PierceGrey
patreon
Chapter 299: Killing quickly
🕑 Added 2024-07-05 14:00:06 +0000 UTCThe sky filled with the sound of draconic fury, and Mason winced in his sacrificial bowl.
He kind of wished he had a pop reference to compare his situation to. All he could summon was something biblical, but that seemed a touch melodramatic. And probably blasphemous.
It wouldn't help him in any case. He stood there pretending to strain at loosely tied restraints, reminding himself that this was actually his plan. Maybe not his best plan. Maybe not even a good plan.
But still, it was a plan.
The dragon's body formed in silhouette in the grey clouds above, its wings outstretched, its tail swishing or maybe lower body waving back and forth. Then as before its head lowered and it dropped into a dive. Greenish blue scales emerged as the creature dropped straight towards the tower.
Mason's heart started doing a little jig, and he really hoped the creature stopped long enough to stare or monologue or just enjoy his prize. The plan didn't involve a sudden and bloody fight to the death. The birdmen needed a minute.
But the creature kept on diving. When it entered range it took everything in Mason's will not to throw off his restraints, summon his bow, and start shooting. Instead he pulled at the chains, pretending to be bound and helpless as he growled up at the dragon.
Finally, the thing turned. It pulled up and stretched out its wings, beating them slowly as it hung in the air and stared. Then...shook, and maybe a cackling sound not so different than hyena. Mason decided it was laughing.
"Betrayed?" the creature hissed, as if speaking were difficult. "Trickery?" It made a rattle-snake kind of noise and hissed again as if annoyed. "Trickery, I think." It calmed. "No matter. You will die. And the city will cower. Tell me where you’re from, creature, and I will kill you quickly."
Mason winced, then wiggled out of his chains and tossed down the ropes. He activated Hunter's Mark and held back the sigh when he saw the thickness of all those scales. The head was slightly more vulnerable, and of course the wings. But that was about it.
"I have a counter offer,” he shouted. “Leave forever, and I won't bring you down and end you."
He hoped he sounded calm, but didn't entirely feel that way. The dragon watched without blinking, just slowly flapping its giant wings as it stared and stared.
"I'm going to destroy this city," it said, a humming sound and smell Mason instantly recognized as arcane magic. "I'm going to..."
That was more than enough talking. Mason summoned his bow and decided on ice-based broadheads, but first loosed a bullet-headed Powershot at the thing's face before starting on the wings.
His Powershot streaked like a bolt of lightning, hitting the thing's cheek just a hair beneath its eye and shattering.
Mason cursed himself, torn between wishing he'd taken a little longer to aim, but also knowing he'd had to move fast. Still, the shot knocked off a scale and left a smear of green blood.
Mason grinned, and started shooting at the wings.
The dragon screeched and roared, but it didn't move, and Mason realized it was channeling. He kept shooting at top speed, arrows tearing holes in the wings as Seamus stepped out from another floor of the tower and started loosing flaming projectiles.
Mason tried not to watch the sky for bird-men, knowing there was still a chance they'd be too afraid or betray him and not help at all.
The sky filled with little dots. For a moment Mason thought it was the birdmen until he realized they were glowing.
"Die!" the dragon hissed. The little glowing dots glowed like embers and roared towards the tower, then the dragon inhaled, and breathed.
Mason's senses practically screamed in warning. The breath was bad, but expected. The spell was something worse. He jumped from the top of the tower towards Seamus, grabbed the Irishman on his platform, then leapt straight off.
"Shiiiit!" Seamus called in his arms as the dragon's breath and magic started to strike. Explosions wracked the tower, whooshing flame and some kind of sizzling sound filling the air as Mason and Seamus fell. Rebecca was in there, too, but Mason hoped low enough she'd be safe.
"Float!" Mason yelled, then let go and dropped on his own.
For a moment he thought the fire wizard was too surprised to use his power, but just before he struck the ground he stopped in mid-air and let out a breath. Mason had no such luxury.
He hit the hard ground and did his best to roll. But his increasingly superhuman body hardly even hurt, and there was a big dent in the packed earth where he'd struck.
He activated Aspect of the Cheetah and ran through the city shooting, trying not to look at the dragon's destruction in his wake. The breath and magic exploded all around him, lighting buildings on fire and ripping structures apart.
Fortunately, the prince had cleared out civilians in a large radius around the tower. But who knew how far the damage would spread...
Mason saw more and more holes in the creature's wings. He was mostly out-running the magic and breath, changing directions, hiding from sight, running and shooting again. The dragon seemed too angry to care, or else unconcerned with the damage. Mason really hoped it was the former.
He tried a Crippling Strike for science but rolled his eyes when the effect did nothing. It had been a great power at low level but officially seemed almost useless against targets that mattered. It was an inappropriate moment for random thoughts, but he hoped one day he could swap a power or two.
The house next to him exploded.
Chunks of wood and stone flew everywhere, all shrouded in dust and random debris. A piece smashed into Mason's chest and face, leaving him a bit battered and bloody but still standing. He just kept running and shooting.
The birdmen should have arrived by now.
Mason was about to circle back and make sure Becky and Seamus were alright before he saw one of the dots in the sky looked less lustrous. More emerged behind it, and the dots descended and flew straight at the dragon with little lines aimed down. Mason grinned.
As intended, the dragon was focused entirely on the city. And possibly on Mason.
Wave after wave of its magic rained down to burn and blast apart wood and stone. Until the birds struck they had no idea what effect they'd actually have. Would the weapons pierce the dragon's wings? Or would their spears strike and fail, all their momentum left to bounce into the wings uselessly?
They didn't have to wait long.
Still the dragon's fury was directed below. It had even descended slightly, following Mason's path through the city as it screeched and thundered. He could feel blood dripping down his chin. His legs and back throbbed with scorch marks, and he could smell burning hair and flesh.
But he managed to look up as dozens of the bird soldiers struck in silence. One by one they tucked their wings and dove into their strike. One by one they burst through the relatively thin flesh on the dragon's wings, piercing through behind their spears to drop down and spread their wings again.
The dragon howled in rage. The first few escaped with surprise, but the dragon turned its breath and some of its magic at the flying soldiers, even clawing and biting at the closest.
It ripped and blasted several from the sky, and Mason stopped and kept shooting, trying to regain its attention.
He failed. The dragon turned all its anger on the birdmen, plucking several more from the sky. But its badly damaged wings were faltering.
As it flapped, Mason could see the damaged holes tearing further. With another shriek of outrage, the dragon began to descend even as it tried to rise. Its head turned as if to inspect the damage, and it tried coasting, but the damage had been done.
With a final roar the beast abandoned its attempt and aimed at a burning section of the city to land. Mason the ranger and druid had heard the slight variation in its roar—enough to understand what he was hearing.
He smiled and ran towards the fire, hoping the others had been watching and were doing the same.
‘The Destroyer’ was afraid.
