The other two dragons were only as large as a white dragon. A little over half the size of Gallanth, they were obviously poor flyers but seemed to be very aggressive. Once Gallanth was within a thousand yards, he again let out a tremendous battle roar and fired a sunbeam burst from his eyes at the blue dragon, which struck its magic shield. The blue was pushed off course by the impact, but its spell shield held. He followed up with a barrage fireball spell to make the other dragons veer to the left and then immediately fired his plasma fire breath weapon, which he directed at the green dragon. It struck the green in the lower left flank, shattering its magic shield and inflicting a good amount of burn damage. It quickly veered off to get out of the way.
Mkel shot a mithril exploding tip at the black dragon once they were within his thousand-yard range. Hitting a flying dragon, especially a poorly flying black, was not an overly difficult task, especially for Mkel. The bolt hit the black’s invisible magic shield with a good-sized explosion, but the horned dragon took the impact and kept coming. Mkel cocked the crossbow and again fired, hitting the black dragon’s shield; he quickly followed up with a third bolt at almost point-blank range that finally decimated the magic barrier. Gallanth and the black dragon traded claw swipes as they passed each other. Gallanth ripped the black’s left shoulder, while it caught him on the left leg. Mkel could feel the wound register on his leg, since as a bonded pair, they shared each other’s pain. Gallanth started to wheel around to give the black a blast of fire when he suddenly folded his wings and dove to dodge the lightning bolt fired by the blue dragon. The white hot bolt of electricity missed him by only a few feet, for Mkel could smell the ozone in the air. The blue then unleashed a dark beam of tremendous power, which Gallanth could not evade while recovering from his sharp turn from the first bolt. It hit the gold dragon’s magic shield hard, causing his large frame to shudder, but his shield still held firm.
Mkel swung his crossbow on the mount swivel and took a quick aim at the blue, which was now veering off; he fired the last exploding-tipped bolt in his bow’s magazine. It hit the blue dragon’s shield square on its flank. It was weakening and would not hold much longer. “I have to reload,” Mkel told Gallanth as he reached for another clip of exploding-tipped bolts from the flying rig quiver. Watch the flanks. I’m going to take out that blue. I must find his source of extra power, for that last lightning bolt he fired had twice the strength of a normal blue, Gallanth replied telepathically as he banked to the right and dove after the blue.
Gallanth roared as he quickly flapped his wings to gain air speed to close the distance on the evil dragon. He caught up to within two hundred yards of the fleeing blue and fired a plasma fireball blast, which streaked through the air and struck the chromatic dragon above the tail, smashing through its spell shield and striking its back hindquarter. The blue dragon spun around in midair from the impact and immediately folded its wings in a deliberate high-speed dive to get away from Gallanth.
Just as Gallanth was preparing to dive after the blue dragon, Mkel fired and hit one of the new dragon species coming at them from the left, causing it to veer off, but the other struck Gallanth from his underside, piercing his armored hide with its jagged claws. Gallanth winced from the talon strikes and swung around, hitting it with his front right claw across its back.
“What are you, little horned devil?” Gallanth roared in Draconic at the smaller dragon.
“I am a talon dragon, and I will tear you apart, metallic worm,” the heavily armored dragon shouted back, its red eyes almost glowing. Its enlarged scales and hide were grayish in color, and instead of having the small teardrop-sized scales like most dragons, these scales all ended in a jagged point. It also had enlarged claws for a dragon of its smaller size, which was roughly the size of a white dragon at twenty-two yards long. Its tail ended in a wyvern-like stinger that was almost scimitar like. All of its back ridges were sharp spikes rather than the smooth ridges of other dragons, which aided them in flight.
“I do not think so, puny one. Your first lesson from a gold dragon will be a costly one,” Gallanth roared as he reared his head back and engulfed the much smaller dragon in a cone of searing hot dragon fire. This was Gallanth’s short-range but area effect breath weapon. To his and Mkel’s surprise, while it inflicted a good amount of damage to the talon dragon, it was only half as effective as it should have been. This new dragon, while just half of Gallanth’s size, seemed to have an extraordinary toughness about it.
“Gallanth, watch its tail,” Mkel shouted as the talon dragon reeled back from the searing hot cone of flame and attempted to strike with its tail. Gallanth then spun around in midair, catching its exposed neck with the flat arrow head-shaped plate on the end of his tail, which sliced through even the tough hide of this new dragon, almost severing its head.
The small wings of the talon dragon folded as it gave a departing groan, and its lifeless body plummeted toward the ground. Just then another dark-powered blast from the blue dragon again struck Gallanth’s spell shield from his back and rear. His shield still held but was now reduced to half strength. Again the blue dragon dove but Gallanth did not follow, as he turned to face the black dragon now bearing down on him. It opened its darkened jaws and spit a jet of flaming hot acid. Gallanth folded his wings and dove out of the way, just avoiding the virulent, flaming liquid stream. As he stretched his immense golden wings out to begin flying again, Gallanth raised his head and fired a beam of searing light from his eyes, striking the passing black on the left rear leg joint, leaving a decimating wound.
The black dragon then spun around and dove right into Gallanth, wildly raking him with its front claws and attempting to bite his shoulder. Gallanth slashed his right claw across the side of its head, knocking it back with his superior strength. This exposed its neck, into which Gallanth sunk his immense fangs. This normally would have killed a dragon of this size, but it kept struggling.
Mkel loaded his crossbow, cocked it, and took aim at the black’s head, but he was distracted by the screeching of the hippogriffs that were acting as their wingmen. He looked up to see the riders fighting with two dragon spawn, as two more were diving toward him and Gallanth. He swung his crossbow around and up on the swivel arm and fired at one of the diving spawn only thirty yards away. The bolt hit it square in the chest, with the resulting explosion blowing the man/dragon apart.
As Mkel cocked the lever to his crossbow again, the remaining spawn hit Gallanth’s back, spear first, which partially penetrated Gallanth’s heavily armored hide. The spawn then stood up and tried to spear him again, but it did not make it through the golden hide. Mkel could not fire his crossbow, since the spawn was too close for the exploding tips now loaded in his bow. It was too far away for his sword, so he quickly raised his right hand and pointed his fist toward the dragon creature. His ring pulsed in a red scintillating light, and a glowing projectile emanated from the dragonstone gem in the ring and darted toward the spawn. The mini plasma ball struck the dragon/man in the right shoulder, knocking him back and leaving a smoldering wound through its studded leather armor.
It looked at Mkel, gave a nasty hiss from its lizard-like head and pronounced Draconic jaws, and started to move toward him. Mkel followed up with three more plasma balls, hitting its midsection, with the last one finally delivering the killing blow as it slid off Gallanth’s back and fell end over end toward the ground.
In the meantime, Gallanth and the black dragon exchanged claw blows; he took another slash to the chest but the black was finally weakening, and one last blow to its neck finally felled it. Normally black dragons will attempt to retreat when mortally threatened, but this one fought to the death, like a wild boar attacking a grizzly bear. The bull horned dark dragon spiraled toward the ground. Gallanth roared the Draconic victory prayer for it to find its soul, which all metallic dragons announce when they kill a chromatic dragon in hope that its spirit will acknowledge the error of its ways.
A lightning bolt from the blue dragon again struck Gallanth’s shield, but it had the normal power of a standard blue’s breath weapon. This blue chromatic is getting very annoying, Gallanth told Mkel as he finally dove forward to give chase to the frilled dragon. It turned and dove to the left to gain speed in an attempt to get away from Gallanth. This was a futile attempt, for gold dragons are fastest of all dragon types. “What is your name, chromatic? I want to know it before I send you back to the underworld,” Gallanth roared to the blue.
“I am Evtrix, a demon dragon, which will be your undoing, metallic,” the blue yelled back in Draconic.
“Your kind has quickly forgotten the lessons of the Great War. Now you will pay for your ignorance,” Gallanth answered the blue as he unleashed a plasma fireball blast, which streaked toward the chromatic dragon, hitting it square in the back. The resulting explosion knocked the blue out of the sky; it hit the ground with a terrific tremor, gouging a huge trench in the earth. Gallanth back winged hard, causing Mkel to grasp the crossbow mount to absorb the jolt. Gallanth then charged the blue as it was attempting to get up on its feet and rammed it with his head at full speed. The big chromatic dragon was almost lifted off of the ground from the force of the larger gold dragon’s impact; it landed hard on its left side. Gallanth then followed up with a cone of fire to finish it off, as the flames emanating from his colossal jaws engulfed the blue. He then gave the salutary roar of both deference for and victory over the chromatic dragon before he launched into the air to pursue the errant green dragon.
A loud cheer erupted from the legion soldiers who witnessed the battle between Gallanth and the blue dragon, both in the air and on the ground. The last organized group of orcs was now being broken, partly because of their lower morale from seeing their lead dragon being slain. Most of the giant dire wolf cavalry had been killed by the paladins, and only the drow were still giving resistance. The legion’s infantry and land dragons were now bearing down on them as well. The orc chieftain was slain by Colonel Sheer with a final downward smite from his dragonstone-imbedded great sword.
The lead line of infantry had their swords, spears, and shields dripping black with orc blood. So far six soldiers had been killed with thirty wounded, and they were being treated to the rear by several battle healers, who set up a wounded collection point. Their momentum was suddenly halted when the other talon dragon landed in front of the infantry line. The three land dragons that were in range quickly let loose their fire breath weapons on the intruding talon. It took the blasts well but still suffered from the burns. It lunged toward the infantry but was intercepted by a land dragon that jumped over the line of soldiers, knocking the fanged beast to the ground. It whirled back and its bladed tail impaled the land dragon in its side, as it roared in pain. The crew lowered their ballista and fired at almost point-blank range into the horned dragon’s back; the spear-like projectile sank into its jagged hide.
The talon dragon pulled back, retracting its bladed tail from the land dragon and poising itself for another attack, when three more ballista spears struck it from both sides. The three large projectiles were fired from the ballista gunners from the injured land dragon’s wingman, and another pair was now charging toward the intruder. As the talon dragon recovered from the simultaneous impact, the three land dragons hit it from all sides, sinking their teeth into its spiny hide and raking it with at least one claw.
This was enough damage to kill the creature, but it had enough life left over in it to strike one of the land dragons on its left with an oversized clawed foot, slashing it across the right shoulder. All three land dragons ripped large chunks of flesh from the talon dragon, finally ending its life as it went limp and fell. The land dragon that had been speared got unsteadily to its feet and crashed on its side, spilling its crew on the ground; they rolled away from the reinforced platform. Some type of powerful poison was at work, for nothing else could have affected a creature of this size that quickly.
Jodem had been exchanging spell blasts with the senior drow sorcerer for what seemed like hours, but it was only ten minutes. The drow’s hideous twelve-foot-wide spider was now smoldering, leaving the dark elf on foot to fight Jodem. Vatara took a hard bank to avoid another disruption ray from the sorcerer, after which Jodem fired a sunburst beam at the drow that blasted through the last of his spell shield and tore through his midsection, killing him. The giant eagle did take a crossbow bolt to the side, just penetrating its feather layer, but he was in no mortal danger, as the hand crossbows of the drow were underpowered.
The green dragon that Gallanth was pursuing had just taken a diving attack on the paladins; he hit one of the Battle Point knights, killing him and his mount almost instantly with its chlorinated acid breath weapon. Gallanth caught up to the green dragon circling around to the east, cutting off his escape route. This gave him and Mkel a little time to get some information from this last evil dragon. “You should have kept flying, chromatic. You might have lived longer,” Gallanth roared at the green.
“I see Evtrix has found his mark several times, gold pogasch,” the green dragon swore at Gallanth. Green dragons had a distinct calculated accent when they spoke Draconic, while blues had an arrogant sharp tone and reds a deep angry dialect, but a commanding resonance. Blacks and white dragons were the least intelligent of the dragon races and tended to slur or shorten their words.
“You could compliment him, but unfortunately he has been slain; however, I will now make it possible for you to join him,” Gallanth forcefully replied. “What is your name before I save your soul, chromatic?”
“Groncelix, but you sound too confident, Gallanth,” the green dragon replied.
“You know my name, puny one?” Gallanth chided.
“All Morgathian dragons know you by sight and your attack on the black fortress. You should have been killed then and now, for how many chromatics have you slain?” Groncelix replied.
“Too many, but there is always room to send one more to judgment, toothy one. Your blue comrade fought like a coward in spite of his added strength,” Gallanth said as an insult to keep the green talking.
“Evtrix was a demon dragon, pogasch, consider yourself lucky to have vanquished him,” the green replied with increasing anger.
“He must have suckled on Tiamat’s under tail to gain the little amount of extra power he possessed. Not that it helped him,” Gallanth kept chiding.
“You’re lucky the dark crystal that Tiamat put in his heart was not larger, or your oversize frame would be feeding the orcs, gold pogasch,” the green angrily responded. This told Gallanth and Mkel what gave the blue his extra power and strength, especially to his breath weapon. The corpse would have to be examined.
“Your Morgathian masters must have underestimated the Alliance again, attacking with only five dragons and a hodgepodge of orcs and drow. It must be comforting to have the drow commanding you. How does the heel of the dark elf boot taste, servant?” Gallanth continued, insulting Groncelix.
“Silence!” he half shouted, half growled.
“How come you and your ilk have been attacking these small insignificant trading posts? Not enough courage or strength to attack Battle Point or a Weir,” Gallanth snapped back while keeping his voice level, being careful not to show anger, but with a condescending tone. He and the smaller green dragon kept circling each other in the ritual dragons engaged in before combat. Its fifty-three-yard wingspan, while still very large, looked small compared to Gallanth’s full golden wings.
“Why are they just circling each other like that, sir? Gallanth could take that green dragon easily,” one of the soldiers asked Colonel Sheer as everyone looked upward at the standoff in the sky.
“I think he is goading him into giving him information,” the colonel replied, “but I wouldn’t worry about the outcome of this battle, son.”
“Colonel Sheer?” Mkel’s voice came from
Sheer’s seeing crystal.
“Yes, Captain,” he replied.
“Sir, when things calm down on the ground, the dead blue dragon needs to be secured. Gallanth tricked a little information from this green about it,” Mkel asked. He also knew that any slain chromatic dragons were to be taken back to Draconia by the Capital Wing to process all of their parts for weapons and such.
“No problem, Dragonrider,” answered Colonel Sheer.
“These villages are just stepping-stones for us. We will piecemeal you from all sides and take your jewels by the sea!” Groncelix screamed back at Gallanth in an almost total rage.
“I am surprised that you don’t have a drow sorcerer as a rider to give you direction and courage, worm,” Gallanth said with an insulting phrase.
“Pogachhhhhhh,” Groncelix’s words ended in a roar, and he turned abruptly and started to fly at Gallanth in a direct attack. Gallanth knew he had finally pushed the green over the edge, for its vanity got the best of it. Groncelix opened its long toothy mouth and spit a focused stream of fiery acid. Gallanth quickly banked to intercept the green dragon and answered by breathing a cone of fire to burn the acid before it hit him. After the two breath weapons cancelled each other out, Gallanth then fired a sunbeam burst from his glowing eyes, which struck the green directly in the chest. Mkel fired an exploding bolt at the dragon, which hit it on the front left leg.
Groncelix reeled from the double impact as Gallanth gave a forceful downward thrust of his wings to gain air speed. He roared as the two dragons collided in midair. The green dragon was off balance when Gallanth struck him, and he took the impact from the much larger gold with a tremendous crash that echoed over the plains. Gallanth’s outstretched claws pierced the dull forest-colored scales and hide on its chest and side, pushing the green dragon backward in midair. It roared in pain from the impact and Gallanth’s claws.
Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow Page 24