I examined the massive corpse of the decapitated blue dragon, wishing loot functioned as it did back in EG. With a simple prompt I could harvest the scales, leather, meat, claws, teeth, horns, and a few select organs from it. With a sigh, I lamented the loss of the loot and decided to move on.
“With your permission, my lord.” Ug’gut spoke up. “Allow this lowly goblin to disassemble this prey for you. Your splendor shouldn’t be tarnished by the blood of such a weak and vulgar dragon.”
I nodded slowly, wondering if I was dealing with yet another talented mind reader. X’lyssa was enough. That thought made me wonder how my overfiend girlfriend was doing. A peculiar sound jarred me back to the present, and I watched in growing awe of Ug’gut’s skill.
She used an enchanted bone dagger first, sticking it into the gaping hole of the carotid artery in the dragon’s neck. The corpse seemed to shrink slightly, as if deflating as the exposed dagger hilt began to glow a brighter shade of red.
“Did your dagger seriously just drain all of its blood that fast?” I asked, taking a cross legged seat on the ground to watch the rest of the process.
“Indeed!” She replied, beaming as she yanked the dagger out and holding it high. “Bound with the spirit of an emperor lamprey, makes meat tasty.”
She then began furiously peeling up the dragon’s palm sized scales, working from the neck backward. It look less than ten minutes, and an enormous pile accumulated. Next, she skinned the dragon in four sections and laid the hide out flat on the ground. She harvested the heart, liver, and the bowling ball sized blue core that still sparked with electricity.
What now remained was a skinned carcass, ready for butchering. She then carved the remaining carcass into four enormous quarters. It was all impressive, but I still wasn’t sure how most of this could even be transported. I could carry a decent amount in my inventory, but that would still leave a small mountain of extremely valuable materials. I was about to raise this point when Ug’gut then withdrew two stones carved roughly into a humanoid shape from a pouch. She threw them onto the ground where they shattered.
I recognized them as summoning stones for earth elementals, but was not prepared for what actually answered that summons. Twin colossi rose from the stone of the mountain, each more than thirty meters tall and built like a stocky dwarf. Multicolored crystal formations jutted randomly from their granite bodies as they stood silently awaiting commands.
“Carry the meat back to camp, and return with the gatherers for the rest.” She said casually with a dismissive shooing motion.
“Yes, great Ug’gut!” They responded in unison with the volume of an avalanche.
The elementals methodically hoisted a dragon carcass quarter over each shoulder and melted back into the stone, meat and all.
My eyebrows shot up higher. To my knowledge only Archon class earth elementals with power on par with a local deity could transport anything aside from their own bodies through the plane of earth. Abilities like that were simply too overpowered, given that the elemental could abandon you in the transition and leave you to a guaranteed death by suffocation and/or crushing.
“I’ll take the core, organs, and claws now. Wouldn’t want a scavenger making off with ‘em.” I said. The items disappeared into my inventory and Ug’gut looked on in admiration.
“A spatial artifact that size!?” She chirped with sparkling wide eyes.
It was my turn to grin, feeling a strange happiness at the utterly sincere admiration in her tone. That wasn’t all. A nagging sensation of familiarity was growing in my mind. I felt completely at ease around this extremely dangerous goblina, as though I had known her all my life. I decided to trust my instincts, and that also meant trusting in this dangerous stranger.
“Ug’gut.” I began, leveling my gaze with hers. “I am a different man than the one you remember. All of my memories come from another world, where I lived and died as a mortal. I came here, and it seems that in a former life I was indeed named Polemios, or at least inherited his looks and some type of aura that can only be seen by a few very sensitive or strong people. I know almost nothing beyond that. I ended up here by blind chance, or maybe a meddling goddess had something to do with it.” I spilled the beans, and made a mental note to have a serious discussion with Ariel.
“Oh, that again.” Ug’gut barely reacted as she turned away to look at a far distant plain beyond the edge of the jungle. “My lord always says that. Said you needed a big vacation after the last war. Leave Ug’gut big mess.” There was a tiny hint of exasperation in her voice and her manner of speaking seemed to slip into the more simplistic style of goblins for a moment. It was sorta cute, like one of my old Earth friends after her family from Atlanta visited.
Before I could reply, her expression changed and she tilted her head back to sniff at the air.
I curiously inhaled, trying to get a hint of what she was smelling. Nope. Nothing but rainforest.
“The orc and the giant have crossed the Bone Wall.” She looked back at me expectantly. “They travel toward the red dragon’s lair. Shall I bring my lord their heads?”
“For now.” I shook my head and tried to sort my thoughts. “Tell me everything you can about Polemios, about the version of me that you knew.”
----------------------------------------
Orfan paused, causing the long line of giants and ogres marching quickly and stealthily (for giants and ogres) behind him to do the same. He ignored the grunts and snarls as they bumped into each other. His dark olive colored skin tingled as his stomach fell. She was watching him. Ug’gut the Unscarred was watching him. The fact that his warrior’s intuition picked up on that fact at all told him that she wanted him to know. Orfan crinkled his brow. She wasn’t attacking?
Orfan’s mind raced ahead, traveling a thousand scenarios and discarding all but one in a split second.
“She encountered the intruder before us.” Orfan growled to himself, then raised his voice, abandoning all preposterous notions of stealth. “Onward! We make for the lair of the Cataclysm with all haste.” Orfan then broke into a run, not caring if the peons behind him could keep up.
The landscape grew desolate as he reached the edge of the goblin territory. He once again found himself approaching the infamous Bone Wall. It wasn’t much of a barrier, at least not physically. It was a simple line of piled bones no taller than Orfan’s knee which encircled the entire vast rainforest controlled by the White Fangs goblins. What the wall represented, was the fate of billions of unfortunate beings that had trespassed within the territory. It was the edge of Ug’gut’s influence, where her power inexplicably remained unchanged even though the god granting those powers had fallen long ago.
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He crossed the barrier, and let out a sigh. An ignorant observer would be quite confused by his relief. For as the orc warrior left behind the lush and inviting forest, he approached the most treacherous landscape in all of Blödgard. Black mountains so jagged that they looked like broken glass stabbed into the sky as though attacking the noxious clouds of sulfur that hung oppressively over the lifeless terrain. The only color to be found was in the endless streams of bubbling lava flowing down from the many enormous volcanoes.
A feeling of danger pressed in from all around Orfan. The auras of seventy-seven dragons, each one considered venerable in the mortal world assaulted him. The ogres and giants that followed him stopped as though they had hit an invisible barrier, and indeed they had. The aura of one dragon in particular could stop the hearts of any unworthy being that strayed too near.
A thousand steps passed by as Orfan walked easily, as though passing through a tranquil field of flowers. He could sense each individual dragon, studying him from the sharp peaks hidden in the dull ochre colored clouds.
Those dragons would not move against him. As the lesser giants and ogres could not physically approach the dragons for the fear that shackled them, so could the lesser dragons not approach Orfan when he expressed his full strength, and indeed Orfan was now expressing his full strength.
A cool alabaster aura clung tightly to his severely chiseled frame. White footprints were left in his wake, with smoky tendrils emanating from them as they slowly faded out. He walked across rivers of roiling lava without hesitation. The molten rock solidified instantly beneath his feet, robbed of all the volatile excitement that made it flow.
Orfan entered the deep canyon gouged into the foot of the largest volcano. It was a long lake of pure lava, and a spring of power sacred to the red dragons. He knew what it meant for a non dragon to enter that space, and smiled grimly as a roar that split the sky and shook the earth shattered the moment.
The roar banished the noxious clouds instantly, revealing the obsidian peaks, and the many dragons proudly roosting all around them like glittering figurines of carved ruby. Before Orfan, and high in the sky, the source of that unearthly keen was slowly rising into view from where it rested atop the rim of the highest caldera. A figure that defied the imagination rose up, spreading its wings and slowly leaning forward.
Orfan’s memories did not do the beast justice. It was fire and pride incarnate, the manifested concept of the red dragon species crystallized to its most pure form. Its wings blotted out the sky and cast a light of their own, bathing the desolate land in the red glow of a brilliant sunset.
Dark red scales, deeper than an ocean of blood covered the dragon known as the Cataclysm. Each scale was akin to a legendary kite shield in both shape and strength, layered over one another to create a living impregnable fortress. The sheer size of its body next to its brethren was that of a great tiger among house cats. The maw of the divine dragon could carelessly bite the top from a mountain without so much as chipping one of the two hundred and twenty six giant serrated swords that served as its wicked teeth. Füren the Cataclysm was a living natural disaster, able to end a civilization on a whim, and carried itself with absolute confidence in that fact.
Füren glared with open malevolence, twin spotlights of damnation falling over Orfan. The impossibly huge beast then fell forward, heat exploding from beneath its wings. As it glided along the steep slope, stone cracked and exploded under the unbelievable heat and pressure emitted by the wings and giving the dragon lift. A wave of destruction preceded the Cataclysm, an avalanche of flame and obliteration that traveled faster than sound. Füren impacted the lake of lava, sending a tsunami of molten stone twenty meters high rushing toward Orfan. It could have been considered an attack, and a horrific one at that. However, between these two timeless aspects of conflict it was little more than a cordial greeting.
Orfan didn’t even break his calm stride as the shockwave and subsequent wave of lava crashed over him. He seized a droplet of lava from the air casually as the onslaught passed, cooling it in his palm and rolling it like warm dough to form an obsidian needle. He casually brought the sharp thing to his mouth, and picked a stubborn bit of meat from between his bottom right tusk and the tooth next to it. He spit the bit out where it sizzled and disappeared into the reforming lake beneath his feet. A growl, low and supernatural sounded from the dragon who now stood submerged up to its great haunches unbothered in the lake of lava. More than unbothered, the beast’s aura was growing exponentially more fierce as it bathed in the elemental destruction.
No words were exchanged, and none would be. The nature of these two, and the meaning of this meeting was already perfectly clear. All fell still, as if the universe itself dared not intrude as the two titans faced off. A calm monument of cool light and a pure edifice of barely restrained annihilation stood with only the waves of distorting heat as proof that time still marched on.
The dragon knew it was being called on by the only being it acknowledged as a worthy master. It was as loyal to that master as any supremely prideful red dragon deity could be, which meant…
Füren exploded forward with speed that should have been absolutely impossible, parting the lava in such a way that a massive glowing tunnel instantly formed between them. The dragon’s sudden proximity was an attack in and of itself. Even without physically touching it, the presence attacked the essence of everything around it, seeking to dominate and unravel Orfan’s fundamental existence. This was a passive effect, and a minor inconvenience compared to the swiping claw capable of erasing a fortress that blurred toward Orfan’s body.
Orfan shifted subtly, centering his being as he turned toward the incoming attack. He did not bring his weapon to bare, but held up the index and middle finger of his left hand to intercept the clawed hand that meant to engulf him. He coated those fingers in pristine white aura so thick that it flowed like wet paint. The moment his fingertips brushed the scaled palm (which was larger than his whole body), a large perfect hole appeared. Bone, muscle, flesh, blood, and scales vanished in less than a blink. The dragon’s incomplete hand passed harmlessly around Orfan as though he had opened a convenient door to step through.
A hiss like an erupting geyser came from the dragon as it felt true pain for the first time in ages. Orfan turned his head without moving his body, looking at the injured beast from the corner of his eye. The wound was already closing, lines of molten energy knitting the flesh back together in seconds.
Füren growled once again, the sound rising and falling in a peculiar cadence. The dragon was chuckling, and its maw contorted into a wicked grin. The corner of Orfan’s own lips tugged. He had very nearly forgotten the simple joy of a friendly spar.
The seventy six spectating dragons sensed a shift in the air. They simultaneously and abruptly leaped from their respective roosts, scattering away like a flock of disturbed pigeons. Then, in the next instant, the entire region exploded.
For a long moment, all was white and silent. The clash as the two met displaced every bit of matter, light, and shadow within fifty meters. A furious melee ensued. From a distance, it seemed that the dragon was battling a tiny mote of light that streaked around the beast like an angry will o’ wisp. Spells that wrung reality out like a wet dish rag were lobbed as casually as a normal mage might launch a bolt of flame. The landscape was reformed in moments.
Broken dragon teeth and scales clattered to the ground alongside huge drops of magmatic blood which then began to undulate back toward the dragon’s body like homing slimes.
Throughout the savage exchange, Orfan never once swung his weapon. That fact was infuriating to the dragon. For a being on the cusp of divinity like it to be looked down on by a mere orc? It was unforgivable.
“Damned GNAT!” The first words of the battle boomed from the dragon’s maw. BURN!”
A great inhalation followed, and Orfan smiled. He landed in front of the dragon, facing away from the inordinate amount of destruction building within the beast’s chest. He slowly turned, and held his arms out wide in invitation. The breath of Füren was one of the wonders of the universe, and the mighty orc seemed ready to take it head on.
The dragon narrowed his eyes as the power within him built to critical mass. No matter what defenses were prepared, his breath could not be resisted. It was impossible. He would erase the arrogant orc, and assume his rightful role as ruler of the ring guardians.
As the beam of destruction that could punch a whole to a planet’s core began to burst forth, Orfan enacted his own unique power. It was a shadow of its former self, one he could only use sparingly, but necessary to yank the prideful dragon back in line. It was the parting gift of the god Polemios himself, one he would joyously return if he ever again saw his dear friend.
“Domain: Timeless Nightmare.” The three words immediately bled all color from the world around Orfan as time ground to a near halt.
He looked at the dragon, its eyes had closed tightly as it unleashed its breath. He sighed. Even divine dragons shared that particular weakness, just like sharks closing their eyes to bite. The beam of destruction had slowed to a near stop, not even the absolute power of a god could fully halt such an attack.
Orfan stomped the ground, causing the scattered teeth and scales around him to pop into the air before the domain arrested their movement. Anything he interacted with intentionally would move with near normal time, and drag to a halt when he left it alone. He quickly but meticulously arranged the scales in the air as the beam drew closer. Sweat appeared on his brow as his Soul Energy drained away at an accelerating rate. He then stepped back to his original spot, pasted a grin on his face, and canceled the domain.
Time resumed, and a flurry of afterimages flashed into existence. Füren cracked his eyes open, sensing something strange. His breath weapon struck his own floating scales, the only material in all of existence capable of deflecting the unique energy. The beam fractured into countless beams like light passing through a prism. Several of those beams went on to hit other scales in an instant, and before the dragon could begin to react, three errant beams struck him in the face, blinding but not damaging.
He reeled back, using all of his other keen senses to try and locate the suddenly missing orc. A sudden explosion of force on the back of the dragon’s skull sent its face into the stone. It tried to instantly raise its head back up, but beyond all comprehension the weight that held its head down was irresistible.
Orfan had finally used his weapon. Its name was Little Sister, the Weight of Love and Loss. When Orfan willed it, the weapon could weigh an incomprehensible amount. Right now, the head of the weapon could alter the flow of an ocean’s tide. The divine dragon was strong, but everything had its limits.
“Ready to listen?” Orfan calmly asked from his perch on the dragon’s unwillingly prostrated head.
An abrupt shift in the dragon’s aura was his answer. Orfan hopped off and turned to face the rising draconic titan.
“I’ll yield for now, ringmaster.” The dragon’s demeanor was earnest. “Why have you appeared?”
“We’re going hunting within the Bone Wall.” Orfan noticed the dragon’s great pupils shrink as its eyes widened in remembered trauma. The look quickly passed and the beast merely nodded.