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Vexx
My invisibility potion wore off, as smoke remained emitting out my flintlock.
I might as well kill a man to be rewarded.
As I was sent after the dark-armoured Drownei, by the headmaster who calls him 'Black Knight', his brother of the same kind started to rise up after I'd just shot him.
". . .Vexx?"
The guy named Black Knight peered far to notice me. The unfamiliar skeletal beasts that were summoned around him started to twitch. Probably about to move again. So I called out.
"Correct, mister restroom. Take cover!"
I pulled the trigger of my dusty gun at the man with the glowing stone, in a single burst of white steel bullets infused with air magic.
He faltered back again. Holes like rapid gusts of wind were pierced through the back of his head, as the dark knight slashed his sword at the semi-frozen creatures.
The caped man in Dwellven garments, whose name I heard was Zeleos, somehow refused to die. His stone of black mist radiated another glow like his eyes. Each wound where a bullet cut through slowly reformed by trickles of fire.
That gem in his right hand caught my long attention. The bloodstone. Anyone and their mother knew what it was, yet no one knew how powerful it could be. Maybe I should've brought a sword and sliced the Drownei's head off. So he dies at once for a good bounty.
But for now, it seemed like the shots simply just stinged him.
Zeleos raised the dark blood-red gemstone. Black Knight swung his sword again at the bony, fossilized cave monsters that surrounded his area. He couldn't reach his apparent sibling.
I loaded my stolen wooden firearm with more quick bullets from smuggling.
Then, spreading my pale feathery wings for launch, I flew up from the ground with scattered hay towards the both of them.
I fired another projectile that hurled towards Zeleos in the blink of an eye. Staring at me in the corner of his sight, scaled skin still regenerating, his gripped bloodstone flickered.
And a ropelike entity dug up from the rocky ground, shrieking its fangs at me in one swoop. It had the same color of the darkest shadow. Like all the other varying monsters with fleshy bits. Except this one had little wings akin to a baby dragon, when they existed.
'I should really bring a dagger or two.'
I thought as I shot at where the snake was, glancing around the stables room of used chariots for another weapon.
'Oh, wait-'
Then I put my gun in its holster and unsheathed a fiery, red dagger infused with a different magic.
As I looked back, the beast charged straight for my pale face with its pointy canine teeth. I swerved away in the air as my white mask was almost ripped off.
The flying reptile slammed into the rocky wall behind me, disoriented. I swiftly made sure to grab it by its tail. And pierce through its bone with my blazing blade. Its skeleton erupted into flames, while it dropped tossing around on the floor. Unable to be resurrected as it lit up into ash.
Bounty items do come quite in handy.
After that, I heard Zeleos' deep whistle.
I pointed my flintlock at him again. But he was shielded by walls of more living bone.
The dozens of undead cave creatures trapped Black Knight in place. No matter how much the knight fought back, he was held by revived pitch-dark golems made of stone, and the other beasts being resummoned. But none of the controlled monsters tried to kill him for some reason.
Suddenly, the carriage door on the other side crashed into wooden pieces, with the cavern wall surrounding it falling. A chunk of the rubble launched straight at my wing. And I fell with it to the hard ground. The flaming dagger fell out of my waist, and out of reach.
My feathered flight organ was caught under the heavy bit of cavern. I forced my vision to refocus, as I managed to barely sit up and tug at the pinion. Maybe a pure Flivian with their bigger wings would have the strength to escape. Or maybe it'd hurt their thicker material.
I called out again.
"Hey, it'd be nice to have a fair fight, you know!" My voice slightly cracked as I tried to persuade.
As I continued to verbally negotiate, the monsters stopped their focus on me temporarily. From the crumbling hole leading out, was a dragon.
A dragon.
The somehow-not-extinct winged beast bowed its head down, with noticeable horns of a goat, and a misty aura comparable to the bloodstone. But its glowing darkness flickered, while it struggled to lift its own lengthy wings. Maybe the dragon was weak somehow.
Black Knight was tangled up and captured by the entities, put atop the monster with them by Zeleos' command.
"Let me go, already!" The steel knight demanded.
"It's for the greater good, Kallei."
His steel masked brother stated like fact, without looking at him.
"You'll know soon enough."
He mounted the dark dragon. Then he allowed the bloodstone in his hand to radiate with his eyes, yet again. The grounds below us rumbled like before.
And so, they rode off to the cloudy outside of the cave.
Leaving me alone with a continuously shaking surface, where I laid trapped beneath a section of cavern rock, as the floors broke open again similiar to when the beasts were first summoned.
Excellent. I thought to myself. At least I'll die off witnessing a dragon.
I mean, with a life like mine, dying was bound to happen eventually.
I stared up the ceiling of lanterns, anticipating for something unlucky to occur that'll do it to me quickly.
But then, there was a sudden solid pressure. I looked over, and felt the weight of a flaming axe smashing through a part of the rock chunk. Thank Niytri or whoever that they didn't cut off my ability to fly.
"Get up." Said the deep voice of a grown kid, as I looked towards who was speaking.
He stared at my predicament with a proud smile under his pointy nose. It was the one of two glorified Dwellven, Thorne, from earlier.
"We heard the shots. He should've sent more than just you, to be honest."
I immediately got up, wiping off the soot on my leather utility belt. And grabbed my shining red dagger off the floor to sheath it.
A small army of Chronicle Order soldiers, and his kind, entered the room of stables following him. Including Aziel and Thorne's younger wizard sister.
"Well, twenty invisible people are hard to keep track of." I told him, and spoke out to the others in the room."A Drownei escaped with Black Knight outside. We need to catch him. . ."
Then my sights focused towards the horses and wooden vehicles nearby, waiting to be used.
". . .if those chariots are still intact."
"Well, you heard the guy!" Behind Aziel's casually sooted dress, the little Dwellven sibling stepped forward, with a hand latched onto her bronze scepter.
"Let's go, people-"
"Jade!" A surprised Thorne scolded. "Weren't you told to stay with father and the headmaster?? What are you doing. . ."
Their bickering voices trailed off in my mind, as the troops and I ran over to the abandoned animals and vehicles.
We quickly hitched two of the horses to a dusted chariot, side to side. And the armed group split off to repeat the same process with a few other carriers.
The men and I needed just enough, until I flew up to the driver's area in the front vehicle, and told the soldier beside me to pull on the reins.
And out we hurried, with the other prepared chariots following suit. I paid no mind to my other quest members left behind. The Drownei, despite their slow and weakened dragon, were straying too far for my liking.
In the distance was a black dot. Which happened to be the monster, trying its best to leap off flying into the air, while passing by confused Dwellven villagers and their hilly homes. They were rushing straight for the outside gates. And the few guards permitted outside of the open stone wall just so happened to be Drownei, like them.
"I see them straight ahead." I told the driver beside me, loud enough for all the other chariots that followed to hear. "Keep trailing behind 'em. I'll try to close the gates."
So I flew off, soaring straight ahead to quickly get past the enemy. Or possibly acquire a good bounty.
I loaded my flintlock with infused earthy magic, nearing closer. Black Knight struggled against the weight of a dozen skeletal bodies, and continued to swing his heavy blade, just strong enough to cut through bone. But even their slow regeneration adds a lot of difficulty, atop of a moving flickering dragon trying its best to run away.
Zeleos, pulling on the huge reins of the monster, noticed me with a side eye while I managed to keep flight in the air. I came up right behind the spiny tail's end. It was a struggle aiming my gun at him when they kept moving the beast to either side.
The caped brother driving, with a focused, exhausted face under pressure, reached into his pocket with one hand, while another darkened glow spilled out of it.
One of the summoned entities, a bat-like with a pincer bits and of rotten flesh, stopped its attacks on Black Knight to slowly turn its furry head at me.
Before I could notice how the creature's eyes were now glowing too, it lunged at me like a steel bullet.
It pierced its limb into my leather armour. I could barely shoot a straight projectile from my flintlock. My flight pattern of exhausted hybrid wings became just as chaotic, as the bat thing wrestled all over at me in the air. It tried piercing its huge pincers towards my exposed fish-scale neck.
I stopped for a second in place. The creature the size of my head charged for the face. Instead of swatting it away with a gun, I unsheathed my fiery red dagger and impaled the monster as it attacked.
"We need you not captured, take this!" I yelled to Black Knight, who noticed me in the middle of being held down by the bulky flesh skeletons. I threw the blazing weapon at him while in the air, trying to keep up with the dragon, hoping that the Drownei quester at least knows how to catch.
"The dagger has fire magic! Should be more effective!"
He knew how to catch luckily, and immediately got to swinging the smaller blade at the summoned. Its flaming properties lit the carcasses, with tiny, spreading fires.
Zeleos pulled hard on the thick leather reins. Still focusing forwards. The dragon turned its head, opening its fanged mouth at my wings. I swerved out of its way to land on the ground, taking out another invisibility potion from my belt pouch, as it unleashed a mass of scorching fire from its maw.
I splashed the tiny glass bottle at the stone pavement again. Then I quickly looked behind. Our army of rushing chariots were catching up, but not enough. As for me, a rest of my wings go a long way. Since I'm only half pure and all.
I stared forward, beyond the dragon, at the armed Drownei noticing them while guarding the gates, and opening the exit of village Valean to support a man from Kyronia. Away from the tall and little Dwellven families near me, peeking out from their huts. Who had no idea why they were seemingly being raided upon.
I wasn't here for them, though. The quester could eventually come in handy. Or in riches.
So I propelled forwards. Past the caverns, pointy-eared people, and eventually the horned beast who had no idea I was there.
I decided to help out Black Knight by pulling out my flintlock, loaded with acquired earth-infused magical bullets. And I pulled the trigger at the skeletals still burning up while fighting.
Roots and branches grew from where the projectiles landed. Snapping off parts of their bone.
Then I thrusted myself further away returning my gun, as the flickering dragon started sniffing me out, biting its bladed teeth.
It took a few buildings in front of them to reach where I had to.
I eventually landed next to the stone gates guarded by dozens of steel-armoured Drownei, preparing chariots of their own. Then I noticed a hefty steel and wooden lever, much easier to see up close, which connected to the chain pulley system that opened the wall.
Without thinking twice, I flew over without anyone noticing and pulled the bar back.
The closest weaponized Drownei barely reacted to the unseen, before I gripped off his helmet, and slit his scaleless face so he fell to the hard floor. All that remained were growing whisks of fire on the corpse. But my eyes were on the lever and my surroundings.
Zeleos' monster suddenly stopped right as the gates fully closed. The Chronicle Order troops were nearer now than ever. Their arrows flew sharply in hordes to the ground under our feet. I could only make out the hint of clear blue in the darts, until blasting out were pillars of unavoidable water. The Drownei, with some of their own ring magic, diminished some of it using flames. But most of them were caught in the rapid waves.
Including me, until I shook off my soaked feathery wings and managed to lift away. The wetness dried off pretty easily since I wanted it to. Not to flex my half marine-ness.
Being a hybrid is apparently not a good thing either.
My potion finally weared off as I glided over to the dusty chariot I rode on, now nearby. They took a sharp turn backwards, following the trapped Black Knight. I landed on the seat next to the same driver to catch my breath.
"Way to friendly fire." I appeared next to him in a lower voice."So, is there another gate around here to close?"
"Actually. . ." The iron-armoured troop pulling the horses responded, as the rest of the soldiers fired more glowing coloured arrows forwards."They'd need to head back towards the base to get there."
"Good." I thought out loud.
Maybe I'll get something out of this.
But before I could finish another correct notion, the clopping of more vehicles and men sounded far behind. And I looked back to realize none of them were ours.
For whatever they cared about that I didn't, except to retrieve one of their kind, soldiers of their Overlord trailed behind to fight back.