Shadow Sun Survival

by Dave Willmarth

  Another airman named Corvin volunteered. Someone handed him one of the blades, and he took a couple test swings. “I’ve got a four in strength, and I’m good with blades.” was all he said.

  Allistor said, “We won’t have room for any more, I don’t think. If we’re too crowded together we lose the ability to dodge.” He looked at the two of them. “Each of you grab an extra blade, in case you break yours. And a fire extinguisher. They won’t do any good all the way back here. Might work as an interrupt once or twice.”

  The two airmen did as he asked, and the rest of the group retreated down the hall around the corner.

  Allistor and Weiss took up position on the right side of the hatch, while Corvin stood back on the left. When the door opened, it would open to his side. Then he could step forward and attack. Each of the airmen set a fire extinguisher on the floor next to the wall. They each gripped a blade, and kept a spare stuck in their belts. Weiss’s spare was the fire axe.

  Allistor pulled a pair of leather gloves from his ring and put them on. Taking hold of the wheel, he began to turn it. The heated and possibly bent mechanism was difficult to turn and required a significant bit of his strength. After just a few seconds, the gloves began to get hot, then started to smoke. Allistor was forced to let go and pour some water on them.

  His second attempt went better, and the door finally unlocked. Allistor didn’t open it, diving back to his position on the right, instead. There was no doubt the drake would hit the door again, and he didn’t want to be standing in front of it when that happened. Or open it himself and get roasted.

  They waited, the tension increasing as the seconds ticked by. Corvin adjusted the grip on his machete, his knuckles whitening. Weiss, who was behind Allistor, shuffled her feet and coughed once. Allistor gripped his trusty rebar spear and clenched his jaw tightly shut.

  Without warning the door burst open as a withering wave of heat blasted through the opening. Some of the backlash from the door angled toward Allistor, scorching his armor and searing his exposed skin. He cast a heal on himself and felt the pain ease slightly as the flame subsided and shots rang out from down the hall.

  The monster roared, the sound coming from just inside the door. A moment later its scaled and horned head jammed through the door, jaws open and another gout of flame was sent down the corridor.

  Allistor didn’t take time to see if his people got out of the way. He lunged forward, jamming the point of the rebar spear into the side of the dragon’s neck just behind what looked like ear holes. The spear point penetrated a spot between two scales, and Allistor put all his strength into driving it home. Even then, it only sank about two feet deep in the creature’s flesh. He was about to twist the weapon and yank it out for some tearing damage when a thrash of the drake’s head knocked him back. He struck the wall hard, bruising if not breaking some ribs.

  Weiss and Corvin both stepped forward, hitting the neck with downward two-handed chops. Their first blows were turned aside, but neither let that deter them. They struck, again and again, trying to weaken the scales and get some penetration. The crew down the hall began firing again, and Allistor could hear the slugs and bullets striking the creature’s head. One struck a bony protrusion above its eyes and ricocheted into the wall not far from Weiss.

  Allistor and the airmen were taking a huge risk of being hit by friendly fire in addition to the damage this beast could dish out.

  Getting back in the fight, he stepped forward and took hold of the spear’s shaft with both hands. Grunting from the effort, he twisted and pulled on the rebar, yanking it free in a spray of hot, tangy blood. Without even blinking, he cast Restraint on the beast and instantly jammed the weapon back into the same hole when it froze. This time the point went much deeper, nearly all the way through the monster’s neck.

  Fire Drake Matron

  Level 12

  Health: 5,300/9,000

  The drake screamed as blood began to flow freely and pool beneath the wound. It attempted to withdraw its head from the doorway, but the spear caught on the door frame. Sheer force bent the shaft about forty-five degrees, while at the same time causing the tip to slice and tear through flesh and muscle inside the neck.

  Allistor left the spear where it was, effectively trapping the drake’s head on their side of the door. Pulling out his sword, he began to stab at the beast alongside Weiss. The monster ceased trying to withdraw, learning that it caused pain. Instead, it belched fire down the hallway again. The gunshots paused as the group hid behind the corner. Allistor cast Mind Spike, and the flames ceased as the pain seared through its brain.

  A jerk of the drake’s head sent one of its spikes into Weiss’s shoulder, pinning her to the wall briefly. She screamed and dropped her blade, both hands grabbing the spike that impaled her. The drake’s head moved again, and her unconscious body flopped like a ragdoll in the air, still hanging from the spike.

  Corvin shouted in rage and stepped to the side, narrowly missing being stuck with a spike himself. He drove his blade deep into the drake’s eye, then fell backward, leaving the weapon stuck inside the orb. Now on the ground, he rolled backward until he came up against the wall, where he huddled to avoid the spikes thrashing about above him.

  The reaction from the drake shook Weiss free, sending her flying into a wall. Allistor hit it with Restraint again, and this time it froze. Its head was tilted almost ninety degrees to one side, the spikes pointed just above Corvin’s head, and its throat exposed to Allistor. He lunged forward and drove the sword up under its chin. He felt the blade pass through the soft tissue of its skin and tongue, then there was a moment of resistance as the point pressed against the harder roof of its mouth. A half second later, it pushed through with a sort of pop and penetrated further.

  The stun wore off and the dragon, disregarding the lesson it learned just seconds earlier, yanked its head back through the doorway. The rebar spear bent further as it was pulled through the opening, and did more damage inside the monster’s neck as it was forced through. When it opened its mouth, the tip of the sword blade withdrew from the roof of its mouth, and thick blood poured forth.

  Allistor dove to the side as the drake once again spewed fire through the opening. The heat, even off to the side out of the flame’s path, was intense. He cast a heal on Weiss, taking a moment to make sure the flow of blood from her shoulder slowed, and her health bar stopped dropping. Since she was unconscious and couldn’t drink the health potion he produced, he uncorked it and poured some of it directly into her wound. Putting the cork back in, he placed the potion in her lap.

  The trail of blood on the floor leading back into the cavern was thick. If a human had lost that much blood, they would have expired. But the drake was the size of a few dozen humans, and Allistor had no illusions that it would bleed out soon. He’d already lost two airmen in this fight, and the longer it went on, the greater the risk of losing more. Having lost both his spear and sword, Allistor searched his inventory for a weapon that would be effective against this beast. When he found a particular item, he smiled and withdrew it, gripping it tightly.

  Unable to see the drake’s head, as it was currently well above the door opening, he targeted its body and cast Mind Spike again. The answering roar and rain of blood from above the doorway told him the spell had struck its target. With a shout of “Cease fire!” for his comrades down the hall, he dove through the door, the still-dripping blood soaking him as he passed through. He ignored the burning sensation as he drove forward with his legs, pushing back to his feet.

  He managed to reach the drake’s chest without being hit by the thrashing head. Turning to put his back to its chest, he waited until the head bent low to the ground, and cast Restraint again, freezing the head in place. Knowing he only had a second, he lunged for the neck, bringing his new weapon to bear. Just as the drake started to move again, he slammed the envenomed fang he’d taken from the giant snake into the monster’s neck right where the rebar spear had opened a wide wound.
The fang sank deeply, and the drake howled in pain, raising its head.

  Still holding the fang with one hand, Allistor gripped the spear with the other and held on tightly as the boss monster lifted him off his feet and swung him around. When its neck made a sort of whiplash motion, even his improved strength couldn’t help him. He was thrown loose and sent flying twenty feet through the air before impacting the stone wall.

  The impact knocked the breath from him and sent his vision fuzzy. He lay on the ground at the base of the wall, struggling to take a breath. His vision faded even more as he heard gunfire and the roar of the beast. Trying to focus on the big red blob in front of him, he cast Mind Spike once more and passed out.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Victory And Death!

  Allistor woke to the sensation of a bear cub tongue licking his face. And the stench of whatever Fuzzy had been snacking on.

  “Gah! What the hell, Fuzzy?” He was trying to push the bear away from his face when he remembered the drake. Adrenaline rushed through his system and he sprang to his feet, frantically searching for the boss monster. His head pounded, and he lost his balance, leaning against the wall for support.

  What he saw was most of his group standing around smiling at him, some laughing. “Way to fall asleep on the job there, hero.” Helen winked at him. Notifications flooded across his interface, but he swiped them away.

  “What happened?” He looked behind them at the inert form of the fire drake. “Did we win?”

  Bjurstrom smirked at him. “Nope. We wiped. We’re all dead. This is hell.”

  His wits still slightly scattered from the blow to the head, Allistor didn’t get the joke right away. He opened his mouth, then closed it again a few times, unable to form a coherent thought. Helen stepped forward and grabbed his head in both hands, staring into his eyes.

  “You got slammed pretty hard. We weren’t sure you were going to wake up. You gotta teach some of us that healing spell. It sucked, just sitting here watching you drool. And Weiss isn’t doing all that much better.”

  “Heals. Yeah.” He cast a heal on himself, immediately feeling a little better. “Where’s Weiss?”

  Helen took his arm and supported him as she led him back out to the corridor, where Weiss sat with her back against the wall. The empty health potion vial sat on the floor next to her. She looked up, obviously still in pain. “It’s getting better. But if you could speed things up?” she spoke with her jaw clenched.

  He cast another heal on her, feeling a bit woozy still, and she sighed with relief. Hoping for some of the same, he cast another heal on himself.

  “What happened?” he asked, taking a seat next to Weiss. His health bar was up to eighty percent, but his equilibrium was still off.

  “You tell us.” Andrea squatted down in front of him so that they were face to face. “You shouted at us to stop firing, then dove in there like you were friggin’ Jenkins.” Several of the group chuckled and poked at Jenkins. “We saw you charge the thing, then stab it. Then you went flying up out of sight, and we heard a thud that I’m guessing was you hitting the wall. Hard. We started firing at the thing’s belly, cuz that’s all we could see. A few seconds later it fell over twitching, then died.”

  Helen added, “We ran in and found you all crumpled up against the wall. I thought you were dead.” There was a hint of tears forming in her eyes. The others behind her nodded, agreeing that he’d looked quite dead.

  “I… I used poison,” he said as he explored his memory of the fight. “The big fang from the snake we killed. I… think that dragon broke my spear.”

  Jenkins grinned at him, holding up the badly bent length of rebar. “Bent the hell out of it! It looks like some weird piece of art now. We’re gonna mount this thing on a wall somewhere to commemorate this battle!”

  Campbell extended a hand holding Allistor’s sword. “Pulled this out of its jaw. Thought you might want it back.”

  Allistor reached for the offered hilt but missed. He dropped his hand back to his lap and said, “Maybe hold onto it for a few?” Campbell nodded in understanding.

  “Really got your bell rung, there. Just take it easy. We’ve cleared the rest of this level, so I think the whole place is ours again, boss. Err, Baron, dude.” Goodrich looked sheepish.

  Allistor rubbed his head gently, saying “Need to claim this place… before more spawns. Hang on, guys.”

  He closed his eyes to remove the background visual input that was making him dizzy as he looked at his interface. As quickly as he could, he pulled up the Stronghold tab and mentally clicked the green button to claim the complex as a Stronghold. He didn’t mess with any of the options like sensors or walls yet, as trying to focus too long on the text was making him nauseous.

  Even with his eyes closed, he could see the golden light that surrounded them, and he heard the surprised exclamations from the others. When it faded, he opened his eyes again. The others were all spinning around, taking in their modified surroundings.

  Fuzzy sniffed at him a few times, then grunted and plopped down next to him. The Fibble doll in his mouth stared up at Allistor as if pleading for help. He chuckled and reached out to scratch Fuzzy’s ears.

  When the group quieted down, the radio crackled in Allistor’s ear. A voice came across. “That was awesome, guys! We got that whole dragon fight recorded. Congrats!” Allistor thought it was Thorne speaking.

  Andrea saved him the hassle of answering. Keying her throat mic she replied, “Thanks. We’ll be heading back up shortly. There better be a decent meal and some adult beverages waiting for us when we get there!”

  The airmen around her cheered, fist-bumping and back-slapping each other. Allistor tried to focus on their faces, then remembered the two who’d been killed. “What about the two inside? We need to bury them.”

  The group went silent, and Helen put a hand on his shoulder. “There… wasn’t much left of them. Looks like the dragon ate them while we had it trapped inside.”

  “Shit.” Allistor bowed his head, the motion slow and gentle so as not to make himself dizzy again. “I’m sorry, guys. I should have found a better way.”

  “Bullshit!” McCoy’s voice was husky. “Those were friends of mine. They knew what they were getting into when they stepped forward. They didn’t need you or anyone else to protect them. They died as friggin’ heroes!”

  Andrea nodded once. “You had a good plan, Allistor. And you fought like a madman. If it weren’t for you, we’d have all died down here.” Every head in the corridor nodded at him.

  “Thanks, guys.” Allistor didn’t feel any better about the deaths on his watch, but he wasn’t going to whine about it in front of his troops. “If one of you can give me a hand up, we’ll go loot the boss.” He gave them his best possible grin and watched as their eyes lit up. Everybody loved to loot the boss.

  Helen supported him again as they assisted both him and Weiss back into the cavern. The dragon’s corpse wasn’t far from the door, and Allistor leaned against it as he placed his hand on its head to loot. The others all did the same.

  He received five hundred klax, one Fire Drake Heart, five stacks of tainted drake meat, two dragon claws, and two stacks of Crimson Drake Hide, the description of which was in bold purple letters. Allistor assumed that made it some kind of rare crafting item.

  He sat back down as Helen directed the whole crew in skinning the thick scaly leather from the drake’s corpse. They each took their standard issue Ka-Bar knives and went to work. Bjurstrom was actually giggling at the thought of having crimson dragonscale armor.

  Allistor took a minute to review all the notifications he’d waved away upon waking up. The first one wasn’t a surprise after clearing a dungeon’s worth of mobs and a dragon boss.

  Level Up! You are now Level 11. You have earned two attribute points.

  The next few made him smile.

  Attribute Increase: Constitution +1

  For repeatedly enduring and surviving physical abuse at the ha
nds of your enemies, your Constitution Attribute has increased by +1

  Skill Level Up! Your Improvisation Skill has increased by one point.

  Skill Level Up! Your Improvisation Skill has increased by one point.

  Your proficiency with the Mind Spike spell has increased to level two.

  Your proficiency with the Nature’s Boon spell has increased to level three.

  Your proficiency with the Flame Shot spell has increased to level three.

  Congratulations! You have created and secured your third Stronghold!

  You have chosen to name this Stronghold ‘The Silo’. Please see your Stronghold tab for more information and options.

  There were other less important notifications, like increases in his sword and spear skills, the fact that Fuzzy had leveled up twice, etc. He passed over them quickly.

  He was about to dump all the tainted meat from his ring when he reconsidered. The meat could be used as bait to kill off canids or other monsters around the two strongholds. When he called Helen over to mention the idea, she frowned. “I don’t like it. Too many other critters might decide to take some free meat. Local wolves, cats, foxes, even rabbits. Don’t want to kill off everything around here.”

  “Rabbits? Since when do rabbits eat meat?” Allistor was pretty sure she was screwing with him.

  “Since always? They mostly eat plants, but I’ve seen them go cannibal and eat their own young. It’s… not something I like to remember.” She made a disgusted face.

  “I would think not!” He chuckled, noticing the pain in his head seemed a bit less. “Friggin’ carnivore bunnies? That’s nightmare fuel.”

  He dumped the meat tainted by the ophidian poison, assuming that it would fade away. The others all did the same after Helen made a brief announcement. A few of the airmen started sorting through the mostly broken and burnt storage crates in the cavern, emptying a few of the intact ones to fill with the harvested drake hide. Allistor pulled several stacks of it into his ring to lighten the load they’d be carrying upstairs. He also collected several dozen teeth that Helen had them break free from the thing’s jaws, and six of its claws. None of the others had rings yet, and the packs they carried on their backs would only hold so much.