Dragon Conjurer 8, page 20
“These fuckers are called Rocs,” I said to my team through gritted teeth. “Various versions of the legend can be found throughout many cultures around the world, but these ones look like the Arabic version.”
“What can you tell us about them?” Nick asked as he fired a shot into the empty eye socket of a Nuckelavee.
“They like to drop their prey from great heights to kill them,” I said quickly. “So don’t let them pick you up.”
“Right!” Nala called as she thrust a spear through one of the Nuckelavees’ horse chest and into its second rib cage.
I knew we had big trouble on our hands, and I mentally told Ky to let me off and that I was going to summon my other dragons.
We needed a full thunder of dragons.
“Sokisaseru, Trylle Frem, Dewch yma!” I cried.
Goldie and Thor appeared in a blinding flash of gold and indigo light. There was no sound or visible sign that Griff had arrived as well, but I could hear his steady and quiet breathing through Goldie’s ears.
The mental image of each of my dragons taking on one of the enormous eagle-monsters barely rose in my mind before my dragons obeyed.
Ky, Beyblade, Goldie, Thor, and Zofia each targeted one of the enormous birds and headed straight for them. Then scaled feet clashed with bird talons as beaks snapped out at dragon fangs, and the sky was filled with the shadows of the enormous beasts above us.
Ky blasted out a harsh breath of freezing air at the Roc he had targeted, and the feathery beast’s chest frosted over with a thick layer of ice. The heavy layer of ice seemed to weigh the beast down, and it flapped its wings harder to stay airborne. Then Ky darted his long neck out in an attempt to catch hold of the Roc’s wing joint.
The monstrously-sized eagle was just as fast, and it angled sharply away from my ice dragon’s fangs, so Ky took a deep breath and flash-froze the Roc’s entire head with one steady stream of ice.
The beast’s beak was wide open in a silent scream, and its yellow eyes blinked dazedly through the thick layer of ice, but it still managed to remain airborne. The additional ice was enough to make the huge bird’s movements clumsy and slow. Ky narrowed his sapphire eyes at the beast and lashed out forward once more, and this time, his long front teeth sank deep into the shoulder joint of the Roc’s left wing.
The Roc’s piercing scream ripped so violently from its throat that Ky’s thick ice around the beast’s head cracked and began to fall away. Not that it made any difference, Ky had a death-grip on the enormous bird’s wing joint, and he thrashed the Roc from side to side like a dog destroying his favorite chew toy.
Feathers and blood rained down from the gigantic eagle as it was thoroughly shaken within an inch of its life. Finally, when Ky released his teeth from around the Roc’s muscles, the beast dropped to the ground below.
The giant bird of prey hit the ground, tumbled ass over teakettle twice, and then managed to find its feet once more. Its broken wing hung completely mangled at its side as it tried to scuttle away from my ice dragon.
Then Ky landed on the sloped ground and prowled slowly behind the injured beast.
I knew my blue dragon had that Roc’s fate well in hand, so I turned to check on my other dragons.
Goldie seemed to be almost playing with her opponent, and she blasted harsh bursts of wind at the Roc’s wings. The swiftly changing air currents made it almost impossible for the bird to advance toward my pearlescent dragon, and it was clearly getting frustrated.
A moment later, the Roc lowered its feathered head and dove at a downward angle beneath my wind dragon. The humongous eagle banked sharply to the left and swooped back around to come at Goldie from the side.
I sucked in a sharp breath as I watched my pearlescent dragon’s head turn and catch sight of the Roc darting rapidly for the length of her neck. Then Goldie did something I didn’t even know she was capable of, and it happened as if in slow motion.
Goldie tucked her wings in close to her body, and she barrel-rolled out of the Roc’s line of attack. The attacking eagle’s talons narrowly missed the scaled underbelly of my wind dragon, and the beast’s momentum brought it down in a crash course with an enormous pine tree.
The Roc’s yellow eyes went wide with shock a split second before it slammed into the two-foot-wide tree and came to a brutal stop. A violent shudder and an ominous crack trembled down the eighty-foot-tall trunk of the tree, and a cascade of dried pine needles sprinkled down to the ground. The Roc was clearly stunned by its impact with the evergreen, and it dropped out of the air for several seconds before its huge talons wrapped around a thick tree limb.
The pine tree swayed uncomfortably under the weight and momentum of the Roc’s giant body for a second, and I knew from the cracking sound that it definitely wouldn’t survive another hit like that.
Hell a gentle breeze would probably bring it down by tomorrow.
Before the feathered monster could clear its head after its concussive impact with the tree, Goldie dove down on the creature and sank her claws deep into both of the enormous bird’s shoulder joints. Then Goldie tore the dazed Roc from the tree’s limbs and threw it harshly the rest of the way to the ground.
The enormous bird of prey slammed into the ground with such force that its yellow eyes rolled back in its head, and I waited for Goldie to dive down and finish the job, but instead, she turned toward Zofia who seemed to be struggling with her target.
I started to silently instruct Griff to finish off the concussed Roc on the ground, but before I could even finish my thought, the beast’s wings had been ripped straight out of their sockets.
Blood sprayed out against the half-melted snow at the base of the tree and covered the bark in a thick layer of red. The bird-monster’s feathered neck was Griff’s next target, and long gashes opened up diagonally across the bird’s throat. Then a sick bubbling gurgle emanated from the Roc’s shredded esophagus for several agonizing seconds before it finally heaved its last breath.
I forced my gaze away from the dismembered and bloody body of Goldie’s initial target and searched for her in the sky above. Zofia and my wind dragon circled menacingly on opposite sides of my mind-control dragon’s initial target. It appeared as if Zo had been blasting out short attacks of confusion at the Roc, and it was really disoriented. Its yellow eyes flicked back and forth between my white and purple dragons, and if an eagle could turn a seasick shade of green, this Roc would have.
The enormous monster attempted to evade both of my female dragons, but they worked together seamlessly to trap the Roc between them. Zofia and Goldie nipped at the tips of the monster’s wings, and one by one, they plucked the two-foot-long feathers out like they were plucking a goose for Christmas dinner. This did little to injure the Roc, but it worked very well to rile the beast into a rage-induced frenzy. After several moments, there were wide bald patches at the ends of the Roc’s wings, and Zofia finally lashed out with one of her front paws at the underside of the creature’s bands of muscles.
Blood poured out from the wide gash, and before the Roc could retaliate, Goldie clamped her jaws around the back of the huge bird’s neck, spun it around in a full turn, and flung the beast toward the ground.
Zofia dove after the rapidly descending bird and closed her teeth over the base of the Roc’s spine before it could reach the ground. Then my gloomy-purple dragon landed and proceeded to thrash the Roc about in a way that reminded me of how The Hulk had clobbered Loki into the floor in The Avengers.
A second later, more deep wounds appeared on the enormous bird’s body, and I knew that Griff was close to Zofia. Together my mind-control and stealth dragons tore the Roc to bits.
On the ground, my teammates and I attempted to assist my dragons in their mission in whatever way we could.
Elisabeth shifted her form from the beautiful snow leopard into a normal eagle, and she flew rapidly around and above the Roc monster that was locked talon-to-talon with Beyblade. My French girlfriend flapped her feathered wings and came up from behind the enormous bird-monster as it was totally focused on my fire dragon. Then Elisabeth dive-bombed onto the Roc’s piercing yellow eyes and clawed them out with her own talons.
“Nice work, El,” I praised my fierce French girlfriend.
Elisabeth let out a sharp eagle cry in response.
The Roc opened its huge beak, and an ear-splitting shriek tore through the chilly air, but it continued to fly and lash out at Beyblade with its giant talons. Thanks to Elisabeth, the Roc was now effectively blinded, but that didn’t do a damn thing to subdue the beast. It did, thankfully, give my fire dragon enough of an upper-hand that Beyblade was able to lash out with one of his front feet.
A flurry of blood-tipped feathers drifted slowly to the ground, and a heavy dribble of blood rained down as well. A split second later, Beyblade sucked in a huge breath and fried the Roc’s entire front until there was not a single feather left on the bird’s chest or belly.
Steffi, Ronin, and Nick had worked the entire time to force the Nuckelavee back from us as my dragons battled violently with the Roc. Nick plugged round after round into the skinless horses’ bodies and brains, and Steffi threw up golden shields whenever the nightmarish creatures got too close. Then Ronin dashed forward and sliced quickly through the exposed muscles of the Nuckelavees until they either retreated or fell dead to the ground.
“Great work, team!” I said into the comms.
I turned back to Ky just in time to catch him deal a killing blow to his opponent. Ky had managed to get the enormous bird of prey flat on its back, and my blue dragon stood squarely on the beast’s feathered chest. Ky stared down at the Roc, and he blasted a stream of frigid air so focused and so dense that it pushed like an ice pick straight into the Roc’s brain through its yellow eyes.
The bird-monster’s body thrashed violently for a few seconds before it finally went limp, and all the air whooshed out of the huge bird’s lungs.
Nala flung sharpened stones directly up into the feathered underbelly of the Roc that Thor was grappling with in mid-air. It didn’t seem like Nala’s attacks were piercing much deeper than the Roc’s heavy layer of feathers, but it did appear to draw the massive bird’s attention.
“Nala, watch out!” I called in warning. “That Roc’s got its eyes on you.”
“I’m on it!” Nala replied, and she dragged a large section of earth up from the ground at her feet and compressed it into hard stone like a shield.
The Roc’s eagle eyes flashed down in search of my curly-haired girl, and the source of the pesky pebbles.
Thor took complete advantage of the Roc’s distraction, and my storm dragon sucked in an enormous breath. Then indigo lightning started to arc across Thor’s back, and he let it gather like a tangled ball between his jaws until it glowed with the light of a star.
I could see a flash of pleasure in Thor’s indigo eyes as he waited for the Roc’s yellow eyes to return to his scaly face. Then my storm dragon let loose the billions of joules of electricity, and the fork of lightning struck straight into the Roc’s open beak.
The enormous bird shrieked as its entire feathered body seized with the immense levels of electricity that coursed through its muscles.
The smell of singed feathers and electrified air reached my nose, and it was a pleasant shift from the noxious breath of the Nuckelavee. I suddenly realized the horse-monsters had retreated when the Rocs arrived on the battlefield, but I needed to make sure the last of the humongous birds were taken care of before we could pursue the Nuckelavee.
I glanced around the battlefield and saw that all five of the gigantic bird-monsters had been slaughtered quite handily. I sent out a wave of mental praise to my dragons for the merciless killing and excellent teamwork, and I turned to my teammates next.
“The Rocs have been dealt with,” I said succinctly. “We need to finish off the Nuckelavee and figure out where the Dogman has gotten off to.”
My teammates jogged quickly over to me from their various positions around the open field of battle, and Elisabeth soared over in her eagle form and landed on one of Nala’s discarded boulders.
“Where are the Nuckelavee?” Ronin asked with a bit of trepidation.
Nala stopped a few feet in front of me, knelt down, and she pressed a palm flat on the bloody and muddy ground. The earth hardened almost immediately at her touch, and she closed her eyes for a split second before she looked back up at us.
“They’re just inside the tree line at the top of the slope,” Nala explained, and she stood back up. “The Dogman is there, too.”
“How can you tell?” Steffi asked, and she looked impressed.
“It’s the only creature on two legs,” Nala said.
“Come on,” I said, and I mentally called all six of my dragons
All of my dragons gathered around us, and Steffi and Nick climbed up onto Zofia and Beyblade. I climbed onto Ky’s back, and I held a hand down for Ronin to climb up with me. Nala raised a new hoverboard from the ground, and Elisabeth took off into the air. Then we started to climb up the mountainside together.
The Nuckelavee had become eerily quiet during the battle between my dragons and the Rocs, and I wasn’t sure how many of them were left. It had appeared that the majority of them had turned to retreat rather than stay and continue to fight. A very small part of my brain whispered that maybe they had fled from the Lizard Man, but I knew we weren’t likely to have that kind of luck.
My instincts proved correct, and when we were only about ten feet from the tree line, three dozen of the Nuckelavee galloped out and straight for us.
“Break off!” I shouted.
My teammates split off to either side of the approaching stampede, but Thor and an invisible attacker I knew could only be Griff forged on into the line of skinless monsters.
Thor picked up the Nuckelavee one by one in his mouth and quickly snapped their spines between his powerful jaws. A path of dead monsters fell on either side of him, and Griff tore through the Nuckelavees in total camouflage mode. The only evidence of his engagement was the splatters of blood and the dead bodies that dropped to the mountainside.
I could hear the effects of dragon teeth and claws on bone and sinew through Goldie’s ears. The crashing sound of Nala’s boulders, the explosive bang of Nick’s gunfire, the flap of Elisabeth’s wings, and the oddly melodic sounds of Steffi’s energy orbs surrounded me.
Ronin extended her astral blade out on either side of us, and between her fierce attacks and Ky’s ice, we made our way through the dwindling army of skinless horse-monsters.
Finally, I spotted the Canadian Dogman at the far left side of the tree line a hundred feet away from me. I could see the monster commander growling down at a subordinate Nuckelavee, and I knew I had to get close enough to hear what it was saying. What I didn’t know was how to tell Ronin that I needed to lurk through the forest by myself to sneak up on the beast without being noticed, but before I could decide what to do, Ronin spoke up.
“I believe the others could use my help more than you and Ky,” my Japanese girl said.
“Okay,” I said without argument, and I mentally ordered Ky to stop and let Ronin down to the ground.
Without hesitation, my samurai warrior hit the ground running, and she dashed off toward Elisabeth. I realized that Ronin had been right about her assessment as I watched my shapeshifter girlfriend struggle to take down a particularly aggressive Nuckelavee.
I hopped down from Ky’s back, and I quickly sent a mental message to him and four of my other dragons to keep an eye on my teammates and to finish off the remaining Nuckelavee. Then I sent a message directly to Griff to go full-on stealth mode and to follow me.
I slipped into the tree line, and I started to carefully make my way in the direction of where I’d spotted the Canadian Dogman. It was rough going between the snow and the steep angle of the mountainside, but the trees were pretty densely packed together, and I leaned heavily on them as I moved.
I had no idea where Griff was, and my wind dragon was too far away for me to hear his steady breathing through my connection with Goldie’s hearing. All I could do was trust that my fox-eared dragon was as obedient and loyal as all my other dragons had proven to be.
I picked my way carefully through the trees, and though it was painstakingly slow, I tested every step I took before I sank my full weight onto my foot. The ripping, tearing, slashing, and screaming of the battle filled my ears with a cacophony of horror from just on the other side of the trees. I recognized the roaring whoosh sound of Beyblade’s flame attacks and Nick’s steady gunfire as well, and I had to force myself to continue in the direction I was headed. I repeatedly reminded myself that my team, and five of my dragons, could easily handle a few dozen of the Nuckelavee without me hovering over them like a helicopter dad.
Griff and I had our own fish to fry.
I stopped to reassure myself of this fact, and I peered through the trees at the battle. The Nuckelavees’ numbers were dwindling rapidly at this point, and it seemed as though my dragons and teammates were enjoying slaughtering the last of their numbers.
Nala had skewered one skinless centaur monster through its hindquarters, which effectively locked it in place without killing it. The beast’s exposed muscles strained and pulled as it tried to dig its hooves into the soft earth, but it couldn’t gain any solid footing. A short distance away, Steffi was blasting out golden energy orbs at the restrained beast, and its skinless body was battered all over from the impacts.
Beyblade and Ky stood on opposite sides of a Nuckelavee, and they seemed to be taking turns roasting and freezing the beast. I watched for a second longer before I shuddered at the sight and returned my eyes to the tree-laden path between myself and the Canadian Dogman.
After a few minutes that felt like an eternity, during which time snow had managed to seep in between the tops of my insulated snow boots and the bottoms of my ski pants, I finally started to hear the growling voice of the Canadian Dogman over the sounds of the battle.
