Dragon Alliance Dark Storm : Dark Storm (50 page)

The orc handlers with their ogre helpers cut the chains on the dozen snarling creatures and directed them to attack the approaching Freilanders. They cut down dozens of orcs that were in their way in their headlong charge toward the raiders, swinging and slashing with the crude axes, falchions, and rough swords they wielded in their four arms as they advanced.

“What in the Creator’s name are those demons?” Pekram shouted out loud as he pulled his large sword from an orc he had just slain.

“They are called blood-seekers my friend. A fellow ship captain of mine ran into them on one of his missions in the Canaris Twin Islands. Take care, for while not very smart or agile, they are strong and swing wildly with all their weapons,” Lawrent quickly explained to Pekram and called for his men to receive the charging beasts. Pekram raised his large sword and faced down the lead blood-seeker, which was bearing down on him. He moved in quickly with a powerful downward stroke that smashed two of the creatures’ weapons and cut into its chest and torso. This put the creature off balance, which caused its strikes with its other two arms to glance on the senior sergeant’s mithril breastplate armor, but the hits did force him to back up and regain his balance.

The snarling blood-seeker pressed the attack in spite of the gaping wound from Pekram’s sword and swung down wildly with two of its four remaining crude weapons. The senior sergeant’s sword thrust up and cut creature’s two arms off at the elbow and then he hit it with his shoulder to push it back. The startled blood-seeker stepped back at this successful attack but managed to hit Pekram on the side of the neck with its one clawed hand. He answered this strike with a thrust of his large sword that pierced the monster through its midsection. It grabbed Pekram with its two remaining hands to attempt to rend his shoulder, but the experienced fighter twisted his blade and pushed up on the pommel severing its heart.

Lawrent also defeated the blood-seeker that attacked him but suffered a nasty wound on his shoulder from one of the creature’s weapons that found a small seam in his studded leather armor. His raiders were taking down the last blood-seeker but not at a small cost. Three of his men were killed and five more severely injured. The death knights were too far away to catch up to and now were on horseback speeding to the rear of the whole Morgathian army. Just then, Pekram’s seeing crystal vibrated.

“Pekram, Captain Mkel, the support corps wagons are being attacked by a sizable Morgathian force and living corpses. I’m sending the paladins to reinforce them,” Lieutenant Ablich hurriedly spoke over his seeing crystal.

“Good decision, Ablich. How is the weir fairing?” Mkel asked.

“We are being hard pressed but holding our own, sir,” the lieutenant answered.

“I’ll try to disengage here as soon as possible and come to your aid, but we are severely outnumbered as well,” Mkel replied.

“Sir, we will be all right; keep your mind in your fight, because if any of those damnable chromatics get past you, Wheelor’s land dragons are too busy to form a defense against them,” Pekram replied as he directed Lawrent to gather his wounded and pull back to the weir’s battle line.

“Understood, make sure that our crossbowmen’s fires are interlocked and coordinated with the elf archers. Keep the fighting interval to ten minutes at most to give our infantrymen time to recover and ensure that Willaward’s catapults keep firing. They are doing a lot of damage to the Morgathian main army’s rear columns. We know this or they wouldn’t have sent that regiment to silence them. Have Lenor’s paladins be mobile to the rear of your line to protect the support corps and the catapults. We need to keep the shooters and archers supplied with ammunition, for that is our edge.

“If the line gets too hard pressed, coordinate with Ordin and Dorin to perform a phased withdraw back toward the legion’s main battle line and signal for Dekeen to reinforce you, as well as Heathiret and Caraeyeth. I’ll send someone back to you as soon as possible or break contact here for a few moments to strike that Morgathian regiment and knock them down a peg. Otherwise, keep up the faith and the fight,” Mkel conveyed his orders and advice and tried to give them comfort even though he knew it wouldn’t be easy for any of his senior council to come to their aid anytime soon.

CHAPTE
R 
 VII

Extinguishing
Dark Flame

T
he Morgathians were starting to put heavy pressure on the Alliance main battle line. The 29
th
Legion and the Draden Regiment were holding and inflicting staggering casualties on the Morgathians and orcs, but the sheer numbers of the enemy were causing steady losses. The infantry on the line were only two soldiers deep in some areas now. Sensing his army needed to give one last good push to break the Alliance defense, Molotoc ordered his reserve of giants and an orc battalion to hit the legion on the right side of its line. This reinforced battalion had a good-sized pod of giants and behirs, and he surmised if he could force just one opening in the Alliance line, he could roll them up from the flank and their disciplined locked shield formation would be broken. He gave the order to his messenger rider, and within fifteen minutes, that battalion was lumbering to the portion of the battlefield where he wanted them to attack. However, as he rode behind them, he noticed the Alliance was shifting forces to counter them, and a company of land dragons and twice that of infantry was waiting just behind that portion of their formation.

The Morgathian commander yelled to his chief captain of the reserve battalion, “How did they shift forces so quickly and efficiently? Those damn Alliance seeing crystals! They are as powerful as their dragons. They can react to any move I make before I can get orders to my chieftains. And what is happening to the battalions sent to silence those catapults on the pass? They are still raining down on the army and causing significant casualties on our back ranks. Even their aerial forces always seem synchronized with their army. Ahhhhhh, attack now! Break their line, or don’t come back, Captain!” the Morgathian commander screamed at his subordinate, who immediately saluted and rode off to spur his battalion forward to the Alliance line. He then heard the Alliance soldiers shout in their language and all looked skyward. He turned around to see several squadrons of dragon spawn and gargoyles bearing down on the Alliance line. “They must have flown around the aerial fight, for otherwise, the Alliance griffons would have torn them apart. The tide is turning now,” he said to himself.

Vorgash watched the large gold dragon take down the white dragon pack. He had never seen their wheel attack broken before, not even by a demon red dragon. “No wonder he was able to slay Infernex’s brother and his wing. We must bring in the squadron of berserker black dragons to reinforce us; Sirex, go and order them to attack at once, and we will face this oversized metallic after they wear him down,” the demon red dragon ordered as he pulled his largest two red and blue dragons from the fight.

“What is the matter, Vorgash? This gold dragon a little more than you expected?” Infernex taunted his rival.

“Silence, worm! Are you going to help us take this gold down or just fly around like a hapless sparrow?” Vorgash roared back.

“I am with you. I assume you will call him out for single combat, and then we will all pounce?” Infernex inquired.

“Yes, but we will need all six of us including all the demon dragons. We even need your strength in spite of the fact that you have used your enhanced breath weapon one time already,” Vorgash answered.

“A rare admission of weakness from a southern dragon,” Infernex again insulted his rival.

“We still have unfinished business to attend to, but not until after this is over,” Vorgash roared back and then veered to lead his group of powerful chromatics away from the main fight with the metallics to intercept Gallanth. However, they would not fight the gold metallic until the senior demon red dragon directed the black dragon wing that was now visible as they sped toward the battle from the mountain lake behind the fire giant fortress.

“Mkel, we must engage those demon dragons; their power is too great for the Eladran wing to contend with,” Gallanth spoke out loud to Mkel as he veered back toward the main fight.

“I agree, my friend, and they seem to be doing us a favor by breaking away from the Eladran wing. Maybe they want to actually challenge us and fight like true dragons,” Mkel answered.

“They always have a deception and back strike planned, my rider; wait, behind us, there are two full squadrons of black dragons soaring in from the mountains,” Gallanth and Mkel looked back to see the two dozen chromatics desperately trying to get to them, seething with rage and bellowing their raspy, unholy roars.

“It’s time for Colonel Lordan and his wingman to spring their trap,” Mkel said.

“We must divert their attention for at least a few moments to allow the silvers to maximize their strike. Call Lordan with your seeing crystal, and tell them to attack from the black dragons’ left and rear to maximize the concealment the mountain range and the sun will give them. We will slow the lead squadron down to get them as grouped together as possible,” Gallanth told his rider as he performed a tight turn and set a course to intercept the black dragons.

“Hah, he took the bait. This is falling nicely into plan,” Vorgash hissed smugly as the demon dragons flew slowly toward the incoming black chromatic squadrons and Gallanth. “We wait until the fool is either killed by the blacks or is severely weakened by them; then we will strike,” Vorgash ordered.

Gallanth was flying directly toward the lead black chromatic squadron, and as soon as he was within range, he fired a sunburst beam at the virulent midnight-colored dragon, quickly following it up with a plasma fireball. As soon as he could conjure up the spell, he sent six large fireballs streaking toward the mass of chromatics he and Mkel were now closing in on. Mkel stared at the gruesome bull-horned black dragons through Markthrea’s sight and worried about their odds. Gallanth had just defeated a whole squadron of whites, and now they were facing even more enemy dragons, and even with the two Eladran silvers on their way, the demon dragons still had to be dealt with. “No time to ponder,” he said to himself and quickly started to fire explosive-tipped bolts at the foul black-winged beasts, because now speed meant more than accuracy, for the numbers of chromatics in front of them he was bound to hit with every shot. Black dragons were notoriously poor flyers and were not agile enough to dodge the fast projectiles.

The intense barrage of breath weapons, powerful magic spells, and exploding bolts took the squadron of black dragons off guard. Not realizing the power of the gold dragon they were engaging, the sheer force of this initial salvo caused them to reel back, thus bunching them up. Gallanth further added to this by casting one last spell before reaching the chromatics. The hailstorm spell caused some degree of injury to several of the bull-horned swamp dragons; however, more important, it made most of them back-wing to avoid the frigid projectiles and sheets of ice. Gallanth’s and Mkel’s deadly barrage caused two of the chromatics to fall from the sky while two more were barely able to maintain flight with several others wounded.

This was what the Talonth and Baranth needed, and they dove from the artificial cloud they were hiding in, unleashing their chain lightning bolt spells and their devastating icy-blue breath weapons. This was coupled with the energy bolts from Lordan’s lance and explosive-tipped quarrels from Altmed’s crossbow. The overwhelming strike complemented Gallanth’s initial assault and sent six more black dragons to their doom. Gallanth had weakened the shields of several and also allowed the two silvers to streak past the gaggled chromatics and deliver well-placed deadly claw strikes. Gallanth warned Mkel of a wingover maneuver; he barely had enough time to lung forward and grab Markthrea’s mount as his dragon curled his head down and whipped his tail over to perform an immediate change of direction. One black dragon did get a glancing shot on Gallanth’s magic shield with a stream of fiery acid, but it held strong.

“Thank you, my friends! We will handle these swamp dragons from here and will help you with those demon reds as soon as we are done!” Talonth roared to Gallanth and Mkel as they pulled from their dive and maneuvered to engage the black dragon squadron.

“May the Creator give you strength and luck carry the rest!” Gallanth roared back as he started to gain speed to intercept the red and blue dragons that were surprised to have just witnessed this unexpected turn of events.

“Damn those metallics! Where did those silvers come from? We must attack at once! All form on me, and I will get this gold off his balance,” Vorgash roared as they all moved with more haste to intercept Gallanth. As Mkel and Gallanth moved away from the now disorganized black chromatic squadron, Tegent and his griffon caught up to them and moved next to the large gold dragon to fly beside him as he was flying back the way they came.

“Mkel, I assume you and Gallanth are going to fight that group of red and blue dragons that is heading our way?” Tegent asked him through his seeing crystal.

“Yes, and we will need your help. Gallanth will give you the finer details,” Mkel answered.

“Yes, my good bard, we will be of need of your innate ability to be the irritant on those who get irritated easily through an attack on their vanity,” Gallanth added.

Tegent immediately knew what they wanted him to do: taunt the chromatics to force them to attack piecemeal. An excellent strategy, he just hoped he and his griffon would not be ground to meal in between the behemoths.

“Gallanth, there are six dragons we are facing, and three are demon empowered. Your shield is at half strength, and we just had a major fight. We need to be careful with this one,” Mkel said to Gallanth with a slightly worried tone.

Gallanth quickly replied to Mkel as they rose to meet the new demon dragons, “My rider, without fear, there cannot be courage; without doubt, there can be no choice; without honor, there can be no love; and without rage, there can be no justice.” Mkel could tell his dragon was focused on the defeat of these demons. If they could vanquish them, it would turn the tide of the battle. He quickly replaced the explosive-tipped bolt magazine in his crossbow with his mithril-tipped variants of the same type of explosive charge, his most powerful class of bolts. He had to deliver the maximum amount of damage he could, and these would do precisely that.