A flash of blue light briefly illuminated the area around a small decorative fountain centered in the middle of the Cyrus Village town square. Within the blue light Ivan’s body suddenly appeared then collapsed on the cobble stone street. He was staring up at the cloudy night sky while the rain beat down on his face. Blood from his armor began to wash away as the rain started to intensify. Pain ran up and down his body with a fiery rage while he struggled to get onto his hands and knees. 90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡChw4cD86Fk
Thunder rumbled overhead as two horses pulled a carriage down the street in the direction while the blue light had been emitted from. As Ivan managed to get to his feet, the horses and wagon came to a stop to avoid running him over.
A man in rather nice clothing stepped out from the carriage and called out, “You there! Are you in need of any assistance?”
While trying not to scream out in pain, Ivan managed to say, “Imperial soldiers… destroyed Karthsworth… they killed everyone…”
The man noticed the blood being washed away from Ivan’s clothes and armor as he asked, “Karthsworth has been destroyed? What happened?” The man opened the other door on the opposite side of the carriage and said, “Sir, if you are injured, I can take you to the local infirmary.”
Ivan quickly responded, “No. Those… bastards are headed this way… They… are going to pay.”
The man shut the door and said, “I won’t force you to go, but I wouldn’t recommend taking on imperial soldiers.”
While a hot flash of pain tore across his chest, Ivan suddenly shouted, “They killed my wife and daughter!” He then fell to his hands and knees while crying out in pain.
“Glacius is my name stranger, and I would highly recommend paying a visit to that infirmary since you seem to have quite a nasty curse lingering upon your body.” Glacius said as he pulled out a small cork capped vile filled with a silver liquid.
Off in the distance, a caravan of wagons slowly came into view past Ivan down the road. Glacius noticed the light from the torches mounted on the wagons as Ivan said, “There’s not much… time. Must act… quickly.”
Glacius popped the cork off the vial and said, “I own and operate Glacius Concoctions here in town. What I have here is a serum that could help temporarily slow whatever curse you have contracted until you can get looked at. I would usually charge a hundred gold coins for this. Given your circumstance, I’ll give this to you under one condition.” Glacius took a step towards Ivan and continued saying, “I’m not to fond of the empire given that many of my employees and clients are demi-humans. I’m not going to stop your quest for revenge but please do go see the infirmary if you are given the chance.” Glacius stood in front of Ivan as he handed him the vile. “I’m unsure if this will even help you since I don’t know what curse you are suffering from but if you survive, do pay me a visit at my shop. That is my condition.”
While Ivan reached out with one hand to take the vile, Glacius noticed that Ivan’s other hand had been severed and looked freshly cauterized. Ivan groaned in pain as he said, “Thank you.”
While returning to his carriage, Glacius turned and said, “Make sure to drink every drop now or it won’t work ya hear?”
Barely able to hold the vile, Ivan quickly drank its contents. A sudden surge or pain shot across his body as he jolted backwards onto the ground and cried out in pain.”
Before shutting the door to the carriage, Glacius said, “Oh my! That’s quite a reaction!” He slammed the door and ordered the horses to turn around. His carriage slowly began to maneuver around Ivan as they traveled back the way they came in the opposite direction of the oncoming caravan.
Coming down the street towards Glacius’ wagon, was a very large double decker two car wagon being pulled by four dragon raptors. He noticed sitting high up in the coach driver’s quarters was a female demi-human of the Hare race. She was wearing lightly padded steel armor. Unlike normal padded armor, he found this armor to be quite revealing from what he could see.
Before their wagons passed each other, he called out, “Miss! It is definitely not the season to be wearing your summer’s best out and about during a thunderstorm!”
The large two car wagon came to a stop as the demi-human rabbit girl hopped down from the coach drivers’ quarters and asked, “Excuse me. Do you happen to know where the nearest inn and infirmary would be? Darkwell fell under attack by a villainous necromancer and his mob of monsters. The town was destroyed, and my friend has suffered an unpleasant injury to her abdomen.”
Glacius’ wagon came to a halt as his door flew open while he said, “Goodness gracious. Two villages in one night. How unfortunate.” He pointed down the road to where he had been conversing with Ivan and said, “If you go right down the road there into town square and make a right you will see the town’s Inn. The infirmary is next door. Tell them Glacius sent you and you should get a discount on the night and any treatment.” He looked back at the enormous wagon she had been driving and said, “I’ve honestly never seen anything quite like the contraption you are operating. It surely is one of a kind.”
The demi-human girl said, “Oh, thank you! By the way I’m Aurora and my friend built this. This is actually only part of it. Our other friends have the main part of the caravan. There happen to be two more of these bad boys. Its pretty much a traveling fortress we all live in when on the road.” She leapt all the way back up to coaches’ quarters and said, “Thank you sir!” while signaling to the dragon raptors to head out.
Glacius responded, “Oh it’s no trouble at all and if you get a chance you could always stop by Glacius’ Concoctions here in town for your alchemist needs.”
Aurora said cheerfully, “Will do!”
Both carriages began to head in the opposite direction when Aurora not only noticed Ivan standing in the middle of the street, but also a large caravan of imperial soldiers coming down the other end of the street past Ivan.
The caravan of soldiers stopped in front of Ivan as the driver shouted, “Get the fuck out of the street you imbecile!”
Ivan stood silently while an unknown sensation rockets back and forth from withinside his body.
The driver stood up from his seat and shouted, “Are you fucking drunk? Get the fuck out of the street before our wagons run you over.”
The soldier next to the driver suddenly questioned, “Wait a sec Cho, aint that the bloke who’s dragon we got in the back?”
The driver named Cho stopped yelling and looked Ivan up and down before saying, “Holy shit, it is him. He’s wearing different attire but that’s him.”
The other solider asked, “How the hell is he alive? And how the hell did he get here before us?”
Cho suggested, “Teleport scroll maybe? I don’t know but he’s not long for this world.” Cho stepped down from the wagon and commanded, “Squad one formation!”
An assortment of soldiers wielding various weapons hopped out of the wagon and formed a line behind Cho. One of the soldiers shouted out, “Orders sir?”
Cho responded, “It seems this bloke has come to take back his dragon. It seems like he wants another beating so this time no holding back!”
Down the road, Aurora could see the soldiers surrounding Ivan while hearing the driver talk about Ivan wanting to take back his dragon. She quickly stopped the caravan wagon and called down the hallway into the main cabin, “Guys something going on. You might need to get out here.”
While soldiers surround Ivan in the street, he closed his eyes and began to feel a warmth surround his body. With his eyes still closed he dropped the empty vile and unsheathed the knife that the soldiers had stabbed him with earlier. The vile shattered on the ground while a soldier with a sword stepped forward and slashed his sword vertically at Ivan. Ivan effortlessly side stepped the attack and stabbed the solider in between where his helmet and chest plate met. The blade of his knife was guided by the grooves along the neck of the armor as Ivan dragged his knife across it slitting the soldier’s throat.
The solider fell to his knees, dropping his weapon, while Ivan pulled his knife from the grooves in the soldier’s armor. Blood poured out from the soldier’s chest plate and spilled onto the cobblestone road. Two other soldiers charged Ivan from opposite sides both wielding large two-handed battle axes.
Before either of the soldiers could reach him, Ivan sheathed his knife and pulled a scroll from his pocket and shouted, “Dissolutionem Fluctus!” The scroll he was holding immediately disintegrated into a red flame and a shockwave was suddenly emitted from his body. As the shockwave erupted from Ivan’s body, the two attacking soldiers were instantly disintegrated into ash.
Upon watching his comrades being disintegrated the wagon driver shouted, “Open fire! Kill this sorry bastard!” More soldiers exited various wagons in the caravan and quickly rose their crossbows and rifles. Before they could open fire Ivan pulled two mor scrolls out of his pocket and yelled, “Praesidium! Rupta celeritas!” Both scrolls he was holding disintegrated into a blue flame while a blue orb of light surrounded him, and a green aura embraced his body. Bullets and bolts were instantly deflected upon hitting the orb of light as Ivan quickly moved with an intense burst of speed towards the soldiers firing upon him.
With inhuman speed, Ivan quickly drew the sword sheathed on his belt and impaled a solider holding a long wood rifle through the chest. Before the solider next to him could turn and fire his crossbow, Ivan quickly pulled the sword from the soldier’s chest and drove it up into the neck of the solider firing his crossbow, severing his spinal cord from his head. Both soldiers’ bodies hit the ground while a ghostly white light escaped through their wounds and surged down the blade of Ivan’s sword and into a crystal embedded in its hilt.
The nearby soldiers watched in horror as they now knew the weapon Ivan was wielding was enchanted and imbuing a magical crystal with the souls of their fallen comrades. The crystal embedded in Ivan’s sword started emitting a continuous purplish glow while Ivan moved again with inhuman speed. A nearby soldier fired his rifle as Ivan moved in closer to him. The bullet ricocheted off the blade of Ivan’s sword as he swatted it away and pierced his blade through the soldier’s breastplate and into his heart. The soldier cried out another ghostly white light escaped out of his wound and into Ivan’s sword.
From the back of the caravan of soldiers, a bright purple and pinkish light shot out from within one of the wagons and shot up into the sky. The beams of light immediately shot back down and into the bodies of the dead soldiers.
As the bodies of the undead soldiers started to rise up of the ground Ivan pulled another scroll from a satchel on his waist and shouted, “Sanctus lux!” A flash of bright light shot from the scroll and the bodies of the undead soldiers instantly sublimated into a mist and vapor of blood. As the light faded Ivan felt the blade of a dagger piece his lower back from behind. The necromancer that turned all the people into zombies from his town was behind him holding a wavy bladed dagger that was buried all the way into Ivan’s back.
The necromancer said sourly, “You fool! All this for a pathetic black dragon?”
Surprised that he couldn’t feel the pain, Ivan quickly positioned his arm with the severed hand behind him against the necromancer’s side while a long and slender blade flipped out like a switch blade from the harness, he constructed that held his shield, cutting in the necromancer’s body.
The necromancer lurched backwards holding his side as he scolded, “What a dirty little trick.” The hand holding his wound began to glow green while his wound instantly closed and healed itself.
The green aura around Ivan’s body faded away while he pulled another scroll from his satchel and said, “Sanatio caloris.” The scroll instantly burned up with a green light as the wound in his back stopped bleeding and closed.
After removing his dark black hood and cloak, the necromancer stood in the rain wearing a mask that covered his face with a mirror like surface. He was wearing tight black garments from his neck down to his boots. On his waist was another sheathed dagger and opposite to it was the sheath for the dagger he was currently holding.
With his free hand, the necromancer removed the dagger on his waist from its sheath and said, “Eventually your nasty bag of little tricks will run dry and the curse from the undead that bit you will kill and turn you.” He noticed that the arm Ivan struck him with was missing its hand where the harness was fastened to it. He smirked as he said, “Must have been a hell of a bite if you had to sever the whole hand.”
Ivan said with a dark and diabolic tone to his voice, “I’m going to sever your arms and legs and feed the bodies of all your men to my dragon while you watch.”
In a morbid sense of joy, the necromancer laughed as he said, “Oh? I’d like that. I’d really like to see you try.”
The necromancer lunged forward at Ivan wielding both daggers and and began exchanging blows with Ivan. Ivan swung his sword and the blade attached to his shield harness and deflected the oncoming attacks while the remaining soldiers formed a circle around them.
Down the street, Aurora, Vlad, Morrak, and Torgan were quietly watching from the coaches’ quarters of the front wagon car in the caravan as Ivan and the necromancer continued fighting.
Suddenly Vlad broke the silence as he asked, ”So should we do something? Or are we just going to sit here and watch?”
Morrak the dwarf replied, “Do you want the Empire breathing down our necks for aiding that man? Whatever caused this, he will be labeled as a criminal and anyone who helps him will be an accomplice in the eyes of the empire.”
After a few laughs, Torgan said with an ogrish chuckle, “The man said he was going to feed those imperial bastards to his dragon. I’m very interested in seeing that, so I suggested we hold our position and watch.”90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMCJTirNb9k
With a hint of disgust in her voice, Aurora said, “That’s something I wish not to see ogre. As much as I detest the imperial soldiers, that is simply too gruesome for me.”
While the battle continued on Vlad stated, “He said he had a dragon.” Vlad glanced around the area and to the skys. Besides the fight raging on in front of them, the rest of the town was quietly asleep while the rain continued to pour and lightning occasionally tore across the sky. Vlad spoke again and said, “I don’t see a dragon anywhere.”
Torgan said surprisingly, “You don’t smell it? There’s one there hidden in that wagon.” He pointed to the last larger wagon in the caravan. “They have it hidden it there.”
Vlad said sarcastically, “Oh yeah, now that you mention it, I can totally smell the dragon they got stashed away in there.” While shaking his head Vlad looked over at Morrak and asked, “So what do we do? Should we just head to the inn?”
Before anyone could respond, Zhade came flying out of the passageway behind them and said, “That man, he’s suffering from the curse of the undead.”
Vlad playfully said, “The tiny fae decided to join us.”
Zhade asked, “is that the necromancer we battled at Darkwell?”
Torgan replied, “No. The smell is different.”
Morrak said in response to Toragn’s statement, “I didn’t know you had such a great sense of smell.”
Torgan said, “I didn’t know you guy’s couldn’t smell it.”
Zhade said, “I should exercise that curse from that man.”
Aurora said snarkily, “What, are you going to fly right in the middle of their fight and just start healing him?”
Zhade responded sourly, “If that man kills all those soldiers there’s a chance he could turn. Even if he doesn’t bite anyone there’s a chance miasma could start spawning due to the corrupted essence.”
Morrak asked, “Is that so? I’ve never heard of that before. Is that really a way that miasma spawns?”
Zhade asked surprisingly, “Is that not common knowledge amongst the Hume and demi-human races?”
Sadness stuck Morrak as he said, “Unfortunately, the greatest library in history of this continent was lost in the fall of Enos, so there’s a lot of knowledge that went with it. Is that not common knowledge amongst the fae and fairy races?”
With no hesitation and with the upmost sass, Zhade responded, “What, so you lose a library, and everyone just forgets everything?”
Vlad cut in and said, “Not everyone is fortunate enough to afford a good education to learn such things under the reign of the empire.”
Zhade said, “I never had an education or studied with scholars, and I still know that. Miasma spawns corrupted monsters, and those monsters spawn more miasma infecting the land like a plague. Zhara and I are monster hunters, and we can’t be successful if we don’t know these sorts of things.”
Morrak quickly said, “So that’s why she was able to fight that monster so valiantly.”
Zhade said with a less sour voice, “Zhara doesn’t speak much. There’s nothing wrong with her voice or anything but for some reason she usually remains quiet. I usually do all the talking and healing while she does most of the fighting.”
Aurora asked, “How long have you two been together hunting monsters?”
Zhade responded, “Since she was born. Zhara is part elf and part devil of the devil race.”
Vlad almost shouted, “Zhara is an devil elf? She looks like a normal human!”
Zhade explained, “She has horns but I file them down to the scalp, clip her elven ears to look more human, and cut her tail off every time it grows back so none of the racist imperials give us problems when collecting bounties on monsters or when we’re eating at inns.”
Torgan asked, “You cut off her tail and it grows back?”
“Yes,” Zhade replied, “Her ears and horns grow back as well usually within a month. Our village was destroyed long ago by dragons and ever since she was a young girl, we’ve been hunting monsters to get by.”
Vlad curiously asked, “What makes you so comfortable telling us your life story?”
Zhade angerly said, “Zhara has been alive for almost seventy years, and I have been alive for almost a thousand. In no way have I told you our life story you little brat. Besides we all almost died together fighting a horde of undead monsters while a town burned to ashes around us and you helped slay that undead abomination why wouldn’t I tell you?”
Vlad said, “I didn’t know that automatically made us comrades.”
With hint of sass Zhade said, “Do you know how many people have helped us slay a monster then turned around and try to slay us so they could collect the full bounty? The fact you didn’t try to kill us was a good sign of your character.” After a moment of silence she said, “Plus I can see the color of all your souls after spending time with you.”
Vlad erupted, “What the hell does that mean?”
Growing quite irritated Zhade responded, “It mean’s that after spending time with people I can see the color of the their essence.”
Aurora asked, “If that’s true why couldn’t you see the intent of the men that have betrayed you before?”
Almost enraged Zhade said, “I said I can see the color of your essence, not the spontaneous bad decisions one makes. Monster hunters aren’t always good people but have to team up sometimes to take down elite ranked monsters. I can’t tell if someone is going to randomly betray us but I can still tell that they aren’t the best person to be around, okay? No more questions!” She instantly flew past everyone and out into the street where Ivan and the necromancer were fighting.
Zhade shouted, “Um excuse me, guys! That man with one hand is currently cursed and needs to be exorcised before a miasmic forms and starts spawning grotesque monsters and corrupting you all.”
Baffled by the small fairy floating above their heads, Ivan and the necromancer stopped fighting. The necromance said, “Yes I know. I was waiting for him to expire so I could kill and raise him as one of my own. And are you saying he is going to spawn a miasmic cloud if not cured?”
Growing angry again Zhade shouted, “What the hell is wrong with you people? Don’t you understand common knowledge on miasmic corruption or are you all fucking stupid?!”
The necromancer laughed and said, “Well that’s not a very pleasant thing for such a small and lovely little lady to say.”
Zhade responded, “Necromancy makes me sick and I would erase all of your kind from the planet if I could.”
The necromancer said, “Well it’s not nice for little girls to lie about things they have no understanding of.”
Zhade sighed and flew down and landed on Ivan’s head. Ivan didn’t say anything or resist as Zhade started casting a spell onto him.
The necromancer called out, “Somebody shoot that fucking thing and leave the criminal to me.”
A soldier raised his rifle and fired a round at the fairy. Zhade raised the hand she wasn’t healing Ivan with and casted an orb of protection around them causing the bullet to deflect away from them upon impacting it. The bullet ricocheted off the orb of protection and stuck another solider in the head piercing his helmet and skull, killing him instantly.
Zhade said sarcastically, “Oh no! Did I do that?” She accidently let out a quick maniacal laugh as she continued healing Ivan.
The necromancer angrily shouted, “You are going to pay dearly for that fairy.”
“My name is Zhade and I’m not too worried, With the way this fight was going you won’t be standing much longer when I’m done healing this guy.”
The necromancer started stepping towards Zhade and Ivan as he said, “I’m done talking. I won’t let you finish that spell.”
As he began to leap at them, a giant, wide bladed, two-handed great sword came crashing down in front of the necromancer stopping him in his tracks. Attached to the handle of the great sword, was Zhara, wearing only boots, her hook shot gauntlets, and the pajama like clothing she had been wearing while her previous wounds were being treated.
Down the street, Vlad, while shocked with amazement, said, “Oh man! I didn’t even see Zhara leave the caravan.”
Morrak said nervously, “This is going to raise quite a stir for us if we continue to associate with them after this.”
Zhara pulled her sword out of the incision it made in the ground and said, “Stop.”
The necromancer immediately swung one of his daggers and Zhara’s head while she swung her sword to deflect it.
The blade of the necromancer’s dagger met with Zhara’s great sword and instantly shattered to pieces. As the dagger shattered, Zhara’s sword continued swinging in the direction of the necromancer’s head as he nearly was able to move out of the way. The necromancer was baffled by how such a short and small girl could be swinging such a massive sword around with ease.
After nearly losing his head, the necromancer stumbled backwards into a somersault and back onto his feet. “Enough!” he shouted. “You’ve doomed this town and everyone in it! I no longer have time to play games with arrogant children and their fairies.” He sheathed the dagger that wasn’t ruined, and a small portal opened next to him. He stuck in one arm and pulled out a fancy looking wooden staff with a large crystal fastened at the end. While he began chanting a spell, a much larger portal opened up above them in the sky. A large black dragon emersed in a black and misty fog came crashing down out of it spewing fire onto the buildings closest to it.
Morrak stood up and said, “Alright guys. We can no longer stand around watching! Let’s not let this village fall like Darkwell.”
Aurora asked, “I thought we weren’t fighting imperial soldiers?”
Morrak turned to her with a smile and said, “Fuck em! They’re the ones responsible for this.” Morrak quickly made his way up a short stairwell that was next to the corridor that led into the wagon car’s cabin, and flipped a lever. Upon flipping the lever, the cloth canopy above the roof of the second story, snapped back and condensed itself revealing the storage crates and barrels strapped to the roof. He ran down a small pathway between the some crates, and sat down in a seat that was attached to a large ballista that was fixated on a swiveling platform. There were two large levers protruding from the floor of the platform up to the seat that Morrak latched onto and began operating. As he pulled and pushed the levers back and forth the ballista swung around like a turret while he began to track the dragon’s movement.
Calling out to Torgan, Morrak said, “Make sure the magazines with the silver mithril bolts are loaded!”
Torgan ran down the corridor and through the top level of the cabin to a back closet where an apparatus fed ballista magazine through two slits in the ceiling. He lifted large magazine containing five large bolts and loaded into the slit in the ceiling until he heard the locking mechanism engage holding the magazine in place. He then shouted up to Morrak through a bell and pipe that went up through the ceiling, “You’re good to go!”
While throwing an almost clear looking cloak over his shoulders, Vlad said, “I’m going to go see if there’s a dragon in one of those wagons.” As the cloak draped around his feet and he pulled the hood up, Vlad was virtually invisible to the naked eye. He leapt from the coaches’ quarters and down to the ground before running off in the direction of the stationary wagons.
Zhara was exchanging blows with the necromancer while soldiers started to close in around Ivan. As the solider drew closer, Zhade said, “You guys are making this too easy.” She raised her hand again as she whispered, “Somnum.” A foggy haze appeared around the soldiers that were closing in and within mere seconds, they all collapsed on the ground as they fell unconscious.
As if he had been awaked from a deep slumber, Ivan opened his eyes while he gasped deeply.
“There he is!” Zhade shouted out happily. “Welcome back to the land of the sane. Or insane, depending on how you look at it.”
As his vision became clearer, Ivan studden stumbled as if he had missed a step. While regaining traction and preventing himself from falling, he asked weakly, “What’s happening?”
Zhade replied, “I don’t know mister. You tell me.”
Ivan tried hard to remember as he said, “These men. They killed my wife and daughter. Also they burned down Darkwell killing hundreds of its citizens and turning them into undead monsters.” Ivan grasped his sword even tighter with his one hand.
Zhade said, “Sounds like a good reason for revenge.”
Ivan replied, “I guess I’ve been seeing red since everything went down.”
After finishing her spell Zhade flew off Ivan’s head while saying, “Well I healed you the best I could and cured your curse so you can go ahead and continue getting your revenge. Also, sorry about your hand. Looks like you lost it recently and even if you still had it I’ve never reattached a sever limb before so I doubt I could properly reattach it.”
Zhade flew off to find cover from the dragon above their heads while Ivan noticed Zhara and the necromancer fighting. He remembered severing his own hand and making the armor. But he couldn’t recall how he arrived at where he was standing.
Sneaking around the back of an imperial wagon, Vlad opened a door and climbed inside the cabin of one of the larger wagons that looked like it could house a smaller sized dragon. In the middle of the room lay a small black dragon that was muzzled and chained the to the floor of a stainless-steel cage.
Vlad removed his cloak and appeared in front of the dragon. The dragon tried to look up at him but was too tightly restrained to the bottom of the cage. He started to undo the restraints while saying, “Okay little fella, don’t bite me or anything. Remember that I’m the one who’s setting you free.”
The dragon let out a high-pitched squeal as if it understood what Vlad had said to it. After undoing the last restraint, he unlatched the mussel that was around its head. The muzzle fell to the floor as the dragon leapt up happily and started breathing fire on the cages lock. Within seconds the lock and bars around it, melted away in the flames. With one of its wings, it smacked the cage door open and stepped out. It stood only a little taller than Vlad as it lowered its head onto his shoulder as if it were thanking him for freeing it.
The door to the cabin slammed behind them as a solider came walking in the room and shouted, “What the fuck are you doing?”
Vlad put his hand on the back of his head and nervously said, “Well it’s not polite to tie a dragon down without its consent. And judging by the situation, I don’t think it gave you its consent.”
The solider shouted angrily, “Are you fucking ill mate? That’s a god damn dragon, its going to bite your stupid head off—"
The dragon screeched and flew across the room with amazing speed landing on the soldier and bit his head off and swallowed it one swift moment.
Vlad flew back in fear and shouted, “Holy shit!”
The dragon then screeched out again as fire erupted from its mouth burning a hole through the wall of the cabin. It then flew out through the hole it created into the rain.
Morrak continued to track the large shadow dragons’ movements as he called out, “Torgan! Have you loaded the second magazine yet?”
A loud grunt came bellowing out from down below followed by a mechanical sound click. A voice rang out from a pipe connect to a horn like coming from the floor, “Second magazine is loaded!” Torgan’s voice echoed out of the bell while Morrak reached down and flipped a smaller lever that was underneath his seat. A short series of gears and springs turning and compressing rattled out from underneath him as large bolts shifted upward out of the magazine and into the chamber of the ballista.
Morrak said under his breath, “Now we see if you’re a summon or the real thing.” He squeezed a trigger that was located at the top of one of the levers he was using to maneuver the ballista around and a large bolt launched out and into the sky.
The shadow dragon quickly evaded the oncoming bolt but a second bolt it was unaware of, penetrated its chest causing it to start plummeting towards the ground. Before it would have crashed into the ground, the hole in its chest closed and it veered upward at the last moment.
Aurora, who was still standing in the coach drivers area called back to Morrak. “I couldn’t see if there was blood or not! You’ll have to shoot again!”
The shadow dragon let out a fierce roar as is began to charge in the direction the large ballista bolt came from. As the dragon charged the large caravan wagon, Aurora jumped down from the coachman’s quarters and landed near the rear dragon raptors harness together that pulled the caravan, she pulled a small jar of purple colored liquid out from within a bag on her belt and quickly removed the cork that sealed it. After dipping a finger into the liquid, she began to paint the same small emblem on each one of the raptors. When the last emblem was painted, she removed a scroll from a pocket, unraveled it, and painted the same emblem she had painted on all the raptors at the bottom of the scroll.
A loud shriek echoed across the town square as black flames erupted from the shadow dragon’s mouth and rocketed towards Aurora. The dragon raptors screeched and squealed in fear as they tried to escape their reigns but before any fire could reach them, Aurora shouted, “Evanescere!” and suddenly vanished along with all the raptors as flames engulfed the front of the caravan wagon.
Near the large fountain centered in town square, Zhara and the necromancer continuously were hacking and slashing away at each other while barely able to block each other’s attacks. As they continued to exchange blows, Ivan noticed a dragon fly out from the side of one of the imperial caravan wagons and down the road towards the towns eastern entrance. Without a moment of hesitation, he started sprinting as fast as he could down the street after the dragon.
Sparks ignited as Zhara’s blade overwhelmingly came crashing down against the blade of the necromancer’s remaining dagger. Hiding behind one of the imperial caravan wagons was one of the few remaining imperial soldiers. He was looking down his rifle trying to get a clear shot on Zhara, when he noticed Ivan running down the street to his right. After quickly shifting his body and aiming down his rifle at Ivan, everything went black as he felt a hand cover his eyes and the cold blade of a dagger slit his throat. The soldier felt his arms slap down at his sides as he dropped his rifle and tumbled onto the ground next to the wagon he had been hiding behind. Blood quickly ran out of the soldiers open wound and pooled onto the street around Vlad’s boots as he wiped the blood onto one of his pant legs. His boots were barely visible, as the bottom of his invisibility cloak waved slowly back and forth in front of them.
The necromancer screamed out into the night as the blade of his remaining dagger shattered all the way down to the blades guard. Loose dirt whirled around the streets protruding cobblestone at the necromancer’s feet after a bladeless handle plummeted into the ground. Zhara stood with the blade of her massive two-handed great sword pointed at the necromancer as she quietly said in a monotone voice, “Give up.”
While gasping for air, the necromancer said between breaths, “You haven’t bested me…” While taking a step back and quickly removing something from a pouch around his waist, he shouted, “I’ll raise every corpse in this town!” He then threw the thing he was holding in his hand on the ground and a blinding bright light exploded out of it followed by a large bellowing cloud of black smog.
Zhara turned her sword, using the wide part of the blade, and with one swing fanned away the black smog that had started permeating the area. The smog quickly blew away with the gust of wind the sword created revealing that the necromancer was gone. Coming from some rooftops nearby, Zhara heard the necromancers voice loudly chanting a spell while a magic holographic emblem began to illuminate an area that caught her eye.
With every word the necromancer was chanting a loud and booming sound began crackling from above everyone in the sky. Lights started bellowing out from the emblem looming above the necromancer as he raised a small staff with a brightly glowing gem attached to it above his head with both of this hands. As he continued his spell, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in both his wrists. The emblem above his head abruptly disappeared as he felt the staff crash down against his shoulders as it fell onto the rooftop at his feet. With a horrified expression plastered on his face, he looked down not only to see the staff rolling off of the rooftop, but his hands laying at his feet as well. Fountains of blood erupted out of his wrists as he screamed in horror into the night. Rain pounded against his face as he noticed a small green light floating over towards him.
As the floating light stopped near his face, the necromancer could now see that it was Zhade who was floating in front of him. While he whimpered in pain, Zhade said, “Event though I’m barely eight inches tall, I wasn’t going to let you raise any corpses into monsters.”
The necromancer cried out, “You cut off my fucking hands!”
Ignoring what he had said, Zhade continued, “Since you betrayed your oath to the empire by attacking this town and you didn’t surrender to Zhara to be turned in to be arrested—”
The necromancer interrupted Zhade by shouting, “You’re the god damn criminals not me!”
Zhade cleared her throat and repeated herself “—And you didn’t surrender to Zhara to be turned in to be arrested, I’ll go ahead and issue the execution your king would have sentenced you with.” Before the necromancer could protest, a slightly illuminated blast of air as sharp as a blade rocketed out from one of Zhade’s hands and sliced through the necromancer’s head right above the jaw. An incision wrapping all the way around his head above his jaw quickly began to bleed as he tried to speak. Blood poured from his open mouth as the top part of his head slid off the exposed jaw bones attached to his neck stump, as his body slouched forward and fell off the roof.
Zhara giggled as she said, “Shit, I guess my aim was off.”
Down the street from where the necromancer’s corpse plummeted into the ground, the first large wagon of Morrak’s caravan burned wildly as large black flames started to consume it. Using its body, the shadow dragon slammed into the side of the caravan wagon car housing the large ballista turret atop it. Morrak nearly fell out of the seat of the ballista turret as the caravan wagon rocked back and forth from the impact. Morrak saw the arms of the dragon emerge up from the sides of the wagons roof while it began to climb up onto the top of the caravan. He maneuvered some levels attached to the lower part of his seat as the dragon’s head became exposed and began inhaling deeply inhaling, preparing for it’s next fire breath attack.
Morrak watched as a bright red magma curdled in the back of the dragon’s throat that was emitting a black flame that began to well up in ball towards the front of its mouth. Before unleashing its attack, the dragon made a whimpering snarl as catapult arm, that otherwise was unnoticeable as it seamlessly looked like it was part of the roof, came launching out of the rooftop next to Morrak, smashing into the dragon’s face. The arm of the catapult continued swinging and launched the dragon directly into the ground to the side of the large wagon. A barrel that was in the cup of the catapult arm that smashed into the dragon’s face exploded as a large quantity of silverish looking liquid escaped from it and covered the dragon’s face and body, extinguishing the black foggy smoke the dragon had been emitting. The dragon screeched as it struggled trying to break its self-free from the catapult arm that was pinning it down against the ground.
The flaming door to the bottom level of the first car of the caravan wagon came flying open while Torgan came running out with a large arbalest crossbow that no human would ever be able to carry in his arms. He ran up to the dragon while it was pinned on its back and aimed the arbalest right at where he assumed its heart to be and fired a large bolt right into the dragon’s lower chest. The bolt penetrated the scales on the dragon’s chest and rocketed deep into its body. A large web of lightning stretched across the night sky followed by a crack of thunder accompanied by a surreal and horrific roar. Torgan stood next to the belly of the beast as its body went limp and eyes went dark.
Morrak flipped a switch on a panel connected to his chair, and silverish liquid began to pour out of small vents along the top of the burning caravan wagon. The large black flames quickly subsided as the silver liquid saturated the burning areas of the caravan wagon. Torgan was still standing next to the dragon as the catapult arm pinned it down, extracting its blood into a large vial.
Morrak called out from atop the large caravan wagon and asked, “is it dead?”
Torgan responded, “Yeah, it also turned out to be a real dragon and not a summon.”
While looking over the damaged parts of his wagon he shouted, “That damned dragon damaged a large portion of my wagon!”
A laugh escaped Torgan as he replied, “Better to have damaged the wagon than the town.”
Aurora along with the dragon raptors, suddenly appeared in a blinding light next to the wagon car. She stepped into the grass that was slightly burning in front of the wagon and noticed all the reigns and harnesses, were completely destroyed by the dragon’s fire.
Upon hearing Zhade’s voice, Aurora glanced over as she noticed Zhara and a small green glowing light coming toward her as Zhade said, “Nice move teleporting away with the raptors.”
Aurora said, “I didn’t anticipate the dragon would charge us like that. If anything happened to those animals Theo would have our heads, so it was the only thing I could think of on the spot to save them from harm.” She looked around and noticed Ivan wasn’t with them before asking, “What happened to that cursed man?”
With a giggle Zhade replied, “As soon as I cured him, he went chasing after a smaller black dragon that escaped one of the imperial caravan wagons.”
Aurora asked, “And the necromancer and other imperial soldiers?”
Zhara said quietly, “Terminated.”
Everybody quickly turned and looked down the street as clapping and cheering suddenly erupted around the town square. Townsfolk were crowding around the fountain in town square, which was still covered in blood and riddled with the corpses of imperial soldiers. Some were cheering and clapping, while others hugged their loved ones and wept with joy. Some towns folk were even looting the dead bodies of the imperial soldiers, taking anything of value.
Aurora stood in the rain while she noticed a man approaching her. The man was clapping as he cheered, “What a spectacular performance you all have put on!”
While trying to get a better view Aurora asked, “Glacius?” The man kept clapping as Aurora got a better look at his face. She then said, “You’re the man from before.”
The man said, “Yes, it is I. Glacius! And not only have you killed the beast and saved this town from harm, you disposed of those wretched imperial soldiers who threated the very lively hoods of everyone living here.”
Aurora asked nervously, “They were going to destroy this village since we stopped them from murdering a man. We didn’t have much of a choice.”
Glacius smiled and assured her, “You don’t have to convince me of anything young lass. I heard the threats come from that necromancer’s vile mouth.”
Aurora asked still a bit nervously, “Doesn’t this town have imperial soldiers assigned to guard it? How come no one came to help when the dragon started attacking?”
While laughing at her question, Glacius responded, “Oh alluring warrior, there are no imperials guarding us here. Haven’t you noticed? Most of the people over there in the square are much like you.”
While glancing over in the direction Glacius was pointing, Aurora could barely notice through the rain, but she could see that many of the silhouette of the town’s folk had large animal like ears and tails.
Glacius continued saying, “This town is populated by diverse types of demi-humans and beastman. Due to their religion and discriminate beliefs, the empire would never protect a town like us. Which is why that man was so keen on destroying everything when he was denied his kill which was brought on by his murderous blood lust.”
While pulling the hood to his cloak down revealing his face, Vlad came walking up from behind Glacius and asked, “So you aren’t going rat on us for taking out those scum bags?”
Glacius gleefully responded, “Tattle? Quite the contrary my friend. I want to offer you all a warm meal and shelter while we talk about repairs to your caravan wagons as an expression of gratitude.”
After waltzing over upon hearing about warm meals, Torgan said, “I’m all for a warm meal.”
Glacius noticed Torgan was a tall demi-human ogre that was covered head to toe in the shadow dragon’s blood. He then said, “Before you eat anything my friend, you will be treated to a hot bath. You are covered head to toe with that beasts foul smelling blood and couldn’t possibly enjoy a meal in such condition.”
Torgan smiled as he held up a large sack of vials all corked and containing the dragon’s blood. With a smugness to his voice he said, “This is about a two months’ worth of pay in dragon blood.”
Glacius looked at the bag of vials Torgan was holding, while a slight expression of disgust struck his face and stated, “Those will be getting a bath at well.” He looked down the road in the direction Ivan had ran earlier and said with a sigh, “It’s a shame that other fellow ran off. I really would have liked to speak with him again.”90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4yShB3SWrs
