Into the Hells

by Christopher Johns

  There was a back room to the cave that led deeper in—surprising, I know—that we began moving toward. James began to use hand and arm signals as though out of instinct. He held a closed fist up with this right hand, his arm bent at a ninety-degree angle.

  “Do not hide, intruders,” a loud, bass voice rumbled at us from behind us.

  I turned to see this behemoth shadow in front of the dim light of the cave mouth around the bend.

  “How rude of me,” the being tutted itself. “Light.”

  The lichen on the walls and the mushrooms around us glowed brighter and brighter until they could have been house lamps without shades on.

  “Better.” The black Dragon grinned.

  Its form, easily rivaling Winterheart’s bulk and dwarfing Ampharia’s graceful form, was what I noticed first. The large wings that would span twice as long as its body lay folded neatly against the ebon-scaled back and sides of the mythic beast. It leaned down to look closer at us. The head—the size of a modern-day utility truck—tilted to the side. I noted scars running over the length of its snout and the jagged and hewn scales along the ridges of its eyes, maw, and chest.

  The horns, like that of a bull’s, jutted out before it, one of them chipped and the other whole and so dark it seemed to eat the light. Red eyes, the irises engorging as the pupil slitted to take the rising level of light.

  “Much better.” The hot, fetid fish breath reeked as it washed over our bodies.

  James stepped in front of the group and squared his shoulders at the beast.

  “We’ve come seeking your assistance in protecting this world from–” he began, but the beast cut him off.

  “War.” The Dragon opened his mouth and blew the monk over on to his ass. “The voices said you would come. Some said to trust you. Others to kill you on sight. Some still think that a game would be fitting for the first time a group of adventurers like yourselves have found my latest lair,” it looked around dramatically, “but all I seek is the solace of the end.”

  “Death,” James said as he sat up from the ground. “You seek the final reprieve.”

  “Yes. I came here and fought the red Dragon you saw over there in hopes that she would provide the ultimate thrill before the end—but she failed. Like so many others.” The great black looked genuinely saddened before looking at Muu. “But you smell of kin. Tell me, little cousin—where is she?”

  “Safe, but why don’t you tell me something?” The green Dragon-kin stepped next to James and threw his hands out slowly. “This huge cave and no hoard? Are you truly ready to move on? To bite the big one?”

  “My hoard is safely hidden from prying eyes.” The great red orb swiveled to regard the tiny being before him. “You need only concern yourself with the entertainment you will provide me—or you can tell me where the Dragon you know is. That will earn you a swift death.”

  This is gonna get bad really fucking fast, Muu growled through our heads.

  I got the front line. Get close so I can buff us all and then get to it, Jaken ordered. We all shuffled as if uncomfortable, drifting closer together.

  “I came seeking a blessing to help a friend. I need that. Give it to me, help me how you can, and we will leave,” James insisted.

  Bokaj, do something! I hissed at the training Bard inside my mind. Seduce him or some shit.

  You have got to be fuc– Thumph—the Dragon smacked his tail on the ground in annoyance.

  “You have one more chance to tell me before I start killing your friends, cousin.” It looked to the rest of us then. “Or maybe one of you knows?”

  “I know,” Yohsuke admitted hurriedly. The rest of us looked over at him in confusion.

  The gray Elf stepped forward and waved toward the rest of us. “They don’t matter. They don’t know the sheer awesomeness of the creature in front of us, but I have two requests.”

  The Dragon seemed to weigh its options before nodding once for the diminutive creature before it.

  “Let us see the light of day once more, outside in the fresh air,” Yoh motioned towards the entrance behind the Dragon, then continued, “and the second is let us know the name of the great and mighty Dragon who brought our adventure to an end.”

  The black Dragon’s teeth flashed as it began to hiss with laughter. “Such a humble creature. You do well to recognize the end. Fine, my name is Riktolth. March forth outside my lair, morsels. Enjoy your final moments, and prepare to part with your information.”

  Riktolth stood and shuffled to the side so that we could file past him.

  Don’t freak out—we need room for Muu and all the rest of us to work. In here, we’re way too confined, Yohsuke explained as we walked.

  That made a lot of sense. It took a couple minutes for us to trudge outside, to take in the scenery. The trees outside were dead as all fuck. They were blackened and twisted. Mutated, likely by proximity to the Dragon who inhabited the cave inside now. The ground was blackened and blasted with craters, and gashes dotted the stone entrance to the place and the ground before it. Claw marks.

  “This was the scene of a magnificent battle,” Jaken observed as he took in the scene himself. He turned to our host and asked, “I take it that you took part in this?”

  “It was a… pitiable battle.” He closed his eyes a moment—lost in the memory of the fight, most likely—giving Jaken time to cast his buff. The Dragon’s eyes snapped open, but it noticed nothing that seemed off. “She fought well. Even managed to scar me, but she was no match in the end. Tell me. Where is this Dragon?”

  “She’s in a jungle to the south of here. Her name is Ampharia,” Yohsuke said and threw a branch he had picked up to the side of the trees. Riktolth’s eyes followed the object until it landed. I heard a shuffle and then nothing before he glanced back.

  “Thank you, morsel. Your death shall be swift.” His maw opened in our direction, the beginnings of a blackened fog.

  Yohsuke’s hands shot forward, firing twin balls of dark light. I knew those spells well—Star Burst. One must have been stored, and he cast the other to fire into the jaws of the beast. If Riktolth got that breath weapon attack off, though, the spells might not have the desired effect.

  Arrows clattered against his right eye, and Jaken moved off to the Dragon’s left side and banged his shield to get his attention. When that didn’t work, he simply threw his longsword at the Dragon’s head.

  Riktolth snapped his mouth shut and jerked back. A plume of smoky spittle rained from his mouth. I smiled as the Dragon roared in rage. A tooth had been knocked loose there, and I was sure as fuck going to capitalize on it.

  I cast Aspect of the Ursolon on myself and brought Magus Bane into my hands just as a whistling sound reached my ears. I grinned savagely as Muu’s short spear thundered into the Dragon’s rib cage just above the base of the wings.

  “Yes!” Riktolth cried. “Struggle more! Give me the fight I have longed for!”

  I growled and rushed forward—time to fuck shit up. As I ducked beneath the Dragon’s body to do what damage I could, I started by trying to hamstring the beast, going for the rear legs. I got one solid wack on the left leg, but the Dragon’s tail walloped the ground near me, and I took it as a sign to get the fuck out of Dodge. As I was moving, I saw our prey breathe deeply and arch his back.

  Riktolth launched himself into the air and blasted the ground in a dense fog of putrid breath. Our buff held the debuffs I knew would have been there, but it still hurt. I was down to sixty-five percent health, and I couldn’t see the others’ HP at the moment, so there was no telling how they were doing.

  I brought out my other great axe, Storm Caller, and held one in either hand. Magus Bane in my left, and Storm Caller in my right. Both of them were pretty light thanks to my higher strength and one of the abilities I could use, but they would be unwieldy one handed, and I wasn’t truly planning to try and divide my damage like that.

  This was a means to a grizzly end.

  I sprinted out from under the bea
st’s stomach and activated my ability Feather Axe. Both of the weapons in my hands immediately felt like they weren’t there. I used Wind Scythe, an ability that allowed me to throw my axe accurately to a certain range, but I just needed it to go far. I shouted at the exertion of throwing Storm Caller as hard as I could.

  The weapon arced close to the Dragon’s right wing, and he juked out of the way with a sneer. I laughed and activated Blade Shift. I appeared above Riktolth with my hand on Storm Caller’s haft. I put the weapon back into my inventory as I began to fall and prepared to strike at his exposed back.

  I heard another shriek of air being parted as Muu finally began his descent with his lance. The Dragon-kin laughed maniacally as he flew by; he drove the icy weapon wreathed in vibrant green venom into Riktolth’s back at the connecting joint to the wing.

  The airborne beast bellowed in pain and rage as it tried to get his wing to work but succeeded only in overcompensating and partially turning mid-flight to bat at Muu with a wickedly clawed forearm. The Dragon-kin took the hit with his shield arm and flew away with his lance in his fist at seventy-five percent HP and falling due to a bloody rent in his armor.

  Riktolth noticed me as I activated Cleave and dropped on to his stomach to chop like I was splitting wood, the attack slowing my momentum greatly. A gash appeared in his underbelly where I had to hope his diaphragm would’ve been. The Dragon tried to grasp at me but hit the ground with an island-shuttering crash. The jarring impact knocked me off to the side, but I managed to roll rather than land straight on my side. I took a couple points of damage, but it was negligible. Still, I cast Regrowth just to be safe, leaving me at 650 MP. Still sitting pretty.

  James hopped up on to the Dragon’s throat and began an assault of fists and feet that was awe-inspiring. His normally calm and precise jabs were replaced by powerful swings enhanced by his ki and rage.

  “I’ll take my blessing from you, then!” he spat as his hands erupted in flames and lightning.

  Jaken and Yohsuke began working on Riktolth’s arms in their own ways. Jaken’s long sword was floating and harrying the Dragon’s face as the Paladin set to work with his greatsword. Bokaj worked on trying to blind the grounded bastard with his bow.

  Yohsuke dug his astral blades through the ligaments around Riktolth’s arms, likely trying to make that one useless.

  I summoned Coal; the flame wolf came out braying at the Dragon.

  “Light him up, Coal—but stay out of the thick of things!” I ordered as I made my way toward the tail. I was about to try and take that shit.

  The Dragon flicked his tail up and knocked Muu out of the air just as he was about to strike again. Muu grunted at the impact that swept him to the ground with a solid crunch and a shout of agony. His health plummeted, and he didn’t seem to be moving much.

  I held a hand out and cast Heal, then Regrowth on him. Golden energy coalesced with my green healing mana, and the Fighter was back up to full and trying to get up, but the tail was still on him. Jaken grimaced before nodding at me and turning to roar angrily at the Dragon.

  “Come on, you scaly shit!” Spittle flew from Jaken’s mouth, and Riktolth seemed to take offense.

  I walked up to the base of the appendage and grinned evilly. I closed my eyes and focused everything I had into my swing; with a grunt, my weapon sunk deeply into the Dragon. My mana leaped up by seventy points as well. 646 MP with my current regen plus the mana Magus Bane stole. I left the axe in the tail as the Dragon thrashed and howled as it tried to stand. I cast Stone Weapon to make a great hammer and smashed the hammer into the hammer portion of Magus Bane.

  The axe bit deeper into the flesh before it, and Riktolth screeched. The rear leg behind me—long forgotten in my stupidity—smacked my shoulder and sent me careening through a dead tree. The sound of a crack and severe pain in my rib cage let me know I now sported a broken rib. I cast Heal on myself, raising my health back up to sixty percent, and another Regrowth assisted in getting my regeneration into overdrive.

  Rather than going straight back into the fight, I noted that Magus Bane was stuck fast in the Dragon’s tail. I jogged around to the side of the beast where the hammer’s head would be, then dismissed Aspect of the Ursolon in favor of Aspect of the Belgar.

  Get here, Yoh! I bellowed to my friend through our earrings. To the tail!

  My skin and fur hardened, graying slightly, and my snout tickled and itched fiercely as a horn grew from my flesh. My muscles grew denser and more powerful. The only trade-off was that I became exceptionally nearsighted. Luckily, I was facing my desired target.

  I took my first steps, then ten feet later, I was in my stride and charged my shoulder into the hammer of Magus Bane. The weapon dug deeper and deeper as I kept charging through.

  I heard footsteps and had to trust that it was Yohsuke.

  I heard flesh beginning to sizzle and heard Yoh grunt, “Always gotta get the tail when you hunt monsters.”

  At that point, the foot came again, but I was only pushed away by a few feet this time thanks to my added bulk and higher defense.

  “Halfway through, man. He’s trying to get up!” Yohsuke warned.

  I heard a shout from Muu of, “Fuck you!” It sounded close.

  A grunt of pain from the Dragon, then a wheeze.

  “Muu!” I called. I pulled Storm Caller out of my inventory and threw it into the air. “Give us a hand!”

  Tail! I barked into his mind, and he let me know he was on it.

  “Two steps left—no, three more now—and back straight up,” Yohsuke ordered me. I did as he said, and as soon as I was where I needed to be, he shouted, “Now!”

  I charged once more and drove my shoulder into the hammer with a sickening crack, my shoulder dislocating despite the enhanced defense. I gritted my teeth and shoved past the pain, thinking quickly, I reached into the shadows and flung a Shadow Scythe into the flesh in front of me to help. I heard a roar and Muu’s manic laughter before the squelching of blood and a heavy, thudding noise.

  “Tail’s down! Back up!” Muu’s voice was panicked as it floated away, and rather than defense right now, I needed to see.

  I grabbed Magus Bane and dropped this aspect before I began hopping backward as Riktolth reared up, bloodied and angry. His HP was down to a little under half, and he was bleeding heavily from his neck.

  “You think you can best me?” he screeched.

  Coal’s glowing body was next to a tree, outlining Bokaj as he continued to fire arrows into the Dragon’s weak spots and wounds.

  As he stood on his hind legs, Riktolth reared back, dodging a few arrows and took a deep breath. I took a calculated risk, thinking that I’d need to start slinging spells soon—and cast Aspect of the Owl.

  The world took on a largely different hue as the details of everything stood out to me differently. The added ten to my wisdom would help me recover my mana faster.

  A little of the Dragon’s breath leaked out of the wound in his throat, but the wound was closing swiftly. A lance of pure darkness, radiating cold energy, jabbed it through the right knee, making the breath weapon swing wide and rake the stone above me and Muu.

  Which gave me an idea that could work.

  I need everyone to distract this fucker. Bokaj, you got any of those Fireball arrows left? I looked over at the Ranger, and he shook his head.

  I got Lightning ones though. This one is pretty weak. Will it work?

  I nodded once and explained my plan. Thanks to the earrings, it only took a few seconds, but that was precious time to get things set up. And two seconds after that, I had enough mana to enact the plan.

  Now! I mentally shouted.

  All hell broke loose before me.

  James set about trying to clamber up Riktolth’s back with his weapons damaging the beast as he went. Yohsuke had forsaken his weapons for spells. He cast Astral Bolts at the Dragon’s injured knee, then switched to Hellfire Arrows.

  For Bokaj, it was business as usual. He fired arrows into
the slowly closing wound in Riktolth’s throat. To further the distraction, he used the last of the elementally charged arrows that I had made him, shocking the beast and allowing the next portion of our plot to take place.

  Jaken bounded over to us with both of Muu’s weapons in hand and handed the Dragon-kin his lance. Jaken took the spear and ran farther to our right to get away from us. He hefted the weapon, and it began to glow a deep crimson before launching it at the Dragon’s exposed underbelly. Then he moved in close to tank the beast.

  Riktolth’s health was down to a fifth, and he looked to only be growing more irritated and enraged.

  “Hope you know what you’re doing, man.” Muu sighed. “These are my last two for the day.”

  I just gave him a thumb up and shapeshifted into my fox form. I watched as he took a deep breath, brought his lance up like a javelin, and used his bracelet to add extra strength to the throw. Once it was clear of his hand, I leaped into the now-empty palm, and he repeated the motion, using the bracelet’s ability one final time to launch me as well.

  The lance hit first, the icy weapon creating a rim of frost around the deep puncture wound. Seconds before I was close, I shifted back into my fox-man form and cast Void Shield with a flat, round surface. The surface acted like a hammer to Muu’s weapon—the nail—driving it further into the dragon’s body.

  The force behind our strikes made the Dragon stumble, and as I fell, I watched James stab his Dragon’s Fang fist weapon into Riktolth’s eye and drive it in up to his shoulder with a bellow of rage.

  CONGRATULATIONS

  Level Up!

  I grinned and allocated my points swiftly for intelligence only. My mind seemed to grasp at the world a little better, and I felt a little more at ease with my spells. Coal grew to level 15. His natural point went into wisdom. So I spent his remaining three remaining points evenly for strength, dexterity, and constitution.

  Coal was now easily the size of a dire wolf, his shoulders almost even with my own as he stood. His features were brighter now, the heat radiating from his body as he panted happily as his tail thumped my leg.