“What’s wrong?” Timmy asked. “Has something else exploded since I last checked?”
Marden chuckled grimly. “Probably. But we were talking about the city’s power source. The teleportation device was never meant to teleport the entire city and a gigantic cosmic fungus at the same time. It still managed to get us back to our world, but it overloaded the star crystal that powers the city. To keep the star crystal from shattering, we were forced to shut it down. If we could replace it, we might have risked leaving it active, but it’s the only one of its kind in the world. No other star crystal comes close to it in terms of size or quality.”
“What? You don’t have another one out the back or something?” Timmy asked. Dwarves were notorious for hoarding precious gems and other valuables. It was a little difficult to believe they didn’t have a passable spare somewhere.
“It’s the largest star crystal in history,” Marden replied. “No, we do not have another one out the back.”
“Then we need to reactivate it,” Daerin said. “Because in case you haven’t noticed, we’re stuck on emergency power only, and I don’t like our odds of living through the next hour if we can’t move or shoot back. The barrier is barely holding on as it is.” As if to punctuate his words, the city shuddered again, and dust tumbled down from the ceiling. A monstrous bellow echoed out, and a titanic tentacle swung through the air, just barely missing the Sky City. Timmy looked heavenward. It looked like the eldritch abomination had recovered. Hopefully, someone in the empire would be stupid enough to attack it. If they were lucky, maybe the naval base and the otherworldly monster could kill each other. “Surely, there is a way to reactivate it.”
“Griffin knights!” a dwarf screamed as he ran past with a crossbow in hand. “They’re sending griffin knights! We need everyone with a bow or a crossbow over by the eastern side right now!”
“Oh, for crying out loud.” Timmy raised his voice. “Someone tell Spot – the dragon – and the roc riders. Gerald, let all of my flying zombies loose, every single one you’ve got.” Gerald gaped at him.
“All of them? Even… the… uh… really weird ones?”
“Yes, all of them. If it can fly and you’ve got it, I want you to send it out. The griffin knights are amongst the empire’s elite. They’re here to take down all of our anti-air defences, so the boarders can make it up safely. If we can’t fight them off, we’ll be buried under wave after wave of imperial soldiers. Not all of my flying zombies will be much help, but at this point, we need all of the help we can get.”
“Right.” Gerald ran out toward one of the courtyards. “I’ll be out here releasing all of your flying zombies. Is it okay if I take out a few of your other ones that can’t fly just in case any boarders make it up here?”
“On second thought, Gerald, just release all of my zombies – all of them. I’ll instruct them to follow orders, so let the dwarves know that they’ll be getting help once the boarders arrive.” Timmy smiled. “But keep at least two zombie warriors for yourself, Gerald, and don’t take any unnecessary risks, all right? Stay safe.”
“I’ll try,” Gerald replied. “But I’m not sure how much luck I’ll have.”
Timmy turned back to Marden. “Can we reactivate the star crystal?”
“I’d love to,” Marden said. “But we can’t – not right now, anyway.”
“Why not?” Timmy reached out to steady himself as another explosion rocked the city. Seriously? They needed to get moving. They were sitting ducks, and the empire wasn’t pulling its punches. Their magical weapons might not be working, but there were other ways to fight back. “Don’t you have catapults or something? Just hurl some rocks over the side of the city! Given how high we are, they’ll definitely do some damage.” Some of the dwarves rushing past must have heard him because it wasn’t long before catapults were being wheeled toward the city’s edge. “Marden, why can’t we reactivate the star crystal?”
The dwarf dragged out some plans and spread them across a table. “The star crystal doesn’t make energy. It harvests it from other worlds and dimensions. But to do that it needs to reach a certain temperature. Once it gets going, it’ll sustain itself, but getting there isn’t easy. The temperature we need is so high that we can’t produce it using normal methods. Instead, we use a step-up system. Basically, the ignition takes three steps. At each step, the heat increases until it’s finally hot enough to activate the star crystal. The system was damaged during the battle before we were able to teleport. It didn’t matter at the time because the star crystal was already active, so we didn’t have to worry about restarting it. But now…”
“Now, it’s stopped working, and you can’t get the right temperature to activate it again.” Timmy thought of a forge. If it wasn’t hot enough, then it was basically pointless. At least they still had emergency power. If they didn’t, they would already have fallen out of the sky. “How bad is the damage?”
“Bad.” Marden scowled.
“I was worried you’d say that.” Timmy silently counted to five in his head and then asked his next question. “Could Spot or Avraniel reactivate it?”
“If that dragon of yours was older, he might be able to pull it off, but he’s too young. His fire isn’t hot enough yet. You’d need an adult dragon to do it. Believe me, we tested it. As for the elf, her fire is hotter than the dragon’s, but even she can’t generate the heat we require.”
“Then we have to repair the system. You say the damage was bad, but how bad is it exactly?”
Marden pointed at the plans. “There, there, and there – we’ve got three major breaches in critical areas. I can handle one of those, you and one of my assistants could handle another, and Daerin and another one of my assistants could handle the third. My assistants should know what to do, but I don’t know if we have the tools, materials, or the time to make the repairs. Any advice you could offer would be helpful.”
“Heat conduit ruptures?” Daerin asked. Marden nodded, and the steel-beared dwarf cursed. “Those are tricky. But we’ll get it done. We haven’t got a choice.”
“Even if we can repair those critical breaches, the system still won’t be at full power,” Marden said. “We’ll have to hope it’s enough because a full repair to fix all of the damage would take days and equipment and materials we don’t have.”
“Then let’s hope it works – or that we’ve underestimated Avraniel,” Timmy replied.
The necromancer looked up as bells began to ring throughout the city. The first wave of griffin knights had begun their assault. They were resplendent in their armour and livery, and they cut a truly menacing picture as they dove, angling toward the Sky City with their magic and weapons at the ready. But they were not going to attack unopposed. They were met head on by Spot and the roc riders, along with a host of his flying zombies. The little dragon was no longer glowing, and he was once more almost entirely black with a small patch of white on his snout, but Timmy could still feel something different about him. Spot had awakened his astral dragon heritage, and he was determined to put it to good use.
With a cry, the dragon charged headlong at one griffin. The winged creature tried to rake him with its talons, but Spot flashed and turned intangible. The griffin’s attack went right through him, and Spot solidified a heartbeat later, his claws wrapped around the shoulders of the griffin’s startled rider. He wrenched the knight out of the saddle and hurled him toward the ground. He never made it, at least, not in one piece. Instead, a passing roc rider cleaved him in two with a thunderous blow of his axe as he and his massive bird swept past.
“Come on, Gerald!” Timmy cried as he followed Marden’s assistant to one of the problem areas. The bureaucrat turned wide eyes from the growing aerial battle and ran after him. They reached a massive pipe of some kind that had been badly broken in some areas and was simply missing in others. “You!” he pointed at Marden’s assistant. “Tell me what I’m looking at.”
“This is a second stage delivery conduit.” The dwarf
was already breaking out his tools and calling for materials from the other dwarves that had accompanied them. “It takes heat and energy from the second ignition stage and delivers it to the third stage. We need to seal it, so it can carry that heat and energy properly.” The dwarf grimaced. “But you can see for yourself. It’s a mess. We also don’t have the necessary parts on hand to make such big repairs. We were only on a short trip when we vanished, so we didn’t bring along large quantities of the more exotic materials needed to make the delivery conduits from scratch.”
“What materials do you need?” Timmy asked. Gerald was a hoarder, and he had an incredibly wide range of things stored away with his magic. As the dwarf began to rattle off materials, Gerald pulled out whatever he had. “Is that all you’ve got, Gerald?”
Gerald winced. “I think so.”
Timmy patted him on the back. It was a lot, but it wasn’t everything they needed. “Thanks. It’s a good start.” As the dwarves and his fellows got to work, Timmy watched intently. He wasn’t an engineer, but he was an expert in runes and seals, both of which were heavily utilised in the repairs. He frowned. An idea was coming to him. They needed more exotic materials because carrying so much heat and energy was impossible using more mundane materials, even with runes and seals to offer added protection. But if they only needed the system to work long enough to get the star crystal activated again, there might be something they could try. It wouldn’t hold for long, but it might hold long enough.
“Those runes and seals, what are they for?” Timmy asked one of the dwarves.
“Those are the main enhancement and protection runes and seals. Even more exotic materials can’t take the heat for long. The chief engineer says you’re an expert. Have you got any ideas?”
Timmy knelt by the mangled pipe. This was not going to be easy. The dwarves clearly had a routine way of doing things, and it wasn’t necessarily one he agreed with. However, he had no choice. The runes and seals they were using would never be able to keep the conduit intact with so much of it missing. The materials Gerald had provided would let them patch the holes, but they just weren’t durable enough even with the runes and seals enhancing and protecting them. However, he did know some runes and seals that might be able to do the job although they’d be lucky to last for more than half an hour or so once they started exposing them to heat and energy. He nodded. They’d have to risk it. “I know some runes and seals that could make the materials we’ve got durable enough for the conduit to function properly, but they won’t hold for long.”
“Is that so? Then let’s get to work. We don’t need them to hold for long. The activation process should only take about fifteen minutes if it actually works.” The dwarf smiled grimly. “Besides, we don’t have much time. If we don’t hurry up and get the star crystal working again, we’ll all be dead inside the hour – ah!”
The Sky City rocked beneath them, and Timmy had to grab the conduit to keep his balance. Gerald went sprawling, and one of the dwarves yanked him up to his feet. Someone bellowed over the din. “Their damn fleet is opening fire! They’re hammering us from the starboard side. Those bastards have dreadnoughts that can still reach us while we’re in the air.” There was a titanic roar followed by a sound like a mountain splitting in half. The same voice burst into laughter. “Oh, you’ve got to see this! One of those imperial idiots down there hit the giant fungus monster with a salvo, and now that overgrown mushroom is fighting the fleet!”
“Let’s hope they kill each other,” Timmy muttered. “Gerald, we’re on the starboard side of the city. Go see if any of the repair teams need more materials. Once you’re done, go have a look. Maybe you could throw some explosives at them. I’m sure the demolition rats left you with at least a couple of big ones you could use.” Before Gerald could take two steps, Katie arrived. She had been helping Amanda fight off some of the smaller cosmic fungi when they had teleported. The former councillor must have sent her over now that they’d dealt with any fungi that might have come along when they teleported.
“Master!”
“I’m a little busy,” Timmy said. Assuming they could seal the conduit, the runes and seals Timmy needed to add were extremely complex. A single mistake would leave the conduit too weak to take the increase heat and energy, and it would most likely explode and kill the lot of them. “Can you help Gerald? See if the other repair teams need anything. Once you’re done, take a look over the starboard side. There is a fleet bombarding us, and it’s hard to fix anything when the city keeps shaking. Do anything you can to slow them down, but don’t put yourself in unnecessary danger.”
“Right!” Katie nodded firmly and adjusted her glasses before grabbing Gerald’s hand. It was good to see her holding strong under pressure. On her shoulder, Rembrandt’s expression was one of grim determination. If he had to murder his way through an entire naval base of imperial troops to keep Katie safe, then he would do it without a second thought. Katie was in good hands – or paws – and as poorly as he and Rembrandt got along, he knew he could trust him to keep an eye on his apprentice. “Come on, Gerald. Let’s go.”
Timmy laughed madly as the city shook again. Someone screamed for more repair crews as someone else screamed that all of the damn repair crews were already doing their damn best. “Nothing like working under pressure, eh?”
The dwarf grinned toothily. “Aye.” He pointed behind them. “Griffin.” Timmy reached out to one of his zombies. A zombie wyvern tackled the griffin, throwing it off course before he gestured with his shovel. A lump of rock ripped free of the ground and hurtled toward the griffin. With an angry screech, the animal tossed his zombie wyvern aside, and its magic flared to ward off the rock. However, it was not prepared for the wind lance that fired a moment later. Its magic blunted the attack, but the force behind the attack was still enough to throw it and its rider into a nearby building. The griffin tumbled to the ground as masonry fell around it, and its rider did his best to shield it from the avalanche of debris. A band of angry dwarves arrived with crossbows and axes at the ready.
“Well…” the dwarf murmured. “That’s one way to deal with a griffin.”
“Whatever works,” Timmy replied. He began to sketch a design for the runes and seals he needed on a piece of parchment. “Come on! Less talking and more working! I don’t plan on dying today!”
* * *
Spot raced through the air. This was what he lived for, what part of his soul had always longed for – aerial combat against foes capable of matching him in the skies that were his domain by birth. He wasn’t alone. Some of the ninja rats were clinging onto him in their glider suits, and they were busy calling out instructions and warning him about potential threats. He was a dragon, but he still only had two eyes. With half a dozen ninja rats on his back, it should be almost impossible to ambush him.
Soaring up over the battlefield, Spot flapped his wings and took a moment to observe the battle. There were more than a hundred griffin knights locked in combat with almost as many roc riders. Individually, the griffin knights had the advantage. Griffins were faster and more agile than rocs, and they also had powerful magic that could protect them and enhance their powers whereas strong magic was much more rare amongst the rocs. The griffin knights themselves also had magic, and they were adept at using their weapons – spears, lances, swords, crossbows, and other things – in aerial combat. Where the roc riders had the edge was cooperation. From what some of the dwarves had told him, rocs lived in large groups in the wild, and they fought the same way, attacking together to bring down the stronger griffins. Spot bared his teeth. He was a dragon. Maybe it was the excitement of battle, but he wanted to fight the strongest griffin he could. One of the rats squeaked, and he turned his head. A griffin knight in bright red colours had downed one roc rider with a blast of lightning before bashing in the skull of another roc with his war hammer. A third roc fell soon after as his griffin tore it to shreds. Spot snarled. He had found his opponent!
Unleashing a roar o
f challenge, Spot dove. The wind raced past, and he folded his wings to up his speed. At the last moment, the griffin knight saw him. The other flier banked sharply, and Spot went just wide. He unfurled his wings to try and cut the griffin with their blade-like edges, but the griffin managed to jerk clear of the attack. With a battle cry of its own, the griffin and its knight burst into motion. A bolt of lightning raced toward him, and Spot twisted to avoid it. Another soon followed, and Spot continued his descent, spinning and twirling to throw the knight’s aim off. The griffin kept pace, following him as the battle raged around them. Spot dove in and out of duels, but the griffin was right on his tail. Another bolt of lightning flashed past, and Spot felt the tingle of it as it barely missed. One of the rats shouted a warning, and he turned sharply. A war hammer wreathed in electricity rushed past him and then shot back up to return to its wielder.
The surface of the ocean was only moments away, and Spot growled a warning. The ninja rats tightened their grip and braced themselves. He hit the water at full speed and knifed through it. He doubted the griffin would follow. Dragons were creatures of fire and wind, but they were perfectly at home in the water too. Griffins, from what his mother had told him, were awkward swimmers that did their best to avoid underwater fighting. Sure enough, the griffin was nowhere in sight. Once he’d gone deep enough, he turned and flapped his wings to build up speed. He bared his teeth. All those hours of practice in the lake near the castle were paying off. He burst out of the water more than a hundred yards from where he’d entered it. The griffin was hanging close to the surface while its knight kept a close eye on the waves. Spot gave a low rumble and charged.
He hit the griffin at full speed and bounced off the magic that protected it. The impact rattled his teeth, but fire rushed through his veins. This was the fight he’d wanted. The avian rounded on him, talons and beak flashing in the sun, and Spot belched black fire. The magic protecting the griffin began to fade, and the two of them were suddenly locked in close combat. They soared upward, biting and clawing, and the knight raised his war hammer to strike at Spot’s head only to topple back as one of the ninja rat’s leapt off Spot’s back and jammed his dagger into the knight’s eye. The griffin gave a cry of outrage and batted Spot aside. Sparks flew as its talons scraped off Spot’s scales. The stranded ninja rat took one look at the enraged griffin and leapt off it. The bird-lion lunged for the falling rodent, and Spot howled, hurling himself forward. He wasn’t about to let a griffin eat one of his friends! He thumped into the griffin again, and the ninja rat tumbled past. The rodent used his glider suit to angle toward a nearby roc rider.
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