Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow

by J. Michael Fluck

  Normally Gallanth and Mkel would eliminate a great deal of enemy ground forces before the garrison or regiment would even get into the battle. Dragon and rider went out of their way to minimize casualties among the regimental ground forces. This was often to the chagrin of the dwarf company, for they lived for combat and were not happy until they saw the grayish black orc blood on their axes.

  However, during the exercises, Gallanth and Mkel planned on worst-case scenarios, where they could not provide a great deal of cover from the air, owing to their being engaged with chromatics. Gallanth could decimate enemy ranks with his breath weapons and sunburst beams, which had the ability to wipe out an entire company at a pass. His fireball spells and various other powerful spells could decimate another company sized element at a shot, once per day. His breath weapons and sunburst beams could be fired multiple times, much to the chagrin of their enemies. Gallanth and Mkel would also take care of any giants on the battlefield, but they always initially focused on combating the chromatic dragons, for they could inflict massive damage on the regiment if left unchecked.

  Mkel reviewed his plan for the training exercise for the next day. The training event would begin with the garrison on line and the catapults initiating fires at targets twenty-five hundred yards away. The garrison would then move forward in unison to within eight hundred yards, or ballista range, which would trigger their fires. They would initially pick large targets like giants and then concentrate on the infantry columns. When the battle line moved to within three hundred yards, the elven and human archers and crossbowmen would unleash their volleys. This would continue as the line kept advancing. The garrison’s Weir company archers and crossbowmen were very accurate and practiced a great deal; however, the elven archers were devastating, capable of wiping out companies at a volley.

  As the battle line closed to within throwing range of the target line, the dwarves would initiate with their throwing axes and hammers, and the garrison infantry’s first two lines would ready their spears and shields for either an enemy charge or their own slow advance into the enemy ranks. At this point, Mkel would signal to one of the infantry platoon leaders and Senior Company Sergeant Pekram to simulate a breach in the line. The archers would initially move in to stop the break and then fall back. That would give the elf infantry platoon a signal to move in to reinforce the breach. Elves armed with long swords and double-headed pole arms were swift and deadly. The rangers would be performing strafing runs, and the cavalry would be told through the seeing crystals which flank to attack. He and Gallanth would then do one practice strike, which always instilled courage and confidence in the line units.

  Mkel also planned for Silvanth to do a diving attack on the Weir garrison and the regiment so they could practice defending against a chromatic dragon attack, simulating that one got past Gallanth. Normally, Jodem, Dekeen, Ordin, or Toderan, the key and powerful members of his Weir council, would face off against a chromatic dragon that made it past him and Gallanth, for their strength could at least hope to match a lone chromatic. Master Wizard Jodem’s spell power included major offensive and defensive capabilities, and Dekeen’s bow, Ordin’s hammer, and Toderan’s holy sword, all dragonstone-powered weapons, always confronted the deadliest foes the garrison and regiment faced. Sergeant Pekram also was ever ready to stand against any foe.

  Mkel would brief the officers and leaders on the timeline and the battle rhythm later that afternoon. He would need to get Lupek’s brief right after lunch to pass the information along to the rest of the leadership, and the ranger leader would brief the regiment commander, Colonel Wierangan, at the planning meeting as well. After he finished up the plan and the conceptual sketch of the battle layout, he decided to go for a run and exercise.

  He went to his wardrobe closet in his planning room and started to change out of his Alliance Army uniform and into more comfortable exercise clothes. He normally ran around the Weir lake once or twice, covering two to three miles. He did not like to run but knew it helped him stay on balance when riding Gallanth and it also let him keep up with the infantrymen of his garrison company. They would go on runs three times a week for at least that distance and marches that were three to four times that once a month. The rangers did even more, but he felt that it was up to them.

  The ground around the lake was soft and cushioned his steps, and the view of the crystal clear water, as always, was relaxing. After he finished his run, he did a series of push-ups and sit-ups to strengthen his upper body and stomach, again to keep him in shape for flying and for fighting. When he finished with his exercises, he took a quick bath and put his uniform back on. He had at least two hours before lunch, so he retrieved his magic crossbow, Markthrea, and went to the range located at the far side of the Weir landing.

  The shooting range held over thirty firing points; archers could shoot to a distance of one hundred yards if they desired, but they could extend that to six hundred yards if all else was cleared from that portion of the Weir grounds inside the hollowed-out mountain. A range was also set up outside the Weir that could be pushed to one thousand yards for Mkel and the elves. He set up at fifty yards first, firing from the prone position. His crossbow had a special sight that was powered by one of Gallanth’s dragonstones. The sight had the power of gold dragon vision, which was up to thirty-six times as acute as normal human eyesight; it also allowed him to see clearly at night and estimate ranges as well. The dragonstone was embedded on top of the mithril steel sight, which was fastened to the crossbow just behind string catch. It had a thin crosshair as the aiming point; when shooting at a moving target, a red circle appeared that enabled Mkel to move the crosshair and hit an aerial or fast-moving enemy. The sight also automatically adjusted for distance in regards to the shallow ballistic path of the bolt, which traveled at an unbelievable speed.

  The dragonstone also helped him cock and load the bow faster. A lever located behind the trigger cocked the powerful dragon sinew string when it was pushed forward. When the lever was pulled back, a bolt was loaded from the detachable magazine located at the bottom of the stock. The crossbow itself was made of elven dark oak, making it lightweight but very strong. The limbs were made of red dragon bone, with the string made of the same dragon’s sinew, taken from a chromatic Gallanth killed in the last war. The dragonstone mounted on the sight pushes the bolt out at lightning-like speeds.

  Mkel used three types of bolts. The basic masterwork bolts were made by Dekeen’s best fletcher (arrow maker), with the extremely sharp tips made from the strongest steel the dwarves could produce. These bolts were one half inch in diameter and approximately six inches long. They could slice through plate armor at a thousand yards and even cut through demon and black iron armor. These deadly missiles did enough damage to kill two men and were a woe to ogres and aerial foes. Mkel usually carried at least one hundred sixty of these in his flying rig and thirty or more when he dismounted. He also had a select number of mithril alloy-tipped bolts that can penetrate anything, including magic shields, shield spells, and even dragon hide. These bolts did three times the damage as his regular ones and had an even greater range of more than two thousand yards.

  He also had bolts tipped with a special formula of wizard-created dragon’s fire pitch and Gallanth’s saliva. These were made by Jodem and exploded on impact in a fifteen-yard burst, capable of killing all in the impact area; they could also utterly destroy an ogre/troll-sized creature if struck directly. They could inflict a good deal of structural damage to a wall or castle battlement as well. A select number of bolts combined a mithril alloy tip with the bursting bolt for powerful opponents. These first penetrated then exploded, capable of taking out a giant or similar sized creature. Mkel carried sixty of each of these types on Gallanth’s flying rig.

  Mkel put his first quarrel on the post, put his right arm through the attached sling, and secured it with the hook that was anchored to his dragon hide armor, which doubled as his riding ja
cket. His dragon hide jacket was made from red, blue, white, and green dragon scales, and the hides taken from dragons that Gallanth slew during the last Great Dragon War. The hide and scales were meshed together with mithril thread, making the jacket as strong as actual dragon hide, and giving Mkel some protection against fire, electricity, acid and frost weapons. The hide-and-mithril-thread combination made the jacket almost impenetrable by all but the most powerful magic weapons, yet it weighed no more than thin leather armor. It had a soft padded interior, making it very comfortable to wear, and fit both his heating and cooling crystals at the top of the back of the jacket just below the neck area.

  Mkel lay down on his shooting mat and planted his elbows firmly. His right hand, with his riding glove on, slid up to the sling hook, where it met the steel swivel handstop on the bottom of the stock. He put the elven-oak butt stock of the crossbow firmly into his shoulder and rested his cheek on the raised comb. He leaned into the bow and felt his hand take the pressure. He took a couple of breaths, slowing each one down, until his final exhalation, when he looked through the sight and placed the crosshair on the center of the target (the circle reticule did not appear since the target was stationary). He grasped the contoured firing hand grip firmly with his left hand and rested his finger on the trigger, just in front of the first joint. As his pulse settled to a minor blip, he squeezed the trigger smoothly, taking up the one pound of pressure needed to release the catch, and the string snapped forward, sending the bolt screaming to the target. The bolt struck the target face, cutting the center one-half-inch scoring ring on the right side.

  He then pushed the cocking handle forward and pulled it back to its original position, locking the string back, and put another bolt in the ready position. He was loading his bolts one at a time since he was practicing and did not need to rapid fire, and chose to shoot from the sling versus resting the nine-inch magazine on the ground in combat mode instead of target style. Again he squeezed the sensitive trigger, and the second bolt landed directly beside the first. He put his next three bolts in a small cluster, all cutting the small center ring. His next five also put a group in the second target’s center ring. He reloaded and proceeded to put five bolts on each target’s center rings (his bow could be loaded with ten bolts at a time). His last bolt just slightly missed the center ring, and he teasingly cursed himself for slightly jerking the trigger.

  Mkel then got up and fired twenty bolts from the standing position and a final twenty bolts from a sling-supported kneeling position. He walked over to the target line and pulled out all sixty bolts, returned to the firing line, and then reloaded his magazines. He then picked up his crossbow and mat and moved to the one-hundred-yard line. After shooting a twenty-bolt target from the prone position with a sling, he shot with the metal magazine planted on the ground, taking care to firmly put his right hand on the upper front of the magazine, putting slight rearward pressure and firing in a smooth cadence. His next position was to move the crossbow to the supported mount that simulated the firing platform on Gallanth’s flying rig. He fired twenty more shots from that position, and after he felt reasonably satisfied, he retrieved the bolts and reloaded. When he finished, he walked back up to Gallanth’s ledge and put his crossbow on the wall outside his living quarters.

  “Wake up, my friend. We will be taking the brief from Lupek and Deless in a short time,” Mkel said to his sleeping dragon. “I am awake, my rider. We can go down to the Weir grounds together, and good shooting by the way,” he replied as he stretched his massive front and back legs, jingling the gold and silver coins that made up his bedding. The powerful muscles on his fore and hind legs even showed through his armored hide.

  “We will also need to take a flight over the training field before the leaders meeting tonight, just to make sure all the preparations are ready,” Gallanth added. “Have you talked to Silvanth yet about her role in the exercise?” Mkel inquired. “Yes, she will be happy to comply, but she is getting close to mating,” replied Gallanth. “Then she will be more aggressive for the exercise, and I will feel better about the trips to Battle Point, Draconia, and Freiland that are coming up,” Mkel concurred. “Yes, it will be a busy couple of weeks, plus I feel the information we will be getting from Lupek will verify the nagging feeling I’ve been having about a growing threat to the east in the mountains and beyond. I cannot pinpoint it, but I know something is brewing there,” Gallanth added. “We will see, my friend, but we better get down to the planning room, for we don’t want to be late for our own meeting,” Mkel said.

  With that, Mkel grabbed his riding jacket, took his heavy equipment belt and sword, and slung his crossbow over his back. He jumped up on Gallanth’s arm, who then raised him up to his neck; he threw the equipment onto the flying rig and harness situated between two of Gallanth’s back ridge plates. Gallanth rose up on all fours and lumbered over to the edge of his landing, where he sprang into the air. He gently sailed to the far edge of the Weir’s lake and landed with a swirl of dust as he back winged. Mkel slid off of Gallanth’s neck onto his arm and was lowered back to the ground, still carrying all of his equipment. He and Gallanth then walked over to the Weir garrison’s headquarters. The meeting room held over fifty people, and it had a large opening so Gallanth could lay his head down and face into the big room to participate in the discussions.

  Mkel stowed his gear in his planning room, with the exception of his sword, and took his notes to his seat on the huge U shaped table. He placed the notes and sketches he made for the exercise tomorrow on the large oaken table in front of his chair. Gallanth lay down in his normal position so his immense head rested on the ground in front of the thirty-foot opening to the meeting chamber and filled in the top of the U shaped table that faced him from inside the room. I believe Ordin is approaching from the lower corridor, Gallanth said to Mkel telepathically.

  Gallanth’s foresight (his ability to see into the near future) always amazed Mkel. On many an occasion, this ability saved their lives, as well as the lives of thousands that he and his dragon protected. This ability was the bane of their enemies in battle; it always kept any foes from succeeding in a surprise attack. Only gold dragons had this ability. Silver dragons had limited foresight ability, as did brass dragons (to an even lesser degree). This still gave them an advantage over their chromatic counterparts, however.

  Sure enough, within seconds Mkel heard the heavy footsteps of a dwarf approaching from the corridor at the far end of the council room that leads from the lower levels of the Weir and the home of the dwarf clan that reside there. Ordin was their leader and one of their toughest fighters. He was the dwarf entrusted by Gallanth to receive Donnac, the dragonstone-powered war hammer made of solid mithril. Its ruby dragonstone mounted on the top gives the war hammer the power of thunder and lightning. Ordin could throw the weapon up to one hundred yards; it would strike one large opponent (or up to ten man-sized targets) and then return to his hand like a boomerang. Upon hitting a single target, it delivered enough concussion and shocking power to kill a full-grown troll. It can also create a spell shield like Mkel’s and Toderan’s swords were capable of. Upon a successful strike of a giant, it had a 50/50 chance of killing it outright. He also wielded a master-crafted mithril/steel alloy battle-axe in his off hand for balance. Ordin was wearing his mithril-lined dwarven plate armor, likely for the benefit of the regimental commander, as dwarves live for a good fight. In battle, it made him a difficult target to penetrate, but it looked cumbersome, even though it was actually quite light. It also didn’t affect his acute dexterity, surprising for his broad but squat frame.

  While Ordin was the leader of the dwarf clan that inhabited the lower levels of Keystone Weir, he and his brother Dorin also oversaw the mining operations in the bowels of the mountain fortress. Dorin focused on the mining issues while Ordin worked on making the special dragonstone and mithril weapons, and they led their dwarf infantry company together. Ordin was a key member of the Weir
council, as the dwarf clan representative, and also oversaw all dragonstone weapon production and updated the Weir on mining issues.

  The burly dwarf stood just shy of five feet tall, but like most dwarves, he was extremely stocky and physically strong. Weighing in at roughly two hundred fifty pounds, he was stronger than most men (save Toderan and Pekram). His well-kept beard and hair were an earthy brown color, and his eyes were a lively light brown-green. He was very jovial and bombastic, but like all dwarves, he could be moody at times and apt to brawl after drinking heavily. Ordin had a good heart though and was usually kind, which sprang from the dwarves’ very strong sense of commitment to their friends and allies. He and his clansmen loved to drink ale and eat good food, often frequenting the Weir’s tavern as well as their own smaller tavern in their living areas in the deep caves and caverns below the Weir.

  Dwarves were extraordinarily tough with high constitutions, which enabled them to stay underground so long. The dwarf clan mined the lower caves of Draden Weir, which was rich in gold, gems, and especially the rare mithril. They kept a small percentage of the wealth, and the rest went to the Weir for its upkeep and pay, with a portion shipped to the capital for the common treasury. The dwarves revered Gallanth and had a great respect for the gold dragon; they owed him their allegiance for his protection, benevolence, and wisdom. While they tolerated elves, they enjoyed the company of humans and halflings more. Most dwarves stood approximately four and a half to five and a half feet tall and weighed between one hundred eighty to two hundred fifty pounds or more. All males wore beards, and even some women sprouted them. Dwarves were adamant in their pursuit of good and to further the cause of the Alliance, but they tended to be loud and bombastic.