B2 Chapter 236: Drake, pt. 3

Leashed lightning faded, the white light of dawn retreating from the forest gully. In the flickering orange light of the raging flames, Kaius saw the devastation he had wrought. Blackened scales peeled back from weeping flesh—clear fluid dripping from the cauterised ring that circled the beast’s neck.

A moment later the drake recovered from his onslaught and roared. Battered and bleeding, charred and smoking, it called its defiance to the heavens above.

The cry of hatred and fury was immense—a physical weight that pressed on them from all sides. The forest woke to a nightmare, its more humble inhabitants calling out their panic as the angered cries of their king threw them into terror.

Heaving up against the weight and burning pain that had it pinned, the drake tried to free itself from the burning weight of the logs that held it down—but its bones had been shattered, its body too broken to fight against the weight.

Cutting off its fury with a snap of its person-sized jaws, the drake turned its oversized head to level Kaius with a baleful gaze. A pinned arm twitched, and a stone the size of his head ripped itself free from the ground, a crack echoing through their surroundings.

Slaved to the drake’s will, it shot forwards—racing straight for Kaius.

He dodged, slipping through space with another cast of Slip Step—Porkchop was quicker. His brother snarled and raced in, smashing the rock off course with a heavy barge of his shoulder. It cracked against the jade plate, spinning off to shatter against the edge of the cliff.

Kaius raced in, refusing to allow the drake to batter them unimpeded. He held his blade steady in an inside-guard, pommel tucked into the pit of his arm, ready to parry any further stone projectiles.

Porkchop followed close on his tail, shielding his right from assault.

He missed a shard of stone that rose behind him. Only a fraction of a moment after a portent of death screamed out in his mind, a last minute flicker into the space between worlds saved him as a spike as thick as his wrist shot through the ghost of his sternum.

**Ding! Uncanny Dodge has reached level 60!**

…

**Ding! Uncanny Dodge has reached level 62!**

**Ding! Latent Glyph of Aelina has reached level 70!**

Whitening at the narrowly avoided doom, Kaius continued his charge—keeping one eye behind him as he spun around a half dozen follow up shots, his blade burring in an adamant defense. Enough for his vambraces to fully charge.

**Ding! Tempered by Dissonance has reached level 58!**

…

**Ding! Tempered by Dissonance has reached level 59!**

Covering his rear, Porkchop intercepted a dozen more—the shards shattering against his defense, leaving spider-webbing cracks in the jade.

Through the haze of motion, he saw Ianmus above. A storm of golden mana surrounded him, brow furrowed in concentration as he wove a series of overlapping decagons. Kaius grinned at the sight—he’d shared all he could about sacred geometry, and it was a joy to see the half-elf put the knowledge into practice with such ease.

Landing next to the beast’s neck, Kaius felt the searing heat of the burning logs radiating on his face. He attacked immediately with a thrust. Cutting through the air with unerring accuracy, he aimed for the thin and pale scales on its throat—half of them scoured away completely, leaving only a devastation of meat in the wake of his electrical assault.

His blade punched in, hot draconic blood spraying like a geyser from the wound. Droplets sizzled as they landed on the bonfire that raged above and around the drake.

It snapped its jaws, narrowly missing Kaius as he danced back, before it suddenly hurled itself to the side.

The display of power was not without reason, as its bulk shifted enough to resettle the logs that had buried it. Opening up just enough space for one of its long and muscular arms to be free.

Claws two-thirds as long as his sword cut through the air, racing straight for him.

An echoing cry cut through the crackle of the flames, and the drake’s own growl, as Porkchop hammered the beast with another Bulwark’s Challenge.

With its attention forcibly removed from him, Kaius slipped under the swipe of its claws, and infused his blade with stamina. Sigils glowed with the majesty of his Bladerite; Kaius tapped into the well of energy held within his vambraces.

He slashed, the crystalline edge of his blade biting deep into the drake’s ruined throat. Muscles parted and searing blood painted the stone below in a wave—the gully filled with the scent of battle and war.

**Ding! Initiate’s Glyphic Bladerite has reached level 48!**

Alas, he didn’t cut deep enough. Neither its airway, nor its arteries were severed, the additional power from his vambraces lacking against a creature of such power. He turned through his strike—leaving the drake with the parting gift of a stab that punched deep—before he was forced to dance back as two walls of stone smashed together where he had just been standing.

Fleet he may have been, the drake was faster. When its instinctive magic failed, it followed up with a backhanded smash, instinctive alarm flooding Kaius a moment before it struck. He heeded the warning of Uncanny Dodge immediately, but he was caught all the same. The backs of claws built like steel beams crushed through his hastily raised defense, a ward too weak to fend off a psuedo-draconid.

**Ding! Tempered by Dissonance has reached level 60!**

…

**Ding! Tempered by Dissonance has reached level 62!**

Tumbling through the air, Kaius thought for a moment that he’d managed to avoid injury—the force of breaking through his guard enough to send him airborne.

Suffocating agony disabused him of that notion a moment later—his lungs screaming as he failed to draw breath thanks to a chest that had crushed like an egg.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

His health dropped like a stone, restorative energy burning to reknit muscle, mend bone, and seal torn blood vessels.

Rapid Adaptation did not leave wanting—the skill roaring as his mind stayed clear despite the sickening pops of his chest reinflating.

A snap rang out as he hit the ground hard, left elbow popping from his socket as it hyperextended on impact. Rolling backwards, it was whole by the time he came to his feet—bleeding momentum in a long backwards side.

**Ding! Lesser Regeneration has reached level 68!**

…

**Ding! Lesser Regeneration has reached level 69!**

**Ding! Rapid Adaptation has reached level 87!**

Kaius bared his teeth at the drake, tasting the iron remnants of his wounds in his mouth. Off hand dropping to his belt, he pulled free a restorative—roiling red held in a square glass vial. It tasted of scabbed wounds and restful nights, his lifesaving Health jumping back to almost full.

**Ding! You have imbibed a tonic: Minor Healing Dreams**