Born of Fire: The Dawn of Legend (102 page)

Rex reared his head back, then shot a massive red fireball from his mouth that slammed into her and sent her crashing to the ground. Below, the others reached him and watched wide-eyed at the seemingly unbelievable sight.

“He’s floating,” AnaSaya said.

“Or rather, he’s doing what the DraGons do,” ShinGaru corrected.

“Yeah, but how?” EeNox asked.

Rex suddenly felt the overwhelming surge of power recede, and his mind clearing of fury. He blinked as he came back to the moment and felt himself falling.

The others watched the terrifically bright red flame around him diminish until it was gone. It was then that they released a collective gasp as they watched him fall out of the sky.

“Rex!” EeNox cried out as they saw him hit the ground with a hard thud. They reached him seconds later, finding him sprawled out awkwardly and unconscious. Carefully, they nudged him in an effort to awaken him, which to their great relief, succeeded. Rex groaned as he was helped to his feet. “How did you do that?” EeNox demanded excitedly.

“Do what?” Rex replied groggily, shaking his head and wincing from the pain.

“Stay aloft like them?”

“Stay aloft?” he asked, rearing his head back with a look of confusion. “I just fell eighty meters out of the sky. How do you call that staying aloft?”

“You really don’t remember?” AnaSaya asked as she inspected him more closely.

Recoiling back slightly, he asked, “Remember what?”

“You must have hit your head pretty hard,” she said sympathetically.

“What is the last the thing you do remember?” ShinGaru asked.

Rex thought for a moment. “I remember LemaRes sending me sailing across the damn city, then skewering me like a kabob.”

“And?” LyCora pressed.

“And then I fell.”

There was a sudden rush of wind followed by a series of fearsome cries.

“Well, you better remember what you did and how you did it quick because something tells me things are about to get worse before they get any better,” EeNox said, glancing behind them.

Suddenly thirty DraGons descended from the clouds and began torching the city. The sounds of the frightened and dying could be heard over the roaring torrents of fire.

“Damn it!” Rex roared. “They’re supposed to be after me! Why are they killing these people?” Turning to his left, he ran towards the nearest DraGon, who was busy flaming several homes built out of a large rock spire. “Hey, you!” he cried up. “Here I am! Come and get me, you son-of-a-bitch!” The DraGon stopped his fiery onslaught and gazed down at Rex. “That’s right, come on! I’m the one you want, so take me!” The DraGon gave a snort then a laugh before turning away from Rex and resuming his assault. “What the hell?” Rex said in disbelief. “Hey, didn’t you hear me? I’m the one DayKar wants!” The DraGon once again stopped flaming and flew off to another section of the city, where he resumed the same process.

Rex stood dumbfounded. He did not understand what had changed, for only moments ago it seemed that LemaRes wanted to torture him, while the one he scared wanted nothing more than to kill him. These other DraGons however seemed to be completely oblivious to him and the others, preferring instead to just cause death and destruction for its own sake. Feeling his anger rising again, he shot a blast from his mouth and struck another DraGon in her thigh. Screeching in pain, she spun around, ready to fire back at her assailant, but stopped when she saw him. Instead of attacking, she reared back and flew off like the other. “Oh, you have got to be joking,” he said angrily, feeling frustrated by the DraGon’s now seemingly inconsistent behavior. “What the hell kind of game is this?”

“They must be afraid of you,” EeNox said, running up to his side. “Can’t say as I blame them, considering what you did to their leader.”

“No, that’s not it,” he replied, frustrated as he watched them all methodically burning the city in sections. “They’re avoiding me on purpose!”

“But why would they do that?”

“It’s like LemaRes said. They need me alive, and worse yet, angry.”

“Why though?”

“No idea, but it’s working marvelously,” he said, baring his teeth and bursting into flame.

“Well if you’re going to fight, then we’re going to as well,” AnaSaya said, erupting in a flaming burst of lavender.

“What’s gotten into you?” LyCora asked, giving her a quizzical look.

“This may sound silly to you, but you four plus DiNiya are the only real friends I’ve ever had. I thought I could live happily with just my mother, but after having met all of you, I don’t want to go back to the way things were. I want to continue being with all of you, and I want to rescue DiNiya because this new family isn’t complete without her. I don’t want to lose any of you, so I too will fight my hardest so I can keep that from happening!”

Everyone regarded her with surprise, and even awe. The quirky and seemingly unassuming shy girl they had met that day cycles ago had inadvertently become a part of their lives without them even noticing. In fact, they had all bonded to each other.

“That’s all well and good,” said Rex. “But the fact of the matter is it’s me they really want, so I should go alone.”

“Are you crazy?” LyCora fired back.

“Probably, but one’s got nothing to do with the other. I don’t want anyone else getting hurt or worse for me anymore, do you understand?”

“Oh, don’t be so full of yourself,” she protested. “This may blow your little mind, but not everything bad that happens in life is about you! Sometimes bad people hurt good people for no damn good reason, and that’s that!”

“But they said they came for me!”

“So what, Rex? You didn’t ask them to! Just because they showed up after ten thousand years one night, then said they decided for whatever reason the master plan ‘they’ came up with involved you doesn’t make it ‘your’ fault! You didn’t ask for any of this, which makes you just as much of a victim as anyone else. So if you’re done playing the lone hero drowning in self-pity, I say we go make these bastards pay for being such a colossal pain in the ass!”

Rex nodded and pulsed his flame. “You don’t have to tell me twice.” Together they charged forward and began leaping on the DraGons, biting and clawing savagely. Rex took a bite out of one DraGon’s cheek, leaving a large gaping wound, before leaping off and onto another, who he head-butted repeatedly until they dropped out of the sky. “Still think you can ignore me?” he roared furiously.

LyCora and EeNox raced through the city streets with three of the winged knights in hot pursuit, leaping and bounding to avoid flame attacks. “Hey, EeNox, give me a boost!” LyCora cried out. EeNox skidded to a halt and lowered his head, where she jumped on it and he pushed herself off with his help. She sailed up towards the DraGons, flying right past them and landing on the other side. At first EeNox stood lost as to what the purpose of that had been, when suddenly the DraGon in the middle dropped out of the sky and landed with a heavy thud. EeNox’s eyes went wide when he saw a huge open gash on the side of the DraGon’s neck armor. The other knight let out a final ragged gasp before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he ceased to move.

LyCora ran back up to EeNox, who now regarded her with admiration. “That was incredible!”

“I was aiming for the one on the right,” she replied.

Enraged by the sight of their fallen comrade, the other two DraGons howled angrily and turned their attention back to his killer. EeNox leaned in to LyCora. “I don’t suppose they’ll shrug this off like they did when Rex killed that other one, do you?”

Fire began to burn from the mouths of both DraGons, who reared their heads back and prepared to fire. LyCora shook her head. “Doesn’t look like it.” Suddenly both DraGons were hit by three blasts from off to the right, which sent them both hurtling through two large rock towers. EeNox and LyCora whipped their heads in the direction of the blast and saw a group of DyVorians consisting of a PathoZarvora, AnkLovora, TyVoranx, and TarKoranx moving towards them.

“Well, it’s about time Bloodstone got proactive with its own defense!” EeNox exclaimed. “What took you all so long?”

“Funny you should ask,” said the PathoZarvora.

“How so?” LyCora asked.

“We were out searching the surrounding canyons for you.”

“Us?” EeNox asked, surprised. “Why?”

“We got word via a CyTorian from KaNar that ten children, two of which fit your descriptions, were on their way here, and that KaNar’s alpha wanted them found and detained until he himself arrived and personally retrieved them.”

EeNox swallowed loudly as he imagined just how furious VayRonx would be when he finally found them.

“Wait a minute,” LyCora interjected. “The message said ten children?”

The PathoZarvora nodded. “That’s correct. Five SaVarians and five DyVorians. However, we’ve only gotten reports that you and the other three DyVorians have been spotted.”

“Do you know where the SaVarians are?” asked the TarKoranx. “My nose picked you five up earlier this morning, but there was no sign of the others.”

“Did you leave with them or did they head off separately?” the PathoZarvora asked.

LyCora laughed inside her head.
Clever way on VayRonx’s part of keeping the fact that the five SaVarians and DyVorians are one and the same by saying there were two groups roaming about
. “To be honest we hadn’t even heard of them until just now,” she lied.

“Is that right?” he replied questioningly.

Suddenly there came the sound of rocks tumbling as one of the DraGons rose up shakily from the rubble.  “If you’ll excuse me?” the PathoZarvora said as he burst into green flame, dropped into a perfect horizontal posture, and rammed his thick bony domed head into the DraGon’s chest, caving it in completely with a sickening crack. The large winged creature retched blood from his mouth before collapsing forward, dead. The dome-head warrior trotted back towards them, his skull soaked red with blood. “So, where are these other three DyVorians we heard about?”

AnaSaya and ShinGaru weaved in and out of buildings as they tried to outrun their pursuer, VoRon.

“In there!” ShinGaru said, motioning to the large stony tower that stood in the center of the city. The two of them darted inside and were surprised to see that it was a network of catwalks leading all the way to the top. Four large metal cylinders ran up from the bottom floor all the way up and out the top of the tower.

“What now?” AnaSaya asked anxiously.

There came a rumbling as the big DraGon landed just outside. “This frivolous game of predator and prey is just that!” he yelled. “Muster whatever manner of courage you possess and face me properly in battle!”

“Head for the top,” ShinGaru said. “I’ve got an idea!”

“But then we’ll be trapped,” she replied worriedly.

“And I’m hoping he realizes the same thing. Come on!” The two of them ascended the crisscrossing catwalks as fast as they could until they reached the very top. ShinGaru glanced at the openings on all four sides where the large pipes curved outward. Peering out quickly, he saw that they were indeed open-ended and facing down towards the ground. “All right, listen carefully,” he said, turning back to AnaSaya. “The easiest way for him to kill us up here is to simply flood this entire tower with fire.”

“Then why are we in here?” AnaSaya asked frantically.

“Because it means we can use his power against him.”

“I’m not following.”

“I grow tired of toying with you lot!” VoRon called from outside.

“See those pipes?” ShinGaru asked, pointing to one of the long tubes rising from the floor. “They’re used for blowing flame through to send signals that can be seen from afar.”

“And your point is?” AnaSaya asked with an impatient look. While she respected ShinGaru’s intellect, she worried that his natural curiosity might prove to be a lethal hindrance in this case.

“I’ll take the two on this side while you take the two over there.”

AnaSaya watched, confused, as he slinked over to one of the long open funnels and coiled his body around the section that curved outward. Flexing the undulating muscles of his body, he bent the funnel downward, then moved over to the one next to it and repeated the process. AnaSaya’s eyes suddenly went wide as she understood just what it was he was doing. “That’s brilliant!” she exclaimed, rushing over to the two on her side and jumping up and down on the end section of the funnel until it too bent down, before doing the same to the other. “All done,” she said excitedly, leaping back inside. “What now?”

“Now we let him do the rest,” ShinGaru said as he snaked his way out of an opening towards the top of the tower and shot a fireball down on the DraGon’s head before sliding into the opening directly below and once again out of sight.

“Little pest,” VoRon roared up. “Is that your grand plan for defeating me?”

“Oh, no,” ShinGaru replied happily. “My plan is far more creative than that. Not to mention ironic,” he added thoughtfully.

“Enough,” VoRon shouted. “I’m ending this now!”

“That you are!” ShinGaru said to himself before whipping around to AnaSaya. “Get ready to jump!”

“Jump?” she repeated in surprise.

VoRon pushed out his chest, taking in a massive breath before releasing a torrent of flame at the base of the tower, which immediately rushed upward.

“Now!” ShinGaru cried. The two of them leaped out of one of the openings just as the wall of fire rocketed past them. ShinGaru reached out with his tail and grabbed AnaSaya, pulling her towards him. The two spun around just in time to see the flame being funneled through the pipes and fired back down onto VoRon, who looked up with wide-eyed horror before vanishing in a wave of his own flame.

“Quickly,” ShinGaru said. “Push your flame out in every direction as hard as you can!”

AnaSaya knew she had only seconds to act. She instantly remembered how she had created a barrier earlier and focused her energy on doing so once again, only this time all around her. ShinGaru did the same, and soon their flames were merging into one another, encasing the two of them. They barely had the sphere of fire formed around them when they hit the ground, where it exploded outward, sending them sprawling out onto the ground. Slowly they rose to their feet and looked behind them to see the tower melting down into a heap of molten rock.