Sweat beaded upon Tarkon’s obsidian complexion, the occasional drop winding its way down his intricately patterned white scars. Time slowed as he blinked and cast his hand towards the sky in a wide arc. Flame wrapped around him like a serpent emerging from the earth, growing in intensity until the flame took on the form of a dragon’s maw.

Blinding white light blasted past the contender, as the crowd rose to its feet in a roar so deafening it drowned out the thunder of the storm clouds as they rolled over the arena.

Cool drops scattered across the stone of the arena, seeping into its parched surface, and then a downpour. Thick waves of storming water doused the stadium, and turned the roar of victory into a confused muffle.

Tarkon looked up at the dark sky, unmoved by the soaking downpour.

A bald man dropped to his knees before him, and collapsed onto the stone. Scraps of hair still remained in some spots if you really looked for it.

“Where’d this storm come from?” Tarkon grunted.

He looked around the arena to see if he could spot the wyvern guard.

“Where is security?”

As the crowd rushed for cover, silence was quick to fill the void.

Tarkon’s eyes snapped over to the main entrance as panic spread through the crowd. This wasn’t the kind of fuss people made over a bit of rain, no, this was something else.

The arena shook as the crashing of stone and fire let out a deafening boom.

There on the edge of the arena walls, towered the dark silhouette of a dragon.

DING DING DING

Bells rang out from the watchtowers all over the city, as the dragon took in a breath. Whirls of light shone out from the cracks between the scales on its chest and the air shook as the ether sparked in anticipation.

Tarkon sprung up from his feet and blasted towards the main gate, an inferno at his back as he leapt across the enormous arena in a single bound. The dragon’s fire spun and lashed out in a wild vortex as it shot towards the crowd. The churning mass of molten dragon bile tearing the air into a roaring plasma.

His boots cracked hard onto a bench in the stands as his hands spun in a wide arcing motion. The air settled, and the rich burn of flames hugged tightly to the jetstream of bile coming from the dragon’s throat, before twisting and igniting again even brighter. The flames, churning and whipping like wild rapids.

Tarkon gritted his teeth, and narrowed his focus, splitting a rift in the blinding flames.

He hadn’t the time to turn around to check, but he could hear the silence followed the blast, and could smell the ash catching in the air all around him. What few survivors remained, cowered in fear, stuck between walls of fire on all sides.

Tarkon waved his hand with a snap and pulled the flames up from the stone and into the air above, where it flickered away.

“Don’t just stand there, whoever is left, run!”

The dark silhouette of the great being loomed overhead, as its talons clenched hard into the stone of the arena walls.

Tarkon gritted his teeth before shouting out to the being.

“What about the pact?!”

The dragon turned its head to face the arena champion before it leaped into the centre arena. Its red scales shimmered with traces of purple in the blue mage light. Its red eyes locked onto Tarkon as it waded close enough for him to feel its breath upon his skin.

Its voice rumbled as it spoke.

The pact is broken, dark magic stirs within my mountain

I will not abide war at my doorstep

“It isn’t we who bring it! Burn the other bastards out there!”

ENOUGH!

I won’t be dragged into the affairs of your kind, you will all leave, or you will burn

“What black magic? Give us time to find it and stop it!”

No

Light swirled behind the dragon’s scales as it drew back to prepare another breath of fire.

*Shit*

Tarkon twisted on his feet and dived with cat-like reflexes, as dragon bile cut enormous fissures through the arena stone.

*Fuck this*

…

Rubble scraped under Rainal’s boots as he approached the Archmage.

He smirked and tapped Azmit on the shoulder “Isn’t it about time you used that black hand of yours?”

“Usually clients want a city to remain all in one piece, are you sure you want to rule over the rubble once all is done?”

“Bring it down”

“And your sister?”

Rainal smirked and tapped the mage’s shoulder once more.

“Come get me when it is done, I’ll leave this in your capable hand. My forces are waiting to sweep up whatever is left”

“There won’t be anything left”

With a flick and swipe of his black hand magic surged in the god stone culminating in a thin pillar of light the pierced through the obsidian walls of the cave and into the skies above the conquered elven port city.

As the gleam of the sunset scattered across the dune seas a surge of dark energy shot through the pillar into the sky.

…

The dragon’s red scales gleamed with the red hot embers that resided just beneath as it balled up a mixture of magic and bile into its throat. Its head thrummed with a dark pulse as the magic deep within its mountain intensified and shook its usually splendid serenity into a chaotic frenzy that only fire could solve.

Entire swathes of stone and mortar sizzled and melted, turning what were once homes of the arena district into blackened magma flooding the streets.

BLAST BLAST BLAST

The Dragon barely took pause to breathe, its nostrils flaring as it sucked in air in a frantic panic, anything to drive this madness from its mind.

…

Silvia looked on at the smouldering black streets, as the gathering of orphaned children clung to each other in a line behind her.

“Come on guys, just be careful where you step” she said as springing forward and turning to help each of the children through.

“Help, help me please!” a man yelled out from around a street corner, one of his legs a burnt off stump, “I can’t get out of here on my own”

Silvia glanced at the man with apprehension, “I… I don’t know if I can… I have my hands full with these kids”

She turned away for a moment, before the crease of her brow ticked.

“Damn it!” she said as she slung her bow over her shoulder and wrapped the man’s arm around her.

The Dragon’s roar shrieked through the skies as the beast took flight. Blasts of fiery light, casting all across the city as it feverishly hunted the crowds, smoke and ash billowing in its wake.

…

Valian flicked and swiped his fingers, a display in blue shimmered on the ground of the city above being torn apart by the dragon.

“I think we have our answer as to why nothing has come from the gate. This gate always had a dual purpose, one, to pin you all in here, and the second…”

“To break our pact with her…” The Duke said finishing the sentence.

“What are you going to do?” Alyssa said with a studious concern.

“To think Rainal had such a plan up his sleeve. I’m somewhat impressed, not bad for an upstart” The Duke replied with a distant stare.

His eyes shot to Gladly and he nodded in turn with him.

“I’ll start them in motion” Gladly replied with a snap and twist of his fingers.

…

Rainal stepped up onto the planks of the harbour and looked over the rolling waves with a sense of satisfaction. His toned muscles, burst from underneath his uniform were cooled by the glimmer of light reflecting off the waves.

His retinue of closest commanders gathered behind him, and made way for a small child carrying a glass with a fifth of king’s brandy.

Rainal slipped his hands around the rim of the glass and took a long satisfying sniff of the aromatic liquor. It sloshed against the rim as he circled the glass and brought it to his lips.

His satisfied gaze drifted off towards the horizon, until an itch crawled up the back of his throat. He snatched the child’s arm that had handed him the glass, and lifted her up by her throat, dangling her above the water. His eyes bulged and sneered, as his breath quickened. The child kicked, and pulled at Rainal’s stocky fingers. She grabbed tight to a small shiv tucked under her waist band and hacked at the muscle and sinew of Rainal’s forearm, carving out channels of blood with each puncture wound.

Rainal, looked on with hollow eyes, and numbed responsiveness. Until his arm dropped, releasing the girl with a splash into the waves below. He collapsed to his knees, and grasped at his throat for a moment before falling indignantly onto the planks of the boardwalk.

The waves lapped below the gaps in the boards as blood leaked into the depths below. The child’s shadow, moving in graceful and long strokes under the surface towards the glimmer of an underwater cave system.

His generals rushed to his side, and waved on to gain help in a panic, as Rainal’s eyes turned white and the world faded away from him.

The first of his generals to arrive at his side turned to his assistant. She gazed into his eyes through her glasses, and understood without a word his order. With a whip of her fingers, the order was cast to the forces lying in wait.

Dark shadows pulled off from the southern cliff faces a few hours' march from the city. The bat-like wings of the Arakaze came together in a flock as the sunlight faded over the horizon. The creatures had the head of a black wolf, the body of an oversized bat and long slender legs that were covered in a thick black leather and tipped with long incising talons.

Fast and hard to see against the night sky, they soared towards the city, now ablaze with dragonfire, and its wards eroded from Azmit’s influence within the walls.

…

Martin huffed and panted in a hysterical state, having wandered the city in a daze, until he found himself at the familiar site of the barracks. The other knights were gathering, and mounting their wyverns.

“Sir! You made it!”

“Of course, I wouldn’t miss it”

*Wait, what are we doing? Just what happened?*

“Their Arakaze riders have taken flight from just south of the city, it looks as though the city wards are down. With the dragon rampaging through the city, if we let them through to join it, there will be nothing left of the city before the night is over”

“Well, what are we waiting for?”

“We can’t make it out with the Dragon out there, we are waiting for the right moment, or some kind of distraction”

“Hmph… A distraction, well, you will have it”

“Sir, you can’t possibly mean!”

“Get your asses ready”

With a snap of his fingers Martin called forth his wyvern, and leapt up onto its back.

“Ya! YA!”

FWOCK FWOCK FWOCK

…

Tarkon blitzed through the streets like he was a champion of the foothill races rather than a gladiator of the arena. Zooming past crowds of people as the Dragon’s shadow swooped overhead.

PUMF PUMF PUMF

The beat of his legs against the stone, hit in even rhythmic strides. As a sorcerer, he never neglected training of his body, and woke in the early morning before anyone could see what he was up to and ran laps along the mountain sides. It was moments like this that reminded him why he never slacked on his training, and why he overcompensated with booze and women to make up for the pain and scars it left on him.

Magic pulsed within the channels of his body, helping fuel the flow of oxygen to his blood, it wasn’t a simple trick to accomplish, but just as fire required oxygen to burn, he could command it within his blood to fill his muscles with power to burn.

PUMF PUMF PUMF

The stone of the streets pounded under foot, as he weaved and steered past another group of citizens fleeing towards the western gates. The chime of the church bell’s rung out loud as he rushed past the plaza.

“Fuck” he spat out as he looked ahead.

The gates were jammed with thick crowds.

“No way I can make it through that”, he said as his eyes darted across to the walls, he veered off to the side of the crowd and readied flames at his back for a giant leap.

FWOAR

The flames tore out from his back as he leapt high into the sky above the walls, looking down at the huddle of people fighting their way through the gates.

FWOOSH

He snapped his gaze towards the rush of wind to reveal the large casting arc of the Dragon’s wing, and a blast of light that poured down on the gate.

“No!!!”

With a fast swipe of his hands, and a twist of his torso, he bent the arc of flames just above the crowds and along the far side wall. The Dragon’s maw poured forth ever more bile as he arched over the far side walls, holding control over direction of its flames. The flames at his back sputtered out as he held focus on controlling the wild spluttering torrents of fire coming from the dragon.

Shadows flickered and then blasted into his view, as he crashed through the forest canopy.

A blast of fire, and a mushroom cloud billowing from above the gates, as he bounced off the trunks of trees, and smacked into a thatch of branches before rolling to the floor.

…

The Dragon hovered over the smouldering plumes of smoke of the western gate, and tisked its lips in frustration as some of its Dragon fire had licked up against the far side walls and allowed many to escape. It got over it quickly as it real purpose was to rid the city, and in either case it had further sped it along.

A flutter of a shadow came from above, blocking out the starlight.

The silent rumble of wyvern wings against the cool night air, drifted in with barely a sound, before the wings twisted, and a small dark dot dropped from above.

The Dragon’s gaze spun to the dot, to reveal a glimmer of divine light, shimmering at the edge of a blade. With a snort of its nose, it quickly lashed a lick of flame from its maw like a fiery tongue.

Martin’s shield lit up with light as his sword plunged into the scale’s of the beast.

FWOCK FWOCK FWIP

The Dragon peeled up high into the sky with just two beats of its wings and flipped upside down to dislodge the little tick.

“Men! To battle! Those Arakaze dogs won’t kill themselves!” the commander yelled, before kicking up into the night sky.

Martin grimaced and threw off his shield to the burning city below as he fought to hold onto his sword.

With a forceful pull of his grip he drove a dagger into the wound for a second and tighter grip. He held on tight as the beast whipped and turned in the sky, spinning so fast, the skin on his face pulled tight against the bone.

*God, if only a wyvern could pull this many G’s*

Martin’s grimace turned to glee, as the Dragon’s flight path steadied out. He pulled out a lashing of magic rope from his waist stachel, and tossed it around the beast’s neck, and tied it tight to his belt.

Lifting his sword up high, he hacked and chiselled into the tough scale of its upper back.

FWOOSH

His footing skidded out as the beast again turned out from under him, but he jumped back to his feet, and hacked away again as soon as it levelled out.

His gaze shot over to the flock of wyverns pouring out from the barracks.

*I might not take you down, but I can make you a fool of you, you bastard dragon*

…

Silvia looked up at the wild figure eight’s the dragon was making in the sky, and a puzzled look shot across her face for a moment before the man on her arm pulled at her to look down an alley.

“Over there. Its an access hatch to the sewers, its the best place to hide”

“Right! Come on kids, we have to get underground”

The ashen faces of the children looked on obediently, half of them in shock, the other half pulling them along. The metal cover slammed open as Silvia tossed it to the side. She hurried the children into the sewers below, and then picked up the one legged man and carried him below.

She lit a lantern stone on her waist and handed out several more to some of the children.

“Stay close okay”

“Mhm”

Silvia looked at the one legged man, and placed him down by ladder.

*Damn, to think if I hadn’t saved him, we’d all be stuck up there. I don’t think I could have got these guys out*

“Beware…” the man coughed, “These sewers aren’t safe”

“What do you mean?”

“Monsters roam”

“What kind of monsters?”

“Rage… Raage… Cl… Cl…” The man garbled before passing out from the pain and shock of his injuries.

Silvia knelt over and checked the man’s pulse, “Don’t worry guys, he’s alive, he just needs rest”

A small girl with golden hair, stumbled over and gave him her teddy bear, “I wouldn’t want to fall asleep in a place like this”

“That’s so sweet of you, what is your name honey?”

“D-D-Dizzy”

“Can you help me with the other children to gather up as close as you can over here, I need to scout the tunnels around us to make sure they are safe, okay?”

“Don’t leave us!”

“I’m not leaving, I’m coming right back”

“Oh Okay…”

The children gathered by Dizzy beside the one legged man, and Silvia stepped forwards into the dark tunnels. She drew back a wisp of her hair, sharpening her elven ears to the new environment as she turned the corner.

…

“Hmph” Azmit smiled as he twisted his black hand with a flick of his fingers.

The gate lit up with a fierce red shimmer, as a mound formed behind its surface.

“Something is coming through,” Mirio yelled back as he lifted his sword.

Dasha followed suit and drew back a shard of ice over her shoulder, as her blade faced forward.

Valian cocked his head to the Duke “I guess this means Azmit is back to tormenting us?”

“It would seem that way…” The Duke grumbled.

“Small man, help them, as I take up the fight at its source”

Gladly tsked and shook his head as he headed over to Mirio’s back and flicked up spells of haste on each of the warriors.

Valian’s blood smeared against the godstone, as he dipped his head, and placed his hand against its rapidly oscillating surface.

Streaks of red and black, shook within Valian’s mind, as he traversed the dark planes and moved through the shimmering beams above the elven port city to the south. His scrying eye when powered by the stone, and directed through the connected magic between places, was enough for him to reach the dark obsidian caverns below, where Azmit had fortified himself.

“I guess it’s time to find out which one of us is strongest” He chuckled under his breath just before his consciousness travelled through the stones.

A ghostly image of Valian appeared before Azmit.

“Val, you are still alive I see. I’m amending that now, don’t worry” Azmit said as twisting his hand around the magic of the godstone.

“You see, what I’m bringing from the other side will tear through those warriors of yours, and crush the life out of you before you can complete any kind of long range spell. So you see, the only reason you are here, is to watch me as I kill you”

A look of shock flickered across Val’s face for a moment before quickly vanishing, “Nice try you pompous, blustering, old fool. The king’s brandy you drink nightly, the blood rituals, the black hand, its all just to delay the innevitable. Even if your flesh doesn’t show it, your mind is aged, like a prune left in the sun to rot”

The corner of Azmit’s lips curled into a sneer, “Taunting your opponent, as expected of a student of mine, but it won’t save you”

Azmit turned his hand counterclockwise and balled magic into his fist before pounding onto the stone.

FWUMP

Mirio looked on with his remaining eye at the red mass bulging on the other side of the gate, his eyes steady and calm, as his other missing eye gazed into the world winds to give him a hint at what was to come.

He didn’t know how, but the winds were whispering to him in an ancient tongue, speaking to him about an ancient evil cast from the starlight.

The cool shelter of the night’s veil brings with it the dance of dazzling lights of places far away

Yet inbetween these places of respite, loom the horror of rivers of ultimate darkness

Bound with the light, they reach out, ever growing, to grasp at the light

And will in time bring about its demise

*What the fuck… A riddle, or is it a poem? In another language? From the world winds?*

Mirio blinked heavily, and shook his head to regain his composure as the glob began to bulge through the gate, like the membrane of a womb.

*I can’t sit around thinking of an answer I have to be ready to fight*

*But what if what comes through that gate is faster than the spider?*

*Do I really have to figure out what it is before it appears? Surely not… That wouldn’t be fair…*

*Fuck… Since when do wizards play fair*

The veins on Mirio’s forehead buldged as thoughts race below the surface, and the glob began to take form.

…

Silvia gazed into the dark tunnels ahead, and saw a flash of red eyes staring back at her.

“Shit”