Zaviana mounted the dragon, secured herself in the saddle, and nodded. “Yes, I’m ready.”
45
Paedyn cackled as Pyro let another flame escape his mouth. It spiraled toward a dragon. The effect was nearly pointless, at least, for one with an inexperienced eye. Irritated, the dragon turned its attention to Paedyn and Pyro. Paedyn, being a gentleman, stuck his tongue out at the dragon. Growling, the dragon gave chase.
“Fly, Pyro!”
A bond formed between man and wyvern. Pyro knew to trust Paedyn without a doubt. It hadn’t taken long for them to develop the bond. Once Pyro fully realized how insane Paedyn was, he realized when Paedyn told him to do something, it was because there was a likely chance Paedyn had done something stupid. This time, however, it was Pyro’s flame that had irked the dragon, a trait Pyro learned from Paedyn.
Fighting fire against fire wasn’t an easy task. Paedyn and Pyro knew it. There was little chance a fire wyvern could defeat a fire dragon. The best-case scenario would be to surprise the dragonrider by catching him or the saddle on fire, but to do such a thing wasn’t practical, and quite the challenge. Instead, Paedyn convinced Pyro to be foolish. They flew into battle without fear, and they fled just as gallantly. All they had to do was distract the dragonriders. The other wyvernriders would do the rest.
The dragon gained on them. Dragons were fast, faster than wyverns over long distances. But as far as maneuverability over short distances, wyverns excelled, and Pyro escaped the clutches of the dragon easily. Fire blazed behind them, but Pyro dipped to the side, then flew backward, getting behind the dragon. He let go of another breath of fire, striking the dragonrider on the back of the head. The dragon jerked to the side, saving its rider from further fire. However, it wasn’t enough. Just as they escaped the clutches of Pyro’s fire, a green wyvern appeared, spewing green acid at the dragonrider, melting his face off as it came in contact.
Paedyn cringed at the sight, but he also smiled. He’d succeeded again in distracting another dragon.
“Five,” Paedyn said.
What? Pyro asked.
“Have you ever heard of an assist?” Paedyn asked.
Like, as in, we assisted that wyvern in the kill?
“Precisely,” Paedyn said. “When you play a game with an ally, you often create an attack, or a move, that assists the other to get points. That’s what we’re doing. And that, my friend, is our fifth assist.”
So, what you’re effectively saying is, because of us, five dragonriders have fallen, Pyro said.
Yes, Paedyn said in his head toward Pyro as the wind became too much.
Pyro nose-dived toward the ground as another dragon appeared. Flames consumed the place where they had just lingered. Paedyn inhaled deeply, smelling the air.
“Ah, I love the smell of fire,” Paedyn said aloud to no one in particular.
You and me both, Pyro said.
They circled around the next dragon. Pyro continued his effort of distraction as he blew fire toward the creature. Meanwhile, Paedyn glanced around to watch the battle. As far as he could tell, the resistance was dominating. The ground force had broken through the empire’s defenses, and the drakes were unstoppable. He saw a few of the mounted riders had fallen off their mounts, either injured or dead, but the drakes continued rampaging into the crowd of the empire, and they weren’t stopped easily. Spells were tossed about all over the place, and as far as Paedyn could tell from his distance far up in the sky, they only came from one side: the resistance. The empire didn’t have any spell casters with them, and Paedyn wondered if they had any at all. The problem with the emperor was that he wanted all the power. Paedyn believed the emperor didn’t want to share the power locked inside of the dragon stone with anyone else. And Paedyn began to wonder if the emperor made trips over to the stone to try and siphon energy from it for himself. Had this been why he was so interested in Zaviana, someone who had been able to take power from the stone? Now that they had the stone, it was obvious that not everyone could use it. Was the emperor trying to discover who was able to take power from it, and was he trying to learn why, so he could take all the power for himself? The dragon stone had only worked on nine people and Zaviana, and Paedyn wondered if all that power had gone into one person, could a single person be as powerful as nine?
Paedyn looked back to the battle in the sky. Pyro had maneuvered around the dragon again, nipping at its tail. The dragon squealed as it reared its neck back, nearly reaching Paedyn. Not missing a beat, Paedyn unsheathed his sword and jabbed it upward into the soft spot under the dragon’s throat. It penetrated hard, and the dragon shrieked before wavering unsteadily in the air. Paedyn knew all about the weak points of a dragon and a wyvern. He’d spent a lot of time studying them, and was grateful he had. There weren’t many places where the scales were separated enough to penetrate with a blade, and the few places it was weak, there was little margin. But, thankfully, Paedyn’s weapon had always been a rapier, and its blade was thin enough, and if aimed precisely, could penetrate between the separated scales.
When the dragon reared to the side, an ice wyvern appeared, ice shooting from its mouth and into the wounded dragon’s mouth as it shrieked. The dragon’s head froze solid, and it began its descent toward the ground. Paedyn grinned, but stopped abruptly when the dragonrider unstrapped himself and leapt into the air. He wasn’t committing suicide by jumping to the ground off of the wyvern, but jumping straight toward Paedyn. The man landed behind him, dagger in hand. Pyro’s saddle wasn’t nearly as large as the dragon’s, and so the man clung to Paedyn’s back tightly as he tried to position his dagger. Paedyn attempted to use his rapier as a bee swatter to hit the man, but he dodged every attempt.
The man wrapped his arms around Paedyn’s neck. Air left Paedyn’s lungs, and he frantically tried to hit the man with his rapier, but his strikes were unsuccessful. Pyro tried to jerk to the left and right, but the man’s arms were wrapped too tightly around Paedyn’s throat. He would not be unbalanced, and each jerk Pyro made only hurt Paedyn more. His grip loosened on his rapier, and it slipped from his hand and fell the long distance to the ground. Paedyn’s vision darkened, and he almost lost consciousness when he reached into his sash. His fingertips could barely feel anything as he wrapped them around a vial. He brought his hand up, trembling all the while, and slammed his palm onto the man’s forehead. Glass shattered.
Cold. Unbelievable, unbearable cold traveled through Paedyn’s fingertips. The grip around his neck loosened. He jerked against it, but he could feel the cold penetrating his bones as well. With one last struggle, Paedyn broke free of the grip. The man’s arm shattered in front of him, and Paedyn turned his head in time to watch as the man, who was now frozen into a solid form of ice, slipped from behind the saddle and tumbled off of Pyro. Paedyn smiled as he watched the man. Then, he too stopped moving, as the blue ice covered his entire body, trapping him inside.
46
Naveen touched the purple wyvern scale around her neck. Truth be told, she didn’t know if it was a wyvern scale or a dragon scale. Her mother had given it to her and had told her to protect it with her life. Being a child at the time, she hadn’t really understood the significance of the scale. She’d always been gifted as a child. It was something her mother was proud of, and her father feared. Naveen had never understood why, until the villagers had hung her mother from a tree for practicing witchcraft.
Witchcraft. Was magic such a curse? For the longest time, everyone believed so. Though, if stories could be believed, long ago there was no such stigma for witchcraft, or for magic. Only during the last hundred years had it become something to be feared. Naveen began to wonder if the emperor had something to do with it. Had he ingrained in their heads that witchcraft was bad, all because he wanted to keep people with magical talents from rising against his empire?
The idea was not so farfetched once Naveen thought about it. The empire had been in existence for around a hundred years, and if the resistance could be believe
d, the emperor had been alive over a hundred because of his connection to his dragon.
Naveen looked around her. She was surrounded by soldiers. Melee men and women wielding shields and swords stood in front of her. Archers nocked arrows behind her. Crossbowmen strung bolts at her side. The battle was in full force. All the while, Naveen stood still, fingering her purple scale. Being a leader of sorts, she was given a scale of each color to hang around her neck, and yet, she still fingered the purple one.
She supposed she was a little upset that the dragon stone hadn’t worked for her. Zaviana had given her the next best thing: a scale of each color, and a small vial of each color of wyvern oil. Her power was nearly limitless just like Zaviana’s, though not as trained. And yet, it still bothered her that the dragon stone hadn’t given her the innate ability like it had Zaviana and nine other spell casters. What was it about them that made them more worthy?
Two warriors broke through the front line of swordsmen. They rushed straight toward Naveen. She focused her energy and sent a wave of wind directly at them. Once it impacted them, they both flew dozens of feet up in the air and back into the ranks of empire soldiers.
Naveen stretched. She had a few spell casters near her, but they were all novices. Devarius had done a good job separating everyone out. Each master spell caster had their own section they were in charge of, and for the most part, it was working. However, the hardest part was keeping focus during the battle. For a spell caster, there wasn’t much action. As much as she wanted to run out into the battlefield, she knew it was impractical. There were just too many empire soldiers. By a quick glance, Naveen suspected the number of empire soldiers was double, if not triple, the number there had been when they attacked Saefron.
However, despite that, the resistance was winning. They were pushing the empire back. The numbers were near even, but it looked like the resistance had a few more on the ground, but it shouldn’t have made much of a difference because of how inexperienced the militia was. Naveen cheered as they rushed ahead to charge deeper into the empire’s ranks.
With renewed vigor, the resistance yelled into the air and pushed deeper into the empire.
Naveen smiled as she followed them. The battle had been too easy. She remembered the last battle against the empire being much harder, though she knew if it were just them, without the villagers, they’d be outnumbered by a good bit.
A shadow came across the sky. Naveen halted, skidding to a stop, dirt flying in the air behind her. She looked up. Dragons swarmed the sky. When they had begun the battle, there had only been one hundred to two hundred dragonriders. But now, there were at least triple that number.
Naveen’s jaw dropped. Her eyes bulged. She shook with terror as she watched. The wyvernriders were doing well when they outnumbered the dragonriders, or at least matched them, but now they were outnumbered three to one.
She refocused her energy. If they began to fail in the sky, the least she could do was help the ground take over. Naveen refused to give up without a fight. She rushed forward, joining the fight more intensely, casting spells left and right. Naveen used all of her abilities, casting fire, ice, acid, wind, and lightning. With her help, the melee fighters were able to push even farther into the empire’s men. Hope was not lost. Naveen would not allow it to be lost.
A primal yell escaped her lips as she pressed forward. Sweat beaded against her brow and covered her arms. The cold of late winter was no longer on her mind. All around her, all she felt was warmth. A fire burned within her, and her vigor transferred to all the men and women around her. They would not give up.
The empire’s ranks faltered, and more resistance pushed through. Naveen didn’t let up as she continued to use her purple scale to direct her energy. The main problem with wind, was she couldn’t siphon any energy from a vial like with the other elements. There was no special oil from a purple wyvern’s uvula. It was their lungs, and perhaps a little bit of magic in their blood, that allowed them to use the wind. However, Naveen was also most practiced with wind.
In the beginning of the battle, she and all the spell casters agreed to keep their magic conservative. There was no need to burn out, or tire from exhaustion. However, now that Naveen had seen the new threat, all dice were off the table. If they couldn’t make it happen in the sky, she would make sure to give them an edge on the ground.
Horns blared in the distance, and Naveen ceased her offensive magical attacks for a moment to catch her breath. She didn’t recognize the horn, and it wasn’t coming from behind her. Dazed with confusion for a moment, she glanced around.
Her heart sank. She stumbled backward. All her renewed energy faded. Her body trembled.
“No, no, no, no,” she whispered.
Men marched from the north toward them. They weren’t other villagers; they were empirical soldiers. And there were a lot of them. At first glance, Naveen knew there were more soldiers approaching than in the beginning of the battle of both the empire and resistance combined. If she were to make an educated guess, there were at least ten thousand empirical soldiers marching in the distance. And they were headed straight for her.
47
Devarius was grateful the dragon stone worked. He didn’t know if he could get it to work with the other humans, but at least he knew it would work for restoring a dragon’s power. He rode Onyarious into battle, and was able to get close enough to another nine dragons. Devarius touched the stone to their hides, and after what at first was a shocking revelation, with Onyarious’ help, they were able to calm the dragons and explain to them what happened.
It warmed his heart to see the intelligence return to the dragons. They were themselves again, something they hadn’t been since birth. However, they weren’t able to continue their task. The empire began to catch on, and would no longer let them get close enough. Even being on Onyarious’ back didn’t fool any of the other dragons. They began to fight against Devarius and Onyarious, using blazing flames and claws. Devarius frowned as they maneuvered between dragons and out of the battle.
I’m sorry, Onyarious. I’m going to have to go back to fighting them. We’re not getting through to them, and I can’t get close enough to use the dragon stone on any others.
I understand, Onyarious said.
I want you and the other dragons to leave this battle and get your lives back.
We will not leave without you, Onyarious said. You saved us. We owe you our lives.
I cannot save all of you, Devarius admitted. We’re going to have to attack dragons, and I don’t want you to be here for that. Please.
Onyarious nodded. We will leave, for now, and we will discuss amongst ourselves what we can do to help.
Onyarious carried Devarius to the mountain where the small camp where the archers stayed was located. At first, the archers looked up, terrified, but Devarius signaled down to them not to loose arrows. When he landed, everyone began to bombard them with questions. Devarius brushed them off as he watched Onyarious flap his wings and climb back up into the air.
Ayla approached him, nudging her nose into his shoulder. Devarius smiled back at her, took a deep breath, then rubbed her nose.
“Are you ready?” Devarius asked.
Yes.
Devarius mounted Ayla, and together they flew up into the sky. It didn’t take long to get into the midst of battle. Flames erupted everywhere, and they traversed through dragons. Ayla continued to dodge claws, snouts, and fire. She used her ice breath as much as she could as she flew between pairs of dragons.
Holding onto Ayla tight, Devarius led her away from another fire attack. She nose-dived away from another spiraling flame attack. Clenching his eyes shut, he tried to think of some way to get an edge against the dragonriders. They had done fine in the beginning, and had actually been winning, but that was before the several hundred additional dragonriders appeared. Devarius wondered at the timing. Had they only just arrived, or had the empire been keeping reserves in hiding?
Devarius? Ayla asked in
his mind.
Yes?
I have more bad news.
I am sick of bad news, Devarius growled.
Ten thousand empire soldiers approach the battle from the north.
Is it just me, or does this all seem orchestrated?
The empire knew it would draw us out. The emperor sent his all—at least, that’s how it looks, Ayla said.
We cannot win, Devarius admitted.
No, we cannot.
Then, let’s give them something to remember us by.
Devarius made sure he was secure in the saddle, then unsheathed his sword. Using a sword in aerial combat wasn’t the easiest thing to do, and for the most part, Devarius stayed away from it. He normally had Ayla take him higher so he could see the battlefield around him. Devarius had an easier time seeing the overall battle than Ayla did in the midst of it. However, desperate, he decided to try a different approach.
Ayla, I have an idea, Devarius projected.
Ayla’s head tilted toward him as she dodged the flames of another dragon.
I want you to take me close to the dragons’ wings.
Which dragons? she asked.
All of them. Their wings are their weakest points. I want to slash them, you freeze them, and we don’t stay on one dragon for too long. We attack, then fly to the next dragon. Let’s see how much damage we can do.
You want to weaken them for the others.
Devarius smiled. Yes.
Ayla nodded her head as she shifted her wings to ascend. Devarius focused his gaze. It was hard to hold his sword steady against the air pressure of her flight, but he managed to cling hard. When they reached the first dragon, Ayla blew her cold breath at the joint between the wing and the dragon’s back. Devarius held his sword steady as she soared as close to the wing as she could. Devarius swung his sword hard at the frozen joint. He heard it shatter as they passed by the dragon.
Dragonia- Dragonia Empire series Box Set Page 57