Meridias

  “It was my choice. I wanted everyone to get used to the harshness of the environment so that you’d be prepared. We won’t always have access to such a convenient suit.” Joel had grumbled at Ashblade’s response but understood his intent. So now here they were fighting in the sand like they had been for the past several days. Joel still had yet to make Ashblade take him seriously. The man mostly dodged his attacks while occasionally parrying and knocking Joel to the ground. He still hadn’t gotten quite used to flicking his sword and felt that it was slower than his normal swing. When he brought it up Ashblade replied and said, “You are using a different set of muscles, and you also aren’t used to quickly striking from a shorter distance. You’ll adjust soon enough.” Joel nodded and they resumed their training.

  He had to admit that these bodysuits were quite nice. They were almost form fitting though so he was slightly uncomfortable about wearing it but Ashblade didn’t seem to be bothered. Then again he had a hard time reading Ashblade’s mind. The man wasn’t very expressive. Kind of like how Elunduil was. Ashblade suddenly struck with his sword and caught Joel off guard. He tried to block but his sword was only half-raised and Ashblade’s was already at Joel’s neck. “You shouldn’t be thinking about other things in battle. Try and stay focused,” he said and drew back his blade. Joel gulped and nodded in response.

  Lucas and Jerome came up from the camp shortly thereafter with canteens in their hands. “Let’s take a break,” Ashblade said and took a canteen of water from Lucas with a nod. Joel took the one Jerome offered him with thanks and sipped down on the water. “So how well do the suits work?” Lucas asked Ashblade.

  “Excellent. I barely even notice the desert heat on my body. It doesn’t do much for the head though.” Ashblade’s response drew laughter from Lucas.

  “Well it’s good that it’s working. It wouldn’t know what to do if you two passed out while sparring.” Joel handed his canteen back to Jerome. “How the heck do these work anyway?” he asked. Lucas shrugged and looked to Jerome. “Well from what I understand-” His words were cut short as a rumble rippled through the sand. The group looked about to find the source of the sound. Was it something in the distance? Was it something below them? “Maybe it was an earthquake? We don’t really know much about this world…” Lucas said as he glanced around. Ashblade agreed. “Well, break time is over. Let’s get back to it Joel,” he said. Joel was about to raise his sword when a monumental geyser of sand shot into the air less than a few hundred feet from them. “Get down!” Ashblade shouts as the sand rains back down.

  Joel and the others follow Ashblade’s command and throw themselves to the ground and cover their heads. Moments later sand falls on them from above and partially buries them. Joel pushes himself up with a good deal of effort and rises from the sand. He shakes himself off and looks for the others. Ashblade is already out of the sand with his sword still in hand and Lucas and Jerome are just pushing themselves out of the sand. “What the heck was that?!” Jerome exclaims as he shakes himself off. Joel is stunned beyond words as he gazes at what had upheaved the sand. Ashblade also seems to be in shock and Jerome pauses and stares at the sight before them.

  A large reptilian-like skull with gleaming red lights shining in its eye sockets gazes down on them. Its bones are bleached white by long exposure to the sun and it has rows of large teeth and two large horns protruding from the top of its skull behind its eyes. As Joel’s gaze moves downwards he sees the ribcage of the beast and four large skeletal legs with three huge claws on the feet and one claw on the back of the foot. There is something else sticking out of the skeleton’s back that causes Joel to get excited. Two large skeletal wings protrude from both sides of the skeleton’s back and they cast their shadow down on the earth giving a very intimidating presence to the monster that stands before them. “It’s a bone dragon!” Joel said almost squealing from excitement.

  The gargantuan skeleton that stands before them is huge and over six stories tall. It also doesn’t care much for the tiny people below it. It raises one of its massive legs and Ashblade realizes it was going to attack them. “Get back to the camp! Arm yourself for battle!” he shouts. Joel and the others don’t hesitate and run towards the camp as the skeletal dragon’s foot smashes the earth below it. Though it isn’t anywhere near hitting them, the shockwave shook the earth below them. “Oh this is not a good day!” Lucas calls out as he runs to the weapons tent. Bryce is already there and starts tossing out assault rifles as soon as Joel and the others reach him. “What should we do?” Draxus asks. Ashblade looks up at the skeletal dragon. “Normally I’d say use the ridge as cover but… that’s not likely to help us. Our best chance is to spread out and to try and gun it down.”

  James, Kali, and Nadir join their group and arm themselves. Bryce hefts up a rocket launcher and grins. “Maybe if I can get a clean shot on it we can take it out,” he says. Ashblade nods. Bryce is still wounded so it is best if he doesn’t run around. “Alright we’ll try and distract it so you can get your shot in. Everyone move-” Joel suddenly speaks up.

  “Why don’t we use holy water? It’s an undead dragon so holy water should just defeat it.” Ashblade gives Joel a deadpan look.

  “Holy water? This isn’t a game!” he says. Joel looks over to the dragon as it lurches towards them. “That sure as hell looks like something out of a game to me. If we don’t have holy water then we should have a priest who can bless the water right?” he asks. Ashblade stares at Joel for a long moment and sighs. “We don’t have a priest!” he replies. Joel frowns.

  “Well why not?! Shouldn’t there always be a priest or something that goes with the soldiers?”

  “This is a secret mission! Anyway we’re wasting time! Everyone spread out and fire on my signal!” Everyone nods and Joel stands there for a moment.

  “Oh, right this is a secret mission! We still should have a priest,” he grumbles and goes to take up a position as the skeleton dragon marches towards the camp.

  Everyone takes aim at the dragon’s skull and waits for Ashblade’s signal. There are four people positioning to the left and right of the dragon with Bryce positioning in front of it. “Aim for the neck Bryce!” Joel calls out. Bryce nods and wipes his forehead. Ashblade is with Nadir, Kali, and Joel on the right side while Draxus, Lucas, James, and Jerome make up the second group on the left side. “We’ll fire first, then Draxus and his squad will draw its attention while we reload. Hopefully Bryce will get a good shot on it before it gets within striking distance,” Ashblade says and holds up a fist. He then holds up one finger and points it at the dragon, then makes a fist again, and then holds up two fingers and points at the dragon again. Draxus nods in the distance and raises a fist that he understands.

  “Open fire!” Ashblade shouts and starts unloading on the bone dragon. Joel, Kali, and Nadir follow suit and fire short bursts at the bleached skull that is closing in. They quickly go through their clips and have to reload. The dragon is closing the distance between them to within less than a hundred feet and is looking toward their group. Draxus’ squad starts to fire at the skeleton and its head lurches towards the tiny bullets that are pelleting its skull. As soon as they went to reload Ashblade and the others shoot a hail of bullets at the bone dragon and it starts heading towards them while Draxus’ group reloads. Bryce can’t find a good shot at the bone dragon’s neck and calls out to Ashblade. He nods in response and signals to Draxus to draw the skeletal dragon’s attention further away.

  Draxus and the others run perpendicular to the skeleton and fire at it as they run. The bone dragons gleaming red eyes look at them and it turns its head to follow them. Bryce is sweating and patiently waits with his hand on the trigger. Just a little more! The skull of the bone dragon turns sideways and exposes its neck. Bryce fires the rocket launcher without hesitation and a cloud of smoke and heat kicks up as the rocket flies from its muzzle. Draxus and his squad run out of shots and starts to reload and Ashblade holds up a hand to keep Joel and the others fro
m firing. They don’t want the bone dragon’s head to intercept the rocket. The rocket impacts the neck vertebrae and detonates. There was an audible boom and a sickening crunching noise as the neck bones splinter and crack. Large chunks of bleached bone fall to the earth, and with the weight of the skull being too much for the damaged neck bones, it breaks off and falls on the sand.

  Everyone stares at the now headless skeleton that is standing still for several moments before raising a cheer. “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Lucas says and pumps a fist in the air. Draxus grins. “Damned undead. Go back to your grave.” Ashblade and the others also celebrate and Bryce wipes a hand across his forehead. Joel however looks apprehensive and Ashblade asks him what was wrong. “Uh… remember how its head hit the ground. Well it’s picking up the pieces,” Joel says. Ashblade gives Joel a quizzical look and turns back to the skeleton. The pieces of the neck vertebrae that had broken off are rising back up into place and the dragon’s skull rose up from the sands as well. Bryce starts reloading his weapon for another shot while the others look to Ashblade for orders. “Tch, so breaking its neck didn’t work? Anyone else have any bright ideas?”

  Ashblade cast his gaze to the group and Joel raises a hand. “Holy water, sir! It’s an undead so it will just keep attacking until it’s destroyed or exorcised!” Ashblade gazes seriously at Joel. This may not be a game but… they don’t have enough explosives to destroy something of that scale. There is still one problem however. “We don’t have a priest to bless the water,” he replies. Nadir clears his throat.

  “I, uh have some training. My father was a pastor so I memorized many scriptures.” Nadir looks a bit apprehensive. Ashblade looks back at the bone dragon then back to Nadir. He grabs the canteen he’d gotten from Jerome before the attack and holds it up for a moment before tossing it to Nadir. “Well get to work then soldier,” Ashblade says. Kali starts to protest but Ashblade holds up a hand. “I know it’s crazy, but this world is different from ours. I’ve seen stranger things than this,” he says. He turns to the bone dragon whose head has finished reattaching itself. “We’ll try to buy Nadir time and have Bryce stick with the original plan.” He points, aims his gun at the dragon, and opens fire.

  Joel and Kali join him while over the gunshots Nadir chants. “-Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil-” Joel frowns. That’s not how making holy water works. They run out of shots and go to reload. Draxus’ group starts firing on the skeleton but something happens that they don’t expect. The bone dragon crouches for a moment and then jumps into the air at Draxus’ squad. Draxus, Lucas, James, and Jerome try to fall back to get out of the way but the dragon is on top of them within moments. It lazily swats at them after landing and sends Lucas and Jerome flying through the air. They hit the sand hard and don’t get back up. Draxus swears and fires wildly at the bone dragon. It looks at him for a moment and almost seems to sneer before it raises a leg to strike down on him.

  A rocket slams square in the dragon’s jaw and several teeth break off and start falling towards the ground. They stop mid fall and float back into their place on the dragon’s skull. It turns towards the transgressor and Bryce drops the rocket launcher. “Come and get it!” he shouts at the bone dragon. It responds by crouching down and leaping into the air. It lands just in front of Bryce and brings its foot down. Joel has a sense of deja vu and shouts out to Bryce. “Roll backwards!” Bryce doesn’t hesitate and leaps back while twisting his body to the side. He starts rolling away as the dragon’s foot comes down on him.

  Joel holds his breath as the dragon lifts its foot. Bryce is nowhere to be seen. He gulps. Are they going to be picked off one by one? He hears gunfire from behind and sees Ashblade running in the distance. The dragon whips about displaying its full agility and its tail flies through the camp as it turns about and tears through the tents. Clothes, rations, and weapons all spun through the air and land in the desert sand in the distance. The skeletal dragon opens its maw and leaps into the air at Ashblade. It lands right in front of him and Ashblade freezes in fear. His hands shake and he knows he should run but he can’t move. The fear of death overwhelms him in that moment. It is the same feeling of terror as when the kid in the brown jacket had conjured a flame that incinerated his comrades.

  The dragon raises a foot in the air and is about to strike when a plinking noise came from its other foot. The skull looks down curiously and Ashblade follows its gaze. He is bewildered to see Joel swinging his sword at the bone dragon’s skeletal foot. What is the fool doing? Is he trying to get himself killed saving him? It then strikes Ashblade. Joel is… actually trying to save him. The bone dragon moves to crush Joel and Ashblade looks on with despair when suddenly a blue jet-like light envelopes the skeletal dragon. Ashblade stumbles and falls on his behind as he gazes at the dragon as its skeleton turns to dust from the light.

  Joel, who was huddled on the ground, looked up to where he estimated the blue light had come from. He saw a large blue orb of flame whose hue was as pale as the noon’s sky. He slowly stood up as the orb hovered closer. He didn’t feel any ill intent from it but was wary. He heard someone run up from behind and Kali came to his side. She held her gun towards the ground and said. “What the heck is that?” The orb stopped when it was close and Joel felt like something reached into his mind. Kali also made a face like she’d been disturbed. A moment later Joel would realize what had happened. “Children of man, tis has been long since our worlds have crossed paths.” It said. The voice was deep and filled Joel’s mind. “Alas, the drake rose from its eternal slumber in my presence. Twas once a wise and fierce beast tricked into becoming a vestige of the damned.”

  Had the blue ball of fire’s voice not been so dominating Joel would’ve cast Kali a questioning glance. As it was he was completely taken in by the orb. “In thy tongue my name is Desert Blue. I am the elemental whom holds dominion over the land of this world and whom upholds the harmony of the elements.” Joel was excited. An elemental? If this was here did that mean magic existed here? “Hey, hey! Is there magic!” Joel shouted at Desert Blue. “Thou dost not need to bellow. I am here for a purpose. A disturbance hath appeared in this world. It must awaken, and so you, bellowing man, shall be a vessel.” Joel wasn’t prepared for what happened next but he suddenly felt as if his mind was overloaded with information. When he came to his senses he was crouched on the ground and Kali stood over him with a concerned look.

  Joel looked up and saw Desert Blue serenely floating away in the distance. What the heck was that all about? He shook his head. They needed to find out what happened to the others. Ashblade joined them and they went to regroup with Draxus and James who were tending to Lucas and Jerome who still lay unconscious. “Did anyone find Bryce?” Ashblade asked. Draxus shook his head sadly. Ashblade clenched his teeth. Another man lost. They were so close to leaving this cursed desert too. “Hey, over here!” Nadir shouted in the distance. Ashblade and the others looked over and saw him pulling at something stuck in the sand. Ashblade rushed over as quickly as he could and started clearing away the sand where Nadir was at.

  The two of them dug up and cleared away the sand and Joel arrived to help them. Together the three of them grabbed hold of Bryce’s arm and pulled him out of the sand. To their surprise the man coughed and wheezed. “I thought I was a goner!” he gasped. Nadir handed a canteen to him. “I tried to make it holy water, but I don’t think reciting a scripture is all there is to it.” Bryce laughed and gulped down the water.

  “I have to say though if Joel hadn’t shouted at me I probably would’ve stood there like an idiot and shot at the foot in vain.” He held up the canteen. “Cheers!” he said and downed the rest of the water. “Well we may have all survived but we have work to do. The camp is in ruins, and Lucas and Jerome are down. Let’s reassemble the camp the best we can before night comes,” Ashblade said. Bryce nodded and rose to his feet. “You heard the Sarg! Let’s get to work.” Joel and Nadir made their way to w
hat was left of the camp and Ashblade stared at them for a long moment. He decided that he would have to talk with Joel once they got the camp back in order. He looked off into the distance where the elemental had gone then turned and went to help the others.

  Chapter 20

  Respite & Reflection

  Elunduil and the others arrived at a movie theater near the edge of town. It was situated on a street corner and across from a community college campus. The campus itself was quite large and spanned roughly a mile long. Alicia had asked to meet Elunduil here at the movie theater in her message around 4pm. They’d left the VR center about 15 minutes ago and would’ve made it sooner had they not hit all the red lights on the way. Elunduil got out of the car and looked around. He took a step forward then realized that he was the only one getting out. He cast a questioning glance to the others but they simply waved back. “This one is all you!” Tanis shouted. Elunduil groaned inwardly and closed the door to the car. His mom drove off leaving Elunduil by himself. Now he had to find Alicia.

  He didn’t have to look very hard as she was standing by the movie theatre looking over to him. She waved at him and a smile appeared on her face. Elunduil crossed the parking lot and went over to her. She had a large purse over her shoulder and had her hair up in a ponytail. “You got the message,” she said. Elunduil nodded. Stephanie had said that Alicia had wanted to meet him here and apologize to him. His surprise to her message stemmed from the fact that Alicia had wanted to meet at the movie theater and because, well this seemed kind of like a date. “So, um, I’m sorry I hid from you guys. If I’d talked to you sooner I would’ve realized how wrong I was so…” Alicia bit her lip nervously. “I want to make it up to you,” she said. Elunduil nodded. Ah, okay so that’s what was happening. He relaxed a little bit but being with Alicia alone at a movie theater still made him nervous. “So I’ll treat you to a movie of your choice~”