The emerging sun showed us the island we had been on, one smaller than the next one we flew over an hour later. The dragon traced its southern and eastern edge rather than head into it. My directions were based on the assumption that this star rose in the same horizon as in Orda. Not wishing to lose too much of my prana at once, I sent the winged leviathan to the ground when he described a small ruin we could search and hide in. There was a grander ruin farther to the north we could also explore if we so desired. For now, however, a town less teeming with fiends and ambush spots sounded more inviting.
Areas beyond the shadows began gradually heating up. I hoped the extra-long days did not mean I would have to contend with a scorching afternoon. As far as I understood, there wasn’t a way for dragon fire to cool anything down. At least a dip in the water was not so far away, and I really only had to worry about my own comfort. Alex’s fuller corruption probably made him hardier than me, so these extreme temperatures came down to personal preference rather than personal safety. Well, he might lose a finger or toe if he failed to be proactive, but that was up to him.
Like in the first township, we swept through the roads and buildings with equal parts fleetness and circumspection. Other than some hounds that may or may not have been part of the same pack, it turned out that scarcely any fiends resided here. Regardless, I acted as if a mob or flock of them might appear from around a corner at any time. We climbed a large home that displayed features of a lighthouse at its eastern flank as well. It was in the iron crown of the possible lighthouse tower where we settled.
Opening his food pouch, Alex said, “I wonder if there are fish in the sea here.”
“I bet there’s something edible. The problem is catching it. If you want meat, I know for a fact you can survive on raw scamp muscles.”
“Can’t you cook them with your fire?”
“I’ve yet to earnestly practice cooking with dragon fire. It’s more likely you’ll eat nothing but ashes if I tried my hand at the culinary arts.”
“How useful of you.”
“Right, ‘cause playing with shadows ca-” I looked out the broken window watching over the northern skyline.
“Uh, what is it?”
“Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“It sounded something like-”
Another small crack of thunder rang somewhere within the abandoned city to the north. More followed in quick succession. Many harpy outlines flew above the city.
“Are those from lightning spells?” asked Alex.
“Maybe. Something is surely fighting something else.”
“Spells mean higher fiends. I guess some don’t like each other… Or maybe there are still humans here?”
“After all this time?”
“I don’t know. Just a thought.”
“It’s not a terrible one. I suppose there’s a chance not everyone has been killed or corrupted. Do you want to check it out?”
“Not really. In fact, I regret putting the idea in your head.”
“I’m sure it would have popped in eventually. Anyway, we should take every chance we can at meeting anyone who can tell us something about this world.”
“Shouldn’t we at least wait until you can summon your dragon again?”
“That will take too long. We can’t risk losing a potential ally by waiting for ideal circumstances. Come on, the city isn’t too far.”
A begrudged brother trailed behind the sprint I started, which slowed to a fast jog out in the open. Additional thundercracks of various intensity and pattern pealed toward us. Contrasting from those born in the sky, none of these sharp explosions sounded as if they originated much higher than the ground, though their echoes bouncing off all the buildings made it difficult to pinpoint exactly where they sprang from.
What would have taken Aranath a few minutes to fly over took our legs nearly an hour to cross. Not too tiring for a pair of corrupted bodies, but we still needed to catch our breath for a moment once we reached cover. From there we made a snaking path through the city’s skeleton. Things had gotten quieter over the last twenty minutes, so our only reference was to observe where the suspended harpies congregated.
There were too many fiends to avoid altogether, forcing Alex to assert his dominance every few minutes. One hound needed a skewering, but the others got the message. I was not too concerned with expending prana here, since the ruins offered plenty of places to hide or create a crude fortification out of. What did bother me was the faintest aura pervading the whole of the mangled city. It felt a lot like Alex’s when he outpoured his soul, only it was constant and refined. Perhaps the sign of a higher fiend’s presence.
A grounded thunderbolt boomed not so far away. A scream followed, and though it did not sound deranged, it did not quite sound human either. We chased the tail end of the din. I almost tripped on the tail of a dead scamp. It was the first among a trail of lifeless scamps and hounds going up a road. Except for a couple of slashes, most appeared to have been killed by multiple stab wounds from a thin, circular piercing weapon.
Entering a wide alleyway, we saw a pack of hounds and scamps circling something in the middle of the passage. They noisily fought amongst themselves over who got to claim the prize. I combined my black dragon flame with Alex’s pulse of corruption to get the entire group bolting out of or way.
On clearing the scene, they exposed someone clad in tiered flaps of thin gold armor and black leather. The defensive attire draped down to its reedy lower legs. A gold helmet in the rough shape of a hawk’s face covered its head. Three deep holes that still spouted some raisin colored blood punctured through the armor at the stomach.
What stuck out the most were its leather-wrapped feet. They obviously did not belong to a human. The three toes were several inches longer, and short talons protruded from the slits. A smaller fourth toe poked out the heels. On closer inspection, I noticed its hands looked like a blend between human hands and a bird’s feet. And what I first assumed to be decoration to the armor was actually a blue, feathery frill attached to the bottom of its arms.
“I guess I was wrong about there being humans here,” said Alex.
“Take off the helmet.”
“Why do I have to do it?”
“If you want to convince me you’re fearless, you’re gonna have to stop hesitating every time I tell you to do something simple.”
He mumbled incoherently as he crouched by the dead thing. After some slight twisting, his hands lifted the helmet off the head.
It indeed mimicked a bird’s face, though there were differences. For one, its short, bluish gray beak not only encompassed its mouth, it covered its whole face. The only spots it failed to conceal were two thin oval holes near the front of its “nose,” its shiny black eyes, and a small slit on its forehead. With its mouth agape, I could also make out rows of barbed teeth things at the roof of its mouth, something I was pretty sure Orda birds did not have. Sprouting out behind the face-beak were blue and pink feathers.
“So we only found more questions,” I said.
“Here’s another one…” Alex picked up an odd tool grasped in the right being’s hand. “What’s this?”
The bird-man held the tool using the reddish brown handle that made a quick transition to the thick, dark gold metal tube. Under and between metal and wood was a curved piece of silver that mirrored certain crossbow triggers. An intricate leaf design made with greenish ink or dye adorned the surface.
“Don’t know, but that piece at the bottom looks like those on some crossbow triggers. Pull it. Just aim it away from me.”
Alex aimed at a brick wall a few feet away. With the twitch of his finger, an explosive bang rattled my unprepared ears. We both flinched as a brick exploded into little fragments. Smoke floated out of the tube and the thicker section in the middle.
In a louder tone than normal, Alex asked rhetorically, “How did it do that?! I wonder how he made this?”
“Are you keeping it?”
>
“Sure.”
“Then hand me the fire iron.”
The instant the fire iron exchanged hands, a screeching howl a few blocks over seemed to vent out from that all-encompassing aura I sensed. The rallying call stirred foaming barks, sickening croaks, and squawking shrieks all around us.
“What now?” asked Alex.
Moving away from the loudest howl, I answered, “We find a place to hide until we can take to the air again.”
Our boots strode fewer than a dozen times when a cavalcade of ringing thunder blasted to the east, or the opposite direction we headed in. In a roundabout way, I changed our route in order to get closer to the signal that some bird-men or humans were alive. Alex seemed to want to use his new weapon on any fiend we encountered, but without knowing how often it could explode things, I told him to keep to the strategies we’ve seen work so far.
I sensed we neared the originator of the aura. No coincidence considering where the mock thundercracks came from. The fiends we failed to disperse also headed toward the ruckus. Our roads led us to a long stone building five stories high with a thick brick tower at its east end. The sharp booms and flashes of light erupted from some of the shattered windows, sometimes resulting in the incapacitation of a fiend outside. Someone threw out a red stick from the second floor of the stone building. It blasted itself apart with the strength of several of my best explosive stones, killing two fiends at once.
The back of Alex’s hand smacked my left arm. “Cyrus, look.”
My brother pointed at the west end of the besieged building. On the roof was a silhouette roughly resembling the bird-man’s corpse, only it wore almost nothing in the way of armor or clothing. It crawled on all fours to a third story window and entered the ruin through it. Igniting a black flame, I ran toward the less active southwest corner of the building. The sea of fiends parted to allow me and Alex to infiltrate the building through a doorless entry without engaging any enemy creature.
Along with the fiends that made it through, an open space with rows of stone columns met us inside. The first set of stairs were too crumbled for us to ascend, so we had to take the second set we found. The second level was divided by grimy stone walls and pillars chewed up from the salty air. Those explosive firing tools rocked this floor. Alex and I took turns moving up a room and inspecting the next one.
As I ran toward the next room, a human-shaped figure in gold and black armor similar to the bird-man’s popped out from behind the entry. A flat helmet obscured their face. The figure held a longer type of the unique weapon, which fired off its explosive sound when it lined up with me.
Chapter Nine
Despite my armor, or because of it, the impact on my chest felt as though a hammer swung by a corrupted gorilla slammed into me with the force to crack a rib. In other words, not enough to stop me. With a hard burst of dark prana to my legs, I sidestepped out of the next explosion’s way and lunged at the wielder of the thunder stick. I knocked out the weapon from their grip with my fire iron.
At the same time Alex aimed his weapon at my assailant, another helmeted figure appeared from behind the entry, their smaller thunder stick’s narrow tube pointing at me. Assuming they would not unload on their ally, I grabbed the first attacker’s arm to pull their body closer to mine, thus gaining a living shield.
“Stop!” I said in my soundest voice. “We’re not fiends! We’re here to help! Can you understand me?!”
“I sense your vileness,” said the man I detained. “You can’t trick us. Felicia, be sure to aim for his head!”
“Yes, we’re corrupted! But we have it under control! We saw a real fi-”
A strong burst of corruption was instantly followed by a scream somewhere in the adjoining room. Felicia was forced to turn around. I pulled down the man to get him out of my way. A limp body was flung at Felicia, knocking her on her back. The highest pitched screech possible by a living thing briefly overtook all other sound as the corrupted bird-man dashed into view. Where it did not display bristled, tattered feathers, the scaly skin found on a bird’s feet covered its naked body. Its large head made it appear too top-heavy to move gracefully, but it absolutely moved at a blazing speed.
My right ear went deaf when Alex pulled the trigger on his weapon right next to it. A splattering of dark blood and ripped skin at its shoulder did nothing to slow our true enemy. I wasn’t counting on anyone else’s weapons to offer the killing blow, so I was already well on my way to igniting the dragon stone I threw. A swell of dragon fire engulfed the fiend. It shrieked with surprised pain as bony, serrated spears sticking out from the top of its forearms swung for me.
Ducking the unnaturally natural cutters had me losing control of my spell, giving the chance for the fiend to head out the window. Based on how it flailed, I’m not sure it wanted to do so. It fell unceremoniously, and vociferously, outside. Alex, going to the same window, tried using his weapon, but it merely clicked harmlessly. The burning fiend ran behind the neighboring building, cutting off my ability to fuel the spell. Regardless, I trusted the fire would inflict considerable damage even if it managed to put it out soon.
Felicia rolled the thrown body off herself, the blood spilling out from the neck leaving a trail of liquid gore on her chest and stomach. I extended a hand out to her. Her gold helmet only watched me.
“Felicia, right? I’m Mercer. Can you still fight?”
Ignoring my hand, she huffed up to her feet. “Of course I can.” She picked up her weapon, taking a second to decide whether to aim it at me or not. She did not. “Who are you two?”
“Two brothers looking to get back to Orda.”
The man I pulled down got up. He gruffly said, “Orda? Impossible.”
“We thought the same about humans still living on this world, so we’re both wrong.”
Removing the corrupted bird-man quieted the area somewhat, allowing my left ear to clearly hear two pairs of steps coming toward us. Before they arrived, I picked up the weapon I knocked out of the man’s hand and offered it to him. He snatched it away, but like Felicia, thought better than to target me with it.
Another male voice shouted, “Is everyone all right here?!”
“We lost Isido,” replied the first man. “A hallion made it through.”
Appearing without a helmet, a middle-aged man with tawny skin and an unusually shaggy black mustache asked, “Where’s the hallion now?”
When the helmless man spotted me, I answered, “It jumped out the window after we attacked it.”
“Who is this?”
“They claim to come from Orda,” said Felicia. “We haven’t had the time to find out how much they’re fucking with us.”
Alex grunted. “Then you don’t want to know what else he’ll claim.”
A wave of terse explosions reminded us of the persisting danger.
“Shit, we don’t have time for this,” said the helmless man.
“Do you have a plan of retreat?” I asked. “I can clear a path for your group.”
“How?”
“Fiends are frightened off by this…” I put down a dragon stone and lit it with corruption. I lifted the black flame to eye level, where all were entranced by the strange vision. “My brother’s corruption is also strong enough to repel weaker fiends. Get us in your group and you’ll be safer. Simple as that.”
“Simple my ass. Show me.”
I nodded. “My brother can carry your lost friend there. He won’t need his hands to repel fiends.”
He studied me and his dead comrade for the totality of a highly attentive second. “Bring him.”
Alex gave me a sidelong glance of displeasure, but went ahead and lifted the corpse over his shoulder. With my blackened flame still hovering, I followed the troop to different rooms. There wasn’t much explanation given to the five other combatants who were reabsorbed into the assemblage, one of which belonged to the bird-man race. Most possessed the longer form of the thunder-creating weapon.
At the helmless
man’s insistence, I went downstairs first to confront the fiends. With a surge of corruption, the flame grew by five times. They croaked and barked in anger, but they backed off. I went as far as going outside to disband a larger pack. I’m not sure demonstrating my capacity to do something only a higher fiend could accomplish got them any closer to trusting me, but they no doubt savored the break from the onslaught.
“Where are we going?” I asked the man without the helmet, who acted as his group’s leader.
Beginning the kind of orderly run common in trained soldiers, he answered, “East. We have a ship waiting for us. Now you know how we got here, how did you?”
“A rune portal in Degosal. I was looking to close it, but it teleported us to this realm instead.”
“There’s still a connection between this world and Orda?”
“Yes. It’s lasted long enough to keep Degosal full of fiends since the Cataclysm.”
Spotting four fiends turning a corner up ahead, the helmless man stopped in his tracks to aim his projectile weapon at them. His subordinates followed his lead, though some aimed their flung explosives at other surrounding fiends.
Resuming our run, he asked, “The what?”
“The Cataclysm. That’s what people in Orda call whatever made Degosal unlivable. If my brother and I are to go back home, we can either find the portal that keeps sending fiends to Degosal, or get some vlimphite to power a rune I can carve myself. How much vlimphite is in this realm?”
“Vlimphite? You mean those magic crystals? I don’t know. Can’t be much if I can’t even think of a company who handles it.”
“But there are examples?”
“A few, but resource management is not my specialty.”
“No, that appears to be fighting. Why are you on an island overrun with fiends?”
“We’re Vanguards. Our never-ending job is to go out and kill any ghoul we come across. It’s normally little more than target practice in places like this, but we didn’t expect for godsdamn hallions to be organizing this far up the Wyncour Sea. We were ambushed and scattered.”
The Dragon Knight and the Steam World Page 9
