Shifting Planes- The Complete Box Set

by Jeff Sabean

  Shrugging, Hankish began playing a tune on his lute, the notes twisting around the party and energizing Fion, who was noticeably having an easier time maintaining the shield of air. The others drew their weapons, waiting for the rain of fire to abate as they each contemplated what they hoped would not be the final moments of their lives.

  “Dragons must recharge their breath weapons before they can be used again,” explained Di’eslo as they stood inside the barrier and watched the stone around them begin to melt. “She is a young one, which is why she is so small, and that will work to our advantage as she will take longer to prepare another blast, especially seeing as how she is expelling everything she has in her at this moment to kill us. We must move quickly to destroy the beast, as I do not think we can survive another blast.”

  As he was still speaking, the flames slowed and then ceased, followed by a screech that made the group feel like their eardrums shattered.

  Kaine waived his hand as the barrier dropped, opening the tip of the pyramid to the evening sky and allowing the desert air to permeate the room. It was not late enough at night for the air to be cool yet, but compared to the stone-melting fire that had just been poured on top of them, the heat from outside was refreshingly cool. He followed that up with several small blasts of ice from his staff, which doused the flames between the dragon and the companions and cooled the melting obsidian rock that made up the floor of the chamber.

  As the smoke cleared and the group spread out to attack Aldith, they saw the source of the scream: Abugraic had jumped on her back and was now holding onto a head spike with one hand while he was driving his dagger into her skull with his right. He was barely penetrating the scales with most hits, but the slowing poison of the dagger mixed with the deadly poison added by the ring Heishi gave him were clearly adding pain to the small cuts.

  The dragon was thrashing her head back and forth wildly, attempting to toss the rogue from her back so she could kill him, and had not yet noticed the rest of the group were still alive.

  Di’eslo stepped back, immediately throwing each of his team some energy to heal the burns sustained from the heat inside the shield, then launched a web of glowing energy from his shield that wrapped around Aldith’s front two legs, sticking them together.

  Heishi slipped forward and slashed into one of her rear legs that weren’t entangled. His blade bounced harmlessly off the dragon’s scales, and he earned himself a kick in the face for his trouble. As he landed across the room and attempted to shake off the minor concussion he was sure he had just received, he realized that he hadn’t activated the energy damage of his blade. He took a shaky step forward, bringing forth the green electrical charge of the blade, and then ran back into the fray as his legs became less wobbly.

  Fion was standing in front of the dragon, his twin blades slicing back and forth, chipping away at the protective scales on her chest. He had to jump and duck between strikes as she swung her front legs at him; even stuck together, her claws were like daggers at the end of her feet and would cut him in half if she could land a strike.

  Beside him, matching his movements with equal fluidity, Kaine was jabbing and deflecting attacks with his obsidian staff. The dragon was able to swing her head around toward the two, attempting to bite the large lion-man, but as her face got close she was rewarded with a blast of ice in her eyes from the end of his staff, temporarily blinding the enraged beast.

  Aki sprinted to the side of the dragon where her head was closer to the floor. He wanted nothing to do with the tail of the beast, and was hoping he could assist Abugraic in some way. As her head tossed back and forth, he spun his tonfa and connected with loud cracks each time. He decided the blades would do no good against the armored beast, and instead opted to use the crushing blows of the tonfa to smash the scales. He looked to his side and saw Tiane beside him, kamas flashing with green flames as he hacked at the scales of the beast, trying to get into her throat.

  “Why don’t you shoot her?” Aki asked, ducking another swipe of the dragon’s head and watching Abugraic go flying past, still holding on for dear life and stabbing the back of her head as hard as he could.

  “The heat from that blast melted something in the rifle,” lamented the sniper as he scored a solid hit and heard the dragon scream. “Gonna have to try to fix it when we get home...”

  “WHEN we get home?” Aki asked, bringing his weapon around to smash the same scale on her throat he had been working on for the past several swings and smiling when he finally saw it crack.

  “Yeah, we’re definitely getting home now,” Tiane replied as he saw Aki crack the dragon scale and stabbed into the cracked scale with his blade.

  A roar of protest drowned out the older man’s response, and the two found themselves diving for cover as a dragon mouth full of teeth rushed toward them with murder in her eyes.

  “Keep going, she is slowing!” called Zatus, who had been attempting every trick he knew to be of use in this fight, but had yet to help.

  Sure enough, the slowing poison from Abugraic’s dagger appeared to be making the wyrmling drowsy, her attacks coming slower and her thrashing less severe.

  Di’eslo had joined his brother and Kaine in front of the beast, using his shield to deflect blows from his side and swinging his flail in between, the crushing damage beginning to break apart some of her armored scales on her belly. The spikes of his flail were glowing brightly now, and as the web broke apart from the dragon’s front feet and she rolled to all four feet, he knew he was running out of time.

  With a final swing, the shadow elf released the built-up energy in his flail, causing an explosion of power only slightly smaller in magnitude to the one that had removed Rattanda’s arm. A section of scales on the dragon’s chest was blasted apart, with pieces spraying in the faces of Fion and Kane, who did not have a shield to hide behind.

  Aldith lifted onto her rear legs, howling in pain and looking for an escape. She realized the tip of the pyramid was open, and began flapping her wings to lift off and get away from her deadly opponents.

  Abugraic was thrown loose from her head as her wings flapped, sending the little rogue bouncing against a wall across the room where he stopped moving.

  Di’eslo reached out to Fion, sending a quick blast of healing energy into his face to repair some of the damage the dragon scale shrapnel had caused, and when he could tell his brother could see clearly again he dropped to his knees with his shield across his back.

  Grinning widely, Fion took a few steps away, then sprinted toward his brother, jumping onto the shield and leaping with all his strength as Di’eslo propelled him higher by standing as he pushed off. The shadow elf virtually flew across the room, both swords held in a reverse grip so he could stab down with them. He slammed into the chest of the young dragon, sliding down until he was directly in front of the destroyed scales, and then stabbed both blades in with all he had left in him.

  The blades disappeared into her torso up to their hilts, and the dragon suddenly stopped moving, her head whipping around to look down at Fion. Her eyes opened wide and she opened her mouth, inhaling as if she were about to send a rain of dragon’s fire down on the impudent shadow elf, but then she toppled to the side, the light disappearing from her eyes entirely.

  “Congratulations, humans,” sang Hankish as he added a little dance to the song he was playing to increase their speed and stamina. “You just killed your first dragon!”

  Chapter 20 – The Portal

  “Well, now all we have to do is try to decipher these runes,” muttered Aki as the group stood around the corpse of the dragon catching their breath. “THAT should be simple. Maybe we should have been nicer to the witch.”

  “There is no need for that, my friend,” explained Kaine, drawing all eyes to himself. “I have been supervising her work for many months now, and have access to all her notes. We will decrypt them together, and I will send you home.”

  Ronin team all looked at the lion-man quizzically, to which
the new king of Rattanda just smiled.

  “It is the least I can do for you, seeing as how you have freed the land of that maniac king who would dare call himself a god.”

  “Then why did you follow him,” asked Heishi gently, not sure how far he could push the man-beast.

  “He is loyal to the crown, which means you follow whatever monarch wears it,” explained Di’eslo as Kaine looked at the human with murder in his eyes for even suggesting that he should have rebelled against his king.

  “Ahh, yes, I understand and meant no offense,” Heishi explained quickly. “My people come from a land where the leaders are answerable to the people, not the other way around. We once had a king, but there was a rebellion due to unfair treatment, and since that time the government exists to support the people.”

  “An interesting concept,” growled Kaine, nodding his head. “I do wish I had more time to learn of your world, but I assume you are anxious to go home.”

  “If you would like, I can talk with you as Zatus looks through Aldith’s notes and figures out how to activate the portal. I would be more than happy to explain to you how our government was built in the wake of our revolution from the corrupt monarchy.”

  “Yes, I would like that very much,” Kaine replied as he retrieved the notebooks from a desk set up in the corner of the room. “Master Zatus, this should be everything you need to open a portal home.”

  ◆◆◆

  As it turned out, it took almost a full day of work for Zatus to decrypt the notes, which were written in draconic. During that time, Heishi described for Kaine how a democratic republic operated, giving the power to the people instead of to a single person who could potentially ruin a nation. Through it all, the new king of Rattanda barely spoke, only asking for clarification for terms he did not understand.

  “We’re ready, Top,” the gnome interrupted shortly after lunch time on the second day.

  The rest of the team, to include those from Kartos, had been lounging around the room during that time, enjoying the well-earned rest. When Zatus said it was time, they rushed over to hear what he had to say.

  “The portal itself is a very simple device to activate,” the tech genius explained. “Once I figured out how to read the runes, it was a simple process for Fion to show me how to look through his orb and figure out the combination I needed to open a portal back to earth. Luckily, I lived on earth for long enough that I could look for it, which is why Fion was unsuccessful in his attempt. But I can say without a doubt that it is finally ready. I had to fabricate a docking mechanism to add the orb into the device, so I will activate the orb to find the proper portal and the device will open it.”

  “Well, I’d like to say it’s been fun destroying multiple cities with you, but...ahh, who am I kidding, it was definitely fun destroying multiple cities with you,” Aki said to Hankish, reaching down and clasping hands with the halfling.

  “Who’s chopping onions in here,” sniffed the bard, wiping away the moisture that was building in the corners of his eyes.

  “I have one more announcement before we open the portal,” Zatus stated quietly, drawing all the attention back to himself. “I will not be returning with you.”

  Those seven words caused everyone present to freeze, none wanting to be the first to speak.

  “You sure about that, chief? We can definitely use you on the team, and, well, I mean, you know you are family...” Heishi tried to explain, then stopped as his voice cracked.

  “I understand, and do not think I came to this decision lightly, my friends. But I am not from your world. Just as you came to accept your new lives here on Kartos, I had accepted my life on earth because that was the only option I had. The first chance you got to jump through a portal and return home, you took it, am I right? I have a wife and children at home, and if there is any chance they are still alive I want to go home to them...”

  His voice cracked as he stood staring at his friends for a moment, no one wanting to break the silence until he was finished.

  “Over the years I spent on earth, I have worked through the pain of losing my family. Now I have the chance to return to them, and I wish to do so. We will open the portal first to earth, sending you home, and then I will open one to my home. Fion and Di’eslo have agreed to destroy this device after I am gone to ensure no one else will be ripped from their homes by it.”

  “Well, I suppose there isn’t much else to say,” Heishi stated quietly. “You are part of our family, and always will be, but I hope you find your wife and children well.” He paused, sharing a look of understanding with his friend before continuing, “so let’s get this thing opened and get everyone home.”

  After saying their goodbyes, Zatus placed his hands on the orb, and once he could see earth through the orb, he activated the portal. The empty space in the middle of the octagon filled with black clouds, and the now-too-familiar flashes of red lightning began in the center.

  “Who in their right mind would ever willingly walk through that?” asked Hankish, hoping to keep his friend Aki from leaving.

  “No one,” Aki replied, winking at his friend as he stepped in front of the portal, holding the “kindergarten rope” they hoped would bring them all through together.

  “After you, Staff Sergeant,” Heishi said, looking at Tiane.

  “Roger that, jump master,” the young sniper said with a grin, then jumped onto the platform with his feet and knees together and grabbed the “kindergarten rope.”

  “Smart aleck young paratroopers,” Heishi said with a grin, then saluted Zatus before grabbing the “kindergarten rope” and stepping through the portal with his team tethered to him.

  ◆◆◆

  The whole world went black as Heishi stepped into the storm, and the sound of wind rushing surrounded him. He had been unconscious during his last trip between the planes, and being awake had a very unnerving effect. He was falling, but at the same time wind was rushing from above him as he dropped down, as if it were pushing him through the portal. Everything was dark, but in the distance, he could see the flashes of red lightning. He could feel the rope in his hands, and held on tightly although he could not hear either of his team members when he called out to them in the dark.

  Probably just too loud in here. I’m sure they’ll be standing next to me when we come through the other side, I just hope it is at home, he thought to himself as the sound of wind rushing intensified.

  Without warning, his feet hit solid ground. The feeling was disorienting, and made him stumble and drop to his knees, pulling the rope down in front of him.

  “Hey, you old guys should be more careful,” Tiane stated from beside him. “Some of us could have landed on our feet here.”

  Heishi looked around and found himself kneeling on the sidewalk in front of the mountain roller coaster inside the theme park. Before he could climb back to his feet, he heard a scream, and he snatched his katana from its saya as he stumbled to his feet and turned toward the scream.

  He instantly felt foolish and replaced the sword as he realized the woman was screaming because three men just appeared out of nowhere on the sidewalk. He was about to make up an excuse when another scream ripped through the air, this one much deeper, followed by the sickening thud of flesh hitting concrete.

  The three men looked in the direction of the scream just in time to see the second orc hit the sidewalk, a look of terror on its face before it turned into a pile of green and red goo on the pavement.

  “What just happened, Top?” Tiane asked, a confused look on his face.

  “That was supposed to be Zatus and Aldith,” explained Aki quietly as their communicators all came to life at once.

  “Ronin One, this is Ronin Six, come in Master Sergeant!” the semi-panicked voice came through from the Tactical Operations Center.

  “Calm down, Six, this is One,” Heishi replied, trying to remember that he was Master Sergeant Neasba, team leader of Ronin Team, who were deployed in response to a nuclear threat.
>
  “One, this is Six actual,” came the voice of General Bunch, the commander of the antiterrorism division. “You better have a good explanation for why they called me out here saying they had lost contact with you after some crazy story of floating back into the air on your jump.”

  “Six, this is One, I definitely have a LONG debrief for you, but first we have a team to round up here. Tell park security to stand down, the threat is not what we expected it to be. I repeat, the threat we expected to be in the park does not exist, but we have a whole different threat to stop.

  “Send in the cleanup crew, you’ll need to have the spin doctors explain why tourists saw a couple of orcs falling from the sky and hitting the pavement here. Make it part of the show that went horribly wrong when parachutes didn’t open or something, but do it fast before anyone has a chance to inspect the two piles of goo on the sidewalk.”

  With that, Heishi waved to the remaining two members of his team and they raced off toward the roller coaster to round up Aldith’s team.

  “Wait, did you say ORCS?” the general asked through the comm device, which caused Heishi and his men to laugh as they sprinted off to dismantle the portal device.

  Epilogue

  Fort Bragg, NC

  Master Sergeant Paul “Heishi” Neasba, Sergeant First Class Jay Aki, and Staff Sergeant Tyler Tiane were each in a separate debriefing room, and had been retelling their story for the past two days. Typically, a debriefing would be handled with the whole team, but with the loss of two team members and the story of traveling to a different plane of existence, the command had separated the members of the team for evaluation.

  It had not taken long for the three special operations Soldiers to reach the portal device and overpower the lab geeks operating it. The element of surprise had been on their side, as the portal team had seen the operators disappear through the portal, and suddenly the technicians were staring at the team with weapons drawn. The scientists had given up immediately and had started talking before the cleanup team even arrived. Naturally, they blamed Aldith for everything and their excuse was that they were just the lab techs who were “following orders.”