Living with dragons

[Hiver]

The river far below glittered like a rope of silver in the bright sunshine and Rengosa and I circled higher and higher, our wings beating in the cool air.

We had been flying for a couple of hours now, following the river once we picked it up running out from the mountains.

The blur spell kept us from being easily visible from anything further away than a couple of hundred meters.

At almost a kilometre up, nobody would be able to see us.

Resting on my wings, I looked over at Ren as she sidled up next to me and we went slowly flew along the glittering band below. The mountains were slowly falling behind below, replaced by plains and small spots of forest barely large enough to deserve the name.

This was a nice place. If a bit disappointing in the terms of prey, several hours worth of flying and not so much as a deer.

So much for this in particular being a nice vacation spot. There was life, of course, birds and smaller prey were easily spotted. Just nothing worth hunting just yet. Then again, maybe they were hiding among the trees.

Our eyesight was good, but seeing through leaves was not something we could do.

"Over there!" Ren yelled across the wind. "Up ahead!"

The plains continued up to the foothills of a mountain where there was a shining white city-fortress rising in levels, leaning against the mountain cliff behind it.

It seemed to be built entirely out of shining white stone, farms stretching out around it. "See it!" I yelled back and shifted course toward it.

Man, to have missed it this far I had to have been wool gathering. That thing didn't exactly blend in with the surroundings. Bright white against the dark cliffs behind it and farms around it.

Refreshing the blur spell around us, I beat my wings harder, rising higher through the air.

That was an impressive city.

Even if it was built using magic, it rivalled the largest forts on Azeroth. Maybe not the largest ones like Icecrown, but it was still very big.

If built without magic…

Woah.

Now that would be impressive, better than anything that had been constructed on Earth. Even with modern technology, that would have been difficult.

"What do you think?" Ren asked and drifted closer.

"Interesting," I answered and rested on my wings. "Hope for humans, much easier to blend in if we can use our mortal forms instead of an illusion over it."

She made a sound of agreement and peered into the distance. "Can't tell yet."

"Too far," I agreed. "But the building style… it looks human or dwarfish to me."

"New world. Could be anything."

True that.

Making sure we kept high enough to be invisible with the blur spell active, we flew closer and closer to the city. It didn't take long to be able to make out details.

"Humans or those strange, human-looking elves," Ren concluded. "We should be able to blend in."

"Looks like that to me too. Let's find somewhere to land and transform away from the city."

We banked and started to glide away again, heading back out, away from the city and the farms around it.

We kept flying for another kilometre after the last farm and then went down into a spiral dive, gliding down towards a gathering of trees.

Pulling up and beating my wings hard, I touched down and dropped the blur spell. It wasn't that useful on the ground anyway for something as large as a Drake.

As Ren set down next to me, I returned to mortal form and rubbed my neck. Mmm, it was good to have stretched my wings for a while. Can't remember when I last flew for an entire day.

Ren reached to fish her bag off her armour before she returned to mortal form. "Move today or tomorrow?" she asked and dug through her bag before pulling a necklace out and slipping it on, putting a blue dress illusion over her armour.

I glanced up at the sun. "We should be able to make it just in time for sunset I'd say. Up to you."

"…Let's give it a try," Ren said. "Horses? I saw some of those."

"Horses." I agreed and started to channel my mana into a dual summoning spell. Horses, pure white creatures of the plains.

Dual summonings, not easy. Luckily, horses aren't exactly difficult to summon which made this about a medium difficulty creature summoning.

The spell finished, and the two horses appeared in flashes of white light by my sides. Patting the right one on the neck, I walked around before climbing onto its back.

"Been a while since I did this last."

"Years," Ren agreed and climbed into the saddle of her own mount. "…This is going to hurt later, isn't it."

"Oh yeah."

There was only so much dragon resilience could do about unused muscle groups.





AN// And a big crate of thanks to Grey Rook!

 

[Hiver]

The city towered above us as we drew closer. The sun was setting as dusk crept in. We weren't the only ones heading for the city either and we fell in behind a merchant wagon.

We didn't get more than a cursory look from the guard as we passed through the gate. Security wasn't that strong, it seemed.

I glanced back towards the gate as we went through. Thick oak doors, a strong steel portcullis. The general construction of the city… not just a city. A fortress as well.

But not guarded against the sky. The skies were open. Sure, so were fortresses on Azeroth with gryphons and dragons, but they were often guarded by other means.

I didn't notice anything of that sort here.

No real fear of aerial assault, then.

I didn't notice any magic either. Those weapons the guards held were not enchanted, nether were those walls.

The guards I understood, enchanted equipment was expensive if you had to buy it. Not everyone would give it to every foot soldier around. But the walls of the city should have been reinforced.

No magic… or their magic didn't work like that here.

I glanced up towards the towering city above. They built this without easy magic? Holy crap, that would have taken fucking ages.

Even if they built it around a hill to save on volume… wow.

Ren brought her horse to a halt. "We should find somewhere to sleep. There has to be an inn somewhere."

"Need some money first," I said and dismounted. "Shouldn't be too hard."

As usual when exploring, we always brought some jewellery. Gold, silver, some gems. Stuff that was easy enough to convert into local currency.

Well, easy everywhere but on Earth, that was.

Then again, I doubted that these people kept as close track on their population as Earth. No place else I'd been to did. Fucking computers made it way too easy to do.

Ren dismounted and nodded, looking around. "Over there."

It did look like an inn. Sign above the entrance was of what looked like a pint of what I assumed was mead.

Following Ren over there to the stables just next to the inn, we were quickly intercepted by a stableboy.

"Hello there," Ren told him with a smile and handed the reins over. "Keep these well watered and you'll get a nice piece of coin for it."

He looked up at her in mild awe before he quickly nodded. "Of course, my lady!"

I couldn't help but grin as I handed my reins over in turn. Couldn't blame him for that, she was probably the most beautiful woman in the city.

…And we were about to enter an inn/tavern with a unknown reputation and clientele.

Sighing to myself, I made sure my weapon was sitting in its place on my belt. If we're unlucky, I'd have to break some jaws before the night was over.

Of course, Ren was usually one of the most beautiful females in any city. Of course, I'm probably biased.

Ren glanced back at me and smiled. "Well? Shall we go?"

"We shall." I agreed with a grin before we made out way into the inn.

Moving to hold the door open for her, I then followed her inside. The inside… it was pretty much exactly like I expected. It seemed like inns across the multiverse had many things in common. Tables, fire, a scent of beer, puke and roasting food.

I made my way inside, passing a leaving guest on the way as I made my way over to the bar. "Greetings."

The innkeep was a human of medium height, balding and while he might have been large and strong once, it had long since turned to fat.

"Ah, welcome, travellers!" he exclaimed with a smile. "I am Torvald and this is my Inn! What can I get you? Food? A room?"

"Both," I confirmed. "And something to drink if you have it."

"Of course!"

Ren moved up next to me. "There is a problem, though, we are a bit short on coin at the moment. Perhaps you'd be willing to take something in trade?" she asked and put a gold necklace on the counter.

"Perhaps indeed." he said and looked at her.

"I do hope you mean the jewellery my wife offered you?" I asked him as I put my hand on the counter.

He looked at me in surprise. "Of course! Of course! Yes, this will suffice. Three nights and two meals a day."

"Five," Ren countered and smiled prettily at him, resting her arms on the counter as she leaned forward. "That necklace will make some girl very happy. It's worth more than three nights and some food."

He blinked at her and then finally nodded. "…My wife would like it," he answered. "Four nights."

"Thank you, Torvald. Is that roast pork I'm smelling back there?"

"Ah! Only the best in the city! My daughter's cooking is the best! I'll get you some!" he said and quickly hurried into the kitchen.

I eyed Ren for a second before I turned around and leaned back against the counter. "…Ren, you have been talking with Sheila again."

"I can't believe that works… " she said with a grin. "That was so easy."

I growled at her. "It don't work on me."

She just smirked at me.





AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

Three days here and so far this world seemed nice enough, if boring. We had spent three days here now, walking around the city, looking at wares and listening to the locals.

"Well?" Ren as she sipped her wine. "I think we've seen the most we can see here by now."

I couldn't help but nod in agreement, "Seems so. Nothing much to see here it appears."

While there were rumours of magic and fantastic creatures and darkness beyond the mountains, there was little concrete information.

These people clearly didn't have anything new for us to learn. Their architectural abilities were clearly impressive, but in all honesty, nothing special.

It may be somewhere to expand to at a later date just for gold and resources, but right now it wasn't worth the effort.

"Still a couple of days until we could Walk," Ren said and leaned against the marble overlooking the city. We were on the fifth level of the city, close to the top.

"A little longer still if I don't want to tire myself out, "I agreed, "say three more days."

Ren turned around and leaned back against the stone as she eyed me with a smile, "I can think of a few things we can do to pass the time?"

"Oh really?" I asked with a grin. "And what may that be?"

"We could return to the mountains, spend a couple of days flying and hunting," She suggested and put the glass down beside her.

"Now that does sound rather great," I admitted and brushed her hair out of her face. "Give this place one more day and then we leave?"

She nodded, "Very well."

"But not in that direction," I said and nodded towards the mountains at the horizon. What looked like a volcano eruption was lighting up the dark clouds there.

Ren nodded with a frown, "Is it me or has that gotten worse since we arrived?"

"I think so. That would be trouble when it comes to the harvests later, that much ash will cause havoc."

A man in white on a white horse, a… dwarf or maybe a child sitting behind him, galloping through the streets, people scattering before them.

"That's inconsiderate," I said and then shrugged. "Must have been important."

Ren made a small sound of agreement and then looked back towards the fires in the distant sky.

"Wonder what the next world will bring us?" she wondered. "Maybe we should have stayed and gone to study the cities of the Draenei instead."

"…Maybe," I admitted and leaned against the stone, "But if it's the Naaru that built them, who knows if it's even possible to replicate them?"

That drew a smile from her, "An enchantment you can't figure out?"

"No such thing," I growled and put my arms around her waist, pulling her closer. "But it may take a while… so long I might as well recreate it on my own instead."

Ren nodded and nuzzled. "True. But you will get it in time."

"You bet I will," I answered and nuzzled back. "But I can still do that later. As we said, they aren't going anywhere. Going exploring is always a gamble… perhaps we will find nothing more exciting than this world. Perhaps we will find a world with magics and artefacts that we couldn't even dream of."

She pulled back and looked up at me. "That's a bit optimistic, isn't it?"

"…A bit, yeah. But maybe we will at least find someplace with magic that doesn't try to kill us on sight. Somewhere we can establish trade. Somewhere… not here."

Nodding, Ren picked up her glass again and sipped it. "At least they have good wine."

"Well, that's always something I suppose," I said with a grin and sighed, looking out towards the fire in the distance. "Come on, let's get some sleep, tomorrow we'll do one last pass of the city to see if we missed something. Even a lead on some magic somewhere would make this Plane worth exploring."

Finishing her wine, Ren put her glass down and turned to head inside and I moved to follow her, rolling my shoulders.

It had been a long couple of days, walking around the city. A couple of long disappointing days with little to show for it.

Nothing but rumour, not even a single little magical trinket. Not even the simplest little thing like an always-dry cloak.

Even places with little magic had those.

Why these people didn't, didn't make much sense to me. There was magic here, I could feel it! Even Earth had magic, if hidden, so why didn't this place?

Sighing I sank down on the bed. At least we had been able to get a better place once we traded for some coin. Didn't even take that much, just a couple of necklaces and rings and none of it enchanted.

Not a massive amount of coin, but enough for a nicer room for a couple of days.

"Who knows, maybe we're lucky," Ren said with a grin and slipped her illusion ring off her finger as she scooted onto the bed in turn. "Maybe this place is full of wizards and magic and maybe we just managed to miss it somehow?"

"I think I know a wizard when I see him."





AN// Many thanks to Obliviated fan for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

"Well then," Ren said as we left the store, "we did appear to miss something."

I shook my head. "We didn't miss a wizard, he just arrived."

What were the bloody odds?

At least the locals called him a Wizard. It was just rumours so far, but who knew? Maybe having magic was just really, really rare here? Like on Earth I suppose.

Earth did have some really interesting spells, too bad they didn't seem to work anywhere else. Not like going back there for a couple of years would be a good idea anyway, we didn't exactly leave on the best of terms.

"So, what do we do? Try to find this 'Gandalf' or continue on?" Ren asked and looked thoughtful. "Maybe he would know something worthwhile."

"Worth a try," I said with a shrug and shouldered my satchel. "He should be found somewhere up by the castle, according to the merchant."

Rengosa nodded and then frowned and glanced up towards the clouds. "Storm coming?"

I glanced up at the clouds covering the sun and then frowned. "I don't know. Doesn't feel like a storm. Odd."

Ren frowned and then blinked and glanced around before pulling me into a valley, where she cast a magesight spell, a purple glyph forming on her forehead before she looked up. "Atregos… it's full of mana. Those clouds aren't natural."

"What?"

Casting the spell on my own, I looked up. The clouds glowed with a faint shine of magic. Those were not natural indeed.

But why in the world would somebody magic up a bunch of clouds? They weren't even doing anything, not a storm or anything.

A storm or rain or something I could see why somebody would want to cast, but just clouds?

Strange.

Cancelling my spell, I blinked at her. "…Odd."

"Very," she agreed. "Maybe this Gandalf knows what's going on… if he's not the one doing it."


XXXXXXXXX


"Halt! State your business!" the guard demanded as we got close to the gates of the castle grounds at the top of the city.

"Hello," I told him with a smile. "We're looking for Gandalf. Is he here?"

Sometimes it's just best to keep it simple.

He shook his head. "He's not here. There's an inn one level down, they are staying there."

"They?"

"The wizard and his companion, the hobbit."

I blinked at him before I nodded. "I see, we'll look for him there then. Thank you."

The fuck was a hobbit? Sounded like something you would eat.

…Now I'm wondering what a hobbit would taste like and not sure that's a good thing as it's likely some kind of person.

"Inn it is," Ren said with a nod. "Thank you."

We headed back the way we came in search of the inn and she glanced at me. "…Wonder what a hobbit is."

"No clue, never heard of it," I answered with a shrug. "We'll see, I guess."

It didn't take long to find the inn in question. It was actually not that far from the one we were staying in, funnily enough, a level up and a couple of hundred meters away.

"…Should we move here?" I asked as we walked inside. "This one is nicer."

"We're heading out anyway, remember," Ren reminded me. "Unless this is a massive discovery, we're flying out tomorrow."

"Eh, true enough," I said and walked over to the bar. "Barkeep. We're looking for a man named 'Gandalf'."

"The wizard?" he asked and then motioned towards the stairs. "First room on the right."

"Thank you."

Flipping him a coin, I headed for the stairs, Ren following along. The door was a thick oaken door and I reached to knock at it.

There were some sounds of movement on the other side before it pulled open to reveal an old man with a long white beard, wearing a long white robe. "Yes, yes. What can I…"

He paused and stared at us, his eyes widening.

I smiled at him. "Hello, do you have a moment to hear of our lady and savior Alexstrasza?"

I just couldn't resist.

He just kind of blinked at me in surprise. Ren glared at me and elbowed my side before she sighed, "Ignore him, he think he is being funny. I'm Ren, this is Atregos. Do you have a moment to talk?"

"…I suppose I do."




AN// Many thanks to Pietersielie for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

He led the way into the room. It was larger than ours and made from white stone. This must be an even more upper-class kind of inn than the one we picked.

There was another person in there, a little man with bare and hairy feet.

These were the ones we saw riding through the streets yesterday!

The little man, barely more than chest high tall, jumped off the chair he was sitting on, "Gandalf, who's this?"

The wizard nodded and walked over to look us over, "This is Atregos and Ren. If I'm not mistaken, they are travelers… from quite far."

I looked over at him, "You know who we are?"

He smiled a bit, "Not completely. You are more than what you appear, but what exactly you are, I could not say."

I nodded, "We are not what we appear, but we mean no harm," I said.

"I'm Peregin Took," he said in turn with a slightly guarded look before glancing over to Gandalf, "What do you mean, not what they appear?"

"I'm not too certain."

Oh, for crying out loud. Just stop beating about the bush.

I sighed, "I'm a Planeswalker. Ren is traveling with me as I move between worlds."

Gandalf hmmed, "That I know. But that's not what you are… but it matters less than why you are here?"

Nodding, I sat down by the table, "True enough. We have no hostile intentions, we seek knowledge. Magic, mechanical, metallurgical. Anything anyone would be willing to trade for."

He nodded and pulled out a pipe starting to stuff it with something, "I see. I'm afraid you picked a bad time to visit. Darkness is rising to the east, the forces of Mordor are on the march. They are coming, the clouds cover their approach."

"War?"

"War," he sighed, "Minas Tirith is the last bastion of man."

Ren looked at me, "So that's why the clouds glow with magic. They use them to shield them from the sun?"

Gandalf nodded in agreement.

"How long?" Ren asked with a frown.

"Difficult to say. Days at most."

Getting up I walked out on the balcony, looking into the distance. Nothing so far. Casting a quick scrying spell, I sent the viewpoint higher and increased the magnification.

There. An army of beings marching towards the city, tens of thousands of them. Beings clad in dark armour.

What are those?

Never seen anything like those.

I zoomed in further but there is only so much you could see through the shimmer of atmosphere and I couldn't reach that far with a scrying spell, not without an anchor.

"What are those?" I asked and dropped the scrying spell to look to the side where Gandalf had walked up next to me, puffing his pipe.

"Orcs."

"Those are no orcs. Not any sort I ever seen."

He grunted slightly, "I see."

Crossing my arms, I looked out into the distance, "Last bastion of man?"

"The elves are leaving these shores. The dwarfs are defending their keeps so far but is likely to fall in time."

"As a rule, we don't get involved in the wars of mortals," I told him, "We represent an organization, the Azure Consortium. As I said before, we trade for knowledge, but we also trade knowledge… including artefacts."

Gandalf shook his head, "I'm not sure learning new things would help in this case, even if it is something I enjoy."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Ren said with a smile from the city, "We also trade artefacts."

I nodded, "Expensive of course, would need to be custom work. But I could make something that would protect the city. Well, from siege damage at least, the so-called Orcs would be more difficult."

The little man rushed up next to me, "You could save the city!?"

"No," I said and shook my head, "You could save the city. Assuming you have something to pay for it?"

He stared at me in horror, "You would let the city be destroyed when you could save it!?"

"As I said, we don't get involved in the wars of mortals," I told him, "What you do, is all up to you. Or should we police every world in existence? Rule all?"

Of course, that was just as excuse. The real one was that I didn't want to get involved in every bullshit war that existed. There wasn't enough time in the world even if I didn't age. Of course, I also wasn't as much of an arsehole as the super friends of Ravnica…

"May I see your pin?" I then asked the little man and pointed at the one on his cloak, "It's interesting."

He scowled at me but pulled it from his cloak and handed it over. I turned it over in my hands. It wasn't silver, some kind of other metal. Felt strong, highly magically conductive. Fine craftswork too, at least for somebody that don't mold the metal directly.

I slowly nodded and put it in my satchel, "Payment received in full. I'm going to need your weight in silver to work with and five gems, as large as you can get them. Clear ones if possible."

Took looked at me in surprise and I winked at him,

"Never said I we didn't give discounts depending on the situation. Don't spread it around."

Ren just sighed with a small smile, shaking her head.





AN// Many thanks to Itsune for betaing this part. Posted early due to early morning tomorrow.

 

[Hiver]

"We shouldn't be getting involved."

"Hey, he paid for it. Not like I plan to do any fighting." I answered Ren, running my hand along the pile of silver coin, shifting it into a single mass as I channelled my magic through it.

She sighed and crossed her arms, leaning back against the wall. "Zrazta said Alexis thought you were a big bunny. She was right."

Grinning, I shook my head and closed my eyes, starting to focus on the enchantment as I moulded it into the silver, shaping it in my mind.

This was tricky, but the thing Rai taught me was very versatile and hell of a lot easier than to make the object and then enchant it.

Well, maybe not easier, but faster. Not that I was as fast as she was, she made the metal dance. I just shaped it.

Still, working an enchantment into the metal like this was very nice.

Opening my eyes, I looked at the spell matrix built into the metal. The thirty kilos of silver were in the shape of a pillar, a mesh of lines running along the surface between the five small circular gems sitting around the surface of the silver.

I sighed and frowned at it before I shook my head. "The gems are too small."

"Won't work?" Ren asked with a frown and sat up again from where she had been laying and watching.

"It'll work," I clarified, "but it'll burn out in like ten hours. But it should be enough to blunt any kind of siege."

Rengosa nodded. "I suppose that's better than what they had before."

"There is that," I agreed and got up to stretch. "How long did I take?"

"Three hours or so," Ren said and got up as well. "You can see them now."

"Really?"

She nodded, said: "At the horizon, just about." and walked over to the balcony to look out over the plains outside the city. "They are evacuating the farms around the city. The wizard is trying to convince the steward to take action and the hobbit is off to light signal fires to call any remaining allies."

Hmh.

Rolling my shoulders to get any remaining stiffness out of them, I walked up behind her and slipped my arms around her waist. "Why is it always War? Against the Scourge, against other undead fucks, against other mortals, against… the Burning Legion. Why is there always war?"

Rengosa leaned back against me, "It's in their nature," she said after a moment with a small sigh. "There is a reason to why when the Titans made us, they made the Black Dragonflight the guardians of Earth. To keep sheer cliffs and ravines between the different mortals. They knew what would happen."

"…That's a kind of sad way to look at it."

She turned around to look at me. "True, though."

"…Never said it wasn't," I sighed and nodded. "Well, these people don't look too bad and it sounds like their enemy isn't the nicest around. At least this should give them a chance against siege weapons for a while."

Ren nodded and leaned back against the railing. "We should teach them how to use it and then leave."

"Still a couple of days until we can Walk without tiring me out completely," I reminded her, reaching to brush a strand of hair behind her ear.

"We can still ride away, ride out of view and transform back. Fly away from here until it's time to Walk."

We could do that.

Didn't feel right.

"Not sure that's a good idea, this place should be good until we have to leave. It will be at least a day until the army get here and then the shield should keep for another half a day even if they assault at once. We can walk from here."

Ren frowned up at me. "You want to help these people."

"Can't help it, I feel for them." I admitted and looked out towards the horizon. The sun was setting but you could still see a hint of them. "And we could help them a lot. But it's not our place and we can't help everyone everywhere."

Rengosa reached up and pulled the strap keeping my hair back lose and put it away, running her fingers through my hair. "If you want to help, we can. But we can't fight an entire war on our own."

"If they don't have combat magic and with our armour, we could. Even if we couldn't, we might be able to at the very least help."

She sighed softly and nuzzled at my chin. "This is why we don't let you travel alone."

I growled at her at that before resting my forehead against hers. "Love you."

"Love you too," she said softly and kissed me. "Very well. We stay and see how it goes, but if things go badly, we leave."

"More than fair enough. We can't fight a world, especially when we aren't even a hundred percent sure we are actually on the right side," I admitted and ran a finger along her spine. "Every side in history has always depicted their enemy as monsters. For all we know, these are the bad guys."

She raised her eyebrows at me. "You really think so?"

"…Well, no," I admitted. "The entire 'shade the sun so my armies can march' the other guys are doing doesn't really sound like they are on the nicer side of things. Now, should we find the wizard and tell him how the shield is used? Or do you think that can wait until tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow. We both need rest."

I smirked at her. "Or not rest."

All I got in response was a purr.





AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

I crossed my arms and looked down at the plains below. "Not sure what those are, but those are not Orcs. Looks like some sort of demented goblins."

Ren shook her head. "Maybe if you squint. There's a lot of them, though."

"Mhmm," I agreed and cast the spell to see magic. "They kind of… shimmer. Not sure if it's some kind of boost or something else. That's more Alexis' thing."

They were moving siege equipment into position, trebuchets. Haven't seen those for a long while, really.

They would get a big massive surprise in a little while.

The first ones were starting to get finished. Pulling back, getting loaded with their stone block ammunition. Gangs of these so-called orcs were working to load what looked like a ton of stone into each one.

We were standing at the edge of the massive cliff in centre of the city, close to the top. Or at least close enough for it not to matter.

Had to admit, the view from here was amazing. If we got rid of all the houses and carved some nice halls into the rock, it wouldn't be a bad place for a Flight to be honest.

Almost done.

Reaching down, I tapped the top crystal before stepping back a few meters as it activated. Starting to glow slightly, it tapped into the Mana of the city and the plains around it.

Glowing brighter and brighter, a beam of light blasted into the sky and spread, getting thinner and more spread out as it reached towards the sky, lowering down into a dome over the city.

I couldn't help but grin as it engaged and formed the shield.

I almost thought the gems would have been too small, but it should work.

The siege engines engaged and giant rocks flew towards the city walls only to be intercepted a dozen meters short, smashing into an invisible wall of force.

Suck on that.

Two hours, thirty kilos of silver and a handful of small clear gems. Quartz, not even diamonds.

Damn, I'm good.

Not that it blocked everything, trying to do that would just burn something this fragile out in minutes, but any ballistic projectiles would just smash flat against it.

They could charge through it, but without siege equipment those walls would be a lot more difficult to fuck with.

At least enough to even the playing field a little.

Stones shattered against my shield again and I couldn't help but grin. Yeah, hammer away. Nothing you have will touch it.

"What now, then?" Ren asked as she looked at me. "We never talked about that. This siege will last longer than the shield will hold."

"…Yeah," I admitted and crossed my arms. "But this will buy them time to get reinforcements, get their forces ready. Organize."

"And what then?"

"You're right," I said and shook my head. "Can't fight their war. Don't really want to either, I'm honestly tired of it. But this… would buy them some time. I could do some quick enchanting of weapons before them, just something quick and dirty."

Rengosa smiled and sighed. "Very well, let's go."

"You think I'm being too nice."

"…A bit," she agreed and shrugged. "but I get why you have a soft spot for humans. I like them too… well, some of them, at least. Don't want you to get in trouble because of them."

A sound stopped me from answering.

What in the… pausing, I looked back at the shield projector. It was…

Why is it humming? It shouldn't be humming!?

"What."

Turning around, I rushed over to it. It was vibrating, and the shield was going from seethrough to glowing red.

What in the actual fuck is going on!? It's overloading! Why is it overloading!?

Pressing my hand against it, I closed my eyes and sent my magic. It was… it was perfect. But it was overloading. Someone was fucking with my shield!

I could feel it.

Magic, dark, dark, black mana forcing itself into it from the wrong way. It was going to go boom and it was going to go boom big!

Oh shit, this thing was sucking mana in from the entire city and plains around it, it was going to take the entire top of the city off it!

Fuck no, you don't. This is my device, you don't beat me at this. No way, no how. Sending my magic into it, I started to rip out the connections, changing them on the fly, switching the entire mana collection from top to bottom.

See how you like this you fucker!

Snapping my hand away from it, the shield collapsed, shattering like a soap bubble as the entire mechanism melted down into a puddle of silver, sending all the mana it gathered and everything that'd been interfering with it straight into the stone of the city, reinforcing it instead in a massive enchantment that crawled through the stone, the walls and the battlements, turning them harder than steel.

The city rumbled below, morphing. Cracks healing, damage melting away to become stronger than ever.

"What happened!?" Ren asked as she rushed up next to me.

"Someone interfered with the shield. Somebody strong and skilled. Stronger than me." I said and looked out over the army below.

A piercing scream filled the air and shapes with wings dove beneath the clouds, heading straight for us.





AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section. Early post due to early morning tomorrow.

 

[Hiver]

"Atregos!"

Ren yelled my name as the air around her exploded into spell smoke as she turned back to her real form. Her standard dragon armour shifting and expanding, covering her body fully as she got ready for a fight.

She didn't try lifting off though, she was smarter than that. They had the energy advantage. Trying to get into the air would be outright stupid.

Three of them. They were riding some sort of… twisted looking wyverns.

Well, I wasn't about to fight those in this form!

Channeling my magic I turned back and half spread my wings for balance as my armour shifted, growing out along my wings and along my legs, growing and flowing.

The first one dove towards me and I threw myself to the side with a snarl, avoiding it's claws before lashing out with my right wing, the razor sharp front end cutting through it's wing.

The first flying wyern thing went down screaming, it's rider going flying across the ground. Ren let lose with her breath, frost flowing across the second and it went down, crashing to the ground and it and it's riders going rolling.

The last one bowled her over and they both when down.

Ren!

Throwing the wyvern off, she roared and then pounced, ripping into the beast with her armours adamantium claws.

I should have known better than to be worried about her.

She was a better fighter than I was!

The riders were getting up, pulling longswords out of… somewhere. Hmm… spells or enchanted?

Those swords weren't normal. Not unless they literally pulled them out of their arses.

The first one lunged at Ren and she ducked back only to respond with a blast of frost, blowing him off his feet.

The second attacker was luckier.

He charged at her and struck, his blade sliding through her side and she roared in pain, stumbling to the side before falling.

No!!

Surging forward, I cast a spell of force, sending the three attackers flying backwards along the stony ground as I rushed ovaer to her.

"Ren!"

She didn't move but her armour suddenly collapsed slightly against the ground. Smoke and fire flowed from the satchel attached to her armour and she reformed from her soulstone next to me.

She stumbled and collapsed again with a whimper and a growl.

"Ren!" I asked and nosed.

"Side hurts," she groaned and struggled up.

Jumping over her, I checked. She wasn't bleeding, but there was a thin line along her scales. Which was literally impossible because her entire body had been reformed. Only way anything at all would have transferred is if…

That sword had cut her soul as well as her body.

Those motherfuckers.

The… wraith things were approaching again, their swords held at the ready.

Snarling, I nuzzled, "Go, you can't be hit again."

She growled at me and struggled up again, wings half spread but she stumbled again.

"Go!" I growled at her as I shifted back to mortal form, spell smoke spreading out around me.

Those things would pay for hurting her.

I couldn't fight them in my real form, they were too… if one hit would take me down, I couldn't get hit. Breath and spells clearly didn't kill them so taking off and strafing wouldn't work.

My armour clearly wouldn't help.

I don't know why I even bother.

"Not leaving you," Ren growled behind me.

I wouldn't have either.

Damn it.

"…Stay back and throw spells," I growled back and turned to face the wraith things, "And you can go get fucked," I snarled and pulled my dagger, casting the spell to let me see magic.

They changed. From hooded figures to glowing walking corpses with sunken skin.

I had been right, they were wraith things, twisted undead abomination of magic. If there were any doubt that the ones that were attacking the city were the bad ones here, it just disappeared.

Dropping the spell, I started towards them, shifting my dagger into a spear, stabbing the first one straight in the chest.

"Fool, dragon. No man can kill me," it hissed at me as it stopped moving, just standing there with my spear in it's chest.

"Really? Good."

Twisting my spear, I shifted it, the spear head jabbing thick spikes of metal out through the sides of it's chest, enchantments forming around and inside it, as I set up a power siphon, pulling natural mana.

Letting go of my weapon, it activated and twisted, the handle whipping around and stabbing into the rock below to anchor in place as it started to send thunderbolt after thunderbolt of electric energy into the wraith from the inside.

The wraith screamed and jerked, stumbling and falling.

The other two hesitated and I pulled the next dagger from my belt.




AN\\ Unbetaed because some strange derp. First time I sent it, it didn't get sent and I didn't notice and I kind of have to post this tonight as I have a early morning tomorrow. Will update with fixed part later.

 

[Hiver]

Shifting my weapon to a sword, I blocked the first lunge, stepping forward to chop at him. Screaming, he stumbled back.

The second jumped in and I dodged back, avoiding his slash.

Casting a frost nova, I forced them back as it spread across the ground, frosting their fallen and screaming leader over.

From out of nowhere, Rengosa swooped in, snatching the right one from the ground and pulled up hard, sending it flying over the edge down towards the city far below before beating her wings again, starting to circle far above.

The last mobile one rushed me, thrusting towards my chest.

Blocking with my broadsword, I batted his lighter weapon to the side before stabbing him in the face with my rapier.

It drove him off but didn't kill him.

This one was more careful, slowly backing away and out of range. But he stayed close enough not to give Rengosa a good pass.

Now that's just unsporting.

So, I channelled my magic and set it on fire with a fireball.

That had an effect. The wraith screamed and dropped its sword, running away. Yeah, that worked.

Didn't like that, did you?

I sent another fireball at the already screaming leader who cut my Rengosa, making the twitching and flailing wraith scream louder.

Oh for...

Pulling a cube from a pocket, I tossed it over next to him and the sound disappeared. Sound bubbles, so useful. Of course, mostly for when we stay at inns, but still.

Ren circled again and came in for a landing, her wings beating hard as she settled down before stumbling slightly.

"Ren!"

I rushed up to her. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head, "Leg feels weak," she admitted and nuzzled at my chest. "Side hurts a little."

Patting the side of her neck, I moved around to look. It was… like a line, a scar where he had cut her.

Like she had been hurt years ago.

Casting a healing touch spell, I ran my hand along her side. "This feel better?"

Rengosa shook her head. "A little. Not a lot."

"…Never was that good with healing spells," I sighed and stroked her side. "We need an expert."

She shook her head again and nuzzled at my chest. "I'm fine."

"Fine? It killed you!"

Ren sighed and raised her head to press her nose against my cheek. "I'm fine, Atregos. I'm alive, anything else, Zrazta can fix when we get home."

I kissed the tip of her nose. "How's the leg?"

"Already feeling a little better."

"Liar."

That got a small laugh from her and she bumped her nose against my chest. "Not lying. Hurts less than when I reformed from the Soulstone."

Resting my forehead against the side of her horn, I scratched softly beneath her eyes. "We're leaving this place. Going back home."

She shook her head. "No, we'll leave this place and keep looking for something interesting. I'm fine."

Shifting back slightly, I looked into her eyes. "Are you certain?"

She growled at me and I took that as a yes.

Stroking her along the snout, I nodded and sighed. "Fine. I would like to stab the one who did this to you in the eyes."

"I think you already did." she purred and looked over at the burning and silently flailing wraith thing.

I shook my head. "That thing isn't in charge. It's a weapon, nothing more. I would like to stab the one who directed it here in the eyes."

Rengosa turned her head and looked out over the plains and I turned to look too. Cavalry were hitting the so-called Orcs from the flank.

"Effective," Ren commented and took a step forward, carefully putting her weight on her right front leg, "Won't win the battle on its own, but it's going to hurt the Orcs."

I nodded. "They will. But… those mammoth things approaching… they don't have anything against them."

Ren nuzzled at my shoulder. "Let's do something about that then. I want one of those as a summon, anyway."

"…And it'll fuck with the plans of whoever this Dark Lord is," I admitted and scratched beneath her chin. "Get back in your armour and make a new soulstone."

She purred at me and bumped her nose at the back of my neck before moving over to her fallen armour.




AN\\ Big barrel of thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

We rested on our wings, circling above the field of battle. I glanced at Ren, she seemed okay. Whatever that thing to did to her, it might be fading.

Hopefully.

When we got home, I'd ask Alexstrasza to take a look at her.

Slowly beating my wings, I looked down towards the giant elephant-mammoth things below. On their backs were massive saddle forts that held men with bows.

These things were… big.

Very big.

As in, at least as large as Kalecgos.

How the hell do we kill something like that? Of course, with our armours on, the men with bows on their backs were a non-factor. But still, those things were fucking massive.

I suppose a giant growth spell could work, but those took quite a bit of mana and didn't last long, I could maybe take down two like that.

There were six of the beasts.

But did we really need to kill them?

"Ren, those guys sitting on their heads. They are holding ropes, they are the riders. Take them out!"

She nodded and went for a dive.

Half folding my wings, I went the other way for one of the other ones. Arrows pinged off my armour from the guys sitting in the massive saddle.

Amazing.

Finally, something my armour protected us against. I was starting to wonder why I even bothered.

Strafing the riders with a blast of frost breath, I rose above the saddle fortress before dipping back down, snagging the driver in my claws and tearing him in two before banking to the right.

The massive animal trumpeted and veered to the right, stampeding towards the next animal in the row.

They crashed together with bone cracking force, falling over and hitting the ground hard.

Awesome, two for one!

Now for summon… having one of these would be awesome! Especially if I could armour it up!

Ripping the rider off the next one, I carefully avoided the reins this time before throwing myself onto its side, digging my claws into the thick skin, ripping at the thick ropes holding the saddle fort on its back.

A massive ripping sound and the fort came toppling off its back, sliding down the other side to the sound of screaming.

Clambering back onto the back of the massive animal, I pulled back the armour on my paws as I hung onto the animal and it started to panic, flooding my magic into it.

And more magic.

And more.

…Holy hell, this thing took a lot. Running out of White, I used green and then blue. Finally, I felt the little seed of a summon spell form in the back of my mind.

Biggest summon yet. Clambering over the animal's back, I jumped with a beat of my wings to land on the side of its head, digging my claws into the thing's ear just like its reins did.

It trumpeted and turned hard to the right.

Good enough.

Throwing myself off it, I rolled and beat my wings hard, pulling up before I hit the ground. Glancing over as I rose higher, I saw that Rengosa has already finished two of her animals and was heading for the third.

And what in the actual fuck is that!?

A… wave of green ghosts was flooding towards the city.

How the fuck does you fight an army of ghosts?

Rising harder, I beat my wings as I looked at the ghosts. What were they… they flowed and beat Rengosa to the last beast, flooding over it and bringing it down.

She pulled up and banked away, heading back towards me.

Where they attacking anything or… nope, they avoided the horse riders and went for the Orcs.

Were both sides necromancers here?

Climbing higher, I beat my wings harder and moved to circle with Rengosa far above the battlefield. "Get one?"

"Got one," she confirmed and glared down at the battle below. "Undead."

"Undead," I agreed and growled. "Let's return to the city, leave them to their war. We evened the odds and fucked with their enemy. They can handle the rest on their own."

With that, we banked back towards the city.




AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this part. Early post because of early morning tomorrow.