(Path of The Dragon Mage (Nomad): 53. Vs. Daffodil (Patreon)

Note: Apologies, this should have come out yesterday but it turned out extra long and I wasn't happy with it until today.

As Corvus watched, Daffodil turned with big, slow sweeps of his wings. Below, over every patch of land he overflew, plants erupted from between the cracks of cobblestones and from neglected patches of dirt. Seeds that were so tiny they were invisible to the eye and had long laid dormant now sprung to life, sprouted, and grew at ridiculous speeds.

The vines, grasses, and small trees twisted and tangled with each other in cooperation that was never found in nature. They formed to become one monstrous plant with a singular goal: To grow.

Watching this, Corvus thought of the ratkin bonding essences. Charm had used hers to bond with metal, and to a lesser degree with the animal life for her charming spells.

Daffodil, who already had an affinity with plants thanks to his named magic, must have used the same bonding essences to enhance his powers.

And this was the result: Plants that grew to his will, then bonded and strengthened with each other to create aerial pathways that twisted and reached from ground level up to the surrounding towers.

The ratkin leaped on the vine highway as soon as they grew strong enough to hold their weight. Within a few horrifying moments, it was not only the Grand Palace that was under siege. Almost every noble tower was under threat.

The further the dragon flew, the more the vines spread.

Ding!

Congratulations! You have reached level 19—

“Not the time!” he snarled, batting the notification away. It was good to get confirmation that the poison was still actively killing ratkin, but he faced a larger threat.

They had to stop Daffodil, but how? What did he and Charm have that Daffodil didn't? The dragon had centuries to level up and collect essences from his personalized swarm. Corvus didn't want to think about what his mana reserves must be.

He is alone, Charm insisted in his head. We are together. That makes us stronger than him in all ways.

Then, she reached through their bond, already forged by love, time, and mutual respect. To it, she added something new: an aspect of the animal merging essence. She wasn’t using it to charm him, but to strengthen their connection.

They didn't quite think with one mind, but it was close. One thought seamlessly rolled into the other. At once, a plan of attack emerged.

Corvus wasn't entirely sure it would work. The only thing he was certain of was that he and Charm would fight together.

Maybe that would make the difference.

Charm curved her wings, using her greater height to exchange altitude for speed as she arrowed in to intercept Daffodil. It wasn't hard. The dragon was so large, he was a lumbering presence in the air. Through Charms senses, Corvus felt/saw the massive airstream that Daffodil dragged behind him. It was large enough that if Charm were caught up in it, she would be tumbled end over end.

But there were disadvantages of being so large. One of which was that Daffodil had trouble maneuvering. He had to give each tower a wide berth unless he meant to knock it over.

Daffodil was no fool and had been on the search for them. He curved his neck up in their direction as Charm dived in.

His blue eyes were slightly glazed, like a man who had been weeping.

"My sister—," he started to say.

Charm opened her mouth and blasted out a beam of moonlit breath.

It hit the other dragon square on the nose, washing over his face. And although it didn't so much as scorch a scale, the bright light temporarily blinded him. With a guttural cry, Daffodil shut his eyes.

Corvus jumped.

Both dragons were flying at speed. In the few seconds he was in the air, Daffodil's head, neck, and shoulders passed underneath him.

Corvus crashed down on the yellow dragon’s mid-back. It was roughly like hitting a recently waxed marble floor. He lost his footing and rolled, tumbling over and over three times. But Daffodil's back was so wide he had not been in danger of falling off.

As Corvus came to a stop, Daffodil opened his eyes, roared in outrage, and began a slow, lumbering turn to try to intercept Charm.

"They will betray you!" he roared. “These royals sprout from rotten seed."

"Says the one who stinks of ratkin demon flesh," Charm called, her voice high and flute-like compared to the massive dragon.

She buzzed around him, a sparrow flitting around the head of an elephant, staying mockingly just out of his reach.

Daffodil gnashed his teeth.

"Sister, these ratkin are for you to take as I have taken! Look how much you've grown.” Where is your boy-prince, now, sister? Is he down below, leveling up while he sent to you to face me?"

Well, that answered one question. Daffodil hadn't noticed yet.

Then again, a man didn't notice the flea on his back… Until the moment it bites.

Charm yelled back taunts that were caught by the wind and lost to his ears. It didn't matter. Her role was to play distraction and give Corvus time to do what needed to be done.

Standing up to his knees, Corvus grabbed one of his sharp daggers. The point struck the plate-like scale in front of him with a shower of sparks. It didn’t so much as leave a mark.

Well, he didn’t think it would be that easy.

One of a dragon’s few weak points was the small gaps in between the scales. Abandoning the dagger, Corvus wriggled his hand in between two yellow scales. There was barely enough room to fit his hand in sideways. He sank up to his forearm, but finally, the tips of his fingers found soft, warm flesh.

Unlike Charm, Daffodil had not reinforced this weak point with bonded metal.

Then again, Daffodil probably had not had ratkin trying to crawl under his scales, either.

Withdrawing his hand, he reached for his pocket and pulled out a quill. Then he broke the feather off and plunged the nib back between the scales.

He closed his eyes, focusing on his Literacy and Rune Magic general skills. There was no ink loaded on this quill. He would have to lightly scratch the rune on the flesh delicately enough that Daffodil didn't notice. And, because he couldn't see his own hand, he would have to do it blind.

Corvus breathed and drew the barrier circle that he could see, bright and shining, in his mind. With another long breath, he sketched a connecting circle intersecting the first. Then, in the space that was left, a third circle underneath the first two to create a triangle.

He felt the moment the three circles connected — the barrier runes felt true. Now came the glyphs.

Corvus used knowledge from his three classes — Hedge witch, witch doctor, and witch professor – for each of the three glyphs.

Sharp, Thin Blood, Raise Water Acidity.

Once complete, the glyphs clicked together in his mind like a lock sliding into place.

Corvus nicked his finger on the edge of the quill and dribbled his blood over the three-circled rune.

"It's done!" he yelled through the connection between himself and Charm.

Abruptly, Charm stopped flitting around Daffodil's head and dived in straight toward his face. As she did, Daffodil raked the air with both of his clawed hands, trapping her in a cage of talons.

In a flash, Charms claws lengthened into razor-sharp metallic points, daggers the size of short swords.

When Daffodil had captured her before, she had not been able to so much as scratch his scales.

But she had leveled many times since then. Now, she dug her claws in, all of them, into the other dragon’s palms and the top of his wrists. She even bit down at the joint between his thumb and finger talents.

At the same time, Corvus wrenched back and activated his rune.

The edges of the butter-yellow scales for feet in a circle suddenly sharpened and curved up… and down to bite into Daffodil's flesh. The blood which had just been charmed thin, spurted out in gouts, and the suddenly acidic liquid in the flesh burned with a sharp pungent smell.

The result was a bleeding, weeping boil more than ten feet in diameter.

Daffodil roared, and his hands sprung apart to release Charm. She fell directly down to be out of his flight path.

Daffodil twisted to look at the spreading boil along his back.

One of his robin egg blue eyes focused on Corvus.

"You," he snarled. "You are the cause of the corruption —"

The dragon twisted as if to slap Corvus off himself. Corvus braced himself to run, jump if he needed to.

There was a distant boom.

Daffodil staggered in the air like someone who had just tripped over a taunt hidden rope.

Corvus fell, too, grabbing one of the scales to keep from sliding off the wide back.

Two more booms and Corvus felt a shudder through Daffodil’s frame as something impacted the dragon, hard.

For a moment, all he could do was hold on as Daffodil screamed and lurched under him. Only when he was certain he wouldn't be flung free did he look out.

There, in the bay were a fleet of ships. The same ships that Corvus had sent off with some of the evacuees from the city.

A double handful of the flotilla had returned… And it seemed they were armed with cannons.

There was another series of sharp booms from the ship. Smoke drifted up from the mouth of the canons. Daffodil actually batted one cannonball from the air, the second hit him in the side, and Corvus heard the sound of scale and bone-cracking.

That gave him an idea.

Each medical rune had a downside to it. Reduce Fever could chill a body too much, too quickly. Thin Blood could make someone bleed out in much the same way that blood poured from the giant boil he'd caused.

And Knit Bone could be a disaster if the bone was not properly set, first.

Holding onto the edge of the scale for balance, Corvus knelt again and found a gap in the scales, and started sketching more runes.

In the few seconds grace the canons bought him, he used everything he could think of. Reduce Fever to chill him, Knit Bone to make sure whatever was broken by the cannonballs would heal broken. He threw in more acidity runes, too.

Though, as devastating as the giant boil had been, it was no more than an aggravating wound on a creature Daffodil’s size.

Even the cannonballs were not deadly, and mostly annoying when they struck true.

Daffodil twisted his giant head again to reach behind himself and grab at Corvus...

… Only to be struck upside the face from another blast of moonlit breath.

Charm had regained her altitude and struck him again and again, illuminating him in silver and giving the ships a clear target.

However, more canon balls were flying through the air. One flew by so close to Corvus he heard it whistle as it passed.

Charm was much smaller and wouldn’t be able to shrug off a direct hit.

"Charm," he said, urgently through their bone. "Those ships —"

They know friend from foe, she said easily. And who is their prince and who is the imposter.

He closed his eyes for a moment.

Of course. Word must have passed to them who had given the evacuation orders… And rumors of the prince who rode a dragon would have been rampant.

With a shriek, Daffodil turned sharply in the air in a barrel roll to shed cannonballs, and Corvus alike.

Corvus tried to keep his grip, but the forces from the turns were too much. He slipped off and fell… Only to be caught moments later in Charms claws. Her great wings snapped open to act like a sail, slowing their fall into an easy glide.

Ding!

You have gained a level in Dragon Riding.

New Level – Intermediate 2

The notification brought a short, hysterical laugh. “I’m not riding!” he yelled back at the system.

In answer, Charm crooked her elbow, giving him easy access to climb up to his usual seat on the base of her neck.

Then, they turned back to their foe.

"This isn't over with yet!" Daffodil snarled.

He threw back his head, and for a moment Corvus thought the dragon was going to unleash a magical breath of his own. Something worse and infinitely stronger than Charm’s power.

He wasn’t wrong.

But he wasn’t right, either.

What emerged from the yellow dragon’s mouth was less of a light and more of a force, a sound, a command. It rolled over Charm and Corvus, smelling so strongly of musty ratkin that he could taste it in the back of his throat.

At once, the scuttling, mostly disorganized swarm blow them stopped. Then, as one, they turned to the vine/tree forest that had still been growing and expanding throughout the battle.

Ratkin had already been scurrying up the vines, in a haphazard though overwhelming way when numbers started to tell. Now all the creatures started to move with a purpose. And, as the vine-trees thickened and grew, they supported more weight. The higher-leveled creatures climbed.

Moving as one, the rat queens lifted themselves with feet braced against the sides of buildings, of the vine-trees that would support them. Heedless of arrows, oil, and anything the embattled guards could throw down at them, they acted as living ramps to help their retinue climb up and into the towers.

The higher-leveled rats were more than capable of breaking through windows that decorated the sides of the towers. Ratkin poured in.

“This city was to be a proving ground, sister!” Daffodil called. “I brought them here for you, to level and test yourself. Now, do you see? Do you see my power? I don’t need my false Zriah, you don’t need your boy prince. Join me. We can release the demons on the kingdom and let them finally scour it clean. We can rescue our kin and start fresh!”

Horrified as he was, Corvus had so many questions.

“What do you think he means by—"

“He’s insane,” Charm said flatly. “Stop trying to analyze him. He’s not whole and whatever Starella did pushed him over the edge.”

“Maybe,” Corvus said, “But he’s still operating under some kind of logic.”

“Crazy logic.”

He silently disagreed, but now was not the time.

“I’ll show you!” Daffodil cried. He alighted to the top of a pyramid-shaped tower, his claws digging into the metal and stone to hold fast. “I’ll show you all!”

Even the cannonballs had stopped. Either they’d run out of ammunition or Daffodil had flown too far from the harbor.

“Any ideas?” Corvus muttered.

They’d thrown what they had at the dragon – even from some distance away, the acidic boil visibly marred the dragon’s otherwise flawless hide. But the only way to stop him was from a mortal wound… and Corvus had fallen short.

He thought briefly of grabbing more barrels, making them acidic, and dropping them on the dragon. But those burns would be minor, too. Poison gas would get ripped away in the wind. As for his Deadly Bouquet… well, Daffodil’s magic would surely overtake the meat-eating vines.

He was out of tricks.

Then we will use brute force. Only one dragon may rule the skies, Charm said grimly. With that, she turned and flew up and up, seeking height that would translate to speed. Give me your daggers. I will swoop and aim for his eyes.

It was not a good plan, but it was better than nothing. The city was fighting for its life on ground level. He would do his part as well.

Corvus took a moment to count the force gems Perry had given him. Five left.

If he could manage to throw some in that tiny gap between the scales, maybe…

Ding!

Corvus had received so many notifications thanks to the ratkin killed by the poisoned, acidic water that he had been forced to push them to a tiny scrolling menu in the corner of his vision. Daffodil had effectively stopped the spread of one poisoned patch, yes, but he and Charm had managed to lay three more. Ratkin were still blundering in, still dying…

There was a particularly strong tug on his mind. He flicked his attention to the new notification.

Congratulations! You have reached level 20!

Health +50, Mana +75

For reaching this milestone, you have unlocked a Path specific title.

Please choose one of the three titles for Path of the Dragon Mage.

Dragon Knight

Dragon Whisperer

Dragon Champion

“What is this—Charm are you seeing this?” Corvus sputtered.

He received a mental shrug. “What do titles mean?”

He wracked his brain but came up empty. There were noble titles, of course. This felt different. There were also no explanations as what happened when he chose between classes or class perks.

He had to guess wisely.

Dragon Knight implied some sort of combat ability. That was sorely tempting. But traditional knights fought smaller foes on horseback. That would not help him here.

Dragon Whisperer was odd. Roan often called his father a horse whisperer to describe his uncanny way with horses. Possibly useful, but all the understanding and gentle persuasion in the world was not going to help him defeat Daffodil.

Dragon Champion… that sounded like the strongest of the three. Did a Champion defeat a knight?

“Choose quickly,” Charm advised. She had nearly reached the apex of her flight and would soon fall into a dive.

He had to go with his gut.

“Dragon Champion.”

Ding!

You have received a new title: Dragon Champion

As a Dragon Mage, your interests have been aligned with dragon kind, from the study of draconic rune magic to your dragon companion. Now, as your skills have grown you may consider yourself an ally to all dragon kind. You forged a deeper understanding and insight. Upon meeting, all dragon kind will automatically consider you a friend.

+3 Wisdom

+3 Intelligence

New Generalized skill! Dragon Insight

Corvus groaned. “I should have picked the Dragon Knight.”

“Yes, you should have,” Charm agreed.

They turned in the air and flipped over to start what may be their final dive. The other dragon still perched like a demented pigeon on top the point of the building, roaring as he directed the ratkin forward. If they didn’t manage to stop now…

Corvus blinked. He didn’t know why he hadn’t noticed it before, but the dragon was more heavily injured than he realized. He held his left wing lower than the right – there was a slight misalignment of the shoulder and sail bones.

And there was… something else. Like an invisible miasma that hung around the dragon’s being. A never-ending grief so large it was on the verge of taking physical form.

Daffodil had spoken about it. So had Charm. She’d called him ‘half a dragon’ and ‘unwhole’ but he had not truly realized the scope of his suffering until now. Though he was larger than some of the noble towers, inside he was a suffering, pitiable dragonet. The pain of Zriah’s loss ate at him every day. It never healed. It never grew easier.

That was his one weak point.

Ding!

You have gained a level in Dragon Insight

New level – Beginner 2

Corvus got an idea. “Charm… your animal bonding spell. Can you use it on him?”

As usual, she followed the train of his thoughts. “You want me to bring him into rapport? Into our bond?” She sounded absolutely disgusted.

Corvus grinned in a way that showed teeth. “I want to shove it down his throat.”

Charm made an odd sound, part ‘oh’ and part grumble. With a quick turn, she continued flying higher.

“What are you doing?”

“Staying well out of his way. This is going to anger him like nothing else,” she said.

Then, through their link, he felt her reach out to the yellow dragon. Corvus closed his eyes and entered the bond, doing what he could to aid her. He pressed his hands flat on her warm pearlescent scales and poured mana into her.

The animal charming spell consumed mana like everything else, and in this last-ditch effort, she could use everything he could give.

Daffodil stilled as Charm’s mind brushed against his own. Through their link, Corvus felt him recoil – or try to. Charm’s charm wrapped around his mind, drawing him in.

The pain Corvus felt from the dragon was… almost without words. A sucking black rot that threatened to drag him in. A burning brand that never healed. A deep knowledge that he had failed Zriah and would never see her again.

But the pain Daffodil felt on seeing their perfect bond – something he craved but could never have… that was infinitely worse.

The dragon screamed a sound that cut right through Corvus like a saw. He and Charm didn’t let up for a second. Corvus poured more mana into the spell, wrapping Daffodil up in it, shoving their bond between his teeth and making him choke on it.

He heard a warning Ding! as his mana bottomed out and his mana reserve tattoo flared to life. Then another as his Second Wind activated and his stamina was consumed to take up the slack. Still, he poured in the mana. Every bit he could spare.

Screaming as if he were being flayed alive, Daffodil launched himself off the top of the building and flew after them. There was nothing but murder in his eyes.

But Charm had taken herself high in the sky – so high that the air was dangerously thin for Corvus. The dragon wanted to kill him, but the emotional torture was… unendurable.

Crying aloud, the crazed dragon turned, and with great sweeps of his wings, fled.