THE DRAGON MAGE: THE KNIGHT MAGE 2, page 18
"Come on girl" John said as Chance snuggled her snout up against his neck. "We have a long flight."
John could see the only place that could be Dragon’s Rest but something about it didn’t look right. John was expecting the Saracens, he expected a bunch of their speckleds but there were many different types of dragons in what was less a town and more of a small city. As John got closer he could see that many of these animals were hurt, one dragon had shredded wings, a huge gash along the side and other wounds that looked like it had taken ballista bolts or was almost hacked apart or something once it hit ground. John could see it was impossible for most of these dragons to have flown here so some must have made the journey the hard way. The firehouses, as they were called looked filled to the brim as there were many dragons hanging outside of them. John spotted a familiar speckled and landed next to Wayne.
“What in the pit is going on here” John asked. “You look like the aftermath of laying with the wrong man’s daughter.”
“We feel like it too” Wayne said. “I am glad you are here though, me and the rest are about to fly out right now for a rescue mission.”
“Rescue mission?” John said confused. “From the undead horde?”
“Exactly” Wayne replied. “More like a suicide mission but we have to try. I am the only one with any real troops.”
“Slow down and tell me what happened” John asked. “What do you mean you are the only one with any real troops?”
“It was almost like you said, well what Owen said would happen” Wayne began. “Except the dragon riders didn’t want to give glory to a bunch of commoners no matter how much Duke Tide likes us, especially after I told them what Owen said. They left me and the rest of my family here, all thirty-two of us were seen as being unwanted baggage. The Duke wanted to use us as a reserve force in case something bad happened, that is probably the only reason I am still alive. The first attack killed scores of the undead and likely some Blood Priests along with it. Everyone left to celebrate and have good times, they were laying waste to a huge army and gave our boys some reprieve from fighting. The army could finally relax a bit after constant war, everyone was happy. Almost overnight the enemy made more and more ballistae, they filled the sky with them and some of the weaker dragons fell from the onslaught. Every day the enemy would press on throughout the night, before they were only attacking in the daylight but they changed tactics. One Blood Priest could probably command a thousands, the more his horde killed the bigger the horde grew. More ballistae were built and it soon became a suicide mission to dive in with dragon fire, sure hundreds of them could be killed but they were willing to risk it to take down a dragon. What is even worse is when that dragon fell it now had to fight off undead dragons, which was a losing proposition. Duke Tide and his brother Supreme Lord Claude is trapped somewhere behind the lines, their dragons are rumored to be dead but who knows. What I do know is that I have to see for sure and rescue the Duke or put him to proper rest and that isn’t even the worst news I have.”
“I don’t see how it could get more fucked than that” John said. “Two big name nobles, a Duke and the Supreme whatever of the Flame both down behind enemy lines. It is a huge cluster fuck if I ever heard one.”
“Prince Almon was also shot down trying to gain glory” Wayne said. “Which is why we are leaving and taking every able dragon rider with us. Those nobles with a flying dragon are coming up with excuse after excuse not to go but I don’t have the time to argue. My father is even riding with us on this and so are some of my other old family members. Are you coming?”
“You bet your ass I will be there” John said. “The King never did anything to me and seems content to have me as his daughter’s part time protector. Don’t seem right to let his son die.”
“John you know we uh…” Wayne said unsure of how to speak.
“I know your first priority is with the Duke” John said. “Then his brother and then the crown prince in that order. You know what side your bread is buttered on so I can't blame you, you will never hear me tell anyone that you went after the Duke first instead of the future king so rest easy. When do we leave?”
“As soon as the rest get here” Wayne said as he pulled out a map. “This is where they believe the prince went down, this is where the Duke went down and this is where Supreme Lord Claude went down” John said as he pointed at three spots on the map.”
“Alright here it goes” John said. “This may change depending on how the army looks and what formation they are in. Scouting this area in the day time is a suicide mission we need to strike at night”.
“Dragons don’t have any better eyesight than we do in the dark” Wayne said. “How in the hell would we know where we are going?”
“I’ll hit them with flaming arrows so you can use them as reference points” John said. “This is just for harassment though, not to take down an entire army. In the confusion I need for you and your group to join me on the ground, we have fought each other numerous times so we know what the other is capable of. Use our familiarity to search for the Duke and anyone else, afterwards I will fly us the hell out of there”.
“Better plan than what I had” Wayne admitted. “Our dragons can't stay out here without any warmth forever, we have two days once we leave here then our dragons have to warm up. And two days is pushing it”.
“Are there anymore fire houses that we can hang at?” John asked.
“A couple but they are half a day away from where we think the enemy is” Wayne said.
“Good enough” John replied. “We can find our army first and from there get better information on the enemy”.
“Well it looks like we are all here” Wayne said. “I think I can see the rest of my family on those dragons flying in, might as well don’t make them go through the trouble of landing”.
John took to the air and waited for Chance, he was happy to see her get into the air but could see other dragons with riders were rising faster than she was. Chance would get them over the long haul though and she didn’t have their aversion to colder weather. John got to a good altitude and waited, when everyone caught up John then followed Wayne as he flew off leading the pack. John felt weird flying in the loose formation; he had never flown with this many dragons before and felt self-conscious that he was sitting up right while everyone else was laying straddled on their dragons. John noticed them stealing looks at him whenever they could, they probably thought the dragon construct looked weird since it was not flapping its wings. John turned the dragon construct into a chair cover by a small translucent amber colored ball. John sat down on the chair and pulled out a wine skin, hard tack and some jerky. A table appeared and John figured if he had to ride then he would do it in style. Saracens bumped up against his construct and although it swayed a little it was not enough to jar him. They were probably sending him the message that they didn’t appreciate him relaxing while they were trying to keep bugs and other things from smacking them in face. Their eyes were covered by thick googles and a thick scarf wrapped around their mouth but their noses were still vulnerable. John rode in the same fashion for the entire trip, he was happy they reached the main army in one day and that is was dark when they found the constantly moving army.
“Who is the man in charge here?” John said as he looked around at a bunch of important looking people.
“Who the pit are you?” said a man wearing Field Marshall rank. He had an exhausted look in his eyes and John could see they were as red as a tomato.
“Thunder” John said. “Some people around here might know me better as Lord Nightmare."
“Never heard of you” the Field Marshall said as he quickly held up a finger. “Are you the mage from Kirby?”
“That’s me” John replied.
“They sent you quickly” the Field Marshall said. “I sent one of those Order of the Flame riders to deliver the news about the prince, I never thought they would send a mage.”
“Well I am here” John said. “I am guessing your hands have been full doing a lot of staying the pit away from the undead horde.”
“You can say that shit again” the Field Marshall said. “They have their own fucking dragons and holding those things off have been a nightmare.”
“Well then I have been thinking about tactics we can use” John said. “It will take a lot of setting up and can't really be used until a few days later but it should get the attention of the Blood Priests.”
“Whatever it is will be better than what I have been doing but I got bigger problems” the Field Marshall said.
“The prince” John replied. “Have you sent in any teams to locate them?”
“I have four different teams trying to skirt the enemy” the Field Marshall said. “At least one of them failed, their undead bodies attacked us not even three hours ago. Since then it has been quiet and has allowed us to get a little rest.”
“From what I hear, fire is the best way to kill the undead" John said looking for conformation.
"Yeah but that doesn’t really mean shit right now" the Field Marshall said. "Maybe if a had time to prepare something, maybe a couple of days I could really take it to these bastards.”
"Don’t know if I can give you the time but I sure in the hell can try" John said. "My plan involves soaking an area with oil and waiting for the undead to wander inside of the kill zone. A few flaming arrows ought to be enough to ignite the entire thing. Of course then you would have flaming undead running at you until they die.”
"Hmm" the Field Marshall said. "That could cause some damage. That along with my other plan could work if I could find some dragon riders worth a shit.”
"What was your plan?" John asked.
"I think I know the maximum range of those ballistae" the Field Marshall said. "About twice the distance of a trebuchet. The problem is that for dragon fire to be effective, it also has to be within that range. I want the dragon riders to hover just outside of that range and drop things on the enemy, maybe try and hit some Blood Priests.”
"I am worth a shit" Wayne said. "But only pinks can hover long enough for anyone to do anything from any height.
"Hmm" John said scratching his head.
"What you thinking mage?" The Field Marshall said. "If you know something then spit it out.”
"One of the ways to take a city is to use flaming projectiles in something like a catapult" John said.
"We don’t have any catapults mage" the Field Marshall said. "If I knew you were going to waste my time I would have told you to keep it to yourself."
"No wait" Wayne said. "You want to drop flaming shit on their heads. Dragon riders could carry a pack or something and toss it off their backs. While the oil soaked bag or whatever is falling a dragon could set it on fire.”
"What do you think?" John asked.
"I think I need to keep my old mouth shut" the Field Marshall said. "Those damn Blood Priests are easy to identify to. Only problem is getting enough oil to make it worthwhile.”
"That is easy" Wayne said. "And we can help the cities prepare for the horde as well. Order these dragon riders that still remain to go gather oil. My family have their own mission to accomplish, you ready John?"
~
John was happy he was able to convince Chance to stay with the army. Something about the undead scared her and John was happy she was or she could have been hurt. John flew low to the ground in a flat black construct with a hole in the floor so he could fire his arrows. The undead didn’t seem to notice him, they stood still like macabre statues and looked straight ahead. John flew directly over the back of the army for no more than a few minutes when he used a flint to create a flame and started peppering the area with flaming arrows. John could see he was right on what he was thinking, the older the undead the less moisture they had in their body and the easier they would go up in flame. Some undead burned like a raging bonfire while others just had their clothes catch on fire. John thought it was eerie how none of them screamed or flailed around but seemed content to burn to death. John couldn’t think on it on long and took off towards the west. John would meet the mage hunters there and needed to move quickly, if he didn’t he would be fighting off dragon fire meant for the enemy. John could hear isolated voices screaming an attack as he got further away. By the time John reached the meeting point he could see a stream of dragons flying out of the sky and burning the enemy. They would only make one pass and be content with it, any more than that the enemy could get their ballistae working and a Saracen could be killed by a lucky shot. John pulled his magic close around him and had to wait almost an hour before he heard Ronol followed by the others.
"Well it is about time" John said.
"We are scared to pit" Ronol said. "And we got separated but we are here now, wherever the pit here is.”
"Our first pass looks like it did damage" Wayne said. "I am sure we got a Blood Priest in the attack as well.”
"You mean I got a Blood Priest" Jimson said.
"Now is not the time" John snapped. "Jimson I want you to know that I will leave your ass here if your attitude gets the shit started.”
"Well at least someone said it" Ronol said. "Wayne what is the plan now?"
"We go directly west" Wayne said. "Field Marshall Goff pointed out a place that someone might hide if they could get to it. The dragon riders and Dragonknights just have been too chickenshit to go explore the area. It is rocky as hell and I think it could hide a dragon. Caverns, underground tunnels, nice sized boulders and other stuff is there. The enemy is believed to also be using it and there is a decent number of undead in the area. Dragons are useless though, at least flying is useless. Everything is going to have to be done face to face and I am willing to bet more than a few undead dragons are inside of there.”
"Undead dragons?" Jimson said sounding afraid. "And you want us to go hand to hand?"
"That is exactly what is going to happen" Wayne said. "We have our armor and we have our weapons.”
"We aint equipped to fight no dragons" Jimson said. "We aint even trained to fight dragons.”
"But we are best five fighters in the family" Wayne said. "So shut up and get ready. John what do you have to add?"
"Let me engage the dragons first" John said. "I will get its attention and you all wait for your opening. If we can I would rather sneak inside and have a look instead of fighting our way through everyone. Any easy dragon kills we can make we are going to take, expect to see some ballistae inside as well. Anyone with half a mind would expect live dragons to fight their way through so there will probably be a lot of ballistae pointed towards the entrance if there are enemy inside. We can use those ballistae to take out a dragon or other undead".
"Jimson and Ronol" Wayne said. "That is your job. If shit gets real the rest of us will give you time to fire and help you reload. Now let's move.”
"You just point the way" John said as a long bench construct appeared. "I can get us there without making any noise.”
John flew the group for about an hour, there were scattered undead all around and unlike the rest these looked ready for a fight. John spotted a big cavern before Wayne pointed it out. Light was coming from it and John could see a dragon silhouetted in the entrance. John couldn't see any way they could sneak inside without alerting the beast.
"Looks like this is going to be done the hard way" Wayne said.
"I can get the first blow off before the dragon can react" John said. "Soft spots we can get at are the eyes and open mouth.”
"Not for that one" Wayne said. "That is a bronze. I can tell by the horns on its head. Big horns and bony plate around the head and neck. Good dragon for charging through an enemy line, all armor upfront. Very poor flier and no fire whatsoever. The rear of that beast doesn’t have any of the tough scales it has upfront, a regular sword could pierce it.
"It doesn’t sound that tough" John said. "People made it seem like speckleds were the worst dragons out there. When I heard speckleds were the worse fire breathers I never thought about dragons that couldn’t breath fire.”
"Why not?" Wayne asked. "Little Chance can't breathe fire. And make no mistake about it, that bronze could meet a red on the ground and hold its own despite the size. I wouldn’t want my dragon fighting that thing.”
"Well I will meet that thing head on and try to lure it out of the cave" John said. "Then attack that thing from behind.”
John turned his bench into a dragon and flew towards the mouth of the cave. John let the others off and let the natural color of his shield come forth. Barrier magic was a translucent glowing amber color, John was the only person he knew of that could change the color and now did it unconsciously. John wanted the amber though, it was eye catching in the dark and he flew the construct right at the dragon. The dragon lowered its head and started charging, John flew the construct into the dragon at high speed and jumped off just as the two behemoths collided. A loud crash was heard and John wasn’t surprised to see his construct was shattered. John used his magic to stay hovering as the bronze fell right on its hind quarters. The bronze stood up slowly as John made the dragon appear above it and fall straight down on it. The bronze jumped and tossed like a horse trying to toss its rider, the dragon construct was impossible to dislodge and the dragon eventually ran out of the cavern. John moved the construct in front of the dragon and did little attacks, without the speed necessary for a big hit John wasn’t worried about his shield construct losing and used it to keep the bronze occupied. John heard a loud crack and the dragon listed to one side, it was Wayne and he was pounding on its legs with his mace. The dragon spun around to take care of the new irritant, John turned his dragon into a large conical spear and rammed it right into the Bronze's back just above its lower spine. The dragon was now dragging its hind quarters and tried to turn around, John didn’t know what happened but the Bronze suddenly stopped moving and dropped down dead. John could see the Saracens were about to be surrounded and flew towards them riding his bench.
