Dragon Breeder 3 by Dante King (e novels to read online .TXT) 📕

feasting on those rat fiends,” Rupert said, “it is quite a sight. Striking, one might say.”

“It’s pretty,” I conceded.

“It looks pretty fucking pissed to me,” Bjorn growled edgily.

“What should we do?” Renji whispered.

From the far right of the group, Diggens Azee struck a match with his thumbnail.

Instantly, the bronze dragon’s car-sized head snapped up to stare at the twenty of us standing stock-still across the body-filled pond.

“Ah, shit,” I heard the gnoll mutter, as it began to back away, “the bugger’s about to throw a tanty.”

A volcanic rumbling began emanating from the wild dragon’s throat. Golden eyes narrowed, and nostrils the size of trashcan lids flared.

“What should we do?” Renji asked again, her voice perhaps a half octave higher than it had been before.

The dragon roared a challenge. A roar that would have sent the biggest, baddest man-eating lion in Africa scampering under the nearest available cover like a scared kitten.

“Kill it!” Jazmyn cried.

“Stay out of the way all of you!” Ashrin said, shoving me hard in the chest so that I stumbled back a couple of steps.

My squad, more out of habitual practice than conscious thought, gathered about me and bundled me backward, away from the action. Tamsin and Renji pulled their squads back too, though they themselves hung at the front of our retreating pack. I guessed that they were thinking of diving in at a moment’s notice.

Holy hells, but getting man-handled away from that fight was one of the hardest things that I had ever had to put up with. Every instinct in my warrior’s frame and in my fighter’s mind was telling me to throw off the hands that cajoled me backward and run to help Ashrin and Jazmyn.

Regardless of how I felt though, I was savvy enough to know that if I went charging in there and got flambeed, that would be it for Wayne.

Mission over.

He would perish.

I swallowed the bitter words that I wanted to throw at that dragon and, I’ll admit, at Bjorn, Gabby, and Rupert, who were doing everything they could to usher me out of killing range.

The wild dragon was roaring and bellowing its rage at us, ripping up the floor of the cavern with claws as long as glaives. It snorted chrysanthemums of fire out into the air and swung its head from side to side. It was a fearsome display, clearly intended to scare us into backing away from the mound of dead flesh with which we had filled the large subterranean space.

Unfortunately, it was also thrashing its tail and gnashing its dripping fangs on the side of the cavern from which our escape tunnel led.

The two dragonmancers, my two bodyguards, stepped out to meet the ravening, fuming creature.

Ashrin, Bearer of Alzad.

Jazmyn, Bearer of Meoko.

The two women looked at one another and exchanged nods.

Then, in twin shimmering bursts of opalescent light, the two members of the Empress’ Twelve transformed and took the form of their dragons.

It was the first time that I had ever seen the Titan Slot utilized with battle in mind. I’d seen Claire the Seer use the slot on one occasion, months ago, to tell me that Saya and Elenari were about to give birth. But to see the Titan Slot used in battle? It was something that would stick with me for the rest of my days. The sheer prideful energy that filled the chamber was like nothing I had ever experienced. I could practically see the three creature’s wills flashing in the air.

Jazmyn transmogrified into a bright blue-silver dragon, with a horn shaped like a crescent moon on its head. Her scales alternated from shining platinum silver tones to cerulean blue and back again. Her wings were folded down her body and were the color of deep tropical seas.

Ashrin, somewhat predictably, took the form of a neon green dragon, which looked more like an electric eel on legs than the conventional reptilian-looking dragon. It was as different to Elenari’s Emerald Dragon, Gharmon, as Noctis was from Garth, sharing only the similar bright emerald hue. Like a poison arrow frog, Ashrin’s coloring screamed of a creature imbued with a deadly poison. Just looking at her made me feel a little queasy. Almost as if my insides were going to tie themselves in knots and dissolve into a bubbling puddle of acid just from being within twenty yards of her.

The wild dragon looked about as surprised as I imagined it was possible for a dragon to look, confronted suddenly by two of its kin. It was unlikely though, that it was just going to let a group of twenty-one humanoids sneak on by, just because we were backed by a couple of dragons. If anything, the unexpected appearance of Ash and Jaz in dragon form only served to aggravate it even more.

If I had been taught one thing in the time I had shared minds with Noctis, it was that dragons are old, wise, proud, and cruel creatures, not prone to taking kindly to fools or challenges. Dragons respected only one thing: strength.

The wild dragon screeched out a final warning and rushed at Jaz and Ash.

Jaz went left and Ash went right, moving their dragon forms with just as much ease and just as much spatial awareness as they did their own bodies. They were just as massive as the dragon they were facing, but the two of them moved so fluidly you could have been mistaken for thinking that they were already flying.

However, the wild dragon was wily. It had survived down here, in the Subterranean Realms for who knew how long, growing older and more cunning. It had managed to keep its existence a complete secret until now, even while the Empire’s sappers and scouts flushed the things that had called the roots of Galipolas Mountain home out of their