by Ramy Vance
Chine activated his gravity-distorting augments. The effect spread and covered the entire undead dragon.
Alex’s feet lifted off its back. She suddenly realized she should have thought that command through; she was floating in the air without gravity. Holmorth, on the other hand, was tethered to his dragon. One life force, Alex thought to herself. And the dragon is barely alive. It’s got to be Holmorth.
Alex reached out and concentrated on the dragon’s throat. She envisioned her hand closing around it, choking the life from the creature.
Holmorth stretched his clawed hands toward Alex, who floated like easy prey.
Suddenly, Alex felt the grip. It was not Holmorth’s hand around her, but her mind around Holmorth’s throat. Alex pulled with everything she had.
Holmorth jerked toward Alex, dropping his fireballs and grabbing his throat. As Holmorth came toward her, she raised her scythe as high as she could. Then she brought it down on Holmorth’s head.
The scythe sank into his skull.
“Team Boundless! Unload on this thing!”
Team Boundless released the undead dragon, giving themselves space. Then they fired everything they had without mercy, unloading all of their ammunition into the dragon.
Alex pulled her scythe from Holmorth’s skull. The wizard’s face started to contort, sloping forward, his teeth falling out, his eyes boiling. He let out a low, pitiful moan.
Alex pressed her hand to Holmorth’s head. “This is for the Wasp’s Nest,” she whispered, focusing her thoughts in one place: the palm of her hand.
The back of Holmorth’s head exploded as his body burst into flames.
Alex fell and hit the back of the undead dragon’s back hard. All around her, the dragon was coming apart. She ran toward its wings and leaped off, mentally shouting, Chine!
Chine swooped down and caught Alex in his paw. Alex climbed his shoulder until she stood on his back.
Alex joined with the rest of the team, who were watching the battle that had taken place adjacent to them. The bats were falling from the sky as if someone had turned them off. “Jim, can you grab one of those?” Alex asked.
Jim flew out and grabbed one of the closest bats in his tractor beam. Gill went over to the bat to get a look at it. “You won’t believe this,” Gill said, “but it’s inorganic. I think it might be some kind of drone.”
Alex didn’t even want to think about that bit of information. “Okay, okay. Let’s just get on the ground. I think we’ve earned it.”
Chapter Ten
Alex and the rest of Team Boundless were the first ones on the ground out of the sky full of dragonriders. As soon as they touched down, Alex said, “All right, let’s get these dragons taken care of pronto!”
The riders jumped to it. The process was painful, but didn’t take nearly as long as it had the first time. Everyone was able to finish within ten minutes. It was important to Alex to make sure they took care of their companions as soon as possible.
Once the battle had ended, Alex couldn’t stop thinking about how much pain Chine must have been in. After seeing the undead dragon and what it had become with Holmorth, Alex realized things had to be different with her and Chine. Always.
He hardly winced during the maintenance, and once Alex was done, he stretched his wings and said, Thank you. I truly value your attentiveness. The riders above are still congratulating themselves on your victory.
Alex shrugged, trying not to let the compliment go to her head. Don’t worry about it. You’re important to me. We’re bonded. Gotta take care of my boy.”
Brath and Gill were walking over to Alex. “How the hell did you know about that thing?” Brath asked. “You knew exactly where to go and what to do. How?”
Alex laughed at Brath’s accusatory tone. “I looked through Manny’s eyes earlier. He didn’t know what he was looking at, and neither did I, but I knew it was important. So, I guess you both were right. I took another stupid risk.”
Gill shook his head as he rested his hand on Alex’s shoulder, causing her heart to try to rip out of her chest. “No, I should apologize,” he said softly. “I was out of line earlier. You’ve been doing an amazing job. And that up there…you were like a moving work of art.”
Alex stared at Gill, fairly certain she was going to faint. Gill’s cheeks turned pitch black, and he started blinking rapidly and cleared his throat as he said, “I meant, force of nature. Like a force of nature.”
Brath gave Gill a sideways glance and shook his head. “Uh, I wasn’t going to say all that, but it was pretty badass. I mean, really badass.”
Jollies and Jim joined the team as the dragons lumbered off on their own. “Couldn’t have done it without you guys,” Alex exclaimed. “You all were amazing. Can you believe any of that? I mean, Holmorth and the dragon and… I mean, jeez, it’s kinda a lot, right? Is it just me? It can’t just be me.”
Jollies flew over and took a seat on Alex’s shoulder. “No, it’s not just you,” she agreed. “The last few days have been out of control. I could never have imagined I’d fight an undead dragon, let alone blow one to pieces.”
Alex gently nudged Jollies’ chin. “Well, now you can cross that off your bucket list.”
The ground suddenly shook, and Alex spun around to see what was causing the commotion.
A dozen mech riders had just landed. The largest one opened, and Roy jumped out of it. Next to the mech riders, the rest of the dragonriders landed. Toppinir didn’t even wait for his dragon to land before leaping off, landing next to Roy.
Roy stormed up to Team Boundless and shouted, “All right, which one of you brats is in charge of all of this?”
All of Team Boundless pointed their fingers at Alex, who, unsurprisingly, was pointing at herself. Roy knelt and got in Alex’s face. “What in the nine hells did you think you were doing up there?”
Alex fought against all her inclinations to give a smart answer. She swallowed her pride and remembered why she’d made up her mind to join the battle to begin with. “After we were done with our mission, it came to my attention that you and Toppinir were in a bad situation.”
“And?”
“And I disobeyed direct orders to provide you and your squads backup since there were no other dragonriders or mech riders available. Uh, sir.”
Toppinir stepped forward and pulled Roy away from Alex. “You do understand that you placed your team in an extremely dangerous position?”
Alex nodded, preparing to say something when Jim spoke up. “Alex didn’t put us in any situation. She presented us with a choice, and we all agreed it was the right thing to do.”
“And you assumed that neither Myrddin nor the other higher-ups had a backup plan? You assumed you were honestly the last resort?”
“Uh, well, we sort of hacked the system to see what the plan was.”
Toppinir’s eyes went wide with surprise. “Which one of you broke into our system?” he asked, bewildered and a little impressed.
Gill raised his hand as he lowered his head. “Me. I was watching the correspondence. There was no rescue planned.”
Roy and Toppinir exchanged glances. Alex couldn’t read their faces. Neither of them spoke until finally, Roy sighed and said, “That’s because we weren’t expecting backup. Everyone knew the risks when they took this mission.”
Alex couldn’t keep it in any longer. “But we helped! We took down Holmorth, and now everything’s cool!” she interrupted.
“By disobeying a direct order. There’s a reason—”
“It was a stupid order! We knew we could help, and we did. I don’t see why it’s such a big deal!”
Roy and Alex argued, each raising their voice and trying to talk over each other. Toppinir looked as if he had already become bored with the conversation. He had started to gaze skyward. Gill came up to his side and followed his gaze.
The meteor was still hanging in the sky, a green aura surrounding it. “I’m assuming that shouldn’t still be there,” Gill said softl
y.
Toppinir looked down at Gill. “There aren’t many drow dragonriders,” he said unemotionally.
“There is only one drow dragonrider. And one human rider, too.”
“Hmm.” Toppinir nodded, neither impressed nor offended by Gill’s directness or tone. “To answer your question, no, that should not still be in the sky. Holmorth was the pilot. We assumed that once he was destroyed, the meteor would be as well.”
Gill nodded as he sat down and crossed his legs. “Wouldn’t a meteor fall anyway once it’s entered the atmosphere?”
Toppinir took a seat beside Gill. “Yes. Yes, it would.”
Alex and Roy were still arguing. It was uncertain what it was about at this point. The tirade hadn’t descended into personal insults, but it was getting close.
Jollies squeaked loudly and pointed up at the meteor. “Hey! Do you guys see that? What’s going on with it?” Jollies asked.
Alex stared at Roy for a second before turning her attention to the meteor. Talk about being ungrateful, Alex thought as she looked up at the meteor. Then any thought of Roy or his opinions quickly vanished from her mind.
The meteor was opening. There was a door where Holmorth had detached from the meteor. The door was slowly creaking open, and what came forth was devastating.
Vrosks, giant bees, and bats came flooding out of the hole in the meteor—more than had been in the sky before. The number had nearly tripled.
Brath jumped on Furi. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he shouted. “All right, guys, you know what time it is!” He anchored himself and pulled up, causing the dragon to climb to his feet and start flapping his wings.
Alex ran over to Brath, waving her hands to get his attention. “No, Brath, hold on. We need to see what is going on!”
Either Brath didn’t hear Alex, or he chose to pretend he didn’t. He took off. Roy came up behind Alex, clicking his tongue. “Looks like your squad doesn’t care for orders either,” he jabbed.
Furi and Brath raced toward the swarm of dark creatures. Something flew in front of him faster than he could see. There was only a blur, and when Brath looked down at his chest, he was bleeding.
Alex focused on Brath and saw him falling from Furi’s back. “Brath!” she shouted as she ran toward Chine.
Up above, more creatures poured out of the meteor. There were too many to name, even if Alex had known their names. The sky grew dark as the creatures swarmed, blocking out the sun. The mech and dragonriders stared up at the meteor as the sky went black.
The true danger of the meteor was yet to be known.
To be continued
The Dark One’s deadly meteor is about to land on Middang3ard. But Alex has a plan that just might save everyone. Everyone but her… Find out what it is in Sacrifices!
Author Notes Ramy Vance
February 13, 2020
As many of you know, I also write in a universe called the GoneGod World. For the uninitiated, here’s the premise:
The gods are gone. All of them. And with their departure, they closed their heavens and hells, exiling their denizens onto Earth. Now mythical creatures of all kinds live among us.
Basically, in the GoneGod World, it is conceivable that Medusa is your neighbor (and depending on where you live, she is!).
Recently I’ve been writing articles for a fictional magazine in the GoneGod World that, oddly, fit in Middang3ard. In an earlier release, I wrote about the 9 Reasons to Marry an Ogre and They Might Be a Gnome.
In this one I’m exploring Badass Jobs Mythical Creatures are Better at than Humans…
The job market is changing in the GoneGod World, and with an influx of a new and different kind of worker, I’d like to explore six badass jobs that mythical creatures would be better at than their human counterparts.
Now it’s easy for this article to digress to the low-hanging fruit ... lazy ideas like a centaur as a carriage driver (they can pull the carriage and engage in interesting banter) or a hecatoncheires as a fruit picker (after all, they’re giants with a hundred arms).
But such observations are cruel and do not remotely give these amazing creatures their due.
So here are six badass jobs that mythical creatures would be better at than humans:
1 - Deep Sea Explorers: Myraids - or sea-jinni - are the lions of the sea. Fast, strong and vicious, they hunt white sharks bare-handed, can traverse the English Channel in less than eight minutes and can swim to depths that human technology has yet to manage. And with over seventy percent of the world’s oceans yet to be chartered, why not use them to help us better understand our world? Who knows what we’ll find down there? Other Others? Aliens? Lost civilizations? Resources beyond our imagination? Whatever it is, we can’t afford NOT to do it.
Want to see a myraid in action? Azzah appears at the beginning of Keep Evolving (click here: ).
2 - Detective: Gorgon
The GoneGod World’s favorite gorgon is Medusa, and she’s a policewoman in the Keep Evolving Series (click here: ).
3 - Houris: Prosecutors
Seleema is the GoneGod World’s resident houri, and stars in a short story in the House of the GoneGod Damned (click here: ). She’ll also star in her own series coming out in 2020.
4 - Enoch’s Angels or the Twice Fallen: Archivists
Probably the most famous Twice Fallen is Penemue … the angel who taught humanity how to read and write. He stars alongside Jean in the Keep Evolving Series.
5 - Dark Elves: Ballet Dancers
I’m just going to say it … ballet dancers are badass. Their physical prowess rivals a marine, their endurance would put most marathon runners to shame and their muscle control is the envy of Kung-Fu masters. Think I’m exaggerating? Check out Russian Ballet to see the kind of training they go through. But despite all that, they’re still just humans and there are limits to what the homo sapien body can do. But a dark elf? Now that’s a different story. Dark elves have incredible dexterity, are able to contort their bodies into shapes that no one with a spine should be able to do, treadmills break before dark elves get tired and if a human ballet dancer is as strong as a bull, then a dark elf is as strong as a minotaur.
Author Notes Michael Anderle
March 5, 2020
THANK YOU for reading our story! We have a few of these planned, but we don’t know if we should continue writing and publishing without your input. Options include leaving a review, reaching out on Facebook to let us know, and smoke signals.
Frankly, smoke signals might get misconstrued as low hanging clouds, so you might want to nix that idea.
I have NO idea where Ramy came up with the mythical creatures would be better than humans at
So, just to play along with him, I’ll choose firefighter as the occupation. BUT we have a problem (or challenge.) I’m not going to use obviously magical constructs (Ifrit or demon). I’m going to use something…not human.
A Salamander.
But, no magic. I’m going to use the mythical quality of the fire salamander that exudes a liquid that provides fire retardant (protective) qualities to whatever it is applied to. Say, the clothes of the firefighters.
So technically, this choice doesn’t work better than a human (still have to save people, pick them up, etc.) but rather, in a symbiotic relationship, those firefighters who have fire salamanders as collaborators will be able to deal with horrible fires better. Their equipment will have a special mythical you might say protection against the dangers of the heat and flames that others do not.
Diary for March 8-14th (mostly the same for all books this week.)
Tomorrow (March 6th) I head out to the Las Vegas McCarran airport and fly to Los Angeles. From there, Judith and I head over to London. Originally, this was for the London Book Fair.
However, that has been canceled due to the Coronavirus. Once the word spread that the London Book Fair was closed, many of my author contacts asked if Judith and I were staying here.
I told them
no.
At first, I tried to explain that the Coronavirus is not as big a deal as the news makes it out to be. However, that only went so far before I came up with a logical argument that makes more sense to most I tell.
EXPLANATION:
I live in Las Vegas. Las Vegas averages 80,000 to 130,000 new visitors A DAY. It’s probably safer for me to go to London than to stay here in my hometown.
“But you will be on an airplane.”
Pretty sure the news isn’t freaking everyone out about flu deaths.
I am cynical. In the United States, the news shows make money by selling ads. Negative stories draw more attention (and more viewers) than positive stories. So, sell more ads for more money news shows talk about negative stories with large amounts of hysteria.
I’m not stupid. (At least, I don’t think so. I’m sure someone believes I am.)
We have a large amount of antibiotic hand cleanser to take with us, soap, masks should we need them, and we pay attention to our health.
We are aware of the risks and are willing to accept them. Once again, note that going to London is probably safer than staying in Las Vegas (what random encounter will I have if I just stay here?)
However, having said all that, you aren’t getting me on a cruise ship period. That is a hard stop. I don’t care about the statistics; being stuck on a large ship for thirty days (for me) is such a horrible future I am not willing to take even an infinitesimal chance at it happening.
For those books releasing this week, I am already in London, meeting fans, talking to fellow authors, and sharing tips and tricks to selling stories at the Self-Publishing Live event (by Mark Dawson.) Later in the week, I’ll have more dinners with a select crowd who have come, and by Sunday, coming back to America.
