Chapter 6

She was running blindly, her breath nearly catching in her lungs with every footfall. She was so rushed she barely noticed the sounds of the ensuing battle growing ever nearer. She only knew that she was almost out of time; something bad was about to happen and if she wasn't fast enough her goddess's wrath would be immediate and terrible.

"Talia... Where are you? You need to hurry up the one dwarf is about to be killed!" Nico's voice only served to infuriate her. After all this time now he wanted to talk? As if the words he said could push her beyond her already strained limits. As if she didn't know already how short she was cutting it. She didn't bother to answer, instead choosing to conserve her mana.

Talia burst around the final bend in the road just in time to see what Nico was talking about. In a small clearing two dwarves were standing next to each other in preparation to receive a blow from a monstrous looking bear creature. She didn't have time to marvel at its extra limbs or glowing eyes, or even how many teeth it had. Instead she did what she did best, prepared for a killing spree with a wide grin and a surge forward.

A few steps before impact she cast a simple spell, her vision changed as her mask enveloped her face and her movement became more smooth as her proper killing clothes wrapped around her skin. Her hair tightened back into the braid she always wore during work as well. From there she reached down and drew her sword from its sheath before brushing past the two dwarves and planting her feet for a powerful swing. She made sure to secure both hands around the hilt like it was a bat, aiming directly for the creature's neck.

Up close and personal she could smell the fetid stink of its breath, the creature's mouth was open wide in an attempt to wrap it's jaws around her. It had only taken her a split second to arrive in front of it, she wasn't even sure if it was aware she was there yet, but that didn't diminish the danger of its fangs sinking into her neck, face, or chest. Or its four sets of front paws from raking out her guts. Her armor was made more for fighting humans, not monster bears with claws dripping black. She made a mental note to avoid the creature's claws just in case they were tainted by poison.

Just as it had taken no more than a second to intervene between what would have surely been a fatal blow to the dwarves, it took only a second for her blade to sever its neck and for the creature to melt into ash. She didn't even realize that she had ignited the metal of the blade with her magic until then, eyeing the flames as she took in the state of the battlefield.

It was almost worse than she had expected, the bear-creature was far from the worst monster attempting to slaughter the small band of dwarves. She counted behind her eight men, every one of them battered and exhausted with sweat dripping from what little flesh was exposed. She didn't know how far they had run but they would have never made it much farther in their ragged conditions.

"You... You're the Hound." The larger of the dwarves spoke as he stepped forward. Talia eyed him carefully, lowering her sword slightly as he approached. He seemed to be the leader of the band. The other men gripped their weapons a little harder the closer he drew towards her.

"Aye. And you're the lucky band of idiots who managed to convince my goddess you deserved my aid." She growled with as much hostility as she could muster. He wasn't flustered, instead he offered her a toothy white grin.

"Don't waste your time, idiot! There's a lot of enemies here, I'll come down and try to sneak the dwarves out while you hold off the majority of these monsters. Set up a perimeter, one mile in diameter. Get control of this fast or we're done for." She looked to the skies, wondering just where Nico was while he bossed her. His raven form circled high above as he assessed the situation. Based off the tone of his mental voice she knew it was grim, if he was uncomfortable than so was she. With a grunt she turned away from the dwarves and raised her sword again, summoning forth as much mana as possible.

Setting up a perimeter may have sounded easy to a common guardsman, grab your troops and form a defensive line. But for a singular assassin and her helper it was a bit more complicated. She knew of one spell that could work in their favor, but it was one she struggled with even at full strength. If she was lucky she was about three quarters capacity mana wise, if that. It didn't matter, even if she was running on empty she had to get the job done.

Stepping forward she muttered the incantation under her breath, focusing on the words as a construct began to form and swirl under her feet. Her skin burned as her veins began to glow with the mana. Her eyes burned, her hair burned, every ounce of her was glowing as if it were on fire just like her blade. She raised the sword in the air as creatures flew past her in their mad dash for the dwarves. She smiled as she turned the tip of the blade downward, slamming it into the ground. In an instant flames raced outward in every direction, burning every creature they came into contact with. The few that had passed her passed even the dwarves in their frenzy to put out the ravenous fire upon their backs.

The fire didn't stop there, it continued to race out until a circle had formed one mile in diameter just as Nico had instructed. The flames created an impassible barrier, one that none could survive in and none could penetrate lest they too wished to burn. Talia laughed shakily, already she could feel her strength starting to wane.

She watched with no small amount of satisfaction as the creatures around her screamed and burned, dashing about madly as they set everything else on fire. If she had been alone she probably would have laughed.

"No wonder they call you a monster." One of the dwarves mumbled as they watched in visible awe. Talia heard someone shove the speaker resulting in an audible 'oof'. She rolled her eyes, drawing her sword from the ground and slowly releasing the magic as the cries of dying creatures began to fade into silence.

"Silence Floki, without her we'd be dead for certain." Another dwarf spoke. She turned slowly, her muscles all screaming in agony. She hated burning through such a significant amount of mana in such a short period of time, but the field of ashes that lie around them was a testament to her abilities. Not a single monster remained alive. Quickly she turned back to the dwarves who all stiffened at her sudden attention. Nico skulked in the background, staff in hand and mask over his face.

"Weren't you going to lead them to safety?" She raised a brow at him even though he couldn't see it. He shrugged, tapping his staff on the ground. She growled lowly in annoyance.

"They wouldn't leave knowing there was still battle to be done. I suppose they didn't have faith in your skill." She could tell he had a shit eating grin behind his mask. She ground her teeth, frowning and shifting her weight as she waited for one of the men to speak up.

The larger dwarf stepped forward, planting his axe in front of his feet before craning his neck to look up at her. She looked down to meet his gaze while taking in his appearance. He had reddish-brown hair and a long beard, longer than any of the others. He also had ornaments that adorned his hair and beard, little silver and gold beads braided in randomly. That certainly set him above the rest, indeed he was of nobility or recognized by nobility.

"Mistress Hound...." He started tentatively,

"Just call me Hound." Talia cut in before he even had time to start. His eyes narrowed, he coughed, but he continued regardless,

"Hound, I am eternally grateful for your arrival as well as your... Partner here... But we have bigger fish to fry I'm afraid. While we have time I would like to discuss the dragon." He pointed to the sky to iterate his point. She looked up, confused as to what he meant. Dragon? Such creatures hadn't existed in thousands of years. Had he been injured? Was he delirious? She tried to spy blood dribbling from his obscenely thick head.

"Surely you jest dwarf, it's common knowledge that such beasts have not graced the skies in..." Waving her hand she tried to recall just how many ages it had been.

"Yes, Hound, I know that they have not flown in thousands of years. But this one is no ordinary beast. Much like the corrupted animals that we've slaughtered here it is a twisted creature, but there is no mistaking it. Perhaps it was raised from its grave, enslaved by..."

"No. I recognize the stamp of necromantic magics dwarf, and these creatures are not cut of that cloth. If that dragon is like these, then it is more likely..." Nico tried to cut in, but he was overridden by the dwarf,

"Demon." The leader finished the discussion, a grim scowl upon his face. Talia frowned, thinking back on what she knew of demons. They weren't terribly common from what she could recall, they were Vekkar's perversions. Vekkar was the god of darkness, a literal definition of all things evil and sick. Or that was how he was presented by the holy church of N'Kalla.

Vekkar was N'Kalla's brother according to religious text, both were the original creators of the world. N'Kalla became the first sun at the creation of the world while Vekkar became the darkness of night, the void. As time continued N'Kalla brought life to the world, plants and living creatures took root while Vekkar's darkness shielded the world from the outside. But Vekkar was darkness, and it corrupted.

As time went on Vekkar grew jealous of N'Kalla's success at nurturing and raising life. He chose to take charge of the night and he tricked N'Kalla into helping him create the 'daughters', who were otherwise known as Asha and Umwell or the twin moons. With them he took control of night, raising creatures that N'Kalla's fragile beings had never seen before. At first they were nothing more than bears, wolves, and other various predators. But as N'Kalla's creatures continued to thrive Vekkar's jealousy grew and his creatures became more monstrous. He began to afflict all life with his toxic power, twisting it to mirror the state of his own being. They became known as demons.

"I thought they no longer roamed these lands, after the... You know. End of the dragons." Nico shrugged, casting an uncertain looking to the other dwarves. They seemed to know a bit more about what was happening after all. If they knew anything at all.

"So did we, but after hacking a few of these monsters apart I have to conclude that it's the most logical answer. Many of the books I studied referenced demons as having black blood like the night they were born from and a poison that sticks to their claws. I noticed many of them had dark inky liquid dripping from their claws. Avoiding those blows was difficult..." Talia rolled her eyes at the lead dwarf's explanation,

"They're dead now, so what's the hold up? I'm exhausted and the longer this drags on the more I want to start cutting." She drew her dagger and pointed at the leader to prove her point. She was already starting to get a headache; her stomach was proving a point too. If she didn't get some solid recharge time soon she'd pass out and Nico really didn't want that on his plate.

"Right, right. There's a dragon somewhere up above, it's been watching us for a while now. We can't run away from it." The leader pointed up again and Talia followed his motion only to see dark and empty skies. She didn't hear anything, but that didn't mean he was lying. If there really was a demon dragon in the sky then they had to be increasingly careful, even Jax couldn't outrun a creature like that.

"I'll take to the skies and see what I can find." Nico didn't waste any time as he leapt up into the air and transformed in a flash of feathers and a few sharp 'caws'. Talia watched with a frown, curious if he would find something worth while. If he did she couldn't promise her ability to protect them all. She was more of a ground fighter, especially with little to no mana left for spellcasting. That left the option of running which they were quickly going to lose the chance to do if it truly was a dragon following them.

"If we get out of this we should avoid towns for a while. We've got a spot we usually stop at on our travels through here." The lead dwarf started, his men nodding along behind him. Talia turned back to eye him, he stood proudly despite his exhaustion and wounds.

"What are dwarves doing this far out of their homeland anyway?" She had to ask. She very rarely saw dwarves outside their normal mountain ranges, especially after humans banned them from most cities. Their very presence in certain areas could get them arrested. The dwarf frowned, reaching down to caress a satchel at his side. He sighed before reaching in to pull out a large stone like object.

"The dragons are dead, that was a common truth, however it's not the only truth. Before the riders of old died out they left something behind...." He held up the object as Talia's jaw nearly dropped. It looked like a large rock, a large nearly perfectly smooth rock that almost glowed red. It couldn't be...

"Eggs..." She breathed softly. Dragon eggs. She couldn't imagine the object being anything else, it wasn't translucent and it was perfectly egg shaped. Not only that she could sense the soft emanation of magic coming from it. It was truly magnificent. She never got to see such cool stuff on her job, suddenly she wasn't so pissed off about having been forced to rescue the small men. Though she was pissed off that he had the balls to think it wouldn't end badly.

"What are you doing this far out from your homeland with an object like that? And a guard of seven? Did you want to die?" She growled at him, red starting fringe her vision. A dragon egg? No wonder he was surrounded by demons. Not only that, it would not be the end of their battles. The object he held in his hand signified more than just the beginning of dragons again, it signified the beginning of a whole new era. Entire countries would march just to possess the egg. Countless people would gladly die for a chance just to lay eyes on it.

"The secrecy was what we relied on. I expected the worst of our problems to come from humans, not demons." He humphed as Talia reached forward and drug her forefinger down the smooth edge of the egg. Sparks ignited across her body temporarily erasing the pain and fatigue weighing her down. She drew back quickly, her breath catching in her throat. What was that? Did he feel the same thing while holding it? He stuffed it back into the satchel swiftly while eyeing her from the side with no small amount of suspicion.

"I do hope we won't have to worry about you as well, Hound." His voice held danger, the threat palpable. She rolled her eyes, as if a dwarf could pose any threat to her. Quickly she snapped,

"I'm not a thief dwarf. Or do I need to remind you? Regardless, I don't want a part in the politics and wars this is going to stir up. I can only imagine the bloodshed, I don't want anything to do with it." The dwarf laughed,

"Isn't that your favorite thing? You're an assassin for gods sakes!" She rolled her shoulders as the pain began to settle back in. He was useless to argue against and she didn't have the wherewithal to keep it up.

"I need a vacation." She mumbled the last part, turning away from the dwarves to note how dark the sky had gotten. The moons hadn't risen yet so the darkness was deep and impenetrable.

"Talia... Get out into the open now!" Nico's voice was distant but frenzied, her heart rate spiked as she looked around. She didn't even think as she ran back out into the meadow.

"Now I'm going to ask you to do something that you are not going to like..." He was panting, she could hear it through their connection. She watched the skies, picking through the stars only to find nothing. Where was he?

"What... Is it?" She asked darkly. She already had a feeling she knew. Through their connection she could feel his terror and hear the powerful flapping behind him.

"Get big. Like now. Like right now!" He was practically screaming at that point. Her guts twitched in fear and anxiety, she hadn't done that in a long time.

"You know I..." She looked to the dwarves who were watching her with obvious terror on their faces, little beady eyes glinting in the dark. She couldn't guarantee their lives if she did what Nico asked. She wasn't known for her control when she assumed her natural form.

"I'll keep you safe." He whispered that time, his sincerity nearly crushing her. She was almost ashamed at how much she didn't want to do it. But deep down she knew there were no other options, not with the final adversary. So with a final groan she sheathed all her weapons and did as Nico asked.