Book 5 - Chapter 24
Davi played his song. Brin wanted to make a request; the Doom theme would feel really cool right now, but his senses in the Wyrd were telling him to leave it to Davi to decide. He was the expert on that, after all.
As soon as he recognized the song, he knew it was the right decision. That was the Adventurer's Anthem, a song that complained about all the trials and inconveniences of a dangerous life on the road, set to peppy and upbeat dancing music. It fit the mood of the men pretty well. They weren't grim or angry. They were on vacation and they were all looking forward to fighting that dragon. Davi's song worked with that emotion, bolstering their confidence.
He also started putting strategy into his song, pushing them to spread out so that they'd all be able to engage the monster at the same time. That was the correct general idea, but the specifics weren't all the same as the strategy Brin had put together from [Battle Sense], and sometimes Davi's ideas clashed with the orders he was already giving the men through their HUDs.
Before he could react, the dragon struck.
It was faster than it should be at that size. Something the size of a bus shouldn’t be able to turn that quickly. The chaos still pumping through the dragon's veins hadn't totally settled into reality and it didn't totally agree with ideas like "mass" and "inertia". Its ideas were more centered on concepts like "hatred" and "destruction."
They got Rhun into place first and he stopped its initial charge flat out. The dragon recovered quickly and flowed to his side, where it delivered a mighty kick to Rhun's side that knocked him to the ground. Aeron and Anwir stabbed the beast from the side, and though both their weapons met flesh it didn't seem to slow the dragon. It jumped back, repositioned, and then darted towards the smallest [Knight], Brych. Brych executed a perfect dodge that took him far out of range of the dragon's claws, but Govannon behind him stood his ground.
Govannon held an odd-looking pose, a counter-dueling thing that made him ready to respond to a charge without looking like that's what he was doing. It was worthless. The chaos dragon knocked him down and trampled him. It ran past then turned to tear into him again, but Meredydd jumped onto its back. The [Knight of Arms] might have delivered a powerful wound if he hadn't been using his weird scythe thing. As it was, he left hardly a scratch before the dragon pushed him off and dashed away again.
The whole time, poor Hedrek and Cowl chased the dragon as it zipped around the knights-at-arms like a gigantic Marksi, never letting their hardest hitters catch up.
Instead, it was Marksi who attacked next. He jumped up to the hamstring on the dragon's left hind leg and bit down hard. The chaos dragon ignored him.
The men charged in, and every time, the dragon pushed them back or simply darted away.
It was a complete clown show. His men had spent all this time training to fight against soldiers; they had all the wrong instincts for a giant beast. It wasn't all bad news, though.
They hadn't managed to wound it, but it couldn't seem to get through their armor. And despite saying he wouldn’t fight, Mal Onion jumped in and out of combat as needed. He used a chain and hook to move himself forwards and back with great agility, sort of like a good version of Meredydd’s weird weapon. He wasn’t particularly strong, but he always jumped in right where he was needed and had a preternatural ability to dodge the dragon’s attacks before it even started moving.
With everyone together, they’d created a tense stalemate. Still, Brin needed to turn things around.
He created a bunch of threads to give Davi an HUD. Rather than using words or text that might distract him from his song, he just put a bunch of arrows around the men in Davi's view to give him an idea of the orders Brin was already sending his men. Davi nodded to show he understood, and the song immediately changed to match.
Since he was doing it on the fly, making Davi an HUD was a complex illusion and it cost him a conscious thread and a bunch of directed threads to manage. If he needed to join the fighting, he'd have to drop it, but he figured it was still a better use of his talents.
"Oh, let me in on that," said Cid. True, as a [Knight Captain] he would also probably be more effective if he were helping to give orders. But Brin could tell that's not at all where he wanted to be.
"Too many cooks in the kitchen," said Brin. "Go kill the dragon."
Cid didn't argue, and dashed forward, sword in hand. The dragon danced from one [Knight] to another, never letting them group up and never getting pinned down. When Cid arrived it gave him the same attention, but Cid fought differently. He used wide, obvious blows that covered all his angles and didn't leave any openings. It wouldn't have worked against another [Knight], but the dragon was driven back. The momentary setback gave Cowl the time to arrive.
Cowl's maul took the dragon straight in the chest. It landed with an audible whoomph and the sheer weight drove the creature back, straight into Hedrek.
The chaos dragon adjusted quickly, lashing out at Hedrek with quick slashes of his claws. Hedrek drove straight in, letting the blows land on his armor and delivering punishing slashes from his greatsword that left furrows in the dragon's flesh. There was no blood; the chaos hadn't decided yet if it was really going to bleed.
"Like that!" Brin told Davi. "Tell them to stop trying to fight fancy. Ordinary, direct posture only."
Davi's song only paused a second as he adjusted to the new instructions.
Screaming in pain and rage, the dragon jumped. A shockwave of air pushed both Cowl and Hedrek to the ground. It floated longer than should be possible with a natural jump, and then filled its lungs with air.
Breath attack! Get back! Davi commanded through his song, without Brin needing to warn him.
The dragon breathed out a plume of black fog that hit the ground with physical force, crashing and breaking the earth. The men dodged out of the way, so the only one who was really in danger was Marksi who climbed up the other dragon's body to hide right behind its head.
The chaos dragon reached for Marksi. In a panic, Marksi said, <Laser!>
A short beam of glowing rainbow light struck the chaos dragon in the back of the head. It fell to the ground, landing hard, its plume of smoke guttering out.
Marksi jumped off and then turned around. He drew himself up proudly, and delivered another <Laser>. This time, the chaos dragon caught it in its mouth. It absorbed the energy and began to glow.
The men all charged the dragon, closing a circle around it. The chaos dragon gave a weird little smile. A smirk. Thirty seconds old, and the dragon was smirking at them in contempt.
<Erupt!> it roared. Bolts of lightning spilled from the dragon. The energy passed through the armor and burned the bodies of the men underneath. It drove them all stumbling to the ground.
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The music stopped, and even Brin, a dozen yards away, was stunned. That word in the Language had more weight to it than anything he'd ever heard barring Lumina's spells. Just hearing it lent him new understanding, but that shock of information had disrupted his mind and forced all his threads to return.
Davi began to play again, and the men rose to their feet. First Hedrek, then the rest.
The chaos dragon, seeing that magic had more effect than physical attacks, drew in another breath. This time it blasted a stream of magma straight at Cowl. Rhun dashed into place just in time, blocking the entire stream with his greatshield.
Cowl, still bearing hundreds of pounds of weight from his oversized armor and weapon, leapt straight over Rhun and brought his maul down straight on top of the dragon's head. It left a grievous wound, but the dragon didn't slow. It leapt back, then quickly slithered around to try to corner Brych again.
Brin thought about resummoning his threads to start giving orders again, but Davi had quickly adjusted and had that more or less handled. That left Brin free. He didn't want to leave his position, because now that the dragon was throwing magic around, Brin's morphic shield was needed to defend the wagon and civilians against shrapnel. But that didn't mean he couldn't help.
He summoned a spear of glass, and started pumping magic into it.
"<Spear, Swift Violence, Cutting Anger, Summon!>"
It was a bit nostalgic. Fighting as a knight didn't often leave him chances to sit back and prepare a big, devastating finishing move. Normally if their enemies gave them time to breathe it meant that the fight was already over.
"<Chipped, jagged, hurtful. Sharpen!>"
The [Knights] and dragon fought back and forth with quick, brutal combat. The chaos dragon apparently had decided that it didn't need to settle on any single element and used a bit of everything freely. Gales of wind, streams of water, shards of ice, and eruptions of earth. The men fought with everything they had, letting loose with Skills. Only [Knight's Charge] was off limits, because he was starting to see this was an endurance game. The chaos could be whatever it wanted, but there was a limited amount of energy and they'd find it eventually.
This was more like a fight in Earth RPG. Neither side was really in danger of going down with a single wound. Instead, they were slowly battering down each other's health pool until someone succumbed.
"<Mighty and Honorable, Implacable Purpose, Unstoppable Will, Imbue With My Intent.>"
The glass was holding as much magic as it could without shattering. Now he just needed an activation word. Normally, he'd go for <Fire>, but he wanted to throw the dragon's own word right back at him. "<Erupt!>"
His aim was drawn. With a crack like a starter pistol, the spear flew straight into the beast. The dragon saw it coming, maybe feeling the magic. It caught the spear in one claw, though not before it sunk a full foot into its chest.
It lashed out with its tail to give itself some space; the men were being extra careful of the tail because of the possible poison. Then it yanked the spear out and threw it, repurposing the glass magic inside for its own end. It fought with the spear the way that Brin would, as a free-floating satellite.
It was a mistake. Brin's summoned glass was no match for the [Knights'] good steel. Worse for the dragon, seizing the glass magic drained much of its remaining chaos. Every moment that it ran around in a body that didn't need blood, it bled magic. Every time it gave itself a new ability, it lost a chunk of its activating energy. He could feel it. The dragon was draining.
The dragon breathed out one last desperate attack. <Erupt!> It was the same pseudo lightning it had tried before, the one thing that it had seen actually hurt its enemy. Rhun activated his best defensive Skill, pushing most of the attack towards himself and absorbing it with its shield, though the entire Lance still took a bit of shock.
That was it. He could feel it. The dragon was unraveling. Its remaining chaos could no longer fuel its poor creation. Scales fell from its body, teeth melted from its mouth. Its tail fell off first, and then its back began to crumble.
"Stand back! We're done!" Cid shouted, and then men scrambled away. They weren't prepared for such a sudden turn, but they trusted their Prime.
Davi switched up his song immediately. He went back to the creation song. Brin wasn't sure why at first, but when he felt the intent in the music, he immediately understood and supplied his own illusionary music to assist.
Davi was asking the remaining shreds of chaos to remember what it was, what it had been turned into, and what it had turned itself into. It had been a mighty beast, a real beast, and if all its limbs hadn't quite been up to snuff, at least one organ was correct. Its most important organ. The beast core.
All the best monsters had one, so of course this one would. And even if some of its other limbs were falling apart, the core at least, was perfect. So said Davi, and even though the dragon still carried the resentment borne of the curse and its own fraudulent impressment into reality, it couldn't help but agree.
You have defeated: Cursed Chaos Dragon
Experience split between members of your party based on contribution.
The dragon's body melted. Every shred of remaining energy was drawn into the center.
Soon, all that was left was a perfect sphere, white and black like a three dimensional yin-yang.
Marksi pounced on it as soon as it was done cooking.
Cid was ready for this and plucked Marksi up by the scruff of his neck and pulled the core away with his other hand. Marksi growled in anger but Cid silenced him with a look.
Cid dropped the dragonling and said, "You will be still!"
Marksi glared rebelliously, but stayed in place.
Cid removed his helmet and his expression softened. "We are knights-at-arms, you understand. You must allow us our little ceremonies."
Marksi perked up, eyes wide.
"Men, we have loot here that cannot be split fairly, so it falls upon me to award it as I deem fit. We also have a member of our Lance here. He has fought at our side for many battles, and we have been awarded mighty steeds, hard armor, and glorious weapons. But our companion has been given very little. Thus, as the Prime of our Lance, I award this boon to him. Marksi, take your prize."
Cid bent down and Marksi reverently took the beast core from his hand. He held it high, and then men clapped and cheered.
Then the little dragon popped the core in his mouth and promptly fell asleep.
Davi burst out laughing, and Brin joined along. Relief that Marksi had actually listened to Cid this time, relief that Cid had actually given him the core. He was also worried, but took solace in the fact that this wasn't the weirdest thing that he'd ever seen Marksi eat. Dragons knew what was good for them.
The men were in high spirits and wanted to talk about the fight and boast on their own parts, but Cid made sure to strip them out of their armor and check for injuries. The two pages were awestruck and just as triumphant as the knights. Cati joined in the talk, happy to join in the men's joy. Amai, on the other hand, seemed even more cowed than before.
They ate lunch, and Cid seemed eager to stretch out everyone's happy mood for as long as possible. He made no move to order the men back to work.
While the others ate and talked, Mal entered the town alone. Brin watched him activate Skills, going from house to house and body to body to ensure that no curses yet lay upon the town. There were signs that Mal found resistance. Puffs of smoke. Faints screeches and curses in the air, but it all seemed well within his capabilities.
When the [Witch Hunter] began his walk back to their group, conversation died down and people started to give solemn looks to the remains of Talra. No one was in a hurry to remember what they were actually here for, but at some point they had to face it.
Cid gave the order. They brought the wagon into the camp. They stacked the wood, and lit the fire, using a specially-bought alchemical starter to make sure it would be hot enough while not consuming the wood too quickly. Then one-by-one, they gathered the rotting corpses and laid them on the flame.
Brin pretended that he didn't know that the first body Brych went to was Awsta's. He pretended that the tears in Brych's eyes when he laid her on the bonfire was due to the heat or the ash.
It was tedious, disgusting work, and it was heartbreaking. The men, women, and children had died all over the place, scattered, and they had to hunt to find them. They relied on Brin's Invisible Eyes and Brych's senses to find the ones in the field, laying behind tall grass or in little caves where they sought to take shelter.
When it was done, they stood watching the flames for a long moment. Then Brin boiled a big pot of water and insisted that everyone wash their hands and polish their armor as well as possible. The girls and the pages changed their clothes, and Amai promised to launder them well.
Alert! You have gained an Achievement:
The Burial of Talra (Rare)
You risked curses and traps to bring peace to the souls of those lost in Talra.
You have increased resistance to land-based curses. Fires you start will burn hotter.
The Achievement did a lot to break up the solemn mood. Everyone liked Achievements.
“This is it! This is what’s going to get me a good Class,” cheered Cati. Even Amai looked pleased, apparently the Achievement hadn’t skipped the girls or the pages.
Brin smiled, eager to keep the positive momentum going. "Alright, let's get to looting."