by Eric Vall
I ripped the thick slab of rock down as much as I could without crushing us, and the dragon let out an ear splitting growl that sent flames shooting over the rock and flickering dangerously close to our toes. Then his tail began lashing at the entrance, and I saw the glint of a poisonous spike on the tip as he started trying to dig the ground away.
This time, Aurora did screech, and she grabbed ahold of my arm to give me a violent shake.
“Mason, we need to kill the dragon,” she demanded, and her emerald eyes were wide with terror.
“Yes, kill the dragon,” Deya agreed, and I looked over to see all four women were nodding their fervent agreement.
“Oh, now I can kill the dragon?” I asked incredulously. “What about the baby dragon speech?”
The women shook their heads at once, and Deya sent me a nervous smile from where she was plastered against the rock at her back.
“I don’t care about this dragon,” she assured me. “You can kill him.”
I shook my head as I considered the ominous scraping of talons on stone, and the next bout of flames coursed across the slim entrance of our rocky shelter. It was getting so hot in the tiny cave now that sweat was dripping down my brow, and while the poisonous tail struck out again, I sighed as I sparked my metal magic.
“Give me two seconds.”
The dragon was growing more frustrated by the minute, but I let him dig at the rock and attempt to scald us while I focused my attention on my powers. Bobbie was parked farther than I’d ever had to send my magic before, but I let the rune feed into my magery just a bit, and I concentrated as hard as I could on reaching the Mustang. In another couple of minutes, I sensed the steel of her frame, and shortly after, I found her gem, too.
Soon, a familiar vibration shook through the metal, and I knew she’d gotten my order and was speeding this way, so I turned to the women and pulled out my revolver. I wasn’t happy with our odds at this point, but the only way we were getting out of this pass alive was if we split up and broke the dragon’s strength down as we went.
“Alright,” I began, “this gun can’t kill a dragon that big, and I’m not about to spend ten minutes using up all of our arrows, but if we time our maneuvers right, it’ll give us the opening we need to finish him off. Aurora, you’re on flame duty, and Shoshanne, I need you to give me a real fierce up draft the second I raise this ledge. He’s gonna be coming at us pretty hard, but we need to stand our ground long enough for me to get a few shots in and incapacitate him a bit.”
Both women nodded diligently, and I sparked my metal magic as I looked at Cayla.
“Get to the mouth of the pass as fast as you can while he’s distracted,” I told the princess. “Your bazooka will be waiting, and I need you to have it ready to fire as soon as you have an opening. Take Deya with you but make absolutely sure she doesn’t fall behind. You know Nemris is gonna kill me if anything happens to her, and considering I just sent her into Mors Pass, I think I’ve pushed my limits where the goddess is concerned today.”
Cayla nodded her agreement and immediately readied herself to run with her hand clamped on Deya’s.
Then I closed my eyes and searched for the familiar spark of the Mustang, and I found Bobbie was already close enough for me to work more easily. So, I ordered her to stop and unsealed the trunk, and as soon as the bazooka was in place for Cayla, I started my count.
I was only on two, though, when Deya suddenly let go of Cayla to grab my arm.
Another bout of flames spewed from the dragon as I turned, and against all reason, I found the beautiful elf smiling up at me as sweetly as ever.
“By the way, thank you for the green dragon,” Deya murmured. “You could have been eaten, but you got the scales for me anyways when you were up on that ledge.”
I grinned. “Yeah well, you wanted them, so you got them.”
Deya blushed at the words and hopped up to give me a kiss, and when I felt her body ignite against mine, I stumbled slightly to brace her against the heated rocks at my back.
The dragon’s talons grated across the roof of our shelter, but the beautiful elf’s slender thighs locked around my waist as she grinded into me, and I just about tore her bodice off right then when she bit hungrily at my tongue.
Deya’s heart beat wildly in her chest while I let her claw at me for more, and I gladly tightened my hold on her hips as her hand slid lower to loosen my belt.
I was half convinced we had some time to spare, but then Aurora abruptly dragged me off the beautiful elf.
“You two are like animals,” the half-elf groaned. “Kill the dragon! You can fuck Deya later.”
Cayla and Shoshanne didn’t bother to stifle their giggles despite the look on Aurora’s face, but they did aid in putting some distance between me and the elf, who let out a disappointed moan.
“It’s not like this guy’s gonna break through this rock real soon,” I countered with a roguish grin. “We’ve probably got a good ten minutes before it’s absolutely necessary for--”
The half-elf cocked a brow, though, and then she sent a pointed glance at my belt.
“Right,” I mumbled and reluctantly returned my attention to the task at hand. “We’ve probably taken enough risks for one day. Everybody ready?”
Aurora rolled her eyes, and beyond her, Deya leaned to sneak me a wink.
“Ready,” the elf purred.
I chuckled and tried to remind myself the day wasn’t even half over, and as long as we killed this dragon, there’d be plenty of time to pin Deya to a wall when we got back. Although, I wouldn’t mind joining her in the back seat of the Mustang on our way to Serin if she couldn’t wait that long.
So, I regrouped and fixed my belt while I counted to three, and then I finally broke the hefty ledge free from the ridge to send it flying back with the full weight of the dragon.
The moment Cayla and Deya sprinted for the mouth of the pass, Shoshanne whipped around to send a torrent of wind up against the beating wings of the beast. His orange eyes flashed while his tail lashed out for a strike, but the Aer Mage managed to keep him back just enough to spare us. Then his throat rippled with an ominous amber glow, and just as his lungs swelled, I cocked the hammer on the revolver.
I fired two shots into his gut first to drive him back a bit, and when his fiery breath came at us in his rage, Aurora summoned her Ignis magic to send the flames right back to blind the beast. Furious roars rebounded off every ridge as another two bullets struck his chest, and this slowed the beat of his wings enough that Shoshanne’s wind drove him well into the pass.
The second his flames ceased, I grabbed the two women and shoved them toward the foothills ahead of me.
We sprinted at breakneck speed down the pass with the injured dragon already snarling behind us, and I looked over my shoulder to see his scalded face closing the gap quickly. He struggled to follow our narrow path as his wings smashed into trees and rocks along the way, and when I saw a rocky outcropping leave an angry gouge on his gut, I realized I could still buy us the few extra seconds we needed for this to work.
So, I grinned and sparked my Terra magic, and with my boots pounding over rocks and felled logs, I sent up a trail of perilous spikes for the dragon to impale himself on along the way.
I could hear him roaring in pain and frustration, and even though he was finally slowing, he didn’t give up. When I glanced back again, his jaws were parting for another attack, and I halted on the spot long enough to send my last two bullets into his gaping mouth.
The beast yelped and crashed back into a spire of stone, but he only reeled there for a moment before he stubbornly thundered onward, and he took to clamboring right over full grown trees to avoid my deadly trail of spikes.
It didn’t matter at this point, though, I’d gotten us the extra time we needed.
Aurora and Shoshanne were already flanking Cayla by the time I jumped the last few feet out of the pass, and the second I was out of range, Cayla fired the bazooka straight into the gap
ing mouth of the dragon.
The beast shook violently and began to buck and claw at anything in sight, and we ran like hell as the enchanted fire from the rocket burst from between his scales and out of his eyes to engulf him from the inside out.
The five of us came crashing into the foothills when the final explosion hit, and it sent smoke and flaming branches spewing out of the pass at our backs. We didn’t stop running until the boulders stopped flying our way, but eventually, we were flattened and gasping in a pile of brush some fifty feet away.
Above us, dozens of dragons circled the foothills letting out harried snarls, and I could hear the distant growls of the few who’d already returned to the bloody pass in a riled state.
There was no chance the aftermath of slaying the dragon hadn’t drawn the attention of everyone within a mile of us, which meant any scouting of the area was done for the day. As much as I wanted to locate the mage camp now that we were so close, we would have to try when our presence here could be concealed again.
None of the women moved or spoke a word while their hearts thrummed a mile a minute, and I tried to focus on the fact that we were somehow still all alive rather than how fucking outrageous this morning had gotten.
Knowing I had three channeling gems stowed in my pocket definitely helped.
Beside me, Deya carried a wealth of scales clutched against her chest while she stared blankly ahead, but Shoshanne’s brows were furrowed in a way I recognized, and I couldn’t imagine how the woman had the presence of mind to be curious about anything right now.
“What’s wrong?” I asked between breaths.
Then the healer looked at me with a strange expression.
“Wh-what did you mean,” Shoshanne panted, “when you said Nemris would kill you?”
I froze as I realized the slip I’d made back there, and when I looked over at Cayla and Aurora for help, both women discreetly shook their heads to keep me from responding.
“Trust me,” Aurora managed through her breaths, “it’s not the time for this, either. You’ll both want to be in a much calmer state.”
“What does that mean?” Shoshanne asked skeptically, but the half-elf was already on her feet and heading for Bobbie.
“It means we were almost eaten, crushed, poisoned, and burned by dragons this morning,” Cayla said coolly. “One thing at a time.”
I watched the two women stroll over to the Mustang as if the conversation had never taken place, and I avoided the questioning looks on Deya and Shoshanne’s faces while I helped them up.
“Shall we?” I asked, and I sent them as casual a grin as possible.
Chapter 22
It turned out none of the women could wait until we got back to celebrate our slightly chaotic victory. So, we spent the three-hour drive in about every position the women could manage in the back seat of the Mustang, which worked well for distracting Shoshanne and Deya from the lingering question of what I’d meant about Nemris.
I still didn’t think dropping the news on Deya about her ancestral line was a topic to be approached just yet, but telling her about my personal association with the goddess could be a good way to start leading into that down the line. Maybe once she had an understanding of Nemris as a living being rather than an elusive guardian, the idea of her beloved goddess being her oldest living ancestor would be easier to wrap her head around.
In the meantime, the beautiful elf was thoroughly distracted with my cock nearly down her throat, so for now, I sat back and enjoyed myself while Aurora and Shoshanne spread their legs for me so my fingers could help them reach a simultaneous orgasm.
I was just finishing Cayla off when we got back to the house, and Aurora helped me keep the princess’ moans from being heard throughout the western woods. When the half-elf giggled and released her hold on Cayla’s mouth, the princess sent me a satiated grin.
“Is it time for bed now?” Cayla sighed.
“Not quite,” I chuckled, but I did carry the nude princess into the house to spare her the trouble.
From her place nakedly perched on my worktable, Cayla admired the new tricks Stan had been perfecting while we were away, and we all joined her to give him a standing ovation when he managed to leap from the head of the sentry to the snatcher and land in a perfect handstand.
“Do we get to wake them up now?” Aurora asked eagerly.
“Yes,” I replied, “but let me go get Haragh. He’s gonna want to be here for this.”
Cayla sighed and lazily sauntered off to get dressed, but I promised her I’d let her actually sleep tonight. The look she sent me suggested otherwise, though, and I had a feeling the princess was already planning another elaborate evening for us.
“I’ll bet you every piece of gold in that chest that Haragh’s at the pub,” the half-elf said with a smirk as Shoshanne and I headed for the door.
“No bet,” I called over my shoulder. “I already know he’s there. He’s keeping Barnick too busy to train the damn mages.”
All the way down the lane, I could hear the two men laughing heartily as they plunked their pints on the bar top, but at least the mages in Falmount were hard at work. The ones who already had their training sessions for the day were practicing wherever they could find some space, and there were many more hanging around the library than there’d been only two days before.
Some of the Defenders were in the marketplace getting to know the students and discussing their magery, but I could hear the others leading the training sessions in the fields, and it sounded like progress was being made.
When we entered Flynt’s Pub, Raynor smiled warmly at Shoshanne and beckoned for her to come check on the brew he’d been working on, and I strolled over to the three large men who had a dozen empty pints scattered in front of them and fresh ones in hand.
“Gentlemen,” I said as I clapped Haragh on the shoulder.
Barnick, Urn, and Haragh all snorted ale out their noses when they saw me, and they eyed the soot in my hair and fresh blood stains on my clothes like they were seeing a ghost.
“Fucking hell,” Urn spluttered as he mopped up his face. “You really did it, you crazy bastard. You went to Mors Pass.”
“Of course.” I shrugged. “Said I would, didn’t I?”
Barnick let out a low whistle. “Those are dangerous words to live by.”
“No shit,” I chuckled, “but I am still living.”
Then I dug in my pocket as I turned to the half-ogre, and I held out my palm to show him the three channeling gems.
“Wanna wake up some killing machines?” I asked with a broad grin.
All three men immediately ditched their pints to follow me to the door, and I explained the general function of each new automaton along the way.
Barnick had caught sight of Big Guy patrolling the night before and was raving like a lunatic about it, so I figured he was probably pretty drunk when he got his first impression of those spooky eyes.
I assured him Big Guy had a heart of gold, but he wasn’t hearing any of it, and I realized he preferred to think of the machine as an unstoppable beacon of death instead.
Barnick was still making a list of wild suggestions when we arrived at the house, like adding massive horns and talons to the machine, and the women patiently let the man finish while they tried not to laugh.
Deya had six different dragon scales lined up on the worktable where her and Aurora were studying Dragir’s book to identify the breeds, and Cayla was lounging on the fountain edge with Stan tucked in a very snug leather pocket on her breast.
Urn was most interested in the features of the snatcher, but once I made it clear the blow guns on his arms wouldn’t fire anything like my other weapons did, he relaxed a degree and gestured to the gems in my hand.
“How do you get them to work?” the Terra Mage asked.
“First, I have to mount a gem in the central wiring hub of each automaton,” I explained. “Then I channel my intentions into the gem depending on what their duties will be. For e
xample, Big Guy knows he’s in charge of patrolling the perimeter of Falmount and keeping the mages here safe. I’ll give similar orders to the sentry for the Oculus.”
As I plucked a deep red gem from the pile and pocketed the others, the three men nervously stepped back, but their eyes gleamed with anticipation. And ale. There was definitely a lot of ale in there, too.
I summoned my Metal magic as I approached Big Guy’s twin brother, and while I embedded the gem in the center of his copper wiring, I made a couple size adjustments since this gem was larger than Big Guy’s. It had been buried just beneath the furious black beast we’d slain, and at the time, I didn’t have a moment to study the gem before blocking the dragon’s next attack. Finding out afterward that the ruby was twice the size of the emerald had more than made up for the chaos of mining it.
The moment everything was fused into place, the gem ignited, and a blood red glow began to pulse in the center of the sentry’s chest. It was faint at first, but as the seconds ticked by, the gem gradually became brighter, and finally, the eyes came to life.
Even I gave a start at the sight, and my pulse quickened while I looked into the face of the massive machine. No one spoke, and I got the impression they were all terrified into silence, which I could understand. The gem had deep red fissures that looked like bloody veins as it pulsed slow and steady, and the face stared straight ahead in the same hue.
Then the sentry slowly turned its head to look at me, and I fought the urge to step away since I didn’t want to hurt his feelings or anything.
“Do you know who I am?” I asked the machine, and when the head nodded slowly, a grin came to my face. “Good. Welcome to the family, buddy.”
Cayla was the only one brave enough to approach us, and I wasn’t surprised to hear her pulse was as steady as ever. She pulled Stan from her pocket and held him up on her palm so he could get a good look, and Stan stood rather importantly with his hands propped on his little metal hips.
“This is your little brother, Stan,” Cayla informed the machine. “You will be nice to Stan.”
