Blood Shaper - Book 4: Chapter 48

“Dammit,” Kay muttered as he watched the almost-frothing orc descend in his direction, axes raised high above his head.

Eleniah stepped forward, pushing Kay back with one arm, and caught one of the axes by the handle just above the orc’s hand. With his momentum stopped, Eleniah quickly shifted her grip to his wrist and swept his legs out from under him with her foot. When she’d gotten him airborne, she tossed him off the side of the platform before he could react.

His guards pushed forward, intercepting projectiles and spells launched from below. Arrows cracked against shields, and Kay saw at least one bolt of magical fire get shot down by an arrow coming from above. More attacks started to rain down on the gathered leaders of the campaign to kill Kay, intercepting attacks launched in Kay’s direction and pushing the assembled group back away from the platform. Kay began floating them all upward toward the top of the wall, pushing out the edges of the platform and sloping them to provide cover as they gained distance from the ground.

“Someone wants this war to happen.” He commented to Eleniah once they had gotten some distance.

Eleniah nodded in the direction she’d thrown the main attacker. “That orc was primed to attack us the entire time, but from the looks he was getting from some of their own people, I think it was more of a personal thing for him. That’s the perfect thing for someone who wants a fight to happen to manipulate, though. Someone like the person who shouted about treachery and us attacking their leader basically as the attack happened.”

“That assassin was wearing red clothing, too. That doesn’t actually mean shit, but when the Guard and I float down from above in blood-red armor, it certainly puts certain ideas in people’s heads.”

As they reached the top of the wall and started to step off the platform, they could make out the army starting to march on the walls. One group of soldiers was slightly ahead of the rest, making the advance look like a tilted slash as they moved in.

“That’s the Nelamian force,” Curcius informed them, pointing out the group in the lead. “They started moving seconds after the shouting started down there. The Clan legion and a chunk of the Crusade’s soldiers weren’t terribly far behind them, but the Nelamian troops were moving in concert with that attack on the Crusader General down there.”

Kay huffed a breath in disgust. “That tells us who’s at fault then. King Glowl cares more about taking us out, or at least down a peg, than he cares about my hypothetical danger as a vampyr. Or anyone else’s lives.” He stared down at the tableau of marching soldiers before making a decision. “Focus fire on the Nelamians. We can’t not fight against all of them if they’re coming to kill us, but we can certainly concentrate the bulk of our attacks on the people who guaranteed that this turned into a fuckfest. When it’s time to bring Cindy and her people into it, try and see if any of the sharpshooters can take out Glowl. Same with the archers and spell snipers, but I want a bullet in his head if possible.”

The sound of distant wooshing noises reached them, and Kay turned to see a red dragon lifting up from the ground. He hadn’t seen him before, so he assumed the dragon had been in his humanoid form during the parley and had shifted back again to fight. “Murunel says that’s probably her cousin, so try not to kill him or the rider. In fact…” He glanced over his shoulder and then down at the group. “I don’t think we’ll need these for the first stages, so let’s get some shock and awe in.” He pointed at the dragon flying in their direction and ordered over his shoulder, “Bring me those two alive.”

Three massive, floating masses of blood began to slowly change shape, more defined forms emerging from the shapeless blobs floating behind the wall. Kay had used his Create Blood Champion Skill on them but found he could hold the final moments of the Skill till a moment of his choosing. Scaled limbs, a tail, wings, and an eyeless, teeth-filled maw emerged from the blood as minutes passed, and three scaled forms began to flex themselves before launching up into the air.

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“Go, go!” Duke Velonius shouted at Azred, shifted into his true form, and Vivien climbed up onto his back. “Get over the wall and take out anyone in the way while you head to the gates to open them!” He flapped his arms impatiently as he gestured at the walls, almost thrusting his arms forward as he pointed. “Go! This is why I brought you! Walls mean nothing before flight!”

I’m going to eat him.

No eating sapient beings, Vivien replied with a mental eye roll as she carefully wrapped the straps of the complicated saddle around her legs, making sure they were tight enough to hold her down during acrobatic maneuvers. You can squish him, but no eating him.

Why is he acting like this is some new tactic he’s a genius for thinking of? Dragons have been flying over walls for longer than his family has existed.

His wife ignored his grumbling, fully aware he wasn’t going to start attacking nominal allies at this point. After a few more safety checks while ignoring the Duke’s shouting, she was all set and nudged Azred with her knee, indicating that she was ready to take off. Azred spread his wings out, causing winds that buffeted the annoying nobleman and almost knocked him off his feet. Azred chuckled while double-checking that he wasn’t about to clip anyone before launching himself upward, using both his wings and his powerful legs to get higher before the natural magic all dragons had took over, allowing something as heavy as he was to fly through the air.

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Long-range attacks from the defenders started coming their way as they flew closer to the front line. Arrows, crossbow bolts, spells, and a few other more esoteric projectiles began to bounce off his scales with irregular timing. A few of them were aimed directly at Vivien, but she was either able to block them with her own armor, or the extreme distance of the attacks gave her time to shift slightly in the saddle and dodge. As they got even closer and got within reach of a greater number of attacks, Azred began sweeping back and forth across the sky, switching directions at a whim and drawing many attacks off to where they thought he would be before lazily flapping his wings and heading to somewhere else, all the while coming closer and closer to the walls.

They’re starting to concentrate on us. Azred sent, noticing soldiers begin clumping up on top of the walls and following his progress through the skies. Are we really going to try to get down there and get those gates open?

We’ll swing by and see if we can do it easily, but there’s very little chance we can get it done. Two unsupported tier fives aren’t going to take on the same number or more with support, not unless we counter them perfectly, which we don’t. We’ll do our “best effort” to follow the duke’s orders, but he can’t get us to do a suicide charge.

We just fly straight in and hunt for Murunel. They won’t be able to stop us if they want to defend their wall. We can just grab her and leave.

No.

Vivien’s reply was forceful enough to stagger him, and a few attacks that would have missed pattered against his body while he corrected his flight.

We are not going to go flying over a city and look like we’re attacking their civilian population. They don’t know that we’re looking for your cousin to make sure she’s safe, they would assume we’re going to attack defenseless civilians to draw defenders away, and that’s how you get Class Line Progenitor City Lords to drop trump cards on your ass and erase you. We can look for her the normal way once we either win or lose the battle.

And bring her home. Azred insisted, We find her, make sure she’s safe, and bring her home.

Watch that incoming attack! Azred couldn’t see his wife pointing but could feel the direction of her attention through the bond and saw the magical attack a defender was charging from on top of the wall, That could hurt.

Azred flared his wings and shot upward, using his Create Updraft Skill to easily redirect himself with a small mana cost. The crackling bolt of energy pierced through where he had been and sailed uselessly into nothing.

Try not to kill anyone if you can help it, Vivien instructed him.

What?

This entire debacle seems to be a mistake, and the attack on the Crusader General was incredibly suspicious. These people don’t want to fight us; they want us to go away, so why would they kill the man forcing everyone else to parley? We’re going to defend ourselves but hold back. Besides, if there isn’t some vampyr menace controlling people, that means Murunel is here on her own, and these are her friends. Don’t get hurt, but see if you can disable people before going straight to killing them.

You’re the softhearted one of us, Azred snorted, But… His thoughts froze as a familiar sound cut through the developing battle, brought to him by his keen senses, able to hear specific sounds over long distances.

…Hon? You’re alarmed, what’s happening?

I hear dragons. Azred’s head swung about on his flexible neck, the rest of his body following along in an almost impossible maneuver made easy with his Skills for aerial combat. There’s three of them.

Okay, that’s not good, we should pull back and-

They all sound like Murunel.

Pure confusion radiated down the bond between the two of them, increasing as it resonated with both of them. It wasn’t known to most people, but the exact sound of a dragon’s flight was unique to them, like fingerprints to many humanoid species. It was basically impossible for anyone but a dragon to notice the unique patterns of wind beneath another dragon’s scales, but to dragons, it was second nature.

How-

Three red forms catapulted into the air from behind the wall and unfurled their wings. They were red, but not the shining ruby-red Azred was; they were all the color of blood. All three of these new dragons were identical and terrifyingly familiar in their indistinguishable shapes. They all looked just like Murunel as if her colors had been drastically changed.

What the fuck is-“ He heard Vivien say aloud right as the three dragons charged. They dived down silently, none of them letting loose the traditional and semi-instinctual roar of challenge against another dragon. They didn’t even try to work together, hunting him in a group while maneuvering for better positions; they just flew straight at them.

The minor amount of adrenaline pumping through Azred’s body from the rush of battle, as little as he’d been in so far, was doubled and then quadrupled as three unnerving copies of his cousin charged at him. He let out the roar of challenge and gathered wind around himself, forming a tunnel that knocked back the charging enemies and allowed him to position himself behind them. After a quick inhale, he triggered his fire-breathing organs and let loose a gout of flame that licked over two of the three dragons. To his surprise, they completely ignored the damage and threw themselves at him again.

Inspect has them coming back as some kind of construct, Vivien informed him. They don’t have minds, and they appear to be made of blood, so my best guess is it’s some Skill the Lord has that lets him copy people. He probably copied Murunel to fight us with.

They aren’t as strong as she should be. Even if she doesn’t like fighting, she knows how to defend herself in both forms, and these aren’t as good as I remember her being; each copy is probably weaker than the original person they’re copied from.

You’re a tier five Threat from the Air, break them apart and we can chip them down one by one. Let’s see how a fake dragon made out of blood likes a telekinetic blow from the inside.