Hammer Out A Path (Cart-Dragger Saga Book 2)

by Billy Wong

  "I-I'm sorry I couldn't be more help. Good luck, Duchess..." He flew off, looking relieved at the last to leave this fight to her.

  She shouted downward, not sure she should expect a reply. "Strength, are you there?"

  A little dot moved below, which must be her. "Of course I'm here, a puny fall like that can't kill me! Hip hurts a little, though."

  That, and she was stuck outside the city with no access to a new mount. It seemed like Cart-Dragger and E would have to take on Tiamat by themselves. "Go hide somewhere for now... or actually, Rumson!" He looked back, thankfully not out of earshot yet. She pointed towards the ground, not wanting to make it too obvious for any elementals listening, and with a nod he flew downward. Still, his mount probably couldn't maneuver well carrying both his weight and Strength's, and she'd have to be brought back to the city and find a new one before she could rejoin the aerial battle—if she wanted to after that.

  E wheeled around to face Tiamat again, this time aware of roughly how close they could get before hitting the barrier. "What was that anyway," Cart-Dragger snapped, "a wall of solidified air?"

  "I would guess that to be it exactly," E replied. "I do not know if we can break through it."

  "I've smashed my way through a King Elemental's magic before." E leaned sideways hard as Tiamat breathed at them, jolting Cart-Dragger on her back. "Then again, I might not need to. She can still shoot her breath at us, right? So maybe that shield only covers her body, and her head is vulnerable." She lowered her voice. "I'm going to pretend I don't know what I'm doing, and throw a javelin at her chest to test it. Then you pull up all desperate like, and when we pass her face..."

  They neared Tiamat and she hurled a javelin, which predictably hit the invisible shield and fell. The wyrm's breath blew forth and E climbed sharply, just keeping above it. Cart-Dragger drew her chain-attached javelin and threw. It missed Tiamat's eye which she'd aimed for as the dragon flinched, but buried itself in her cheek instead and she hissed. "Keep going up!" she told E. When they'd almost reached the limits of her chain, she unlocked her legs from around E's saddle.

  "What are you doing?" her ally asked, clearly comprehending her intention. "Are you daft?"

  They were dozens of feet above Tiamat's head at this point, so doubts were more than warranted. Still, in many cases one couldn't win big without taking big risks. "No, this is me!" She felt the chain go taut and leapt from E's back, jerking herself through the air towards the huge serpentine face.

  You are completely insane, Maximilian muttered.

  "My spirit roars!" Tiamat looked up as she plunged down, raising her hammer. "Heaven to Hell Burial!" Her maul crashed into Tiamat's forehead with all her strength combined with the momentum of a multi-story fall. Stunned, the queen dragon reeled in the air. Having landed on her snout, Cart-Dragger struggled for balance momentarily, righted herself and hit the javelin deeper into her cheek. It met resistance, then went into bone. Tiamat shrieked. "Do you still doubt Morsel?"

  "You dare so much—does the thought of death not cause you fear at all?"

  She gripped the embedded spearshaft as Tiamat thrashed in an effort to dislodge her and pounded the hammer into her skull again and again. "I'm scared to die. But do you know how many King Elementals I've beaten before? Well, I forgot to mention the number. Three and I guess a half, which isn't really that many, but this isn't the rarest experience for me."

  "But I can fly..."

  That was an additional consideration, which meant she should avoid being shaken off if at all possible. Then again, if she damaged Tiamat's wings enough, perhaps they could finish the battle on the ground where she was more at home. She ran down the dragon's neck seeking the treelike wing bones which rose over her shoulders, drew back her maul. The reptilian body bucked, throwing her into the air—but she had hopped towards the wings and the head of her hammer met one with a thunderous crack. Tiamat lurched sideways, forcing Cart-Dragger to grab the membrane of the same wing she'd injured to stay on. "Going down?"

  Her adversary growled. "You will not have your way with me! Even if I must die, I will do it opening your city to destruction by my comrades!"

  It dawned on her that Tiamat was flying towards the city—perilously low. She thought to jump off, but too late as the wall already grew rapidly in her sight. Tiamat turned just before impact, putting Cart-Dragger between her great mass and the unforgiving stone. She felt pain explode through her body as Tiamat crushed her into the wall, then it gave and she was tumbling over and over in rubble which battered at her flesh. She came to a stop, looked up to see large chunks of masonry raining down at her, and all was dark.

  Chapter 10

  Cart-Dragger stood up, pushing the heavy rocks off her. The sunlight hurt her eyes, as one of them had hit her right in the head. "Duchess," she heard someone say through the ringing in her ears, "you're alive!"

  It seemed that way, though she ached all over. She looked at the sideburned soldier who spoke, noticed she was just behind the wall which now sported a massive hole. She didn't see the chain sticking out of her quiver, so it must have broken off in her fall. Darn, it would have been nice to stay attached to her target. "Where is Tiamat?"

  "The, uh, the dragon rolled farther into the city."

  "Is she dead?" Before he could answer, a roar from the heart of Galantria informed her otherwise. She limped up the nearest staircase onto the wall and turned to see Tiamat fighting Scott in his mechanized suit, numerous wrecked buildings between Cart-Dragger and them. Scott flitted agilely away from snapping jaws and fired his tube, but the shots dissipated against the air shield to no effect. "Aim at the head!" she cried, but couldn't tell if he heard her before Tiamat retaliated. Her breath blew him off his feet, knocking him into a tenement. As he tried to push himself up out of the wrecked facade, Tiamat followed up with a thunderous tail swing. His chest dented brutally, his back slammed against the ground and he lay still with smoke coming out of cracks in his shell. Though she knew Scott might well live, the machine not being his actual body, the sight of her friend laid out mangled like that angered her.

  She ran for the stairs, then E flew next to the wall in front of her. "Need a ride?"

  "I sure could use one." She hopped on the elemental's back again. "To Tiamat! By the way, where are Abaddon and Strength?"

  "Busy helping hold off the horde, since our combined forces can barely do it."

  "That's fine. I suppose it's appropriate for the leaders of both sides to battle each other in the end, even if I wasn't committed to a single combat this time."

  "You have my aid," E reminded her.

  Cart-Dragger patted her neck in acknowledgment. "Sorry, you're right. I don't want you to risk yourself unduly if things start going bad, though. Feel free to back off if it's too much, I should be able to handle Tiamat now that she's grounded."

  As they approached, the Queen Elemental turned towards them. "Traitor to our kind," she said sounding pained, the javelin still lodged in her cheek, "have you no shame to continue standing with these cretins?"

  E dodged her breath, Cart-Dragger increasingly impressed with her agility. She circled around Tiamat, searching for an opening to close in. "You called me corrupted and accepting of servitude, and no longer your kin. Then what do I owe you, over the people who value my camaraderie?"

  "They are but humans, the same beings who ruined your form. If you turn back to the right path, your mistakes will be forgiven."

  "I do not believe I have made a mistake here. I will choose who I should help, not you."

  Tiamat's eyes narrowed. "Then die with the humans whose feet you kiss!" Cart-Dragger felt air swirl around her, which then turned into a full blown whirlwind centered on Tiamat. It caught E up and spun her around before flinging her out so that she was dashed forcefully against the cobbles. Being on her back, Cart-Dragger naturally accompanied her on her painful trip.

  She dragged herself out from under E to find the elemental lay still with her wings spread out. "E, wa
ke up! Come on, don't be dead..."

  "If she has passed," Tiamat said, "it will not be long anyway before you join her."

  Placing a hand before E's open beak, she found thankfully that she still breathed. She wasn't about to tell Tiamat in case she decided to finish the job. "It's you who'll join her, and if you see her in the afterlife, you should apologize to her."

  "Apologize for what?"

  "You know, picking a fight with us unprovoked, causing all this pointless death." She brandished her hammer menacingly. "Get ready to receive your comeuppance!" She charged, rolled past Tiamat's breath as it lashed down. Coming up, she prepared to swing at the clawed feet. There weren't many weak points that low, but if she could take the monster off balance... before she could get in reach, she ran into something hard yet unseen and fell on her butt. Shit, the barrier reached that low? With a draconic grin, Tiamat breathed at her again. In her vulnerable position, all she could do was partially block it with her weapon. The force nonetheless drove her into the ground, making a crater in her shape around her.

  Maybe now would be a good time to let me use my magic to break or at least weaken that shield? Maximilian suggested.

  Tiamat's foot rose over her. If she meant to stomp her, the shield probably didn't extend below her—and she hadn't been floating above the earth, either. Only one way to know for sure. She threw herself up off the ground, struck with her hammer spike end first at the descending sole. Tiamat yelped and took a clumsy step back, her hurt foot coming down so hard it shook the street. Cart-Dragger landed in a crouch and smirked. "See Maxie? I can handle it myself."

  You have yet to find a way to deal with the shield, unless you expect her to endlessly try stomps.

  No, but she did have a better idea of how far the barrier extended from Tiamat now. She rushed again, spun into a tremendous hammer swing at where she estimated it to be. The collision sent a shockwave up her arms all the way to her shoulders and she felt the invisible wall shudder, yet not give. Pretty tough. Tiamat eyed her warily. "You are extraordinary. Despite that your human strength is not enough-"

  "Maybe I just need to focus it into a smaller point," she interrupted. She drew a javelin only to find its head had snapped off, no doubt when she crashed through the wall. Still, the broken metal tip looked plenty sharp and narrow enough. She jumped back from another breath attack, tossed the javelin into the air and struck its butt with her maul, batting it up towards Tiamat. "Pierce... through!" she called as it hit the barrier—and went through, the shaft sticking into the dragon's lower belly.

  She couldn't tell if being penetrated would dissipate it completely, but ran in to check, putting a hand forward to prevent slamming into it facefirst again if it persisted. Her palm didn't meet resistance, nor did the rest of her as she closed quickly on Tiamat's feet. She whipped the maul forward from behind her, shattering a gigantic talon with the monumental blow that increased the soreness in her shoulder. Tiamat snarled, her knees bending a tad. Smelling blood, Cart-Dragger ran up her foot starting from the destroyed claw to heighten the pain, took her hammer in both hands and launched into a devastating blow at the ankle. She heard a crunch as an incredible impact jarred her joints again, and the wyrm stumbled back.

  "What do you think? My size doesn't limit me." She put a hand over her heart. "It's the size of this that matters."

  That would be proportionate to your size, no?

  "Shut up, you know what I mean! You're just being overly literal again to spoil the mood."

  Tiamat glared at her. "Morsel. Do you truly think you can win just striking at my legs?"

  She averted her gaze. "It would take a while to whittle you down just beating up your feet all day. But I'm going to bring you down to my level, and then bash your face in!"

  "You tell me your plan?"

  "It's not exactly much of a secret given our relative size. The real question is, can you stop me?" She turned and ran.

  Her opponent stomped after her, her gait audibly uneven. She dashed towards Scott's fallen machine, hoping to get a clue whether he lived though that wasn't the main reason for going that way. As she neared the armored suit, seeing no hint as to his status, she purposely slowed. She heard Tiamat's breath howl forth, dove to keep ahead of it and grabbed Scott's tube weapon. It was much longer than her, several times longer in fact, but light enough that she easily pulled it up into a vertical position aimed at Tiamat's head. She had to raise herself on her tiptoes to hold onto the trigger, though. "This is the power of humanity!" she said, and fired.

  The weapon exploded in her face, flinging her away so that she landed on her back in rubble. She coughed, her front stinging all over with burns. "What just... happened?" she asked, Tiamat looking confused too.

  "The gun was probably damaged, and thus blew up instead of shooting," Scott said, his dirty face partially visible behind a standing piece of wall.

  Well, thank goodness he was alive anyway. "Don't show yourself!" she whispered, hoping Tiamat hadn't noticed him. "Get back, hide!"

  "Die, fool!" Tiamat roared. Her breath blasted down.

  Cart-Dragger rolled, wind tearing up the cobblestones beside her. She might have made a bit of a fool of herself, but wasn't ready to go yet. She staggered away a few steps mumbling "You got lucky," felt a rush of air and saw a shadow fall over her. Oh no, she couldn't have... she rallied herself just enough to jump back from under the descending titan's foot, but the quake from Tiamat's landing was such that she lost her balance and reeled with the struggle to retain her footing. Tiamat saw her opening and kicked, the tip of a large claw ripping into Cart-Dragger body as she was sent flying. Knocked away from the area of crushed buildings, she went through a wall, then a second, followed by a third, fourth, and several more. When she came to a stop, she lay in an alley, having gone through at least four buildings if she hadn't blacked out for part of her trip.

  I wonder if that's a record for wall crashing?

  She clutched the gaping wound in her abdomen, blood pouring out between her fingers. Tiamat had more than gotten revenge for her toenail. "Maxie, I have more important things than your annoying voice to deal with."

  Earth-shaking footfalls grew louder and louder, then Tiamat tore aside the last building between them as if made of nothing more than paper. "So you live," she said while Cart-Dragger lurched to her feet. "I will soon remedy that."

  Though her face was strained with anguish, she managed a defiant grin. "Will you? We've both hurt now, me admittedly a little more. But I bet I'm a lot more used to pushing through it. A big bully like you, how often have you had to overcome adversity? I'm pretty much always the smaller one in my fights. But justice doesn't favor you based on being large or small."

  "Enough bullshit about justice, friendship and your heart! You are a human, member of a foul race that must be eliminated. Accept your place as a mistake, a footnote in the history of the world which never should have been."

  She sighed. "Maybe we are a mistake, and maybe we will destroy the world. Yet, who are you to judge that? You haven't seen history through to the end. Perhaps dragons will wind up causing the destruction of the world. In that case, are you the mistake who should be eradicated?"

  Tiamat paused. "At least, I will acknowledge you are a worthy opponent, both in battle and wordplay. Rest in peace then, Wall-Crasher."

  Her eyes bulged. "Who the hell taught you that name? Maximilian, you haven't been..."

  No, I can't even-

  The windy breath blew down. Cart-Dragger dodged it with fair ease, having become familiar with its area of effect. "Rest in peace, really? You sure are overdramatic. Don't count your chickens before-"

  Tiamat roared, and she stopped sensing something bad was coming. Debris levitated into the air, followed by herself as wind lifted her off the ground. "What's going on?"

  She is sucking us up into some sort of vortex. To what end, I am not certain.

  Her best guess was that her adversary intended to either pull her into her maw, or rest
rain her in place for a direct shot from her breath. Neither was something she looked forward to. But after rising up a few inches, her ascent halted. Suspended barely off the cobbles, she blinked in surprise. "What's going on?"

  "I... appear to have underestimated your weight," Tiamat said, tone flustered.

  Well, if that isn't a bit embarrassing.

  "It's probably because of my hammer dammit, it's not all my own weight!"

  "Then I will simply adjust the spell to compensate!" the dragon bellowed. The debris that had been lifted with Cart-Dragger fell back down as the wind was focused on her, jerking her hundreds of feet into the air in an instant. She found herself at a level with Tiamat's jaws, which began to yawn open. Uh oh... she thought about doing what she had against Tentacle Nest the last time and throwing Maximilian's soul out at her, but had no idea how to do that again and simply willing it didn't seem to work.

  Let me use my magic!

  "But I-" The wyrm's breath rushed out, and she raised her hammer in a desperate attempt to guard. While partly blocked, it still hit her like a battering ram. Unable to brace herself at all being in the air, she sailed over Galantria, tiny buildings below passing rapidly by. But they grew larger and larger with her inevitable downward arc. Still, she might have flown clear out of the city if she didn't get just low enough in time to be stopped by the far wall. She slammed into it near the top and fell forward, flopping down in the dust.

  "Duchess!" cried one of the few soldiers stationed on that side of the wall in case of a multi-pronged attack.

  She looked up groggily, seeing stars, and mumbled, "I'm five." She shook her head. "I mean, fine."

  I truly want to help you defeat this enemy, Maximilian said. I do not wish for the human race to end, after all.

  "But if I let you out, how do I know you'll give my body back to me?"

  If I refuse, you took it back by force before did you not? Even if you believe I will not cooperate, you should weigh whether that risk is worth taking in exchange for defeating your current foe.