Dragon Alliance Dark Storm : Dark Storm (68 page)

The Draden Weir rangers rose and flew in right behind them. They all heard Valianth’s signal roar to teleport with all the other eight dragons of the wing echoing in a deafening reply. Gallanth also returned the roar, confirming the intended destination, which he telepathically sent to Mkel. The weir company formed close to Gallanth, for he would teleport them, allowing them to save the power of their dragonstones for the fight. Soon, the aerial legion was airborne, as were the other eleven weirs. The skies were very crowded, but order quickly arose from chaos as all respective commands began to form up.

As all of the Draden Weir flying mounts flew in closer to the large gold dragon, the Capital Wing began to fade and teleported out of sight, taking the aerial legion with them. Gallanth and Mkel focused on the location of the battle and initiated the teleportation process. Deless had the thirty s of the ranger platoon quickly form in closer to Gallanth and the weir council. Heathiret and Caraeth were just behind them. The familiar blue light circle appeared directly in front of them as they flashed out of sight. They emerged behind the Capital Wing, reoriented, and headed downward to join the fight.

The embattled Alliance Atlean fleet stationed at the city’s port was now fighting for their lives. They firmly engaged the numerically superior Morgathian warships but could not stop the black-sailed troop ships from landing at the city’s port. The Atlean Legion was fighting the Morgathian landing force of men and orcs and initially was able to stem the incoming tide; however, they were now getting pushed back under the crush of the sheer weight of the invading army backed up by their chromatic dragons and manticores. The Atlean Weir Wing, under Bkert and Rapierth, were sending several chromatic dragons spiraling into the sea, but they were drastically outnumbered by the hundreds of blacks and greens reinforced by three wings of red and blue dragons that had teleported in.

As the Capital Wing, aerial legion, and Draden Weir emerged over the city and announced their arrival with a combined roar, they immediately fired a barrage of sunburst beams, breath weapons, spells, energy bolts, and arrows at any chromatic dragon within range. A loud cheer came from the embattled legion and fleet below. The initial barrage sent six black and green dragons spiraling to their deaths. The Capital Wing then swept down toward the squadrons of red and blue dragons, while the aerial legion dispersed and began to engage the enemy flying forces heading toward the city. Mkel and Gallanth turned with their group and made their way into the heart of the fray beside the Atlean Weir dragons.

“May the Creator bless you, for you are a sight for desperate eyes, my large friend,” Mkel heard Rapierth hurriedly roar over to Gallanth.

“Glad to be here as well, my friend. Now form your wing over the city, Rapierth! The red dragons are mine and Valianth’s problem now,” Gallanth replied as he fired a sunburst beam into a black dragon, which Mkel followed up with an explosive-tipped bolt that was enough to finish off the injured midnight-colored chromatic. Rapierth and Bkert nodded to Gallanth, swung around, and called their metallics to form over the city to defend the legion from aerial attacks. Mkel saw Bkert smile at him before they flew too far to distinguish facial expressions. Mkel was glad they had arrived in time to prevent his whole weir from being decimated. Six-to-one odds they could handle, but at fifty to one, they could not last long.

Gallanth then flew out over the harbor, followed by Jodem, Toderan, Dekeen, and Lupek with Caraeyeth close behind. Mkel directed the rest of the rangers under Deless to move in and support Atlean Weir until they could rejoin them. They then saw three red dragons diving on an Alliance warship and gave immediate pursuit. As Mkel cocked his crossbow and placed a mithril explosive-tipped bolt magazine in place, he signaled to his companions to attack the outer two reds while he and Gallanth took on the largest one in the center.

Gallanth’s open jaws fired a plasma fireball followed up by a sunburst beam, both of which struck the red dragon’s shield, shattering it with the combined destructive power. Mkel took careful aim, placing the crosshair of his crossbow’s sight into the illuminated circle in the scope’s field of view to adjust for lead, and fired his most powerful type of bolt. It struck the red on the back above its wing. The mithril-tipped bolt sliced into the red dragon’s heavily armored hide and exploded, knocking him out of formation and away from the ship.

In the meantime, Jodem fired a disruption beam at the left red dragon, which severely weakened its shield. Dekeen shot a magically empowered arrow out of his bow, followed up by a barrage of nine more in rapid succession. Lupek maneuvered in and threw his lightning javelin, which pierced the last of the chromatic’s defensive shield. The red dragon quickly disengaged from his strafing run on the Alliance warship below and whirled around with two abrupt undulations of his wings and started to pursue the ranger-mounted. Lupek immediately dove to gain speed and spurred Razorclaw to head out to sea as fast as he could.

The red dragon that had been hit by Gallanth and Mkel turned up but was struck again by a follow-up sunburst beam square in the center of his chest. As the injured chromatic reeled back, Gallanth dove toward him and Mkel fired another mithril-tipped bolt, which found its mark on the red’s underbelly, exploding with great force. Gallanth hit the red dragon in midair. There was a loud thud as the two colossal draconic bodies met. Gallanth sank his front claws into the red dragon’s left forearm and chest and his fangs into its neck. His huge, razor-sharp teeth with the yard long front fangs tore into the chromatic dragon’s crimson neck ripping out a large chunk of flesh. The red dragon let out a muffled roar as his dying moan. It did muster enough strength to swipe Gallanth on his chest with his left front claw, drawing blood, but the damage was minimized because of the dragon’s weakened state.

Gallanth let the dying red go, and it started to plummet toward the sea. Just as he bellowed out his victory roar and prayer, a green dragon dove on the hovering gold, spitting a stream of fiery acid toward his lower back.

“Gallanth, to your back!” Ordin shouted as Gallanth instinctively jolted upward with a strong heft of his wings, the flaming acid stream barely missing his back but partially hitting his tail. He then slammed the green dragon’s wing with the hardened broad plate on his tail, half severing the forest-colored membrane. Ordin’s mighty hammer spun toward the green’s flank and struck it with a thunderous clap. As the green began to spin out of control toward the sea, Gallanth dove after it and engulfed it in a cone of fire. This combined counterattack severely wounded the green dragon, but Gallanth did not have the time to finish it and broke off to rejoin the main battle. Gallanth’s tail had been partially hit by the acid stream, as marked by a five-foot-wide acid burn that smoked from the harsh bile. He swooped down close to the surf and dipped his tail into the water to dilute the acid and then started to gain altitude to get back into the fight.

As the green dragon that Gallanth had sent plummeting downward crashed into the sea, Lupek and Razorclaw were frantically trying to gain speed away from the pursuing red dragon that was closing to breath-weapon range. Dekeen on his giant eagle mount was lining up behind the determined red dragon, powering up his bow to deliver a slaying arrow, which he could only do once per day.

His bow Elm was shimmering in the pulsating reddish aura emanating from the dragonstone as he knocked a mithril-tipped arrow and drew back the string, taking careful aim at the undulating dull-crimson-colored dragon. He whispered a quick elf prayer and let the glowing arrow loose. It struck the huge red dragon’s back. The red immediately arched sharply as the incredible power of the arrow transferred into its body. The life in the crimson dragon’s eyes then began to fade as it started to spiral downward; it’s huge, blue-tinged reddish wings flopping lifelessly as it crashed into a Morgathian galley, ripping the ship in half.

The red dragon that Jodem had fired upon whirled on its tail and started to pursue Jodem’s eagle mount. Toderan dove down on the red’s back side and delivered a critical blow with his holy avenger sword, leaving a large gash in the red’s hindquarters. The sword was capable of inflicting a great deal of damage with its enhanced power. His winged horse kept diving and sped away. Alvanch’s speed proved critical, as the red turned in pursuit and breathed a cone of fire that just missed the flying steed.

Jodem then fired a chain lightening spell from his staff that pummeled the pursuing dragon with twenty rapid bolts, finishing it off. The charred body of the red streamed toward the surf and crashed with a thunderous impact and a large plume of water. Jodem did not like to use one of his most powerful spells this early in a battle, but the red chromatics had to be taken out, for they were the greatest threat.

“Is everybody all right?” Mkel spoke into his seeing crystal. All of his comrades responded in turn, “Form back up on Gallanth, and we will go back to the city to help Rapierth and his weir. The Capital Wing is pursuing the other groups of red dragons,” Mkel ordered. They all rejoined the gold dragon, who was now heading inland.

A fierce naval battle was still taking place below. The Atlean Weir’s fleet commodore, upon seeing the ten-to-one numerical superiority of just the first wave of the Morgathian armada, had lashed five of his galleys bow to stern across the Atlean port entrance in a blockade fashion. This enabled them to bring the greatest possible number of their ballistae and catapults to bear. He then directed ten of their twelve remaining warships to sail out to meet the Morgathian fleet in two five-ship wedge formations. They sliced into the black-sailed vessels firing every siege engine battery as fast as they could while trying not to get entangled in a decisive ramming of an enemy ship.

They did an excellent job of disrupting the invading ships, sending dozens to the bottom or at least setting them ablaze and rendering them disabled; however, there were too many and several sailed through. The Alliance galleys had managed to stop the first fifteen Morgathian and Shidanese ships cold, repelling or destroying them with their powerful catapults and ballistae.

The Morgathians then changed tactics and sent ten ships to ram the galleys, three of which succeeded, and they were now in a ship-to-ship fight. The naval infantry on the Alliance ships were fighting the Morgathian and Shidanese sailors as well as their orc mercenaries. The naval infantry troops were a tough lot, all armed with a spear, a shortened broadsword for close-in fighting, a large wooden shield that could also be used as floatation device when necessary, a curved dagger, a metal helmet with a visor, a short composite bow with twenty arrows, and banded flexible armor that could be discarded quickly if they had to swim. They did not know the meaning of retreat and would fight tenaciously defending their ship or on a seaborne assault. As orcs and enemy sailors attempted to scamper aboard the three stricken galleys, they either met an arrow in the chest or were hacked down.

The commodore had left two warships behind the galleys as a reserve, which was now committed as the Morgathian vessels were slipping through the blockade. They became decisively engaged and were also fighting at close quarters while still firing at other enemy ships. The Morgathian ships landing at the docks were met with a fusillade of arrows, siege engine missiles, and spell and land dragon fire. The Atlean Weir Legion had repulsed all attacks until the chromatic dragons began strafing runs on the legion’s positions. These breaks in the Alliance lines allowed some of the Morgathian forces to penetrate through, and an open melee broke out on the docks with the legion’s infantry and cavalry.

“Mkel, Gallanth, the next wave of Morgathian ships are preparing to charge the galley line,” Jodem said.

“Let’s give them a little welcome before we go after those blacks and greens. Jodem, take those two ships on the far left, Dekeen, Lupek, and Toderan take the center ship, Gallanth and I will hit the three on the right,” Mkel said into his seeing crystal. Their small formation split as Jodem’s giant golden eagle dove down and left, Gallanth veered right, and Dekeen, Lupek, and Toderan maneuvered to attack the center ship.

Jodem readied two spells that would do the most structural damage to a wooden ship. His staff glowed from its dragonstone as a meteor spell fired forth from it. Six glowing fiery projectiles streaked toward and hit the ship, where they burst with incredible power, rocking it with the massive explosions and almost scuttling it immediately. He streaked over the burning vessel to the next and waved his staff, casting an incendiary cloud spell, which immediately set the topside ablaze as well as any sailor or orc on the deck. This ship would burn to the waterline in a matter of minutes. As they were still flying low, the orc archers managed to fire a volley of arrows at the large eagle. Luckily, they were all stopped by Jodem’s magic shield, which took five direct hits before the fiery cloud settled onto the ship and starting taking its toll. Orcs and sailors started to fall from the heat and flames.

Dekeen began to fire his arrows in rapid succession, carefully aiming at the rigging on the ship’s masts. His bow was temporarily drained of power after the slaying arrow, but he did manage to drop the main sail from its mast. Lupek hurled a cluster of six dragons’ fire grenades, as did Toderan, all of which burst on the ship’s bow and deck, immediately starting several fires and also striking individual orcs and Morgathian sailors.

Gallanth dove on the first ship and let loose a plasma fireball; the fiery sphere almost blew it out of the water. He then back-winged and breathed out a cone of fire on the second ship, setting the whole topside ablaze. On the third ship, he cast a multiple fireball spell, sending six flaming projectiles hurtling toward the vessel along with three successive explosive-tipped bolts from Mkel’s crossbow. The black-sailed galley was rocked by the multiple explosions. Severely damaged, it started to list heavily to one side while burning intensely.

Caraeyeth flew down from behind Gallanth and moved in close to the Morgathian galley behind the six that the Draden Weir group had just destroyed. She had to get relatively close to be able to cast her disruption spell, for she wanted to save her limited acid breath weapon blasts for the fight against the chromatics. As the copper dragon back-winged, she brought her front two clawed feet together and formed the glowing green sphere, which she sent hurtling toward the ship. The Morgathian ballistae gunners had been scrambling to fire at the dragon, as the copper was just in range of their archers. Caraeyeth’s magic shield had been taking hits from the couple dozen arrows without too much effort, but the larger spears were now striking with greater effect. The ball of disruption energy struck the side of the ship, causing a tremendous tremor; the wooden deck then exploded in a terrific concussion. The ship immediately started to take on water and list. An apprentice sorcerer fired an underpowered lightning bolt at Caraeyeth that glanced off her shield by her left wing tip.