A Soldier's Life - 404 - Clash of the Titans (edited 6-7-25 +100 words)

Chapter 404: Clash of the Titans

We weren’t foolish enough to wait for the creature to emerge fully, and together, we moved toward the tree line along the cliff. One of the bugbear chieftains stumbled out of the entrance. With my aether sight, I could see he was badly injured, his steel sword was snapped, and his right arm was missing. He howled in a relieved yet pained cry, thinking he had reached freedom.

“Keep running!” I barked at my companions as we reached cover behind some trees and turned to face the dungeon entrance, maybe a quarter mile away. The bugbear was on its knees with its back to the portal, heaving deep breaths as it bled. Then the large dungeon entrance stretched outward again in the shape of a serpentine head. The bugbear hung its head after seeing it, bowing to the inevitability as the immense creature emerged.

“A drake?” Blaze guessed as the serpentine neck followed. It seemed impossibly long and large for a drake as the jaws opened and closed on the helpless bugbear. The neck snapped up, tossing the three-hundred-pound goblinoid with ease high into the air and then snatching it like a snack. The muted crunching of bones reached us as the bugbear was squeezed down its gullet.

After its snack, we watched, enthralled and somewhat paralyzed, as the neck continued to emerge until thick, stocky feet appeared. The body was lean and must have barely fit through the dungeon portal, which I guessed was somewhere between fifteen and twenty feet in height. The hindquarters emerged next with slight difficulty, followed by a long, active, twitching tail.

“Some breed of deep wyrm,” Kyrenic whispered. I estimated the impressive creature to be eighty feet in length.

Its steps reverberated through the earth even two hundred feet away. We were all wise enough not to run, as movement always attracted a predator. The snake-like neck rose twenty feet into the air, and I knew it was sniffing its new environment. Hopefully, the smell of blood in the guild stronghold would attract it, allowing us to slip away.

“The good news is most creatures of the Endless Dark have trouble seeing in the light of the sun,” Kyrenic said softly. Sunrise was still hours away, so I was not sure how that helped us.

“How do you know so much about creatures from the Endless Dark?” Blaze whispered a question.

“The royal children of the Heptarchy all attend the same Scholarium, and the teachings are—” he paused for a second, “extensive. When I joined my order, I spent another ten years being educated and trained there.” His tone conveyed both fondness and a hint of misery.

The creature’s neck curled back on itself as it studied the dungeon entrance where it had come from. Maybe it would just return, and we wouldn’t have to deal with it. But after ten minutes of indecision, the wyrm turned back and started plodding toward the stronghold walls.

A relieved sigh escaped me when it entered through the breach in the stronghold. “I doubt that is the last creature to emerge tonight. We should return,” I told my companions. My last earth pulse had found a dozen spiders in the crevices in the cliff to our right and two gremlins hiding in burrows among the tree roots. They were the smart ones in hiding, and it was time to follow suit.

We started to pull back, paralleling the road that led from the dungeon to Brausis. I ignored the gremlins and spiders my earth speak highlighted as we retreated quickly. We didn’t get far before lightning flashed in the clear night sky above, and two wisps overhead seemed to pop from the explosive energy. The flash blinded my companions momentarily, but my aether sight remained unaffected. I lacked the range to see far into the sky above, but my mind fortress was fighting off unnatural panic.

An ear-piercing roar reverberated through the woodlands, so powerful that they would definitely hear it all the way back in Brausis, three miles away. Kyrenic was in front and paused to regain his vision. Every insect, animal, and even the air itself seemed to have stilled. The absolute silence was ominous. “I don’t think that was the wyrm,” Kyrenic finally said.

“All the more reason to get back,” I voiced my thoughts.

“Ah, I just remembered something,” Kyrenic said, rubbing his eyes. “The reason the wyrms do not travel to the surface is that they are the mortal enemies of dragons.”

Was what I was feeling was the aetheric aura of a dragon—its fear aura? Looking at Blaze, he was paralyzed, but Kyrenic appeared unaffected. A buffeting wind out of nowhere struck us, and then a tornado of descending red and white flame erupted from the sky, encompassing the entire stronghold. Even from almost half a mile away, the heat of the flame reached us as a wave. The hot air burned my lungs, and I held my breath.

Then the dragon descended, crashing into the burning buildings and sending flaming wood exploding outward as it crushed the wall and buildings with its bulk. I was once told I would not know true fear until I saw a true dragon, and now I knew what they meant. The dragon’s head was larger than the guard tower that its clawed foot crushed, and the red-scaled body reflected the flames like shimmering rubies, making the nightmare incarnate a deadly yet stunning sight. The scope of the dragon’s size reminded me of the impressive ancient skeleton I had seen buried in the plains in the Boutan Caliphate.

The wyrm was not going to die easily as its serpentine neck flashed out of the flames and latched onto the dragon’s throat. But the creature dwarfed the true king of the skies. The other foreclaw of the dragon descended upon the neck of the wyrm, forcing it to the ground. Its jaws had not found any purchase on the dragon’s crimson scales. 

The dragon’s head descended quickly and bisected the wyrm with one bite. Both halves of the creature churned in the flames, leveling the burning buildings. The dragon roared again in triumph and seemed to stomp the wyrm before taking to the air, its impossibly large body lifting on sail-sized wings. When it reached a few hundred feet, the air cracked with blinding lightning again, and it disappeared.

Blaze was still under the effects of the powerful fear aura that even I had felt through my protective spell form. I turned to Kyrenic, who was looking at where the dragon had disappeared. “A friend of yours?” I asked.

Kyrenic shook his head like he couldn’t believe what he had just seen. “That was one of the Ancients.” He turned to me, his pupils still dilated from the lightning flash. “Only the oldest of dragons are that large and have displacement magic that strong.”

Blaze’s dry, cracked voice asked with a slight tremble, “Is it gone?”

“Your first dragon?” Kyrenic asked Blaze sympathetically.

“Third actually, but first this close,” he replied, and I could see his clothes were soaked with sweat.

“We need to return to the town and warn them,” I said, helping Blaze get oriented.

Kyrenic sounded confident. “It won’t return. It was only here for the deep wyrm and probably has already returned to its slumber in the polar caps.”

“We need to tell them that the dungeon is going to begin spewing out every creature in the Endless Dark. Blaze and I are going to leave to reunite with our companions and continue to Nausis if it is safe.” I helped Blaze walk for half a mile before he recovered enough to walk on his own.

Kyrenic seemed unaffected by the dragon’s aura. Perhaps it was an effect of an artifact or spell form. “You are going to leave the people undefended?” Kyrenic said, trying to guilt me.

It didn’t work as I knew my limits and wouldn’t sacrifice Blaze and myself needlessly. “If things are going to get as bad as I think they are, we need to unite with our companions and move out of the fallout area.”

“Fallout?” he tested the unfamiliar word, inferring its meaning before replying. “I understand your need to protect your daughter,” the knight said consolingly. “I would do the same.” We walked in silence for a time before he asked a question. “What do you think is going to happen?”

I exhaled and collected my thoughts. “When I read about the other instances where the dungeons released their creatures, it was always followed by an exodus of creatures from the Endless Dark. The text seemed to think they were forced to the surface, but maybe the dungeon just opened a highway to the surface for them,” I explained. “There will no longer be a full day reprieve between the dungeon purges, now, all it takes is for the creatures in the Endless Dark to find the access point to the dungeon, enter the dungeon, and exit to the surface.”

Kyrenic’s mind was turning, but I think he saw the truth of my words. I could also see why the Elves of Esenhem had decided to destroy all their dungeons after their purge long ago.

Brausis was on high alert as we came down the road instead of from the woodlands. It looked like the walls were packed, anticipating another attack tonight. The glow of the still-burning dragon fire could be seen in the distance, but they probably didn’t realize an ancient dragon had caused it.

Kyrenic was the first to reach the gate, and it swung open so he didn’t even need to break stride to enter. We followed closely behind but veered off toward the inn when he stopped to talk to the captain. I addressed Blaze as we walked, “Are you all right?”

“Think I pissed myself a little, but yes,” he joked.

“It happens. Not to me, but it happens,” I teased him with a pat. We paused outside the inn, where all the children were sleeping. I decided on a course of action. “Get a few hours of sleep. I will come to get you at first light. I am going to check on our horses and rub them down for a hard ride tomorrow.”

I entered the stables to find an agitated Ginger and a few other horses. I settled the stables with a quick distribution of apples. Ginger was nudging my chest hard, and not for another apple. She clearly didn’t want to remain in the city, her animal instinct telling her of the impending danger, or perhaps she sensed the dragon’s aura from three miles away.

“Don’t worry, girl,” I said comfortingly. “We are leaving in a few hours. Just be patient.”

I brushed Ginger and Blaze’s mount, checked their shoes, and fed them some grain and fresh water. I checked the saddle and tack and oiled them to pass the time. I climbed into the loft to nap on some straw bales. I was upset with myself for not feeling any guilt for leaving these people.

I managed to drift in and out of sleep until the sun broke through the boards. I climbed down and saddled an eager Ginger and Blaze’s mount. Blaze was sleeping heavily when I woke him, the stress of last night evident on his face. He dressed groggily, and we were soon walking our horses through the streets. Not many people were awake, but the stares from those that were, told me they thought we were abandoning them.

I was somewhat surprised to see Kyrenic still at the gate when we arrived. The guard captain was with him. They both shook our wrists, “Good luck, and safe travels.”

“Are you staying then?” I asked.

“No.” He looked over at the captain. “We are going to tell the people to pack everything they can and escort them to a larger city away from the dungeon. We are deciding between two at the moment,” Kyrenic said. “Attend to your family. We have this handled,” he said firmly.

We shook hands and mounted. As soon as we were out of the gates, we could see thick smoke where the stronghold still burned from the dragon’s fire. The wyrm was likely a pile of ash by now. I urged Ginger to a light gallop, and Blaze spurred his own mount to match. Although it had only been three days, it felt much longer.

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