Dragon 2 Chapter 29 (Patreon)

As we walked into the dark, my mind began playing tricks on me. I could have sworn I saw trolls looming not far from the entrance, but the mall entrance was quiet.

The smell of rot mixed with algae filled the air, highlighting the swamp troll's presence. And occasionally there would be the heavy thud and grunting that sounded like trolls fighting. But we had yet to come across any. It was like they were always around the next corner, but we never saw any.

I didn’t like that Nat’alet’s goal was unknown. It was a missing piece that would have helped us with our strategy. But regardless, he’d forcefully recruited a standing army in our city. We couldn’t leave that alone, and we couldn’t leave all those magi to their current fate.

The god seemed to have no qualms about hurting and killing paranormal and magi alike. From our discussion, I had a feeling this was more than just the desire to replenish mana in the world. It had to be about more than that, some sort of power grab, perhaps. He’d planned this out, waiting for the perfect moment when swamp trolls and magi overlapped.

I swallowed, not loving the idea of a god that had planned out his takeover for years when I’d had a few days to prepare. But I had a feeling he hadn’t planned for a dragon to be in the mix.

Regardless, he’d committed a paranormal crime in my city, and I was duty bound to get justice. My path was becoming clearer to me. Working with Morgana felt right. Protecting my women felt right. This god had to be stopped.

We stalked through the mall. The once pristine white tiles were now marred by a lack of care and thousand pound trolls traipsing through the place.

“What was the plan again?” Scarlett frowned as she followed behind me, clearly anxious.

“Once we find them, we need to contain them. We can’t have them spilling out into the parking lot. We need to buy the magi time.” I answered. We were the distraction.

Passing a few storefronts, the space opened up into a large two story circular area that must have once been the beating heart of the mall. Now trolls lumbered about where shoppers had once walked.

Filtering through the noise of the trolls, I caught voices up on the second floor. We ducked to the side, avoiding their line of sight, and listened.

“-the fuck does he think he is. I’m going to fry his ass the second he comes out.”

“Calm down Ty. No, you aren’t. None of us can do anything like that.” Another voice picked up.

Angling myself so I could see better, I spotted two Shamans arguing in what appeared to have been an ice cream parlor.

I tapped Morgana on the shoulder and pointed to her ear, then up to the two arguing. “Hear anything?”

She rolled her eyes. “Bitching about Nat’alet. Seems he didn’t earn any favors in converting them.”

“I wouldn’t want to have ugly green skin either.” Scarlett smiled. “But I’m more interested in them being unable to do anything about it.”

Nodding, I braced myself against a corner and peered around. The grout on the tiles must have seriously needed replacing, because just my weight against the wall cracked the grout and a tile fell to the floor.

Shit, I cursed to myself.

My entire body tensed, and it was like the entire world went silent for a moment as I strained to listen for any reaction.

The shuffling of trolls quickly moving towards us indicated that my fumble had not gone unnoticed.

“Seems the time for stealth is over.” I whispered to the two ladies, not wanting to give away more than I already had. “Do me a favor and hang back. I’ll be the big distraction.”

“Okay. I’ll go on ahead and see if I can’t find this Nat’alet’s hideout.” Morgana ghosted away.

I glanced at Scarlett to get her agreement, but I found her with her hands on her hips. “Like hell I’m leaving you here alone.” She fished out that blasting rod. “Plus, I want to ride a dragon.”

“Pretty sure you’ve ridden a dragon more than a few times.” I didn’t have time to argue with her. The best I could do was keep her safe. She saw my reluctant agreement in my eyes and beamed.

Rolling my eyes, I shifted into my hybrid form, becoming a sixteen foot tall hunched over, wingless dragon. My new form was tall enough to see over the lip of the second floor, my head rising to see the two shamans.

“Holy shit.” One lept to his feet and backed away. His friend had his back to me, but jumped around to see my big scaly head.

“That’s… a dragon?”

My mouth opened, a jet of flame tearing out of my throat, the air vibrating and rumbling with the heat.

The ice cream shop was instantly filled with bright orange dragon fire as I tested if shamans were also fire resistant. The flames cut off, and I felt Scarlett scurry up my back and grab onto the horns on my head. “Wow.” She gasped. “Never seen you really let loose with the fire before.”

I puffed out a stream of smoke from my nose. When the air cleared, the two shamans came back into view. Their skin peeled and sloughed off as if they had second-degree burns, but their troll nature was healing them faster than I had done damage.

“Ha! We survived the dragon's fire. This change might not be so bad.” One of them was shouting as his hands glowed red.

I closed my eyes and ducked my chin, taking the blast on the crown of my head. My claws tore at the second floor of the mall, holding myself otherwise still under the force of their attack.

When it abated I didn’t hesitate, snapping my neck forward and sinking my teeth into him. I readied to tear him apart as two trolls tackled my lower legs.

Toppling from my position, I found myself hanging over the second story. I took one shaman with me as trolls swarmed me.

A cooling sensation ran down my back as Scarlett blasted the shaman with Sabrina’s rod. She let out an exclamation of pleasure as it hit, readily firing off more and more shots. She seemed to enjoy her new weapon.

At that point, there were a dozen trolls trying to get a handhold on me and pin me down. I could not let that happen.

I thrashed, using my massive weight to knock a leg free as I tossed up the screaming shaman in the air, biting him in half on the way down. My claws lashed out at the trolls, cutting vast swaths of flesh out of their bulk.

Scarlett whooped on the top of my head as she hung on for dear life.

I tore through the trolls with my claws before I body checked one into the wall. A spray of frost hit the pinned troll’s head, making it easy for me to shatter it with a second press.

“Ty!” the other shaman screamed, turning to me. “You killed Ty!” He fired a shot, but I realized too late that he hadn’t been aiming for me. He’d aimed for Scarlett. His blast hit her, and she flew off of my back.

Time slowed as I watched her face twist in pain from the blast. She fell in between two trolls, landing in a crumpled ball.

My beast roared inside of me, and I didn’t hold it back. I let the draconic rage consume me.

I moved to where she’d landed, instantly attacking the two trolls before they had a chance to attack her. I pinned one down beneath my claws and ripped the other off its feet with my jaws before I severed its shoulder from the rest of it with a powerful bite.

My back legs curled forward, and I raked my claws along the pinned troll’s chest and legs, tearing it to bloody ribbons.

Another blast hit my side as I hunkered over Scarlett protectively.

“Ha. You aren’t an actual dragon.” The shaman said. “Just something that looks like one. Trying to protect your rider?”

With the loss of mobility I had in order to keep Scarlett sheltered, the trolls closed in around us. Meanwhile, the shaman continued to pepper me with those annoying red beams of force.

I screamed in rage as the trolls rushed me. There were two or three for each of my legs and another two for my tail. Thrashing could only do so much as they worked together to immobilize me.

My claws sank into a few of them, but the trolls ignored the pain, their swampy green skin bulging with muscle as they all strained against my exertion.

Damn them, I cursed internally.

A thud announced the presence of the shaman as he jumped from the second story.

“Ty really is dead.” He bent over the other shaman’s remaining body. “Guess we can’t heal from everything. But what the fuck are you doing here?” He asked, standing back up straight and appraising me.

I huffed. I still hadn’t figured out how to talk.

“Doesn’t matter. Nat’alet will want to meet with you. Goons, hoist him up. We are going to meet the boss.” The trolls seemed to follow his orders. They kept me stretched out as they put me up on their shoulders.

The shaman picked up Scarlett, tossing her over his shoulder. “I’ll take your pretty little kitsune if you don’t mind.”

As he touched her, the dragon in me roared, wanting to slowly remove every limb from his body, letting him regrow them so I could do it again.

I drove towards him, managing to power through a few struggled steps before the trolls were able to corral me. Even with my bulk, a dozen trolls were too much for me to overcome.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of her. I’m told once you get a green dicking, women don’t go back.” He sneered. “And I’ve always loved anime with fox girls.”

The rage inside me turned more deadly, quieter. He needed to die. And to do that, I needed to focus.

I used the enhanced focus my dragon was giving me to run back through my options.

There had to be something. I was a shifter, and while I was still learning how to properly use it, I could take some from the wolves’ strategy. I’d seen them use their shifts when they fought, flowing between them, snapping out a kick only for it to become a claw.

I smiled a wicked smile at the shaman in my hybrid form. Enjoying the slight fear that spread on his face even as he stood his ground.

Focusing, I shifted back to my dragon knight form, surprise flickering on the shaman’s face.

My body’s sudden shrinkage allowed me to slip loose of the trolls. As they released their hold on me, I fell to my stomach and rolled up to my feet. I was still covered in golden scales, but I was also much smaller and more human in proportion.

The shaman threw Scarlett at me as his hands glowed red.

I had no choice. I grabbed her, wrapping my scaled arms around her as I turned and took the blast on my back.

The beam had plenty of force behind it, so I jumped and let it carry me out of reach as trolls tried to recapture me.

Throwing Scarlett over my shoulder and jumping again, I latched onto the second story and pulled myself up. I gently laid Scarlett down as I turned back to the shaman.

I was beyond pissed. My beast was right on the surface, ready for a fight.

It wanted to blast the trolls with fire, but I knew it wouldn’t work. That wasn’t their weakness. The beast didn’t seem to care, thrashing in my chest, demanding that I smoke the fuckers.

I glanced down at Scarlett, her chest still rose and fell; besides a few scrapes, she looked like she was just sleeping. But that didn’t dim the protective urges in my chest. The shaman would die for harming my mate.

Jumping back down to the first floor, I landed in a crouch that shattered the tiles below me.

“So, you aren’t just a beast.” The shaman watched me. This time he had the trolls gathering before him. It looked like the safety net of trolls made him more chatty.

“You picked the wrong fight.”

He snorted. “I didn’t pick a fight, you did. Can I ask what you are?”

I ignored him. There was no reason to tell him. One of us would be dead soon, and I was betting on him. The beast thrashed in my chest once again, demanding I incinerate them with my breath.

Pushing it down, I ignored the instinct. I’d already seen that they were resistant to fire. Instead, I jerked to the side, my claws tearing at the first troll in my path.

The trolls tried to grab me and tangle me enough to pin me again, but this time I fought like Morgana had trained me rather than a wild animal.

Weaving between the heavy troll limbs, I inflicted any damage I could as the trolls pressed forward in a tight jumbled knot. The whole thing was comical; they tripped and scrambled over each other trying to get me.

Unfortunately, the mass of trolls was too dangerous to get close enough to do lasting damage. They would easily be able to overwhelm me if I got too close. All I could do was injure an arm enough for it to fall limp for a few seconds before the troll’s healing brought it back into the fight.

The beast still demanded I wash them with fire, and I realized that if nothing else, it would serve as a nice smoke screen between the shaman and I.

If I could get him, that would remove the biggest threat.

Breathing deeply, I was surprised when I felt a slight shift in my body.

Normally, it felt like my chest was filled with lava, like a volcano on the verge of erupting. This time, it felt cold. Icy cold, like when you grab meat straight out of the freezer and your fingers feel like they are going to fall off. Excitement spread through me, and I was glad I’d listened to my draconic instincts.

My scales rippled as I breathed out.

Blue frosty liquid spewed out of my breath like a fire hose. As soon as it hit the air, it vaporized into a freezing mist.

I was distracted as, in the corner of my vision, I saw my arms ripple. As the freezing mist passed, my gold scales became silver. I couldn’t wait to experiment with that later and figure out what it meant. But for now, I had some trolls to freeze.

My breath was like a supercharged version of Sabrina’s blasting rod.

The troll’s skin frosted over as the ground grew slick with ice and icicles formed off their bodies. It was incredible to watch.

The mass of trolls ground to a halt, the first few toppling over and shattering into pieces. It only took a few crumbling before the rest of the trolls tried to turn and run.

My breath washed over them, catching as many as I could and managing to hit the shaman as well. They all turned into popsicles.

My breath cut off only a few seconds after it started, the freezing power strong enough to freeze them in just moments.

“W-w-what-t-t-t.” The shaman’s teeth chattered as he tried to speak.

Apparently, he’d survived thanks to the trolls taking the brunt of my breath. But he could barely move, his body already curling in on itself in an attempt to preserve what heat was left.

I pushed aside the trolls, letting them shatter on the hard ground. I cringed, knowing they likely had been manipulated. But I needed to dwindle the god’s forces, and they’d seen my secret.

My steps echoed in the abandoned mall as I continued towards the shaman, letting him watch as the frozen trolls crumpled. “Where is Nat’alet? And what’s the end goal?”

The shaman gave me a brittle smile, his frostbitten cheeks cracking when stretched. “We were forced. He has power over us now.”

I had a small blossom of sympathy for the man. Being controlled by another wasn’t something I’d wish on most. But he’d touched Scarlett, and his fate had already been sealed.

His hand filled with red light, so I quickly stepped forward, tipping him over. His lower half shattered into shards of ice.

He screamed, but it was short-lived as the light faded from his eyes.

I looked around, trying to figure out my next move.

If we finished Nat’alet soon, there would be hope of reverting the trolls back to their former selves. The clock was ticking, but the Summer Queen had given us hope that if we killed Nat’alet before twenty-four hours, then the magi would regain their humanity.

Unfortunately, I knew that I’d have to kill many of them in the process. I hoped none were Sabrina’s friends, though she did seem like a loner.

Leaping back up to where I’d left Scarlett, I took the moment to look her over and make sure she was okay. I found a solid goose egg forming on her head. Touching it caused her to wince and hiss as she squinted her eyes.

“Zach?” She looked up at me in a daze. “What happened to your scales?”

I glanced down at myself. The silver scales still covered me rather than my normal gold. “I’m not sure. But it is still me. Apparently my dragon has some extra kickass abilities.”

Scarlett touched my arm and frowned as she looked at the color. “So, I’m not seeing things? Those are actually silver?”

“Yeah. I got a little pissed when he took you out. He didn’t see it coming.”

She laughed. “Neither did you.” She snickered at some joke that I didn’t understand.

I figured she must still be loopy

Hoisting her up in my arms, I padded down the steps and picked up Sabrina’s blasting rod. I handed it to Scarlett for safe keeping. “We need to move. The fact that we aren’t already swarming with trolls has me worried.”

“Why?”

“Because what the heck are two hundred trolls doing here if they aren’t coming to the sound of a large fight. I’m not exactly quiet when I’m angry.”

She cuddled into my arms, and I started to look around to pick a direction. But as I took a few steps, a change began to spread across the mall.

One moment it felt like a chilly November afternoon, and the next it was like someone had stuffed the whole place inside a polar vortex. The air changed too, from the dirty city air to a clean, crisp air filled with vibrance.

“What was that?” I asked, looking around for a new threat.

Scarlett took a deep breath. “It feels like we are in Faerie.”

I settled down, placing what we were feeling. “They must have finished the spell.”

Glancing up through the skylight that dominated the wide open area of the mall, high above the building, blue wind swirled in the air, wrapping around us. “And it would seem that we are now officially trapped here with Nat’alet. Come on, we need to find Morgana and see what she’s learned.”

I looked around for something to wear. Ducking into a shop, I grabbed a curtain still hanging up and tore the worn cloth from its hooks, wrapping it around myself and taking one hook. I stabbed the hook through the cloth and bent it to clip my makeshift toga tight. I had kept my size, but I retracted my scales for the moment, concerned about meeting with the Winter Queen.

“You okay?” I asked Scarlett, noticing she was shivering in my arms.

“For a little while. You’re pretty warm, but it is freezing in here.”

I didn’t really seem to notice. Then again, I wasn’t really a thick coat kind of person, and my draconic constitution had only made temperature extremes more comfortable. Or maybe my silver scales came with other benefits.

The mall was eerily silent for a place with hundreds of trolls. The only noise was my puffing breath as we moved forward to find a god.