“Fight, you dogs!” Barlog screamed at his last line of orc reserves as he pushed them forward at the point of his axe. At twenty years old, he was considered middle aged for an orc, but he was very combat experienced in fighting other orc tribes and the human kingdoms of the south and eastern areas that bordered Morgathia. However, he had never fought against so disciplined and well trained a force. Each soldier of the Alliance had the same armor and arms that only chieftains or knights had in all other armies.
Barlog then charged into battle, swinging his axe down on the first Battle Point soldier in front of him. The young legionnaire raised his shield, which was broken by the orc’s black iron battle-axe. The pitch-colored axe blade split the metal shield and cut into the soldier’s arm. He swung his sword in response to this hit and struck the large orc in the side. His blade did not pierce Barlog’s breastplate armor, but it still did not feel good.
The large orc struck the soldier in the face with the handle of the axe, knocking him to the ground. As he raised his axe to finish the wounded soldier off, an older sergeant quickly disengaged his fight and moved in to protect his wounded comrade. He blocked the downward stroke of the black axe with his long sword. The force of the parry made the sergeant step back to keep his balance. Barlog quickly followed this intrusion with a strong swinging blow from the left. The senior legionnaire again blocked it with his sword, and the black iron axe took a chunk of steel out of the blade and almost knocked it out of his hand. The large orc then smashed the terminal end of the axe against his shield, pushing him to the ground.
As Barlog raised his axe to cleave his opponent, the legionnaire spun around and struck his adversary in the leg with his sword. The damaged blade managed to cut through the hierorc’s armor and into its thigh. Barlog screamed and brought the axe down onto the sergeant’s shield, cutting through it and pushing the soldier back down to the ground as he was attempting to get up. The legionnaire’s arm was cut badly, and Barlog stepped on his sword arm, pinning it to the ground. With a quick thrust, the hierorc’s blade sliced through the metal strips of the sergeant’s banded armor and cut deep into his chest. A normal axe blade would not have been able to do this, for Alliance steel was of the best quality in the world, but black iron had almost the strength of mithril.
Decray and his rangers had just flown back to the battlefield after dropping off the rescued soldiers with the support corps wagon train that was en route from Battle Point; the healers went right to work treating their injuries. The ranger captain observed the dragon spawn company flying toward the dragons fighting off to the north. He ordered his rangers on their griffons to pursue the spawn, when he saw Barlog breaking through the Battle Point line, knocking down several legionnaires in the process.
“Keep those spawn creatures away from the metallics, I’ll join you in a couple minutes,” Decray spoke into his seeing crystal and then pulled on the reins of the flying rig and directed his griffon to dive toward the battle. The powerful eagle/lion creature pulled up just behind the battling troops, where Barlog had broken through the line. Decry quickly unbuckled his fly straps and jumped off his mount, while drawing his two short swords.
“Orc chieftain,” Decray shouted in orc language to Barlog, “raise your axe if you dare!” Barlog ordered three orcs that were with him to attack the ranger. As the first orc met Decray, it raised its sword in an overhead swing. Decray quickly blocked the orc’s sword with his left and, in an elf-like quick motion, crouched down and brought his right hand sword over and cut through the orc’s leather armor, slicing deep into its abdomen, doubling it over. He then jumped forward, tucked, and rolled, coming up just to pierce the next orc in the chest with both his blades, stopping its advance cold.
Decray’s griffon jumped with amazing quickness and slashed the third orc with its front talons, grayish black blood spurting from the three very deep wounds. “Thank you, my lady,” Decray quickly said to his mount. Barlog then moved in to engage Decray with a sideways swipe from his axe. The ranger jumped back to avoid the axe blade, which missed him by inches. He then tried to move in and thrust with this short sword, but he had to duck and roll away from Barlog’s return axe swing. Surprisingly quick, this orc is, Decray said to himself. Instead of going for a killing blow, Decray quickly decided to change his tactics.
Barlog moved in again with a slightly angled downward cleaving stroke. Decray half jumped to the side and parried with his short sword, which took the glancing blow. He deftly aimed an upper cut swing with the short sword in his right hand, landing a well-aimed blow in between armor plates and slicing into the orc’s blackish arm. He leaped away as the axe blade cut empty air where his head used to be. Gallanth’s enhancement of his swords the day before had paid off, for his blade would have been broken by that huge axe if it had not received the gold dragon’s gift.
As he moved around to gain an advantageous position against Barlog, another orc attacked him from the rear. Decray raised both his swords above his head, stopping the downward stroke of the orc’s scimitar. He then turned around quickly, disarming the orc, and cross slicing both blades, decapitating the foul insect. As he turned back around, he raised his right sword just in time to parry Barlog’s axe. Even the drop of dragon blood could not make the sword strong enough to stop the heavy black axe head from breaking the twenty-inch blade in half. The ranger tried to roll out of the way, but the axe sliced through his studded leather armor, slightly cutting into the skin on his chest.
Decray peeled away from the strike, which saved him from a deeper wound. As he moved, he swung his remaining sword down and sliced into Barlog’s left leg, continuing to spin away to get out of his axe’s reach. Growling in pain, Barlog raised and swung his axe toward the ranger’s head. Anger had gotten the best of the hierorc, for this was a clumsy strike. Decray moved to the right of the blow, stepped on the base of the axe head to both block a return swing and boost his leap, and came down on Barlog’s shoulder area, driving his blade to the hilt in between the shoulder and neck plates of his armor.
Barlog screamed in pain and immediately grabbed the hilt, punching Decray in the chest, which knocked him back. The large orc then tried to pull the blade out, but Decray had sprung back to his feet and deftly side kicked the orc on the shoulder, which had the unintentional effect of snapping the sword blade inside his chest. This brought the orc chieftain to his knees, as the grayish black blood spurted from the wound. With a final loud anguished cry, the hierorc fell forward, dead.
A loud cheer rose from the Battle Point soldiers near the scene of the fight. The orcs viewed the death of their chieftain and began to fight more defensively. This would prove to be the turning point in the land battle. Without weapons, Decray knew he would be of limited use, so he grabbed a short spear and an orc scimitar that were lying on the ground and jumped back on his griffon. He quickly strapped himself in, and the large beast spread her brownish tan wings, took a short run, and leaped into the air, heading to rejoin his rangers in the fight with the man/dragon creatures.
Mkel, I need a gem. My synthensium is growing empty, Gallanth said to Mkel, who immediately reached into the small pouch that he kept in his thigh pants pocket. He pulled out the good-sized rough diamond that Ordin had given him for Gallanth. “Here you go,” he said, reaching up as far as he could. The gold dragon curled his head back toward his rider and flicked his huge tongue out, taking the precious stone and swallowing it.
It is a good stone, well rounded, it will produce great power, he said. It still amazed Mkel how dragons could produce such immense power from so small an object. Gallanth explained to him that in their second stomach or synthensium, dragons can convert the gems into pure energy of various forms, one minute piece at a time. This was the source of the dragons’ incredible magical power and the power for their breath weapons.
They both suddenly heard the hundreds of war cries and roars of the dragon spawn, closing in on the aeri
al battle between them and the chromatics. Mkel looked back through Markthrea’s sight. He saw the company of the creatures coming toward them like a small plague of locust. “Tegent, be on guard, we are about to have a great deal of company from those dragon spawn creatures,” Mkel warned the warrior minstrel.
“I’ll keep them as busy as possible until you can knock all the chromatics out of the sky,” Tegent replied.
“Just be careful, those creatures put up quite a fight the last time we dealt with them, they are very tough,” Mkel added as Gallanth veered slightly left in pursuit of the lead blue dragon. Talonth and Lordan turned right to pursue Klaxtor.
Talonth caught up to Klaxtor quickly because of his wounds. Finish him off, my rider, Talonth told Lordan. As soon as he was in range, Lordan took aim and fired an energy bolt at the stuttering blue dragon. The light beam struck the blue in the middle of its back, and with a dying muffled roar, Klaxtor started to spin out of control toward the ground. The big silver then veered toward Strikenth and his fight with the remaining two greens and black. Gallanth moved fast to intercept Voltex, who had dove and turned sharply to evade the pursuing gold dragon.
“A little disheartening, Voltex, usurper of the plains, to see your comrades fall from the sky,” Gallanth roared to the fleeing blue dragon. Mkel was lining up a shot at the blue, when he heard the crack of Tegent’s arrow striking a spawn to his right rear flank. He quickly turned to see two of the dragon/man creatures bearing down on him from above. He quickly sighted in on the lead spawn and fired. The exploding-tipped bolt struck the creature in the chest, literally blowing him out of the air. He quickly reloaded and killed the second one before it reached Gallanth’s wing span. Six more now dove from the left, aiming directly at him with their spears drawn.
Mkel swung his crossbow’s swivel mount a quick 270 degrees off of Gallanth’s back ridge, took quick aim at the first spawn in his sights, and fired. The creature’s left wing was blown off from the resulting explosion, which also injured the spawn immediately beside it. He cocked Markthrea and fired again, almost vaporizing a second spawn. When he cocked the crossbow again, his magazine was empty. “Gallanth, reload!” he shouted. Gallanth turned his head to the left and unleashed a cone of fire that engulfed the four diving dragon spawn, turning them to ashes.
Just as Mkel began to thank Gallanth, the dragon interrupted. “To your back!” he shouted as he raised his tail and smashed the leading spawn in flight. Another was struck by Tegent’s arrow and forced out of formation. The trail man/dragon was cut in half by Gallanth’s return tail sweep. The three remaining spawn landed on Gallanth’s back and began to run toward Mkel. He grabbed the first nonexploding bolt magazine his hand found and quickly loaded it in the bottom of Markthrea. He cocked it and while awkward in trying to twist around to face behind him, he still quickly fired off three bolts at the lead spawn. Mkel was amazed, for it only took one or two shots to down an ogre. These creatures are tough, he thought to himself. The fourth shot struck the second spawn in the chest, stopping his advance as his dead kin slid off Gallanth’s back.
Mkel raised his right hand, making a fist, and fired a small plasma ball projectile from his dragonstone ring. The explosion blew the injured spawn off of Gallanth’s back, killing him in the process. The last spawn rushed Mkel, pointing its large spear at him. Kershan sprang from its scabbard and barely deflected the spear, which glanced off of Mkel’s dragon hide-armored jacket. He grasped the sword and swung it back, cutting the spear in half. As the spawn threw the severed spear shaft down, it raised its oversized clawed hand to swipe at Mkel. The thick muscled brown-green arm came down, only to be severed by the mithril blade. Mkel returned the swing and cut the creature from the lower abdomen through its upper rib cage. The dark green blood spurted from the spawn’s long deep cut, which ended its life with a gurgling roar as it fell off of Gallanth’s back.
Mkel sheathed Kershan and put Markthrea to his shoulder. He took careful aim and shot one of the spawn that was attacking Tegent’s griffon in the back. A claw swipe and bite to the neck by the griffon’s powerful beak finished another one off. His mount then had to immediately dive to get out of the way from four more that were diving on them.
At least eight squadrons apiece were attacking Strikenth and Talonth, forcing them to break off their attack against the remaining chromatics. Lordan was firing energy bolts as fast as his lance could reenergize, while Padonan’s glaive was slicing the wings of several dragon spawn at a throw. The two silvers were also freeze shattering several with each breath weapon unleashed. The chromatics, however, took advantage of the distraction and started hit-and-run strikes against the three metallic dragons. They were getting smarter, for the green and black dragons were moving to attack Gallanth, while Voltex attacked Strikenth and Talonth, trying to take advantage their preoccupation.
As Gallanth was weaving and swerving in the air to not allow the dragon spawn to mass on him, the younger green dragon tried to get too close to spit her acid stream. Her aerial charge was met by a plasma fireball from the gold dragon, which struck her in the neck and chest, killing her instantly. Gallanth’s triumph roar was shortened by Saarex’s angry reprisal at the death of his mate, and he charged headlong into him.
Gallanth and Mkel were surprised at the speed and rage of the charging green dragon, for the gold dragon was only able to hit him with one of the two sunburst beams from his eyes. A rare occurrence, for Gallanth almost never missed. This angered attack was also unusual, for most chromatic dragons had no emotion or ties to their mates, as did metallic dragons. Saarex’s headlong charge was met by Gallanth’s claws, and they exchanged swipes. Gallanth rammed his horned head into Saarex’s jaw to prevent him from biting his neck. Even though Saarex was large for a green dragon, he was still only two thirds the size of Gallanth, being roughly thirty-three yards long, with a fifty-five-yard wingspan. The gold dragon pushed Saarex back in midair and lunged forward, with his huge jaws ready for a crushing strike.
The injured green tried to push Gallanth out of the way with a claw swipe, but the gold dragon was too big and too strong. Gallanth’s jaws clamped down on Saarex’s long neck and left shoulder, sinking deep into the forest green armored hide. He shook the green dragon violently, like a doll, demonstrating his sheer strength. This was the death blow for Saarex, with Gallanth’s deadly fangs penetrating deep into the green hide, also crushing the strong dragon bones in his neck and shoulder. Gallanth let the dead green dragon go, and it fell end over end as his victory roar echoed across the plain.
“That’s another chromatic dragon vanquished,” General Daddonan said to the young soldier beside him. “We definitely needed them on our side today.”
The remaining black dragon dove on Gallanth from behind, spitting his acid stream. The vile, hot, caustic liquid was blocked by the gold’s magic shield, and he quickly whirled around to face the attacking black, smashing four attacking spawn with his wings in the process. Mkel was firing his crossbow as fast as he could, just to keep the man/dragon creatures from massing on him, but their attacks were getting more coordinated. Just then, they heard the war cries of the Battle Point rangers’ griffons as they moved in to join the aerial melee.
Mkel always liked griffons. Next to dragons, he thought they were the most majestic creatures in the air. Now he was glad they were here to distract the dragon spawn. The rangers immediately split into five six-man squadrons, with one group flying to in to cover each dragon, and the other two to hunt and intercept the spawn. “Decray has to be rewarded for his bravery and battle prowess,” Mkel said to Gallanth. I agree, Gallanth replied.
The rangers were firing arrows and crossbow bolts as their griffons sought out direct fights with the dragon spawn. Several griffons flew into the spawn and grappled with them. Their talons could do horrific damage, and their curved, razor sharp beaks could rend an orc in half. Even with this, the spawn still proved formidable foes, although s
everal of the man/dragons started to fall from the sky, with slashed wings and deep wounds from griffon beaks.
The black dragon now facing Gallanth quickly conjured up a shatter spell and charged his bull-like horns with energy. He then launched forward in an attempt to gore Gallanth. His charge bounced off of Gallanth’s shield like a ram hitting a stone wall, with the spell energy transferring into the shield.
“If you want a fang and talon fight, chromatic, you cannot magically empower your horns, fool,” Gallanth roared at the reeling black dragon, as he summoned up his plasma fireball breath weapon and unleashed the powerful blast, hitting his foe in the chest and underbelly at point-blank range, killing it instantly. Gallanth’s roar was also echoed by the six griffons, who in conjunction with Mkel’s crossbow were taking a toll on the dragon spawn.
With their reinforcement of the griffon squadrons, Talonth and Strikenth immediately moved to pursue and attack Voltex. While the blue dragon did get a lucky hit on Talonth that took out the last of his shield, he was now fleeing for his life. Blue dragons were reasonably fast in the air, but they were no match for the swift silvers. Voltex knew he could not outrun his pursuers and finally turned around to face them, firing another lightning bolt.
Strikenth and Talonth split to let the bolt pass between them; they came back together and simultaneously breathed their icy beams at Voltex. The bluish white frost rays struck the blue dragon, freezing large portions of his hide and burning deep into his flesh. A final energy bolt from Lordan’s lance finished Voltex off. The two silver dragons roared simultaneously in victory and crisscrossed in flight to head back toward the battle.
Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow Page 40
