Karalti hissed, and then sprung into the air. At Level 1, her wings were still long enough and strong enough to carry her short distances, even when weighed down with food.
I went to the edge of the stable, the head of the Spear held low to the ground. The weapon wasn’t much to look at: a seven-foot long, dark metal polearm with faint engravings softened and dulled by age. The head of the glaive was a full-tang, curved metal blade. I’d scrubbed the tarnish off, but even after close to a month of use the weapon – an ancient magical relic – still looked like a broken antique:
Ruined Spear (Spear of Nine Spheres)
Soulbound Weapon
Slot: Two-handed
Item Class: Relic
Item Quality: Ruined
Damage: 25-55 Slashing or Piercing
Durability: 27% (-6 damage)
Weight: 1 lb
Special: +2 Dexterity, Soulbound, +50 HP, +2 Defense
A weapon reputed to be the Spear of Nine Spheres. To repair it, you will need to find a Mastersmith capable of reforging Lazula (bluesteel) magical artifacts.
"Time for me and you to do what we do best, my girl.” I adjusted my grip on the Spear. “Break shit and kill things.”
Chapter 2
From the shadows, I watched the seven men move into position. One Mercenary stayed outside of the fence while the other six filed in and fanned out. They acted like professionals who knew how to work together, but the way they were moving told me that they weren’t a hundred percent sure where I was. Either that, or they had someone approaching from behind the stable. They were probably DPS: a Thief, Rogue, Assassin, or similar Path.
I pulled Cutthroat around by her reins, pointed her in the direction of the approaching vanguard, and swatted her as I gave her the codeword command for ‘attack’. “Icecream!”
The hookwing knew what that word meant. Murder.
She lowered her head and charged out of the stable, breaking out into the open with a roar while I bounded out back to face the unseen rearguard.
Two Level 10 Mercenary Rogues, one with a net, the other with a crossbow, had jumped the fence and were coming up from around the building. I nearly ran into the net-carrier - and reflexively brought the butt end of my Spear around to hit him on the side of his head. As he staggered, I triggered one of my skills, Shadow Dance. I shot to the side, a blur of darkness, as the other man aimed and fired his crossbow in the wrong direction. I emerged out of Shadow Dance almost right behind him, slashing at his neck.
[You Backstabbed Mercenary Rogue!]
[Critical Hit!]
The Mercenary’s head went flying, hitting the other guy as he scrambled up. He was hardened enough to not juggle it and scream. Covered in blood, snarling obscenities, he hurled the net at me and drew a pair of daggers. I heard men screaming in front of the stable, then a saurian shriek of rage - and pain.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart!” I called to Cutthroat, knocking the net away with the butt of the spear and whirling it to parry the first sword strike with the pointy end. “I’m coming!”
Mercenaries called to each other, and boots thundered around both sides of the stable as I dodged, blocked, then hit the soldier’s blade with a powerful strike, sending it flying out of his lacerated hand. I triggered Lunge, and drove the foot-long spear blade and part of the haft through his chest. He was a high enough level that it didn’t kill him outright, but the kick to the chest to get the spear out of his body and the [Bleed] debuff sure as hell did.
There was a cry from the yard. “He’s out back!”
“Where’s the dragon!?”
Hiding, assholes. I ground my teeth, and charged out to join Cutthroat.
The hookwing was surrounded, trying to fight in multiple directions at once. Men with pikes kept her from their throats, while crossbowmen plugged her full of bolts. Three [Mercenaries] were torn apart like wet rags on the ground.
I willed my body to become immaterial again. The tattoo on my right hand blazed with cold, sending shooting numbness through my body. My HP drained fractionally as I slithered into a haze of dark smoke. I dashed in past Cutthroat, supernaturally fast, and reappeared just behind one of the Mercenaries who was attacking her. He spun, panicked, and struck a glancing blow off my shoulder armor as the others rushed in. I danced back like a ghost, blowing around one of the pikemen and reappearing behind and to the side of him. The mobs converged on me, and as soon as they massed up, I deployed the nuke: my newest ability and first AOE attack, Umbra Burst.
“Hrragh!” I slammed the end of my spear into the ground, discharging the built-up dark energy in my body. Twisted thorny vines of shadow sprung from the ground, lashing out to capture - and puncture - legs and arms. The men screamed in confusion and fear as ice crawled up along their flesh. I capitalized on the short Frozen debuff with another ability: Blood Sprint, which powered a slashing strike that knocked three of the men off their feet and sent them to the ground, and its combo chain ability Blood Storm.
The dark mana swirling around my spear turned dark red as I whirled the polearm around and cut a swath through the Mercenaries. Each successful blow restored health, and my HP jumped well above what I’d lost using Shadow Dance. Three of them screamed and fell to the ground, their skin dry and stretched tight over the bones of their faces.
Two weeks ago, I’d have been disturbed by what I was doing. But now, I had Karalti – and I would have eaten a man alive if that’s what it took to protect her.
“Oriaysal!” The Mata Argis Agent, who had stayed out of the battle until now, leveled his hands at me. Only then did I spot what he’d been hiding under his cloak. He was wearing gauntlets reinforced with black matte crystal capsules and flexible tubing, the leather glowing with runes.
A spellcaster. He’d been letting his men wear us down. And he was Level 25.
The spell went off like a flashbang, blinding Cutthroat and me. It was like being stabbed in the eyeballs with a syringe. NPCs who had been drawn to us to watch the fight fled, while screams of terror echoed from the street.
I struggled to keep position, hold a fighting stance, but I took hits from all sides as the Blindness debuff ticked down. Worse, I heard the mage speak another Word of Power. “Thoram!”
Thunder cracked, and suddenly I was flying, and not in the fun way. The energy slammed into me and surged through my limbs. Like a bowl of wet noodles thrown at a wall, I hit the side of the stable, limbs turned to jelly, then bounced and clattered onto the ground.
Or at least, I thought it was the stable. My vision swam back into view, and I saw that I’d actually flown across the yard, through the open gate, tumbled across the road, and hit the side of a large shipping container at the water’s edge. Barely ten feet away was a flimsy knee-high barrier and a sheer five-hundred-foot drop into the churning abyss that passed for Archemi’s oceans. 300 HP had vanished like a bad dream.
Groaning, I picked myself up to see the spellcaster whirl around and cast on Cutthroat as she charged him down. This spell engulfed my hookwing in a cloud of ice. Cutthroat gave a croaky squawk as she toppled to the ground.
Fuck, this guy was fast. I gulped down a couple of healing potions as I dashed for the gate and slammed into the swordsman who barreled at me, clumsily swinging. I slashed him to the side, and he fell, clutching his spurting throat. I bounded forward, leaping like a cricket in a bid to land on the mage, but my spear and feet slammed into an invisible barrier. My eyes widened, just before he casually blasted me with the other hand.
This time, I hit the corner edge of the shipping crate and crunched instead of bounced.
[Warning! You are Stunned!]
[Current HP: 25/624]
[Warning! This enemy’s challenge rating is dangerously high!]
“Urrgh…” The blood beat in my temples. I had to keep this fucker away from Karalti.
“You there! Search the stable!” The mage called back over his shoulder as he stalked through the gate and out to the street. The Stun counter was s
till ticking down, and I struggled to move as he closed in on me, hand raised. Lightning danced around his fingers. “And you, heretic! Where is she? Where is the queen?”
“Have you checked your ass? I heard it's pretty roomy in there.” I spat blood, moving to hands and knees. I still had the Spear of Nine Spheres wrapped in one tight-knuckled fist, for all the good it was doing me.
“You are in no position to sling insults.” The masked Mata Argis Agent had a cold voice, dark with anger. “Where is she!? What have you done to her?!”
“The same thing I do to your mom every night.”
The mage wrenched me to my feet with a spell, his gauntlet burning with blue fire. “Have it your way! We will extract the information at base without any need for your input. By the power vested in me by the Warden of Ilia-”
His speech was cut off by a furious black blur of claws and teeth. Karalti dove at the back of his head and hit him at full speed, sending him staggering toward me. He flung his hand out just before his concentration broke, but the spell was successful. I was whiplashed around in mid-air before being slammed down onto the rough ground. I hit the thigh-high cliffside barricade hard, and felt something crack in my chest on the rebound. My arm went numb, and my spear skittered off across the dirt.
“Karalti! No! Stay back!” I yelled, rolling over to scramble up.
The little dragon’s neck swelled. She hissed and spat, kicking with her powerful hind feet. She caught her sickle claw on the edge of the mage’s mask and kicked it free, baring a surprisingly young face. He looked like a Mormon: pale, pointed face, wavy nut-blond hair. Karalti got one good slash across his eyes before he caught her by the neck like a turkey.
Karalti squealed, and my guts froze cold.
“Let her go, you jackbooted piece of shit!” I roared, blood pouring from my nose, and charged at him, desperate to provide any distraction at all. If they took her...
“Hold fast!” The last swordsman was running towards the pair of them with a net outstretched.
“No!” I screamed now, real terror overwhelming common sense, self-preservation, even the need to breathe. Every day, I was haunted by what had happened to her mother, and what would happen to her if they took her. “Let her go!”
“Hector!” Karalti screeched, little limbs flailing as the pair of men closed in.
The soldier reached them before I did. He threw the net over Karalti’s struggling body, snaring her wings, and grabbed her in a bear hug.
“Stand by! Hold her! Don’t worry - she’s too young for fire!” The mage was struggling to see and catch his breath. He went to go pick up his mask. I bellowed, charging him, but he wasn’t distracted enough to ignore me - with a dismissive sweep of his hand, his magic sent me sprawling.
“HECTOR!” Karalti twisted in the soldier’s arms like a fish, slashing and biting. he tried to pull away from her, but a lucky claw caught him in the neck and he went down, blood spraying from his carotid. He dropped and she fell with him, still struggling in the net.
[Karalti lands a devastating blow! X5 damage!]
[Mercenary Soldier is hemorrhaging!]
[Congratulations! Karalti is Level 2!]
“Time to end this,” the mage panted, standing over me. He levelled his smoking hand at my chest. “The Knight-Commander sends his regards.”
Chapter 3
Six feet behind him, Karalti’s body was consumed by a kaleidoscopic haze. The opal seams in her scales spread over her entire body. The guard nearly dropped her as she seemed to liquify, then doubled in size. It distracted everyone, even the mage.
Before she’d even stopped glowing, the dragon reared her head back and opened her jaws wide. “CHAAAA!”
A thin plume of burning liquid, like ghostly white napalm, burst from her mouth. The net caught fire, and when it hit the Mata Argis Agent, he caught on fire, too. It spattered the ground, and wherever it landed, white flames erupted.
The Agent’s cloak caught like he’d dipped it in gasoline. The heat was so intense I could feel it from the ground. I recoiled as he jumped back and to the side, shouting a new spell. “Bla’pahaz!”
Water condensed out of the air around him in a sphere and dumped over his head, like someone had poured a bucket over him. The water sloshed down, saturating his clothes... but the flames were not extinguished. Clouds of steam spewed into the air.
“AAAAIIIIIEEE!” Now he was boiling alive instead of frying. He spun away from me, clawing at his robes to get them off. I rolled to the side and clapped a hand down on the haft of the Spear of Nine Spheres. Maybe we could pick away at him like this? Maybe we could...?
The mage snarled another Word of Power, whipping the dust and dirt on the street around himself like a tornado. The earth covered him, and when it fell away, the flames were extinguished. His HP was still in the green - the fire had distracted him, but Karalti was still only Level 2. It hadn’t injured him that much.
“Bad man!” Karalti’s raspy, parrot-like speaking voice cut through the air as she charged the Agent at a run, leaping into the air with great beats of her wings. “CHAAAA!”
“Karalti! NO!” I shouted, but it was already too late.
The mage blocked the napalm stream with an energetic shield, and then swatted the little dragon from the air. She cried out as she tumbled away, rolling to stillness in the churned dust of the street.
We weren’t strong enough. We just weren’t strong enough, and I wasn’t strong enough to protect her. Teeth gritted, I burned through my healing items and prepared to charge anyway... except that someone else got there first.
“FOR TALTOS! FOR HONOR!” The man who emerged out of the cloud of dirt was massive. Six and a half feet tall, shoulders wider than a door, a scimitar in his hands. The Mata Argis mage got a shield up between him and the newcomer just in time, but the blow of that sword against the magical barrier send him skidding across the ground.
The mage looked nearly as confused as I did. He was preparing his return attack when a bright bolt of energy slammed into him from my other side. I glimpsed a small, wiry man in bright blue robes, with a steel-gray ponytail and mage-gloves that crackled with energy. The Mata Argis Agent staggered, reeling close to the barrier overlooking the cliff, and I saw my chance.
Wheezing from broken ribs, my HP throbbing in the red, I charged the mage and tackled him off the edge.
Whatever magic school the Mata Argis mage had been to, they apparently hadn’t taught him how to fly. He howled all the way down, plummeting like a comet into the crushing hundred-foot waves that thundered against the base of the cliffs. Physics in this game was a bitch.
[You have defeated Mata Argis Agent!]
[You gain 200 EXP!]
[Congratulations! You are Level 9!]
[You have unspent ability points!]
[You have unspent skill points!]
“Karalti!” There was no time to gloat. Struggling for breath, I ran to my hatchling. She was up on her feet, but she was down below half HP. A man in bright blue robes moved away from her as she flapped toward me.
The dragon hit me in the chest and knocked me on my ass. She clung to me with four sets of pointy claws, wings beating wildly. “Hector! Hector is hurt!”
“Hector’s gonna be fine.” But Cutthroat wasn’t. With Karalti pressed in close to my hip, I limped across the smoking ground and back into the stable yard, to the huge body sprawled on the ground. I dropped to my knees beside Cutthroat, a lump rising in my throat. The hookwing was, to all appearances, completely dead. Out of habit, I jammed my fingers under the edge of her jaw, feeling for a pulse, even as my HUD display showed me her level and remaining HP. It was at 5 out of 460, and dropping slowly.
[Your Mount is in a critical condition! You must restore HP equal to one quarter of her total HP to stabilize her.]
“Shitballs,” I said to no one in particular. I raided my inventory - there were ten Bonebreak Poultices that each healed 50 HP, six Moss Tinctures that healed 70 HP, and a bunch of mana-
infused potions that I could use, but would be toxic to Cutthroat.
I slapped a poultice onto her wounds and pulled the dinosaur’s head onto my lap. Her skull was as long as my torso, but I pried her jaws open and poured two Moss Tinctures down her throat and returned the empty bottles back into my inventory. Cutthroat twitched, then kicked spasmodically along the ground as she regained consciousness, tearing long furrows in the dirt. Then she whimpered.
[Cutthroat has been stabilized! HP: 145/460]
“The creature is badly wounded.” The blue-robed man had joined us, brow wrinkled with concern. He looked to be in his early fifties, and he had a scholarly, handsome face, with wise dark eyes. The huge knight who had intervened in the fight hovered by his left shoulder. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man with an impressive moustache and strings of black runes tattooed over his cheeks and under his eyes. He was dressed in a fine chainmail tunic underneath black and red lamellar armor, which made him look like some kind of Slavic samurai.
“Yeah, she is. Stand back.” I uncorked the second Moss Tincture and poured it in, shoving my arm into her mouth to make sure it went down.
Putting my hand in Cutthroat’s mouth wasn’t the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, but it was definitely in the Top Ten Dumb Ideas of Hector Park. When her eyes flickered open, dark and hazy, I had about a second to pull my arm out and scramble away. I barely managed to stay out of reach as Cutthroat snapped at me, jaws clapping together barely inches from my face.
Karalti hissed at her and drew a deep breath. Before I could stop her, she exhaled wheezily in the hookwing’s direction, but only a few tiny drops of burning liquid and saliva sprayed from her mouth. None of them landed on the dinosaur, and Cutthroat almost looked offended.
“Oh.” Karalti hunched down, looking up at us from the ground.
I turned to regard the pair of men who were still shadowing us. “Thanks for the assist.”
Trial by Fire: A LitRPG Dragonrider Adventure (Archemi Online Chronicles Book 2) Page 2