Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow (30 page)

“I tried to get mental images from the hippogriff, but I wasn’t able to see any chromatics clearly. Its mind is confused and wracked with pain. If there were any, they would have shown themselves,” Gallanth explained.

“I agree with Gallanth, but if drow are present, there could be a sorcerer or priestess of some power, so we should take caution,” Jodem explained as he walked his eagle over to the gold dragon and his rider.

“We will handle it,” Mkel replied.

“I have faith,” he continued.

“As you always should; besides, what is a few lonely sorcerers?” Gallanth added, teasing Jodem, who smiled. “I will enjoy sending a few more drow back to the underworld in ashes. I’ve not destroyed a dark elf since the Great War, and I will look forward to that privilege soon.”

Within minutes, there was a clamor of soldiers getting armor and weapons ready, and soon over a hundred armed men were gathering around Gallanth’s feet. They looked up in amazement at the dragon’s colossal size. “Thank the Creator he’ll be with us on this one,” one soldier whispered to his sergeant.

“You are welcome, my lad,” Gallanth replied to the soldier, who started to blush with a slight embarrassment from being overheard by the gold dragon. His squad sergeant smiled, as did Mkel. Soon a small cavalry troop was moving from the stables with half a company of land dragons. Mkel saw a colonel walking over to the group.

“Sir, as soon as you have enough, let me know,” he yelled to the battalion commander from high on Gallanth’s back. Mkel knew it was Colonel Sheer, one of the infantry battalion commanders, just by his size. He stood six feet, four inches tall and was a burly man at that. He guessed he would be the commander on the ground for this fight.

“Right, Captain; there’s no time for catapults. As soon as we have at least two line companies and a few more horses, hippogriffs, and land dragons, we can go,” Colonel Sheer replied. Sometimes there was a little friction from senior line officers toward dragonriders, who they considered like an aristocracy. It was well known within the Draden regiment and the Battle Point legion that Mkel was an infantryman first and served as a line soldier while a junior dragonrider, and even before he became dragon bonded.

Mkel counted eight land dragons and almost a troop of cavalry and hippogriffs finally gathering around Gallanth’s wings and tail. “We’re ready, Captain!” the colonel shouted to Mkel.

“All right, gentleman, gather around Gallanth and make sure you are within the circle of his nose, wing tips, and tail,” Mkel ordered as Gallanth stretched his seventy-five-yard-wide wingspan and straightened his tail. It was a tight fit, but the whole mixed battalion fit all around Gallanth, with the hippogriffs and cavalry in front of his outstretched wings on either side of his head and neck, a reinforced infantry company under each wing with some cavalry, and the land dragons on each side of his tail. It was very crowded, with everyone, including the mounts, standing shoulder to shoulder. “We will be teleporting just west of the town. The hippogriff wings will need to take off as fast as they can so Gallanth can move away from the infantry and take to the air. Roger, Captain?” he shouted quickly to the hippogriff wing commander, who gave him a nod in acknowledgment.

“You will be a slightly disoriented for a few seconds, but it will pass quickly, my little brothers,”
Gallanth said to the land dragons in Draconic, for they had never teleported before. “Be ready to move to your flanks. Fear not the transportation magic. We will be fighting for you all. Have faith and may the Creator’s strength be with you,” he finished with his commanding Draconic voice resonating from the walls of the city.

“Battalion, weapons ready!” Colonel Sheer shouted as hundreds swords and arrows were drawn. “As soon as Gallanth takes to the air, we will form a line directly in front of the land dragons. Hippogriff wing, take to the air and engage any and all enemy flying forces in coordination with Gallanth. Cavalry, be prepared to flank to the best avenue of approach and keep any mounted forces off balance. I will call to you for your attack route. Archers, ready! I will lead the line toward the town, so all stay with me. We will drive these evil demons back. Captain, at your mark,” he finished as he drew his dragonstone-imbedded great sword.

Gallanth let out an ear-shattering roar as Jodem took off on Vatara. The giant eagle let out its own war cry, and they both flashed out of sight. Mkel saw the picture of a grass field in Gallanth’s mind, which he had gotten from the hippogriff. The brilliant blue light vortex then formed around the gold dragon, and in an instant, they were gone. They emerged on a grass field about three hundred yards from the village, behind a small rise that concealed their position. The fires were immediately visible, and they heard screams from the village. The hippogriffs were spurred forward and took to the air as the cavalry trotted to the left flank. The men of the infantry companies and the land dragons began to move away from Gallanth.

“Colonel Sheer, I see the majority of their forces on the south side of the village, with dire wolves and drow spiders on the north side, Gallanth quickly informed the colonel. Jodem became visible as he and his eagle landed beside Gallanth.

“I concur with Gallanth, Colonel,” Jodem agreed. “I haven’t seen any chromatic dragons, and I don’t know if there are any sorcerers among the death knights and drow, but I feel a magical presence. These new dragon spawn creatures will be difficult adversaries, though, so tell your hippogriffs to watch and keep their wingmen close.”

“We will need two hippogriffs as wingmen as well, sir,” Mkel told the colonel.

“All right, here’s the plan,” Colonel Sheer said. “I will take the line companies to the south and engage the orcs directly. Captain Deven, take the cavalry around the north of the town from the west to surprise the worgs and drow and keep them away from us. Captain Javar, split your land dragons, with half reinforcing the cavalry and the other half with the infantry. Captain Salenor, you and your hippogriffs just keep those flying mounts and dragon spawn off of us, and provide Captain Mkel and Gallanth with two wingmen.”

“As long as no chromatic dragons show up, we should clear the skies quickly, eliminating the death knights on those wyverns first. Just keep those others off our back for a couple of minutes,” Mkel finished.

“Does everybody understand?” the colonel asked. “Good, let’s do this and relieve our men.” He put his seeing crystal back on his belt, and the officers broke to go back to their units to form their plans. “Mkel, Gallanth, I need you and Jodem to keep the heavy heat off of us.”

“We always support the infantry, sir,” Mkel spoke with a smile.

“We will protect your men like our own, Colonel,” Jodem added

“Have faith, Colonel,” Gallanth added. With that, Mkel quickly readied his crossbow Markthrea with exploding-tipped bolts. Gallanth let out an angry battle roar to announce his presence. Mkel felt the dragon’s muscles tighten as he leaped into the air, with the hundred twenty mounted hippogriffs falling in behind him to draw all attention to them. Jodem immediately fired a lightning bolt at a nearby mounted manticore, which struck it in the side, killing it instantly and sending its smoldering body plummeting toward the ground. Gallanth fired a sunbeam burst into an orc-mounted hymenoid, almost vaporizing it on the spot. Mkel took aim at a dragon spawn with a proper lead and fired. His bolt struck home, with the missile hitting the creature behind its left arm under the wing. The resulting explosion knocked the spawn out of the air, but barely, Mkel noted.
These creatures are very tough
, he thought to himself,
they will be trouble
.

All the enemy aerial forces immediately began to wing around to meet the new threat of the Alliance hippogriffs and Gallanth; however, several did break and head east at the site of the colossal dragon. The hippogriffs scattered into their pairs and began to engage the giant wasps, manticores, and dragon spawn. Gallanth focused on a wyvern with a Morgathian knight mounted on it. With a roar and a quick turn, he was on the wyvern’s tail. The black knight looked back at Gallanth and kicked his mount’s side to fly faster. He then called for a nearby orc on a giant wasp to fly interference; Mkel answered with a shot to the orc’s chest with a regular bolt that killed him instantly. The wounded insect mount veered off to land, likely to eat its rider.

The knight pulled a wand out of his gauntlet and fired a series of magic missiles at Gallanth. All the small glowing orbs were absorbed by his spell shield like drops of water in a lake. He then threw a spear back at the gold dragon, which snapped off on his shoulder, unable to penetrate his armored hide. As the evil knight drew his sword, Gallanth reared his head up and opened his huge jaws. Mkel felt his dragon’s neck tighten as a plasma fireball expelled from his mouth and streaked toward the wyvern. Just as the creature tried to dive away, the fiery reddish-orange energy ball struck it in the lower back and engulfed the pair in a huge explosion, killing the wyvern instantly. Its charred remains fell from the sky. “Colonel Sheer, Gallanth just sent a dead wyvern streaking to the ground with a black guard on it. If he survives the impact, he is yours,” Mkel sent the message to the battalion commander on the ground.

“We’ll deal with him, Captain,” Colonel Sheer replied back through his seeing crystal.

Jodem swung around and dove on the company of drow below and unleashed a meteor storm spell, which rapidly emanated from his staff. The nine fiery reddish black projectiles struck the ground in the midst of the giant spider-mounted drow and exploded in a series of blinding flashes, which killed and injured dozens of the dark elves. As Vatara pulled up, a drow sorcerer fired a lightning bolt at them. Jodem’s spell shield held as it took the glancing impact of the bolt.

The hippogriffs were swerving and diving as they fought the hymenoids, spawn, and remaining manticores. A pair of hippogriff riders spurred their mounts into a dive after a dragon spawn and fired their short bows. Both arrows scored direct hits on the large winged dragon/man creature, but it kept flying. It then turned around and came at one of the hippogriffs and hit the rider in the shoulder; the spear pierced his scale armor. His mount whirled around and kicked the dragon spawn in the joint of its right wing, sending it tumbling end over end and allowing his wingman to get another good arrow shot to finish it off.

“Captain Mkel, there is a remnant of a platoon on the far side of the village. They are protecting a group of women and children and are heavily outnumbered. We can’t get to them,” the hippogriff commander called to Mkel on his seeing crystal with great concern in his voice.

“We’ll swing over to them,” Mkel answered as Gallanth looked down at the village. There was over a company of orcs surrounding the small wooden fort on the north side of the town. The majority of the Battle Point battalion was on the south side of the village, decisively engaging the bulk of the hostile forces, and the cavalry was in the process of driving off the orc-mounted worgs. Gallanth then banked toward the north and began to dive.

They must be outnumbered five to one; there are at least fifty women and children in the building
, Gallanth told him telepathically. Mkel looked through his crossbow’s magnified sight. A senior death knight was fighting what he surmised was the platoon leader or platoon senior sergeant, for he was holding his own. The evil warrior was thrusting hard with his black iron sword. The Alliance soldier took a hard hit and wheeled back as the death knight swung around and thrust his evil blade into the soldier’s chest.

Gallanth heard a scream as a young teenage boy came running from the building. “That soldier is defending his family!” shouted the dragon. Mkel saw the boy running to his father’s side as the death knight pulled the blade from the soldier’s chest. He felt his stomach tighten as well as the muscles in his jaws.
Mkel, I cannot fire,
the dragon said,
for they are too close to the building and the boy.
Gallanth roared as his dive increased speed.

Mkel cocked his crossbow and put a mithril-tipped bolt in place and settled the sight on the black knight. In the seconds this action took, all Mkel could think about was the boy’s pain in seeing his father cut down in front of him, and his own memories of losing his father. An intense hate and rage began to fill him as he took careful aim, pulled the trigger, and released the bolt, which flew at blinding speed toward its target. The boy had run out and pushed the death knight away from his father as he was pulling his sword from the soldier’s chest. He then picked up his father’s sword and swung at the knight, who parried his blow and knocked the young boy down. As he raised his sword to smite the boy, Mkel’s bolt struck him in the right shoulder, piercing his black iron armor and knocking him off his feet from the impact.

Gallanth landed with an incredible tremor on the west side of the fort, crushing twenty or more orcs in the process and knocking several others off of their feet. He spun himself around with blinding speed, sweeping his tail in a 270 degree arc, sending dozens of orcs flying through the air like a man would flick off ants. The orcs were crushed from the impact of his powerful and immense tail. With an ear-shattering roar, his head cocked back and unleashed a controlled cone of fire that swept through the orc ranks, incinerating over fifty. Most of the remainder quickly began to break and run from the might of the gold dragon.

Mkel unbuckled his riding straps, disconnected his crossbow, and slid off Gallanth’s neck, hitting the ground and rolling to cushion the impact. He got up running, swinging the crossbow over his back with its sling, as Kershan sprang from its sheath to his outstretched hand. An orc moved in to intercept him. The hideous brown insect-like orc swung his battle-axe at Mkel, who parried it with Kershan, cutting it in two pieces in the process. He then swung around with dazzling speed and literally cut the orc in half through the chest in a slanting downward stroke. The black grayish blood spilled all over the ground. He was upon the death knight quickly, who had just recovered from the quarrel strike; the fletching of the end of the small arrow was still sticking out from his reinforced black iron armor on his shoulder, a testament to how tough the Morgathian rare metal was to take the incredible penetrating power of Markthrae.