White Ravens: Advent of War

The Dragon's Wake

Contrary to what Valdano's noble garbs yesterday, he was now wearing a battle-hardened chainmail over a tough leather armor. His breeches were dark in color, and his signature rapier was sheathed at his right side.

Rune could tell from Valdano's posture that he was a capable warrior himself. Valdano was speaking to Torevir and Leif about the details of their task, while Rune and Corselia hung back, steadily following them up the mountain.

It took over five hours of hiking steep paths, and climbing rocks before they finally reached the entrance of the cave allegedly leading to the Dragonstone. There were several other parties present aside from them, and even an elite hunting party possibly dispatched by the local lord of Hadar. All these cave explorers seemed quite capable of braving through all adversities that lay inside the cave.

Aside from Torevir, Leif, Rune, and Corselia, Torevir had also brought a few of his personal guard. But it seemed that he had assigned them to hang back at the entrance of the cave.

Instead of going inside right away, Valdano told everyone to stay until everybody else was already inside. He didn't seem to be in any hurry to acquire the Dragonstone for himself, which led Rune to believe that Valdano had omitted some glaring details about the nature of this excavation.

Thus, Rune spoke openly. "Valdano, I think you're not telling me and my partner everything that we have to know about this excavation. You do know that you hired us to be your escorts, yes?"

"Yes, and I do apologize for that, Rune. I didn't think you were interested to know," Valdano responded in a respectful manner.

"So speak, boss man," said Corselia.

"Dragonstones are not just precious gems borne out of Mother Earth's bounty. They are actually stillborn dragon eggs," Valdano said to everyone while examining their reactions. "There is a rumor, but a rumor unproven mind you, that there's a ground dragon hidden deep within Hadar's mountains."

Rune's eyes widened. "Well, let's hope it remains a rumor, shall we?" He then stood up and looked around. "I guess every other party has already gone inside. You think it's about time we go in there as well?"

"Aye, the boy is right, boss! Caves are my dwelling. I can lead us to the right paths," Torevir said proudly while standing up.

Valdano's excavation party traversed the darkest trenches of the cave. They could hear the faint sound of flowing water, and dripping droplets of water, but they couldn't tell where it was coming from.

Torevir and Leif were leading the party. Leif had conjured a glowing pygmy, an earth spirit, to her side and allowed it to rest on her shoulder. Upon seeing the pygmy acting all friendly around Leif and even smiling at the elvish girl, Rune became more and more suspicious of her.

Corselia had been silent throughout the exploration, and she seemed to be standing very near to Rune. He didn't seem to mind, but he was bothered by her strange behavior. Normally, she was quite feisty, and frankly, braver than everybody else. But now, she seemed to have been neutralized by the environment.

Rune conjured a spirit of eefriti to his side and told it to stay near Corselia. A smile appeared on her lips, and she put a distance between herself and Rune. Her gait became steadier, and she no longer looked tense.

"You're afraid of the dark, aren't you?" Rune bantered.

"Shut up," Corselia retorted.

Valdano couldn't help but chuckle at their interaction, but he displayed forbearance to maintain his identity as this group's leader.

The party soon came to a halt when they came into three divulging paths. There was even a corpse of one of the men they saw at the entrance of the cave at one of the paths, and his body was riddled with claw marks and his flesh had been torn open.

"So, not the right path," Valdano said. "Where do we go Torevir?"

Torevir stood in the middle of the open area in front of the paths, and put his hand on the ground. A few moments later, he stood up and pointed at the wall beside the right path. He then took out his hammer and pummeled the wall until it crumbled before his might.

A secret path appeared right before their eyes, and the path was leading down into a large clearing inside the cave. It seemed that this was where the sound of running water was coming from. There was ample plant life within this area, and there were quite a lot of aquatic creatures abound.

Leif went to the river and put her hand below the water. As she whispered something under her breath, the water glowed. "It's not toxic," she said to everyone.

Just before they could all approach the river to replenish their water pouches, they heard a rumble. Dust, and pieces of stone fell from above them. And they could hear a harrowing screech from afar.

"Get ready!" Valdano ordered.

The ground where they stood began to shake, the ceiling crumbled, and a large dark beast with titanic limbs fell from above. It had half of a human's body in its mouth, and the dark beast did not seem too pleased to see more people.

"The dragon! f**k me, I jinxed it!" Rune shouted as he reached out his hand to summon Skellur.

The dragon screeched at the top of its lungs and swiped its large, scaly arms at Valdano's party. Everyone managed to dodge the attack on time, and retreated into different positions.

Leif pounced away with acrobatic agility while conjuring a magical bow. She jumped into the air and shot arrows at the dragon. But unfortunately, the arrows proved to be nothing but a little more than annoyance to the beast.

Corselia hung back to observe the fight. She knew that her measly dagger would not be able to pierce the dragon's thick scales.

Torevir drew the dragon's ire by hurling rocks at it and swinging his hammer at the dragon's tail. It took only one swipe from the dragon's tail to propel the towering dwarf's body into the wall, effectively incapacitating him for a moment.

Rune cast an enchantment into Valdano's rapier even without prompting. He could tell that Valdano may be able to fend off the beast by himself, while the rest of the party figure out if they should all retreat or try their luck in felling the dragon.

Valdano dashed across the battlefield to confuse the dragon, and his swift movements did invoke the dragon's fury. He could easily side step and avoid its every attack, but it seemed that he was not trying to attack the dragon at all.

"Boss, what are you doing?" Torevir groaned with pain. "We need to fell that beast or die trying!"

"I choose neither," replied Valdano. "I do not think its our enemy," he added.

"What the hell are you talking about, man?" Rune remarked. "It's clearly out to get us!"

While everybody else was complaining, Leif was climbing onto the dragon's body. And before anyone realized it she was already standing at the dragon's nose. The beast seemed to have seen her, but it did not attack her right away.

Leif caressed the beast's scale. "Hush now, we're not here to hurt you." The dragon seemed to have been enamored by her voice and began to calm down gradually.

But right when everyone was thinking that the worst was over, several men jumped down from the hole made by the dragon. They landed on its body while simultaneously piercing it with swords and spears.

The dragon cried out and tried to shake off everyone on its body. Leif managed to somersault away, but there were two others that were thrown into the wall and died immediately.

"Stop!" Leif shouted to the other party. "Don't hurt it!"

"Shut up, demi-human! This kill is ours!" said a woman from the party. Her rugged appearance showed that she was battle-hardened, possible even more than Valdano, himself.

Valdano didn't seem to pleased to see that woman. "Just walk away, Mathilda," he said to her. He then brandished his rapier and formed a stance. "This doesn't have to end badly for you."

"For me? Look at my men out there? They're the best of the best!" Mathilda responded. She pointed at a hulking man wielding a large sword almost tall as him. "That man is named Xerxes. He's a former beast hunter turned gladiator. I bought him off from his master, and he couldn't be happier. He'll do anything for me. Even kill that beast and all of you!"

There were five other men aside from Xerxes surrounding the dragon. They were all ready to take down the beast, and it seemed that their previous attack managed to hurt the dragon, and it was now being wary of its movements.

Suddenly, Rune, Corselia, Leif, and Torevir came to the dragon's side. Rune swung his sword, Skellur, against the enemies from afar, and one of them was blown away a wall. Rocks, boulders, and dust crumbled towards him, and buried the man.

"I don't want to kill any of you, but if you lay a hand on this beast, I may have to," Rune said to them. "Back away!"

He then enchanted Torevir and Corselia's weapons, and both fighters dealt with the enemies on their side. Leif, on the other hand, was dealing with two warriors on her own, but she seemed to be far stronger than both. She would conjure up a sword for close range attacks, and throwing knives for long-ranged attacks.

Xerxes stood tall a few meters away from Rune, readying his greatsword. "Come," he said in a hoarse voice.

Rune hid Skellur away and wielded the sword at his side. He then formed a stance and slowly walked towards Xerxes. "It's your funeral," he remarked.

"Doubt," Xerxes retorted.