I stood back, and on impulse, I caught Karalti by the muzzle and gently pulled her head around so that I was looking straight into her eyes. By moonlight, they seemed especially luminous. They were very much like her mother’s, but innocent and hopeful instead of wise and pain-stricken. It was hard to meet her gaze for long, because I could feel the churn of emotions she was experiencing: the puppy love and confusion, the instinct she had to form pack bonds clashing with the instincts of a predator driven to challenge and drive away rivals and threats.
“Seriously,” I said. “I promise.”
Karalti made a little gurgling sound, then stretched her nose forward and licked me right up along the face.
“Urgh, what-!” I let go of her and wiped dragon drool off my nose. “Why?”
Giggling, my dragon paced forward, eagerly licking at my head and and hands as I tried to shield myself. Her head darted back and forth, while I laughed and cursed her and backed away. I let her smack her nose into my palm, and then hooked my fingers into her nostrils and pushed. Karalti squealed, shaking her head. “Nooo, don’t!”
“Then don’t lick my faaaace!” I pretend-whined back at her.
She beamed at me, jaws agape. “Then stop being made of meeeeat.”
“You have teeth the size of my thumb now. That joke is… in poor taste.” I played a little rimshot on her wing, and she groaned.
“You’re the worst,” Karalti grumbled. “You wanna try flying again?”
“Yeah, but first, we need to do some groundwork.” I nodded. “Then I think we need to go and grind you up to Level Six. You said you found some monsters outside the city?”
“Yeah! They’re down by the valley river, in the forest. Slimy dead people called mavka and frog things called vodniks.”
“How much EXP do they give?”
“Uhh... about 80 and 170 each, I think.”
I looked at our sheets, and did a rough calculation. I had a bit over a thousand EXP to go before I hit Level 13, and Karalti needed 934 before she reached Level 6. We’d need to kill nine mobs. “Are they tough?”
“Kinda. They don’t like fire.”
“Perfect. I cut down on weight, so you should be able to fly longer.” I nodded, and bent down to pick up the Alpha Rod. I spun it in my hand and tucked it back under my arm. “You want to do it?”
“Yeah!” Karalti bounced up and down.
“Awesome.” I clapped her on the shoulder, and went around to swing up into the saddle. “Because I’m about to try the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”
***
We soared over the valley river in near silence. The only sounds were those of the night: frogs croaking, the wind rippling over Karalti’s wings, the slosh and gurgle of the shallow, salty water below. I hung forward over my dragon’s shoulder, searching the stagnant marsh for our next target - preferably a vodnik.
We’d already killed eight monsters: five [Mavras], three [Vodniks]. Karalti was 25 EXP from leveling up, and I was 121. We were up to Dragon Riding 4 and Laden Flight 3 respectively, and with every point invested into the skills, flying became easier for both of us. Despite all of this, I still hadn’t been able to work myself up to jumping off Karalti’s back from a height.
Down below, I saw a motion in the stands of tall cattails. I tracked the rustling and swaying, and the glowing crosshairs in my HUD darted in to auto-target it. Yep - it was a vodnik, a hulking, orc-like, amphibious demihuman carrying a large rock as a weapon.
“There,” Karalti said. “See it?”
“Sure do.” I drew a deep breath, and squeezed the haft of my spear. This time, this strike, was going to be the one where I did it. “Buzz it as close as you can. I’m going to try to jump.”
Karalti dipped her wing, and I drew a sharp, excited breath as the horizon tipped thirty degrees. I’d learned to relax while leaning into her momentum, just like I would have on a motorcycle. The more relaxed I was, the easier it was for her, and the less likely I was to fall off.
“You really gonna do it this time?” she teased.
“Hell yeah I am.”
Like a hawk, Karalti swung around and lined up at the unsuspecting Vodnik. I swallowed, and got ready to stand.
“Keep it steady.” Drawing deep breaths, I drew one foot up underneath me, got some weight on it, and braced to leap. “Here we…. GO!”
This was a test of the game’s limitations: namely because I had no idea if Jump worked while plummeting from a short height onto the back of a monster. If it did work, I’d stab and bounce, as I generally did when I called the maneuver on the ground. If not… splat.
Biting down the urge to scream ‘DEATH FROM ABOVE!’, I got my feet down, and half-Jumped, half-fell off Karalti’s back.
It was a long way down - thirty feet or more - and I was moving at speed. I stayed calm by focusing down the length of the spear as the crosshairs disappeared, and….
WHAM.
The spear plunged through the unsuspecting creature’s body, taking it right in the back of its neck. The bloody weapon thrust out through the monster’s sternum. The impact rattled my teeth, but I got the notification I’d been dying to see.
[You have landed a devastating blow on Vodnik! X5 damage!]
[You have taken 80 impact damage!]
The monster slumped and clawed at the spear blade sticking out through its body, eyes bugging with shock as Karalti flew back in. Her jaws opened as I pulled my weapon free and got the hell out of the way.
“CHAAAAAAR!” White fire blasted over the Vodnik like a furnace, crisping it. All that was left after the flames died was its loot bag.
[You have defeated Vodnik!]
[Congratulations! You are level 13!]
[Congratulations! Karalti is Level 6!]
[New Feat: Banzaiiii!]
Karalti came in to land, splashing water everywhere. Her form rippled and twisted, and then she grew - but not as much as the last five times. From levels one to five, she had almost doubled in size. This time, she only grew an extra three or four feet in length.
“Hell yeah!” I sloshed over to her, limping a little. “Did you see that! Times five damage, baby! Woo!”
“I saw!” Karalti beat her wings exuberantly, nearly knocking me down. “Oops. Wings are bigger now.”
“This will make flying so much easier.” To my great relief, the saddle had grown too. Like human armor, the accessory stretched or shrunk to fit whoever it was equipped on.
“I have more Lexica!” Karalti crouched down to let me up. “Enough for a new spell! And more strength, too!”
“Excellent.” I mounted up, still riding the adrenaline high, and chugged a potion. “Alright - you should be able to take off from the ground, now.”
“I’ll try! Hang on!”
Of all the things I was sure to do, it was hang on. I stashed my spear in my Inventory to make use of both hands.
Karalti waded to shore, and when she was on drier land, she broke into a run into the wind. On instinct, I flattened my body down. It was a good call.
The dragon picked up speed, both hearts pounding against the walls of her chest, and then kicked herself up as she scooped with her wings. It was like trying to ride an earthquake. Her back bucked up and down, and it was all I could do to not bang my nose and knock myself out as she labored up into the sky.
“Yeah! We did it!” She was panting, her tongue flapping out the corner of her mouth… but we were in the air and gaining height.
“We need to put you on a treadmill, Tidbit. Make you run laps around the parade ground.” But even though it was still hard work, I could feel how much stronger she had become - and how much faster. She’d gained 15 points of Dex in that one level.
I dumped my ability point into Umbra Blast. I hadn’t thought I’d need that ability, but during the fight with the Flesh Amalgamation, I had missed it. Then I opened up Karalti’s sheet.
Karalti - Queen Dragon
Level 6 Juvenile
Strength: 54
Stamina: 30
Will: 24
Wisdom: 8
Intelligence: 16
HP: 949
MP: 64
Affinity: Darkness/Life
EXP: 1934 (1645 to next level)
Lexica: 14 (4 points to spend)
Spells: 4
Skills:
Acrobatics: 8
- Aerial Acrobatics: 9
Dive: 5
Laden Flight: 4
[Karalti has two unspent skill points!]
Abilities:
Gift of the Blood: Allows a dragon to utilize magic and other supernatural abilities.
Eviscerate: A power attack with the front claws.
Ghost Fire: 195-285 fire damage; sticky fire that burns underwater.
Bite: 237-255 damage.
Gore: A dragon’s unarmed attacks do double damage and cause Bleeding.
Split Turn: Burn 5 mana points per second to immediately change momentum while rolling. This allows for 90 degree and 180 degree turns in any direction. 2 bonus Lexica.
Spells:
Bioscope: Analyze an enemy and learn their strengths and weaknesses.
Sense Aether: Detect and assess magical effects, artifacts, and locations.
Dark Focus I: Double power of next magical attack.
Dirge: A curse that slowly damages enemies every turn and has a chance to cause the Deaf and Mute debuffs.
Sixty-eight dex? I whistled out loud into the wind as we cut the air.
I’d already planned what spell I wanted her to take with this level - Haste. I probably couldn’t yet withstand the forces that sped Karalti up to supernatural speeds, but if something ever happened to us, I wanted her to be able to get away. I didn’t know if dragons could respawn, and I never wanted to find out.
Chapter 34
We ended up sleeping on the floor of Suri’s suite, with my back curled up against Karalti’s belly, warmed by the shelter of her wings. I woke up to bright light, the sounds of clattering and shuffling, and pushed Karalti’s wing back to see Suri’s copper-skinned back as she pulled her shirt over her head. She had a lot of scars.
“G’morning, sunshine,” she drawled. She didn’t turn around while she tugged the shirt down and slung a short leather vest on over it.
I glanced at her bare right arm. It was back, fully formed. The only sign that she’d lost it was the difference in color. The skin below the elbow was noticeably lighter and smoother than the rest of her.
“Morning. You’re looking better.” I sat up straight, yawned, and cracked my back. It was more a reflex than anything - since arriving in Archemi, I’d had no actual back pain at all outside of combat.
“I feel like a dog’s breakfast, but I have my stats and HP pool back up to scratch, so I’m not complaining.” Suri flexed the new limb, then began to don her armor and gauntlets.
Karalti stirred beside me, stretching and yawning. She opened one eye to peer sleepily at Suri, then grumbled and yanked me back in against her chest like a kid with a teddy bear. “Mmmm.”
“Ack!” I fell back over, struggling against the iron grip. “Leggo!”
“No. Mine.”
Suri laughed, watching me flail around. “Aww, look at it. True love.”
“True something.” Resigned, I sighed and let myself be hugged as the dragon curled around me possessively, her tail twitching back and forth.
“So.” Suri sat down on the edge of the bed to slide her plate gauntlet up along her freshly regrown arm. “You found another Nightstalkers ring, if I heard you right?”
“Right.”
“That’s what I thought. The good news is that I can get us a meeting with the King of Cats,” she replied.
I raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, but did you just admit that you can get us a meeting with a local crime boss?”
Suri nodded. “Yeah.”
“How?”
“It’s because she’s a thieving-” Before Karalti could finish, I whapped her on the edge of her wing with my knuckle. She snorted and pulled her wing away.
“None of that,” I scolded. Then I realized I’d spoken aloud. “Sorry, Karalti said something to me in private.”
Suri glanced down at her in confusion. “The Nightstalkers are a pit fighting syndicate. They do some smuggling on the side, but it’s mostly about the sport. Well, I fought for a syndicate down in Dakhdir - Dhul Fiquar, the Rose Knives. Ever heard of them?”
“I hear they’re the biggest syndicate in that country,” I replied, gently prying Karalti’s claws from around my midriff. “Man, you think you’re getting to know someone, and then you find out they’re a foot soldier for the fucking Mafia.”
“I wasn’t a foot soldier for anyone, asshole. I was a gladiator.” Suri wrinkled her nose at me. “Fighting’s how I survived in the city after I broke out of Al-Asad. I told you I tried to become a dancer. Well, it was at a place called the Tiger’s Den. They ran fights out of the basement there. The guy I beat up on my first night dancing tried to murder the bookie.”
“Bookie as in bookmaker?”
“Yeah. Well, I ripped the knife out of the guy’s hand and stabbed him to death. Saved the bookmaker’s life, and Dhul Fiquar picked me up as talent. They loved me – a woman strong enough to take on middleweight and heavyweight men in the ring. The novelty appeal was massive.”
“Huh. The more you know.”
Suri nodded. “Well, point being, I made syndicate connections as soon as I wandered into Taltos. If you’re not in a rival gang, it’s polite for visiting syndicate members to pay a house call to the big players in any city they travel to. You go introduce yourself, have a drink, pay your respects. The Nightstalkers are currently the biggest syndicate in the city. I know where they hang out, and if we play it right, I’m pretty sure we can meet the boss. It’s good that we’re both foreigners.”
“Why?”
“Because their base is in Cat Alley. The ‘International District’, where the Meewfolk live.” Suri stood and hooked her axes onto her belt. “They don’t like locals, and the locals don’t like them, but that’s where we have to go. The earlier, the better.”
“Not at night?” I asked.
“Nope. Meewfolk are nocturnal, and nights are when the fights happen. The pit bosses do their admin in the morning, sleep all day, then run events from after sunset until the next morning. If we get there before nine, they’ll be wrapping up whatever went down yesterday.”
I poked Karalti in her armpit. “Come on, girl. You heard the lady.”
“Bleh.” Karalti yawned again, but she finally let me go.
I picked myself up and yawned as well, then swiped my HUD and equipped my armor. I was alarmed to see that nearly all of my stuff was gone, until I remembered that it was in a pack in my room. “Mind if we stop by my place?”
“Nope. But we need to get going already.”
The three of us walked down to the Royal Stables, where rows and rows of riding beasts were kept in communal pens. Cutthroat’s was easy to find: it was the one where most of the other hookwings were cowering back against the far wall.
It was just after feeding time, and Cutthroat was licking out the bottom of an empty trough. Two other, far more dainty hookwings watched her nervously as they gulped down their meals from the next trough over. The bigger hookwing looked up once she had cleared every scrap of meat, smacking her jaws, and her baleful golden eyes fixed on the rapidly vanishing food in the other trough. She didn’t even really bother making a serious challenge to the twins – she just reached out with a claw and began to pull Meal Number Two toward her.
The smaller dinosaurs screeched with rage, and one of them snapped at her arm. As its jaws closed in, Cutthroat lowered her head and headbutted it right in the snout. It yelped and backed away. The other one was now alone. Victorious, the coal-black hookwing dragged the trough close enough to pull a mouthful of entrails from it, snapping them up and swallowing them down. Her eyes narrowed w
ith pleasure.
“Same old psycho,” I chuckled. “How are you two getting along?”
Suri held a hand up to ward me back, and strode over to the bolted gate. She threw it open and strode in, scattering hissing hookwings to all corners of the corral. When Cutthroat saw who it was, her throat swelled, and she left off the food, bobbing her head and making a weird sound. Gurk gurk gurk.
“Wait… is she about to...?” That was all I got out before she regurgitated the guts she’d just stolen onto the ground in front of Suri’s feet. I jumped back against Karalti. “Eww! Dude!”
“She’s trying to feed me. She thinks I don’t eat enough.” Suri remarked. She took Cutthroat’s tack off the hooks and saddle tree.
“That’s fucking nasty!” I hung back, watching on in a mixture of admiration and horror as Suri threw the saddle blanket and saddle onto Cutthroat’s back.
“They do it for their mates to show they will be able to provide for chicks. It’s a courtship thing.” Suri said. “She’s basically my wife now.”
“That’s so romantic.” Karalti sighed with longing.
“Umm, sure.” My stomach churned as Cutthroat lowered her head and began to lick up the steaming pile of meat she’d just vomited onto the ground. “If you ever do that to me, I’m disowning you.”
I watched as Suri mounted. She was looking more confident in the saddle these days, and watching the pair gave me a warm glow. For all her antics, Cutthroat would always have a place in my heart. When push came to shove, she’d always been there to back me up.
Karalti was bigger than Cutthroat now, so she took the lead. People actively got out of our way, watching on in awe as she strutted by. Once we were outside, she broke into a graceful lope, lighter and more graceful than the hookwing’s bulldozer gallop.
“You going to be able to stay cool during this?” Suri asked me, once we’d cleared the gatehouse at the end of the road. “You’re not going to turn into Mr. Law and Order all of a sudden, are you?”
“Of course not. Anything I should know?”
“Keep your purse down the front of your armor. Pay for things in copper coins, and don’t flash any silver or gold. Don’t stare any Meewfolk you meet in the eye without blinking. If they look at you, sort of squint your eyes slowly, nod, and leave it at that. They tend to talk without making eye contact, so don’t be weirded out if they’re looking somewhere else other than you.”
Trial by Fire: A LitRPG Dragonrider Adventure (Archemi Online Chronicles Book 2) Page 30