Rush Of Blood To The Head, part 7.6.

Rush Of Blood To The Head, part 7.6.

The air bridge is descending the whole time, but still, due to being completely surrounded by the leaves and tree branches, we cannot see exactly where this road is taking us. After a few minutes of walking in silence, we arrive at a massive set of stairs that lead us back to the solid ground and it does feel great to once again feel the earth under my feet. Besides, I think that we stand a much better chance against the dragon when facing it in conditions we are familiar fighting in… I can’t imagine anything more dangerous than fighting a dragon while balancing on a narrow tree branch, two hundred feet above the ground.

We find ourselves on a forest path, the thicket of leaves obstructing our vision of what lies ahead of us. Jaheira explains that the path most likely leads to a forest glade, used for religious ceremonies and other festivities. Imoen quietly sneaks ahead of us, scouting to prevent us from walking right into the dragon’s throat… We catch up with her, to see that she is peering through the bushes, raising her arm and ordering us to halt.

“Yup, it’s right there… jeez, and a big one, too…” Imoen whispers, “ergh, I’d much rather face some cute little golems or a friendly demon or two, than this beast… yipes!”

“I know, Im, but we got to get that silly artifact or else we can’t get into the palace, remember? Yes, it looks rather… huge, but I’m sure we can take him,” I say, “of course, if you can steal that artifact, without him noticing, then we wouldn’t have to fight this battle at all…” I add with a wink.

“Err… well, I suppose… I…” Imoen stammers.

“No, she will not do that! Some brother you are, Theodur, putting your sister under such risk,” Viconia snarls.

“Eh… it really wasn’t a serious suggestion, honestly… I was just kidding,” I try to explain, but Viconia just scowls and remains unconvinced.

“If you are quite done with the chatter, we should prepare for the fight,” Jaheira interrupts us, “it does look like the confrontation is unavoidable and it is bound to evolve into a fight. Black dragons are known to be evil, cunning and malevolent.”

“Lady Jaheira is correct. We will require some protection from its acid breath and the mages should remember that this dragon is immune to all acid spells,” Keldorn says and Imoen and Nalia listen intently, only Edwin snorts, wearing his all-knowing facial expression.

Viconia and Jaheira first examine every one of us, making sure that we have no injuries whatsoever, even the minor ones as this battle will require us all to be in our best physical shape. I am subjected to a particularly close scrutiny from Jaheira and even though she does not find anything wrong with my condition, I am still treated with a minor healing spell. Of course, I make absolutely sure that Jaheira is fully fit, herself… even though she finds my attentions extremely annoying and ridiculous waste of precious time.

The next step is the long process of spell casting in preparations for the battle, our mage trio are already chanting and soon enough we are surrounded by multiple images of Edwin, Imoen and Nalia, blurred, distorted, surrounded by swirling magical globes and encircled in barriers of flaming fire. Viconia and Jaheira cast spells of their own, strengthening themselves and making them more resilient to the physical blows and attacks of the draconic magic.

Summoning spells follow and quickly bears, skeletons, magical swords and other critters come to our aid. Then our mages and priestesses cast the spells that affect all of us, boosting our morale to prevent any of us from running away in fear, spells that hasten our movements and furthermore increase and better our abilities in the battle. After all the spells have been cast, we are glowing like fireflies in a late summer’s night… and we are ready to face the dragon.

“Just in case,” I whisper to Jaheira, leaning to kiss her on the cheek, before we step into the glade.

“We shall prevail,” she speaks determinedly, putting her arm around my shoulder and squeezing me affectionately.

The dragon is a grand sight to behold - its scales glistening in the rays of sun, spurts of acidic steam exhaling through its nostrils as the lizard bends down his neck to watch us approaching. Rarely have I felt so puny and insignificant as standing face to face with this intimidating creature… the dragon spreads and slowly flaps his magnificent wings and the resulting breeze of wind rustles over us, the spiky tale of the dragon is dangling around, reminding me of a cat, toying with a mouse. The dragon’s eyes lit up in a malevolent glee as it opens the huge, fang-filled mouth to address us…

“Food! Irenicus has sent lunch at last. It is well. I grow tired of this, treasure or no,” the dragon roars, “Nizidramanii'yt is no pathetic soldier to guard duty over a tarnished cup.”

“I suppose that means we won’t be able to talk you into handing the cup over to us and allowing us to leave quietly?” I propose humbly, but the roaring laughter of the dragon is a clear enough response.

And so the battle begins. The black skin of the wyrm starts to glow in a whole myriad of colors and I understand that the lizard is protecting himself with magical enchantments without needing to recite them or read from the scrolls. Attacking him, without stripping his magical defenses first would not be wise and my friends realize this well enough, as I see them sending the summoned creatures in the first wave of the attack. Meanwhile, our mages are chanting furiously and soon bolts of concentrated magical energy hit the dragon and I see its skin transforming and returning to its normal color right before our very own eyes. I realize that now is the opportunity to get in a pair of good blows, thus I mention for my friends to get on the offensive.

The dragon finds the summoned creatures easy to dispose of, most of them tossed away by the powerful wind spread, the others stomped upon and crushed into paste as the mindless creatures are too stupid to avoid or fend off the dragon’s attacks.

The four of us approach the dragon from its sides, Keldorn and Viconia from the right, Jaheira and I from the left. Just as we are about to plunge our weapons into the wyrm's flesh, another series of magical attacks hit the lizard, lowering his resistances to magic and a volley of magic missiles from Imoen, doing some direct damage as well. Judging by the dragon’s roar, Keldorn’s sword has connected well with the wyrm’s innards and the snapping sounds of crackling bone as Viconia is jumping around the lizard’s leg indicate that she has managed to break something, hopefully, the knee-cap. The dragon now turns it attention to those two, thus Jaheira and I have some time to choose more vulnerable body parts for our attacks.

We have to attack quickly, though, as I see that dragon’s claws catch Keldorn and send him flying through the air… unfortunately, he hits a large boulder upon landing and remains lying on the ground, motionless. Viconia now has to be extremely careful as she has been left alone in the frontline, but thus far she is proving to be very agile in avoiding the dragon’s attacks.

I waste no more time and run the Soul Reaver through the dragon’s belly, where its skin is the softest… the loud roar of pain signals that I have hit a very sore spot indeed and the wyrm now abandons Viconia and turns towards me. My sword has protruded inside the dragons stomach all the way until it’s hilt and as I slowly pull it out, whirling it around and tickling the dragon’s intestines, the dragon spins around much quicker than I expected and hits me in the ribs with a claw and in that very same moment its flapping tail, following dragon’s sharp turn around its axis, hits Viconia on her waist and the two of us are treated with a similar flight as Keldorn experienced a short while ago, though our landing is much more smoother… of course, the worst thing is that Jaheira is now facing the dragon completely alone…

Viconia is back on her feet quickly and she rushes to my side to cast a healing spell, while I anxiously look on at how Jaheira is faring… and actually she is faring quite well – she has used her scimitar to carve a deep gash in the dragon’s side, just above his right leg and now works methodically to open up this gash even wider by slicing it with her scimitar. The dragon is bleeding heavily and I can see his entrails poking out from the wound… Jaheira is almost totally covered in the dragon’s blood.

And again, three rays of energy hit the dragon almost simultaneously and another roar follows, but still Nizidramanii'yt refuses to fall… instead he makes a vicious smack at Jaheira, who nimbly sidesteps it, but she can’t avoid the dragon’s tail, hitting her on the shoulder and sending her sprawling towards a large tree, which she hits heavily and yelps in pain.

Viconia now rushes to distract the dragon, so that it doesn’t finish off Jaheira or Keldorn, who are still incapacitated, while I run to Jaheira’s side, my hands gripping a healing potion, ready to pour its contents into her mouth.

With relief I establish that Jaheira is not badly hurt and while I feed her the potion, I look over to see how Viconia is doing and realize that she has adopted the best possible tactics. Knowing that her mace does not do enough damage, Viconia concentrates on distracting the dragon as it tries to hit her, but all its efforts are in vain… the dragon is tiring and the drow is too agile and always manages to sidestep the blows of the dragon. Meanwhile, Jaheira rises on her feet and determined to finish the wyrm off once and for all, we charge towards it, weapons raised and at the ready. We reach the now bloody and tiring mass of flesh, bone and sinew, but just as we are about to plunge our weapons into the nearly dead dragon’s side…

Blackness… all consuming darkness… and it only lasts for a second or two, but I am unsure, perhaps longer… I remember only one thing, before the world went black… with a corner of my eye I saw and my mind registered Edwin reading an incantation from one of those scrolls we found in the elven houses… and it happened just before the world around us froze for a moment. As the darkness slowly dissipates, my attention is focused solely on the large… thing, lying at my feet.

Nizidramanii'yt is dead.