Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 83

Quietus observed the situation from the dragon’s back. Two armies of ghosts were charging at the dragon on their ghostly horses. It seemed to be somewhat thought out, since they were moving in a fashion that would force the dragon to get within reach of at least some of their army. In the air, there were more directions to avoid attacks from. However, the dragon Quietus was riding was big and bulky, and didn’t seem to be able to make fast turns. Though, Quietus noticed it was somewhat more agile in the air than it had been on the ground.

On top of the dragon with Quietus were a small number of zombies and skeletons. Of the approximately two hundred he had started with, about twenty or thirty were still ‘alive’ and holding onto the dragon. The rest had been knocked off, devoured, or crushed. However, their purpose as a distraction had already been achieved, so the fact that some were still around was basically a bonus.

On the ground… Ruby played the harp and sang. Quietus couldn’t see her clearly, but he heard the beautiful song. He was glad he’d managed to ask for her help. She was the most important part of the strategy, now. Besides that, Quietus liked having her around.

After a few moments, the armies arrived. The dragon used its terrifying ability to eat souls, and breathed inwards, killing almost a squad of ghosts instantly. However, there were many more to take their place. Ghosts manifested into physical form just long enough for their weapons to pierce into the dragon, then they continued to charge past, and through, the dragon. A few of them even moved through Quietus, which was an odd feeling. Unfortunately, the dragon was very tough, and it wasn’t going to go down so easily. Quietus thought it was down maybe ten percent of its health, and that included the entire charge as well as his demon spear attack.

The dragon went into a roll, which flung off more of Quietus’ undead minions that were trying to claw, bite, or otherwise attack the dragon. Some of them, as well as Quietus, were prepared and held a good grip, either on some of the weapons embedded in the hide, or by grabbing onto scales or spines. Unfortunately, many of the weapons had broken off when the dragon rolled on the ground, reducing the number of good handholds available.

After its attempt to shake Quietus and the others off of it, the dragon moved onto matters it considered more important, the armies. It would hunt down smaller groups to eat them, though it could not continuously use its abilities to eat souls. It also prepared counterattacks when they charged, swiping claws or its tail when they manifested to attack. The armies adapted to counter this, rearranging their troops, and sometimes having them feint attacks where they did not manifest, drawing out swipes before those behind charged in for real damage.

Quietus couldn’t really spend much time to observe this, though. He was too busy biting and clawing the dragon, as well as trying to stay on its back. Its scales were extremely hard, so his attacks did little. His dark cloak ability seemed to slightly damage it, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy Quietus. He took a few moments to grab around a scale and pry it up. Each scale was about the size of his hand. Even with the strength of a ghoul, it took all his effort to pry up a single scale. He clawed at the exposed hide underneath.

Its hide… was also very tough. Though he could visibly tell he scratched it, it wasn’t much use. Though his dagger could likely have more effect, he needed both hands free at any moment, in case the dragon tried to throw him off again, or just turned quickly. If he had his dagger out, he was worried he might drop it, on accident or because he needed a spare hand. Quietus decided he would just try his best to get what he could out of the abilities he had now.

Quietus used the spell Enhance Alchemy, though he did not draw out a vial of poison. Instead, he used it in the natural poison he had as a ghoul. He then spit some of the poison onto the small wound he had made. Then, he moved onto another section, more than ten feet away. He pried up another scale, and did much the same thing. The dragon was big enough that it would take a lot of poison to affect it, and it would also take a long time to spread. By applying it in different places, it could somewhat help the process.

The dragon was down to about half its health now, but Quietus could tell the battle was still in its favor. The ghostly armies were visually dwindling in size, and Quietus only saw one or two undead still managing to cling desperately to the dragon with him, and beyond that they were having little effect. The dragon was too strong.

Not that Quietus was going to give up because it was strong. All that meant was he had to do something stupid. Though, he wasn’t really sure what counted as a stupid idea in a game, especially when you could come back to life after dying. Maybe what he did next was the logical choice.

Quietus climbed out onto the wing. Obviously, he wasn’t standing on it, that would be suicidal. The dragon was big enough to support his weight on the wing, unfortunately, but it was much less stable than its body. If it turned or flipped, its wings moved the fastest with the greatest acceleration, which would make it easier to fling him off. However, the dragon wasn’t concerned with him just yet.

At least, not until he bit the wing. Though there were sturdy bones near the front of the wing, there was a nice, leathery membrane that was, relatively, soft. Even so, Quietus couldn’t bite all the way through. Its wings were somewhat similar to bat wings, full of wonderful things like blood veins. These were good for causing bleeding damage, as well as quickly spreading poison through the area. Quietus could tell from the first bite that it was effective. This was clearly obvious, because the dragon roared, loudly.

Then, Quietus felt his skills put to the test, as he tried to keep his grip on a dragon spinning and flapping its wings, trying to throw him off. It had casually thrown people off before, but now it specifically attempted to throw Quietus off. He didn’t have many good places to get a grip, and held desperately to the top of the wing. Sometimes, there were short moments where he could adjust his grip, and he had to do it right to prepare for whatever moves the dragon would do next. However, this distracted the dragon enough to allow the armies to do some more significant damage.

Quietus even found the occasional opportunity to bite the dragon again. He could now easily tell the effect he was having, as the veins in the wing were turning from red to black as the poison spread. The wing also flapped less strongly. Then, Quietus found a good opportunity to finally use his dagger. The dragon went into a climb, likely to prepare a dive or something else Quietus wouldn’t like. He didn’t want to try to handle it. However, the dragon was now injured enough he could try one last reckless thing.

As he pulled out his dagger, he stabbed it into the wing, then let go of the edge of the wing with his other hand, instead placing it also on the dagger. Though this made his position unsteady, it did something more important. All his weight was on the dagger, which was placed so that the edge went toward the ground. With gravity.

There was a loud ripping sound, as Quietus slid down the entire section of wing. Then, he fell. He wasn’t really sure how high up he was. However, he didn’t care. It was a lot better to fall of the dragon on purpose than to fall of when it wanted him to. He also wasn’t afraid of dying. For several reasons, really. If he died from this, The Power to Accept Death made it not a big deal. However, there would be no point if he thought it would kill him.

Quietus knew that people had survived falls from amazing heights, given the right circumstances. These were, however, normal people. Quietus was a high (ish) level character in a game, and currently was an undead. Would a fall kill him? Unlikely. The ground was even fairly soft. At least, it wasn’t rock, but grass and dirt. Quietus tried to remember the best way to fall, and did his best to create as much drag as he could. He relaxed his muscles as much as he could. It wasn’t too hard, since he wasn’t really afraid. He’d died from falls in game before, and he didn’t think it was the worst way to go. Plus, he thought he wouldn’t die.

He wasn’t wrong. Though, he did find himself impressed in the ground, and it was somewhat hard to get out. He was also down to the last fifth or so of his health. Fortunately, undead couldn’t bleed out, so even if he was in the critical range he would be fine. At least, if the dragon didn’t come for him.

Fortunately, it was having plenty of trouble of its own. Though dragons were powerful fliers, they were also very heavy. The fact that they could get off the ground to begin with was somewhat astonishing. With a poisoned, bleeding wing, a dragon might still fly. However, it still needed to maintain its structure, which a large tear down most of the middle prevented. It still might have been able to fly if it had been otherwise healthy, but it was not.

Quietus didn’t see it hit the ground, but he knew the moment it did, and smiled.

You have leveled up! x3

//End Chapter 83