Judgment of the Dragon (Book 7 of 10): Dragon Fantasy Series (Tail of the Dragon)

by Craig Halloran

  “Ask and you shall receive.” Slivver barked a command in Dragonese. Silver dragons soared beneath the belly of the dropping wurmer. One of them dropped more than a full yard of gleaming steel.

  Nath snatched Fang out of the air. “Ah, that’s better. Thank you, Slivver.”

  “My pleasure.”

  Nath called out, “Laylana! Laylana!”

  The elven woman appeared. She’d buckled on a suit of elven chain armor. An almond-shaped helmet like those of the other elven soldiers was tucked under her arm. A sword of fine elven steel filled her grip. “I’m here, Nath!”

  “I hope you’re in control of your wits now.”

  She nodded. “I am. So sorry, Nath, but things can be confusing.”

  “Can you lead the elves?”

  “Better than anyone.” She stuffed her helmet onto her head. Raising her sword high, she shouted, “For the honor of Elome!”

  A wurmer dropped right onto the platform where Nath and Slivver stood. Its neck coiled back, ready to unleash its fiery breath.

  Nath struck. Fang sliced clean through the monster. “Guzan, that felt good!”

  “May every swing of yours be as deadly as the last.” Slivver took to the air, joining the other silvers. Lightning bolts shot from their mouths and ripped into the enemy.

  Wurmers dropped from the sky like rain. Some dead. Most alive. The entire fort had become a battlefield of swinging steel and lizard tails. Balls of energy blasted from the wurmers’ mouths, downing dwarves and elves in heaps.

  Nath battled wurmer after wurmer. Fang’s edge dismembered heads, claws, and tails.

  The acidic blood of the wurmers sizzled on the ground and burbled on Nath’s own scales. The durable elves screamed and shouted. The dwarves hammered away with the fury of a storm. Nath could barely make out what was going on from the swarming activity. But he saw enough to see that some of the elves and dwarves were possessed by the spirits—and fighting alongside the enemy.

  Sultans of Sulfur, there are too many enemies. This is a disaster!

  CHAPTER 7

  Bayzog held onto the Elderwood Staff for dear life.

  Lotuus screamed with fury as the pair of them spun through the air like a slow tornado. With eyes hot as fire, she shouted in his face, “Unhand me, you fool! Unhand me!”

  The commanding words were a strike in the face filled with arcane power. He reeled. His fingers loosened on the staff.

  No! Don’t let go, Bayzog! You can’t let go!

  Lotuus, though fragile in appearance, was a powerful being and strong as a warrior. It took everything he had to hang onto the staff.

  Using the Orb of Command, she walloped him in the temple. “Let go! Let go!”

  The stunning blow drew spots in his eyes. One of his hands slipped. The other hand barely held on. Using his free forearm, he blocked her swings, all the while maintaining his concentration for his flying spell.

  I’m not letting go of this staff. Not for anything!

  With the orb still colliding with Bayzog’s body, Lotuus said, “You are a fool, wizard. You are nothing but a mortal being, not an all-powerful creature of Nalzambor like me.” Her iron grip remained fastened on the Elderwood Staff. “I will dine on the flowers that decorate your grave and use your staff as my lantern.” She started into another swing at his ribs.

  Bayzog lowered his arm to block her.

  In a swift move, Lotuus countered. Pulling her swing from down to up, she clipped him hard in the chin. His fingers slipped, and he sagged toward the ground—half flying, half floating, and fighting to gather his wits.

  From out of nowhere, Sasha sailed through the sky and collided into Lotuus’s body.

  The Orb of Command fell from the Fairy Empress’s fingers. Shrieking with rage, she grabbed Sasha by the hair and slung her aside, then lowered the Elderwood Staff at Sasha and discharged a bolt of power.

  The energy hit Sasha square in the chest. Her back arched. She gasped, “Gah!” Her body went limp as she tumbled from the sky and hit the ground with a smack.

  Fingers outstretched toward his wife, Bayzog screamed, “Sasha!”

  His wife lay on the ground. She wasn’t moving.

  Lotuus cackled. She stuck out her bottom lip and said, “What’s the matter, Bayzog? Did your little wife fall and go boom? Too bad. I’ll be sure and put your grave right next to hers.”

  Bayzog’s brows buckled. His violet eyes turned into storms. He pushed up his sleeves and flew right at Lotuus. “You will pay!”

  “I hardly think so.” She turned loose a bolt of power from the head of the staff. It sailed right into his body and lit him up with webs of energy.

  He bucked in the sky. His robes became smoking tatters. Suspended in the air, he hung like a dead thing, with his eyes half closed.

  “Marvelous. He makes a fine ornament.” She descended on him but kept her distance. “Certainly, it will take more energy than that to kill the likes of you.” Her eyes narrowed. “You’re playing possum, aren’t you.”

  Bayzog opened his eyes. “No, I’m absorbing my staff’s power and turning it against you! See?” He winked one eye and sent a blast of energy out of the other. The bolt hit Lotuus square in her face.

  She tumbled head over heels through the air, screaming.

  Bayzog chased after her. He locked his hands on the staff, planted his feet in her gut, and wrenched it free. He summoned the power in the staff. It coursed through his veins like a stream of lava.

  Lotuus recoiled. Her wings came to life. She clawed at the air, flying for escape.

  Mixing mystic words with the staff’s power, he turned loose a bolt of lightning that turned the night to day. The beam hit Lotuus square in the back.

  Her wings fluttered and crackled. Still flying, she soared higher in the air, crying out in a language Bayzog didn’t know.

  “You aren’t going anywhere, evil one!” He blasted her again.

  Sssrazz! Boom!

  And again.

  Sssrazz! Boom!

  Lotuus’s body shrank from the elven form to her smaller fairy form. She spun around to face him and said through her broken features, “A curse on you!”

  Dozens of colorful fairies arrived in a mob of colors like candlelight. They surrounded Lotuus and swept her out of sight.

  Bayzog dropped from the sky and landed by Sasha. He held her broken body in his arms. Tears dripped down his face onto hers. “Nooooooooo!”

  CHAPTER 8

  The wurmers came in a variety of sizes, from dogs all the way up to cattle. Brenwar and Glenwar chased after the bigger ones.

  Brenwar unleashed a haymaker. The blow collided with a wurmer skull, shattering its bones and horns. “That’s how you do it, Son!”

  Glenwar, with the girth of a small grizzly bear, brought his battle axe down into the meaty flank of another wurmer. “Like this, Father?” he shouted. He hit the reeling wurmer again. “Dwarven steel likes the taste of this foul fiend’s flesh!”

  “Watch out for the splatter!” Brenwar warned.

  “The what?” Glenwar replied just as he sank his axe into the beast again. The dark blood of the wurmer splashed out onto Glenwar’s face and skin. “Morgdon! Its blood burns!”

  “I told you to watch out! They have acid for blood. Very nasty stuff.” Brenwar fought through a heap of smaller wurmers, bashing their skulls on his way to his son. “That’s going to leave a mark.”

  Glenwar pounded his axe into another wurmer. “I hope it’s a scar! A big ugly one!”

  Brenwar beamed. Together they smote the same wurmer at the same time. Krang! Bang! He shouted, “That’s my boy! Hit ’em where it hurts!”

  “Where’s that?”

  “Everywhere!”

  Father and son clashed with beast after beast. Bones were shattered. Horns were broken. Wurmers dropped dead on the ground.

  The monsters fell fast, but for every one that fell, there came two live ones and sometimes three. Whipping tails struck at the dwarves. Claws ripped a
t them. Teeth bit into the dwarven metal that coated their bodies. Every able body—and some not so able—fought the wurmers with equally matched ferocity. It reached a point where the dwarves couldn’t swing without hitting a wurmer.

  Brenwar grabbed a wurmer that latched on to his leg by the neck. He ripped it free and slung it into the air.

  Glenwar chopped it asunder, saying, “For Morgdon!”

  One of the larger wurmers dropped from the sky and hovered over them. It spat a ball of energy that hit Glenwar square in the back. The dwarf’s back caught fire. The smell of burning hair permeated the air. He kept fighting.

  “Glenwar! You’re on fire!” Brenwar said.

  His son twisted his head over his shoulder. His brows buckled. “Nobody burns a dwarf!” Two handed, he slung his axe into the assaulting wurmer. The axe sailed hard and fast, spinning head over handle to bury itself in the wurmer’s chest. The beast’s wings beat the air for a few long-lasting moments.

  Staring, Brenwar had his head cocked to one side when Glenwar said, “Wait for it.”

  Glenwar’s axe blade started to glow red hot. The wurmer let out a bloodcurdling roar. Glenwar made a powerful clap.

  The wurmer exploded.

  Kah-Poompf!

  As chunks of wurmer showered the sky, Brenwar patted out his son’s flaming back. “I like it! What is the name of that axe?”

  Glenwar opened up his fist. The battle axe flew back into his grip, and he said, “Guulton!”

  “Ah, Dwarven for Angry Steel. I like it!” With wurmers and dwarves falling all around them, he said. “Well, stop admiring your weapon. We’ve got plenty of work to do.” He lifted Mortuun high.

  Glenwar joined him with Guulton. “For Morgdon!”

  ***

  “Laylana, how are you holding up?” Nath fought the tide of raging wurmers, devastating them with one chop after another. Fang’s razor-keen edge found its home in the hearts of the evil monsters.

  Nearby, up to her waist in wurmers, Laylana skewered one monster as she replied, “I’ll fight as long as my limbs allow me!”

  Nath’s arms were tireless. His attacks were quick and precise. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but he’d strengthened when the noose tried to take him. His body had reacted, amplifying his power.

  I might be stronger, but it’s not doing anyone else much good. There are too many. We need more help.

  The clash of battle rang out in all directions. Elves and dwarves fought with the wurmers and even with one another in one of the most bizarre battles Nath had ever witnessed. The spirits that possessed some of the people were creating chaos. He saw one elf stab another elf in the back, and elves considered it immoral to kill one another.

  “Nath!” Laylana cried out.

  A dog-sized wurmer was latched onto her arm. She poked at its scaly hide with a dagger, but the metal didn’t bite.

  “I’m coming!” He dragged the wurmers hanging on his legs through the wake of battle. At Laylana’s side, he grabbed the alligator jaws of the wurmer on her arm, pulled them apart, and flung the monster aside. “You’re bleeding bad!”

  “Just fight with me to the end,” she said while taking a hard swipe at the snapping jaws of another monster.

  Nath redoubled his efforts. Nostrils flaring, he tore into every wriggling enemy that skulked within a few feet. The bodies piled up. Acid blood splattered. The wurmers kept on coming. “Great Dragons! If we ever needed help from my brethren, now is the time!”

  Above, the silver dragons led by Slivver more than had their hands full. They were faster and stronger, more powerful in magic, but the sheer numbers were overwhelming. It wouldn’t be long before the entire fort at the corridor was dead.

  Ree-Rah! Ree-Rah! Ree-Rah! Ree-Rah!

  The twirling sound of the wurmers became a deafening chant of victory. One right after the other they came.

  Laylana moaned, “Ugh!” Her body collapsed under the strike of a wurmer’s tail.

  Nath hacked the thing in two. “No!”

  The elves fought. The dwarves brawled.

  It didn’t matter. The wurmers wore down the soldiers one rank at a time.

  Nath screamed, “GUZAN!”

  CHAPTER 9

  The ground shook. Nath’s foot slipped. A wurmer pounced at the perfect time and slammed right into Nath’s chest. He stumbled backward, tripped over a corpse, and landed flat on his back. The wurmer, bigger than Nath, snapped its dripping teeth at his neck. The wurmer’s head coiled back and struck, again and again. Its teeth clacked together like collapsing steel traps.

  “Get off me!”

  The wurmer’s jaws clamped down on Nath’s arm. The teeth chomped on his scales. Nath released his sword. The battling pair thrashed all over the courtyard. Using his free hand, Nath punched the monster in the head repeatedly.

  Whap! Whap! Whap!

  Nothing shook the monster. The more Nath hit it, the harder the monster’s jaws clamped down. If not for Nath’s steel-hardened scales, he would have lost his arm. Rolling over the short grasses of the yard, he wrestled his way toward Fang. The blade lay in the grass, all alone among the fighting masses.

  If I can just get my hands on Dragon Claw, I can put an end to this foul beast.

  His fingers stretched. They came just inches from the sword.

  Almost there!

  A wurmer dropped from the sky, landing right on top of Fang. Nath lost sight of his sword completely.

  “Of all the lousy breaks!”

  The ground trembled again.

  “What in Nalzambor?”

  The earth moved.

  Wurmers screeched.

  Suddenly, from the sky above, a hand big enough to engulf him and the wurmer reached down. “Oh no, not giants too!”

  The gigantic hand scooped both him and the wurmer up off the ground. A second hand appeared. With a thumb and index finger, the hand pinched the back of the wurmer’s neck. The jaws locked on Nath’s arm opened. Nath freed his arm. The wurmer’s neck snapped, and its body was casually flung aside.

  Nath stood up in the giant’s hand, turned to face the giant, and said, “Samaz!”

  In a loud, slowly drawn-out voice, the eighty-foot-tall Samaz calmly said, “HELLO, NATH.”

  Nath’s heart leaped. “I can’t believe it! How did you—”

  Samaz cut him off, quickly lowering Nath to the ground, saying, “NO TIME TO TALK. HAVE TO KEEP FIGHTING.”

  Nath hopped to the ground. He pushed away the wurmer that lay dead on his sword and snatched Fang up. All the while he watched the eighty-foot-tall Samaz go to work against the wurmers. “Go, Samaz! Kill them!”

  The wurmers looked like little scaled black birds attacking a man. Samaz swatted them down. He plucked two from the air and smashed them together. They flew right at him like a swarm of stinging bees. He crushed them in his hands—one by one, two by two, and three by three.

  Nath pumped his sword in the air. “Take it to them, Samaz!”

  Rerry appeared beside him. The young part elf’s body shimmered. His eyes were wild with excitement. He shouted alongside Nath, saying, “Yes, take it to them, brother!” He zipped away with blinding speed, goring wurmer after wurmer with his sword. Even Nath’s dragon eyes had a hard time keeping up with him. Rerry’s furious assault rallied the reeling elves. The hard-fighting soldiers came to life with swinging steel that mowed down their aggressors.

  With Fang arcing high in the air, he brought the blade down on a slithering wurmer. “Rerry, I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but I like it!” He spun to attack a charging wurmer coming at his flank. Halfway into his swing, Rerry breezed in and slew the thing.

  Talking really fast, Rerry said with a wide smile, “It’s the potions! It’s the potions!” He sprinted away again.

  Nath almost felt that his swings were clumsy compared to Rerry’s superfast strikes. The son of Bayzog was slaying wurmers two to his one.

  I can’t have this! I need to up my game!

  He pull
ed Dragon Claw free of Fang’s pommel. Two handed, he started dropping wurmers at double the pace. Just as he finished up killing four more wurmers, Rerry ran up to him and said, “Ah, two weapons at once. Great idea!”

  Rerry filled his free hand with a second sword from a fallen elven soldier. Moving from wurmer to wurmer, he killed them while saving one life after another.

  “Rerry,” Nath called out, “Did you get those potions from Brenwar’s chest?”

  Sneaking up behind Nath while downing a wurmer, Rerry replied, “Yes.”

  “Where—”

  In a blur, Rerry sped in front of him, dropped the chest at his feet, and sped away again, saying, “Whooopeeee!”

  A wurmer dropped from the sky, landing on the chest. It spat a ball of energy at Nath.

  He knocked it aside with the flat of his blade. With Dragon Claw, he killed the wurmer with a shot to the neck. That was when he noticed Laylana fighting off three wurmers at once. She was cut up and bleeding in several places. “Rerry! Help Lay—”

  Rerry rushed in with dazzling speed. He cut down two. Laylana finished the third.

  Nath popped the chest open. His fingers fumbled through the racks of potions. He grabbed one filled with a sparkling swirl of yellow fluid. “Rerry—”

  “Got it!” Rerry said, snatching the vial from Nath’s fingers. He took it to Laylana.

  “That was for me,” Nath said.

  Rerry came back with his head tilted to one side. “Really?”

  “No, I’m just teasing.”

  THOOOOOM!

  Nath turned. Behind him, the gargantuan Samaz was stomping wurmers to death beneath his sandals. They made a crunchy squishing sound.

  “They crunch like cockroaches!” Rerry shouted. He cupped his hands over his mouth. “Keep it up, brother!”

  “How did he get so big?” Nath asked.

  “I gave him two of them!” Rerry said. He was beaming. His head seemed to turn all directions at once. “Got to go!” He dashed away like he had been shot out of a crossbow.

  Nath was smiling all the way up to the point where Rerry slowed down and stumbled. Above him, Samaz let out a loud hiccup and started to shrink.