RD-11

 

Chapter 13: The Knight and The Princess

Trusting his Rider, Princess Twilight, completely, Sean immediately stood and turned. Thus, the second part of the High Shaman's trap wasn't fatal; instead of taking a giant sword to his weak spot, the gap in the scales in his lower back, it merely glanced off the scales of his leg harmlessly, producing a shower of sparks. 

What the-, Sean thought, but before he could even register what he was seeing- 

*SWING, SWING, SWING* 

Three mighty blows, more powerful than anything he had felt before, struck him in the torso, down to up and across his chest. Sean reeled backwards, taking quick steps to keep his balance against the weight of the blows, barely able to make out a tall figure in armor through the shower of sparks in his eyes.  

The figure disappeared, suddenly jumping to the side, and was replaced by a pale-skinned, dark-haired woman in a white dress, who flung a ball of spinning cloud at him in a parabolic arc. It bounced off the scales of his stomach, winding him, then exploded at his feet. Sean was sent tumbling over the Cromag's Cabbit spike perimeter and into their wall, doing his best not to crush Twilight in the process. His scales protected him from the stabby defenses surrounding the Cromag capital, but also protected was the feet of the armored Knight stepping forward to finish Sean off. 

"Casting..." Twilight said through the telepathic equivalent of gritted teeth, not letting the tumbling or the pain of having her tail crushed between the Cromag's wall and Sean's head slow her down in supporting her Dragon. She waited until the Knight was as close as possible and barely in range from her position on Sean's prone body, then cast the best spell of her life – perfectly between the vertical slits of the Knight's closed helmet, where the sound was magnified tremendously. 

"Urah!!" The Knight bellowed, clutching his helmet with both hands, banging the pommel of his two-handed sword against it in the process.  

"What is it, my love? Are you ok?!" The pretty voice of the pale, dark haired woman in the beautiful, flowing white dress of a princess asked urgently, hair and dress billowing dramatically back and away from the violent, cloudy, magical air she held between he hands. 

"Aural Magic, I think," the Knight replied in a deep, manly voice, as he shook his head to clear it.  

Sean slowly climbed up to one knee, breath still knocked out of him. He tried to say, "I'm a human like you!" But with his diaphragm not cooperating, all he managed was to raise a claw and hiss out "Humansss" in an evil Dragon sounding voice. 

"The monster speaks!" The Knight exclaimedw, taking a stance with his sword as if to defend himself from that truth. 

"Don't listen to him!" The Princess cried out. "It's a trick! It's probably how it killed my sister!" 

Sister? Sean thought. Wait, she looks really familiar- 

*SWING, SWING, SWING* 

The thought was interrupted as the Knight charged unbelievably fast and the one-sided battle began again. The blows lifted Sean over the Cromag's wall and into their city, crushing house and Cromag alike.  

You fluffholes, Sean thought as he tumbled, still unable to speak, I didn't want to hurt these guys.  

The Knight stepped over the wall and pursued, announcing somewhat hypocritically, "Your time of terrorizing the people of the grasslands has come to an end, monster." He kicked the pile of tribute gold Sean had been collecting, scattering it as dangerous missiles into the Cromag capital.  

Sean watched as squealing guinea pigs ran for cover, some covering the bodies of their whelps with their own in order to protect them from the deadly shower of shiny metal. Sean began to get pissed. He stood up, breath mostly recovered, and tried to concentrate on the Knight's sword. 

*SWING, SWING, BLOCK* 

Sean missed the first two swings, but blocked the third. He hissed in pain; that blow may very well have cracked the bones in his blocking forearm a bit. But it allowed him to shove the blade and knight away, allowing him precious seconds to recover.  

Or so he thought. The Knight again leapt to the side and the Princess launched another ball of magical swirling air at Sean. This one bounced off his shoulder, spinning him around a bit, forcing Sean to backpedal and crush more of the city to keep his balance. The ball of air crashed into the city, far enough away not to knock Sean down with the force but still obliterating many Cromags in their homes. The Cromag army had begun to evacuate as many as they could toward the back of the great city, but the casualties were still very high. 

*SWING, BLOCK, TRIP* 

No time to think as Sean took more blows, then tripped over and onto the Cromag Palace, crushing it with his body. Embedded in the great structure of grass and dirt, he couldn't dodge away as the Knight made a mighty thrust for one of the spots on Sean's stomach that was missing scales.  

*Pop!* 

Another perfect shot into the Knight's helmet by Twilight, but it didn't stop the momentum of the blade, which stabbed down with perfect accuracy at the weak spot in Sean's armor. The tip pierced Sean's skin, but the great blade was too wide to pierce with more than the tip, as the surrounding scales stopped it cold. But Twilight's attack did cause the Knight to trip and fall on top of Sean, pinning the sword between them. 

"You've got him now, Sean! Don't let him get away! This beast dared attack the Great Black Dragon of Death!" 

She's right, Sean thought. He focused on her words and got angry. He wrapped his legs around the Knight to pin him and keep him from getting away, took a deep breath, then - 

*SLAM, SLAM* 

The Knight wasn't trying to get away. He rained blows with his mailed fists onto Sean's face. The sword gave Sean bruises and may have cracked some ribs, and in general was wearing Sean down, but his scales made him all but immune to slashing and piercing damage. The blunt damage from the mailed fists was another story, and Sean felt the small scales of his face quickly start giving out and falling away.  

*SLAM, SLAM* 

This made him accidentally swallow his molten flem, burning his stomach. 

*Pop!...Pop!* 

Twilight couldn't miss from this range, but the Knight somehow shrugged off her first attack. The second caused him to scream in frustration and roll away, removing his helmet as he went. 

The Sword! I've got the swor- Sean started to think before another magic missile slammed into the palace next to him and sent him tumbling once more. 

"Ah! Fluff it, Fluff it, I broke my legs!" Twilight cried out, trying not to sob, but failing. Before he could get up and respond, he suddenly had to curl up and puke, getting out the molten flem he had accidentally swallowed. His stomach felt instantly better; it didn't melt him from the inside. But it still hurt; he could only slowly push himself to his hands and knees, arms shaking. 

"We're in trouble, aren't we, my love?" Twilight said between moans of agony.  

(I love you,) Sean signed back, wanting those to be his last words if necessary.  

"Its scales deflect magic!" The musical voice of the Princess exclaimed. 

"It deflects my blade, too. But don't let up; we're winning!" Replied the deep, manly voice of the Knight.  

Sean couldn't disagree; he was losing, badly. The Dragon was a little taller than the Knight and the Princess, but it meant nothing; the Knight was obviously both stronger and faster than himself, and both of his opponents had superior range to his claws. He had no doubt that his scales were a superior defense to the Knight's metal armor, without which he would have instantly lost and been slain in the initial surprise attack. But it didn't make him invulnerable; every hit bruised him, sapped his strength and energy. He still had fire and lightning, but the weakness of those weapons was now apparent; they were seconds slower at close range than physical attacks. He had a few precious seconds now, as the Knight was recovering his sword, and the Princess, panting and sweaty from her spell casting efforts, recovered the Knight's helmet.  

Should have finished me off with his fists, Sean thought. Listening to his little furry wife's sobs of pain and thinking about being apart from her if one or both of them died was enough to fill Sean with both rage and sorrow. The Knight seemed to decline re-donning his helmet to avoid the enhanced flash bang stun, and Sean saw his chance. Sean chose fire. He coughed into his teeth a couple times, keeping his mouth closed while he built up sticky lava in his mouth to try and keep the attack a surprise. This made a huge amount of white smoke billow out from his nose, but that didn't give the Knight pause as he boldly closed the distance, sword in hand.  

Sean took the deepest breath possible, and the instant he thought the Knight was within range he coughed as hard as he could, still on his knees on top of crushed Cromags and their houses. But it seemed Sean had chosen wrong; the Knight didn't flinch or slow down, just raised his greatsword in front of himself, using it to cut the cone of flame in half as he continued to move forward. Molten flem sprayed onto his shiny armor, mostly on his right gauntlet, but Sean didn't manage to get any on his exposed face like he had hoped.  

Looking into the Knight's eyes, full of determination and the bright reflection of Sean's flame, the Knight who somehow ignored the fact that his own beard was on fire, Sean knew that he had lost. The instant the fire breath was exhausted, the Knight pulled his arms back then swung into the strongest blow he possessed, treating his sword as if it were a blunt weapon and making a sort of baseball swing into Sean's chest. Sean lost consciousness for an instant, and was still tumbling like a god-sized wrecking ball through the Cromag city when he woke back up a couple of seconds later.  

Was the Knight getting stronger and stronger? Sean wondered in despair, cringing as he waited for a final blow of sword or magic. Twilight was silent, and he had no idea if she were unconscious or dead, clawed armor still keeping her wrapped up in his hair. When he looked up, the Knight was fumbling to put out the fire on his beard, brush the lava off his armor, and detach the right gauntlet that had taken the brunt of the molten flem and was now glowing hot, melty and useless. The Princess merely covered the Knight with the spinning ball of air in her hands, ready to defend him if Sean got close.  

"This is the strongest enemy we have ever faced, isn't it, my love?" She said with a grim face. 

"Undoubtably the strongest monster in the whole world," he agreed, exploring the burns on his now hairless face with the bare hand of the arm that was no longer protected by armor. 

Well, fluff me, Sean thought as he slowly, agonizingly got to his feet. They're as afraid of me as I am of them. He assessed his own body; still in one piece, but bruised and fractured, leaving him weak and slow. A line of scales fell off his chest where the sword had just hit him; they did their job and protected him, once, but now he was vulnerable to a fatal stab. He was missing scales on his face and he was spitting blood. Twilight was out of the fight, one way or another. He tried to suppress his worry and panic for her safety as best as he could and keep calmly assessing the situation.  

The Knight was missing his helmet and the armor of his right arm, and several other spots of the armor were charred and likely weak. Beyond the burns on the Knight's face, the man hadn't taken real damage, but at least he was more vulnerable now. The princess was panting as she held her spell ready, sweat flying off her face as the wind dramatically flapped her hair and dress behind her. Her magic was a giant punch every time, but Sean thought she would be near her limits soon. 

Not that it mattered, terribly, as he was already at his. If only Excalibur hadn't been destroyed, if only he hadn't taken so many hits, if only he had a moment to use fire and lightning earlier in the fight, if only Twilight was still around for the chance of making a combo attack, if only...he had more time. 

The Knight finally recovered and was headed his way, looking fierce. Sean quickly assessed himself as he stumbled to his feet, too weak to fight physically, too beat up and spent to be angry, but not too dehydrated to cry.  

Lightning is is, then. He stepped on something familiar and got an idea. My Twilight... he thought and he felt his eyes get moist. My perfect, precious, furry-little bride. I let you die...  

Tears ran down his face and he decided to try and be miserly with his ammunition. He caught the dripping tears with his thumbs then spit in each hand. He pushed his thumbs to his hands and ignited a lightning spitball in each. The Knight's eyes became wide and wary, but he didn't slow his advance. Sean cocked his arm back, feinting a throw, but instead kicked the flat piece of Excalibur's boulder that he had found with his foot at the Knight. The Knight dodged.  

A dodge to the right then, the Dragon thought. He repeated the throwing motion, this time not a feint, aiming just to the left of center to ensure the Knight would again dodge to the right, then with his other hand immediately threw his other lightning ball low and to the right. The Knight dodged to the right again, as expected, and took the second lightning ball to the shin. It exploded, knocking his legs out from under him, planting him on his face, and burning him with yellow streaks of electricity.  

"Arggh!" The Knight cried out in agony and frustration. The Dragon ignored this, listening for the tell-tale woosh of wind to his right. The Princess, who had flanked him while he faced the Knight, chucked her magic at Sean's feet. Expecting this, Sean took a step towards her and punted it right back. The Princess somehow reacted in time, managing an awkward backflip onto her face in order to barely get out of the way of the projectile.  

The Knight stood up and stomped his leg to get the feeling to return. Sean thumbed tears off a little higher on his face, spit in his hands, and thumbed the next two spit balls to life. He turned and flung one at the Princess that was still getting to her feet. 

The Knight exploded into action, practically teleporting to the Princess's side in time to intercept the missile. He attempted to use his sword to bat the spitball back at Sean, but it just exploded instead, arresting the swing and sending lightning traveling up the Knight's arms. The Knight fell to his knees, dropping his sword, and banging his arms on his legs to try to get the feeling to return. Sean saw the spiderweb of burns on the man's exposed right arm from where the lightning traveled. 

Got him! Sean thought, as he threw his other lightning ball at the man on his knees. The princess stood up and fired off one more wind-ball over the Knight's head, absorbing the lightning one and sending them both back in Sean's direction. The combined wind and lightning attack looked like a dangerous, angry thundercloud, and Sean had no illusions of somehow being ok when that scary thing hit him. Fortunately, the Princess was out of strength and the shot fell short. It exploded between the combatants, sending wind and lighting out enough to knock them all down. Sean fell on his rear, hands splayed out behind to catch himself, crushing yet another Cromag house.  

"Daddy, Nooo!" Came a despairing voice to his left. He looked down and saw the grief-stricken form of a Cromag whelp that had been pushed to safety by a parent. The adult Cromag was already dead, with only his hands sticking out of the house Sean had sat on. 

Finally realizing that the Guinea Pigs were people just as much as the Squirrels, Sean wept fresh tears that replaced those that had been blown dry from the exploding wind. Sensing movement, Sean looked up in time to see the Knight, who seemed to keep getting stronger and faster as the fight progressed, was already charging and thrusting downward with his sword at the line on Sean's chest where he had knocked free the scales in a mighty swing, before. Sean's butt was embedded in yet another dirt house, his legs splayed out in front of him, arms behind. He had no time to free himself as the Knight thrust downward with all his might. 

Game Over. They were better than me, Sean had time to think as the blade was thrust home. 

--- 

Chapter 14: Two is Stronger than One 

*SNAP, CRACKLE, POP* 

They weren't' perfectly aimed, but they were enough. Twilight dumped the remainder of her magic in the Knight's face to try and ward off what was obviously a deathblow. Stunned, the Knight missed just barely, sword thrust glancing off intact scales, then becoming embedded in the dirt next to Sean's waist.  

"I love you too..." Twilight said weakly, collapsing back into Sean's hair. 

Twilight lives!! Was all Sean could think as the Knight caught himself against the sword hilt, put a leg under himself, and used two hands to pull the sword out of the dirt to make another attack.  

Sean caught the blade in the unprotected palm of one hand; it was sharp, but not nearly as sharp as it used to be, before becoming blunted and chipped from being swung against the much harder material of Sean's scales. He pulled the sword back into the ground, slicing his fingers in the process, and sending the completely surprised Knight forward.  

Before they impacted, Sean slashed with his other hand and took out both an eye and a large part of the Knight's face. The Knight crashed on top of Sean then screamed and rolled away, abandoning his sword. His face was a gory mess but the Knight never hesitated, pulling a long knife out of one metal boot with his ungauntleted hand and charged.  

Twilight's still alive, but I'm not going to have time to save her! Nothing useful like rage or sorrow filled Sean, just fear. Fear of again losing the little furry love of his life. As the Knight came, running low with the knife in a reversed grip, Sean pushed himself to his feet but could do nothing more than yell in fear. So that's what he did; he learned forward and yelled his fear at the charging Knight, as if the knife was no threat to Sean's unprotected face. 

But it didn't come out a yell, it came out a roar. It was bigger and deeper and louder a roar than Sean could actually make, something between a lion's roar and a banshee's shriek – The Roar of a Dragon. The light dimmed and Sean began to glow as he stole something intangible from everyone around him. His fear was gone, expelled and transferred to all that heard his roar.  

The Knight dropped his knife and wailed, falling to his hands and knees and trying to crawl away. The Princess fell to her knees and embraced the Knight, staining her white dress with his bloody face as she held him against her chest protectively. 

"Mercy!" She cried. "You win, we lose! Please grant us Mercy, Great One!"  

The indomitable Knight shook his head and seemed to recover a little, then pulled another knife from his other boot.  

"A beast knows no mercy," he growled, as he turned around and went into a crouch. 

Aha...Sean thought as he picked up the greatsword in the hand that wasn't sliced open from it, then wiped tears he had shed for the Cromag whelp and spit into his damaged, but still spitball-worthy other hand. They think I'm a mindless beast. They attacked me with no warning just as I would attack a Cabbit. Perhaps her could actually reason with them. But, for now, he desperately needed them to leave so he could flee with Twilight to the squirrel healers.  

"I am no beast," Sean declared, trying to sound as deep and menacing and Dragonlike as possible, "I am Sean, the Earth Dragon of Mercy and Equality. You invaded my territory and attacked without provocation. You carelessly caused my vassals great harm," he gestured in a semi-circle with the sword, indicating the devastated Cromag capital, crumbling and burning from the fight. "But I will grant you Mercy, once, if you leave, swearing on your honor to never return." 

"We have to finish it now while it's weak!" The Knight declared, again reversing his grip on his knife and taking a posture to sprint.  

"Does he look weak to you?!" The Princess demanded, slapping the knife out of the Knight's hand.  

The Knight took a moment to look at the Dragon; Bleeding from the mailed punches to the mouth, bleeding from the small puncture in its stomach from the tip of the sword, bleeding from the hand that held the ball of lightning, missing scales all over its face and body. But it stood tall and determined, two handed greatsword held out in one hand, ball of lightning in the other, on his feet and faintly glowing while the Knight and Princess were embracing each other in a crouch, spent and severely wounded. As they watched, the Dragon turned and spit into the crackling ball of lightning, making it bigger. 

"No..." The Knight said, sighing again, dropping his knife. "He looks freaking badass." The Knight genuflected, head down. "I lose. I surrender." 

The Princess genuflected as well, saying quickly, "We made a terrible mistake, Great Dragon! We will leave at once and send aid to your wounded people as restitution."  

"Good! GO!!" Sean said, waving the sword impatiently, threatening to throw the lightning ball, which would very likely be a fatal attack at this point. The knight and Princess fled as fast as they could, receiving the Dragon's message quite clearly. 

-- 

The glow faded from Sean's body, along with his stolen courage. His bluff successful, he flung the lightning ball to explode harmlessly over the nearest wall of the city, then dropped the much-too-heavy sword and fell to his knees. He needed to run home, but didn't have the strength. Instead, he picked up the grieving and terrified Cromag whelp whose parent he had sat on, held it between his hands until it calmed down and stopped shaking, then gently stroked it until it fell asleep.  

He was started by a voice asking, "Please spare the Shaman Healers, Great King of the Dragons. Spare us so we can heal our wounded people. Spare us and we can heal you and your Rider as well. Spare us and we will only serve the Great King of the Dragons, forever." 

Sean had no problem with this and no better options. He showed his consent by gently laying the Cromag whelp at the Healer's feet, then laying on his back. The Healers immediately cut Twilight out of his hair and got to work. They dragged her to the side of Sean's head where he could watch.  

She was a mess; tail and legs smashed and twisted at weird angles, blood leaking from her mouth...but she was still breathing. The Shamans initiated a bizarre ritual in which they used narrow, straight hammers to break their own bones, one by one. With every bone on their body that they broke, something on Twilight's body was magically fixed. Her legs and tail straightened, crushed torso expanded and righted itself, blood stopped trickling from her mouth.  

Then, to Sean's amazement, the same process repeated on himself. For the price of only one tiny broken finger, immediately set and splinted by assistant Shamans, the open wound in Sean's stomach closed. The skin and tissue weren't replaced like with the Squirrel's moss and magic, but instead roughly knitted together. He recognized the resulting ugly scar as similar to the ones on the Cromag's original Dragon that he had slain. Next, his mouth and hand healed up, and then to his great surprise, his missing scales actually all regrew on the spot. The Shaman's magic really was a lot stronger than the Squirrel's, just as advertised. 

The Shamans spooned a tiny amount of glowing liquid, probably made from the Squirrel's luminescent moss or something similar, into Twilight's mouth and made her swallow. "Prevents the rotting of the inside," a Shaman explained, handing Sean three jugs of the stuff to swallow. 

Ah, antibiotics, Sean thought as he carefully swallowed the liquid. It wasn't much, but if a tiny spoonful worked for Twilight, this much was probably enough for him.  

As the last bone was broken over her, Princess Twilight woke with a start. She screamed and slashed the face of the Cromag healer attending her with her special claws. Sean put a hand over her to calm her while the other Cromags healed their wounded ally without saying anything. When Twilight calmed and stopped clawing his hand, Sean snapped to get her attention and explained, (Fight over. Enemy fled. Cromags healing us.)  

"Oh..." She looked at the Guinea Pig healers warily. "Thank you?"  

"We are repaying the King of Dragons for his Mercy, that is all," the leader Cromag replied, looking at the furry princess in disgust. 

"Wow! You communicate clearly for a barbarian race," Twilight responded. 

"We're only barbarians when we're hungry," the leader of the Healers explained. "Can you... speak directly to the Great Dragon?" he asked. 

"Oh. Yeah. He can understand us if his head is close by or we shout up at him. He just can't talk, because he has no Whiskers. We created a new hand language just to understand him." 

Sean snapped for attention and said, (There is now peace between Human and Cromag.)  

Twilight translated, then asked, "Wait, why?!"  

(Because I said so.) 

"Oh... can't really argue with that," Twilight agreed. 

(The other Dragons might come back, and I want Humans and Cromags to be ready, fighting together. They're too strong for you and I to risk fighting alone.) 

"Those guys were nuts!" Twilight agreed. "How did we win!?" 

(I'm not sure. It was close. If I didn't scare them away, I think the Knight and I would have tied and killed each other.) 

Twilight had been translating, and the Cromag head healer interjected, "The King of Dragons is being humble. He took the armored Dragon's eye and his sword, then with a mighty roar stole the light and the courage from both, so they surrendered."  

Sean shrugged and agreed, (I suppose that's right. I gave them Mercy because I wanted time to get you to the healers, my love.) 

As soon as Twilight translated this, she ran up and gave Sean her best furry hug. 

---