Into the Black

(Sendal Plain, Ydan, fourth planet in Dimiya System)

I had to fight to keep from laughing as I saw the dragon-lady before me. “Oh, Imperatrix, I didn’t see you there. Could you step aside? I was told there would be someone who could challenge me here, and I don’t want them to think that I was already engaged. That’s just rude, you know.”

The woman bristled at my insult, for obvious reasons. “You worm! I will destroy you, and devour your soul, again and again, until there is nothing left! Even with your Nomad abilities, you cannot stand against the Champion of Baxanke!”

As she said that, she launched into attacks with her clawed hands. Hellspace energy covered her body like armor, keeping my energy blade from touching her. I might as well have had a saber to take on a suit of full plate armor from the medieval period. I would have to strip her armor away if I wanted to get at her person.

I deflected her next strike, stepping to the side so that her other hand could not slash at me directly. Self-acceleration sorcery allowed me to jump over the tail that came swinging through, attempting to bash me down. With a second leap in mid-air, I landed on the Imperatrix’s back, between her wings.

That was when I made a discovery. Her sorcerous armor was not perfect. Or, rather, it was not universal. It protected perfectly against quick physical attacks, and energy attacks of any speed, but slow pressure allowed physical objects through. Also, the barrier was just slightly above her skin, except around the claws, where it focused more on enhancing her melee abilities.

This meant that, when my armored hand grabbed the base of one of her wings, I was gripping her scaly hide directly. And when she tried shaking me off, I had a firm grip on her. Other than throwing herself on the ground and rolling around like a child, she couldn’t dislodge me. And Pride would not allow her to do something so undignified.

Thankfully, I didn’t have something like pride keeping me from doing things that would make me look foolish, so long as they led to me winning. People could laugh all they wanted at how foolish I looked, flopping around on the back of a dragon as she tried to throw me off. But so long as, at the end of the day, I was breathing and the dragon wasn’t, then I didn’t much care about the rest.

Still, with my arm wrapped around the base of her wing, and locked in tight, I had a moment to think. My energy blade was useless at this part of the fight. The enemy came prepared with the perfect defense against it. And I doubted my other melee weapons would get through her scales all that easily, especially with how I was flopping about.

I wasn’t augmented like my Marines, and so couldn’t carry the same kinds of armor they did. The chainsword was an iconic weapon that all Nomads knew, but using one unaugmented was difficult, especially without power armor of some kind. It could be done, but to saw through armor like this dragon’s hide, I’d need both my hands for that. Since one arm was busy keeping me on the dragon’s back, that was a nonstarter, and my other melee weapons lacked the power to get through her hide.

But that didn’t mean I didn’t have options. In fact, there was one weapon I had that could turn the tide. I wasn’t sure how well it would work, but it was my best shot, unless I wanted to try and match my sorcery against hers. And no, I didn’t want to do that. That would be far too close to a fair fight for my liking. I had no intention of giving her any advantages I didn’t have to.