Holy War (2)
—KRA-KOOM!
—BOOOOM!!
A blinding bolt of lightning split the heavens and crashed down upon the Frost Dragon’s head.
——————!!!
The Frost Dragon howled in agony, thrashing its massive body. Tattered wings full of holes beat the air as enormous claws raked madly through everything in reach.
—CRAAASH!
The enraged Frost Dragon was destruction incarnate, shredding everything around it.
“Holy Knights, form the front line!! Raise your shields!”
““Raise your shields!””
At the Commander’s shout the Holy Knights locked into formation. A towering wall of steel rose between the Frost Dragon and the rest of the humans.
——————!!!
Ominous spectral fire seethed between the dragon’s ribs, then blue flames roared from its jaws and slammed into the steel barrier.
—WHOOOOSH!
“Ghhhk!”
“Urgh! Hold the line!! Block it!!”
“Aaagh!!”
Blue fire licked and hammered the knights’ shields without mercy. Armor and flesh sizzled and cooked together. The massive shields melted like ice; the armor fused to their skin and squeezed with merciless pain.
——————!!!
As if furious that mere humans dared stand against it, the Frost Dragon poured out fire even more savagely.
“Urrrgh!!”
The Commander’s eyes burned blood-red. Blisters rose and burst across his skin as armor and flesh melted into one. The agony was hellish—yet he endured.
—FLAAASH!
Like a single drop of water falling into a still pond, a vast radiance bloomed outward from the Holy Knights.
—WHOOOOSH
Sacred golden runes rose into the air. A golden wave rippled outward in a perfect circle and wrapped the knights. The entire area was embraced by that vast circular surge.
The golden tide rolled gently, steadily pushing back the ancient dragon’s flames.
“The gods themselves watch over us!!”
As the golden wave washed across him, the Commander felt every wound vanish clean. The gods were watching this battle.
“This fight!! We will win it!! We fight for the victory that was promised!!”
He raised his shield high and roared. The golden waves that still lapped around them proclaimed this ground a holy sanctuary.
“For glory!”
“In the name of the Five Gods—and the Sixth!!”
CLANG—! CLANG—!
The Holy Knights hammered their shields and shouted. Divine grace was with them, and behind them stood the Hero.
They lifted their shields once more—unbreakable walls that would never fall.
And one girl charged forward, sword in hand.
“Commander!!”
Tap-tap-tap!
Wind rode her light footsteps. Sacred fire that burned all that was impure blazed along the violet holy sword. Unlike the dragon’s spectral flames, the holy fire danced gently, guiding her path.
“Kenis! This way!”
The Commander hoisted his massive shield like a stepping stone. A bridge formed between Kenis and the Frost Dragon.
—WHOOSH!
Kenis raised the surging holy sword and leapt straight for the dragon’s head.
——————!!!
As if offended that anything dared meet its gaze at equal height, the Frost Dragon bellowed. Blue fire boiled up once more from its chest.
—WHOOOOOSH!!
The breath of flame erupted toward the soaring Kenis—
“Hyaaaaah!!”
The tiny sacred flame on her holy sword sliced the colossal fire in two. A small holy blaze climbing against a vast blue torrent. Kenis clung to that little flame and endured the raging inferno.
“Ghhhnn!!”
Even as the heat seared her eyes and her skin cooked, she never released the sword. There was something only she could do.
She could not let go.
“Hyaaaaah!!”
For an instant, a small wind pushed her from behind—
a gentle shove between her shoulder blades.
—SHHHRRAAK!!
——————!!!
The holy sword punched clean through the dragon’s jaws, bursting out the top of its skull and spewing sacred fire in a violent torrent.
——————!!! ——————!!!!
The Frost Dragon thrashed wildly. Kenis lost her grip on the holy sword and tumbled downward like a feather.
“Kenis!!”
The Commander sprinted and caught her falling form.
“Kenis!! Stay with me! Kenis!!”
She was breathing, but the act of cutting through the dragon’s breath had drained every last scrap of strength. Her eyes would not open. Her lips were blue. The Commander stared at the Frost Dragon with trembling eyes.
——————!!!
Even with a holy sword driven through its skull and sacred fire consuming it, the Frost Dragon still thrashed with savage power.
—CRACK-CRACK
Stiff bone joints forced themselves into motion. Enormous wings unfurled. Riddled with holes like rags, they still cast a shadow of overwhelming majesty across the land.
—FLAP—FLAP
The heavy body slowly lifted. The Frost Dragon took to the air. Violent winds scoured the earth; the enraged dragon’s roar swept through the humans.
—GRIP
The Commander clenched his shield with shaking hands. The golden waves that had protected them were fading to a dying flicker. The lightning that had split the sky had fallen silent.
Were the gods testing them?
High above, the Frost Dragon’s spectral fire blazed hotter as it looked down. Their hope—the Hero—had fallen. Terror began to eat at every human heart.
Was the spark of hope about to die?
—Thud
The terror of death crushed them all. Despair itself took shape and bared its fangs—
when one girl forced her way through the terrified crowd and stepped forward.
Friga dragged her trembling legs and planted herself before the Frost Dragon.
“Fuck… what the hell is even happening right now…”
She tightened her grip on the axe with shaking hands. The Frost Dragon looked down on them, blue spectral fire streaming from its body. Its bones twitched as if ready to swat them like insects at any second.
Kenis…
Friga glanced back. Kenis lay protected in the deepest rear, eyes closed, face deathly pale and empty of life.
Kenis had climbed the blue breath itself and driven her sword into those jaws. Friga still remembered the look in Kenis’s eyes as she cut upward through the flames—
the unyielding eyes of a warrior who refused to yield to hardship or pain.
—Huuuh
Friga let out a long breath and shook the tension from her body.
She could feel the eyes behind her. Terror. Fear. Despair. Regret… and a tiny spark of hope.
She could not die here.
She had to carry on the small flame of hope Kenis had shown them. Friga knew it in her bones.
Slowly she raised her axe. Every gaze followed the weapon.
Then she roared at the top of her lungs.
“Hey, bag of bones! You’re fighting me now!”
Friga grinned—savage, cocky, exactly the way she always did.
—BOOOOM!
“Kh! You think you can catch me moving that slow?!”
——————!!!
The Frost Dragon’s claw slammed down, grazing past Friga as she rolled across the ground. She was already covered in wounds from how many times she had tumbled.
Before the flying rocks even settled she kicked off the earth again and charged.
—WHOOOOSH!
Her axe carved the air with brutal force—hurled at the dragon hovering above—
—CLANG!
It bounced harmlessly off bone. Absurd hardness. Friga bit her lip hard enough to taste copper.
“Fucking hell. This thing’s a monster…”
Kenis showed no sign of rising. The golden waves that had protected them were gone. Friga kept biting her lip as the situation darkened by the second.
How… how the hell am I supposed to…?
She eyed the axe lying far away and silently cursed the gods. In the end gods were always like this—dangling hope only to deliver greater pain.
No matter how hard you prayed or screamed, they never looked back.
The cold, stiffening feel of a corpse in her hands tried to return; she shook her head hard and emptied her mind. Right now survival was all that mattered.
“…Hey, One-Eye! Throw me an axe—”
Awooooo—!!!
“What?! Now of all times?!”
Wolf howls rose behind them. Friga and the warriors spun around, faces hardening.
Grrrr—
Werewolves had somehow filled the rear, red eyes glowing, drool dripping from their jaws.
“…Shit. Today’s luck is pure garbage.”
One-Eye dragged a hand down his eyepatch and adjusted his grip on a hand-axe. Ancient dragon in front, pack of werewolves behind. Rotten luck didn’t begin to cover it.
“What are you mutts doing out of your kennel? Stick around and that bag of bones will kill you too!”
One of the warriors shouted. From among the snarling werewolves a beast with dark-crimson mane slowly stepped forward.
That one…
One-Eye’s grip tightened on the hand-axe. That was the bastard who had taken his eye. The empty socket throbbed.
“…Guess they want me to take a dog’s head with me before I die.”
Whatever their reason, the werewolves showed no sign of backing off. The warriors raised their axes as one.
“Boss! Catch!”
One-Eye grinned and tossed Friga an axe, then bellowed,
“Boss!! We’ll handle these mutts over here! You go have fun with that bag of bones!”
“…Yeah! Don’t you dare die to a bunch of mutts—you’ll be too embarrassed to stay dead! Handle it yourselves!”
Friga caught the axe and shouted back, then faced forward again.
—FLAP-FLAP
The Frost Dragon knew its greatest threat—Kenis—was gone. It looked down on them from the air with arrogant leisure, as if inviting them to thrash all they liked. Then it slowly lifted its body. Slow. Unhurried.
And then—
—BOOOOOOM!!
Its massive bulk skimmed the ground like a falling mountain. The thick tail scraped the earth and drove straight forward.
“Hup—!!”
Friga threw herself sideways to dodge the tail coming right at her.
But that was exactly what the dragon wanted. The moment she dove aside it roared and whipped the tail sideways in a brutal sweep.
——————!!!
—THWAAACK!!
“Ghhk!! Urrrgh!”
The sound of a water-skin bursting filled the air as the heavy tail struck. A mouthful of bright blood exploded from Friga’s lips; blood vessels in her eyes ruptured and ran red.
She skipped across the ground like a stone on water, tumbling again and again.
—CRAAASH!
After countless bounces she smashed clean through a cliff face and vanished into the rock. Leaving even a corpse would have been a miracle. Everyone felt her death as certainty.
“…B-Boss?”
One-Eye’s remaining eye shook violently. Bright red blood seeping from the hole in the cliff told him the truth.
——————!!!
The Frost Dragon roared in triumph, a victory cry that shook the sky.
“…Where the hell am I this time?”
And Friga opened her eyes inside an inn.