Part 2
The world blinked back into existence with pain and dust. Arndt coughed, the movement sending searing pain through his chest and down his back. He groaned and twisted with spasms.
When his vision refocused, he found himself looking down a street. It tilted upward, sideways. Rubble lay along the side of a building and the black mass of his dragon rested crumpled in a heap a tail away.
Arndt darted his eyes around. He straightened himself and the street leveled. His nose crinkled up against the pain as he groaned again, coughed once, and then grunted out a whimper.
Groping at his chest, he found the hilt of his knife. He pulled the blade free and gripped it tight, resting it in his lap with the point angled outward and ready. As he tried to control his breathing, the pain only grew worse. He couldn’t think clearly. His comms piece had fallen from his ear. The little crystal wasn’t anywhere around him.
Heaving in a breath, he pushed himself to the side with his other hand and was able to shift a little down the wall. His back roared with heat and his legs were numb.
He gritted through the pain as he slid across stones to his dragon, all the while listening for sounds betraying the approach of orcs. It wasn’t until he’d almost reached his mount that he realized his ears were ringing and he couldn’t hear a thing.
After rubbing at one of them, The ringing screeched into a piercing cry but then relented. The distant sounds of the fighting solidified. Pops, clanks, booms, and roars—all coming from up the street beyond his dragon. Sunlight and heat poured between the taller buildings there, illuminating a small square with four streets branching from it.
He reached his dragon and stretched out a hand to the poor mount. The scales were cold, no longer warm with the heat of life. Arndt wiped blood from his nose and chin, said a quick gratitude to Oleum for the beast, and then got to work.
With difficulty, he reached for the storage compartments down the dragon’s side. One held a small bow and bundle of arrows but Arndt couldn’t work the weapon in his current state. He opened a second container and found a satchel of crystals.
He sat the knife down by his leg and hoisted himself higher and reached and unhooked the satchel and placed it carefully by his hip. With what felt like the last of his strength, he climbed again and pulled a short sword out from under the compartments.
He crashed back to the stones, leaning against the dragon’s neck. His eyes threatened to close and he feared his ribs would burst outward if he coughed again.
Looking up and down the dragon, he found the beast’s head was buried in rubble but there was a gap between the neck and the wall. It was as good of cover as Arndt was going to find.
He tossed the bag over first, threw the knife and the sword after, and pulled with both arms to drag himself across the cold and dead scales. His face hit first on the other side. The rest of him came next, flipping, back screaming and legs flailing, ending in a crumpled heap where he rested for a few flaps’ worth of time.
When he opened his eyes, the crystal bag was open in front of him. A comms crys sent sparkles of light outward.
He grabbed the object and twisted it. The facets crackled to life.
“Down pilot. Down pilot.”
“Where is he?”
“Circling. Comms clear. Keep comms—”
“Raiders advancing—”
“Barricade up ahead. Pull—”
“Where are the rest of those—”
“I can’t see him. I can’t—”
“Someone—”
“Run! Get—”
Everyone screamed over one another, muddling the channel. Explosions punctuated many of the interruptions. Arndt steadied himself and pressed the top facet.
“Rage Lead here,” he said as calmly and clearly as he could into the sparkling facets.
“Was that—”
“Arndt?”
“Arndt!”
“Contact, we—”
“Marines, form here. Up no—”
“Ther—”
The crystal’s relay crackled with static from a large explosion, cutting everyone else off.
“Rage Lead to blue frequency,” Arndt said.
There was further noise, mainly static and booming and the clanging of metal. At last, a coherent answer came.
“Blue confirm. A-firm. Blue blue.”
Arndt wrestled with the crys. He dropped it, fought to find it with his fingers, and grabbed it after two flaps. He pushed the top facet again. The crystal changed from the sparkling white of the main feed to a deep blue.
“Arndt?” a voice said. “Arndt? Lead, come in.”
“I’m here.”
He looked over the top of his dragon cover. The square was still and quiet and bare.
“Where are you?”
“Unsure. There’s a wide street here.”
“We’re circling west of the big square. Do you see us?”
Arndt looked up. The sky was empty blue.
“No.”
“Dropping lower.”
He thought he heard the thrum of a dragon’s wings but couldn’t be sure. He shook his head to clear it but another sound reached his ears.
Large footsteps marched toward him.
Arndt sank lower behind the dragon. He covered the crystal completely. His thumb rested on the top facet, ready to shut the comms off if needed. A troop of orcs appeared from an alley across the square. Arndt stiffened.
The enemies pushed into the open space. They slowed and spread into a perimeter with their leader approaching the downed dragon.
“Arndt?”
The pilot clamped down on the crys. He pressed the facet, shutting off his only connection to his allies but ensuring silence. The orc stepped closer with his sword up and ready. It hadn’t heard.
The creature relaxed after observing the dragon for a moment. The pilot held his breath. The orc, tall and dark and covered in leather armor with a sword larger than Arndt himself, growled something back at its allies.
It tilted its head, scanning up the street past Arndt. As it turned back, human and beast eyes locked at last.
The orc’s gaze widened before narrowing into a primal glare. It lifted its sword and opened its mouth to growl. But before he could make a sound, the flap of a dragon’s wings shifted the air over their square.
The enemy whirled around. A black streak dropped over the opening with two figures clung to the back. The dragon hovered and kicked up whirlwinds of dust across the stones. As the orcs scrambled for cover, a warrior dropped to a rooftop from the flying beast’s back.
A raider.
He landed deftly, stood, and drew out a bow, the arrow seeming to fire before he even pulled back the string. He had another bolt notched instantly, the first striking a fleeing orc in the side of the neck and flipping him to tumble across the street.
The orc closest to Arndt didn’t flee. He turned back to the pilot and cocked its sword for a swing. Arndt scrambled for his own sword, hand groping futilely, frantically. The blade would be useless against the strength of the huge creature looming over him. He was doomed.
But a raider doesn’t miss.
An arrow struck the back of the orc’s neck close to the right shoulder. The creature stumbled and dropped its sword. Turning, it let out a roar in the direction of the bowman just as a second arrow took it in the eye and ended it.
The raider descended from the rooftop. He slid down the side of the building to a balcony roof on the second level and leapt to the street from there.
Arndt came out of his own stupor. He clicked the comms back on and listened.
“Raider inserted. Circling.”
“Will come back to this channel when we get a troop ready.”
“Evac inbound.”
“A-firm.”
The crystal went silent. His Lev flight was under control, giving Arndt a strange pride. His men handled this crisis well. They were all good pilots.
On the ground, orcs tore at the raider from their cover. He dropped two with his bow, stowed the weapon over his head, and in the same motion unsheathed his two short swords from his back.
The warrior began his dance with a low, turning swing through the stomach of an orc. He continued his pivot and knocked away a sword slash and countered with a hack across the wielder’s face.
He advanced, silver blades already dripping with the black of orc blood. Two more enemies rushed him. One swung from up high with its great, dark blade and the raider caught the attack with his blades crossed, raked them apart, and slung the enemy to the side. He twisted under the swipe of the second orc, blades still weaving, and cut at its legs.
One enemy stumbled. The other fell completely. Two more beasts were on the human before they hit the ground.
The raider darted away, retreating to give himself space. The orcs spread out, seeking to encircle their prey. As the human attacked to the left, Arndt startled at movement closer to him. An orc came around the corner of the closest alley at a full run. More came behind it, running at the raider’s rear flank. The pilot pulled a crys out of his satchel, cracked it, and tossed.
The rock bounced and reached the level of the first orc’s thighs as Arndt flung himself to the ground, putting his back to the coming explosion.
A snap, then a rushing boom and heat and a snarling scream. Silence settled except for the cracking of rolling rubble. Arndt sat up. He pointed his sword up the alley. Only smoke greeted him over the shattered bodies and the ash smears from his frag.
The raider still clanged amongst the orcs in the square. The beasts converged and the human retreated, trailing blood from his blades and leaving one body after another in his wake.
Clawing and growling noises pulled Arndt’s attention back to the right. More orcs tried to climb over the rocks from his first explosion.
Arndt grabbed a second crys. Setting his sword down, he twisted this one between his fingers, hearing the crack and the release of air and feeling the heat rise through his pilot gloves. He counted one flap and then tossed the crystal high. It arced and exploded in the air over the rubble, raining fire and shrapnel down on the enemies.
Back in the wider street, the raider had been backed into a corner. Arndt picked up his sword and pounded the pommel and his fist into his thighs, trying to get them to wake up but to no avail. He couldn’t help, could only sit behind the dragon and watch.
Three remaining orcs pressed the raider. There was human blood darkening the side of the warrior’s green coat, but that was his only sign of injury. He stood upright, swords out and up, chin high, gaze steady.
The orcs attacked, and the raider surprised them by rolling aggressively into their press. He gained the other side where instead of running, he pivoted and slashed across the throat of the left flank enemy.
The creature dropped sputtering. Another swung its sword horizontal and the raider used both his blades to block the blow with a smack. He staggered from the force, reverberation and strain shuddering his body.
But he didn’t falter. His weapons came apart and flashed into a rolling counter with a slice across the orc’s arms and then a thrust with his other blade into the stomach of the third enemy. this orc fell squealing to the side, leaving the last beast alone.
It looked around for a flap, flexed its injured arm, and then hefted its sword. It reared and slammed its blade down at its opponent with its entire weight behind.
With a shift to the right, the human caught the momentum of the hack and guided it downward with his swords. The black metal clanged against the stones. The orc stumbled and, feet and blades swift, the raider ended the duel. Arndt couldn’t track where the killing blow landed, only seeing the end positions with the warrior behind the orc in a wide stance, blades at his sides, one dangled new bits of blood.
The last enemy’s face cracked against the stones.
The raider took a moment to stab down into two other orcs who were still growling and trying to rise. He then advanced to Arndt, checking other bodies as he came. His face was clean-shaven and smooth and his eyes were a deep brown. Sweat drenched his brow.
“You hurt?” he said.
Arndt nodded, then grimaced from the movement. “My back,” he said.
“How are comms?” the raider asked as he calmly sheathed his swords.
Arndt brought out the crystal and clicked it on. Crackling static came with a blue glow. The raider stepped over the dragon’s neck and took the comms and spoke into the light.
“Raider on the ground. Enemies cleared. Moving pilot now.”
“Hurry. They’re swarming to you.”
“Where’s evac?”
“Inbound. Rescue squad too.”
“Time?”
A black arrow struck the raider in the shoulder. He rocked to his left. Stumbling over Arndt’s legs, he steadied himself on the dragon. His calm face shifted into a snarl of pain.
Another black bolt knocked off the wall above Arndt’s head. The raider leapt out from the cover, drawing his bow and firing all in a fluid motion. He shot the closest enemy directly between the eyes.
Two arrows came back in reply as more orc reinforcements poured into the square. The raider moved sideways, continuing to fire. The first enemy bolt soared far overhead but the other struck his leg. He didn’t slow, but pulled his bow string to his cheek again and adjusted the angle of his aim and released another bolt through an orc’s throat.
His core remained steady above the hurt leg. He fired another arrow before any orcs could get new shots off. The enemies swarmed toward him. Arndt tried to push himself upright, tried to shift his leg and get it working again but couldn’t.
The raider dropped three more orcs. The last fell at his feet as he tossed his bow and flashed out his swords. He cut through them in a twirling death dance but a second arrow found its mark in the same shoulder as before. The raider spun, snarling with an open mouth, one of his swords clattering to the street.
Arndt sucked in a breath. The warrior kept fighting, swinging out with his remaining sword to clear space. He parried an orc blade and countered with a twist of his wrist so his blade tip sliced across the enemy’s neck.
In the space of a flap, the raider looked back at Arndt. The brave warrior nodded once, then ducked under an orc sword, picked up his fallen sword, and darted across the small square, drawing the enemies away from the pilot’s position.
The snap of dragon wings echoed overhead. It bounced off the sandstone in the new quiet and made it difficult to determine its exact direction. Then a growl echoed. Next came a human yell, a cry of anguish. Arndt clenched his eyes shut, body shuddering.
He cracked his gaze and reached and grabbed an explosive crys. A deep red center rested murkily within the clear rock. He had but only to break a facet and the insides would coil and warm and progress toward bursting. He’d take any orcs who attacked with him, burning them all.
An enemy returned from the raider’s street. Black blood darkened its shoulder and chest. A few of its allies appeared behind but the creatures didn’t approach. The first drew out a bow.
From seated and without his legs working, Arndt couldn’t throw the crystal all the way to them. The orcs wouldn’t play to his desires for a sacrificial end. The arrow notched and the bow pulled back, black barbed arrowhead pointing at the pilot. He released his crys and let it roll away harmlessly.
A blur struck the orc in the cheek. The arrow shaft snapped it around, head twisting and torso following and all crumbling to the ground. Two more bolts struck the orcs behind. Through half-hooded eyes, fatigue already taking him, Arndt witnessed a troop of humans advance into the square, raiders in the lead dropping the remaining orcs with arrows.
One warrior broke away, bow up and ready, scanning for enemies. He sighted Arndt and approached, speaking into his comms crystal.
“Found him,” he said. “Securing now.”
The scene blurred for Arndt. His body floated away to sleep and nothingness even before the raider bent and hoisted him up to pull him out of the rubble. Drifting back into a last moment of consciousness, he lifted his eyes and focused across the open stones piled with bodies all from the swords of one warrior, one raider.
And he saw that single soldier, brave and dead. Two marines pulled the body from the side street of his final stand. The scene was blurry. Arndt couldn’t focus. But the warrior looked as strong and noble in death as he had in his final moments fighting.
Arndt’s eyes closed and the battle and the heat and the pain fell away. His men would get him to base. They were all good and brave, every one of them, the raiders most of all.
The End