Chapter 184 - Duel of the Skies

The dragons spun wildly as they continued to claw at one another. I was only remaining attached thanks to the rope I’d used to tie myself to Tenebris. How the hell Peter was managing, I didn’t know. He must have a lot more Strength stones socketed than I’d suspected.

“Miss you? Are you insane?” I shouted back over the rushing wind.

His sword flashed forward toward me and I was forced to shove myself back to evade the blow. The tip of his blade sang as it swept by in front of me, slicing through where I’d been sitting. I had my sword in hand now, on guard against another attack.

“Not even a little,” he replied, blade slashing away again.

I dodged again, but this time I wasn’t the target. His sword sliced at the rope holding me to Tenebris’s back and cut through with one blow. Without the rope holding me on, I fell, dropping away.

Of course, I had a Flight power. I activated it at once, gliding through the air behind the dragons, staying just far enough away that their thrashing bodies couldn’t rip me to pieces. Tenebris was taking the brunt of the damage being meted out. I dropped a quick Heal Undead on him to bolster his health and keep him in the fight, but the reality was, he wasn’t a match for Big Red. If it were the two of us against her, maybe we’d have a shot. But I had Peter to deal with.

The dragons went at one another aggressively, tearing flesh and bones with their claws and teeth as they shattered the inner wall of the castle, crashing through it into the courtyard inside. They were going to crash-land for real any moment, and it wasn’t going to be pretty.

Like he could see it coming, Peter leaped from the dragons’ backs. He was still thirty feet in the air, and I wasn’t sure how he planned to handle that drop, but—he didn’t fall! Instead he flew straight toward me.

“You didn’t think I’d be flying around on the back of an unfriendly tier twenty fire-breathing lizard with a bad temper if I didn’t have some way to prevent myself from going splat, did you?” Peter asked. His sword flashed toward me and I parried the blow.

“I suppose I was hoping,” I replied, cutting toward his sword arm. He wore a lot of armor, so I was going to need to hit him hard if I was going to inflict any serious damage.

“You killed one avian and got lucky,” he spat back. “I killed a thousand of them!”

“That’s not something I’d be bragging about,” I replied. My sword parried another of his blows, then I broke through his guard, landing a hit on his thigh. The tip of my sword came away red, but Peter didn’t so much as flinch.

“Why fight me, Selena? You and I are the strongest humans in this area. We might be among the strongest in the world,” Peter said, punctuating every few words with another blow from his sword.

I’d been getting lots of practice in swordsmanship lately, but he clearly had more. Whether he’d been playing with sharp things before the Event or just gotten better training since, I didn’t know. But he was more than a match for me. One stab sliced into the space between my torso armor and my hip. Another slashed open a gash on my left arm. The damage was adding up—or it would have, if I hadn’t cast Drain Life to replenish myself.

I had a feeling mana was going to be the telling thing in this battle. With as many avians as he’d killed during the battle at the airport, Peter probably had his Flight ranked up at least a few tiers. That would reduce the mana cost and make him faster in the air, too. But I felt confident my Will was stronger than his, so I had more mana to play with. Which of us ran out first was anyone’s guess.

I kept moving, darting through the air to get away from Peter whenever he managed to draw too close for comfort. He was bigger than me, probably stronger than me, and able to take some serious hits. But I was no pushover myself. I’d collected enough stat stones that I was faster, stronger, and could fight longer than I’d ever dreamed possible before.

Magical Stones

Point 1: Black Stone (Tier 6) - Control Undead

Point 1, Second Ring: Black Stone (Tier 5) - Augment Undead

Point 1, Third Ring: Black Stone (Tier 10) - Animate Dead

Point 1, Fourth Ring: Black Stone (Tier 5) - NightVision

Point 1, Fifth Ring: Black Stone (Tier 3) - Dark Pulse

+

Point 2: Black Stone (Tier 7) - Animate Dead

Point 2, Second Ring: Black Stone (Tier 5) - Heal Undead

Point 2: Third Ring: Black Stone (Tier 6) - Drain Life

Point 2: Fourth Ring: Black Stone (Tier 3) - Health to Mana

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Point 3: Yellow Stone (Tier 8) - Lightning Bolt

Point 3: Second Ring: Yellow Stone(Tier 2) - Flight

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Point 4: Clear Stone (Tier 6) - Will

Point 4, Second Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 6) - Agility

Point 4, Third Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 7) - Stamina

Point 4, Fourth Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 6) - Strength

Point 4, Fifth Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 5) - Intellect

Point 4, Sixth Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 5) - Will

Point 4, Seventh Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 6) - Charisma

Point 4, Eighth Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 8) - Stamina

Point 4, Ninth Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 5) - Strength

Point 4, Tenth Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 4) - Intellect

+

Point 5: Brown Stone (Tier 3) - Alchemy

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Point 6: Green Stone (Tier 3) - Stoneskin

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Control Stone (Tier 3) - Domain Active

Domain: Tier Three

We were too evenly matched for comfort. Both of us blocked most of the blows sent our way, and neither of us could achieve the upper hand over the other.

Flapping wings drew both our attention. I twisted, flying up and to the side to avoid whatever it was flying our way, but it was a group of four avians. Better still, these were bird-people I knew! They were dressed in armor, each carrying a quiver of short javelins as they streaked across the sky toward the tower-tops. They split up and hit the two towers Tenebris hadn’t managed to scorch, attacking the guards at range with their short spears until they retreated.

Peter made as if to chase them, but I stopped him cold with a quick cut that opened a gash on his sword arm. Growling in frustration, he turned back toward me and engaged again.

The avians weren’t the only new additions to the fight. I realized with a start that troops were rushing across the open space between the town of KingsHaven and Peter’s castle. There were a mix of humans and ratkin—it was Alfred! He must have seen the dragons crash through the castle wall and figured that gap was the moment he’d been waiting for. Now he and his men ran in to join the battle, attacking the confused guards stumbling from the wrecked stonework.

I was distracted just a moment too long. Peter’s sword sliced in. I missed the block, and the sword slashed a long cut on my sword arm. I hissed in pain and shot higher, fleeing skyward so I could catch my breath. The wound was bleeding heavily. That wasn’t great, so I cast Drain Life on Peter again as he chased after me. He grunted as the spell landed but otherwise kept coming. At least the wound mostly healed.

Below us, a crashing noise like the world ending sounded. The shockwave from the sound was so extreme I felt it like a bomb had gone off. It blew me even higher.

The dragons had crashed into the courtyard.

Big Red was on top. Tenebris beneath her. She roared, and it sounded to me like triumph. My heart raced. If I didn’t act quickly, I was going to lose Tenebris too, just like I’d lost Sue. I looked around, desperate for some way to finish the fight with Peter, but there was nothing. He came rushing in again, and it was like we were in a Peter Pan movie, both walking on air while our swords did the talking in front of us. We were so high, well above the ground, even above the towers themselves.

Wait—above the towers?

It was just a little bit, but we were. I darted up higher, and Peter gave chase, his sword flashing as he chased me ever-higher across the sky. In the intensity of the chase, Peter had forgotten one especially critical detail.

I blocked a blow, then another, but I was grinning now, because we were getting higher by the second and he still hadn’t caught on. Finally, he saw the smile.

“At least someone is enjoying herself,” he growled.

“Not as much as I am about to be,” I replied, then flew backward away from him, clearing just a few extra feet.

Right before the blast of lightning raced down from the clouds above and tore into Peter.

He looked like he was glowing for a moment, like an old cartoon where the character was lit up by electricity. Then he fell, body smoking, faster and faster toward the ground.