The Code is Mightier than the Sword

Chapter 2: The Offer

With the minions out of the way, Jace had no problem leading his group through the wide tunnels of the cavern toward the dragon. The evil presence of the awful beast stood out clearly in his mind when he wasn’t worried about dodging crystalline fists or avoiding fireballs from lava creatures. Not all the passageways in this vast underground maze were large enough for a dragon to move through, and the party now moved through one such tunnel. They could see this path led to the largest room they had found, and Jace warned them that the dragon was only a few hundred feet away.

The paladin paused briefly to go over the plan, and everyone nodded in agreement with their role. The spellcasters were low on magic, but there were no viable rest options here, and they would have to make do with what they had. Hopefully, with their enchanted sword, they wouldn’t need much more than the damage they could produce with their weapons.

Jace was the first out of the tunnel and felt the massive drop in temperature as he entered the frost dragon’s lair. Ferrisbane sat calmly in the middle of the vast cavern, a mighty white dragon whose breath could make even the strongest iron brittle. Now, she waited patiently for whatever foes had invaded her stronghold. The beast was aware that her minions were gone and that the magic spell cast to provide her protection was no longer active within the cavern. The mage she had hired to cast that enchantment had seemed loyal, but now she regretted not eating him after the spell. Undoubtedly, he had sold her secret to these adventures. Ferrisbane hadn’t known the magic that had protected her all these years could also be used against her. Focusing her attention on the lone human approaching her now, she could feel a familiar power within the knight’s sword but laughed at the idea that a single warrior thought he could defeat the dragon.

At that moment, Preston and Alex stepped out of the tunnel, and Jace broke into a sprint. The dragon’s attention was divided, and she didn’t know whom to attack first. The priestess cast her last spell of magic reduction, lowering Ferrisbane’s invulnerability by 20%. With her protection dispelled, her natural immunity was already relatively low, and after the priest’s spell, it was almost nothing. The battle mage followed it up with an acid arrow aimed at the dragon’s underbelly. The green bolt of energy streaked through the air and exploded into her chest with a sickening hiss. Ferrisbane winced only slightly, but the chemical burn repeated itself several times, each blast less than before, progressively weakening the creature.

The dragon reacted in turn, blasting her icy cold breath across the width of the cavern at the two spell casters, but they were already running in opposite directions, attempting to flank the creature. The attack missed, but the dragon angled her head down at the sprinting paladin, catching him full in the face as he closed the distance between them.

Jace felt Alex’s cold protection spell flex under the tremendous force of the dragon’s attack, knowing that he would have been frozen solid without that defense. Even with the spell, he felt his health plummet and his joints scream in protest. He grabbed the hilt of his normal sword, holding it awkwardly in only one hand, and brought flame to the blade. The fire breathed heat into his body, and he found the strength to close the last few dozen feet to the dragon.

Ferrisbane reared back at the sight of the flaming weapon, knowing how much it would hurt, but she didn’t pull back far enough and only revealed the acid wound to Jace more prominently. The paladin focused on that spot, acid still occasionally bursting the last effects of the spell, and lifted his new weapon to attack. The enchanted blade shattered the weakened scale and slid into the dragon’s flesh. The beast kicked out in pain, and Jace had no defense but to curl up into a ball as he flew across the cavern. He trusted his armor would save him, which it barely did, as the impact with the stone dropped his health below a quarter. But his job was done for now.

Back in the middle of the cavern, the dragon scrambled desperately against the wound. It didn’t hurt as much as the fire blade would have, but now she felt like a bathtub filled with water quickly emptying through a massive drain. The magical resistance that had been her savior for so long was vanishing. Ferrisbane tried to remove the sword, but her giant clawed fingers couldn’t grasp the tiny hilt that had been left protruding. And she had other things to worry about.

The mage who had thrown the magical acid arrow was now firing flaming arrows. He had a bow out and was shooting almost without aiming but could hardly hit anything but the massive beast in this empty cavern. Preston was out of magic now, but the crystals that gave his bow elemental powers were fully charged, and he hoped he had enough arrows to do the job.

The dragon went on the move, wanting to trap the archer in the cavern’s corner so she could crush him, but a ring of fire sprang up around her as the priestess unleashed her last spell. Ferrisbane tested the boundary and recoiled in pain, the simple spell doing extra damage to the frost dragon.

Still, did these humans think this would be enough? Then Ferrisbane sensed something jumping out of the shadows on the cliff wall above her. A small rogue landed on her back, sinking his sword under her weakening scales. A simple weapon it might have been, but the thief struck a nerve in her back, and tremendous pain coursed through her. The attacker wasn’t satisfied with one hit, though, and continued to pry up scales with his dagger and shove his sword into the flesh.

Ferrisbane wanted to smash this insignificant human back against the wall he had leaped from, but to do so, would mean crossing the flame barrier, and she couldn’t bring herself to endure that pain. Instead, she knew she would have to resort to her breath weapon again. But as she inhaled to drench the entire cavern in an artificial ice age, she felt the air pass through her, no longer finding the source of her magic. Instead, she got the archer’s last two flaming arrows in her open mouth.

Ferrisbane thrashed about desperately, trying to throw the thief from her back, and as she hopped about, flapping her wings, Kirk finally lost his grip and leaped to the ground, falling just outside the ring of fire and rolling to safety. The flame barrier also ended, but instead of disappearing, it shrunk in diameter, burning the dragon’s wings and legs as it collapsed into a point.

Exhausted and weak, Ferrisbane thought she might still have a chance as it appeared this group was out of offense. She saw them gathered in front of her, three standing tall while the paladin was just pulling himself away from the cavern wall and staggered up to his friends. The knight smiled at the evil beast before him despite his weakened condition. “Die, you evil fiend!”

Jace lifted his hand to the heavens, far above the ceiling of this underground stronghold, but his god heard his cry anyway. A terrific bolt of lightning crashed down on the dragon.