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Vandal sat down next to the fire and crossed his legs to tuck his feet under him.
Ashseeker lay astride his lap, and his hands caressed the surface of its blade as he waited beside the corpse of Laughing Vikkarn. The corpse of the dragon he had slain earlier that day was cold and torn to shreds by the griffins that feasted on it, the sight of which would certainly invite more than his fair share of wrath from the dragon's brothers.
The baron lifted his gaze up to the face of the dragon.
Although remaining very much dead, the lifeless eyes staring out into space looked as though they would blink, twitch and glance back down at him at any moment. And so Vandal averted his eyes, opting to stare out into the darkness of the night while bathing in the comforting warmth of the fire burning at his side.
To sit there alone was part of a plan he and the most experienced slayers among the soul-bound had come up with. The griffin riders, together with the giants among them able to bear a greatbow and the most powerful mages at the disposal of the soul-bound army, would wait under cover of the surrounding ruins to ambush the greater dragons that were sure to come. Everyone else who did not possess the means to pose any threat to the beasts were commanded to remain within the walls of the Wyrm's Ruin, Nyaldan and Enris included. General Rathir, among others, suggested that Vandal acted as the bait to draw the Ruiner Twins to the ground. The light of the fire was to get their attention, aside from the corpse of their dead brother.
To employ the use of lesser men would just mean wasting lives, as greater dragons were usually the biggest of their kind. It was like trying to scale the walls of a castle without ladders or siege-towers, and if it were moving and breathed fire.
All were to concentrate on the weakest points, like the eyes, the joints and the mouth- anything to cripple the drakes before the coup de grace.
But for all their creativity in their methods, there was still a big chance that their plan might fail. Rarely did any of the folk of Saggrel encounter an armored greater dragon, and in the encounter against Laughing Vikkarn they had little opportunity to learn any other weaknesses to exploit save for the one- where the softest part of the dragons lay within them.
Vandal had little desire to be cooked in the dragons' flames, nor did he wish to be chewed, ripped and torn apart by their teeth and claws. It was highly possible that he would experience all of them that night, so as he sat immobile upon the ground he struggled to prepare himself for the untold suffering he would have to endure just to get one step closer in finishing his quest.
Kill the twins, draw Idlekkarnhamth out so he too would be killed, then release the dragon smith.
A cacophony of howls, roars and screams reverberated maddeningly through every corridor and chasm of the Amell Pass. The dragons were close, and they did not come alone. Dozens of lesser dragons flew like bats driven out of a cave through the narrow cliffs of the mountain pass, then swooped down into the plateau. A swirling cloud of biting, gnashing teeth that bellowed a heavy stream of flame. It circled around the baron, creating a ring of fire that barely missed the hidden mages and marksmen concealed behind the aged pillars and brass statues scattered all over the ruins.
Vandal stood up, readied Ashseeker, and prepared to face his foe.
The dragon twins came, though not in the manner he thought they would.
A gargantuan greater dragon, broad-shouldered and disproportionate due to his oversized torso and back, peered from atop the peak of a jutting rock spire and climbed down the cliff. He was a lot bigger than Laughing Vikkarn, almost as big as the Wyrm's Ruin itself.
His arms were bulbous, more fat than muscle covering his limbs, making him appear as more bulldog than dragon. The monster's face was hefty, a pushed-in snout with a wide maw stretching from ear to ear that had this permanent silly grin on it. One of his eyes had been clawed out, and was now as lifeless as Laughing Vikkarn's. Massive ingeniously crafted armor plates covered his shoulders and neck. Curiously, skin not scales covered his body, although the leathery hide looked as tough as oak bark. On his back sprouted two tiny wings that couldn't have borne him aloft into the skies even if he tried.
Riding astride his massive shoulders was a smaller dragon, not much bigger than Laughing Vikkarn. He, as opposed to his brother, was covered in spiky red scales and had no armor on him save for the helmet that added a goring spike to his snout. There were no wings on his back, but the telltale stumps spoke of a harrowing experience that deprived him of his gift of flight.
Vandal wondered if such mutilation was the work of his cruel father, or just one of his savage brethren.
Closer, the dragon twins drew to the ring, until the big one stepped over the roaring flames so the small one could address the baron. His voice was surprisingly well composed, his speech more human than dragon as he greeted Vandal like a duelist would speak to a respected foe. First, he addressed him regarding his slain brother, who now lay ravaged upon the ground.
Astonishment rang clear through his words, "You did this, quickling? This deed?" A deep hiss followed, then the dragon remarked, "You don't look like a dragonslayer."
Vandal deflected it with a little humor, "And neither of you look like twins."
The red dragon chortled, clearly finding it amusing to have someone else to talk to besides his mentally impaired kin. "Is it the wings? Well, you can thank my poor dead brother for that."
Vandal glanced at the corpse, then back to the Ruiner Twins. "Vikkarn did that to you?"
"Yes, father always preferred savagery over guile, so naturally the favored one would follow in his footsteps. I should thank you for that, and in truth, I really do. But as you can see, slaying the favored one is a slight to us all. Satisfaction must be attained, it is Idlekkarnhamth's will." The red dragon grinned, "But fear not, I shall not let these lesser drakes tear at your flesh and feast on your remains- I and my brother shall do that ourselves."
"Ah, so this is a duel?" Vandal swallowed, feeling his throat going dry as he dreaded the coming battle. "Good to know."
"But first, give us your name that we might remember you long after we swallow you, pieces and all."
"I..." Vandal glanced sideways, peering into the giants drawing on to the taut-wire of their greatbows with lances nocked. The baron clutched Ashseeker and set his jaw firm with determination. "I am Vandal of Saggrel."
"Pleased to meet you." The red dragon reared his head proudly as he said their names, "I am Vilhemakkar, and this is Skarner. Prepare to die."
Suddenly, a lance struck Skarner through his one good eye and blinded him permanently. The massive beast squealed in agony and threw his head back, throwing Vilhemakkar wildly about while the red dragon clung to his brother's neck in a desperate attempt to stay on top. Vilhemakkar roared in surprise as he scrambled to keep himself from falling, "Treachery!"
The next moments were filled with a combined hail of arrows, lances and fireballs launching from every direction.
Lesser dragons fell from the sky like fish dumped out of a net basket, and the swirling cloud scattered as chaos ensued. General Rathir and his riders seized the moment and took to the air atop their fierce mounts, driving their lances through the drakes as they attempted to flee. The Ruiner Twins, however, did not withdraw.
Instead, they showed the baron how seamless their symbiotic relationship worked in battle, no matter how blind Skarner had been rendered thanks to the lance in his eye. The massive dragon heaved and stretched out his chest like a frog ready to croak, then bellowed a cloud of poisonous gases, instantly covering the battlefield in a stinging, burning fog of black miasma that choked any who dared inhale the air and scalded naked flesh. Then, Vilhemakkar coughed and sent a spark to ignite the cloud, bathing all in a powerful flare that burned hot like a ruptured furnace.
In the blink of an eye, half the baron's forces were gone. Reduced to charred and contorted forms that faded into ash at the gentle push of the passing winds, Vandal felt their souls enter his body and he was sickened by what he saw. They dealt the Ruiner Twins a grievous injury and paid the price.
Skarner was still howling in agony, and Vilhemakkar had to divert half his attention in keeping him on track as the massive beast swayed his head from side to side. The red dragon would be his eyes, and although that transition did not come so seamlessly, it still made the Ruiner Twins a threat to be taken seriously.
Thinking quickly, Vandal recalled the weakness he found in Laughing Vikkarn, then looked up at the twins that faced him beyond the billowing clouds of smoke wafting up from the fires burning all around him. Skarner was not the firestarter among the two, he was the one that bellowed the flammable smog and that much miasma had to come from deep within. Vandal knew at once that he could do something similar to how he killed their brother, although it did not necessarily involve him jumping down his throat and cutting his way out again, not this time.
The baron glanced around for anyone who could've survived the first fiery assault of the twins and noticed the same soul-bound sorceress who aided him in the battle against Laughing Vikkarn. She successfully prevented herself and some of the greatbow archers from getting seared off the face of the plateau by casting a golden magical bubble around them. The spell exhausted her somewhat as she had been casting fireball after fireball at the start of the ambush, but there was just about enough strength left in her to stay in the fight.
General Rathir and the griffin riders, after returning to see that all hell broke loose in the short time they'd been gone from the battle below, swooped down to fill the Ruiner Twins' hides with lances shot from their greatbows. The clamor of their shafts shattering against the armor and impressive scales of the twins rang clear through the air, and Vilhemakkar pulled Skarner to puff a streak into the sky so he could set it alight as he did earlier.
"Hey!" Vandal said to the sorceress as he leapt to her side, "I've got an idea."
"Good, we could just about use one." The woman replied as she healed the burns on the arm of one of the archers.
"The big one puffs a nasty cloud while the small one sets it alight." The baron revealed his plan, "I need you and any of the mages we have here to blast the thing while it huffs, hit it square inside its mouth just as the clouds would start to pour. I know they're very soft in the inside, such a move would surely kill them."
The sorceress smirked and nodded, "Yes, I think that would do nicely."
"Alright, I'm going to go out there and draw their attention to me." Vandal, determined to end this battle as quickly as possible, grasped tight to Ashseeker's handle. "Be ready."
There were about five mages left among the soul-bound as few were able to protect themselves in time from the Ruiner Twin's attacks. The sorceress rallied them together and they combined their spells into one as the baron ran forward with his flaming sword raised high. Skarner had already began huffing another load, ready to to expel the heavy poisonous cloud into the air for Vilhemakkar to set fire to. The red dragon saw the charging knight and pulled his bigger twin to bathe him in thick smog, licking his lips as the faint sparks in his mouth flew with every click of his teeth.
Neither ever got the chance as a single beam of light tore through space and struck Skarner deep in the roof of his wide mouth. The blind greater dragon uttered a brief squeak just as the entire mouthful he'd been storing went up in flames. It traveled down his throat, surging deep into the sulfuric pits of his stomach before blowing him apart as the intense pressure welling up proved too much for the titan to handle.
He expanded like an overfilled waterskin and in a spectacular display of gore, Skarner perished in a ball of flame, blood and meat. The resulting explosion rocked the whole mountain pass, sending rocks and trees toppling down to fill the chasms below.
In the end, man and soul-bound stood victorious against the dragons once more.
Vilhemakkar lay amongst his brother's remains, covered in guts and left with little means to defend himself save for his teeth and claws. It would not be enough, he was nothing without Skarner and his enemies knew this, which was why they surrounded and approached him with little fear. Enris and the men of Cintra, along with Nyaldan and the Nilfgaardians, emerged from the Wyrm's Ruin to rejoin the others in the aftermath of the battle.
Vandal of Saggrel was among them, the fight was finished.
"You did not fight fair." Vilhemakkar remarked, staying where he was as he lay crouched atop the pool of blood.
"Nor did you." Vandal replied, "Two against one, the scales were never balanced."
"Well pardon me...I was handicapped." The red dragon joked, sighing deeply as he realized his end was near. He lamented the loss of his brother whom, as it turned out, he was rather close to. "Oh, poor Skarner. Vikkarn probably deserved what he got, but not him..."
Vandal drew closer, ignoring the rumbling growl behind Vilhemakkar's throat. The tip of his sword touched the top of his snout, and the baron spoke kindly to his beaten opponent. "You...loved your brother."
"Of course." The red dragon answered, "He was born a simpleton, but his love for me was unconditional."
"You always thought of him that way, or was it because of those?" Vandal pointed to the stumps where his wings used to be.
Vilhemakkar hesitated before revealing that treasured secret. He reluctantly gave his reply, "Yes and no. I pitied him when we were still hatchlings...and when I was robbed of my wings, I grew fond of him..."
"Why waste time learning the tales of this wretch?" General Rathir, always the fiery one among them, bellowed. "Kill the beast and be done with it!"
Vandal ignored him and pulled his sword away, sticking it into the dirt as he knelt before the dragon. "Tell me then, do you have any love for your father Idlekkarnhamth as you did with your brother?"
Amidst the sadness in his eyes, there was a spark of hatred. A simple and single resounding answer spoke volumes upon the untold cruelty that befell the red dragon in the past. "No."
"If I spare your life today..." Vandal offered, "...will you help me put an end to your father's ambitions?"
To the baron, there was room for redemption in the case of Vilhemakkar. From his perspective, the dragon acted more as a slave to his father's will than a son hoping to avenge a dead brother. In a way, he offered him freedom. True, many died because of their actions that day, and no amount of goodwill could hope to wash away those wrongs. He could still, however, help save many lives by helping them slay Idlekkarnhamth and bring peace back to the land.
Vilhemakkar stared deep into the eyes of the baron and saw the goodness in him. There was no trickery or falsehood in his words, and he decided to take him up on his offer. "If you spare me...and succeed and killing a tyrant...I shall serve you for life."
The very thought that the baron would eagerly ally himself with one that had only recently caused the deaths of so many of their own, it was too much for Rathir. Angrily, he snarled at the younger man as he raised his lance against him. "You dare broker peace with this...thing?! After how many of my brothers and sisters he and his kind have slain?! You go too far, Vandal! I will not let this stand!"
Vandal glared at him and stood up, finally having enough of the general's challenges. "No, it is you who has gone too far, general. Back down."
Behind the bristling griffin mask, a bristling visage of a man driven mad by rage was thinly veiled. "I've endured having to answer to the pup that fancies himself a dog-of-war. NO MORE!"
As he drew his lance back to run him through, Vilhemakkar proved his loyalty and lunged forward, biting down hard on the general's middle to hold him in place. Rathir roared angrily as he struggled to set himself loose from the dragon's teeth, but the grip of those jaws was strong and it tightened the more he struggled.
Vandal, demonstrating a point, raised Ashseeker high and sliced the lance in half.
Immediately, the griffin riders drew lances upon their greatbows to defend the general, while the other soul-bound turned their weapons against them to defend the baron. Enris and Nyaldan sided with Vandal, even if they had no idea what was going on. Neither side wished to strike the first blow, but they were torn between their allegiances.
One leader wished to see the dragon pay for his supposed crimes, while the other wished for him to be redeemed from them.
Eyes frantically darted from one way to the other. The glimmer of spells ready to let loose shone amidst the throng, and both leaders had their gazes locked on one another. Vandal's sword was poised to strike Rathir's head from his neck, but the hands that held it up were steady and the baron had little desire to kill the man that once had been his ally.
"I do not play the dog-of-war, General Rathir." Vandal bristled, possessing a cold rage that smoldered beneath what once was a timid veil. "You once said that I wear my ideals well. This is true, they guide me in all that I do and they will bring me to a higher path. Yours, however, will keep you where you are- low and headed for ruination."
The general said nothing, his rage prevented him from doing so.
"Vilhemakkar, release him." Vandal said to the dragon.
The red dragon obeyed, thrusting the general far from the baron as his teeth loosened their grip on his armor. Rathir stood there for the longest time, fists curled and arms trembling with anger. Vandal did not move, he watched the general as a wolf would eye its rival, daring him to strike again.
Instead, Rathir mounted Hellsmiter and took to the skies, with all of his griffin riders in tow.
Enris couldn't stifle a remark of the obvious, "Well, there goes our support from the skies."
Vandal sighed heavily and sheathed his weapon, turning to the new ally he gained at the cost of another. He and Vilhemakkar had much to discuss, and the respite they had now would not last. "Tell me your secrets. Tell me how to kill Idlekkarnhamth."
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