Wrath of the Dragon 2, page 1
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Chapter 1
The sand below us seemed to stretch on forever as we soared over the barren wasteland. There was nothing around for miles, not even a cactus or a brave bird to be seen. My golden wings carried me easily through the windless air, and my fiery scales shone under the constant sunlight.
My fire dragon form was a hell of a lot easier to travel in than my human body, but we still had a long distance to go. I was grateful I didn’t have to walk over the scorching ground or face any potential desert monsters that could be roaming below.
I’d only had the ability to transform into a dragon for a few days, but it already felt like the most natural thing in the world to me. My fire-breathing abilities had come as second nature, and flying was definitely my new favorite way to travel. Even when I was in my human form, I could feel my powers pulsing through my veins, and becoming a fire dragon had turned out to be incredibly helpful in the world of Dracoria, since there seemed to be dangers around every corner.
I was still very much a newcomer to this world, and I had a hell of a lot to learn about it.
I used to be a firefighter back in Arizona when I had my old life on Earth. I had spent years doing that job, and eventually ended up dying on it when I rescued a kid from a burning library. The last memory I had of Earth was the red-hot burning that consumed me in that fire, and then I woke up in the middle of nowhere in this new world.
Now, it felt like that life had just been some kind of vivid dream, and even though I had plenty of good memories from my old world, I had never felt such a deep sense of belonging as I did here.
Which was weird as hell, because in some small ways Dracoria was similar to Earth, but in most ways it was completely different.
The world used to be a united mass of different lands. Storm Lands, Water Lands, Night Lands, and countless others. The gods watched over the world and provided for it, but the people of Dracoria had grown greedy and started to fight one another over land and resources. They became so consumed by their wars that the gods decided to punish them. Warning after warning came from the deities, but nothing could make the people of the world come together.
Eventually, the gods gave up completely on the lands, and they left for good. As a final punishment, they split the different lands up and contained them in prison-like areas so nobody could leave, and the people of Dracoria were left to suffer without their gods.
The “constant wars and fighting” part reminded me a lot of Earth, but the creatures to be found in this world were very, very different.
Dracoria had fantastical creatures I never could have dreamed up if I tried. I had battled evil mermaids, zombie-like Dark Eaters, and massive shadow serpents. I’d met silvery fairy-women, massive Moon Pixies, and even befriended werewolves and vampires.
Then there were the hordes of demons.
They were the plague that had taken over Dracoria once the gods had left. The evil creatures spread over the lands and seemed hell-bent on making everyone’s lives as miserable as possible. The underlings were idiotic but brutal, and the higher-ranking demons were even more deadly. Then there were the Demon Kings.
I’d fought one of those bastards, too.
He had been one huge, ugly, and deadly son of a bitch, but he was no match for a fucking dragon.
Luckily, I wasn’t alone in this crazy world. The two Throne Angels who flew beside me now were the whole reason I had ended up becoming a dragon at all.
Cyra was a stunning, feisty, sarcastic as hell fire angel who had been there when I first woke up in the desert outside the Night Lands. She was as tough as she was beautiful, and I had seriously won the jackpot when she came into my life.
Her ivory skin was flecked with gold, and her burgundy hair tumbled over her shoulders as she flew. She had maroon wings with golden tips on each feather, and her shimmering metallic-gold dress clung to her slim curves perfectly. Her big, golden eyes could make your knees weak, and her sharp facial features completed her beauty.
But Cyra was way more than she appeared, and the longer I knew her, the more I learned about how much pain she kept buried beneath her tough exterior. The truth was, Cyra had been devastated when the God of Fire left her here.
She had stayed back to try and help her fellow Throne angels, but the people of Dracoria turned against them. The celestial beings were too close to the gods for the people to trust them anymore, and the world fell into even more discourse and war.
That was when the demons came in. As some angels gave up and fled, others were captured by the evil beasts, and even though Throne angels were powerful creatures, Demon Kings were strong enough to trap them.
I had met Cyra when she planned her rescue mission to save her best friend, Nisha, from the Demon King of the Night Lands.
Because of that quest, I ended up becoming closer with Cyra than I could have ever imagined, and we became lovers. During our first, red-hot night together, she had bound herself to me. And as it turned out, this wasn’t just an emotional thing.
Binding was the act of an angel giving themselves fully to another, and I had absorbed her fire powers in the process. Neither of us had any idea that the powers would manifest in me since I was just a mortal, so becoming a dragon had shocked the hell out of us both.
Apparently, dragons had been creatures of the gods and had disappeared years ago when the gods first tried to warn the people of Dracoria.
It had stunned the people of the Night Lands when they saw my fiery form light up the sky, but I had ended up making some strong allies there, too. With some help from the locals, we had managed to defeat the Demon King and freed Nisha from his grasp.
But even after all of that, the strangest moment of all was when the moon and stars came back to the night sky. After living in an endless and utterly black night as punishment, the people of the Night Lands believed they would never see the moon or stars again. And after I had rallied the residents together against the demons, the sky was suddenly lit up once more.
Nisha had been endlessly grateful, and it felt incredible to have her reunited with Cyra at last.
The night angel was the newest addition to my little team and flew beside me now, too. The navy-skinned beauty had silver freckles that matched her bright eyes, and her ink-blue hair shone under the sun. Her wings were a stunning mix of pale blues and deep blacks, and with her silver skirt and top, she looked like she was made of the night sky itself.
She was a petite angel, but I had a feeling she could fight just as ferociously as her fiery friend. I hadn’t seen Nisha’s night powers in action yet, but I would no doubt get to witness them when we reached our next destination.
We were flying to the Water Lands in search of the next trapped angel, and I had no clue what to expect. The only thing I was sure of was that there would be shitloads of demons to kill, and I was just the guy to do it. It was hard to feel anything but determined as I soared along in my dragon form with two badass angel babes beside me.
Then I noticed something in the distance as we flew over the sandy desert, and it looked like the ground ahead was on fire. I squinted to make sure I wasn’t seeing some kind of desert mirage, but there was definitely an orange glow coming closer.
“Have I been flying in the sunlight for too long?” I asked. “I swear I can see fire ahead. I thought we were heading to the Water Lands.”
“That’s lava,” Cyra called back. “Get ready for things to seriously heat up!”
“Lava?” I asked. “Shit, is that what the people of the Water Lands are trapped by?”
“That’s right.” The fire angel nodded. “When the gods left, they deliberately caused a massive volcano to erupt, and its lava spread all around the land. There’s literally no way for the water creatures to leave.”
“Brutal,” I said. “Your gods really were good at coming up with twisted punishments.”
“They were,” Cyra agreed. “That’s why it was a mistake pissing them off.”
“I think the people have realized that by now,” I said.
As we got closer to the lava, I could already feel the heat becoming more intense. It didn’t bother me in my fire dragon form, but I wondered if Nisha was affected by it as the only non-fire being in our troop.
“Are you okay?” I called over to her. “The heat must be pretty intense for you!”
“It is warm.” The night angel nodded. “But I just spent time trapped as a Demon King’s prisoner, I can handle a bit of heat.”
She shot me a smile, and her silver eyes sparkled as we reached the molten floor. It was like crossing a strange border as the sand suddenly disappeared behind us, and the air became even hotter.
The lava was so thick that it looked like fiery waves slowly lapping on the ground. Deep oranges swirled into hot reds, and steam and vile volcanic gases wafted up toward us. It seemed to go on forever, and I knew we still had a long flight ahead of us.
“Want to see a trick?” Cyra grinned, and she soared down toward the lava without waiting for an answer.
I win
“Well, aren’t you just indestructible?” I laughed as Cyra flew back up to join us.
“Pretty much.” The fire angel smirked.
“For now,” Nisha said. “You are immune to heat, but what exactly are we going to do when we get to the Water Lands?”
I remembered when I had saved Cyra from the mermaids, and they submerged her in the black waters. She had become too weak to fight back, and I was petrified she wasn't going to make it before I revived her. It made sense that fire angels didn’t do well in water, but we were going to have to be really careful on the next leg of our trip.
“I’m not going to go swimming,” Cyra sighed. “Don’t worry, I’ll just make sure to stay dry. I have wings for a reason.”
“Nisha makes a good point,” I said. “This is my first time visiting, but I’m going to guess that water is a pretty big feature in this land. And if you fly, then people will realize you’re an angel, and the demons will, too. We can’t have that, Cyra--”
“I’ll be careful,” Cyra insisted. “Don’t worry about me, okay?”
Nisha raised an eyebrow as if she had more to say, but turned her gaze back to the burning ground.
We flew in silence for a while, and I felt hypnotized by the rolling mounds of lava. It was such a bizarre sight, and the heat actually felt pleasant against my scales. Occasionally, I looked over at my wings just to admire their strength and appreciate the fact that I was actually fucking flying.
Being a firefighter had been exciting, but my life had seriously leveled up in the adventure department.
“Nisha,” Cyra said. “Are you alright?”
The night angel’s wings seemed to be flapping more slowly than before, as if they’d become too heavy. I knew that angels didn’t sweat, but I could tell how hot she was from her scrunched-up face and fluttering eyes.
“It’s just warm,” she panted. “I’m not used to so much heat. The Night Lands were never exactly sunny.”
I scanned the horizon hoping to see an end of the lava in sight, but the glowing orange seemed to go on forever. There was something nearby that looked like a possible resting point, though. A strange formation that sat in the middle of the lava was coming up, and it looked big enough for us to stop on.
I took a second to make sure it wasn’t moving. The last thing we needed was to land on the back of some giant creature, and I had seen enough in this world to never rule anything bizarre out.
“There’s something coming up,” I said. “A rock formation, or cooled lava, I think. We can take a rest stop there if you want?”
“I really don’t need to,” Nisha breathed. “I’m okay.”
“I call bullshit.” I smiled and hoped the expression translated on my dragon face. “A few minutes won’t make a difference to the journey.”
The night angel nodded, and we headed straight for the coal-black formation on the ground. The surface was easily big enough for us all to land, and I circled around before I eased down onto the rock. It was slightly warm but not anything that would cause discomfort. Nisha carefully tested the heat of the surface with her foot and then knelt down with a sigh. Her wings drooped slightly as she took a deep breath, and she closed her eyes.
“I just need a couple of minutes,” she murmured. “My wings were getting too warm.”
“Take all the time you need,” I said. “We can only perform a successful rescue mission if we’re at full strength. I can’t have an overheated angel.”
“The air isn’t too good here, either,” Cyra pointed out. “I don’t mind it much, it’s all born of fire, but I doubt your body will appreciate the gases of the lava.”
“These certainly aren’t the best breaths I’ve ever taken,” Nisha agreed and tucked her black hair behind her ears as she fanned her face.
“Here, I’ll help.” Cyra blew air on the back of her neck.
“Thanks.” Nisha smiled. “It feels just like the Night Lands now.”
“Doubtful,” Cyra laughed.
Then a strange gurgling sound echoed behind me, and I spun around to see a little fountain of red bubbles coming out of the lava nearby.
“That’s weird,” I said. “Does lava here normally do that?”
“I have no idea.” Cyra frowned. “I don’t think so?”
We stared at the bubbling lava for a moment, but then something suddenly shot up out of the flow. I spread my wings so the molten embers wouldn’t hit Nisha, and I watched in shock as a lava-covered creature sprang to its feet.
It was about six feet tall and had the basic shape of a human, if humans had lava poured over their heads. The orange, molten substance dripped down over the creature’s entire body, and its legs melted into the ground with no visible feet. Glowing yellow eyes stared from its molten head, and then it swung its fire-covered arms toward us.
“What the fuck!” I yelled. “Nisha, get up high, now!”
The night angel did her best to fly straight back up into the sky, but I could tell the extreme heat and the dense air was slowing her down, and she couldn’t seem to make it completely out of range.
Then a whole herd of the orange monsters rose up from the ground to join the first, and they made low hissing noises as they stumbled toward us and moved slowly through the thick lava.
I flew up with Cyra to join Nisha before they could reach the formation we’d been perched on, and we looked down at the herd of burning beasts.
They swung their arms up uselessly toward us and hissed in unison. There was no denying they were creepy as all hell, but they couldn’t do much as we hovered above them.
“Lava monsters?” I asked. “Have you ever seen those before?”
“Never,” Cyra said. “I generally don’t dabble with lava if I can help it… At least they can’t reach us. It looks like our rest stop is over, though. Are you going to be okay to keep flying, Nisha?”
“I should be.” The night angel nodded with obvious exhaustion. “It wasn’t a long break, but I think we must be quite close to the Water Lands. I can make it.”
“Let’s get going, then,” I said. “I don’t want these guys following us there. I’m going to go ahead and guess my fire won’t do much to harm them.”
“There’s only one way to find out.” Cyra smirked. “I know you’re just dying to use your fire powers again.”
She had a point. I was itching to feel that power course through me once more.
I aimed my head down toward the beasts and felt warmth build up in my throat. Then the burning sensation erupted from my mouth as I aimed a stream of flames into the face of a lava monster.
The creature had little reaction to the attack, and the fire just made its lava-covered skin glow. It kept waving its arms and hissing, and none of the others even reacted. I had to hand it to the gods, they knew how to set up a hellish trap.
“Yup,” I said. “That did a big load of nothing. Let’s just keep going. You’ll be able to rest soon, Nisha.”
The night angel didn’t reply, and I looked over to see her silver eyes were fixed on the ground. I followed her gaze to where more bubbles were coming out of the lava ahead, and these ones were ten times the size of the first bubbles. There was also a whole row of them right in the direction we were heading.
“Fuck,” Cyra hissed. “That can’t be good.”
Just as the angel spoke, the ground exploded with noise and fire. I dove to put myself in front of Nisha to shield her again, and a split second later, four enormous giants erupted into the air.
They were easily twenty feet tall and had the same lava-covered bodies as the smaller ones. Their yellow eyes were fixed on me as they roared, and their mouths were filled with fire and smoke. A burning stench filled the air, and Nisha choked on the fiery fumes.
“Get Nisha away from here!” I yelled. “Go!”
Cyra grabbed her friend’s arm and started to fly higher into the air to get out of the reach of the giants. The angels soared backward as they got further up, and I watched as two of the huge beasts leapt toward the winged women. The giants’ feet never left the ground as they jumped, and it was as if they could create more height for themselves out of the lava. It became an extension of their legs, and I wondered just how big these things could become.
