Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow (56 page)

The other land dragon turned to face the mountain giant, who just managed to roll away from its jaws, which clamped down on empty air. Mountain giants were not only incredibly strong, they were also very nimble for their size, making them very dangerous as compared to the common giants or even the ice and fire giants. He moved in and struck the attacking land dragon with his mace, just missing the crew’s fighting carriage. Nimble or not, the giant did not dodge the land dragon’s tail strike, which hit him in the hip and sent him tumbling to the ground.

A common giant then lumbered in to attack the land dragon, only to meet a claw swipe that slashed the giant’s abdomen, forcing it back. The injured land dragon got back up on its feet and shook its head to clear it from the hard hit, with the greenish blood oozing from the wound. Its crew scrambled to get up into the armored carriage on its back. Jodem powered his staff and unleashed a freezing ray at one of the common giants. The icy blast hit it in its upper midsection, freezing a good part of the creature’s body solid, which then cracked and burst. Jodem had used several spells fighting the chromatics and beholders, and he was getting down to his last few before his staff would need to fully recharge itself.

The orcs were swarming two of the common giants, who were smashing one with each club strike, but it was like beating crazed hornets away; they were taking their toll on the large brutes. The remaining common giants were now focused on attacking the land dragons, with the mountain giant sprinting toward Jodem. The wizard quickly waved his staff and created an ice wall that encircled the giant, which it ran into and bounced back covered in an icy frost. Enraged, the creature got up roaring, raised his mace, and struck the twenty-inch-thick wall. It cracked but did not give. As he struck it again, Jodem prepared a spell to greet the angered creature.

With a final blow, a portion of the ice wall gave way and the mountain giant stepped out and yelled to Jodem in his dialect, “Wizard, you will now meet your fate.”

“Be careful when you play with fire, for you might get burnt, my overconfident brute,” he yelled back to the giant, casting a fireball at him. The mountain giant attempted to dodge the large flaming sphere that streaked toward him. He was only partially successful, with the fiery blast hitting him in the side as he jumped away, throwing his large frame farther than he expected. He slowly got up, his right side and back smoking from the flames of the spell blast. Jodem was amazed at the speed of the twenty-foot-tall giant and quickly started to prepare another spell to finish him off.

The mountain giant got up smarting from his burns, with a look of pure ferocity across his smudged bluish white skin. He lifted his mace with his blackened arm and limped toward Jodem. The wizard was preparing another spell, but it would likely be too close to being able to cast it before the giant got to him. Just then an icy beam from above struck the giant, freezing him solid as his final deep shout of pain faded, and then he shattered into hundreds of pieces. Talonth quickly back winged and landed beside Jodem. Strikenth dove and hit a common giant with his icy breath, turning it into a frozen statue before it cracked and shattered under its own weight.

“Thank you for your assistance, Talonth,” Jodem nodded to the pair.

“No thanks needed, Master Wizard, your fight with the chromatics earlier and the wounds you inflicted on them greatly helped us in battle. We are just returning the favor,” the large silver responded.

“Your wounds are deep, Talonth, you should retire and tend to them with Aloras salve,” Jodem responded.

“There will be time for healing later, Master Jodem, but for now there are still enemy on the field,” Talonth replied.

“Master Wizard, you know of the dedication of silver dragons,” Lordan yelled down to Jodem with a smile. An audible thud distracted them as Jodem’s charmed orcs finally felled one of the giants, who had killed all but four of the twenty that had attacked him. The other giant had just crushed the twenty orcs that were fighting him, but evidenced by the multiple broken spears sticking from him, and dozens of bleeding sword and axe slashes, they had not died without taking their toll on the brute.

The wounded giant limped over to the remaining orcs and began to swing sluggishly. It crushed one of the orcs with its club, with the other three attacking it with the same mindless ferocity that helped them kill the first giant. The brute managed to kill the remaining orcs after taking several more hits to its legs and midsection. As it turned, it looked at the silver dragon with an almost fearful expression, which Lordan then hit it with a blast from his lance, finishing it off.

“Those orcs did come in handy after all,” Jodem said to Lordan and Talonth.

“Too bad you couldn’t do that to the entire army,” Lordan quipped.

The land dragons quickly felled the other two giants with almost point-blank blasts of fire. “Gallanth and Mkel just finished off the large giant clan,” Talonth explained as he looked to the east.

“Now is the time to destroy this army,” Lordan spoke up. “Jodem, we will have to work together to cut off their retreat eastward.”

“Gallanth has taken to the air, along with his Weir companions. We must join him,” Talonth added.

“We must also not let this Morgathian sorcerer escape. I will meet you by Mkel and Gallanth,” Jodem said as he closed his eyes and whispered in elvish into the dragonstone at the end of his staff, calling for Vatara.

“See you in the air,” Lordan said, looking down at Jodem and saluting as Talonth took a couple of steps away from Jodem and the land dragons and launched into the air, a cloud of grass and dust rising from the downdraft of his wings.

“Good fight, my little brothers, now take your rest to heal,” Talonth spoke in Draconic to the two injured land dragons as he slowly flew a slow circle above them, who then bowed their heads in response. Vatara swooped down and landed beside the wizard. Jodem climbed onto the flying saddle and nudged the giant eagle to take off.

“Excellent job, Lieutenant; you, your men, and your dragons fought well,” he yelled to the land dragon crew leader as Vatara took off into the air.

Slyvar was attempting to limp away toward the southwest when the pair of land dragons caught up to him. The injured black chromatic turned to face them, knowing he could not outrun the land-bound Alliance dragons, and there was no lake or river in sight to dive into. He was only seven or eight yards longer than the land dragons and not much stronger, especially being as wounded as he was from the fight with the metallics. He was just about to spit a stream of his vile burning acid when two ballistae spears struck him in the side and upper back. Both spears penetrated the armored black hide, being fired at not more than one hundred yards; close range for the large weapons.

The black dragon then rose up and unleashed a stream of fiery acid at the land dragon on the left. He fired it at the extreme end of his range and was surprised to see the wingless dragons react quickly, with both breathing their jets of fire to block the acid stream. The land dragons then closed in on him in seconds, with their crews holding on hard from the rapid movement. They were bounced around by their mounts running at their top speed, which was just over what a good horse can do. They then split and went to opposite sides of the chromatic to bait it and keep it off guard.

“Come, wingless worms, and face the ferocity of Slyvar,” the black dragon boasted. Then one of the land dragons made a false lunge and backed off just as the black dragon attempted to strike with its jaws and sharp bull-like horns. The land dragon on the opposite side then quickly moved in and clamped down on the chromatic’s dark shoulder. As Slyvar turned his head around to counterstrike the land dragon, its wingman then lunged quickly and bit down on the black’s neck. The two land dragons shook the chromatic, forcing it to its belly and raking it with their front claws. This was enough to finish off the wounded black. Both land dragons raised their heads and bellowed out their victory roars, with a tinge of pride at bringing down a chromatic, most of which referred to their breed as inferior.

“Excellent job, my little brothers,”
Strikenth roared down to the victorious land dragons, as he and Padonan circled back toward the fighting. The pair had quickly flown to intercept the fleeing Slyvar and help the land dragons defeat him, but they happily did not need their assistance. Gallanth had flown toward the dwindling aerial battle and fired a sunburst beam, killing one of the last manticores that the Battle Point hippogriffs hadn’t caught yet.

Below, Ashram’s army was starting to break. All the behirs were now slain, as were all the giants, save the one that was captured. The Talon sorcerer himself was finally deciding to get involved in the fight by firing a lightning bolt at a land dragon. The searing charged beam knocked it down from the impact but did not kill it. Upon seeing the destruction of two wings of chromatics, including a red demon dragon, the whole giant clan, and his entire battalion of behirs, he was also having second thoughts. His cavalry was also crushed, as he apparently underestimated the prowess and coordination of his Battle Point opponents. The orc and Morgathian infantry were being routed as well. He now stood alone and rationalized to himself that it was time leave versus actually fighting the Alliance forces to attempt to save the remainder of his army.

The two silver dragons joined Gallanth and the Draden Weir group in the air above the battle, as the remaining hippogriffs began to perform diving attacks against the remnants of Ashram’s army. “Talonth, Strikenth, help the hippogriffs cut off the sorcerer’s army’s retreat, and destroy it if they don’t surrender. The sorcerer Ashram is still very dangerous, and your shields are down,” Gallanth directed the two silvers as they nodded in acknowledgement. “Jodem, shall we have a talk with the good Talon sorcerer?” he continued with a more upbeat tone. Jodem nodded and smiled at the gold dragon’s invitation. Mkel could tell that Gallanth was getting tired. Two major battles back to back, and against such formidable foes, were taking a toll on the large gold dragon. He knew Gallanth wanted this battle over.

Mkel cocked Markthrea and loaded a mithril-tipped exploding bolt to deal maximum damage to the sorcerer’s magic shield. “We’re going after the Morgathian sorcerer,” Mkel shouted back to Ordin.

“Good, I enjoy seeing sorcerers crushed almost as much as giants. No harm intended to Master Jodem,” Ordin said with a smile as Mkel looked back at him.

“No harm taken, my friend,” Mkel said back. Toderan, Lupek, and Dekeen were following Gallanth and Jodem on their mounts, as they all streamed toward the hovering nightmare. Ashram saw the approaching group and quickly summoned up a spell from his dark crystal-powered staff. Just as Gallanth fired a sunburst beam, Ashram let loose a meteor storm spell. The powerful, glowing fiery projectiles and the intense light beam passed each other with blinding speed. The sunburst beam struck Ashram’s shield with a terrific explosion.

Ashram’s fiery meteors streaked toward the gold dragon, who took the first hit with his shield and then began to turn, roll, and twirl in the air to dodge the eighteen follow-on fiery projectiles. Only five more hit his shield, with the rest sizzling past him. His magical barrier still held firm.

“Toderan, Tegent, bank to the right; Dekeen and Lupek, go to the left. We will slow him down and prevent him from teleporting out,” Mkel said into his crystal to his comrades. He knew they couldn’t catch a nightmare, but a winged horse and a giant eagle could at least match its speed and prevent him from turning away from his dragon. Gallanth was gaining on him, however.

“Mkel, we need to take him alive if possible. We must get to the bottom of this increase in aggression,” Jodem’s voice came through Mkel’s crystal.

“If we can, my friend,” Mkel answered.

As Gallanth was gaining on the sorcerer’s nightmare, he roared an antimagic spell to prevent him from teleporting, although Ashram might be powerful enough to overcome this spell lock, given enough time. Ashram looked back at the pursuing gold dragon, who was now only one hundred yards away. Gallanth summoned up his barrage fireball spell and raised his left front talon, opening his claws, upon which six fireballs formed and streaked out in succession.

Ashram’s nightmare dodged the first one by veering hard to the left. He could feel the heat from the flaming projectile as it streamed past him. He couldn’t move too far to either side, for he saw the two mounted flyers on both his flanks start to box him in. The second fireball barely missed the demon horse, but as Gallanth was leading the banking nightmare, the third projectile hit the sorcerer’s shield with a glancing blow. The fourth fireball struck the magic shield directly, and Ashram shuddered from the impact. The fifth fireball hit his shield and shattered it, bursting through the invisible force field and striking the hindquarter of the nightmare and singeing Ashram’s robes. Nightmares possessed very tough hide that was very fire resistant but not fireproof.

“Mkel, down the demon horse with Markthrea,” Gallanth said to him.

“No problem, my friend,” Mkel answered as he removed the exploding-tip magazine from the crossbow and loaded his standard bolts. He took aim through Markthrea’s sight and locked onto the undulating nightmare. The demon horse was very agile and a difficult target. He lined the crosshair in the lead aiming circle and fired, but at the last second, he slipped the sight reticule just outside the circle in his scope. The bolt launched from the crossbow and streaked by the right side of the black steed, missing it by a couple of inches.
Take your time, my rider, I know you can hit it,
Gallanth encouraged Mkel telepathically.