“Your reign is over; now I offer death to the death knight,” he said coldly as he withdrew his blade and nudged Alvanch to pull away from the pseudo dragon mount. He watched the wyvern gain speed as it started to grow weak from blood loss, and his descent soon turned to an outright plummet. The paladin quickly took a small vile from his saddle rig and spread aloras salve on his faithful mount’s wound. He then laid his hands on the winged horse to add his own paladin healing power to stem the flow of blood. The dragonstone on his holy sword glowed intensely; after the light subsided, he removed his hands to show the almost healed wound.
“Thanks, Alvanch, you performed admirably in the fight. Senior death knights don’t go down easy, and he was no exception. You deserve a few more apples when we get back to the weir. Now let’s see how our friends are doing,” Toderan said to his faithful winged mount as they started to make their way to where Mkel and Gallanth were fighting.
Gallanth had flown a wide circle to get distance between himself and Doomshadow but was now moving back to fight the demon dragon. Mkel quickly came up with a plan, “Gallanth, I have an idea. You are faster than Doomshadow, and we must keep them at a distance for a while and wear him down, at least until you’re ready to pull him in to finish him off. Can you counter his dark energy beam with your sunburst ray?” Mkel asked his dragon.
“Yes, I believe I can, my rider,” Gallanth replied.
“Good, then when you do this, you must immediately follow up with a plasma fireball. Jodem, we must split up, for I need you to keep that Covenant sorcerer busy long enough for us to concentrate on the Usurper dragon he is riding,” Mkel continued his plan.
“I will do my best, my young friend,” Jodem answered him through his seeing crystal as Vatara started to turn away from Gallanth to take a wider path to get behind the demon black dragon.
“Mkel, I need two more gems if I want to fulfill my end of this fight; my synthensium is getting low,” Gallanth explained. Mkel quickly reached into the small pouch on his vest that was over his jacket and grabbed two gemstones, which he handed to Gallanth’s waiting tongue. He then loaded his last magazine of mithril-tipped exploding bolts. Jodem directed Vatara to fly off to the side and away from the gold dragon. Gallanth then moved toward Doomshadow, who was already bearing down on them. As soon as the Usurper dragon fired his dark-energy-enhanced breath weapon at Gallanth, the gold dragon immediately countered with his sunburst beams. He had to aim very carefully for his brilliant golden rays of powerful light to meet the dark-purplish lightning-like bolt of the demon dragon. As the two rays met, a tremendous explosion and thunderous concussion echoed across the sky and caught the attention of all in the air and on the ground. All the dragons of the Capital Weir looked over to see what had caused such a reaction, as did the dozens and dozens of chromatics that were fighting them. The massive battle stopped to watch this titanic duel.
Falcanth looked over to Valianth and quickly said, “The winner of that fight will determine the course of this battle.”
“I agree, Falcanth. May the Creator give them strength, for I know the power of their foe,” Valianth replied. Gallanth quickly followed up his sunburst beam with a plasma fireball that streaked through the air, with a bolt from Markthrea right behind it. They bracketed the top and bottom of Doomshadow’s shield, as he could not dodge both; the double impact caused him to turn hard to the left. Dreadstone cast a meteor-storm spell at Gallanth, and twelve boulder-size spheres of deadly energy shot out from his outstretched hand as his staff glowed in an intense purplish light. Gallanth immediately started to fly an evasion pattern, but five of the twelve struck his shield. The Covenant sorcerer then fired an ice ray at Jodem, and the back-to-back spell casting took him by surprise. His spell shield took the full impact of the bluish beam and forced Vatara to bank right.
Jodem hurriedly cast a battery of magic missiles back at the sorcerer, but only one found its mark. This did allow Vatara to fly out of range before Dreadstone could fire again. Doomshadow gave an immediate chase to Gallanth. His gaping, toothy black jaws opened, and he fired off another dark-energy beam that partially caught the gold dragon’s shield.
“Gallanth, let him close in on you if you can dodge his next death ray. When he is in Ordin’s range, he’ll throw Donnac and I’ll fire—” Mkel started to share his plan when Gallanth chimed in, as he understood his intention.
“Then I’ll turn tight and come up underneath him and hit his underbelly hard as we pass. This will keep the sorcerer from effectively retaliating as well,” Gallanth finished his rider’s thought.
“And I’ll keep Dreadstone busy from their tail,” Jodem also stated through his seeing crystal. All were in sync now as Gallanth slowed down even more, which allowed Doomshadow to gain on him. Just as the demon chromatic was about to fire an enhanced energy beam, Ordin began to shout but didn’t even get half of the word Gallanth out as the gold dragon violently barrel-rolled to avoid the deadly blast of purplish light. Mkel and Ordin looked up as Gallanth rolled around the beam that passed just over their heads. They could even feel the power of the deadly ray through Gallanth’s and their own magic shields, like ants crawling over their skin.
When Gallanth completed his roll, Mkel fired a bolt that exploded on the front of Doomshadow’s weakening shield. Dreadstone was about to cast a disintegration spell, when a bright beam of the same type hit his shield square to his back, as Jodem maneuvered around and behind the black dragon. The Covenant sorcerer then redirected his spell toward Jodem, who was ready for it and had Vatara immediately dive; they took only part of the sorcerer’s spell’s energy.
“Sorcerer, concentrate on the fight to our front. That is our biggest threat; we’ll deal with the wizard later!” Doomshadow roared at Dreadstone.
“Only protecting your back, Lord Doomshadow; he’s slowing down, so you must have weakened him. Now finish him off!” the sorcerer replied sarcastically as he prepared another spell to cast at Gallanth. The Usurper dragon was now close enough that he couldn’t miss and opened his jaws to fire another death ray. Mkel then yelled for Ordin to throw, and the dwarf hurled his dragonstone hammer. It twirled toward the black dragon, crackling with power, and Mkel fired another mithril-tipped exploding bolt. Both struck the chromatic at the same time causing his head to rear up and back.
“Hold on!” Mkel yelled, and Gallanth turned hard over to the right and down as he performed a very tight loop that pressed Mkel and Ordin flat against the gold dragon’s back ridges. He came out of the loop in a good position one hundred yards beneath Doomshadow and fired a sunburst and a plasma fireball in rapid succession, immediately followed up by a bolt from Mkel. The combined attack devastated Doomshadow’s magic shield and inflicted a great deal of damage to the black dragon’s underbelly.
Gallanth turned away and maneuvered as fast as he could to avoid the return blast from either the chromatic or the sorcerer, but not before he roared over a couple of taunting words, “What’s the matter, Usurper? You’re losing your fighting edge being under Tiamat’s talons too long. Pampered worm.”
Doomshadow roared in pain but spat back to Gallanth, “Insolent pogasch, I’ll see your foul blood dripping from my fangs!” Then he bellowed, “Sorcerer, what are you doing? They just inflicted a crippling strike against me. I cannot take another hit like that; we must flash-teleport, so I can grapple with him and tear his heart out.”
“I was slightly preoccupied with that cursed wizard, Dragon,” Dreadstone spat back at Doomshadow.
“I thought you were a Covenant sorcerer! Now concentrate on the teleport!” Doomshadow ordered the evil sorcerer. They then both focused on the point where they wanted to flash-teleport and with Dreadstone’s dark crystal glowing, they were gone.
“Mkel, it worked! We hit them hard, and they are now preparing to duplicate what they did before. Jodem, I need you to attempt to dominate Dreadstone,” Gallanth explained.
“I know but it will keep him busy for a minute while I fang and claw fight with the demon dragon. Mkel, I will need you and Ordin to stop his tail from hitting me. This will allow me to set up the fatal strike,” Gallanth answered quickly.
All agreed, and Jodem had Vatara fly back toward Gallanth and Doomshadow at top speed.
Doomshadow then emerged from the flash-teleport right in front of Gallanth, but instead of taking the gold dragon by surprise, he was met by Gallanth’s outstretched talons. The two powerful dragons immediately started to exchange claw strikes, but both missed in their bite attempts. The two large and deadly jaws both clamped down on empty air, but Gallanth only missed the black dragon’s neck by inches. Just as Dreadstone was about to cast a disruption spell at Gallanth, he became enveloped in a faint blue light as Jodem’s domination spell was taking hold. He quickly redirected the energy of his staff to counter Jodem’s spell, and a purplish wall of light formed against the field of pale-blue light. A spell-pushing game started as the two magic users tried to overpower each other.
Gallanth shoved Doomshadow away from him and telepathically told Mkel to get ready; the dragonrider told Ordin to do the same as he took aim at the chromatic’s black tail. Both dragons then lunged toward each other, but this time, Gallanth let the black chromatic strike at the base of his neck and shoulder while his massive fangs sank into the Usurper’s upper front left leg and shoulder. Gallanth deliverately gave the black dragon an advantage in this exchange to set him up for his next move. Even though Doomshadow was just as strong as he was, the large black dragon was still physically smaller, and Gallanth was going to use that to his advantage.
As Doomshadow was moving his tail around to strike Gallanth’s head to knock it back and allow the chromatic to rear back and gore him, Ordin threw his hammer and Mkel made a quick aimed shot. Both enhanced weapons struck the black tail with a thunderous explosion and blew it back and away from Gallanth. The gold dragon used this momentum to his advantage and pulled the chromatic’s shoulder in that direction causing Doomshadow to spin slightly to his left. Gallanth then brought his tail around from his left and like a bullwhip snapped the arrow-shaped plate at its tip and drove it deeply into Doomshadow’s exposed right flank.
The deadly tail plate penetrated the heavily armored black hide and lodged right between his heart and synthensium, cutting both. Gallanth then twisted his tail inside Doomshadow’s flank for greater damage and fired a magic missile from the tip of his plate at the powerful piece of dark crystal that melded between the chromatic’s heart and synthensium. As Doomshadow stopped struggling, Mkel put Dreadstone dead in his sights.
Dreadstone broke off his spell duel with Jodem and looked at Mkel, his large, dark, sullen eyes staring the dragonrider down. “Mercy, Dragonrider?” he requested to Mkel as he was attempting to prepare a spell.
Mkel replied, “Mercy to one of the worst butchers of Morgathia?” and laughed as he fired his bolt, which struck the sorcerer’s dark crystal halberd staff, sending it flying out of his hand and away from the black dragon. “There is your mercy, Sorcerer,” Mkel said as Gallanth withdrew his tail from Doomshadow’s side and let the dying chromatic go.
“Justice for you Usurper. There is a price for evil,” Gallanth said coldly, as he looked directly into Doomshadow’s fading eyes, his own glowing in defiance. Dreadstone then suddenly realized that without his staff, he could not cast a slow fall or flying spell and would perish. He started to scream uncharacteristically as he and the dying Usurper dragon plummeted to the ground. As they fell, the boulder-sized dark crystal inside the dragon burst in an explosion that consumed both the chromatic and its sorcerer rider.
As the deafening explosion died down, the split second of silence across the battlefield was then interrupted by Gallanth’s victory roar and prayer, which was echoed by all the metallics. The tide had indeed now turned, but a mixed wing of chromatics formed and started to move toward Gallanth to avenge the death of their Usurper leader, led by Havocfire. Not ready for the next fight, Gallanth and Vatara started to move away, but a lightning bolt came from above them and struck the lead red dragon of this attacking force. Bristurm and Tridenth with their weir had just teleported in from the battle over Sauric Bay.
Strangely, Denar Weir had not been attacked by a large force, so after they defeated the enemy in their region, he had reinforced Rom and Rem Weirs to keep the chromatics from getting to Draconia. Grommel and Zalenth released them after they had the situation in their fight under control. Bristurm directed his six dragons to move to intercept the chromatic wing as his female dragons were transporting the Denar legion to Atlean to reinforce the weir. The Denar dwarves were itching for a fight and hastily tore into the Morgathians. He gave a wave and salute to Mkel right before his fierce bronze dragon dove right into the approaching red.
Mkel was grateful for this reinforcement, for he didn’t want to face another strong enemy force just quite yet. The fight with Doomshadow and Dreadstone had been one of their toughest and most exhausting. Mkel watched Bristurm throw his dragonstone-empowered mithril ax, which twirled through the air and inflicted a long, nasty slice along the red dragon’s left wing. A fierce warrior, and almost pure weapon in his own right, Mkel thought of his friend Bristurm, but he had to work on his accuracy.
As Tridenth fought the red dragon, Mkel looked toward the harbor and out at the naval battle still raging. The ice ships had torn right through the Morgathian fleet, but they were being swarmed in an attempt to board them even at the sacrifice of dozens of the Morgathian’s own ships. The Morgathian naval commander knew that this was the only way he could stop them as his black-armor-clad soldiers were attempting to clamor aboard the ice ships only to be met by the spears and arrows of the naval infantry. However the size, speed, firepower, and the indestructible material they were made of had the Morgathian ballistae and catapult rounds bouncing off of them.
Just as Mkel was about to tell Gallanth to move toward the naval battle, the gold dragon brought his head up, and the horns from the returning Alliance fleet could be faintly heard from over the horizon. A loud round of cheers rose from the ice ships and the other remaining Alliance warships as they heard Gallanth’s greeting roar. The horns grew louder when the fleet became fully visible as they approached in battle formation. This was none too soon, as the fighting on the ice ships had begun to get very vicious.
“How did the Alliance fleet get back from Shidan so fast? They were at least two to three days out,” the Morgathian commander angrily demanded. He didn’t know that the wizards on the ships had all directed wind spells for an incredibly strong breeze that was pushing the sails so hard that a couple of ships had them rip from their rigging. They were now approaching at a normal speed with full sails so the wizards could prepare their offensive spells and defend against the Morgathian sorcerers.
The ice ships had left dozens of broken and destroyed Morgathian vessels in their wake. The enemy then changed tactics and began to charge and lash their ships to the icy sides of the immense vessels in desperate suicide boarding attacks. This was the Morgathian fleet commander’s tactic in that his ships’ catapult and ballista exchange with the ice ships was a losing proposition. This swarm attack was a sacrifice of those ships, but it would get his soldiers on board for a hand-to-hand fight. The dragging of the dozens of Morgathian warships was slowing even the new powerful steam generator propulsion of the ice ships.
Each of the new vessels had three large mithril-steel-alloy chambers that housed a thick glass sphere that contained thousands of heating crystals suspended by reinforced steel beams. The whole containment tank was heavily insulated so as not to affect the pykrete construction of the ship. The steam produced by the chamber not only gave the large sh
ips propulsion but also supplied the ship with fresh water and water pressure throughout the vessel. With all three chambers running at full capacity, it could propel the immense ships at up to thirty knots or more, making them the fastest vessels on the seas.
The Morgathian commander quickly re-diverted all his reserve and most of his remaining ships to move into their dense attack formation. He still had several hundred ships; outnumbering the Alliance fleet well over two to one, but the ice ships worried him. The Alliance fleet admiral ordered their warships into a layered opposing echelon formation to maximize their range, accuracy, and firepower advantage over their Morgathian counterparts. This would also offer a less dense grouping of targets to the Morgathian gunners.
As the two fleets formed, the ice ships continued to pour murderous fire onto the black-sailed fleet, or at least those who could still man the catapults and ballista and weren’t involved with the direct hand-to-hand fighting did.
“Damn those ships! How did they make them?” the Morgathian commander cursed out loud as he tried to form his fleet as quickly as he could, but the flag communication method was a far cry from being as effective as the Alliance seeing crystals. As the two fleets closed, a brilliant and deadly exchange of catapult and ballistae fire took place. The Morgathian armada was quickly being whittled down, but several Alliance ships were also hit, with a couple of them seriously damaged. The Alliance admiral’s tactic was working, however.
“Gallanth, do you have enough strength left for one good strike at the black fleet?” Mkel asked his dragon, but he knew he was weakened by his fight with Doomshadow and the wounds he incurred.
“I have enough shield strength left for one run,” he answered.
“And I for one good spell strike,” Jodem also chimed in from just above Gallanth. Mkel switched to a full magazine of regular, explosive-tipped bolts, and they began their dive onto the back of the Morgathian fleet. Gallanth unleashed a long torrent of fire that engulfed ten ships in flames, as Mkel fired to the right side of Gallanth as rapidly as he could, striking several ships with small explosions doing varying amounts of damage. Jodem cast a flame strike spell to the left of the dragon while Vatara flew above Gallanth to be covered by the dragon’s shield. The torrent of flames that originated from his staff quickly spread to a large area that blanketed four ships in fire. This was one of his least favorite spells because of its clumsy nature and area effect, which was not direct or aimed, but in this case very effective.
Dragon Alliance Dark Storm : Dark Storm Page 58
