Dragon magus 2, p.34
Dragon Magus 2, page 34
Gabriella muttered irritably under her breath and shot the battlemage an annoyed glance, but she complied once more, bringing her magical frost twice as high. Even so, her spell barely topped a third of the length of the hydra’s necks.
Fenix thrust his hands out and muttered a single arcane syllable. Green light pulsed before his palms, and twin gusts of wind roared into the midst of the swirling ice above the war party. The battlemage angled his fingers and dragged them across the air in a circular motion. His magical wind shrieked through a similar circuit, catching Gabriella’s frost and swirling its particles into an icy spiral.
“What are you doing?” the princess demanded. “I can’t materialize any ice if you keep breaking my coalescing frost like that!”
“Creating ice isn’t the point. Don’t stop casting that spell!” Fenix snapped at Gabriella. “What is a block of ice materializing in midair going to do except fall on us?
Just as the battlemage finished speaking, twin streams of fire roared from both of the hydra’s maws. Fenix intercepted the cascading flames with a whirlwind of spinning frost, even as he warned Gabriella again to keep casting her spell.
The mages’ barrier of wind and ice swept the descent of the hydra’s breath within its swirling depths, carrying the flames away from the war party and over the edge of the floating disc.
Brilliant! Raphael thought. Rather than try to block the fire head-on with Spirit Shields, Fenix lessened its strength and pushed it aside instead.
Hissing in frustration, the hydra snapped one of its heads down, smashing through the spinning frost. Its gaping maw hurtled toward Fenix. Calling on every iota of the Draconic Braziers’ might, Raphael struck the hydra’s descending head with his glaive. His curved runic blade gouged through slime-slick flesh and scraped jarringly along bone as hard as solid steel.
It wasn’t enough to thwart the hydra. Just as Raphael staggered backward, his polearm forced back by the sheer weight and power behind the monster’s descent, a spiked steel ball as large as he was tall crunched into the hydra’s cheek.
The monster reeled away, staggered by the impact against its face. Glancing to Cyrano, Raphael saw the armsman pull his flail back, its spiked head shrinking to its original size and its chain reassuming its two-feet length. Ginerva stood behind Cyrano, her fingers resting lightly on the pommel of his weapon.
The hydra’s other head snapped down, diving toward Fenix. Raphael hacked at it once more, this time bowling an Explosive Orb down the length of his weapon so that its blade and his spell struck the monster’s jaw at the same time.
The simultaneous detonation and impact on the hydra’s descending face was enough to repel it this time. The creature’s head was hurled upward, its eyes glazing over with pain and confusion.
Raphael spared the blade of his glaive a quick glance. The runic metal was somewhat singed, but otherwise intact. As he pulled his polearm back for a follow-up strike, a magically lengthened chain arced up and above the hydra’s disoriented head.
It was Cyrano. The armsman had crooked his elbow and slung the chain of his flail around the back of his arm, whipping the weapon’s steely length like a skyward pendulum. The spiked ball at its end had been replaced by his war pick, also enlarged twofold by Ginerva’s magic.
The wicked metal spike of the armsman’s war pick punched wetly into the back of the hydra’s skull. Cyrano yanked down the chain at the same time, adding his own Fortify-boosted strength to the momentum of the whipping flail.
The hydra’s head plummeted down once more to slam against the surface of the floating disc. The thunderous crash of monstrous flesh against black stone stirred a painful ringing in Raphael’s ears. Despite the immense impact, the disc didn’t tilt in the slightest, holding its poise perfectly in the air. Neither did Raphael feel any jarring aftershock radiating from where the hydra’s head had fallen.
What exactly is this black stone? he wondered briefly, before thrusting that thought to the back of his mind. There was no time to think about such things now. Raphael hurled himself toward the downed head, Eliza close at his heels.
The hydra’s other head was descending yet again, brandishing hundreds of dripping fangs in its gaping maw. Raphael dashed under the monster’s shadow, twirled his glaive around, and hurled himself upward, scything the butt of his polearm right into the underside of the hydra’s jaw.
The blunt impact, combined with another perfectly timed and placed Explosive Orb, blasted the hydra’s head off its intended course for Fenix’s flesh. A quick glance over his shoulder witnessed Eliza swiftly bringing Skyfang across the neck of the fallen head. The blade of golden light sliced easily through the monster’s gray-green flesh, decapitating the hydra.
Suddenly truncated, the serpentine neck-stump reared skyward, convulsing even as it spurted jets of putrid, hissing black ichor. Fenix swept the barrier of swirling frost back and forth, intercepting the falling hydra blood and spinning the foul liquid away from the war party.
“Ha! One down, eight to go!” the battlemage crowed.
Fenix’s elation was short-lived, however. Just as Raphael alighted on the surface of the floating disc, the torn flesh of the hydra’s severed neck stump wriggled and writhed. Tendrils of muscle staunched the bleeding. Then wet bone emerged from the wound, wreathed in swiftly thickening flesh.
Scarcely two heartbeats had passed before a fresh head emerged into being, dripping with the after-fluids of its birth. Its eyes snapped open, casting its yellow malevolent gaze over the war party.
The other head, recently repelled, swung about to add its baleful regard to that of its fellow’s. Its flesh was unmarked as well, leaving no sign of the effects of Raphael’s glaive-strike and Explosive Orb.
“I know that hydras regenerate, but not so quickly like this,” Cyrano hissed, pulling his pick free and kicking the monster’s severed head aside. “And you said this thing is immune to fire? Cutting off a hydra’s heads and cauterizing the stumps with flames is how we usually kill it. How’re we going to bring this thing down?”
Raphael snapped his gaze down to the gaping rent Koshi had blasted into the hydra’s torso with his lightning breath. The wound was hissing and bubbling with regrowth, but it hadn’t fully healed yet. The hydra’s elemental immunity didn’t extend to lightning.
“Koshi said it can be hurt by lightning.” Raphael pointed to the writhing hole in the hydra’s body with his glaive. He looked over his shoulder at Fenix.
The battlemage caught his gaze and nodded. He swept his outstretched hands apart, letting the swirling frost barrier fall into shards of broken ice, then brought them back together once more, fingers arced into claws.
“Die!” he roared.
Chain Lightning streaked from his fingertips to engulf the two hydra heads glaring at the war party. The serpentine necks roiled and twitched beneath the crackling arcs of electricity. One yellow eye even burst in its socket, but the hydra’s malevolent glare never faltered. It opened its two mouths. Its ruined eye began to bubble back into existence.
It’s not working! Raphael realized.
Fenix’s eyes widened, the battlemage obviously coming to the same conclusion. He terminated his Chain Lightning spell and turned to Gabriella.
“Quick! Cast Frost Congregation!” he yelled, raising his hands in turn to evoke Wind Blast.
The princess gasped and began stammering the arcane syllables to her spell, but Raphael knew that she wouldn’t be fast enough.
Drawing on the swiftness imbued within his flesh by the Draconic Braziers, Raphael dashed off to the easternmost edge of the floating disc and pelted the hydra heads with a cluster of Explosive Orbs.
“Hey! Over here, you ugly bastard!” he screamed, his spells detonating against the monster’s jaws and cheeks. Unsupported by the might of his glaive, the Explosive Orbs had little effect beyond rattling the hydra’s jowls or ripping minor scratches across its flesh that healed as soon as they were opened.
But his Battle Magic and taunts were enough to catch the monster’s attention. The hydra heads snaked in his direction, their eyes widening with rage.
“Raphael!” Eliza cried, trying to run to his side, but Cyrano caught her by the waist and shoved her behind him.
“No! It’s too dangerous!” the armsman snapped, turning to Gabriella. “Cast Frost Congregation over him! And get ready to have that Healing Magic handy!”
Flames spewed from the hydra’s gaping maws. Roaring in defiance, Raphael shielded his face with his forearms and fed every last drop of Ryu-To-Ki burning in his soul to his draconic armor. He had withstood Huo Xian’s Annihilation Ray, but he didn’t know if he could withstand the hydra’s fiery breath, even after having ingested his Flame Resistance potion.
He would have to find out.
Immense heat washed over him as the hydra’s breath struck home. Raphael closed his eyes. He felt his draconic armor flex and bend, its scales of golden light breaking apart and disintegrating beneath the tide of fire. Raphael clenched his jaw and called forth another layer of armor even as the first one fell apart. Fresh golden light coalesced into being over his skin, pushing the flames away.
The second draconic armor wavered, but it held true, holding the devouring touch of the hydra’s flames at bay. It was a testament to how much progress Raphael had made since his journey to Vitoria. Huo Xian’s Annihilation Ray wasn’t much more powerful than the hydra’s flames, but it had shattered multiple sets of Raphael’s draconic armor. Now a second conjuration of his draconic armor was enough for him to withstand the monster’s fiery breath. The Flame Resistance potion likely helped, too. Raphael made a mental note to make use of his potions when the situation called for it.
As the hydra’s flames petered out, Raphael twirled his glaive above his head and swept it to the side. The backdraft pouring from the mighty arc of his weapon hurled the final fiery flickers of the monster’s breath into wisped oblivion.
He glared defiantly up at the hydra’s paired gazes, seeing the first flickers of doubt and uncertainty in the monster’s eyes. Then he charged, bringing his glaive straight out before him. The two hydra heads battling the war party snapped down, hissing with fury.
Cyrano’s flail smashed into one of the monster’s snouts. Enlarged once more by Ginerva’s magic, the spiked ball halted the head’s descent in its tracks.
Eliza’s lithe form spiraled through the air, borne on Skyfang’s magic. She arced the golden sword up and across the side of the other head, slicing through flesh, severing fangs, and rupturing a yellowed eye. Eliza hurled herself into an erratic, descending spiral to avoid the snapping jaws of the head she’d cut.
Raphael’s path to the hydra’s torso was now open, albeit briefly. He hurled himself off the floating disc, fell five feet, and plunged his glaive into the monster’s flesh, just at the base of its necks. Driven by the full strength of the Draconic Braziers, the weapon cut deep, its blade slicing through skin, muscle, and sinew before it chipped through bone and grazed whatever passed for a lung within the hydra.
The hydra loosed a nine-fold, thunderous roar, laden with more affront than actual pain. All of its heads turned to him, rage blazing in their eyes.
Rayne dashed in then, weaving its sleek form through the serpentine lengths of the hydra’s necks. The faerie dragon snatched Raphael’s raised hand and pulled him skyward.
The monster snapped at them, all nine heads slavering with fury. Their fangs sliced into empty air, and their massive skulls slammed into each other with bone-breaking impact as Rayne turned Raphael incorporeal.
The faerie dragon continued its ascent, bringing Raphael nearly thirty feet above the monster before dropping them both into corporeality.
Free from having to evade the hydra’s flames, Koshi swooped down and spread his wings, hanging in the air next to Raphael. The dragon opened his jaws. Tendrils of electricity crackled across his fangs. Raphael pointed downward to the glaive he’d embedded deep in the hydra’s flesh.
Koshi lanced a crackling, titanic bolt of lightning downward, sending its fury straight through the steel-cored shaft of Raphael’s glaive. The monster shrieked again, this time in obvious agony as electricity coursed through its flesh, rending gaping rents across its rippling hide and filling the air with the stench of its burning flesh.
But Raphael could see it wasn’t enough. Even as ichor poured from the monster’s nine snouts and its eyes burst one after another, the hydra’s wounds roiled and writhed with mending flesh.
If Koshi can breathe lightning, there’s no reason why I can’t do that too! he thought.
Raphael inhaled sharply, then opened his mouth. The Fifth Brazier filled his soul with its fury. A ball of crackling electricity materialized a foot away from his lips. He pointed it downward, aiming for his glaive, and unleashed its fury.
A second bolt of lightning blazed forward, echoing Koshi’s first and striking the exact same spot. The electrical energy ripped through the hydra’s flesh. All nine of its heads exploded in cascades of scattering bone and brain. Its torso burst apart, loosing a torrent of foul, stinking viscera that bubbled and hissed as it struck the ground. The monster’s six legs convulsed and buckled at the joints.
The hydra fell, becoming a titanic heap of limp and lifeless flesh.
Raphael wanted to whoop in victory, but darkness closed in on the edges of his suddenly spinning vision. He reeled and gasped in exhaustion.
“Steady, son,” Koshi rumbled through the light of the Dragon Meridian. “It’s just the strain of Elemental Breath. It taxes your strength heavily if you’re new to its use. Just take some time and catch your breath.”
“Did you see that, Koshi?” Raphael wheezed, trying to inhale with lungs that suddenly felt too small and too tight. “I breathed lightning, just like you did.”
“Yes, Raph. I did,” the dragon replied, his voice brimming with pride. “Well done! I wasn’t sure which of the elements the Fifth Brazier would see fit to bestow upon you, but now we know there are at least two of them.”
“The Magus can breathe the same elements as any dragons bonded to him can,” Rayne chimed in, wagging its tail gleefully. “So if Knight Koshi has fire and lightning, so do you too, Magus.”
“So if there are other dragons alive, and I forge a bond with them, I can breathe whatever they can? Like ice? Or wind?” Raphael asked, shaking his head to clear his vision.
“Among other elements, yes,” Rayne said. “Such as force, like Shiomi once did, for example.”
Raphael blinked, trying to wrap his mind around such a bewildering notion. Movement crawled at the edges of his vision then, and he looked down.
The hydra was still regenerating, its torn and mutilated torso wriggling with regrowth. The smoking, tattered stumps of its heads writhed and crawled with tendrils of interweaving flesh.
“The hydra! It’s still alive!” he cried. “We have to—”
Eliza hurled herself off the floating disc, Skyfang held low and ready. Cyrano trailed her, war pick in his fist. The blonde woman alighted on the landscape of foul, rippling flesh. She dashed toward one of the dragon bone spurs jutting from the base of a hydra’s neck.
Cyrano slammed down heavily after her. The armsman broke off in another direction, charging toward a different bone spur.
The purple glow of Fenix’s Blink spell announced the battlemage’s materialization on the hydra’s back. He pointed at a cluster of bone spurs and rained Explosive Orbs down upon them, hammering them to dust.
Eliza swapped Skyfang for Ragebane as she closed in on her target. She brought the golden mace down on the desecrated dragon bone, pounding the spur into shards. Across the hydra’s back, Cyrano did the same, driving the point of his pick into a spur repeatedly until ancient bone fell beneath the bite of cold steel.
Fenix disposed of the rest, his Explosive Orbs giving him far more reach than Eliza and Cyrano. As the final dragon bone spur disintegrated beneath the battlemage’s wrath, the writhing tendrils of the hydra’s regrowing flesh stiffened, then disintegrated into putrescent puddles.
The monster’s colossal torso bubbled and hissed, falling apart beneath Eliza’s, Cyrano’s, and Fenix’s feet. The battlemage cast Blink once more, rematerializing on the floating disc beside Ginerva and Gabriella. Koshi arced himself downward, sweeping his claws out to gently collect Cyrano and Eliza. He was just in time, picking them up a heartbeat before their perch dissolved into a rancid tide of slime that washed over the few ogres that had survived Janan’s cavalry charges down the hydra’s flanks.
The ogres shrieked in agony as the hydra’s corrosive viscera engulfed them, eating through their enchanted armor and robes.
“Get me back there, Rayne,” Raphael said, nodding to the floating disc.
“By your will, Magus,” the faerie dragon replied.
Chapter 34
Rayne swung back to the disc and deposited Raphael beside the war party’s mages.
Raphael staggered with exhaustion as he studied the battle between Sylvia and Vukaste, the ogre lord. It wasn’t going very well for Sylvia, he quickly realized. Vukaste was a whirlwind of blurred steel, hacking at Sylvia’s defenses in a dazzling display of swordsmanship and forcing her on the back foot in every exchange.
As Raphael watched, Vukaste twirled his blade into a dazzling parry that foiled Willowflight’s intricate arc, cut the floating sword aside, and finished with a downward chop that sought to split the elf in half. Sylvia danced away from the whistling edge of Vukaste’s blade, but she wasn’t fast enough. Her shoulder guard spun into the air, sliced free from her silhouette. A sliver of Sylvia’s flesh accompanied it.
Three shadowy copies of the elf emerged, each of them wielding an inky duplicate of Willowflight. They chopped at Vukaste simultaneously, the edges of their blades seeking his throat, diaphragm, and groin. The ogre lord caught two of the cuts on the edge of his sword, blocked the third with his armored forearm, and then spun on his heel, bringing his blade around in a sweeping backhand that sliced through all three of Sylvia’s shadows.
