All The Skills

Ten minutes were left on Arthur's copied portal spells. It would have to be enough.

Arthur looked down at the dragons arrayed below him in the air, and gulped.

Brixaby had taken him high up in altitude, to a point where he had to rapidly beat his wings to stay steady against high winds. A constant whistle of air blew past his ears, and he was in danger of not feeling his nose soon. That meant his conversation would remain relatively private. At least to anybody who didn't have an eavesdropping card.

Arthur leaned over his dragon’s neck and asked, "Are we doing the right thing?"

Brixaby's answer was dismissive. "As opposed to what? Letting the Mind Singer win?"

"No." He shook his head. "We could return to Wolf Moon hive quietly. Send the message to them. Let them know that we're alive, and that there is danger out here."

"We are sending a message to them," Brixaby said. "And that message is we’re a Legendary pair with an army of dragons behind us, and they better listen."

Arthur couldn't explain his reticence to his dragon — that until Brixaby had cracked his shell, he had lived his life in the shadows. That he didn't mind facing his enemies, but he'd always done it as sneakily as possible.

It was easy to be bold when facing down Chablis and the rest of the Council. Arthur had known that if he let any weakness show — that if he even hesitated and didn't put their plan into action right away — things would fall apart.

But they were small fry compared to what he faced in the hive.

Though… he supposed he had come too far to back down now.

At his request, Brixaby had used his ability to send messages straight into others' minds to pass the word along: those who wanted to keep their combat cards would fight with Arthur and Brixaby. Those who didn't would relinquish their cards, or have Brixaby forcefully remove them.

That message being transmitted straight into people's minds had a nice effect. Many had relinquished their cards. But many others had joined with Arthur, under the assumption they were there to fight and not join the kingdom hives. The real surprise came when other dragons asked to join up, too. Most of those who hadn't been given combat cards had received the ones that had been given up by those staying behind.

A large portion of the newcomers were female dragons, enraged at the thought of scourgeling farming dragon eggs.

In hindsight, Arthur should have asked Joy to keep that little theory to herself.

But the moment the meeting had broken up, they found a gathering of worried people waiting below the mesa.

Joy, still spitting fury, had flapped down to speak to a few of the other waiting dragons.

The word had spread, and they soon had more volunteers than combat cards.

Arthur was just glad for the visible show of support. They kept the Council from delaying and undermining their plans. That was reinforced by Cressida coming to him in a quiet moment and telling him to move fast. The more time they dawdled, the more time he gave for people to think twice.

Like it or not, the lives of a small army of dragons and people were now his.

I'm not ready for this, Arthur thought for perhaps the hundredth time.

Then he shoved that thought down, straightened, and nodded to his core retinue.

Joy and Cressida flew at his flank on the right side. Joy had recovered her good mood now they were on the move, though she flexed her green venom arm as if readying it for war.

Laird was a steady presence on his left, though somewhat behind. Joy flew beside Digger and the mana silver, Tannai. His rider had stayed behind, but Tannai had not been hard to convince to join this fight.

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The Tannai had two clutches of eggs with two uncommon females back at his home hive. While he wasn't as crazed about the eggs as a clutching mother dragon, he was fond of his mates and didn't want to see them under the sway of a scourgeling.

Arthur nodded back to him, and both rider and dragon flew forward.

It was time.

When the silver got within a dozen feet of Arthur, he cast simultaneous spells.

Mana Springwell

Mana Redoubling

Right after they hit, Brixaby copied the spell and re-casted on Arthur.

The double boost increased the capacity of Arthur's mana vault to four times its usual size.

With this many dragons behind him, he needed every scrap.

He checked his current counter: eight minutes left.

"Pass the message along. No one is to release combat abilities on the other side until I say so."

He felt Brixaby's grumble, but also heard in his mind as the dragon passed it along.

Then Arthur took a deep breath and accessed his portal abilities.

And he tore a rip into the fabric of the world large enough to let his dragons through.

****

There was a raging blizzard in full effect over Wolf Moon hive.

This wasn't an uncommon occurrence, as it was one of the most northern hives.

But it had also been high summer when Arthur and Cressida had left. So coming back to winter, two months later, was a shock.

Doubly so since Valentina's dragon specialized in weather manipulation.

Arthur had lived at the hive since he was twelve years old and the only time he remembered a harsh blizzard was when the dragons had gone to fight scourgeling eruption.

Arthur was the last to come through the portal, and promptly held on tight as Brixaby was flung to the side by a freezing gust.

“We can’t stay out here!” Arthur yelled, but the wind whipped the words away so fast he couldn’t even hear them. Driving snow stung at his face and hands and he knew if they didn’t land and find cover soon, his limbs would become numb. He didn’t have a proper dragon saddle yet.

Arthur leaned over Brixaby’s neck and bellowed at the top of his lungs. “Tell them to land—tenth floor!”

He remembered an open area on the tenth floor meant for the higher-ranking dragons. It was large, spacious, and temperature-controlled thanks to a variety of card anchor magics.

Brixaby repeated his orders in the minds of their followers. Then the world fell out from under Arthur as Brixaby buzzed downward.

The wind, snow, and clouds were so thick that Arthur couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of him. Turning, he couldn’t even spot the end of Brixaby’s tail, and his head and muzzle on the other end were partially obscured by haze.

Arthur couldn’t direct the flight, couldn’t brace himself, or anticipate when he was going to land. He was utterly dependent on his dragon – helpless in a way he had rarely felt since he’d received the Master of Skills card.

He had to trust Brixaby to guide him to safety. And though he didn’t always agree with his dragon’s aggressive, proud, and often selfish outlook on the world… he found he wholeheartedly trusted him to keep him safe.

Brixaby buzzed downward into the storm, falling faster than the snowflakes which spun and danced around them until Arthur had to close his eyes or else would feel sick.

And suddenly… it all ended.

They crossed an invisible barrier where the influence of a card took over.

The wind went from a howl to a gentle breeze, dry enough to evaporate the fog. The air grew instantly warmer – not comfortable by any means, but enough to melt the falling snow. Arthur and Brixaby now descended in a gentle rain.

The dragons who had joined them through the portal broke through as well. Joy’s shimmery pink hide caught the light from the torches hung off the slopes of the hive.

Arthur glanced around for the markers on the slopes and saw they were already at level 17. They’d had to descend far to get out of the weather.

For whatever reason, Valentina’s dragon was not blunting the worst of the storm.

The pair was old. What if…

His thoughts were cut short as an alarm rang from the hive slopes. Not the usual alarm of a scourgeling eruption.

Arthur’s portal had been noticed.

Several dragons with riders already aboard cast themselves aloft. Card powers gathered between teeth and in the air around them. Guards. And judging by the feel, there was at least a Rare in there.

In fact… Did he recognize that yellow dragon?

“Sams!” Arthur yelled, and the yellow dragon with the deepening purple belly pulled up short. He had been one of the few gathering a spell between his claws – likely a sunlight mirror, though Arthur didn’t know what he planned to do with it since it was pitch black outside.

His rider was so covered against the elements that Arthur didn’t recognize him on sight. But his voice was all Horatio’s.

“Arthur? You’re alive?”