Time of Change (Emerilia Book 7)

by Michael Chatfield

  The hobgoblin was tossed several feet, landing on the ground with a dazed look on its face and a large gouge down the side of its face.

  Steve jumped; the dazed hobgoblin looked to him as if he were drunk. Steve arched back like a drawn bowstring in the air. His body suddenly became straight as his axe whistled through the air. Streaks of white from the disrupted air showed on either side of his axe as he brought it down on the hobgoblin’s head.

  Its legs twitched and the creature went still.

  Steve pulled out his axe, flicking it to the side to clear the blade.

  It flicked out again in a blur of speed, taking half of a goblin off its mount. He threw his axe, burying it in another rider and wolf.

  The rest of the goblins and their mounts were quickly finished off.

  No one talked for a bit, recovering their energy. Even Lox and Gurren looked tired from that battle.

  “Well, this will be a really good training ground. I hope that the goblin mobs don’t respawn too fast.” Lox took a swig from his canteen.

  “Respawn? Mobs?” Krenua asked, confused.

  “You have a lot to learn about dungeons, especially with so many of them in your crater!” Gurren smiled.

  “Mobs are monsters that spawn in certain locations. In dungeons, they can respawn after a certain amount of time so you can fight them again and again. These are some really high-leveled and powerful mobs. They should have a slow respawn rate of a few hours so that when you’re leaving, they don’t come back as you’re exiting. That said, this is Ashal and there are more rare resources and creatures here than anywhere else,” Induca said.

  Krenua rested against a rock pillar. “So, they can come back again and again and we have to fight them?”

  “Well, you don’t have to fight them, but if you don’t, then sometimes they can create kiddos or get to a high enough level that the dungeons can’t hold them anymore and attack things outside of the dungeon,” Lox said.

  Krenua’s expression became serious. These children from the mobs and the higher-leveled mobs were now the creatures that roamed the hunting grounds to the northwest of Devil’s Crater. They were less in number than in the dungeons, but if they were able to grow in numbers, then it could lead to a large problem for those living in Devil’s Crater.

  “I think I now understand why having adventurers clearing out dungeons is a good idea,” Krenua said.

  “Yeah, especially with the number of dungeons you’ve got in Devil’s Crater. It only makes sense,” Steve said.

  “Now, let’s get this loot sorted out and then get out of here. That’s enough training for tonight and I need to get all this crap off my armor and take a shower!” Lox said.

  “You’re telling me! Seriously, you’re the smelliest roommate I’ve ever had,” Gurren complained.

  “You woke yourself up by farting last night!” Lox shot back. Like that, the seriousness from moments ago fell away as they relaxed.

  Gurren closed his mouth on his retort, a sheepish look on his face. “That was one time,” he muttered to himself.

  “Krenua, have scouts posted at the entrance and the arena. We don’t know if some of those creatures got loose in here. Going to need to send a bigger party down here to clear it out,” Induca said.

  Krenua gave the orders, wearily. He’d learned a lot today, but he was bone-tired from all the fighting that they’d done up to this point.

  Chapter 10: A Meeting of Forces

  Malsour and Fornau exited the Cliff-Hill teleport pad. Malsour greeted a few people and headed off toward Dave and Deia’s home. Fornau followed him.

  They went into the basement, using the teleport rune to reach the seeder and then took the secret exit from the seeder to come out a number of miles outside of Cliff-Hill. From there, they changed into their Dragon forms and headed for where Denur had taken up residence in Mithsia Mountains.

  People pointed to them as they arced through the skies. There had been more Dragons seen in the last couple of weeks than ever before. Most thought that there were just a handful in Emerilia.

  Malsour’s Dragon form was nearly three times Fornau’s. As Dragons aged, they continued to grow. Now, he was about the size of four busses, with a wingspan of nearly six.

  Malsour flapped his wings, faster and faster. It had been months since he was able to return to his Dragon form. He raced ahead, banking from side to side, bringing his wings in and dropping as he spun; his wings shot out, catching the wind around him once again and he surged forward.

  “This is refreshing,” Malsour said to Fornau, his voice deep and powerful as if he were a mountain range given life.

  With his power, he felt as if anything was possible. He had been in his Human form so long that he hadn’t understood how much his power as a Dragon had increased. His Human form could barely handle a tenth of his total power as a Dragon.

  “Feels good to change every so often,” Fornau agreed. His voice was less powerful than Malsour’s but would make nearly any other creature bow their head in fear and respect. They were the untouchable rulers of the beasts within Emerilia, much like how the lion was the king of the African plains on Earth.

  Malsour took in the feeling of flying. With his eyes, he could pick up the sight of Dragons standing like statue golems on different peaks of the Mithsia Mountains.

  They kept away from the main mountain in the range where the Dwarves lived. The Dwarves kept an eye on them, but it seemed that they were fine with having Dragons around as long as they didn’t get too close.

  Seeing his family standing upon the peaks of these mountains, Malsour could only smile. To him, it had not been long ago that they were sealed within the desolate realm that Bob had been able to sneak them into.

  They had only one another. Some had flown away to try to get away, but those who stayed—they had become incomparably close. Most people were family by blood, but they were family in their hearts. They would do anything for one another without a second thought.

  That was true love and devotion to one’s family.

  The Dragons saw their elder uncle returning. Many were called elder brother within their family; simply calling them cousins was an understatement of their feelings. Uncle and aunt monikers were given to those who had not only shown their strength, but become pillars of their family.

  The Dragons, seeing Malsour, let out greeting roars as they raised their mouths to the sky and unleashed their Dragon breaths in salute.

  More and more saw Fornau and Malsour, greeting them as they passed. Creatures in the area cowered in fear, lowering themselves to the ground in prostration. Those far enough away fled in fear for somehow insulting these Dragons.

  Malsour pulled in air; a vortex of wind formed around his mouth. The closer it came to his mouth, the darker it was. He let out a bellow; his black flames reached out for two hundred meters in greeting. Fornau let out his green flames.

  From within the Mithsia Mountain range, a truly massive Dragon stretched her wings. To many, it would look like a small mountain stretching out.

  Denur flapped her wings and rose into the air. Her children rose with her, coming out of their newly made caves to greet their elder uncle.

  It didn’t take long before Malsour and Fornau met with the oncoming party. A few stayed behind at the mountain, ready to assist those who were circling Akatol’s domain and ice palace.

  “Son, I see that Fornau was able to pull you away from your experiments,” Denur said.

  Malsour could only smile. It was as if he could sense her happiness; his own heart beat in happiness as he looked at his gathered family. There were few ways to express what he felt.

  “It was a bit difficult—Uncle gets too involved in his work,” Fornau jested.

  The Dragons laughed.

  “I’m sorry I haven’t been able to visit earlier. I’ve been so busy.” Malsour tilted his head away awkwardly.

  “No worries. We are excited for all you have been able to do. My half-sister was certainly
happy with meeting you. Seems that you and your sister Induca have found a good place,” Denur said, clearly excited for her son.

  “Thanks, Mom,” Malsour said with feeling before his expression fell. “I wish I came under better circumstances, but I might have a way for you to open the ice palace so we can stop Akatol.” Malsour no longer thought of Akatol as his father and in reality, he was now much older than his father, who had been sealed away for so long.

  “Let us talk somewhere a bit more comfortable,” Denur said, becoming serious. She and Malsour had fought side-by-side to defeat Akatol the first time.

  She turned toward the mountain. Malsour took up position behind her right wing, the oldest and most powerful at the lead of the formation to break the wind easier for the ones behind them.

  They quickly arrived at the mountain range. Malsour greeted his family with nods and smiles, promising to talk to them later as he and his mother as well as Louna moved into the largest cave.

  They collapsed their size, reducing their power but allowing themselves to move easier.

  “Okay, so what is this idea?” Denur looked to Malsour.

  “We siphon power from some of our family in to the people who are attacking the ice palace. We have the ones with the highest Willpower outside Akatol’s domain; they wear an amulet which will drain them of Mana into a vault soul gem. Then our family with the best attack spells get in close to the ice palace, attack it with their magic while being supplied with Mana from the vault soul gem.”

  “Are you sure it will work?” Denur asked in a serious voice.

  “With the Stone Raiders, it is common practice to have an amulet to drain power when you’re not fighting; then, if we get into a fight, we reverse the amulet to draw in power. It allows us to go past our limits. It can lead to Mana fatigue, so we’re going to need to change people who are in Akatol’s domain out,” Malsour said.

  “Are there any other options? The longer that Akatol is in there, the longer he has to come up with something,” Denur said.

  “There is another option that would defeat Akatol within a few moments. The problem is that it would lead to much more powerful forces watching Emerilia closely and we will be severely limited in what we can do. I hope to keep those kinds of measures hidden for as long as possible.” Malsour hoped that he had been as vague as possible so that his words hadn’t been picked up by the AIs watching Emerilia. He knew that Bob was running some interference, but he didn’t know how effective it was. After all, Melhoun, Akatol, and Khanundra had been released into Emerilia without his consent.

  Denur held Malsour’s eyes for a while. She nodded, having complete confidence in her son. If he said that this was the best way, then she would try it out. “Very well, let us see if this works.”

  Malsour changed his hand so that it was slightly more Human, allowing him to open his spatial ring and pull out a vault soul gem and two identical runed amulets.

  ***

  Lord under Mithsia Mountain, Fend, watched as the Dragons had greeted two who seemed to come back from the direction of the Dragon’s lair in Opheir. He didn’t know who they were but it was clear that they were greeted with excitement by the rest of the Dragons. Fend scratched his cheek before stroking his beard in thought.

  The Dragons had left them alone for the most part. They’d set up a home in the edge of the Mithsia Mountain range, about as far from his Dwarven city as they could get. They’d kept to themselves, the two groups making a silent agreement to not mess around with one another.

  Now, with the arrival of these two Dragons, he felt something was about to change. He had heard the reports on the ice globe and dead ground around where the Dragon’s lair rested.

  The dead land apparently stopped Mana from being regenerated and it was slowly growing, at about a meter per day, killing low-level beasts and wildlife.

  Elven rangers watched the lair. Lord Fend, Evo’Mael of the Kufo’tel forest, and King Hierca of Opheir had been talking to one another about possible action that they could take against the lair. Even the elves of Asha-moor had made it clear that they would assist if it was desired.

  “That was one of the biggest Dragons I’ve ever seen. It seems that it might be one of the older ones,” Wrole, Fend’s old friend and advisor, said after Fend had been lost in thought for a number of minutes.

  “They’re all bloody massive and old,” Fend growled.

  “Movement!” a spotter called out.

  Fend moved back to the telescopes and cast far sight as he watched the Dragons once again moving. “It looks like they’re going for the ice globe.”

  There were a number that were staying behind, but several of the largest ones were following behind a massive Dragon who could only be compared to a mountain in size.

  “Denur,” Fend whispered in reverence. The massive Dragon could only be one creature: Denur, the mother of Dragons.

  Quickly, the Dragons gained altitude and headed toward the ice globe that now lay to the south.

  “What do you want us to do?” one of the Dwarven warclan commanders asked.

  “Make sure that no one pisses off the Dragons and keep training! If this has shown us anything, it’s that we’re going to have to fight much stronger opponents in the future.” Fend looked away from the telescope.

  “Yes, Lord Fend.” The warclan leader bowed slightly before he opened his interface to send the messages out.

  ***

  Malsour watched as Denur, Gelimah, Louna, and several of his younger family members flew toward the total domain that Akatol had created.

  Malsour flapped his wings, the trees and forest around him blowing away with the massive wingbeats.

  He settled down on the ground. He checked the amulet around his neck and pulled out the vault soul gem. It already had a slight charge held in it, growing with every second as power was drawn out from Malsour.

  He watched as his family members got within a few hundred meters of the ice palace. They unleashed their attacks as one: their elemental breaths, their strongest attack.

  It hit the ice palace from every direction; in places, parts were melted off or broken away. It wasn’t much, but it certainly had an effect.

  The vault soul gem stopped increasing in stored power as Denur let loose her breath attack, her consumption of Mana at the same rate that the amulet took power from Malsour.

  Her blue flames made the outside of the ice palace melt where her breath hit. Waves of heat came off the ice palace that was colder than the coldest part of the north and south poles.

  After a few minutes, Denur and the other Dragons left, taking to the skies.

  Malsour watched as the ice palace quickly worked to repair the damage that had happened to it.

  The only way to destroy the ice palace was from the inside, or by constantly hitting from outside with strong destruction spells. The power that was needed was incredible. Few creatures other than the Dragons could be able to do it. Even they would need to do it for several weeks before they cracked the palace open.

  Malsour took to the sky, headed to meet back up with the rest of his family.

  The vault soul gem and amulets had been a success. It looked as if they had a way to crack the ice palace without being dangerously close to Mana fatigue.

  ***

  The room was silent except for the atmospheric exchanger that constantly moved air through the Deq’ual system station.

  Chairwoman Wong, Engineer Edwards, and Commander Sato were the only occupants.

  Edwards held his tongue even though it looked as if he were ready to burst, his eyes darting between Sato and Wong.

  Wong sat parallel to her desk, looking at the wall as her left forefinger rested on the desk and tapped it lightly.

  Sato was expressionless as he watched Wong.

  Wong finally moved after ten minutes. She looked as though she had aged a year, but her expression was firm. “Sato, by the power invested in me, I give you permission to continue with your ship and weapon
advancement programs,” Wong said. It seemed to have taken an effort of will to get those words out.

  “People are going to think that we’re idiots; that we should just hide out for the rest of our lives here. Now we can confirm that the Jukal Empire is still functioning and very much active and that they have genetically altered and imprisoned a planet of humans for their own sadistic entertainment. I want you to work to increase our abilities so that we are able to create a fighting force that can rescue the people on Emerilia and fight the Jukal. I am going to remove the restrictions on birth rates as well as the amount of people within the military. I ask that you continue to talk to the other Human stations and see if we can send people to check on their situation. If at all possible, I want to scout them. Get as much information as you can get from our contacts in Emerilia,” Wong said.

  “Understood, Chairwoman Wong.” Sato nodded.

  Even Edwards kept his mouth shut, feeling the weight of the decisions made in this room.

  Chapter 11: A Craftsman’s Power

  Dave finished the very last rune on the metal sheet. He lined it up with the other paper-thin sheets. There were four sheets but they were large and covered in tiny and exact runes. He had needed to use his conjuring art to remove the metal so exactly. Even then, it had been hard to get everything exactly right.

  He rubbed his eyes. He had been working on it for a couple of days between his different classes, conferences, and signing various items that Suzy brought to his attention.

  He looked around. He was in one of the workshops within the Mirror of Communication school. There were a number of people looking over at him, quickly turning back to their work. This was a magical coding lab. People from all over Emerilia had tried their hand at magical coding in here. With every week, more people were in Dave’s classes.

  Dave heard someone yell out in excitement in the distance. The lab was the size of a football field.

  He quickly opened his quest interface.