Dragon Hunter

Chapter 17: Freeing the City

It was a frantic blur as the two defended against the onslaught. Time and time again they worked in unison to bring an opponent down, sometimes with Alia twisting around the human's body to stab an enemy while Cooper held their weapon up and out of the way. Or Alia ducking to let the human lop off a head or remove a limb with a sweeping slash.

"Fools!" a lean figure snarled as Cooper pushed it back. "The Empire cannot be stopped! You only delay ... urk!" And it crumpled to the ground, one of Alia's daggers buried to the tang in its eye.

"We will feast on your ash ... gah!" another one began to bluster before a hard cut brought them down.

Then, almost improbably, they were clear.

"Dragons in were-form," Alia panted, nodding in thanks as Cooper retrieved her dagger and handed it back to her.

"That makes my job a bit harder, for sure," Cooper wryly observed, looking down at his jacket to find it sporting several slashes. "Your words about needing to defend myself are proving prophetic."

"Mm," Alia replied, studying the door. "If the door didn't serve as a chokepoint, no amount of skill would've saved us, my lord," the dark elf woman grimly noted before looking over at him.

"While they cannot use their breath attacks in were-form, dragons are still formidable opponents, being skilled casters and fighters."

She looked back at the door.

"We got lucky!"

With Phayrak's sword held two-handed, Cooper stepped past a wary Alia to look out the battered doorway and to the street beyond. And, beyond it now charred and coated with ash and soot from the red's strafing run, it was empty. At least, for the moment.

"We should let Eska's defenders take care of the dragonborn," the dark elf suggested as she joined Cooper at the door. "So we can focus on any dragons still lurking about!"

Cooper fought off the impulse to look at her when she said 'we'. Since when did he become a 'we'? Then he inwardly sighed. Probably right after she saved his ass from getting barbequed by that red. At least she wasn't suggesting they retreat back to the temple.

"Good idea." He tried extending his dragon sense to see if he could pick up nearby dragons, but it was indeterminate. So he eased out into the street instead to look up at the space above the city, Alia in his shadow.

And, to his astonishment, found it empty as the street they stood in. Cooper frowned at the discovery. There should be a dozen or more still up there, if his internal count was anywhere close to accurate.

A thought made him turn enough to look through the door at the untidy pile of bodies inside, the majority, if not all of them, belonging to were-form dragons. Using a scrap of fabric, he cleaned off his sword blade then sheathed it. As soon as the weapon was settled, he stepped back into the building, strode to the nearest confirmed were-dragon and knelt on one knee beside him.

"Something is troubling you, isn't it," Alia asked as she joined him.

Hesitating slightly, Cooper nodded then extended his hand over the body.

"There should be a dozen dragons still in the air," he pointed out. "But the space above the city is empty. So, either my count was off ..."

There. A curious twisting sensation from the fading energy still in the were-dragon's body. He had felt something very similar when he and Alia faced Phayrak on the ledge. And just now, with the dragons in humanoid form that had flooded the room.

"Or they've all taken were-forms and have gone to ground!" Alia finished for him, her expression grim. She lifted her bright violet eyes to him.

"Do we hunt them down, Cooper?"