by Eric Vall
Its neck was thicker than my own waist, and the two fangs were longer than my forearms when he parted his massive jaws in my direction. Then his ragged blue wings unfolded from the rockface, and I realized his body continued nearly twenty feet along the base of the ridge.
He slithered forward with a warning hiss, but by now, the drake down the pass was snarling and coming my way too, and I didn’t miss the scissor-like snapping of the yellow dragons behind me either.
“Shit,” I gasped before I ripped the floor of the pass up over me to block the serpent’s attack.
The blood on the ground oozed all over me, and my cover immediately cracked under the force of the strike I’d blocked. So, I let the rocks break apart and swiftly hurled the shards into the serpent’s skull while I desperately scanned to make sure my women were hidden.
The bluish beast floundered in confusion from the throttling, and I took advantage of his distraction to shove a rogue carcass off me and try to back away, but when I flipped around, I saw the drake’s jaws parting only a few feet from me.
Just beyond him, the black beast on the ridge was opening his wings with his stark orange and predatory gaze burning into me, and I realized there was no getting out of this pass easily now.
Then a whip suddenly cracked across the drake’s snout, and he reeled furiously while one of the yellow beasts dove for me. I slipped out of range of the drake just as I sent a boulder flying up to snap the yellow jaws shut with a painful crunch, and I was already sprinting for the cover of an overhang when the black beast took flight.
The hiss of the serpent came just behind my heels, though, and Cayla whipped the drake again to keep him at bay before she lashed out at the serpent as well.
The blue serpent seethed and took flight at once, and I saw him spiral straight up into the air before he folded his body in half and took a perilous plunge at me. I clamored out from the overhang and managed to scale the ridge before he could change his direction, and then I took a wild leap to a rocky ledge as the serpent’s snout rammed into the stonework where I’d been.
I struggled to keep my hold with the serpent slithering thirty feet below my dangling feet, and out of the corner of my eyes, I saw the jaws of the black dragon open. A bright orange glow burned far in the back of his throat, but there was also a yellow beast working his way along the ridge toward me as well, and with the rune pounding in my ears, I let it feed into my veins at full throttle to escape the two dragons.
With a surge of my Terra power, the cliff I clung to immediately warped inward, and a cascade of rocky shards broke loose and dropped onto the serpent below me. Flames were already shooting from the black beast’s jaws, but I managed to escape his onslaught as I tumbled into the cavern I’d formed.
Then I whipped around and sealed more than half the entrance before the yellow dragon and his mate could snatch me, and I heard their horned snouts ramming against the wall with all their strength. From the small crevice of an opening I’d left, I could see Aurora and Deya’s terrified expressions where they crouched in the gnarled brush behind the purple dragon’s nest, but they were in a safe spot for now, so I signaled for them to stay there.
I spotted my own opening within another few seconds, and while the black beast rounded back around to take another try, I waited until he was close enough for me to smell the soot on his breath, and then I jumped clear into the air to drop the thirty feet into the pass.
The flames scorched the cliff face and left behind a coal-black line of destruction, and as the dragon veered off once more, I softened my landing right when I hit the base of the pass. I tumbled for several feet before I came to a crashing stop in a pile of bones, and I quickly stood to scan my surroundings.
All down the pass, the rest of the dragons were fuming from the sudden chaos, and while some clung angrily to their nests and braced themselves for an attack, others just began tearing into each other. They swooped from one ridge to the next as they snapped at any wing within reach, and a few fell into the base of the ravine to begin a deadly battle.
Well. Shit. My bad.
I stumbled and dodged the talons and tails tumbling past me, but it looked like the nearest ones were so agitated they couldn’t decide whether to bother eating me or each other first. Which worked in my advantage, because the gem I’d sensed was somewhere in the ridge to my left, and it called to me at a frequency that made my veins pulse greedily.
I checked to see both yellow beasts were still attempting to break into the cavern they thought I was in, and their poisonous breath left a cloud of orange haze in the air that was slowly sinking. Shoshanne already had her powers summoned, though, and she sent the deadly haze off in another direction.
The black dragon took a wide turn high above the top of the ridge, and even though the scales on his throat rippled like glowing embers, I still had time to get the gem before he attacked.
Except for the issue of the stout drake that had spotted me again and was coming my way.
So, when I saw Cayla suddenly emerged from behind the bloody tree, I decided this was when shit would just have to get messy, because I wasn’t going anywhere without that gem.
The moment Cayla whipped the drake, I sent my arm out and broke the ridge open wide with a thunderous crack, and the dragons who clung there roared viciously when they were thrown into one another and forced from their perches. Now their fury was fully directed at each other as they tumbled into other territories and upset several nests, and I tried not to roll my eyes when Aurora let out a terrified screech.
Despite everything, I quickly righted the nests before her silly dragons could be harmed, and then I kept half an eye on Cayla as I scoured the cliff for the hum of the gem. It wasn’t far from my grasp now, and I tore the last of the rocks loose while the princess drew the drake’s attention away. Then I sent the rubble soaring into the sky just as the black dragon dove.
He met with the mess of stone in a violent flash of flames, and while the massive shards pummeled his underbelly and wings, I summoned the gem to me through the gaping crevice I’d formed. The black dragon’s flames peeled across the other bodies and nests near him, and the sudden attack caused several dragons to turn on him and bite at his broad wings while they worked to drive the beast out of the pass.
I finally had a sizeable gem clutched in my fist, though, and I managed to pull up a shelter for myself before the rubble I’d sent into the air could crush me on its way back down.
Once everything settled, I pocketed the second gem and quickly reemerged, but I found the blue serpent already waiting for me with his fangs poised to strike. Before I could blink, Aurora threw a jet of white flames right in his face, and the serpent hissed frantically and flung its massive body around the pass in a panic.
With him distracted once more, I jumped aside and scaled a ledge nearby before an oncoming dragon could run me down, and as I began to climb higher, I caught another glimpse of the black dragon headed this way.
“Godsdamnit,” I growled as I forced my limbs to climb faster. It seemed like I couldn’t shake the giant beast off my trail, but with my enhanced vision, I was managing to keep track of his course alright.
The roars of the dragons fighting in the pass echoed ominously beneath me, and I narrowly escaped being crushed against the ridge as they dove and clamored down the rocks to get at one another. I didn’t stop once while I steadily rose dozens of feet above the pass, though, and I hollered to Deya over the chaos of battered wings and gnashing teeth.
“How many scales have you got?”
The elf’s voice came to me despite the noise of the dragons as she called back, but three scales wasn’t even close to what we’d come here for. It also meant we had little to fall back on if any of those dragons died in the bloodbath taking place.
So, I hoisted myself onto a small overhang near the top of the ridge, and as I pulled my bow around from my back, I eyed the mass of warring dragons below.
That’s when I caught sight of the deep
green dragon that had passed overhead when we first arrived, and his wings couldn’t have spanned any less than seventy feet as he prepared to take flight. He was deeper into the pass than we’d risked going, and he was eyeing a pair of grappling dragons that were sliding closer to his nest. When he finally soared upward to gather speed for a strike, I crouched and took aim with my bow. Once his flank was exposed to me, I loosed the arrow, and the serrated tip grazed his flank right on target.
The dragon snarled viciously, and his yellow eyes darted to me at once, but I still couldn’t help grinning. A wash of scales were torn loose from his hip when the arrow struck, and I heard Deya gasp in surprise as they rained down across the ridge.
I could see the green beast changing his course to come at me, though, so I quickly fired another arrow to graze the belly of a fiercely red dragon who was battling a yellow beast on the cliff across from me, and as more scales scattered, I hollered for Deya to gather them.
Then I shouldered my bow and took another death leap into the pass to escape the jaws of the green dragon.
My heart pounded heavily in my ears while I dropped into the rolling mass of dragons, and as I landed hard in a crouch, the ground bowled outward under the force of my Terra magic. The dragons around me scattered as everything began to shake, and with my powers reverberating through the stones, I used this added energy to tear up an entire slab the width of the pass floor.
The green beast was diving for me when I sent the slab soaring straight at his jaws, and it broke apart while he roared and narrowly avoided crashing into the cliffside. When he soared off to take another circle above the pass, I steadied the tremors in the ground and quickly scanned the skies, but I couldn’t see any sign of the black beast anywhere.
His mate was preparing to take flight, though, and I didn’t want to kill her since Deya had stolen a scale from her. So, I hollered for Shoshanne, and she turned her attention away from the yellow beasts to send a fierce wind funneling down the entire pass.
I braced myself on the rocks as even the carcasses began to tumble my way, but I could hear the beating of the black dragon’s wings, and I could tell she was being held at bay. Eventually, she let out a bellowing roar and was forced far back on the cliff’s edge, and I just hoped I was out of range of her flames.
The Aer Mage’s strength sent most of the warring dragons around me flying from the pass, and when the wind died down, their rage spewed down from their new perches on the cliffs instead.
Fire peeled across the stones along with their furious snarls, and while Aurora worked to deflect their flames, I dodged their strikes as they began swooping into the pass once more.
I was crouched beneath a ledge to avoid a pair of dragons who were already attempting to rip each other to shreds again, and through the ground, I sensed Aurora and Deya creeping their way toward the entrance. When I looked to check if they had a clear exit, I saw the stout drake was blocking them and coming toward Cayla, but the princess looked anything but concerned.
She raised her whip with a deadly grin on her face and thrashed the beast across the snout, and as he let out a pained growl, he reared back and stumbled out of range. Cayla came at him again, though, and she whipped him hard on his exposed neck before swiftly splitting his snout open with a final swipe.
I swallowed hard and could only stare while the lethal woman took a second to shift the taut bodice that clung to her cleavage, and she swiped her brow before promptly turning toward one of the yellow beasts who had given up on trying to dig me out of the cavern.
With a crack of the whip, the beast yowled and scrambled away from the entrance, and its talons sent a wash of stone tumbling down in its stead.
Shoshanne sent another gale up at once, and not only did the rocks go flying into the angry drake’s face, but the yellow beast was thrown from his perch and forced to fly off over the top of the ridge.
Several dragons were fleeing the slaughter taking place in the pass now while others ruthlessly tore into each other, but I just crouched there grinning while I watched Cayla take on the drake as he foolishly advanced once more. She whipped him soundly across the shoulder and then again on his snout, and I saw Deya sneaking up behind his tail before she flickered out of sight.
Then Aurora jumped into the pass right ahead of me, and I grabbed her arm to pull her into the shelter of the overhang.
“We need to get out of here,” the half-elf panted. “There’s about ten dragons further along in the pass that are all at each other’s throats and coming this way. Did you get the gems?”
“Just two, but I sensed something under me when I landed near the embankment over there,” I told her.
“There’s no time,” the half-elf warned, and she eyed the drake blocking our exit before nervously checking for the oncoming drove.
“Find that serpent,” I ordered, “he’s somewhere around here still, I can hear him breathing. Deya’s snagging a scale from the drake, but if we can get the serpent, too, we’ll be more than stocked. Use your bow if you can, but watch out for his tail, he’s fucking huge.”
Aurora nodded and snuck forward while she carefully scanned the base of the ridge on either side, and I sent my magic coursing through the ground as quickly as possible. My rune was wavering right in the sweet spot I’d been trying to master, and I let it aid my Terra powers while I kept my eyes on Cayla in case she needed help.
The princess had climbed onto a ledge when the drake reared up, and as Deya suddenly reappeared and fell back with a nod, Cayla thrashed the drake’s flank to send him bolting out of the pass.
Our exit was finally clear aside from the yellow dragon who’d returned to defend its nest, and when it tried to drive Cayla right off the ledge, the princess flipped around and whipped the beast across its horned snout. It snapped wildly in its rage and held its ground, and I knew it was about to unleash its poisonous breath at any moment.
Shoshanne was already poised with her palms raised to handle the attack, though, and the moment the dragon’s jaws parted, its breath hitched, and it let out a wheezing sound while it stumbled and finally dropped at Cayla’s feet. I could tell Shoshanne was carefully keeping him incapacitated rather than killing him, and I let out a tense breath once I knew the two women were safe again.
Deya and Aurora were already meeting one another halfway to the exit, and the beautiful elf was about to speak when an ominous hiss rose up.
That’s when I saw the ground ripple around them, and I realized the serpent didn’t only blend with the rocks. He’d changed his scales to hide himself amongst the carcasses in the pass, and now his body was coiled to completely encircle the two women.
My magic hit on the hum of a gem just as my vision narrowed, and with the snarls of the dragons down the pass thundering closer, I let my powers surge to full force as I dove from the cover of the rocks. Aurora shrieked and grabbed Deya to pull her close, and I ordered the two women not to move before I raised my palm.
With a deep rumble shaking the floor of the pass, a ring of stone beneath the serpent’s body shot up, and it sent the giant flying twenty feet above the upper edge of the ridge. Then I swiftly pulled my bow around, and right before the serpent soared off in a panic, I sent an arrow to snag the tip of his tail.
Glinting blue scales rained down as I met my mark, but there was no time to celebrate the victory. My eyes caught sight of a black speck that must have been a mile above, but as I watched it draw closer, I could tell we were nearly out of time.
So, I swiftly broke the ring of stone in half, and I sent most of it hurtling over me to try and break up the warring mass of dragons heading this way, and then I reformed the rest into a wall between me and the women.
With our defense in place, I summoned my Terra magic and let it build to the point of bursting, and as the sound of the black beast’s roar drew closer at an alarming speed, I finally thrust my fist into the ground.
Even the cliff faces on either side of me shook with the force of the blow as a jag
ged crevice ripped open beneath me to tear its way forty feet straight into the ground. Way down deep at the pinnacle of the fissure, I felt the gem I summoned already working its way to me, and I hollered for Cayla and Shoshanne to get to the other women near the wall as my rune almost drowned out everything around me.
The moment the gem connected with my palm, I lurched to my feet and scaled the wall, and I had just dropped amongst the trembling women when a bolt of flames ten feet wide suddenly scorched its way along the base of the pass.
I sealed the wall over us just in time, and from the sliver of an opening I left at the bottom edge, I could see the black beast’s flames engulfing everything around us.
I didn’t waste even a second, though.
As soon as the flaming jet passed on, I broke the wall apart, and with the smell of burnt carcasses all around, I ordered the women to get to the shield of rock.
We barreled along the scorched pass while drakes stampeded past and dragons coursed overhead to escape the fiery chasm, and by the time we reached the ledge, the black dragon had doubled back to take his next go at us.
Under the cover of the massive rocky shield, I held my breath with my women clutching me for dear life, and I expected another jet of flames any moment. None of the fleeing beasts lagged behind in the pass now, and an eerie calm settled around us while the women gasped to catch their breath.
My first instinct was to make a mad dash for it, but as I listened more carefully, I finally heard the tell-tale thud of a heartbeat lurking not far away.
“He’s close,” I warned in a low voice. “Don’t move a muscle.”
Aurora clamped her hand over her mouth to make sure she didn’t scream, and Shoshanne managed to keep Deya from doing the same while Cayla and I just stared straight ahead and tried not to move despite our labored breathing.
The black dragon was stalking closer, and I waited with my Terra Magic sparked.
Then the rock that shielded us suddenly shook, and the beast’s hooked talons appeared directly above us at the edge of the stone.
