Dragon Quest Novel

by Melania Zveja

  The group ascended the staircase as silently as they could. They found that there were four different hallways at the top. The group chose the one on the right side. As they came to the end of the hallway it opened into a middle sized room. In the room they found a group of three men dressed in green tunics. Although not soldiers, the four instantly knew these were not friends as their skin was colored purple.

  "Zombies," whispered Thomas.

  The four gave each other a nod and all four simultaneously sprung into action. Alice used her magic staff to send a stream of fire at the zombies. They all gave bone-chilling, inhuman screeches as their deteriorating flesh was burned by the magic. Suzanne, Ron, and Thomas all drew out their swords and ran at a separate zombie.

  This was the first time the group received an opportunity to test the magic of the blades against the monsters they were designed to slay. They were happy to find that the tales had not been false sales pitches. The zombie slashers not only sliced through the zombies' skin and bone like butter but also left searing burns of light in the wound. The zombies' screeches intensified as the light overcame them and they crumbled to dust.

  "That was pretty easy," said Alice perkily.

  "Looks like the magic in these things works pretty well," observed Ron.

  Suzanne, however, was troubled, "Why are there monsters here? Wouldn't those soldiers have cleared them out?"

  "Maybe they're using those things. That may be why they have guards here: not necessarily because they've heard what we have regarding the tower but because it's out of the way and a good place to experiment with necromancy," suggested Thomas.

  "Whatever the case, the closer we get to the top, the more likely our fighting is to alert any other soldiers still here. Be ready for any sort of trap guys," Suzanne warned.

  The group resumed their search of the tower. This floor was almost completely empty. Three of the hallways led to rooms that had nothing in them. The last hallway led to an ascending staircase.

  The next floor looked a lot more interesting. The entire floor seemed to consist of one giant room, about the size of the entrance lobby. However, there was a great hole in the middle. In the middle of that hole was the top of a small mini tower within the main tower. There appeared to be treasure chests on the top of the mini tower. The group could not get to that area though as the hole was simply way too large. Their access to the rest of the floor was similarly limited, as there was floor only in the corners of the room, and none of the corners connected. Luckily, there was another ascending staircase next to them.

  "Geez, this is a weird place!" exclaimed Ron. "I wonder how we're supposed to get to that area with the chests over there? Why did they think it was a good idea to put a giant hole in the floor here?"

  "It was built for a giant bird after all," answered Alice. "Maybe this hole is big enough for the bird to fly freely through here."

  The group went up to the next floor and found a similar layout. There was still a giant hole in the middle. However, the solid floor was continuous and outlined the hole, allowing for more exploration. Unfortunately, the floor was also narrower, to the point that in some places the group would have to walk single file. Even more unfortunately were the two Hades' Condors that were flying around and the two bird-head monsters on the ground. Unlike the bird-head monsters that the group had already encountered, these were blue in color.

  "Go for the Condors first, guys!" called out Suzanne. "We don't want anyone getting teleported away!"

  Alice had just the spell in mind. At the end of her incantation a large explosion went off, engulfing all the combatants. Incredibly, the four humans were unharmed by it. The four bird enemies, on the other hand, were visibly wounded. The two Condors almost fell out of the air, but managed to regain their flight before falling too far.

  The bird-head enemies quickly mounted a counter strike. One of them ran at Alice, only to be cut off by Ron. The creature launched a flurry of attacks on him, pecking at him with its huge beak and scratching him with its talons. Ron's own strike missed the agile creature. The other bird-head cast a spell of its own and the group was hit by a mini tornado, slicing them with dust and debris.

  The Hades' Condors were beginning their spells but made sure to stay out of reach keeping flight above the hole. Thomas and Suzanne had anticipated this tactic, however. The two chanted spells of their own and finished them before the Condors. Suzanne sent out a strong stream of fire, the same as Alice's favorite spell. Thomas sent out a mini tornado of his own. Having taken a beating from three spells by this point, the Condors fell out of the sky and landed hard on the ground below.

  Alice drew out her sword and joined Ron in combat against his bird-head. She managed a cut to the creature's head that went across its right eye. Dazed at its sudden decrease in sight, it was unable to dodge Ron's coup de grace as he stabbed the creature just below its beak. The four got hit by two mini tornadoes. Somehow, the last bird-head had cast two spells at once.

  Suzanne and Thomas ran at the creature to finish it off. Thomas feinted with his strike, which drove the creature straight into Suzanne's powerful horizontal slash. The bird-head's legs were cleanly removed and it thudded to the ground, unable to move. Suzanne put the creature out of its misery.

  "Damn, that was a tough one," said Ron, as he tried to catch her breath. "Those spells they cast sure add up."

  "I can't believe it was able to cast two spells at once," commented Suzanne.

  "From what we've seen, those things can move their legs and beaks pretty much independently. Add in the fact that there's more than one way to cast some spells and it probably cast a spell with its beak and one with its legs," theorized Alice.

  After Thomas finished his healing rounds, Suzanne hurried the group further, "That explosion must've alerted everything else here to our presence. The element of surprise is gone but we can still get them before they have too much of a chance to react."

  "I'm sorry Susie. I didn't think about that," apologized Alice.

  "Don't apologize, you did the right thing. If it weren't for you, one of us would be who knows where while the rest of us would have gotten a few extra doses of wind spells," replied Suzanne.

  There were three other descending staircases on the floor. They all led to the other corners of the previous floor, which were empty. They returned to the fourth floor and found an ascending staircase in the northeast corner. The group quickly ascended.

  The group came to the roof of the tower. Although there were walls rising on the edges there was no ceiling or additional floors. This floor featured the same hole in the middle of the floor and in this case solid ground was put in two parts. The north end of the room where the group stood was a solid "shore" of land but the other side was cut up into three small pieces. In this case, the group would be able to traverse the hole as there were tightropes drawn all across the hole.

  "That's it," said Ron. "The top. And I don't see any more soldiers."

  "You know," replied Alice thoughtfully. "Those doors on the ground floor looked fairly new compared to everything else in the tower. Besides that, they were damaged by monsters from the looks of it. I'm wondering if the soldiers didn't just seal off the ground floor from monsters and guard the entrance."

  "So they were sent to guard the place but not to secure anything here?" wondered Suzanne. "Why would they do anything like that? That just seems stupid."

  "Let's not also forget they were apparently ordered to kill on sight," reminded Thomas. "It's like they knew people would come here for something, but didn't actually want to use that something."

  "We'll have to ask our friend out there when we finish here," said Ron.

  "Speaking of friends, we have some company!" warned Thomas, pointing to the sky.

  There were two large wingless serpents flying toward the tower from the north. The group came to the grim realization that they had seen these things before.

  "Those are the same dragons from the Tower of Garuna!" warne
d Alice.

  "Two huh? This is going to be fun," said Ron sarcastically.

  "Alice, cover us with your magic. Thomas, if they both stay out of melee range to use their breath weapons we fight back with magic as well. Otherwise, we three focus on one until we're sure it's dead," commanded Suzanne.

  The other three nodded and waited for the dragons to get into range. When they did, mayhem broke loose quickly. As Alice released her spell, causing spines of ice to rise up and strike the dragons before bursting. At the same time, both let loose their fiery breath, engulfing the entire floor on which the group stood with fire. The four suffered severe burns but were still able to fight.

  The dragons had no intention of staying away, as Suzanne had feared, and came in with their claws. They both went straight for Alice, forcing Suzanne to cut one off while Thomas and Ron focused on the other. They timed their attack perfectly so that they simultaneously stabbed into opposite sides of the dragon's head. The creature gave a terrible cry and fell to the ground, dead.

  Suzanne aimed a slash at her dragon's head but it jerked its head to the side, causing Suzanne's attack to glance off the creature's scaly armor. It followed up with a quick and vicious bite to Suzanne's arm, almost taking it off. She managed to fall backwards enough before contact to avoid that fate, though the dragon got a nice chunk of metal and flesh for its effort.

  Alice quickly chanted a healing spell for Suzanne. She had learned how to cast Thomas' stronger healing spell, fortunately for Suzanne. Although there was still a vicious gash at the site of the bite, the majority of the flesh and muscle she lost regenerated. Suzanne, Ron, and Thomas ganged up on the beast with a vicious flurry of slashes to its face. The attacks left the creature without eyes and writhing in pain. It exposed its soft belly, allowing the three to finish it off easily.

  "Another close one," commented Thomas, after they made sure the beasts were dead. "Alice sure came through with her healing magic. Wouldn't want you to lose your arm again Susie."

  "Yeah, thanks for the save Alice," thanked Suzanne.

  "It was nothing," returned Alice.

  "But man, two dragons. Do you guys realize we've slain four dragons now? Can you believe it?" asked Ron.

  "Yeah. Our power and skill has progressed tremendously over our quest," observed Suzanne. "A good thing too, we're going to need all the assets we can get."

  The group healed up and carefully crossed the tight ropes to the other side of the room. They found three treasure chests in the "islands" on the other side. Alice checked them and found two of them were traps, but the other one was okay. Unfortunately, it only contained a torn up set of clothes.

  "No Echoing Flute," said Ron. "Now what?"

  "We have to get to the top of that mini tower. It had some treasure chests on it. And I think I know how to get there," answered Suzanne.

  She went to about the middle of the giant hole and looked down. "If we jump from here, we'll get to the mini tower. Alice, do you think you could lower yourself down?" she asked.

  "I'm afraid not this time, Susie. My magic is tapped. I don't think I could slow the fall of a grain of sand right now," Alice answered.

  "Well then I guess we'll have to do this the old fashioned way," said Suzanne. She returned to solid floor to get some rope and a hook from her pack. She carefully went out to the center again and connected her rope to the tightrope. Using her rope, she lowered herself down. The other three followed suit.

  "I suppose you can't check the chests either?" asked Suzanne to Alice. Alice shook her head. "Well I guess we'll have to be careful then. Look lively guys!" said Suzanne.

  They carefully opened each chest one by one and were relieved to find none were monsters. Inside them they found a small sum of gold, two magic acorns, and a flute.

  "Can you check if this is it?" asked Suzanne. Alice shook her head again. "Well then, I guess we'll just have to check later. We better leave now though. We're in no shape to get into any more fights."

  "This could be bad. If Alice can't teleport us, then we'll have to risk spending the night here," said Ron.

  "I can handle the teleportation," said Suzanne. She cast the spell and transported the four out of the tower. They then went back inside to check on their prisoner.

  They found the man where they left him, still bound and still unconscious. Ron went over to pick him up when suddenly Thomas stopped him.

  "Wait!" warned Thomas. "Something isn't right. Let me examine him."

  Ron backed off and let Thomas examine the man. As Thomas did so, he was very careful not to touch the man.

  "Damn! They must have been instructed to kill themselves if they were captured!" cursed Thomas.

  "What's wrong?" asked Suzanne.

  "He's dead! Poisoned. They must all have vials in their mouths. Not just any poison either. It's called the Last Stand. Desmond's forces used it in the Second Great War to avoid capture. It not only kills, but it affects the skin as well. Any who touch the afflicted get infected as well. What's even worse, it eventually turns its victims into zombies," explained Thomas.

  "That explains the zombies we fought. But I don't see anything wrong with his skin. How did you know what happened?" Suzanne asked.

  "The poison gives off a faint dark aura. I thought it was part of their armor when we fought them. Even when we fought the zombies I didn't remember. But it hit me just before Ron picked the body up," answered Thomas.

  "Wait, did we get this poison when we fought the zombies?" asked Ron.

  "I don't think so. By the time the body is zombified, the poison is no longer contagious. But just in case, I better check everyone," Thomas said. With that, he quickly checked the group and all were relieved to find his search turn up negative.

  "You know," said Alice thoughtfully, "Those zombies we fought weren't in armor. If they weren't soldiers then who were they?"

  "Actually, few zombies can use armor without it crushing them. The strength that they put into their blows comes from the dark energy that is their life force," explained Thomas. "They focus the energy when they strike. But they can't sustain that focus over their entire body for long enough to support armor."

  "There is definitely something suspicious about these men," said Ron, referring to the soldiers. "Were they guarding this tower because of the flute?"

  "We probably won't know until we find Samanao," replied Suzanne.

  Chapter 17: Purpose

  The team wasted little time testing out the Echoing Flute. The first thing to do was test to see if it did as advertised. Luckily, they already had the purple orb from Jipang to use for the tests. They found that the flute indeed made an echo when it was near the orb, and no echo when it was far away. The range on the magic seemed to be around five miles. The four decided to play the flute periodically so that they did not run the risk of missing an orb that was near. Unfortunately, none of the flute's magic improved the musical skill of the flute player.

  "For the love of peace, will you stop that!" yelled Ron.

  At first, the group had decided to rotate the flute around. Suzanne, Ron, and Thomas were all satisfied with playing a couple notes every ten minutes or so. Alice, on the other hand, had taken to trying to play songs with the flute.

  "I swear, it's a wonder that none of the crew has moved to throw you and that damned flute overboard!" exclaimed Ron.

  "That's because you're the only one bothered by my music. Everyone else finds it soothing," countered Alice.

  "Like hell they do! Why do you think Tom went below deck? Why do you think all the sailors keep cringing as they walk by?" asked Ron.

  "I find the bickering between you two most annoying," groaned Suzanne. "And Alice, you're not going to play music when we hit shore. We don't want to alert every monster and cannibal within a mile to our presence."

  Having acquired both the Final Key and the Echoing Flute the group had decided to retrace their journey to see if they had unwittingly passed by any orbs in their travels so far. Of course, the fl
ute's range was not incredibly great, so the group had to do a fair amount of searching. They decided to focus their searches around the settlements they had come upon, hoping that the other orbs were possessed by people and regarded as important treasures as the purple orb had been. Unfortunately, after three and a half weeks of searching the group had yet to find another orb.

  The four were now on their way to southern Tarasia around the area of Tedanki, the ghost village from which the group had first heard of the Final Key and bought their extraordinary equipment from. The group planned to search the area for any sign of the orb, but knew they were running an awful risk going into the Archfiend's territory with its sponsored cannibals about. Nevertheless, they could not risk that there was an orb in the area.

  The Mad Hound set course for the town of Tedanki. The four hoped to use the ghost town as a base for their search. Suzanne theorized that they would not be bothered there by the cannibals as they had probably finished looking there for physical food long ago. The group landed in the mid afternoon.

  The group made a quick stop in Tedanki before beginning their true search. As they expected, the place was devoid of people, being that the sun had not set yet. The four went out on their search, mindful of their position in relation to Tedanki.

  The group did not have long before night came. They only managed a couple hours of searching before the sun came even with the horizon.

  "I'd say it's just about time to call it a day," said Ron. "We don't want to be out too long at night. Too easy to get ambushed by cannibals."

  "I agree," said Suzanne. "We better get back to – "

  "Did you guys hear that?" asked Alice suddenly.

  Suzanne and Ron turned to Alice to see that both she and Thomas had looks of surprise on their faces. It was Thomas' turn to use the flute and he played another note with it. Focusing on the noise of the note, both of them could hear an audible echo.

  "That sounds pretty good. We must have gotten close to an orb!" exclaimed Ron.

  "But we've been playing this flute the entire time and didn't hear an echo until now. And that echo was a lot stronger than the echo we heard in our tests when we were at the edge of the flute's range," pointed out Alice.