The battle was already in progress when Drassia got to the base where the Shapers were. It was, of course, a Shaping battle: the Shapers were making creations and sending them out to fight the creations the drakons were making in the hopes that they would push through to where the drakons were and kill them. That didn't look likely, though, as the creations seemed to be in a holding pattern well away from the gates of Gazaki-Uss. There were several Shapers there, including, Drassia was surprised to discover, Councilor Astoria. She asked Astoria, "Why are you here?"
"Because... once, the Council was active. We visited every province. We led every charge. We built the Shaper Empire with our own hands," Astoria said. "That stopped centuries ago, and now we face the consequences of that inactivity. I am here to provide a good example."
"Who are you setting an example for?" asked Drassia.
"The Councilors of the coastal provinces. Sharissa. Nawaz. Even Shema." Astoria thought for a moment. "No, especially Shema. They have the most to lose and have done the least to protect it."
"Are you guilty of inactivity, too?" asked Drassia, and then wished she hadn't. Astoria didn't seem offended, though.
"I am. If I had spent less time in Haria-Kel, if I had gone out more often, I might have been able to prevent the... things that happened in my lands. In the Shadow Road." Drassia frowned and started to ask what had happened in the Shadow Road, but Astoria cut her off. "That, however, is a conversation for another day."
"Do you really think that the Shapers can be reformed?" asked Drassia.
"It doesn't matter what I think. I have sworn to do all that I can for the Shapers, and that is what I will do. No more doubt. Now, you should stop talking to me and get to the battle. When you get to the gates of the city, send some fire into the sky and we'll send some backup for you," Astoria told her.
Drassia created a war trall and a kyshakk. A nearby Guardian asked her, "Aren't you going to send those out?"
Drassia said, "My creations fight my battles alongside me, not instead of me." With that, she, Fang, Spitfire, the war trall, and the kyshakk walked off toward the battle.
As she approached the gates of Gazaki-Uss, Drassia got close to a friendly battle beta. It was weak and confused, as the Shaper controlling it was far away. Drassia extended her hand and her will, reassuring it and lending it strength. In only a moment, it was ready to fight with power and confidence, making Drassia wonder if this war could have been won more quickly if the Shapers had spent more time on the front lines and less in their fortresses.
As Drassia got closer, she could see that the Shaper creations were mainly battle betas and ur-glaahks, while the drakon creations were battle betas and ur-glaahks plus podlings and drayks. The combination of the strengthened battle beta, Drassia's own creations, and Drassia herself would, she thought, make a large difference in how well the Shapers did in this battle. Her thoughts were confirmed when a drakon-made battle beta came up to the one she had strengthened and tried to fight it. The Shaper beta retaliated, its blows landing much harder and more frequently than those of the drakon beta. Within seconds, the drakon beta was dead, and a few more Shaper-made ur-glaahks and battle betas were coming up to her to draw strength from her presence. She let them do so and continued on.
Now that the fighting was getting closer to the gates, the creations that had stood outside them the first time Drassia had come to Gazaki-Uss were starting to get in on the action. Now Drassia had to deal with them as well as the creations the drakons were making from inside the city. Battle betas and podlings started moving in from the sides in an attempt to flank the little Shaper force. Drassia snorted. She had no intention of letting them do any such thing. She cast a blessing and directed the Shaper creations to go to one side while she and hers went to the other. While the Shaper creations fought podlings, Drassia had six battle betas to contend with. None of them even got close. Her war trall's rocks, her kyshakk's lightning, Fang's poison, Spitfire's fire, and her own magic took them down before they could do anything.
Drassia turned back to Gazaki-Uss to take care of the drayks and ur-glaahks now coming out of the gates. She dodged the drayks' fireballs as her creations killed them. A few times her creations were hit, which made Drassia heal them as fast as possible. They slogged forward until they got to the gates of the city, where several more powerful rebel creations awaited. These creations attacked just as the Shaper creations sent to deal with the podlings returned. They were sporting magic burns that Drassia healed in seconds. The fight lasted a minute or so, with Drassia sending bolts of magic at the creations coming out of the gates during that time. By the time it was over, several Shaper creations lay dead among the bodies of the rebel ones, but that was only part of the price to pay for the peace Drassia wanted.
Drassia knew she could push forward into Gazaki-Uss if she wanted, but she didn't want to go too far, and besides, she had some backup to call. She raised a hand and sent a huge gout of flame into the sky. Then she resumed her inexorable push into the city of the drakons.
A few minutes later, Drassia stood inside the city. The drakons seemed to have stopped Shaping for a moment, as had the Shapers. Drassia turned around and looked at her backup: three kyshakks and four battle gammas led by an outsider woman who wore the insignia of a commander in the Shaper army. She looked at Drassia. "Ah, here you are. I am Commander Elysia. Say the word, and I'll send some of them in. We'll need to reinforce them, though; they'll get carved up otherwise."
"You're only sending some of them in?" asked Drassia.
"My orders are to leave a few back here to hold the gate. We'll need to fight alongside the rest to help them break through."
Drassia said, "Hold the gate? From what? The drakons are going to be sending everything at us. They'll have nothing to spare to send to the gate, and even if they do, the Shapers coming up here in a few minutes will easily destroy whatever slips past. Bring all of them."
Elysia looked surprised at the coherency of Drassia's argument. "All right, I... suppose I should bring them all. Just say the word."
Drassia said, "I'm ready. Go."
Elysia nodded and started moving. The creations behind her leaped forward with an eager roar. They ran forward until they found a few drakons. The gammas and kyshakks rushed forward and started pummeling the drakons with fists and magic. The drakons didn't last long. With a start, Drassia realized that she was right outside the hall where she had met Ghaldring, though some walls had been knocked down to allow creations easier access. She moved forward into Ghaldring's hall and was greeted by the sight of eight drakons and three gazers inside Ghaldring's hall. Ghaldring was not among them, but the walls at the back had been knocked down as well, revealing a part of the city that Drassia hadn't known existed. He had to be back there.
Drassia sprayed all of them with acid and directed the battle betas toward the gazers and the kyshakks toward the drakons. They roared and attacked. Since there were more drakons than there were kyshakks, Drassia targeted the drakons as well, drawing some of their fire towards her. She alternated between firing bolts of magic at drakons and casting group healing spells. It didn't take long for the battle betas to finish the gazers, but the gazers didn't go down alone; only two of the four battle betas were left alive. They turned back to the drakons and went after the drakons that hadn't been hit yet. Drassia cast another healing spell, looked at the entrance to the inner part of Gazaki-Uss, and immediately saw a problem. The drakons inside had started Shaping again, sending out creatures resembling the odd patchworks Drassia had seen at the Foundry Repository, war tralls, and more drakons. She readied herself to unleash fire on them, but stopped when kyshakks started coming from behind her and attacking the drakons. She smiled. The Shapers had started Shaping again, too. She fired bolts of magic at three wounded drakons, killing them, and started advancing again. She saw Commander Elysia fall to a drakon's fireball and leaped at the drakon, eviscerating it. She started moving forward again, moving slowly against the tide of fresh creations coming out of the inner part of the city. She dimly noticed four Shapers pass her as she went.
The core of Gazaki-Uss was a stunning sight, making it clear that, though the drakons hated the Shapers that had declared them illegal and to be killed on sight, they had learned a lot from them. They had borrowed the Shapers' tendency towards intimidating architecture. The enormous chamber was the dark mirror of the Council Hall of the Shapers, dark instead of light, dirty and reeking of sulfur instead of clean, lumpy and jagged instead of smooth. The mist and shadows made it impossible to tell how far the chamber stretched, but Drassia could instantly tell where Ghaldring was: in the middle with two other drakons, Shaping creations to fight those of the three Shapers just inside the entrance. It was the standard beginning of a Shaping battle: both sides would Shape creations to test their opponent's defenses, and when one side weakened, battle was joined. Drassia was sure that it would take quite a push to turn the tide. Then she realized: four Shapers had passed her. Where was the fourth?
Drassia looked to the north and saw Councilor Astoria. She went to her, wondering what was going on. Astoria's eyes were closed, but when Drassia approached, she opened them. "There you are. Good. Our essence is low. Our concentration is fading. We must strike quickly and destroy Ghaldring, or we're all dead."
"What do I need to do?" asked Drassia.
Astoria opened one of the pouches on her belt and took out a glowing orb, handing it to Drassia. It was about three inches in diameter and burning hot to the touch. Drassia quickly put it in her pack. Astoria said, "Take that to the eastern doorways. Throw it through the first set of doors. Then run."
"What will it do?" asked Drassia.
"Explode. Hopefully, it will cut off Ghaldring's escape route. We're not going to charge him, let his defenses tear us apart, and start wearing him down only to let him run away once we start making progress."
"How can I get to the eastern gates?"
"Run," Astoria said. "I would suggest staying close to the walls of the dome. Hopefully that will make it take longer for him to notice you."
Drassia muttered under her breath, "You're helpful," told her creations to stay by Astoria, and started moving off down the north side of the dome. She didn't get far before Ghaldring saw her.
He paused in his Shaping and pointed at Drassia. "You!" he roared, his words carrying easily through the dome. "You are here! I knew that you would come. I am prepared. You try to turn on me? I will devour you! This dome will be your grave!" He returned to Shaping, but from her angle, Drassia could see drakons in alcoves in the north and south that started to Shape new hunters, coming straight for her.
"Three drakons against three Shapers, but four drakons against me?" Drassia muttered under her breath. "Seems like a bit of overkill..."
Drassia started running and came up to the northern alcove, where there were two drakons Shaping creations to hunt her and one gazer to provide them with backup. She took a pair of crystals that she had acquired in her travels out of her pack and threw them, triggering them as they got close to the gazer in between the drakons. They both exploded; one threw out a cloud of poison, the other a spray of lightning. She complemented them with a shower of acid from her own hands. The drakons roared in pain. Drassia pressed her advantage by hurling bolts of magic at them, but they were able to recover before she could kill either of them. One Shaped a cryodrayk to try and kill her, while the other simply threw a fireball at her. Drassia couldn't dodge fast enough and got hit right in the chest. She went down like a stone.
The drakons laughed and growled something in their guttural tongue. The instant they weren't paying attention, Drassia leaped back up, drew her sword, and rammed it straight into the heart of one of the drakons. The heavy armor she wore made it harder for her to move quickly, but it was very effective, and in addition, she had cast an aura on herself that made her body very resistant to damage from heat, cold, and magic. The other drakon and the gazer spun around in shock; Drassia stabbed the gazer in its big eye, the one that wasn't on a stalk, and fired a bolt of magic at the drakon. Now she only had a cryodrayk to deal with. She fired some lightning at it and got hit in the back by a large rock, knocking her down. She jumped back up and spun around.
Damn. She'd forgotten about the two drakons to the south, which had Shaped a war trall and a rotghroth, respectively, to come across the dome and kill her. She shield-bashed the rotghroth and beheaded it while it was off guard, leaving only the war trall and the cryodrayk to deal with. She zapped the cryodrayk again, killing it, and darted at the war trall, but it went back, towards the southern end of the dome — and towards the three drakons right in the center of the dome, in between Drassia and the southern alcove. Drassia growled and dodged the next rock the trall threw at her, firing three bolts of magic to kill it. She started running east again before the southern drakons could Shape more hunters.
Drassia got to the eastern doorway and saw two rotghroths, two war tralls, and General Greta, a brave opponent of the Shapers from the beginning. Drassia looked at her and saw nothing but calm, even as everything was collapsing around her. At first, she thought Greta was going to fight to protect Ghaldring, but to her surprise, Greta simply smiled, gave her a little bow, and started walking away.
Drassia said, "Wait, where are you going?"
Greta stopped and turned around. She said, "For the past ten years, I have fought for one thing: a peaceful future, with honorable leaders who treat everyone, human and creation alike, with respect. And, I think, the best way to bring that about is to not defend Ghaldring right now."
Drassia said, "Well then, you'll want to get out of here before I blow the exit."
Greta said, "Goodbye, and good luck." Then she ran through the eastern doors, which someone had opened just enough to let her and no one else through, leaving Drassia to fight the war tralls and rotghroths. Drassia caught a war trall's rock on her shield, angling it so that she didn't take all the force from the rock, and leaped at the nearest rotghroth. It swung its arms at her; she ducked and stabbed it in the chest, twisting her sword before pulling it out. The rotghroth fell, dead. Drassia spun and cut the other rotghroth, which had tried to sneak up on her, in half with a single sideways blow, leaving only the two war tralls — no, make that three and another rotghroth, because the two drakons in the south were still Shaping. Drassia just fired bolts of magic at all of them, killing them before they could hurt her, and threw the orb Astoria had given her between the first two sets of doors. It hit the wall and fell to the ground, cracking open a tiny bit. It started flashing and smoking. The air got very hot. Drassia decided that she should be out of the way before the orb blew and ran backwards.
The second set of doors was huge — it would have taken hours or days to blast through them. That hadn't been the intention, though. What had been intended was what happened: the ceiling came loose and caved in on the antechamber. It would only take the drakons a few hours to clear the debris, but for those few hours, nothing was getting through those doors. Hopefully, that would be time enough to kill Ghaldring.
Drassia started to go back the way she'd come, but she stopped. There were still two drakons sending creations straight at her, and considering the ease with which she'd killed the other two, even with the gazer that had accompanied them, she could probably kill these two as well. She ran back along the south wall, killing the rotghroth that she came across on the way, and began work on murdering the two drakons she still had to deal with. She threw two of the same type of crystals she had used on the first pair of drakons at these and followed them up with the same sort of acid shower. Instead of firing bolts of magic at them, she just ran up and killed them with her sword in much the same way she had killed the gazer and second drakon in the north. She ran along the wall of the dome, past the three Shapers at the west end, and back to Councilor Astoria, who opened her eyes again at Drassia's approach. "We have little time left. We must strike."
"Well, that's okay, because I've collapsed the eastern tunnel," Drassia said.
"Good. I was hoping that was what that noise was," said Astoria. "And, of course, the drakons have outflanked us and sealed off our escape route. They think they're going to trap and kill a member of the Council. They are dead wrong. It's almost time to attack. Our power is fading, but Ghaldring is still strong."
"How will the attack proceed?" asked Drassia.
"Shaper Perlang, Agent Ela, Guardian Scott —" Astoria indicated the three Shapers at the entrance to the dome "— and I will create our final set of creations and charge. We will attack Ghaldring and keep attacking until we or he are dead. You must come with us. We will need your support. Do not delay."
"I'm ready now. Begin the charge."
Astoria nodded. She stepped forward and began to speak. Though her volume was conversational, some magical trick caused her words to carry clearly to the ends of the dome. "Ghaldring. I am Astoria of the Shaper Council. I declare you to be a rogue creation, of a variety declared Barred by Shaper law. You are forbidden. You will now be absorbed."
Ghaldring roared in fury. "Come to me, Shaper! I will take you! I will break you and parade you in every city in our lands! And you!" He pointed at Drassia. "TODAY IS THE DAY YOU DIE!"
Drassia shouted back, "Come and try, you overgrown reptile!" She charged along with Councilor Astoria and the three Shapers at the western entrance.
She could see that there were four pylons surrounding Ghaldring and his allies. They seemed to be inactive at the moment, but Drassia doubted they would remain that way for long, and she knew that whatever they did, she wouldn't like it. She decided to sabotage them before Ghaldring powered them up. She went for the first one and sacrificed three living tools to get the safeguards out of the way. Once that was done, it was only a matter of cutting a power conduit and cracking a crystal. Now she just had to do the same to the other three.
She went around the circle, sabotaging each pylon as she went. She only had one pylon left when Ghaldring roared, "Little creatures. You think you would challenge a drakon?" Drassia looked over at him. He had taken a number of heavy wounds. His scales were scarred, and the floor around him was slick with blood, but, Shaped and Shaped again, he wasn't slowing down. The powerful magic in his body was sustaining him. "You have no home. The time of humans is over. The time of serviles will never begin. This will be the age of drakons!" He held his claws wide. The pylons began to hum. Drassia knew that the three she had sabotaged would look like they were working right up until they were supposed to discharge their energy, but the one she hadn't gotten to yet would actually work when it was supposed to. She ran towards it and started trying to disable it. Ghaldring didn't seem to notice her, as he was kept busy by the Shapers, but Drassia knew that the pylon could still hurt her badly, maybe even kill her, if it discharged. She grabbed her living tools and started getting the safeguards out of the way. The pylon charged up. Drassia broke the crystal and cut the conduit just before the pylon reached its discharge strength.
The pylons all sputtered and sparked as they failed. Ghaldring looked around in shock and anger at them until he saw Drassia, still kneeling by the last one. He roared incoherently and flung a fireball at her. Drassia got behind the pylon. The fireball hit the pylon and blew it up, throwing Drassia ten feet away but leaving her with only a few bruises and some singed hair. She got back to her feet just in time to be hit by Ghaldring's next fireball. She stumbled back, regained her balance, and charged.
Ghaldring Shaped another cryodrayk before Drassia got to him. Drassia leaped up, intending to behead Ghaldring, but he swung one enormous claw into her shield, throwing her aside and into the ground. Drassia got back up and sent a mental instruction to her creations to attack the other two drakons in the center circle. The war trall and Fang attacked the one on Ghaldring's left, while the kyshakk and Spitfire attacked the one on his right. Agent Ela joined Fang as Guardian Scott joined Spitfire, leaving Shaper Perlang, Councilor Astoria, and Drassia to fight Ghaldring. Astoria sent a small, dense charge of magic into the air just above Ghaldring's head, where it exploded, sending a damaging rain down onto Ghaldring and his cryodrayk. Drassia fired two bolts of magic at the cryodrayk as Perlang fired two bolts at the same time, one at Ghaldring, one at the cryodrayk. Drassia made a mental note to learn how to do that if she survived this. Ghaldring contemptuously swatted Perlang's bolt away and Shaped a war trall to replace the cryodrayk that Perlang and Drassia had just killed.
Drassia sprayed some acid at Ghaldring, but he dodged and flung another fireball at her as his war trall threw a rock at Shaper Perlang, who ducked. Ghaldring's fireball hit Drassia, who shook it off as Ghaldring Shaped another cryodrayk. Drassia rushed the cryodrayk, catching its ice breath on her shield, and swung her sword down at its head. It snapped its head to the side and bit Drassia's leg. Its teeth failed to pierce her greaves, though, and while it was busy comprehending that fact, Drassia beheaded it. She turned to face the war trall just as it threw a rock at her, knocking her down.
Drassia got back up again, wondering why she was getting knocked down so much in this fight. While she had been fighting the cryodrayk, Perlang and Astoria had been trying to hit Ghaldring. He'd been having none of it, somehow swatting aside their bolts of magic and sending back fireballs of his own, which had much more success. Perlang and Astoria were both looking pained. Drassia cast a group healing spell on them and turned to face Ghaldring again just before she felt her kyshakk die.
It was the first time in Drassia's new life that a creation of hers had ever died. She screamed in rage and rushed headlong at the war trall that had killed her kyshakk, leaping up and kicking it in the head before beheading it. The drakon that had made it flung a fireball at her; she jumped over the flame and at the drakon, swinging her sword in a series of diagonal slashes, leaving a lattice of cuts on the drakon's chest, some shallow, most deep. The drakon winced in pain and brought its claw back to fling more fire at her, but she kicked it in the chest before it could and brought her sword down on its head.
Guardian Scott, who had taken some wounds from the drakon, nodded to Drassia, ate the contents of a healing pod, and went over to fight Ghaldring's other lieutenant, though he was still limping. Spitfire followed Drassia back to the fight with Ghaldring. Ghaldring's array of creations now consisted of a war trall, two rotghroths, and a cryodrayk. Spitfire growled and pounced on the cryodrayk. Drassia got that feeling that Spitfire would come out on top and went after one of the rotghroths. She swung her sword at it; it ducked and threw a punch at her, but she sidestepped and cut its head off. Ghaldring's war trall threw a rock at her, but she bounced it off her shield and fired three bolts of magic at it, killing it. She spun to face the other rotghroth, only to see Spitfire ripping its throat out. Drassia looked over at the cryodrayk and saw that it had suffered the same sort of wound with the same result. She looked back at Spitfire, smiled at it, and kept fighting.
Ghaldring Shaped another cryodrayk at the same time that he dodged attacks from both Astoria and Perlang, which made Drassia insanely jealous of his skill. The cryodrayk roared just before Drassia punched it on the nose and followed her fist with her blade. She readied herself to attack Ghaldring, but Guardian Scott's dead body came out of nowhere and knocked her over, landing on top of her. Drassia shoved it off her and looked over at Ghaldring's surviving lieutenant, which had managed to keep two cryodrayks alive long enough to kill Scott and some of his creations. Drassia took aim and fired three bolts of magic at the drakon. It stumbled back and fell over. Drassia's war trall finished it off with a particularly large rock to the head, making Ghaldring the only drakon still alive in the dome.
Ghaldring saw that his lieutenants were dead, but he was still alive, and, though he had been taking some hits, he was the most effective and efficient killing machine of all the drakons that had been in the dome. He flung fireballs at Drassia's war trall and at Fang, killing them both. Drassia looked on in shock for a moment. Ghaldring turned back to her and said something that Drassia couldn't hear past the blood pounding in her ears. She was too angry to know or care what he was saying. She charged him, aiming to cut off his legs, but he jumped up and kicked her to the ground. Drassia winced and got back to her feet. Ghaldring contemptuously slapped aside more of bolts of energy that Astoria, Perlang, and Ela were throwing at him and advanced on Drassia. She got up and prepared herself for an assault. Ghaldring raised a claw — and Spitfire bit his tail off.
Ghaldring let out the loudest roar Drassia had ever heard and spun around. He raised both claws, fireballs gathering in both of them, to kill Spitfire, but Drassia saw an opportunity. Before Ghaldring could kill Spitfire, Drassia rushed him and rammed her sword into his back. He punched her off of him and fifteen feet away, but the damage was done; even his stores of energy and essence were running out. Drassia got back to her feet, but Ghaldring fell to his knees, his weight so much that it made the floor vibrate under her feet. He held his arms wide and bellowed, "Enough!"
Everyone stopped and looked to see what he was going to do. He said, "I am defeated. I cannot fight it off anymore. But you will not slay me. None have that right." He closed his eyes.
Suddenly, his ribcage bulged out horribly. Then it sank back as Ghaldring fell to the ground. The leader of the drakons was dead.