Dragon Sorcerer 2- Chapter 99 (Patreon)

Chapter 99- Proving Themselves

As I banked to get a better view of what was happening, Cami asked, “Are those bones moving?”

“Yeah, I thought they were forming into something, but I don’t see any signs of magic.”

“You mean like necromancy?’

“Doesn’t seem like a very dragon thing to do, but who can say what a great wyrm is capable of? Maybe he can even block my vision of magic.”

“Let’s find out.” Then Cami raised her hand and cast a spell.

Force Darts

She sent four gleaming missiles of pure force down into the spot where the bones were moving. It was like throwing, making it rain over a forest. You could get a few trees wet, but you weren’t going to soak the entire forest. It would take a pretty strange brew to make that much fluid.

As for her darts, they shattered bones where they struck and elicited another roar of outrage. That was when I realized there was something alive down inside that pile of bones. It sounded like a dragon, but I sensed the presence of Draconis further in the layer rather than in the pile of bones that was outside the mouth of his cave.

Then a huge red, scaley head burst out of the bones. “Oh, you just had to go and shoot me with a spell didn’t you little human? Father says, I’m supposed to test you. Let’s see if your skinny blue body is worth meeting the greatest draconis of all.”

Clouds of smoke started to billow out of the bones. Little bursts of fire, light, and sound exploded throughout the cloud as it quickly covered the entire side of the mountain.

Cami gasped in awe, but I just snorted. If there was one thing that I had plenty of memories from the dragon dream, it was about fighting red. I went through the tactics and realized this was just a pyrotechnic cloud. I could cause little actual damage. None to me for sure, although, I wasn’t certain about Cami, which raised another issue.

“Don’t worry, it’s just for show,” I told her.

“Oh, trust you. Tell me how I can help or if you need me to get off.”

For a moment, I thought that was the most logical thing she could say, but then I remembered that vision of the blue Draconis and Reegor fighting. “No, we’re stronger together.”

Then I started to tell her what I knew about fighting blues. “I’d guess from the size of his head that he is a Mature Adult so in the same range as us. Red dragons are a bit larger than blues. They tend to be thicker with heavy bones, this gives them greater strength and durability, but they sacrifice speed and agility for it.

Their breath weapon is more potent as an area of effect attack, but mine is better for dueling. My magic is, in general superior, but they have their tricks. Don’t let their general laziness make you think they are afraid to fight. They take delight in slowly killing creatures which they believe are weaker than them.”

“Then we’ll just have to show them who the weak one is here,” Cami retorted and if I’d been in human form, I almost could have kissed her in that moment. I loved to hear that she got it. Blue dragons are the best.

As we discussed strategy, I took the time to activate my abilities as well as casting some spell. She wanted to go big from the very beginning. Her plan called for her to risk herself, and I almost forbade her, but then realized, this was clearly a test. Draconis wanted to see if we were worthy to speak to him and if she was worthy, so I went with it. I’d support her however she needed and then, when this devolved into a more physical fight, she’d support me.

Call the Lighting and Shocking Aura worked perfectly together and in their synergy even enhanced all of my lighting based abilities.

At the same time, Cami cast the fire version of Elemental Armor to protect herself. See Flaw would enable her to look for an opening. She borrowed three DKP from me to enhance Venom of Silence to Tier 5 to add more oomph to her spear. Then it was up to me to distract the red.

When he didn’t emerge from the cloud of ash, I cast Weave the Wind and started slowly building up a gust which dissipated his cloud. He must have thought I was truly stupid, for only when it became apparent that the cloud wouldn’t hold together much longer, did he finally burst out of it?

That was what Cami had been waiting for. I blasted out with my breath weapon. Rather than trying anything tricky with one of the new ones, I gave the red exactly what he was probably expecting, a lightning bolt to the face.

As anticipated, he had a barrier in place. A sphere around him was struck by my bolt, but enhanced as it was the shell cracked and dissipated into nothingness. The shadows of the ash cloud were still covering the red, so even as he roared out his attack at me, Cami disappeared from my back.

Shadow Step.

One second she was on my back. The next she was on his. She drove her spear down. The scales of a dragon are so closely overlapped that it is almost impossible to get between them. Many an archer has bragged about hitting a spot between the scales, but for the most part those are lies. That is unless you happen to be a dragon knight gifted with an innate knowledge of dragons AND were bold enough to pop onto the back of a creature which could bite you in half.

She thrust her spear true. Her aim wasn’t to cause any fatal injury or any serious injury even, but simply to damage its wing. Her spear flared with power and struck as she used Rapid Cast to channel Call the Charge through the spear. It was perfectly designed to act as a lightning rod, and she possessed my immunity to the electricity.

The dragon convulsed and shook as Cami hung on for dear life. Her form was now draped in shadows. The red screeched. Like any dragon, he was angry that a lesser being had caused him pain. He twisted his neck back even as his body was careening in the air.

Time and again he snapped at Cami as she danced along his back. But even Agility could only go so far and his jaws closed on her. Cami was crushed in an instant. Except I could only chuckle as he was no doubt realizing he’d been tricked. He would have expected the warm flow of blood into his mouth, but no such thing came. Instead, the shadow clone that Cami had left on his back poofed away as though it had never been there.

Meanwhile, the real Cami had thrown herself off the dragon's back after delivering her electrified poison to it. Her trust in me was so complete that she had leapt into open air and just as the red was destroying the shadow clone, I caught her in my claws. The impact on her body would have been enough to kill a normal human, but Cami had left that rancher’s daughter far behind her.

She quickly scaled up my leg to resume her place on my back as I circled back to take the red. Now we would see if the ploy had worked. I roared out and was closing on it. Just like the Shocking Aura around me, it had a flaming aura, but those flames started to sputter out.

I grinned and was certain that Cami did the same. Our hope had been that the Venom of Silence which prevented casting would also interrupt an innate magical ability. It turned out that guess was correct. So that when I closed with him, my claws raked against him and delivered not only the force of my strength but also the power of my electricity.

In turn, when he managed to get one claw on me as he tried to fly with a damaged wing, he had to soak up more electricity. Meanwhile, Cami and I were spared the heat of his flaming aura. What was frustrating though was how thick his scales were, even more than I had expected. Each blow did damage, but it wasn’t as much as I had expected.

I realized then that he had already evolved his nature and chosen the Scale. He was going to be much harder to damage than I would have liked. He unleashed a torrent of flame at me, but his injured wing and my superior agility allowed me to avoid it.

We still wanted to end this quickly, but killing a dragon isn’t exactly a minor matter. I flew circles around him and landed half a dozen strikes for every one that he managed. He tried to cast a spell, but it sputtered out as the enhanced poison did its job.

Speaking of poison, it was time to give him something he wasn’t expecting. This time, when we passed mid-air rather than trying to strike with my claws or tail, I let him get much closer. He wanted to lock up with me and use his larger mouth and greater strength to his advantage, so I let him do just that.

He must have known that my lightning breath would be on cool down for a few more seconds, but as he opened his mouth, he quickly found it filled with a cloud of toxic gas. The breath of a green dragon filled his lungs, and his body convulsed once again. I took the opportunity to rip into his other wing.

The only problem was that we were still tangled up and falling. I mentally urged Cami to Shadow Step to the ground so that I wouldn’t have to worry about crushing her as well fell.

The red was struggling against the poison and still trying to hold on to me. But that was when I realized something. I had been fighting this way based upon all of my expectations from the dream. All of that knowledge was based upon what dragons always did. Reds were the strongest, we all knew. Except, maybe he wasn’t. I had a class. I had a belt that added Strength. It wasn’t that much compared to my total, but as we wrestled, I realized that I was just as strong as he was.

With my head clear and his raging mad with injuries and poison, I managed to wrestle into the top position and then ride him straight into the beach. The ground was relatively soft there unlike up on the mountain, but the impact still jarred me and certainly broke some of his bones.

Without hesitation, my head snaked forward as quickly as I regained my bearings and my jaws locked around his neck. He struggled desperately, but aimlessly behind me. Two different poisons, broken bones, and my weight crushing down on him was too much.

As strong as his scales were, they were no match for my bite. Little by little, they started to give way, and I felt the flesh beneath starting to bleed. Any second now, I’d break through and then one ripping motion would open his entire throat.

“Hold little blue. You’ve proven yourself.”

I didn’t stop. Dragons don’t stop fighting and give a foe a chance to get back on their feet. The taste of blood was on my tongue and I felt the urge to kill.

“Your rider is granted safe passage, too. Duletonius is a bit of a dullard, but he is a faithful son and keeps the village in line so that I don’t have to leave my lair. If you spare him, I’ll give you your pick of any one item from my hoard or the equivalent in gold.”

I eased up just a bit. On the one hand, if I stopped now, Duletonius was going to be forever my foe. But gold… and then there was the fact that if I killed him, Draconis might end up killing me, safe passage or no. I had no delusions about my ability to defeat a great wyrm, even if it was a lazy red.

That decided it for me. I relaxed my jaw and sent back mentally, “Okay, but this better be something good.”