Hunter Or Huntress

Chapter 140: Burns Galore

“Hah! There we go. Target coming around,” Glira let out enthusiastically, Tom perring up to confirm the black was indeed banking into a turn and coming back at them.

They had only been flying for a while, the keep having slipped out of sight behind them though they were still in the rolling hills.

“Doesn’t look like she’s surrendering. You want her done quick and painless or slow and agonizing?” Glira roared out, Tom swearing he could feel her writhe with anticipation.

“Just try and take her alive!” Tom replied, still trying to come to terms with how nonchalant Glira was being as he shouted over the screaming wind. They were heading straight on, and he very much doubted she was acid proof.

“Very well, hang on tight, loop your arms through the harness, and enjoy the show. Also, I will be taking suggestions only. You are not in command today.”

“Noted!” Tom replied, cursing to himself a bit as he felt her shuffle her shoulders. ‘You are never getting as much as a damn air rifle you psychopath.’ He did as he was told though as Glira pulled up, beating her wings with renewed effort and climbing fast and steep. Tom couldn’t help but look out to the side to gawk at the massive wings driving them upwards. It was pretty incredible to see them working that fast as they shot upwards. He felt Fengi grab his hand; looking over, she had her head buried in Glira’s back, looking more than a little scared. Tom just gave her hand a squeeze as they climbed, nearly reaching vertical.

Then Tom heard the, by now, familiar hiss of acid being launched. Glira rolled over onto her back, pulling up further before inverting fully. Tom looked up, which was now down, to see the stream of acid whizzing past beneath them. The black dragon came past a bit below that being forced to evade her own missed acid spray.

“Missed!” Glira shouted out as Tom then felt them go weightless. Glira let herself fall backwards, the massive creature heaving around faster than he thought possible, twisting like a corkscrew. She let herself drop down a bit lower than the black dragon, using the sacrificed height to come back up to speed before beating her wings again as she started chasing the black dragon again. This time, though, she too was beating hard, starting to gain on the black, who now had less than four hundred meters on them.

“Go on, shake me!” Glira shouted out tauntingly, though Tom doubted the black could hear them right now. As she started to close the range enough that the black could probably make her out, she started right back up with the taunting.

“Tell you what, I won't even try and shoot you down. Come On! Try and kill me! Or you could just give up. I’ll let you keep your wings if you do!” By now Tom was starting to wonder if grabbing Fengi as a parachute was the smart option here. They were well within firing range, which could mean only one thing when it came to Glira’s plan here.

Their target responded by trying a series of rather desperate looking maneuvers; turns, jukes, and dives as Glira kept getting ever closer. “Nah, fuck it,” Glira let out as Tom felt the hairs on the back of his head stand on end, the ominous, highpitched hum spooling up for a short second before Glira fired. The black let out a roar as she was hit in the back of a leg, Tom watching intently. The limb was still there, but a large patch of blue flesh had opened up, large enough he could see it from here.

It took a second for the black dragon to respond. She did so by pulling a cobra, coming to a dead stop, Glira being forced to evade as she turned well clear of the now nearly stationary dragon. The reason for Glira’s caution became apparent as a stream of acid shot out from the dragon's maw. There was not a lot of it though, and it was a rather short burst, at least in comparison to the massive fountain of acid she had let loose back at the keep or even her last shot.

“Uh-oh, someone is out of juice,” Glira just chuckled before shouting loud enough Tom was sure the black could hear her. “You done fucked up now!”

“Why doesn’t she just surrender?!” Fengi shouted out, having let go of Tom's hand to hold on to the harness.

“I think someone has been to the mines before, hasn’t she!?” Glira shouted out as she circled the black dragon, who was now desperately trying to work some speed back up. “What’s the matter, shit stain?! Scared of a little work?!”

They didn’t get a reply as the black started on a new course, wingbeats having slowed slightly by now. Tom was honestly amazed at how well the black dragon had kept flying this hard for so long. Glira had done at least something to conserve energy, and she hardly even seemed winded yet. Surely the black was hard pushed by now though.

His thoughts were quickly confirmed as Glira rapidly closed the gap this time, having used the spare time to get a bit more altitude, now shadowing her target from above. The black tried to evade, juking left and right as Glira dove on her target, slashing with her blades again and again. It took a few tries before she eventually just managed to connect, clipping the black dragons back, drawing blood before the target managed to drop away beneath them, doubling back the way she had come.

“Come on. You lost a while ago, just give in!” Glira roared before sighing, glancing back at her passengers. “She’s a stubborn old goat this one.” Tom was trying to work out if Glira was just playing with her right now. She wasn’t shooting, and surely she could have managed to land a proper slash or stab by now. ‘Is she playing with her… Or just trying to make her surrender?’ Tom pondered to himself. He decided that it was probably the surrender part, at least he hoped so.

“Yes, she Is!” Tom shouted out in reply, moving to look over the side down at the black, who was still trying to make a run for it.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make her yield… Eventually,” Glira replied as she turned around again, following the now very clearly slowing dragon. As Glira settled onto the black’s tail again, Tom felt her charging for a second shot when their target abruptly pulled into an even harder 180 degree turn than previously, bleeding a lot of speed doing so. Glira fired and missed, the shot glancing off the black dragon's ass as she maneuvered into a head on pass once more.

Glira didn’t climb this time though, instead heading straight for the black dragon on gliding wings.

“Uhm Glira?!” Tom let out in alarm, eyes going wide.

“Hang on back there!”

“Oh Shit!” was all Tom got out as he hunkered down, head peeking up just enough to see. He saw the two dragonette brigands jump off the black just before Glira reared up to vertical, braking hard only seconds before they would have hit. Tom just held his breath as he felt the dragon pull G’s to slow down. Then the two dragons hit, Tom slamming into Glira’s back like he had just been in a car crash, counting his blessings that at least her back was a little soft.

The black dragon screamed and wailed rather than roared as Tom heard Glira ram her blades into the black dragon's chest. Her tail swung around like a whip, driving the massive metal spike into her target's back. The greater mass of the black dragon drove them backwards through the air as they began to fall. Looking up, Tom saw the black dragon’s head lunge for Glira’s neck, only scoring a glancing hit, a smattering of acid dripping off her teeth. Glira retaliated, pouncing at the black dragon's neck and biting down hard with the sound of yielding steel.

He felt Glira shake and shudder under him as she contorted her legs and kicked at the black dragon’s stomach. Though the black did not seem to reply in kind, Glira letting out nothing but a satisfied sounding rumble as she tore her roaring target to shreds. Thinking back to her earlier shots, one had the black’s hind legs the other probably had the same destination.

Tom could see the Black dragon trying to pull her head away, Glira finally letting go with her jaws, though the two remained entangled. “And now we clip her wings!” Glira roared out almost maniacally as she drew back a bladed arm and stabbed again. Tom heard yet another gurgling scream escaping the black dragon as he felt Glira let go. She then kicked off against the black dragon's chest like a swimmer in a pool, Tom hanging on for dear life as he heard Bo let out a surprised scream as she fell off, tumbling backwards.

Once free, Glira rolled over onto her chest again, beating her wings a few times before starting to circle back. Bo came hurriedly back, wings pumping frantically as she sat down on Glira’s back again, clinging to a leather strap for dear life. “No one told you to disembark,” Glira laughed as she admired her handywork.

Looking over his right shoulder, trying to see past Fengi and Essy, he saw the black dragon plummeting towards the ground, one wing hanging limp, the other desperately flailing around. She hit with a sickening crunch and yet another scream rang out, though it soon faded to sound more like a whimper.

“How the FUCK! Is she still alive!” Tom exclaimed as he stared at the still moving, if clearly completely crippled black dragon that lay ruined on the ground beneath them.

“I guess she really was as tough as she looked… Fucking idiot though,” Glira replied, her demeanor once again flipped totaly, sounding like she was looking at an mediocre sports event. “Honestly. Why tire yourself out trying to run. It’s gonna get you nowhere. And did she not even see the blades, I mean come on!”

“Why did you do that?!” Tom broke out. “Couldn’t you just have shot her down!”

“Sure, where’s the fun in that? Besides, you said you wanted her alive,” Glira dismissed.

“Then hit a wing or something!” Tom protested.

“Geez fine, I’ll blow her head off if she gets up again. What about those two?” Glira questioned, looking to the fleeing brigands, who were booking it towards the forest.

“I want to talk with her. You said they won't make it off the island, right?”

“I mean, they might try. Dangerous trip for a dragonette to make though.”

“What do you think?” Tom questioned, looking to Essy, the middle aged mother being the senior huntress present.

“I mean, they will make it in the wild for a while. But winter is coming… I don’t know. They might make it. I wouldn’t risk it myself though.”

“If they want to be sure they will live, they will come back to the keep,” Fengi added. “Even mine work is not worth dying to avoid.”

“Let's let them go then,” Tom replied. “We'll just let Deriva and Hylsdahl know to keep an eye out.”

“Interrogation time it is then,” Glira concluded, coming in to land.

“Yeah… She might have something to say,” Tom let out, looking at the stricken beast. She was big. Bigger than Glira, though she could not stand up to Baron that was for sure, meaning she must be old. He couldn’t help but think how much use a dragon like that could have been… if it hadn’t been such an arsehole.

“SHIT!” Glira then let out, sounding genuinely distraught.

“What?! What is it?” Tom questioned, fearing they too were going to be making an emergency landing.

“Are you hurt?!” Essy shouted out, seemingly sharing his concern.

“I broke one of my blades!”

__________________________________________________________________________________

Kulk had arrived to help tend to the wounded, Saph getting her leg looked at soon enough, though the cuts on her face would have to wait. She had hobbled out of the infirmary leaning on Maiko to make room for some of the brigands who needed more serious aid, as she was going to be fine after all.

That and she had someone to go shout at. She had already explained in a bit greater detail what had happened to Maiko, Ray, and the major. Maiko in particular seemed quite displeased with what had happened, the two of them currently heading for the greeting hall where Jarix had come in to land not too long ago.

It had been quite the sight to see the damage up close when Saph stepped through the door. Jarix was standing in the middle of the hall, Saph guessing it would be quite painful for him to lie down. His underside had turned almost black and the smell of burned meat hung heavy in the air to the point it was almost sickening.

Jarix, though, seemed more busy talking with Rachuck, who was probably briefing the dragon on what was going on down here. The dragon looked more than a little worried as he kept talking. Zarko and Radexi were hard at work getting the harness and armor off to clean what they could in terms of wounds. He had taken a few arrows, but nothing major. Saph was lost for a moment looking at him. He had taken the hit for them, granted he hadn't really been given a choice, but that amount of fire would likely have burned her and the others to a crisp.

Jacky was currently busy cutting off pieces of dead skin, tossing it into a bucket. Maiko set Saph down on a chair that was standing up against the wall just as Jacky noticed them. She quickly sheathed the knife, running over to Saph and giving her a quick once over, mouth moving very fast.

“I can’t hear shit, dummy. Radexi blew my ears out,” Saph replied with a bemused expression. It was nice to know Jacky had gotten out in one piece after her little stunt, which likely had something to do with her current energy level.

Maiko handed Jacky the slate just as she started doing what Saph could best describe as an interpretive dance, seemingly trying to recount the fighting from her perspective.

“Calm down, girl, I saw you kill that thing,” Saph chuckled, leaning back on the chair.

Jacky looked quite frustrated, clenching her fists almost like she wanted to punch someone out of sheer excitement. Maiko looked a touch worried as she glanced at him. She just took the slate he was holding though, quickly jotting something down and excitedly showing it to Sapphire.

“I KNOW RIGHT!!!” was all it said as she handed the tablet back and gave Saph a hug that cracked her spine a few times, the chair coming with as Saph was lifted off the ground.

‘Oh, that’s the spot,’ Saph mused to herself, even if she was struggling to breathe. Jacky did at least put her back down again rather quickly. “Glad to feel you’re alright,” Saph joked, shuffling her shoulders a little, hoping to make the pain go away.

Jacky quickly scribbled away again, Saph honestly struggling to read the result once Jacky turned the pad around again. “Did you see the kill?!” was Saph's best guess.

“Yes, Jacky, I saw you… You’re fucking crazy, you know that right?”

“You mean awesome,” came the hurriedly written reply accompanied by what Saph guessed was a raucous laugh.

“You suck at spelling when you are in a hurry, Jacky,” Saph chuckled, sitting back down on her chair. “How’s Jarix?”

Saph could see the dragon reply, Jacky shouting something back. Saph just waited her turn as Jacky got back to writing.

“Sleeping gonna suck,” was all it said, the grin on Jacky’s face confirming that Jarix was probably going to be fine. If not, Jacky hadn’t figured it out yet.

“Excellent… Could you fetch Radexi for me?” Saph questioned, glancing quickly at Maiko.

Jacky just gave a quick salute before running off to fetch her target, Saph pulling a slight smile. She hadn’t kicked the bucket on his account, but she might as well have. And she still had one hell of a headache right now. By the sounds of what Jortun had to say, that little fuck up might have saved lives, but that was not going to stop her from scolding the guy, that was for sure.

She had expected him to look like a guilty kid being dragged into her mom's room. What she got was a soldier at attention looking dead ahead, Jacky blabbering away and pointing up at the machinegun, clearly asking questions.

“Could you wait just a little bit, Jacky?” Saph questioned, looking at Radexi. “Why did you decide it was a good idea to try and kill me?”

Jacky looked a touch apprehensive before handing over the slate to him, looking like she wished him good luck. He remained very professional and took quite some time writing down his response.

“My lack of familiarity with the weapon led me to forget it may not be fired with the muzzle in close proximity of a person, unlike a ballista, in which I have trained. I am sorry.”

Saph just sighed, looking at him. “You forgot?” she questioned, trying to sound as disappointed as possible. “You were told several times, hell even I know. And I was not even trained to fire the damn thing!” Saph shouted out. “How the hell do you forget that?!”

Radix didn’t respond immediately, instead mulling it over for a second or two before he started to write again. “My focus was on the target. I had to nail him or we risked losing the fight.”

“Jarix. Losing a turning fight?” Saph questioned, trying very hard to sound unconvinced, which she was.

“Look at him!” Radexi put down in a more hurried fashion, pointing back at the dragon, Saph noticing they had gotten Zarko’s attention. She came jogging over grabbing Radix by the ear as she snatched the slate yelling something at him. She then hauled him towards Jarix almost throwing him at the dragon as the young man struggled to not fall over.

Then she turned back to Saph, looking very unhappy while jotting something down. “Later” was all it said as she slammed the slate into Maiko’s stomach, gesturing at Jarix as she shouted something at Jacky, who responded by quickly running over looking like a kid that got caught somewhere she should not have been right now.

Saph just grumbled as her shoulders sagged. There was no arguing who needed the attention right now after all. It wasn’t like there was anything to do now anyway. They had wounded to tend to after all… Jarix once again one of them.

Maiko had come around in front of her, sidling into her field of view while holding the tablet.

“You feeling alright?”

“I guess. Know anyone that can put my ears back together?” Saph jested with another sigh.

“Kulk can. She’s patched Twitch before,” came the reply after a bit.

“Right then,” was all Saph could think to answer. The healer would be busy for quite a while, that much was for certain. Lives took precedence over hearing, any idiot knew that.

“I will go fetch her. She owes me a favor,” the young man replied, running off after handing the slate to Sapphire, who just sat there pondering if she should try and stop him, not reaching a conclusion before he was already gone.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Glira had come down in the grass a bit away from the crashed black who, by the looks of it, had finally given up

“Oh you are in a world of shit now,” Glira chuckled darkly as she slowly walked up to the black dragon, lowering a wing for Tom and the others to get off. “You broke one of my blades, my favorite at that.”

The black dragon just moved her head a bit to see them better, letting out a pained breath.

“Move and I’ll kill you, very painfully,” Glira reiterated, staring her down. The black dragon still didn’t reply, instead just staring up at Glira with her one good eye.

“Mind giving us a proper introduction now?” Tom questioned as he walked down Glira’s wing, not walking any closer, rifle loaded and in his hands.

“Fuck you. You malformed little cunt. The hell are you even?”

“Tom. The resident human,” he introduced himself with a slight, sarcastic bow. “I would just like to know a few things reall qui-.”

“Who told me, who am I, and what was I after?” the black dragon cut him off, in a very much not friendly tone.

“Well, that would be a good start.” Tom admitted, looking her over. She was a mess, blue blood leaking from the deep stabwounds in her chest, at least one leg that he could see was completely mangled, another twisted the wrong way as she laid on top of it. “Tell us and we might help put you back together.”

“No one, me, and money…” she coughed up, staring him down. “Now my question... Why do you sound like such a retard?”

“Because this is my sixth language by now. So shut up and listen up,” Tom snapped, not really appreciating her tone, much as he could understand her point of view. “Tell me why you came here. What were you after? It’s not like you have anyone left to snitch on. If so, just don’t mention them, I get that part.”

“And why in all of holy hell and heaven would I do that?” the dragon retorted, wincing afterwards clearly in great pain.

“You would get to live. I don’t think you get to your age without a decent survival instinct,” Tom countered.

“Pah, she just hides behind others if she thinks there is any danger. Even killed a few of her own today thanks to her incompetence,” Glira added in, Tom cursing a little to himself.

‘Great job convincing the prisoner to speak. Really, thanks a lot.’

“And you sent a kid in ahead of you to take the brunt of it!” the black dragon replied in a pained tone as she moved her head a little, letting out low whimper

“My son. I needed to see what he would do. Now, tell Tom here what he wants to know and I might actually help them put you back together, so I can get a little bonus for bringing you in alive.”

“For a life in the mines… no thank you… You know Glira, you are a shitty shot.”

“And you are a shitty flyer, Yldrin. It is Yldrin, right?”

“Oh fuck off.”

“Wait, you know each other?” Tom broke out, looking back at Glira who had her head held high.

“No,” she replied with a sigh. “But I've seen her before. Used to run a mercenary business to ‘protect’ certain areas about a century ago. But a piece of crap like this can’t do that now, can she?” Glira continued very sarcastically, sitting down on her haunches.

“They didn’t get hurt. We kept the bad crap away... and they paid us for it.”

“Yeah, until they didn’t want to pay and then you kinda made them,” Glira rebuked. “Some would call that extortion.”

“And the guard is any different? A small keep that gets one of you idiots deployed will be bankrupt by the end of the year, and now you are leaving them all behind as you run away and hide. At least we didn't run.”

“Tom, have you seen anyone run today?” Glira questioned, seemingly unfazed as she glanced down at him. He was trying to keep up up right now with all that info, deciding he might as well play along. Apparently Glira knew at least a little about this particular piece of work, and he was hardly an expert on dragon interrogations anyway.

“Well none of ours that I could see.”

“Essy, Fengi... uhm... Bo was it?” Glira questioned, looking between the three huntresses.

“No, Ma’am,” came the uniform reply.

“Seems you are the only coward here,” Glira concluded, looking back to Yldril. “I’m also willing to guess you are out here precisely because we have pulled back from the frontier.”

“Congratulations, you do have a brain.”

“Yes, I know, but you seemingly don’t. Why the hell would you attack a keep with no less than five dragons on the same damn island, you absolute retard?!”

“Cause you had to be sitting on something good,” Yldril replied with a sigh, seeming very defeated right now.

“Nah, I’m not that dumb. You didn’t risk messing with a keep under Royal Guard protection on a hunch. You better tell me and we can make this painless, unless you really would prefer to go back to the mines.”

“Look. Everyone in the capital has been at least mentioning this damn keep. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out there is something special here.”

“And the reports of successfully repelling attack after attack?”

“Doesn’t matter if you aren’t home.”

“Well we kinda are,” Tom interjected, looking at her quizzically.

“Well, not according to my scouts you weren't,” Yldril snapped, her tone somewhere between fury and disappointment.

‘This idiot really does like talking,’ Tom mused to himself. ‘Says she won't say anything then just doesn’t shut up.’

“Right, so you hear about a little keep in the middle of nowhere that had something valuable and decide you need help? I don’t believe you. You should have been able to see our deployment orders?... Don’t tell me that red was your protégé or something and just so happened to be coming along?” Glira questioned, clearly not impressed.

“Sure he is, been working on him for years,” Yldril responded, Tom catching on by now that she was quite likely lying. “He’s quite the fighter.”

“Was you mean,” Tom interjected.

“I’m sorry, ugly one, say again?”

“He was,” Tom reiterated “Dead now, of course.”

“Your son scored a kill?” Yldril questioned looking up, seeming more curious than upset.

“No. That idiot of a red couldn’t even save himself against a keep dweller. Now, I would like to hear some truths, old girl, or this is going to get painful,” Glira went, getting up to loom over Yldril, taking a few steps closer.

“Look, can’t you just be nice and tell us!” Fengi broke, moving forwards alongside Glira, looking at the dragon pleadingly. “We have kids. Old Apuma who loves telling stories. Ray who just keeps working away trying to prove she’s a worthy addition here. They took me off the streets, we took in the kids from Hylsdahl after it was burned to the ground. We’re good people! Can’t you just be a little nice and tell us. We need to know.”

“Look girl, life ain’t all cake and rainbows. I’m here for money, and lots of it.”

“Then till some fields or something. It’s not that hard,” Fengi protested, holding up her arms.

“And slave away for the rest of my life for scraps? For people that will throw me out when winter comes or times get tough? Huh?! Is that what I should do?! You dumb little street rat,” Yldril replied, raising her head, Glira opening her jaws as Tom felt the hairs on his neck stand on end.

“They won't if they need you,” Fengi replied, taking a step back defensively.

“No one needs you forever.”

“You always need friends. You kick out the arseholes. So just try to be nice, okay?” Fengi tried again, Glira closing her jaws as Yldril lowered her head back down while glancing at Glira. The blue dragon looking to Fengi curiously.

“And I need to shut up,” Yldril replied, with a sigh. “I’m not going to the mines, so I’m gonna die here either way. Just get it over with.”

“Oh shut up, you don’t want to die. I’m guessing you are planning on trying to escape before you get there. I’ve heard dragons pull that off before,” Glira said, still looking at Fengi. “Fengi… Try telling her a bit more… forcefully...”