Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow (53 page)

Barlog screamed in pain and immediately grabbed the hilt, punching Decray in the chest, which knocked him back. The large orc then tried to pull the blade out, but Decray had sprung back to his feet and deftly side kicked the orc on the shoulder, which had the unintentional effect of snapping the sword blade inside his chest. This brought the orc chieftain to his knees, as the grayish black blood spurted from the wound. With a final loud anguished cry, the hierorc fell forward, dead.

A loud cheer rose from the Battle Point soldiers near the scene of the fight. The orcs viewed the death of their chieftain and began to fight more defensively. This would prove to be the turning point in the land battle. Without weapons, Decray knew he would be of limited use, so he grabbed a short spear and an orc scimitar that were lying on the ground and jumped back on his griffon. He quickly strapped himself in, and the large beast spread her brownish tan wings, took a short run, and leaped into the air, heading to rejoin his rangers in the fight with the man/dragon creatures.

Mkel, I need a gem. My synthensium is growing empty
, Gallanth said to Mkel, who immediately reached into the small pouch that he kept in his thigh pants pocket. He pulled out the good-sized rough diamond that Ordin had given him for Gallanth. “Here you go,” he said, reaching up as far as he could. The gold dragon curled his head back toward his rider and flicked his huge tongue out, taking the precious stone and swallowing it.

It is a good stone, well rounded, it will produce great power
, he said. It still amazed Mkel how dragons could produce such immense power from so small an object. Gallanth explained to him that in their second stomach or synthensium, dragons can convert the gems into pure energy of various forms, one minute piece at a time. This was the source of the dragons’ incredible magical power and the power for their breath weapons.

They both suddenly heard the hundreds of war cries and roars of the dragon spawn, closing in on the aerial battle between them and the chromatics. Mkel looked back through Markthrea’s sight. He saw the company of the creatures coming toward them like a small plague of locust. “Tegent, be on guard, we are about to have a great deal of company from those dragon spawn creatures,” Mkel warned the warrior minstrel.

“I’ll keep them as busy as possible until you can knock all the chromatics out of the sky,” Tegent replied.

“Just be careful, those creatures put up quite a fight the last time we dealt with them, they are very tough,” Mkel added as Gallanth veered slightly left in pursuit of the lead blue dragon. Talonth and Lordan turned right to pursue Klaxtor.

Talonth caught up to Klaxtor quickly because of his wounds.
Finish him off, my rider
, Talonth told Lordan. As soon as he was in range, Lordan took aim and fired an energy bolt at the stuttering blue dragon. The light beam struck the blue in the middle of its back, and with a dying muffled roar, Klaxtor started to spin out of control toward the ground. The big silver then veered toward Strikenth and his fight with the remaining two greens and black. Gallanth moved fast to intercept Voltex, who had dove and turned sharply to evade the pursuing gold dragon.

“A little disheartening, Voltex, usurper of the plains, to see your comrades fall from the sky,” Gallanth roared to the fleeing blue dragon. Mkel was lining up a shot at the blue, when he heard the crack of Tegent’s arrow striking a spawn to his right rear flank. He quickly turned to see two of the dragon/man creatures bearing down on him from above. He quickly sighted in on the lead spawn and fired. The exploding-tipped bolt struck the creature in the chest, literally blowing him out of the air. He quickly reloaded and killed the second one before it reached Gallanth’s wing span. Six more now dove from the left, aiming directly at him with their spears drawn.

Mkel swung his crossbow’s swivel mount a quick 270 degrees off of Gallanth’s back ridge, took quick aim at the first spawn in his sights, and fired. The creature’s left wing was blown off from the resulting explosion, which also injured the spawn immediately beside it. He cocked Markthrea and fired again, almost vaporizing a second spawn. When he cocked the crossbow again, his magazine was empty. “Gallanth, reload!” he shouted. Gallanth turned his head to the left and unleashed a cone of fire that engulfed the four diving dragon spawn, turning them to ashes.

Just as Mkel began to thank Gallanth, the dragon interrupted. “To your back!” he shouted as he raised his tail and smashed the leading spawn in flight. Another was struck by Tegent’s arrow and forced out of formation. The trail man/dragon was cut in half by Gallanth’s return tail sweep. The three remaining spawn landed on Gallanth’s back and began to run toward Mkel. He grabbed the first nonexploding bolt magazine his hand found and quickly loaded it in the bottom of Markthrea. He cocked it and while awkward in trying to twist around to face behind him, he still quickly fired off three bolts at the lead spawn. Mkel was amazed, for it only took one or two shots to down an ogre.
These creatures are tough
, he thought to himself. The fourth shot struck the second spawn in the chest, stopping his advance as his dead kin slid off Gallanth’s back.

Mkel raised his right hand, making a fist, and fired a small plasma ball projectile from his dragonstone ring. The explosion blew the injured spawn off of Gallanth’s back, killing him in the process. The last spawn rushed Mkel, pointing its large spear at him. Kershan sprang from its scabbard and barely deflected the spear, which glanced off of Mkel’s dragon hide-armored jacket. He grasped the sword and swung it back, cutting the spear in half. As the spawn threw the severed spear shaft down, it raised its oversized clawed hand to swipe at Mkel. The thick muscled brown-green arm came down, only to be severed by the mithril blade. Mkel returned the swing and cut the creature from the lower abdomen through its upper rib cage. The dark green blood spurted from the spawn’s long deep cut, which ended its life with a gurgling roar as it fell off of Gallanth’s back.

Mkel sheathed Kershan and put Markthrea to his shoulder. He took careful aim and shot one of the spawn that was attacking Tegent’s griffon in the back. A claw swipe and bite to the neck by the griffon’s powerful beak finished another one off. His mount then had to immediately dive to get out of the way from four more that were diving on them.

At least eight squadrons apiece were attacking Strikenth and Talonth, forcing them to break off their attack against the remaining chromatics. Lordan was firing energy bolts as fast as his lance could reenergize, while Padonan’s glaive was slicing the wings of several dragon spawn at a throw. The two silvers were also freeze shattering several with each breath weapon unleashed. The chromatics, however, took advantage of the distraction and started hit-and-run strikes against the three metallic dragons. They were getting smarter, for the green and black dragons were moving to attack Gallanth, while Voltex attacked Strikenth and Talonth, trying to take advantage their preoccupation.

As Gallanth was weaving and swerving in the air to not allow the dragon spawn to mass on him, the younger green dragon tried to get too close to spit her acid stream. Her aerial charge was met by a plasma fireball from the gold dragon, which struck her in the neck and chest, killing her instantly. Gallanth’s triumph roar was shortened by Saarex’s angry reprisal at the death of his mate, and he charged headlong into him.

Gallanth and Mkel were surprised at the speed and rage of the charging green dragon, for the gold dragon was only able to hit him with one of the two sunburst beams from his eyes. A rare occurrence, for Gallanth almost never missed. This angered attack was also unusual, for most chromatic dragons had no emotion or ties to their mates, as did metallic dragons. Saarex’s headlong charge was met by Gallanth’s claws, and they exchanged swipes. Gallanth rammed his horned head into Saarex’s jaw to prevent him from biting his neck. Even though Saarex was large for a green dragon, he was still only two thirds the size of Gallanth, being roughly thirty-three yards long, with a fifty-five-yard wingspan. The gold dragon pushed Saarex back in midair and lunged forward, with his huge jaws ready for a crushing strike.

The injured green tried to push Gallanth out of the way with a claw swipe, but the gold dragon was too big and too strong. Gallanth’s jaws clamped down on Saarex’s long neck and left shoulder, sinking deep into the forest green armored hide. He shook the green dragon violently, like a doll, demonstrating his sheer strength. This was the death blow for Saarex, with Gallanth’s deadly fangs penetrating deep into the green hide, also crushing the strong dragon bones in his neck and shoulder. Gallanth let the dead green dragon go, and it fell end over end as his victory roar echoed across the plain.

“That’s another chromatic dragon vanquished,” General Daddonan said to the young soldier beside him. “We definitely needed them on our side today.”

The remaining black dragon dove on Gallanth from behind, spitting his acid stream. The vile, hot, caustic liquid was blocked by the gold’s magic shield, and he quickly whirled around to face the attacking black, smashing four attacking spawn with his wings in the process. Mkel was firing his crossbow as fast as he could, just to keep the man/dragon creatures from massing on him, but their attacks were getting more coordinated. Just then, they heard the war cries of the Battle Point rangers’ griffons as they moved in to join the aerial melee.

Mkel always liked griffons. Next to dragons, he thought they were the most majestic creatures in the air. Now he was glad they were here to distract the dragon spawn. The rangers immediately split into five six-man squadrons, with one group flying to in to cover each dragon, and the other two to hunt and intercept the spawn. “Decray has to be rewarded for his bravery and battle prowess,” Mkel said to Gallanth.
I agree,
Gallanth replied.

The rangers were firing arrows and crossbow bolts as their griffons sought out direct fights with the dragon spawn. Several griffons flew into the spawn and grappled with them. Their talons could do horrific damage, and their curved, razor sharp beaks could rend an orc in half. Even with this, the spawn still proved formidable foes, although several of the man/dragons started to fall from the sky, with slashed wings and deep wounds from griffon beaks.

The black dragon now facing Gallanth quickly conjured up a shatter spell and charged his bull-like horns with energy. He then launched forward in an attempt to gore Gallanth. His charge bounced off of Gallanth’s shield like a ram hitting a stone wall, with the spell energy transferring into the shield.

“If you want a fang and talon fight, chromatic, you cannot magically empower your horns, fool,” Gallanth roared at the reeling black dragon, as he summoned up his plasma fireball breath weapon and unleashed the powerful blast, hitting his foe in the chest and underbelly at point-blank range, killing it instantly. Gallanth’s roar was also echoed by the six griffons, who in conjunction with Mkel’s crossbow were taking a toll on the dragon spawn.

With their reinforcement of the griffon squadrons, Talonth and Strikenth immediately moved to pursue and attack Voltex. While the blue dragon did get a lucky hit on Talonth that took out the last of his shield, he was now fleeing for his life. Blue dragons were reasonably fast in the air, but they were no match for the swift silvers. Voltex knew he could not outrun his pursuers and finally turned around to face them, firing another lightning bolt.

Strikenth and Talonth split to let the bolt pass between them; they came back together and simultaneously breathed their icy beams at Voltex. The bluish white frost rays struck the blue dragon, freezing large portions of his hide and burning deep into his flesh. A final energy bolt from Lordan’s lance finished Voltex off. The two silver dragons roared simultaneously in victory and crisscrossed in flight to head back toward the battle.

They both quickly caught up to Gallanth and the griffons. The dragon spawn were almost all vanquished, with only three griffons receiving injuries that forced them to retire and one slain by a mass attack of four spawn. The three metallic dragons, with the aid of the rangers, quickly cleared the sky of the remaining spawn. “Talonth, Strikenth, go and help our Weir wizard with that giant pod that emerged from the south. We will help our Weir mates with the clan that is attacking from the east,” Gallanth ordered his two silver dragon friends. In spite of Colonel Lordan outranking Mkel, Gallanth was a gold dragon, therefore senior in status to the two silvers. A unique situation that while slightly tenuous was understood by the dragonriders.

The two parties split, with six griffons following Mkel and Gallanth, and the other twenty trailing Talonth and Strikenth as they all headed to their respective destinations on the battlefield.

The lead two giants had taken the bait. They charged Toderan and Ordin with their clubs raised, ready for what they thought would be an easy victory. When they got to within fifty yards, Ordin raised and threw his hammer. “Seek Donnac,” he whispered to his war hammer as it twirled end over end toward the lead giant. It struck the hide-covered common giant directly in the chest with a deafening clap of thunder, literally lifting the thirteen-foot-tall behemoth off its feet. The grotesque monster landed on its back, dead from the impact. Its companion barely had a moment to look back at the fate of its clansmen, when both Dekeen’s empowered arrow and Lupek’s lightning javelin struck it from opposite sides of the trail.

The power from the arrow and the javelin spun the fourteen-foot giant around and brought it to its knees. Toderan rushed the creature and, with a quick thrust of his holy sword into its heart, felled the beast. This victory was very short lived, for as soon as the second giant slumped to the ground in front of Toderan, four melon-sized rocks were hurled through the air toward the paladin and dwarf. One overshot the duo, and another landed just short, but the other two had to be stopped by their weapons’ magic shields. When the rocks hit the invisible force fields, they shattered to dust and debris, but shook the knight and dwarf.