Master of the Hoard - Chapter 11 (Patreon)

In the end, Aelis decided to go herself. She debated the issue with the others for a while, but they eventually caved. Mostly, I believed they just didn't want to take over the task of having to handle the large, ferocious dragon if she got herself killed. Still, she argued well. Apparently, she was one of the higher-leveled scouts already, and her latest level gave her the edge on the others. I saw her off a bit down from the remaining Talpi and the angry, rumbling Clenchers.

"Two final things. First off, you need to take a different route when you scout out the place. We can handle two Clenchers, apparently, but more than that would spell doom for us. Better to circle back another way, take your time and lose any pursuit."

Heh. It looked like raised hackles were an actual thing with Talpi when they were annoyed. Her mental voice was calm, however, and formal. "Yes, Sire. I appreciate the assistance.” The smell from her pretty much said, “Mind your own business.”

A loud rumble erupted from my belly. "Alright, I won’t try to teach you your own job. The second part, however, is an order. Stay safe. I don't want you to risk your neck to impress me. I still need your help."

That earned a deep bow from her before she trotted off along the corridor. Again, we were back to waiting and I decided to take a look at what the Talpi were up to. One of the warriors was approaching the downed Clencher with a sharp stone knife and a look of determination on his face.

Even though my Agility was impressive, there was no hiding my approach from the warrior. His fur stood on end, but he kept his face composed as he turned to me. "Sire?"

"Cutting the Clencher apart for the meat?"

He answered instantly, thinly veiled fear and resentment oozing off of him. Apparently, not everybody enjoyed my presence or risking their lives. "Yes. Quartering takes time and I need to get to it. I'm trying to keep the skin intact as well - which makes it even harder."

I nodded down at him. It must be weird for them, always looking up into my nostrils... or my bared teeth. I really should stop smiling as a gesture. "I can imagine. Who handles the leatherworking for your tribe?"

His nose sniffled as he considered. "Four or five of us. We don't have a lot of material to work with, so nobody's that good at it. Now, if you don't mind, Sire?"

I accepted his dismissal, frowning at the relief coming from him as I left and added yet another point to my ever-expanding checklist 'Find somebody to specialize in leatherworking.' They would hopefully get a lot of chances to practice on the leather and skin of downed enemies soon. God, that sounded grisly, but at the same time good..

Time went by, while I occupied myself thinking about what treasures and traps we might find inside the necromancer's old lair. A handful of hours had passed and most of the Talpi were using the chance to catch some additional shuteye, when Aelis returned. She went straight towards me, and I could hear how everybody else was rousing, eager to hear the news.

Aelis wasted no time. "Good news and bad, Milord. The good news is that we seem to have killed off all stragglers outside the camp. The bad news is that there are a full six Clenchers inside, including an alpha male."

"Alpha male? I’m guessing it will be stronger and larger?"

"Exactly. Also, being the pack male, presumably, the females will fight harder to protect him."

I nodded. "Thank you. Please describe their... camp? Lair?" She knelt and started scratching a rough layout into the hard-packed dirt floor of the tunnel. I soon learned that the word I was looking for was a "dump." Their idea of decor apparently was dragging corpses inside to let them rot on the floor. Nonetheless, their cavern was wide, open and spacious with a high ceiling and several tunnel openings, all well-traveled. That didn’t leave us much to work with. No convenient openings for a breath attack or handy pits for traps or the like. Except... "Enlighten me, please. Exactly how stupid and territorial are these Clenchers?"

We delayed for about six hours. That was how long it took for the Talpi to find a cave that had a high enough ceiling to test my idea in theory and figure out whether it was viable or not. Flying was a weird experience. Picture, if you will, one of those muscle groups that not everybody learns to manipulate - like wiggling your ears. Then imagine that not only are you suddenly able to manipulate this muscle, it affects those two massive limbs on top of your back. Oh and you also have independent control over those two limbs which in turn provide their own feedback that you are completely unfamiliar with. Yeah. It was an afternoon filled with bumps, scratches and accidents. Even so, in the end, not only did I figure out that my idea was viable - it was also fun. Sure, it was the climbing on an old roof without safety gear kind of fun, but fun nonetheless.

I also took the time to handle my latest level up - I was going to need every single point I had for this to work. The experience from the Clenchers had been immense. Everybody present had gained a level already and most had gained two. One had even gained three. As for myself, I'd made it all the way to level 7. Classic gaming. The earlier  I grunted in satisfaction as I watched the six automatic points to Mental Control and three to Agility fade into being on my info page before I spent my ability points. Three to Toughness and a full six each to Mental Control and Agility. Strength was going to be my dump stat. Hell, it pretty much said so in the race description for shadow dragon. "Avoid physical confrontations, dummy." Mental Power would need some points later on, to make sure my spells were effective and, probably, to allow me to construct more expensive constructions when my hoard gained in levels. Speaking of mana regeneration. The first time I checked out my info, I had regenerated a full 20 mana/day. With my latest buffs to mana control and the regen factor from my hoard... I whistled. Well, I tried to whistle. What came out was a disappointing squeak. But still, damn! 105 mana/day. With my current 200 mana, I could create a new mana stone in less than two days. I would soon have my lair filled with constructs and start creating a damn fortress!

Apart from the attributes, passing level five also brought me two new surprises – the choice of a new feat and a new Shadow skill. They gave me the choice between three different feats:

[Improved dodge.

(Requirement met: Agility 30)

You gain improved reflexes and become more competent at avoiding any incoming attacks.]

[Improved spell control.

(Requirement met: Mental Control 30)

Your control over your spells and spell-like abilities improves slightly, earning you a slight cast time reduction and improved duration. The effects remain unchanged.]

[Improved Mana reserves.

You gain a permanent increase to your mana pool, increasing your available mana by 50.]

The choice wasn’t too hard. I was looking to avoid close combat, meaning Improved dodge wasn’t that attractive. Improved mana reserves would be nice… later on, when I wasn’t trying to construct Mana Crystals. In fact, choosing that one now would just increase the time I needed to meet my goal. Improved Spell Control, however, didn’t sound flashy, but a chance for faster and longer-lasting stuns and debuffs? Hell yeah, I’d take that.

As for the new skill, I couldn't quite see how I'd be able to use it right away, but looked forward to playing around with it in the future.

[Create Illusion.

This skill allows you to create and maintain an illusion. As long as the viewer doesn't see through the illusion, it fools all senses except touch. The chance of targets seeing through illusions is affected by the size and intricacy of the illusion as well as their Mental Power.

The effects, limitations and effectiveness of the skill improve as you level.

Cost: 1 mana/10 seconds.]

Of course, I had to try it out and it definitely worked. The look on the Talpi's faces when they saw a miniature battle droid erupting from behind a rock to waltz across the floor was absolute gold. Still, I would need a lot of practice before it became second nature to me.

As I thundered down the tunnel towards the Clencher cavern, my heart pounded in my chest loud enough that I could easily imagine the monsters being alerted by the sound. When I entered the cavern, watching six pairs of eyes focusing on me with varying levels of confusion and rage, I couldn't help myself, but roared with the thrill of the experience. The moment I cleared the low mouth of the tunnel with my tail, I jumped.

In my experiments, I had discovered a few things. I was definitely not going to become an expert flyer straight away. Swooping and diving were out of the question as were any elaborate evasive maneuvers. Beating my wings to rise straight up in the air and reach some sort of uncomfortable hover out of reach of any ground-locked monsters? That was within my capabilities - or so I guessed from my training. I shut out the dust flying through the air and the affronted growls and roars from underneath me and focused only on my balance and the power of my wing strokes. Moments later, I smiled as I looked down on six large, confused shapes sniffing around below me.

Aelis had been right. Her answer to my question had been a twofold "Very much so, Sire." Not only were the Clenchers territorial enough to stay and defend their home from any invader, regardless of size, power or reach. They were also dumb enough to fail to realize that dragons came with a few native advantages - like a breath weapon.

Right now, I had to smile at the look of the shadowy cloud that billowed from my mouth to settle over the cavern below in a rough cone shape. While the substance was light enough to spread halfway to the far end of the cavern, about five dragon lengths away, it did not fade away immediately. Where it hit any of the beasts, it was immediately absorbed into the skin, accompanied by growls and whimpers. Where it struck dirt, it lingered for a moment before fading away.

It was like shooting confused, panicked fish in a huge barrel. While flying. A confusing image, perhaps, but then again, it suited the situation. The monsters were zooming around below me, trying to avoid my attacks, which only led to them absorbing more of the nasty substance. They were damn hard to hit, however, and never stood still for long. A well-placed Weakening Fog enveloped three of the Clenchers at the same time, tops. Even so, I could clearly see that my attacks were taking a toll on them, and my Improved Spell Control helped me release my breath attack faster, for greater accuracy. Their roars were more pained and confused than challenging and two of the Clenchers had succumbed to my attacks and were laying on the ground, panting. There was only one problem. I could feel the strength in my wings depleting - I would not be able to stay afloat indefinitely.

Ah, well. Houses don't build themselves. There's a time for action - and this was it. I flapped my wings weakly, winning me the time for an additional two breath attacks and made sure to target the Clenchers that seemed to be least affected. Following that, I sent out a mental shout - "Now!" and dove.

Everybody is familiar with those nature shows where you watch a majestic bird of prey plummet towards its target, rising at the latest moment to gracefully snatch a helpless animal from the ground. That was me, except maybe I was in the outtakes for the scene. I did manage the plummet and a tiny bit of steering along the way - but I missed every single target. With a desperate twist, I avoided completely wiping out, turning my descent into a stumbling run. I opened my jaws and released a Deafening Roar, watching how two of the remaining Clenchers fell to the ground stunned.

If I had been on my own, this moment might have become problematic. There were still two Clenchers out to get me, I was running on fumes and I couldn't spare a moment to finish the two monsters that had been momentarily downed by my Deafening Roar. Fortunately, however, this was when my allies entered the fight. With their characteristic shrill cries, the Talpi poured into the cavern, launching weapons and themselves against their huge adversaries. It should have been comical to look at. The differences in size alone was enough to make their attack seem ridiculous. Yet, as I watched them swarm over one of the stunned Clenchers, the word that sprang to mind was "heroic." One of the remaining Clenchers pounced on a Talpus, snapping one of his legs with an audible crack. Ignoring his pained cry, I took advantage of the distraction, jumping on the back of the beast and tearing my claws across its neck with all my might. I had to struggle to restrain myself from lowering my mouth to drink the warm, pulsing blood gushing from the wound.

That moment of distraction turned out to be damn costly. One moment I was hanging there, mind clouded with bloodlust, and the next I was rushing through the air, half-blind with pain. I hit a wall and slid to the ground, disoriented. Blood flowed from a cut on my brow down into one eye and my vision swam. Even so, I fought my way to all fours and started running. Even my half-addled mind understood that taking a rest on the ground in front of a freakishly strong monster that specialized in grabbing onto prey was a bad idea. I managed to sprint a third of the way across the chamber until I realized that I wasn't being chased.

Turning around, I quickly scanned the scene before me. My second of peace allowed me to hit the two Clenchers who had succumbed to my Deafening Roar with a Weakening Fog. To my relief, they stayed down. On top of that, I had killed one Clencher and the Talpi had managed to finish another. That left only two of them. At the far end of the room, eight of the Talpi and Jazinth were harrying a bleeding, beleaguered Clencher that looked like it was ready to lie down and die. Its thick skin was riddled with puncture wounds and it was actually backing away from a handful of creatures a third its size. In the center of the room... things did not look as good.

I watched in horror at the grisly sight of the final Clencher standing on his hind legs. Definitely the Alpha. It bellowed with fury before dropping down with both clawed feet impacting the rib cage of a downed Talpus. The poor thing's chest practically imploded. I blinked at the carnage and took an involuntary step back. Then I noticed a weird lump near the hind end of the Clencher and, with dismay, realized that it was Aelis, hanging trapped by the Clencher from one arm.

My mind failed to properly activate as I roared a challenge. Stepping forward, I took in the animal. There was no doubt this one was both tougher and larger than the others. While it was panting with exertion and had a handful of stab wounds on the neck, it looked nowhere near as harried as any of the remaining monsters. As it turned to face me, the skin on the shoulders rippled, arranging additional armor around the neck and throat. I hoped that was merely a coincidence. If the beast was also more intelligent, I was in dire straits. My Deafening Roar still had a lengthy cooldown and I doubted that Aelis would remain alive for long, trapped and unconscious as she appeared. In short, I would have to finish this quickly and without too much abuse for the body of my trapped subject. No problem. Right.

I went on the offensive, sprinting straight for the huge Clencher. Standing on all fours, we were of equal height, but he was far bulkier than me - a fact I intended to abuse. I veered slightly toward his left side, but dodged at the last second, attempting to pass by the monster on the right side. Except my plan misfired. Again. He turned deceptively fast and slammed a paw down towards my lower back. Only a last-second evasion allowed me to slide past him on my hind quarters. Still sliding, I kicked a frenzied attack with my right hind claw, making a horrible mess of his leg. Ignoring his infuriated huffing, I forced myself to keep circling, looking for the next opening. However, I quickly learned how that was a dumb idea. Instead of trying to hit me or bite me, he simply threw his entire bulk at me. Scrambling to get away from the heavy beast, I clearly felt how the bones were rearranging themselves under his skin, trying to catch onto any part of my body. I managed to throw myself a few feet away, watching in horror as Aelis was flung clear.

Until this moment, I hadn't allowed the monstrous instincts residing inside the dragon's body to gain any control over me. However, the look of the tiny body rolling across the floor, blood spurting from her mutilated limb made me abandon all reason and give into those instincts clamoring to be let loose. I had put her in danger, and now her life was at real risk of being forfeit. Because of me. I leapt straight at the beast, rocking him back in surprise, striking him with horrible, clawed strokes at all exposed surfaces. Squealing in pain, the Clencher bucked under my blows - but didn't cave. I could feel how the armor under his skin kept me from causing anything more than superficial damage. I rose to my hind feet, laying into him with all I had and he rose with me, huge paws rising to strike back. He took my frenzied strikes to the face without flinching and before I knew it, massive paws enfolded my shoulders. I could feel the movement inside his body as I was slowly dragged into a massive embrace that was not going to end well for me. My mind was almost completely gone by this time and my claws continued to shred the skin off the Clencher's ears and head while we pushed back and forth on our hind legs like two wrestling giants, heads snapping, biting and nudging to gain a position of control over  the other. Through a red fog, I battled for control over my own body. Finally, grudgingly, the fog lifted, and I was able to think again. I could see only one way to avoid the agonizing death of his bear hug and instead of fighting the embrace, I accepted it, as I let my tail slide between his legs. The Clencher was hurting me more and more as his bones were rearranging themselves, putting pressure on all sides of my limbs. I ignored the pain as best I could, fighting for the necessary fine motor control. Within seconds, I managed as my tail wrapped around his hurt leg.

"Now for the tough part," I thought. With a furious growl, I allowed myself to settle down and explode upward even as I used my tail to pull on his leg with all my might. The furious Clencher fought back, pushing down, but the hurt leg couldn't resist the pressure and he fell backwards with an enraged roar. I rode him down, twisting and turning to ensure that I didn't land below him - and as soon as we hit the ground, I went on the attack. I retained my hold with my front claws - to be honest, I wasn't sure I would be able to let go even if I wanted to since they were in turn being held by him - but my hind legs were free to tear and shred. And that I did. Every part of the Clencher's lower body was available to me and I tore, cut and sliced. I could tell that he increased the effort to protect himself, but I alternated my attacks to keep him off guard. First, I attacked his lower legs. Then as I felt his hold on me lessen slightly, I hit his upper thigh with a snapping sound and continued to strike him in the same spot several times in short succession.

The Clencher's roars were changing in pitch. There was a clear note of fear and pain to it and I took it as a confirmation to continue. At first, it was all I could do to keep his massive head away from my neck. Slowly, however, I could tell that his strength was waning. Within moments, he was the one who struggled to get away, but when his bones released their stranglehold on my front claws, I grabbed onto him instead and intensified my attacks.

Finally, he weakened to the point where he could no longer keep me off - and glacially slow, I forced my head down to drink up his life blood. I could feel the skin rearranging under my jaws, but too slowly - and I bit down, feeling the artery explode into my mouth. My victory roar resounded through the cavern, blood spilling from my jaws as I announced my triumph to the entire mountain.