Bellwright made his way back to our position on the wall a little after sundown. He plopped down on a chair with a huff.

“Well that was unpleasant,” he stated flatly as we all stared at him.

“Thanks for saving me, Bellwright. That giant pulled a fast one on me,” I told him earnestly as I handed him some dinner.

He accepted the food gratefully and dug in, pausing only to respond.

“The worst part is, that isn’t even a record for how far I have been swatted away. Good thing we gnomes get racial Skills to handle those sorts of things.”

“I thank you just the same. I feel that I owe you a gift, so I was wondering what kind of hat you want.”

Bellwright paused eating and pointed his spoon at me as he spoke. “First of all, how dare you assume that a gnome wants a hat as a gift, and secondly, I want a tall, silk, stovepipe top hat that noticeably tapers wider towards the top. Red ribbon around the base please.” He spoke with only a modicum of indignation before he continued eating, apparently quite pleased with the arrangement as he tried to hide his smile by chowing down heartily. He paused again, then added a new requirement. “Make sure it comes in a cedar box, Bretheon Style number 11. Just go to a gnomish hattery, they will know what I mean. Make sure to mention my name so they add the reward points to my account.”

I retrieved writing supplies from my pocket dimension to write it all down, partially so I would not forget his exact specifications, but also to show that I was serious in my gratitude. The conversation died down while Bellwright ate, the relative peace of the evening interrupted only by the nearby blasts of artillery and the crunching of bones from below. The meat having run out, The Boys satisfied their hunger by gnawing on what bones remained of the four-armed giant. I waited until Bellwright finished eating before I briefed him on the situation.

“The wall held, as you can see, but the enemy moved their artillery into range during the distraction provided by their attack. HQ doesn’t have a good solution to take them out. Unless you have an ingenious idea, Bellwright, we may need to resort to desperate measures. Apparently, our success in holding the gate has earned us the task of neutralizing their artillery.”

Bellwright nodded at me, then stood up to walk to the nearest crenelation in the battlement to look out at the enemy artillery. Twelve cannons faced us, their model designed to employ magic to propel arcanium-powder-empowered shot. They would wear our city’s shield down and then launch their assault while we were vulnerable. There was no doubt that they had the numbers to breach our walls and take the city if that happened.

“I don’t have anything that cannot be stopped by their [Mages]. I’m sorry, but this is not my specialty.”

“Alright,” I sighed as I ran my hand through my hair. “I have a favor I could call in, as desperate times call for desperate measures. From this range, would you be able to deploy some sort of smoke screen behind their cannons that can obstruct the view of the army from the cannons, especially one that goes high up into the air?”

Bellwright looked at me quizzically, not at all familiar with what offensive I had in mind. He placed a hand on his chin as he thought about it. “If Rarro, Garro, and Gulfore assist me and empower me with their mana, I could do that, but it wouldn’t last long, perhaps a minute or two before the enemy countered me, depending on their reaction time. We would still need a way to break their shields before we could hit the cannons though. This will be very difficult indeed.”

I nodded in response. “If we pull this off, the course of the war could change. Without those cannons to breach our shields, they will be forced to launch a very reckless assault or go home. The fate of every person in the city hangs in the balance here. Show us what a lifetime of mastering your Skills has to offer, and you may well be the hero of this city in our darkest hour.”

I laid it on pretty thick, and that perked Bellwright right up. He puffed out his chest and stood at his full height, which is to say, not even to my waist.

“It will be done, or my name isn’t Bellwright Muddlespoon,” he declared loudly for all to hear, a fire lit within him to see the task done.

“Look for my assault on their cannons on the first light of the fifth day, at dawn look to the east. This will be an aerial attack, and I will be lined up with the sun to mask my approach, for as a general rule, most people do not stare at the sun. Skull, you are with me.”

Everyone nodded or grunted in agreement. Some details were hashed out to coordinate the attack. I would tell The Boys that the attack would be starting, and they would signal those on the wall to lay down the smokescreen. Then Skull and I were off to the munitions workshop to pick up my order. With over a thousand rounds of arcanium powder shot in my pocket dimension, Skull and I slipped away to the east in the middle of the night. We ran quietly, sneaking past enemy scouts as we escaped the combat theater. We stopped to rest when we were well clear of any hostiles.

“So, you gonna tell me the actual plan, or are you gonna keep a girl waiting?”

I hesitated, carefully choosing my words before speaking. “Skull, would you say that you are fearless, and indeed, that you are the bravest person around.”

“Yes,” she replied emphatically, as if there were no room for argument.

“I have a plan that will strike fear into the hearts of our enemies, one that will have them trembling in their boots. Also, it will destroy the cannons and shatter their morale. Are you interested?”

She leaned in towards me, removing her helmet before she spoke. “No need to get a girl all hot and bothered, just tell me the plan.” She seemed a little too excited by the bait I laid before her, and I decided that Chooka knew her stuff when it came to her intuition about attraction. Given Skull’s flushed face, quickened breathing, and the lack of any personal space between us, I confidently deduced that she was excited in more ways than one for what I had to offer.

“What I am about to show you is a secret, and I hope I can trust you to keep it. Do I have your confidentiality on this matter?”

“I doubt you have anything I haven’t seen before,” she replied with a smile as her eyes briefly wandered down my body. “But yes, you have my silence on this matter,” she replied as she slid right up to me, our bodies mere inches apart.

“The sun will be rising soon, so we best get to it, we will need to practice a bit before we make our attack.”

That got an expectant and excited look from her. I placed a finger on her lips as if to shush her before walking away. I could tell she felt a bit flustered at that, but she stayed still.

And then, much like before with Chooka, I embraced my true nature. My personal effects melded into my body as my flesh warped and changed. Within seconds, I had transformed into my dragon form, my metallic yellow scales with black borders shining brilliantly in the light of the two moons.

“Woah! I must admit, I have not seen that before!” Without hesitation, she ran up to me, looking at me all over and placing a hand on me to feel my scales. “I don’t see any dangly bits between the legs, is that why you were nervous?”

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“I… That’s not… I’ll have you know…” I couldn’t think of a proper response, with it now being my turn to be flustered. I took a moment to collect myself before I dignified her comment with a response. “Ahem, I feel like an Adventurer of your caliber should know that dragons do not have ‘dangly bits’ as you so eloquently put it. That’s not the issue here, I don’t want people to know I am a dragon.”

She didn’t respond, but rather hopped up onto my back just behind my shoulders, grabbing onto my spines as her heels lightly kicked me in the sides.

“Giddy up. The hour draws late, but I can still ride you a bit before dawn. I want some practice.”

I acquiesced, and I discussed the plan as we practed our maneuvers. She took to it like a natural, perhaps on account that she was quite literally fearless. It took some trial and error, but we had ourselves sorted by the time the light of dawn crept over the horizon.

“Showtime,” I said as I cracked the knuckles of my draconic hands. Or are they feet?

I took to the air, flying low and in line with the sun. As we made our approach, I used my telepathic connection to The Boys to announce our arrival. As we neared the enemy artillery, a smokescreen sprung out of nowhere, obfuscating the main army from the cannons as it expanded upwards to the sky, just as planned. The smoke appeared powdery, and the magic radiating off it would be strong enough to block most Skills to see through or disperse it for at least a little while.

As we had practiced, I tore open reality by breaching the material plane with the interference of my pocket dimension. Skull formed shadow magic into stubby pipes where my portals opened, and from them, the arcanium powder shot launched outwards. The shots did not have much force, but I had significant forward momentum. Also the enemy artillery positions were not far in front of me, so they impacted just fine.

The shield of the first cannon shattered swiftly under the barrage of my jerry-rigged dual autocannons (and somehow I knew what those were at that moment). Flashbacks to past lives had to wait, for no sooner did the shield break than I let loose a deluge of acid breath to melt the artillery and the hapless crew alike. Most people did not even have time to react, for the smokescreen had taken them unawares, and I had been as inconspicuous as possible on my approach. Sure, letting out some good, old-fashioned dragon roars would scare the mooks, but it would attract their higher-tiered Adventurers, and those scared me far more than mooks.

Skull cackled maniacally the whole time, her person swelling with power as terror gripped those below. Our actions and her Skills only fanned the flames of panic in our victims, and so in short order, we completed our bombing run. Not fully satisfied, I circled back while climbing a little higher into the sky. Their munitions caches were behind their artillery, and I made them my next target, this time with flame breaths. Magical explosions detonated below as we continued to rain down death from above. That is when things went awry.

Some pretty boy with too many earrings and ridiculously toned muscles leapt up into the air at me. The fact that I was over a hundred feet in the air apparently presented no obstacle to him as gravity seemingly gave him a free pass. He had spikey, white and blond hair, a red and open vest that highlighted his chiseled abs, and light gray pants that fit loosely. He also wore some rather ornate bracers that seemed to display a stork or crane of some kind. He also wore some sort of slippers, not boots or sandals like most people, so overall, he seemed to be some sort of [Monk] or [Brawler]. Also, the Diamond gorget around his neck spelled bad juju for me.

I know all of this because time seemed to stop, so I had ample opportunity to take in all the details. I could barely move, not because I was caught in any ensnarement, but because he was moving that fast as my [Fools Rush In] Skill struggled to keep up. He gave me a hearty wave, the kind that is mostly in the wrist, and even a gleaming smile, before his foot crashed into my ribs.

Having ribs broken is rather uncomfortable, to say the least. Having them break in slow motion is remarkably less comfortable. Having the breaking of ribs cascade into damn near every bone in your body being pulverized makes for a red-letter day. My body sailed forwards at high speed, and slightly at an angle to my right. Considering I yet remained under the effects of [Fools Rush In], I would be traveling at supersonic speeds by this point. As if quagmired in molasses, I tried to pivot my broken body, using what Skills I could to rip Skull off my back and deposit her in my arms and hugged up close to my chest. I wrapped my body around her, mostly via the use of magic to move myself like a puppet, for my broken body could not move under its own power.

My healing Skills had already kicked in, which was rather excruciating considering how blows of this nature worked mechanically. Any powerful hit like this applies the force of the blow over time, typically such that momentum is maintained even if crashing through walls, trees, and solid rock, until eventually the effect fades. That is how powerful people can send weaklings flying with a flick of a finger. Ergo, my bones constantly mended and broke as my Skills merrily continued their task of keeping me from coming down with an unfortunate case of being dead. At the time, the prospect of being dead had a certain allure, for I found that the whole process of dying was really not for me. Please return to sender, I would not like to renew my subscription to “Bones Breaking Secondly”.

Then [Fools Rush In] ended, while I somehow glimpsed the final wave from that [Monk] as he bid me farewell. The divide between Platinum and Diamond had been made abundantly clear to me. I had been as hopelessly outmatched as a Copper fighting a Platinum. And with that thought, my body went screaming through the air as I broke the sound barrier. The earliest invention of man to do so was the whip, and the second was my mangled form. I could be wrong about the second one, but at that moment, I would not have been in the mood for any pedantic corrections.

We slowly lost altitude for somewhere between seconds or eons before we crashed down hard into the earth. Fortunately, I landed in some farmer’s field and not the forest, and my body gouged a trench into the ground as I constructed a new irrigation system for the farmer. Special delivery, free of charge. But wait, there’s more! You know those pesky trees at the end of your field, I’m just gonna take them out too. Free trees felled for firewood this winter, because I am so generous.

Some dozens of trees later, my mangled body came to a halt in a copse in his field. Fortunately, none of the trees were old growth, otherwise my body may have yielded instead of the trees. I lay there for some time, not really knowing anything beyond pain as my body mended itself. By the time I could think straight, I noticed Skull was not nuzzled up to me between my arms, but rather, a trail of shadowy smoke continued deeper into the copse.

I rolled over to stand up, my body still weak and very sore despite my healing prowess. Considering I had miraculously survived the whole ordeal, I considered it an acceptable outcome. I would make a full recovery eventually, and so my biggest concern was for Skull.

I followed the shadow trail and found her body a few dozen broken trees away. Her body had landed in a sitting position up against a tree bigger around than most around here. I saw signs that she had been in a cocoon of shadow, but what remained of it was quickly dissipating into nothingness.

I changed back into my human form as I drew close to quickly examine her with some sensory Skills. Most of her bones were broken, she had massive internal bleeding, and many organs were crushed. Yet, she still lived, perhaps clinging to life from sheer tenacity, if not a Skill of some sort. No healing potions were capable of managing that, and as panic crept into the corners of my mind, I considered my options to stabilize her.

I reached out to touch her, and as I laid my hand upon her, the shadow that engulfed her coalesced into a small ball that floated between us. It wavered there in the air, sputtering at times, and sensing the need to act, I touched it with my free hand.

The ball of shadow expanded almost instantly, enveloping us both in inky blackness. I lost sense of time and space, all thought and reason suspended as I drifted through The Void. I forgot my pain, my body, Skull, everything I was doing, as tranquil peace flowed through me.

And then I found myself standing in a room of worked stone, a red carpet leading to the only exit, a pair of double wooden doors. Torches lit the walls, although shadows still clung to the edges of the room, seemingly more alive than not. My wits now returned to me, I gazed at the shadows, and I felt as though dark creatures lurked within, waiting to pounce the unwary.

I stepped to the door and inspected it. Solid wood reinforced with iron made up its form. Two large brass knockers were located on each door, themselves clutched in the mouths of the skulls of some ferocious beast I had not seen before. I used one to knock, and for a moment nothing happened. Then, a great surge of shadowy wind surged in the room, billowing so strongly I nearly lost my footing, before it crashed into the door and blasted them off their hinges forwards into some grand hall.

I peeked out at the new room. Pillars supported the ceiling, but shadow obfuscated exactly how high it went. The red carpet continued forward, but I could not see the far end of the room. The hall appeared wide, but otherwise bereft of anything of note.

“COME IN!”

A voice boomed in the distance, demanding an audience with me. Not one to be rude, I strode forward, digging down to muster every last ounce of courage. My education in the realm of theology was a bit lacking, but even I knew whose halls I strode.

I found myself in the realm of Gulthar, Dark god of Fear and Bravery, and my recklessness had brought his champion to death’s door.