Boh needs to talk to it. She is the only Seer we have left.” She regretted saying it as soon as it came out.

  “You sure? You do not look sure.”

  “I’m gonna tell ya the idea scares me. Boh is unpredictable and could make it worse.”

  “I thought your kind like random.”

  “Ya missed the point ya ass.”

  He laughed at her and patted on the head, but she swatted it away.

  “I understood your misgivings. I’m much more aware of what is going on than you think,” he said before turning away. “Daniel, when Boh returns from her mission, bring her and Joker to me.” He called out.

  “Yes, sir.” A voice called from somewhere nearby.

  “One day I’m going to spot that bastard.” One of the nearby officers said, and despite the crap going on, he found himself chuckling.

  “Our conversation is not over,” he told Aila. “But I need to do something real fast, don’t go anywhere.”

  He catapulted over the wall, and Raldora was there with a wing outstretched. He ran down the length of her wing and hopped into the saddle. The water in the lake rippled from their passing.

  Raldora was a dragon of Earth and Light, and each scale was the color of emerald with a soft glowing spiral through each scale. She had no offensive attacks, and her breath was one that promoted growth and prosperity.

  His dragon could restore and revive a dead plant with a breath or heal allies if she so chose. Over the centuries she had perfected the skill and could switch between the two with ease.

  The moment he saw the big green dragon, he knew they belonged together. The dragon had doubted her worth, but he saw the amazing potential to do good, and together they had found a way to weaponize her breath when the time arose.

  Aside from that, her Primary Active skill was called Bulwark, which he gained the moment he bonded her. It was a protection spell, and unlike his shield, it was impenetrable by anything for ten seconds. While riding Raldora Bulwark would extend to both of them, so they could both use their ability consecutively and extend it to twenty seconds.

  His Primary Passive skill was probably his favorite, and it was called Nature’s Growth. It boosted his strength and size. The more the skill grew, the more he did, and at some point, he would be strong enough to wrestle small dragons. He was not a giant or half-giant as many thought, but a human. He stopped correcting them long ago because, despite his race, he had to admit he was more giant than human at this point.

  “Do it.” He told her, and they skimmed over the fifty or so drakes that were in this batch of attackers, and her breath misted out over them. As they passed by, he tossed out seeds, and he had a lot of different kinds stashed in the saddlebags.

  As the seeds hit the mist, vines started growing like a nest of writhing pit vipers, and they twined around anything and everything in their way. After a few minutes, they began growing thorns, which penetrated even the drakes’ tough hide. These were Blood Vines, and they spread quickly as long as they had a source of blood. As the drakes started dying off the vines withered away.

  It was a combination they discovered years ago, the rapid growth necessitated the need for blood. Had they not grown at such a rapid rate, the vines would trap its victims and feed on it for days. The rapid growth needed more blood than they could consume, and as a consequence, they died. Even as he watched, he could see the vines crumbling away, decaying at a rapid pace.

  He chose Raldora because he did not like taking lives, and how he ended up a general, he could not say. It was not their way to kill, but he could see the rabid look in the drakes’ eyes and knew there was no peace for them without death. A drake so thoroughly broken was something he thought he would never see, and while they were rough, uncouth, and most troublesome to deal with, they always had a spark of life to them. More than that, they were the most honorable of all the Drache, living by a code of which they put family and oaths above all else.

  Seeing their broken bodies torn apart by his vines did not bring him a sense of satisfaction. It left a bad taste in his mouth, and if he found the thing responsible for this, he would kill the son of a bitch.

  *Calm down my gentle giant.* Raldora told him, sensing his mood, and landing on the road near the dead drakes. He hopped off and started tossing corpses to the side of the road, careful to avoid the mines.

  *I know dragons and drakes do not get on well, but the drakes do not deserve this fate. I respect them, and this is hard to take. I am angry, but unlike Boh, I do not get the luxury of embracing it.*

  *Bonded, many of us older dragons remember what the drakes did for us. Sheltered and protected many of us during those wars. They risked themselves to defend our hatcheries and young. Taro’s Matriarch personally saved me, but I doubt she remembers it. I was a hatchling then.*

  He grunted as he lifted an unusually heavy drake and tossed it aside.

  *How come you never told me that?*

  *If you have not noticed, my kind do not like to admit weakness. I thought about how Malinite described Boh facing down Vasia, and that story has bothered me since I have heard it.*

  *Why?*

  *The same reason I pardoned Malinite. You never saw Vasia or the extent of her depravity. Ask any of those dragons back there, and they’ll puff their chest out and claim they could defy her. The truth is, they do not hate Malinite just for what he did, they despise him because he is a reminder of their own cowardice. Even I would not have defied the Dark Queen.*

  He thought about that and felt uneasy by the admission, and he ignored most of that story because he did not want to think about it. Boh had nightmares about it still, and she whimpered and roared in the same breath.

  *Do you think we should plant the thorn walls?* Raldora broke into his thoughts.

  *With that wall the Core built, the thorn wall idea does have merit.*

  The thorn walls would take some time to grow, but in time they could surpass the outpost’s walls in height. Even with Raldora’s breath, it would be years before it would mature. Her breath sped up a plant’s prolific nature, but if it was a slow growing plant her breath could only do so much.

  *Take me back first and then go ahead, do not range too far.* He told her as he hopped in the saddle. She spun back towards the town.

  Another wave of drakes was incoming, but his men could deal wi
th them. His Blood Vine attack was dangerous, and they only used it in moderation. Trying that in the middle of an army might allow the Blood Vines to survive long enough for the Raldora’s breath to wear off. If that happened, the Blood Vines could take over the entire region.

  He had quite a few different types of seeds, but they were all situational. Some of them were pretty nasty, and others he would have to burn the area down after using. Nature was not something he wanted to cross.

  Aila was waiting when he landed. The small woman always caused a paternal instinct in him, even though the woman was probably hundreds of years older than him. With his unnatural size and her shortness, the two of them standing together was a strange sight.

  He was at odds with her, and he handled the bunker poorly. He knew that, but he had a nation to protect. Even if the things she said were correct, it did not change his sworn duty to protect Haase.

  “Nice trick with the seeds,” Aila said by way of greeting. “I do like the creativity, but I must caution the use of Blood Vines. They have a way of rooting themselves and remaining dormant for years or even decades.”

  “This close to the walls it will not be an issue.” He told her, and she raised an eyebrow and her mouth opened as if to correct him. “Before you protest, this area is now protected by the Core.”

  “Ya still do not understand what is below, do ya? It now knows about Blood Vines. If’n it was paying attention, and ya should always assume it is from now on.” Aila’s forehead crinkled and she squeezed the tip of her nose. He noticed her do that on occasion right before- and there it was. Electricity slid through and across her body.

  “I want to apologize for earlier, but I need to make that Core work for us. Help me, please. How do we do that?”

  “I told ya, ya need Boh. Even if I disagree with it.”

  “You are her friend, why would you think it’s a bad idea?”