by Eric Vall
“I never needed them,” Valerra huffed.
“You have all that treasure you stole from travelers, and you didn’t keep a single weapon from anyone?”
“I spent most of my time in my dragon form back then,” she spat as she leapt over a small boulder. “Not to mention, no one was foolish enough to try and attack me in my den.”
“So, your plan right now is to attack them with no weapon,” I said with disbelief.
“I still have my claws.” She held up one of her hands and flexed her fingers, and her ruby nails glinted in the dim light of the cave.
“When this is over, I’m going to teach you how to use a sword,” I muttered and dodged around a stalagmite.
“I’m not stupid, I know how to use a sword,” she snarled. “I don’t need your help--”
“Shh!” I interrupted her as we approached the lair.
We both quietly entered the room, and we were careful to not step on anything in Valerra’s hoard that would create too much noise.
The driders had closed in on the egg, but they were currently mesmerized by the red silks the egg rested on.
“My love, have you ever seen such fine silk?” the female asked as she rubbed the fabric over her cheek.
“No, it must have been made by our kind,” the male replied. “Only we could create something so perfect.”
“Let’s take this too, I need it for our eggs,” the female drider spoke again.
“Eat first, take spoils later,” the male hissed and dropped the silk.
He crawled toward the egg, and I could feel Valerra’s anxiety spike as he reared his fangs back.
“Hold this!” I thrust my sword into Valerra’s hands and quickly summoned my flames.
Then, with the phoenix magic I’d learned from Chief Fiyero, I created a bow and arrow out of fire and aimed at the fangs of the male. I loosed the arrow, and it soared perfectly until it slammed into the torso of my target.
The male drider screamed loudly as he collapsed onto his back, and his legs scrambled to help him turn over.
The female whipped her head around in fury and hissed. Then she clamored over the gems and coins in the room to make her way toward us.
I turned to Valerra and frowned. The Sword of Hatra was mine to wield, but I couldn’t leave her, my mate, defenseless.
“Go,” I ordered as I bared my fangs. “Take my sword and protect the egg. I can handle these guys.”
Valerra looked back at the male drider as he finally flipped himself over and pulled the arrow from between his fangs. Pale blue blood dripped from the puncture wounds, and his eyes burned in fury.
“I can’t believe I am doing this,” I heard the crimson dragon grumble as her grip tightened around the sword. Then she took off toward the male as the female continued toward me.
I commanded my fire to change form and created a sword. The weapon burned brightly in my hand as the red and yellow flames stretched out into a three foot long blade, and I had just enough time to block the fangs of the female as she attacked.
“You hurt my love!” she shrieked as she lashed out with one of her legs. “For that you will pay!”
“Shut up, bitch.” I gritted my teeth as I batted away her leg with my sword of flame, and her shrill scream split the air as she reared back from my fire. I sent my healing magic to deafen the sound for myself and Valerra, and then I refocused on the female drider while she circled me.
Her fangs dripped with venom, but if they were like the spiders back on Earth, the female’s would be more toxic than the male’s, so I definitely didn’t want to take the risk of her venom becoming part of my bloodstream. My healing powers shouldn’t have any problems, but I didn’t want to take any chances.
Suddenly, the female drider flipped around and shot a wad of webbing toward me. I tried to dodge, but the webbing connected with my arms and pinned them to my sides with a sticky but strong force.
“Fuck!” I snarled as I struggled. This silk was no joke.
The drider grinned and pulled me toward her, and her human arms grabbed me once I was close enough to her.
“I’ve never had a dragon before,” her voice whispered in my ear, “I will be proud to be the cause of your extinction.”
I could feel her fangs rear back, but then I summoned my lightning power from the depths of my spiritual sea. The energy crackled out from my body in arcs of bluish-white electricity, and the female screamed as she was shocked due to her close proximity. The drider stumbled away, and flames exploded out of my body and burned away the webs that trapped my arms. Then I converted those same flames, struck out with my fire sword, and cut one of the giant fangs clean off. Pale blue blood sprayed across my lower body, and the female drider screamed in pain.
I readied my flame sword for another attack, but the female continued to wail in agony, so I took a chance to glance at Valerra.
The crimson dragon wasn’t wrong before, she did know how to wield a sword. The male drider attacked quickly and erratically, but Valerra was able to block most of his attacks with precise and powerful parries.
I was impressed and slightly turned on.
“You little pest,” the female drider snarled and drew my attention back to her. She was standing awkwardly, and one of her eight legs brushed across the small stump left behind from her fang. “You will pay dearly for that.”
“I’d like to see you try,” I sneered as I readied my fire sword.
The drider bared her teeth in fury and jumped at me. The one fang she had left slashed quickly through the air, but I rolled back out of the way in the nick of time. She continued forward, and I rolled again Dark Souls style to keep my distance from her. Then her fang slashed out once more, and I jumped out of the way. Her movements were so fast, they looked like less than a blur, and it was all I could do to say one step ahead of her. We continued this dance for a few moments before she smirked at me.
Then I took another step back, but my foot connected to the wall.
“Now, you are mine, dragon.” She smiled deviously, and her lone fang reared back for one final attack.
I took a deep breath and zeroed in on her one good fang. I only had one shot at this.
When she struck out, I ducked down, rolled forward underneath her body, and stood up behind her.
“How are you so fast?” she roared in anger as she spun around.
“I work out,” I sassed back with a smirk.
Her human face twisted in rage, and she screamed so loudly my ears rang. Then she charged toward me again before a second scream made us both turn our attention to Valerra and the male.
The male drider had Valerra pushed against the wall, and his fangs still bled from where I’d shot him with an arrow.
I growled in my throat and summoned my fire across my arms. Then I dodged another attack from the female drider and created a whip from my flames. I cracked the whip out, and it tightened around the neck of the male drider as I pulled him back.
Valerra took advantage of his distraction to push away from the wall, and then she threw herself at the male. With a roar, the crimson dragon slashed at the beast with the Sword of Hatra and sliced off his two front legs.
The male fell forward with a shriek of agony, and I could see Valerra smirk.
Then I was brought back to my own fight when I heard the female hiss and felt her webs spray over my body.
“I’m getting fucking tired of this,” I snarled as I burned away this batch of webbing.
When the last of it had crumbled into ash, I blinked through the smoke just in time to spot the female drider creeping forward with her last good fang extended. She was several feet away when we locked eyes, and I had just enough time to create a shield of flames before she drove that one fang toward my torso. The fang struck my shield with an explosion of sparks, and she screamed as she scrambled back. Her eyes narrowed on me in rage, but then her gaze drifted over my shoulder.
“No!” the female drider shrieked.
I whipped ar
ound and saw the male drider could no longer lift his huge body up with his two front legs missing. He scrambled across the cave floor, and a pool of blue blood smeared across the stone in his wake.
Valerra leapt over his prone body, circled around toward his head, and pinned him down with her foot on his massive neck. Then she bared her fangs as she stabbed him through his skull. Pale blue blood spilled out from the back of his head, and Valerra pulled the sword out in a quick motion before she glared at the female drider.
“You never should have come to my canyons,” Valerra snarled. “This is the cost of trespassing in my territory.”
The female flinched back from the crimson dragon and abandoned our fight. She skittered across the floor quickly and hissed as she crawled past Valerra, but she made no move to attack the dragon as she crept toward the male. Her hands fluttered over his corpse, and she stared down at it expressionless.
I expected her to scream in agony over her dead lover, but instead, her face suddenly twisted into a crazed smile, and she laughed gleefully.
“It looks like only I will eat tonight, my love!” she cackled, and her hands grabbed the male by the shoulders.
Then she bowed her head down to the neck of her mate and began to devour his flesh.
Valerra and I both watched in disgust as the drider consumed the body of her male counterpart with gusto.
After a moment of revulsion, I formed a bow with my flames again and aimed an arrow at the female drider’s head. In one flash of light, the arrow hit its mark, and the female collapsed next to her dead mate with her mouth covered in pale blue blood.
I made to join Valerra, but then a series of words appeared before my eyes.
Predation: Assimilation activated.
Skill: Silk, webbing.
Status: Assimilation complete.
The words faded away just as quickly as they appeared, and I blinked in surprise.
“Huh,” I murmured to myself. It had been a while since my predation ability was activated. I’d first gotten a taste of it when I saved Laika and the Blue Tree Guild from the stone giants on the day we met. That was how I’d won my affinity over stone. After that, I’d gained my lightning power from Asher, which was a slightly different process, and then the echidnas’ special ability was being immune to fire, but that was a little redundant for a dragon. So, this was my first new power in months.
Cool. I wondered what I could do with this new web ability. I couldn’t wait to test it out.
For now, though, I made my way over to Valerra and stared down at the two drider bodies. Valerra silently handed me my sword, and I stored it away as I extinguished my flames.
“We should take them outside,” I said after a few seconds of silence.
Valerra nodded. “I don’t want their smell to linger here much longer.”
It took some maneuvering since we were in our human forms, but by working together, and thanks to our superior dragon strength, Valerra and I were able to haul each of the bodies out of her lair. Nearly half an hour passed, but we finally dragged the corpses of the driders to the entrance of the cave.
“Well, that was disgusting,” I told her as we piled the pair together. “Why did she give up the fight as soon as the male was killed? I mean you and I were still right there, but she ignored us for her own species. I don’t understand why she was okay with a dead body instead of us.”
Valerra snorted. “Driders are a nasty species. It is said they were created by the goddess of weaving after she was captured and raped by mortals. She wanted strong warriors to protect her, so she created these beasts. They built beautiful webs around her to ensure she would never be taken against her will again. They are supposed to be noble and true, but once the demons killed most of the prey around the area, they went mad. The two we met were obviously starving, and starvation can make creatures go insane. When the male died, her hunger caused her to ignore us for an easier meal. All she cared about was feeding, it didn’t matter what the food source was, she needed to eat. So, when the male died, he became a viable food source that was easy to get.”
“That’s so messed up.” I shuddered as I recalled the crazed look on the female’s face when she ate the male. “Okay, so what do we do with them now? Push them over the edge?”
“No,” Valerra replied. “As you saw, they can become cannibalistic if they go too long without a food source. If we push them off the edge, it could potentially bring more, and I don’t want to take that chance. So, we will burn them and let the wind scatter the ashes.”
“Okay, let’s do it.” I nodded.
Valerra transformed into her dragon form as I summoned my flames to my arms. Then we used our flames in unison to ignite the drider corpses. The human portion of their bodies burned easily, and within seconds, black smoke billowed up into the sky, and the smell of burnt flesh filled the air. Their spider halves eventually burned, but seemed to be slightly fire resistant as it took much longer to incinerate them. Their human halves were nothing but ash by the time the spider halves finally burned as well. When we were finished, Valerra turned to me with a huff.
“I guess I owe you another thank you.”
“No you don’t,” I grinned, “you killed the first one.”
“Only because you let me borrow a sword. It seems like you might be right. I’ll need a stash of human … ” she cringed at the word, “weapons.”
“I’m sure I could get Natalya to forge something for you,” I offered with a smirk. “You can stop by and talk about what you’d like.”
“If I want a sword that badly, I’ll forge one myself,” Valerra scoffed.
“You really know how to make a sword?” I asked her dryly.
“I’m the Crimson Dragon, I can do anything,” she spat.
I laughed and sat along the edge of the cave entrance.
“Did you also assimilate their web ability with your predation skill?” I asked after a moment of silence. “You killed the male, after all.”
“Of course I did,” Valerra scoffed. “I am a dragon, am I not?”
“Yeah, yeah.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m curious to test it out. The drider’s webbing was strong. If I wasn’t an awesome dragon, I would have been fucked.”
“Why would you need to incapacitate your victims when you can just incinerate them?” Valerra sneered down at me as she bared her fangs.
“Not everything can be solved with burning people alive,” I chuckled. “I think the webbing will prove useful.”
“You just keep on thinking that,” Valerra scoffed as she turned her head away from the ashes of the driders.
A moment of silence passed between us, and I studied the crimson dragon’s profile out of the corner of my eye. Valerra’s shoulders were high and tense, and she had her arms crossed tightly over her chest.
“Is your sister’s egg okay?” I asked as I stared out over the canyons.
Valerra sighed and sat next to me. “It’s fine.”
“That’s good. I know how much it means to you.”
“Of course it’s important,” Valerra grumbled. “It’s the last dragon egg in existence. It is the future of our kind.”
“Until … ” I trailed off.
“Until?” Valerra raised her eyebrow.
“I just filled you with at least a gallon of my seed,” I stated as I met her gaze evenly. “I know you want my child.”
“Yes,” she admitted. “You are … sometimes annoying, but you are powerful and … you please me.”
“I knew you loved me,” I snickered.
“Love?” she sneered. “Dragons need no such thing.”
“Fine then,” I chuckled. “You just love me cumming inside of you. Pretty much the same thing for you.”
“Why are you so--”
“Handsome and amazing?” I interrupted. “You picked a powerful mate with me, and I’m very happy with you so far. So, how long until you give me an egg?”
“--frustrating! That is what I wanted to say!” She rolled
her eyes. “Besides, I would like to have an egg of my own, but not until I know my children would be safe in this world. I don’t want to raise a hatchling to be afraid to live. I have a hard enough time keeping my sister’s child safe, I couldn’t imagine the stress of two eggs. Or one egg and a young hatchling.”
Her voice was gentle when she spoke, and I stared at her carefully. This was the first time I’d ever heard Valerra sound so caring about anything, and I understood her fears. She’d already witnessed the death of her family and survived the near extinction of her race. I couldn’t blame her for wanting to wait until the world was safe for us to raise a family. She was afraid, not that she would ever admit it, but she was afraid of losing her family again.
“You act as if you have a choice in the matter,” I sighed.
“What do you mean?” she scoffed. “I always have a choice.”
“Uhhh, you get to choose when you have a baby?”
“Yes,” she snorted.
“Were you paying attention to like … the whole hour before those ugly spider fuckers showed up?”
“What do you mean?” she repeated as she rolled her eyes. “You always speak in circles, Evan.”
“I just fucked your brains out.”
“So?” She raised an eyebrow.
“I filled you with like … a lot of my seed. Twice.”
“Yes … ”
“And you wanted it,” I continued.
“And your point?” she growled.
“You didn’t get pregnant the last time we fucked, but that could have just been luck. So, unless you have some sort of magical way to keep yourself infertile while I pump a gallon or two of my sperm in you, I’m going to guess you will be giving me a child soon.”
“I … I … ” Her eyes narrowed at me dangerously. “I don’t wish to talk about this anymore.”
“Sooooo, that’s a ‘no’ then,” I snickered.
“No?” she growled.
“Yeah,” I laughed now. “‘No,’ you can’t keep from getting pregnant with some sort of dragon magic. So, your little ‘woe is me, the world is too dangerous for me to lay another egg’ talk is just you projecting, since you begged for me to fill your womb. I did, twice, and you obviously want my child.”