Dragon Sorcerer 1- Chapter 33 (Patreon)

Chapter 33- A Dark Alley

At the moment I blamed Cami for distracting me because I didn’t even notice the people sneaking up on us until their clap of their footsteps against the paving stones was just feet from us.

A shout from a nearby rooftop sounded off. “Look out.”

An instant later I saw a glint of moonlight on a blade which was thrust for me. I reacted just in time by pivoting out of the way and sweeping Cami up with one of my arms. My superior strength allowed me to jump, creating a dozen feet of space between us.

That was when I saw that level of danger. There were at least a dozen men and women all dressed in black meant to make sneaking about easier. Some of them wore leather vests, but for the most part they were unarmored. I was about to pull my mace from my soul space when a familiar figure jumped down from the rooftop.

I thought the voice had sounded familiar. Modessa flashed a smile back at us as she said, “Stay behind me.”

Then she turned back to the would be thugs or assassins. I wasn’t really sure which they were. Weapons appeared from whatever spatial storage device she had. In one hand, she held a short sword. It glowed with bright flames. This was a weapon I’d never seen her use before and for a moment I wondered why she’d use a weapon which would destroy night vision. It occurred to me that she might have some other way to sense them and sought to gain an advantage by blinding them.

In my dragon form, it wouldn’t have been a problem as both my nose and ears were far more acute. But now I was blinded, or not blinded, but any night vision I had acquired was gone for the moment. I did manage to notice a dagger in Modessa’s other hand.

Then she began fighting. Instantly, I was surprised by how well the thugs were holding up. She danced amongst them with deadly precision, but they managed to keep her from landing any fatal blow by virtue of their numbers. A mage in their back cast a spell and suddenly it looked like Modessa was moving through water, but her foes were keeping up.

She shouted again, but this time her voice had a hint of fear in it. “Run, I’ll buy you as much time as I can.”

My mind twitched, but Cami was trembling in my arm. I might have just acted like I could make decisions for her mere minutes ago, but now I couldn’t bear the thought of her being injured. I didn’t want to run, but run I did, or at least I started to.

Cami was slow to start, but then she pulled at me and we ran down a narrow street between two buildings. My companion regained her bearing quickly though. I could feel her fear, but a spike of determination popped up through it and a few seconds later she flung her hand out and a Force Dart blasted off of it and struck one of the thugs in her back. I berated myself for not thinking of that, but now we were running in the dark.

This narrow street was different than the others. It smelled badly enough that even my human nose was wrinkled. Between heavy breaths Cami whispered, “Will she be okay?”

“She’s strong, but if she falls to protect you, I can live with that.”

She slapped my arm. “I don’t get you. So rude. Then you say something like that. But I can’t live with it.”

She stopped, but as we looked back, I saw some of the thugs running at us. I didn’t know if they had taken Modessa out. That seemed unlikely, but maybe there were enough of them that some could break away and pursue us. The space was between the buildings was only about four feet wide. We couldn’t even properly fit side by side.

I thought to pull my mace again but the space wouldn’t work for it. Maybe she could thrust with her spear, but it was in my soul space. Daggers, it would have to be, yet truthfully it was a weapon which didn’t feel natural to me.

The three thugs had slowed down. They all had short blades in their hands and didn’t seem to share my dislike for using them. I muttered, “I wish I had my claws.”

Cami asked, “Why can’t you?”

I had never considered that. It was a stroke of brilliance and here in a dark passageway it wouldn’t matter if I tried it out. No one could see or if they did, either they’d be dead soon or I would be.

With that in mind, I activated my racial ability- Shape Change. Fully transforming into my dragon form would have taken thirty seconds, much too long. There also wasn’t room between the buildings on each side and even though I’d survive, Cami would likely be crushed to death. That was completely unacceptable. I was oddly more angry at the fact they were threatening her than that they had attacked me. She was mine after all, and no one takes from a dragon then lives to tell about it.

This time, though, I wasn’t trying to make a full change, just a partial one. I willed my soft squishy human arms to take on draconic properties from the elbow down. The pain was swift and shocking. I hadn’t expected that. Shape changing had never been pleasant, but this felt like I was trying to force something into a contain which couldn’t hold it.

My skin shifted and the sleeves of my shirt were shredded. It only took about three seconds, but even that was long enough for the others to close with us. My mace might have been awkward to wield in this space, but I had no difficulty wielding my claws.

This was the perfect fusion of my monk classes unarmed fighting skills with my ability to wield natural weapons as a dragon. The first dagger came down, but I raised my left arm to block it. The blade must have just been normal steel, because it skittered off my arm without so much as denting my scales. Its wielder was shocked. But not nearly as shocked as he was the talons on my right hand were driven into his chest.

He wasn’t wearing armor, but I wasn’t sure it would have mattered. The damage I did was magnified and when my fist came to a stop my claw-tipped fingers are buried inside his chest. I squeezed down and made a fist. Whatever grunts of pain he had been making up to that point changed to something more akin to the squeals of a pig.

For an instant I felt a great desire for bacon, something I’d never eaten but which had filled more than one portion of the dragon dream. Then, as I yanked my hand back, ripping open his chest cavity and exposing his lungs and heart to the moonlight, I lost all my appetite. The smell of blood was refreshing, but whatever he dropped into his pants was disgusting.

My thoughts and actions were moving at blazing speed even if the three attackers all seemed shocked by what was happening. I raised a foot and drove a thrusting front kick into him, sending the foremost attack and his soiled trousers flailing backward into the man behind him.

The third attacker was trembling, but to her credit she leapt forward to attack. Before I could even intercept her attack, she ate a face full of Force Dart. Her nose must have been shattered and teeth went flying everywhere. I would have chuckled if things weren’t happening so quickly. Humans already have such flat smooth teeth that they’re almost useless. Now she wouldn’t even have those.

Not that she had any need for teeth as I slid forward, grabbing the wrist of her hand which now just barely managing to hand on to her dagger. Her head was rocked back, and I used that opening to swipe my claws across her throat. The attack automatically triggered as a critical strike. I didn’t need the system to tell me that, though. The spray of arterial blood was more than sufficient. HP are an important gauge of health and one's ability to continue in a fight, but an instinct from deep within me said that few creatures could continue once their throat was ripped out.

I shoved her dying body hard into the wall. With my strength, it was more like I threw her and she slammed into the stone about five feet off the ground before slumping down, never to move again. Moving directly from that shove, I threw myself onto the two fallen foes. The man with the open chest was flailing about and effectively keeping his companion from getting up.

I wish I could have transformed my eyes, nose, and ears to their draconic forms, but it had been bold enough to try a partial transformation of my hands. As it was, I couldn’t see any weapon being wielded by the pinned man. When my knee dropped onto the open chest of the top man, I deflated one of his lungs and crushed his heart. He might not be dead yet, but would be shortly for the same reasons that no one lives long without a throat.

My fists flew in a flurry as I used the monk skill to land a series of punches against the bottom man’s face. As a monk, my unarmed blows had been strong before, but with dragon scales they landed just as powerfully as if I had been using the enchanted brass knuckles. His head bounced against the ground, which I noticed was only hard-packed dirt and gravel rather than the cobblestones of the proper streets.

My third blow finished him as his skull gave way. I don’t know if it was bone shards driving downward of chunks of gravel driven up through his skull but either way he was dead. I jumped up and took stock of the situation. Our three foes were all dead. No one else was moving in the narrow street or what I guess would have been an alley.

At first, I didn’t think there were any windows in the buildings on either side of us, but then I saw a bit of light leaking out for some boards at the ground level. It was enough that as my eyes adjusted, I could see the filth that was in this alley and I didn’t just mean the dead attackers.

Cami said, “You’re kinda scary when you cut loose.” Her voice was hushed, but there was an odd note of excitement to it.

“You never have to be scared of me. Remember, we’re bonded.”

“Oh, I wasn’t saying I was scared or that it was a bad thing. You being scary makes me feel safe and maybe a little proud.”

“Speaking of proud, I’m very impressed with how you kept your presence of mind to cast Force Darts not once but twice.”

She blushed. Then said, “I’m still mad at you about earlier, but it feels sorta silly now. We should probably run.”

“Not yet.” Then, without looking back at her I pulled out her new spear from my soul space and held it out to her. “Stand guard.”

I released the spear and because it didn’t hit the ground; I knew she had grabbed it. But my eyes were on one thing. I knelt down next to the two men on the ground in front of me.

‘What are you doing?”

“Getting my loot, of course. It’s the best part of winning.”