Dragon Slayer: A Pulp Fantasy Harem Adventure

by Michael-Scott Earle

  “No!” I shouted over the wind whipping past us. “Do not fight her, not yet!”

  Arieste let out a furious roar. I could sense her desire to clash with her ancient rival, yet the woman-turned-dragon obeyed my wishes.

  “Get me to Riamod’s lair,” I told her. “I just need to sever her connection to the altar, and she will be weak enough that you can take her down.”

  Arieste gave a powerful flap of her white wings to gain speed as if she intended to crash into the red dragon, and my heart leapt into my throat as we darted toward the larger serpent. As we got closer, Riamod bared her teeth in a roar and opened her mouth wide to breathe fire at us, but at the last second, Arieste snapped her wings against her side and dove.

  The red dragon’s claws raked the air two feet above my head as she hurtled past, and then Arieste spread her wings and soared upward past the red dragon. We were now aimed at the smoking mountain peak in the distance, and I prayed that we could get to the altar quick enough.

  Riamod’s furious call echoed loud behind us, and I glanced over my shoulder to see the red dragon banking in a sharp turn to pursue us. She was significantly larger than Arieste, but I didn’t think she could fly as fast with the injured wing.

  At least, I hoped she couldn’t.

  “Come on, Arieste!” I encouraged. The rushing wind whistled in my hair and set my clothing flapping furiously, and I had to shout at full volume to make myself heard. “Faster!”

  “More power,” Arieste roared. “Give me more!”

  I hesitated, but it was too late to turn back now. I reached around the spikes on her back to lay a hand on the gemstone in her forehead. The moment I opened myself up to the magic, it felt like the gemstone ripped it from my control. Every nerve in my body blazed with icy heat as it poured through me and into Arieste. The dragon roared in triumph, and I felt her muscles ripple beneath me as she beat at the air to gain greater speed.

  We flew like an arrow toward the peak of the smoking mountain and toward the hole from which Riamod had emerged. I concentrated on the magical power coursing through my Mark of the Guardian and searched for the source of the fire dragon’s magic. A thick thread of fiery red ran from the mountain and connected with Riamod. I just needed to get to that altar.

  I felt the sudden rush of magic behind me. I had no time to look over my shoulder, only to shout at Arieste. “Fire!” At the same time, I tapped into the small amount of ice magic remaining to me to form a protective shield around my body.

  Arieste dipped low, and a massive pillar of flame burst through the air above my head. The ice melted away in the blink of an eye, and I felt a searing pain down my back as a tendril of fire scorched through my clothing. I gritted my teeth against the throbbing sensation and clung to Arieste’s back as the ice dragon dove toward the slope of the mountain.

  “What are you doing?” I shouted. “We need to get up there!”

  “No time, she is right behind us,” Arieste rumbled back. “Find another way in. I will buy you time.”

  “I’ll hurry!” I scanned the mountainside and spotted the mouth of a cave. “There, the cave!”

  Arieste swooped toward it, and a dark shadow passed overhead as Riamod sped toward us. This was going to suck.

  The white dragon crashed into the mountainside with bone-jarring force, but her massive legs absorbed most of the impact. I leapt from her back, fireman’s axe gripped firmly in my hand and darted to the right. At the same moment, Arieste rolled to her left, just in time to avoid the massive pillar of Riamod’s fire that raked the ground. I sprinted across the slope with the blazing heat licking at my heels. Then I heard Arieste’s roar of pain, and a shrill of anger as the ice dragon leapt from the ground with a furious beat of her powerful wings.

  I had no time to watch the ferocious clash of dragons. My attention was riveted on the cave just ten yards away. I felt the altar deep within the heart of the mountain, and the massive amount of power it contained called to the Mark of the Guardian.

  The mountainside was made of rough volcanic stone, and it took all my coordination to scramble over the jagged surface. Threads of red-hot lava leaked from tiny holes in the ground. I had given almost all my power to Arieste, and I used what little remained to keep an ice shield around my body in an attempt to ward off the heat.

  Finally, I reached the cave and raced inside. The ground inside was smoother and more even, so I could run faster. The passageway twisted and turned and my path was lit by red-hot stones embedded in the wall. With every step I took deeper into the cave, the sweltering heat increased. Sweat leaked down my face and soaked my shirt, and the melting ice of my feeble shield rose in thick clouds of sulfur tasting steam around me.

  The sweltering humidity made me want to pass out, so I paused to draw my turnout gear from my pack. The thick suit provided some protection from the heat, but my head, face, and hands were exposed without a helmet and gloves. I gripped my axe tighter and forced myself to keep moving. This was just another fucking day on the job. I had faced hotter fires than this and walked out in one piece.

  I had trained to face open flames and burning buildings, but I felt sorely unprepared as I entered the cave and found myself confronted by an open lake of lava. The red-hot liquid oozed like sludge, and let off a deep bubbling sound broken occasionally by a gasp of steam. With every hiss, a foul sulfuric smell filled the surrounding air.

  I could feel the immense amount of power coming from the far end of the cavern, and it only took me a moment to realize that it was more potent than what I had sensed in Frosdar’s cave.

  My gut tightened as I searched for a way to reach the altar. The passage I’d entered ended at a small outcropping of rock, which ran for five yards to my right and left before dropping off into a steep cliff. A hundred feet below me, the lake of fire bubbled and boiled. Stone shelves were set at random intervals around the edges of the chamber, but they were too far apart for me to jump to. The walls rose straight up toward a hole at the top of the mountain, and daylight shone a hundred yards above my head.

  Just my luck, the only way to get across the field of lava was to go through. Flat plateaus dotted the fiery surface like solid stepping stones over the burning inferno, and I ducked lower so that I could see under the cloud of smoke and steam. Some of the stones were five or ten yards apart, but some were close enough together than I could leap over the gap. I had no doubt the heat would be fucking brutal, but it was the only way to get across.

  I needed to get a move on since I could hear the screams of the dragons fighting outside, and I knew Arieste couldn’t last that long against her nemesis.

  I zipped up my turnout gear, stepped toward the edge of the lake of fire, and drew in a deep breath.

  “has anyone ever told you you’re bloody insane?” Nyvea told me.

  “I don’t see a better way,” I told her.

  “Just don’t get yourself killed, hero,” she purred. “I’d miss your handsome body if you died.”

  “I don’t plan on it.” I gritted my teeth and took my first leap out into the field of lava.

  Blazing heat gripped me as I hurtled through the air to land on the four-foot-wide stone. I tapped into the ice magic and formed a frozen shield around me, and I sighed as the air grew momentarily cool. But as I jumped to the next stone, I could feel the ice melting from the burning intensity of the lava. I knew that lava could get as hot as twenty-two hundred degrees, and there was no way I or my turnout gear could survive that amount of heat. I had to keep up the ice shield even though it was slowly exhausting me.

  A shadow passed over the mouth of the mountain peak, and I glanced up in time to see Arieste swoop down and crash onto Riamod’s back. The ice dragon snapped at the fire dragon’s neck, and Riamod roared in pain. They flew out of sight a second later, but that little glimpse of their battle brought a smile to my face. Arieste had a chance to win. At the very least, she could keep Riamod occupied long enough for me to find and destroy the altar.

 
; The going across the fiery lava field was slow, hot, and damn near suffocating. I had to pick my path three or four stones ahead so I wouldn’t get caught on a stone too far from the next. I was already running out of energy from using the ice magic, and I still had more than half the distance to cross.

  For what seemed an eternity, I navigated that fiery landscape of gray stones. The bubbling lava filled the cavern with an eerie glow that only made the stifling heat worse. I no longer sweated because my body was running dangerously low on water. I had to form ice shields around my face and drink the melting water just to keep from dehydration. It took all of my concentration and willpower to put one leaden foot in front of the other. My legs and back ached from the jumping and running, and I knew I was running out of steam.

  A loud screech echoed above me, and I saw two massive bodies plummeting through the hole in the mountain. Arieste was on her back with her wings spread wide, and Riamod was on top with her massive jaws locked on the ice dragon’s neck. They were falling right toward me.

  It felt like I was moving through mud as I sprinted toward the edge of my rocky shelf and threw myself across the six-foot gap to the next. I didn’t slow to catch myself, but kept running and leaping from rock to rock. I had to get out of the path of the falling dragons.

  A shrill cry of pain set the walls of the cavern shaking behind me, and there was a massive crash as the two huge bodies slammed into the ground. The impact shook the stones beneath my feet and nearly threw me off balance. A loud sizzling pop was accompanied by the heart aching sound of the ice dragon screaming, and I felt the air leave my chest.

  I wanted to turn toward my lover and see how she fared in the fight, but I knew we were both going to die if I didn’t hurry the fuck up, so I sprinted the distance across the last stepping stone and leapt with all the strength in my legs. I flew through the air and crashed to the ground on the far side of the gap as my muscles gave out. I lay there for a long moment, and my lungs burned from my desperate sprint and the burning air of the magma lake.

  As soon as my feet were steady on the shore, I risked a glance at Arieste and Riamod. The two dragons wrestled on the field of stones, and it took me less than a second to see that Riamod was clearly gaining the upper hand. Arieste’s tail was covered in lava, and she was roaring in a mixture of pain and fury as she struggled against the larger red dragon.

  I levered myself upright and stumbled on wooden legs toward the altar. The stone was a deep crimson, and threads of yellow and orange fire swirled within its depths. I felt the immense amount of raw power in the stone and saw the thick tether of magic running past me toward Riamod. The altar was just fifty yards away, but it felt like crossing ten football fields. I clenched my jaw against my exhaustion and forced myself to keep moving.

  A roar of rage echoed behind me, and I heard the sound of claws scrabbling on stone. I glanced over my shoulder, and fear tightened in my gut as I saw the lumbering bulk of Riamod charging across the field of stones toward me.

  That sight drove all thoughts of fatigue from my mind. A second surge of adrenaline coursed through my body and fueled my legs as I sprinted the last twenty feet to the altar. With a roar, I swung the axe up and brought the blade down right onto the gemstone.

  Again, I felt something snap as my axe blade shattered the crimson stone, and Riamod screeched behind me. The ground shook as the dragon collapsed, disoriented by the sudden disconnection from her magical power, and she thrashed about in pain. Her wings lashed the stone and sent shards of volcanic rocks hurtling toward me, but I crouched down away from her, and the bits of obsidian bounced off my thick jacket.

  I whirled to face the dragon, but Riamod was already rearing up above me.

  She was fucking huge. Her claws looked half as long as I was tall, her glowing yellow eyes were probably four feet in diameter, and her gleaming white teeth were bared in a furious snarl. I caught a glimpse of the red gemstone set into her chest as she raised a bulldozer-sized paw over my head.

  The world seemed to slow around me.

  I tried to move, but I had no strength left in my muscles. I’d used too much magic, and the desperate scramble across the field of fire had sapped the last of my energy. I was used to being in tight spots though, and I somehow summoned enough strength to roll out of the way as the claws descended. As soon as Riamod’s paw slammed into the stone beside me, the red dragon shrieked in pain. I turned to see Arieste’s white bulk land atop the red dragon’s back, and the ice dragon sank her fangs into her enemy’s neck. Riamod thrashed in a desperate attempt to break free, but Arieste held her wings pinned, and the white dragon’s bulk temporarily forced the other dragon’s body against the steaming rocks.

  “Do it!” Nyvea roared in my mind. “Finish her!”

  “Your puny weapons cannot harm me!” Riamod roared, and her fury set the walls around me trembling. “I am immune to magical weapons!”

  “Perhaps,” I said as I hefted my fireman’s axe. “But this Earth axe isn’t magical. It’s just made for chopping the shit out of things.”

  Riamod roared as Arieste’s fangs sank deeper into her neck, and the white serpent pulled the red dragon up to expose the gem on her chest. I raced toward the battling winged lizards and tapped into the last reserves of ice magic within me. I used the power to coat the handle and steel head of my fireman’s axe with ice and heaved the weapon with all my strength in a horizontal swing at the dragon’s chest.

  The blade bit deep into the scales just beneath the gemstone, but I’d given the blow just enough of an upward angle that it sliced at the flesh holding the stone. The red dragon gave a horrible shriek as the gemstone ripped free of its chest and spun away. Her thrashing limbs nearly ripped me into pieces, and I had to leap back to avoid being crushed by her massive head. Arieste held her pinned to the ground and growled in triumph at her enemy’s defeat.

  “Get the stone!” Nyvea cried in my mind.

  I raced after the gemstone, which was bouncing across the steaming ground toward a cliff’s edge. I threw myself into a desperate dive and stretched my arms as far as I could manage. The glittering red sphere made its last bounce over the edge, but my fingers closed around the stone just as it bounced into empty air, and I let out a relieved sigh.

  But my chest, shoulders, and head hung over the lip of the cliff, and only the weight of my legs kept me from falling over. My relief at catching the gemstone was almost instantly replaced by a shiver of terror racing down my spine. I carefully scrambled backward away from the cliff edge, and my legs trembled as I stumbled toward the source of the dragon’s magic.

  As I touched the gemstone to the altar, Riamod let out one last roar and Arieste replied with a victory screech. I felt that same rush of magic power in my veins, and it was like someone had poured molten lead over my head. The skin of my right shoulder sizzled, and I screamed in pain. I could feel the magic burning into the core of my being, and the concussive force of the explosion threw me backward.

  But I was beyond pain. The raw power that coursed in me made me feel more alive than I ever had. I no longer felt the heat of the lava, for it was like a cool summer breeze compared to the inferno raging inside me. When I flexed my arms, I could feel the fire magic straining against its bonds in a desire to be unleashed. The power of fire wanted to destroy, to consume, and it took every shred of willpower to keep it locked up.

  But I loved the sensation. It felt as if I was invincible. It felt as if I was fire, and ice, and creation.

  It felt like I was a god.

  The light within the altar had faded, and the stone was a dull red. I turned and found Arieste standing over the body of a woman clothed in a tight red dress. She lay unconscious, just as I had found Arieste.

  The ice dragon’s gaze met mine, and I could feel the burning intensity in those eyes. Arieste wanted to put an end to the woman that had been Riamod, and I almost considered letting her do it.

  “What do you think?” I asked Arieste and Nyvea, although I knew th
e dragon wouldn’t hear Nyvea’s response. “Kill her, or give her a chance to join us?”

  “Another sex slave, eh?” Nyvea purred in my mind. “Now that’s a thought I can get behind.”

  “No!” Arieste roared and shook her dragon head so violently the ground quaked under my feet. “Riamod was the worst of all dragonkind. She cannot be allowed to live or join you.”

  “Riamod was,” I replied calmly, “but what about this woman? Who is she? Can we really kill her without knowing anything about her?” I fixed the ice dragon with a hard stare. “I could give her the same choice I gave you.”

  Arieste’s glare hardened, but she only growled low in her throat for a response.

  I moved to stand over the woman in the tight crimson dress. She had curly red hair that made her light brown skin and red lips stand out even more sharply. She was shorter than Arieste but infinitely more curvaceous. The red dress clung to her shapely form, emphasizing her full breasts and rounded hips.

  The woman began to stir. Her long eyelashes fluttered open, and I saw her eyes had changed from the burning gold of Riamod to a gorgeous amber color. Her gaze fixed on me with the same burning intensity I’d seen in Arieste’s eyes, and I tensed as I expected her to attack me.

  Arieste’s low growl nipped any thoughts of assaulting me in the bud, and the woman in red flinched and scrambled back from the ice dragon’s massive head.

  “Don’t let it kill me!” she shouted.

  “She won’t,” I said as I loomed over her. “But I might.”

  She looked up at me with surprise staining her pretty heart-shaped face. “Why?”

  “Because you’re a threat,” I said. “You were Riamod the fire dragon, and I won’t risk you becoming it again. Swear to serve me, and I’ll let you live.”

  “Not on your bloody life,” she growled, and fury twisted her expression. “I will not be controlled by a wretched human! I am a dragon! A being of fire and godhood. You can’t--”

  “Suit yourself,” I interrupted her with a shrug and raised my fireman’s axe. “I guess I’ll have to kill you.”