Bokuboy Here's the second chapter for today. Happy Double chapter day! An extra 700 words, too!
Flying at full speed, it didn't take Idhyl and I long to get to the scene of the battle. What was left of it, anyway. Miles and miles of torn up trees that were all dead and rotted were scattered everywhere. Craters, dragon footprints, burned out parts, acid covered parts, and poisoned parts were all over the place. It was practically an even mix, as if the dragons had all stood side by side and unleashed their abilities upon the undead at the same time.
By the looks of things, the devastation was total.
I couldn't understand why the god of this place needed heroes to finish it, when the dragons seemed to have the situation under control. The thought had just barely formed in my mind when the entire battlefield seemed to shift. Inside the craters, under the crumbled and crushed trees, and even scattered in pieces, the dead started to stand back up or dig themselves out from being trapped.
We're too late, human. Idhyl said and nodded off to the side. My brethren awaken again.
I turned my head to look and inside one of the acid filled craters, a half dissolved monstrosity, even bigger than the massive female dragons I had already met, started to rise up. I had to assume it was a male of the species as it put up a mangled claw on the edge of the crater to pull itself out. Hundreds of undead were pushed out of the crater as it dragged itself out and they tumbled and rolled ahead of it.
“Wait here.” I said and flew over to get within range of the Holy spells I had access to.
The undead acid dragon saw me move and turned its head towards me as it opened its maw. “RAAAWWWWW!” It yelled, trying to properly roar, and a deluge of rancid acid came out in a weak spurt instead.
“On the plus side, your breath weapon is distinctly weaker without the flesh and muscles to help propel it.” I said. “On the negative side, you have horrible breath.”
The sound of female laughter came from not far away and I didn't have to look to know it was Idhyl.
“Let's have a bit of fun, shall we?” I asked and looked at the three extra spells I had gained from the clerics that had offered them to me.
____
You have learned the spell Holy Purify. This will clean and sterilize anything you target with the spell. It is usually cast on spoiled, rotten, or contaminated food to make it edible again.
Warning: This spell does not restore items or food to its original condition.
You have learned the spell Holy Consecrate. This spell will consecrate any land you deem fit to convert into holy land. No undead can cross into this land or stay coherent or solvent if on the land when consecrated.
Warning: This spell is mana intensive and takes a very long time to cast. You cannot be interrupted once you begin or you will have to start over. The more clerics participating in the spell, the quicker the casting time and the wider the area affected.
You have learned the spell Holy Cleanse. This spell will remove any disease, poison, condition, or curse from the target. Can be cast on multiple objects or people for an appropriate mana cost.
Warning: This spell does not heal the target.
____
Holy Purify is almost like Cleaning Hands and is not a good thing to use here. I thought and read Holy Consecrate. This place is much too big for that to be effective, not with thousands of undead down there to distract me.
I spent a minute reading Holy Cleanse and knew it was a great spell to have... and was almost useless in this situation, unless I did something drastic. I had a crazy idea and glanced back at Idhyl, only to see that she wasn't as far away as I thought she should have been.
“How big is your cone of fire breath?” I asked her.
I can spray it almost 50 feet! Idhyl said, happily.
“That's really good.” I said and she preened a little. “I had an idea for a spell I have called Holy Cleanse...”
Idhyl listened as I explained what my idea was and she almost choked when I told her what I wanted her to do. I can't do that! My mother would skin me alive if I lived!
“Well, if you don't want to earn tons of free experience, I'll do it myself.” I said.
YOU?!? Idhyl yelled. How can you...
“Watch and learn, my dragon friend.” I said and dropped 99 points into my legendary skill Breath of Flame. It had a base size of 100 feet and a 45 degree angle from my mouth and since I had tons of mana to burn, I tripled the cost to double both numbers. I flew down towards the ground at about a hundred and fifty feet up, just to make sure I had solid hits on everything, then I flipped up the visor on my helm and cast Holy Cleanse on my mouth as I opened it to use the flame skill.
Instead of being red and orange fire, it was solid white, and Idhyl stared at me as I flew my very first strafing run for about ten seconds. The dead didn't make any sound at all as I 'killed' thousands of them by removing their undead condition. I knew it would work on the normal ones, since the head cleric said that we would be cleansing the undead when we were a high enough level.
I want to try! Let me do it, too! That's so easy! Idhyl exclaimed as I flew back over to her.
“Make sure to spend the extra mana to double the distance and the angle. You need to stay well above the battlefield.” I warned her.
I won't last long if I do that. She responded.
“I have a mana restoration spell and tons of mana.” I said.
Idhyl stuck out her tongue and darted her head towards me to lick my face. She got most of my lips, my cheek, and one of my eyes. Hurry, Damon! I want to kill the undead!
I wanted to comment that she shouldn't lick me like that, not with my condition, and I wiped my face off with a towel. I relaxed when I took a shallow breath and my body didn't react to having an actual dragon's saliva all over my face or to her possible scent.
“Let's do this.” I said and cast the spell on her mouth as well, then watched her do her first run. My cone of effect was bigger but her mouth and gout of flame was bigger, so they kind of matched. Seeing the white fire working wonders on clearing out the undead, made her very happy. Both of our abilities had a short cooldown, so when hers ended, we both started new strafing runs.
Almost as if we coordinated it, we stayed side by side and swept over the battlefield in ten second bursts. I know ten seconds doesn't sound like a long time; but, when you're spewing fire out of your mouth and flying over a battlefield that's swarming with undead beings and creatures, it ended up being a long time.
We spent an hour removing all of the 'small' undead and all that were left were the larger creatures and the two undead dragons. Both were up now and had been trying to chase us around the battlefield. Their wings were damaged and stopped them from flying, thankfully. With the acid dragon, the wings had dissolved to only bones and sinew because of the acid pit it had been in. We landed on the ground a good distance away and it would take them a while to get to us.
What do we do now, my human friend? Idhyl asked as we surveyed the approaching undead dragons. Our breath alone won't cover my brethren. Their power will keep them alive if we don't burn them completely.
“I have to use the main spell, Holy Light.” I said. “The problem is, I need a minute to prepare it.”
Just a minute? Idhyl asked. Why haven't you done it already?
“I need to be within fifty feet of the target for it to activate.” I said.
Idhyl stared at me and didn't know what to say.
“Yes, I need to be within claw range of your brethren for an entire minute to get the spell to work.”
We can leave them. Idhyl said. I can come back with my mother and...
“No, your mother and the others only let me go because I promised to deal with this, so I'm going to deal with it.” I said. “I'm going to have to get creative, though.”
I don't understand.
“That's all right.” I reached over and rubbed her side. “You might not understand when I show you, either. I'll do my best to explain, all right?”
Idhyl let me caress her side for about thirty seconds before she turned her head to look at me. You are a very strange human. She said. If you were a dragon, I would find you worthy and promise you my first clutch of eggs.
I was surprised to hear that and opened my mouth to say that I couldn't be a dragon for her, then I remembered that I had the beast conversion spell and skill. If I wanted to, I could roll the dice and see what I would become. Of course, there was a very high possibility that I could become something that she found delicious to eat and I'd be dead soon after.
Nope, not worth the chance. I thought. “I thought your people hated humans?”
No, my mother and her friends were just upset at having our nests discovered. Idhyl said. We stay where we are and are happy. We leave the humans alone and they leave us alone.
I nodded. “All right, I think I have a plan and I'm going to need your help. Will you help me?”
Idhyl nodded and listened to what I needed her to do. She was actually eager to try my idea of a bombing run, similar to what we did with the cleansing breath, only she would be dropping cars instead. I only had four cars in inventory, so the shots had to count, and I was going to make sure they did.
I took all four of them out and one was from the fake nurse that tried to kill me, one was from the tech guy, one was from his female partner that was the fake detective that I set up in the murder of a secret service agent, and the last one was Stacy's, the FBI agent.
I chose the fake nurse's car to go first and climbed into the driver's seat. “One last ride into the jaws of death.” I said and put all four windows down. “Idhyl, take me up.”
Idhyl crawled up on top of the car as she lightly flapped her wings, so she wouldn't crush it under her own weight, and used all four of her limbs to grip the roof of the car. I heard the metal creak a little and that was fine, because the car wasn't going to stay in pristine condition for much longer. After only a couple of minutes, we were several hundred feet up and Idhyl carefully aimed the car at the acid dragon.
“Go!” I said and she dove fifty feet and let go as she launched the car with me inside at the large undead dragon. I quickly cast Enlarge on the car and dumped a quarter of my mana into it. The car grew to the size of a house and I cast mana shield on myself as the car slammed right into the head of the undead dragon.
The bone skull caved in from the impact and the dragon jerked and fell backwards, taking the car and me along with it. I cast Holy Cleanse on the car as the dragon's acid flowed out of its mouth and over its own face to cover the car and a good portion of the ground. I hung there, gripping the large steering wheel with my armored hands, and activated the Holy Light spell. Now I had to wait.
Almost as if it could feel its impending doom, the dragon started to writhe and claw at the car jammed into its face and lodged into its skull. It didn't have an intact brain, since the car had mulched it, so its efforts were in vain. The other undead dragon started to move over towards us and I was actually worried it was going to attack.
Idhyl, bless her heart, used Holy Cleansing Fire Breath to distract it. She bought me just enough time, because the spell finished and I flew out the car's window to aim my hands at the acid dragon. I didn't have to say the name or chant or anything, since my magic didn't work like that, and unleashed the spell.
A bright white beam, three feet around, shot out from my hands and slammed into the chest of the dragon. It let out an ungodly howl of pain and anguish as the white light slowly engulfed it. When it was fully covered, the life... or unlife... in its eyes, faded away. The flesh dissolved away and the bones turned black, then they started to crumble like a rotted out tree.
I was glad that the dragons didn't want the bodies back, because when the spell finally ended and I was down to a quarter of my mana, all that was left of the undead acid dragon was a pile of black ash that quickly dissolved into the pool of acid. The enormous house-sized car dropped into the pool of acid and slowly sank into it.
I wasn't one to miss an opportunity, so I took out the fake nurse's body and tossed it into the acid, too. “One down, one to go.” I said and turned to look at the undead dragon that was unsuccessfully breathing fire at Idhyl. “Hey, Idhyl! I'm ready to go again!”
Finally! I'm almost out of mana. Idhyl said and dodged around the undead dragon in the opposite direction to misdirect it.
I flew over to the other three cars to meet her there. I cast the mana restoration spell on her and her whole body shivered and glowed blue for a second.
Thank you, Damon. I'm ready. Idhyl said.
I climbed into the second car and put the windows down and she gripped it the same as the other car. We took off and she did her best to aim us. Unfortunately, this undead dragon was a bit more active and not as damaged as the other one, which meant when she released the car, it had already started to turn away from the danger.
Dammit! I thought and dumped half of my mana into the car to enlarge it, which made it size of a small building, or about half the size of the dragon. The car slammed into the back of the dragon and the sounds of bones crunching and flesh splattering filled the air as the car essentially broke the creature's spine. Undead or no, it couldn't take that kind of a hit and still keep moving.
The downside was that the car was wrecked and wouldn't be good for anything else. I used the mana regeneration spell on myself to get my mana back, then activated the Holy Light spell.
That didn't work as well. Idhyl said as she hovered nearby. Can you use it again?
“Not in this state. After I clear this undead, I'll reduce the car to its normal size and use two spells to crush it into a small ball. Then we can have some more fun.”
I saw Idhyl nod and she watched as I unleashed another Holy Light beam and reduced the last undead dragon into black dust. It took longer than the last one, I assumed because there was a lot more flesh to burn off. I didn't want it to possibly return or be resurrected, so I used several spells to push the large pile of ashes into the same acid pool that the other one had dissolved into.
I crushed the car into a ball and stored it, then waved at the other two cars. “After you, my lady.”
Idhyl nodded again and we flew over to them. The other large creatures weren't as big as the dragons and I hoped that we could get two or maybe three hits from the cars before they were wrecked.
Bokuboy Here's the second chapter for today. Happy Double chapter day! An extra 700 words, too!
Flying at full speed, it didn't take Idhyl and I long to get to the scene of the battle. What was left of it, anyway. Miles and miles of torn up trees that were all dead and rotted were scattered everywhere. Craters, dragon footprints, burned out parts, acid covered parts, and poisoned parts were all over the place. It was practically an even mix, as if the dragons had all stood side by side and unleashed their abilities upon the undead at the same time.
By the looks of things, the devastation was total.
I couldn't understand why the god of this place needed heroes to finish it, when the dragons seemed to have the situation under control. The thought had just barely formed in my mind when the entire battlefield seemed to shift. Inside the craters, under the crumbled and crushed trees, and even scattered in pieces, the dead started to stand back up or dig themselves out from being trapped.
We're too late, human. Idhyl said and nodded off to the side. My brethren awaken again.
I turned my head to look and inside one of the acid filled craters, a half dissolved monstrosity, even bigger than the massive female dragons I had already met, started to rise up. I had to assume it was a male of the species as it put up a mangled claw on the edge of the crater to pull itself out. Hundreds of undead were pushed out of the crater as it dragged itself out and they tumbled and rolled ahead of it.
“Wait here.” I said and flew over to get within range of the Holy spells I had access to.
The undead acid dragon saw me move and turned its head towards me as it opened its maw. “RAAAWWWWW!” It yelled, trying to properly roar, and a deluge of rancid acid came out in a weak spurt instead.
“On the plus side, your breath weapon is distinctly weaker without the flesh and muscles to help propel it.” I said. “On the negative side, you have horrible breath.”
The sound of female laughter came from not far away and I didn't have to look to know it was Idhyl.
“Let's have a bit of fun, shall we?” I asked and looked at the three extra spells I had gained from the clerics that had offered them to me.
____
You have learned the spell Holy Purify. This will clean and sterilize anything you target with the spell. It is usually cast on spoiled, rotten, or contaminated food to make it edible again.
Warning: This spell does not restore items or food to its original condition.
You have learned the spell Holy Consecrate. This spell will consecrate any land you deem fit to convert into holy land. No undead can cross into this land or stay coherent or solvent if on the land when consecrated.
Warning: This spell is mana intensive and takes a very long time to cast. You cannot be interrupted once you begin or you will have to start over. The more clerics participating in the spell, the quicker the casting time and the wider the area affected.
You have learned the spell Holy Cleanse. This spell will remove any disease, poison, condition, or curse from the target. Can be cast on multiple objects or people for an appropriate mana cost.
Warning: This spell does not heal the target.
____
Holy Purify is almost like Cleaning Hands and is not a good thing to use here. I thought and read Holy Consecrate. This place is much too big for that to be effective, not with thousands of undead down there to distract me.
I spent a minute reading Holy Cleanse and knew it was a great spell to have... and was almost useless in this situation, unless I did something drastic. I had a crazy idea and glanced back at Idhyl, only to see that she wasn't as far away as I thought she should have been.
“How big is your cone of fire breath?” I asked her.
I can spray it almost 50 feet! Idhyl said, happily.
“That's really good.” I said and she preened a little. “I had an idea for a spell I have called Holy Cleanse...”
Idhyl listened as I explained what my idea was and she almost choked when I told her what I wanted her to do. I can't do that! My mother would skin me alive if I lived!
“Well, if you don't want to earn tons of free experience, I'll do it myself.” I said.
YOU?!? Idhyl yelled. How can you...
“Watch and learn, my dragon friend.” I said and dropped 99 points into my legendary skill Breath of Flame. It had a base size of 100 feet and a 45 degree angle from my mouth and since I had tons of mana to burn, I tripled the cost to double both numbers. I flew down towards the ground at about a hundred and fifty feet up, just to make sure I had solid hits on everything, then I flipped up the visor on my helm and cast Holy Cleanse on my mouth as I opened it to use the flame skill.
Instead of being red and orange fire, it was solid white, and Idhyl stared at me as I flew my very first strafing run for about ten seconds. The dead didn't make any sound at all as I 'killed' thousands of them by removing their undead condition. I knew it would work on the normal ones, since the head cleric said that we would be cleansing the undead when we were a high enough level.
I want to try! Let me do it, too! That's so easy! Idhyl exclaimed as I flew back over to her.
“Make sure to spend the extra mana to double the distance and the angle. You need to stay well above the battlefield.” I warned her.
I won't last long if I do that. She responded.
“I have a mana restoration spell and tons of mana.” I said.
Idhyl stuck out her tongue and darted her head towards me to lick my face. She got most of my lips, my cheek, and one of my eyes. Hurry, Damon! I want to kill the undead!
I wanted to comment that she shouldn't lick me like that, not with my condition, and I wiped my face off with a towel. I relaxed when I took a shallow breath and my body didn't react to having an actual dragon's saliva all over my face or to her possible scent.
“Let's do this.” I said and cast the spell on her mouth as well, then watched her do her first run. My cone of effect was bigger but her mouth and gout of flame was bigger, so they kind of matched. Seeing the white fire working wonders on clearing out the undead, made her very happy. Both of our abilities had a short cooldown, so when hers ended, we both started new strafing runs.
Almost as if we coordinated it, we stayed side by side and swept over the battlefield in ten second bursts. I know ten seconds doesn't sound like a long time; but, when you're spewing fire out of your mouth and flying over a battlefield that's swarming with undead beings and creatures, it ended up being a long time.
We spent an hour removing all of the 'small' undead and all that were left were the larger creatures and the two undead dragons. Both were up now and had been trying to chase us around the battlefield. Their wings were damaged and stopped them from flying, thankfully. With the acid dragon, the wings had dissolved to only bones and sinew because of the acid pit it had been in. We landed on the ground a good distance away and it would take them a while to get to us.
What do we do now, my human friend? Idhyl asked as we surveyed the approaching undead dragons. Our breath alone won't cover my brethren. Their power will keep them alive if we don't burn them completely.
“I have to use the main spell, Holy Light.” I said. “The problem is, I need a minute to prepare it.”
Just a minute? Idhyl asked. Why haven't you done it already?
“I need to be within fifty feet of the target for it to activate.” I said.
Idhyl stared at me and didn't know what to say.
“Yes, I need to be within claw range of your brethren for an entire minute to get the spell to work.”
We can leave them. Idhyl said. I can come back with my mother and...
“No, your mother and the others only let me go because I promised to deal with this, so I'm going to deal with it.” I said. “I'm going to have to get creative, though.”
I don't understand.
“That's all right.” I reached over and rubbed her side. “You might not understand when I show you, either. I'll do my best to explain, all right?”
Idhyl let me caress her side for about thirty seconds before she turned her head to look at me. You are a very strange human. She said. If you were a dragon, I would find you worthy and promise you my first clutch of eggs.
I was surprised to hear that and opened my mouth to say that I couldn't be a dragon for her, then I remembered that I had the beast conversion spell and skill. If I wanted to, I could roll the dice and see what I would become. Of course, there was a very high possibility that I could become something that she found delicious to eat and I'd be dead soon after.
Nope, not worth the chance. I thought. “I thought your people hated humans?”
No, my mother and her friends were just upset at having our nests discovered. Idhyl said. We stay where we are and are happy. We leave the humans alone and they leave us alone.
I nodded. “All right, I think I have a plan and I'm going to need your help. Will you help me?”
Idhyl nodded and listened to what I needed her to do. She was actually eager to try my idea of a bombing run, similar to what we did with the cleansing breath, only she would be dropping cars instead. I only had four cars in inventory, so the shots had to count, and I was going to make sure they did.
I took all four of them out and one was from the fake nurse that tried to kill me, one was from the tech guy, one was from his female partner that was the fake detective that I set up in the murder of a secret service agent, and the last one was Stacy's, the FBI agent.
I chose the fake nurse's car to go first and climbed into the driver's seat. “One last ride into the jaws of death.” I said and put all four windows down. “Idhyl, take me up.”
Idhyl crawled up on top of the car as she lightly flapped her wings, so she wouldn't crush it under her own weight, and used all four of her limbs to grip the roof of the car. I heard the metal creak a little and that was fine, because the car wasn't going to stay in pristine condition for much longer. After only a couple of minutes, we were several hundred feet up and Idhyl carefully aimed the car at the acid dragon.
“Go!” I said and she dove fifty feet and let go as she launched the car with me inside at the large undead dragon. I quickly cast Enlarge on the car and dumped a quarter of my mana into it. The car grew to the size of a house and I cast mana shield on myself as the car slammed right into the head of the undead dragon.
The bone skull caved in from the impact and the dragon jerked and fell backwards, taking the car and me along with it. I cast Holy Cleanse on the car as the dragon's acid flowed out of its mouth and over its own face to cover the car and a good portion of the ground. I hung there, gripping the large steering wheel with my armored hands, and activated the Holy Light spell. Now I had to wait.
Almost as if it could feel its impending doom, the dragon started to writhe and claw at the car jammed into its face and lodged into its skull. It didn't have an intact brain, since the car had mulched it, so its efforts were in vain. The other undead dragon started to move over towards us and I was actually worried it was going to attack.
Idhyl, bless her heart, used Holy Cleansing Fire Breath to distract it. She bought me just enough time, because the spell finished and I flew out the car's window to aim my hands at the acid dragon. I didn't have to say the name or chant or anything, since my magic didn't work like that, and unleashed the spell.
A bright white beam, three feet around, shot out from my hands and slammed into the chest of the dragon. It let out an ungodly howl of pain and anguish as the white light slowly engulfed it. When it was fully covered, the life... or unlife... in its eyes, faded away. The flesh dissolved away and the bones turned black, then they started to crumble like a rotted out tree.
I was glad that the dragons didn't want the bodies back, because when the spell finally ended and I was down to a quarter of my mana, all that was left of the undead acid dragon was a pile of black ash that quickly dissolved into the pool of acid. The enormous house-sized car dropped into the pool of acid and slowly sank into it.
I wasn't one to miss an opportunity, so I took out the fake nurse's body and tossed it into the acid, too. “One down, one to go.” I said and turned to look at the undead dragon that was unsuccessfully breathing fire at Idhyl. “Hey, Idhyl! I'm ready to go again!”
Finally! I'm almost out of mana. Idhyl said and dodged around the undead dragon in the opposite direction to misdirect it.
I flew over to the other three cars to meet her there. I cast the mana restoration spell on her and her whole body shivered and glowed blue for a second.
Thank you, Damon. I'm ready. Idhyl said.
I climbed into the second car and put the windows down and she gripped it the same as the other car. We took off and she did her best to aim us. Unfortunately, this undead dragon was a bit more active and not as damaged as the other one, which meant when she released the car, it had already started to turn away from the danger.
Dammit! I thought and dumped half of my mana into the car to enlarge it, which made it size of a small building, or about half the size of the dragon. The car slammed into the back of the dragon and the sounds of bones crunching and flesh splattering filled the air as the car essentially broke the creature's spine. Undead or no, it couldn't take that kind of a hit and still keep moving.
The downside was that the car was wrecked and wouldn't be good for anything else. I used the mana regeneration spell on myself to get my mana back, then activated the Holy Light spell.
That didn't work as well. Idhyl said as she hovered nearby. Can you use it again?
“Not in this state. After I clear this undead, I'll reduce the car to its normal size and use two spells to crush it into a small ball. Then we can have some more fun.”
I saw Idhyl nod and she watched as I unleashed another Holy Light beam and reduced the last undead dragon into black dust. It took longer than the last one, I assumed because there was a lot more flesh to burn off. I didn't want it to possibly return or be resurrected, so I used several spells to push the large pile of ashes into the same acid pool that the other one had dissolved into.
I crushed the car into a ball and stored it, then waved at the other two cars. “After you, my lady.”
Idhyl nodded again and we flew over to them. The other large creatures weren't as big as the dragons and I hoped that we could get two or maybe three hits from the cars before they were wrecked.
