Chapter - 84 - Be Anywhere Else
Kuul charged forward, eyes literally filled with burning hatred and fixed upon me and only me, his great, gnarled hands cracking under his weight and with the force of his pounding steps. He blasted through the sunwall quicker than quick and was shooting toward me at absolutely ludicrous speed.
The dragon, after a very brief moment of consideration, attempted to make a grasp for me. Maybe it was trying to avoid a fight altogether, perhaps snag me then make off with her prey before a fight could actually take place. I’d been ready for it, though. This wasn’t the first time an evil dragon tried to grab me. I mean, it had only happened twice, but things like that tend to leave an impression on a guy.
It was fast, like the wretchwyrm, but I was already on the move, springing down to ground level then sprinting, low and fast. Instead of snagging its human and making a break for it, Myss’ claw scraped at bare stone just behind me, tearing grooves in the rock with horrific screeches while tiny splinters stung the back of my neck. I didn’t stop until I collided with the west wall under the battlements where it would be hard to grab me.
Then the dragon’s attention needed to be elsewhere.
With a boom, the two titans clashed in a thunderous exchange that shook the ground and collapsed the rest of the north wall, exposing us all to the outside and burying my work area in rock.
And that was just the first blow.
In a stunning display of speed and skill, the dragon had used its body and low center of gravity to stop Kuul’s charge and redirect, though it was forced back until its tail and hind legs pressed against the ditch where we’d set spikes.
Kuul didn’t have any intention of stopping. Despite being stopped cold, he didn’t even seem to register he was being fought. He staggered to the side, swiped at the crumbling fortifications, then shook his head and reared up like a bear, his gaze still locked on me as he opened his mouth. Inside was a portal to hell, a roaring furnace I could feel on my face even from way down here and a whole dragon between us. Fire dribbled down from the uneven row of wooden fangs like spittle, and the wind whistled as Kuul sucked in air.
Oh Constance, I hadn’t thought this through.
I looked around frantically. Everyone was taking cover like I was underneath the awnings. The goblins were as far toward the exit as they could get without going outside. Bole had Beedy on his back near the edge of the wall breach and seemed to be waiting for his chance to make a break for it. Geddon, Sissa, Samila, and Trix were doing the smart thing and cautiously making for the stairs.
If Kuul were to spit fire down in here, everyone on the ground floor was screwed.
“Shit shit shit shit!” I shouted, forcing my tensed muscles to unclench and get moving again. I leaped up the nearest set of stairs, taking them a handful at a time. If I could get outside and across the ditch before the attack, the others would have a shot. Unfortunately, Kuul’s aim followed me unerringly(not hard when you’re a hundred feet tall), and he bent at the waist to exhale.
Just before I could be incinerated my genocidal guardian angel stepped in. A great red tail whipped through the air and slammed into Kuul’s chest. Blindsided, Kuul rocked backward with the impact and stumbled, the liquid fire he’d been about to spew at me bubbling in his throat and spilling over his face as he lost his footing and fell on his back with a crash that took out several more feet of wall.
His face now fully on fire, Kuul gurgled his mild disapproval and rolled onto his side to get to his feet. Before he could rise, Myss said something quiet and oddly pronounced.
“Cutting Embrace.” The language it used itched at my ears and prickled skin on the back of my neck. It felt like a predator had just passed over my head but had chosen, by chance, not to devour me.
Bright orange lashes of magic burst from a point of empty air, crackling just over Kuul’s head. The strands exploded from their origin point, whipping in all directions, wrapping around the giant’s face. Others shot into the ground, lashed themselves around trees, skewered boulders, anywhere they could anchor. Then they began to squeeze.
Kuul roared in protest, but the strands tightened more and more, looped around his eyes and mouth, wrenched the giant’s head until it twisted round on his shoulders, and his body was forced to follow. Then he was face down on the forest floor. Kuul’s long limbs thrashed, churning the earth, attempting to gain some kind of leverage to free himself and sending waves of damp soil skyward.
Snarling, Myss moved in for the kill. She beat her wings and took to the air with a great whoosh then came roaring down in a vicious pounce that cracked the bark of Kuul’s body underneath her. Fire spurted from the rifts in Kuul’s shell with the impact.
It was only then that I remembered I should still be moving. Better yet, I should get the others moving too. I took the opportunity to get everyone’s attention, a very difficult task when two gods were fighting right next to you. It had a tendency to draw the eye.
“Hey! Hey! Listen!” I whisper shouted until everyone was looking at me. “Time to go! Right now!”
With a *RRRRRIP* the ground beneath Kuul was rent open, and he twisted at the waist until his upper half was turned toward the dragon while his legs were still pinned beneath. Myss, caught off guard by the maneuver, attempted to disengage and lift back into the air, but her feet were already thoroughly entangled in animated mendau roots that writhed and wrapped around her ankles, the same spell the sorcerer had used to kill Hunty.
Opponent temporarily immobile, Kuul’s bark-covered slap caught the imprisoned dragon right in its face, followed swiftly by a lungful of liquid fire that I assumed was originally intended for me. This time, it was Myss that roared in pain and rage. She slashed blindly at her foe’s abdomen as she attempted to clear her vision, starting secondary fires in and around the fort as she shook off the goo. Of course, the door was one of the first casualties, igniting with almost no need to be convinced.
Kuul didn’t seem to feel anything that was occurring to him. All he did was attack. On the bright side, he wasn’t immediately attacking me. Yet. The dragon was now fully on his radar, and it had to die.
“Fucking right it’s time to go,” Bole said from to my right. Holy hell how was he already up here? Right. Practitioner. He had Beedy supported over one of his shoulders and was helping the other man down onto the nearest root slide that would get him a safe height to the ground.
“Where are we going?” Sissa asked as she jogged up to me from the other side of the battlements. “The infected are still out there beyond the sun wall.”
That was a good question.
“I don’t know! Anywhere but here!” Was all I could think of.
“We could have left yesterday!” Sissa exclaimed.
“I know! And we’d be just as screwed!” I shouted back at her. “Now get the hell down there!”
Another boom and a blast of heat. Then Sissa was forced to give an enthusiastic nod of agreement. The dragonkin climbed over the side, followed by Trix, who stopped just before lowering himself down.
“I still hear them out there,” Trix said, residual pain from Myss’ magic evident in his voice. “They are scratching and vocalizing still. Many.”
I nodded to him and gave his head a slight push to get him moving down the outside of the wall. We’d have to deal with that problem when the time came. Right now, we needed to be anywhere but here. I watched the vulpa’s ears disappear below. Geddon and the three goblins on his back were next.
“How did you know?” Samila asked me on her way past. “That she would kill us all and start over if that’s what it took?”
“Lucky guess,” I said, helping her up the stairs and to the wall. “Makes sense though. They can’t bring the old Ralqir back without destroying the new one, and I’m already on a quest to not let that happen.”
Then came the admission. I guessed it was finally safe to say, now that it was a true impossibility. “It sucks too, because I really do want to stay.”
“Of course you do! ” Samila shouted, half-pretending to be shocked. “You’ve got a weird way of showing it, though, you ass!”
“I know! I know! I was afraid to admit it, because… well…” I spared a glance for the two fighting giants. “If the dragons could have helped me without getting all genocidal, I would have ridden off into the sunset with the rest of you. Now, if I stay, your dad’s species is probably going to fight a war over me.“
I took her hand and helped her over the side.
“I guess you were right to fear,” she admitted.
In for a penny…
“There’s the other thing too,” I continued.
Samila had one foot up on the lip of the wall, holding my hand for support as she gingerly used her good leg to get a hold of one of the grooves. She hesitated, frowning in confusion. “What other-”
Before I had a chance to reconsider, I took a breath and pulled her in close. Then, I kissed her.
Again, how soft and light she was struck me, her scales like downy feathers, belying their outward appearance. The rest of her was delicate, warm, the unarmored parts at least. Her lips tasted like spiced fruit.
I pulled away when I started seeing spots, which I am slightly embarrassed to say, didn’t take long.
When we were finally apart, her yellow eyes stared up at me, wide, a little frightened but hungry and intensely intrigued.
About time someone else got that look. I was tired of being the only one that got it.
“Woah,” she breathed, shuddering slightly in my arms. Then her attention was on something over my shoulder. She gasped, true fear stealing any further words she had for me, and I saw the reflection of motion in her eyes just before-
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
*WHAM*
A whole fucking red dragon slammed down onto the fort , hitting with the force of a bomb. The walls buckled and broke. Rocks tumbled out into the forest, propelled by the meteoric force of a multi-ton monster making landfall in their midst. Myss laid on her back, stunned, her legs twitching as some part of her brain attempted to reassert control of her motor functions. Before Myss could recover, a bark-covered arm snaked over the dragon’s torso, and Kuul’ heaved his broken body atop his opponent. His mouth opened once again and he roared in Myss’ face.
I knew what was happening next.
Too close. We were way too close.
I got an arm under Samila and took her up in a princess carry. Then I, praying I had the requisite strength to and HP to do this, leaped.
*FWOOM*
I didn’t get a chance to perform the tuck and roll I had half-planned before taking to the air.
Instead, Samila and I were violently hurled outside the remains of the walls, over the trench, and well into no man’s land, fire blazing in our wake. I, too, was on fire. I knew I was. It was a sensation with which I was becoming far too familiar. That would probably take care of itself when-
I did my best to get under Samila before we made impact, but I was only half successful. I had to activate Tension Step mid-air and kick to try and complete the spin. My mana pool cratered, and I lost myself in white stabbing pain just before we landed. The maneuver was a success though. I took the entire fall on my right shoulder. Correction, I took two falls on my shoulder, mine and Samila’s. A bone somewhere in there gave way with a pop, and I had a new source of agony to contend with. There was the distinct sensation of rushing fluid in the part of my shoulder that used to be functional.
My senses failed me temporarily. A small mercy in retrospect.
Hurray. The spots were back. I missed you, spots.
The world had been robbed of its oxygen, or at least that’s how it felt. My lungs tried to take in big, desperate gulps of hot air that never seemed to be enough. There was an odd pressure in my chest too. Something was pressing on my lung and keeping it from filling fully, and there was way too much smoke in the air I did get.
Samila got to her feet first and then helped me to mine, none too gently.
I nearly swooned with the pain before I could get fully upright.
Behind us, the dragon whispered another spell.
*WHOOSH*
In a flash, the fire disappeared, along with a good chunk of the forest. Everything that was burning turned to ash in an instant like we’d just been brought forcefully into the future when the fire had already run its course.
Then, the ash started to move. An unnatural wind swept it up and collected it into drifts that flowed, swirled and gathered in a twisting whirlwind, congealing, growing and growing until it solidified into the shape of yet another dragon, black, gray, and white with hollow, lifeless eyes.
It reared up, opened its mouth, and let out a silent, challenging roar.
In agony, I fought to get my mind working. Distance. We still weren’t safe. I tried to pull Samila away, tried to get us moving, but all I got was a terrible wrenching sensation in my shoulder.
“Samila?” I groaned, waving a hand in front of her to get her attention. “We have to- augh-”
Samila was rooted in place. She looked lost, entranced almost.
“I can-” she whispered, not to anyone in particular. I didn’t even think she knew I was there. “I think I understand it.”
“Samila! Hey!” I shouted
She continued to stare as the dragon and the goeshi battled to their last.
“Sam!”
Screw it.
Despite being almost ready to pass out, I bent at the waist and picked up my dragonkin girl yet again, this time over my prosthetic shoulder. Thank Constance for cold, unfeeling metal.
The two dragons, the old and the new, attacked Kuul as one, one going for the giant’s legs, and the other for his head. From there it was a rolling grappling match. Desperate snarls and growls, pops and cracks, wet, ripping flesh, and bark, the noises filled the forest. Sounds not meant for human ears chased us as we ran.
The monstrous mass of the creatures was staggering. From what I heard behind me, the two flattened everything they touched. The fort was definitely no more. Whole trees broke under their combined weights.
“Wait! Wait, Ryan!” Samila protested, wriggling in my grasp. I was barely holding onto her to begin with. Just then, I hit a depression in the ground and turned my ankle. That was too much. I lost myself momentarily to the pain and oxygen deprivation and stumbled, spilling the two of us onto the forest floor yet again. When I came back to myself, Samila was standing again, transfixed on the battle taking place a worryingly close distance from the two of us.
Myss had a broken leg, and her tail was crooked and ripped to the bone. Kuul’s torso was still broken, and one of his arms was missing, not that he cared, but the liquid fire spilling out of him was enough to form a sizeable pool beneath him.
Myss got the upper hand with the help of her ash clone, pinning Kuul on his back, the ash dragon perched on top of his legs with talons dug into his knees as the red dragon wailed and slashed at his neck and face.
Rearing back with one of her claws, Myss spoke a final spell into existence, and the claw on the middle toe of the dragon’s foot extended and changed texture until it was a mirror shine. Then she drove the claw directly into Kuul’s forehead. It went all the way through, bursting from the back of his skull to pierce into the soil.
“There!” Samila shouted. “Did you hear it? I’m- I think I got-”
“Got what?” I asked between labored breaths. “What- *gulp* are you talking about?”
She looked back at me in barely contained wonder. There were tears in her eyes. “My first Word. Just now. I’d given up on trying.”
Confused, I shook my head, not liking what it did to my migraine.
“It’s all- It hurts. It-” Her words trailed off as her eyes rolled up into the back of her head, and her body collapsed bonelessly to the ground.
Kuul thrashed, despite being impaled through the brain. Liquid fire leaked out of his head where the claw had gone through. The dragon snarled in Kuul’s face, showing her teeth to her fallen foe as a sign of contempt. Then, in a herculean effort, Kuul grabbed the dragon’s claw and twisted to angle his face slightly to the left. When the dragon tried to compensate and shift her weight, Kuul seized her head and brought it close.
The goeshi let loose with a final geyser of fire. A much, much bigger one than the previous. At least I assumed that. It was much too bright to see with the naked eye.
I felt the wall of heat hit just before I registered the impact. The shockwave slammed into me, and I got the distinct impression of tumbling over the ground before I was knocked senseless.
When I could think again, I realized I was face down on the forest floor, and I wasn’t where I remembered being. When I pushed myself up, the world was swimming, awash in heat and billowing smoke. Sam was gone.
Disorientation kept me from standing upright. The pain in my shoulder and on my back was excruciating, and all I could do was roll and hope I was putting out the flames that were surely there.
How bad was it? Sam…
HP [208/301]
I did a quick query of the log. I’d lost HP with the fall, the first blast, internal bleeding, the burning… All of that was mine and only mine. That left about 45 HP of damage unaccounted for that Samila might have taken with me. There was a good chance she was out there somewhere, alive.
My feet were under me and carrying me back toward where I’d last seen her, my vision wobbling and dimming between breaths.
Through the smoke, I saw the vague forms of the two combatants. The ash dragon was gone. Myss and Kuul were both on fire, and the dragon shuddered as her head and neck blazed. Kuul, despite burning himself, showed no outward signs of weakening or pain. Both were locked in a struggle to end the fight right there, limbs entwined, teeth bared.
Then, suddenly, they were gone, disappearing with a *WUFF* as a sizeable portion of the ground beneath them collapsed. I blinked. What was that?
After a couple seconds, Myss’ head poked out of the hole the two had fallen in, tried to scramble to her feet and get away, but she couldn’t seem to gain purchase well enough to break Kuul’s grip.
A gnarled hand used the dragon’s momentary distraction to reach up and take hold of her horns and wrench. Myss’ neck twisted around in a most unnatural way until the bones inside separated with a wet pop, gunshot loud.
No. That wasn’t right.
I knew gunshots. That was an actual gunshot.
Somewhere, amidst the rubble and roaring flames, one of the remaining turrets began to fire. Once. Twice. Three bursts.
*BRRAP BRRRRAP BRAP*
Then all was silent.
What?
*WUFF*
A sound to my immediate right, the sound of a ton of dirt collapsing in on itself followed by the earthy scent of petrichor and… bodies. I smelled rotting flesh. Fetid breath. The familiar, eerie howls of the scourge despoiled the silence, and gangly black figures began to trickle out of a freshly dug hole.
*WUFF*
*WUFF*
Two more in the distance. Indistinct black figures rose from the earth, quick and quiet, their figures silhouettes in the thick smoke.
My heart sank as the realization hit me.
They dug their way in. The scourge started digging their way in the day we’d forced them back.
Now I knew why they were constantly making those noises, torturing Trix so. They were covering for their mining operation.
Sam. Where is she?
I got low, clutching at my shoulder as I stalked through the smoke attempting to look for Sam. I needed to find her, get her out of here. Where was she? How far had we been separated? I forced my eyes to stay open, despite the smoke, hoping for a flash of blue or the outline of a shield. They were all I wanted in the world.
Steely fingers suddenly dug into my wrist, small fingers, sharp. The Black Ones had found me. I gasped, drawing back to throw a haymaker that way with my prosthetic, but I stopped myself when I realized who it was.
Tiba was there. She was crouched low, covered in soot, crawling along the ground like a lizard with the exception of the hand she was using to try and get my attention. Once she saw I was aware of her, she put a finger to her lips and beckoned for me to follow.
I shook my head. Samila was still out here somewhere. She-
Another tug on my wrist. This time, my shoulder bones ground together hard enough to make the world go all white static again.
“Arrrrg,” I groaned, but Tiba, quick as a mongoose, had climbed up my torso and put a finger to my lips before I could make any more noise. The look in her eyes told me she was serious. Also very frightened.
She beckoned me to follow yet again.
I clenched my jaw and breathed hard as panic and desperation threatened to override my good sense.
Sam. Where are you?
But Tiba’s eyes begged me to trust her.
A few more breaths, a quiet moment to let the adrenaline partially wash out of my system, and I was okay again, wresting control of my emotions back from my lizard brain.
Unclenching my hands and relaxing my jaw, I made a show of being calm again. I bent down to whisper in her ear.
“Sam is out there,” I told her.
Tiba nodded and put her lips to my ear. “We try to find them. Too dangerous to stay here, though. We move now or have to fight.”
Think, Ryan. What do we know?
I hadn’t found Samila yet. That meant she’d either moved under her own power, or she’d been moved. Either way, I couldn’t find her like this. I was stumbling around blind. Tiba was at home in these woods. She was my best shot at reuniting with the others.
I made a gesture for her to lead on, hoping that I wasn’t leaving Sam to die.
Immediately after we started moving, excited, gibbering voices moved in behind us, close. Apparently, I’d decided to cooperate at just the right time. I silently hoped they weren’t looking for tracks and that they wouldn’t fall upon someone else if they didn’t find me.
Tiba and I crawled through the smoke and the blazing underbrush, around the sniffing, pawing scourge that pursued us. Tiba led me under the fallen trunks of slain mendau, around skittering clusters of hunting monsters. Only once we passed through the greasy rainbow mud that still clogged the chokepoint did the voices of the scourge fade into the distance.
Night fell.
To my growing horror, we never saw any of the others.