Twenty-Two: Derzeri

So this is a dragon! My mouth was ajar. Of course, I had seen all sorts of beasts, and monsters since my arrival in the new world. I had seen demons of all shapes and sizes. But there’s something viscerally different about facing down your first dragon.

There is a primal part of your mind that understands that thing in front of you was what was meant to be the undisputed ruler of the world. In all of Earth’s legends and mythology dragons by far had the most universal importance apart from the gods themselves. Almost every culture had them, and they were always powerful, fierce, and terrifying.

The creature in front of me made the draconids look like lizards. A distant memory bubbled to the surface from an older cartoon. American Dragon: Jake Long. The first season, not the crappy season where they change art styles.

Derzeri stood eighteen feet tall, with a long meaty looking tail covered in spikes. Wings larger than the size of his body protruded from his back, and while his form looked humanoid enough in the frame, there was no mistaking its origins.

His scales were a dark red, with veins of black running through them, while his eyes glowed with a fierce golden light. What was the most unsettling part of the scene was that Derzeri was both armored and armed. A large azure blue breastplate was fastened to his chest, with ridges and grooves that allowed for maximum movement. He wore a helm of the same color protecting his head and making it more difficult to aim for his eyes.

This was a warrior. Not a monster, or a beast. Not a lowly priest. This wasn’t even adventurers who made their way by ambushing and preying on weaker targets. This beast in front of me, this dragon was a warrior all the way through. And he is looking for you! My inner voice shook me out of my shock and brought me back to the moment. Pulling out of my thoughts I focused on his information.

Derzeri: Level 46

Race: Crimson Dragon

Class: Ember Champion

Title: Blessed Draco-Knight

Affinity: Neutral

So not quite 50? I thought my comrades had said he would be over it. That set alarm bells off in my head. Something wasn’t quite right, but I was distracted a moment later when Derzeri began speaking.

“Hello, adventurers. I am sorry for the inconvenient summons. Desperate times and all that.” The dragon's voice did not match at all what I had expected. I stared at the dragon, blinking. I couldn’t believe what I had heard. “I hope you can forgive my rudeness. We just need to verify your identities and send you on your way. I have no doubt that you aren’t who we are looking for, but orders are orders.”

I laughed. Oh, I knew I was going to get killed. I would probably get us all killed, but I couldn’t contain the quick laugh that escaped my throat. I come to this other world, meet my first dragon, and when it talks it has a fucking country redneck drawl? Derzeri sounded like he just rode in from Texas on a horse.

I hadn’t picked up on any accent with the draconids, but in the light of fires throughout the camp, I could see that all of them had almost brownish scales. Maybe the draconids come from a different part? It is a big country. Who knows, they might be the Canadians of the dragons? Which made me unsuccessfully try to contain another chuckle.

It wasn’t like I had meant to laugh, and had quickly brought my emotions under control, but the damage had been done. Honestly, why does he sound so different anyway? So far everyone has sounded more or less American. I pondered before coming to a conclusion. The Dark Monarch perk had been translating everything for me, up to this point and I had just taken it for granted and hadn’t thought about the mechanics of it.

It hadn’t even occurred to me much that the perk would even accentuate dialect differences in its translation. It made me very curious how the prince actually sounded to all the people who had been born learning the language.

Just the downsides of raising charisma too fast. More distinctive personality traits without the practice of self-control. As all these thoughts ran through my mind I had managed to calm the laughter, but already the angry draconid escort marched over to me with murder in his eyes but was stopped as Derzeri’s drawling voice interrupted him.

“Patience, Nerthian. I am sure this young one meant no offense. Not the typical response to foreign royalty, but no need to get upset on my behalf. After all, we are the ones acting outside of usual courtesy. Now, uh, Leo. Is it? Interesting name, could you tell me what was so funny? Also, please, be candid.”

As he spoke a wave of power washed out from around him lighting the ground with a white light. It thrummed with magical power as it blanketed all those who stood inside with its radiant light. I looked down suspiciously for a moment before answering. The words of our escorts lingered in my mind.

They had told me he had a skill allowing him to verify our status and identities. He had gotten my name from my reveal screen, but if he had seen through my Predatory Camouflage skill then we wouldn’t be talking, he would be attacking. Of, fucking, course. There’s no real way to verify our identities in comparison to the leaderboard. While the system had listed some on the leaderboard by name, many of the other groups were given an alias. Just like how we are considered The Dark Lord’s Legion.

We could have tried picking any group alias from the lineup and how would they have known? With a fucking truth telling spell. I decided to test my hypothesis as I answered the princelings' question.

“I apologize, I truly meant no offense. Where I come from we have never heard a dragon speak, and it surprised me, you sounding as you do. Considering the dialect it took me off guard.” As I spoke the glowing white light t my feet shifted blue for a moment which seemed to satisfy the dragon.

It was the truth as far as I knew. If anyone on my planet ever had discussions with a dragon they had failed to divulge how they really sounded.

“It is my escort that would be considered unusual in Draciolis. Those who spend most of their time along our southern borders often share your uncultured sounds.” Derzeri responded, the muscles under his scales seemed to relax, but that only made me wary.

I had seen too many movies where the bad guy seems to relax, only to be preparing to strike. I did note that the light under the dragon had shone blue for a moment as well. So his skill affects everyone if it is a skill that determines the truth. Now I should probably attempt to lie. I needed to figure out if we were compelled to tell the truth, or if this skill would just detect lies. The problem was trying to think of a lie that wouldn’t be offensive, or damning.

“In truth, I did not spend a lot of time learning much about this world. My parents were human and didn’t take me to Ystherial. Instead, they raised me as they could.” So far the truth, the light is still blue. “Instead I spent most of my life in the abandoned town of Seavine.”

As I spoke the ground shone a bright red at the words. Well yeah, that was a lie. At least I know the limits of this ability. As long as it was the technical truth, to me, the skill would read as honest. The bright side was that it wouldn’t compel me to speak honestly.

“Well, we all have secrets, don’t we? But I can see from the anxious faces of your friends that they aren’t happy with this interrogation. Let’s proceed so you all can be on your way.”

Not good! I need to stall him!

“Excuse me, your prince-liness, Since you have had us escorted here. Can I ask what your objective is in stopping us?” I could feel my ally's eyes on my back but I ignored it.

They had been silent up to this point. I didn’t blame them. Velixen was nowhere to be seen, and unlike me, they didn’t have skills that could get them out of this mess. They were nervous. I looked over my shoulder and gave them a reassuring smile. I know what I am doing. I tried to convey. I hoped I knew what I was doing.

“Were you not informed? We are ensuring that the Dark Lord, or that of our other enemies doesn’t escape from this accursed Valley. My father and King Milzeyan have seen fit to redeploy all their troops to this task. While it will slow down their descent to the dungeon core, it will mean that when we achieve victory there should be no real threat left to stop our plans.” Blue at his feet.

He was confident. Either we were allies to the cause, or we were dead. He did not doubt these outcomes. I opened up my mind and was grateful for the hornet's nest of activity. It had been some time since I had put out the call, but all around us monsters were beginning to close in. Just a few more minutes.

Fortunately, at least one of my allies had decided to put their faith in what I was doing.

“Does that mean we won’t need to be deploying all the armies to assault the bright lands?” Jeloqa asked, trying to sound concerned more for her people, and not for herself in this situation.

“How should I know? I don’t rule the armies.” Derzeri snapped. I could see he was getting annoyed at the conversation. “That isn’t my concern. Now if you could just claim who you are and your ranking in the leaderboard you can be on your way.”

“What’s your rank?” Grenthar chimed in from behind me. “How do we know you aren’t the dark lord?” The question took Derzeri off guard and smoke puffed out of his nose in his irritation. He was about to respond when a draconid came running up breathlessly.

This is it! The buzzing in my head was starting to drown everything else out now. When I had first sent out the command for every monster in the area to come I hadn’t bothered to pay attention to how many there would be. I could tell there weren’t many of the larger beasts like the Kodrilus or the Radilgor in the area. What I got was so much worse. Which was actually better.

“Highness! We have a problem!’ The draconid shouted. Just as he sounded the message, screams could be heard from outside the camp.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“What is it? There shouldn’t be any monsters here that you all can’t handle.” The prince said, annoyed. “Now quickly! It seems I may have an issue to deal with. Can you tell me who you are so I can let you go and deal with this? I apologize but if you delay any longer, I will have to terminate you out of necessity.”

An eruption echoed through the camp as someone used some skill. I turned to my team.

“Will you guys trust me?” I asked them. They vocally affirmed, and I felt satisfied at the blue light beneath their feet. Turning back to Derzeri, I smiled widely. “My name is King Leodon, Ruler of Shangrior. Also known as The Dark Monarch. You have fallen into my trap.”

With a thought, the camp around us erupted in magical force that blew us all off our feet.

***

I hadn’t used as much mana in the explosion as I had with the adventurers, mostly, because I couldn’t afford to lose too many body parts else the draconids might have noticed. However, with the barrels of alcohol over the camp I had hoped blowing them up would have an increased effect, and I had been right.

Flames erupted everywhere as the concussive force knocked all but Derzeri to his feet. I didn’t wait to act though. I only had enough mana after detonating the barrels to summon five deathsworn. With a wave of my hands as I fell my new minions rose from the shadows and bound towards the nearest draconid targets. I smiled at their forms as they leaped.

They were double their normal size but the skeletal army I had summoned were nothing short of giant fucking kangaroos. Go kick some ass! I sent them telepathically as I rose to my feet summoning Abyssal Ruination.

I was hoping that the surprise assault would buy us time to gain an advantage, as it had up to this point. Most of the foes I had faced seemed ill-prepared to handle sudden unexpected events. Unfortunately, I had no such luck this time. Already the draconids were regrouping and preparing a counterattack as the ‘roo’ minions closed in on them.

Derzeri roared in rage and a giant sword of blue flames erupted to life in his hands and swung it in my direction.

“Oh fuck!” Was all I could shout before the blade hammered into a translucent shield right above my head. The invisible aegis that formed started cracking almost immediately, but I was already moving.

“Thanks, Gren!” I shouted but didn’t bother looking at him. I had a promise I had to keep to myself. Nerthian the draconid who had been so annoying had left me and my group to the prince and was beginning to regroup with his friends to help them counter the sudden onslaught of Australian wildlife. Reaching my hand out the growing number of tendrils around my body stretched out and pulled him towards me.

“You!-” He started shouting. I didn’t let him finish as my tendrils immobilized him while my scythe removed his head and filled me with more power as my blade harvested his soul.

“You die first.” I spat as a roar echoed from behind me. Uh oh! I didn’t even look, I phased my body out just as the flaming blade passed through me. Even as a ghost, I took damage as it burned through the icy cold of my spectral phase.

All over the battlefield, the kangaroos rocked in pain, absorbing the damage for me. I could hear a cry from Talon overhead. Their pain reverberated through our connection, and the agony of being burned filled my mind.

“You bastard!” I shouted at the dragon as contempt began blinding me to reason. Seriously, can’t I just mind my fucking business? If he hadn’t been in my way this wouldn’t be happening.

Angrily I charged in his direction while trying to figure out my next move while trying to get within the range of his blade. If I can get close I can at least avoid that fire sword. As I rushed toward him he pivoted his body and expertly caught the momentum of his first attack and swung his blade at me.

He’s too fast! If he hit me one more time my deathsworn wouldn’t make it. Without them, I would be wide open. As his arm swung towards me though a figure glowing with a brilliant ember light collided with his hand knocking it away from me. I watched as Faerwyn nimbly kicked herself off of his hand, launching herself back across the battlefield.

A draconid that was fending off the kicks of a roo was torn in half by her trident a moment later as the blades both punctured through its chest and then a vibration of energy from the weapon cleaved it in two. I couldn’t see where Shialk went, but a moment later two arrows sunk into Derzeri’s shoulder and a purple light flashed causing the prince to howl in pain. Serves him right!

Apparently, whatever he had done angered Derzeri enough for him to turn his head and release a flame-filled roar. I watched as some form of hazy substance made contact with the air and ignited. Science, not magic. Interesting. The rolling fire bellowed, lighting up all in its path and illuminating the dark corner Shialk had found for himself.

I didn’t even have time to panic as Grenthar leaped in front of him holding out his sword. A red light shone off of his body and with a grunt the demon cleaved the fire in two creating a momentary shell around his body as he swung the blade. The light around his body dimmed as he did.

Fuck, he is already using up too much of his stamina. This battle was going too fast for my class perks to be having much of an effect yet. Something needs to change. My mana had fortunately recovered enough and with another quick wave of my hand, four more figures clawed their way into existence.

I doubted this world had ever heard of koalas, or the myth about drop bears, but as the tiny beasts began crossing the battlefield at unnatural speeds the draconids they latched onto were no longer focused on their prince.

He hadn’t attacked again as he clawed the arrows out of his shoulder and cast some sort of recovery spell on where Shialk had poisoned him. It was futile as just as his wounds closed a purple light erupted from his hand and blew the helmet off of his head. a nasty burn had melted through his scales from the cursed attack.

Veli! You are amazing! I was glad and also relieved. The battle had been going on for several seconds so far, and we were all still alive. I needed to make sure that stayed the case.

“Gren! Strategy?” I didn’t want to act on my own now. It was one thing to set up the surprise, but I knew the only way for us all to make it out of this would be teamwork. As it was, we weren't winning. A glance told me that our enemies had barely taken losses yet. Darkness and tendrils were surrounding me, but against such powerful targets, they wouldn’t mean much.

The demon glanced around the battlefield taking in our party. Veli was invisible, and Jeloqa was currently dancing in between two different kangaroos helping them fend off three draconids, but they were losing ground. The constant buzz in my mind from the monsters informed me that they were at least having some success at preventing reinforcements, but time was not on our side.

Derzeri was already launching himself towards Grenthat who had the audacity to defend against his inferno. I launched my tendrils at his body, and as I feared the dragon tore through them with ease as he swung his claymore at my friend. Fortunately, Faerwyn came to the rescue once again. This time instead of aiming for the dragon, she launched herself through Grenthar and carried him safely out of the way like a superhero.

“We need to take out his army first. You handle them! We can keep him busy!” Grenthar said. Instantly I knew what he meant. In a fight like this my unique abilities wouldn’t be effective on him unless I could focus my whole attention on the dragon, and right now I couldn’t. None of my party members were level 30, but I had to trust their combined might enough to last against Derzeri, while I cleaned up.

I didn’t bother responding and immediately turned to rush toward the nearest draconid. He was hacking unsuccessfully at the furry drop bear I had summoned as it climbed over his body biting and tearing at his scaly flesh. I cut him in two ending his struggles, and a feeling washed over me. Hunger.

“You killed Nerthian, do you honestly think I will let you go?” Derzeri called and a moment later he was standing in front of me swinging his blade. Jeloqa and Faerwyn both propelled themselves at the dragon and managed to interrupt his attack long enough for me to get out of the way. Another three arrows quickly found themselves in his throat and with another small purple explosion that released an acrid scent he gurgled in pain.

The damage was minimal, but it was a distraction. Already other draconids were moving to support the prince now that a few of them were keeping the deathsworn occupied.

Not so fast. My Haunting Eclipse was now beginning to grow exponentially as all of the marked targets were taking damage and being blighted. It wasn’t cold, though. These were people trained to avoid fear. Fear huh? I thought and realized there was something I could do to help my friends against Derzeri. With a thought, I sent my shadowy minions to latch onto the dragon prince.

I looked at my mana and made a decision. I hadn’t used the skill much but I waved my hand and focused on my allies' weapons I enchanted them.

Skill: Mark of Frostbite (Revenant)

Skill Rank: E

Investment: 10 / 45

Skill Description: Mark allies, allowing their attacks to deal 20% frost damage. Repeated attacks can build up layers of ice on their targets.

Rank Up Effect: Increases frost damage by an additional 10%

I didn’t know how susceptible dragons were to ice, but I hoped that it couldn’t hurt. I watched as my allies began radiating a chilly presence. Their hands and weapons glowed white as the air around them became highlighted.

Screams erupted from behind me, taking my attention just in time to see a mass of white attack a nearby draconid that had been closing in on me. A moment later the mass scattered and moved to their next target.

The mass startled me once I realized what they were. Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I will never doubt your voracity again. Not that I ever had, but a swarm of pale white rabbits were leaping through the unit devouring whatever they could.

“Mother? What are you doing here? This is a battlefield!” Derzeri called from behind me. I ignored it as I had two draconids rushing at me that had managed to circumvent the murder bunnies. These guys aren’t Derzeri. I smiled, and enveloped them in my darkness, clutching at their bodies with my tendrils. They resisted, but they weren’t as powerful as their prince, and a moment later they were lying dead.

I turned once again to check on my allies to make sure they were still okay and was taken aback when I saw a second dragon had appeared. I felt my heart climb in fear until I chuckled malevolently. Who knew the prince’s greatest fear was his own mother? Trusting my friends to contend with Derzeri long enough I started sweeping the immediate area. As the carnivorous rabbits had closed in on the center of camp that had brought in all the reserves of draconids.

I felt my hopes diminish as I counted nearly thirty remaining enemy targets. More mana recovered, and I brought Wuzzy into the playing field. Wuzzy rushed at one of the nearest ones but I was being surrounded and still had more closing in on my friends who were pelting Derzeri with attacks as he assailed them. His attacks were distracted as he kept seeing his mother step in front of my friends, but he was quickly growing resistant to my nightmares' effects.

Something needed to change. With a quick thought, I reached into my satchel and pulled out a D20. I didn’t know what I needed, but I threw the dice into the middle of a group of draconids. Their eyes followed the object as it rolled between them. They took a step back as if worried it was about to explode.

Instead, a large number 16 hovered in the air for a brief moment, and then a black light rushed through their body, and the blight that had been slowly eating through one who had been marked by me instantly consumed the target, and splashed over the others who all began rotting on the spot.

I took the roll as a win. I had played around with the item a few times after my battle with Versyok and decided I wasn’t fond of how up to chance its effects were. While my luck was increasing, I doubted I would have real verified success with it until my luck rank had reached at least B or A.

The instant necrosis of the group had two effects. Once I had regained almost all of my health, mana, and stamina in one go. The other was that it caused a few of the others who had been approaching me to freeze in fear. Fear joyous fear. The air around me suddenly turned crisp as their terror empowered my eclipse.

I was preparing to attack them when I got hit hard from behind and was knocked off my feet. I skidded to a halt and groaned. Faerwyn lay on the ground before me, draconids moving in her, just as a few moved in on me. The rabbits seemed to have had their fill of the battle and were retreating. I wanted to command them to attack, but it would have been a waste of mana, and they wouldn’t stop the enemy from slaughtering my friend in time. Across the way, I could see what happened. Derzeri had somehow launched her at me and was now hammering into Grenthar who had a shield that was barely holding. Jeloqa was bleeding on the ground, an arm missing.

No! No! NOOO! It couldn’t end like this. What had I been thinking? Did I honestly think we could take out a fucking dragon and his army? Who did I think I was? I’ve gotten lucky, sure. But did I honestly think the system was going to hand everything to me on a silver platter?

All these thoughts ran through my head as I saw doom rain down on my new friends, and it was all my fault.

No. It won’t end this way. I won’t let it.

With a mana-infused roar, I activated Wailing Winds. All around me spirits of the dead began to dance as I gave into the darkness around within.