Icarus Awakens

None of those in the valley had a way to see the battlefield from above considering that the sky was part of the battlefield. And yet, roughly one hundred eyes watched what they could not as the first act began.

The lightning dragon approached from the southwest, finally making its appearance as it was heralded by the Bards. Hundreds of meters in the air, it was easily out of reach of the ranged weapons in play. A kilometer away was the tower of ice where the mortals took cover. The archers and Bards stood, volleys of song and arrow ready to meet respective threats.

Neither were useful in this moment. The dragon was too far away to strike with lightning or terror, though it prepared one. Even though it lacked the sapience its counterpart Rorshawd possessed, the dragon was not deficient in animal cunning. It understood by instinct what it was facing, what it had to destroy with, and what it needed to fear.

To the dragon, this was a simple fight. Small things had come to violate its territory. Worse, they were the hated mortals, and worse still, they came with enslaved monsters. The instinct it carried to destroy carried on to the creatures that bore the marks of its ancient foe. None could challenge it. They were all weak.

Something bordering surprise took the dragon as it faintly recognized two in the group, each vying strongly for its spite. One had injured it and escaped, the other had just escaped but also tainted its kind. Both would die in due time. The dragon would master the sky, never touching the ground, and use its lightning to kill them all.

Ever since it had come into being it had wanted this lake for its lair. Fear had made it hesitate, first of other monsters, and then of the very strong mortals that regularly passed through. Then they hadn’t, and there had been nothing else that could prevent the dragon from taking what it wanted. There was still nothing else strong enough.

With tremendous speed, the dragon set a pace that would reach the tower in half a minute. Not its fastest possible descent, but it wanted to pull back before reaching the ground. This was a strafing run, nothing more. It would repeat this for as long as it could, but the internal energy the mortals called mana may not last as long as it would hope. No matter, by that point they’d either be dead or would be the next day when the dragon returned to slaughter the survivors.

Another surprise. Some of the mortals were coming towards it? That, that was good, they would be caught in its lightning, but how? Its instincts hadn’t told it to fear this. Arrows, yes, but none that could significantly pierce its hide. Unease pricked its scales, the same any monster felt facing powers and enchanted items. There were things it could understand automatically and those it could not.

It continued to build the lightning within itself, ready to evaporate each mortal coming towards it. Starting with the one wearing metal stained in burnished gold by the setting sun. Short bursts of pain dotted its underbelly, wings, and along the legs as resonant words echoed from further below. Arrows? They hadn’t penetrated past its scales. To a beast larger than a village square, that was nothing.

It was time. The charge had built to its fullest. The lightning would pierce through those that would dare try to exist in the sky with one of its majesty and scythe across the tower. Maybe it would destroy it. Maybe not. The dragon was unsure since the ice wasn’t behaving normally. There shouldn’t even be ice here. No matter. Air filled massive lungs, then was expelled rapidly. Whereas a fire dragon ignited its exhalations, the Lightning Dragon charged the air using its horn as the catalyst. Particles ionized and burned as electrical energy coursed and writhed. This wasn’t the energy the monsters native to this region used which was diluted with magic, but true lightning.

The flash traveled quickly. Not as fast as light itself, but a significant fraction of it. No one here was fast enough to dodge it. What were they thinking? Wait, what was happening? Utter disbelief took the dragon as the lightning enveloped the armored man and was absorbed. The majority of the charge was taken, leaving only a pitiful jolt to scar the now vacant roof of the tower. That wasn’t the end. The dragon’s lightning appeared once more from the mortal, chaining to the others but dealing them no harm. Somehow, it was also coming back! Not to its face, but branching towards the insignificant wounds it had suffered moments before. The mortal that had stolen its thunder fell on it moments later, the weapons in his hands biting into its flesh far deeper than they should. The dragon sensed the magic radiating off the mortal. Not the armor, the mortal. He was inundated with it.

Murdon spoke words he knew the dragon wouldn’t understand. They were addressed to it, but they weren’t for it. “This isn’t how I kill you. This is just how I say hello.” His words timed perfectly with the explosions.

…

Lightning link was, at the same time, a perfect and perfectly flawed defensive enchantment. Immunity to any elemental damage was precious. That the formulae had been discovered from one of the weakest monsters in the region was strange, even though it mimicked an aspect of the source. In that way came its weakness. The armor would absorb all the lightning that struck it, right up until the point it couldn’t. Then, it would explode. Murdon would die if that happened to him, whereas the others might just lose a limb at best. That would’ve happened if Murdon had charged alone. Instead, a network formed between the armor of those behind him and the ammunition in front of him.

The dragon’s lightning was like a waterfall filling small connected cups. They’d overflow, but the smallest would do so first. That was the spineshard ammunition that Daniel had carefully crafted to be smaller than almost anything else they were bringing. That’s what they wanted to explode. Alost’s volley hadn’t been too accurate since his target was flying fast and at long range. The order had been center mass for that reason. Some of the shots missed, but most of the arrows had found something. Since they were all the same size, they all exploded at once and with the force of the excess lightning absorbed into the system.

The result was pockets of missing flesh around the dragon’s body half a meter in diameter. Painful, but not lethal. Not by themselves. The true threat to the dragon was the dozen warriors that had, wait, no. Only eight had found purchase on the dragon’s scales. Three had missed as the dragon dodged, and one armed with lightning wings had been killed when battered by real ones. He’d been level 3, but that hardly mattered.

Wind battered the ice tower as the dragon swept its wings, bringing it up and away just after a second volley scattered arrows across its back. Now was the crux. There were eight of them, and if they did not bring this beast down, it would fly away and kill them one by one. Lograve began melting the tower to free up his concentration, expanding the field of ice as Tlara incomprehensibly directed Spinner and others drove tall spears tipped with gold into the ground. Lograve prayed for his friends and then hoped that would do something. His faith wasn’t the strongest of late.

…

Gadriel clung to the dragon’s side with his feet. The abilities and hidden aspects of his features he usually restrained were now fully brought to bear. There was refusing to become reliant on them, and ignoring them altogether. If this wasn’t a situation that called for his full might, what would be?

He wondered who had figured out the extent of his powers from the rare few he used commonly. Lograve, perhaps. Maybe Daniel if he was truly intelligent. The truth was there was more than a training gimmick behind the secrecy. A fair few of Gadriel’s powers revolved around the manipulation of one thing. That trend in itself would distinguish him, but the medium his powers influenced took him to the point that and into the territory where kings, councils, or likewise would take interest. Not as much as an Artificer perhaps, but Gadriel’s past was already stained by the courts of Threst and he had no wish to draw similar notice to him.

As Murdon brutalized the dragon’s head with every transferable enhancement their force could give him, Gadriel ran upside down on the belly towards a wing. The two huge canvases of living leather had to be destroyed or injured to the point of failure. He’d already tried Flying Sword, missing twice and watching the sword bounce off the third time. It was too tough at range, even for the enchanted sword he’d won from his duel.

Gadriel neared what would be considered the armpit of a bipedal creature when the lightning dragon became aggravated enough to try and shake them off. The violent turning delayed the dragon’s escape from the lake but managed to dislodge two of their force. An avianoid who sprouted wings as they fell, and a gestalt. The latter had coiled like a spring to leap from the wyvern and had no easy way down. The Hero spared a moment to hope they could survive the fall, then jumped himself.

He didn’t have that specific ability or experience in this exact scenario, only training and a greater understanding of his own body than most. Gadriel knew that if the dragon continued its turn, and if he let go right now, then in a few moments he’d collide with one of the wings. He either guessed correctly, or the Octyrrum favored him.

The Hero’s feet made contact and snapped into place. The wings’ use in sustaining flight made them a more unsteady surface that threatened to throw him off with every beat. But, they were also on the dragon’s side. Gadriel intended to deal damage and delay the dragon’s retreat in one fell swoop. When the surface he was on was level with the ground, and he wasn’t upside down, he pointed his sword and shouted, “Falling Star!”

The enhanced force of gravity on his blade tried to sink him to the surface of the Octyrrum. Like the last time he’d used this, his opponent was strong enough to stop this from happening. It also made the dragon turn widely in the air as the force of enhanced gravity was leveraged against the wing. Even though the dragon could crush him were they to directly contest their strength, there was more to attributes than just numbers.

Gadriel waited just long enough, then canceled the ability. He smiled, seeing their direction. They were headed back. That was critically important. If the dragon fell too far away from their other forces, all the preparation the others were doing would be meaningless and those currently on the dragon would die quickly.

What this also accomplished was making Gadriel the prime target for the dragon, especially when it tried to turn away and he used his ability again on a different spot. Two ragged lines ran down the wings, stopping at hard bone that framed the stretched skin and muscle. In response to this there was a flick of the dragon’s tail, and a bolt of lightning shot forward that hit the Hero in the chest.

Something on his forearm radiated light as it absorbed the energy, which was then fed to the arrows and allies Gadriel was close enough to. Surprisingly nothing exploded, the capacity of the network able to sustain the charge. With that, every piece of heliorite sparked and randomly shot jolts out at the others. The energy in the system would slowly drain this way due to the inefficiency of the repeated transfers.

This left the dragon with a conundrum. Fire again and detonate the ammunition in its side or allow Gadriel to continue? More of the arrows were in its wing this time. Could it continue to fly if it risked it? The beast was unsure. There was a bastardization of its kind attacking its head, and something else deeper. Something growing that was putting pressure on the parts the dragon used to think with. Its high intelligence attribute was compensating, though it was still an impediment.

Gadriel’s eyes were on the tail, now aware that it could throw lightning. He’d been fortunate that his bracer’s protection extended past its physical form or he’d be dead. Just like that, his years of turmoil and sacrifice would have been for nothing. He looked at the sparking ammunition and noted the other side was unaffected.

“We must bridge the gap!” he shouted over the roaring wind, hoping to be heard. They were too far apart, only three were connected. Himself, the other on the wing, and one climbing the side by plunging two short swords repeatedly into the scaly hide. “Quickly, to the back!” he urged the last one when they took notice.

The dragon began to turn again. “Falling Star!” He’d only made it a third of the way back up the wing but had to keep the monster close to the melting tower. It was costing him, both in exposure and mana. The ability wasn’t as ludicrously draining as Heldren’s Fated Strike, but he couldn’t keep this up indefinitely.

His efforts were rewarded when a fresh volley of arrows impacted the dragon. This was the other reason Gadriel had wanted to bring the dragon closer. These targeted Gadriel’s wing as Alost, commendable as an archer he was, had spotted the actively sparking ammunition. However, a few were directed at the other wing and as they all flew past Gadriel could barely make out Alost’s cursing on right versus left.

More flashes of lightning as the link joined to Gadriel equalized. The jolts between them were harmful and scorched the dragon where they intersected, but otherwise did nothing as the dragon was resistant to lightning. Only the explosion, which had the radiant type damage thanks to the heliorite, could bypass this.

The fresh volley changed the equation, but not in Gadriel’s favor. The dragon could not suffer more from the strange arrows and needed to get away. The Hero had proven himself too dangerous, even as another of the raiders was killed when they neglected the dragon’s claws. They could reach some areas of the belly. Both the Berserker and their enchanted wings fell to the ground in pieces.

…

“LIGHTNING! WATCH OUT!” A bellow from the front. Murdon could see the horn he was next to begin to spark violently. The draconoid quickly scrambled over, using his axes much in the way the climbing Martialist had. While his enhanced offensive might was just enough to seriously harm the dragon, its horn was harder than its bone. He discovered this when he swung out with his heliorite ax and part of the metal chipped.

Murdon gritted his teeth and gripped the horn with his gauntlet. Even his armor couldn’t fully protect him from grasping the equivalent of ten natural lightning bolts, but he survived and bled the gathering energy off and into the nearby struck ammunition. This came at the same time as Gadriel turning the dragon and the combined force almost threw Murdon off.

As it was, he lost his chipped ax, and the woman behind him stabbing out at the dragon’s nape fully fell off. She’d been injured, having gotten too close to an arrow whose shaft had snapped. This had concealed the arrowhead like the Earth equivalent of a land mine. She didn’t have wings but, thankfully, they were close enough for someone to catch her with a spell.

So few left, and Murdon was missing an ax. His shield was near Lograve, just in case, and he couldn’t use it now. Nor could he grab the horn to prevent another lightning breath. There was nothing close enough to feed the charge to. Attempting to harm the right wing at this point was impossible. The mortal there was doing all he could to stay in the fight.

Their only hope now was the left wing. It had a sizable number of arrows in it that would deal far more damage to the wings than they would the body. Combined with what Gadriel and the others had accomplished, that might be enough. If not, they were doomed. A lot of possible scenarios in this fight were like that which was simply a sign of how far they were outmatched.

Should he use it now? Murdon reached with one hand for his belt while his other gripped the ax keeping him in place. Yes, he decided. He’d hoped to save it for when they’d grounded the dragon, but without his second weapon he couldn’t move along the dragon. He took out a flask containing a bright yellow liquid, almost dropped it when Gadriel chose that moment to turn the dragon, and then swallowed the contents.

Both feet planted themselves on the dragon’s head. In the moments before he wrenched his weapon loose, Murdon caught sight of an odd swelling near the crest of the dragon’s head. The bump was ringed with red-tinged white scales. Had it been hit there by something earlier?

Murdon jumped off the dragon and flew. A flight potion. Their only one, and it lasted just a minute. His magical flight was by no means faster than the dragon’s, but like Gadriel before him, Murdon only intended to intercept the wing as he came past. He swung out to embed his steel in the dragon’s wing and missed. He gritted his teeth in despair as gravity began to pull him away from the dragon despite his flight, until it didn’t. Murdon blinked and saw his ax had lodged in one of the vertical spines running down the wing. How? He’d, no, he must have struck true.

In another region, a mana potion was hurriedly fed to Silora as she gasped at how much mana had just been taken by her ability.

“Comma-” Gadriel began to say before he was fully enveloped in lightning breath. The Hero wasn’t annihilated thanks to the enchantment which immediately began spreading out the electricity, but he’d been severely injured. Gadriel fell with his sword in hand, knocked unconscious.

For a moment, Murdon considered ordering one of those left to dive after him and use their wings to save the Hero. He didn’t. He couldn’t. Despite the explosions tearing new holes in the wing, making it look like a ship’s sail after passing through a hurricane, the dragon continued to slowly fly away. Their ace in the hole, the ability to make the dragon turn midair, was gone. Every second now came with the tolling of death’s bell.