Gatekeepers Book 2: Galeforce

“Draycos!” Galán screamed at the top of his lungs. Draycos gave no response as he laid motionlessly on the rubble, blood seeping from his new chest wound.

Guerrino grunted and swung the blood off his weapon before placing it in the massive brown leather sheath hanging from his back. Galán dropped to the ground and rushed over to Draycos’s side, completely ignoring the mercenary.

“I wouldn’t waste your time if I were you,” Guerrino advised Galán. “The kid’s going to be dead momentarily from the blood loss. I’m surprised he wasn’t cut clean in two; he’s got sturdiness going for him, if nothing else.”

Galán whirled around and stared daggers at Guerrino. “How could you do something like this over something as petty as money?!” he snapped. “Don’t you value life at all?!”

“I do value life,” Guerrino responded with a shrug. “And I’m sure you of all people are aware of this already, but the Mercenary Union almost never takes assassination requests. We generally leave shadier jobs like that to the Shadow Strikers.” He pointed at Draycos. “However, this brat’s case was different. The client paid us a substantial amount of gold Craeos in advance and managed to convince my superior to take up the job.”

“Who’s this client of yours?!”

“Hey, don’t look at me,” Guerrino told him, holding his hands up before him. “I don’t have a clue. I couldn’t get a word out of my boss about who it is. My boss normally isn’t so hush-hush about who our clients are, so if I had to guess, this guy must be some big-shot.” Guerrino looked down at Draycos and shook his head sadly before turning around and walking towards the small, wooden door that was set into the far wall of the cavern, which he had been standing in front of prior to engaging Draycos in combat. “It’s such a sad sight, seeing a young life full of potential get cut short,” he muttered under his breath.

“Where are you going?!” Galán demanded. “You think I’ll let you walk away like this?!”

Guerrino paused just in front of the door and looked over his shoulder at the half-breed. “I think you’ll have your hands full trying to keep the kid alive while you try to find a way out of here. Your hands are tied; you can’t do anything to stop me.” Facing forward again, Guerrino reached out with one hand to grab the iron ring hanging from the door to open it. That’s when he heard a stone clack against another from behind him. His hand froze just before touching the iron ring. He spun around and grabbed the handle of his weapon.

Draycos was already back on his feet, dashing at top speed towards Guerrino with a conjured black scimitar in each hand. Guerrino pulled his greatsword back out of its sheath and swung it horizontally when Draycos was within range all in one fluid motion. Draycos ducked under the blade and avoided the attack. He got right up in Guerrino’s face, his weapons at the ready. Guerrino’s eyes opened wide in shock underneath his helmet.

Damn, I can’t avoid this one! The kid figured out the range of my attacks and got in too close! How is he even on his feet right now?!

With a loud war cry, Draycos swung his two blades in an X-formation across Guerrino’s chest, just like how Clyad had slashed him during the Prisoners’ Games.

But Draycos’s weapons never reached their target. Sparks flashed brightly in the darkness as a loud, metallic clang rang out. Draycos was knocked back as his weapons were sent flying. Draycos landed on the sandy ground and immediately rose to his feet, shock clearly showing on his face. Guerrino’s helmet had been blown off from the impact, revealing an orange head like that of the Welsh dragons from Europe. There was a surprised look on his face as he and Draycos stared at one another.

W-what the hell just happened?! I know that Guerrino couldn’t do anything to block my attack if I got past his weapon! He didn’t do a thing when I swung my blades! Who countered my attack?!

Draycos finally noticed that a small, silver steel dagger floated in the air just in front of Guerrino. The dagger had two chips in the blade, apparently received from blocking Draycos’s weapons.

“Wowww,” a new voice spoke, echoing throughout the vast cavern. The dagger fell into the sand, as if someone just flung it away. “That was quite the heavy blow, Draycos. You chipped one of my best daggers with that attack.”

Draycos’s eyes darted around the cavern, trying to find the source of the voice. There were too many shadows in the cave for someone to hide in. “Who’s there?!” he shouted. “Where are you?!”

“No need to shout,” the voice answered in a lazy tone. “I’m right here; I’ll reveal myself in a moment.”

“Draycos!” Galán suddenly screamed from the collapsed staircase. “Look out beside you!”

Draycos suddenly felt a heavy weight on his right shoulder and the back of his neck. It felt like someone had wrapped an arm around his shoulders. He tried to move away, but the weight pressed down harder, preventing him from escaping.

First, a transparent, white-clawed black hand slowly faded into existence, gaining more solidity as it hung down from Draycos’s right shoulder. The arm slowly followed that, extending around the back of Draycos’s shoulders. Then followed a lean black body with dark jungle green underbelly skin covered in black leather armor wrapped in dark grey straps with silver buckles. Black wings with green wing skin matching the underbelly skin then appeared, the wing skin glowing slightly in the darkness. Finally, a draconic head appeared on top of the shoulders. The dragonoid, only slightly taller than Draycos, cracked a twisted, friendly smile from underneath his spiky lime-green hair as he looked down at Draycos’s shocked expression.

“Hey, there!” he said brightly, giving Draycos a small wave with his left hand. “Nice to meetcha! The name’s Madniga!” After that introduction, Madniga pulled a dagger hanging from a belt at his waist with lightning-fast speed. He then dug the dagger deep into Draycos’s chest, right through the heart.

“Gah....” Draycos didn’t even feel any pain as the blade cut through his heart. It felt like someone had stabbed him with an icicle, and the chill was starting to creep throughout his body. He grabbed at the dagger and tried to pull it out, but he couldn’t put any strength in his hands. After a few moments of struggling, Draycos fell limply to the ground, his eyes completely glazed over.

Galán didn’t didn’t make a sound when he saw Draycos get stabbed. A cold sweat broke out over his body as he stared at Madniga, who gazed down at Draycos’s motionless body.

This guy’s extremely dangerous. All of Galán’s instincts were giving him warning signs about this new individual. There’s still a chance to save Draycos, but as soon as I make a move, he’s bound to notice and take action.

“You were cutting it pretty close at the end there, huh, Guerrino?” Madniga casually commented as he kicked Draycos over onto his back. He swiftly pulled the dagger out of Draycos’s chest and flicked the blood off before placing it back in his belt. He began rolling his shoulders. “That last attack of his had a lot of strength behind it; it made my shoulder sore from blocking it. You would’ve been cut down if I hadn’t intervened.”

Guerrino grunted and looked away, an unreadable expression on his face as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I didn’t need your help with that one, Madniga,” he said coldly.

Madniga cackled loudly. “You didn’t need help, you say? Ha! Now that’s a good one! If anyone had been watching that, they would’ve all said you lost that fight the moment Draycos dodged that attack!”

“Shut up.” Guerrino looked down at Draycos. “Speaking of which, how did he not get cut in two with that one attack I landed on him? He might’ve gotten a perfect score in endurance during the Assessment Exam, but that swing of mine had enough strength behind it to sever a large dragon’s limb.”

“It was probably this,” Madniga stooped over and grabbed Draycos’s jacket collar and lifted the unconscious young man’s body up to show Guerrino. The fabric where Guerrino’s attack had landed was cut, revealing the cut flesh beneath that still bled, but something hanging around Draycos’s neck swung back and forth like a pendulum, twinkling slightly in the dim light. It was a small, blue crystal pendant wrapped in a pair of draconic wings, with a smaller green crystal set in the clasp.

“This pendant apparently stopped the sword from cutting in deep,” Madniga observed, pointing at an uninjured portion of Draycos’s chest between two separate cuts. “The brat played dead to catch you off guard, which actually worked.”

“Unbelievable,” Guerrino muttered, shaking his head in amazement. “Not many people are capable of keeping a level head after getting hit like that. That kid was something else.”

“Well, it’s not like it matters anymore now,” Madniga commented. He tossed Draycos’s body to the side, throwing it to the sandy floor. “We did what we were tasked to do. Now all that’s left to do is to cut off the head and present it to our bosses.”

The occupants of the Dragon Council chamber stared at the black projection orb floating above their heads. The projection had gone dark after a new enemy appeared out of nowhere and stabbed Draycos. The air was thick with tension, ready to snap at any moment.

A loud beeping broke the silence, and a new window popped up on the projection orb, flashing red and yellow. ‘WARNING’ written in Dragonscript sat on top of the window, and multiple horizontal bars filled with white sat below that. The amount of white was quickly decreasing, leaving the bars empty.

“Damrabe, what is this?” Theravor demanded, standing up from his throne.

Damrabe wore a stiff expression on his face as he slowly shook his head. “Those bars display Draycos’s vital signs,” he responded morbidly. “They’re falling fast.”

“The brat’s dying?” Vinzgar growled.

“Is there anything we can do from here?” Zero asked in a worried voice, slamming a fist on the tabletop.

Damrabe shook his head again. “From this distance, no,” he answered. “I’m sure we’re all aware of this, but spells quickly lose their effectiveness if the distance over which they’re being case increases. We do have a connection to Draycos’s pendant, but with how far he is, not to mention how deep underground he is right now, the most we could do is send magic power directly to him through the pendant. Magic power alone isn’t enough to heal fatal wounds like that.”

“So what you’re saying is that our hands are tied,” Boreta summarized, folding her fingers together and resting her hand on top of them.

“Vertex,” Theravor suddenly called. The dragon in question quickly stepped forward and got down on one knee in a bow.

“I give you permission to leave the Council Chamber,” Theravor told him. “I need you to fly to Draiotic City as quickly as possible and get down to Draycos underground. You’re the only one capable of such a feat with your Planetary magic. I don’t care if anyone sees you; we can use the Metra Anomaly to fix things if needed. Now get going at once!”

“Understood, sir,” Vertex answered, dipping his head before rising to his feet. The guards stationed at the doors stepped aside as Vertex rushed out of the room at top speed.

“Father, are you sure that was wise?” Drax asked from his throne down the table. “We still don’t know who the traitor is; is it really alright to let Vertex out before we’ve discovered who it is?”

Theravor sighed and closed his eyes as he leaned back in the throne, rubbing his chin with one hand. “It’d be far worse not to send Vertex and let Draycos die because of it,” he said at length, choosing his words carefully. “Besides, I have complete trust in Vertex. I didn’t assign him to be my advisor when I became the Dragon King fifty years ago for no reason.”

Drax and several other council members still looked uneasy after hearing Theravor’s words, but they eventually consented and nodded their heads.

Meanwhile, Vertex had just left Dragonspire Castle, shooting out of one of the exits in the outer walls at top speed and flying through the air like a rocket. A small smile crept over his face before it vanished completely.

“You better not be dead already, Draycos,” he muttered under his breath. “It’d be a pain if you died now.”