Dragon Alliance Dark Storm : Dark Storm

by J. Michael Fluck

  The three blue dragons’ lightning bolts streaked out trying to find their mark. Gallanth dove quickly and was only struck by one of the deadly electrical strikes, which his shield absorbed, but it was weakening. He fired a sunburst beam at the guardian red dragon, hitting it directly in the chest and underbelly. It roared in pain from the multiple strikes, severely injured by the successive attacks. Vorgash and Infernex turned and dove to pursue Gallanth. The three blue dragons also turned and began to chase the gold dragon; however, it wasn’t long before Gallanth started to put distance between himself and his pursuers. Mkel also stretched back as far around has he could and managed to fire and hit one of the blue dragons, which shattered its remaining magic shield strength and slowed it down.

  Vorgash saw that the large gold dragon they were pursuing was starting to outdistance them and called over to his wingmate to swing wide and move to intercept Gallanth. He protested, for he was severely injured and weak, but at the threat of retribution, he started to fly on a parallel path away from their fight. Gallanth began to perform a tight turn to move to attack the chromatics from an oblique angle, which they tried to match but could not make the maneuver. Gallanth fired a sunburst beam at Infernex, striking his magic shield with full force and then directed a plasma fireball at the demon blue dragon, which shattered its magic shield and slammed into its indigo hide with its remaining energy. Mkel fired two mithril-tipped exploding bolts at the two blue dragons closest to them. The small, thick quarrels found their deadly mark on both with the explosions disabling their chance to fire their lightning bolt breath weapons for a few seconds.

  Only Vorgash was able to return Gallanth’s attack; he breathed a cone of fire that partially struck the gold dragon’s shield, almost causing it to buckle. Vorgash and Infernex together then cast a force wall spell at Vorgash’s guard dragon, which forced him directly into Gallanth’s flight path. The two dragons collided midair with a tremendous thud; Gallanth quickly grabbed the red with both talons, his long claws sinking deeply into the chromatic’s front leg and shoulder, and with a horn smash to knock the red dragon’s head out of the way, he struck the base of the chromatic’s neck with his immense fangs. This was enough to slay the red dragon, but just as Gallanth let out his victory prayer roar, the other chromatics pounced on him.

  Vorgash and Infernex’s sacrifice of their kin worked in that it forced Gallanth to slow down and allowed them to mass on him. The two large red dragons hit Gallanth on his right side, and two of the blues slammed into him on the left. Gallanth swung his tail upward and struck the third blue dragon in the chest as it tried attacking him from the rear. The blow from Gallanth’s tail plate both sliced into the blue dragon’s indigo hide and sent it end over end trying to regain flight control. The other dragons attempted to bite Gallanth but were only marginally successful as he turned around and bit down on Vorgash’s shoulder, raking all three of his other attackers with one of his claws.

  Mkel fired a bolt at one of the blue dragons at point-blank range and struck it in the back part of its jaw, causing it to reel back, roaring in pain. The blue chromatic hissed out, “You will pay for that, talking monkey,” and lunged forward. His jagged fangs were only partially open because of his wound, but it was enough to do Mkel major injury if he connected. Mkel was desperately trying to load Markthrea but didn’t have time, so Kershan sprang from its scabbard and positioned itself for a downward strike.

  Mkel grabbed it with both hands and swung hard as the blue dragon’s head reached him. The mithril blade cut down through the blue chromatic’s protruding nose horn and into its nostril, the dark-green blood spurting from the gaping wound.

  Mkel was desperately loading his crossbow with a magazine of mithril-tipped bolts as the weight of the three chromatic dragons was causing them to lose altitude fast. Their tactic to bring Gallanth down to the ground to negate his advantage in the air and where they could call for reinforcements was working. He felt the pain Gallanth was experiencing with his multiple bite wounds and talon strikes and felt fear for his dragon and that they might not make it out of this fight.

  Just then, an icy beam struck Infernex on the lower back, frozen chunks of his hide and flesh shattered and fell off, causing him to break grip on Gallanth and dive away. A sunburst beam then struck the demon blue dragon locked onto Gallanth’s left flank, the deadly ray burning a large hole into the indigo hide of its shoulder. The blue chromatic also broke off and flew away from this unseen surprise attack. A powerful lightning bolt then struck Vorgash on the back and was quickly followed up by three smaller bolts to his wing and side, causing him to let Gallanth go and dive backward to get away.

  The attack from above was even more successful, because all three of the chromatics that had any strength left in their magic shields were too close to Gallanth to activate them. Just as Mkel and Gallanth looked up to see who had saved them, the silver dragon dove fast and struck the third blue dragon that was moving to attack Gallanth. The silver metallic hit the blue hard with its talon strike and forced the chromatic to veer away quickly.

  Mkel and Gallanth realized that it was Silvanth and Annan who had come to their rescue. Gallanth spoke out to his mate, “Silvanth, you should not have come; you are ready to nest.”

  She replied in her usual casual manner, “My dear mate, I would not want you to miss the bonding of our daughter.

  “You took too high a risk, but I thank you for coming to our aid, my love,” Gallanth replied with a rare caring sentiment between dragons, for they were usually very pragmatic when it came to each other, even mated pairs.

  “Anything for you, my mate. Now, send those demon dragons back to hell,” she replied as she prepared to teleport back to the weir, for she had used a great deal of energy with her opening barrage to clear the chromatics away from Gallanth.

  “Thank you, Annan. It is always good to see my beautiful wife astride her magnificent dragon, but especially now,” Mkel spoke to Annan through his seeing crystal, her long, gold-streaked brown hair blowing lightly in the late autumn air as they slowly flew next to Gallanth.

  “I want you to see your daughter born as well. Now shoot straight and come home to us,” she replied as she waved her hand. Her dragonstone opal pendant started glowing as she cast her most powerful healing spell on Gallanth to help him with his multiple gaping wounds. At that, they were gone in a blue flash.

  “Where did that silver come from, and how did she find us? We must reform and reengage that gold while he is wounded,” Vorgash spoke to the group of chromatic dragons now recovering from the surprise attack.

  “You might have a harder time to get the blue dragons to sacrifice themselves to allow us to mass on the gold, Vorgash,” Infernex sarcastically snarled at his counterpart.

  “And you have done so well to help slay this brute. Again, we will settle this afterward. Now we will attack from his right. Arathus, take your dragons and move in from his left,” Vorgash replied as he quickly formed a plan.

  “That insignificant little talking monkey is mine,” the blue dragon with the severed nose horn roared as he attacked at his full airspeed.

  “No, we must attack together or that gold will pick us off one by one! Ahhh!” Vorgash roared out and moved ahead of Infernex as they started to fly at an oblique angle to the flank of the gold dragon.

  “Mkel, when we get within range of this blue dragon, I need you to fire at the top of his head or back and then hang on tight, for I plan on capitalizing on your taking of his nose horn. He cannot fire his lightning bolt accurately or effectively now. I will tell you when to fire, and we will take advantage of his rage,” Gallanth explained to his rider has he flapped his wings to gain speed.

  The blue dragon was crackling with electrical energy and anger as he moved to intercept and attack Gallanth but especially Mkel. As the two dragons approached each other, Gallanth did not use his sunburst beam because he wanted to save e
nergy for the other dragons. When he could sense that the blue was about to fire his lightning bolt, he signaled for his rider to shoot. Mkel aimed at the top of the blue’s head with the crossbow sight’s crosshair and fired. The bolt streaked toward the chromatic and just went over the top of his head and exploded on the crest of his shoulders and back. The force of the explosion pushed the dragon down as he fired his lightning bolt. Gallanth had dipped slightly down and then quickly nosed up as the pulse just missed his chest and underbelly. His shield did absorb some of the energy but only a fraction of its total deadly power.

  Gallanth quickly spoke to Mkel, “Hold on, my rider!” as he curled his nose and head down and performed a summersault similar to a wingover but threw his tail over, keeping it straight and then brought his tail plate down on the blue dragon’s head. The hardened, arrow-shaped plate cut through the severed horn and the chromatic’s skull, killing him instantly. He came out of his flip and literally landed on the blue dragon’s back, sinking his claws into his indigo hide to ensure he was slain. His victory roar was louder than usual as he let the chromatic’s body go and it spiraled lifelessly to the ground. Gallanth quickly flapped his wings to gain speed to intercept the other four dragons now moving toward him.

  Gallanth then cast a prismatic shield in front of the approaching red dragons. While the colorful wall would not stop the chromatics, as it was not one of his more powerful spells, it would slow them down. He then turned toward the blue dragons with a roar. As he moved to intercept, he fired his sunburst beam at the demon blue dragon bearing down on him. With his shield gone and him already being wounded, the energy of the beam was too much for the enhanced chromatic and he was finished. His wings immediately folded as he rolled over and started his death dive to the ground.

  Upon seeing his demon master slain, the other blue dragon quickly veered in an attempt to get away from Gallanth, who was rapidly approaching him. Gallanth answered this cowardice with a well-placed plasma fireball, which struck the fleeing blue dragon directly between his wings in the center of his back. The blast caused the chromatic’s wings to fold back and sent his smoldering body in a nose-dive to the forest below.

  By this time, the two red dragons had broken through the prismatic wall and were flying toward Gallanth, but in seeing their two blue companions spiraling to the ground, they began to hesitate. “Vorgash, our blue kin are slain; it is time to fall back to either our black squadron or the main fight,” Infernex stated as he slowed his flight pace.

  “No, he is still weak, and we will take him down. Now follow me, cowardly worm!” Vorgash shouted and continued to move toward Gallanth.

  “Fool,” Infernex whispered to himself as he flew behind Vorgash, taking care to keep his rival between himself and the approaching gold dragon.

  “Mkel, these fools still want to fight.” When I hit the lead red with a sunburst beam, target the dragon behind him, for he still has shield strength left. This will also separate them,” Gallanth told Mkel.

  “No problem, my friend, but this is my last magazine of mithril-tipped exploding bolts, so I have ten shots left and then will have to go back to the normal exploding quarrels,” he answered.

  “That will not be a problem; you won’t need half of them,” Gallanth replied as he prepared to attack the red dragons.

  Just as Gallanth fired his sunburst beam, Vorgash cast a firestorm spell between himself and the gold dragon. Gallanth’s beam bored through the wall of flame and dispelled it as the deadly light rays struck Vorgash with their remaining energy. Mkel began to fire as rapidly as possible at Infernex. The first bolt hit his shield solidly, and the explosion made it start to fail. The second bolt strike shattered the magic force field, and his third shot struck the red dragon on his upper front left leg breaking the limb and rendering it temporarily useless. In an uncharacteristic move, Gallanth cast an ice-beam spell that struck Vorgash in the chest. While weaker than that of a silver dragon’s breath, the spell-cast icy beam still had a dramatic effect on the red dragon’s already injured hide.

  This double strike caused the lead demon red dragon to be pushed back in midair and left him vulnerable to Gallanth’s charge. The gold dragon hit the chromatic with the full force of his larger frame, his outstretched talons sinking into the red dragon’s chest and side. The crimson chromatic roared in pain.

  “Infernex, help me!” he desperately shouted as he struggled with the stronger metallic dragon. If Infernex had any idea of helping his rival, it was stopped by another mithril exploding bolt from Markthrea that hit him in his left hindquarter.

  “You are on your own, my friend. No need to worry about our confrontation now!” he roared back and turned to fly away as fast as possible. Mkel fired another bolt at him, but he dove quickly and away from the fight with the quarrel just streaking over top of the diving red dragon. Gallanth looked at the demon red dragon and in a low growl gave him one final insult.

  “From your ancestral sin, I release you,” and upon stating this in Draconic, Gallanth delivered the killing strike on the red dragon’s neck. His large fangs sank deeply into the crimson hide, and then he twisted his head to ensure he broke the vertebrae. As he released the demon red, he bellowed out a loud victory roar echoed by Mkel’s yell.

  “You had me worried for a time there. I tried to get in for a close shot, but that other blue dragon kept chasing us away. Thank the Creator you were victorious. We would not know what to do without you two,” Tegent said with relief and concern.

  “Thank you, my minstrel friend, and we are glad you didn’t get too close. There were too many of them, and they were very powerful. We could not have helped you if you got in trouble,” Mkel added.

  “Yes, Tegent, you becoming a meal to one of those hungry chromatics would have made the world a much less pleasant place,” Gallanth complimented the bard.

  “I didn’t do enough, and you two were almost killed,” the normally jovial bard stated in a tone that indicated he was almost ashamed of his performance.

  “Nonsense, Tegent, if you had not sung your rather amusing but insulting song, they would not have broken formation and then been allowed to attack en masse. This alone saved us, and we thank you,” Gallanth further complimented him. “Now, we have more chromatics to slay, after I get another gemstone. That fight was exhausting!” Gallanth exclaimed as he turned his head to Mkel, who reached into the special sack in front of his crossbow mount and pulled out a large rough-cut ruby. He tossed it to Gallanth’s waiting tongue. “Yes, I needed that recharge.”

  “We will wait for a few minutes, as you are injured and your shield is almost gone. Talonth and Baranth are holding their own as is the Eladran Weir Wing. We will help, but you need to catch your breath first,” Mkel told his dragon.

  “Yes, my rider, but only for a few moments; they will need help soon.”

  The initial Morgathian assault on the left side of the Alliance battle line was repulsed. The Draden Regiment held firm, but were weakened by the sheer numbers of the enemy. The elf and Alliance archers and crossbowmen were now engaged in keeping the attacking dragon spawn from massing on the infantry. This had the effect of keeping the archers busy and not able to fire at the advancing orcs and Morgathians. Too many legionnaires and even land dragons were being forced to fall back because of injuries, but many of the enemy, to include most of the giants, had fallen as well.

  The Morgathian commander decided to play his last hand and ordered the giant/dragon hybrid aberrations to attack the Draden Regiment portion of the battle line. At the same time, the chromatic-created zombies, between two and three hundred of them, emerged from the small river on the edge of the forest and started to move toward the rear of the regiment.

  “What are those hideous creatures moving toward us?” Colonel Wierangan asked Senior Captain Peasem.

  “I don’t know, sir, but I will take a few men and find out,” his executive offi
cer answered, even though they didn’t have many to spare. Peasem took the reserve infantry platoon and a squad of elves and centaurs with him to head off the small battalion of zombies slowly bearing down on them. One of the elves fired an arrow at the lead zombie, which struck it in the chest with no effect, much to his surprise. The mindless walking corpses kept coming at the small platoon now facing them. Their sullen eyes had the look of both lifelessness and rage, likely a reflection of the vile chromatic dragon blood that had reanimated their corpses. Some looked almost normal, while others were in various stages of rot and decay.

  Senior Captain Peasem called for the platoon leader to form the men into their locked shield square formation and prepare for the assault of these undead creatures. The few elves and centaurs began to fire arrows rapidly at the zombies. As the arrows were hitting, they either the exposed the grayed flesh of the walking corpses or penetrated the rusted armor, but the creatures appeared to be unaffected by them until one elf placed an arrow in the forehead of one of them. The foul creature started to shake and then collapsed. A centaur aimed and shot another zombie in the head with a similar result.

  “That is how they can be killed; they must be struck in the spine or head or have it severed from their bodies!” Peasem shouted out. His men were relieved to know that their enemy could indeed be killed. “Men, aim your spear thrusts at their heads!” he loudly ordered just as the hordes of walking corpses hit the platoon’s shields. The zombies pounded on the Alliance soldiers’ shields with whatever weapons they had or with their hands if nothing else. The soldiers who were lucky and skillful enough to thrust their spears in the face of one of their attackers downed them, but those who missed were quickly being overwhelmed by the hoards of undead. The armored square formation of the platoon was quickly overwhelmed, and they began to withdraw as they kept thrusting and hacking at the attacking zombies. Many of the undead creatures had two or more limbs severed but still kept coming. The elves and centaurs were making head shots on them as fast as they could or sprinting around them and delivering decisive blows to sever their spinal cords.