Chapter 19
Roden heaved with all of his new found strength and launched Riakon with as much force as he could muster. Riakon for his part was enthusiastic for the person about to be the ball in the ol’ fastball special.
After being released, Riakon squeezed his arms and legs together hard. He shot toward the dragon’s back like an arrow. Riakon had leapt at the chance to execute such a badass maneuver, partially for the bragging rights if it worked and partially because he would otherwise be useless in midair combat.
To avoid shattering every bone in his face, Riakon pulled in his legs and tucked his head a few meters from the dragon. The move caused him to flip around and crash into the dragon feet first.
To say the impact was jarring would be an understatement. Riakon was pretty sure he broke bones when he slammed into the dragon’s back. That wasn’t something he could deal with at that moment. Instead he shook off the pain, raised his hammer, and swung down hard.
The dragon turned its head to see what was happening and caught the head of Riakon’s hammer on the brow of its right eye. The blow was painful, but more startling than damaging. In all of his years, no one had the gall to ride Ven’zet’s back in this manner.
Ven jerked about in surprise. The suddenness of the rapid exchange made him lose sight of his landing spot. He pulled back too soon and came up short of the frozen cliff face. Riakon was forced to grab a hold of the dragon or risk falling hundreds of feet down the side of the mountain.
Roden watched from atop his cloud as Riakon did his part. He had slammed into the dragon and was able to lay into it with his hammer before being forced to abandon his offensive. Roden’s part was next. He brought forth his newest spell straight from the spell forge of Zamira.
When he had reached his Point of Convergence, Zamira had insisted he get a spell specially crafted for Clerics of her Hero Domain. That spell was responsible for the solid black spear couched under his arm as he flew straight for the dragon that was struggling to find purchase on the cliffside.
The spell was called King’s Spear, Roden had suggested they find a different name, but Zamira had been insistent. To Roden, it sounded too provincial as if he was the King’s Spear. That was until he manifested the thing and saw that it looked like a weapon one might use to kill a king and he wished they had done away with the whole connection, but there was no changing her mind.
Riakon had done what he was supposed to do. He forced the dragon to land. Next was Roden’s turn, he gripped his new spear with both hands and prepared for impact. The dragon was vertical, clawing at the wall for purchase. Before the dragon could get a firm hold Roden barreled into his back.
The resulting collision shattered the thin wall of ice that stood between them and the inner cavern Ven’zet had been attempting to reach when he originally took flight. Roden’s new ability, Herald’s Strength, was to blame for the initial thud. The force that shared the ice like a baseball through a bay window was his spear’s doing.
The spell was Journeyman tier and concentrated all of that energy into a tangible weapon of solid magic. The idea was for the spear to be powerful enough for a King to defend his people or for a lone hero to stand up to a King’s guards. In this case, the target was a dragon that it sent flying.
The spear came loaded with two effects. He could either cause a concussive blast of force in a wall away from the spear on impact as he had done with the dragon or he could focus it all down to a pinpoint strike. Lucky for him, he had two more uses before the spear exhausted its magic.
Riakon was thrown from the dragon’s back causing him to tumble through the air like any other piece of debris sent crashing into the inner chamber of yet another icy mountain top. He shook off his daze and saw Roden’s silhouette in the gaping hole in the side of the wall.
Roden flew over to Riakon and cast Triage as soon as he noticed his obviously broken ankles. Roden gave him a smirk as his bones snapped back into place.
“There you go mate, be sure to ice that later.”
Riakon could only laugh, “fuck that! I want the hottest spa you’ve ever made once we are done here!”
They joked at that moment, but only because they both knew the battle was not over and in the face of a situation so out of their control, laughter seemed the only reasonable response. Roden turned and saw the form of the dragon roiling from the impact of his strike.
On a purely physics level, the King’s Spear conserved all of the force Roden built up into his target. Unfortunately for the dragon, all the force that could be shared across dozens of enemies was sent through his lone body. Any lesser being would be severely injured given how fast Roden was moving and his new found super strength courtesy of his Point of Convergence ability.
Ven’zet rolled to his feet, pain evident in each slow movement. Riakon and Roden stood opposite their draconic foe within the inner chamber of the icy cavern. To their right snow drifted in, blown around via the swirling winds from beyond its jagged entrance.
Roden glanced at Riakon and then the opening. Riakon nodded in silent affirmation. Roden hooked his Nimbus to Riakon once more. Roden began drawing magic to his left arm. The dragon had managed to right itself and face the two men. The dragon’s voice rippled out as it addressed his attackers.
“Well you’ve managed to wound me. I congratulate you for the deed, but I am much too tired for this. Go back and take what treasure you can carry and leave me be.”
Riakon jumped at the chance for a dramatic monologue, “I am here on behalf of Erjorn. It is his Divine Mandate that I finish what he started when he defeated Tiamat! You foul creature will pay for your allegiance to a fallen idol!”
The dragon boomed in a thunderous cackle. Which made Roden and Riakon look at each other in confusion. Even Roden had no clue what the dragon found so amusing. This was supposed to be one of Tiamat’s four most trusted dragons.
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“You know nothing pup. You ants scurry around this world with no memory of what was. You are the play things of the very things you created. Even now you quake in front of me an unintended consequence of your own peoples’ voraciousness. You think I wanted this life!?”
Ven’zet’s final declaration reverberated throughout the cavern. Roden felt the sheer bass of the dragon’s voice in his bones. His revolve was faltering, even for him the dragon’s words were a surprise. Part of him wondered how much they could trust its words when Riakon put voice to the same ideas plaguing Roden.
“Big words for a wounded lizard trying to save its hide!”
The big dragon shook his head, “no you fucking idiot, strike me dead and you will suffer a far worse fate than you could ever imagine! I have half a mind to let you suffer that fate.” The dragon added the last as an afterthought before suddenly dashing forward.
As soon as Ven’zet stepped into the light of the sun that shone through the hole in the ice, a golden beam ripped through the air and slammed into its upper body at the shoulder. The beam acted as a wall of energy that forced the dragon into the floor of the cavern. Ven’zet let out a guttural roar in a mix of pain and shock.
He moved slowly under the torrent of energy. Just when it seemed he was getting his feet under himself. Riakon braced himself and released a bolt of lightning from his maw, which Roden paired with a discharge from his cloak. Both bolts struck the struggling dragon who was unable to defend the bolt. The rush of Errrkkkk’s beam slowed before dissipating, leaving a smoldering dragon in its wake.
Roden saw Errrkkkk land on the ledge, his golden aura vanishing as he dropped to a knee, no doubt exhausted from so many powerful chi techniques. Roden was also running out of reserves. He had his spear and a few more spells to give before he’d be left with just his non-spell abilities.
Before anything could be said Riakon saw his opportunity and charged in. The added speed from the cloud gave Roden no time to halt his advance. Riakon was determined to deal the final blow. He cast off his shield to grip his hammer in both hands.
In a motion reserved for action films, Riakon rose into the air and leapt from the cloud intent on delivering a falling blow to the top of the dragon’s head. Unfortunately, as Roden had expected Ven’zet was playing dead. As soon as Riakon soared helplessly through the air, the dragon’s massive form shot up on its hind legs and opened its jaws wide.
Riakon sailed into the waiting chasm of teeth and tongue. Errrkkkk let out a dreadful avian screech as his gold aura surged around him. His aura created a pressure in the cavern that pushed Roden back a foot or two before he could brace himself.
In one moment Riakon and Errrkkkk were gone and in the next Errrkkkk had reappeared beneath the dragon in a jumping front kick to its neck just as its upper body was returning to the ground. The kick snapped its head up and Errrkkkk vanished again, reappearing in a flying side kick to the side of its head.
The dragon retaliated with a series of wild clawing swipes in the air. To Roden, it looked like a giant trying to swat a bee as Errrkkkk zipped around the massive draco lizard.
A downward swipe managed to catch Errrkkkk and pin him to the ground between two of the dragon’s claws. The dragon smirked at his catch and made a show of swallowing hard. Both men watched as the lump in his throat bobbed up once and then slipped down into its gullet.
‘Welp that wasn’t supposed to happen,’ was the only thought that came to Roden’s mind as he watched the ridiculous situation play out in front of him.
Roden called his cloud back to himself. Once he was standing on its fluffy surface, he activated his Storm Strider. The crackle of electricity was absorbed into the cloud turning it a darker grey from its usual white. The combination of his two abilities had a profound effect on his movement. He planned his path in his mind before releasing his cloud’s leash.
In a blur of movement, Roden rammed his spear into the arm of the dragon pinning Errrkkkk. That time he put all the force of the spell into the strike itself guided by his Divine Gambit. Roden had expected to bury the spear into the dragon and hoped it was enough to allow Errrkkkk to escape. The result was a thrust that ripped a chunk out of the dragon’s bicep exposing the bright white bone.
Errrkkkk, already struggling against the dragon with all of his might, was free and on the offensive before the dragon was able to cry out in pain. A thunderous kick crushed the exposed bone leaving the arm dangling and unresponsive.
Ven’zet writhed in pain at the injury. Indignation flooded him like never before. His primal fury was unleashed. His eyes grew dark and his body began to ripple with waves of whitish blue energy. A deep growl escaped his throat as he felt the power course through him.
The Ven’zet they had been fighting to that point had been careful, uninterested, and deliberate in his actions. The newest series of attacks that came were anything, but careful or uninterested. Ven’zet whirled into a frenzy of claws and teeth.
His attacks were unpredictable and haphazard. There was no room for counter attack as the dragon used every part of its being in the offensive. When Roden wasn’t dodging a claw or the snapping jaws, he was dealing with a tail that seemingly just came alive.
Roden was caught off guard when the tail first slammed into him. He fell off his cloud and skid across the ground while Errrkkkk avoided the frontal assault. Errrkkkk was moving so fast even Roden couldn’t always keep an eye on him, but the dragon seemed to have little trouble.
After a slamming strike that buried a claw into the cavern floor, Errrkkkk vanished. He reappeared above his foe already in a downward kick except the dragon had already spun to meet him mouth agape, the frill beneath its jaw slammed back followed by the rush of super chilled air.
Roden took that moment to send an overcharged Luminary Lance into the dragon’s maw. The instantaneous arrival of the spell’s projectile was key to the tactic. Roden hoped it wouldn’t catch Riakon as it pierced the dragon’s throat, but figured being speared, while in a dead dragon, was better than being eaten in a living one.
A golden glow erupted out of the white haze of the dragon’s breath surrounding Errrkkkk,
“Caaaaaaaaa, Caaaaaa—”
Errrkkkk's signature attack was interrupted by an unseen downward strike that sent the birdfolk skipping across the carven. Roden immediately flew over to his friend whose aura flickered before disappearing.
“No! No no no no no! Errrkkkk wake the fuck up. I can’t fight this dragon alone here.” Roden tried to gently slap Errrkkkk’s face to rouse the heavily dazed man. It took a casting of Triage to finally bring him back to his senses.
“Oh thank fuck!” Roden explained the panic in him subsiding slightly.
Errrkkkk shook his head, “we have a bigger problem, cacaw!” He said while pointing.
The dragon was crouched, it had ballooned its body out again except this time it glowed bright white. They both knew what was coming. The next breath that came out of that thing was not going to be the same as they had seen. Something had changed when they injured it before. They had awakened something deep within it.
Errrkkkk drew in a deep breath and let it out. He took his sideways stance and began his usual call as he drew in energy for his beam.
“This is it Roden, cacaw! It's all or nothing, caaaaaa,caaaaawwww!”
Roden shook his head, “man…fuck!” was his answer, mostly out of disbelief at what his life had become.
“Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa,”
He gripped his spear tightly in one hand. It had one more use left. He had hoped to be able to land a blow to the dragon’s body, but now was too afraid it would kill Riakon in the process. His lance was one thing, but after what that spell had done to the dragon’s arm, he didn’t want to risk it.
Roden took two steps forward and spun his spear around into a throwing grip. Errrkkkk’s aura flared bright and Roden needed to see far. He left his cloud behind, he needed solid ground beneath him for his target was far away. With the spear just above his shoulder Roden started to run after a few steps for momentum he hurled his King’s Spear.
His Herald’s Strength propelled it through the air to cover the distance. His aim was true enough. Time seemed to slow for everyone in that fateful cavern. Both Errrkkkk and Ven’zet were locked into their preparation for the final confrontation. Roden’s spear sailed through the air in a long arc.
Its journey nearly completed Roden hopes rose and were subsequently dashed as the dragon’s tail lashed out. Despite hitting the spear sideways the spell activated, shredding the dragon’s tail on contact. The dragon shuddered for a brief moment at the pain.
Errrkkkk’s aura surged as he rocked forward and thrust out his hands.
“Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!”
Roden dove to the side as Errrkkkk beam exploded from him. His exaltation was met by a primal roar from the dragon as the dragon’s aura coalesced into a beam of bright white magic from its mouth. The blast of concentrated cold magic left a layer of ice across the ground beneath it, just as Errrkkkk’s chi energy left a grove in its path.
The two beams crashed into each other in a collision that threw Roden back into the wall behind him. The two adversaries held their trump cards in a clash of will and power. They were not evenly matched, Errrkkkk’s beam was pushed back. Even with all his power and prowess he could not stand alone against a dragon.
Roden dragged himself to his feet and threw his arm forward and cast his last spell.
“Burst!”