Immediately after he finishes his speech, a very large explosion envelops the dragon, and then a few smaller explosions start to fill the area around him. Flower, who is now high up in the sky, some two hundred feet away from the dragon, makes a victory gesture with her right fist, as soon as she sees the explosions.
“Nice job distracting him, Barry!” Flower says, as she gives me a thumbs up, while still floating in the sky, with the aid of the fire jets coming from her feet.
“Watch out!” I shout at her. “The dragon is immune to fire!”
“Even if he is immune to fire,” Illuna says, “the impact from the explosions is still going to leave a mark.”
“Well, you heard her!” Flower says, with a smirk. “One more fireball, coming up!”
The girl then creates a spinning ball of fire between her hands, and she sends it flying towards the dragon, making it explode on impact.
“So this is the dragon that you guys were talking about,” Hadrik says, with half a grin, and with a look of both excitement and apprehension in his eyes. “Let’s see what he’s made of, then!”
Hadrik then turns into a giant eagle, and he soars into the sky, towards the dragon. Flower makes sure to stop her fireballs when she sees him, and as soon as Hadrik positions himself above Tyrath, he turns back into his usual dwarf form, making a dive towards the dragon and punching him in the back. Hadrik’s punch was so strong that we heard it from all the way down here, and it sent the dragon flying a dozen feet towards the ground. The dwarf then turns back into an eagle, and he flies away, waiting to see what his opponent will do next.
The dragon looks furious. It seems that he’s planning to go all out from the start, this time around. Before Flower gets to cast a new fireball, the dragon disappears from where he was previously, and he reappears right in front of her, slashing at her with one of his claws. Flower reacts immediately, and she uses a jet of fire from her left hand to propel her to the side, and out of the dragon’s reach. Tyrath wastes no time, and he teleports again, right behind Flower. This time, it is Illuna who quickly turns around, and she uses two water jets from her hands to attack the dragon and also to push herself away from him at the same time. While the girl and the dragon repeat the same motions a few more times, Kate is preparing a very large cone of ice in the air above her, getting ready to send it flying towards Tyrath.
“Kate, this isn’t going to work,” Daren tells her, as he sees her preparing her ice cone. “Don’t you remember how things went the last time we’ve fought him? Your ice cones didn’t affect him at all. If you could use one of your ice platforms to fly me all the way into the sky, maybe I could manage to hurt him with my sword.”
“This won’t be like the last time,” Kate says, with a determined look on her face. “Now that I know the full extent of my enemy’s power, I no longer have the luxury to worry about conserving my magical energy. This time, I’m going to fight him with all I’ve got, even if I end up fainting from exhaustion.”
“Damn it, listen to me!” Daren says, but Kate ignores him, and she surrounds herself in a cage made of ice that she then uses to lift her up in the sky, so she can get a better view of her target.
The cone of ice that she’s creating is definitely looking a lot different from anything she’s ever made before. It looks as sharp and durable as elven steel, and it is simply radiating magical energy. It feels like the whole area around it is trembling from the magical power that is being pumped into that one ice cone, and once the creation process is complete, the cone starts turning by itself, following the dragon’s movements. After Tyrath teleports a few more times in order to attack Flower, Hadrik finally catches up to him again, in his eagle form, and he turns into a dwarf once more, punching him right in the face.
While the dragon gets briefly stunned by the dwarf’s attack, Kate uses the opportunity to launch her ice cone at her target. There is an extremely powerful explosion of air behind the ice cone, as it gets sent straight into the dragon’s chest at an incredible speed. The icicle penetrates Tyrath’s tough hide, and he lets out a very loud roar, which almost makes everyone lose their consciousness, even while they are desperately trying to cover their ears. The dragon then yanks the ice cone out of his chest with his claw, and he teleports right next to Kate, who is now barely even able to stand on her feet, inside her floating ice cage, due to the dragon’s roar from before. Just as the dragon is about to burn her alive with his fire breath, a golden cage appears out of nowhere, trapping him inside. This does not stop Tyrath from breathing his fire, but somehow, none of the flames manage to pass through the cage’s bars, and they eventually die out by themselves.
“The fox’s cage…” Tyrath says.
He then turns around, looking straight at Illuna.
“Is this your doing?” he asks her.
“I’ve had enough of your annoying teleporting,” Illuna says. “You are going to stay put for the next few minutes. Do you understand?”
“How is this going to help you in any way?” Tyrath says. “I may not be able to attack you from inside here, but neither can you. All you are doing is wasting time.”
“Not exactly,” Illuna says.
Flower then starts to move around the dragon’s cage with her fire jets, creating balls of fire with her hands, and then leaving them floating one by one, all around the cage.
“I’d like to see you handle all of these at once, king of dragons,” Flower says, with a smirk.
The dragon scoffs, and he begins to cast a series of protection spells on himself, getting prepared for the moment when the cage disappears. Kate is now also creating as many of her newly designed ice cones as she can, although judging by the expression on her face, this process is definitely wearing her out much faster than her usual means of casting magic. I don’t know if she can keep this up much longer.
Damn it, there has to be something I can do in this situation. Maybe I can find a way to get up there somehow.
As I look around, I see, to my surprise, that the empty spectator area is now slowly being filled with hundreds of people dressed in guard uniforms, and many of them are holding some very peculiar weapons in their hands. In the meantime, some other people are pushing several flying machines into the arena’s fighting area. The machines look similar to the flying contraptions built by gnomes, with a large propeller on top, a long tail in the back, and two wings that help with gliding through the air. The propeller is usually powered by a spell cast by an air elementalist, but aside from that, there is no further need for magic in order to help these machines fly.
I used to know a gnome a few years ago who would keep making me do flight tests of his prototypes in exchange for the information I needed about mages. I remember one of those prototypes being so bad that the propeller actually stopped working while I was in mid-flight, and I had to glide all the way down. I still have nightmares about some of those flights even to this day.
One of the people that pushed the flying contraptions into the arena is now having an argument with a gnome, not very far from our position. As I look closer, I realize that the gnome is none other than king Golmyck.
“What do you mean the pilots and the gunners aren’t here, yet?” Golmyck says. “I specifically asked for three pilots and gunners to be ready and waiting in case any of the manticores went berserk! Where are they now?”
“I apologize, your highness,” says the man who helped push the machinery. “The manticores were all killed in the first round, so the pilots and gunners went out for a drink. I tried to contact them through their transceivers, but they wouldn’t answer…”
“Damnations!” Golmyck says. “I’d pilot one of these myself, but I still need someone to man the guns!”
He then turns towards us.
“You there, gladiators!” he says. “You’re all in the army now, am I correct? Do any of you have any experience piloting aircraft? Or are you at least any good at aiming from a moving vehicle? I could use some help, here!”
“I’ve piloted gnomish flying machines before,” I say. “I could give it a try.”
“Splendid!” Golmyck says. “Come over here, uh… Barry, was it? I’ll teach you the basics.”
“I’ll go help the soldiers,” Daren says. “They’ll need all the protection they can get if they’re planning to start shooting at the dragon.”
He then rushes towards one of the gates, in order to reach the upper levels, where the soldiers are currently located.
“Now, Barry, listen closely,” Golmyck says, once I reach him. “These are your flight controls.”
He then points towards the cockpit.
“Over here you have the control stick,” Golmyck continues. “The rudder pedals are down below. You should only change the rudder’s direction for making minor adjustments, and not for actually turning the aircraft. Turning should only be done by using the control stick.”
“Yes, I know,” I tell him.
“This lever over here,” Golmyck says, as he points towards a lever on the left side of the cockpit, “is used to adjust the pitch for the rotor blades. Increasing the pitch will make you gain altitude, but it will decrease your forward speed. Decreasing the pitch will make you lose altitude. Does this all look familiar to you?”
“Yeah,” I say. “It’s pretty similar to what I’ve piloted in the past. I can handle it.”
“Perfect!” Golmyck says. “When I designed these machines, I tried to make the controls as intuitive as possible for people who have piloted other gnomish machines in the past. I’m glad to see that my efforts were not wasted!”
The gnome looks up at the dragon trapped in the golden cage, with a thoughtful expression on his face.
“Barry,” Golmyck says, “you wouldn’t happen to know how much longer that cage is going to last, would you?”
“Uh…” I say. “About two more minutes, I guess?…”
“Good,” Golmyck says. “We have plenty of time. Hop in. I’ll give you the rest of the instructions during our flight. Make sure to strap yourself in tight. Also, you should wear these goggles.”
Golmyck gives me a pair of protective goggles, which I immediately put on, and then I enter the cockpit, strapping myself in. There are only two chairs in the cockpit, one for the gunner and one for the pilot, back to back. The gnome enters the cockpit as well, seating himself on the chair behind me and then putting on his straps.
“So, uh…” I say, as I see the gnome adjusting the turret that is located at the base of the machine’s tail. “I may be stating the obvious, here, but you do realize that normal bullets will not work on this dragon, right?”
“Of course, of course,” Golmyck says. “That’s why we won’t be using regular bullets. The bullets that I’ve loaded into this turret are made of a metal that is highly resistant to acid, and they have all been coated with acid, which we know for a fact that the dragon is weak against. We’ve had these prepared for a while, since Tyrath has been a looming threat for quite some time, now. Obviously, even with the acid coating, the bullets will likely only moderately inconvenience him, but that’s fine, since they are only meant as a distraction.”
The gnome then points towards a button on my control panel.
“You also have your own weaponry, by the way,” Golmyck says. “Just press that button, and the bullets will shoot themselves. Both the front gun and the turret operate on a mechanism similar to cannons that are used on ships, except for the fact that they magically load themselves with black powder and bullets, so you only need to worry about aiming and shooting. Do try to use these bullets sparingly, though. Our ammunition is not unlimited, and these bullets cost a lot to make.”
As soon as the two of us are ready to take off, the gnome signals an air elementalist nearby, and he casts a spell on the machine’s propeller in order to make it rotate. I pull on the lever to my left side in order to increase the pitch, and the flying machine begins to slowly gain altitude.
“So, you were saying before that the bullets are only a distraction,” I say, rather loudly, in order to compensate for the sound of the propeller. “What did you mean by that?”
“Oh, the real purpose of this machine is not to shoot down the dragon,” Golmyck says. “What we are in fact aiming to do is to manage to place ourselves above him, and then to drop a spinning rope on him.”
“A spinning rope?” I ask him, confused.
“Yes,” the gnome says. “Our enchanters designed a magical rope that is made to unfurl itself and then to start spinning once it gets dropped from our small cargo hold below. The rope has been enchanted to be nearly unbreakable, and it is long enough to tie down the dragon’s wings, in order to prevent him from flying. The only problem is that the dragon will need to hover in one place for quite a while and not be paying attention to us in order for this setup to work. We can’t do it right after the cage is dismissed, because there will be too many explosions, and the dragon will try to get away from there as soon as possible. We only have one cargo hold, and only one rope, so we can’t afford to miss our chance. We shouldn’t use it unless we are absolutely certain that our plan will succeed. Until then, we’ll only be using bullets to attack him, in order to provide assistance to your friends and my soldiers that will be attacking the dragon at the same time.”
“And what if the dragon starts breathing fire at us?” I say.
“This aircraft is using lessathi technology,” Golmyck says, “to provide us with some rather effective shielding against fire attacks. Of course, this does not make us invulnerable, and I’m not sure how long the shields can hold against flames that are as hot as the dragon’s, so we should try evading his fire breath as much as possible.”
As we reach a high enough level of altitude, the golden cage surrounding the dragon is slowly starting to fade.
“Get ready,” the gnome tells me.
As soon as the cage disappears, all of Flower’s fireballs explode at the same time, sending a very powerful gust of wind towards us, and Kate’s ice cones also get launched into the dragon soon afterwards. The protections that Tyrath cast on himself during all this time help him to survive the damage, but it’s clear that he didn’t get out of that unscathed. What’s more, the amount of damage that he needed to absorb with his magical shields also seems to have drained him of his magical energy for the time being, because he is no longer using teleportation to move around and has gone back to using his wings to fly.
Almost as soon as he gets away from all the explosions, the dragon uses his fire breath to attack Kate. He was rather far from her when he attacked, however, which gave Kate enough time to move her ice cage out of the way, before the flames reached her. Tyrath now attempts to make a dive towards her, but before he reaches his target, the king’s soldiers activate their strange weapons in unison, and they release a very powerful bolt of lightning that hits him head on. Visibly upset, the dragon begins to rain down flames upon them, trying to dispose of them all at once. Luckily, Daren had already reached the spectator area a while ago, and as soon as he sees the flames, he uses his shield to create a large semi-transparent barrier, which defends all of the soldiers from the fire attack.
I think I’m finally starting to understand how the dragon’s fire breathing works. It seems that he needs to inhale a great deal of air in his lungs before he attacks, and he also never exhales the fire right away afterwards. I’m guessing that this is because he first needs to ignite the fire, before breathing it out. This means that as long as you pay attention to his breathing, you should be able to tell when he’ll attack you with fire, and you’ll have all the time you need to dodge his flames, if you are fast enough. This information will really help me while I pilot the aircraft, because I don’t think that I’d have time to maneuver out of the way otherwise.
Tyrath seems to have changed his mind again, and he’s now chasing after Hadrik, who is currently in his eagle form. Even with Hadrik’s speed, it still seems like the dragon is going to catch up to him soon. Maybe now wou
ld be a good time to make use of those acid coated bullets…
I use the control stick in order to maneuver the aircraft to align with the dragon, and then I turn my head towards the gnome.
“I’m going to attack Tyrath,” I tell Golmyck. “Be ready.”
“Understood,” Golmyck says.
As soon as I make sure that I’ve got a clear shot at him, I press the button on my control panel, and I shoot about a dozen bullets into the dragon’s right wing. The dragon screams in pain, and then he flies out of the way, preparing to make a charge at us. I decide that it’s time to retreat, and I turn the plane around, in an attempt to get as far away from the dragon as possible.
I look back, towards Tyrath, and I see that he is inhaling a lot of air in his chest, preparing to attack us with his fire breath. I quickly change the direction of the aircraft in order to avoid the dragon’s attack, and the flames miss us by a fair margin. The dragon is now right on our tail, but he seems to be having a bit of trouble with his wing that I shot earlier, which is causing him to fly a little slower than before.
In the meantime, Golmyck is using the turret to keep pressure on the dragon, but he doesn’t get to hit him much, because Tyrath can easily tell where the bullets will be shot from the way the turret is facing, and he doesn’t have much trouble dodging most of those shots.
As the dragon gets closer to us, Hadrik finally catches up to him in his eagle form, and he turns back into a dwarf in order to smack him in the back of the head. He then quickly turns into an eagle again, and he flies away, while one of Kate’s ice cones penetrates the dragon’s chest. Tyrath pulls the cone out with his claw, and then he starts inhaling air to prepare his fire breath, but just as he does that, the whole air around his head gets replaced with water, and he breathes that in, instead. Realizing his mistake, the dragon immediately attempts to cough out the water from his lungs, but the water around his head does not disappear, so all he manages to do is breathe more water in with every cough.
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