Dragon Alliance Dark Storm : Dark Storm (75 page)

“Hold on!” Mkel yelled, and Gallanth turned hard over to the right and down as he performed a very tight loop that pressed Mkel and Ordin flat against the gold dragon’s back ridges. He came out of the loop in a good position one hundred yards beneath Doomshadow and fired a sunburst and a plasma fireball in rapid succession, immediately followed up by a bolt from Mkel. The combined attack devastated Doomshadow’s magic shield and inflicted a great deal of damage to the black dragon’s underbelly.

Gallanth turned away and maneuvered as fast as he could to avoid the return blast from either the chromatic or the sorcerer, but not before he roared over a couple of taunting words, “What’s the matter, Usurper? You’re losing your fighting edge being under Tiamat’s talons too long. Pampered worm.”

Doomshadow roared in pain but spat back to Gallanth, “Insolent pogasch, I’ll see your foul blood dripping from my fangs!” Then he bellowed, “Sorcerer, what are you doing? They just inflicted a crippling strike against me. I cannot take another hit like that; we must flash-teleport, so I can grapple with him and tear his heart out.”

“I was slightly preoccupied with that cursed wizard, Dragon,” Dreadstone spat back at Doomshadow.

“I thought you were a Covenant sorcerer! Now concentrate on the teleport!” Doomshadow ordered the evil sorcerer. They then both focused on the point where they wanted to flash-teleport and with Dreadstone’s dark crystal glowing, they were gone.

“Mkel, it worked! We hit them hard, and they are now preparing to duplicate what they did before. Jodem, I need you to attempt to dominate Dreadstone,” Gallanth explained.

“Gallanth, he is too powerful and will shake it off in no time,” Jodem replied a bit worried and curious as to why Gallanth had asked him to do a task he knew he couldn’t.

“I know but it will keep him busy for a minute while I fang and claw fight with the demon dragon. Mkel, I will need you and Ordin to stop his tail from hitting me. This will allow me to set up the fatal strike,” Gallanth answered quickly.

All agreed, and Jodem had Vatara fly back toward Gallanth and Doomshadow at top speed.

Doomshadow then emerged from the flash-teleport right in front of Gallanth, but instead of taking the gold dragon by surprise, he was met by Gallanth’s outstretched talons. The two powerful dragons immediately started to exchange claw strikes, but both missed in their bite attempts. The two large and deadly jaws both clamped down on empty air, but Gallanth only missed the black dragon’s neck by inches. Just as Dreadstone was about to cast a disruption spell at Gallanth, he became enveloped in a faint blue light as Jodem’s domination spell was taking hold. He quickly redirected the energy of his staff to counter Jodem’s spell, and a purplish wall of light formed against the field of pale-blue light. A spell-pushing game started as the two magic users tried to overpower each other.

Gallanth shoved Doomshadow away from him and telepathically told Mkel to get ready; the dragonrider told Ordin to do the same as he took aim at the chromatic’s black tail. Both dragons then lunged toward each other, but this time, Gallanth let the black chromatic strike at the base of his neck and shoulder while his massive fangs sank into the Usurper’s upper front left leg and shoulder. Gallanth deliverately gave the black dragon an advantage in this exchange to set him up for his next move. Even though Doomshadow was just as strong as he was, the large black dragon was still physically smaller, and Gallanth was going to use that to his advantage.

As Doomshadow was moving his tail around to strike Gallanth’s head to knock it back and allow the chromatic to rear back and gore him, Ordin threw his hammer and Mkel made a quick aimed shot. Both enhanced weapons struck the black tail with a thunderous explosion and blew it back and away from Gallanth. The gold dragon used this momentum to his advantage and pulled the chromatic’s shoulder in that direction causing Doomshadow to spin slightly to his left. Gallanth then brought his tail around from his left and like a bullwhip snapped the arrow-shaped plate at its tip and drove it deeply into Doomshadow’s exposed right flank.

The deadly tail plate penetrated the heavily armored black hide and lodged right between his heart and synthensium, cutting both. Gallanth then twisted his tail inside Doomshadow’s flank for greater damage and fired a magic missile from the tip of his plate at the powerful piece of dark crystal that melded between the chromatic’s heart and synthensium. As Doomshadow stopped struggling, Mkel put Dreadstone dead in his sights.

Dreadstone broke off his spell duel with Jodem and looked at Mkel, his large, dark, sullen eyes staring the dragonrider down. “Mercy, Dragonrider?” he requested to Mkel as he was attempting to prepare a spell.

Mkel replied, “Mercy to one of the worst butchers of Morgathia?” and laughed as he fired his bolt, which struck the sorcerer’s dark crystal halberd staff, sending it flying out of his hand and away from the black dragon. “There is your mercy, Sorcerer,” Mkel said as Gallanth withdrew his tail from Doomshadow’s side and let the dying chromatic go.

“Justice for you Usurper. There is a price for evil,” Gallanth said coldly, as he looked directly into Doomshadow’s fading eyes, his own glowing in defiance. Dreadstone then suddenly realized that without his staff, he could not cast a slow fall or flying spell and would perish. He started to scream uncharacteristically as he and the dying Usurper dragon plummeted to the ground. As they fell, the boulder-sized dark crystal inside the dragon burst in an explosion that consumed both the chromatic and its sorcerer rider.

As the deafening explosion died down, the split second of silence across the battlefield was then interrupted by Gallanth’s victory roar and prayer, which was echoed by all the metallics. The tide had indeed now turned, but a mixed wing of chromatics formed and started to move toward Gallanth to avenge the death of their Usurper leader, led by Havocfire. Not ready for the next fight, Gallanth and Vatara started to move away, but a lightning bolt came from above them and struck the lead red dragon of this attacking force. Bristurm and Tridenth with their weir had just teleported in from the battle over Sauric Bay.

Strangely, Denar Weir had not been attacked by a large force, so after they defeated the enemy in their region, he had reinforced Rom and Rem Weirs to keep the chromatics from getting to Draconia. Grommel and Zalenth released them after they had the situation in their fight under control. Bristurm directed his six dragons to move to intercept the chromatic wing as his female dragons were transporting the Denar legion to Atlean to reinforce the weir. The Denar dwarves were itching for a fight and hastily tore into the Morgathians. He gave a wave and salute to Mkel right before his fierce bronze dragon dove right into the approaching red.

Mkel was grateful for this reinforcement, for he didn’t want to face another strong enemy force just quite yet. The fight with Doomshadow and Dreadstone had been one of their toughest and most exhausting. Mkel watched Bristurm throw his dragonstone-empowered mithril ax, which twirled through the air and inflicted a long, nasty slice along the red dragon’s left wing.
A
fierce
warrior,
and
almost
pure
weapon
in
his
own
right,
Mkel thought of his friend Bristurm, but he had to work on his accuracy.

As Tridenth fought the red dragon, Mkel looked toward the harbor and out at the naval battle still raging. The ice ships had torn right through the Morgathian fleet, but they were being swarmed in an attempt to board them even at the sacrifice of dozens of the Morgathian’s own ships. The Morgathian naval commander knew that this was the only way he could stop them as his black-armor-clad soldiers were attempting to clamor aboard the ice ships only to be met by the spears and arrows of the naval infantry. However the size, speed, firepower, and the indestructible material they were made of had the Morgathian ballistae and catapult rounds bouncing off of them.

Just as Mkel was about to tell Gallanth to move toward the naval battle, the gold dragon brought his head up, and the horns from the returning Alliance fleet could be faintly heard from over the horizon. A loud round of cheers rose from the ice ships and the other remaining Alliance warships as they heard Gallanth’s greeting roar. The horns grew louder when the fleet became fully visible as they approached in battle formation. This was none too soon, as the fighting on the ice ships had begun to get very vicious.

“How did the Alliance fleet get back from Shidan so fast? They were at least two to three days out,” the Morgathian commander angrily demanded. He didn’t know that the wizards on the ships had all directed wind spells for an incredibly strong breeze that was pushing the sails so hard that a couple of ships had them rip from their rigging. They were now approaching at a normal speed with full sails so the wizards could prepare their offensive spells and defend against the Morgathian sorcerers.

The ice ships had left dozens of broken and destroyed Morgathian vessels in their wake. The enemy then changed tactics and began to charge and lash their ships to the icy sides of the immense vessels in desperate suicide boarding attacks. This was the Morgathian fleet commander’s tactic in that his ships’ catapult and ballista exchange with the ice ships was a losing proposition. This swarm attack was a sacrifice of those ships, but it would get his soldiers on board for a hand-to-hand fight. The dragging of the dozens of Morgathian warships was slowing even the new powerful steam generator propulsion of the ice ships.

Each of the new vessels had three large mithril-steel-alloy chambers that housed a thick glass sphere that contained thousands of heating crystals suspended by reinforced steel beams. The whole containment tank was heavily insulated so as not to affect the pykrete construction of the ship. The steam produced by the chamber not only gave the large ships propulsion but also supplied the ship with fresh water and water pressure throughout the vessel. With all three chambers running at full capacity, it could propel the immense ships at up to thirty knots or more, making them the fastest vessels on the seas.

The Morgathian commander quickly re-diverted all his reserve and most of his remaining ships to move into their dense attack formation. He still had several hundred ships; outnumbering the Alliance fleet well over two to one, but the ice ships worried him. The Alliance fleet admiral ordered their warships into a layered opposing echelon formation to maximize their range, accuracy, and firepower advantage over their Morgathian counterparts. This would also offer a less dense grouping of targets to the Morgathian gunners.

As the two fleets formed, the ice ships continued to pour murderous fire onto the black-sailed fleet, or at least those who could still man the catapults and ballista and weren’t involved with the direct hand-to-hand fighting did.

“Damn those ships! How did they make them?” the Morgathian commander cursed out loud as he tried to form his fleet as quickly as he could, but the flag communication method was a far cry from being as effective as the Alliance seeing crystals. As the two fleets closed, a brilliant and deadly exchange of catapult and ballistae fire took place. The Morgathian armada was quickly being whittled down, but several Alliance ships were also hit, with a couple of them seriously damaged. The Alliance admiral’s tactic was working, however.

“Gallanth, do you have enough strength left for one good strike at the black fleet?” Mkel asked his dragon, but he knew he was weakened by his fight with Doomshadow and the wounds he incurred.

“I have enough shield strength left for one run,” he answered.

“And I for one good spell strike,” Jodem also chimed in from just above Gallanth. Mkel switched to a full magazine of regular, explosive-tipped bolts, and they began their dive onto the back of the Morgathian fleet. Gallanth unleashed a long torrent of fire that engulfed ten ships in flames, as Mkel fired to the right side of Gallanth as rapidly as he could, striking several ships with small explosions doing varying amounts of damage. Jodem cast a flame strike spell to the left of the dragon while Vatara flew above Gallanth to be covered by the dragon’s shield. The torrent of flames that originated from his staff quickly spread to a large area that blanketed four ships in fire. This was one of his least favorite spells because of its clumsy nature and area effect, which was not direct or aimed, but in this case very effective.

As Gallanth started to rise from his attack run, dozens of ballista spears and hundreds of arrows were being aimed at him. Several were striking his shield and quickly starting to wear it down, and several of the sorcerer apprentices on the Morgathian warships were also trying to direct spells at him. As the mighty gold dragon and Vatara ascended, they left over twenty ships either totally or partially in flames. His shield was almost gone by then, but the strike had as much of a psychological effect on the sailors of the Alliance fleet as it did a physical effect on the Morgathian navy with the loss of that many ships in one pass. It was up to them now, as Gallanth rose above the naval battle and started to fly back toward the harbor and the now dwindling fight.

Many chromatics had started to teleport away before the Alliance dragons stopped the remainder with dispelling roars. The defeat of Doomshadow and Dreadstone, as well as the arrival of reinforcements from Denar Weir and other weirs was just too much for the more cowardly chromatics. However, those remaining knew they had to fight to the death, for surrender was not an option for them. Gallanth flew toward the heart of the city where the Draden Weir garrison was consolidating and where Pekram lay but carefully observed the ongoing aerial fight.

Denar Weir was finishing off the last of the chromatics in the squadron that had attacked Gallanth. Tridenth and Bristurm silenced the second lead red dragon, for Havocfire had disengaged and managed to teleport away before the Capital Weir could stop him. “A fierce pair those two,” Mkel said out loud.