Chapter 11: The Dragon’s Pain

Knight Angela – Dominari’s Lair, The Despeir Mountains

Lady Delilah’s draconic jaws opened above me. My arms burned. The power of Gewin’s blessing buttressed my limbs, keeping the immense weight of the dragon from crushing me as her claw pinned me to the cave floor. But as I looked into her open jaw at the sharp teeth dripping, the reek of sulfur of her breath, I saw my death.

I had failed. My companions were scattered, dead or dying. She was too much for us. I grit my teeth, straining against her claws, trying to throw her vast weight off of me. It was futile, but I was too stubborn to quit as the jaws snapped down.

Sophia’s face flashed through my thoughts. Smiling, crying, staring at me with love, recoiling in disgust, placid in sleep, burning with ecstasy, flushed, drained, pale, wan, full of life, green eyes flashing, bloodshot, lips pursed in smile, in frown, in thought. A thousand thousand memories gathered over the last six months burned through my mind in that instant as the open maw lunged down at my unprotected head.

I did not regret a single one of those memories.

Pink flashed. Metal glinted. A dagger buried in the snout of the dragon, biting deep in an explosion of soft light. Blood splattered my face. Lady Delilah roared in pain, her head jerking up. She fixed her only remaining eye to her right, hissed in frustration.

I followed her gaze. Sophia stood on unsteady feet, blood pouring down her face from her impact with the wall. Her once pure robes were soiled with crimson and browns. She teetered as the dragon raised her right claw, the one not pinning me to the ground, and swiped.

“Sophia!” I screamed as my concubine tried to move, but she was woozy.

The claws struck her, ripping through robe and flesh. My acolyte crashed into the wall, a comet trailing crimson. She struck hard and fell limp. Murderous rage burst inside of me. My acolyte. My concubine. My lover. The dragon’s weight shifted in the attack. The rage gave new strength to my limbs. Invigorated, I screamed as I heaved against the claw pinning me to the cave floor. I pushed and pushed.

And the dragon shifted. She slammed her right claw down before ripping into Sophia again, her large bulk twisting. Her head snapped around as her weight went onto her right foreleg, lessening the strain upon my arms.

I pushed one final time and rolled free.

The left claw smashed down as the dragon righted herself. But I wasn’t under her any longer. I snatched up my ancestor’s sword. The white light flared as I gained my feet. This wasn’t over. I would finish my quest.

“Sophia!” was my warcry as I slashed and cut deep into her left foreleg.

Aurora Xandra

The world tumbled around me. The gray sky and the gray mountain blurred together. Minx screamed with me as we plummeted downward towards the bottom of the pass. She was ahead of me, her smaller body a tight ball, her metallic-red hair flashing.

I gripped my totems. One was balsa wood. So light. I stroked the sinuous lines carved into it, channeling my power. I reached out to the world around us. I called to the elementals. And they answered.

Wind whirled and gusted into two forms. Breezy arms embraced my body, stopping my tumble, slowing my fall. Below, the other air elemental surged towards the plummeting halfling. She fell so fast towards the ground. My heart thudded as the wind surged down after.

“Grab her,” I shouted towards my puppet. “Come on.”

She hurtled lower and lower. Minx grew smaller and smaller. My heart thudded in my chest and ... My air elemental caught her, creating a cushion of slowing air. Dust pillowed from the bottom of the pass, a heartbeat away from splattering death. And then I yanked my elemental back up into the air. What had been screams of fear now were whoops of triumph.

“Aurora!” Minx screamed, pumping her right arm in the air as she hurtled to me. “Yes! Cernere’s black cunt, but that was awesome!”

I rolled my eyes. She could never be serious.

My air elemental carried her to the edge of the path, dropping her off before the cave mouth. She scampered in, producing another pair of enchanted throwing daggers from somewhere on her body. I had no idea how she hid so many daggers on her. Nor did I care.

I became a hawk and soared back towards the cave.

Chaun

My right leg throbbed. Bone poked through the trousers, white and smeared crimson. The wind had stopped, allowing me to move. Angela roared in fury. The dragon bellowed in pain. And I jammed my hand into pouch and found a healing potion. I yanked the stopper and downed the creamy drink. Sophia’s magic numbed the agony in my leg. I shuddered as the bone popped back into place, leaving behind a bloody tear.

“Las’s putrid cum,” I groaned, falling back onto the cave floor, gathering myself.

Then the fear hit me, momentarily forgotten through the pain. Beyond the wreckage of my smashed lyre I stared at the cave mouth. My wife had been flung out there. I tried to save her, but she was so light. The dragon’s wind had thrown her and Minx and—

Minx charged in brandishing two daggers, screaming in offended fury. “That was so not fair, Dominari!”

A moment later, a hawk soared in, landing on the ground and blurring into my wife. She rose, holding her totems, her face fixed. Earth elementals burst out of the ground by Angela, moving to block claw strikes and jaws snaps as the knight battled the dragon, swinging the High King’s sword in hard, two handed swipes.

The fight still raged. My lyre was smashed, but I had to keep everyone battling. We were recovering. The dragon had dealt us all hard blows, but we weren’t out of this yet. We had prepared to fight her. We were ready. We would defeat her.

Songs of courage tumbled from my lips as I rose, strengthened by Sophia’s potion. Pink light glittered on nearby rocks. One of Minx’s daggers. I snatched it up, the handle short in my hand. I didn’t care. It was a weapon. I had to fight.

I marched at the dragon.

Warlock Faoril

I pulled out the last intact potion I had and dumped it into Thrak’s mouth. Blood covered his body, leaking from the puncture wounds through his torso. Even with the healing potions closing the wounds and slowing the bleeding, he should be dead.

But my orc was tough.

I watched the wounds. Skin knitted together, flesh and organs repairing. Broken bones twisted back into place. The holes shrank to the size of my fist, closing. My stomach twisted. The dragon roared. Angela bellowed. Chaun’s music stirred through me.

The fight wasn’t over yet and...

Thrak’s wounds stopped healing. The punctures were the size of a small bird, but they still wept blood. He still lay unconscious. I shoved my hands into my pockets, searching for any more healing potions. I was on the verge of panic, my heart fluttering so fast. I could feel it rising in me, that drowning fear threatening to consume me.

But Chaun’s voice was so stirring. It sang through my body. It warred in me, driving back the panic, battering back the cold twist in my bowels that threatened to leave me helpless. It kept my thoughts clear, thinking.

I was out of healing potions. But Sophia had made them for all of us as we traveled through Zeutchian lands.

I ignored the wheeze of Thrak’s breathing. Blood bubbled from his mouth. He was still so close to dying. But I couldn’t focus on that, on the fear of losing them. I had to act. I lunged across his body to the pouch hanging off his belt. I shoved my hand in, brushing glass.

Seizing a healing potion.

Cork yanked out, I dumped it into his mouth. It mixed with the foaming blood. His body shuddered. I touched his chest, feeling his heart laboring, struggling to keep him alive. His lungs rose and fell. The holes closed. The wheezing slowed.

“Thrak,” I whispered.

His wounds closed. Blood stopped bubbling from his lungs. It was enough. He would live. And I had to fight. I had to stand with my friends and stop this monster before she killed us all.

Xerathalasia

The dragon’s tail roared as it slashed at me. But I was already ducking, the back of my neck itching. Sophia’s spell warned me. My naked body dived beneath the tail. I hit the stone, rolling back onto my feet and sprinting past the dragon as she battled with Angela. Both her claws swiped in hissing arcs, crashing into earth elementals as the knight struggled to lunge in and ram her sword into the dragon’s chest.

I focused on the bleeding acolyte. I didn’t know if Sophia lived after that dreadful slash.

My keen ears heard everything. Chaun and Minx charged the dragon as the bard sang, his courageous voice echoing through the cave, filling me with exhilaration, keeping my limbs moving. And above his singing was the softer voice of Faoril’s magic whispering. The mage strode forward from Thrak, the orc’s breathing no longer labored. He would live.

Wind yanked Angela to the side, pulling her out of the reach of the dragon’s snapping jaws. She slashed back, screaming in rage, her sword a white blur. It struck the tip of the dragon’s jaw. Crimson spurted. The dragon rushed back. She bled from dozens of wounds, smoke rising as the blood boiled on her scales.

But she only bellowed in rage, sweeping her claws in wild swings, desperate to kill Angela. Her growls were rants, hardly intelligible any longer, descending to guttural, primal rage. Her tail crashed back and forth, slamming into the ground.

As I reached Sophia, Angela darted in, her sword thrusting at where the dragon’s neck met her chest. An earth elemental burst into shattered rocks blocking one claw. A huge piece of rock thrust up from the ground, shielding Angela on the other side. Her sword slashed, cutting through scales, opening another bleeding rent in the dragon’s side.

Lady Delilah slammed her entire neck down as an attack, battering towards the knight as she recovered from her swing. Faoril’s magic seized Angela, dragging her to the side. The knight didn’t fight it but used it. She pivoted and swung her weapon, crashing it into the side of the dragon’s neck. Blood spurted. The dragon roared, her feet crashing into the ground.

It shook beneath me, making footing treacherous. But I didn’t fall. I moved with grace across the broken ground and reached the acolyte’s side. I fell to my knees, pulling out a healing potion from my pouch and dumping it into her mouth.

We were running out of potions.

The dragon bellowed again.

“You got her, Chaun!” Minx chortled as the dragon’s bulk shifted, the ground shaking.

The milky potion worked on Sophia. I could hear her laboring heart thudding in her chest, struggling to pump blood. There was so much around her. I yanked out another potion, pouring it into her mouth.

The fight had to end. How many potions did we have remaining? I had one left. And Sophia needed it. I produced my last and dumped its healing power down Sophia’s throat. Her heart grew stronger and stronger. Her body shuddered as the magic flowed through her, healing her, bringing her back from death.

The next person struck down wouldn’t be so lucky.

Minx

The dragon’s hind leg swiped at Chaun as the bard jumped back, blood spruting from the dragon’s side. His attack landed a clumsy blow, but it hurt her. And that was awesome. I grinned as Faoril’s magic saved the bard, wind yanking him back as I darted in.

I jumped, the dragon’s body turning right at me. I thrust my dagger before me, the point glowing with Sophia’s magic. Without her, we would have died. The acolyte sometimes seemed useless, well meaning but not really accomplishing much in battle, but when she knew a fight was coming, when she enchanted your weapons, amazing things happened.

I crashed into the dragon, jamming my dagger deep into her sides. The blade sank all the way in, the hilt slamming into her scales. Scalding blood pumped out, but the water elemental warding my body wrapped me in protective liquid. I felt the heat, but it didn’t hurt me.

“Cernere’s black cunt,” I cursed as I sprang back off the dragon’s body. My attack hadn’t really hurt the dragon. My dagger was just too short. And she was huge. How could I hit a vital organ when I was barely getting through her scales?

I had to be smart. I wasn’t a brawler. I didn’t have the powerful weapons to hurt the dragon. It was satisfying stabbing the bitch after she threw me out the cave, but it wouldn’t help in the fight. Chaun’s singing was far more helpfully than his inept slashes with my dagger.

I needed to be as helpful.

I glanced at Angela. She was fearless, throwing herself at the dragon, being protected by Faoril and Aurora’s magic. The dragon backed away from her, slashing with claws, snapping with jaws. Her mouth gaped open to bite...

Her mouth gaped open.

I chortled in pure delight, an idea bursting to life in me. I had two chamomile bombs left. I shoved my hand in my pouch, brushing through the clay balls, searching for one with the X carved into it. My nimble fingers felt a spiral and then a chevron. I didn’t need a damiana bomb or acacia bomb. The last sticky bomb had not worked out well.

And then I felt the X. The sleeping bomb.

I yanked it out as I reached the fight. Shards of rocks burst through the air, smashed by the dragon. Rubble covered the ground. Faoril’s magic flew around me. She was doing so much amazing things. She smoothed the ground around Angela. Rocks and rubble melted and flowed, filling in holes, clearing out tripping hazards, giving her a flat ground to fight on so she could battle the dragon while the mage’s winds swept around the knight.

I glanced at Faoril in her red, stained robes, her face focused. Her eyes hard. She didn’t break that concentration as she gulped down another vial of Thrak’s cum. The discarded bottle shattered at her feet as she kept her magic flowing.

I had to be as helpful.

“Lady Delilah!” I screamed. “I don’t know why you’re so angry. Why do you care if some moldering dead man’s kingdom is reforged? He was a loser. Everyone knows that. He was a pathetic cuckold. I heard Queen Rose banged every other guy she could so she could enjoy a real cock. I bet the High King never even had any kids of his own.”

A roar shook the room. “SHE BETRAYED HIM!”

She did not like me calling her beloved Peter a cuckold. I grinned as her head snapped around, her one good eye fixed on me. Her jaws opened as her entire body turned. She ignored Angela’s swiping attack as her head snapped at me, giving me just the target I needed. I threw the sleeping bomb.

And then realized my mistake.

My bomb sailed down her gullet the moment before her hurtling jaws slammed over me.

Aurora Xandra

“Minx!” Xera shouted in horror as the halfling vanished into the dragon’s maw.

My stomach sank as those jaws worked like they were chewing. The dragon snapped her head around. I wavered for a moment, a sick filling twisting my stomach. The elf dashed from Sophia’s side, wielding her wooden dagger. With nimble grace, she threw herself at the dragon, vanishing behind Lady Delilah’s bulk.

“Minx,” I whispered in horror.

“Aurora,” my husband shouted, gripping the halfling’s dagger. “I need you.”

I blinked, anger and hurt swirling in my stomach as I looked at him. I could see the vision Slata showed me, my mother rutting beneath the form of my father. But it was really Chaun violating her marriage oath, cuckolding my father. The nauseating roil in my stomach increased.

“I have an idea,” he shouted. “Please.”

I nodded my head. Anger had to wait for later. For if we survived. I blurred into a hawk and launched myself at him as he rushed at the dragon. What was he doing? He only had that little dagger. The dragon ignored him, focusing back on Angela, ripping at her while Faoril’s magic protected her and Angela’s sword swung.

Chaun reached the dragon’s side. He plunged the dagger into a gaping gash in the dragon’s side. He stumbled as he cut, moving as the dragon turned and twisted. He cut the wound open deeper, parting flesh. Blood hissed as it steamed on the dragon’s scales.

I blurred into my humanoid form. “What are you doing?”

“Your earth elementals can’t stab through her scales,” he said. “But they can pierce through her softer flesh.”

My eyes widened. I gripped my earth totem in my right hand, the solid kapok wood hot to my grip. It was on the verge of failing. So many earth elementals had been struck, their bodies disrupted, the feedback shooting into my totem.

But it was still intact. It still focused my will.

Chaun’s courages song swirled around me as I stroked my fingers across the straight lines carved into the totem. The cave floor rumbled as two rock forms burst to life around me. I controlled them, shaping their arms into sharp, long blades.

And plunged them into the dragon’s side. They reached deep, slicing through muscle to the organs beneath. I felt what the earth elementals experienced. Heat burned in the dragon’s core. It boiled around my rocky limbs as they cut deeper and deeper. The heat assaulted me as the dragon heaved and snarled.

Pain. She experienced pain.

Chaun’s song drove me to grow the blades deeper, to jab them her molten core. The back of my neck itched as I caused the dragon agony. I pierced her organs. I would kill the beast before she—

Chaun grabbed my waist, wrenching me around in his grip. I blinked, pulling out of my senses from my totems. The dragon’s tail swept at us in a blur of death. He put his back between me and the attack, a futile gesture to protect me from the impact that would crush us both.

My fingers danced on my air totem, summoning an elemental that would not arrive in time to save our lives.

Wind howled around us. But it wasn’t my magic.

I screamed as we were yanked up into the air. The tail howled beneath us, missing our feet by inches. I shuddered in my husband’s arms, my heart beating so fast in my chest it hurt. I trembled, sucking in breaths.

We were alive.

And she was hurt.

Blood gushed from her side. A river of steaming crimson flowed onto the ground. A vicious thrill shot through me. Something I had never experienced. The dragon had tried to kill me, and I had hurt her back.