by Ramy Vance
Suzuki was standing outside with Chip. They were no longer in the cave, they were in a forest. The trees were nearly the width of a skyscraper, and they stretched all the way to the night sky, where billions of stars twinkled infinitely. Purple knee-high grass covered the ground, and a gentle wind blew through the forest.
Houses were built into the canopy of trees. Elaborate bridges were built between each of the trees and Suzuki could make out folk walking back and forth.
Chip walked around, staring up at the stars for a bit before they sat down in the grass. Suzuki took a seat next to her and felt the grass against his palms. “What’s happening?” he asked.
“It’s my home. I accessed the backend of your HUD and cards. Pumped up the strength a gigaton. Crystal clear, eh?”
“Are we actually here?”
“Nope. Kinda like a VR room. You can pick a spot on your map, hit the coordinates, and bingo, high definition spy tools. You can’t go far. Say you cast it on them orcs pounding outside? You’d be able to walk a little forward and a little back, but it’ll start to break up after that. Still give you a good look at what’s around, though.”
“You grew up here?” Suzuki asked.
“Yeppers.”
“What exactly are you? I mean, you’re not a mage, but you use magic. You’re not a fighter or a tank or a warrior. Chipmaster isn’t even really a name, it’s more of a title.”
“Technically, a rogue. More specifically, an experiment. Back when the military jack-shits were interested in magic-technology combos, that’s when ol’ Chipmaster happened. But Chip’s good enough for a name. Come on, we should get going. The spell also casts a time dilation spell. Things outside are going a lot slower so you can take your time. Sounds good, right?”
“Yeah. It’s fucking amazing.”
Chip nodded in satisfaction. “All in a day’s work.”
The illusion disappeared with a loud pop and Suzuki was back in the cave. No one seemed to have noticed that he and Chip had disappeared. It was like the whole experience had taken less than a second. Chip stood up, brushed off her pants, and went to join the rest of her party.
Suzuki followed as both parties converged. Government technology experiments, Suzuki thought. He remembered the orb that he had used to speak with the viceroy. The orb had not been magical in nature. He knew that the moment he had touched it. Magic was still something that Suzuki didn’t quite grasp, but technology was another story. He grew up with technology. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, he knew that the orb wasn’t magical. He wondered what specifically the military had been testing with Chip. What more would she be willing to tell him?
A loud roar and shouting voices could be heard in the cave. It was coming from the direction the Mundanes and Horsemen had just traveled. José jumped on his axbeak and pointed farther into the cave.
“If we’re still following your plan,” he suggested, “we should go farther into the cave. Find something more suitable. If we try to have a straight-up fight in here, they’re going to kill us.”
Suzuki mounted his axbeak as well and nodded in agreement as he rode up to José’s side. “Which way do you think we should go?” he asked.
José pointed at a stream of trickling water that ran between their feet. “We’ll follow the water source. The pathways should narrow due to the erosion. If we hit a wall, the six of us can bust through it and then we’ll have our kill tunnel.”
“Lead the way.”
They took off, the axbeaks moving slowly across the stones as if they were worried about their frail feet. Suzuki fell in with the Mundanes toward the back of the group, gladly allowing José to step up and take the lead. He let his axbeak slow until he was next to Stew. “Shit’s pretty wild, huh?” he asked.
Stew clapped his hand on Suzuki’s shoulder as he beamed. “Wild ain’t the word, dude,” he replied. “I still remember how hard you were fanboying when you met José. Thought you were going to cream your jeans.”
“Fuck off.”
“But for real, it is wild,” Stew said. “I know José said that the MERCs had been watching us for a while but, honestly, I thought we were still just some dumb freshmen to these guys. I was definitely surprised when you told me that José and all the Horsemen were going to help us find Beth.”
“One step closer.”
“Yeah, dude. One step closer.”
Beth hadn’t been mentioned between the Mundanes for some time. It was not that she was a sore subject. Rather, Suzuki suspected it was because the three of them were so focused on getting Beth back safely that it didn’t need to be mentioned anymore. Why bother talking about something that you’re always thinking about.
José led the riders down the cavern pathway following the trickling water. They made their way down the shimmering stone path until the walls started to tighten around them. They forced the axbeaks to keep moving even as they whined uncomfortably. It did not take long until they were all walking single file in a very cramped space – exactly what Suzuki had been hoping for. After a few more minutes of shimmying through the narrow path, they came to a small opening. José cracked the wall with his sword and the stone fell away, leaving just enough space for two people to fit through at once.
It was a genius move.
If the hole had been only wide enough for one, that would have given the orcs enough time to retreat. They wouldn’t crowd the entrance properly. There was also a chance that they could see it was a trap. An opening for two made it seem more natural. The horde would probably try to force their way through before even thinking it through.
Suzuki was glad to see that José was a solid strategist as well as an amazing warrior. He was the kind of leader Suzuki silently wished to be. Getting to see José working from this close up was a dream. It was like watching a player who had figured out all the tricks to break a game. Suzuki quietly wondered whether or not the stories that people told about José were actually true. He seemed to have the wisdom of an immortal.
The new section of the cave didn’t seem that much different from the cavern they just came from. The only significant difference was that there was no underground pool, and there was a large hill toward the back of the cavern. There didn’t appear to be any other openings in the cavern, save a large hole in the ceiling. Suzuki wondered what could have happened to cause one large hole rather than the numerous small holes in the last cavern. He didn’t worry too much about it, though. Geology was never a subject he had pretended to know anything about.
While Suzuki mused to himself, the rest of the adventurers were preparing themselves for the battle to come. Diana was showing Sandy how to attach different runes to the rocks and ground to turn the entrance into a massive trap. It was like lacing the floor with dynamite, but rather than an explosion, it would guarantee a massive fire trap, causing a lot of damage without draining a substantial amount of mana.
The more melee-inclined José and Stew were going over shield and sword techniques. José was trying to convince Stew to invest in a shield by showing Stew the different ways that you could force back an enemy with one.
Stew looked disinterested until José changed tactics and showed Stew a technique for beheading someone with the edge of your shield.
“Defense might not be as pussy as I thought,” Stew said as José handed him his shield to try.
Much like Diana and Sandy, Chip was wandering through the cave. She wasn’t setting traps, though. Every so often, she would look up at the enormous hill against the back of the cavern. When she finally turned around and met Suzuki’s eyes, she forced a smile. Suzuki couldn’t get over how weird she looked outside of the Red Lion.
When José was satisfied with their preparations, he sat down on a rock near the entrance of the cavern. The rest of the adventurers sat down around him and they stared at the entrance, waiting. Suzuki knew what to expect, but his heart was still pounding. This all seemed like a good plan, but if something went wrong, they could easily end up dead. The Horsemen were str
ong, he knew that for a fact, but strong wasn’t invincible. He had seen how reticent José had been to have a straight-on fight.
Even José had a fear of death and could tell that the battle was not theirs to win.
The silence in the cave was almost unbearable. It was so quiet that Suzuki imagined that he could hear something breathing behind him. Something heavy and large. He looked over his shoulder.
Nothing.
It’s got to be in my head, Suzuki thought. Just getting nervous. That’s all. Just getting nervous.
José looked at Suzuki and smiled, his smile handsome and hearty from underneath his beard. As if he were reading Suzuki’s mind, he said, “This is the worst part. The waiting. No matter how many times I’ve been backed into a wall, waiting to be overrun is always shit. It never fucking gets less stressful. But who gives a shit when you got your mates with you, am I right? If anyone is gonna keep me safe, it’s going to be these fuckers.”
Suzuki could relate. The quest that had finally garnered José’s attention had been a turning point for the Mundanes. It was the first time that they truly thought they were going to die. It had been at that moment Suzuki realized that Sandy and Stew were something so much bigger than friends. They were who he could die next to. No doubts. No regrets. They were his party.
The walls of the cavern shook and dust and rocks dropped from the ceiling. The orcs were coming. They must have discarded their wargs to travel on foot. The ground was slightly shaking with their rhythmic march.
Clairvoyance would give Suzuki a better idea of how far they were. He concentrated on where he wanted to cast: farther down the entrance, near the other opening. The portal opened up in front of him, and he put his fingers on its edges and then flicked it wider until he stood in the center of the tunnel.
He could see the orcs approaching.
Fast.
They’d be upon them in a few moments.
Fear and excitement pounded through Suzuki’s veins. There was a time when he had only been afraid, feeling as if he were floundering through each fight. Not this time. He felt a little of what he believed Stew and Sandy felt at the beginning of a fight—pure adrenaline.
Suzuki turned to José as he drew his hand ax. “They’re gonna be here any minute.”
José whipped down the visor of his helm and unsheathed his sword. “Then let’s make sure we send a message to the Dark One. It’s gonna take more than a couple of orcs and goblins to get rid of MERC.”
As Stew walked up to take his place in the battle line, he chuckled to himself. “You can fucking say that again,” he shouted as he puffed his chest out. “It’ll take an army of dragons to fuck us up.”
A chorus erupted of “Hell fucking yeah.” The MERC bravado was on in full force. Suzuki had seen it a few times but never been a part of it. This time he felt invincible. Whatever was coming through that tunnel was dead.
The sound of the orcs approaching increased. Their grunts and guttural shouts could be heard reverberating through the tunnel. The ground shook from their marching.
Suzuki raised his sword as he saw the first orc’s gnarled, snarling face pass into the light as it exited the tunnel. “This ends here,” Suzuki shouted. “Let’s fuck these motherfuckers up!”
Suddenly, the cavern became very hot. Suzuki felt like a match had just been lit underneath him. The air grew thick and heavy. Sulfur, the familiar smell of Fred crawling out of his pocket dimension and into physical reality, filled Suzuki’s nostrils, but Fred was nowhere to be seen. It was getting hotter and hotter still.
Then there was a gust of wind, stronger than Suzuki had ever felt, and the Mundanes and Horsemen were thrown through the air as winds as strong as a hurricane’s flung them against the wall.
A stream of fire spurted forth, a funnel of flames the deepest red and black. The flames shot forward and into the tunnel. The screams of the orcs and goblins were unceremoniously cut off as they were burned to ash.
Suzuki scrambled to his feet. Sweat poured down the side of his face, and he flung off his helm, afraid that he was going to pass out from the heat. His vision was blurry, but he could see something near the back of the cave, something enormous and hulking in size. It spread its leathery wings and shot fire up toward the ceiling.
As Suzuki’s vision cleared, he could see what had killed the horde.
A red dragon. It nearly dominated the entire back of the cavern. Its body was covered in red scales that rose and fell like a wave running along its back. It had a lizard-like head with horns that sprouted from its forehead and swept back like elongated ram’s horns. Its legs and arms were long and muscular. From across the room, its eyes glowed menacingly red.
The dragon turned to face the adventurers. Its serpentine face reflected wisdom and intolerance as it slunk toward the humans, each step causing them to jump as the ground shook.
A fear unlike anything Suzuki had ever felt flooded his bones. The dragon continued to advance, its gnarled, ancient body almost slithering, smoke pluming from its nostrils as they flared. There was something old about the dragon that sent a primordial dread through Suzuki.
It must have been the way that a swimmer in the ocean feels when beholding a shark.
This was a creature evolved to perfection and adept at one thing: death.
The dragon’s voice boomed, and Suzuki felt it thundering beneath his skin, in his heart, and in his head. It was an ancient tongue that he could not understand, yet made total sense. Hissing with the notes of a song washed over him as the dragon crouched and continued its approach.
“Who dares trespass within my home?” the dragon roared. “Who dares step onto the hallowed hoard? Do ye know not my name?”
No one answered.
Suzuki was too afraid to look at José, and he assumed José was just as terrified. The Horsemen and the other MERCs always exchanged stories of the monsters they had killed.
No one had told any stories of dragons.
“Will ye remain silent, creatures of flesh and dust? Let me speak my name so that you know that purest power which you have offended. I am many named. I am the Scourge of the Eastern Wilds, the Flame Which Hath No End. I have been called the Pillar of the Realm, the Snake Which the World Rests Upon, The Red Flame of Eternity. Bow before me in fear and trembling, for I am Ashegoreth, the Eldest Red Dragon of the East, the Bringer of Despair and Ash. I am the Red Death.”
Ashegoreth reared up and breathed fire that rolled up to the ceiling in a black cloud. Suzuki thought it looked like hell inverted. The dragon fell back to all fours and roared, her jaw stretching wide enough to swallow everyone in the room, flames brewing in her belly, lighting her throat and mouth with an unearthly glow.
No one moved, for they were in the presence of the Bringer of Despair and Ash.
There was only silence and stillness as the Red Death stood before them.
3
The cavern was filled with the noxious fumes from Ashegoreth, so heavy with smoke that the Mundanes and Horsemen could hardly breathe. The dragon and the humans continued to stare at each other. It was as if time was frozen, each waiting for who was going to make the first move.
Suzuki had never seen a dragon, and the sheer enormity of the creature was still unsettling his mind. It looked as if the dragon took up all the space in the room. But if Suzuki paid close attention and set aside his fear for a moment, he could see that the dragon was in fact sitting on a mound of treasure, mostly gold and silver, that gave her the appearance of being much larger than she truly was.
The dragon could have scorched them at any moment. She had not hesitated to kill the orcs that had been trespassing into her nest. What was taking so long for her to attack?
At Suzuki’s side, José still held his sword. Suzuki cast a glance at him, hoping to glean an insight into what José was thinking, to see what the plan of action might be. Speaking was obviously too dangerous. The dragon understood English. Maybe Suzuki could reach out to José using the communication of the
ir familiars. There weren’t many options.
None that Suzuki could see at least.
There was no warning for the stream of fire that jetted out at them. Suzuki threw himself to the ground, as did the rest of the Mundanes and Horsemen. The fire passed directly over them and maintained itself for some time. Finally, Ashegoreth relented. The air above Suzuki was still hot.
Stew was lying face down, not too far from Suzuki. His back was covered in soot, but he was physically okay. He looked at Suzuki with a look of serene panic. “That’s a big ass fucking dragon,” he whispered under his breath.
“You don’t fucking say!”
Across from Stew and Suzuki, Sandy and the Horsemen had taken shelter behind a massive boulder. Suzuki checked around for a similar setup. He tugged Stew to follow him as he stood, ran, and ducked behind a formation of rocks. As he and Stew sat with their back against the rocks, another jet of fire came shooting out in their direction.
That was two attacks that Ashegoreth had fired off that had missed. Suzuki found it hard to believe that the dragon had been so ill-prepared for their arrival that she would have missed twice. It had only taken one attack to decimate the orc horde. And she had done that without warning. The dragon had taken the time to introduce herself to him and the rest of the parties.
There had to have been a reason for that.
The jet of fire disappeared, and all that was left was hot air. Stew turned to Suzuki and drew his swords. “We can take it,” Stew said. “We can nail that fucking thing.”
Suzuki checked his HUD. It read 7%. Higher than he expected. “Odds are too low.” He sighed. “We can’t kill that thing.”
“We killed that elder god-thing that was being resurrected. How much harder can a dragon be than a god?”
That was a good point.
The elder god had been different, though. Suzuki had gotten lucky with a plan and some ingredients that had been laying around like eggs and flour for a cake. This was not the same scenario. Suzuki didn’t have much idea of the layout of the cavern. Nor did he know what the dragon was up to. If Ashegoreth had really wanted them dead, wouldn’t she have advanced by now? The cavern seemed huge to him but, to a dragon, it was only a handful of steps away from stomping on their frail, human bodies.
