by Ben Wolf
Magnus’s fingers clasped around the hilt, and he wrenched the sword from the stone as his forward momentum carried him into a roll.
Vandorian’s blade slashed over Magnus’s head.
The Dragon’s Breath blade ignited with brilliant emerald fire.
Now on his feet, Magnus turned to face Vandorian, who swung at him again, and Magnus raised his sword to block.
Vandorian’s Blood Ore sword met the fiery Dragon’s Breath, and its blade shattered like glass.
He gawked at his sword, now lying beneath him in pieces except for the hilt, which he still held in his hands, then he looked up at Magnus, shocked to silence, except for one word.
“Brother…?”
Justice. Revenge. Reckoning.
Whatever it was called, Magnus could now claim it.
He lashed his sword at a wide-eyed Vandorian with a roar and felled him in one vicious blow.
Vandorian dropped to the floor in two pieces, severed on a diagonal line from his left shoulder down to his right hip. His golden breastplate had melted at the edges where Magnus’s blade cut through it, and the metal fused to his seared flesh and organs. No blood spilled from his body—the Dragon’s Breath had cauterized everything.
Stunned silence permeated the air.
Magnus snatched the Dragon Emerald’s pouch from Vandorian’s belt, secured it to his own, then turned to face his father’s killer.
He pointed the Dragon’s Breath sword, still ablaze with emerald flames, at Kahn, who stared at him with wide-eyed fury. “You are next.”
Kahn roared and slammed his gargantuan fists on the red stone floor, shaking the entire fortress, but Magnus didn’t so much as flinch. Instead, he charged forward.
As Magnus approached, Kahn whirled around and whipped his enormous tail toward Magnus like a tree trunk-sized club. Magnus found his timing and leaped over Kahn’s tail—and the spike attached to the end of it. He landed on his feet and raised his sword.
Far faster than Magnus had expected, Kahn’s tail lashed back at him from the other direction, this time leading with his spike. With no time to evade the strike, Magnus swung his sword instead, and the Dragon’s Breath cut through the tip of Kahn’s tail it as if it were a piece of parchment. The spike and the end of Kahn’s tail dropped to the floor.
Another roar shook the courtyard, and Kahn hauled his tail back.
“What sorcery is this?” Kahn bellowed.
“No sorcery. This is the Dragon’s Breath, an ancient sword of terrible power that can penetrate Dragon scales and rend Dragon flesh.” Magnus grinned. “But that is not the limit of its powers.”
Still several yards away from Kahn, Magnus raised the Dragon’s Breath over his head and swung it in a wide arc straight down. A scythe of emerald flames from the sword streaked through the air toward Kahn.
Kahn shielded his face from the flames with his arms, and the attack hit his forearms, shoulders, and side. The flames scorched along his scales but quickly subsided.
Kahn raised his head and hissed, “Your blade may have wounded me, but your artificial fire cannot harm me. You will have to come closer, Nephew.”
Magnus had anticipated as much. “I am happy to oblige. I will plunge this blade into your throat, carve down into your chest, and sever your black heart from its arteries.”
“Then come here and do it, hatchling.”
Magnus started forward, but Kahn’s nostrils began to issue smoke as they had before. That meant only one thing, and Magnus dove to the side and rolled behind a large red rock for cover.
Kahn inhaled a large breath and exhaled a blast of emerald fire at him. The rock provided enough shelter to keep Magnus from perishing, but the heat still seared his shoulders and arms. He growled and grunted at the burn, and he tried to crouch even lower behind the rock, but the burn only intensified.
Magnus clenched his jaw tightly as the scales along his arms, neck, and legs began to blacken and crisp. The leather straps holding his Blood Ore breastplate in place withered and hardened from the heat.
But no matter how the pain persisted, Magnus would continue to fight until one of them perished.
The heat quickly subsided, and Magnus stole a painful glance from behind his cover. Kahn’s flames had melted the front half of Magnus’s cover into molten rock. It wouldn’t survive another of Kahn’s blasts, and neither would Magnus.
And now Kahn was drawing another deep breath.
Magnus could make only one move.
And it was the very move he’d been waiting to make ever since he’d recovered his Dragon Emerald from Roderick.
He sprang from behind the melting rock, tore his breastplate off, and tossed both his armor and the Dragon’s Breath sword away. He extended his arms out to his sides and taunted the mighty beast before him.
“Go ahead, Kahn. You murdered my father. This is your one chance to kill me as well, if you can.”
Kahn finished his inhale and leaned forward with his mouth open. Smoke continued to pulse from his nostrils, and the instant Magnus saw a flicker of green flame emanate from Kahn’s throat, he tore the Dragon Emerald pouch from his belt and held it out before him.
This had better work.
Calum watched in horror as green fire cascaded over Magnus’s body, but his concern quickly subsided when he realized that Magnus somehow still stood there, intact, and seemingly unharmed.
The leather pouch that contained Magnus’s Dragon Emerald had incinerated upon its first contact with Kahn’s green fire, but the Dragon Emerald itself remained. What’s more, it now glowed with vibrant yellow light.
Shafts of orange light shone from between Magnus’s fingers, and amid the endless flames, he pressed the Dragon Emerald against his bare chest, just as he had in the tunnels under Kanarah City.
Orange light penetrated his chest amid Kahn’s green fire, but Magnus remained unscathed. Instead, his entire body began to glow orange like the Dragon Emerald. As Kahn’s blast of fire subsided, Magnus began to transform.
His fingers and arms thickened and lengthened, as did his legs, his torso, and his tail. The spikes of black bone protruding from his spine elongated and sharpened, and a curved black razor sprouted from the tip of his tail. The spikes on top of his head also widened and grew larger, and two long black horns grew out from the sides of his head.
His green scales darkened to an even deeper green—almost black—and black plates of armored scales formed on his broadening chest. His jaw widened, and his teeth lengthened and sharpened as his neck stretched longer. Magnus convulsed and lurched forward onto his hands and knees, and the Dragon Emerald hit the ground, now solid black like a lump of coal.
The talons on his fingers and toes lengthened and dug into the red stone. His shoulder blades protruded from his back at severe angles and sprouted into small wings that continued to grow until they spread nearly as wide as Kahn’s had.
He reared back on his legs, now a titan nearly as large as Kahn, and loosed a roar that shook Calum to his core.
Now there were two dragons in Kanarah.
Chapter Eighteen
New strength and power unlike anything Magnus had ever felt coursed through his body. The burns on his scales were gone, and the transformation had reinforced his whole body in every conceivable way. A furious burn sizzled somewhere inside his chest, compelling him to advance, to destroy, to conquer.
He looked down—really far down—at his friends. They were always small compared to him, but now they more resembled dolls than people. They stared up at him, marveling.
“Impossible!” Kahn bellowed. “All the Dragon Emeralds were lost!”
“Not all of them.” Magnus’s focus locked on Kahn. Now the fight was even. Now Magnus could finally claim his vengeance once and for all.
His eyes narrowed, and he lunged forward.
Kahn hissed and bashed Magnus’s head with his open palm. His talons scraped against the scales armoring Magnus’s face, but it didn’t stop him.
Magnus’s new wings propelled his full weight into Kahn’s chest, shoulder-first, and they both fell to the ground amid a thunder of roars. The impact seemed to shake the entire mountain.
Magnus drove his gigantic fists into Kahn’s chest and face, all while Kahn writhed, trying to escape. He finally managed to break free from Magnus’s grasp, and with several powerful beats of his wings, he took to the sky.
Magnus stood upright and stared at Kahn, who hovered fifty feet or so above the keep, his wings flapping in large, even strokes to keep him more or less in the same spot. Kahn extended his hand and curled his forefinger toward himself.
“If you are so eager to claim your revenge, then meet me in the sky and duel like a true Dragon,” he taunted.
It was a trap, certainly. Magnus had never flown before. He wasn’t familiar with tactics regarding battling in the air, and he’d only just grown wings.
But Magnus refused to allow Kahn the chance to escape. He had achieved everything he’d set out to achieve thus far, with only one exception: Kahn still drew breath. And that was about to change for good.
With a snarl, Magnus spread his new wings and pumped at the air, and he ascended from the stone floor. The sensation of leaving his feet and climbing into the sky because of the two brand new limbs that had sprouted from his back was exhilarating.
His wings walloped the air, and he rose into the ether faster than he’d expected, given his incredible size and increased mass. More incredible was the sight of the Blood Mountains burning red below him under the sunshine.
But he wasn’t taking to the sky to admire the view. He had a Dragon to strike down, his people to save, and a dead father to avenge.
“Magnus!” a shout sounded from behind him.
He glanced back, surprised at how easily his elongated neck allowed him to do so. Lilly and Condor hovered in the air on either side of his shoulders.
“Be careful how you engage him in the air,” Lilly continued. “My father had the Calios and was the preeminent warrior in our realm, and not even he could defeat Kahn.”
“Your father was not a Dragon.” Magnus refocused on Kahn, who now hovered higher than before and still glared down at Magnus. “And I have not come this far to suffer defeat now.”
“Don’t forget to keep flapping your wings,” Condor said. “I don’t have the slightest idea of how much punishment you can take, but if you fall from too high up, it’ll at least hurt you, if not kill you. And keep the acrobatics to a minimum. We tell that to Windgale children when they’re first learning to fly.”
As if on cue, Kahn executed a broad aerial loop, tucked his wings into his sides, and shot toward Magnus and his two Windgale allies.
“Get down!” Magnus roared.
He pushed forward, barely noting Condor’s distant call of “You look great, by the way,” and met Kahn in the air. They collided, but Magnus took Condor’s advice to heart and kept his wings flapping amid the impact of Kahn’s body against his. Roars and growls emanated from both of them as they clawed and snapped at each other.
Kahn grabbed Magnus’s throat and leaned forward with his jaws open as they flew. At the first sight of green flames, Magnus stopped flapping his wings and wrenched free from Kahn’s grasp. He tucked them against his sides, just as Kahn had, and plummeted downward while Kahn pursued him through a plume of emerald fire.
Magnus banked to his right and tried to use his wings to glide, but he couldn’t figure out how to get them positioned the right way, so they only served to slow him down as he fell. He’d have to work on that later when he had more time.
The mountain range leaped at him, and Magnus furiously beat his wings against the air to correct his course. He looked back to locate Kahn, finding him in hot pursuit.
Magnus dove again, and the slopes of Firebrand Mountain rushed up to meet him. He curved to his left and pounded his wings at the air, just barely avoiding smashing into the mountain. The trees dotting the mountainside waved and hissed as the wind from his wings sent them rocking.
He glanced back as he arced around the mountain and saw Kahn following, though not as closely as before. But as soon as Magnus climbed, Kahn lurched forward and slammed into his back, and they both fell.
Magnus contorted his body to loose himself from Kahn’s grasp, but pain dug into his sides—Kahn’s talons. Apparently Dragon talons could pierce Dragon scales easily enough.
Even so, Magnus was far from defenseless.
Magnus swept his arms at Kahn’s wrists and broke free. As they separated, Magnus drove his foot into the side of Kahn’s head and put some distance between them. Then his wings caught the air, and he curled away from Kahn and ascended again.
He’d achieved very little in the battle thus far. Magnus had mostly been on the defensive. Kahn had chased him through the sky, outmaneuvered him, and nearly sent him crashing into the mountainside several times. Transforming into a Dragon had changed everything for Magnus, and battling in the air was far more difficult than he’d expected.
If he meant to triumph, he had to reconsider his approach.
Kahn swooped down low and arced up toward him, his nostrils streaming tendrils of smoke yet again. It meant a blast of dragonfire was coming soon. Kahn’s torso swelled as he inhaled a giant breath of air.
Rather than trying to flee, Magnus snarled and advanced to meet him in the sky. His wings launched him forward with his head lowered and his right shoulder exposed.
Kahn’s golden eyes widened, and his mouth opened wide, exposing the emerald glow of dragonfire in his throat. But Magnus’s shoulder slammed into Kahn’s chest and jarred him from his trajectory, and the fiery breath that had gathered in Kahn’s throat expelled in a wild burst of dragonfire that sizzled through the air above them.
Magnus curled his arms around Kahn’s midsection, forcing Kahn to carry his weight. Together they plummeted toward the ground, and Kahn’s wings spread wide to try to slow their descent. He tried to beat his wings to keep himself airborne, but with Magnus’s weight pressing down on him, they continued to fall.
Kahn roared, but the impact of his heavy body slamming into the mountainside cut his voice off. The force sent shudders ratcheting through Magnus’s body, but Kahn had taken the brunt of the impact.
And now Magnus had him out of the air.
Kahn flailed a wild, taloned hand at Magnus’s face, but Magnus’s forearm blocked the attack. Even at many times his original size, some aspects of fighting remained the same.
Magnus delivered a stunning headbutt to Kahn’s snout, and Kahn recoiled, scraping and clawing at Magnus’s shoulders and chest to try to escape, but Magnus refused to let him go. Instead, Magnus continued his onslaught. He would never get a better chance than this.
He slashed at Kahn’s face with his talons, carving four parallel lacerations clean to the bones in Kahn’s skull. A rageful roar billowed from Kahn’s throat, and he squirmed to get his wings free from underneath him.
The heat in Magnus’s chest continued to roil and burn, continued to drive him to attack. He realized it was his own dragonfire, eager to burst forth. Smoke puffed out of his nostrils.
As Kahn finally tore away and clambered up the mountainside, Magnus inhaled a deep breath. Kahn’s wings spread, but as the false Dragon King prepared to leap into the sky again, Magnus opened his mouth wide. He would not let Kahn escape.
The burning sensation in his chest raced up his throat and blasted past his tongue and teeth in a burst of emerald flames. The sensation startled Magnus at first, but he quickly focused the stream of fire on Kahn’s wings.
The dragonfire crashed into Kahn’s back in a cascade of emerald waves, shearing through his right wing and his right shoulder. Magnus’s breath expended, but the damage was done. Kahn writhed and thrashed as the emerald fire gnawing at his flesh finally dissipated.
Magnus drew in another deep breath for another blast of flame, but the burn in his chest hadn’t yet replenished, so nothing came out except a fearsome hiss. But he didn�
�t need more fire to finish this contest.
Kahn’s right wing was totally gone, and the fire had burned sporadic holes in the membranes of his left wing. His right arm hung limp at his side, dangling from what remained of his right shoulder. With his left hand and his legs, Kahn tried to crawl along the mountainside, away from the fight.
Coward.
Magnus reached for Kahn with his right hand, took hold of the back of his neck, and hurled him back down toward the Crimson Keep’s courtyard, where he landed with a ground-shaking thud. Magnus leaped after and landed on top of him, pinning him to the red stone floor.
By that point, the whole of Reptilius seemed to have turned out to witness the battle’s conclusion. Saurians both young and old stood beyond General Hanza and his soldiers, who’d formed a protective barrier to keep the citizens from getting caught in the fray.
Under Magnus’s weight, Kahn strained to get free, but now that Magnus had him, he refused to let him go. Instead, he pinned Kahn’s head to the stone floor with one hand and held it there. Kahn’s good hand clutched at Magnus’s wrist.
“Magnusss…” Kahn rasped. “I yield! I beg of you… show me mercy. I am still your uncle. The last of your kin. What kind of example will you be setting for our people? That you are unwilling to show mercy to your own family?”
A memory resurfaced in Magnus’s mind—the memory of watching Kahn crush Praetorius’s head in his hands. The pain of that moment didn’t even allow Magnus to consider changing his course of action. Instead, it galvanized his resolve even further.
“My people will know that I am true to my word,” Magnus countered. “They will forever know that I always do what I have promised to do.”
Magnus clamped his other hand on Kahn’s head. With one powerful push, he compressed his hands—and Kahn’s skull.
Kahn roared, but only for an instant.
The crack of Kahn’s collapsing skull echoed off the Crimson Keep’s stone walls and reverberated throughout the Blood Mountains, chased by the gasps of the Saurians who had gathered to watch.
