Chapter 43 - Dragon's Legacy

Essence poured into Hump. It came in waves; the dragon’s heartstone still brimming with power. Pulse after pulse filled him, a heartbeat of essence, rekindling what his previous spells had cost him. In an instant the cold of a day’s fighting was gone. Infused with essence, he felt rejuvenated. His pains healed and his strength returned. What essence remained smoked off Hump in blazing red trails. He was an imperfect vessel, hardly able to contain a fraction of that power, let alone control it. And his body knew it. Hump ground his teeth against the pain. Heat seared through him. He wanted to scream. He wanted to collapse to the ground and curl up into a ball until the pain stopped.

He clutched the dragon’s egg tightly to his chest, hugging it close. There was no room to fail now, not after all he had done. Not with so many people counting on him. He had taken on the dragon’s power, and with it he had taken her determination. He had controlled wizardfire before, now he would control this. He would not be beaten.

He willed his essence into his staff, forming a spell in his mind and infusing it with the dragon’s power. It stormed through his veins faster than he could think. The runes on his staff smouldered then came alight with its power. They crackled in the wood, hissing as essence streamed off them, too much to hold back. A heartbeat later, that power bubbled to the surface of the crystal focus. It boiled like liquid fire, raging within the crystal confines, fighting to break free.

“Blast!” Hump growled when he couldn’t hold it any longer, his voice filled with power, essence misting from his breath.

The spell burst forward all at once, laced with fire. A torrent of flame that spread uncontrollably across the chamber. The heat seared at Hump’s face like dragon fire, expanding until Kassius was gone from view. Inefficient, but there was enough power in the blast to make up for it.

At least Hump thought there was.

Kassius cut through the fire with a single swing of his sword, tearing it apart like a curtain. Hump’s blood pounded in his ears as the fire dissipated around the man harmlessly, fading into darkness.

It had been too easy. So much power, yet Kassius had turned it aside with a single movement. A single sweep of that deathly sword. Hump hadn’t even sensed essence at work.

He blasted him again, and Kassius launched his own shadows back. A contest of Will and power. They threw spells back and forth. Kassius tried to close the distance while Hump rained fire upon him. But each spell was met with a cut of that sword, or a bolt of shadow. For all Hump’s effort, he had yet to do anything but scorch Kassius’ shadows.

Kassius made a quick gesture with his free left hand and his shadow cloak billowed, gathering into the shape of a ball. A spike shot from it like a ballista bolt, a silent blur through the air, but Hump felt its presence like encroaching death.

Hump barely raised his shield in time. With so much power coursing through him the wall formed the instant he willed it, as thick as his arm and dense with essence. The shadow exploded against it like a jet of water, pressing Hump back a step. He stabbed his staff into the ground and pressed his weight into the blast, grinding his teeth. He couldn’t fall back. If he left the rune he stood on, his connection to the formation would be lost and there would be nothing to help him control what power he had drawn from it. The shadow broke around him, his shield screeching like scraping glass. Four sharp lines of darkness splashed off from the point of impact in the shape of a cross, obscuring Hump’s view.

When the shadow subsided, Kassius had closed half the distance between them. Vamir met him with his own blade, silver sparks shining amongst shadow. It was only now that Hump saw the state Vamir was in. His armour was torn ragged, and in the gaps his red scales were chipped and bloodied. Kassius swept Vamir back with heavy swings, chasing him on his cloud of shadow. There was no running for Vamir now, not while he was defending Hump.

But Hump wasn’t as helpless as he had been before.

He gathered his power and focused it, trying to condense it into a more efficient and narrower cone of fire. It was like fighting against a tidal wave. His essence was erratic, moving in all directions at once, a torrent of violent waves that threatened to rupture his channels and split him apart. He didn’t dare to try a Focused Blast, not with such violent energy coursing through his body. The spell would blow up in his face before he’d even gathered half the essence it would need.

“Vamir!” Hump roared, his essence already bubbling over. The ranger didn’t even glance back as he dodged away from Kassius and gave Hump an open line to attack.

“Blast,” Hump said again. Pure essence burst forward. A cone of fire exploded from his staff. Most went wide, but enough of it struck Kassius in the chest to blast him back. He flew through the cavern, flipping through the air and landing lightly in a bed of burning shadow. The shadow turned in on itself, putting out the flames. Where the flame had struck, dark burns covered his chest, and marred his armour. But his wounds were already knitting themselves back together. The shadows reformed, cloaking him once more in their protection, hiding his injuries from view.

Hump gasped as new power flooded into him, replacing what was lost in another violent pulse through his body. He clenched his jaw against the pain, refusing to let Kassius see it. Vamir took up a position in front of him, waiting for Kassius’ next attack.

Kassius laughed. “You think just because you’ve taken on that power you can use it? You are weak, like untempered steel. There is nothing you can do but tickle me with petty spells. You are no wizard, just a boy in over his head.”

He hated to admit it, but Kassius was right. This power wastoo much for him. He needed time to at least get it somewhat under control if he were to stand a chance.

“Then why did you try so hard to recruit me?” Hump said.

“Potential,” Kassius said. “But potential is fruitless if you throw your life away. You will die here, along with everyone else.”

Hump didn’t answer. His eyes flicked to the left, at the fight between Bud and the Black Paladin. Celaine was at his back, her arrows pierced the paladin’s exposed flesh like a pin cushion yet did nothing to slow him down. His black aura was back, shrouding him in the presence of death. A long line of ice covered the side of his knee where Bud must have struck him, but as he walked the ice cracked and broke away. Bud looked exhausted. His blonde hair was plastered with sweat, and there was a deep dent in his left shoulder plate. His left arm hung useless at his side.

Steel rang out nearby and Hump turned back to see Kassius only paces away, Vamir blocking his path once more. He’d crossed the distance without Hump even noticing.

Hump had to focus. His friends were on the brink of defeat, all to buy him his opportunity. An opportunity that he couldn’t waste. This was his plan, and he had told them he could pull it off. Now he had to follow through.

There was no preventing the essence from escaping him. If he tried, he’d explode from the pressure. It was better to focus on what his core had absorbed and what now flowed through his channels. When he turned his focus inward, there were no tendrils of cold left. He was flooded with essence, and waves rampaged through his body in all directions, breaking against each other and coming away stronger. He had to steady them if he were to make real use of this power. He had to bring it under his command.

He willed it all in one direction, forcing it to flow clockwise around his body. He clenched his jaw as pain flared renewed, but his will would not break. The essence would obey him, it would move as he commanded.

And it did. The relief was immediate. He felt his insides relax as the waves shrank and his essence steadied. He was still filled to the brim, but he could manipulate it better now that it was no longer fighting against him.

Vamir screamed, shaking Hump’s focus. A spike of shadow pierced the ranger in the side of his stomach. He stumbled back, clutching at the wound with his left hand. His eyes shone green like Celaine’s, and they were wild with pain. Kassius cut at him with his sword and Vamir barely raised his own blade in time to block. But the block was weak, and Kassius bashed it aside with ease, leaving Vamir open. Kassius drove a kick into his stomach, sending him sprawling to the ground, gasping.

“No!” Celaine screamed, letting loose an arrow at Kassius, but his shadows knocked it aside. They were too powerful for such a mundane attack.

There was no time left. Hump let his essence spill out from him and into his staff. He let his senses expand to the endless expanse beneath him, and he called forth stone.

Tendrils of yellow light burst from his crystal focus, piercing into the ground nearby. The chamber cracked, rocks rose into the air and floated there. A dozen of them, each as big as fists. If his fire wouldn’t work, he’d try something else. He filled them with his essence, and they glowed red hot. A red-hot droplet fell to the ground and went solid at the touch of cold stone below. Their cracks shone like embers, and Hump felt power beyond anything he had summoned before.

“Rockshot,” Hump barked, sweeping his staff forward and hauling the stones at Kassius with his will.

Kassius must have sensed them coming as he turned just in time. He moved with superhuman speed, but even he wasn’t fast enough to dodge them all. Three stones struck him: one in the hip, stomach, and shoulder. He was thrown back and sent rolling across the ground. His shadow fell out around him and Hump saw deep dents in his armour and flesh where his bones had been crushed within. Liquid stone had melted to his flesh and still sizzled. Kassius screamed as he rose to his feet, face contorted with rage and pain.

His cloak swept across the ground, a growing shadow in the evening sun. It burst upon Hump like a wave, covering him entirely, until the entire world had been turned to black.

Hump raised his shield without a thought, surrounding himself with its power just as he had done to fend off the dragon’s breath. Shaping it until he was fully encompassed by its walls. Something hit him hard in the back and he stumbled forward. He turned to see a crack along his shield, and in a panic, threw more essence into it. The crack shimmered and faded, just as another strike struck it. Another crack. Again, Hump willed it shut, but Kassius didn’t stop.

His shield shook and chimed like a bell. He screamed, fighting to keep the cracked sealed, pushing every bit of essence he could into the wall. Willing it to stay closed, to stand against Kassius’ blade. But with each strike, the cracks worsened, webbing out across the dome of his shield. It took all of Hump’s strength just to hold his ground. Crack after crack, his shield weakened. This wasn’t going to work. He had to do something, and he had to do it now.

Desperately, he did the only thing he could think of. He gathered his essence into his staff, ignoring the damage to his shield. He’d only have one shot at this. It had to count. Once his spell was ready, he readied his staff.

Kassius struck the shield on Hump’s left side, and he turned his staff on the crack that formed. He let his shield fall, the walls crumbling to shimmering dust around him, pure white essence against shadow. He blasted it apart. The shadow burnt away in a flash of fire. Kassius grunted on the otherside. And as the flame and darkness cleared, Kassius was in the ground ten paces away.

Hump glanced back behind him at the sound of voices. The dungeoneers fought their way through the last of the kobold horde. Joslin was first through their ranks. She bashed the undead aside with her shield and propelled herself forward with a blast of essence, slamming into the Black Paladin and sending him staggering. Bud’s sword blazed with frostfire as he plunged it into his stomach through the gap in the paladin’s chest plate.

A silver flash came from behind him as Celaine’s body went taut, her bow pulled back to its fullest. She released an arrow that pierced the paladin through the black gemstone in his eye. For a moment, the giant of a man stood there, then he crumbled to the ground in a chorus of clattering metal.

Further back, Lantheer rained fire upon what remained of the kobolds, burning them to ashes.

“Take him down!” he roared, readying his own fire. Flaming bolts shot through the air from his staff, each homing in on Kassius. As they struck, Celaine landed an arrow through the prince’s throat, another caught him through the stomach, but still he fought to stand.

Kassius gathered his shadows around him even as they burned. Hump felt his essence condensing. He felt his power brimming. Then his power exploded from him. A dozen spikes of shadow shot at the dungeoneers. Hump blocked with his shield, and through the shadow he glimpsed Kassius coming at him. He’d gathered his shadows into wings and swept them down, surging forward so fast Hump had no hope of dodging.

But not faster than Vamir. The ranger tore through Kassius’ left wing with a silver swing, sending him tumbling to the ground. Kassius hit the ground hard and rolled. He didn’t stop for a moment, rising on all fours to rush at Hump. His face gaunt and white as a ghoul, mad with every bit of energy he had left.

“It’s mine!” he screeched, rage and hate filled his voice, even as blood oozed from his mouth. “You can’t have it! Kill him! Kill all of them!”

But there was no one left to fight for him.

The undead had fallen. His Black Paladin had been defeated. He’d chosen a path where he had sacrificed everything for power, and now he was alone.

Staring at his greed. At his hate. At the man that had taken the lives of so many, Hump felt nothing but rage. Within him, the part of the dragon that remained raged with him. Hump’s blood boiled, the thrill he’d felt before returning. As power pulsed into him from the formation, it felt different this time.

Hump took a deep breath and gathered his will. It was never his intention to claim this power for himself, it would consume him. He just needed to borrow it, to act as a conduit, and give it direction. But more than that, he wanted the dragon’s last wish to come true. Clutching her egg to his chest, it was the least he could do. So he channelled all of that power, all of that emotion and essence, and he gave it a target.

Kassius wanted the power—the life—of a dragon. So Hump would give it to him, along with all the horror and pain that he had caused. Hump felt every bit of it. Her sadness tore at him, her fear and desperation filled him with the strength to fight, and her love and pride for her pack and child gave power to the spell beyond what simple essence alone could provide. Hump couldn’t stop the flood of tears, just as he could no longer stop the magic at work.

“Have it,” Hump said quietly. “Have it all!”

His intent joined with the dragon’s and the world began to move, fuelled by the dying wish of the daughter of storms. He felt her mind in his, just as he had felt the rest of her pack. Her essence flowered through him like a sun within his core. His blood boiled, his skin felt like it had erupted in flame. But the essence that burned him was the life of a dragon, or at least, what was left of her. For all the damage it caused, it healed and strength him too. It gave him the power to keep going. He let all that heat build, he let it swell within his core, and then he let it go.

“Focused Blast!” he screamed. No, he roared, and essence erupted from his mouth in a beam of fire.

Like Kassius, Hump had let emotion and magic take over, and now there was nothing he could do but let it take its course.

The fire bathed Kassius’ entire body. He screamed, bringing up his shadowy veil to try and resist, but it was consumed faster than he could summon it. Burnt away like a suit of paper armour, until there was nothing left but Kassius’ agonised screams.

Hump wasn’t sure how long his fire lasted, but when it was over he had fallen to his knees, propped up by his staff and hugging his egg to his chest. Before him, Kassius was a husk. His skin charred and blackened, his chest torn open by the fire and his still beating heart blackened within. His heartstone shone with green light, the only thing still keeping him alive. Even now his flesh tried to knit itself back together.

Hump’s throat was parched. He couldn’t hear. The world looked as if all its colour had been drained out of it and all the remained was a world of different shades of grey. His face stung as if he’d spent a day beneath the sun, while the rest of him was as cold as ice. Only the warmth of the egg kept him conscious, kept him sane.

Nobody was moving. All around him the world had simply stopped, the people frozen in place. Bud collapsed over the fallen paladin’s corpse, even the light of his frostfire now seemed to be a silver-grey. Celaine clutched at her leg, her face pained. Vamir had dived away from Hump’s fire and taken cover behind a boulder, his head peaking out from the side.

They were silent.

A rip tore through the chamber and Hump turned wide eyed to stare at Kassius. Above him, a tear had opened in the world. A hole of shadow, piercing through the space to a void of nothingness. From it, a shadowy figure stepped out, his body formed of shadows as if drawn in charcoal. His face a mask of black with no eyes or mouth.

A demon, Hump thought at first. He stared silently, not daring to move. His mind too clouded to put together any real thoughts but every instinct screamed for him to run.

The figure looked over them and Hump’s heart pounded. He felt the urge to hide in the figure’s presence, but he didn’t dare to move. Fear crept into him like death had come to claim him. He felt helpless before that pressure. It lacked the power of Kelisia, but it more than made up for it from the evil of it. As if it could sap Hump’s soul in a moment if the figure decided it to be so.

A flood of relief rushed through Hump as the figure turned its gaze down upon Kassius, tilting its head to the side as he studied the prince’s body. After a moment, it grabbed Kassius by what remained of his hair and dragged him back through the hole in the world. It closed behind him, and with it, sound and colour returned to the world.