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Nathan drew his pistol and ducked behind a large black goo soaked crate in the hanger area. Amara quickly channeled her maetrayopts spell and readied herself for combat. Yasiin teleported to a better vantage point and took aim with his spell rifle.
“Two hatchlings. They kind of look like the goon squad we fought on Eryn.”
Amara’s brow furrowed. Why would they be here? Are they after the Theferis too? “We make our stand here. We can’t let them have the ship.”
“Understood.” Yasiin said.
“Do you guys run into this kind of situation often?” Nathan asked, a hint of uncertainty in his voice.
“More or less.” Amara offered with a shrug.
Nathan didn’t look reassured by that. He was clearly wondering what he’d just gotten himself mixed up in. To his credit, though, he stayed his ground. There wasn’t much ground to stand on. They weren’t in their own timeline or reality. He was stuck here till they went home.
“Are you sure you’ll be alright?”
Nathan glanced up and nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be ok.” He wasn’t a stranger to trouble. He just didn’t like how it found him so much. “I’ve had to fend off the occasional pirate or treasure hunter from time to time, but dragonkin hatchlings is a little out of my wheelhouse.”
“Fortunately, professor, hatchlings are our specialty.” Amara said with a grin.
Nathan glanced down at the horrendous smelling black goop that felt like it was trying to crawl up his boots. It was like sentient muck. He allowed himself a moment to be distracted by the goop enough to rub it between his finger and thumb. It was like blood, but half congealed. Heavy footsteps struck the deck ahead and he flicked the goop free and wiped his hand off on a handkerchief and gripped his pistol.
The hanger bay went quiet save for the two hatchlings who stalked into it silently. Where ever Amara and Yasiin were, he couldn’t see them anymore. That left him feeling even more exposed. He hoped he hadn’t gotten himself mixed up in something too seriously.
Yasiin drew a silent breath in as he zoomed in his scope on the hatchlings. The light from inside the dock command center backlit them enough he could make out details. Both had muddy brown scales with patches of sickly greenish white. One bore a set of spell armor that set a shiver up his spine. The other wore simple robes, carrying a spell stave and an enchanted tome that looked a lot like Rozien.
“They’ve got the book.” Yasiin said into his armor’s mic.
Amara hissed out several curses before taking a deep breath. When she’d recomposed herself, she finally responded. “I’m going in. Let’s get the tome back.”
“Understood. Going hot on your mark.”
He knew she’d cast an invisibility spell. A different form of concealment from the spell he’d used. Pulling the shadows around himself and becoming more obscure. The effect would make him slip through someone’s gaze like water spilling out of an uncupped hand. The target would see him, but not mentally register having seen him.
He’d positioned himself up and back, to provide the best possible vantage point to call shots and make them. The hatchling in the armor recoiled from an unseen strike to the abdomen, followed by a shot to the chin. He watched some teeth fly loose from the magnification of his optics with a grim smile. It was female-he thought. Instinctively, the hatchling tried to reach for her spell blade, but her arm recoiled and flailed instead. Both were female.
The mage flapped its wings, scrambling to get away from whatever was attacking its companion. That’s where he came. He sighted up his target and squeezed the trigger. The rifle thrummed, prying a small chunk of his AP away, and firing a negative colored beam at the hatchling. Scales boiled away on its wing, leaving a gaping hole and it shrieked in pain. The black goop on the ground splashed as the heavy dragon child fell.
Yasiin saw Nathan lean out from his position and belt off several bursts of light bolts. Most of them caught the one in the armor, knocking her back as she fell. Yasiin focused, building up a solid level 2 bolt for the one in the armor. He wanted to test how much punishment that armor could handle. He’d not seen custom armor like it, and had a feeling that hatchling was going to be a damn tank.
He let the shot fly, feeling the expense of AP being pulled free of his chest. There was a pull in his chest from the magic taken. The bolt lanced into the armor with little effect. He grimaced in his veil of shadows. There was a moment of contemplation while he debated his next action. Fire a more potent shot? Or hit her with more destructive magic?
More destructive won out. He fed the rifle some water and void, creating a voidice javelin in the rifle’s barrel. The spell hurled itself free of the barrel and impaled the armored hatchling to the deck firmly. The wounded spell warrior hissed in pain, clutching at the void coated rod of ice. He caught the warrior’s chin jerk upwards from an unseen impact.
The weaver hatchling hurled a few bolts back at Nathan, who took cover behind his shipping crate. Where the bolts slammed into the black slime coating them, they burned away the slime, revealing olive drab green paint beneath. What appeared strange to Yasiin was that the underlying paint didn’t appear weathered or aged. Almost like being encased within the black gel like substance had somehow shielded it from time? There was obviously some kind of magic at play.
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The hatchling weaver reared its head back, inhaling deeply. Its chest distended cartoonishly large. Then a noxious green cloud billowed out of its mouth. Faces twisted in agony colored the smoke, and it made Yasiin’s skin crawl beneath his armor. Soul magic breath attack spells always gave him the chills. Like watching a horde of agitated souls being ferried along on a cloud of jealousy.
Yasiin’s breath caught in the back of his throat as he waited for Amara’s silhouette to show up amidst the pallid fog, but nothing came. She’d maneuvered away. The Weaver twitched and jerked from unseen blows. A half woven spell sputtered into mana shards. A swift blow across the snout and a few teeth went flying as the Weaver spun on its feet and nearly fell, but the weaver’s companion caught her.
The bigger one in the armor drew a massive spell blade hilt. A massive, thick blade sprang forward from the hilt. Rather than raw aether, they composed it of solid ore. Earth aspected blade, no doubt. That was evidence enough they were both Sauridius.
The warrior heaved that massive blade about effortlessly and Yasiin caught himself wondering if it looked easy or if had no weight to it. The weaver’s hands flew into a series of signs that he recognized instantly. Tearing the magic from his pool and feeding it to the rifle, a counter spell lanced into the dispel the Weaver was casting, blasting it to shards. The warrior glared in his direction, then muttered something to the weaver. Yasiin cursed.
The advantage of initiative from their hasty ambush had given out. Now the hatchlings were on the move. The pair soared straight at him, the warrior in front with that massive blade he didn’t think he wanted to be struck by. A shiver rippled down his spine at the sight of the blade.
At three meters away, Yasiin channeled a few points of AP into his armor and used a short range teleport spell to flit away in the darkness. The frustrated warrior hacked and slashed into the thick tangle of shadows like black vines. Amara shoulder charged the weaver, knocking the two of them out of the way and opening up the warrior for Yasiin and Nathan to attack. The dark spell armor blunted their shots and negated the effects minimally.
Getting through that armor was going to cost him a lot more AP. “I don’t think I’ve got enough AP to punch through that armor and be of any use once I’m done.” Yasiin said softly into his helmet mic.
Yasiin caught himself wishing Akamori were here not for the first time. He’d have been able to draw the warrior into a duel and perhaps best her. But the situation as it stood? He didn’t know if they had what it took to take out both dragons.
The weaver belched out another pallid fog of keening, tortured souls. Their cries sent shivers up Yasiin’s back as he drifted to another firing position. The shadows reached out, shrouding him and his rifle as he took aim at the warrior. He tore a massive chunk of magic from his AP, shaping it into another voidice spear in the rifle. The rifle trembled under the power of the spell in the barrel. Yasiin took a deep breath, focused, and squeezed the trigger.
The rifle bucked, and a black and white javelin of magic spiraled out, punching through the dragon’s chest and spearing into a cargo container. The warrior howled in pain, but didn’t favor the wound. He’d punched through, just like he said he would. The problem was, it lacked the explosive flare that someone like Akamori might bring to bear.
The dark armored brute slowly got back up. Green blood trickled out of the wound Yasiin had drilled into her shoulder. The hatchling rolled her arm a few times and flapped her wings. Like a machine running a diagnostics check. Satisfied, she turned to glare at Yasiin’s direction, small pointed teeth bared.
The armored hatchling’s blade flicked back and her wings flapped powerfully. She soared at Yasiin’s position, thrusting her sword tip out to stab. Reflexively, the shadows crawled up, wrapping him in their embrace and pulling him into the void. Tua’s spellblade punched through black smoke finding no purchase. The hatchling roared, quickly scanning around for her prey. Nostrils flared and she grinned menacingly.
“You can run, little mage, but you can’t hide forever.”
The shadows peeled away from Yasiin who hovered in a darkened corner by the airlock from the control station. His gleaming spell rifle aimed at her. Magic flashed in the barrel before it discharged. Tua’s wing thrust itself in front of her protectively and a large swath of scales boiled away. She splashed down into the goopy muck with a roar of anger and pain. To punctuate her frustration, a hail of light bolts splashed against her armor from Nathan.
Cloaked in an invisibility spell that forced anyone’s eyes to spill over her like water coursing through a stream, Amara prepared for another go at the weaver. She was smart for a hatchling. Unchecked, this one could grow into a real threat. The brutish warrior would get herself killed, eventually. But this one was squirrely enough to survive to adulthood.
Lending her thoughts credit, Tanak’s hands raced through a series of signs as she cast a lingering fog spell. That forced Amara to float up above it. She couldn’t take the fight to close quarters where she wanted without giving away her presence and telegraphing her attacks. Clever girl.
She drew her pistol and focused. Her AP was running low, but thankfully the expense of her counterspell would be negligible. She drifted to the weaver’s backside. This would come down to sheer luck. Closing her eyes for a moment took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Fortunately, she made her own luck.
She fired, a muted blast of magic erupted from her pistol. The discharge alerting the weaver, as she’d expected. Then her second spell triggered a small void gate just large enough for the bolt to pass through opened, allowing the counter spell to pass through. Tanak’s hands flew through a counter spell and shattered the opening of the gate into aether shards.
Her counter spell crashed into the hazy, low hanging cloud of fog. Slowly, the mist unraveled around Tanak, leaving the hatchling weaver exposed and alone. Amara took a deep breath and lunged to strike. Not to be taken lightly, Tanak lashed out with her tail, catching Amara with a lucky strike, hurling the invisible mage into the black muck covering the ground.
She saw Tua engaging the other two and cast two swift soul spells that zipped out like vengeful spirits. Her attacks surprised the other two, dropping them in soul paralysis. She cast a cleansing flame, burning away the insidious black slime that smelled faintly of rotting blood. She inhaled the burned stench and removed the soul bound tome from her robe.
“Now then, I believe you were going to reveal to me the secrets of this vessel?”
Rozien remained silent. Tua fell in at her side as she approached the airlock of the massive spell ship. It was difficult to get a grasp of its full scale in the poor lighting, especially with it covered in the writhing black goo. She burned away a portion at the airlock to reveal its hatch panel and pressed it. The door slid open and revealed a human with red hair and striking blue eyes on the other side, who looked as surprised as she was to be facing each other.