Dragon Emperor 7: From Human to Dragon to God

by Eric Vall

  “This way,” I growled over my shoulder, and I redirected the group slightly south of the path to the sounds.

  Nike and I drew our swords from spatial storages as the noise of battle grew louder and louder, and we finally came upon a huge tree. I could see some movement beyond the truck, and I clenched the Sword of Hatra in my fist. Then Nike and I shared a look and nodded before we sprinted forward and burst into the fray.

  All out chaos assaulted my eyes. Flames were flying back and forth, and silver swords reflected the bright fires. Just with a cursory glance, I saw maybe a dozen fighters I didn’t recognize, along with a slew of rabid, crazed looking animals.

  But where were my women?

  I searched frantically through the battlefield until I saw a flash of orange hair, and I zeroed in on the sight.

  To my left, Ravi was using her fire magic to fend off several Green Glass Sect members, while Laika was swinging her broadsword with expert skill. The phoenix and wolf seemed to be holding their own, so I searched for my fiancée, and I found her closer to the river on my right.

  Alyona had used her purity power to create a barrier between the other girls and some animals that had obviously been affected by the cursed water. My first instinct was to light the entire clearing on fire to get these assholes away from my women, but I decided to hold off on that plan and use Miraya instead.

  Suddenly, a man came barreling toward me with an axe held high about his head, and I bared my teeth as I reached down into my spiritual sea and activated my webbing power. Then I shot a wad of the sticky fiber at the man’s feet, and he cried out as he tumbled head first in front of me. Once he was prone on the ground, I stabbed the Sword of Hatra through the back of his neck, and his blood painted the green floor of the jungle a crimson red.

  As I withdrew my blade with a wet schlock, Nike ran past me wielding the Sword of Light with ease, and he took his first swing and nearly split an assassin into two pieces.

  Then the jaguars behind me snarled and yowled as they charged forward with their claws and weapons extended.

  I grinned and took some more swings of my own with the Sword of Healing, and we slashed through the first couple assassins who came at us. As I mowed down enemies, I realized this was a coordinated attack. There had to be at least twenty-five of the Sect members in the ambush, not to mention another twenty or thirty crazy animals. It would be hard to keep any of the Sect members alive for an interrogation in this insanity, but right now, I only cared about getting them the hell away from my women.

  I glanced up to see the jaguars as they took leaping bounds and jumped on top of the Sect members, and they tore at the bastards with their claws and ripped them apart with their sharp, yellow canines. The jaguars who didn’t use their claws stabbed the enemies with their spears, and the Sect members were left in shreds when the jaguar warriors were finished with them. Even Jai had a snarl on his face as an assassin’s blood dripped off his claws and teeth, and he looked around for his next victim.

  It was quite fulfilling to see the number of assassin bodies that already littered the area.

  “Are these animals the same as the manga?” Jai yelled at me as he eyed one of the crazed monkeys that swung through the trees above us. Its fur was tinged with the purple color we now knew was miasma-related, and its eyes flitted around wildly while it flung itself from branch to branch.

  I changed my grip on my sword with the intention of slicing the monkey down when Alyona took notice of my plan.

  “Don’t kill the animals!” Alyona shouted over the din. “I can cure them, just contain them!”

  Contain them? How the fuck?

  I lowered my sword back down and remembered how we’d handled the situation with the manga. Then I turned toward the dryads.

  “Go use the vines again!” I shouted, and I pointed to the princess by the river. “Alyona said to trap the poisoned animals, so she can cure them.”

  “We’re on it!” the sisters yelled, and they ran over to help Alyona contain the jungle animals.

  I turned back to the fray for a moment as another assassin tried to stab me with a pair of daggers, and I snarled as I lashed out and sliced both his hands off at the wrists. The man shrieked in agony and nearly collapsed before I snagged him by the throat, summoned my fire power, and burnt him to ashes in my grasp. When the last of his smoldering clothes fell from my fingers, I redirected my attention to the princess and put myself between her and the other assassins.

  Then a flash of white light caught my eyes, and I was entranced as Alyona used her purity magic to encircle each jungle animal and kept them from attacking us. The individual barriers looked like translucent glass cages as they came down around each rabid monkey, bird, and some kind of four-legged creature that looked like an antelope except with some big horns that could do some serious damage.

  I growled when I saw an eight-foot snake try to slither up behind her, but Alyona turned and trapped it, too, so I relaxed a little.

  The princess was no damsel in distress, so I turned back to assess the humans that were causing a big ass problem. None of them appeared to be mages this time, since they only fought with typical weapons like swords and knives, and a few of the men carried bows and arrows. They didn’t seem to be the best shots, though. In fact, most of these attackers looked less lethal than the assassins we’d previously met. That made things a little bit easier this time, but it also made me extra suspicious.

  Why would Olivier send weaker fighters this time?

  I didn’t have time to figure out an answer, though, because one voice suddenly rose about the clashing armies.

  “Lord Evan!”

  I recognized and phoenix’s voice, and I looked over my shoulder just in time to see Ravi shoot a fiery arrow directly into an assassin’s chest as he tried to take advantage of my distraction. The man gasped in shock before he fell to the ground dead, and I grinned at the phoenix.

  “Thank you!” I called out, and then I returned my full attention to the fight.

  We would have to figure out the motives later. Right now, it was time to take these bastards out.

  I pushed deeper into the throng of fighters as I made my way over to my other party members. I finally reached Laika’s side, but then two men tried to rush us. I snarled before I swung my sword in a great arch, and I caught the first man in the ribs. He gasped as my strength carried the blade clean through his torso, and then his body slumped to the jungle floor in two pieces.

  The dead man’s companion tried to backpedal to avoid the same fate, but the poor bastard was only looking at me, so he left his other side free and clear.

  Laika took advantage of the assassin’s mistake, and her broadsword took him out at the knees. His lower legs went one direction while the rest of his body went in another, and he wailed as he fell to the ground in a heap and started to bleed out.

  I marched forward and put him out of his misery by stomping on his throat until his neck broke.

  “Good one, my lord,” Laika remarked with a bloody grin, and then she spun around and pierced another assassin through the gut.

  My wolf warrior was kicking ass left and right. She used her broadsword as usual, and she swung it gracefully as she eviscerated the Sect member she was fighting. It was like watching a ballerina’s dance except with blood and death.

  The sight of all the Sect members’ blood was a bit of a relief, though. These were just regular humans we fought, not more of the Corrupted Corpses or zombie animals. We didn’t need any more weird shit.

  I grinned as I watched Laika take another swing and behead an assassin who had the balls to run straight for her with a dagger held high.

  What a dumbass.

  Suddenly, a flash of light in my peripherals caught my attention, and I watched as Ravi used her fire magic to conjure up a whip, just like her father had done in our duel back in the desert. The phoenix cracked the whip at a set of two assassins who attempted to take her on together, and as the whip lashed out and
circled around the two men together, I had an idea.

  “Ravi, hold them!” I bellowed, and she nodded firmly in response.

  I ran over to the two men she’d trapped and breathed fire from their heads to their feet. They both screamed and writhed as the flames spread quickly, and it was oddly satisfying to watch them burn. The dragon in me huffed in gratification at the sight, and I didn’t stop my torrent of flames until the assassins were nothing more than a pile of ash and bone.

  “Thank you, Lord Evan!” Ravi grinned and cracked her whip again as she went after another group that was facing off with Laika. The phoenix whipped the assassins into another cluster, and Laika didn’t hesitate to slice her sword through all three of the assassins clumped together.

  The wolf-girl was such a badass, and the phoenix had learned a thing or two from training with the Blue Tree Guild.

  I loved it.

  A wild war cry suddenly drew my attention, and I turned just in time to see Nike run his sword through a Sect member who tried to face him with a single dagger. The noble nearly speared his opponent into a tree, and the assassin slumped over the Sword of Light, dead. Nike pulled the blade back out of both the tree and the man, and then he wiped it clean on the Sect member’s black robes before he turned to his next enemy.

  My allies seemed to be handling the Green Glass Sect members just fine, so I focused my efforts on the wild and rabid animals that were squealing and snarling through the carnage. As I took quick stock of the clearing, I noted monkeys, boars, small feral cats, and insects that were five times the size they should be. I watched as a wasp the size of my head stung an assassin in the neck, and I shuddered when the male screamed and keeled over as his face instantly swelled up.

  Yeah, no thanks.

  I shifted my sword into my right hand, and with my left I started shooting my webs at any animal I could reach, but the wasp monstrosity was the first thing I took out of the equation. Then I pinned a rabid shrieking boar to a nearby tree, but I blanched when a dog-looking creature launched itself from the underbrush and started tearing into the trapped hog. Blood quickly stained my webs scarlet until I surrounded the dog-thing in the same material, but the boar was already dead, since its throat was torn out.

  Alright, so we needed to take care of these crazy ass fucking animals, and fast.

  I looked back over at Alyona and the dryads, but they were having no trouble trapping the crazed animals that continued to attack from all sides. Between Alyona’s purity cages and the dryads’ vines, the animals were being contained. I wasn’t sure how the princess would cure them since we had to chop off the manga’s head, but I figured my fiancé knew what she was doing.

  So, I finished up trapping the remaining few animals with my webs before I turned back to the battle, only to find that it was practically over. The jaguars were tearing through the last remaining assassins, but then a flash of movement caught my eye, and I noticed one Green Glass Sect member was trying to escape back into the jungle.

  Oh, fuck that. We weren’t losing anyone else, thanks to these bastards.

  “Ravi! Stop him!” I yelled to the phoenix, since she was closest to the fleeing mother fucker.

  “Not today, asshole!” Ravi shouted as she whipped her fiery lasso around the assassin and tangled up his feet.

  He cried out and fell to the ground with the rope around his ankles, like a calf at a rodeo.

  I called on my lightning power to strike him directly in the back, and I laughed with gratification as the assassin squealed while the electricity blew through his body. The smell of burning flesh filled the small clearing, and it was not my favorite smell as a human, but it certainly didn’t bother me as a dragon.

  Maybe I should add burning up enemies to my list of enjoyable dragon activities.

  “Lord Evan,” Laika panted as she ran over to me and pointed to an opening in the trees. “A few escaped into the jungle before you guys got here. What should we do?”

  “Hunt them down,” I growled, and I started to run in the direction she had gestured. None of these bastards would get away from me, especially not after going after my women while they were alone and vulnerable.

  “Wait,” Nike said and grabbed my shoulder as I ran past him. “Lord Evan, there are several people injured right now, and we need to regroup.”

  I looked around and noticed he was right. A handful of the jaguar warriors were laying down or trying to get up after their injuries. They were here to protect my women, and I couldn’t just leave them like that, so I sent out my healing powers to assess the group.

  Classification: Four Jaguar Demi-Humans.

  Condition: Stab wounds, concussion, lacerations.

  Priority: Healing required.

  Status: Critical and non-critical injuries.

  I breathed out my healing glitter and let it spread across the clearing to all the Demi-Humans and the rest of my group as well. I could tell no one else was seriously injured, but I covered everyone to help them regain energy and soothe any mild injuries or soreness. We had to be prepared to take on the Sect members who remained in the jungle soon, and we couldn’t have anyone at less than full capacity.

  “Thank you,” Nike murmured as he stood next to me. “I think we need to consider why the Sect members are still here.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed with a frown. “We kicked their asses pretty good last time, so it doesn’t make sense for them to keep coming back, especially without any extra firepower. They normally have mages or their undead forces to help them, but this time, it was just a few rabid animals? It doesn’t make sense.”

  “They must have some kind of agenda,” Nike thought out loud. “Why else would they keep returning?”

  “So, we hunt,” I rumbled. “I’d much rather be the hunter. Then we can keep one prisoner and get more information.”

  I remembered the way Aaliyah had looked after the last time we’d hunted down the Sect assassins. She’d had blood dripping down her ripped torso and claws, and it was a big fucking turn on. I wouldn’t mind making that happen with all my women. Being a dragon had made me a little bloodthirsty, but it was mostly about protecting what was mine.

  Yeah, hunting would be our best option.

  “I’ll gather our best hunters,” Jai declared as he joined in on the conversation. “We know this jungle well.”

  “Good,” I conceded. “I think we should get hunters from every House, and we can group several people together to clear the entire jungle. We’ll need all hands on deck for this.”

  A part of me wanted to just plunge into the jungle after the Sect members and not rest until their blood coated my claws, but I knew this wasn’t the best course of action. If we ran after them blindly, we could very easily run into a trap, so we needed to be smart and logical about our next steps.

  “I can start planning a grid to clear things out,” Nike volunteered.

  “Sounds perfect.” I nodded to him and turned to find my princess. “Alyona, what do we need to do to get these animals fixed and out of the way of this hunt?”

  “Well, I don’t know if they’ll stay out of your way, but I can purify these from the miasma,” Alyona called from her place by the river. “Just give me a few minutes with them.”

  The princess turned back to the trapped animals that were growling and trying to fight their way out of their temporary captivity. Then she murmured a few words under her breath and spread her arms wide. Each of the purity cages she’d created began to glow with a nearly white light, and I shaded my eyes from the extreme brightness. Then the translucent bubbles burst one at a time, and the animals that had been contained were free. They were no longer trying to attack us, though, and their wild eyes returned to normal. The animals’ fur, feathers, and scales regained their normal colors and lost the plum hue that we recognized as miasma poisoning. Then the snakes slithered back into the bushes, the monkeys squeaked at each other and returned to the trees and vines, the antelope things mewled at each other as they loped upriver
, and the birds squawked a few times before taking flight.

  This was a much better result than the headless manga.

  “It’s a miracle,” Jai breathed with wide yellow eyes. “How were you able to cure these ones?”

  “My guess would be that the purification we did on the river a couple days ago weakened the effects of the curse,” Alyona replied as she lowered her arms. “Sadly, the manga had a full dose of the poisoned water, but these animals had a little curse and a little purity, so I activated the purity to cleanse the curse. I was pretty sure it would work, but I wanted to save as many as we could.”

  “You did brilliantly, Milady,” Ravi praised with a grin.

  “Well, I’m just glad I finally listened to you on doing a little purification before,” Alyona admitted as she dropped her purple eyes. “We would have never been able to save them if there hadn’t already been some purity in the river.”

  “Always happy to help!” Ravi’s grin spread even further as a blush reached her cheeks.

  “Sounds like it worked out alright,” I announced. “Now, let’s figure out how we’re going to stop the Green Glass Sect from fucking with anything else out here.”

  “Let’s head back to House Onca,” Jai suggested. “We can convene with the other House leaders there to get all the best hunters together.”

  “I’ll send messages to each of them now,” I agreed and summoned my messenger dragon. “Go to Lord Chax and Lord Kinba. Tell them we are having an emergency meeting at House Onca in twenty minutes. Don’t be late.”

  The dragon flew from my hand and split into two before it zoomed toward each of the other Houses.

  “We also need to dispose of the bodies,” Nike pointed out as he gestured to the corpses of the assassins and the few animals that hadn’t made it.