Alright guys. This will unfortunately be the last chapter for a bit over a week, maybe even two. I am going out of town on vacation, and they won’t have internet there (Although they are supposed to). When I get back I’ll try to make it up to you all with a burst of chapters. Last time I went that hotel didn’t have any internet access.

Anyway, here is the first side chapter!

A quiet night. The stars were blocked by a thick canopy of clouds. The lightless moon could do nothing to break out and reach the ground. A small village lay silent in a forlorn place. High above the village tiny specks could be seen, obscured by the clouds and darkness.

A villager walked out of his house to use the privy, noticed the specks, and went about his business. The specks were so small that they didn’t seem to be worth thinking about. Birds that high up couldn’t even aim to poop properly.

The night sky. The specks grew larger until they were almost discernable. The higher one went up, the more clearly one would be able to see the ‘specks’. The specks looked like the bodies of birds from several hundred feet above the ground. The intense wind at that altitude seemed to do nothing to them.

At a thousand feet they seemed more flushed out. Legs could be seen. Four of them. Long necks ended in pointed snouts. At several thousand feet they were finally visible. Scales covered their bodies. Long tails ended in spikes. Talons and claws completed each leg. Snouts equipped with razor sharp teeth had bursts of fire or lightning seeping from between their teeth.

Dozens of these dragons flew close together. Not often would they leave their home, but they had found the killer of their queen. They were out for revenge! The winds parted before them. The cold frosted their scales, but did nothing to harm them. The darkness hid their forms, but they could see perfectly well within it.

Somewhere far away flew a lone dragon. The dragon circled above a familiar city. The outer walls of the city were small, but grew progressively larger as they neared the mountain the city spanned. On the mountain lay a large castle. The dragon flew high enough to block out the view of it from the city. After circling around the city several times, it let out a thunderous roar.

The city was almost barren, since it was so late, but the roar roused the entire population. The instant the dragon roared, dozens of guards began filing people towards the castle. The city hadn’t been attacked in weeks, but people still understood what they needed to do for safety.

The dragon swiftly descended from the heavens. It tucked its massive wings into its sides, and plummeted downwards. The sheer force of wind against the dragon’s scales would be enough to strip a normal person of their flesh.

A moment after the roar sounded, it was followed by another. This time the sound was a high-pitched cawing. It came from a large series of caves near the castle. From the cave shot a dark shadow. If one were to look closely they could faintly make out the outline of a Gryphon. Nightmare-Wing! His powerful voice sounded out like a trumpet, calling all avian to follow under his banner. While Nightmare-Wing flew to intercept his foe, and finally keep his promise to Voice, hordes of flying creatures began to swarm towards the dragon.

Nightmare-Wing shot forward with unfathomable speed. Easily eclipsing the speed that the dragon showed while falling. In a matter of moments, Gryphon collided with Dragon. Nightmare-Wing slammed his claws into the dragon, and demanded attention. His claws sunk slightly into the scales, but only managed to put a shallow row of marks on them.

The dragon roared in anger. How DARE a lower life form try to harm it! The dragon was, as all dragons were, prideful before anything else. The moment the Gryphon attacked, it unfurled its massive wings, and shot backwards. A deep anger filled its eyes. From inside of its mouth began to pour a strange fiery light. A jet of flame, several yards in diameter, shot at Nightmare-Wing.

Nightmare-Wing, the ever nimble, allowed his body to drop to one side, easily avoiding the fire. In return, he shouted at the dragon. A powerful void of wind ushered forth from his mouth. The wind could tear lesser creatures to shreds in an instant. It pushed the dragon back several feet.

By the time the dragon stopped moving, the many types of flying lifeforms had flow into range. Each one bombarded it with a plethora of magic attacks, or long ranged attacks. The night sky lit up as if by countless small rainbows. Sounds like thunder echoed out when the dragon was struck by the vast amounts of incoming attacks.

The dragon roared, and shot towards Nightmare-Wing. Hundreds of magic attacks aimed at the dragon missed because of the sudden movement, but some still hit on the mark perfectly. A black glow appeared directly in front of the dragon. Without enough time to avoid it, the dragon slammed head on into the orb.

The dragon disregarded the impact, and ferociously clawed at Nightmare-Wing. The dragon’s talons extended out and raked Nightmare-Wing’s flank. Long trails of blood oozed out from the wounds. As the blood began to seep out of the wounds, the wounds themselves completely disappeared.

The dragon roared at the outcome! First it gets attacked, then the enemy heals!? NO!

The large amounts of magical attacks began to be bolstered by actual attacks from the various flying creatures. Beaks and claws of lesser creatures were no match against the scales of a dragon, but the black orbs that occasionally appeared seemed to create a weak point for the others to manage to damage the dragon.

The dragon backed away from the attacking enemies, in an attempt to flay them alive all at once. Nightmare-Wing shot forward in that moment, and latched on to the belly of the dragon. The dragon shook itself violently, but could not dislodge the Gryphon. The dragon began clawing at its own belly to remove the pest. While it did some small damage to itself, the dragon felt its claws sink into the flesh of Gryphon several times. Yet the Gryphon refused to let go.

The dragon was being bombarded from all sides by magic. The Gryphon attached to its belly didn’t even seem to mind bearing the brunt of some of the spells. It merely clung on to the dragon. Its claws and beak slowly wormed their way past the scales, and bit into tough flesh.

While the scales of a dragon are neigh impenetrable, its skin is no laughing matter. The skin of an adult dragon would be harder than most metals, while elastic as string.

Nightmare-Wing continued to attack the dragon from up close. Spells bombarded the dragon’s body. All manner of avian creatures attacked it from all directions. It began shooting fire at the avians, to stop the bombardment.

Each shot forced dozens to fall to the ground and perish, but by this time, the massive number of flying creatures blotted out the sky. Even the people in the castle looked on in awe at the defense Voice had prepared. Many knew of the multi-layered defense system, but no one knew what it exactly entailed. Seeing so many fling creatures fighting off a dragon was a sight to remember.

As the battle continued, the residents began to feel drowsy. The strongest of them fought it off for a time, but many succumbed to the promise of sleep.

The battle raged on. The various flying creatures were slaughtered by the dozen, but they seemed endless. The amount of time they had lived here allowed them to breed far beyond what would normally happen. The relatively peaceful land outside of the city was perfect for hunting small and large game. They had no predators, so they grew without worry.

Many of the creatures the dragon killed fell to the ground. It didn’t waste energy, and only used enough the kill them. The magic attacks being hurled at it slowly chipped away at its armor, letting those brave enough to attack physically have a chance at hurting it.

The battle continued for several tense minutes, but eventually had to come to a conclusion. The dragon was slowly but surely losing hp. The army of the Gryphon seemed totally unhurt by the attempts of the dragon to subdue them.

The unending amount of enemies caused the dragon to question something: Where are all of them coming from?

A quick glance downward answered that question.

When things with wings lost the ability of flight they would fall and die. That was what the dragon was aiming for. But something was wrong. They were rising into the air!

The ability of the Royal-Class Hyper Healer Gryphon was to force upon its followers a regenerative ability much like its own. Each of the beings following Nightmare-Wing, all had an unfathomable rate of recovery. If a single attack didn’t kill them fast enough, they would just come back a bit more angry. By the time the dragon realized this, it was too late.

Nightmare-Wing had finally penetrated into the stomach of the dragon! Not normally a place you would want to be, but Nightmare-Wing was special. It dove in even as the dragon howled in pain and anger. Seeing their leader’s bravery only empowered his followers.

As if on cue everyone attacking the dragon began focusing on the spot their leader had just been attacking. The dragon tried to fly away, but was stopped by a sudden pain in its chest. The loud thumping of its heart was no longer there. The dragon’s natural instinct for life was the only thing tethering its soul to its body. It looked down at its chest in disbelief. At that exact moment its face was splattered in its own blood, as Nightmare-Wing shot out from inside of it.

The dragon died, even as it realized what happened.

A cheer rang out from the few remaining people that were awake.

In the far distance, a shadowy figure sat atop a large head. The head was covered in scales, and was adorned with two snake-like eyes.

“Hmph. Is that all your army can manage Voice? To barely slay a vanguard of mine? Let’s see how quickly I can destroy what took you so long to create.”

Behind the man flew hundreds of angry dragons, all flying towards this one city. To reclaim their fallen brother’s body, and lay siege to land stupid enough to claim their leader’s heart.

Meanwhile, in the labyrinth:

Chao had been using some of the poison Voice had given him, to put the people of his town to sleep. The flying eyes that Voice gave Kretchof control of alerted Chao of the oncoming dragon horde.

Chao, in accordance to Voice’s wishes, had put everyone to sleep in the face of imminent death, to be carried into the dungeon by the chaos beings. Chao shook his head. Some of the people were to be trapped with luxurious rooms, created by Voice himself. Others were to be set free in the dungeon, or trapped in far inferior rooms. All of the ‘otherworlders’ were to be released into the dungeon as a form of training for Chao. He was allowed to kill them, but he didn’t think that would be as fun as toying with them a bit.

“Go.” Chao nodded to the girl that was a follower of Kretchof. “You are to kill all of the otherworlders without assistance from the dungeon. If you can do that, I might teach you Life Steal.”

The girl jumped to obey.

She had been told that Chao was creator of the dungeon, since his look was the same as Wolf’s. She wanted to please him in whatever way she could. She was to be his disciple should he choose to teach her. The type of magic he knew was far beyond that of a necromancer. He could raise the dead, but he could also empower them beyond reason.

Thus the hunt began.

Hey guys! So if you like this story, even just want to give your opinion about it, drop me a rating! It really helps me gauge how i'm doing, especially since no one has rated my story in a while. And seeing that i've got more ratings, even if they're not great ones, always makes me want to try harder! To get more chapters out! And to generally become a better author!