Vegenrage: Dragon Reclaim (16 page)

“Did Hornspire tell you at all about the human female of tainted mind? What about these books that Hornspire wrote saying the female of tainted mind will lead me to my death at the hands of Vemenomous? This female has to be Farrah, the girl I saved from the charm of Alisluxkana. She is also the girl that Vemenomous is sending telepathic visions to, telling her she is going to be his queen. Did Hornspire tell you about her at all?”

“Hornspire did not talk about the female that much. He had told me she would be with you, and her tainted mind is what could lead you to your end at the hands of Vemenomous but not much more than that. I don’t think she will lead you to Vemenomous, but this is one of the scenarios Hornspire did talk about. He said you would follow to save the captured female, and this would lead you to your capture. The female would be charmed, and the blood of Vlianth with the blood of demon, and dragon would allow for the mating of Vemenomous and the human female to be viable. The female will feed on Vlianth, allowing for the young new species of dragons to be carried by the mutating human. Hornspire did talk about this, but I don’t think this is the way he saw things play out; however, it is one of the many different things that Hornspire had talked about.”

“Well, I thank you for inviting me to talk with you, Gwithen. It is truly most amazing to have met and spoken with you. You have my friendship, and should you ever need my help, which I can’t believe you ever would, I shall always be here to help you. I must get back to see through the events of the next few days. I think they are going to be very traumatic for a lot of species in the Maglical System.”

“Vegenrage, I just want to let you know I do not hold you responsible for the magic that put me to sleep for a thousand years. I do not even hold a grudge against those that did. Believe it or not, this kept me safe and allowed me to grow much stronger magically and gave me many more immunities as a result. You go and protect your people, and I wish you all luck, and may you survive the days of war we all must face.”

Vegenrage walks through a Dimension Door and arrives where he had left the party. He contacts Farrah telepathically and teleports to where the party is, and even though some of them are upset that he left them, he is back now, and they are not far from the crossing at the Strait of Hercon.

CHAPTER 13
The Eight Youngest Dragons

Grapore, Jarclause, Banoro, Moredown, Sawbelck, Indigeion, Vendel, and Obronge have made their way to the Pinegrow Forest and are searching for the home of the great warlock, Xanorax. The dragons are all aware of Xanorax. He is considered to be one of the strongest magic users on the world of Kronton. Xanorax is more of a warlock than a magic user. He does have great magical abilities, but he follows the black arts and gets most of his powers by summoning demons and relying on the power given to him by his master that is very powerful indeed. It does not matter whether the magic users are on the side of good or evil, the dragons intend to wipe them all out, setting the races of man back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Blethstole has sent the eight youngest dragons to hunt for Xanorax because if he summons demons, this could be a very difficult battle for the dragons. Demons are very powerful and can defeat dragons. Eight dragons will be very difficult for demons to defeat, and this is why Blethstole has sent them, plus they are very young, and this is a way for them to gain strength and confidence or be eliminated if they are weak. Blethstole is curious to see how they fare in this quest.

Xanorax is summoned to his basement by Zabkef. When Xanorax walks down, he sees that Zabkef has already formed and is waiting for him. Xanorax bows to his new master. “Xanorax, your time has come. You have served the demons faithfully, and now is the time to wake your four new demons and lead them into battle against dragons. They are coming for you, and you are going to need all the allies I have prepared for you. You should be familiar with Spikel, the demon who is deformed with spikes growing from his body and can extend any and all of them to impale those that get close to him; Ropenoose, the demon whose arms can turn into red hot ropes that he can use any way he pleases; Maulplice, the demon who can divide himself to make as many replicas of himself as he wishes; and, of course, the worst demon on Kronton, Eforgantic. I have prepared a special steed for you. Thanks to the help of Zenondour, you will master and ride Cormygle, a dragon who has turned against the dragons and wishes to fight against them. Cormygle has agreed to serve you while on the planet of Kronton, and he will be your personal steed while here. He has agreed to serve you only on the planet of Kronton, and Zenondour has allowed this. I have another adaptation for you. Summon the Life Stealer.” Xanorax says, “Life Stealer,” and the abomination grows and rips from his arms. Zabkef then points his hands at Xanorax, and bloodred veins grow from his fingers and attach to Xanorax in eight places on his body, raising him into the air. The veins have pointed ends like syringes, and they insert into Xanorax’s flesh, injecting him with a molten liquid, causing burning pain to travel through Xanorax’s body. He cannot help but scream out in pain, and the liquid shows as blackish lines all through his body, following his veins as it creeps through him. Even Xanorax’s eyes turn black from the molten liquid. This goes on for a couple of minutes, and the metallic arms and pincers start to transform. They form into long blades with razor-sharp edges and the pincers at the ends mold into the blade, making the metallic arms of the Life Stealer long swords. The Life Stealer rides from his elbows all through his flesh up to the center of his palms. He can squeeze his hand shut, and the swords are an extension of his hands, never to be dropped or lost.

“What about the pincers? Can I still steal the life force of others?”

“
Yes, you can. All you need to do is be touching them with the blade of your swords, and you will automatically be stealing the life force of the victim. You can stab, slice, or cut. It does not matter, just be touching them, and the Life Stealer will do the rest. These blades can be broken, but if they are, all you have to do is touch the broke off part, and it will reform itself. Put it back in place on your skin now.” Xanorax says, “Life Stealer,” and the blades ride back through the flesh of his arms to his elbows and lays flush with his skin. Xanorax feels great pain again as his skin starts to transform into a red leathery hardened skin like that of a demon. His hair remains black, and his eyes are now black as well, but he is changing. He is becoming a lead lieutenant for all master demons.

“Xanorax, you have served us faithfully, and you are now to be the lead lieutenant for all three master demons in the Maglical System. You will serve and come to the call of any one of us. You are to carry out our demands on these three planets. Now go get your steed, but first, go to the summoning well and summon the four demons. The statues have been remade to symbolize the demons you can now summon and command. Raise the demons and then go to the forest and call for Cormygle. He will come to your call, and the dragons will be in for more than they had bargained for.”

“Yes, master.” Xanorax goes upstairs and looks over his new skin and feels it. He cuts his arm and drips blood into the summoning well and commands the demons to rise. First to come to life is Spikel. Spikel is eight feet tall and looks like one of the Stone Giants but just a little smaller. He has spikes that grow out from his chest, his abdomen, his legs, his arms, his shoulders, and his elbows. He is a hulk of a demon and not too threatening unless you get too close to him, and he can spike you with the spikes on his body that can grow up to twenty feet. Spikel then consumes any living organism that he kills. Trying to kill Spikel will have to be done with the use of magic because trying to fight him with sword or ax is almost a death wish. A dragon, on the other hand, has size and can overpower Spikel. Ropenoose then comes to life. He also is eight feet tall with broad shoulders and thick chest, waist, and hips. He has strong legs and arms and the head of a lizard with a long forked tongue. He has thick rubbery red skin, and he can change his arms into ropes that he can form however he likes, and he can do all kinds of amazing things with the ropes that stay red and are always red hot.

Next to transform from the red hued statue standing on the granite base is Maulplice. Maulplice is a particularly dangerous demon. He has eight legs and a scorpion-like body attached to the legs. His body continues to the head that is very deceiving because he really does not have a head. His body grows for five feet from his five-foot base attached to eight legs, and his upper body is very flexible, able to move in all directions. He has two long armlike appendages near his head with one thumb and one finger that clamp together like a chameleon and give his upper body added stability for movement or resting. He has a wide oval opening at the end of his body with four wide black eyes on the top half of the oval. He has two massive mandibles that extend out for four feet from the sides of his mouth. His mouth is the entire end of the top half of his body, and the mandibles can clamp shut catching prey. He has a unique way of catching prey as well. He has a thick sticky tongue that he can spit for ten feet, and if the prey is caught by this tongue, it is yanked right back to his mouth where the mandibles clamp on and force the prey into his mouth. He then has four nasty mandibles that line his mouth, two on top and two to the sides, and the prey is forced into his mouth, and the mandibles clamp together, cutting, slicing, and ripping the prey’s flesh, muscle, and bone until the prey has been consumed. Maulplice is truly a devastating demon, but he has an adaptation that makes him exceptionally dangerous. He can divide his body. When he does, this his body is naturally half the size of the body that has divided, but he can do this over and over and over until his body is the size of an ant. He can literally divide until there are thousands, creating a swarming Maulplice plague that devours anything in its path.

The last demon to drop from its petrified perch is Eforgantic. As if Maulplice is not terrifying enough to look at, here comes Eforgantic. Eforgantic is also eight feet tall. He is black with tough rubbery skin. He is bipedal with long hind legs, a long slender abdomen, but he can hunch forward and use his arms as front legs to run like a four-legged animal, very fast. He has a long tail that is serrated with a long dagger at its end that he can stab with like a spear. His toes and fingers end in long thick claws, and his head is like a solid beak. It is long and smooth, growing straight and then down about three feet to a sharp point. He has two stereoscopic eyes sunk right into the top of his head. The bottom of his jaw is an upward-pointed beak that clamps shut and fits perfectly into the top beak. He can bite with great force, slicing off almost anything he bites. Eforgantic is a force and simply runs down prey and devours them, biting and stabbing with his beak and claws.

Xanorax leads them to his balcony and lets them know that the dragons are coming. The demons take to the Pinegrow Forest and wait for the unsuspecting dragons to fly in. Xanorax calls for Cormygle, and unbelievably, he appears from a Dimension Door and lands on the clear patch of earth in front of Xanorax’s home. Cormygle is spectacular, nothing at all like the deformed dragon that he was born. He has magnificent wings with a huge wingspan. He stands on all fours with a fourteen foot height at his shoulders. His head is massive with a powerful jaw lined with bone-crunching teeth. He has thick bone frills that grow from the back of his head, forming sharp points that are really just for show but awesome-looking. He is a most interesting color of dark red and lavender, giving him a warm but dangerous look. Everything about him is power. He just looks sturdy and strong. The demons have given him his strong perfect dragon body, and in return, he responds to the call of Zenondour. Zenondour has given Cormygle the perfect body, but Cormygle is most certainly the magical master of all the male dragons. He has spent his exile mastering his craft, and now he has the strength in body with the magical ability, making him as powerful as any dominant dragon, but Cormygle has revenge in his heart and never let go of it. Now he is commanded by the demons, and as long as it includes killing dragons, he is all for it. He does not even mind having a human rider that he must take orders from on the planet of Kronton. Xanorax has never been so excited. He cannot believe this is his steed.

“You must be Cormygle. You are my steed, and we have dragons to kill.”

“Yes, we do. Jump on, and we will begin the slaughter. These puppies will be easy pickins. Are you ready?”

“I sure am.”

“Then jump on. Let’s go kill some dragon.” Xanorax jumps from his balcony and slowly levitates down to the saddle that has been crafted by Zenondour. This is actually awesome-looking. The saddle sits just above Cormygle’s wings at the base of his neck with long reins that go to his mouth. The seat of the saddle has very high supports in front and back of Xanorax, so he is not going to fall out, and it is very comfortable for him to sit in.

“You are very fluent in the use of magic. I can feel it.”

“I am much more adept at magic than you are, warlock, so together, we will be unstoppable. Let us go and kill some dragon.”

“Lead on, Cormygle. Let us kill some dragons.”

The dragons are flying over the forest, and the pines are so thick all throughout the forest that the forest floor cannot be seen. It is just a landscape of tall pyramid pine trees that grow only in the Pinegrow Forest. The dragons fly in a very wide line right across. They are in a line over a mile wide, and they are using their magical sense to search for Xanorax. His home is really a mystery, and no one knows where it is, including the dragons with the exception of Blethstole, but they should be able to detect some sort of difference even if his home is hidden in the trees. The dragons have made a sweep down the southern edge of the forest and have made their way back up north through the forest, and after almost three hours, they come across what must be the home of Xanorax. Surprisingly, it is easy to find. The pines literally prevent view of the floor throughout the entire forest, but here, where Xanorax’s home is, is the only place where a little of the forest floor is exposed. His home is very beautiful. It is very modern, more so than any on all the three planets. It is very large for only one person. The walls are white and have brown borders made out of thick rectangular beams. There are beams that make Xs on all of the square walls. There are a lot of windows on the walls and many different roofs. All the five roofs grow up to a point in the middle covered with deep brown shingles. There are four roofs at four outer points of the home and one tallest in the middle. The space around the home is clear of trees for about fifteen yards and, again, is the only land in Pinegrow Forest clear of trees. The dragons circle around in the air, and Banoro starts his descent to land near the home of Xanorax.

“Wait! Banoro and the rest of you, come with me. Follow me over here.” The dragons follow Grapore a couple of miles away from the home, and he asks Obronge to clear out the land with his breath so they can land. Obronge is a burned orange color, and though these dragons are young, they still have potent breath attacks. Obronge has the Breath of Hairire. This is superheated air that he breathes, and it dries and super heats anything it comes in contact with. The heat is enough to kill living beings by basically baking them with superhot air. A lot of things will ignite and burn from contact with his breath, but if it does not, and Obronge wants fire, he has a neat adaptation about his claws that comes in very handy here. His claws shoot from his paws and act like flint, creating a spark and setting his superheated areas a blaze. His claws grow back very quickly within a day. Obronge flies down and breathes on an area, circling in the air. He breathes three times, making a couple of passes around about a quarter-of-a-mile circle and sends one of his claws, igniting the forest. His breath acts like a moisture sponge, drawing out all the moisture from the trees so they burn very fast. The dragons watch as the forest burns, and Indigeion, the indigo-colored dragon, casts a Wave of Expulsion into the center of the burning trees, sending all the burning trees flying into the surrounding forest and clearing the land so the dragons can land. The dragons all descend to the clearing.