Dragon Hunter

Chapter 46: The Business of Battle

Cooper grimaced as a searing hot lancet of energy narrowly missed his right cheek, its closeness leaving a tingling brand across his skin. Then he was twitching as several more at eye level slammed into a shimmering shield that appeared in front of him at the last possible moment.

"You know, you could try ducking," Saddahk dryly suggested as he stepped by to send an avalanche of frozen energy rolling into the ranks of imperial were-forms in front of them.

Cooper threw a look back at the silver, brow lifted.

"And where would the fun be in that??" he countered. Then he was following Saddahk forward, Talos whipping through a tight crescent in front of him to shatter into a thousand fragments the imperials the silver had just frozen solid with his powerful ice magic.

For his part, Saddahk smoothly drew Erabak from the hunter-style sheath he had fashioned with dragonforge magic in time to block a slash at his head from an imperial with a sword of his own. Because these imperials, unlike their comrades in previous battles, had skills in hand to hand combat in were-form, and fought fiercely as such.

So the three companions and their dark elf escort had quickly found themselves pressed hard by dragons that knew how to fight. And they were more than willing to go together to toe with mortals that would be naturally more skilled than they were.

Feeling more than seeing another magical attack targeting him, Cooper instinctively twisted towards it, Talos held straight up in an attempt to block the attack. And he found himself grinning tightly as a rectangular energy shield a meter wide and one and a half long appeared just in front of the long-handled axe. Just in time to absorb the attack: another barrage of magical flechettes attempting to cut him into ribbons.

- Nicely done, Talos! - he exclaimed in his mind.

- Of course, Cooper, - the magical weapon replied, sounding pleased with herself. - I'm here to protect you, as well as fight for you! -

Cooper chuckled at that. Then he had to wipe the grin off his face and refocus on fighting as several imperial were-forms got past Saddahk and Theron to charge him.

It was yet another engagement in the holy contested battle, one that saw momentum swing back and forth, and wounded being hastily pulled out of the way to let the combatants fight freely. The squad's healer working non-stop then put those wounded back into the battle, the dark elves desperate to defend their sacred site.

And then, as abruptly as it had started, the furious engagement was over with the squad's lieutenant stabbing through the last imperial. As the dying were-form was pushed off the lieutenant's blade, Cooper transformed Talos back into her crossbow form to use the oculus to scan the space.

At the same time a tired Saddahk summoned a new scrying globe to look outside.

"Cave approach is clear," he reported after a brief scan.

"So is the cave interior," Cooper indicated, dropping Talos to a ready position to look for the lieutenant.

"Lieutenant? What's the status of your squad?" he called out when he found the dark elf officer standing over their final opponent.

The officer paused just long enough to give his people a quick look and to get an exhausted nod from his healer before he answered.

"We've taken casualties, my lord, but no losses," he reported. "We can still fight, but I would like a pause to allow my healer some recovery time before healing up the wounded."

Cooper glanced over Saddahk, who looked up from his scrying ball and nodded.

"We can give you that," he said, looking back at the dark elf officer. "But, assuming we want to hold this ground going forward, you'll need to contact your base and either have them send reinforcements to garrison. Or to talk to the Goddess of Shadows' representative to have more temple troops sent to do the same."