The army of Gravestead marched through the winding path between the hills as the last few villagers as peasants took refuge inside the walls of the royal territory. The black and gold army of death surrounded the oversized carriage where Ahndra and King Sophia were hiding in wait, while the Green and gold army of Spirecrest stood in a line in front of the walls, Dravenguard’s red army lining the hill, as on either side ready to swarm in behind them and surround the hoard. The full weight of Gravestead, rested and fresh, fueled by undying loyalty, almost equally matched the numbers of the smaller Spirecrest army and the now badly whittled down Dravenguard. Nicole stood atop the highest tower, eyeing the large wooden structure in the middle and assuming whatever was inside it was her target. She stared at it as Blueberry hunkered behind her, ready to bring the frost of doom and shatter the secret weapon or super soldiers that waited within the Trojan horse of Gravestead.
She awaited the message delivered earlier that morning as a soldier entered the rooftop area, bowing and awaiting her words.
“The message was sent?”
“It was. Full surrender and peace, under one rule, none shall be harmed, no more wars. The message was received.
“And their reply?”
“They sent the scroll back... stuffed in the mouth of the dead messenger’s severed head.”
“Of course they did. This is why we can’t have nice things. I’m tired of playing nice. The Ballistae and catapults are all loaded and ready like I ordered?”
“Yes, my lord. Your magic recipe loaded into clay pots.” hollered one of the green knights.
“And this is why we pay attention when gods are making high explosives. They’re all aimed for that center carriage?”
“All 12.”
“Screw it. Unleash hell on that thing. Whatever they have in there, I want it vaporized. We’ll see if they wanna talk negotiations after that. Reload them, all the moment they can be. I want a second wave ready." she growled.
Sophia peered from her peephole as smoke streaked upwards like meteors from behind the wall. She growled in anger, giving the order to pull the pins that held the carriage walls. A plume of purple smoke blasted from the carriage and went skyward as men scattered and retreated. The spiraling purple smoke remained vertical as the volley of projectile weapons began hitting their marks. The mushroom cloud rose up from the center of the now vacant trap, cratering it and digging a hole in the earth where it once was, the secret weapon now arcing towards the castle.
“Well…” Nicole sighed, I guess their dragon is still alive after all.”
“Ahndra lives?” gasped her guard.
“Temporarily. Blueberry, sweetie. You’re a much bigger girl. Go do mommy a favor and kill that nasty fucking thing.” She said, eyes turning black and pupils glowing a deathly blueish green, frost in her breath. The blue dragon did nothing, hunkering down and crawling in front of her, as if protecting but not attacking. “Blueberry, I know you’re scared but mommy needs you to murder. If you get hurt I’ll heal you up like last time. Make mommy proud.” She said, comforting the beast that simply refused to move, snarling at the purple smoke and the black dragon approaching the tower. The guard ran for the stairs. “Fine… be a little puss about it.” she said, grabbing her staff and approaching the rooftop as Ahndra landed with King Sophia on the saddle. Nicole strolled to a metal rack on the wall and pulled down the cloth, revealing a bow and quiver. She readied an arrow and aimed it at Sophia. Trying to target the eyeholes in the helmet.
“Interesting, how that sickly little thing seems to scare a bigger dragon.” Nicole said, her nails glittering as ice formed a set of pointed claws and her skin became almost transparent.
“You foolish young girl. Don’t you know the dragons cannot fight one another? They are bound by the same chaos god’s bones, and bones of a god cannot turn on themselves.”
“Fine. Sweetie. Kill the bitch ON the dragon, when she steps off of it.”
“I don’t intend to.” She said with a witchy cackle as Ahndra extended wings and Sophia placed her hands on them. Her skin turned black and scaly, almost liquefying and melting into the beast, its face and eyes taking on a slightly more humanoid shape, matching Sophia’s eye color as they became one horrid entity.”
“Well, shit, I didn’t know you could do that.” Nicole said looking annoyed. “Almost seems like cheating, but whatever.”
“Your dragon cannot turn on me, nor can I turn on it...but I can turn on you, and your pretty blue Azure cannot even defend you.” The monstrocity chuckled.
“Her name is Blueberry now you asslick. And I can fight you as a dragon or as a…who the hell are you again?” Nicole barked.
“KING Sophia, formerly Queen Sophia until YOU promoted me. You killed My King! My husband, My brother, Faeryn!”
“Oh Gross. You nasty brotherfucker. That wasn’t even me, that was Gizzy. Why is everyone so bad at telling people apart when they have white hair!?”
“Lies of the white witch, they mean nothing to me.” She roared, breathing a blast of purple decay breath. Nicole released the arrow into the blast. It turned to dust as she switched to the staff, casually shielded and being driven back, the stone behind her taking the brunt and rotting to sand and ash.
“You know what. I’m suspending the no kill policy. I typically bend that for self-defense against monsters, and I think you kinda qualify.” She said, unsheathing the sword cane from her staff, the blade engulfing in ice and fanning out into a much larger weapon of crystal-like quality. The beast lunged and bit down on the energy sphere, causing it to flicker and alarmingly dim. She swiped for the eyes and shattered the ice blade over the dragon’s muzzle, doing nothing significant.
“You think yourself a god because you have dragon’s blood and a little magic. Do you think you are the only one?” Sophiahndra roared. Clawing at her blade and knocking it from her hand. Nicole flipped her hood and pulled the mask up, just her eyes and nose showing now as a glow behind the dark green cloth that now waved like flames. She lifted off the stone flooring and hovered, wings of blue flame spreading out and talons of ice stomping the ground from her feet.
“Two can play this game.” She said in a strange masculine tone, buzzing like electricity. The beast looked surprised. Unfamiliar with the amalgam of ice and fire taking a beastly form before her. A ghostly glow of blue fire and frost formed around her head like a dragon skull helmet of pure incorporeal power and energy, opening its mouth as Nicole did, mimicking her gestures and biting down on the dragon’s wing, thrashing it against the side of the stone tower. It rolled and shook off the attack, breathing it’s deadly decay breath with all its hate and lung power. Nicole’s ghostly shielding stomped into it, the flames fanning backwards and the ice spraying away like rain, but regenerating as fast as it was melting. She smiled, grabbing the black dragon by the throat and pulling it in closer, unable to exhale. The other ghostly wing reached back to the archery rack and pulled an arrow painted bright red for visibility.
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“I like to cheat too.” She said, using the explosive arrow like a dagger and ramming it into Ahndra’s eye socket, the explosion blowing her head off and spraying green blood everywhere, burning the stone on contact and aging everything it touched like the decay breath. The headless dragon fell backwards, splitting from Sophia but dragging her down as it fell. She clawed for the edge of the rooftop, the stone melting and turning to sand and ash as her hands scooped it away rather than getting a grip. She let out a cry of hate and rage as she fell to the cobblestone street below and crunched on impact.
“You magical bitches and gravity just do not get along, hu?” she sighed, the ghostly form dying down and a demonic ninja Nicole making her way to the edge. “Get better magic or get shit on, noobs.” She said, stepping off the roof and spreading her wings to soften her fall as she landed on the battlefield with a wave of concussive force, the wings lifting and silence falling on the battlefield. She turned and held up the skull of Ahndra in her hand, still shimmering with ice and fire and generating a strange frigid wind with the gentle flapping of her ghost wings.
“Ding dong, your bitch is dead, She fucked with me, I took her head.” Nicole chuckled demonically. “So…let’s make this very simple. You pissed off a god, and I’m all out of patience. Every soldier in black, kneel before your lord. Anyone who doesn’t in the next 5 seconds, I collect your head as well, starting a big pile right here...and then find your wife, your kids, your fucking livestock, and send them to meet your souls in hell. Start taking knees, you ACTUAL BAGS OF SHIT!” she roared. The sound of 4 thousand metal shinguards gently dropping to soil echoed like music to her ears as she breathed a sigh of relief, wrapping claws of ice around the skull and crunching it like hard candy.
“Finally…you listen to a language you understand, violence.” She exhaled, rumbling softly like thunder and turning her back to them, and opening the gates with her ghostly wings as they dissolved into frost and steam.
“Your highness.” Said one of the lead red guards, bloody from battle. “What of the Gravestead soldiers?”
“Strip them of weapons and armor, down to cloth and leather belts. Remove swords, bows, gear, even their damn boots. We have acquired a lot of fine new horses as well, see they find food in the stables. Send these soldiers walking home on bare feet. Anyone who turns around and doesn’t keep walking, lead them to the dungeons. Everyone gets a choice. You marched here for pain and blood, go march home on broken feet.” She said, slamming the doors and making her leave. The red army and the green army in gilded robes cheered in unison, slapping shoulders as brothers, as the army in black began stripping their weapons in shame.
Nicole sat on her throne, adjusting her crown of gold as she pondered her plans deeply, and Silverback sat at the empty dining table, drinking wine and eating sweets.
“So what happened to everyone being brothers and one kingdom? You just killed their King and then told thousands more to go march to their death or be tortured for it.”
“I didn’t kill her. I killed a dragon in self-defense, and the stupid lady king fell off the edge. Mercy is exhausting. I'm sick of trusting enemies to follow me. I let them live. I made some scary threats and I sent them all home. I can’t deal with 3 feuding factions, Nathan. The place is barely big enough for 2 armies which I just united as friends against a common enemy that, I remind you, are alive because I let them leave, battered and in shame of defeat, but alive. If anyone is actually suicidal enough to choose death in the dungeons, I’ll just keep them as servants for a while and then pardon them under some agreement of mercy.
“So slaves and prisoners. You realize with no horses or shoes, most of them are just marching to starvation and death. You didn’t kill them yourself, but you ordered them to choose between death now and death later via nature and hunger.”
“Am I their queen? Did I order them to march to their death in battle? No! They did that willingly or under command of Sophia, what’s her face. She doomed them, I saved most of them. They were sacrificed to death the moment they rode on a kingdom for war, what I did was paddle their asses and send them back home crying. They can stop for food, hunt something, find a small tribe or some nomads and beg them for food. That’s not my problem. I barely have enough to feed and shelter what armies I have now. I’m done holding their hands and rewarding defiance with gold and peace. Fuck em. This is their world, survive in it, like a man, I guess. Forage! If I sent them home with armor and weapons, they would just turn to Dravenguard, attack the now unguarded city and kill for vengeance. Even in their numbers, with no weapons, what little army stayed in Dravenguard will just pick them off from the wall like rats. My hands are tied, I am choosing between varying degrees of death and shitty options as idiots force me to do so. If they just BOW and obey, they flourish and live well. They have licked the boot of hateful Elves for generations for the gift of dirty water and rotten meat, they can kiss the gilded ass of a god just a little bit for riches and prosperity, and they’ll thank me for it later. They’ll love me for it. When people behave, and act like adults, then the ass kissing requirements will diminish. So they better learn some basic common sense quickly.”
“So all hail the frosty witch of the west and her little dog too?”
“That’s not even the same character. You haven’t even seen Oz, stop quoting it, Nathan. You know what…those little shoeless shits might start something anyway, I’m going to Dravenguard, get your treats, we’re flying there. I wanna make a good impression and make sure they’re both kneeling to the right god, and well warned in case Gravestead does anything sketchy.
Gizzy rode lethargically across the sand as Vinn and Dee followed her.
“You should stop and rest.” Dee sighed.
“I’m fine.” Gizzy lied.
“You’re missing half the meat on your arm and wobbling on horseback.” She insisted.
“I’ve had worse days.” She sighed. Dee knew she wasn’t going to admit she needed a break.
“Well that fight left me pretty shaken up, and the house is currently covered in and full of viscera, so I need a place to sleep it off. Vinn looks ready to pass out.” she winked.
“Okay, fine. Dravenguard won’t be thrilled we just killed their dragon, but we’re so O.P. at the moment I don’t think they can do anything about it even if they know it was us. South it is. Dravenguard can’t be more than a few miles out.
“Good. I’m starving.” Vinn muttered. “Some of us have like…stomachs and intestines that need to be full of stuff.”
You had rations for a week.” Gizzy sighed.
“I ate all of them. I’m a problem eater. I usually just work it off in the home-gym, but here all we do is ride. I've actually gained weight."
“Well, be prepared for Dravenguard to not exactly welcome us with open arms. We may face some resistance at the gates.
The gates of Dravenguard stood wide open, a solem group of people standing around burning piles of red roses for their fallen king, paying respects to his honor at the news of his demise in glorious battle. The gang rode silently past them as if nodding respectfully, and nobody blinked an eye. They noticed a priest heading from outside and approaching them.
“Halt.” He calmly said. “You are not familiar. What is your purpose here? Are you here for the funeral games or to give offerings to the god of chaos?” he asked.
“Um, neither. We’re just travelers, and we’ve been riding a long way.” Gizzy said. “Who died?” she asked.
“Our king Hafth was slain in battle, gloriously fighting for the new god.”
“I don’t suppose the new god has a name?” Gizzy asked.
“She prefers to simply called Lord Nicole.” He said as Vinn and Gizzy exchanged a confused look.
“Then we serve the same god, and we have offerings.” She said.
“With enemies of the new order, I’m afraid you must check in your weapons before bringing your gifts to our lord.”
“The Weapons ARE the gifts.” She said unsheathing the blade a few inches as it glowed. A smile curled on his face as he admired the beauty of the blade.
“My apologies, you have been expected. Follow the road to the center castle, you will be greeted with food and drink. Just show them what you showed me.” He said bowing and going on his way. Vinn silently waited for the priest to leave earshot.
“Okay, what in balls?” he asked.
“You think I know what’s going on?” Gizzy shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine, she’s YOUR wife. LORD Nicole.” She added, peering up at the tower in the center of the city, glowing green and illuminating the sky.
“So we agree this is bad tho, right?” Dee squinted.