Murd Halavish had been one of the few orcs that had really bought into the ledger system. Sure, it had been hokey, but he got it. You just recorded things, and then you recorded them again somewhere else. It was like having a spare set of books. You could use them in case you lost the first set. For years, he traveled the kingdom, leveling up his accountant card skills.
His mother had passed on her mother’s skill card to him when she passed. It was a heritage card that had been a soul card. Even when he took it, it had the text scratched out where it would have said that it was a soil card.
He had leveled it up, taking the class from level five all the way to level eight. He was proud of how he had taken his grandmother’s accomplishment and improved upon it.
It had been a rare card, something that he was proud of.
“You’re making your grandmother proud,” his mother Lana said. “She would have wanted to see it.”
On his rare trips to the capital, he always checked in on his mother, especially when her health took a turn. He couldn’t have lived with himself otherwise. She kept a stiff upper lip whenever she returned, but the same crippling sickness that affected his grandmother seemed to continue on with her.
So he spent all he had to make a druid card, hoping beyond hope he could learn a spell to save her. Day after day, he did the most to train his healing and his spell casting. Every time he returned, she was worse, and he pushed harder against the powers of his class card.
“Why won’t it just let me heal you?” He said, pounding his hands against the wall. But there was nothing you could do. All the healers agreed that, try as he might. The only thing that helped her was his presence.
He asked her if she would let him give her his druid card, but she refused. He told her that while shipping into an animal might relieve her symptoms, but she still had the shakes and she couldn’t keep it from him. She told him it was nice, but that it wasn’t for her and then she was done.
That was the day that the world ended.
Murd stepped outside of the infirmary to see dozens of green-skinned Orcs suddenly turn on their brothers and sisters, doing their best to eat each other. The sight shocked him.
He was so shocked that he missed it when one nurse came up and bit him on the arm. Of course, it didn’t take immediately. He stumbled around for almost ten minutes, running and holding his bitten arm, before succumbing to the illness. And there he was, watching himself slowly turn into a zombie as he lost his mind.
---
He snapped back to himself, remembering the months of drudgery. Something had turned him into a zombie.
He remembered getting orders and going out and doing things for an unseen master. Who remembered? Being unable to do anything but silently think about how he would rebel with any opportunity. The only time that he could fully process what was going on was when it was dark and there was no work to do. That was the only time they rested. Whoever was in charge of them didn’t want them to sully themselves at night.
They just wanted a ready and able force of servants.
For months, he didn’t understand why he was still conscious, as this was going on.
Then the airships appeared. Suddenly, the master tried to send everyone to attack the airships. Offensive spells, as he had shaped his druidic spells to be of the healing and defense types, Murd was at a loss.
Then dragons flew up, a common sight that he would never get used to.
They were fighting the airships, and the airships had an advantage for the first time in months. Hope entered his heart. It felt like it had been several lifetimes.
Then he saw a familiar figure. The goat lord was visiting him. It had a question for him, and he knew exactly what to say.
Murd couldn’t say it with his mouth because he wasn’t in control, but he let the Goat Lord know his intention.
That was enough.
Around him, Orcs glowed, a bright white flame appearing and disappearing just as fast.
He could feel his full faculties returning. He stretched his hands and he roared into the heavens.
It was then that the goat lord sent him a second gift.
Murd blinked.
An icon appeared near the side of the Capital. It called out to him.
He knew what it was, and what he had to do.
He knew how strong he was. And he was going to do exactly what the goat said.
Murd Wild-Shaped into a giant eagle and took off.
---
“Hey is that a giant eagle that just appeared out of nowhere?” A dwarf said, leaning over.
“It appears to be.”
“Is it attacking us?”
“It doesn’t seem to be doing that.”
“Well, does it look like a zombie or no?”
“It looks like a pretty bog standard giant eagle, if you ask me.”
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Both dwarves regarded the bird briefly and then returned to firing their cannons. It was the Dwarven way.
---
The Giant eagle was going directly in the path of Sophie. Or at least, it wanted to go. Something shifted in the battle.
As her strength returned to her, she realized that perhaps there was an opportunity for someone not of the chosen to enact their revenge. It would be just right for her to summon or resurrect someone in order to fulfill some sort of prophecy.
A crowd of Orcs began attacking other Orcs. Sophie blinked.
“Look at that crowd!” She yelled. “We’ve got to save them!”
They really hadn’t been talking about the contingency of one god suddenly resurrecting a mass of enlightened from the zombie states. But if it was going to happen? It would happen now. And of course, what happened to Sophie and the brave people in her airship? She only had the glare at the cock swaying twice before they concentrated on the fire around the group of Orcs.
It was pretty clear which Orcs were living enlightened and which ones were zombies because the living ones were far lighter skinned. Many explosions of Mana around them lit up their faces as well. Sophie sent several gouts of flame out over it. Trying to create a clear corridor for them to escape. Because there was no telling if these Orcs had spell casting powers or any useful card powers at all. All that she could tell was that they were just resurrected, and that they were fighting like heck.
---
Sonia stood up to see another airship descending. The single dragon that had been only hit on the side by her earth spear was now back up in the air. Sonya was back up online as well.
Several fireballs at the dragon, trying to distract it as the rest of the ship turned to get it into range. The many attacks buffeted the dragon, pushing it back in mid-air and causing it to lose altitude again.
The surrounding dwarves rained down upon it, not giving it a chance to return. Return. Sonya tracked the movement of the Giant eagle as it moved towards a part of the capital where they hadn’t yet attacked.
“Turn the airship!” she yelled. “That way!”
She pointed towards where the eagle was going. She wasn’t sure if her words were going over.
It was a very loud time in her life.
After their contained barrage visibly destroyed the dragon on the ground, the airship headed toward the giant eagle.
---
The Last Dragon just didn’t want to agree with Anthony. He was spending all of his Mana trying to nail it down. Well. Sonia had taken down two dragons abilities, the third one that had escaped from her destruction had made a beeline for him as if trying to figure out which one would cause the most emotional damage. Or at least the most emotional damage to him.
A fall would cause him both emotional and physical damage. It was not his preference.
He was for the soft life. But right now? That life wasn’t for him.
That’s how he found himself as one. Too many spouts of black flame threatened to down his airship. He was already calling for a tactical landing, looking for the safest spot for them to disembark. Disembark. Was far safer for them on the ground where they didn’t have to worry about falling. They still had to worry about the dragon, but he was one of the chosen and if anyone could deal with a dragon, it would be him.
He just wanted to prove it to himself that he could deal with the dragon, perhaps some sort of simulation where he could control all the outcomes and really just not have to worry about the reality of a dragon in his face.
It was about that time that he realized his cleric class had finally passed its divine spell casting to level eight. It had felt like he’d been waiting for years. According to the one book that he’d gotten on the topic, this was the time at which he could use the spell that he had been waiting on for so long.
Anthony smiled.
As they landed their airship, the black flame from the balloon slowly enveloping it and turning it into a real problem, Anthony focused. He didn’t want to create just any spell effect. He was waiting for a very particular, very specific spell effect he had theory crafted with his girls over months.
An aperture opened halfway down the dragon’s spine.
The portal opened up in the blink of an eye, enveloping half the dragon as one half decided to go forward and the other half decided to go through the portal to a location that was much higher than it had been.
The dragon, robbed of the musculature to fly, dropped.
The front half of the Dragon smashed into the ground ahead of them, 5 seconds later followed by the back half of the Dragon.
He was really going to enjoy telling this story later.
---
Finley was ready to unveil the work of his entire lifetime. He just needed someone to believe in his dream.
“Boss, I don’t think anyone’s going to want to eat dragon meat on a stick,” Tumble said.
“You say that now, Tumble, but what if they do? And what if I can corner the market before anyone else knows that there’s a market?” Finley said.
“Still, I don’t think...you know what?” Tumble said. “Let’s try it.”
Finley couldn’t wait. He was sure that the lizard folk would try to impede in his efforts.
“So what is a dragon meat actually going to be made of?”
“That’s a good question,” Finley said.
---
Thousands of pounds of what had been a dragon lay smoking on the ground. The air was thick with the aura of magic that exuded from the mashed together corpses.
Anthony scoffed. He tied a bandana around his face, covering his mouth and nose. It wouldn’t be the first time he did that or the last.
The balloon was toast. Anthony did not want to sit around, so they kept moving. The dragon that was circling around them was taking potshots at the other airships. That was unacceptable. Anthony sided down the dragon’s wing, doing. It’s his best to predict when it would slow down, stop or get into his view in just the right way. Then he extended his arm and shot a holy bolt, aiming for the base of One Wing. If you could shear off a wing at the connecting musculature, then he could get it out of the sky.
All he really wanted that moment was to get out of the sky. He wasn’t asking for some barbecue or like a case of beer. All he really wanted was for his shot to hit.
It glanced off.
He lined up another and then another and then another. Each shot he made had gone straight through the dragon, but had hit nothing important. The sanity was trying to hit. The musculature of the wing had so far remained unharmed. If he wanted to take the dragon down, he was going to have to spend more Mana on it.
Anthony side, digging deep into his resolve.
He shot it three more times before he got it right where he wanted.
The dragon was an outward loop, and it spiraled to the ground. Of course, the wing flew the other direction, landing just short of him.
Typical.
Anthony not squared off against a single winged dragon on the ground.
He grabbed one of the mortar tubes, ripping it off of the mount.
He was going dragon hunting.
----------------------------------------
Sonya’s airship circled the last dragon as Anthony and his group of dwarves did their best to contain the large lizard. Of course, he would be down there and I think of it. As the group’s best healer, Sonya could count on him to be in the middle of a fight. She just had wished that he might wait for a beat.
The line of fire. He was, in fact, keeping his distance from the dragon as he lobbed round after round. She just wanted him to be miles away from where they were, safe and behind a bunch of invincible doors.
But they didn’t have a bunch of invincible doors to hide your boyfriend from anywhere nearby. They had a duchy with a place for them to stay when this is all done, but right now? All they had was this battle. There was going to be more, but first they had to get through this.
With a sigh, she began to once again draw from the Earth. She envisioned what she wanted and pushed out. Two enormous dragon sized hands and forearms pulled out of the dirt, and then immediately buried half of the Dragon. Where the first half of the dragon was trying to use its flames to destroy as much as it could, now Sonya smothered it.
This left Anthony standing there caked and dust and mud. He waved up at her airship and she waved back excitedly. Now that all three dragons were down and done with, she could start clearing the area around Anthony.