Dragon Apocalypse (The Berserker and the Pedant Book 2) (27 page)

The ground tremored as Omumborombonga landed, the severed head of an Apocalypse at her feet, limp tentacle dangling out of its mouth. Omumborombonga’s heads bellowed, scalding steam and arctic mist streaming from her nostrils.

“THAT. IS. NOT. APOCALYPSE.”
 

“Dwarven, Gurken,” Arthur pleaded.
 
“It’s Dwarven.”

“Dwarven!” Pellonia said, nodding.

“Dwarven,” Maximina agreed.

Gurken pushed himself up, using his axe for support.
 
Upon standing, he clutched his axe in both hands.
 
He glared at Omumborombonga, staring the dragon down.
 
His leather gauntlets creaked against the leather grip of the axe, giving voice to the agony radiating throughout Gurken’s body.
 

“It will always be Dwarfen.”
 
Gurken charged.

“Oh, no,” Arthur, Pellonia, and Maximina said together.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY
-F
OUR

The Berserker and the Dragon Apocalypse

THE FOUR HEADS of Omumborombonga watched as Gurken closed on her, small clouds of dust drifting behind his footsteps.
 
The heads contemplated the dwarf as he entered the range of her dragon breaths, sprinted within reach of her fangs, leapt within claw range, and drove the axe into her chest.
 
The axe sparked against the dragon’s scales, and emitted a metallic sound as it ricocheted away.
 
Pling!

The axe deflected off of her and dug into the hard, dirt ground.
 
Omumborombonga flicked Gurken with a claw, lobbing him a not inconsiderable distance from her… and from his axe.

Omumborombonga inhaled. A tempest drove by Gurken, his beard fluttering in the wind, as the dragon sucked air into each of her mouths.
 
Gurken bowled over as he attempted to stand and rolled towards her.
 
They say the vengeance of the gods finds physical form in the breath of a dragon.
 
They do not do justice to the cataclysmic devastation wrought at the center of this dragon’s four breaths.

The infernal fire of bitter animosity.

The glacial tempest of grief-stricken mourning.

The resplendent luster of majestic grandeur.

The electrically charged strike of unrelenting torment.

Arthur and Pellonia screamed as any evidence of their friend was surely consigned to oblivion by the storm of destruction surrounding him.

As the fires died, the chill lifted, the bright lights dimmed, and the lightning dissipated, in their wake stood an imposing, dignified, and more than a little impressive ebony-skinned half-underelven woman with brilliant white hair and glowing green eyes.
 
She was defiant. She was glorious. The verdant jewel gleamed in the platinum tiara she’d acquired from the elven ship. Maximina and Gurken were wrapped in a shimmering protective shield.
 
Maximina levitated in the air between Gurken and Omumborombonga, small jets of flame emanating from her magic boots.

“It’s “its” instead of “it’s”. Thanks for the tip, Arthur.
 
The elven technology works now.”

“Elven MAGIC!” Pellonia said from back where they had been discussing such matters.

Omumborombonga withdrew in surprise. She stared at the little whip of a mortal woman who dared defy her.

“Halt, Ohm,” Maximina instructed.
 
“Apocalypse is alive. He fought with courage and honor.
 
He was instrumental in killing the Phage queen. He fulfilled his destiny.
 
Then I resurrected him — possibly a little over-resurrected — but the Phage are the ones that hurt him.
 
Where should your vengeance be directed?”

Omumborombonga huffed and stomped the ground; an earthquake trembled the region.
 
The large tentacle protruding through the portal flipped around, trying to clutch onto anything in its reach.
 
Well, almost anything.
 
It seemed to be carefully avoiding the Sphere of Annihilation, having learned from the previous Phage’s mistakes.

The dragon huffed at Maximina, a short blast that would have been enough to eradicate her had she not been properly shielded.
 
Omumborombonga turned to the tentacle and barreled towards it in a lumbering gait that, while not graceful, thundered and shook the ground with each step.
 
Maximina’s boots blasted small gouts of flame and she flew beside the dragon.

Maximina readied her dual wands of light. The wands let out a dull whine as they filled with energy, a violet radiance illuminating the tips.
 
Omumborombonga disgorged a hellstorm at the tentacle, breaking, melting, jolting, and slicing into it, severing it more than once.
 
Large chunks fell to the ground and the stump retracted through the portal. Smaller Phage promptly piled into this world once more.

Maximina picked them off two at a time, short bursts of light from her wands burrowing into the Phage as they hit the ground.
 
Omumborombonga took out enormous swaths with her flames, but even a dragon needs to pause and breathe.
 
The Phage kept coming.
 
The apocalypse of dragons overhead spread out, ignoring the battlefield and flying off without resistance.
 
The Phage were spreading.

The crawling horde of individual Phage slurp-popped their way through the gate faster than Omumborombonga and Maximina could destroy them.
 
Maximina blasted a couple of Phage as they leapt for her head.
 
She levitated higher into the air, out of leaping range.
 
The Phage gathered below her, jumping upwards and stretching to reach her.
 
They began to pile up, climbing on top of one another in a pyramid of writhing, wriggling tentacles.

“A little help!” Maximina shouted to Pellonia.

“I’m on it,” Pellonia shouted back.
 
She sprinted over to the Orb of Skzd.

“Wizard,” Gurken said to Arthur.
 
“Perchance might you magic us something to kill the Phage?”

“I’m afraid not Gurken, though I do wish I could.
 
I’m bereft of orb once more.”
 
Arthur shrugged.
 
“That dragon ate all my orbs.
 
I’m afraid I’m powerless.
 
Perhaps Antic will come to the rescue...”
 
Arthur looked at the little giant ant.

“I’m afraid not,” Gurken said.
 
“Most of their warriors died fighting the Phage queen.
 
We’re on our own.”

A swarm of Phage broke off from the main group and made their way toward Gurken and Arthur.
 
If the Phage got past them, they would break free into the tunnels and into the world beyond.
 
Every movement, every decision they made, took on a grand import.
 
So with them, so with the world.

So, of course they ran.
 
Gurken toward the oncoming Phage, in full acceptance of his fate and destiny, and Arthur over to Pellonia and the Orb of Skzd.
 
Omumborombonga immersed the charging horde in a hoary blast of ice, coating Gurken’s beard and eyebrows in a thick frost.
 
The Phage stiffened, frozen to the core.
 
Gurken crushed and shattered them as he waded through.

Pellonia bustled up to the Orb of Skzd as fast as her feet could carry her.

Pellonia looked at the orb, reading the words next to the circular protrusions.
 
The first one read: Power.

I know from previous experience that the protrusion next to the word Power does not, in fact, give us more power
, Pellonia thought, skipping over that protrusion to seek out another.

She looked over the other words and came upon one that read:
 
Portal.

“Aha!” Pellonia said, “that should turn the portal off.”
 
She stabbed at the protrusion next to the word and the face of the orb rearranged itself, displaying a brief one-word question.

“Destination?”

Two rectangles were drawn underneath with words inside.
 
“Current Location” and “Other”.

Pellonia scratched her head.
 
She stabbed her finger at the one marked “Current Location” and looked up at the portal.
 
Nothing happened.
 
Phage continued to stream through, nearly overrunning Maximina and Omumborombonga.

Another question appeared on the orb, along with the same two rectangles.

“Source?”

Pellonia stabbed at the “Current Location” rectangle.
 
“Come on, come on!
 
Turn it off,” she said.

A portal appeared underneath the Phage pyramid. The flesh golem wizard, having not moved since the destruction of its master, had long since been forgotten amongst the Phage.
 
It fell through the portal along with them.
 
The Phage streaming through the portal from the Phage homeworld immediately fell through the new portal as they came.

Twenty feet directly above the new portal, a third portal opened.
 
Phage poured out of the third portal, fell to the second portal and vanished, only to reappear through the third portal once more.
 
They continued on like that, picking up speed. The flesh golem wizard popped through as well.
 
Whoosh, whooosh, whooosh.
 
They whipped through the portals, accelerating as they went.

“They’re going to keep on coming,” Maximina said, continuing to blast away with her wands as Phage flooded through the portals, creating a solid column of falling Phage.
 
“There’s only one thing we can do.”

“GET. ON,” Omumborombonga said between blasts.

Maximina flew over to the dragon and sat where her necks conjoined with her body.
 
The magic shield provided by her tiara extended, enveloping the dragon in a protective sheath.

In a final display of her puissance, Omumborombonga’s scarlet head let loose a column of dragon’s fire, incinerating a large chunk of the falling column of Phage.
 
The azure head heaved a bolt of lightning, which leapt from Phage to Phage, frying those in its wake.
 
The ivory head spewed a mighty gale of ice and frost, solidifying the Phage it struck. The tawny yellow head discharged beams of light, searing into the Phage.

Maximina howled as she leaned into Omumborombonga, directing her through the mass of writhing tentacles and exposed brains.
 
It was a massacre; the Phage were no match for the enraged beast. As the last of the Phage were destroyed, Maximina flew Omumborombonga into the portal.
 
No other Phage came through.

Arthur reached Pellonia and the Orb of Skzd and pressed the protrusion marked “Power.”
 
The portal shimmered, flickered, and disappeared, closing in on itself.