RD: Chapter Eleven - Immovable Hero, Unstoppable Wyvern

Keegan soared through the air, the tip of his upraised sword glinting a savage red. She didn’t want to die again, but if she had to, to save her people and the village, she supposed it was an alright way to go.

Just before his sword hit home, a trio of Spark Lances shot from the alley and speared Keegan. He fell back from the force, interrupting his concentration and dropping his health by 5%. The skeletal hand retreated but Keegan was too fast. He was back on the offensive, and Dolli’s Burst of Speed was coming to an end. Creeping Moss spread across Keegan’s armor, slowing him further.

Dolli dashed with the last of her speed and stamina, trying to stay ahead of him, trying to lure all his best abilities out of him. Get everything on cooldown, take all his Spark, leave him completely defenseless.

“Get over here!” Keegan snarled in his demonic voice and an oversized glowing red hand protruded from his own outstretched arm. The hand clamped down on Dolli, dragging her back towards the Dusk Knight.

She opened her Overlord menu and selected Nubiri’s spawn point: directly behind him.

Keegan’s sword ripped a hole in Dolli’s shoulder, and she cried out. She closed the menu and looked the hero in the eyes with all the hatred she could muster.

“This ends whenever you want it to.” The hero reeked of alcohol and sweat dripped down his tanned brow into his red eyes. He twisted the blade, earning a groan of pain from Dolli, but she bared through it. Nubiri spawned in a sparkle of green, casting light across the square and turning Keegan’s head.

The wyvern wasted no time, whipping her tail forward and smashing the hero. Dolli dropped to the ground, her buoyant Spark turning black and decaying. She reached out, casting Zeal on Nubiri.

“He took your children,” Dolli said, pointing to Keegan.

The drunken hero stumbled to his feet, his health bar hovering around 85%. Nubiri inhaled deeply, her throat glowing a putrid yellow. She turned and roared in Keegan’s direction. A cloud of toxin rushed out of her mouth and rolled over him. He coughed and Dolli watched his health bar turn a sickly green, then it dropped little by little.

Nubiri pounced into the cloud claws first, but Keegan dodged. Dolli watched his rolling tumble and cast Gravity Sink where he stopped. The hero resisted her spell and she cursed.

Keegan rushed Dolli, a sanguine aura surrounding him. Ghostly red horns grew from his head and wings sprouted from his back. He lifted off with a flap of his magical wings, dragging his sword across the ground as he flew right over Dolli. She ducked, the blade missing by an inch. Four Spark Lances followed him through the air. Two speared him through and dropped his health down to 60%.

Panic rippled through Dolli. They couldn’t let him live. They needed the several hours of down-time his respawn would take to rebuild, level up, and prepare themselves.

Keegan yelled as he retreated. “This isn’t over!”

“No, it isn’t.” Nubiri snarled and took off at a run. She flapped her wings hard and lifted into the air twice as fast. Her head darted out on her long neck and snapped down on Keegan’s legs. He screamed, twisting and swinging his sword.

Nubiri dropped out of the sky, smashing the buildings below. Dolli and the others dashed through the streets to get to her. Keegan shrieked in pain as Nubiri thrashed her head from side to side. She smashed him through a wall and tossed him into the air, his health bar hanging on by a thread.

He landed in a heap at Nubiri’s feet. She whipped her tail around and bashed him into the ground, then picked up his body and threw it into another building. She pumped her wings and jumped, then came down with an earth trembling thud that cracked the foundation of the buildings around her.

“He’s dead!” Dolli screamed, trying to get the enraged wyvern’s attention.

Nubiri was laser focused on Keegan’s limp body. “Where are my babies!” The wyvern roared in his face, then whipped him into the street next to Dolli.

The hero rolled to a stop, his legs mangled and one arm missing. His dark plate armor was dented, and blood poured out through the punctures.

Nubiri panted through clenched teeth and pinned Keegan’s dead body with a clawed foot. “Answer me!”

The volume of her voice shook the Spark in Dolli’s body and vibrated her eyes. Dolli bent down and opened Keegan’s loot inventory. He’d dropped a few interesting items, but only one wyvern egg. Dolli pulled the egg out, though it was too heavy for her to carry.

Nubiri dropped low over the egg and gripped it gently in one claw. It was amazing to Dolli how brutal, or how gentle Nubiri could be with such massive strength.

“Where are the others?” the wyvern snarled at Dolli as if she were hiding them.

Dolli shook her head. “This was the only one he dropped.”

“Where are my other two children?” Nubiri barked in Keegan’s horror-frozen face.

“He can’t tell you. He’s dead,” Dolli said again and turned the hero’s face upward so the wyvern could see. His eyes and mouth were wide open in fear with blood cascaded down his temples to his neck.

“Where?” Nubiri screamed and flicked her tail, smashing another building.

Dolli ducked as chunks of stone tumbled through the street. “Nubiri, stop!”

The wyvern roared, flicking her tail through buildings as she rampaged down the street. Dolli had no choice. She opened the Overlord menu and selected to return Nubiri to the Lifewell. The wyvern burst in a shower of green sparks and floated up toward Dolli’s hut in the woods.

Dolli sighed and dropped to the ground over the egg left behind. She stroked the scaled shell, barely feeling the roughness of it through her hand made of Spark.

“The general store…” Julie said as she picked up a stone painted with blue and red.

“Nubiri just lost two of her babies, I think a few toppled buildings are manageable. We’ll have it fixed before nightfall if we work hard,” Dolli said, confident in the claim.

Julie threw the rock through Dolli’s body. It clattered to the street, pulling a bit of her Spark along with it. Dolli scowled and looked back at the angry woman.

One of the Wispelle crossed his arms. “Didn’t hear ya’ care so much for our lost babies.”

Then another spoke up. “You were concerned with the trade reroute!”

“Now our village is falling apart, broken by that monster, and you care more for its eggs than our home?” Julie’s voice trembled as she spoke.

Heat flared in Dolli that mirrored the feelings of her dungeonfolk. They hated her, and she hated them. How could they think so little of her? She had a thousand different things she wanted to spit back at Julie. A hundred million reasons why they were all wrong. Dolli had cared so much—too much. She’d tried to make their lives perfect! All it took was a little hero magic and that had all gone to shit.

“You don’t understand,” Dolli started.

Julie scoffed. “You’re right, I don’t. How can you think so little of us? You’re supposed to be our ruler!”

“Julie,” Rufus said, putting a hand on her smoky shoulder.

Julie pulled away, her body glow dimmed and eyes bright with sadness. “No, Rufus. Even you’ve said how inept the old witch on hill was. How you wished Greg would put an end to her! Now we’re stuck with her forever!”

The pain was worse than a hundred of Keegan’s swords through Dolli’s heart. She looked between the accusing Wispelle and her only friend.

“Oh?” Dolli said, her voice threatening to break. Anger, fear, devastation, sickening revolt made her head spin.

“It was a long time ago. We had all been so upset… my boys.” There was shame in Rufu’s face, but it only hurt her worse.

Dolli nodded, the self-hatred pushing her toward a precipice she couldn’t escape. “I understand.”

They were quiet for a moment, staring at one another. Dolli activated her corporeal form, and picked up the heavy egg.

Dolli turned away for her cottage, unable to face him a second longer. “Do what you will, then.”