Page 82 of Cast By Flames (Dragon's Breath)
Wren took in the imposing fortress, curiosity in his gaze. “I think I should like that. There is much to discuss and little time to do it.”
Chapter 24
Bailey
It was the fifth and last round of the day. I stood at the front, along with Conrad fifty feet to my left and Rayna the same distance apart to my right. It would be a similar battle configuration as when the war started. The strongest took the lead, though it was slightly more complicated than that since we’d be stretched out more, and different elements took charge at various phases. The sorcerers—Morgan and Skylar—were about twenty paces behind us. They wouldn’t remain second in line for long, but they needed to be close initially for their range attacks.
Fifty human soldiers led by Justin and Miles stood behind the magic users. They would come forward after the sorcerers fell back to conserve power. At the far rear, near the dome wall, stood several lines of green and red dragons. Today, we had two hundred participants from all the various clans. They would take off in flight as soon as the enemy came close enough, surging in the air over us.
Ahead, about a half-mile away, lay our opposition forces. For them, they only had humans and dragons, but they would simulate what we anticipated the Kandoran might do in a real fight. Their harnesses didn’t emanate the evil vibe strongly fromtheir current distance, but as they got closer, we would feel it. I could only pray we worked out the kinks this time and could work as a team. The first two rounds were awful, the third marginally better, and the fourth almost decent. We held discussions after each one to help us improve.
Falcon and Sabryn waited off to the side. Once all the leaders for each force gave them a ready signal, the male shifter blew a horn for us to begin. I started running forward. The opposition dragons took flight and reached our line in seconds. Morgan fired his energy balls, knocking several to the ground.
I went after those as shifters flew over my head and clashed with the enemy forces in the air. Since we couldn’t really kill anyone, I stopped my sword tip before it could dig more than an inch into the beast before me.
With a huff, it slumped and played dead.
Some fought it for a few moments, while others were more dramatic. I’d never realized green dragons could have such a colorful array of personalities. At least they finally trusted me and the other slayers to stop before a fatal blow. That had been one of the problems with the first couple of iterations and led to them continuing to fight when they should have been finished.
I moved on to the next opponent Morgan had knocked down with his magic. It had begun to rise and snapped its jaws at me. I dodged but not quite fast enough as its sharp teeth grazed my arm. Blood ran down my skin, but I ignored it.
“Try again, big guy,” I said to the green dragon. This one was huge and towered over me.
My opponent struck again, going for my shoulder. This time, I ducked and dove underneath it to plunge my blade into its chest. The tip went just past the scales and an inch betweenthe ribs. I could have struck the heart with little trouble if I pushed harder.
“You’re dead.”
I rolled away and leaped to my feet, waiting for it to comply. The dragon let out an annoyed growl and lowered to the ground. In past rounds, there had been some sore losers. They would wait until a slayer’s back was turned and attack us. I’d had my leg torn up the first time, requiring a visit to my healer friend Danae at the perimeter, where she did her part for joint training. Now, I was much more cautious.
Dragons who broke the rules were punished by their leaders, but many pushed their luck at least once. Thankfully, this one behaved and chose to curl into itself, closing its eyes. Was it going to nap in the middle of the battle training field? Possibly, since it wouldn’t be the first to do that.
Maybe I should let myself get “killed” so I could take a break, too.
Of course, I couldn’t do that, so I kept fighting. Human enemies rushed all around me. I tapped the ones I could easily reach with my sword on their necks to take them down. They kindly fell in a heap and might have won an Academy Award for their acting skills as they lay there moaning and dying at a glacial pace. Sure, we should take training seriously, but a little humor never hurt anyone. Miles and Justin had assured me people in the military did similar stunts during joint exercises before dragons arrived.
I caught sight of Conrad in the grip of a dragon’s mouth. Its teeth barely cut into him as it spit him back onto the ground and stepped away. That counted as a killing blow since the beastcould have torn his body in two. He lay in the dirt with a limp hand over his forehead.
“Oh, shit, I’m dyyyy-iiing!” he cried in a stricken voice. “The dragon…it got me, it got me. Woe is me.”
Then he dramatically dropped his arm and let out one last sigh. “Ahhhhh.”
“Seriously?” I said under my breath, though he handled it better than I would have if a dragon had gotten me in its jaws like that. Acting out a melodramatic death would not have been my first thought.
I took out a few more opponents before the horn blared, letting us know the final round had ended. Sweat covered my brow, and my puncture wounds ached, but at least the bleeding had stopped.
Conrad rose to his feet. “I’m alive again. Woo Hoo!”
“You’re ridiculous,” I said, rolling my eyes at him.
Rayna joined us, snickering. “He gets my vote for best death this iteration.”
Conrad grinned. “You saw it?”
“Yeah. A dragon grabbed and flung me not far from you, so I caught it right as I stopped rolling across the ground.” She pulled a piece of grass out of her hair. “They can be rather vengeful since they can’t actually kill us.”
“No kidding,” I agreed.
Freya came to join us, directing her attention toward me. “Do you still want me to fly you to your friend’s neighborhood?”
