Two steps forward and Cooper felt Alia take her place just off his left hip, her daggers ready. Another step and Theron was on his right, Saddahk directly behind him.
"Let's try not to die here, yes?" the silver Primal growled as Ilya, Beyless, and the rest of the Temple operators fell in behind them.
"That's the idea," Theron tautly replied before glancing at a grim Cooper. "What's the move, Cooper?"
"Hunt the bastard down," the human immediately replied without slowing a step. "He was mocking us with that little stroll, thinking we couldn't do anything about it. I'm going to show him different!"
First to go were the handful of dragonspawn that were moving in the space in between their port in and the structure in the middle, the ones Alia had initially observed. As they got closer, Cooper could see many of them were moving supplies and materials around in some sort of logistics role.
"Alia, ready your archers," he murmured as they smoothly advanced, still undiscovered by the dragonspawn. "Those lizards can't be allowed to sound an alarm. As soon as they look this way ..."
"They'll die before they understand what they saw," the Temple captain quietly vowed even as she flashed hand signals to her operators.
Nodding in satisfaction, Cooper kept Talos at the ready, scanning their forward path through the aiming oculus.
Unlike Eska, here he was seeing dragonspawn up close. To his mundane eyes, the scaly bastards were unique, with their mini dragon heads slammed onto a muscular humanoid upper body. Which was attached at the waist to where a horse had its foreshoulders.
Except this thing had a squat, draconic lower body instead of a horse's, complete with a long, ridge-covered scale. Finishing off the look were taloned claws instead of hooves, the spawn as variable in color and shade as the dragons that bred them.
It was as Cooper finished his evaluation that one in dark and light shades of red looked casually in their direction. It had just enough time to widen slit-pupiled eyes in surprise before one of those eyes sprouted a dark fletched arrow.
"They've made us!" Cooper growled as he opened fire. "Drop 'em before they can sound the alarm!"
The next few moments were filled with a flurry of motion. The rush of arrows and bolts in flight and the hum of releasing bowstrings fought against the actinic crunch of discharging spells, and the heavy sound of big bodies falling limply to the ground. Then, with the shuddering release of a held breath, it was over.
"Double time to the central structure!" Cooper hissed, sprinting forward.
"I'm assuming that means run harder," Theron said as he fell in beside the hard running human. Cooper threw him a quick nod. Then they were in the big building's lee.
Quickly the company pressed their backs against the structure as they arrived, holding position about two thirds the way down the outside wall. Closest to the building's corner, Cooper glanced down the line of dark elves, a sidhe elf and a dragon in wereform. And found them intent and ready.
Nodding in satisfaction, he was about to slide down the wall towards the corner when a sharp hiss caught his attention. Then Saddahk was snarling:
"Everybody down!"
Cooper had just enough time to blink in surprise before the side of the structure was erupting outward with a snarl, the percussive blast wave sending them all flying.
"I'm disappointed," a rough voice hissed in norianic from the resulting smoke-filled hole. "Or should I say impressed?"
A tall, lean figure stepped through the smoke to pause and look over the scattered team.
"Despite my attack on your base, you still attempted to strike directly at me." It then turned and quickly strode to where Cooper was slowly pushing himself onto his hands and knees, shaking his head in an attempt to clear it.
In one instant the human was staring at the ground, pushing hard to clear his vision and steady his mind. And the next he was being grabbed by a strong hand on the back of his collar before being jerked upright. Then that hand took him by the throat and hoisted him into the air.
"Hello there!" the hand's owner almost purred in self-indulgent satisfaction.
Struggling to breathe through the vise-like grip on his throat, his hands pulling at the arm and the fingers in an attempt to free himself, Cooper blinked the tears out of his eyes. And when they cleared, he found himself looking down into the handsome, swarthy, near-elf features of a male were-form dragon. All things considered, it could only belong to one dragon.
General Zrakesh.
Whose expression became satisfied when he saw Cooper was looking at him.
"Ah! There he is," the were-form said with his gravelly voice, an amused smirk on his lips. "The infamous dragon hunter." Zrakesh gave Cooper a shake, the pressure on the human's throat suddenly threatening to crush his Adam's apple.
"You have cost me much, mortal."
"Stop your war on the dark elves and I'll let your assets live," Cooper managed to say in a choked voice. To which the were-form roared with laughter.
"I have you literally by the throat, mortal. Yet you seek to negotiate?? Astonishing!"
Zrakesh gave Cooper another ragdoll shake.
"No, I will not relent against the dark elves, mortal," the draconic general said in an almost conversational tone. "They satisfy my bloodlust now that the high elves have fled the Garden before I could crush them."
Another shake, then:
"I will see these filthy muck eaters eradicated before I stop. Then I will cross the barrier between universes and hunt down the high elves and burn them to ash for defying the Flame Empire of Scale!"
His vision slowly going dark, Cooper desperately reached out with his mind as Zrakesh blustered.
- Talos! -
- Cooper? - the dragon-forged weapons quickly replied, her voice equal parts relief and concern. - I lost contact with you when the wall exploded! Are you ... No! You're being choked!! -
- Yes. I can't physically reach either Trezm or Erabak. Are you nearby? Can you jump back into my hand from your location? - Cooper managed to ask. And, despite the pain and the fact that he clung to consciousness by the thinnest thread, he smiled when a dangling hand was filled with Talos's stock.
"In fact, I'm going to hunt down your family, worm, and ... why are you smiling?" Zrakesh asked, easing his grip on Cooper's throat enough that he could speak.
"Because you are close enough for this not to miss," Cooper said thickly, swinging Talos into a firing position with fingers tingling from a lack of circulation.
Zrakesh's eyes widened in surprise. Then he was dropping the battered human to desperately throw up a magical shield in front of him. Just in time to intercept a trio of volcanic glass bolts fired in quick succession from the dragon-forged crossbow.
Hitting the ground heavily, Cooper struggled into an awkward kneeling position, teeth grit again the pain of returning circulation. Pushing aside the pins and needles sensation, along with the rush of blood back into his brain enough to make his head swim, the human used brute force to refocus his mind. Then Talos was back up and he was sending a rapid fire burst at the staggered Zrakesh.