Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow (5 page)

Many times, the only infantry platoon the elf clan could muster acted as a reserve to plug any holes in the line or stem off a penetration, as well as being an exploitation force. The land dragons, toughest and most feared creatures other than the true dragons, would be right behind the infantry to provide the ballista fires at their extended range of a thousand yards or so, followed up by the wingless dragons’ fiery breath weapon when they closed on the enemy.

The catapult section, with their thirty-pound stones, would always initiate fire at their range of three thousand yards, followed by their sixty-pound fragmenting stones at two thousand yards, and finalizing with their bursting dragon’s fire projectiles at twelve hundred yards, used to attack enemy infantry formations. The Weir’s heavy cavalry platoon acted as a mobile attack and ground reconnaissance force; it was also tasked to assail the enemy’s flanks. Their charges were always impressive, with their heavily armored knights and paladins in precise formation. The collective resistance of their weapons and mithril alloy armor made them almost immune to a magical attack during their charge, as the collective magical shields of their holy dragonstone-powered swords combined in a synergistic effect. The ranger platoon performed diving attacks, releasing well-placed arrows, bolts, and dragon’s fire grenades, not to mention the rending their griffons’ claws could do. Gallanth and Mkel would practice their strafing runs before the infantry engaged in a hard fight.

Normally Gallanth and Mkel would eliminate a great deal of enemy ground forces before the garrison or regiment would even get into the battle. Dragon and rider went out of their way to minimize casualties among the regimental ground forces. This was often to the chagrin of the dwarf company, for they lived for combat and were not happy until they saw the grayish black orc blood on their axes.

However, during the exercises, Gallanth and Mkel planned on worst-case scenarios, where they could not provide a great deal of cover from the air, owing to their being engaged with chromatics. Gallanth could decimate enemy ranks with his breath weapons and sunburst beams, which had the ability to wipe out an entire company at a pass. His fireball spells and various other powerful spells could decimate another company sized element at a shot, once per day. His breath weapons and sunburst beams could be fired multiple times, much to the chagrin of their enemies. Gallanth and Mkel would also take care of any giants on the battlefield, but they always initially focused on combating the chromatic dragons, for they could inflict massive damage on the regiment if left unchecked.

Mkel reviewed his plan for the training exercise for the next day. The training event would begin with the garrison on line and the catapults initiating fires at targets twenty-five hundred yards away. The garrison would then move forward in unison to within eight hundred yards, or ballista range, which would trigger their fires. They would initially pick large targets like giants and then concentrate on the infantry columns. When the battle line moved to within three hundred yards, the elven and human archers and crossbowmen would unleash their volleys. This would continue as the line kept advancing. The garrison’s Weir company archers and crossbowmen were very accurate and practiced a great deal; however, the elven archers were devastating, capable of wiping out companies at a volley.

As the battle line closed to within throwing range of the target line, the dwarves would initiate with their throwing axes and hammers, and the garrison infantry’s first two lines would ready their spears and shields for either an enemy charge or their own slow advance into the enemy ranks. At this point, Mkel would signal to one of the infantry platoon leaders and Senior Company Sergeant Pekram to simulate a breach in the line. The archers would initially move in to stop the break and then fall back. That would give the elf infantry platoon a signal to move in to reinforce the breach. Elves armed with long swords and double-headed pole arms were swift and deadly. The rangers would be performing strafing runs, and the cavalry would be told through the seeing crystals which flank to attack. He and Gallanth would then do one practice strike, which always instilled courage and confidence in the line units.

Mkel also planned for Silvanth to do a diving attack on the Weir garrison and the regiment so they could practice defending against a chromatic dragon attack, simulating that one got past Gallanth. Normally, Jodem, Dekeen, Ordin, or Toderan, the key and powerful members of his Weir council, would face off against a chromatic dragon that made it past him and Gallanth, for their strength could at least hope to match a lone chromatic. Master Wizard Jodem’s spell power included major offensive and defensive capabilities, and Dekeen’s bow, Ordin’s hammer, and Toderan’s holy sword, all dragonstone-powered weapons, always confronted the deadliest foes the garrison and regiment faced. Sergeant Pekram also was ever ready to stand against any foe.

Mkel would brief the officers and leaders on the timeline and the battle rhythm later that afternoon. He would need to get Lupek’s brief right after lunch to pass the information along to the rest of the leadership, and the ranger leader would brief the regiment commander, Colonel Wierangan, at the planning meeting as well. After he finished up the plan and the conceptual sketch of the battle layout, he decided to go for a run and exercise.

He went to his wardrobe closet in his planning room and started to change out of his Alliance Army uniform and into more comfortable exercise clothes. He normally ran around the Weir lake once or twice, covering two to three miles. He did not like to run but knew it helped him stay on balance when riding Gallanth and it also let him keep up with the infantrymen of his garrison company. They would go on runs three times a week for at least that distance and marches that were three to four times that once a month. The rangers did even more, but he felt that it was up to them.

The ground around the lake was soft and cushioned his steps, and the view of the crystal clear water, as always, was relaxing. After he finished his run, he did a series of push-ups and sit-ups to strengthen his upper body and stomach, again to keep him in shape for flying and for fighting. When he finished with his exercises, he took a quick bath and put his uniform back on. He had at least two hours before lunch, so he retrieved his magic crossbow, Markthrea, and went to the range located at the far side of the Weir landing.

The shooting range held over thirty firing points; archers could shoot to a distance of one hundred yards if they desired, but they could extend that to six hundred yards if all else was cleared from that portion of the Weir grounds inside the hollowed-out mountain. A range was also set up outside the Weir that could be pushed to one thousand yards for Mkel and the elves. He set up at fifty yards first, firing from the prone position. His crossbow had a special sight that was powered by one of Gallanth’s dragonstones. The sight had the power of gold dragon vision, which was up to thirty-six times as acute as normal human eyesight; it also allowed him to see clearly at night and estimate ranges as well. The dragonstone was embedded on top of the mithril steel sight, which was fastened to the crossbow just behind string catch. It had a thin crosshair as the aiming point; when shooting at a moving target, a red circle appeared that enabled Mkel to move the crosshair and hit an aerial or fast-moving enemy. The sight also automatically adjusted for distance in regards to the shallow ballistic path of the bolt, which traveled at an unbelievable speed.

The dragonstone also helped him cock and load the bow faster. A lever located behind the trigger cocked the powerful dragon sinew string when it was pushed forward. When the lever was pulled back, a bolt was loaded from the detachable magazine located at the bottom of the stock. The crossbow itself was made of elven dark oak, making it lightweight but very strong. The limbs were made of red dragon bone, with the string made of the same dragon’s sinew, taken from a chromatic Gallanth killed in the last war. The dragonstone mounted on the sight pushes the bolt out at lightning-like speeds.

Mkel used three types of bolts. The basic masterwork bolts were made by Dekeen’s best fletcher (arrow maker), with the extremely sharp tips made from the strongest steel the dwarves could produce. These bolts were one half inch in diameter and approximately six inches long. They could slice through plate armor at a thousand yards and even cut through demon and black iron armor. These deadly missiles did enough damage to kill two men and were a woe to ogres and aerial foes. Mkel usually carried at least one hundred sixty of these in his flying rig and thirty or more when he dismounted. He also had a select number of mithril alloy-tipped bolts that can penetrate anything, including magic shields, shield spells, and even dragon hide. These bolts did three times the damage as his regular ones and had an even greater range of more than two thousand yards.

He also had bolts tipped with a special formula of wizard-created dragon’s fire pitch and Gallanth’s saliva. These were made by Jodem and exploded on impact in a fifteen-yard burst, capable of killing all in the impact area; they could also utterly destroy an ogre/troll-sized creature if struck directly. They could inflict a good deal of structural damage to a wall or castle battlement as well. A select number of bolts combined a mithril alloy tip with the bursting bolt for powerful opponents. These first penetrated then exploded, capable of taking out a giant or similar sized creature. Mkel carried sixty of each of these types on Gallanth’s flying rig.

Mkel put his first quarrel on the post, put his right arm through the attached sling, and secured it with the hook that was anchored to his dragon hide armor, which doubled as his riding jacket. His dragon hide jacket was made from red, blue, white, and green dragon scales, and the hides taken from dragons that Gallanth slew during the last Great Dragon War. The hide and scales were meshed together with mithril thread, making the jacket as strong as actual dragon hide, and giving Mkel some protection against fire, electricity, acid and frost weapons. The hide-and-mithril-thread combination made the jacket almost impenetrable by all but the most powerful magic weapons, yet it weighed no more than thin leather armor. It had a soft padded interior, making it very comfortable to wear, and fit both his heating and cooling crystals at the top of the back of the jacket just below the neck area.

Mkel lay down on his shooting mat and planted his elbows firmly. His right hand, with his riding glove on, slid up to the sling hook, where it met the steel swivel handstop on the bottom of the stock. He put the elven-oak butt stock of the crossbow firmly into his shoulder and rested his cheek on the raised comb. He leaned into the bow and felt his hand take the pressure. He took a couple of breaths, slowing each one down, until his final exhalation, when he looked through the sight and placed the crosshair on the center of the target (the circle reticule did not appear since the target was stationary). He grasped the contoured firing hand grip firmly with his left hand and rested his finger on the trigger, just in front of the first joint. As his pulse settled to a minor blip, he squeezed the trigger smoothly, taking up the one pound of pressure needed to release the catch, and the string snapped forward, sending the bolt screaming to the target. The bolt struck the target face, cutting the center one-half-inch scoring ring on the right side.

He then pushed the cocking handle forward and pulled it back to its original position, locking the string back, and put another bolt in the ready position. He was loading his bolts one at a time since he was practicing and did not need to rapid fire, and chose to shoot from the sling versus resting the nine-inch magazine on the ground in combat mode instead of target style. Again he squeezed the sensitive trigger, and the second bolt landed directly beside the first. He put his next three bolts in a small cluster, all cutting the small center ring. His next five also put a group in the second target’s center ring. He reloaded and proceeded to put five bolts on each target’s center rings (his bow could be loaded with ten bolts at a time). His last bolt just slightly missed the center ring, and he teasingly cursed himself for slightly jerking the trigger.

Mkel then got up and fired twenty bolts from the standing position and a final twenty bolts from a sling-supported kneeling position. He walked over to the target line and pulled out all sixty bolts, returned to the firing line, and then reloaded his magazines. He then picked up his crossbow and mat and moved to the one-hundred-yard line. After shooting a twenty-bolt target from the prone position with a sling, he shot with the metal magazine planted on the ground, taking care to firmly put his right hand on the upper front of the magazine, putting slight rearward pressure and firing in a smooth cadence. His next position was to move the crossbow to the supported mount that simulated the firing platform on Gallanth’s flying rig. He fired twenty more shots from that position, and after he felt reasonably satisfied, he retrieved the bolts and reloaded. When he finished, he walked back up to Gallanth’s ledge and put his crossbow on the wall outside his living quarters.

“Wake up, my friend. We will be taking the brief from Lupek and Deless in a short time,” Mkel said to his sleeping dragon. “I am awake, my rider. We can go down to the Weir grounds together, and good shooting by the way,”
he replied as he stretched his massive front and back legs, jingling the gold and silver coins that made up his bedding. The powerful muscles on his fore and hind legs even showed through his armored hide.

“We will also need to take a flight over the training field before the leaders meeting tonight, just to make sure all the preparations are ready,”
Gallanth added. “Have you talked to Silvanth yet about her role in the exercise?” Mkel inquired. “Yes, she will be happy to comply, but she is getting close to mating,”
replied Gallanth. “Then she will be more aggressive for the exercise, and I will feel better about the trips to Battle Point, Draconia, and Freiland that are coming up,” Mkel concurred. “Yes, it will be a busy couple of weeks, plus I feel the information we will be getting from Lupek will verify the nagging feeling I’ve been having about a growing threat to the east in the mountains and beyond. I cannot pinpoint it, but I know something is brewing there,” Gallanth added. “We will see, my friend, but we better get down to the planning room, for we don’t want to be late for our own meeting,” Mkel said.