Revolution (25 page)

    “Diane, we won’t be any good against that dragon if we’re all burned out,” Bruce argued, leaning further back.

    “He’s got a point,” Stacey agreed, sitting on the stairs next to Bruce.

    “This is getting ridiculous. You said there’s a secret door behind the throne?” Diane asked.

    “All you have to do is push the stone wall behind the throne. It will lead you into a maze of tunnels that eventually reach the Dragon’s Lair,” Bruce said.

    “You guys can sit around if you want to. I’m getting out of here,” Diane said, brushing past Peter’s shoulder as she ascended the stairs to the throne.

    “Hey, Diane! You’ll have a better chance if you wait for us!” Bruce shouted.    

    They listened to her footsteps tread across the Wizard King’s platform and heard a creak as she pushed open the secret door. Silence followed.

    “She’ll find out,” Bruce said, sighing. “I’ve faced that dragon before. He’ll take a few of us out before we can take him down. That’s just the way the game works.”

    “It’s a hell of a game,” Rayne commented.

    “You said it. Next time I go to Disneyworld,” Jennifer said, sighing as she collapsed onto the stairs next to Bruce.

    “Me too,” Stacey agreed, walking up several steps and sitting above the rest of the group.

    “Maybe we shouldn’t get too comfortable,” Rayne advised as he scanned the far side of the chamber.

    “What are you talking about? We’re in the clear,” Bruce said.

    “I’m not so sure about that,” Peter said, using his sword like a crutch to reach a standing position.

    “Uh oh,” Stacey muttered, following Peter’s gaze.

     A large cluster of glowing red eyes was moving toward them from the far side of the chamber.

    “They’re ba-ack,” Bruce drawled.

    “I hate those skeleton guys,” Jennifer said as she stood up, wearily.

    “I think it’s time to go,” Stacey agreed.

    “Hold on, guys,” Bruce said as he reached across the carcass of the fallen Wizard King and grabbed the jeweled staff. “We’ll need this to fight the dragon. Obtaining this weapon was the whole point of overcoming this obstacle.”

    “There’s a point to all this?” Rayne asked, using his sword like a cane to move up the stairs to the throne platform.

    Rayne glanced over his shoulder to see a mob of skeleton warriors – like the one he fought in the cave – swarming into the chamber through a doorway across from the doorway he had gone through earlier. He found the secret door on the far side of the platform and entered a dark corridor. Igniting his lighter, he heard the footsteps of the others following him into the blackness.

   
This just keeps getting better
. 

    Rayne moved cautiously through the darkness, holding his lighter high in the air. He brushed his right shoulder against the wall and felt dampness soak into his ripped shirt. He could hear water dripping from the ceiling. Soon, he found himself slushing through puddles of water. The water reached his ankles, completely soaking his dress shoes.

   
Like I said before, this just keeps getting better
.

    Rayne heard the others slushing through puddles behind him. Whenever they reached an intersection, he took a right. He figured he must have been on the right track because the others kept following him. When they reached a dead-end, he turned the group around and backtracked to the closest intersection where they proceeded to take a left. They came to another intersection in the maze and took another right. As they moved steadily forward down the dark corridor, Peter thought he could see a dim, flickering orange light ahead.

    “Hold up for a minute,” Bruce said to the group. “The Dragon’s Lair is straight ahead. Has anyone else been through Dark World before?”

    “I have,” Jennifer replied, pulling out an ancient crossbow from a side holster.

    Brad followed her lead and pulled out his crossbow. Stacey looked down at the sword in her side scabbard and frowned.

    “I’m sticking with you,” Stacey said to Bruce, hugging her arm around his right shoulder.

    “So you all know what to expect?” Bruce asked, ignoring her.

    “Sure, a big, mean dragon. Why are we standing around talking?” Jennifer asked.

    “Right. For those of you who haven’t been through this, the dragon is going to shoot flames over our heads,” Bruce explained.

    “Real flames?” Peter asked, surprised.

    “Yeah, real flames. You can duck if you want to, but the flames don’t shoot any lower than twenty feet off the ground and they can’t hurt you. They’re just used to intimidate.”

    “It’s working,” Stacy said, “I’m intimidated.”

    “The main thing you have to look out for is the dragon’s saliva. It’s loaded with nerve gel. If he spits at you, get out of the way. The stuff’s gonna knock you out,” Bruce said, hastily. “He can also hit you with his tail,” he added as an afterthought.

    “Okay, sounds fun. Let’s get this over with,” Rayne muttered, gripping his sword tightly and moving toward the flickering orange light at the end of the hallway.

    They entered a spacious, torch-lit cavern with massive stalactites and stalagmites jutting out from the ceiling and floor. Some of them were over eight feet long and looked like oversized needles. Several large pools of water lay spread across the cavern floor. Stalagmites jutted up from some of the pools like pointed islands. The torches were set at regular intervals in the walls, casting wavering shadows from the scattered stalagmites.

    Rayne thought he could see something gleaming on the far side of the colossal chamber. His eyes squinted, but still couldn’t make it out.

    As Rayne led the motley group through the cavern, he made out the bright gleam on the other side. It was an immense pile of gold. The area behind the treasure pile was lost in shadow. He guessed there might be another cave behind the gold mound. They dodged from stalagmite to stalagmite, using them as cover. Rayne assumed the unofficial leadership position, the others following his lead.

    “Okay, here’s where we split up,” Rayne said, stopping behind a large boulder. “Bruce and Stacey, I need you to go to the other side of the cave and advance along the left flank. Use the boulders and stalagmites as cover. Brad and Jennifer, advance up the middle. I’ll take the right flank. Everybody got it?”

    “Got it,” the group repeated as they moved to their assigned positions.

    Rayne watched them jog toward the cover of the nearest stalagmite as he rounded the boulder and made his way forward. Nearing the far end of the cavern, the gleam from the treasure pile grew brighter. Two bright orange orbs glowed in the darkness behind the pile like pieces of burning coal. Rayne assumed these were the dragon’s eyes.

    His assumption proved correct when the creature stepped out of the shadows. It set a massive clawed foot on the pile of gold and spread its vast wings. Peter guessed it was fifty feet tall with a wingspan of at least eighty feet. 

    As it stomped across the gold pile, its features became clearer.  A wedge-shaped saurian head hovered on a long serpentine neck, jutting out from a muscular body resembling an oversized lion’s. The head resembled a Tyrannosaurus Rex with foot-long spikes traveling from the top of it all the way down its back to the end of its twenty-foot tail. The dragon’s scaly green hide glittered like impenetrable armor in the glow of the torchlights. It opened its cavernous jaws, exposing four rows of eight-inch, razor-sharp teeth. 

    Rayne shuddered involuntarily as a loud, echoing roar emanated throughout the cavern. The dragon’s red forked tongue darted out from behind rows of sharp teeth like a striking cobra. He had never seen anything so terrifying in his life.

   
The realism of this dragon is impeccable
.
If realism is the right
term for a mythical creature
.
How are we going to take it out?

    Rayne froze when he saw the dragon’s massive head swivel around and its coal-red eyes lock onto him. He realized he was mid-way between two towering stalagmites and had no cover. The dragon spread its massive wings, roared at him deafeningly, and stalked across the treasure pile toward him. Rayne sprinted toward the closest stalagmite twenty feet away and the dragon lunged to cut him off.

   Suddenly, a brilliant green flash lit up the center of the cavern as a bolt shot out of the Wizard King’s magic staff. It struck the dragon in the left wing, causing it to turn toward its new attacker. Rayne didn’t stop running until he was behind the cover of the nearest pointed rock.

    Peering around, he saw the dragon lumbering toward a large pool of water in the middle of the cavern. Another bright green flash blasted out from behind a tall stalagmite rising from the center of the large pool. He assumed Bruce was using the pointed island as cover to snipe at the dragon. It stopped dead in its tracks when it was struck in the neck. The dragon opened its cavernous jaws and roared like a monstrous lion. The echoing roar was deafening in the confines of the cavern and sent a chill down Rayne’s spine.

   
Thank you, Bruce
.

    Rayne looked down and saw an armored skeleton sprawled on the cavern floor, clutching a gold crossbow.

   
That will be a hell of a lot more effective than my sword.  

    Looking to his left, Rayne saw the dragon closing in on the large pool. He froze when he saw it shoot a line of fire over the lake like a flamethrower. The flames singed the top of the stalagmite Bruce was hiding behind. There was another green flash of light as Bruce took a shot at the approaching monster with the wizard’s staff. The creature halted momentarily as it was struck in the chest by an energy bolt. It roared and shot another line of flames over the tip of the pointed rock.

   
If that was me, I’d be panicking right about now.

   
Rayne picked up the skeleton’s crossbow, dropped his sword onto the cavern floor, and walked to the edge of the glittering treasure mound. He was startled when he almost tripped over a large object lying next to the pile. His eyes widened when he realized it was a human being. Bending over the body, he saw it was Diane. Her eyes were closed as if she was sleeping, but she had a troubled expression on her beautiful face.

    “Hey, are you okay?” he asked, shaking her lightly by the shoulders.

    She let out a low moan and opened her eyes slowly, as if she didn’t want to face whatever was out there.

    “That you, Peter?” she asked, groggily.

    “It’s me. What happened to you?”

    “What do you think happened to me?” she muttered, leaning on her elbows.

    “All right, stupid question. Can you get up?” Peter asked.

    “If you give me a hand,” she said.

    Helping her up with his free hand, Rayne let her lean on his shoulder. When she was steady on her feet, they turned toward the fifty-foot monstrosity wading across the lake toward the pointed island Bruce was using as cover.

    “We have to do something to help him,” Peter said.

    “Help who?” Diane asked.

    “Help Bruce. He’s hiding behind that rock island in the lake.”

    “All right. Let’s go then,” Diane agreed.

    They were struck speechless when the dragon opened its massive jaws and shot another long line of flames at the pointed island. Unlike before, the line of fire struck the center of the island and wrapped around it like a clutching hand.

    “Hey, it’s not supposed to be able to do that!” Rayne exclaimed.

    “What do you mean? It shot flames at me.”

    “But that was over your head, right?”

    “Sure, but it was still rather disconcerting.”

    “It’s not supposed to be able to shoot fire lower than twenty feet. It’s a safety mechanism in its programming, so no one gets hurt,” Peter explained.

    “It looks like it just altered its programming,” Diane said.

    “It’s that new Artificial Intelligence! The robots are adapting to complex challenges by changing their tactics.”

    “We better get over there and help them!” Diane exclaimed as she ran to the edge of the treasure mound.

    She found an ancient crossbow on the edge of the gold pile. Picking it up, she jogged toward the dragon. Peter sighed and followed her as fast as he could on his injured ankle. He ignored the pounding pain and tried to concentrate on the task at hand.

   
Bruce hasn’t taken a shot since the dragon started shooting its flames low. He must be ducking under the water to
avoid being caught on fire
.
That’s what I would do. He can only hold his breath for so long.

    The
robot unleashed an unrelenting barrage of flames at the rock. Rayne stopped a hundred feet from the dragon and aimed his crossbow.

    “Hey, what are you doing? We’re not close enough yet for a head shot!” Diane shouted.

   “If we don’t distract it now, Bruce is going to get charbroiled,” Peter said, firing an arrow.