Dragon Alliance Dark Storm : Dark Storm (52 page)

“I want you to see your daughter born as well. Now shoot straight and come home to us,” she replied as she waved her hand. Her dragonstone opal pendant started glowing as she cast her most powerful healing spell on Gallanth to help him with his multiple gaping wounds. At that, they were gone in a blue flash.

“Where did that silver come from, and how did she find us? We must reform and reengage that gold while he is wounded,” Vorgash spoke to the group of chromatic dragons now recovering from the surprise attack.

“You might have a harder time to get the blue dragons to sacrifice themselves to allow us to mass on the gold, Vorgash,” Infernex sarcastically snarled at his counterpart.

“And you have done so well to help slay this brute. Again, we will settle this afterward. Now we will attack from his right. Arathus, take your dragons and move in from his left,” Vorgash replied as he quickly formed a plan.

“That insignificant little talking monkey is mine,” the blue dragon with the severed nose horn roared as he attacked at his full airspeed.

“No, we must attack together or that gold will pick us off one by one! Ahhh!” Vorgash roared out and moved ahead of Infernex as they started to fly at an oblique angle to the flank of the gold dragon.

“Mkel, when we get within range of this blue dragon, I need you to fire at the top of his head or back and then hang on tight, for I plan on capitalizing on your taking of his nose horn. He cannot fire his lightning bolt accurately or effectively now. I will tell you when to fire, and we will take advantage of his rage,” Gallanth explained to his rider has he flapped his wings to gain speed.

The blue dragon was crackling with electrical energy and anger as he moved to intercept and attack Gallanth but especially Mkel. As the two dragons approached each other, Gallanth did not use his sunburst beam because he wanted to save energy for the other dragons. When he could sense that the blue was about to fire his lightning bolt, he signaled for his rider to shoot. Mkel aimed at the top of the blue’s head with the crossbow sight’s crosshair and fired. The bolt streaked toward the chromatic and just went over the top of his head and exploded on the crest of his shoulders and back. The force of the explosion pushed the dragon down as he fired his lightning bolt. Gallanth had dipped slightly down and then quickly nosed up as the pulse just missed his chest and underbelly. His shield did absorb some of the energy but only a fraction of its total deadly power.

Gallanth quickly spoke to Mkel, “Hold on, my rider!” as he curled his nose and head down and performed a summersault similar to a wingover but threw his tail over, keeping it straight and then brought his tail plate down on the blue dragon’s head. The hardened, arrow-shaped plate cut through the severed horn and the chromatic’s skull, killing him instantly. He came out of his flip and literally landed on the blue dragon’s back, sinking his claws into his indigo hide to ensure he was slain. His victory roar was louder than usual as he let the chromatic’s body go and it spiraled lifelessly to the ground. Gallanth quickly flapped his wings to gain speed to intercept the other four dragons now moving toward him.

Gallanth then cast a prismatic shield in front of the approaching red dragons. While the colorful wall would not stop the chromatics, as it was not one of his more powerful spells, it would slow them down. He then turned toward the blue dragons with a roar. As he moved to intercept, he fired his sunburst beam at the demon blue dragon bearing down on him. With his shield gone and him already being wounded, the energy of the beam was too much for the enhanced chromatic and he was finished. His wings immediately folded as he rolled over and started his death dive to the ground.

Upon seeing his demon master slain, the other blue dragon quickly veered in an attempt to get away from Gallanth, who was rapidly approaching him. Gallanth answered this cowardice with a well-placed plasma fireball, which struck the fleeing blue dragon directly between his wings in the center of his back. The blast caused the chromatic’s wings to fold back and sent his smoldering body in a nose-dive to the forest below.

By this time, the two red dragons had broken through the prismatic wall and were flying toward Gallanth, but in seeing their two blue companions spiraling to the ground, they began to hesitate. “Vorgash, our blue kin are slain; it is time to fall back to either our black squadron or the main fight,” Infernex stated as he slowed his flight pace.

“No, he is still weak, and we will take him down. Now follow me, cowardly worm!” Vorgash shouted and continued to move toward Gallanth.

“Fool,” Infernex whispered to himself as he flew behind Vorgash, taking care to keep his rival between himself and the approaching gold dragon.

“Mkel, these fools still want to fight.” When I hit the lead red with a sunburst beam, target the dragon behind him, for he still has shield strength left. This will also separate them,” Gallanth told Mkel.

“No problem, my friend, but this is my last magazine of mithril-tipped exploding bolts, so I have ten shots left and then will have to go back to the normal exploding quarrels,” he answered.

“That will not be a problem; you won’t need half of them,” Gallanth replied as he prepared to attack the red dragons.

Just as Gallanth fired his sunburst beam, Vorgash cast a firestorm spell between himself and the gold dragon. Gallanth’s beam bored through the wall of flame and dispelled it as the deadly light rays struck Vorgash with their remaining energy. Mkel began to fire as rapidly as possible at Infernex. The first bolt hit his shield solidly, and the explosion made it start to fail. The second bolt strike shattered the magic force field, and his third shot struck the red dragon on his upper front left leg breaking the limb and rendering it temporarily useless. In an uncharacteristic move, Gallanth cast an ice-beam spell that struck Vorgash in the chest. While weaker than that of a silver dragon’s breath, the spell-cast icy beam still had a dramatic effect on the red dragon’s already injured hide.

This double strike caused the lead demon red dragon to be pushed back in midair and left him vulnerable to Gallanth’s charge. The gold dragon hit the chromatic with the full force of his larger frame, his outstretched talons sinking into the red dragon’s chest and side. The crimson chromatic roared in pain.

“Infernex, help me!” he desperately shouted as he struggled with the stronger metallic dragon. If Infernex had any idea of helping his rival, it was stopped by another mithril exploding bolt from Markthrea that hit him in his left hindquarter.

“You are on your own, my friend. No need to worry about our confrontation now!” he roared back and turned to fly away as fast as possible. Mkel fired another bolt at him, but he dove quickly and away from the fight with the quarrel just streaking over top of the diving red dragon. Gallanth looked at the demon red dragon and in a low growl gave him one final insult.

“From your ancestral sin, I release you,” and upon stating this in Draconic, Gallanth delivered the killing strike on the red dragon’s neck. His large fangs sank deeply into the crimson hide, and then he twisted his head to ensure he broke the vertebrae. As he released the demon red, he bellowed out a loud victory roar echoed by Mkel’s yell.

“You had me worried for a time there. I tried to get in for a close shot, but that other blue dragon kept chasing us away. Thank the Creator you were victorious. We would not know what to do without you two,” Tegent said with relief and concern.

“Thank you, my minstrel friend, and we are glad you didn’t get too close. There were too many of them, and they were very powerful. We could not have helped you if you got in trouble,” Mkel added.

“Yes, Tegent, you becoming a meal to one of those hungry chromatics would have made the world a much less pleasant place,” Gallanth complimented the bard.

“I didn’t do enough, and you two were almost killed,” the normally jovial bard stated in a tone that indicated he was almost ashamed of his performance.

“Nonsense, Tegent, if you had not sung your rather amusing but insulting song, they would not have broken formation and then been allowed to attack en masse. This alone saved us, and we thank you,” Gallanth further complimented him. “Now, we have more chromatics to slay, after I get another gemstone. That fight was exhausting!” Gallanth exclaimed as he turned his head to Mkel, who reached into the special sack in front of his crossbow mount and pulled out a large rough-cut ruby. He tossed it to Gallanth’s waiting tongue. “Yes, I needed that recharge.”

“We will wait for a few minutes, as you are injured and your shield is almost gone. Talonth and Baranth are holding their own as is the Eladran Weir Wing. We will help, but you need to catch your breath first,” Mkel told his dragon.

“Yes, my rider, but only for a few moments; they will need help soon.”

The initial Morgathian assault on the left side of the Alliance battle line was repulsed. The Draden Regiment held firm, but were weakened by the sheer numbers of the enemy. The elf and Alliance archers and crossbowmen were now engaged in keeping the attacking dragon spawn from massing on the infantry. This had the effect of keeping the archers busy and not able to fire at the advancing orcs and Morgathians. Too many legionnaires and even land dragons were being forced to fall back because of injuries, but many of the enemy, to include most of the giants, had fallen as well.

The Morgathian commander decided to play his last hand and ordered the giant/dragon hybrid aberrations to attack the Draden Regiment portion of the battle line. At the same time, the chromatic-created zombies, between two and three hundred of them, emerged from the small river on the edge of the forest and started to move toward the rear of the regiment.

“What are those hideous creatures moving toward us?” Colonel Wierangan asked Senior Captain Peasem.

“I don’t know, sir, but I will take a few men and find out,” his executive officer answered, even though they didn’t have many to spare. Peasem took the reserve infantry platoon and a squad of elves and centaurs with him to head off the small battalion of zombies slowly bearing down on them. One of the elves fired an arrow at the lead zombie, which struck it in the chest with no effect, much to his surprise. The mindless walking corpses kept coming at the small platoon now facing them. Their sullen eyes had the look of both lifelessness and rage, likely a reflection of the vile chromatic dragon blood that had reanimated their corpses. Some looked almost normal, while others were in various stages of rot and decay.

Senior Captain Peasem called for the platoon leader to form the men into their locked shield square formation and prepare for the assault of these undead creatures. The few elves and centaurs began to fire arrows rapidly at the zombies. As the arrows were hitting, they either the exposed the grayed flesh of the walking corpses or penetrated the rusted armor, but the creatures appeared to be unaffected by them until one elf placed an arrow in the forehead of one of them. The foul creature started to shake and then collapsed. A centaur aimed and shot another zombie in the head with a similar result.

“That is how they can be killed; they must be struck in the spine or head or have it severed from their bodies!” Peasem shouted out. His men were relieved to know that their enemy could indeed be killed. “Men, aim your spear thrusts at their heads!” he loudly ordered just as the hordes of walking corpses hit the platoon’s shields. The zombies pounded on the Alliance soldiers’ shields with whatever weapons they had or with their hands if nothing else. The soldiers who were lucky and skillful enough to thrust their spears in the face of one of their attackers downed them, but those who missed were quickly being overwhelmed by the hoards of undead. The armored square formation of the platoon was quickly overwhelmed, and they began to withdraw as they kept thrusting and hacking at the attacking zombies. Many of the undead creatures had two or more limbs severed but still kept coming. The elves and centaurs were making head shots on them as fast as they could or sprinting around them and delivering decisive blows to sever their spinal cords.

As the reserve platoon was losing ground and getting closer to the main battle line, a group of six of the hybrid giants stormed through the Morgathian army, hell bent to get to the Alliance formation. The archers who were able started to fire at the hulking brutes crashing toward them. Their hides, however, proved almost as difficult to penetrate as a chromatic’s, and many of the arrows and bolts were either bouncing off of them or only partially penetrating. Only the ballista spears from the land dragon crews were causing them serious injury or damage. By the time they had knocked the Morgathian soldiers aside in their maddened charge, only two had been killed by the land dragons. The four remaining smashed through the Alliance infantry, crushing many in their path, in spite of being hit by multiple spears and sword thrusts. The remaining two land dragons charged at the ferocious giants. The oversized fanged brutes snarled back and quickly moved to attack them.

As soon as the giants were clear of the infantry, the two land dragons breathed a cone of fire at two of the four hulking crimson-red monsters. The two hit were thrown back but then quickly got up, only suffering partial injury from the intense flames, and continued their attack. One of the giant hybrids hit a land dragon on the shoulder and side and actually knocked it down, attesting to the increased strength of these horrible half-breeds. The other land dragon was ready for its attacker. It caught it on the shoulder and neck with a well-placed bite and threw it down. In spite of the deep wounds from the land dragon’s fangs, which were pouring out greenish-black blood, it stood up and charged again.

The Draden Regiment’s soldiers desperately tried to close the hole in their line, but too many orcs and Morgathian soldiers had taken advantage of the penetration and dozens stormed through. A general melee started to break out, and the Alliance battle line began to crumble. Colonel Wierangan, with his sword drawn, leading his staff, met the Morgathian charge head-on and began hacking down the two orcs in front of him. He knew that his men would not stand long against the numbers of orcs and Morgathians streaming through their line but hoped that seeing him and his officers engage the enemy would give them the courage to close the gap. He was then distracted by a blue flash to his back. He skewered the orc to his right and quickly turned around to see the copper dragon Selenth with his rider Dkert standing in front of a mixed battalion of dwarves and Talinor Weir legionnaires. He shouted to the dragon and rider as he slew another orc with a downward stroke of his mithril-alloy dragonstone long sword and ran over to them.