by Virlyce
Ralph’s eyes bulged. “Did he … eat you alive?” If Sir Edward was already dead, then it wouldn’t make sense for his soul to enter this place after being eaten since it would’ve been gone. Wait. Didn’t that mean whatever he was eating now had also been eaten alive? What kind of body was Zyocuh trying to take over this time? A dragon?
“Not really alive, no,” Sir Edward said and ran his mustache through the tips of his fingers. “I was a soul when he ate me.”
“Another question, Sir Edward,” Lord Briffault said, raising his fork into the air. “What kind of man are we invading?”
Sir Edward shuddered. “A savage. You’re invading an absolute monster. I hope—”
An earth-shattering roar echoed out of the castle. Earthen spears rose out of the ground in waves, traveling along with the shockwave created by the sound. Soldiers screamed and cursed as their plates were knocked away from them, and nearly all of them tried to save their food before helping their companions. Ralph exhaled in relief and lifted his plate. Luckily for him, the spike only stabbed through his thigh and didn’t hit his meal.
“Mages, on guard!” the magician commander shouted. “What were you slackers doing? My meal was almost ruined!”
“We want to eat too, commander!” a voice shouted back. “It’s not fair that only magicians have to be prepared at all times.”
“Huh!? Not fair? Not fair!? What do you expect normal soldiers to do against magic? Eat it? You buffoons had one job!” The infantry commander rose to his feet and threw his shattered plate at the magician who had just complained. “Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had a drink!? But I couldn’t even take a sip; the ground drank it because you couldn’t do your damn job! When we march, who carries the supplies? Not the magicians! When we march, who’s forced to walk? Not the magicians! When we set up camp, who does all the work? Not the magicians! After all that luxury, you can’t even do what we pampered you for!?”
“Hey! We don’t get that treatment anymore after becoming souls! We don’t have any supplies or mounts or camps,” another magician said. “We do more work than everyone else, but we don’t even get a pat on the back! You won’t even let me enjoy a meal without letting my guard down? I quit!”
The infantry commander’s eyes bulged as he pointed a shaking finger at the magician. “You can’t quit, you numbskull! Where are you going to go?”
“Oh.” The magician frowned. “You’re right.” He looked around. “I’d like to apply to the cavalry division!”
“We have a bigger problem than who has or hasn’t done what!” Lord Briffault shouted. “Look towards the castle!”
The army stopped bickering with one another and turned their attention towards the castle walls. From one of the windows, a black dragon’s head was staring down at them. It opened its mouth and let out another roar that shook the earth and sent more spikes into the army. It blinked twice at the result and smiled while chuckling. Then it let out another roar. When the spikes were stopped by barriers on the ground, the dragon’s smile faded, and its eyes narrowed into slits. It pulled its head back, narrowly avoiding a string of spells and arrows.
Lord Briffault stared at the open window, his bow drawn, the string pressed against his lips, ready to fire his arrow at any moment. But the beast didn’t reappear. A soldier next to him muttered, “Did we scare it away?”
“That’s the wrong question,” Lord Briffault said, not taking his eyes off the window. “The real question is what the heck was that?”
“At least it answered the question of why the castle’s big enough to house a dragon,” Ralph said through mouthfuls of meat. As a normal soldier with only a spear and shield, he couldn’t block the earthen spikes or attack the dragon when it showed its head. He couldn’t do anything. And for that, he was thankful. It wasn’t often the dead got to enjoy a meal.
***
“Alright, Chompy,” Stella said and patted the dragon beside her, “get out there and kick their butts.”
Chompy shook his head.
Stella’s expression fell. “Huh? Why not? Didn’t you say you’d help me?”
Chompy let out a low growl before snorting twice.
“What? It’s too troublesome?” Stella bit her lower lip. She clenched and unclenched her hands before exhaling. “This is a matter of life and death, Chompy. If this is too troublesome, then we’re both going to die because of your laziness. Sometimes, we have to do things even though we don’t want to. That’s life. And this is one of those things, okay?”
Chompy curled his feet underneath himself, lowering his stomach to the ground. He rested his chin on a nearby table and rolled his eyes up to look at Stella. A puff of smoke escaped from his nostrils, and his tail swished back and forth, clearing the furniture behind himself.
Stella’s eyes narrowed, and a vein bulged on her forehead. She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. Then she exhaled and flew down, landing on Chompy’s head. She opened her eyes and smiled at him, relaxing her body. “Okay, Chompy. I understand. You’re scared of them.”
Chompy stiffened.
Stella pretended as if she hadn’t noticed. “If I were you, I would be scared of them too,” she said and sighed to herself as if she were performing in a play. “After all, they have magicians, archers, warriors, and really large numbers of them too. I’d tuck my tail between my legs and run away, letting them do whatever they wanted to my home as long as I could survive. Like a cowardly dog.”
Chompy shot to his feet while growling. Stella clung to his scales, nearly falling off of his head as he pushed open the shutters blocking the window and leapt outside. Chompy let out a massive roar that nearly caused her to go deaf, but Stella whooped and cheered instead. “That’s the way to do it, Chompy!”
The army below was like a river of red. Chompy hovered in the air above them and opened his mouth, blowing out a breath of purple mist. People screamed out for the magicians to save them, and a gust of wind blew the purple mist over and away from the army. Stella’s eyes lit up. “Over there, Chompy! That’s where the mages are.” She pointed at a cluster near the center of the ocean of people. “You have to crush them first.”
Chompy let out another roar and flapped his wings twice, jerking up into the air as if he were pulled by strings. Then he folded his wings against the side of his body and fell towards the cluster of magicians like a boulder. They screamed for barriers, but Stella took in a deep breath and pointed at the magicians who were in the middle of casting. The wind cut against her face and caused tears to stream from her eyes as Chompy fell faster and faster, but that didn’t stop her from silencing all the magicians who were creating barriers.
The soldiers screamed as Chompy landed on top of them. He spun around in a circle, sweeping his blade-like tail around in an arc, cutting apart everything in its path. As he spun, he exhaled out a breath full of icicles, poking holes into thousands of soldiers in their way. With a roar, Chompy stood on his hind legs and fully extended his wings in one swift motion, creating little vortices of wind around him that interrupted the arrows aiming for his head. They tumbled through the air and missed even though the mutant dragon was such a large target.
“Get that archer next!” Stella pointed at Lord Briffault. “Armies are like rats! Once you cut their heads off, their bodies stop functioning!”
“Um, isn’t that the case for nearly every living creature?”
Stella flinched and turned her head. Mervin was sitting beside her. “Mervin? What the heck are you doing here?” The two bobbed up and down as Chompy galloped towards Lord Briffault, barreling through the soldiers who were trying to stop him with their shields and spears. Little by little, more and more spears embedded themselves into his paws and ankles, but Chompy ignored them and leapt forward, reaching Lord Briffault in a single bound. The noble’s eyes widened, but he didn’t retreat, aiming his bow at the mutant dragon standing over him. Chompy opened his mouth wide, and Lord Briffault released an arrow, aiming for the drag
on’s eye. A red claw shot out of Chompy’s shoulder and snatched the arrow before it could hit him, and Chompy blew a breath of purple mist underneath himself, corroding all the soldiers it made contact with, turning them into nothing but flakes of dust. Lord Briffault stared at the dragon, which now had five legs and five claws, and shuddered as his vision was covered by a wave of purple.
Stella and Mervin turned their heads towards the claw that had stopped the arrow. It was red and didn’t look as if it belonged to a dragon, looking much like a bird’s talons instead. “What’s this?” Stella asked, pointing at it. Chompy followed her finger with his eyes before snorting. A sixth leg sprang out of his other shoulder. It was red and unscaled, like a gorilla’s arm. “Did you get this from the chimera queen?”
Chompy puffed his chest out as if to say that were natural.
“Lookout!” Mervin shouted.
A ball of flames flew towards Chompy’s head. The dragon reached up to stop it, but before it made contact with his claws, it exploded. Stella screamed and curled up into a ball, shielding her face with her arms, but the impending pain didn’t come. She opened one eye and saw a figure towering over her. Mervin was kneeling in front of her with his arms and wings spread out to the side. There was a weak smile on his face. He opened his mouth and closed it again without saying anything. Then he fell forward on top of her, his back burnt from having taken the brunt of the explosion.
Stella tilted her head. “Mervin…?”
But the genie didn’t respond.
“Mervin!” Stella shouted and grabbed the genie king. Her hands clenched around his burnt clothes, and small cracking sounds echoed out of her mouth from her teeth grinding together. “Chompy! Kill them all! Don’t let a single one live!”
***
Sheryl sighed and picked a piece of herself up off the ground. She placed the chunk against her torso and waited. A few seconds later, the pebble merged with her body as if it were glued on. She sighed again and picked up another piece of herself. “How is it, Vur? Can you move yet?”
“Nope.” Vur was still on the table in Stella’s dungeon, red chains sticking out of his body. “Nothing’s changed.”
“That’s odd,” Sheryl said. “Chompy already ate the chimera queen. If this is a part of it, how come it’s still sticking around?”
Vur clicked his tongue. “Why would I know?”
“Right.” Sheryl stuck another piece of herself back on. “You’re probably the one who’s most annoyed at that. Sorry.”
Zilphy sighed from beside Vur. “I hope Deedee’s alright.”
***
Ralph stared at the dragon that wasn’t quite a dragon. It was in the center of the army, separated from him by over a million men, but there was no doubt that it’d be his turn soon enough. Maybe. The creature was weakening. At first, it was slaughtering hundreds of men a second, but now, it took a minute to do the same. Its claws, ankles, and shins were filled with red spears, and its wings were peppered with arrows. It seemed like a few hours had passed since it killed Lord Briffault, but Ralph wasn’t too sure. He wasn’t revived with his watch after all.
“What are you doing, men!?” a voice shouted above the din. “It’s clearly weakening! Instead of dying after stabbing it once, try to stab it twice! No, try to stab it three times! If each of us can take one scale off of this creature with our deaths, then we’ll have stripped it before even half of us are dead. What are you scared of? A little bit of pain? It doesn’t matter if we die since we’re already dead!”
Ralph nodded. The commander had a good point. They were already dead, so it didn’t matter if they died again. And there wasn’t any food left, so there wasn’t a point in sticking around any longer. Not like there would’ve been a point if there were, but still. No wonder why Zyocuh sent so many of them to subdue a single soul. This soul housed a dragon, and it didn’t help that they lost over a quarter of their men before the fight even started. But it seemed like this fight was in the bag. No matter how many soldiers were eaten or died to claws or dragon breaths, there was always more of them. Ralph almost felt bad for the dragon. A mighty titan, taken down by ants. What a sad end to a majestic creature’s life.
Someone nudged Ralph from behind. The soldiers in front of him had moved up again, and he forgot to fill in the empty space while lost in thought. He shuffled forward, closing the gap, and waited some more. Would the fight be over before it was even his turn? That wouldn’t be a bad thing, but it’d be pretty boring, having waited for so long to do nothing.
A blood-curdling scream came from behind, and Ralph flinched at the sound. What was that? There was a ton of shouting up ahead, but that scream pierced through all of it. Another scream filled the air, and Ralph turned around. The soldiers behind him had their heads facing the back as well. His brow furrowed, and he tapped the shoulder of the soldier next to him. “Any idea what that was?”
“No idea.”
There was another scream, followed by shouts. The line moved up again as more soldiers died to the dragon, but Ralph wasn’t sure if he should fill in the gap or wait. Was it possible that there were even more dangerous things inside of this soul? It would’ve been a close call to take out the dragon, but if another creature was added into the mix, then it was possible for them to lose. It wasn’t as if a loss mattered to them since they were already dead, but it’d hurt Zyocuh’s plan, and who knows what kind of torture that man would subject them to if they failed?
Ralph stroked his chin. Why weren’t there any commands telling them what to do? Was it possible they had the situation under control back there? Or did whatever was causing those screams take out the commanders first? His brow furrowed even more before relaxing. Well, he was a soldier. All he had to do was follow orders, and until he received new ones, his current orders were to stab the dragon three times and then die. Sometimes it was nice being a soldier. He didn’t have to think for himself, and if somehow things went wrong, none of the blame would be on him. He shrugged and turned back around, ignoring the screams from behind, and filled up the gap leading to the dragon.
***
Tafel peered at the light extending out of Vur’s bellybutton. The golden portion that was holding the red back had long since disappeared, and the black portion had shrunk considerably. She chewed on her lower lip while clenching the sheets of the bed that Vur was lying on. “Is it working? Why isn’t it working?”
“Well, you chose a slow-acting soul,” Grimmy said from beside her. Though they were inside the palace, Grimmy could fit because the walls and ceiling had been destroyed a while ago by Mary’s clash with Tafel. “I told you it wouldn’t be as quick as the others.”
“Well, the others were all women!” Tafel glared at Grimmy. “How could I let another woman enter Vur’s soul? Stella is already enough! And you said this soul was guaranteed to get the job done, so I trusted you.”
“Where’d that trust go?” Grimmy asked and yawned. “Just wait a few more hours and you’ll see that I was right. Probably. This isn’t an exact science, you know?”
“In a few hours, the black portion that represents Vur’s soul will be completely gone!” Tafel’s hands clenched even tighter around the sheets. “Can’t you do something? Like add another soul?”
Grimmy shook his head. “If we add another soul, then there’s a possibility that Vur will be too weak to defeat them both. Remember, we’re using an invader to kill another invader, but they’re both invaders. We’re hoping the poisons neutralize each other without killing Vur.”
Tafel’s expression darkened. “Why are you so relaxed when Vur’s soul is at stake?”
“I’m not relaxed, you’re just too strung up,” Grimmy said and snorted. His eyes lit up and he pointed at the beam of light. “See, look. It’s starting.”
Tafel returned her attention to Vur’s stomach. The top portion of the red light was turning purple, then blue, but the black portion at the bottom near his bellybutton was still shrinking. Tafel bit her lower lip. Even
if all the red was devoured, what would happen when the blue reached the black?
24
“It’s weakening! Keep up the assault!”
Ralph frowned at the commander’s voice coming from behind. Apparently, something almost as dangerous as the dragon up ahead had flanked the army without anyone noticing. He still didn’t know what it was since it was impossible to see through the ocean of people since he was in the middle. But he could see up ahead, and the dragon was clearly becoming a lot weaker. It was even showing signs of wanting to flee, but arrows the size of javelins were embedded inside of it, and red chains hung from their wooden ends.
Cheers came from behind, and Ralph scratched his head. Whatever it was, it must’ve died. Now all they had to do was finish off the dragon and—an ear-piercing shriek rang over the cheering, causing Ralph to flinch. Or not.
“There’s another one coming this way! W-wait! There’s a whole herd of them! Get them, men!”
The sounds of explosions and flying arrows along with the clashing of metal and the breaking of wood echoed out from behind. Ralph turned around, a deep frown appearing on his face. The army seemed to be splitting into two. A gap had opened up behind him. Should he wait for his turn against the dragon, or should he fight the unknown enemy that had taken the attention of half the army? He didn’t sign up to fight any unknown enemies. Wait. He didn’t sign up to fight a dragon either.
“What are you standing around for, soldier!? Can’t you see the dragon’s almost dead? Help the people behind us!”
A voice coming from the front broke Ralph out of his thoughts. Ralph nodded, reaffirming his belief that being a soldier was nice. He was in a dilemma, and it was solved for him. He turned around and headed another wave of men towards the rear of the army where the clashing sounds were getting fiercer. Just what kind of enemy awaited him ahead? Soldiers were flying into the air as if they were launched by catapults, falling on top of other soldiers trying to help them.
