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Authors: J. Michael Fluck

Tags: #Fiction, #Action & Adventure

Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow (2 page)

BOOK: Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow
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Two separate kingdoms resided within the great nation: the elves of the grand Allghen Forest that lies over two hundred miles southwest of Ice Bay Weir, ruled by King Denaris and Queen Eladra, and the Dwarven Kingdom in and under the Ferranor Mountains, commanded by King Drekar of the dwarf capital city of Minara. Both kingdoms lived in harmony with the people of the republic. These two great races maintained their sovereignty but pledged mutual support to the Alliance. The small number of thunder and mountain giants that still existed mostly inhabited the mountains above the dwarven cities or the number of floating cloud fortresses that sailed the winds over Alliance lands and seaways. They were loosely allied to the republic, mostly out of respect for the metallic dragons.

In the last two hundred years, the combined might of the metallic dragons, elves, dwarves, and people of the Alliance had rid their lands of evil creatures and made the Alliance a free, safe, and prosperous nation. Its borders were well protected by the Alliance Army’s legions and Weirs, which allowed prosperity to bloom.

Jealous and fearful of such a united nation of men, dragons, elves, and dwarves, Tiamat and her Talon Council of dark crystal-empowered sorcerers and overlords, as well as her court of the five most powerful representatives of the chromatic dragon races, known as the Usurper Five, began plans to challenge the Alliance. They forced treaties with the drow and the orcs in preparation for war. The task of increased breeding of chromatic dragons and the raising of huge orc armies, along with conscripting their own divisions and provincial armies, took the Morgathians almost two hundred years. They had also needed time to mine and harvest as much dark crystal as possible for Tiamat to enhance and give to their sorcerers; these crystals, infused with chromatic blood, were used to create weapons of power for their death knights to counter the dragonstone weapons of the Alliance.

A massive attack was launched on the spring equinox, with the Morgathian land armada crushing everything in its path on its trek across the unsettled lands, marching toward the eastern border of Alliance territory. On their rampage, the Morgathian armies and the chromatic dragons conducted large-scale attacks against the northern portion of the middle kingdoms and the Kaskar tribes to keep them off balance and prevent them from aiding the republic. Draden Weir now stood to receive the full brunt of the onslaught, due to its strategic location at the break in the Gray Mountains that formed the eastern border of the Alliance.

Instead of waiting for the Morgathians to strike Draden—or Keystone Weir, as it was now nicknamed—the military command of the Alliance decided on a different plan. Michenth and his rider, General Becknor; Valianth and his rider, Colonel Therosvet; and Jmes, the rider of the young but most powerful gold dragon in the Alliance, Gallanth of Draden Weir, all agreed to go on the offensive in order to dictate the terms of the fight. This was an attack to seize the initiative, a basic tenet of Alliance military operations.

Both armies met in the unsettled lands on a rough plain by a small river, at an infamous place to become known as Battle Point. The Alliance Army came quickly at the Morgathians from the north, threatening to outflank them and forcing them to shift rapidly from their direction of advance. Using the river as a natural obstacle to tie their defensive line, the Alliance legions, the dwarf army, and the elven archers and warriors set the stage for a ferocious fight. Forcing the Morgathians to attack due to the longer range of their archers, waves of orcs, brutish hairy grummish, and Morgathian soldiers fell to the arrows, spears, swords, and axes of the Alliance. However, the republic and its forces were still outnumbered five to one. The battle in the skies above took on an equal ferocity.

In a fury of breath weapons, and the deadly energies of magic spells streaking across the sky, with hundreds of dragons diving and swerving, locked in mortal combat, Michenth finally felled Tiamat. One final blast of the brilliant, golden energy beam of his breath weapon crippled the five-headed demon. His rider, General Becknor, hefted his powerful mithril sword and unleashed a fiery bolt of energy at her, striking the faltering evil dragon and sending her into an uncontrolled spin. Her limp but colossal body, with all five of her chromatic dragon heads flailing, slammed into the ground with an earthquake-like tremor. Whether or not she was dead was yet to be seen, but a wing of red and blue dragons surrounded her seemingly lifeless body, lifted her up, and carried her away, heading due east, back to Morgathia. Six of the largest red and blue dragons were needed to accomplish this, with the others acting as shields to protect her (very uncharacteristic of chromatic dragons).

Although injured, the mighty arch dragon Michenth whirled around to regroup and join the main battle. The skies were still filled with hundreds of dragons and thousands of other flying mounts and creatures, from both the Alliance and Morgathia, diving and swirling, locked in aerial combat. A massive land battle took place below, with armies of tens of thousands of men, elves, dwarves, and their allies, fighting for their lives against a massive force of orcs and other assorted evil creatures, along with their dark-hearted Morgathian masters. The battle raged on, but the tide was turning. The metallic dragons, initially outnumbered six to one by their chromatic counterparts, were now evening the odds. After their evil queen fell, some of the younger green and black dragons began to break, but the Morgathians still had one more trick.

A red dragon, with one of the most powerful Morgathian Talon Council sorcerers mounted on it, charged into Michenth as the sorcerer fired a disruption ray. The deadly beam was stopped by the last strength of the mithril dragon’s spell shield. A return blast of Michenth’s powerful photon fire breath weapon wiped out the red dragon’s and the sorcerer’s magic shields, which he then followed up with sunbeam burst beams from his eyes. The beams struck the red dragon square in the upper chest and made him reel back in midair. A follow-on bolt from Becknor’s glowing mithril sword struck the sorcerer, almost killing him. The red dragon let loose a blast of fire that hit Michenth, who winced from the impact, but it was minimally effective against the mithril dragon’s armored silvery-white hide.

The Talon sorcerer, in a desperate last attempt, fired a barrage of lightning bolts, which hit Michenth with a glancing strike and left smoldering wounds on his shoulder. Michenth then lunged forward, grappled the smaller red dragon with his large claws, and sunk his massive fangs into the dragon’s crimson neck, ending its life. Before the severely wounded sorcerer could prepare another spell, Becknor thrust his sword into his chest. At that moment, a demonic rohrlog flew from behind the arch dragon and began to dive on him, raising its huge flaming sword. Becknor pulled his sword from the sorcerer’s chest, swung around, and fired a bolt into the half-breed demon’s midsection, sending it cascading off its course from the force of the strike.

A blue dragon then came out of teleport with a death knight and another Talon sorcerer mounted upon it. Gallanth immediately sensed the danger, disengaged from the spiraling green dragon he had just flamed, and headed toward the blue chromatic. Blue dragons have a limited power of teleportation, so the sorcerer must have helped phase the trio into battle, which was not an easy task.

Before Gallanth and Jmes could intercept them, the death knight lifted his dark crystal vampire blade and hurled it toward Michenth. Immediately afterward, the sorcerer produced a deadly Orb of Annihilation, a hideous but extremely powerful weapon about the size of a melon. The solid black globe was powered by a large dark crystal and reinforced by numerous death and disruption spells. The orb darted behind the vampire sword, and they both headed directly toward Michenth. Gallanth fired a plasma fireball from his gaping jaws, and a sunburst beam from his eyes that shattered the blue’s magic shield.

Jmes lifted Kershan, his single-edged mithril sword, with its glowing ruby dragonstone, and hurled it toward the blue. The intelligent sword streamed toward the sorcerer, who pushed the death knight into its path. The sword pierced his reinforced black iron armor and sunk to the pommel guard, and its curved silvery blade emerged from his back and impaled the sorcerer’s shoulder. The death knight grasped the pommel, screaming in pain; blood spurted out of his chest and back, but he could not remove the powerful sword from his armor.

Unfortunately, the vampire blade found its mark and pierced Michenth’s armored hide behind his shoulder; few blades could penetrate the mithril dragon’s skin. As the arch dragon winced, the black orb exploded just short of the point of penetration of the vampire sword, owing to the Morgathian sorcerer’s injury, which had broken his concentration on the deadly device.

At the same time, Becknor slew the rohrlog with a final smite from his mithril sword, upon which it exploded in its death throe. Becknor’s sword shielded him and Michenth from that blast, but he was not ready for the sphere’s destructive implosion. Michenth’s magic shield was worn down as a result of his intense battle with Tiamat, which made him vulnerable to this type of attack. The incredible blast knocked him and Becknor unconscious, sending them hurtling toward the ground. If Jmes had not wounded the Morgathian sorcerer, the powerful sphere would have found its deadly mark.

Gallanth whirled around to head toward Michenth, after finishing off the blue dragon and the injured Talon sorcerer with another blast of his sunburst beam, striking them both and sending them on a death spiral. He roared to get the attention of any gold or silver dragons in the immediate area to come to his aid. His brother, Falcanth, another gold dragon, Eagrenth, and the silver dragon, Talonth, answered the call.

Just as he was ready to go into teleport to help Michenth, a black nightmare horse appeared out of nowhere, with a drow sorcerer and a hideous flayer mounted on it. The drow fired a sonic blast from his death staff, which hit Jmes’s flying saddle rig. The spell struck its intended target, for Jmes did not have his sword’s magic shield, and Gallanth’s shield was depleted from the intense combat. The flayer then let loose a thought spell that hit Jmes. The gold dragonrider was suddenly racked with an intense pain, as though his head were going to burst, and he immediately fell from Gallanth’s neck, holding his head while screaming in agony.

Gallanth was already in the process of teleporting; the light rays formed a brilliant blue tunnel around him, and he could not stop the procedure once initiated. His large golden frame vanished. He quickly emerged without his rider above Michenth, whom he grabbed immediately, followed up by Eagrenth on Michenth’s other flank, Falcanth to his front, and Talonth on his tail. Jmes continued to fall, screaming.

Grab your ring, Jmes, grab your ring!
Gallanth shouted telepathically; he also roared out loud to his rider and mind partner. He could feel the pain Jmes was going through but was helpless to stop it. Jmes’s dragonstone ring would have controlled his fall, but he could not concentrate on it to enable its power to work. His mithril helmet would also have stopped the flayer’s attack, but he had given it to an Enlightened Party senator as a gift of good will to ensure their support of the war effort.

Gallanth and the other three dragons managed to control their dragon lord’s descent and set him gently on the ground. Immediately, a female gold dragon and a support corps healer group landed beside them and began to administer aid; they attempted to stem the bluish blood flowing from Michenth’s gaping wound. Gallanth was about to jump into the air and teleport to Jmes, when he felt the telepathic connection with his rider sever as Jmes hit the ground and was killed instantly. The other dragons raised their heads as Gallanth’s roar shook the ground, for they could feel his intense pain from losing his rider.

Gallanth then launched from the ground and disappeared. “Gallanth, no, you can’t attack on your own!” Falcanth roared to his brother, but it was already too late and Gallanth was too enraged to listen. He emerged in front of the midnight black demon steed, which quickly spurred, and started to fly away as fast as its fiery hooves could take it. Gallanth gave immediate chase. Nightmares fear almost nothing, but this demon horse showed fright now. The black beast and its riders attempted to teleport out but were thwarted by Gallanth’s vengeful roar, which had the power to dispel and disrupt magic. As he gained on the dodging nightmare, the flayer fired a mind blast at the closing gold dragon. Gallanth felt the invisible impact but shook it off, as adult dragons are immune to these types of attacks. The creature then started to panic and turned to its drow companion to get them out of the area, but the drow screamed back that he could not. The nightmare kept swerving and dodging, but Gallanth was faster and quickly caught up to the black steed. With one swipe of his huge claws, he severed the nightmare’s hindquarter along with the flayer’s left leg. The evil steed then plummeted toward the ground and crashed in a field.

The drow and the flayer rolled away from their steed. The hideous flayer’s leg was bleeding and the drow suffered several broken ribs, but they still managed to get up and attempted to escape. Gallanth back winged and landed on the black steed with a thunderous impact like a hurricane. This knocked the two evil beings back to the ground and crushed their wounded steed. Gallanth then walked slowly toward them, shaking the ground with each step. He shouted in Draconic with a thunderous tone, “Feel fear, for your death approaches, and your kin will feel my wrath!” The drow raised his staff and cast a lightning bolt. It found its mark, striking the dragon in the chest, but Gallanth took the damage and did not even wince through his rage. He first looked at them directly and forcefully read the drow’s mind to discern the underground location of the dark elf city and the adjacent flayer villages. This painful thought extraction caused the dark elf to scream in shear agony.

BOOK: Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow
5.55Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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