Meric the Storyman: Rega and the Dragonstones
Chapter 31: Calling all Dragons

“Why have you called me into this world?” asked Bahamut, the platinum dragon.

The gold Council dragon answered. “The Evil Queen has populated our world with her foul spawn. These evil dragons will soon be on their way to do battle. We need your help to ensure victory.”

The platinum dragon nodded. He then turned to consult with one of the gold dragons who had came with him.

Rega looked at the other ten dragons who were summoned more in depth. He could tell that these dragons were more powerful than any of those on Dacarn. These dragons made the Council dragons to appear more like young adults than the elder dragons they were. Rega wondered if the combined power of the Council could even defeat one of the gold dragons.

“We shall help you.” answered Bahamut. “I will not allow my enemy the chance to take over this world with her children.”

Rega heard King Motagula whisper into Dexir’s ear. “Are you ready for battle warrior?” he asked.

“Akrun and I are both ready.” was Dexir’s reply.

The King of Good Dragons also heard. He looked over at the humanoids for the first time. “I am honored to have you on my side.” he told them. “I learned long ago that cooperation with the other inhabitants on the planet is good. It is nice to see that this world has learned it, too.”

He had looked at each of them as he had talked. Even though it was only for a couple of seconds, Rega knew the dragon had learned all about him in that gaze.

The platinum dragon bowed to them and then turned back to the Council. “Shall we go take care of this problem?” he asked.

He was answered by many dragons’ roars.

“Good.” he said. “I have a plan...”

The elves, gnomes, and dwarves who had continued down the passageway finally made it out to the other side. Immediately, those gnomes who specialized in illusions got to work preparing their spells.

Upon exiting the tunnel, one of the elven archers noticed Nomis laying motionless. He informed his immediate leader and in a matter of moments a small group of elves were dispatched to recover him. The elves then took him to the triage area.

The gnomes without magical abilities joined with the elven archers and dwarven axemen. While they were getting set up in a battle formation, two storm giants climbed down out of the mountains to meet them.

“We have come to help.” said one of the giants.

“We have seen the buildup of the evil dragons.” said the other.

One of the elves answered for everyone. “We would be honored to have you fighting by our side. Please, join us.”

“Thank you.” replied the first giant.

It was at this time a battle group from the Order of the Silver Rose arrived on horseback. With them were Fokar and twenty other men and women in robes. In addition to the Order, a dozen paladins wearing the armor from Morane rode with them.

Shortly, the good dragons appeared. They had brought their humanoid guests with them. When the introductions were made with the storm giants and the newly-arriving humans, everyone prepared for the upcoming battle.

Eighty-five dragons, already on their way to the northern part of the Dralmag desert, felt the magic being released from the Dragonstones. Their leader, Hulafason, directed them to remain focused on the upcoming battle.

Below them, the large army of orcs, goblins, ogres and hill giants trudged. The army on the ground had left before the dragons and had been marching non-stop. The blue leader could see where the weaker members of the army, mainly orcs and goblins, had dropped dead from the heat. It didn’t matter to him, however. When the good dragons were destroyed, all of the humanoids would be next in line. This included the orcs and goblins and such, unless it proved advantageous not to do so.

He knew that the Queen would not reward those who failed. Hulafason did not want to be a failure. The only reward for failure was death.

The blue dragon roared triumphantly.

While Bahamut was giving battle instructions to the other good dragons, Soliat walked up with Marissa and a robed man who he assumed was Zekil. Dexir and Rega went up to Marissa. Childhood friends were united. After the three of them hugged, Soliat motioned for everyone to follow.

Rega and his group followed Soliat, Zekil and Marissa to the first display.

Soliat pointed to the stack of quivers and said “These are special arrows made with metal shafts. They are enchanted with attract lightening spells. Shooting these arrows when a blue dragon uses his lightening breath weapon will hopefully attract the lightening enough to miss the intended target.”

Everyone nodded approvingly at Soliat as Zekil moved on to present the next display.

Zekil pointed to a large tarp which appeared to be covering something. “Under the tarp we have something to target the red dragons. Red dragons are vulnerable to cold damage. With this in mind, we asked as many silver dragons as we could replace to help fill small tanks with their cone of frost breath. These tanks burst upon impact and expel the frost stored within. The damage isn’t a lot, but everything helps.”

Rega asked, “How do these tanks get used against the red dragons?”

Zekil replied, “Our younger dragons are not going to be as effective battling the larger evil dragons, so we found something they can do to help. We will have tank reserves placed in several areas. The young dragon picks up a tank and flies overhead and then drops it on a red dragon. They have then been instructed to quickly return and get another tank.”

Marissa continued as everyone moved to the next display. “Coming up with something to counter the black and green dragons was more problematic. Poison breath won’t be too effective in the sky during the battle. We only have to watch out for attacks of this nature on our ground troops. To help against the acid attacks, we developed a cream that is being applied to all of the dragons. It will help neutralize the acid, but the cream will dry out. As an added bonus, we were able to use the HG-107 cream as a base, so some minor healing will be done while the cream is active.”

Soliat then pointed to the display they had walked to. “We do have regular bola and net launchers stationed in strategic areas. The one major disadvantage with these is both evil and good dragons can be hit with them. Ground troops in charge of these launchers have been trained as much as possible to hit the proper targets.”

Marissa moved to the next display. Arranged here were what appeared to be flasks of oil.

“These are our weapons to use on the white dragons.” she explained, pointing to the flasks. “I won’t go into details on how these are made, but regular flasks of oil have been combined with other chemicals to create a viscous flask of oil. When the flask is broken on the target, instead of the oil dripping off, the viscosity helps it stick better. Add a few more flasks and when an archer lets loose with a flaming arrow, the fire will burn much better and do more damage.”

Looking impressed, Dexir asked “How are we going to be able to target the white dragons with these flasks?”

“Good question.” said Zekil in reply. “We tasked the gnomes to develop a launcher. It had to be something portable, yet powerful enough to launch a flask far enough to hit a white dragon in flight. They came up with a contraption that can launch three flasks at one time. It really is remarkable.”

Soliat then added, “We have a unit of gnome flask launchers ready to go. Each launcher has elven archers available, so when the flasks get launched, a flaming arrow can be launched as well.”

As they finished, they were joined by Cupramos.

While Soliat, Zekil, and Marissa coordinated getting the supplies to the battlefront, using some of the younger dragons to help carry them, Rega and the rest followed Cupramos to the battlefield.

Hulafason had the dragons get into battle formation. He had the green dragons form up behind him. The red dragons were to the right of the green dragons. The black dragons were to the right of the red dragons. To the left of the green dragons were the blue dragons. The white dragons formed up to the left of the blue.

By keeping each color together, this formation prevented any unnecessary fights between them.

Finally, the opposition came into view; the good dragons and their army. The evil dragons were anxious for battle. Having to wait for the slower moving humanoids below them didn’t help.

The blue leader counted the metallic dragons waiting for them. There were only fourteen! He double-checked the types. There was one gold, two silver, two bronze, four copper and five brass. The rest of the army was made up of elves, gnomes, dwarves, humans and a few halflings. There were also three storm giants.

He searched the area for the possibility of there being more dragons. He saw none. This would be too easy. His army of eighty-five dragons would quickly wipe out the fourteen good dragons. Then they could feast on the bodies of the humanoids.

“Catch up as fast as you can.” he yelled down to his humanoid army below. “We will probably have most of the enemy destroyed before you get there.”

He then spoke to the dragons in formation. “Fly to battle. Remember, evil shall be triumphant.”

Dexir saw the massive army of evil dragons approaching. He hoped the platinum dragon’s plan would work. He looked behind at the good dragons. Nineteen of them were not able to change form yet. The gnomes were able to hide five of them ‘inside’ an illusionary mountain. The remaining fourteen would represent the good dragon army.

When the evil dragons were close enough, the platinum dragon, in the shape of a storm giant, charged. He signaled and the other two storm giants, the real ones, each hurled a bolt of lightning.

One bolt was aimed at the black dragons, the other at the white. In a blinding flash, a black and white dragon fell to the ground dead.

The platinum dragon had also acted. He changed from the storm giant into a black dragon during the flash and headed toward the white dragons. By the time the flash was over, he was in the group of white dragons already causing trouble.

Hulafason checked his army of dragons to assess the damages. He spotted a single black dragon in with the white ones. The white dragons were losing formation, trying to avoid the lone black dragon that was now flying erratically within their ranks. As he was about to yell for them to maintain control, he saw a large group of gold and silver dragons flying in behind them.

“So that is their trick.” he said to himself. He told the red and black dragons to continue. The white, blue and green would go fight this newly arriving group of gold and silver. He then glanced back at the white dragons to get them back into control. The black dragon was gone. It must have moved back to the proper group and left with the other red and black dragons.

Dexir had just enough time to see the black dragon change to green. Then he had to get ready against the red and black dragons.

The fourteen good dragons went airborne. Elven archers prepared their bows. The gnomes readied their slings.

Fokar and the other wizards were evenly spaced behind groups of Silver Rose soldiers. Dexir thought he recognized one of the Silver Rose soldiers in front of Fokar. It looked like the person they met in the Wizard’s Guild. The man named Eric.

Off in the distance, Dexir could see a large humanoid army coming toward them, most likely orcs and goblins.

There were a total of twenty-nine red and black dragons coming toward them. The fourteen good dragons were outnumbered, but they still charged. Then, the five dragons hidden by the gnomes’ illusion jumped into flight.

Even though it brought the totals closer together, the evil dragons still outnumbered them.

The dragons, both good and evil, clashed.

The blue leader prepared for the dragons ahead. “You all know the routine. Use breath weapons when it is your turn.” he said to the other dragons.

As they neared, some of the white dragons blew out cones of frost. Some of the blue dragons shot bolts of lightning. Some of the green blew out clouds of poison gas.

The illusion was pierced as the first round of breath weapons went through the good dragons. Valuable breath weapons were wasted on what became nothing.

“Tricked by more illusions.” yelled Hulafason, angrily.

Just as the blue leader was about to have his dragons turn back to join the red and black dragons, the green dragon next to him changed into a platinum color.

“What is going on...” was all he got out before the platinum dragon was on him, his jaw locked on Hulafason’s neck.

The remaining dragons were temporarily thrown into a state of chaos by the attack on their leader, but another blue dragon soon took charge.

“Back to the humanoid army. We need to regroup.” it roared.

The red and black dragons were holding their own. The fire breath weapon from the red dragons and the acid breath weapon from the black dragons had kept the good dragons away for a little while. But since it took a time to recharge their breath weapons, they would be in closer combat soon.

Occasionally, one of the young good dragons would fly above a red dragon to drop one of the frost tanks. These worked as predicted. There were several red dragons flying out of battle momentarily to tend wounds.

The nineteen good dragons in battle had been warned to avoid the breath weapons of the evil dragons. Especially dangerous was the acid breath from the black dragons. Even with the special acid cream, a brass dragon fell from the sky, losing the membranes from his right wing in an acid attack.

The good dragons let loose with a round of breath weapons of their own. Two black dragons went down from lightning bolts and a red dragon flew into a cone of sleep gas, putting it into a deep sleep. Being fast asleep, the red dragon crashed to the ground. Elven archers ran up to where the red dragon had dropped to pump it full of arrows.

Once the good dragons were done with their breath weapons, they flew closer to the evil dragons, claws ready.

The platinum dragon released his grip on Hulafason seconds before he was going to hit the ground. The blue dragon, leader of the evil dragons, was dead. Bahamut’s plan had worked as expected.

He flew up higher into the sky and called for the next phase of the plan.

The remaining twenty-seven good dragons heard the call from the platinum dragon. Immediately, the humanoid shapes they had taken began to change shape, back into their natural dragon bodies.

The new group of good dragons flew up to fight the red and black dragons, helping the other good dragons.

Sensing the battle turning against them, the red and black dragons retreated toward the other evil dragons.

There were casualties on both sides. In addition to the red dragon that had been killed before, eleven more red and black dragons lay dead. Nine of the original good dragons had also been killed.

Bahamut wasn’t idle. He changed shape again. He now looked like the blue leader he had just slain.

Seeing the remaining fifteen red and black dragons, he flew up to them.

He took a large red dragon by surprise. The red dragon, thinking he was reporting to Hulafason, started relaying information about the surprise attack from the good dragons.

The red dragon didn’t have a chance. The platinum dragon changed back into his normal form and attacked. The other fourteen flew to regroup with the green, white and blue dragons, leaving the red dragon alone.

After Bahamut killed the red dragon, he flew back to his own army. The next phase of the battle would begin soon.