Amazon Apocalypse 4: Chapter 37

I cast Aegis of the Void again, blocking the onrushing wave of flame and chaotic energy, but not the claw swipe that followed it up a moment later. Eyes wide, I found myself overwhelmed. If only I hadn't exhausted Living Paradox in my fight against the Lich King. If I'd kept it up my sleeve, perhaps I'd have been able to slip away. All around me, I sensed intense pressure and knew that if I tried to escape into a pocket space I'd be throwing myself into the clutches of the true Chaos God.

But the claw coming for me was blocked by a golden shield. It flared with brilliant jade-colored light before fading a moment later.

I blinked and saw Sir Sandon, Knight Commander of the Goddess in Jade's holy order's, standing firm against the dragon claw.

How had he moved so fast? And more importantly, how was he even here? He wasn't even C-Grade yet, and I hadn't noticed him among my allies. And a knight in shining armor was hard to miss.

Deflecting the incoming claw didn't come without a price, especially given the gap in levels. It was clear Sir Sandon had given that move his all, and with one swing of the dragon's claws he was sent flying with his armor rent and his shield torn wide. And yet, bleeding from neck to groin with armor flaking off in wide chunks, he climbed back to his feet and held his sword aloft.

"I see the face of the enemy, revealed at last. Demon of chaos, you will not lay claim to this realm so long as a single one of us stands with beating heart and fiery spirit! Strike me down if you can, for my life would be a worthy price to stand but one more moment against your dark purpose."

Despite his tattered and half-dead appearance, Sir Sandon looked like a hero stepped straight out of legend. And he wasn't alone. Next to him was Frank, Terrance, Rick, Kerrie, and all the others. A faint golden corona shone around all of them, but Sir Sandon most of all. That was the Goddess in Jade's blessing, granting us favor in this fight. It seemed to be building by the moment, granting me nearly as much extra damage against these enemies as my Mania did.

Three were missing from the of golden-shrouded heroes before, but only because they were already attacking.

"Throw me!" Myrina yelled. Sakura grabbed her by the ankles, twirled, and spun. In one mighty heave, she threw Myrina at the dragon. Myrina tucked herself into a ball as she flew, landing on the dragon's back and catching her fall by jamming her sword between the dragon's scales.

The wound that resulted was no more than a paper cut on such a mighty beast, but Myrina seemed determined to bring this dragon down one papercut at a time.

"It's a raid boss! Get him!" Kyle shouted at the top of his lungs as he charged in as well. And soon all my companions were attacking our ferocious foe.

The dragon blinked in surprise, and for a moment I sensed a trace of fear and confusion on its face. My early attack had probably already foiled most of its plans. No doubt it had intended to face me alone, when it was at full power and had an army of undead naga to occupy my minions. The total defeat of his underlings meant that he was alone against me and all my allies.

He had an incredibly high level, but by now, I'd looked B-Grades in the eye and lived to tell the tale. One measly peak C-Grade dragon wasn't going to stop me.

"Insolent mortals!" the Chaos Serpent-posessed dragon shook, trying to throw off Myrina and the others climbing onto his back. He reared his head to breath fire on my allies, but I wasn't about to let that happen.

"Don't you dare take your eyes off me!" I yelled as I jumped. I flipped twice through the air just as Myrina had, and just like her I fell with my sword extended. I buried my Arcane Blade up to the hilt in the dragon's left eye, instantly cutting short the gathering dragon's breath it was about to breathe.

The possessed dragon let out its first cry of pain. The other attacks had been merely annoyances, but losing an eye hurt even for a beast as big as this one. My new sword was also proving its worth. I hadn't been happy with it when I made it, but the slender point covered from pommel to tip in armor penetration and blood loss enchantments weren't entirely for show. Anything smaller or at my own level would have died with that single hit.

But this dragon was made of sterner stuff. I wasn't sure if it was because it was a dragon or because it was possessed by a chaos god, but the beast shrugged off my mighty blow and threw me to the ground. I tumbled, pulling my sword out with me as I flew. While I fell, I conjured a series of offensive spells and made sure to land on my feet. Instead of vulnerable prey to pounce on, the dragon swiped through empty air and a facefull of Mana Bolts.

I was still riding high on the effects of Mania and Awakening the Inner Beast from my fight against the Lich King, and though my power reserves were somewhat depleted, each spell hit with the full force of what I was capable of. They nipped away at the dragon's health, but more importantly they left Corrupting Marks which would only continue to stack from here.

I cast spells and dodged, forcing the dragon to keep me in his sights. Only I had the breadth of skills and the raw stats to keep dodging this thing, and if I faltered for even a moment it would turn one or more of my allies into bloody burned chunks.

My sword was the main threat. Dragon scales were damn tough, but when the dragon tried to ignore me, I proved my enchanted sword could slice right through them. A moment of inattention and I pinned one of its claws to the ground.

"Annoying insects!" the dragon growled, clearly growing frustrated with how the fight was going. To a powerful chaos god, being kicked around by little things like us was probably humiliating in the extreme. I wasn't sure how much of the mind within the dragon came from the Chaos Serpent and how much came from Dramonar, but at the moment the dragon reminded me more of the latter.

"Enough!" the dragon roared, and with a flap of his wings took to the air.

"Get back here!" I shouted at it, though worry creeped into my voice. Myrina was on that thing's back hacking away at it.

Sharky was the first to react. He rushed forward and dug his jaws into the dragon's tail, clamping down with vice-like jaws that dug in and wouldn't let go. His ever hungry eyes seemed to rolling in my direction for a moment as he munched down on his latest snack.

I sensed the opportunity he was offering, and I dashed after him as the dragon tool to the air. I jumped, and I just barely grabbed onto the tip of Sharky's tail. From there, I heaved myself arm over arm until I was on Sharky's back, and from there along the dragon's tail until I was climbing up the small of the possessed monster's back.

"There you are, Carter! I'm digging for dragon heart!" Myrina said as she pried at a scale in center of the dragon's back, between its wings. Though I'd given her an enchanted blade, it was a general purpose one, and not as good as the latest model that I'd made for myself. Despite that, she'd managed to pry up a patch of scales through brute strength and determination, revealing the dragon's soft flesh beneath.

Unfortunately for her, dragon muscle and sinew was only slightly less sturdy than the scales that protected it, and she'd hardly carved out a chunk of flesh the size of her torso. As it was, it would take her an hour or more to dig her way to the dragon's heart. But the patch of wounded flesh she'd exposed lit up brightly under the guidance of Exploit Weakness, and I knew this was the perfect place for a few more Corrupting Marks.

I struck with spells and Arcane Blade, stacking damage that grew by the second. Each moment they dealt exponentially more damage than before. The dragon roared as it swooped, trying to roast my allies alive with dragon's breath, but changing midway to rolling as he tried to shake us off. But Myrina and I both had firm grip on bony horns extending from the dragon's back, and wouldn't let go or stop.

I passed Myrina my sword so she could stab with her free hand and I could focus on casting spells with mine. We found Corrupting Mark afflicted flesh far easier to cut through than normal dragon flesh, and as we dug deeper I finally felt the dragon waning.

Somewhere in all our cutting and hacking, we damaged part of the back muscles that let the dragon flap its wings, and we started losing altitude. Behind us, Sharky was also making progress. Where he'd once been at the tip of a long tail, now he was gnawing on the dragon's ass, and there was no tail to be seen.

We tumbled sideways as we lost altitude, diving downward and crashing into the rocky ground below. As soon as we landed, Myrina and I spotted something red and beating buried deep within the dragon's chest cavity.

Wasting not a moment, Myrina hacked the heart free. It was as big as her torso and pumping hot blood from every orifice, but that didn't stop Myrina from hoisting it over her head as she roared in victory.

"Carter, I take it back. This isn't a little baby sword," Myrina said as she hefted my slender rapier-like sword.

"Glad you changed your mind." I reached out to take it back, but it vanished into Myrina's bag of holding before I could do so.

Myrina put on her most innocent expression.

I shook my head and leaned over the side of the dragon.

"Everybody alright down there?" I called.

"We're okay!" Bridget shouted up in reply. "A few burns and broken bones, but everybody should pull through."

"Good. Let's get the wounded back home. Bridget, can you cook anything with dragon meat?"

"I can certainly try!" Bridget replied.

The dragon's back was ruined thanks to my Corrupting Marks, and its tail was gone because Sharky ate it. That left just a few choice cuts, and I picked the most promising of them. I'd never butchered an alligator before, but I'd seen someone do it once and had a reasonable idea of how to do it. But just when I was getting started, I caught Reluna out of the corner of my eyes. She was still studying the ritual diagram on the ground.

"Huh. I would have thought a beast like that would have been stronger." That thing was the dragon's body, Dramonar's vengeful will, and the Chaos Serpent's energies all mixed into one. It felt like we were about to fight something truly terrifying.

"Don't feel bad about the fact that we all made it through in one piece, sir!" Kyle grinned wide.

I shrugged. Kyle was right. Though one thing bothered me. What happened to the Lich King? He'd died to summon this thing. Had his soul merely been consumed for energy? If so, it seemed an ignoble way to die.

"Here, Frank, try and get a piece of that thing if you can."

Frank shrugged. "Sure, long as I'm invited to the barbeque."

I went over to comfort Reluna. She was probably feeling bad that she wasn't able to stop the ritual before it began. Nobody could have guessed that the ritual diagram on the surface had been a fake, though. By all accounts we'd caught our enemies by surprise, they shouldn't have had a trap laid for us. But the Lich King had been a paranoid bastard.

"It's alright, Reluna. Everything turned out okay in the end. Besides, I'm pretty sure the Lich King is as dead as a doornail. It's just a shame I didn't get to kill him. I figure since he also had the Death Defier title, it would have done good things for me. Maybe even removed my curse."

I shrugged, sorry at the loss. It really was a damn shame. Maybe that's why the Lich King had been so eager to sacrifice himself? One last moment of spite?

Reluna didn't respond focused as she was on breaking the ritual circle. I cleared my throat to get her attention.

"Reluna, it's over. The fight is won and the dragon is dead."

But Reluna wasn't listening to me, she was still hastily scurrying around the diagram, dragging one foot in the dirt as she carved new mana channels. The ritual was still fighting her, and an enormous amount of mana was still flowing through it.

She shot me a pale look. "Still... can't... stop it..."

Mana flowed through the ritual diagrams, straight for the dragon's corpse. Then, the body began to move.

My own face went pale then, and I rushed forward waving my arms.

"Look out! It's not dead yet!"

Then the dragon's back split open. Like a crab emerging from its husk, the dragon's skeleton pulled itself free from the corpse and roared once more.

Avatar of the Chaos Raven (Level 215)

"Praise be to the Chaos Raven," the undead dragon spoke. "This new vessel is far superior to the one I abandoned. And the voice of that idiot is finally silent."

The dragon glared at me, and now there was a new gleam in his eyes. The hollow sockets glowed with a familiar light. Those were not Dramonar's eyes. Or the Chaos Serpents. Those eyes belonged to the Lich King.