by Cat Wilder
He froze for a split second. That proved his last mistake. My sword pierced his heart a second later, and then I kicked his corpse off the blade and into the pigman attacking. I spun around, cleaving off a goblin's head. I kicked his headless body back to trip the dwarf and pigman coming behind him.
The clash of steel on the ground drew my attention again. Garik stood toe-to-toe with the minotaur. Their swords were blurs as each strived to break through the other's defense. But I only had a second to watch. Goblins, dwarves, and pigmen came charging toward me.
Fireballs took out the last goblin, a dwarf, and two pigmen. I discovered, to my horror, pigmen scream like gut-stuck pigs when you burn them alive in arcane fire. For a second I felt like a monster. But then the remaining two pigmen and two dwarves attacked.
A deep bass wail of pain and rage echoed through the battle site. I glanced over the wall to see the minotaur had lost half of his left arm. As I watched, Garik thrust his sword through the beast's throat, ending his pain and outcry forever.
"Through the gate!" I shouted, and leapt off inside as well. "Bye-bye, losers!"
I used Levitate to soften my landing, and took off running. Garik quickly caught up with me as one of the minions picked up a dropped drow bow and shot arrows at us. We zigged. We zagged. We got the hell out of there.
We had to stop after a few minutes. Armor and the pack slowed me down, as well as wearing me out faster. After we recovered our wind, we took a moment to remove the arrows from each other's pack. I hadn’t felt them hit, so their presence came as a surprise.
"Let me check for pursuit," I said, and levitated straight up a hundred feet.
I could just make out the wall and gate, and counted four shapes atop it. No one pursued us. That pretty much confirmed that minions were bound to a particular location. But then I noticed something more interesting.
Vikarous!
For a moment, I watched the big black dragon running around below us in an open field. He was in a feeding frenzy, chasing a herd of sheep around. Mostly, the sheep avoided his snapping jaws. It seemed just a little comical.
I dropped back to the ground. "Vikarous is just a few minutes below us chasing sheep around. He looks distracted."
"This is our chance," Garik said. He gave me a wary look. "Remember, don't kill him. We have to pry the crystal off of his forehead."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I said.
He gave me a sharp look.
I shrugged. Every time I saw that dragon, the more I worried our plan wouldn't succeed. He was even bigger than Garik as a dragon. Timing would be everything. I had to inflict a mortal wound, while the crystal's magic kept him alive. Garik had to get to us, and then pry the crystal out before the monster regained control of his wits and body. Garik guessed the dragon would be paralyzed for about a minute. Yeah, it was a guess. And we no longer had Izzy's help.
I might have to pull the Dragon Lance out and stab him a second time.
My heart hammered just thinking about it. Yeah, no problemo.
Garik led the way down into that little valley between ridges of ever-rising mountains. He immediately left the trail and went straight down as the crow flies. The dragon-knight moved almost as easily and fast as an elf. Impressive.
We slowed as we neared the edge of the open fields. I moved up next to Garik, who hunched over to make himself as small as possible and we crept forward. We heard the bleating of the sheep and the frustrated growls of the dragon long before we could see them. The scattered herd looked a little smaller, but Vikarous acted just as hungry.
"Why don't the sheep run into the woods?" I asked.
"Sheep are stupid."
I doubted that, but my eyes agreed with his assessment. The sheep not actually being chased stopped to graze. How could I feel bad for them when they didn't try very hard to survive? Or did domestication train them to expect others to defend them?
Vikarous caught another, chomped it three times, and swallowed it whole. Big bushy wool coat and all. Talk about getting way too much fiber in his diet.
"I'll move over to the lowest end of the field," Garik said. "That'll give you a little high ground to pounce from."
"Thanks," I said. "As soon as you see me levitate out toward him, you better charge in. I don't want to be holding that damned lance when he comes back to his senses with that crystal still in his head."
"Don't worry. Our plan is perfect."
The dragon-knight vanished into the woods. I watched Vikarous chasing sheep so long I began to worry if Garik changed his mind and left me behind. And then he appeared after the dragon chased a sheep to within fifty feet of my position. In fact, Vikarous paused to sniff in my direction.
"There you are, you craven bastard of a troll and kobold union!" Garik shouted.
For a second, I tried to picture the get of such a union. I might've cracked a smile. Vikarous, well, he wasn't so amused. The dragon spun around and roared, fire streaming from his wide maul. His torrent of dragonfire reached halfway to Garik.
Both dragon and dragon-knight charged into battle. I surged forward, racing out of the woods and used Levitate as I leapt with all my strength. I had a nice, short intercept vector, so flew up and over onto the dragon's back. I landed right between his wings.
"Wahoo!" I cried, pulling the Dragon Lance out of my inventory. "Die, dragon!"
Lifting the lance high above my head, lance head aimed downward, I brought it down with all of my strength. It pierced his thick, rock hard scales, but then stopped dead, with only half the point inside him.
The scales on his back were too thick for even the arcane power of the Dragon Lance to pierce completely.
"Shit, shit, shit!" I cried, yanking the enchanted lance back out of his thick hide.
The dragon suddenly spun around, head and tail whipping back and forth, even as his wings spread and flapped wildly. Yeah, I startled him, but he scared the bejesus out of me. I quickly inventoried the Dragon Lance, and wrapped my arms around one if his four-foot long spine-spikes.
And then he took off flying.
"Son of a bitch!" I screamed. "Garik!"
The dragon-knight couldn't save me now. In a flash Vikarous flew two hundred feet above the ground. I activated Crawl Like a Spider just to hold on. And just in time.
Vikarous executed a barrel roll, before turning straight down and flying as fast as he could. My spell kept me attached though the wind roared in my ears and made my eyes water. But I started crawling forward. I had a new plan.
Kill the fucking dragon!
The scales on his neck were considerably thinner than on his back, so I planned to thrust the Dragon Lance straight into his spine there. Even if I couldn't severe or seriously injure the spine there, I could thrust the lance through his throat. Yeah, that would take him down to the ground.
When I reached his shoulders, I paused to raise my head and look around. We were flying at breakneck speed down the side of a mountain, heading for the open valley again. I could see Garik waving his arms in the middle of that field. Vikarous zigzagged just above the treetops, and I even heard the tops of some pines slapping his belly and legs.
Vikarous just flew faster and faster.
I figured he planned to crash into the ground, probably flipping over to hit shoulders first. That would pulverize me into mush. Could a dragon survive such a crash landing?
"Your plan will kill you, dragon!" I shouted. "But I'm a player, a renner, so I'll respawn and come back for more!"
I had no way to know if he heard me, or even cared. Garik described him as "feral" because of the curse. Maybe the curse made him insane. It didn't look good.
"Almost there," I muttered, crawling to my targeted strike spot.
When I rose up to retrieve the Dragon Lance and kill him, Vikarous banked hard right and dropped dramatically. Then he flipped upside down, as we descended into the treetops.
I screamed when struck over and over, harder and harder by the tops of trees. Before I could wrap my mind
around the problem, something struck me in the head.
The pain radiated throughout my body. And then blackness dragged me down.
Chapter 19
Heat. Jostling. I groaned, not wanting to wake up, but the jostling became worse. And then came discomfort in my belly. Was someone hitting me?
I struggled back to consciousness. My eyes fluttered open to flashes of green and light. I found myself face down on something hot and wet. My limbs remained unresponsive. As I gathered my wits, I realize the jostling indicated movement. Running.
Garik had thrown me over his shoulder and took off running through the woods. His shoulder pounding into my stomach caused all of my distress. Well, maybe not all of it. I ached all over, especially my head. His shoulder carry wasn't helping me in any way.
"Stop," I croaked out. "Put me down."
"Shhh," he said, and continued on.
Did he just shush me? I wondered. Why?
A dragon's roar reverberated through the air, followed by the distinct sound of a dragon breathing fire. I could hear fire raging behind us. And then I remembered the fight with Vikarous.
"I'm still alive!" I cried, lifting my head and upper body to look around at the forest whizzing past. Pain lanced through my head, through my body. "Barely."
Garik stopped. Finally! He gently laid me on the soft forest floor. For once I appreciated the thick carpet of dead leaves. My head continued to spin and throb, and I worried about blacking out again.
"I probably have a concussion. I shouldn't sleep," I said. Honestly, I didn't know anything about concussions, but I've always believed sleep led to death after a concussion. "Don't let me die."
Visions of waking up in my respawn site chilled me to the bones. Taks would own me again, but not for long. King Raax would quickly claim my sweet round ass as his own. He knew I was a player, so would take precautions to keep me in bondage.
Something cool and hard pressed to my lips. Garik commanded, "Drink it."
I wasn't thirsty. Why should I drink something I didn't want? And who died and made him my mother? But he forced my mouth open and poured the foulest tasting shit imaginable into it. I almost spit it out, but the taste registered in time. Healing potion. So I sucked it down greedily. Anything to end the pain.
I felt that healing potion profoundly. My insides tingled and burned as it began healing injuries I'd never experienced before. Broken bones? Maybe internal injuries, too.
"Did anyone get the license number of the truck that hit me?"
Garik looked confused. "You say the oddest things."
"It's a joke," I said, slowly sitting up. I still ached all over, but it did take ten minutes for the healing potion to finish. My level of pain said it would take at least one more potion, so I pulled one out of inventory and drank it. It's usually not best to drink two at a time, but it worked. "But the first rule of comedy: If you have to explain your joke, it isn't funny. So once again I failed."
I paused to check my stats. Health stood at a mere 33, and ticking up quickly. Still, my healing potion would only take me up 50 points. I wasn't sure if Garik's potions were for 25 or 50 points of healing, but together they'd get me to a hundred percent.
Stamina showed 40 percent, while my Mana startled me. I'd used up more than half of what I started with in Horncastle. Mana stood at 1097. I used a big chunk of that in the last fight. Thank god I didn’t throw any thunderbolts.
Since leaving Horncastle, I'd also leveled up in the Skills of Swordfighter, Shield fighting, and Archery. Apparently throwing fireballs and thunderbolts didn't earn many points toward Spellcasting. And, honestly, I knew the best way to level up in Spellcasting was to learn new spells, especially at the higher levels.
Something big and black flew past above us. Vikarous roared again, followed by the sound of dragonfire. Yep, someone pissed the dragon off big time. I smiled at what I'd wrought.
"I'm a baaad girl," I teased, wagging my brows.
"I think your expression is, 'bad to the bone,'" Garik said with a grin.
"Yes. Thank you for noticing," I said, struggling to my feet. "Give the healing potions a few more minutes, and I'll be ready for battle again. What do you think our chances are of getting another shot at Vikarous?"
"Not good. He hasn't landed since getting you off his back," he said. "He's in a rage, probably because you came so close to defeating him."
We prepared ourselves while waiting for the healing potions to do their magic. The Dragon Lance remained in my inventory, which relieved me. My last memory was that I needed the lance out to kill Vikarous.
"I'm feeling good," I said. "Let's get to high ground so we can see what Vikarous is doing."
The small, narrow valley had a definite slope. We entered on the high end. Thick, old growth forest filled the valley, but with that large field in the middle. A creek ran through the middle of everything. Of course, with all of the forest land Vikarous burnt down looking for us, the field would be much larger in the future.
Instead of going straight up the side, which was closer, we headed back toward where we entered the valley. Garik didn't believe we'd get another shot at Vikarous that day. At least we'd get back on the trail to his lair by going back up the valley.
We picked our way through the thick forest until we came to a burnt-out section. Technically, it was still burning, but the flames had pretty much died out in the cool air and very wet vegetation. We paused to assess the danger.
I searched the sky for the dragon. Garik didn't think he'd return. The original field laid just a short sprint to our right. The upper end of the valley straight ahead, but further than I anticipated.
"We're on the far end of the field?"
Garik nodded. "Yes."
A minotaur with bluish-gray fur and wearing very glossy bright blue head-to-toe armor appeared on the other side of the burnt-out area. His hostile eyes immediately locked on us. The look he gave me, in particular, made me bristle.
"Looks like someone's cruising for a bruising," I sneered.
"Ha! The glory will be mine!" the minotaur warrior cried to the heavens.
We started towards him. He walked toward us. He looked confident, yet I knew we'd win. Garik defeated an equally big minotaur earlier, with just as much armor. So my confidence was high.
"You better back off, cow," Garik shouted. "I'll poke out your eyes and skull fuck you."
"Hello, Garik. I think I love you," I said, and giggled. I turned to the minotaur. "Listen up carefully, little warrior wanna-be. You better tuck tail and run, or we will tear you a new asshole."
He screamed in rage. Seriously, minotaurs could be so prickly. Fragile egos to the max.
"I am going to chop you up into bloody chunks!"
"Yeah?" I called. "You and what army?"
That's when a second minotaur emerged from the woods. And then a third. The trailing minotaurs didn't have as much armor, but one carried a huge sword and the other an equally big battle-axe. If that wasn't bad enough, countless dwarves, pigmen, goblins, and even a few elves, began appearing out of the woods, too.
"Is this army big enough for you?" the minotaur taunted.
"Yeah. I'm good," I said. I slapped Garik's chest. "Run!"
Thankfully, Garik's common sense overrode his warrior pride. I took off running for the open field, with the dragon-knight fast on my heels. The minions shouted battle cries and followed. A second horde appeared when we reached the original field.
We turned downhill, racing for the spot where the creek flowed into the forest again. That beat looking for a game trail to follow. A quick glance back showed even more minions had joined the chase.
"Holy crap, there has to be hundreds of them!"
Worse, those minotaurs and elves all ran faster than us. I held back to stay close to Garik, and he proved faster than a mere human. But minotaurs had longer strides and elves just ran fast as hell.
We couldn't outrun them.
"Shit," I cried, rage igniting. I stopped and fa
ced them, sword held high. I didn't call up the shield. Garik stood tall and proud at my side. Three minotaurs and five elves were right there, so I hit them with Percussion.
Boom!
The look on their faces – Priceless. They didn't know I was a mage. Surprise! The force of that explosion threw them back a dozen feet, leaving them sprawled on the ground and gasping for air. The rest of the motley horde descended upon us at a full run.
I followed up with fireballs at the mass of minions behind them. My magic brought them all to a stop, with their archers coming forward. I prepared to hit them with thunderbolts, but movement behind and above them drew my eyes up.
"Vikarous!"
The dragon flew straight at us, head down and a streamer of black smoke trailing out of his open mouth. The sun glinted brightly off the ruby in his forehead as his throat began to glow with hellfire. My cue to turn tail and run.
"I assume you aren't fireproof."
"I am in dragon form, but not human."
I ran like the wind, but fatigue began to weigh me down. Garik easily kept up my pace, hanging back for me. And Vikarous was almost upon us.
"Carly, when I say now, I want you to cut sharply to the left. I'll go right," he said.
"Why?" I gasped out.
"NOW!"
I planted my right foot and shot off to the left. Garik vanished in the other direction. Dragonfire scorched a wide line through the grass where we'd been seconds before. The dragon roared in rage as he flew past us and then angled upward.
I veered to the right, heading straight for the woods to the right of the creek. Garik would be on that side of the creek as well. We shot into the woods a moment later like arrows, just twenty feet apart.
We crashed through the forest, low branches and thorny underbrush tearing at my face, arms, legs. I even smashed my left shoulder into a tree trunk, but kept moving. The horde of minions hit the woods shortly after us, yipping and yelling their bloodlust.
"Move toward the creek," Garik called, even though I couldn't see him yet.
So I changed direction slightly, taking an intercept course toward the creek. I could hear it gurgling over the rocks.