Chapter 9
“Fercius…”
He was in a different world, up in the Appalenes, happy. He knew he was dreaming, but didn’t want to give this world up. He hadn’t remembered how he got here, nor did he remember what had happened, but his memories began to return as he slowly awoke from his deep sleep. For a time he had thought he had an eternal amount of time with Rinny, and with that his memories of their past moments were sparked.
He kept his eyes closed and kept his breathing as it was, trying to force himself back into the dream he had just left. He didn’t want to be awoken by Darko yet…
Darko? Fercy thought.
Wouldn’t that mean he was back in the city? He wasn’t in the city though; he could feel the wind whistling across the rock, the dust darting across his nose, the remedial rustling of the leaves off in the distance – a partisan’s paradise.
He opened his eyes, swamped with tranquil thoughts of Rinny, the nature of things, and the nature of Rinny’s things…
“Fercy!” Darko yelled.
Fercius yelped and got to his feet with a quickness, the sudden movement blurring his vision. His wings still sore from yesterday’s battle.
“We’re moving out. Nolan, Darsh and I have already laid out our battle plans. We’re headed east, to their capital.”
“Killing everything along the way of course.” Nolan’s dragon growled.
Fercy shuddered, not long ago a terran like that was at his throat. Looking over to Lorna, he noticed she was still asleep, a large hole in her right wing.
“Did you do that?” Nolan’s dragon asked, motioning towards the dead dragon past the rock near the forest.
Fercius nodded.
“Impressive.”
The tired arctic dragon didn’t bother answering, he wasn’t impressed with what he did, and instead scoffed at the comment, walking closer to his owner and rubbing a wing along his side. Darsh was crouched next to Lorna, checking her wing.
“I don’t think she’ll be able to fly for quite some time.”
“Consider yourself lucky.” Darko said.
“Indeed,” Nolan continued, “you’re out of the fight.”
“Bull.” Darsh muttered.
“Consider yourself lucky.”
Due to Lorna’s condition, they had to wait hours for a relief squad to arrive, who then escorted all of them – on foot – back to the city.
“We should still make it on time for our initial run towards the capital. Scouts report that the enemy has already become aware of our intent, and has set up small forces to intercept us along the way, hoping to pick our wave off before we’re reinforced.” Darko explained.
Wonderful… Fercy thought, looking back towards the Appalenes longingly.
“And don’t worry.” he continued. “After the war you can go back up to Rin’Tsu and make dozens of little arctic-vulcan hybrids.”
That made Fercy blush, he had never thought that far ahead.
“Who?” Lorna asked.
Darko laughed, although humans lacked the ear for the language of the dragons, he found her immediate response amusing.
“You know Rin’Tsu?” Nolan’s dragon asked.
Fercy glared at Darko while answering, “Yes.”
“How well?” he asked, grinning.
“Shut up. We sparred and that was it.” Fercy hissed.
Lorna didn’t say anything.
“Those vulcan dragons… they’re tough.” he continued. “I wouldn’t wanna try getting on top of – “
“Siege! Shut up!” Lorna interrupted.
“No seriously, they’ve got spikes everywhere; they’re born in harsh conditions and are terrifying fighters. They’re bred for it.”
“I doubt they have spikes everywhere.” Lorna argued.
“They don’t.” Fercy confirmed.
“And how would you know!” Lorna exclaimed.
“It – it would lack logic. Why? What?”
“What do you mean? What are you implying? What would lack logic Fercius?” Lorna asked, noticeably annoyed.
“Well logically…” Fercius tried to avoid certain words of certain places doing certain things. “Let’s look at the neck.” What a luscious, beautiful neck. “It has spikes along the back going down towards the spine. Most likely to avoid getting choked out by someone like Siege over here.”
“It’s true.” he confessed, “I used to have a vulcan female friend way back when, we didn’t get far, but when I tried messing with her neck I was sore for days.”
“What did you do?” Lorna asked.
“Dragons bite.”
They did bite. Fercy remembered. Good times, good times…
“Hmph.”
“Why the long face Lorna? Haven’t you ever had a mate?” Siege asked.
“I have quite a few years before I start being paired.”
“Doesn’t mean you haven’t been in love.” he replied. “I remember my first love.”
“Must have been ages ago.” Lorna sighed.
“I’m not that old. But I remember it being before I was ever paired. She was… arabus, quite a rare breed of dragon to come across near the forests.”
“What was her name?” Fercy asked.
He struggled, “I don’t remember. I did, I promised myself I wouldn’t forget. Damn.”
“It’ll come back to you.”
“Was she nice?”
“She looked good, but her personality was the polar opposite. Being young at the time, I let her have her way, even if it meant us getting thrown clear of any social status.” Siege laughed, “We didn’t have many friends, but regardless of how irritable she was, she still loved me. We always had each other.”
“I’m trying to imagine a cuddly Siege.” Lorna said. “Nope… can’t.”
Fercy laughed. “How long were you two together?”
“Three months… love fades. And once the feelings governing our relationship were gone… well it was her feelings. I left for several days to train up in the Appalenes, before I joined a battle contingent. When I returned she wasn’t the same anymore. She treated me like everyone else, so I just avoided her for a bit, thinking she was having a bad time. I always looked forward to the day I’d see her, but it was pointless, she didn’t care about me anymore. It was only a week.”
“What a bitch…” Lorna said sympathetically.
Siege looked over to Fercius.
“Women eh? Loyalty isn’t their virtue.” Siege said, nudging him with one of his massive wings.
Rinny won’t forget about me. Fercy thought to himself.
“Incoming!”
A flame burst hit the terrain several meters away from him, knocking him off his feet.
“Charge!” Darko exclaimed, running with the soldiers.
Archers began to fire flamed arrows at their column. They were outnumbered.
“That was a quick transition.” Siege said. “Get behind me you two.”
A flame burst ricocheted off Siege, and he returned fire with his own, demolishing an entire row of archers.
“Where are the dragons firing from?” Lorna asked.
“There.” Siege pointed, there were a bunch of rocks lined up, with dragons peeking out and firing from behind them.
“Let’s go!” Lorna exclaimed.
They began to fly towards the rocks, dodging the incoming flame bursts. The few arrows hitting them simply bounced off.
Fercius roared and flamestruck one of the rocks, incinerating it and shooting the molten spall out towards the dragon taking cover behind it, blinding him. Fercy lunged for him, biting into his neck and ripping, it was raining blood now, and Fercius set his sights on the surprised dragon next to him, a flameburst being prepared in his mouth. Fercy pulsed himself above him as the dragon fired at him, the burst missing and flying off into the atmosphere. Fercy dived, destroying the dragon, crushing his cerebrum as he plowed and pummeled him down into the ground. Fercy’s blow skin was now covered in blood, and he took a moment to analyze his surroundings.
“Die you monster!”
Someone stabbed a sword into his rear hind leg. He yelped and yanked himself clear of the ground, hovering several feet above the swordsmen, whose sword was still stuck inside Fercy’s leg. Scar landed on top of the swordsmen, savagely slashing away at him with his front claws.
The pain in Fercy’s leg was gone, and he could see the bloody sword flying through the air, Trifoot had removed it and thrown it at the incoming army of enemy soldiers, three men deep and ten men wide. The sword struck one down.
“29 to go.” Trifoot said.
“Nice throw…”
Siege, Lorna, Trifoot and Scar hovered next to Fercius now, watching the inbound soldiers.
“Dragons – kills the archers!” Darko yelled. “We’ll handle the swordsmen.”
Fercius backtracked the logical trail of one of the arrows, leading them straight to 50 archers. It wasn’t much of a fight, and the five of them quickly massacred what remained of the armies ranged units.
During this fight, Fercius had been worried about Darko, never seeing him fought dismounted, but as he flew towards him, seeing the pile of dead enemy soldiers…
Confidence increased, and they kept attacking, battle after battle, they cut down the waves of defenses, occupying several cities.
Days passed, their army reinforced, there were now hundreds of dragons, thousands of soldiers. There was no more fear; fear was what the inexperienced rear line felt. They knew how to fight now, they knew when to charge, when to wait, and most of all, they knew how to listen. Their wounds were minor, knowing how to glance blows such that their armor deflected the shots. The enemy lancers made lancing difficult, so Fercy quickly learnt how to defend his rider while dismounted, staying very close to him as they charged enemy lines. Unless a unit had range, Fercy fought alongside his master. He began to forget that it was other lives he was extinguishing, other dragons that he was killing. With the five of them working as one unit, they became invincible, merciless. Fercius’ flamestrike knocked down any enemy fortification, while Siege was able to maim any other massive dragon that tried to attack them.
Fercius became more and more proficient with his flame strike, and now he was able to cut down an entire line of enemies, and as they panicked, Lorna, Trifoot, and Scar prodded away at the ones with their guard down, slowly cutting them down, by the time the main force arrived, the smaller squads were almost completely destroyed.
The closer they went to the capital, the more the enemy seemed to adapt. Swords were replaced by spears, and archers were now mechanized ballistae that cut down entire lines. The ballistae were slow and bulky weapons, but when deployed, they were devastating, being able to turn nearly 180 degrees up into the air, they had a full line of fire, and only needed two people to aim, the third turning the lever that primes the bolt and fires the massive arrow.
The monotony of combat ended that day, as they neared the last city they would have to take before the capital.
“Dragons stay near the flanks.” Darko ordered. “They have 37 ballistae set up along the outskirts of the city, with catapults near the plateau.”
“The fog is low today, the dragons should fly up past it and dive down towards the ballistae before they can be turned to attack.” Nolan suggested.
“We haven’t seen a single one of their dragons.” Darsh said, for all we know they may be up there as well.
“We’re already in range of the city. Dragons rise, get past the fog and attack.”
All the dragons, including Fercius and his friends, beat themselves up past the fog, traveling towards the city. Ballistae rounds began to cut through the fog, swatting a few of the dragons.
“They’re firing too accurately for blind fire.” Siege said.
“That’s because there’s magic guiding them.” Fercy said. “He’s here.”
“Who’s here?” Scar asked.
The other dragons were charging.
“Let’s go!” Lorna exclaimed.
Fercius shook his head. “No. They know what we’re going to do, the ballistae are already prepared.”
“How can they know?”
“They know because I know.” Fercius said, feeling the mage’s eye monitoring his mind.
“We’re going in low.” Fercy said, diving.
The four dragons dived after him. They had half a kilometer to travel like this, and he knew they were spotted, but there was nothing the ballistae could do.
“Siege, knock those catapults down, rest of us are going for the ballistae.” Fercy ordered.
Siege broke off from their charge and pummeled into one of the catapults, one of the sinews supporting it snapped while it was primed, and the catapult did a sharp out of control spin, cutting down all the men that were operating it. Siege then flameburst the other catapult, the sparks from the fire igniting the other, and the other.
“They’re wood, use your fire.”
In a few minutes, the ballistae were up in smoke, with Darko’s army nearing the perimeter. The artillery outside the city walls had been destroyed, but there were still catapults firing from the town square.
“Where’s the rest of the dragons?” Scar asked.
“I dunno, let’s go, we have to take out the rest of these damn wooden beasts, after that we can worry about dragons.” Fercy replied, flying towards the plaza.
It was a large city, and there were lines of spearmen all along the roads leading towards the center, all formed up like hedgehogs to avoid the wraith of the dragons. Wearing armor and shields resistant to fire. Fercy neared the catapults at the plaza, they weren’t moving, the plaza was empty.
“These catapults are unmanned.” Siege said, flamebursting one.
“Let’s get back to our lance – AY”
There was a small puff of blood as a ballistae round cut through her, making her crash land on top of the central plaza near the city’s main building. There was a man Fercy knew too well standing there. Everyone but Fercy dived down after Lorna, making sure she was alright. Fercy just stared.
“Fercius.”
“What do you want from me?”
“You already gave me what I wanted.”
“What? I don’t understand?”
There was no response, the mage walked into the fortified building. Fercius looked above him, and saw the fog erupt with falling dragons, their dragons. Had I not destroyed the ballistae? The dragons rained down on the city, falling on top of houses and spears alike.
“I did destroy the ballistae.” Fercy said to himself, seeing a fleet of dragons following the lifeless dragons down. They were all Vulcan. The R and B royal guard. Fercy landed to warn the others, but saw a tear rolling down Scar’s eye. Trifoot comforted him, while Siege simply looked away.
“She called for you before she died.” Scar said.
It hit him harder than any ballistae bolt.
“She loved ya.”
“What?” Fercy asked, his voice breaking. “What are you talking about? No…”
“Well lads…” Siege said, putting his wings around all of them, “let’s take out that fleet of blood-thirsty vulcans for her eh?”
“She… I would have come but I –“
“It’s okay Fercius.” Trifoot said quietly.
“Lads…” Siege interrupted.
Everyone but Siege had tears welling up in their eyes.
“God we’re doomed.” Siege muttered.
Thermal sense told Fercius they were 30 seconds away.
“We’ve got less than a minute lads, she was a fine girl. Let’s do this.” Siege continued.
They all fired a burst of flame at the incoming dragons, and the dragons fired back. There were at least 30 of them.
“Incoming.” Fercy reported, his voice still weak, “We’re dodging in five.”
They all took deep breaths.
“Go!” Fercy yelled
All the dragons scattered, and Fercius took one last look at Lorna before the flames ignited the plaza below them. They were in melee range now, and Fercy could hear the sounds of combat as claws clashed.
Scar was already overwhelmed and was knocked to the fiery ground below them, he cried out as they carved into him.
They were going to die. Trifoot charged some of the dragons trying to kill Scar, but was knocked down himself.
The situation seemed surreal. Fercius had never expected death to actually come upon either one of them, but here it was. He thought he’d be more scared, he thought he’d feel more. But all he felt was a cold anger – a mechanical hate. He now knew what a dragon truly was, and what they were capable of – what he was capable of. There was no more fear, whether he died in the next moment or not did not matter anymore, he just wanted to fight – to destroy, until there was nothing left to fight or destroy.
He roared with the hate and lethality of something that had nothing left to lose, there was nothing more supreme than death, nothing more testing, and he was going to pass this test. If he dies, he dies a dragon.
“It’s been a pleasure flying with you mate.” Siege said.
“Siege!” Fercy said. “One last thing before we go down.”
“What’s that?”
He motioned at the fortified building.
Siege grinned, they began to charge, and Fercius readied a final flamestrike.
“If we go down we may as well take their headquarters with us!” Fercy yelled.
They hit before they should have.
A flash.
“What the – “
A shockwave shattered the air around them, knocking everything back and extinguishing every flame. The last thing he saw was the building vanishing.