Chapter 36 - Wolf Dragon Rampage

The dragon propelled itself at the kobolds with a violent sweep of its wings, leaping through the air and crashing down amidst them. Now free, the dragon unleashed its fury. It snapped its jaws shut on the closest kobold and shook it like a dog, before tossing the limp body aside. It sailed through the air, landing in a pile of broken bones that not even death magic could make up for.

Not it, Hump thought. Her. Celaine had called it a her.

Celaine took the dragon’s distraction as a chance to dash in closer. She moved between the cover of the boulders that lay strewn about the chamber, making her way toward the nest where the egg and the dungeon core rested. This wasn’t good.

Hump glanced at the black paladin’s still body, at where Vincent had fallen into the shadows of the chamber, at the dragon as it rampaged.

Any one of them could kill them, and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it. Celaine had gone mad. Completely and utterly mad. The dragon didn’t simply move. Her wings beat like a hurricane, her footsteps made the ground quake. When she jumped, the entire dungeon shuddered. Dust and stone and bits of roof hailed from above, and the ground cracked beneath. For a moment, Hump feared the entire place might collapse. She was a force of nature. Too big to compare to anything else, more like half a house in size than a horse.

Hump hardly remembered to breathe as he watched. He’d seen a lot of monsters during his apprenticeship: trolls, stone golems, giant spiders, even a minotaur. None of them could compare.

The undead kobolds attacked relentlessly, unphased by the mass of flesh and muscle that bounded through their ranks. Arrows, stones, and spears streaked through the air, tearing off scales, piercing flesh. They stuck in her body, protruding from her like the spines of a porcupine. One kobold managed to get close enough to drive a spear deep into the muscle at the base of her tail. She screeched, lashing out at the kobold, sending it flying. But there were more to fill the space of the fallen. Those without weapons clawed at her scales with bloody hands, tearing them loose and digging into the flesh beneath, pulling out handfuls of it.

Hump felt sick. They were like ants tearing apart a rat. From the screams, he knew some part of the dragon still felt pain. She tried to shake them off, lashing out with her limbs and mouth, bathing them in green fire. Injuries that would have incapacitated a living creature merely served to enrage her. The wounds healed in seconds, knitting themselves back together in twisting knots of green and red flesh, fuelled by the essence from the dungeon core.

The core was like a crystal ball, the depth of its essence beyond anything Hump had ever seen. He didn’t need his Magic Eye to know that; he could feel its power on his skin like static in the air before a lightning strike. Just the fact that it had carved an entire crag into a dungeon proved its power, but seeing the essence radiating from the dragon’s body in vivid streams of green smoke drove it home. This was no spell or ritual. There was no knowledge to drive the healing. The dungeon core simply threw all the essence it had into the dragon’s body, and the sheer density of essence took care of the rest.

The dragon stormed through the cavern like a stampeding bull. She was unparalleled; nothing like the sluggish undead kobolds raised by Kassius’ death magic. This was no minor undead but a fully-fledged monster, brought back by some greater power. Something stronger. Fuelled by the seemingly endless stream of essence that the dungeon provided her. As much as it went against all that Hump knew of the undead, the dragon was clearly defending her egg. She never strayed more than a few steps from her nest, and nothing ever made it past her—no stone, no spear, and no kobolds. Nestled into the nest alongside the egg, the dungeon core was defended as if it were her own.

She was the perfect guardian.

Her body broke through the kobold ranks, the tremors of her movement alone enough to send the clumsy creatures staggering to the ground. She whirled, whipping her tail out and sending two kobolds flying. She tore into another, swiped and swatted more. Battered any that stepped close as if they were part of a fairground game. She reared as another spear pierced through her side, screeching and turning on her attackers. As if empowered by her rage, green fire erupted once more, bathing another handful of kobolds in her undead flame.

They didn’t scream as their bodies burned; as their scales cracked, and their skin blackened. The charred smell of burnt meat stung at Hump’s nose. Yet still the creatures moved, driven like puppets by the death magic that controlled them until it was physically impossible for them to go further. Until their heartstones were destroyed and nothing remained but a pile of bones and ashes.

Hump had once seen a chivacat released into a rat’s nest. He’d only been a boy—this was before the old man had taken him in—but the memory had stuck with him like all the other horrors of his childhood. The chivacat had torn through the rats with a merciless viciousness. Not for food, but for the slaughter. Kill after kill after kill, until its fur was drenched in their blood. Watching the dragon at work was just like that. She was destruction. A chivacat in a rats nest.

And Celaine was heading straight into the middle of it.

“Celaine!” Hump hissed as loudly as he dared. She glanced back at him. “Get back here.” He nodded his head to the side for added effect.

She shook her head, turning her focus back to the path ahead and circling around the far edge of the fight.

Hump clenched his fist around his staff and shuffled closer to the edge of the tunnel. He wiped the sweat from his brow, hardly able to watch. She was nearing the dungeon core. And with every step closer, she was closer to the dragon too. Less than ten paces now—the creature’s body length might cover that alone, and she wanted to steal its damn egg. Hump’s heart was in his mouth.

He looked around for anything he could do. Anything that might buy her a chance. He thought of all the spells in his spellbook, and any potions that might help him, but he was out of options. He’d used the last of his power. All he could do was watch helplessly as Celaine crept closer until her foot touched down on the edge of the nest.

Deftly, she stepped into the stony nest. Nothing hid her from view, but at least for now the dragon had its back to her. Another step. She was almost there. The egg was at her feet, nestled into a bed of dirt and circled by protective stones. She bent down and reached for it, when the dragon whirled on her.

Its mouth dropped open and unleashed a hellish roar. The beast charged, bounding across the space between them in a second.

Emirai’s mercy, Hump thought. We need a bloody miracle.

Two steps were all it took.

Celaine turned like a startled deer, eyes wide, mouth open, face as pale as a ghost. Even at that distance, Hump saw the light in her eyes shift. They radiated magic that sent a chill down his spine as if he were prey staring at a predator.

The dragon stopped.

Celaine held out a shaky hand as whispered softly, “Shhh, you’re alright. I’m here to help.” She took a step closer to the egg, her movements slow and gentle, never breaking eye contact. “Let me take your egg somewhere safe. That’s what you want, isn’t it?” She reached down slowly, still maintaining eye contact.

It’s working. Hump couldn’t believe it. This went against everything he knew about necromancy and undead, but somehow the dragon understood. Somehow the dragon held back.

“Enough!” Kassius’ voice boomed. The sudden sound startled the dragon and it spun to face him. Its tail swooped out at Celaine with a lazy motion.

She jumped aside, barely avoiding the full brunt of the swing, but it still connected with her foot. Even a lazy motion from a dragon was enough to send her flying. She flipped through the air, bringing up her hands just in time to protect her face from smashing into the ground. She rolled over sluggishly and groaned, lying unmoving on her back.

Hump clenched his fist. The dragon wasn’t paying her attention. Her attention was entirely on Kassius. Her head swayed from side to side, teeth bared and a long sliver of drool running out from between them as she snarled down at him and the gathering of kobolds. Watching for any to step too close. She shifted, positioning herself defensively over its nest and letting loose another roar. A warning that was clear as day. ‘Get away from my nest!’

Hump followed its gaze to the dungeon’s edge, where Kassius lay amongst the shadows. A chilling sensation crawled up Hump’s spine and he turned his eyes toward it. Shadows at the base of the far side of the wall came to life. That same pale, cold light that had illuminated the runes around the dragon now shone there. The light poured out from around the dagger blade embedded in Kassius’ forehead, reflecting off the polished steel and illuminating the prince’s face. A face as chilling as the very power he used.

In response, the dungeon core flared with essence. The crystal shone brightly within the stone pillar, lighting up the dungeon with a flash before sending a wave of power into the ground. The earth rumbled. The stones around the nest turned a warm and bloody red. Hump felt power gathering there and then the stone erupted from the ground. It flowed like liquid, enveloping the nest and the dragon in a sheet of crystal stone. It hardened around them, a translucent crystal shell with the same red tint as its essence, distorting the figure of the dragon within. To Hump, it appeared like some grotesque heart.

Hump’s mind was in shambles, but one thing was clear. If the dungeon core was seeking to hide, that meant that Kassius was too strong for it to handle.

Which meant very bad news for Hump and Celaine.

“Get back, Celaine,” Hump shouted. “We need to leave!”

Kassius had survived the dagger through the skull and being flung across the room by the full force of the dragon’s tail. The best thing they could do was leave Kassius to his prize and get out alive.

Celaine seemed to have figured that much out too. He scrambled back on her hands, dragging her right foot as she moved. Her face twinged with pain, but she kicked and clawed at the dirt as she scrambled for cover, nestling in the crevice behind one of the larger boulders. Safe, at least for now.

Through the barrier of red crystal, the blurred figure of the dragon moved. Cocooned by the dungeon core’s shield.

The kobolds clustered together at the edge of the cavern, taking this opportunity to reform their ranks. Those with broken or torn limbs crawled and limped their way there, until they found their designated spot. They held back lifelessly, bodies without thought or souls, waiting for their master to command them.

“Now isn’t that just fantastic,” Kassius said dryly, studying the crystalline structure. “We almost had her beat and you both had to come and ruin it.

Kassius dusted himself off as easily as if he’d simply tripped and didn’t have a fatal wound. He reached up and casually took hold if the dagger’s handle, yanking it free in one easy motion. Letting out a satisfied breath, he held up the weapon to inspect. Whatever he was looking for, he didn’t find it. He tossed the blade aside as if it were trash. It chimed as it clattered to the ground, echoing around the now silent chamber.

Kassius let that silence linger. The light blossomed from his forehead in beams of starlight, quickly narrowing as the opening in his head knitted itself shut in seconds. Once the wound was healed, he walked into the chamber, his steps like a slow clap.

“Now then,” Kassius said, looking at Celaine with a thin smile. “I think I’m just about fed up with you, my dear. Lucas, take her.”

There was a sound like crumpling metal. Hump watched in horror as the black paladin rose to his feet in a heavy, lumbering motion, like a golem without joints. Pieces of metal snapped themselves into position. The black sigil of Rathlar at his chest was punctured by the dragon’s tooth. The rest of his armour was torn and broken; the black steel bent into jagged edges. Where the dragon had torn off his armour completely, all Hump saw was bloody flesh.

The Black Paladin’s armour creaked as he took his first step toward Celaine.