Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow

by J. Michael Fluck

  Strikenth fired his lightning storm spell at the four black and green dragons hovering behind the reds and blues. Black and green dragons had comparatively weak shields and did not stand up well against the metallic dragons’ attacks. Strikenth’s main lightning bolt struck the largest green, with the follow-on twenty bolts hitting all four remaining chromatics in rapid succession. He then breathed his freezing ray at the other blue; its shield barely contained the powerful silver’s breath weapon.

  Lordan followed his dragon’s attack on the blue with a fire-bolt from his lance, which struck the beast’s shield with full force. Padonan threw his glaive at the nearest dragon. The spinning blade sliced the black dragon’s tough skin on its right wing, cutting a long swath in the thin armored membrane. It then proceeded to gash the thick blackish hide on its lower back. The combined strikes took the chromatic squadron by surprise, putting them all off balance. The two silver dragons then dove into the middle of the group and delivered claw slashes and tail strikes to several chromatics on their way through the pack.

  This was a good first strike; Talonth and Strikenth delivered devastating blows to the chromatic dragons’ shields to help even their odds. They dove fast, partially folding their wings to get away from the chromatic wing and avoid a breath weapon to their backs. Silver dragons were extremely fast in the air, being second only to gold dragons, and were also very agile for their size.

  “How did they teleport so fast? Thurex roared. “They never did that during the Great War. Don’t just hover there licking your wounds, go after them!” he bellowed to his squadron, which all turned and dove after the two silver dragons.

  Voltex dove on the legion’s formation, with the four blacks and greens close behind them. Cries of “Chromatics incoming!” rose from all the Battle Point legion’s soldiers that were not actively engaged against the orcs and Ashram’s infantry. The behirs were being beaten back and taking heavy losses in the tooth and claw fight with the land dragons. Being smaller and much weaker, they could not stand against them for very long. The orcs and Morgathian infantry had started to swarm past the land dragons to fight the legion but were stopped by the intense and accurate volleys of arrows and the many long spears of the heavy infantry. The tide was starting to turn until the chromatics appeared.

  Colonel Ronson pulled half of his land dragons that had any shield strength left slightly back and oriented them skyward to meet the incoming chromatics. The land dragon crews oriented their ballistae skyward to add to their dragons’ breath weapons, to meet the new threat. Jodem quickly landed Vatara and raised his staff, uttering a quick incantation in Draconic. Eight of the land dragons were too injured to continue the fight, which left Ronson with twenty. The ten he pulled back prepared to breathe their fire breath weapons in unison.

  Voltex opened his large pale blue jaws, as his large thick nose horn glowed and fired a lightning bolt, which had greater range than the green and black dragons’ fiery acid breath weapon. Jodem’s magic shield took most of the impact, with the largest land dragon exhausting the last energy of his shield taking the remainder of the deadly energy. He then aimed his staff and fired a meteor swarm spell at Voltex. Six glowing balls of energy streaked in rapid succession at the blue dragon, striking his shield with tremendous force, causing it to alter its diving flight path from the successive impacts. The four trailing chromatics spewed their jets of hot acid as the ten land dragons breathed their fire skyward, along with ten ballista spears fired by their crews. The archers and crossbowmen that could shoot did so, sending hundreds of arrows at the chromatics.

  One land dragon was hit by a green dragon’s acid stream in the back hindquarter, causing it to wheel around, roaring in pain. One black dragon’s acid struck beside a land dragon, killing ten archers standing next to it. The other two acid strikes were stopped by the barrage of the land dragons’ fire. The searing hot jets of flame not stopped by the acid struck the four chromatic dragons with a terrific collective force. The fiery strike caused their weakened magic shields to rupture all at once, allowing the ballista spears to freely penetrate. Each chromatic was struck by at least two projectiles. The Battle Point land dragon crews were used to this kind of team fight against the occasional wandering chromatic dragon, which proved very effective against them, as long as they had the better odds. The thick armored dragon hide was too tough for most of the arrows, but at least half a dozen did pierce each of the chromatics.

  As Ashram was about to fire a lightning bolt at one of the land dragons, he heard Thurex roar to Voltex to join them in the pursuit of the two silver dragons. This enraged him, for he needed them to continue to attack the legion; he spurred his nightmare steed to intercept the large red dragon. Voltex roared a command for the other dragons to follow him, begrudgingly, for his attack did not have the desired effect he wanted.

  Jodem concentrated intensely while uttering a quick Draconic incantation; he aimed his crossbow-like wizard staff and fired a chain lightning spell at the green and black dragons. The twenty-one bluish-white bolts streaked upward in rapid succession and pounded all four dragons as they attempted to ascend following Voltex. Without their shields, and from the rear, Jodem’s powerful spell inflicted a tremendous amount of damage to the lesser chromatic dragons, as noted by the burns on their tough hides and violent reactions to the hits.

  The black dragons started to turn to exact revenge on this painful strike, but Voltex roared, “Stay in formation, or you’ll have to deal with Thurex.” The devil or bull horned blacks grumbled but then turned back to follow him. Usually black dragons, being very chaotic by nature, did not listen to orders, especially when angered, but the fear they had of the large demon red dragon forced their obedience.

  Talonth and Strikenth were flying as fast as they could to lure the chromatic dragons away from the legion. “Padonan, we will have to break and turn to attack them soon,” Lordan said through his crystal. “We are far enough from the legion now, and I want to keep them busy. The demon red dragon has only a small amount of shield power left, and the other red’s shield is gone. The blues’ shields are at half strength, and the shields of the greens and blacks are gone. We’ll split horizontally and come back around to get them in a cross fire, and then split vertically. If we’re lucky, they’ll hit themselves more than they will hit us.”

  “Right, sir; which way do you want to break?” the younger dragonrider asked.

  “We’ll let our dragons decide,” the colonel replied with a smile; immediately afterward, they both banked in opposite directions. As the two metallics turned hard, the two blue dragons fired their lightning breath weapons. They were just over three hundred yards behind the silvers and took a long shot. Both bolts sizzled past the silvers’ tails, barely missing them, but then Thurex fired his dark crystal-enhanced breath weapon, and the purplish fiery beam streamed out and struck Talonth’s shield with a terrific force. Talonth and Lordan felt the powerful blow to the silver dragon’s shield.

  “Gallanth was not misleading about the enhanced power of these demon dragons,” Talonth exclaimed to his rider.

  “We will still take him, my friend, but the range he has with this dark crystal melding worries me,” Lordan answered his dragon as he banked hard to come around and engage the pursuing chromatics. The faster silvers turned in a tight arc and came back into the opposite sides of the chromatics from their oblique.

  Both breathed their icy beam breath weapons at the nearest dragon within range. Strikenth hit the green dragon, Kakol, solidly in the lower left flank. His green hide instantly froze, with pieces of flesh cracking and splitting off the dragon’s left leg, side, and tail, severely injuring it. Kakol retaliated by spitting its hot stream of acid, which hit Strikenth on his left wing, but merely splashed off, barely leaving a mark.

  “Fool, silver dragon hide is immune to your acid,” the blue dragon Klaxtor roared, as he tried to turn to face the attacking silver. Padonan th
rew his glaive, which hummed through the air and struck the black dragon Batuul, slicing another long gash on his already wounded wing, further making his ability to maintain flight more difficult.

  Another hit like that and he will go down, Strikenth said to his rider. Talonth then breathed his icy beam at the black dragon Slyvar, catching it on the right upper shoulder and neck. It reeled from the icy blow, knocking it off course as chunks of frozen black hide shattered and fell off its body from the wound. Lordan fired an energy bolt at the smaller green dragon Saarex, hitting it in the chest as it squared off against Talonth.

  The two silvers flew right at each other, and then Talonth dipped slightly and nosed almost straight upward. Strikenth rolled completely over and pulled into a hard dive. Klaxtor fired a chain lightning spell at the two silvers as they performed their separation maneuver. Seventeen white hot lightning bolts shot out from the blue dragon. These were smaller and less powerful than Talonth’s and Strikenth’s spell, but deadly nonetheless. The first and largest bolt missed both of them, literally streaking in between the two and striking Batuul in the back. The injured black jerked violently up as it absorbed the energy of the bolt. Klaxtor immediately tried to adjust by spreading the other bolts up and down in an attempt to bracket them but only managed to hit Talonth with two and Strikenth with three.

  The blue dragon Arathus immediately dove after Strikenth and fired his chain lightning spell. Seventeen bolts shot out of the dragon’s outstretched front claws fractions of a second apart. The first several missed the silver dragon, who was agilely twisting and weaving to make a difficult target to zero in on, but four of the bolts struck his shield. Saarex also nosed down to pursue the diving Strikenth. He quickly fired a prismatic burst spell, and six multicolored beams darted out of his long clawed foot. Three beams hit the silver’s shield, which still held firm, being at just over half strength.

  Strikenth was faster in the dive and quickly outdistanced his pursuers. He pulled up at the last moment to maximize his speed in regaining altitude and doubled back on the chromatics. He unleashed a blast of his icy breath at Arathus; the bluish white beam of pure cold struck the blue dragon’s shield, smashing the last amount of its strength and slightly frost burning its indigo blue hide. Padonan threw his glaive, which spun through the air and sliced Saarex’s left shoulder and back, causing him to wince from the wound.

  Slyvar dove to pursue Strikenth, for with his injured wing, it was easier to dive than to climb. As Strikenth flew past the green and blue dragons he had just attacked, the bull horned black dragon fired a barrage of magic missiles. Fifteen small glowing projectiles streaked out in rapid succession, six of which were absorbed by the silver dragon’s shield. The magic missile spell, while effective against humanoid targets, was just an annoyance to a silver dragon. Black dragons, however, had very weak magical abilities and did not possess more powerful spells. This, coupled with the fact that they could only fire their acid breath weapon two to three times a day, put them at a severe disadvantage in a fight with the metallics.

  Strikenth was flying too fast to turn and attack the black dragon directly, and his breath weapon needed a few more moments to recharge. As soon as Padonan’s glaive reached his hand, he sent it flying back toward Slyvar. The spinning blades tore into the black dragon’s injured wing, ripping another hole and slicing into the actual wing arm. This injury was too much, and Slyvar began to lose altitude; he made a barely controlled glide toward the ground.

  Talonth kept flying almost straight upward, quickly outdistancing his pursuers. “We’ve got the two reds and the blue below us; let’s attack, my friend,” Lordan said to his dragon mate. I agree, but we must avoid direct combat with the reds as long as possible, Talonth replied telepathically. Hold on, he continued as he prepared for a wing-over maneuver, and Lordan quickly laid his lance across his lap, locked it in on his saddle, and leaned forward to grab the riding straps. Talonth hefted his wings forward, tucked, and rolled over in midair, whipping his tail over to aid the maneuver. The pressure exerted on the rider was intense, but as long as he was prepared for it with the aid of his dragonstone weapon, he could tolerate the move.

  The big silver dragon emerged from the wing-over facing straight down, and with one flap he was in a full dive. Letting out a challenge roar, he breathed an icy beam at Thurex, shattering the red dragon’s remaining shield strength. The fast maneuver took the chromatic dragons by surprise, as Talonth flew past the demon dragon and swiped Krekon’s right shoulder haunch with his front claws, slicing the armored crimson hide. Lordan fired an energy bolt at Klaxtor, hitting his shield, which now was below half strength.

  Talonth then flew toward Kakel and collided with the green dragon in midair, sinking both of his front talons into its chest and left side. As the green attempted to reel back and break Talonth’s clawed grip, the large silver sunk his massive jaws into the green’s long neck. Talonth was almost forty yards long, with a wingspan of sixty-five yards, which made him ten yards longer with a fifteen-yard-wider wingspan than the smaller green dragon, as well as possessing much greater physical strength. Kakel let out a garbled gasp of a roar and tried to swipe Talonth with his right claw, but Lordan leaned over and thrust his mithril-bladed lance into the green dragon’s upper neck, finishing him off.

  Talonth let the green dragon’s limp body go ensuring no one was below, and after it plummeted to the ground, he let out his victory roar. “One down, my friend!” Lordan yelled to his dragon, as a blast of fire from Krekon hit his shield. He immediately folded his wings and dove to evade, as a lightning bolt from Arathus glanced off of his magic shield. The diving silver turned slightly to fire a multispectrum prismatic spray; eight beams then shot out of his left claw. He missed with two, but the other six struck both pursuing dragons equally. This combined spell slowed down the chromatic pair’s pursuit enough to allow Talonth to dive out of range and pull up just to face Thurex.

  Both dragons immediately fired their breath weapons at each other; the fire and ice would have normally struck in midair and exploded, canceling each other out, but the enhanced power of the dark crystal forced energy back at Talonth’s shield. “Move, Talonth!” Lordan yelled. “There are too many to face him directly yet.” Lordan’s dragon quickly veered right and dove away from the demon red. Just as Thurex moved to pursue Talonth, the silver dragon cast a rainbow shield spell directly behind him, which the large red dragon hit before he could change his direction. The power of the pulsating rainbow shield forced the colossal crimson dragon to glance off his flight path.

  As Thurex reeled from the impact of Talonth’s prismatic shield, he roared to Krekon and Voltex, who had just arrived with the other injured chromatics. “Voltex, take the squadron over to Arathus and Klaxtor,” Thurex ordered, “and keep that other silver dragon busy. Krekon, go now and attack the legion.”

  “Thurex, if I break from this fight to attack the Alliance soldiers, that silver will pursue and hit me from behind. And with my shield gone, I am especially vulnerable,” Krekon roared back at him angrily.

  “That is the idea. If we continue this aerial dance, they will pick us apart one by one. We must force them to slow down, or to be decisively engaged, and then jump them,” Thurex replied.

  “It is not your hide that will be ice burned!” Krekon angrily roared.

  “Either ice blasted by him or slashed by me, now go!” Thurex roared back.

  Krekon snarled at his larger counterpart and winged toward the armies fighting on the ground several miles away.

  “Talonth, the smaller red is heading toward the legion,” Lordan quickly exclaimed. We must intercept him. An unchecked red dragon will wreak havoc on the unprotected legion. The fire from the land dragons will not even slow him down, Talonth replied as he veered sharply toward the red.

  He took the bait, Thurex said to himself as he winged to pursue Talonth, who was now in full speed flight to intercept Kreko
n. While red dragons were fast flyers, they still fell short of the speed and agility of most metallics. This was especially true of a silver or a gold. Cries of “Chromatic!” rose up from the rear ranks of the legion, as those few soldiers not in active combat prepared for the terrific onslaught from the red dragon.

  Talonth caught up to Krekon just before he reached the legion and unleashed an icy bluish beam of pure cold at him, striking his lower back. The red dragon arched violently from the impact and turned to face his attacker, as cries of relief and gratitude from the Alliance soldiers rose from the ground. Talonth hit him before he could breathe his cone of fire, slamming into the red dragon with outstretched claws that sunk into Krekon’s left flank and chest. The red dragon roared in pain but did manage to get a quick but powerful counterswipe on Talonth’s left shoulder, before the silver could deliver his bite on Krekon’s neck. The greenish blue blood oozed from the cuts on Talonth’s silvery hide.

  Krekon then tried to maneuver his jagged-toothed, gaping jaws at Talonth’s left wing, but instead of biting the silvery membrane, he met Lordan’s lance, which punctured the tough crimson hide behind his jaw. Just as Talonth was about to hit Krekon with a sunburst beam, Thurex’s purplish fire blasted his shield. The large silver dragon had barely recovered from the impact when Thurex slammed into his lower back, delivering a nasty bite to the lower left portion of his haunch. He did not slash Talonth with his claws but rather grasped his upper tail and rear left leg instead, to force him to the ground. Lordan quickly turned around and fired an energy bolt at almost point-blank range into Thurex’s neck and shoulder area.