Dragon Sorcerer 1- Chapter 24 (Patreon)

Chapter 24- Pull and Fight

I wasn’t exactly sure what she meant, something the wizard was going to do was meant to bring some of the enemy here. That didn’t seem very smart if we were so precious. We could have simply flown away and left the other adventurers to cover our retreat. I wouldn’t have shed a tear. Yet I knew that wasn’t how they were going to handle this. The dragon dream told me that humans were often tenacious in sticking together. It was frustrating and had caused dragons many problems over the years, yet as I watched them interact, I realized it might be one of their strengths.

Not knowing how long I had, I took a moment and identified the objects which I had slipped over my hands.

Empowered Brass Knuckles Weight: 2 lbs. each.

Damage: +4-8 damage added to any melee blow deliver with a fist.

Enhancements: Physical Damage 2, Magical Strike 2, Armor Penetration 1, Durability 1

I thought about Identifying the dagger that Cami was holding or even the mace in Lisella’s hands but a moment later Serius stepped through the doorway in the air. Two black tentacles trailed from his body and then they yanked. He shouted, “Had to get two. They were being overwhelmed.”

An instant later two massive ogres came through the portal. There was no logical way they could have fit as the door was too small, but they both stepped through just fine. The other end of the black tentacles was wrapped around them. One was bound at the wrist and the other around the waist.

The ogres were each a good ten feet tall. They were broader across and thicker in the chest than a human would have been. The end result was a much more powerful creature. Their upper arms were as thick as the waist of many humans I’d seen. A quick Identify told me a great deal.

Race: Ogre Variant: Knight

Age: 21 (suspended)

Height: 10’4” Weight: 1,827 lbs.

Base Speed: 6 mph

STR: 153 AGI: 8

DUR: 39  MIND: 10

HP: 369/390

It was far more information than I had gotten about Lisella and it told me a couple of things. I couldn’t afford to take this for granted. I still didn’t know what kind of damage resistance it might have but my maximum hit even with the new weapon was only twenty-four damage and that would require me to get up close and personal. They had triple the HP that I had. Normally with my scales to protect me, I wouldn’t have worried so much but these things seemed far more dangerous than I had expected.

At the same time there was an almost primal desire to destroy them, rip them apart without eating them as I had a sense they would taste horrible. They also seemed different than the ogres I was anticipating. Instead of their bare fists or clubs these two were wielding actual swords. They were crude but clearly a blacksmith had formed them.

Lisella stepped forward and shouted a word. I couldn’t understand what she said despite hearing her clearly. The word was some type of holy power and it seemed to work. The two ogres were both dropped to their knees while clutching their ears as blood ran through their fingers.

Three Force Darts shot off of my hands at the same time as another one shot from Cami. Each missile might only do fifteen damage or so, but their penetrating power made the wounds they caused deep. I aimed my attacks for the throat of one of the kneeling ogres. They tore his flesh and despite not being critical hits, he was profusely bleeding.

Not that it mattered as a second later a spinning red blade of fire whirled off of Serius’ hands and took one head and the other off, dropping both ogres to the ground. I felt an influx of life from the one I had damaged but notifications about gains didn’t come while I was in an active combat mode. It was an established aspect of the system the gods set in place, which I just had to deal with.

The wizard looked at me and then Cami as thought warn us back but then thought better of it. “I’m heading back for more.”

The magical doorway he had created was still hanging in the air and he disappeared with just a step. A moment later he popped his head through. “The caster has fled. Galbrecht and Modessa are cleaning up the rest. I need to help them but Liam is badly injured and needs you.”

He looked at me again and this time he did speak up. “You two hide in the back of the wagon. We’ll be right back. Fly away if anything comes for you.”

I didn’t like the idea of hiding, especially not when I felt so empowered by the magic surrounding me. The haste effect still had my blood pumping. Then both the adventurers were gone. “Just us, I guess.”

Cami smiled. “That isn’t so bad. I have so many questions I need to ask you, but there’s always someone around. Do you suppose we’ll get some more privacy at the university?”

“I surely hope so, but none of my ancestors have any memories which help me to understand what to expect. This is all new ground for me and I’m pretty much living on curiosity and whatever this connection is between us.”

Cami got silent for a second. “I’ve heard you talk about your ancest…”

Her words were cut off as I saw the air behind her shimmer. I detected it just a moment too late as claws ripped into her. I saw three claws puncture through her belly from the back and another opened her neck. It missed the jugular vein but only by a tiny bit.

She probably owed her life to the Blessing she’d been granted because it seemed like at the last instant the claws shifted just a tiny bit. It wasn’t enough to save her entirely, but enough to buy her a bit of time for me to deal with her attack.

The combination of haste and divine strength made me even more powerful. I was able to react far more quickly than the were-tiger assassin anticipated. My fist snapped into its chest with the sound of crunching bone. I didn’t bother trying to Identify it as I knew enough to recognize its species. They were hunters, inferior to dragons of course as everyone knew even a hidden dragon would be stronger than a crouching tiger.

Each punch pushed it back but the man-shaped tiger was in his hybrid form. He likely was stronger and faster than me in this form even if I would have been much stronger as a dragon. I was going to need to use some wiles. For a passing second I regretted that I hadn’t found time to spend my DKP up to this point but vowed to rectify that as soon as possible. Now, I felt Cami fading and there was no time for anything but killing.

It claws swung in a sharp arc at me and cut into my shirt and the soft human skin beneath I growled but fortunately had already been charging another Force Darts. The spell went off point blank it the beast’s chest and blasted it back ten feet.

I ran though my options. Dragon Fear wouldn’t work in this form. I couldn’t transform quickly enough to matter, even if that wouldn’t have created a whole other set of problems when the adventurers got back. No, I realized that with Force Darts on a cool down and this thing as fast as me even while I was buffed, I would need my only other viable magic.

Then it did what I wasn’t expecting and hopped back. It wove its hands in a quick spell. My mind followed the details even as I raced at him to tackle him. I assumed I could survive a single spell but I wasn’t sure. I was just a single step too slow as the magic hit me.

The were-tiger growled, its words difficult to understand through its beastial mouth, “Go to sleep.” But as I felt the spell wash over me I burst out laughing.

I couldn’t help myself as I snapped back, “Dragons are immune to sleep magic, you dumb-ass.”

My insult certainly didn’t shock him but the revelation must have made him question himself for just a moment because I was able to drive my shoulder into him. I came up and under his ribcage which was exaggerated in this hybrid form. The impact lifted him up off the ground flung him backward.

Just as I was about to pounce on him though, I heard the sound of swishing air. On pure instinct I ducked and felt a blow just barely miss the top of my head. I rolled to the left following that same instinct and came up standing between Cami and a second were-tiger which had just come out of stealth.

I’d been having enough trouble with just one of them. My dragon powers weren’t going to save me from two, and I couldn’t transform fast enough. The only thing that had saved me from having my head batted like a toy for the were-tiger were instincts which seemed foreign.

I knew what it was, but I hadn’t given any time to thinking about it before. My conviction about the inferiority of humans had made me neglect the classes I was operating while in human form. They made a sort of sense. A monk was a warrior who trained and fought to use his body as a weapon. That was exactly what a dragon was, a living engine of destruction. The sorcerer class was one which mirrored my magical ability.

As the injured were-tiger stepped up next to his kin, he said, “About time.”

The second one said, “You didn’t even kill the human child and couldn’t handle one measly level seven monk. Shall I handle him for you.”

The first were-tiger snorted. “Bah, there’s something off about him. He resisted my magic and moves faster than should be possible.”

“The wizard and priestess must have buffed him. It doesn’t matter we can kill him.”

“No, playing with our food is always more fun,” the first one said with a wicked grin. He bared his teeth at me and at least I could respect that gesture.

Not that I let them prattle on out of some misguided sense of respect. No, I would have bit their heads off rather than listen to them drone on while in my dragon form. Instead, I needed this time to come to the point of acceptance about something which my dragon memories were screaming out about.

Nicosandumas, a dragon somewhere between young adult and adult, was unable able to defeat these two were-tigers. The best I might hope for was to flee thanks to the flight spell, but that wouldn’t work as I’d never been able to scoop up Cami from right in front of them. Even if I could, my connection with her told me she was barely hanging on. I doubted she’d survive being moved.

Maybe I could stall them long enough for the adventurers to return, but being saved by those who had slain my sister and destroyed my home, was even more impalpable than what I was contemplating. Nicosandumas might be unable to defeat them, but Nico, the monk/sorcerer with magical knuckles and the buffing magic from a pair of level twenty casters should be able to.

I simply had to embrace being human. My transformational skill made it so I truly was human in body although enhanced by my draconic heritage. But my mind had never for a single instant allowed me to slip into thinking of myself as human. Now I had to accept those classes and all the skills that came with them.

There was a sharp moment of bitterness within me almost like pain, but purely emotional and then I did the pragmatic thing. I pushed it away. Survivors wrote the dragon dream. Let all my ancestors be damned if they couldn’t save me and yet fought against me accepting the power at hand. I drew it in and embraced it.

As the monk class took over, I found that I no longer felt awkward in this body. A series of notifications immediately popped up but I had to ignore them. I had a good idea what at least some of them were. Then I moved forward with a new found grace.

This was my body and I was the master of it. The were-tigers were shocked at first. My attack speed was even greater now. Thanks to the magic and my innate skills, I was moving faster than they were. I swept the leg of one dropping it backward but doing no real damage. I only wanted to disorient it.

At the same time I moved forward and snapped out a pair of punches at the already injured brute. The magical knuckles did their work and each blow landed like a sledge hammer. I felt bones break beneath my hands and knew instinctively where best to hit him. Sure his regeneration would fix it soon enough but he wasn’t like a troll, he couldn’t regenerate from death.

With a push of my will, I triggered my racial ability, Project Image. An exact duplicate of me down to the way I now moved as a trained martial artist appeared over the second were-tiger as he was scrambling to his feet. For now the image could only mirror what I did but I wasn’t letting up my attack on the injured were-tiger. I landed blow after blow which went off in a flurry augmented by my haste and the divine strength granted to me.

The blows from the projected image also made contact and unlike normal illusions they actual had physical substance. Each one was only hitting at somewhere between five and ten percent of my actual power but it was enough to confuse the secondary foe for just a moment.

I landed an uppercut on my main target and rocked his overly wide head so hard that his neck snapped back and his brain rattled within his head. Concussed, his hands came down and that was all it took. One, two, three more blows and his head was caved in with what had been inside it now leaking out.

I turned and saw the second were-tiger land a blow which depleted the minimal durability of the image. Someday I’d learn to make images which could cast their own magic and fight nearly as well as the original me, but I was far from that. Still, I had a grin on my face as I started to square off with this foe. I could take him. I knew it. He knew it. Now it was just time to deliver.