Dragon Adventurer collection

by K V Deal

  “Charlie, the real deal, just got here. They broke through the back door. Gloria's supervising an evacuation.” She looked over at the creature. “No idea what that is, though.”

  Carah sounded even more exhausted then she looked.

  “I know what it is,” I growled, “dead.”

  Now that I knew that the monster wasn't Charlie, my instincts started screaming at me again. That thing needed to go. This was MY place. These were MY people. I was gonna make damn sure it couldn't mess with either of them anymore.

  I strode across to my sword, yanking it free before turning to face the thing. Now that I knew it wasn’t Charlie, there was no reason to try going hand to hand with it. Then reaching into my ring and grabbed the large, silver, tower shield that Carah and I had taken from the sentinel just a few days before. I hooked it onto my free arm and checked the weight.

  Good. Not too heavy.

  “Carah, get to Gloria.” At least, she needed to get out of here safely.

  There was a moment of silence as I began to walk towards the monster.

  “Fuck that!” Carah snapped as she fell into step beside me. “I'm not ditching you!”

  I was going to argue. I know I was but—

  “Jake! We can’t take this thing by ourselves!” Axle shouted.

  He and Charlie were retreating down the hall with Rachel in front of them, sword out.

  The creature almost slithered after them, crawling across the ground on four tentacles, as it used two more to pull an arrow out of its...well, leg for lack of a better term. I saw the flesh colored scales pinching closed over the wound as soon as the arrow was free. It didn’t even lose a drop of blood.

  “Oh, eww...” Carah said, wincing.

  Well...that may make things more difficult. Does it regenerate all wounds? Probably only one way to find out.

  I charged, not even trying to be quiet as I thundered my way across the sandstone floor.

  The creature’s head spun around to look at me. As in, completely around—body forward, head back and neck twisted something gruesome.

  As bad as it was for me, the look on Charlie's face made me think it was worse for her. Not a surprise, considering this thing looked like what she might have become if we hadn't gotten rid of that brooch.

  It clicked at me and began to untwist its body, never taking its hammerhead-like eyes off of me. Suddenly, its head snapped forward, its mouth wrenching open.

  This time though I was ready for it. I hefted the tower shield in front of me and just in time too. Heavy pressure slammed into the shield and black ooze splashed past its edges.

  Okay. That was close. If I had been even a second later in pulling that up...

  Then there was no more time to think. I looked out from behind my shield just in time to see the creature winding up for another tentacle slap.

  Shit!

  Quickly, I angled my ooze-covered shield to intercept the attack.

  Let’s see how she likes being stuck in this stuff!

  A rapid succession of blows hammered the shield sending me sliding back but not breaking my guard. Annnd, her tentacles didn’t stick to the ooze at all.

  An arrow squelched into the thing’s shoulder and a bolt went into a hip. I was kind of surprised; Charlie was usually a better shot than that.

  With a grunt of annoyance, it grabbed them both and pulled them free.

  I charged again, hoping to take advantage of its distraction.

  A single tentacle arm lashed out, bringing with it the bolt in a fast stabbing motion towards my sword arm. My eyes went wide as I realized I couldn't block in time. I hoped my scales would hold up!

  Something red flashed in close to the trajectory of the thing’s arm. Carah was there, her arm a blurry flash as she aimed for the creature's exposed limb.

  The bolt punched through my scales. Its iron head jammed into my bicep, as the shaft broke to pieces.

  My grunt of pain was overshadowed by a wet wail that echoed through the dungeon. With a squelch, the tentacle hit the ground. It writhed on the stone, as its end sizzled away.

  Carah leapt back, hopefully to a safe distance. My superheated dagger was in her hands.

  The creature glared daggers at her as it gingerly felt its stump.

  Oh, fuck.

  I dashed between the two of them, my shield up even as its jaw opened.

  The blast of ooze caught me before I could set myself for the attack. I went spinning to the ground tumbling into Carah and knocking her over as well. The shield was torn from my arm and thrown against the bars of a cell. It hit with a wet thwack and instantly stuck, not even moving enough to slide down the bars.

  “Damn it!” Charlie shouted from the creature’s far side.

  I heard her crossbow go off, but from where I was laying, I could see it continue down the hall, having missed entirely.

  Shoving myself up, I could now see that Carah lay between me and the monster. She struggled to get up even as it stalked closer to her. Its mouth opened slower than before, and it reached out with its five remaining tentacles for the struggling woman.

  MINE!

  The word echoed through my head and filled every available space.

  I had lost my lamp.

  I probably wasn’t going to get my mace and dagger back.

  The knives that I had lent out were most likely gone.

  I could deal with all of that. Not well, but I could.

  But that thing is about to hurt Carah.

  I don’t know how I got to my feet.

  I don’t know how I crossed the space between us.

  But the next moment I had slammed into the creature, claws out. I must have been diving, because when I hit her, the force of our impact sent us rolling across the floor, grappling all the way until we slammed into the bars of another cell. With a snarl, I dug my claws into the thing’s shoulders and began to pull.

  The creature squealed as it wrapped its arms around me, the suckers latching on and pulling at my scales. It began to constrict, tightening its hold till I could feel my ribs begin to creek. As it did, the light stalk on its forehead began to pulse a soothing rhythm. I could feel it trying to lull me into a relaxed state.

  So, I bit it. At the time, my head muddled by anger, it must have made sense—not so much afterward.

  This time, the sound the creature made was at a pitch so high, my teeth began to vibrate. I yanked my head backward and ripped the stalk clean off of the thing’s head. I let out a triumphant growl.

  “Jake!” I head Carah scream.

  The creature’s teeth slammed into the scales on my neck. A few even punched through to pierce into the flesh below.

  I yanked hard trying to dislodge it and felt its scaly, fleshy surface tear at one of the shoulders. Even an injury like that didn’t seem to faze the thing. It increased the strength of its bite.

  With a yell, Charlie slammed the butt of her crossbow into the side of the thing’s head, right on the hinge of the jaw. The butt fractured as the blow ripped the beasts head free, tearing gashes in my neck in the process.

  I let out a gurgling gasp.

  My first instinct was simple—pry myself free and run away to lick my wounds. But that wasn’t an option, not as long as it left Carah here with this thing.

  That left my second choice. Leaning back, I got as much distance as I could before ramming my head forward and headbutting it as hard as I could. There was a massive crack and then a lance of pain through my head that had me seeing double just from the pain.

  My horn had broken off! How did I know? Because I could see it, or at least some of its shards. They were sticking out of the monster’s head.

  Its tentacles loosened their hold, wriggling away as the thing tried to disentangle.

  Like hell I was going to let it get away! I tried to dig in my claws for a better hold, but even as I did so, my fingers slid free.

  There was a bang from down the hallway.

  “Protect the leviathan!” a female vo
ice roared.

  Without thinking, I risked a glance down the corridor.

  I had forgotten about the Chosen soldiers! The doors to the cells they’d taken shelter in were banging open. The armored troopers poured back into the hall.

  With my attention distracted, the creature yanked free, losing another tentacle in the process. It clicked angrily at me as it created some distance between us.

  I knew what was coming next before it even began to open its mouth. I had nowhere to go to avoid the ooze this time, nothing to guard myself against its attack, and no time to dodge. I panicked, as I tried to think of anything I could do.

  My body, on the other hand, acted on autopilot, jerking my head back and then snapping forward, as I tried to spit a fireball. The ball of flame that came out was much smaller than usual, but I was just glad to have gotten anything at all. At the same moment, the creature lowered its head, opened its jaw fully and let loose a torrent of sludge.

  Fire met gunk with incendiary results. The ooze burst into flames that quickly ran back along the stream of sludge toward the creature’s head. Though it snapped its jaws shut, black sludge squirted around its teeth, as it tried to stop the stream. Too late, though. The fire slipped past its needle teeth and into its mouth.

  Right about then, I got hit in the face by flaming ooze, so I kind of lost track of what happened. The stuff slapped me to the ground and splashed onto the stonework around me.

  My hand shot up to my face. I desperately tried to clean enough off my face to breathe. I clawed at my nose and mouth, scraping lines in the flaming muck, but the minute my claws passed by, I could already feel the lines filling back in.

  Something hit my face, and I felt the flames suddenly intensify. They burned away at the sludge and slowed its movements. It began to harden.

  Air!

  I managed to pry my nose free for just long enough to get in a breath!

  The sound of battle filled the hall. There was also the piercing sound of some kind of flute—

  Something grabbed me by the ankles, spun me about and began to drag me along the stone floor.

  Shit!

  I finally got my nose free but still hadn't managed to clean off my eyes or mouth. I couldn't tell who had me. Whoever it was, they weren't talking, and that probably wasn’t a good sign. I yanked a leg free and tried to lash out at my assailant, as I continued to try to get the crap off my eyes.

  There was a yelp, and my leg was dropped.

  “Damn it, Jake! We don’t have time for this!”

  Axle?

  “If he kicks again, I'm going to drop him.”

  That one was really grumpy...

  Rachel?

  “Ya need to quit complaining and get him back to the healers!” Charlie snapped. “These two have been through the wringer!”

  Well...the day off hasn't improved her mood.

  “Can’t even leave these two alone for a day.” Axle muttered.

  There was more dragging. I continued to dig at the crap on my face. If I ever got another chance at not-Charlie, I was gonna beat the crap out of that squid for this.

  “Over here!” Gloria called. She sounded close. Hopefully, they had something to get this crap off me!

  The angle changed as I was dragged in a new direction.

  “Heavy!” Rachel grunted.

  “I know!” Axle responded in a strained voice.

  Well, that's just rude!

  “Put him down here,” a new feminine voice cut in, sounding very nervous. Not really a surprise, I guess, considering the nearness of sounds of battle coming from the direction I had been dragged from.

  Wish I could have seen her. She sounded somewhat familiar...but I just couldn't put my finger on where we had met.

  “What about this one,” Charlie asked.

  “Oh god...” The woman’s voice sounded horrified. “Put her down over there!”

  A sudden knot formed in my chest. Who were they talking about?

  Could it be...

  I frantically scraped at the hardened ooze on my eyes.

  It couldn't be Carah, right? I tried to sit up.

  “Jake! Don’t move!” Axle said, and I felt hands pushing down on my shoulders.

  “Mmmmph!” was all I could get out around the crap on my face.

  “What?” The confusion in Axle’s voice really didn’t do much to help me calm down.

  “Mmmmph!” I jabbed a finger in the direction I had heard Charlie.

  “I don’t—” Axle started.

  “Axle, get your team back in that fight! We have to retake this building!” Gloria snapped from a point so close that I jumped.

  “Ah, Yes!” I heard a quick patter of feet on stone as he bolted, calling out to Charlie, Rachel and…Carah!

  I felt the tension drain out of my shoulders as I slumped back down to the ground.

  “Worried about your girl?” Gloria almost whispered the question next to my head. Pretty sure I jumped again.

  How the hell does a living suit of armor move that quietly?

  Gloria began to speak, but not in English. It sounded a lot like the phrases I heard Carah using when she cast a spell…

  Her voice rose in pitch as the sounds of battle began to move away in the background. Then with her last, sharp word, I felt a pressure right on my nose. Then a…clean sensation spread over my entire face. I really didn’t have a better word for the feeling.

  “Household magic,” Gloria said proudly. “Everyone has been saying it’s useless. Guess this shows them,” she said smugly.

  I could feel warm air on my face! Gingerly, I tried opening an eye. Light! I could see colored shapes coming into focus.

  “Thanks!” I grinned up at Gloria.

  “Don’t thank me. If you’re feeling better, we need you back in that fight.” She pointed a finger down the hall at the struggling mass of people.

  “Right,” I said, pushing myself up.

  “Hate to tell you this, but your sword is somewhere in that mess too,” Gloria added.

  Son of a-!

  There was a sudden burst of shouting from the mob and the line of battle began to push forward.

  “Hey! That looks like a good sign!” Gloria remarked cheerfully. “Go add a bit more momentum. Alright?”

  I was already running forward, only one thought in my mind. ‘Where the hell was my damn sword!’

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  Chapter 19

  The Adventurers were pushing the Chosen back into the stairwell by the time I got there.

  And there was no sign of my sword!

  I felt like I was going to go insane! How the hell do I keep getting things stolen? If I found any of the thieves, I was going to rip them limb from limb!

  I let out a growl and took a second to grab two of the Chosen's swords off the ground, then hurried over to grab my shield. It was still stuck to the bars. Grabbing the handle, I yanked as hard as I could. With a squelch, it came free, sending me stumbling backward.

  A quick peek at the front of the thing made me grimace. I didn’t have time to clean off the gunk, though. Instead, I headed for the melee at a run, putting the shield in my ring rather than strapping the disgusting thing back on.

  At the back of the group, I passed Axle and Charlie where they stood in a mass of other archers and such. Charlie must have seen me run by since I heard her shout after me. Something about not being reckless.

  Not that I was really paying attention. No, I was focusing on shoving my way through the crowd that was clustered around the stairs and getting to the front line before whoever stole my sword got away!

  And check on Carah!

  And try to make sure I got my knives back.

  And...

  And my brain was starting to hurt. I was being pulled in so many different directions that I was starting to lose track of what I needed to be upset about!

  Sometimes, hoarding instincts suck.

  I shouldered my way up the stairs.

  “Hey!
” someone said as I bumped him into a wall.

  “Sorry,” I grunted as I pushed past the next person as well.

  I’m pretty sure that there hadn’t been this many people in the cells! And a lot of them were actually fully equipped, too, and not just with the stuff I’d stolen from the Chosen. Where the hell had all these people come from?

  Finally, I reached the top of the stairs. A group of Chosen were just outside the doorway slashing at anyone who tried to leave the stairwell.

  The Adventures, for their part, were massing a little way down the stairs. Not a great place for it, but it was better than doing it right in The Chosen's kill zone.

  And, of course, knowing my team, both Rachel and Carah were just a few steps back from the top. I could see their heads poking out from a rather large gap in the crowd. Actually, I was kind of surprised to see Rachel there. I guess she was going to fit in better than I’d thought after our last argument.

  I shoved my way forward. “Carah!”

  She turned and spotted me, a grin spreading across her face. “Jake! Alright guys, make a path for the dragon! Our battering ram has arrived!”

  That...seemed almost insulting. Still, I took the path that opened up as people made room. As I slipped past, I noticed that most of the people were either smiling at me or just looking annoyed.

  Ah, well. What they’re thinking isn’t my concern.

  “Oh, shit! It’s the dragon!” I’m pretty sure that was from one of The Chosen...

  I glanced up at them and, yup, sure enough, two of The Chosen were looking at me. At least, their helmets were turned my way. Hard to see their eyes from this angle.

  As I approached the girls, I felt a wave of heat coming from my dagger that Carah was still holding. Well, at least I could stop worrying about that. As I got close, I heard Rachel's quiet grumble. “Now that the lizard is here, we can stop lugging that thing around.”

  Jeez, she really knows how to hold a grudge.

  “Hey, big guy! Got a present for you!” Carah reached out and handed me—

  MY sword!

  I couldn’t help grinning as I gleefully grabbed its handle.

  “Saw it laying around and thought you might want it.”