Dragon Hunter

Chapter 14: Eska's Defense

Seeing the human lift his weapon and look into the distance, Vannea turned enough to catch sight of the dragons bearing down on Eska, even as its inhabitants frantically worked to put out the fires from the first attack.

"That's amenable, my lord," she said, stepping to his side to give him a clear line of sight. But not without taking her hands off him. Which made him wonder: who exactly was being taken possession of here? Her? Or him??

Pushing the issue aside for the moment, he brought the crystal fifty to a firing position. A look down the scope yielded the lead dragon, a large red, moving it's head side to side as if speaking to the dragons on his wings. Then they were close enough that he could use his dragon sense to peer into its thoughts.

And he quickly confirmed the dragons' intent: another assault on Eska. But, in that same instant Cooper also discovered they weren't alone.

"It's a vanguard for a much larger assault!" he snarled in dismay. The human turned to Vannea, who was visibly alarmed by his declaration.

"Does Eska have shelters the people can use during an attack?" Cooper tautly asked.

"Not against dragonfire!" she replied, eyes wide as she returned his gaze.

"Then the city must be evacuated," the human grimly directed. "The dragons mean to burn it to ash!"

Vannea quickly turned to the kidnappers.

"Ilya, you and Beyless shade jump into the city and find the governor," she tightly directed. "We need those people out of there."

The dark elf that Cooper head butted immediately bowed his head.

"It will be done, high priestess," he said, his head coming back up. A look at one of his fellows then both were stepping back into shadows that suddenly appeared behind them.

Then Vannea was pressing close, speaking in a low whisper, words that she wanted only him to hear.

"Not to question your abilities, my lord, but can you not bring them all down with your weapon?" she asked.

"I can. But I cannot bring them all down at the same time," he replied in a matching voice. "Some will still get the chance ..."

"To strike the city before you can kill them!" Vannea finished for him, a look of understanding washing across her exquisite face. "I see the wisdom in your words now, my lord. Forgive my lack of understanding."

"Nothing to forgive, Vannea," Cooper replied as he sighted in on the lead dragon. "We're all fairly new to this dragon hunting thing!"

With the dragons still bunched as the red instructed them, Cooper saw an opportunity to bring the lot of them down in one go. He just hoped they wouldn't make too much of a mess when they hit the ground somewhere in the city!

As soon as the targeting map appeared, the human was leading the dragons as he fired. Once, twice, and on until he hit a half dozen. Then he swung back to the flight and watched them fly into the oncoming munitions. Cooper found himself smiling as all went limp virtually at the same time and began their uncontrolled tumble out of the sky.

"Tally six," he grimly noted out loud.

A quick track to the corner was in time to see no less than thirty six more dragons come swinging into view, wyverns and full dragons both, flying in tight formation. At the same time he noticed movement on the ground.

Knowing he still had a few seconds before the dragons were in maximal targeting range, Cooper dropped his rifle to sight in on what was moving on the ground. And found his blood running cold at what he saw.