Gatekeepers Book 3: Redemption

In the aftermath of the first attack from the Gorgon Cannon, Vinkex had his hands full trying to get the growing crowd of dragons around him organized. Rattled by the sudden attack and the resulting effect on their comrades, the remaining fighters were left uneasy and had lost their cool.

Honestly. Vinkex shook his head in disappointment as he felt a growl building up in the back of his throat. His attempts thus far to calm down his troops had failed miserably. The growing irritation made the scales on the backside of his neck rise from the body slightly as the clamor continued to grow. Everything was perfectly fine until the moment the fog rolled in. Now my troops are so worked up they can’t even hear me. It wouldn’t be this bad if Balara and Río were here, but they disappeared into thin air.

A tail came swinging out from the broiling crowd around Vinkex and slapped him across the shoulder. This brought Vinkex’s irritation to its breaking point. He could almost hear himself snap as his face twisted in rage and irritation and a snarl curled his lips.

Moving faster than the eye could see, he grabbed the stray tail with one hand before yanking on it. The poor dragon who was the owner of the tail was ripped away from the crowd, knocking several dragons out of the air as he was pulled towards Vinkex. Before the soldiers had time to process what happened, Vinkex began spinning on one spot as he hovered in the air, swinging the victimized dragon around like a windmill. Several dozen dragons were knocked down before the rest of them gathered enough wits to back off from Vinkex. When a large enough space had been cleared around him, Vinkex released the dragon in mid-spin. The dragon shot down and crashed into the castle courtyard wall before with the speed of a meteorite. The wall was demolished from the impact, and as the dust cleared, everyone could see the poor dragon was covered from horn to talon in injuries, and there were at least a couple broken limbs.

“Do I have everyone’s attention now?!” Vinkex snarled in his loudest possible voice. As one, all the soldiers flinched and turned their gaze away from the unconscious dragons below and faced Vinkex. There was quite a mix of expressions resting on their faces as they gave Vinkex a cautious look.

“Are you all so timid enough that one or two little shocks will destroy your pride and resolve?!” Vinkex roared. His voice echoed clearly throughout the night air. “Is that all it takes to demoralize you?! I would think not! We’re here to dispose of Theravor, aren’t we?! WELL?!”

A few of the troops exchanged nervous glances while others smiled slightly and nodded their heads.

“I understand that seeing your comrades turned to stone in such a manner would be disturbing, but I can guarantee you that they’re alive! Not only are their vital and magic signs easy to detect, but our opponent is the false king Theravor! He doesn’t have the guts to kill his opponents on the battlefield! He’s too afraid of the consequences it would have on our kind! But that’s where we hold the advantage! Our enemies will be holding back in an effort to not kill us, but we aren’t shackled by such low-value morals! so feel free to cut loose and bring your enemies down in whatever manner you’d like! Bring down all your enemies with the full extent of your strength and crush this weak-minded era!”

An explosive burst of cheers and roars came forth when Vinkex finished his speech. Most dragons began to check their equipment to make sure they were fully prepared for the upcoming battle.

“That was quite the motivational speech you had there, Vinkex,” a voice rang out. “I guess you had plenty of time to plan and practice those pep talks while stuck in that stone for a thousand years, huh?”

An enemy?! Startled by the unexpected voice, Vinkex whirled around to locate the source. The fog had been momentarily thinned by the Gorgon Cannon, but visibility was still poor. Not only that, but with their magic senses being jammed by the fog, any dragon would need a miracle to avoid flying face-first into an island, let alone walking into an enemy attack. Even with his skills and power, Vinkex could barely detect the magic of anyone within a few yards of his location.

The hairs atop Vinkex’s head quivered slightly as he detected a strong flow of magic within a close proximity. Facing that direction warily, Vinkex noticed that Corax was hovering there, holding his lance in both hands with the tip pointing down before him. Air currents swiftly gathered around the tip of the lance as a low howl filled the air. Instantly understanding what Corax was trying to do, Vinkex snorted in amusement.

“Don’t even bother,” he told the young dragon. “If a strong gust of wind was enough to disperse this fog, we wouldn’t be in this predicament since we’re so high above the ground. You’d just be wasting your magic.”

“That just goes to show that you’re not fully aware of how the world works in this day and age, sir.”

“What was that?!”

Did that hatchling actually just tell me off?! Vinkex glared at Corax as the wind continued to congregate. So be it. Once this little attempt of his fails, I’ll punish him properly--

While Vinkex was deciding on a suitable punishment, he noticed that the tip of Corax’s silver lance had been shaded in a deep red hue. Dark red particles flaked off the tip as the winds pressed against it, slowly turning the air Corax controlled into a light shade of red.

What is that...?

“Zephyr’s Burst!”

Bang!

Not bothering to give Vinkex time to observe the phenomenon, Corax discharged his spell. The spell ruptured with quite a loud noise, as if a massive balloon had just popped. A large shockwave radiated from the tip of Corax’s lance. Vinkex remained motionless while the powerful shockwave rushed past him, only succeeding in ruffling his hair. The dragons farther out from Vinkex were forcibly pushed away from the epicenter of the spell. Vinkex watched in mixed fascination and surprise as the troublesome fog was pushed away with his men. The shockwave began slowing down before finally falling apart after traveling a good several hundred yards in all directions.

Near the core of Dragonspire Castle, Boreta and about a dozen of her family’s top magic users were gathered in a tight circle with Boreta standing in the center. A large, very complex magic circle glowed in all the colors of the rainbow at their feet, with smaller magic circles slowly orbiting around the interior of the first. Boreta had her hands clasped together and held above her head as if she was in prayer while her assistants held hands and pooled their magic upon Boreta.

Boreta, with her eyes closed to avoid any distractions, suddenly furrowed her eyebrow ridges. Two of the smaller magic circles inside the large one faded away completely. Her family members noticed this, but said nothing; Boreta had made it very clear to them earlier not to utter a sound unless it was a dire emergency.

What just happened out there? Boreta’s senses were stretched to their maximum capacity already with covering the battlefield with a Territory spell, but she still focused her attention on a sudden large void that abruptly appeared within her spell. Someone just destroyed a large part of my spell. Does Vinkex have someone in his ranks with one of the new Anti-Magic weapons that were recently developed? Boreta let out a soft sigh as she attempted to stitch her spell back together.

Vinkex observed the head of Corax’s lance gradually gain a dark red hue before turning black at the tip. He had never seen the likes of this weapon before.

Corax spun the lance in his fingers like a baton for a few seconds before hanging it on a hook protruding from the back of his chestplate. “See what I mean?” he said, directing his attention to Vinkex.

“I’ve certainly never witnessed such a thing before in my lifetime,” Vinkex admitted. He held out a hand, and Corax unhooked the lance and tossed it to Vinkex in one swift motion. Examining the head, Vinkex noticed it had returned to its original silver color. He tapped the tip a few times with a talon, but nothing happened. The lance didn’t appear to be anything out of the ordinary. “What was that? And how did you do that?”

“Try infusing the lance with some of your magic,” Corax suggested.

Vinkex nodded and took a deep breath before he injected a small portion of his magic into the weapon. The results were instantaneous; the entire head turned pitch-black the moment he transferred his magic.

Corax whistled loudly. “If you got such a strong reaction the instant you infused some of your magic into it, you must have some amazing magic reserves.”

“You still haven’t answered my first question,” Vinkex growled, ignoring Corax’s comment.

“Right, right,” Corax sighed. “What you’re holding is an Anti-Magic weapon that the human race developed about twenty years ago during a war they were having with the elves. The metal is a special alloy they developed with a very intricate process that reacts strongly when infused with magic. The metal alters the very composition of the infused magic so that it negates any foreign magic that the user’s spell may come into contact with. They’re very rare; it takes over five years for the alloy to be processed. The name of the alloy is quite fitting: antimagnium.”

“Oh? And how is it that you got your hands on such a weapon? Do tell me.”

Corax shrugged. “It’s a long story,” he said breezily. He pointed upwards with one talon. “Besides, I don’t think the enemy is going to wait on us much longer.”

Vinkex glanced up. Hovering above them was a small dragon wearing an extremely odd set of armor. The robotic armor, which covered almost every surface of the dragon’s body, was gold in color. Thin, black lines streaked through its surface, which all converged to a point located at the dragon’s throat. Pale blue light slowly pulsed through the black lines. A black leotard worn under the armor covered the few parts of the body that the armor didn’t cover. Even the wings had armor on them; the spines were covered in the gold armor while the leotard stretched over the wing skin. In one hand, the dragon held a black pole, about as tall as a human, with gold caps on each end and two gold lines connected running down the length of the pole.

“I take it that you’re the one who spoke a few moments ago?” Vinkex questioned. Truth be told, he had momentarily forgotten about the intruder in his interest over Corax’s weapon.

The small dragon nodded before giving an over-exaggerated bow to Vinkex. “Correct. I’m the current head of the Vizard family, Zero. It’s a pleasure.”

Vinkex snorted in annoyance. “Why didn’t you bother to attack us when we were talking?”

Zero’s blue eyes glanced over at Corax from under his helmet. “Honestly? I was also quite interested in that dragon’s Antimagnium weapon. That’s one metal my family had yet to get our hands on and observe; I doubt even Boreta has one of those.”

“So you wanted to listen in on our conversation?” Vinkex shook his head. “While it’s impressive that you can remain that relaxed this deep in enemy territory, are you sure you can afford to remain that way, especially now that your smokescreen has been blown away?”

Some of Vinkex’s more sturdy soldiers, which had been blown away by Corax’s spell, had recovered and had started to enclose Zero in a large ring. There were at least several hundred dragons slowly approaching the motionless Zero as the ring continued to contract onto his location.

“I’ll grant a boon to whoever’s the one to take this fool’s head!” Vinkex roared, pointing a talon at Zero. “Do not disappoint me!”

The crowd roared in approval at Vinkex’s offer before rushing in at Zero. But even then, the Vizard family head didn’t make a move until the dragons were almost on top of him. He simply raised the hand holding his pole and uttered a single, soft command.”

“Extend, Prototype Plasma G.O.D.P.O.L.E.”