Chapter 11: Dancing With Death

Eragon knew that he had to fight against the twelve year old boy and the small green dragon, but that didn't change the fact he was trying to injure a boy. Arya entered his mind, "Eragon, we must not hesitate in our attacks. Though that rider is small he is most likely much stronger than he appears. If we lessen our blows against him he might be able to injure us." While he was thinking about this Saphira was flying away from them so she could regain height. The small green dragon was gaining on them because it was so light it accelerated quicker.

The boy on top of the dragon had short blonde hair with dark brown eyes. He couldn't have been much older than Nolfavrell, maybe younger than Birigit's son. Then whoever was sitting on top of the majestic green male dragon cast a spell that was meant to immobilize him. As expected, he was very powerful; almost as powerful as Murtagh was when he first faced him on the burning plains. With Saphira and Arya's help he was able to repel the spell.

Thorn then came out of the clouds above him and dove towards Saphira. She dove as well and pulled up into a loop that got her above the green dragon. Her tail then swung down toward the dragon's unprotected back and then his wards stopped it. His dragon was more skilled than either of the dragons, but she could not avoid both of them for prolonged periods of time. All of the dragon's wards were wearing out and soon there were none left. Thorn had multiple deep scratches on his chest, Saphira one deep gash on her left foreleg, and the green dragon was practically unharmed.

Before the two dragons could wear Saphira down too much Eragon decided that it was time to see if he could bolster his strength with help from Glaedr's eldunarí. He asked Arya to withdraw it from the pack and see if she could speak to Glaedr about him lending them some of his strength. They flew higher into the clouds and the dragons chased them. To his surprise he felt a great boost of energy and he asked Arya if it was from Glaedr. She said that it was and that he would be helping them for the duration of the battle.

Invigorated with the energy, Saphira then went into an attack of her own. First she swung her tail towards the green dragon's back and she hit her mark. Thorn bore down upon them as she knew he would and she let loose a stream of fire which was repelled by Murtagh's wards. However she had just wanted to impair Thorn's vision while she flew closer. Eragon and Murtagh locked their swords when they were close enough. Murtagh was stronger than he was before, but he now had to fight both Arya and Eragon at the same time. When they disengaged he had a cut on his left arm while the two on the sapphire dragon's back were unharmed.

While they had a second to breathe he surveyed the battle raging below them. The elves were being pressed back by the giants; it appeared that the elves were losing ground and men more quickly than the empire's army. They had spellcasters that were strong among the giants it appeared. He located them and told Saphira to dive towards the battle; he needed a chance to help turn the tables. When they were close enough to the ground for them to be able to jump off safely he told Arya to jump off and take out the spellcasters that were at the back of the army. She jumped off and raced towards the small group of giants who were locked in battles in their minds.

Arya was close enough to them that when they noticed her, they had no time to draw their swords. Ten of the spellcasters dropped dead because of the distraction and it gave the elves enough time to dispatch them. Roughly six hundred of the giants they had their wards protecting were killed and Islanzadć's army surged forward. Before the giants could surround Arya she was back on Saphira and in the air.

The other two dragons were coming at them full speed and Thorn swung his tail at her and made contact with her back. Before they could react they were on the ground and Murtagh and the child rider both landed. Eragon and Arya were able to get off of Saphira before they were injured; it was now a fight on the ground. As fast as he could Eragon muttered a spell of healing to close the wound that Thorn had left on Saphira's back. It was not a fatal injury, but it needed to be attended too.

Murtagh yelled, "What are you going to do now Shadeslayer? Will you run away or stand and fight?"

"I'm no coward." he yelled back as he charged. Saphira had been healed and the dragons took to the air as Eragon attacked Murtagh. Arya engaged the other Rider as he fought against him. Arya had a slight advantage over the child because of her experience, but the boy had like Murtagh become abnormally strong in a short amount of time and was tougher than most opponents. Slowly but surely Arya gained the advantage over him and soon she had him disarmed.

She asked him if he would swear in the ancient language not to fight and return to Uru'baen in return for her not killing him. He agreed and swore the oath. The smaller green dragon then landed and the boy left the battle. When she looked at how the battle was going between Eragon and Murtagh she could tell that Murtagh was gaining the upper hand. Before she fully grasped what was happening in the battle she launched herself into the fight.

Eragon drew more energy out of the Belt of Beloth the Wise and he was soon out because he had been using it during the fight. Doing something he rarely did he then drew a small amount of energy out of Brom's old ring. With two of them attacking Murtagh he was barely outmatched. He was able to block all of their attacks but he could not get any of his own in. They heard a roar in the sky and saw a red dragon diving toward the ground quickly. Murtagh jumped on Thorn's back while the red dragon flew low to the ground and then he was in the sky flying away.

"What should we do Arya? I would chase him, but I think we are needed here." Eragon said.

The elf looked at the fight roughly half a mile away. "I think we should stay here and finish this battle without the elves sustaining many more losses." Islanzadć's army was doing better than before, but their numbers were not as many as before. Arya searched for the queen's mind and then told her they were coming back to the battle. She explained that they had driven off Murtagh and the rider of the green dragon.

Saphira then flew them into the fight and dropped them off by the spellcasters they had found earlier. Eragon took half of them on and Arya fought the other half while the sapphire dragon unleashed her fury on the giants. All of the magicians were extremely skilled, but they were no match for two Shadeslayers with one of them being a Dragon Rider. Before long, they defeated them and were able to kill the rest of the giants with magic.

As far as they could tell roughly six hundred of the elves had been killed in the battle, which was the most they had lost so far in a single battle. Clearly this army was meant to kill as many elves as possible while Murtagh tried to capture Eragon and bring him back to the king. If it were not for Glaedr's help he probably would have succeeded.

Please give me your comments and critique it is much appreciated. Tell me what I need to improve on.