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

which had been hanging back so that their kobold minions could weaken the defending bowmen, ululated in fury.

They did not have long to complain though, because it was at that point that Renji and Tamsin, and Penelope and Saya, burst out of the fog right in front of them and started making their lives a living hell. The dragonmancers whirled around their bigger foes with the speed of sea-eagles, shooting dragonfire at their adversaries.

The Sun Dragon followed the four dragonmancers with a baleful eye, but was quickly distracted when Ash and Jaz, in their Titan forms, dropped out of the clouds above and made straight for it.

“Perfect, Wayne,” I said, summoning my offspring back to the safety of his crystal. “Noctis, let’s go.”

Noctis appeared, now larger than usual. Instead of being the size of a Clydesdale, he was almost as big as an Indian elephant, although a hell of a lot sleeker and less friendly looking. It seemed he had grown in power during our first expedition into the Subterranean.

“Ready when you are, dragonmancer,” he said, fixing me with a yellow eye that was full of the pride and confidence of the ultimate, apex predator. The same eye that you might see on a documentary about great white sharks, Nile crocodiles, or Sumatran tigers.

I climbed onto the Onyx Dragon and slapped his iron-hard side. The scales were so thick that I could barely feel the swell of rippling muscle underneath.

“You’re not afraid,” Noctis said. It was a statement, not a question. He snapped his wings open.

“Afraid of what?” I shot back. Hot adrenaline bubbled up my spinal column.

“Many of your kind cannot shake the fear of death before battle,” Noctis said.

I snorted. My eyes were fixed on the length of the wall where I had last seen Elenari.

“Death?” I said. “Death’s just the bouncer that kicks us all out of the bar that we call life. All we can do is give him a black eye on the way out and rouse a cheer from the patrons still lucky enough to be allowed to keep on drinking.”

Noctis took off and, together, we sped down the length of the rampart, toward the growing confusion of fog and rain and blood.

The rain was coming down in fat, magic drops. Smacking down onto the stone, ricocheting off the armor of the Imperial troopers and sending the unfamiliar kobolds into a frenzy.

Wayne’s fog had done enough to distract the dragons and kobolds so that they failed to attack the ramparts simultaneously. It had been a small thing but had likely proved far more important than anyone guessed just then. Now though, the kobolds pressing behind those that had been first up the ladders were pouring onto the wall. The defenders were forced to turn most of their attention to the denizens of the Subterranean Realms, leaving the dragons to the ministrations of the dragonmancers who had miraculously appeared to aid them.

There had been no chants or rousing cheers from the Imperial forces when they had caught sight of Renji, Tamsin, Saya, and Penelope swooping down to their aid. That was all very well and good for the movies, but here and now, there was simply no time.

Every Imperial man and woman knew they were fighting for their lives where they stood. Each and every one of them understood that their very next sword blow, their very next loosed arrow could be their last.

While my dragonmancer comrades diverted the attention of the dragons out beyond the walls, Noctis and I sped into the heart of the fray taking place on top of them.

With a marrow-freezing, gonads-shrinking roar, Noctis plowed into a wedge of kobolds at the top of the breastwork after cutting down a handful of Imperial soldiers. The Onyx Dragon’s head snapped sideways, and he ripped a kobold’s legs off at the knees. A raptor-esque claw scythed outward, and green blood sprayed across the pointed faces of the stunned kobolds as one of their number was decapitated.

I somersaulted from Noctis’ back as the dragon really started to extend himself and let loose. I landed behind a kobold, reached around the front of its face, and tore its bottom jaw off as easily as if it had been made of paper mache.

A started to make my way along the wall, while the rain fell steadily and turned the stone breastwork into a slippery, bloody ice rink. I could hear the shriek of dragons fighting rising over the clash and smash of weapons beating desperately against weapons.

I ducked a wild swing from a kobold with an axe and caved in the head of the kobold warrior behind it before I snapped the arm of the axe wielder and kicked him clear over the edge of the rampart so that he fell screaming. I picked up the dropped axe, a crude thing of sharpened flint bound to a wooden handle with twine, and threw it overhand at a kobold throttling an Imperial soldier with its strong, tough fingers. The axe crunched into the top of its bony skull and split it like a cantaloupe.

I made my way quickly down the wall, while behind me Noctis continued to hand out carnage in generous heaped spoonfuls. Eventually, after catching a sword blade in my open palm, snapping it in two, and then ramming the broken shard through the eye of my kobold enemy, I was able to find Elenari.

The elf was fighting like a demon in the middle of a bunch of kobolds who’d swarmed the part of the wall that she had been defending. Bodies of fallen Imperial soldiers littered the ground, bleeding and eviscerated, some still moaning and twitching.

I summoned Noctis to me and used his power to conjure the Chaos Spear. While Elenari moved and flowed through our opposition with her matching daggers, I fell upon them with the spear.

Together, we