Dragon 4 Chapter 19 (Patreon)

It took the better part of an hour to organize everybody and distribute out the information, but I’d learned a lot watching it happen.

Brom took the lead, along with the other bronze and blue dragons. Almost four dozen dragons stood at the front of the small army, splayed out and divided by their colors. They’d taken a variety of forms, but generally all were in between a dragon and a human.

I could only guess that the hybrid form was made up by one’s own interpretation of their shift.

And if the dragon force wasn’t enough to intimidate, behind them was an army of varied paranormals.

Brom looked at me, and I gave him a nod.

Focusing back ahead, he began shouting out orders. As a group, they marched out of the tower.

As soon as they exited, he shouted again, and a barrage of spells flew into the jungle. The spells detonated, eliciting screeches from the driders within.

Green and brass dragons stepped up to the front. Green dragons began spewing green fire that melted through the jungle, the caltrops and anything else that got in its way. They began clearing the path for the others.

Then Brom and his group stepped forward, unleashing great forks of lightning, tearing through the exposed jungle once again.

It was terrifyingly effective. Together, they attacked with lightning, ice, acid and death, laying waste to the area. It was like watching a video online of an industrial grinder. Nothing was safe.

“Zach, are we ready to go?” Scarlett pulled my attention away from the spectacle.

“Hold on a moment. I want to let them draw a bit more attention before we head out. We can use all the time we can get before they reorganize and try to find us. And when we do go, I want you and Morgana to get a head start.” There was no way that Brom’s advance through the jungle didn’t pull more of the driders to them, at least partially clearing the way for us, and my two assassins would do the rest.

Larisa cleared her throat. “I’m not sure why I don’t go with them. Our father has taught us to be fighters.”

“Because Scarlett and Morgana are amazing at what they do.” I replied. “And I know they can do their task just fine on their own.”

The corner of Morgana’s lips twitched, but she held back. She knew when to banter and stir the pot, and when we needed to remain focused on the task at hand. I knew she’d antagonize the dragons further later, but at the moment, she was keeping herself controlled.

I looked over at the new members of our team. Larisa and Chloe had joined us, along with another of Brom’s daughter’s, Polydora. So far, Polydora had been standing rigid near me without speaking. The woman was all sleek, toned muscle. She was possibly even taller than I was; to most, she’d be considered Amazonian in stature.

The copper healer, Trina, stood with us too, which was apparently short for Meditrina. Her parents were Roman, so old that they actually came from the days of Caesar.

Apparently, after I’d instructed her to find Scarlett, she’d barged right over. I wasn’t sure what had happened after that, but since I’d been near, she’d stayed quiet and hung out nearby, waiting to go.

She kept eyeing my first mate, and I wondered if Scarlett had scared her somehow.

That’s okay Trina, she scares me sometimes, too.

“I think we can go.” Scarlett held out her hand to Morgana.

Morgana, our resident walking armory, pulled a pistol from her bra and then a silencer and several magazines.

Scarlett expertly inspected the gun and the magazines before pocketing them and screwing on the silencer.

“You keep a silenced pistol and backup magazines, but you don’t keep food in there?” I said, sounding more than a little grumpy, but I couldn’t help it. I was growing hangry.

Morgana narrowed her eyes at me. “You don’t have any in your bracer, either.”

She had a point. I made a mental note to stock canned food in the bracer.

“Something to work out later. Rarely are we without access to food.” I said, checking on the progress of the dragon army. “Okay, it’s time. Morgana, Scarlett, go. And be safe. Stick to the edge of the jungle and keep the ocean on our left.”

I wanted less jungle to worry about and to decrease the chance that anybody gets lost. We’d skirt the edge of the island, hopefully giving ourselves some cover while our two assassins cleared a path. It wouldn’t be perfect, but maybe we could get to the study without fighting through an army of driders.

“On it.” Scarlett saluted with the pistol and stuck out her tongue before she went invisible.

The others murmured for a moment. I knew she really had just wrapped herself in an illusion that mimic’d her surroundings, but I had to admit it was pretty cool to watch.

Knowing what I was looking for, I could see the edges of the illusion where it wasn’t one hundred percent perfect.

But that didn’t matter as she crouched and started creeping into the jungle. With the shadows and the foliage breaking up the background, it was near impossible to spot her.

“Love you mate. Stay fifty feet back, and we’ll clear the way.” Morgana brought out two curved blades from her bra and then a bandoleer of knives that she strapped to her thigh before kissing my cheek and blurring into the jungle.

A small pop that didn’t sound louder than a snapping twig sounded somewhere between the large green leaves.

I knew a drider had just met its end, and it had begun.

My two mates were deadly, and I smiled, knowing they were kicking ass.

“Follow me. Chloe, Larisa, Jadelyn stays between you two no matter what.” I reminded them, not taking any chances.

Jade puffed out her cheeks. “I’m not made of glass.”

“Close enough. And I don’t want you to break.” I shot back without even thinking.

It earned me a glare, but I would easily take her glare if it meant she stayed safe. I needed to be able to focus on the bigger picture as we moved forward into enemy territory.

As quietly as we could, our group picked our way through the edge of the jungle, staying just on the edges. We weren’t silent, but hopefully the path was clear enough we could sneak past.

Drider corpses littered the jungle floor at first. It looked like many of them had stayed close to watch the tower.

But as we passed the initial blockade, they thinned out. We only had to avoid one of their bodies every minute or so, but there were still far more driders than made me comfortable.

Ikta had prepared for this. She had brought enough to fight an army of dragons, yet somehow we had managed through the battle last night without a single death.

“My king, thank you for bringing me along.” Trina ducked aside, dodging a branch I was moving out of my way. She broke me from my thoughts.

I chuckled. “Thank me after I put your healing to use. Your skills are invaluable and I won’t hesitate to put you to work.”

Trina’s head bobbed, her brown eyes sparkling as she looked up at me. Her brown hair had been tied back in a messy braid for the journey, and it matched her sun kissed skin. She looked like she was made for being outside on an adventure. “I’m a healer, and I will do my best to keep everyone here alive.”

“If we are caught up in a larger scale fight, I need you to prioritize that over fighting. Do you understand?”

She bowed with her hand on her shoulder, showing off her copper scales. “Yes, my king.”

When she dipped, I got another full view of her chest. It was purposeful.

The beast roused inside of me and demanded to be let loose.

I scolded it; now was not the time. We could rut later, when we weren’t sneaking through a jungle. There sure were enough people around me willing for a round.

Morgana suddenly appeared before us, moving out of the way of my instinctual swipe.

She had a wound on her shoulder that was healing before me. Her eyes were bright red, and the hungry look on her face told me what was about to happen.

She rushed me and clamped down on my neck.

“Get off of him you leech!” Larisa shouted.

“Hush.” I snapped at her as I held Morgana, letting her drink from me. There was enough strength in me to give her my blood. Yet even as she drank, my stomach growled.

She had been speeding around the jungle, using her magic to kill these driders quietly. I knew it had taken a lot out of her.

Morgana had once told me she used her magic cautiously, because it had a blood price. It was only fair that when I asked her to use her magic for me that I paid that price.

Moments later, she pulled her head back with a sigh, taking deep breaths. “Thanks. Needed that.”

I pulled her close and held her. She liked cuddles after she fed.

“Can’t. Need to get back out there. Can’t let Scarlett have all the fun.” Morgana spoke in rushed sentences. “Love you.”

When I stopped my hug, she darted back off into the jungle.

Trina stepped up and put her hand over my neck, making it itch as the wounds closed. “Blood loss is one of the most strenuous things to heal. If you don’t mind, I’ll just wait for us to get some food into you.”

I rubbed my neck, still feeling the tingle of her bite. But I worked to clear my head. “Why is it hard to heal?”

“Mass conversion.” She replied. “It’s the same reason that earth magic draws on existing particles to work, same with water and air.”

The rest of the ladies were looking at me like I didn’t know a simple fact. “Sorry, still new. Spell it out for me?”

“Creating new mass is more magically intensive than moving it or changing its states. Magic fits somewhere in the conservation of energy, just we use mana to fuel much of it.” Trina explained.

I nodded.

When she put it that way, it made perfect sense. “Can you convert inorganic mass like dirt into healing?”

She nodded. “We pack larger wounds with poultice and partially convert those into what the patient needs. The water and the mixture of plants require less mana than converting dirt, which would be quite intensive.”

“What about vampires? They seem to heal at an extreme rate.” I knew shifters like myself could use the total mass that we had outside of our smaller forms to heal wounds rapidly.

“Compressed blood.” Polydora spoke for the first time. “They barely bleed. All the blood they intake is stored in a compressed form and used to help heal when wounded.”

I wanted to ask so many more questions. The pre-med student in me was geeking out at the new information. That some of the paranormal abilities had an actual grounding in science made me want to study them.

Polydora grabbed Jadelyn and pulled her into a crouch. “Quiet.” She put her body between Jadelyn and the jungle.

Suddenly, she was my favorite of the dragons that had come with us.

“What?” Tyrande whispered, trying to peer through the darkness of the jungle.

The noise was soft at first, but then it grew louder. A multitude of clicking and rustling sounded amid the jungle.

“Shit. Move.” I scooped up Jadelyn, shifting into my dragon knight form and rushing through the jungle.

The time for stealth was over. Our position had clearly been identified.

Five other dragons burst into their hybrid forms and kept up with me.

Tyrande was clinging onto Yev’s scaley green shoulders.

Up ahead, I saw Morgana cut down a drider. The spider woman’s legs curled like a dead spider as her head rolled along the forest floor.

Morgana took one look at us and darted forward, not needing words to communicate.

“Scarlett, we need to go.” I shouted into the jungle, waiting for my invisible kitsune mate.

A heavy weight landed on my shoulders a moment later before Scarlett appeared, clinging to my back like a cape. “We’re spotted?”

“Or a wave of them just happens to be coming this way.” I pushed it from my mind and focused on pumping my legs.

Polydora spun on her heels, and a massive stream of lighting poured out of her mouth into the jungle behind us.

Driders screamed as they died, but their screams also helped give away their locations. They were far closer than made me comfortable.

“Keep up.” I shouted, knowing that if she fell behind, she may be lost. And we’d likely all die trying to save her.

Lisandra started chanting in the dragon tongue before flinging her hand behind her.

A wave of ice rippled into spikes that burst into the air.

“That ought to slow them down some.” Larisa said, huffing to keep up in her white humanoid dragon form that reminded me more of a werewolf than the knights some of us looked like.

Not to be outdone, Jadelyn started singing in my arms, and a layer of mist rolled in from the ocean. She kept singing, but I wasn’t sure what she was doing.

Trusting her, I let her continue.

We kept on our mad dash through the jungle. The noise behind us had settled down, but I didn’t let it slow our momentum.

A few moments later, we broke out of the jungle at the edge of the fighting beach.

I breathed a sigh of relief and hurled myself off the cliff, landing on the beach with two of my mates on me, and Morgan landed beside us.

A few more plops announced the arrival of the others.

“Where is it?” Scarlett nearly shouted in my ear.

Scanning the wall, I pushed out my aura, leaning heavily on my chromatic colors. I shifted red and a piece of the wall at the edge of the beach crackled and crumbled inward, a portal appearing.

“There.” I was so happy that it had worked. We’d be forced to hide out inside, but that was doable.

I turned to usher them forward, growing intensely frustrated as I noticed the other dragons were all kneeling from the pressure of my aura. “Get up. Hurry.” I pushed them forward.

Trina stumbled, but managed to get her feet under her. She ran towards the portal, shifting into her human form as she moved.

She hit what had been a cliff face just moments ago at a dead sprint, showing her trust in me.

The others were right behind her.

Yev pulled Tyrande down and pushed her through first.

I did the same, hurrying my mates through the portal. Jadelyn first followed by Scarlett.

But before I could get myself through, I was ripped off my feet by a drider that flew off the edge of the cliff.

“Zach!” Morgana stopped from stepping into the portal, turning and hurling a knife through the drider’s throat. She moved away from the portal, kicking the drider off me.

I took her hand, pulling myself forward and moving us back towards the portal. But when I realized the driders weren’t attacking, I looked for the cause.

Sure enough, Ikta strutted out of the jungle and slid down the beach to stare at me. “Please go and find whatever you think is in there. This is the dueling beach, correct?”

“What do you want?” I growled.

She slid her feet through the sand with a wicked smile on her face. “Once you leave that little hidey hole of yours, we will duel. There will be no escape.”

“Do you know how the dragons treat duels to settle debates?” I asked her, hoping I could use the information to my advantage.

“Winner wins what they want. It’s not hard to understand. Well, maybe it is for dragons.” She smirked, her dark eyes twinkling with mirth.

She was playing with me. There was something about her that instinctively told me she was a trickster. Morgana tugged on me, wanting me to rush through the portal rather than play games with the Fae Queen.

“We agree to settle the feud only within the dueling area. That means while you wait for the duel, you don’t go after the rest of the people on this island, nor those with me.” The duel with her was unavoidable, but I wanted to use it to protect the others.

“Sure, that makes sense.” She waved her hand whimsically.

I growled at her. “No, speak it in plain terms. You will not go after anyone else on the island while you wait for the duel.”

Ikta scowled at me. “I will not attempt to harm anyone else on this island.”

“Nor your followers.” I added.

She rolled her eyes. “Nor will those who serve me harm them. Is that good enough?”

I sighed. “Yes, it is.”

Ikta then held up her hands. “I will let you go through that portal, and I will make no attempts to enter.” There was a smile curling up her lips, like she thought she won, as she sashayed over to me, swinging her hips like a mesmerizing pendulum.

“What are you doing?” I growled.

“Duels settle feuds, and the opponents state their prize for winning.” She came to stand before me. Despite her large presence, she was short, barely up to my chest.

So when she stopped, she had to stare up at me. “That’s how it works, right?”

“Yes.” I figured it was more likely to be to the death, but there was something she wanted.

Having shifted, I was naked before her. She bit her lips while twisting her hips before she placed a finger in the center of my chest. “Then, when it is done, I want you to kneel before me and become mine.”

Ikta put a slight amount of pressure on my chest, like she wanted me to do it right then and there.

The beast snapped inside my chest. He wanted to bite her finger off. The beast couldn’t believe she’d demand I kneel.

I let out a low rumble of a growl. “Never.”

Ikta laughed and spun away from me, evading an attack that never came. “Oh, it will be so sweet to tame the king of dragons. You have no idea how powerful you could be if you only let someone take the reins. I could transform you into the most powerful creature here or in any of the planes.”

“No.” I calmed myself. She was trying to rile me up and get inside my head. I needed to focus and consider my demands.

If I won, would it end if I killed her?

If that happened, I wasn’t sure what would happen to her followers. I’d likely give them reason to cause chaos and potentially take more dragon lives.

I needed her to withdraw them and take any others out of the equation. Killing her might have been satisfying, but it wouldn’t be a complete win. There was still the chance that we’d lose a dragon to whatever monsters she had out in the jungle or lurking on the island.

“If I win, you and all of your forces will withdraw and not threaten the dragons or their allies for the next thousand years.” I stated my terms.

As the king of dragons, my people were my priority. If I could secure their safety, I would.

Ikta bowed to me and stepped back. “So be it.” She hid her face, leaving me guessing as to her reaction.

Damn trickster. She planned this, knowing that she could escape death by applying this much pressure. One day you’ll regret crossing the king of dragons.

I turned and marched through the portal, bringing Morgana with me and letting it close securely behind me.

My mates, Tyrande and the five dragons were waiting for me on the other side.

“What took you so long?” Jadelyn fidgeted as she took in my face.