The Circle of Duty

by Owen Elgie

  A sound akin to a sonic boom crashed over the valley as each of the Tayne impacted with our defences, rattling off the age old stone of the surrounding area. The three of us blinked wildly in surprise as we were all forced to take a step backwards by the concussive force of what had just taken place. Frederico and I stood practically motionless as we attempted to take in what was taking place, stunned into a statue state by the sheer surprise of events unfolding before us.

  Andrea, though, was already airborne.

  With a single thunderous beat of her wings, she had surged skywards with the sound of the first concussive impact. She had instinctively known that there was something wrong, even before the Tayne had reached their apparent target.

  “Come on Freddy, it’s all kicking off. Let’s move,” I growled into Frederico's ear as I gripped him by both shoulders and shook him into action. I unfurled my own wings and readied myself for flight, still shaking Frederico as I did. He barely moved.

  “Come on. We need to get airborne now. Something is going to happen and we need to be able to counter it. All of our weapons are inside the citadel.” My voice carried the usual growl of the Dragon but the desperation I suddenly felt was clear enough to hear. The enemy hadn’t made their move but their opening gambit was scary enough.

  With one thunderous pulse of my wings, I surged up and back, watching Frederico and the ground vanish behind and below me. I turned myself to face forward, towards the edge of the shield and began to draw in my magical power in readiness. Whatever was taking place was going to need all of the muscle that I could muster, judging by the size of those opening explosions. Frederico was soon following.

  Andrea had made a good start on her journey towards the centre of the valley but it didn’t take me long to draw alongside her. From our elevated position, we could make out the different locations that our forces had been using as vantage points. Below us, I could make out people starting to get to their feet and shake off the effects of the explosions which had burst from the Tayne. There were still a great many lying motionless.

  More tearing explosions boomed out as wave after wave of Tayne struck the shield. Each outpouring of energy and sound was getting more powerful as the three of us followed the enemy inwards towards the centre of the valley, closing the distance between us and their source.

  “How are they doing that?” I was totally at a loss to explain how what was previously accepted as being the weakest of the enemy forces was suddenly able to create so much destruction. Andrea had known that there was something very wrong even before they had impacted so I needed to know what she did.

  Andrea didn’t turn her head to face me, instead keeping a watchful eye for attack from ahead, but she started to speak.

  “This isn’t the main attack. All of our forces opened fire on the Tayne when they were closed on the edge of our barrier. The Tayne had brought all of our troops into the open, made them all expose their previously shrouded positions. However they did it, their super charged attack from impact with our wall has managed to expose every faction of our troops and to leave them all vulnerable to their power. We need to get within the boundary and set our defences closer to the entry to the prison.”

  Without another word, she effortlessly accelerated and pulled away from me, spearing forwards towards her goal. Before she was too far from me to be heard, she twisted her long, elegant neck and called back an impassioned order,

  “Get Frederico through the barrier. We need him.” Her head snapped forward again and she powered on, leaving me to bank hard to my left to bring me back to his position. I settled into a cautious glide directly over him as he pushed onwards for all he was worth. From that position, I knew that I would be able to offer him protection from any threats from above by simply being between him and his would-be attackers. I was also now in the perfect position to see anything which was sent up at us.

  “We need to get inside the boundary shield quickly. Our forces on the ground have been badly compromised so we need to pull our efforts closer.”

  Frederico nodded his agreement but I could feel a black anger pouring off him like an oil slick.

  “We are all going to survive this but our first and most important task is to always hold the prison.” I needed Frederico to hold is inner animal in check until he could use his soaring rage to its most devastating effect. He still didn’t answer me but I could feel the chains around the violence of the Fire Dragon power pull a little tighter.

  I continued to scan as much of the area I could, hoping that if there was going to be any fresh bombardment, and I would be able to see it coming well before it hit us. The first flash came from an area on the rocky lowlands almost directly behind us. A single spark of light burst out against the grey of the surrounding stone. I instinctively called out to Frederico and we both banked in opposite directions in an attempt to evade the shot.

  As I leveled out, I checked back to the site of the flare to check for repeated fire. Instead of being greeted by the pop-pop-pop of magical artillery, I was greeted by the site of a small Cascade Bridge gateway. It wasn’t the usual white/blue colour of the gateways I had seen previously. This one was more of a dirty yellow. It gave off the same kind of light you would find from a very heavily dust covered light bulb; you could see it was working but that it wasn’t working in the right way. As I flew, more and more of these messy doorways were bursting into life all over the valley. They could only have been two or three feet in diameter but they were all clearly visible. Risking a look into the sky again, I found Frederico to my left and slightly below me. He was still heading in the right direction though. He too, was looking down at the gateways as they opened and floated in the gathering dusk. We both continued our journey towards the relative sanctuary of the boundary shield, still trying to work out what was happening all over the valley floor.

  We hadn’t come to a conclusion when the truth was revealed to us.

  Each of these Cascade Bridges had been opened directly next to one of our troop’s previously hidden bunkers. Accompanied by hissing and screaming, hundreds of small creatures began to pour out of the gateways and crash over the still reeling people below like the wave of an angry sea.

  Crimson shards flashed across my vision as my own rage at the enemies attack on my people spiked. I wanted to drop from the sky and start torching every single thing that had dared to set foot on The Circle's ground. I prepared to help my allies but suddenly, and without warning, my rational mind gripped me tightly. The Tayne had been used as a diversion to draw a Dragon into a position where he would be vulnerable. Looking down, I could see that this was clearly the same situation. We needed to keep the Dragon force intact and, as Andrea had pointed out, we needed to protect the prison.

  I turned back to Frederico to call him onwards but his rational mind had lost its grip some time ago.

  All I could see was him fold his wings back into his body and set off towards the ground like an armour plated javelin, roaring all the way down.

  I was left to roar out after him as he smashed down towards the shrieks and calls from the melee which had sprung into existence. Taking one last quick scan around the area for any other sites of enemy incursion, and making sure that there was no wild spinning in the back of my head which would have signaled impending danger to me, I took a deep breath, focused on the diving Guardian and growled to myself,

  “In for a penny…”

  I snapped my wings back with a slapping force that pressed them directly down to the length of my body. There was now a sudden lack of force holding me in the air and gravity was fast to make its presence felt. I started my rapid descent to the ground by piking my body and falling headfirst. The wind lashed at my face as I quickly gained speed. Ahead of me, I could make out Frederico reach the battle that was erupting around one of our artillery positions.

  He wasn’t slow to join the fray.

  He waited until the very last moment before he deployed his wings as a natural parachute and hit the
ground directly over the beleaguered encampment of our forces. It wasn’t long before he had started defending the position.

  The enemies’ gateway was still burning and was still vomiting out swathes of the small creatures which had been attacking or forces. As I closed in on the action I could make out more and more detail of them. The outpost was being swarmed by what looked like thousands of two foot tall black, armored beetles. They had been overwhelming our small team of soldiers by sheer weight of numbers, doing God knew what as they poured onwards. When Frederico had landed though, each and every one of them swarmed up and onto him.

  He started spewing out columns of green tinged orange flame, indiscriminately torching anything that was in his way. Our own troops seemed to become a distant memory in the blink of an eye and they were all forced to dive for cover, both physical and magical, as Frederico's immolation was cast all over the area.

  A noise which can only be described as being ‘wrong’ floated up towards me as dozens of the beetle creatures screamed in agony as the full power of an angry Fire Dragon was brought to bear on them. Small bodies were turned to ash as all of Frederico's fury was given a free reign to exact what he must have seen as a divine retribution.

  Frederico's efforts, though, hadn’t gone unnoticed. More and more of the six legged creatures were bounding out of the gateway and into the fight as if it were the call for reinforcements that I had heard coming from them. It was hard to distinguish between them all as the numbers on the battlefield rapidly increased. All I could make out as I fell was that Frederico had been drawn into a very dangerous position where the enemy would have the advantage.

  Again, The Hive had managed to draw a Dragon into a position where they would be vulnerable. Again, The Hive had shown themselves to have a stronger grasp on military planning and strategic forethought than any of us had given them credit for. As I neared the ground, I realized that I was crashing headlong into yet another fight at this prison that felt like I was being manipulated. The last time I had damaged my wings badly enough that I couldn’t fly. Mentally I crossed my fingers that I wasn’t going to be on the receiving end of worse this time.

  Steeling myself, I too waited for the last possible minute before throwing out my own wings and joining the fight. I smashed down far harder than I had intended and I could feel the waves of energy from my impact course through my frame, rattling against every part of me.

  Shaking the stinging pain away, I risked a reviewing glance around the area. It was hard to make out the details of the enemy. They were all crawling over each other to be the first to attack the Dragon before them. They seemed to take on the appearance of a living liquid, ebbing and flowing as it crashed all over Frederico. He was doing his best up to now but the armored beetles were constantly replacing themselves. As Frederico burned away ever increasing numbers of them, more and more came scuttling out of the magical portal which floated at the edge of the skirmish. It was clear to me that my first focus had to be to try and stop the source of the enemy forces being spewed out at us.

  As wave after wave of the midnight black creatures swarmed up towards me, I dug my claws deeply into the rocky ground beneath me and threw out as fierce a blast of searing flame as I could, aiming it through the corrupted Cascade Bridge.

  Creature after creature was incinerated as my fire hammered into their magical construct. The screeching call that I had heard from the enemy earlier filled the air again as we fought back. This time, though, it was accompanied, from beyond the rim of the Cascade Bridge; by what can only be described as a collection of shouts from what sounded eerily like human voices. I stopped my beam of flame and tried to listen over the cacophony of clacking and screeching.

  I thought I could make out garbled words, fragments of sentences and cries of pain as I focused all of my attention on the ring of power before us. I tried my hardest to focus enough of my mind on picking the details of the sounds that I thought were speech but the sound just hopped and flitted away from me amongst the battle. Who or what could have been on the other side of the construct?

  My attention couldn’t linger that much longer.

  In a sudden collapse of energy, the Cascade ring winked once, and then fell back in on itself as the magical control governing it unraveled. One jerky lurch after another signaled the loss of control and the magical doorway, which had been held open by what can only be described as corrupt, broken power, was slammed shut, isolating the enemy from their support.

  Swinging all of my attention back to the fight that was going on around me, I was quick to realize that the danger was far from being contained.

  The remaining enemy creatures were still vast in numbers and were more than capable of causing serious damage to one or all of the Dragons and human forces they were attacking. They had split their attention between Frederico and the beleaguered soldiers who were still firing but who were now huddled together in a defensive position, looking they were making their last stand. They had also started to make a move on me.

  I started to feel hundreds of grasping feet as they searched for grip on my scaled surface, all looking for the purchase as they scrambled for headway amongst their brothers and sisters in their mission to slay the Dragon. I tried to focus on all of the details of the little monsters as they moved all over me. They were new to me but I knew that Andrea or someone else in The Circle would be able to identify them.

  I reached into the pool of broiling anger at me feet and held one aloft. Despite the battle which was raging around me, I reviewed its features and took in all of the details. It held equal parts humor and terror. They looked like they had come to being as a weird cross of a Pixar creature and the nightmares of H.R. Geiger, rounded edges and sharp points all rolled into one. A shiny black shroud of plate was draped around the whole frame of the beetle like creature but its head was far from being typical to that of your usual run of the mill black beetle. It carried flashing mandibles, each covered in thick, fibrous hairs which framed a mouth full of crooked yet steely sharp teeth. There were also no eyes to speak of at any point on the monsters face.

  I turned it slowly before me, trying to ignore the sensation of its brothers and sisters crawling all over me, and took in all of the detail that I could afford. I could make out serrated blades all over its limbs and knew that this particular foe was going to be nothing for me to worry about on its own but that as part of a swarming group that they could probably have a very damaging effect.

  My analysis was stopped there though.

  Without looking up from the small creature in my grip, I was slapped in the face by a bolt of heated force. With a perfectly literal slap in the face, Frederico brought me back to the battle at hand.

  I glanced up to see the young Guardian writhing around amongst an ever growing maelstrom of insectoid evil. The wave of Hive foot soldiers was looking like they were starting to develop the upper hand and Frederico was starting to throw his bursts of flame around in a very indiscriminate fashion. The slap in the face that I had been on the receiving end of had been a full blooded blast of Argentinean fire. There was no time left to study the enemy foot soldiers.

  With the barest application of pressure between my massive clawed fingers, the beetle thing crumpled in on itself and stopped thrashing for freedom. A thick, yellow hued goo dribbled down my fingers and started to fall in heavy drops towards the seething ocean of The Hive forces. Slowly separating my fingers, I dropped the now crushed shell carcass to the floor and shook my hand free of the sticky substance. The first of the beetles had reached my head when I opened up with my own jets of flame.

  With the maximum accuracy I could muster, I beamed out fire in as wide a jet as I could in Frederico's direction. The force of the flame was enough to knock him off his feet but it had a much harsher effect on the enemy which had been starting to overwhelm him. In an instant, there was nothing left but blackened ash covering the young guardian, all of the creatures which had been all over him now incinerated. Frederico was un
harmed by the flaming blast. It wouldn’t be the done thing for a Fire Dragon to be vulnerable to its own power.

  He was quick to stand and start in on the others, again letting his hatred for The Hive drive his efforts. Roaring all of the time, he swung his head back and forth, spraying out fire in wide arcs through the on rushing hoards. Screaming and clacking clawed at the air as dozens and dozens of the small beasts perished.

  I turned my attention back to my own situation and started to scorch off my own attackers. They were all resolute in their desire to kill the Dragon but without an unending supply of reinforcements, they were starting to run low on numbers. For a force that bases its entire strategy on overwhelming the opposition by the sheer weight of numbers, this meant that they were on a slippery slope.

  But looking at the fight below me, they had thought of that as well.

  The screaming sound which I had thought to be nothing more than the death throes of a mindless monster now appeared to be a more co-ordinated call to action, changing their orders on the battlefield. I was still partially covered but Frederico was no longer being rushed by the ever charging waves. The beetles had swiftly changed their attack focus and were all driving at the huddled band of soldiers who had been fighting for their lives. Up to now, they had been doing enough to stay sheltered but they were going to be overwhelmed in seconds if they had to see off the whole enemy force.

  Frederico hadn’t seen the change in tactics.

  He was still spewing out column after column of molten hatred, despite the fact that the creatures were essentially running from him.

  “Freddy! They’re all aiming for the troops. The guys need help!” I roared out to Frederico trying to snap him from the glee of death while still scraping against the little beasts still surging all over me.

  He didn’t respond.

  We didn’t have time for this. I needed to get these troops to safety within the shielded perimeter of the prison and then work on the rest of the teams that were being swamped over the valley.