“How do we fight that…?” Hekla’s question lingered in the air unanswered, as the beast made quick gliding movements toward them.
“You certainly can’t do it alone,” came three voices as one.
Speltus, Aronus and Lingaria made themselves visible and hovered in the air near each of the women, their wings flapping rhythmically.
“It’s just a dragon,” Speltus said with a hint of teasing in his voice, “no big deal.”
“Hmph,” Hekla added, scepter raised high as she prepared a magical attack.
“I just mean, there’s all of us against him. It should be no problem,” Svana said, trying to remain optimistic, but the dragon had picked up speed.
As he neared, his large jaw dropped open, and a huge flaming ball of fire emitted.
Hekla jumped in front of the line of soldiers that had formed, eyes pierced as she kept her attention on the orb. Focusing the whole of her attention on the spell she was about to perform, she aimed her scepter at the intruding beast and yelled with all her might, “Extinguishum Pyrem Expandum!”
A blast of light appeared from her scepter and flew through the air, striking the ball of fire, and its size reduced greatly, but it still advanced toward them. Hekla shook her head in disbelief, not understanding how her magic had not worked against the ball of fire.
“Hekla! Hurry please!” Svana pleaded with her. “The dragon we can fight, but that fireball?”
The soldiers who moments ago had been so confident of their ability to take down the dragon, began retreating.
Hekla yelled out again, “Extinguishum Pyrem Expandum!”
Her voice carried out on the wind. The light emitted from her scepter again, clashing with the fireball and reducing its size. Realization turned to desperation as she realized the dragon’s power and magic was much stronger than her own, and not wasting another moment, she repeated the spell over and over—the ball of flames growing smaller with each impact of her magic.
“Fall back!” Astrid yelled to the soldiers, quickly becoming worried for their safety.
The dragon let out another roar, and taking advantage of Hekla’s focused attention on the large ball of fire, he spat at them, before he swiftly sped to the shoreline. The next moment was a flurry of confusion, as Astrid and Hekla ran toward the beast, Astrid loosing her magical arrows at the beast’s chest as fast as her arm could move.
Svana ran and jumped at the creature’s mid-section, driving her blade deep into his side amidst his thick, scaled body.
“Stupid human!” he roared out, swaying from side to side as he attempted to shake Svana off.
Seeing their opportunity, some of the braver soldiers ran toward him, swords drawn repeating her own attack as they drove their blades into his flesh. He let out a piercing roar, as one powerful claw sliced through the air, and he brushed away offending attackers with one fell swoop.
Those who had approached from the side, sliced at his underbelly, legs and any exposed, scaled flesh they could reach. The men were not so easily discarded, and the beast made his power known by quickly turning his body in a half circle, faster than any of them could anticipate, and knocking them across the battlefield.
Svana had clung to the hilt of her sword for dear life and used that moment to swing her body up onto the offensive creature’s back. As she grasped his neck, she used her free hand to yank her blade from the beast’s side and sliced at his back with quick, agile movements. Without warning, the swaying, grumbling creature reached back, plucking Svana off of him like an annoying insect.
Holding her suspended in the air in front of him, his long tongue flicked out across his teeth, moistening his mouth as he salivated.
“You’re not even worth two bites,” he growled at her.
“Nor are you,” she countered, swinging wildly as she grasped her sword in mid-air and swung her body hard against his grip.
“You really think you’re going anywhere?” He paused for a moment, surveying the large number of soldiers on the ground. “Do you really think any of you are going anywhere?” he said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “Even those of you who think you can escape, I will kill each and every one of you.” His voice was matter of fact and non-threatening.
“You will threaten us no longer!” an Aquarian soldier yelled out, and he and several others let out a battle cry, jumping onto the scaled legs and body of the dragon. Their weapons sliced and stabbed as quickly as they could manage. Many of the other fighters followed suit, and like fleas, they covered the dragon.
The dragon continued to pluck at them, tossing them aside as they continued their brazen attacks. His once magnificent and terrifying body became riddled with small, bleeding wounds.
Svana ran toward the dragon, quickly scaled the side of his body and began slicing at his sides as fast and hard as she could. The dragon plucked her off of his side one more time as he continued to shake the Aequoran soldiers off his tail and legs. Svana landed in the water and swam away to recover. “I must be brave and courageous, we cannot give up this battle, Lingaria! My people need me, and all of Verdil relies upon my sisters and I.”
Lingaria huffed. “Then GET UP! Fight, Svana—because all of Verdil depends upon us!”
“We’re not afraid of you!” Svana yelled, as she stood.
She darted toward him and overcome with fury that she would dare defy him, he marched toward her, eyes pierced and dripping with demonic focus. Nails dug deep into the ground with each step as he approached. She could hear the threatening thud of each of strike of his claws on the ground.
“Perhaps you should be,” he snarled as he emitted a threatening growl, now oblivious to the attacks coming at him from all sides.
When he stood a hairsbreadth from her, he lifted one large claw high in the air, his intention to deliver a deathblow to Svana’s petite frame that would slice her in half. Beads of sweat broke out on her brow, and she struggled to breathe. One wrong movement could stir him to immediate action. Don’t move, don’t even breathe, she told herself.
When the dragon saw the fear on her face, he grinned through long, crooked teeth, and Svana imagined it was like a fine wine—aged to perfection to his blackened soul. Those who had furiously attacked him seemed frozen in time for the moment, no one dared to move a muscle. The terror in the air was palpable.
Svana took a step back, afraid for her life, her heart throbbing into her chest. She wondered in that moment if her blade was enough. Then, in an unprecedented move, the dragon whispered a spell, soft and barely audible and behind them from the darkened depths of the waters, and the undead who had remained frozen in the sea behind him began to move, and more undead began to emerge from the depths of the sea. They were quicker than the last, their rotting bodies joining ranks on either side of the evil beast.
“There’s more!” Svana trembled.
They were clearly outnumbered and the look of death that emitted from the dragon was a look meant just for her. She quickly peeked to the sides of her, where was Astrid? The emerald haired sister seemed to have disappeared. Terrified for their lives, a few of the people had retreated behind the trees, the rest now came alive in a flurry of movement as they fought to defeat the new arrival of undead that had come. There was no one left to help her. The dragon beast was going to kill her, and she knew in that moment… that once he did, he would kill everyone else as well.
“You cannot kill what is done with magic,” the beast snarled.
“Is that a threat?” she questioned, challenging him.
“No, it’s a promise.” His taloned claw swiped through the air, and for a split second Svana imagined that moment to be her last. Then, in a flash of powerful sapphire light, Hekla deflected his attack.
“Tranquis Orbum Expandum!” she yelled out, stunning the beast momentarily as Svana shook herself back to reality.
“Hekla!” she said in shock, stumbling back, gripping her blade as she tried to make peace with the fact that she was still alive, unscathed.
“Thank you,” she quickly added, preparing to fight the beast once more.
Hekla flashed a knowing smile, her orb trained on the dragon.
Astrid and Svana’s little sister was all grown up, and a force to be reckoned with.
46
Hekla
A carefully guarded secret is that dragons can transform. They can become anything they want. A bird. A fish. A man, or a woman. It is dangerous. Not for any physical harm it may do to the dragon, but for the emotional. A dragon may long to be a man or a woman, not for themselves, but for another. And that—is a dangerous path to live, and one that is not easy to turn away from.
Voadria, The Life Giver, First Dragon Elder, Second Age of Verdil
Chaos. Even though Hekla had planned everything out and knew what to expect, it was way beyond anything she imagined. The undead were a force to reckon with. Since they were already dead, they were not easily stopped. Removing their legs or arms was ineffective. It did not deter them. They continued to fight.
None of the undead had weapons. But they didn’t need them. They fought with reckless abandon. Something about being revived by dark magic meant they were stronger than if they had still been alive. Their strength was beyond that of any living being.
Hekla watched as Aequorans and Caelestans fell. None of them had ever fought so hard. Despite all the chaos, and all the death, it was beautiful in a way. It was the first time in generations that the three races fought together against a common enemy. It was the unity that everyone needed. Hekla hoped that after today, if they survived, it would bond them.
Astrid led her own people in the back, using her Dragon Bow with lightning precision. At first, it didn’t seem the bow was doing any damage to the undead. Arrows to the head or torso were ineffective, even if they struck true and were magical, but the closer Hekla paid attention, she noticed Astrid’s pattern. She wasn’t aiming for the head or the torso. Astrid aimed for the neck. Astrid’s arrows penetrated hard, tearing the skin, and with a few arrows aimed with careful precision at the neck, it was removed from the shoulders.
The head.
Nothing else worked. But Hekla noticed that if their head was removed, they would cease moving.
“Aim for their necks!” Hekla shouted.
Everyone around Hekla glanced her direction. Many of them with curious expressions, from biting lips to furrowed eyebrows.
“If you remove their heads, they stop attacking!”
The people around her redirected their focus on their opponents, and the battle began to turn around. The undead didn’t stop coming. They came out of the water like an enraged fire-ant hill recently kicked over—with the bite to match. But at least they had learned how to defeat them.
“Spread the word,” Hekla shouted.
A chorus echoed throughout the army as they fought. And in answer, everyone focused their attacks a little more carefully to strike at the heads and necks of the undead.
Even though the sisters fought at different positions along the seashore, the races of Verdil were mixed throughout all positions. Each race had their own melee and range warriors, and they were spread out accordingly. Not by race, but by skill and weapon choice. It was a beautiful thing to see Aequorans and Caelestans fighting alongside each other. It was even more beautiful to see them all taking orders from the nearest sister.
Astrid commanded the men and women fighting near her, organizing the melee soldiers into a solid defense against the undead who rose from the depths of the sea; she also commanded the men and women further back with ranged weapons, from crossbowmen and archers, throwing daggers and spears, and many other various types of short- and long-range weapons.
Helka stood in the center. There were no other magic users, as she was the only one in Verdil, but she commanded the center ranks, which were mixed with a variety of weapons from swords and axes to crossbows and bows, and all of the between. It didn’t matter if they were Aequoran or Caelestan. They followed her orders as one unit. And Hekla noticed the same for her sister.
“Pyrem Orbium,” Hekla said.
Another fireball blazed from her scepter and into a crowd of undead. Besides decapitation, fire seemed to work well against the creatures. Hekla had been trying a wide range of magical attacks. This was the largest battle she’d been a part of and so she used her imagination and all the spells she’d studied and remembered against the creatures. Water was ineffective. Wind, useless. Lightning, useful, but not promising.
Fireball after fireball spiraled into the crowd of undead. The creatures would scream as the flames engulfed them, and even though most were drenched in saltwater when they emerged from the sea, her fireballs didn’t seem to be bothered. Like moths to a flame, undead to fireballs was a horrifying, yet glorious sight. Finally, it seemed as if the undead were defeated, and Hekla could hear the sound of hooves behind them, Svana had come to join their fight, with an army of Tellurian soldiers. Astrid and Hekla quickly found Svana and welcomed her.
Then the dragon came. Everything was silent as the ground underneath everyone’s feet trembled in what Hekla could only assume was an earthquake. It was so severe, that many people around her fell to the ground at the intensity. The undead stopped attacking. They stood erect and waited in anticipation. The warriors continued attacking the abominations, but after noticing they had stopped advancing, they paused, confused as to what was transpiring around them.
A massive dragon, scales black as night, stepped out of the sea. Duliogial. His entire body shook, like a dog trying to shake all the water off of them after swimming. Everyone stared at him, or at least, everyone living stared at him. The undead continued to stare forward, unblinking, yet not attacking.
Duliogial let out a massive roar. Hekla could feel her ear drums deafen from the sound, as she fought to cover her ears. Everyone around her mimicked her reaction. The roar increased in volume, rumbling across the land like a tremendous earthquake that threatened to destroy the very ground they stood on. A wind, blowing stronger than any wind Hekla had ever felt, swept across the battlefield. It came from the dragon’s own mouth.
The unsteady rumbling beneath their feet and sudden gust of wind, from the mighty beast’s mouth, caused everyone present to fall to the ground. Hekla fought her way back to her feet, struggling to steady herself. She used her scepter to hold herself steady against the wind. Everyone else was still on the ground, unable to move.
“Occulari Invisitum,” Hekla shouted.
A blinding blue light shot through the air to strike the dragon in the temple. Duliogial howled in agony. The spell was for temporary blindness, and it seemed to work as the dragon shook its head from left to right in rage. He roared again, this time not as loud, and not as long, and when he did, the undead began to attack once more. No one focused on the dragon anymore. The terror in most of their eyes was clear, but besides the few who fled further away from the dragon, the rest were unable to move as the undead fought back once more.
When the dragon opened its eyes, it stared directly at Hekla, hatred fueled in its pupils. Its mouth opened wide, and flames erupted from its deep throat, disintegrating Tellurians, Aequorans, Caelestans, and Undead alike. The dragon didn’t discriminate, and the undead didn’t care.
Hekla’s heart sank. She was no match for a dragon. None of them were. If all the dragon had to do was blow massive bursts of dragonfire on them… they were doomed.
Svana fought gallantly, using her Dragon Sword to break through the undead defenses with the Tellurians by her side. Her people fought by her side without fear… even as many of them fell. It showed her strength as a leader for them to fight by her side to the last inch of their lives. Svana stepped in front of the dragon. She raised her Dragon Sword high, her eyes glaring daggers at the dragon. Her weapon waved through the air several times before she laced both her hands on the hilt.
“Svana… no,” Hekla croaked in a whisper.
Duliogial’s mouth opened, and another large burst of flame erupted. It co
llided with the Dragon Sword… and dissipated.
Hekla’s eyes grew wide.
The Unseen Ones gave the each of you a special weapon. Did you not think they wouldn’t lace them each with a magical power? The power to prevent magic. The power to fight against magic, Speltus said inside Hekla’s head.
Magic?
What do you think dragonfire is? It’s magic in its purest form.
I thought you were the magic. You, Lingaria, and Aronus.
We are, Speltus said, but your weapons aren’t ordinary weapons. If they were, they could not contain us. Our power is too strong to become one with an ordinary weapon.
But why? Why did the Unseen Ones give us weapons to protect us from magic? How would they know? Did they know we were to face dark dragons? Dark wizards? If so, why didn’t they warn us? Hekla asked.
The Unseen Ones did not know what you would face. They knew the land was corrupted. And they suspected foul play. They knew something was out there that they could not see. It is why they had to send another. It is why they couldn’t just send us.
Hekla titled her head as she contemplated his words.
Did you ever wonder why you were chosen? Why you? Why Svana? Why Astrid? Why didn’t the Unseen Ones send dragons to bring peace to Verdil? Why were you and your sisters trained for this?
I have wondered that every day, Hekla admitted.
You were chosen, Hekla. All three of you were. Not only for who you are, but for what you are.
What I am? What are you talking about, Speltus?
The weapons you three were given are magical. No Tellurian, Aequoran, or Caelestan can wield them.
What about Jakobe? He wielded Svana’s Dragon Sword for a time.
Yes, he did. But that was granted by the Unseen Ones through Lingaria’s request. And it weakened Lingaria. Lingaria had to give a part of himself to Jakobe, to give him magic—only a little bit, to be able to wield the Dragon Sword.
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