by James Hunter
“Good,” I said, wheeling Devil around again and offering Abby my hand. She accepted gladly, allowing me to pull her up into the saddle as everyone else scrambled to get into position.
“You honestly think we can do this?” she asked, the words uncertain as she wrapped her arms around my waist.
“I guess we’ll find out,” I replied, spurring Devil on with a nudge of my heels.
The Drake broke into a lurching gallop over the uneven terrain, his wings pumping as we built up speed. And then we were airborne, soaring upward, hot wind beating against my face as the river of lava burbled beneath us. A flutter of panic rose in my gut as the dragon barreled closer. Some part of me—the part interested in survival—insisted we should be fleeing from the monster, but I crushed my inner dread and spurred Devil on faster and faster.
TWENTY-NINE:
Round One
“How dare you,” the dragon bellowed, great strands of flaming drool trailing down from her scaly jowls like burning napalm. Her voice was only a shadow of the regal, matronly dragon from the tapestry back at the Citadel. Now, when the Sky Maiden spoke, it was the sound of a natural disaster given voice—all grinding rocks, smoky infernos, and raging windstorms. “After all that’s been done to me, after all that’s been stolen, you would come and take more?” The question hung in the air like an ominous thundercloud.
A spike of guilt wormed its way up from my belly, but I ignored it. I had to do what I had to do. I leaned in low against Devil’s back, slapped the reins, and dug my heels in further, urging him on.
“I’ll melt your skin, pry those cursed artifacts from your smoking corpse, feed what’s rest of you to the Phlegethon, and finally have my freedom,” she bellowed, then threw her mouth open and belched a gout of flame. I’d seen Devil do the same trick a hundred times, but once again, size made a big difference. Instead of a column of fire as thick as a telephone pole, Arzokh unleashed a white-hot column of flame as big as an industrial sewer pipe and hotter than the surface of the sun. It was the ultimate KO technique—there was no blocking an attack like that, no absorbing it or shrugging it off.
It was instadeath.
Without prompting, Devil veered right, the world below flashing by as the beam of all-consuming sunfire whooshed past us, the air sizzling in its wake. I leaned left and tugged sharply on the reins, pulling us into a steep climb.
We rose, wheeling left, preparing to launch an attack on Arzokh’s flanks. We weren’t quick enough, though. For being such a colossally oversized creature, the Sky Maiden could move. Her head shot out, mouth wide. On instinct, I threw my body right, pulling us into a nimble barrel roll; the world inverted for a moment as Arzokh’s jaws snapped shut with a thunderous crack, missing us by inches. Devil completed the daredevil maneuver—the world suddenly normal again—and immediately banked right, swinging around in a tight arc, then darting toward the dragon’s face.
Devil struck like lightning, his inky talons slashing across her dinner-plate-sized eyes, leaving bloody gashes behind, before zipping just out of range. So, the Sky Maiden was fast, but obviously she wasn’t a match for Devil’s flight speed or his sheer aerial agility. He was a fighter jet to her cargo plane. We circled again, dancing and weaving just outside of the Sky Maiden’s deadly reach. Abby loosened her grip around my middle, stuck one hand out, and unleashed an insane barrage of fireballs that slapped at Arzokh’s muzzle and splashed into her eyes.
The dragon winced from the steady bombardment, but her HP bar remained constant and unmoving. Arzokh seemed mildly annoyed, sure, but as long as she had that amulet in place, she was some kind of spectral being, immune to the damage of our attacks.
I could see the amulet, though, dangling from a golden chain, as thick as my wrist, around her brawny neck. That was the prize, the ultimate goal, but getting ahold of it was going to be one heck of a challenge. For that, I needed to be closer. Much closer. An annoying enough distraction might do the trick. Devil darted in again, unleashing a fly-by wave of Umbra Flame while I drew on my innate Shadow Spark and promptly summoned Nikko from the Shadowverse. The winged chimp materialized in a poof of sooty smoke, her eyes locking on the dragon.
Keep her distracted, I sent urgently, drawing my warhammer from my belt.
Nikko responded with a squawk, leaping onto the end of the dragon’s snout, scampering along Arzokh’s bony muzzle, then launching herself at the dragon’s face. The fiesty chimp literally drop-kicked the Sky Maiden in one of her eyeballs, then whipped around like a Muay Thai fighter, lashing out with her claws while her feathered wings fluttered frantically, obstructing the dragon’s view. The attacks did no damage whatsoever, but they had to be painful, and it was going to be awfully difficult for Arzokh to pay attention to anything else.
“Hold on tight,” I yelled at Abby over one shoulder, hunching down and urging Devil into a reckless dive. Wind beat at my face, tugging my cloak back in a flutter of fabric as Abby tightened her arms around me in a death grip. I squinted, staring up at Arzokh’s sinuous neck—gaze fixed steadfastly on the glittering jade amulet at the base of her throat. I only had one chance to get this right, and seconds to do it. Quickly, I thrust my warhammer skyward, the rear spike forward, the weapon wobbling uncertainly in the air.
Closer and closer we flew.
Then, with a shout, I lunged upward and whipped my hammer forward, angling the hook so it would catch the golden chain, and maybe—hopefully—rip the amulet free.
The spike clanged against the metal, and for a single heartbeat, I thought I’d managed it, but then my weapon slipped free leaving the amulet in place and the chain unbroken. Not even a stratch.
Damn. A swing and a miss.
I dropped back into the saddle, stowing my hammer as Arzokh’s dark shadow washed over us and we zipped beneath her, skimming along close enough to reach out and run a hand along her dirt-caked belly. In seconds, we shot out from beneath her like a bullet and began our ascent, breaking for the sky—
The dragon’s tail—as long as a bus and topped by a nubby wrecking ball of bone spurs and spikes—broadsided us like a battering ram at the castle gates, batting us hard right. Devil howled in pain, teeth gnashing, one of his wings severely damaged, the flesh torn. Simultaneously, Abby shrieked, her arms disappearing from around my middle as the blow threw her from the saddle entirely. I spun around in utter horror, heart pounding—ready to explode from my chest—fully expecting to see her plunging toward the ground below.
The breath caught in my throat … There she was, hanging from the saddle by one hand, her eyes wide and frightened, her legs dangling two hundred feet above the ashy ground below.
Oh thank God … If she’d fallen from this height, there’d be no going back. She would’ve ended up as a bloody smear on the canyon floor.
Carefully, I leaned back and grabbed a fistful of her robes, dragging her up while she kicked and scrambled, fingers clawing at Devil’s sides. By the time she got resituated behind me, Arzokh was sixty feet away, completely consumed with trying to take a bite out of Nikko, who kept popping in and out of the Shadowverse, deftly avoiding her powerful, but comparatively slow, attacks. We were in the clear for the moment, but we still didn’t have the amulet, and even worse, Devil was flying in a herky-jerk fashion, fighting to stay aloft on his damaged wing.
Are you going to be okay? I sent.
I’ll live, but I won’t be able to fly much longer, Devil replied, sounding disgruntled all the way to his reptilian soul. Her aim was true—she damaged the wing joint. It will heal in time, but the limb will only deteriorate from here.
Crap. I thought for a second as Devil trembled, his wings pumping feebly as we headed for the Sky Maiden.
Okay, I need to get on Arzokh’s back, I finally sent. That’s the only chance we have left. Can you do a roll-and-drop, then get Abby safely to the ground?
He didn’t reply for a second, the only sound the desperate beating of his wings, my heavy breathing, and the constant drone of the wind. Y
es, he replied after a time. I can do this thing, but it will be ... He faltered, as though searching for the right word. Difficult, he finished. Then, before I could say anything else, Devil threw his head back and rocketed up, his body going near vertical. I hung on for dear life, fists clenched around the reins, knees dug in, while Abby’s fierce bear hug squeezed the air from my lungs.
In a handful of seconds, we plateaued, breaking into a jittery glide fifty feet or more above the Sky Maiden, who was still battling Nikko below. Prepare yourself, the window will be small, Devil sent, groaning and grunting as he fought against the constant pull of gravity.
“Abby,” I said, switching on the Officer’s Chat so she could hear me over the howl of the wind, “things are about to get crazy.”
“Crazier than this?” she said, her voice clear as a bell inside my head. “We’re fighting a dragon from the back of another dragon, over a river of magma. I almost fell to my death five seconds ago. This is officially the craziest thing on the planet.”
I grinned, unable to help myself. “Even crazier,” I said. “I’m going to get onto Arzokh’s back and get that amulet. After I bail, Devil will get you to the ground, but he won’t be good to fly for a while. So get set, and get everyone else ready.”
“What do you mean bail?” she asked, voice firm and unamused.
“You’ll see in a second. Now take the reins and hang on tight.” Slowly, hesitantly, she loosened her grip on my waist and grabbed the reins. I tapped Devil on the neck, directing us into another breakneck dive.
The Drake crested, arched, and fell, folding his wings and limbs tight against his streamlined body until he looked like a reptilian cruise missile plummeting toward the earth. I crouched, eyes squinted, hanging onto the spikes running along his neck as the wind hammered at me, burning my skin and stealing the air from my lungs. Behind me, Abby was quivering, uttering either a prayer or a string of angry curses—I couldn’t tell which, since she’d switched the chat feature off.
When we were twenty feet above Arzokh I nudged Devil in the sides with my heels, let’s do this; in a blink his right wing exploded outward, catching the air and throwing us into a blazing-fast corkscrew. The second we were inverted—my head hanging directly over the colossal Sky Maiden’s spur-studded back—I triggered Shadow Stride. Time lurched to a halt as I let go of his neck, unhooked my feet from the stirrups, and dropped like a rock. My stomach clawed its way up into my throat as I fell, and I thought I might vomit and pass out cold—not necessarily in that order.
I beat those feelings back and tucked into a roll, flipping head over heels, then spreading myself out so I was belly-flopping toward Arzokh at an insane speed. I only had seconds and I needed to time this move perfectly or I risked phasing through the dragon while in Shadow Stride. If that happened, it would be a long, deadly fall, followed by a bone breaking splat. Or worse—what if I ended up inside the dragon? I wasn’t sure that was possible, but I absolutely didn’t want to find out. I pressed my eyes shut, knowing this was going to hurt no matter what, and exited from the Shadowverse a handful of feet above the Sky Maiden’s back.
I hit facedown, arms and legs splayed out. Half of my HP vanished as a sharp, stinging pain exploded in every nerve ending as though some giant had just open-hand slapped the entire surface of my body. Instantly, I wanted to curl into a ball and weep for the next two years, but I soldiered past the pain instead, fumbling at one of the bony spikes protruding from her spine. I wrapped my hands around the spur a second before she roared and dived, the whole world quivering as she fought to shake me off like a dog shedding water.
My teeth rattled, my legs flopped up and down—toes drumming rhythmically against her back—while my arms burned from the strain of holding tight. But I kept right on holding, because I had no other option. After what felt like a lifetime, her bone-shaking roar subsided and she leveled out, offering me a brief reprieve to breath and recuperate. Slowly, carefully, I inched my way forward, slugging from spiky spine to spiky spine, dragging my body ever closer to her enormous neck and the golden chain holding the amulet in place.
THIRTY:
Desperate Measures
I crawled forward another foot, then paused, profoundly winded, and took stock. I had about another fifteen feet to go, which seemed like a daunting prospect, but on the plus side, Arzokh was dipping lower and lower, apparently trailing Devil and Abby into the canyon, which was all I could hope for. I mean, at some point I needed her to land.
After another handful of seconds, I continued my murderously slow slog.
“Why can’t you leave me in peace?” the dragon asked, her voice booming around me as I wriggled against her. “Was it not enough that your ancestors murdered my family and doomed me to this place, separated from my loved ones? Must you invade the Twilight Lands, too? Must you torment me with flying pests and turn even my kin against me? Must you murder my hope that one day I might destroy all three of those cursed artifacts and finally find peace in the world to come? Is there no mercy in you? No sense of justice?”
“I’m sorry,” I screamed against her back, inching my way along hand over hand, a grimace etched into the lines of my face. “It’s nothing personal. I listened to your Priestess’s story. I know what happened, and I know it was wrong, but there’s no other way. Please, you have to understand that. I don’t want to kill you, but it’s one balanced against millions.”
“You sound just like him. Nangkri.” Her words pulsed with anger, but there was also a note of sadness simmering beneath. “He said the same thing as he killed my Irrinth and let my babies die. What’s one group of hatchlings balanced against the whole of the Storme Marshes? He felt bad, but his guilt didn’t wash him free of his sins. Neither will yours.” She threw herself into a roll that left me suspended above the earth, clinging on for dear life by my fingertips. Just when I thought I couldn’t hold for a second more, she flipped again, leveling out as I flopped back onto her pebbly hide.
My Stamina bar was almost empty, and what I needed was a break, but I didn’t take one. Oh no. One more maneuver like that from the Sky Maiden and I was toast, so I needed to finish this thing now. It was time to take a few more risks. I was only seven feet away, so carefully I moved into a crouch, hands down, toes digging into scaly flesh, and scrambled forward on my hands and knees, praying she didn’t take any evasive action. Four feet out, I hurled my body into a dive, arms outstretched. I landed with a thud, clinging to a sharp ridge of bone at the base of her neck.
I’d made it. Oh my God, I’d made it.
I cackled madly—the pressure finally getting to me—pulled my warhammer free, and laid into the fat golden chain looped around her neck like a noose. The blunt head of my weapon landed with a clang, a chain link denting and giving slightly under the force of the blow.
“Stop that!” She waggled her head back and forth, fighting once more to dislodge me.
But I didn’t stop. Nope.
I blocked out everything except the hammer in my hand and the golden chain that might mean my salvation. Over and over again I struck, beating my way slowly but surely through one of the chain links. Clang, clang, clang. Rinse, wash, repeat. Before long, great gobs of sweat rolled into my eyes and my arms ached from the difficult and awkward effort. I was almost through—only a few more hits to go—when Arzokh tossed her head back, issuing a deafening, deep-bellied laugh before twirling and smashing her back into the canyon wall.
Just what I needed.
Ragged shards of rock bit at me, tearing into my armor and carving away chunks of flesh and HP with every terrible second. This was road rash of the worst kind, and I only had seconds until the wall ground me into Murk Elf paste and sent me for respawn. In that instant, I knew she’d beaten me, I could feel it in my heart and my guts. I’d given it everything I had, but it wasn’t enough. Not in the end. I cursed under my breath and triggered Shadow Stride. Time hiccuped, creeping to a standstill, and the dragon beneath me became nothing more than a wraith.
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br /> An insubstantial cloud, incapable of holding my weight.
I passed through her hide in a blink, dropping out the other side.
I flipped, head over heels, and crashed into the rocky slope of the canyon wall, flopping and rolling my way down toward the bottom. Chunks of black obsidian scratched at my face, nubs of barbed rock jabbed into my limbs and back, and dust clogged my eyes, nose, and mouth. Thankfully, I was only twenty-five feet from the canyon floor, and the Sky Maiden had kindly deposited me near the rest of my party—still tucked away in the outcropping of rock. After what felt like a lifetime, I rolled to a stop at the base of the wall. Any other time that fall would’ve killed me, but I sustained no damage.
Not a lick. Thank God for Shadow Stride.
Still, it hurt worse than getting tossed through a plate-glass window and landing in a hive full of angry fire ants. Every inch of me throbbed in time to my heart.
With a groan I pushed myself upright, grimacing at the ache in my feet, knees, and thighs, and turned in a slow circle, contemplating my next move. Amara was twenty feet off the ground, squirreled away in a narrow crevice in the cliff face, her bow drawn and on the verge of releasing a hail of arrows. The rest of the crew, Abby and Devil included, were taking cover around the rocky outcropping, eyes locked on the Sky Maiden. They all looked scared and with good reason: Arzokh was descending like an avenging angel, completely unharmed, wearing the amulet loud and proud.
Despite the pain and the hardship, I grinned and stifled a chuckle. Nikko was still clinging to the dragon’s face like a pesky tick, clawing at her eyes and refusing to be dislodged. I could see the utter and complete annoyance on Arzokh’s reptilian face—she looked like a long-suffering mother desperately trying to ignore a disobedient and particularly obnoxious toddler. Nikko wasn’t the most powerful minion, but boy was she a resilient, persistent bugger.