The next morning came early, but I felt like I had never had a more restful sleep. I stretched in the bed for a moment, then got up and went to the wardrobe to pick out my clothes for the day. I went to the shower to clean up, got dressed, and headed out to the hallway. There I found all three of my companions waiting for me. They all had their armor on as well. I looked a little sheepish and returned to my room to get mine, which I had foolishly left behind. We met Al'Doran outside the dormitories where he again provided a meal on the patio of one of the old restaurants for us, and we ate our fill.
"After you have eaten, you should all go to the armory. Once again it is time that you equip yourself properly for battle."
He stared pointedly at Rutherford. Rutherford noticed the stare.
"Hey, these are the best pieces of armor I could find, OK?"
"I'm sure that is true, Cleric. But I believe you will find clothing more befitting a person of your current station that is at least equivalent to your current gear in the armory. I promise."
Rutherford nodded to this and seemed to accept it. He went back to eating his breakfast.
"And ye have dwarf gear in this armory of yers do ye?"
"But of course. There were Dragonriders of all races centuries ago. You will find that we can accommodate any race."
"Truly?! There were Dwarven Dragonriders? My parents always told me stories of the Dragonriders, but I thought they were always humans."
"There were several mighty Dwarven Dragonriders. I will tell you of them one day. But for today, we must equip you and then begin the training. Now, eat, so that we may begin the day."
We finished eating our breakfast and got up to go to the armory. When we walked in this time, though, the room was divided into four sections, one for each of us. Since Tristan and I had already chosen our equipment, we just let Vokin and Rutherford sort through finding theirs. They looked inside almost slack-jawed at what was inside. Tristan's section was on the far right, then mine next to his, after that appeared to be Vokin's equipment, and then Rutherford's. The truly determining detail on which one was Rutherford's was the emblazoned holy insignias on the armor hung on mannequins on the far left.
Both Rutherford and Vokin walked up to the gear with what almost seemed like reverence.
"This is some of the greatest gear I have ever seen," Rutherford said. "Even better than what I already have."
He took off his coconut shells and grass skirt and began to put on the armor from one of the mannequins. It was full plate armor, so it had to be heavy, but his hefty frame seemed to carry it with ease. Rutherford was no small man, standing at about six-and-a-half feet tall and built broad like a football player, he was an imposing figure in his full plate armor, and it was a very stark contrast to his previous armor. He kept his hammer though, saying that the other weapons were great, but his had a special enchantment he wanted to keep, though he wouldn't say what it was right now. I tried to inspect his hammer, but for some reason, it didn't work. So I just took him at his word.
Vokin had gone for something more maneuverable with half-plate armor. The interlocking pieces of armor made his movement much easier, but still offered a lot of the protection he would need in battle. Vokin moved around, punching, kicking, and rolling to test out the maneuverability of the armor and found it to be to his liking. He did switch out his great axe for a one-handed double-bladed battle axe though, and a shield. The battle axe was a beautifully ornate piece with wicked sharp blades on each side of the axe and what looked to be pictures of mountains etched into the sides of each of the blades.
"The options I have for shield will be better for our type of fighting and will let me take more damage for the team. The two-handed axe was great for solo fighting, allowing me to deal greater damage, but I didn't have to defend anyone else. Plus I had an option to choose to go down a path of great weapon fighting or dual weapon or what is called sword and board, which is just a fancy way of saying weapon and shield. With these options, I have decided to take the sword and board path. I had been holding onto that decision for a while, not really sure where my path was going to take me and not wanting to make a decision I would regret, but I finally found where I belong and I will use the skills accordingly now."
That made sense. I had heard the term sword and board in games on earth before. I was happy to see he was thinking of the team as a whole and what was best for everyone. Both Vokin and Rutherford were able to switch out their rings for some even better, a necklace, and Vokin was able to equip two gems to his battle axe giving him ice damage as well as light damage added on. When he hit something with the axe both of the blades glowed with a blue light.
"These are truly incredible gifts. We can't thank ye enough, Callan." Vokin said.
"Think nothing of it. You can always repay the favor by helping me fight and by protecting those who can't protect themselves."
All three of my companions nodded. We left the armory, fully suited up now, and went to meet with Al'Doran. This time he wasn't at the beach as I had expected. Instead, he was in a building further off toward the center of town. When we arrived at the destination he had directed us to, we looked at what appeared to be some kind of large arena. There were seats all the way around going up to form a sort of bowl, similar to some of the really old stadiums on earth for sports.
"This is the ancient rider arena. Here Dragonriders would compete with each other to show their strength and prowess in battle. Today you will have to work on learning battle tactics together to help you work as a team."
On the far end of the arena from where we stood a hole opened in the floor and something was rising from the hole in the floor. A cage with a monster inside of it was now sitting in front of us. I had no idea what it was. It had a giant bulbous head with a single huge eye taking up almost three-quarters of its face. It had about ten tentacles that it stood on as well as waved in the air. A mouth stretching from one side of the creature to the other and filled with sharp teeth, opened in a terrible roar right underneath its eye, looking as though it could split its head in two if it opened it far enough. The creature was a dark blue almost black color and appeared to emit slime from all over its body. The creature was horrifying and now that I thought about it, reminded me of some kind of horrible octopus monster.
"What is that thing?" I asked.
"A tentacled horror. The stuff of nightmares. It is not something we want to be messin' with lads." Vokin replied.
"You do not have a choice. You must face this monster. You as a team should be able to bring it down. You must work using tactics though." Al'Doran said from his vantage point perched on top of the arena wall.
"How do we do that?!" I exclaimed.
"Many times in life you aren't given a chance to strategize about a fight. You must take what you know of your allies' strengths and weaknesses, and use that to fight."
As he said this last bit, the cage fell away on all sides from the horror and it began to move forward.
"Well, I guess we're doing this. Vokin, tank damage with the shield, use that new blade you got to try to take out some tentacles. Tristan, Dark Shroud and get around to drain it and stun it with a banshee scream if you can. Rutherford, watch for heals where needed but smash it in the meantime. I'll keep up spell support and hack and slash where I can. LET'S DO THIS!"
All four of us roared as we jumped into action. Vokin reached the creature first and set to blocking and chopping at the monster. It tried to wrap a tentacle around him when I rushed up behind him and sliced at the tentacle as well. They were tough tentacles though. My blade bit into the tentacle, but I couldn't cut through, even with the extra black fire damage. I remembered, too late, that I had some skills that I could use to help with that. Which, of course, now hit me is likely the reason Al'Doran set this up. So, I hopped back and waited for my chance to jump back in. The monster roared as a green glow showed around it. That must have been a drain from Tristan. I hadn't seen him use it before, but from the monster's reaction, it must have been uncomfortable.
The monster reacted again to Vokin hitting it with his axe, and then bent over sideways suddenly. There was Rutherford with his hammer, smashing into the side of the monster's head. Two tentacles rushed towards him, he blocked one with his hammer, but the other knocked him back and off his feet. Several tentacles had a hold of Vokin now who was struggling not to have his axe and shield ripped from his grasp. I cast a shocking bolt at the monster which appeared to do next to nothing and jumped forward with my sword raised. This time I used Strong Blow in combination with my weapon's special skill to deal extra damage and was able to cut all the way through one of the tentacles. The monster roared in pain, tossed Vokin aside, and grabbed me, lifting me up in the air and holding me over its mouth. Just as it was starting to unravel its tentacles to drop me into its mouth a scream emitted from behind the beast that deafened me almost instantly, but did have the effect of causing the monster to turn its head and drop me to grab its head with all of its remaining tentacles.
I couldn't hear much of what happened next, but I had taken some damage from that last attack and the fall had the added bonus where I landed on my left shoulder and it popped out of joint. I screamed in pain and almost threw up from the pain. I rolled over to see where the monster was and was rewarded with a tentacle to the face which sent me rolling away from it. I still couldn't hear anything from the banshee scream, but I was just grateful at this point that I hadn't been eaten. Rolling end over end away from the creature hadn't been a fun experience, as I almost blacked out from the pain in my shoulder. Suddenly I felt a warm sensation and my hearing came back just in time to hear myself scream as my shoulder was pulled back into place. But as soon as that was back, the warm feeling eased that pain, and I could see my HP going back up. I looked over to see Rutherford nodding at me and then turning to face the monster again.
I got to my feet and looked over at the monster. I could feel my blood starting to boil. I cast a quick Grasping Vine at the monster that grabbed onto its slimy body, then cast Grease underneath it. The monster suddenly began to slip around, its slime clearly not mixing well with the grease and the vines with their thorns started to tear at the creature's skin.
"Get back!" I yelled at the team.
They all began to move away and I cast a fireball at the creature. The Grease spell, which had apparently made its way up the side of the beast as it mixed with the creature's slime, or rather, tried to, caught fire. Now the Monster was howling in pain and anger. It ripped itself free of the vines and rushed toward us in a raging, flaming, ball of fury. I sent a Wind Blast at it as well and the tornado that formed apparently sucked up some of the Grease and also caught fire. Now there was a firey tornado attacking this monster that was also on fire from the other spells and was screaming in pain. The monster had stopped advancing and we were all just staring at it waiting for the fire to go out. At this point, with a fire tornado, we couldn't even get close to the creature.
Finally, the Wind Blast stopped and the tornado went out. The monster slumped over in a crispy husk. It appeared to be melted to the ground, which was why it had stopped moving. We looked at it and I let out a sigh of relief, sagging slightly from the fight. Suddenly the creature shot up and roared louder than it ever had so far. We all jumped back a bit, weapons now at the ready.
"Get it now before it can recover!" I shouted over its roar.
Rutherford, Vokin, and I all jumped forward with weapons raised and Tristan hit it with a Dark Ball and Drain. I slashed at it, Vokin hacked at it, and Rutherford smashed it with the spiny end of his hammer. The monster appeared to have its tentacles melted together at this point, so we were just wailing on it. Suddenly it ripped its tentacles free of each other, some of them ripping free from the body, stuck completely to others nearby it, and it roared again in rage and pain as it reached out for us. Rutherford, Vokin, and I were able to get back in time, but Tristan couldn't dodge fast enough and was struck hard and thrown into the side wall where he crumpled into a pile on the ground.
"Rutherford, get to Tristan and check him out. Vokin and I will keep the monster distracted."
Rutherford didn't even pause to acknowledge me, rushing off to get to Tristan. Vokin banged his axe on his shield to get the monster's attention. It didn't appear to be able to open its eye, so it tried to move to get Vokin but missed as he dodged the strike. I tried to use stealth to move to its other side and hacked at a tentacle as it struck at me. This time I didn't need to use the more robust strike as its now crispy limbs seemed to have become less tough. The tentacle fell off and I was tossed to one side as the creature let go of strategy and spun in a circle with its remaining limbs extended and hit me from the side. Vokin, being a good bit shorter than me as a dwarf, was able to duck under the attacks. He jumped into the air and roared as he grabbed his axe in both hands, the shield off to the side now, and sliced into the creature's eye. It popped like a cherry tomato and again the creature screamed. It struck Vokin from its face with a tentacle and sent him flying as well.
"Just die already!" I yelled.
I was now back up and it was my turn to finish this. I jumped as Vokin had, over the tentacles thrashing around and onto the top of the monster. It tried to strike at me, but I cast a Dragon Shield around me for a moment of respite while I got my balance, which the creature cracked almost immediately with its tentacles, but I only needed a moment. I took my sword and with another Strong Blow, I stabbed down into the top of the monster's head. The roaring stopped, the tentacles went straight out, and then it wilted. I hopped off its head and to the ground as it slumped over dead.
I laid back on the ground, panting heavily. Vokin came over to me and grinned down at me.
"That was a fine show there, Callan. Ye really pulled it out for us."
"I couldn't have done it without all of you though."
I sat up and looked up at Al'Doran.
"You really needed to have us fight something that dangerous?!"
"If you had team tactics down, you wouldn't have been harmed at all."
"I just feel like we could have prepared first then gone into it."
"If you want to have a true test of where you stand, you must just go into a fight to see. I now know exactly what you need to work on."
With that, Al'Doran began to show us where we could have improved. We needed to learn more about each other's skills and abilities to really be effective as a team.
"Rutherford, you seem to be one of the strongest members, can you tell us about your skills? I have to admit to being a bit in the dark on Cleric abilities."
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
"Sure. I have these skills," He said, and as he said that I got some pop-ups in my vision that appeared to be basic descriptions of Rutherford's skills.
Skill:
Radial Smash
This skill allows the user to smash their weapon into the ground and sends out a pulse of pressure that deals a small amount of damage to enemies as well as throws them back.
Cooldown: 5 mins
Skill:
Divine Strike
When activated, this skill imbues the next attack strike with divine power and does additional holy damage.
Cooldown: 30 mins
Skill:
Divine Inspiration
Using this skill requires prayer to your deity. The god or goddess of your choice grants you a small bit of their power to smite your enemies, raising the damage dealt by attacks, as well as the speed of the user.
Cooldown: 24 hours
Skill:
Repel Undeath
This skill will cause undead near you to flee as long as their level is lower than your own.
Cooldown: 1 hour
Skill:
Spirit Shield
When activated, Spirit Shield will cause a holy energy field to appear around you and protect you from damage up to a certain threshold based on level of the skill.
Cooldown: 30 mins
Skill:
Reaping Strike
This skill emits a physical wave of holy energy from the strike toward enemies in a wide spread.
Cooldown: 5 mins
Skill:
Light of the Heavens
Activating this skill causes the user to be wreathed in a bright light shining in all directions. Dark creatures or undead will take a small amount of light damage when in its presence.
Cooldown: 2 hours
Skill:
Channel the Divine
Once per day, the user of this skill can contact their deity to help with a situation. The help can come in many different forms, so be careful when it is used.
Cooldown: 24 hours
"This is really helpful! Thanks, Rutherford. Vokin, can you go next?"
"Sure lad," Vokin said, and again I was shown pop-ups with his skills.
Skill:
Shield Bash
When activated, this skill allows the user to use their shield with tremendous force to bash their opponent with an extra hard attack dealing more damage than normal.
Cooldown: 10 mins
Skill:
Weapon Slash
This skill emits a physical wave of force energy from the strike toward enemies in a wide spread.
Cooldown: 5 mins
Skill:
Taunt
Activating this skill causes you to become the focus of all attention in a battle for a 30-meter radius. It is usually accompanied by some kind of shout or verbal taunt as well.
Cooldown: 10 mins
Skill:
Second Wind
Activating Second Wind will give you back 50% of your overall stamina, giving you the ability to go on for longer.
Cooldown: 1 hour
Skill:
Overwhelming Strength
When activated, this skill will cause your strength to double for a short period of time.
Cooldown: 1 hour
Skill:
Disarming Strike
When activated, there is a 75% increase in the chance that your strike will disarm your opponent.
Cooldown: 10 mins
Skill:
Fancy Footwork
Using this skill will increase the evasion of the user by 33%.
Cooldown: 15 mins
Skill:
Unerring Strike
When activated, the next strike made will not miss. Even if it should have. This strike also cannot be blocked.
Cooldown: 30 mins
Skill:
Impossible Dodge
When activated, the user dodges the next attack, even if it should have no way of missing.
Cooldown: 30 mins
Skill:
Parry
This skill allows the user to block almost any attack. The exception being Unerring Strike.
Cooldown: 10 mins
Skill:
Sweeping Strike
When activated, this skill will use a wide horizontal strike able to deal damage to up to 5 enemies at once, extending the user's reach by 15 feet to include those enemies.
Cooldown: 15 mins
"You have so many skills Vokin. How do you know which one to use?"
"I only have this many because I can't use spells. I'm a Fighter class, so I make up for the lack of spells with extra skills."
"That makes sense. Alright, Tristan, you are up."
"Here. I don't have as many skills as the others." Said Tristan, and again I got pop-ups.
Skill:
Undeath Protection:
With this skill, you are now resistant to all death magic and damage making the damage done of this kind to you 50% less effective.
Cooldown: N/A
Skill:
Necrosis
Activating this skill on a user will cause its live tissue to rot and slough off causing necrotic damage over time.
Cooldown: 5 mins
Skill:
Wither
This skill causes the enemy to lose muscle mass and decreases its overall physical stats by 10%. This effect can be stacked.
Cooldown: 5 mins
"You sure don't have many skills, but that is OK because you are lower level than the rest of us, and you can use magic. I know those spells are useful as I've seen many of them in action."
"Thanks, Callan," Tristan said, looking relieved at the praise after he had been worried about being a drag on the team.
We talked about what we could have done differently and how we could have handled the monsters better. Then once we had finished our discussion, Al'Doran stepped in and gave us a few more tips. After we had these discussions, Al'Doran set up some of the mental training for each of us specific to our weapons or styles of fighting. We worked on these for a few hours and at the end of that time, Al'Doran had another monster brought into the arena for us to fight.
This monster was completely different from the last one. It looked a bit like a giant puma with two almost tentacle-like appendages that spread out from the side of its head. It yowled from between the bars of the cage at us. It hunched down, getting ready to pounce so we also got ready with our weapons.
"This one will be fast. Vokin, Rutherford, run defense to try to stop it long enough for me to tangle it up. Tristan, Drain it to try to slow it down. Once it's held down, we attack. Hit it hard hit it fast!"
And with that, the sides of the cage fell away and the cat leapt out at us. We underestimated its leap distance, but quickly formed a plan by moving in different directions and I cast a Grasping Vines where it was set to land. It saw it coming and tried to twist itself out of the way, but it was too late. The vines grabbed at it, and Tristan cast Drain on it which caused it to growl. It struggled furiously to try to get free, but we pounced as soon as it was held, and with a Strong Blow, and the extra skill from my sword I slashed as hard as I could at the creature's neck while Vokin struck the other side of the beast and Rutherford slammed his hammer down on its head.
One of the tentacles got in the way of my sword which slowed the damage I would have done to its neck but severed the tentacle and bit into its neck somewhat with a hissing sound and the smell of burning flesh. Vokin's axe dug into its side and dealt extra ice and light damage, but the VIP of this fight had to go to Rutherford. His giant hammer hit the cat-like creature square on the top of the head and the creature went down hard. There was an audible crunch from the hammer hitting it on the head. After that blow to the head, it stopped struggling and I was able to stab into its neck causing bleeding that it was not going to recover from. It never got back up.
"Much better than last time. If you continue to improve at this rate, you will be ready to face the Shadow monsters in no time. Now it is time to add in the dragon."
----------------------------------------
We worked on more of the tactics and had Aeolith join us for fighting for the rest of the day. Adding Aeolith made the fights even easier. She was a terror with wings. She was able to claw, bite, breathe elemental attacks, and pounce on the monsters to help keep them at bay while we dispatched them. Not to mention her mental confusion was devastating when it worked on the monster. Al'Doran told us that we wouldn't always be able to rely on having Aeolith with us in a fight because sometimes she would need to handle the larger monsters on her own while we fought the smaller ones, but that we would get times to fight with her alongside us, and she truly showed us what she could do now.
We went to the dormitories and showered off and went to our rooms without hardly saying anything to each other. We were completely exhausted from the fighting for the day. The XP was good though and the lessons we learned in fighting together were even more valuable.
These lessons went on like this for the rest of the week. We would fight and strategize, then learn more about our unique abilities with the mental training that Al'Doran had for us. We grew stronger and stronger as time went on and it wasn't until a few days in that I finally thought it pertinent to ask Al'Doran where the monsters were coming from.
"I gather them at night and bring them here. You need not worry, there will always be enough for you to train on."
"Why not just let us go to a dungeon?"
"Then I would not be able to stay with you should something go wrong. And I would not be able to help show you ways to improve as easily."
That did make sense. So we continued with the training he had set up for us. By the end of the week, I had reached level thirty though. And Aeolith was finally large enough for me to ride.
Name: Callan Ryder
Race: Human
Class: Dragon Rider
Level: 30
HP: 370/370*(+20 Necklace)
MP: 440/440 *(+20 Ring)
SP: 350/350
Total XP: 2,135,000
XP to Next Level: 343,000
Attributes:
Unused Attribute Points: 0
Strength: 35 *(+7 Items & Skills)
Constitution: 35 *(+2 Skills)
Dexterity: 42 *(+2 Skills)
Endurance: 35 *(+2 Skills)
Intelligence: 40 *(+7 Items & Skills)
Wisdom: 40 *(+2 Skills)
Charisma: 17 *(+2 Skills)
Luck: 13 *(+2 Skills)
Unused Skill Points: 2
Non-Combat Skills:
Combat Skills:
Inspect: Beginner 8
Unarmed Combat: Beginner 9
Dragon Spirit: 1/5
Spears: Novice 3
Dragon Scales: 1/4
Short Blades: Beginner 5
Dragon Armor: 1/5
Swords: Initiate 28
Stealth: Beginner 2
Dragon Slash: 1/5
Dragon Breath: Novice 16
Dragon Shield: Novice 11
Thrown Weapons: Beginner 7
I also picked up the skills for Dragon Rally, the mental skills for Aeolith of Disruption, and Divining, as well as Dragon senses. This last skill seriously enhanced my ability to see, hear, and smell things around me. It took me a bit to get used to the ability to dial my senses up and down to those levels so I didn't get an overload. After a bit of practice, and some direction from Al'Doran though, I was able to use the ability to hone my ability to find things. I was able to see further, hear quieter noises, and smell things that were more subtle than I ever could have as a standard human.
We regrouped at the dormitory after our most recent day of training and this time Al'Doran was there to greet us.
"Tomorrow we will return to the mainland. You have fought well, and we need to ensure that we are not keeping you from your task for too long. I will take you back so that you can work on figuring out how to best handle the situation. Aeolith will be with me for the time being so that you can form a plan with the human Commander in the city. Once you have the plan settled, use one of the scrolls to summon me and we will come to aid you. That is when we will make our presence known and can begin the new fight for the fate of the world. I would have liked to have had more time to find other dragons, but we can worry about that once we have abolished this new incursion of Shadow Beasts."
"Do you think it is a good idea to show ourselves and you at the same time? Shouldn't we keep you as a backup for a truly terrible situation?" I asked.
"Callan, I am old. I am not going to be around forever. I must do what I can to help you while I can. This time we have had together had shown me that my time is growing shorter. To show that I have trained you is going to strike more fear into the creatures than for you to show up alone."
"What do you mean time is growing shorter? You will be able to complete our training, won't you? We still have more to learn!"
"Life is a lesson the whole way through, young rider. You will never be finished with training. But I will be here long enough to teach you more yet. Do not fear that."
That was a relief. We said goodnight and went to clean up after a day of fighting and after showers and storing our gear for the night, we went to sleep. I had a little bit harder time sleeping because of the anxiety of going back to the mainland. But we needed to get back to help the people there. I fell asleep that night thinking of all the people in the town that we had met and wanted to help.