Dragon Adventurer collection

by K V Deal

  “Thanks!” I hugged the red-skinned woman tightly.

  She stiffened in my arms and then, after a moment, relaxed and even leaned into my body.

  “Hey, not to interrupt...but we’re in the middle of a fight here?” Rachel said sarcastically.

  Oh. Right.

  I let go and turned to the two Chosen.

  I could have thought things through, tried to plan out an attack, but, coming off the high of my hug with Carah, I didn't think about that.

  “Alright, Jake—” one of the other Adventurers, a short man with a large beard I was pretty sure I recognized from somewhere, started to say.

  I charged. I could hear swearing behind me as I almost leapt up the stairs, my greatsword held up like a lance.

  I picked the Chosen soldier on the right as my first target.

  With a shout, she threw herself to the side as I barreled out of the stairwell into a wide hallway. The Chosen were standing four men deep outside the doorway, and as I passed them in my headlong charge to the far wall, a gauntlet of swords slashed at me from every side.

  Most of the attacks simply bounced right off my scales but... I grunted as a line of pain opened on my side. My tail lashed out trying to score a hit on my attacker. With a clang, it was blocked as a sword intercepted the tip, knocking the attack aside and throwing me off balance.

  Shit!

  Maybe this wasn’t my best idea. Another blow slammed into my shoulder, doing no real damage but knocking me to the ground. There was a split second of silence, right up until I rolled over and started to push myself up.

  “For the Queen!” a voice screamed.

  Something heavy leapt onto my back, driving me back to the ground. Hands squirmed around me reaching for my sword. As if a switch had been thrown, the rest of The Chosen soldiers threw themselves forward, burying me under a pile of bodies.

  Then the Adventurers charge hit The Chosen line. Much more effective than my charge had been from the sound of it. The Chosen on top of me tried desperately to extract themselves just to wind up falling over their friends who were trying to do the same thing.

  Easy prey for Carah and the others. I knew Carah was there the minute I felt my dagger’s heat.

  Even being this disorganized, The Chosen still put up a fight—especially one in the middle of the pack. He began to shout out orders, gathering the other Chosen soldiers around him to form a block of steel and swords the stretched from wall to wall in the hallway.

  Someone yanked the final corpse off of me, and I found myself looking up into the very angry face of the short man. Now I finally placed him! This was Robert! The same changed who had first found me! And the same one whose name showed up on the coded list Carah and I had found.

  Oh crap, I have no idea how this is going to go.

  He looked over his shoulder at the mass of Chosen. They were now slowly starting to fall back, using their weapons to skillfully keep the Adventurers at bay.

  Robert grunted and hefted the plain mace he was holding onto his shoulder. “I like simple things. Simple weapons, simple clothing, simple meals—you get the idea. They’re things I can understand and predict. You surprised me back there,” he told me, “and I'm not too happy about it.” He turned back to face me. “Now that I think about it, though, that was pretty simple too. You were told to be a battering ram, and you did just that. We just weren't ready for it.”

  He paused as more Adventurers came running up the steps, including Charlie and Axle. Charlie must have somehow worked her way into command because she was shouting orders to the other archers as they go into position.

  “Well...let's see how this goes first,” Robert muttered as he watched her group.

  The archers readied their weapons, picked targets, and waited.

  “What are ya waiting for! Shoot!” Charlie opened fire. Instantly, the other archers loosed as well.

  But that’s not the only thing that happened. Red lines traced their way along the base of the walls. In the blink of an eye, they had reached the level of the arrows. The light leapt free of the wall and struck every arrow or bolt in flight…and burned them away. Instantly, the air was a flash of flame that was out before my jaw had finished falling open, and all that was left was ash.

  “What the—”

  There was a cacophony of shouts from the archers.

  “All that noise doesn’t do a bit of good! Get another shot in the air,” Charlie bellowed.

  “That’s not going to work,” I muttered.

  Robert turned to look at me, raising an eyebrow.

  I hadn’t noticed it when I had first come up here, kinda busy what with all the swords, but the walls were almost humming with magic. The last time I had felt anything like this? That was back in Rachel’s house.

  “If this is what I think it is, then we don’t want to try and stop it,” I said in response to Robert’s look. I still remembered the explosion that had happened back then. That had been…bad.

  The light flashed out again, wiping out all of the arrows in the air.

  “Well, that’s a nifty trick. Wonder if we can steal it,” Robert murmured. “Well, guess it’s back to Plan A.” He jabbed a finger at the enemy line. “Carah called you a battering ram. Well, go to it!”

  Huh. Well, that’s a bit direct.

  I stood and grabbed up my sword. “I’ll give it a shot.”

  I starting loping towards the Chosen, then accelerated into a run.

  “Gangway!” Robert called out as I reached the Adventurer line. “Battering ram coming through!”

  He’s not going to let that go, is he?

  The Adventurers glanced back and, seeing me coming, began to bail, left and right, to get out of my way.

  They weren’t the only ones to see me coming though. The Chosen ranks were shifting too. As I watched, the commander shoved his way through the ranks. He moved along the line until he was standing right across from me. He flourished his longsword and then took up a fighting stance.

  Huh. Guess he and I are going to clash.

  There was something about his sword… It looked rough, like it had been carved from something. It almost looked like bone. It had that flat, white-yellow color. Oh, and just like the walls, it was full of magic. That thing felt dangerous.

  I charged past the other Adventurers, changing course slightly to run right at the captain or whatever he was. And, as nasty as it was with all the ooze still on it, I pulled my shield out and strapped it on.

  I have this.

  My target didn’t seem all that worried. That kind of annoyed me. and I decided then and there that I was going to have to teach him not to underestimate me.

  Then I didn’t have time for anything else. My sword was already moving in a sweeping blow aimed at the captain.

  He ducked and pointed his bone-like blade at my chest in a counterattack.

  Thank god I had that shield out because that blade of his punched right through it. I hated to think what would’ve happened if it’d hit me instead.

  I yanked my shield to the side, trying to drag the sword with it.

  Even that slight pressure on the blade was enough to have it cut a ways into the metal before its edge seemed to bog down.

  The captain yanked his sword back cutting further through the shield. He pulled the blade free.

  I looked down at the shield in shock, then anger. That bastard had pretty much turned MY shield into a piece of scrap!

  I glared up at him, fully intending to do the same to him, only to see him looking at his blade in the same manner as I had MY shield.

  Black ooze coated the blade where it had touched the gunked-up front of my shield. “How? This is one of the Queen’s fangs…”

  Though I heard it, I really didn’t care. Instead, I focused on slugging him in the face as hard as I could. I probably should have cut him with the sword in that same hand. That would have ended the fight and let me deal with the guys on either side of him.

  Instead, while I did den
t the front of his helmet, he quickly retaliated, bringing his own fist up to slug me right back. And I didn’t have a helmet. Pretty sure, Dragon-level toughness or not, I was going to have a black eye.

  With a bestial snarl, the Captain tried to follow up with a stab to my gut.

  I swung my shield into the way again. As I watched him over the top of my shield, I saw a smirk on his face. Bet he was thinking stupid dragon or some other shit. Well, I was going to show this fucker.

  I felt the tip of the blade punching through. Gripping the handle of the shield, I swung it down and out. I had already seen how sharp the edge of that weapon was, so the tip punching through didn’t surprise me.

  The flat of the blade was a different story. Caught in the shield, I dragged the blade to the side. Just not quite fast enough.

  I bit my lip to choke down a scream of pain. The tip of the blade traced along the scales over my belly. It cut into my hip deep enough to grate along bone as I continued to force it in its downward arc.

  That hurt! What the hell is that blade?!

  Now, I could see a look of panic on the captain’s face as he tried to pull his sword free.

  All I can say is while I hated that damn ooze, I was really thankful for it at that moment. From the look of it, that was what was what was keeping that damn sword stuck in my shield.

  The Captain and I locked eyes for just a moment.

  My sword was already mid-swing as he grabbed for a spiked copper rod hanging from his belt. I cut deep into his shoulder and slammed it down at an angle. It made it to mid-chest level before grinding to a stop.

  The copper rod fell from his lifeless fingers.

  What I wanted to do was kick him off my blade, but, with how bad my hip was hurting, I didn’t trust it to hold my weight.

  Hell, I don’t even want to walk on the thing.

  I stored my shield, trying to lessen the burden on my hip. With a flash it was gone, taking that commanders sword with it. Guess I could call that a bonus.

  “No! Reclaim the Queen’s fang!”

  Oh crap.

  I’d forgotten about all of the other soldiers around.

  I let out a yelp of surprise as a pillar of flame dropped down right on top of me. It made The Chosen around me shy back. They had to shield their eyes from the sudden light—so did a ton of Adventurers.

  That’s when I noticed I hadn’t been the only one fighting. The Chosen were starting to break and run, leaving the bodies of their comrades on the stone floor of the hallway.

  “Don’t kill them all! We need some prisoners!” Robert roared as he kneecapped a Chosen.

  None of the Adventurers seemed to be all that worried about the fire that had engulfed me… I glanced behind me and instantly saw the reason why.

  Carah stood a few feet back panting as she pointed at me, her hand twisted up in a weird position. Her eyes were panicked as she looked at my hip. I glanced down, wincing at the movement and then almost gagged.

  That…that doesn’t look good.

  As if finally seeing the wound was the last straw, my leg gave out. It dropped me and sent a lancing pain through my entire body. I crumbled to the ground not even daring to touch the wound.

  Hell, I’d be happier if nothing touched it at all.

  As I lay there trying not to scream, I cast my mind around trying to find anything that I could focus on other than the pain. Only one thought seemed to stick in my brain. There was no way these were all The Chosen that had been attacking us down below. I’d seen more than this. So, what happened to the rest of them?

  That was a question that gripped my mind tighter than the pain in my leg because wherever those people were going, I’d bet every gold coin I had that it would be to their stronghold.

  And that was where my lamp was going to be.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  Chapter 20

  I gritted my teeth as I did my best to let the green-skinned field surgeon do her job. What I really wanted to do was to shout at this idiot. She’d broken five needles so far trying to sew my wound closed and, let me tell you, it hurt.

  With a metallic click, the doc threw the latest needle to the stone floor. “This isn’t working!” she snapped, her long, pointed ears almost vibrating. She looked up at Gloria who was standing nearby. “None of my tools can even get through that hide! I can’t do anything for him!”

  Carah, who was leaning over my side to put pressure on my wound, snapped her head around to glare at the doc. She looked about ready to snap the doc’s head clean off. I was kinda hoping she would. It would be something else to think about rather than the pain.

  Luckily for the half-dryad doctor, Gloria started talking first.

  “Of course, doctor. Off you go.” She waved the, now, even angrier doc away.

  The woman pushed her way to her feet and left muttering darkly about thick-skinned lizards and condescending government officials.

  “Gloria! You can’t just let her go!? What about Jake!” Carah looked up at the armored woman with pleading eyes.

  “If that stuck-up butcher can’t help, then we need magic,” Gloria said, looking around.

  Things...were getting a little hazy. I’m pretty sure the blood loss was starting to get to me. The sticky stuff had already drenched my leg from when I was standing, but now I could feel it on my side and back. I guess, with how much I had lost already, I should be happy I had any blood left at all. I smiled at the thought.

  “How’s the dragon doing?” Charlie leaned into my field of view, a worried look on her face. Nice to know that, even with how much we had been fighting lately, she still liked me enough to be worried.

  Axle and Rachel leaned into view as well. Hell, even Rachel looked worried.

  “The doctor couldn’t help him!” Carah almost sobbed.

  “Hey, don’t cry...” I tried to say more, but my mouth was almost too dry to move. I had to fight back a cough; it was way too painful to do that right now.

  “I have a potion!” Axle said, quickly reaching into one of the leather pouches on his belt.

  “I don’t think that’s gonna do it. Gonna need something with a bit of oomph.” Gloria said. “But the only people here that might have something like that were the people locked in the dungeon with us, and they had everything taken from them.”

  “We can’t just stand here and let the damn fool die!” Charlie snapped. “Axle give him the potion!”

  “Ah! Right!” Axel had already fished the potion out. He knelt next to me with a squishing sound. From the funny look on his face, it was probably because he had just knelt in blood.

  That really was a funny expression, though. I couldn’t help giggling weakly.

  “Hoo, boy. He’s really gone, isn’t he?” Charlie muttered in concern.

  “Jake, buddy you need to drink this.” Axle uncorked the bottle.

  “Ah! There!” Gloria interrupted, jabbing a finger at a beefy-looking guy with really hairy arms and a serious overbite. “Mathew! Over here!”

  The man was heading down the corridor in the same direction The Chosen had run. He wasn’t the only one, either. It looked like Robert had gathered up all the remaining fighters to go after those armored bastards. With him in the center of that noisy group, it really wasn’t a surprise that he didn’t even turn around.

  Axle pressed the glass jar of the potion up against my lips.

  “Carah! Press the wound together! Try to get everything lined up as close as possible!” Charlie said. She knelt down, herself, to try to do the same a little further down my wound.

  The pain from them...doing what they did, made me spray the first mouthful of potion all over Axle's face.

  “Uhgg!” Axle let out a loud disgusted sound as he flinched back.

  I let out a gurgling scream and tried to hit my tormentors.

  “Cut that out!” Rachel snapped as she grabbed my arm.

  “Axle! Hurry it up!” Charlie growled as she held the wound closed.

  Without a word, Axle
shoved the bottle back into my face and poured the red liquid down my throat. For me, it became an issue of drink or drown.

  The instant that it made it to my stomach, I began to feel better. I could feel a warmth returning to my limbs that I hadn’t even realized was missing. Better than that, though? The pain began to go away.

  I let out a sigh of relief.

  “Oh, now that’s just gross!” Rachel said. She was looking down at my hip. I began to turn my head to see for myself only to have a metal hand grab my face by the cheeks.

  “You know, Jim. I’ve never thought it was a good idea to look at your own wounds while they’re getting worked on. From what I’m seeing right now, potions don’t change my mind on that,” Gloria said calmly.

  While I couldn’t see the wound from this angle, I could see both Carah’s and Charlie’s expressions. They looked like they were about to throw up.

  “Axle,” Gloria said calmly, deliberately looking at me and not at my wound, “when the potion is finished with its work, I want you and your team to accompany me.” She still hadn’t let go of my face, and my cheeks were starting to get uncomfortable.

  “Alright.” Axle had been looking at my hip, but now he quickly turned to look at Gloria. “Where are we headed?” He was starting to look a bit green in the face.

  That’s probably not a good sign.

  Charlie pulled her hands free with a disgusted grimace. As she did, they passed into my line of sight. Her hands were covered in some kind of white puss that clung to her fingers.

  “The hell is that!?” I almost shouted. I’m pretty sure my eyes were bugging out a bit.

  “What did I say about looking?” Gloria used both hands to shove my head back down.

  I could see her turn to look in Axle’s general direction from my new position but not much else. “We’re going to go find Cyrus. Jim, if you have some water in that ring of yours, you should get it out. The ladies, here, need to clean up a little before we get moving.”

  I think that was the coldest tone I’d ever heard her use.

  There was one more problem, though.

  “Gloria. My name’s Jake.”

  She paused, then brought one hand to her forehead, making a clanking sound when she smacked herself. “Right! Jake! Sorry.”