Dragon Alliance Dark Storm : Dark Storm

by J. Michael Fluck

  Molotoc, Restregem, and the fire giant chieftain had regained control of their army and began to move them away from the aerial battle now intensely going on above them to avoid any more concentrated strikes. In spite of the devastating attacks, which had destroyed between a quarter to a third of their forces, they still had a good deal of combat power remaining. As the fire giants made the last turn on the trail before the straight path to the mountain pass, they saw the now formed and entrenched Alliance battle line in front of them well over a thousand yards away.

  The 29th Legion’s catapult commander ordered his throwers to fire. Immediately, all eighteen of his catapults launched their projectiles along with those of the battalion from Eladran Weir and the section from Draden Weir, with forty-, sixty-, and one-hundred-pound stones and canisters arcing over to the gathered columns of the Morgathian army and striking with an intense impact. Most hit their mark, with the dragons’ fire canisters bursting and spraying their deadly flaming contents over a thirty-yard-diameter in a deadly flash and the solid stones crushing dozens. The fire and common giants did catch several when they mistook a canister shot for a stone. The fire giants were basically immune from the fiery liquid, but it did not feel good to them.

  The second salvo fired; the catapult crews had mixed in the spiked stones, the loosely packed clay projectiles impregnated with hundreds of steel spikes. They proved fatal to two fire giants and five common giants, who tried to catch them as they burst into dozens of deadly darts upon impact and almost shredded their targets. Knowing they could not stay there, Molotoc and the fire giant chieftain ordered the armies forward to get them out of the impact area of the catapults, while Restregem started to move their catapults forward to provide some type of response.

  Knowing that he couldn’t make his men sprint almost a mile, he ordered the cavalry and orc-mounted dire wolves to charge to put some pressure on the Alliance line and stop those catapults from launching their decimating fire shot. Several hundred howling dire wolves sprinted forward with the thousands of Morgathian medium cavalry right behind them.

  The 29th commander then ordered the catapults to split with half firing on the charging cavalry and the other half hitting the Morgathian catapults that were now being set up. He then called the cavalry commanders from both his legion and the weir’s heavy and medium cavalry battalions to move out and head off the enemy’s charge. The four-hundred-eighty-strong armored horse galloped from one end of the Alliance battle line, the circle with the top half white and the bottom half black to symbolize light over darkness proudly showing on their shields. The heavy and medium cavalry battalions of Eladran Weir galloped in from the opposite side of the Alliance infantry, the green oak leaf and crossed arrows embossed on their shields. They moved in and linked up with their legion counterparts.

  The three battalion commanders quickly decided on an attack formation, with the two heavy battalions forming separate wedges to drive through the massive wall of horse, man, orc, and dire wolf now bearing down on them. The medium battalion would move in behind them and capitalize on the disorientation of the Morgathians once their charge was broken by the lead heavy battalions. If they could take out half of the Morgathian numbers on this first charge, they would have a chance.

  All three commanders called out on their seeing crystals for the battalions to move into formation with their most powerful paladins in the front. Their mithril- and magic-based weapons and armor were especially suited for this and could make short work of the Morgathian cavalry’s weaker steel. In a couple of minutes, they were formed and at the sound of the war horn and the commands across the seeing crystals, the thirteen-hundred-strong Alliance cavalry began their charge. Slowly at first to keep their formation, they quickly gathered speed to a full charge. The Morgathian dire wolves’ howls combined with the orcs’ shrill cries and Morgathian cavalrymen’s yells. The roar from their thousands was almost bloodcurdling. While frightening, it did not deter the Alliance charge.

  When the Morgathian and orc cavalry was halfway to the Alliance line and two hundred yards from the legion’s and weir’s knights, the Eladran catapults fired one volley, with most of the stones and canisters landing just behind the edge of the Morgathian charge. The effect, while not devastating, took out dozens of the enemy’s mounted soldiers and a similar number of dire wolves. This did have the result of breaking their momentum, which allowed the Alliance paladins to hit them harder.

  The lead paladins lowered their mithril-tipped lances and raised their shields as the opposing cavalries were about to meet. They kept the formation tight as they weighed into the Morgathian cavalry and dire wolves head-on. Their lances sliced through their opponents fairly easily, especially with the light armor of the orcs and the inferior steel of the Morgathians. The wedge formations of the paladins tore through the mass, unorganized charge of their opponent and achieved the desired effect of dividing them into thirds. Once through the enemy cavalry, they turned and a general melee broke out. While still outnumbered, the odds were much better now with hundreds of slain Morgathian cavalry and orc wolves littering the battlefield.

  Molotoc and his guards were whipping his catapult crews to get their machines up and firing, as they were taking a pounding from the Alliance throwers. He had already lost a third of his catapults to the deadly accurate fire of their enemy counterparts. As they began to return fire on the distant Alliance battle line, he ordered half of them to fire on the two opposing cavalries fighting halfway to the legion’s infantry. He knew he would hit as many of his own cavalry and dire wolves as the Alliance knights but didn’t care, as he knew the Alliance horsemen were faster and better equipped, so if he killed one of his knights to kill a paladin, so be it.

  As the paladins struggled in their fight with the Morgathian mounted soldiers, the medium cavalry battalion of Eladran Weir was effectively chasing down the dire wolves and orcs, as they were faster and more maneuverable than the paladin’s heavy horse. Once the catapult stones started to fall among the two cavalries, the Alliance commanders had them pull back in a fighting delay toward the infantry line. The stones were hitting both Morgathian and Alliance alike; with this and the fire giant army also bearing down on them, the Alliance commanders signaled for their knights to pull back faster. The Morgathian numbers were greatly diminished but far from defeated.

  The fire and common giants then began to throw their boulders at the two mounted forces. The Eladran top paladin, a high-order knight, yelled to several of his comrades to break from the fight with the Morgathian cavalry and charge the giants to draw their fire from the main force. The small group of forty high-level knights quickly formed a mounted phalanx and charged at the giants moving toward them. As they tightened their formation, the holy avenger swords they were all brandishing began to glow brightly. This phenomenon, known as the Shield of Light, arose when the combined powers of their holy swords worked synergistically to form a large, almost impenetrable shield umbrella over the charging paladins. This had the effect of negating a chromatic dragon’s breath weapon, stopping arrows and even powerful spells, or in this case, having giant-thrown boulders bounce off or break apart upon impact.

  The giants were stunned, as their thrown rocks had no effect on the charging knights and weren’t prepared as the Alliance paladins raced through their ranks, hitting them with their holy sword smite, causing great injuries. As the paladins regrouped to move back to the cavalry fight, they left four fire giants and twelve common giants dead or incapacitated in their wake. Three paladins had been struck by either a giant’s club or oversized sword and were picked up by comrades. Two others had their special warhorses killed and were also rescued. As they galloped back to the Alliance line, they sliced their way through the remaining Morgathian cavalry, which was now in full retreat, as they were within Alliance archery range and had taken many losses from the first volley as the Alliance cavalry outdistanced them enough to allow the archers and crossbowmen
to fire.

  The 29th Legion’s and Draden Regiment’s archers and Eladran Weir’s mounted archers rained a moderately accurate volley down on the Morgathian and remaining orc cavalry, decimating their numbers and breaking their unorganized charge. The survivors turned quickly to avoid another volley and broke toward their own advancing army. However, they had to gallop through the still plummeting stones that their catapults were raining down, for fire commands with Morgathian catapults were slower to be issued, as they didn’t have seeing crystals to convey messages and orders. Many more became victims of the crashing rocks that struck the ground and rolled along a deadly path. Molotoc did stop the firing of the catapults that were aiming at the cavalry, but the damage had been done. He was still losing his catapults to increasingly accurate Alliance fire, which had narrowed in on his machines and was also still hitting the rear columns of his advancing army.

  The giants had begun to throw their boulders at the Alliance line but were already under heavy fire from the ballista gunners mounted on top of the land dragons. While the giants’ armor proved difficult for the spears to penetrate, several were still making their mark. The fire giants were challenging foes for the land dragons because of their strength and resistance to flame, not to mention their weapons prowess. However, the common giants were easier prey to the ballista projectiles, and many were being brought down. The Morgathian behirs were right behind the giants, and as they neared the Alliance line, they started to fire, only to be answered by the land dragons’ jets of flame breath weapons as well as volleys of arrows.

  The legion and weir cavalry had moved into the forest and was galloping down the main trail to get in behind the Morgathian army and disrupt and attack them from the rear. The Draden Regiment Cavalry, which had been held in reserve up to this point, led this charge with the Eladran and the 29th Legion’s mounted knights right behind them. This would take time, however, especially with the two units’ cavalry just out of their fight.

  The behirs then shifted their lightning strikes to the legion’s infantry. This forced the legion and weir commanders to send the land dragons out from the flanks to meet them. As the land dragons charged, they crushed any Morgathian infantry who were in their way. However, most of the orcs and black-mail-clad soldiers tried to avoid the rush of the large ferocious creatures as they moved toward the infantry line of the combined Alliance force.

  The legion’s catapults had since ceased to fire as the enemy was now too close and were preparing to move their large weapons back to support a withdraw if necessary. Draden Weir’s catapult section was still able to fire and was doing so to the detriment of the rear portion of the attacking Morgathian army. Lieutenant Willaward continued to direct his crews to rain destruction upon the enemy and was amazed at how stable the new floating platforms were for firing his projectiles. This increased his accuracy tremendously.

  “Molotoc, I want those catapults on that ridge silenced immediately. Send a regiment and a few giants to crush those annoying insects, but also watch out for any weir troops, for we need to capture the Alliance lieutenant that Marlok and Ashram talked of,” Restregem ordered of his second in command. The senior death knight galloped to one of the army’s battalion commanders in the rear of their attack and ordered him to take his soldiers with a company of behirs and giants and move up the ridge to destroy those catapults. Once they achieved this, they were to get to the rear of the Alliance line if possible.

  Restregem knew he had to overwhelm the Alliance forces quickly, for a sustained fight would go against him. He did wonder how they moved at least two of their legions east of the mountains so fast and without being compromised. Where is my advanced guard? And why didn’t they warn me of the size of the gathered Alliance power? he wondered. He then screamed into the dark crystal on his sword to Marlok. “Sorcerer, where in Tiamat’s name are our dragons and manticores?”

  “We are heavily engaged with the Alliance dragons and winged forces, Death Knight. As soon as we can defeat them, we will support the army, but not before!” the Talon sorcerer snapped his response.

  Gallanth and Mkel had just caught up to a blue dragon they were pursuing. The great gold dragon let loose a plasma fireball that smashed its remaining shield and caught it on the lower back and wing with its remaining energy, both wounding it and slowing it down. As Gallanth bore down on the blue, he fired a sunburst beam that struck it in the upper right shoulder. The force of the deadly rays of intense energy turned the creature forward and around. It prepared to fire a lightning bolt at the gold dragon, but an exploding quarrel from Mkel’s crossbow hit it in the base of the neck, knocking its aim, so that the bolt only glanced off of Gallanth’s magic shield.

  The blue dragon’s injuries were such that it could barely maintain flight and could not evade the gold dragon’s charge. Gallanth slammed into the chromatic at full speed with his front talons extended. The four-foot-long deadly claws sank deep into the indigo hide and chest of the blue dragon, and Gallanth’s fangs grabbed the chromatic’s neck and crushed the vertebrae, killing it instantly.

  Gallanth’s victory roar was heard by all flying in the aerial battlefield as he let the blue dragon go and it plummeted hundreds of feet to the ground. He then had to quickly tuck his wings and dive to avoid a green dragon’s fiery acid attack. An exploding bolt from Mkel’s crossbow slowed the pursuing green down, which allowed Gallanth to turn hard to come around and face the chromatic.

  He only had time to fire a sunburst beam before he heard a brass dragon call for help. The directed beam eliminated the green dragon’s shield and hit him in the side with its remaining energy. This coupled with an exploding bolt from Markthrea convinced the green chromatic to break off his attack. Gallanth then veered hard to the left and made all haste to where a wolf pack of white dragons had caught two brass dragons in their wheel attack trap. As they raced toward the encircled brass dragons, Mkel could see through Markthrea’s sight that the one of the metallics was severely wounded with multiple freeze-burn strikes on his hide, and the other was not faring too well either. Mkel had heard that white dragons used this kind of an attack to defend against larger chromatics, especially reds and blues, since they were the smallest and weakest of the chromatic species.

  With a blast of fire, the injured brass dragon slew one of the white dragons but was in turn hit by two other pale chromatics diving on him. This combined strike killed him and his rider. As they fell from the sky, the brass dragon’s last act was to teleport out of existence. Gallanth let loose a horrific and angry roar that got the attention of the pack of white dragons. The sunbeam burst fired from Gallanth’s eyes struck and killed one wounded white dragon. This was immediately followed up by a plasma fireball that sent another spiraling. With a few words uttered in Draconic, the gold dragon cast a barrage fireball spell that sent six large fiery spheres streaming from his outstretched talons at six independent targets. All spell-based flaming projectiles struck home, shattering those white dragons’ remaining shield strength and forcing them out of formation. Mkel quickly fired three bolts in succession that hit three more white dragons to keep the chromatics from reforming.

  This combined and devastating attack temporarily broke up the white dragons’ wheel formation and gave Gallanth enough time to get to the Eladran brass dragon and cover him. “Tananth, you and your rider are too wounded to continue this fight. Teleport back to the legion assembly area and seek the healers,” Gallanth told the brass dragon.

  “Lord Gallanth, we cannot retreat from battle; there are still too many chromatics left, even for you,” the brass dragon replied.

  “No, I do not want to see another metallic dragon die today. Leave now, and if the healers can heal your wounds and get you enough strength back, then you may return, but not until then,” Gallanth ordered. Just then, the brass dragon breathed a jet of flame that drove a diving white dragon away. Gallanth followed up with a blast of fire of his own that ov
erpowered an icy beam of another attacking white dragon and delivered the rest of the fiery energy on the face, neck, and chest of the white. Its hide smoldered from the return blast, which forced it to alter its flight path dramatically. Gallanth then looked at Tananth, who promptly teleported out.

  Two more white dragons dove on Gallanth, breathing out their icy beams. He deftly veered and dodged one, but the other struck his shield. He immediately returned fire with a sunburst beam that obliterated one of the white’s shields and seared into its chest and shoulder, almost flipping it back in midair. Mkel began to fire exploding bolts in rapid succession; with his second bolt shattering the other chromatic’s remaining shield strength and the third striking it in the lower neck making it wince. Gallanth altered his flight path and bore down on the white, his talons sinking into and grasping it by the wing and right forearm, breaking both in the process. He actually carried the much smaller white dragon with him as he knocked the chromatic’s head to the side with his large eye horns and then sank his fangs into its neck instantly killing it.

  As he released the chromatic to fall to the ground, he unleashed a plasma fireball that struck another white dragon, finishing that one off as well. Mkel was still firing as fast as he could to keep the other white dragons from massing on Gallanth. Tegent was also weaving in and around the gold dragon shooting arrows at the same ones Mkel was firing at, his griffon careful to stay close to Gallanth to keep himself shielded from any white dragon attacks.

  Gallanth looked back to see four more whites bearing down on him. He quickly cast a disruption spell at one, destroying its magic shield, fired a sunburst beam at another, and breathed a cone of fire at the third just as it flew close to him. Mkel managed to get three shots off at the fourth before it hit Gallanth’s right rear flank with both its talons. The white dragon’s claws had a difficult time penetrating Gallanth’s armored hide but still delivered nasty wounds. Just before the white bit down on his wing, Gallanth’s tail coiled back onto itself and with a lightning-fast strike pierced the chromatic just behind its front leg severing its heart and killing it instantly. He then swung his tail out with the dead white dragon still attached and threw it into another chromatic that was bearing down on him. The dead white dragon’s body took the icy blast and then slammed into its comrade knocking it from the sky. He then combined his victory roar with a prolonged blast of fire he breathed out in a wide arc to repel another four that were beginning a new attack.