Locate Creature at VIII+1 had a very long range. It wasn’t all that difficult to locate the first red and blue dragons close to me after I Cast it.
I’d never seen anything but blues and reds above the Bleaklands here, so that was all that I was hunting for. I buttressed the Locate Creature with a Widened Commune with Nature that I should have used some time ago, although there was a surprising amount of overlap with the Communes I’d used from twenty miles deeper in the earth.
Dragons were extremely magical creatures, and had a massive effect on the local ecology, as well affecting local magic and any sapient societies in the area. The only things more hostile overall to the Land than a rapacious dragon were fiendish Outsiders and Aberrants.
More than a few Aberrants popped up in my Commune, too. I painted them all into my Visual File, and added the lair raids into my schedule of Things To Do.
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Two-year-olds aren’t supposed to be such rabid hunters, I thought to myself, closing in on the cave entrance atop the short peak here. Eagle Eyes could make out the claw marks and gouges around the top of the mountain there, where the dragon within could climb up and survey its domain proudly, basking in its own power and glory.
Glorying in domination over a barren sun-blasted wasteland wasn’t exactly appealing to me, but whatever worked.
It was night-time, of course, both Duum and I far more comfortable in the night, and we had no wish to be spied upon by skulkers down below on the landscape.
Duum was really looking forward to this. This wasn’t an elder dragon, and I was planning to let him handle most of this fight as a form of practice and tempering his expectations of dealing with powerful monsters. The most dangerous physical combatants he’d dealt with so far had been some fire drakes, hulking purple worms, and lots of large bugs, particularly beetles of various types and scorpions.
He landed loudly at the entrance to the cave. I Dispelled the spells about the entrance with a loud wailing scream of flaming-eyed black skulls whizzing around and tearing apart the spells there, sucking in the released magic and loudly warning the dragon inside of our presence.
Duum screeched a REALLY loud challenge right up into the ultrasonics, making the very stones shake at the volume, then flagrantly and loudly clambered right up the side of the mountain towards the peak, there to claim the dragon’s own throne and lord over it inside its mountain.
Well, that wasn’t going to fly. A great bellowing roar erupted out of the cave, wild with outrage that a mere bat dared to challenge it. Duum just snickered back, claws tearing at the stone as he danced atop the mountain above it, flapping his wings loudly as the Animal Growth went off on him and doubled his size.
“Foolish beast! You dare to test the might of Conflagros the Unequaled?” came the raging declaration in Draconic, echoing forth from the cave and sure to be heard miles away.
The dragon burst out of the cave in a gout of flame, pausing for only the briefest of seconds to make sure there was no ambush waiting for it, and then it bounded into the sky with a beat of dark crimson wings trailing whispers of the heat that was blazing up between its crimson and black scales.
Pyre Dragons, they were called back on Terra-Luna, not merely ‘red’. ‘Red’ just didn’t sum up their urges to destroy, to see the land on fire, to dominate all around them, their colossal pride and arrogance, and the power that went with being living engines of fiery destruction.
This fellow was an Adult, rank 5 on the twelve-part scale of Dragon Ages that we knew. It had magic, was tough and strong, with jaws considerably more dangerous than Duum’s by default, fast, powerful, and of course it breathed dragonflame. It was also the largest active dragon within thirty miles, which is why I’d picked on it.
Duum went right for it without any hesitation.
My Familiar was naturally size Large, about ten feet tall standing there, but he could shrink himself down to half that height to be a better fit for me, and not loom so much.
Animal Growth doubled that size again, adding a heap load of physical Buffs and size modifiers to his attacks. Greater Magic Fang, Barkskin, Force Armor, Wings of Flying, Flight, and Divine Favor turned him into a devastating combat machine that was every bit the equal and more of this dragon, and the Protection from Fire and Resist Fire didn’t hurt, either.
The red dragon’s blazing yellow eye actually turned around in astonishment to see the bat closing in on it from behind… and FAST.
Also, the bat was bigger than it was!
Size and speed are the two big warning signs of any predator, and it couldn’t help but acknowledge the fact that this bat was probably a threat, especially with lines of blackness trailing back from the ruby arcs of his claws, teeth, and wings, and a very unique and magical pattern on Duum’s chest.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Maybe the monocle on his face stirred up some warnings, too.
Still, it was a dragon, and had a dragon’s pride. It rose up and spun around to receive him.
It didn’t spot the Lance until it was much too late to do anything about it.
I had an intelligent mount with almost prehensile claws. Duum could totally hold onto a lance with his taloned feet while flying, keeping it flat against his chest. A great deal of our flying practice over the lakes out there was involved with him practicing how to spit things with it, and learning how to charge things with it… and if needed, to fling it at point-blank range at things.
The magic on the Lance found the seam and meeting point of the belly scales, and the Spirited Charge for triple damage slammed into the dragon and punched in deep.
Unequalled Conflagros screamed at the injury, followed by tons of giant bat smashing into it with ripping claws and teeth that were far, far more powerful than the dragon had any reason to expect.
The two of them tumbled over in the air, losing altitude repeatedly as they savaged one another. The dragon was not at a disadvantage at this, being able to ply massive jaws, four claws, tail, and wings in a wild frenzy of attacks… well, except its wings were kind of beating at the air trying to keep it aloft, no Levitation or other effects in play to help it fly.
Flames did ignite all over it, gouting forth like a blast furnace, and much to its disbelief, Duum completely ignored them.
Duum was hammering with his wings like hammer-backed sickles, cracking the dragon across the head back and forth, chips of scales and frill flying at the impact as they ripped and tore with their jaws, and one black horn shattered and tumbled free from a violent impact. Conflagros was trying to grab and pin Duum with all four claws, and it wasn’t working, while the slamming impacts at the dragon’s eyes encouraged it not to lock its jaws on Duum’s shoulder and try to get through my Bat’s hide and armor.
All the while they plummeted very quickly from the sky, and…
Duum spread his wings, arrested his momentum, and tore free of the grip of the dragon. Conflagros spread his own wings as he twisted desperately, only to find them slashed to ribbons by the scything trailing edges of Duum’s own wings.
The impact was crushing, and, well, the dragon still had a Lance in it. Its scream of disbelief and anger at its death was unequaled, cut abruptly short as it was both crushed by the impact and further impaled on the Lance. Flaming blood spilled out all around the lance-wound like molten metal, wasting a valuable resource I Dim-Doored right up next to in order to stop that quickly.
Duum glided noiselessly down next to me as the Exsanguinating Tube inserted itself into the gaping lance wound, levering the corpse over so my Bat could retrieve his nasty pointed stick. The dragonblood stopped flowing away, drawn in by the magic of the Tube, and began to fill the barrel I Shaped up there.
The Lance of Duum shrank back to its smaller size, making it simple to extract. Duum pulled it off, and the Mage Hand from his Monocle smoothly inserted it into the sheath on his back.
The adamantine length of Dread’s Spear jack-knifed out of an invisible seam along the length of dragonbone, the Orb acting like the fulcrum, Morphing slightly to be more cleaver-shaped, like a glaive, rather than long and extended like a Spear. Fabricate had done most of the work on the Spear, but it could still be improved a lot. I was still spending a V on it every day.
Duum was quite used to his part of the job. With a ruby-toothed grin, he pulled as I cut, and we began to process the carcass of the Unequaled Conflagrus.
Its cave and hoard was right over there, and nobody was going to enter it without me noticing for the hour or so it was going to take to turn this red dragon into material components.
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Any questions about the Black of the dragon’s Aura were totally satisfied by the number of skeletons and the collection of skulls stacked up proudly in its hoard chamber.
The coins were spread out in the normal bed for relaxation, along with some shed scales. Some had been sacrificed to make into molten gold for dipping particular skulls in, like a large ogre skull, what was probably a Fire Jotun, and a couple skulls in ornate helms or in the center of holy symbols or arcane medallions. But all of them were polished by magic or fire, gleaming and ready to appease the ego of the dragon laying on them like fine pillows.
Six different nations were represented among the coinage, which said more about the ubiquitous nature of coins of precious metal than anything else. I’d Tapestried the dragon, and I Itemized its hoard for the moment to sift and break down the coinage and gemstones.
Six magical items, given pride of place, along with a trio of spellbooks in their own little niche for the dragon to admire. An elven Cloak, a dwarven Hammer, a Dagger, a Wand, and a Bag of Holding with some Potions stuck inside it.
I looked at the remains of the dead and considered my options while eyeing the mess of armor and weapons artfully strewn about the place, some shattered, some half-melted, and some preserved, probably subtly indicating the fights and fates of their wielders in the eyes of the dragon.
To me, it looked like a lot of introductions to people who might be useful to me. I considered my options as Assay and Sift began to sort things out.
I should probably kill a few more dragons and up the impact of what I was doing…
I readied myself to Speak with the Dead a few times to get all the details straight of the people here, but that was what magic was best at: doing the right thing for the right people.
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“By the Grace of Heaven, I desire that I be able to develop my natural strength to the mortal limit allowed by my species.”
Enhancing my physical abilities was kind of interesting, because I was far too young for it to have any real meaning. Magic could take care of a lot of things, of course, but the fact remained that the ‘mortal limit’ was based on me growing up… which physically took about thirty years for an elf, as opposed to the twenty years for a human.
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Author’s Note: Fear the Power of a Buffed Duum!
HD: 28 HP: 328 AC: 45 #Attacks: 5 TH: +39 Damage: 4-24+19, x5 Move: Fly 110’, MC: A