by Aaron Crash
Steven counted down to midnight. “Three, two, one. Now, Aria.”
She slammed her talons onto the table. Her eyes lit up and she let out a scream. The round culverts on the walls gleamed. Fire coughed out of one, ice tumbled out of another, and from a third crackled lightning. The last opening lit up, the air alive and vibrant, and there was a whomp followed by a terrible silence. It was ChromaticFury. The apocalyptic energy spat from the culvert and struck the table, turning the statues of Quinnestri and Icharaam to ash.
Aria, thankfully, was thrown back.
The table shot upward, bashing through the rock, which melted around it, dropping lava to the floor. It continued to rise, shooting upward.
“After it!” Steven cried. The hole it created wasn’t wide enough for their wings, but Tessa was there, grabbing them up in a telekinesis spell. Steven and his Dragonsoul wives followed Tessa up through the opening, racing up through ten stories of ruined hallways and apartments. Steven kept his sword and arms tucked close to his body.
The minute they reached the sky, he shifted into his partial form and opened his wings. Aria turned into a full dragon as did Mouse.
The table was a blinding light. Steven figured Icharaam would’ve used Enchantrix or some other spell to hide it from human eyes.
Sabina’s voice filled Steven’s mind. I’m in the sky, over the island, and look, look west!
Steven turned and saw that the table was throwing a spear of light across the night sky to the horizon. The supernova of magic filled him. His consciousness was flung across the countryside, the lights of New York fading into the dark strip of the Appalachian Mountains and across the farmlands, where small towns lay like glowing diamonds of light on the black velvet of the land. And then, into Kansas, and then, into a raised hill, dotted with tombstones.
“I’m seeing it!” Tessa cried.
“I think we all are,” Mouse answered.
Steven didn’t know how he knew, but the name of the town came to him, Dodge City. That was where Icharaam’s tomb lay, in the cemetery, to the west of city, a place called Duchain Hill. Of course, his adventures would take him back to the west, to that iconic town. He was kind of surprised it hadn’t pointed to Boot Hill. Or was that even around anymore?
Then he was back above New York City, and after seeing how empty most of the American lands were, the vast metropolis seemed even grander. They had the location of Icharaam’s gift.
Four other dragons shot forward.
Steven recognized the tiger dragon first. The orange on his body caught the fading light of the table, which had turned into a piece of charcoal, crumbling away in the winds. The tiger dragon’s black beard hung low off his chin. Though he was small, he was definitely male.
Another dragon, small and black, flashed upward, and he recognized her as well. It was Umbra, who’d served Bedivere, and now had a new master. Her banded magical staff was connected to her wrist by a length of cable.
The last two were mysteries. One was a bright metallic silver creature with needlelike spines rising up from her back. The other female was a dark brownish red, burgundy. Her claws were massive, too large for her body. Each of her talons was as long as a sword. Both of those females had been altered using FleshForge; neither the needles nor those huge talons were natural.
The tiger dragon snaked through the sky, flying fast, and before they could stop him, he grabbed Tessa around her middle and then dove back down to the top of the abandoned apartment building, which had been torn to shreds by the table.
Steven had to grin. That dragon had grabbed the wrong woman.
Chapter Twenty-Five
TESSA’S FIRST BULLET bounced off tiger boy’s shield, so she Incanto’d the hell out of him. Then she punched him right in his spirit using AnimusChain.
He let out a grunt of pain and dumped her on the top of the building. She rolled across the roof and nearly fell down the hole the Ever-Seeing Eye had blown through the building. There must’ve been electricity because the hallway lights were on. She had a good view all the way down to the basement to the chamber beneath.
Bullets peppered her pink shield from some big awful machine gun. From being around the Texas twins, she recognized the chugga-chugga of the weapon.
A man in Call of Duty armor fired at her as she bounced to her feet.
She’d lost her revolvers in the landing. That was the best-case scenario. Worst case? They’d fallen to the streets below.
Next to the Warling stood Morty Flint, naked, with his big belly covering most of his private parts. That was a blessing.
He lifted a hand. Purple light collected around it.
Tessa needed to communicate with her people, and she needed to anticipate whatever spell Morty was going to cast. From the looks of it, whatever magic he was about to lay down was bound to be a doozy. “Divinatio!”
Names flooded her mind. Morty Flint? Nope, welcome to Mordred. Population: asshole. The tiger dragon was Lancelot. Needles had the needles on her back, duh, and Ms. Burgundy Big Hands was Clutch. Those two wives were famous. Lastly, the Warling was Cort Calot, a total battle dog.
Mordred reached into Tessa’s core; she could feel his awful fingers in her, but she Incanto’d that spell away. Just in time.
“Defensio!” She used telekinesis to shove Cort into his master.
That gave her a minute. She reached out and let Steven, Mouse, and Aria know the names of their enemies. They shouldn’t be surprised since Mordred and Lancelot were players in an ancient drama, and the Drokharis Escort had just run onto the main stage, full center, thank you very much.
ChromaticFury, from one of the dragons, tore out a good chunk of the floors directly under them. The entire roof tilted to the side.
Tessa saw a vision of her pistols, to her right. She grabbed one, then the other, before she spun down into the hole.
She wound up on her ass in an apartment. Above her, Mordred had turned into a white Homo Draconis, with dark purple edges to his scales. He breathed fire down on her and she rolled to the side. The floor caught fire. Of course it did. A swaying, half-destroyed apartment building wasn’t any fun unless it was also wreathed in flames.
She took off running into the hallway. She got to the edge of the building. It was still smoking from the ChromaticFury. The concrete had melted away, showing rebar, glowing red hot.
Tessa caught a glimpse of Needles flying, back first, into Mouse.
At the last minute, the amber dragon turned into her partial form. Green flames enveloped her sword. She sliced into Needles. It was a nice, solid, bloody strike. The scales healed over in seconds, a Magica Cura spell, no doubt. She went to bite at Mouse, but the smaller dragon flew off before Needles could get her teeth into her. Tessa lost sight of them.
Her Divination spell was still in effect. She could anticipate the next enemy who would come into view. That would be Clutch, chasing Aria. Tessa aimed and put a hole in the burgundy dragon. The wounded worm roared, but she didn’t stop.
Then there was Lancelot, exchanging Impetim fire with Steven. Tiger guy took a break to heal Clutch. Then he pumped his wings and came smashing down into the building.
Tessa couldn’t see it, but she pictured him slamming his feet into windows and holding onto the roof as he opened his mouth to breathe death upon her.
His fanged maw took up the entire hallway.
Tessa thought about putting a bullet in his gullet, but there were other assholes coming in after her. Mordred and his Warling dog.
She cast a shield spell just in time.
ShadowFlame turned the hallway into hell. Everything not burning burst into flames. Even the concrete.
Tessa coughed in the smoke. She turned and ran through the fire to the hole and then used telekinesis to float down through floors, trying to get away. She’d made it down to maybe the sixth floor when a tail caught her and flung her against the wall.
She landed at the feet of Mordred. The villain just had to sneer. “You look like Merl
in, Tessa. Do you have his rage and bloodlust?”
She’d cast multiple spells, back-to-back, and she felt the drain on her. Good thing Morty had a big ball of purple Animus inside him. She grabbed a handful. He clawed her. She managed to dodge most of the attack, but he opened a gash on her forehead. The blood blinded her.
She tried to get a revolver up, and it was knocked away.
A sickle on a chain snuck out and hacked into Mordred’s shoulder. He was yanked back by Uchiko, who’d stayed behind after all. It was nice to have a rogue ninja on their side.
Another batch of ChromaticFury burst through the wall behind her, taking out another bunch of apartments and melting the concrete of the hallway.
Umbra snaked in and turned into her human form, complete with a staff glowing orange. She was getting up her speed to become a blur, but Mouse was having none of that. The amber Homo Draconis tackled her. The two rolled across the floor down from Tessa.
In seconds, the two were up, fighting, sword against staff. Mouse wasn’t going to be able to stand toe-to-toe with Umbra, not with how fast the black dragon lady was.
Tessa, choking, blinking the blood out of her eyes, grabbed a revolver. She raised it and put her sights on Umbra. Nope, she wasn’t going to risk a shot, not with how fast that chick was and not with blood in her eyes. Her Divination spell had ended. Tessa reached out and pulled a good dose of Animus from the speedster.
That slowed her down enough for Mouse to drive her sword into Umbra’s gut.
The other side of the hallway exploded. Sheetrock dust and debris billowed through the corridor, and now everyone was going to have trouble seeing.
In the swirl of destruction, Tessa caught a brief flash of Steven, in his human form, fighting Lancelot, who had changed both of his arms into bone swords. The Dragonknight was showing off his FleshForge skills. Great.
Mordred broke free from Uchiko’s sickle. He grabbed the ninja and hurled her down the hole in the floor. The disgraced Dragonskin had saved Tessa, and the barista was going to return the favor. She threw herself down after Uchiko, using a telekinesis spell to grab the ninja and float them down another few floors. They were close to the chamber below, which was puking up steam from where the magic in the four culverts had washed down into the cave. Fire, ice, lightning, and ChromaticFury energies crackled and spat.
Tessa and Uchiko landed on the hallway of the first floor with a thud. Uchiko was unconscious, but alive. Tessa had somehow managed to keep her Peacekeepers. She holstered one and readied the other.
She didn’t have to wait long.
The thunder of the battle followed them. Needles came crashing through the floor of another apartment followed by Clutch. Both were Homo Draconi with smiles on their faces. The burgundy dragon’s hands were huge talons on her slim body. It was somewhat unnerving.
Tessa could ignore it, though. She felt their Dragonsoul energy, and she wanted it. She powered up her revolver with IonGun. It became so bright that both of the Homo Draconi had to squint.
Needles ran toward her. For a split second, Tessa thought about using HeartStrike but knew there was a high price to pay for that magic. And these Dragonsouls had underestimated her aim and her gun. Tessa shot Clutch right between the eyes. She wouldn’t be healing that hole anytime soon.
Needles let out a guttural howl. She didn’t have to suffer the loss of her friend for long. Tessa shot her twice in the chest and once in the head. She went down, turning human as she did. Finally, they were evening the odds. And the Animus Tessa collected made her head swim. She couldn’t help but giggle. Hot damn! Slaying dragons was fun!
Someone struck Tessa, hard, in the back, and she was sent flying into a wall. Debris rained down on them, and the entire apartment building was swaying, back and forth. The structure creaked, cracked, and moaned. It was going to come down on them at any minute.
She turned. Cort had a gleaming purple knife in his fist. He went to drive it into her chest. Steven, though, had other ideas. He stood behind them along with Mouse and Aria, scratched to shit, and bleeding. They’d had to become human to fight in the hallway.
“Excrucior!” The tip of his chain-whip sword erupted from Cort’s chest. His heart had been shish-kabobed. The Warling fell to his knees and toppled forward onto his face, as dead as dead could be.
Mordred had somehow found his way down to them. He was on the other end of the hallway, in his human form. Unbelievably, he smiled. “This has all been very interesting, but Lancelot and I have a package waiting for us in Dodge City. We were there, we saw the location of...what is called? Oh yes, Icharaam’s gift. How prosaic. It will finally be mine. Finally.”
He spun around and ran directly toward the wall at that end of the corridor. Tessa raised her gun and fired. Her shot went wide.
Mordred was growing ever bigger, from human to Homo Draconis and then into his True Form. He rammed his way out of the wall and took off. The apartment building had taken a beating, but losing another wall so close to the ground was the final straw.
“It’s like a bad Jenga move,” Tessa whispered.
The entire structure came crashing down on top of them.
STEVEN’S SHIELD SAVED them. The black force field snapped and popped above them, stopping car-sized chunks of concrete from crushing them. He was on his knees, hands over his head. Tessa’s Peacekeeper still glowed from her IonGun ability. That gave them light, but it was still hard to see. Not only did drywall dust swirl around them, but steam from the chamber below coughed into their little cavern of safety.
Mouse coughed. “Well, that went well, kind of. I don’t think I killed Umbra. She got a bellyful of Slayer Blade, but I didn’t feel the burst of Animus.”
“That’ll make the twins happy,” Tessa said weakly. She wiped blood from her eyes. The gash on her forehead continued to bleed. “They tried to kill Umbra as well.”
“Enough!” Aria shouted. She was pale, and she looked five seconds away from a heart attack. “We need to get out. Or we’ll suffocate. We’ll die. Trapped under this place. Trapped.”
Uchiko, in her ninja garb, tried to rise, but she slumped back down.
Steven was surprised to see her. He assumed Sabina had seen something and sent the Dragonskin back to help them. He was glad. Going up against the Dragonknights and their vassals had nearly destroyed them.
“This is bad, but at least Mordred is down to forty-one wives,” Tessa tried to joke. Aria was too far gone for humor. She flung herself against a slab of cement next to them. She clawed at the concrete until Tessa eased her back. “Aria, we’ll get out of here, I promise. We’ll find a way.”
“Girlfriend has the claustrophobia,” Mouse murmured. “How are we going to get out of this one, my Prime?”
He didn’t know, but his shield spell would fail at some point. With the shifting wreckage above them, they’d be crushed before he could cast another one. Even if they tried a second spell, getting it in place would be tricky. A mistake would be fatal.
Mouse sighed at his silence. “Well, this is terrible. We know where Icharaam’s gift is, but so do our enemies. Hurray for them.”
Tessa pulled Aria away, and the Indian woman clung to her. The barista locked eyes with Steven. She turned deadly serious. “I’m tired of being attacked. I’m tired of these dragons coming at us. I’m going to kill them all, Steven. Once we get out of here, and we will get out of here, I’m going on the warpath.”
He didn’t mention that she sounded like the Dragon Slayer. He closed his eyes and reached out.
Someone was coming. Their Animus was off the charts, and it reminded him of a Dragonknight. Who could it be? Not Mordred or Lancelot. They were on their way to Dodge City.
The chunk of concrete, marked by Aria’s claws, tumbled backward. The building shifted again, and the weight on Steven grew exponentially heavier. His shield flickered.
More cement was moved, until a narrow channel opened.
A yellow-and-green scaled Homo Draconis stood there,
his jet-black face solemn. He had an ornate dragon image branded on his neck. A spicy smell wafted off him: cardamom, cloves, nutmeg.
It was Niwashi, but that simply meant gardener in Japanese. He had to have a different name. “Come with me,” the mysterious Dragonsoul said.
Tessa thrust Aria away. The barista blew the dragon backward with a flick of her hand. She then charged him.
“Tessa, wait!”
She ignored him. While Aria might’ve lost her courage, trapped under the building, it seemed Tessa had lost her mind.
Chapter Twenty-Six
STEVEN, HOLDING UCHIKO, squeezed through the opening and out onto the street. The apartment building was a pile of devastation above them. Mouse and Aria had already made it out. They were both in human form, bent over, coughing.
Tessa had blown the dragon known as Niwashi onto his back. She pulled a Peacekeeper.
Steven dropped Uchiko and threw a shoulder into the barista, knocking her off balance.
She stumbled to her left but didn’t fall. “Defensio.” She crushed Steven into the building with a force field.
“Incanto!” He cancelled her shield spell and then cast AnimusChain. Just as he was about to steal her energy, she countered that with another dispel magic charm.
She reached into his Animus, but he struck her attack aside with a force field. She dropped her pistol and cast another shield spell.
Her pink force field hit his black one, and the pair grunted against each other, trying to force each other back.
Steven had to grit his teeth to speak. “Tessa, we have a lot of fighting ahead of us. We don’t know what Niwashi wants. He saved us. We should at least talk to him.”
Angry tears tracked down the barista’s cheeks. “So he can turn on us again? So he can toy with us like Mordred did? No! I am not going to trust anyone, ever again.”
“Look!” Steven thundered.
Uchiko had crawled over to the downed yellow-green Dragonsoul. The ninja was stroking the mysterious dragon’s cheek. She spoke softly in Japanese.
