Gatekeepers Book 3: Redemption
Chapter 17: Extraction

Back in the center of the battlefield, Zero, clad in his Plasma-Tech armor and weapons, continued his fight against Corax, one of Vinkex’s most talented troops. Boreta’s enchanted mist had been completely blown away at this point by Corax’s antimagnium-infused air blasts. A handful of skirmishes between the two forces still dotted the sky, but most of the soldiers had ceased their fighting to watch the intense battle between Zero and Corax rage on above. Black, red, and blue sparks lit the night sky each time their weapons clashed.

Zero’s G.O.D.P.O.L.E, in the form of two halberds, shot forward in each of Zero’s hands and closed in on Corax’s head like a pair of scissors. However, the blades came to a stop just an inch or so away from Corax’s body. Bright blue sparks flashed as the blades came into contact with some invisible force. Try as he might, Zero could not force his weapon any closer to Corax’s body. Zero growled in agitation as he withdrew his weapons and backed off slightly, panting slightly.

This battle’s going nowhere! Zero watched in half fascination, half irritation as a transparent green film faded into existence around Corax’s body. Powerful gusts of wind blew outwards from Corax’s location, sending the nearby clouds flying. Not only has he completely obliterated Boreta’s Territory spell, but he’s constantly wrapped up in a wind barrier powerful enough that it knocks my weapon away every time!

“You’re pretty good, despite your size,” Corax commented as the wind died down and the barrier became invisible again. “You managed to disturb my force field enough to make it visible and almost fall apart.” Corax pointed the black tip of his lance directly at Zero, staring at his opponent down the shaft. “Now, what will you do next?”

At that moment, a dull red flash of light lit up the sky from the direction of Dragonspire Castle. Both Corax and Zero turned their heads, but they were unable to make out what happened between the clouds and poor lighting. A moment later, there was a faint boom, and Zero spotted a plume of dark smoke rising above the cloudline in the distance. A cold chill crept down his spine as he realized what was in that direction. Anxiety crept into his heart.

The Vizard residential islands are in that direction. What the hell just happened over there…?

“Do you really believe you can afford to take your eyes off of me?” Corax growled as he jabbed his lance forward, aiming right at Zero’s head.

Zero didn’t even bother to turn his head back towards Corax. Without even glancing in his opponent’s direction, he raised his left hand and grabbed the tip of Corax’s lance, bringing it to a halt. Shocked by the sudden display of strength, Corax tried to pull his weapon free, but Zero’s grip did not allow that to happen.

“Sorry, boy,” Zero said as he turned to look at Corax. The blue lights flowing through the black lines of his arm grew brighter and brighter until the black was no longer visible. A low hum filled the air as the air crackled with energy. “I’d love to keep playing with you, but something else has called my attention. I’m ending this now.” Zero took a deep breath before uttering a short command.

“Plasma-Tech Armor, remove all limiters. Operate at one hundred percent functionality.”

With that statement, Zero was engulfed in a bright flash of blue light emitted by his armor. Momentarily blinded by the light, Corax barely saw what happened next. He watched as Zero effortlessly crushed the lance head in his bare hand, twisting the metal like it was taffy. In the next instant, Zero fist came flying forward and smashed into Corax’s face, breaking nearly all the bones in the snout and crumpling it inwards. A sonic boom rang out as Corax was thrown away with the speed of a rocket until he slammed into a nearby floating island. The island shattered from the force of the impact, and large pieces broke off before falling to the ground below. As the dust settled, it revealed Corax’s unconscious body laying among the rubble. Blood dripped from his broken face and coated his chest.

The light from Zero’s armor faded away until it returned to its normal pulsing, and as soon as it did, Zero bent over and breathed heavily, as if he had just taken a blow to the gut. The surrounding enemy soldiers ceased their fights completely as they rushed to Corax’s side, calling out the fighter’s name. Zero managed to raise one hand to indicate to his own troops not to pursue.

“Are you okay, Zero?”

Zero twisted his head and saw Vertex and Poseidon flying upwards towards him. Poseidon had the unconscious Balara wrapped in chains and hanging limping in the air below him. The pair came to a halt next to Zero’s side.

“We saw that last attack of yours,” Poseidon commented, glancing down at Corax’s body. “That was quite an impressive display of strength. How did you do that?”

Zero finally caught his breath and straightened up. He let out a sigh as he rolled his right shoulder. “This Plasma-Tech Armor has a very wide range of capabilities, not to mention how much it augments my abilities,” he started. He winced in pain before continuing. “In fact, it’s so powerful, I normally have to keep it functioning at thirty percent of its full power. Anymore than that, and my body’s unable to keep up with it. Even functioning at one hundred percent for just a few seconds was enough to make my body sore all over.”

“So, you’re telling us that you’ve created a potentially deadly set of armor?” Vertex questioned flatly, eyeing Zero with a hard stare. “You should not be wearing that, then. You know how Theravor feels about us using dangerous equipment like that.”

“He doesn’t have to know about this, you know?” Zero growled, the tip of his tail twitching slightly. He glanced up and down Vertex’s and Poseidon’s bodies, particularly focusing his gaze on the stump at the end of Vertex’s left hand. “Besides, it appears that neither one of you is in the position to lecture me about being reckless.”

“There you all are! I thought I heard some familiar voices!”

The three dragons turned their heads to see Damrabe and Vinzgar emerge from the last of Boreta’s mist, closely followed by scores of the Vinzgar family soldiers. Trailing behind them was Reothad, flying with a large chunk of ice sitting on his back between his wings. Upon seeing Vertex and Poseidon’s injuries, Damrabe uttered a short curse word under his breath and rushed over to treat their injuries.

“I see the three of you managed to win your battles,” Vinzgar observed. He eyed Vertex’s hand injury before glancing down at the unconscious Balara before giving a snort. “I see you had a rough time with Balara, Vertex.”

Vertex’s annoyed growl was cut off as he winced in pain from Damrabe jabbing a talon directly into his open wound. “How could I have known the bastard would try to bite might head off the moment I separated him and Río from Vinkex?” he hissed in pain. Damrabe pulled his talon out, and a new hand quickly sprouted from the stump. Vertex held it up to examine it, flexing his talons a few times before sighing. He turned his gaze to Reothad, who now held the large chunk of ice in his hands before him. There was something encased in the ice, but Vertex couldn’t quite make out what it was, other than identifying it as a dragon. “Anyways, what is it that you have in there?”

Reothad lifted the ice block up even higher. “Take a look for yourself and see,” he stated simply.

Curious, Zero, Vertex, and Poseidon, with Damrabe hot on his heels, approached the ice chuck and examined it closely. Zero was the first one to let out a gasp of surprise before backing away slightly.

“I-isn’t that Río?!” he exclaimed. “What happened to him?!”

The next few minutes flew by as the dragons quickly exchanged information. From out of nowhere, Vinzgar produced a large cigar and stuck it in his mouth as he listened to the others talk, occasionally blowing a puff of smoke from the tip. When the others finished talking, he pulled it out and gave a long sigh, filling the surrounding air with herbal-smelling smoke.

“From what I can tell, it seems like all Balara has going for him is his own strength and his ability to manipulate others to do his bidding,” he surmised, extinguishing his cigar between his talons and dropping it inside the collar of his ebony chestplate. He glanced down at the enemy soldiers still gathered around Corax’s limp body before fixing his gaze on Reothad. Reothad nodded and slowly floated down to the gathering of soldiers, still holding the frozen Olafoc. Several of the soldiers saw his approach and readied their weapons, but most of them didn’t bother doing so and just glared at Reothad. Reothad came to a stop about a dozen or so yards away.

“I realize that all of you are prepared to fight to the death to realize the Rogue King’s goals,” Reothad started. “But please, be at ease for now. None of us want to battle you right now; we just want to talk.”

The handful of soldiers who’d readied themselves to fight raised their weapons even higher as a dangerous light filled their eyes. Reothad sighed and was about to give up on a peaceful discussion when another voice spoke up.

“It’s alright, everyone. Please, just let that dragon speak.”

Every head turned in the direction of the voice to see Corax struggling to sit up. Blood still dripped from his half-healed injuries as he fixed his weary eyes of Reothad.

“Corax!” several soldiers cried at once. “Are you alright?!”

“Do I look alright?” Corax growled, spitting out a mouthful of blood. He held up his mangled weapon for all to see. “My prized weapon was just destroyed with as much effort as snapping a twig, and my face was crushed in a single blow from one dragon.” He shook his head before throwing his broken lance aside. “Everyone, just stand down. We can’t win at this rate; all we’ll do is get beaten up for no reason.”

The battle-ready soldiers exchanged hesitant glances with one another before finally lowering their weapons.

“Now, you there,” Corax said, directing his attention to Reothad. “I’d imagine you must have some pretty important information to share with us if you want to speak with us so badly in the middle of a war. Out with it.”

Reothad nodded but said nothing. Instead, he tossed the chunk of ice at Corax. The ice hit the ground and bounced just before rolling to a stop in front of Corax. Inside, clear for everyone to see, was the shriveled, living husk of a dragon in the image of Río, but the face had been pulled back, revealing another dragon’s face. A stunned silence fell upon the soldiers before furious roars filled the night air.

Vinkex’s tail came flying at Theravor from the side. But Theravor didn’t bother trying to dodge it; instead, he calmly watched it draw closer. At the last possible second, the tail’s trajectory suddenly changed course and the bladed tail tip flew just above Theravor’s brow.

“That’s the fifth time you’ve managed to miss me,” Theravor commented to an agitated Vinkex. “Do you think you’ll accomplish anything by missing your target?”

“Silence!” Vinkex snapped. The sclera of Vinkex’s right eye was almost completely black; there was only a little bit of white showing in the rightmost corner. Judging by the strength of the winds in the wake of Vinkex’s attacks, Theravor assumed Vinkex’s overall strength has also been gradually increasing over the last few minutes. But all of Vinkex’s recent attacks have abruptly missed Theravor by a small margin.

It’s not that Vinkex isn’t trying to hit me; that would defeat the purpose of going to war with me. All of his attacks have shifted away from me at the last possible second. It’s almost as if....

As if to confirm Theravor’s suspicions, Vinkex let out a loud growl before muttering something under his breath. Theravor couldn’t quite make it out, but he did hear him say ‘damned brat’.

“Then how about this?” Vinkex growled. He lifted his right hand high in the air. A massive, translucent black-blue greatsword, with a blade as large as Vinkex and a barely visible handle, appeared in the air above him. The blade shot down towards Theravor, who readied his own magic to intercept it. However, out of the corner of his eye, Theravor noticed Vinkex’s right pinky talon made a slight twitch. A small flash of light shot out of the talon and rammed into the side of the large blade, which cracked and shattered into pieces.

“The brat’s even interfering with my magic attacks?!” Vinkex roared in rage.

“Looks like I was right,” Theravor snorted. He dropped his guard and drew close to Vinkex, who only grew more visibly agitated at Theravor’s bold move. When Theravor was in range, Vinkex threw a heavy punch, but the fist flew past the side of Theravor’s head.

“You made a grave miscalculation in trying to assimilate Draycos into your body,” Theravor stated as he and Vinkex stared one another down. “Merging his body with your own only gave him the advantage of interfering with your every move, due to his tremendous willpower; you can’t even hit me when I’m right in front of you. You vastly underestimated his abilities because of your dragon supremacy beliefs.” Theravor paused and shook his head. “But to be fair, I think everyone involved in this battle underestimated him. To affect your actions in such a way is nigh impossible.”

“If you’re done prattling about the brat, then why don’t you listen to this?” Vinkex growled. He held his hands out in front of him, the bottom of his palms held against one another like the stance of the finishing move used by one of those famous anime characters. Vinkex pressed his palms against Theravor’s chest as an ominous magic aura flared up around the two of them. Theravor’s eyes widened in surprise as the sheer force of Vinkex’s aura before Theravor recited a short phrase in Dragonscript.

“Ver Vankon!”

The magic aura dissipated completely, and Theravor and Vinkex remained motionless for a few seconds. But when nothing happened, Vinkex’s eyes widened in shock as he backed away from Theravor, looking down at his hands. Both dragons had a bewildered expression on their faces.

“W...what happened?” Vinkex muttered. “Why did my spell fail?”

Before either dragon could say another word, Vinkex suddenly shrieked in agony as he curled up into a tight ball. Shocked, Theravor could only watch speechlessly as Vinkex suddenly threw his head as far back as his spine would allow. That was when an enormous, silver-edged black blade sprouted from the center of Vinkex’s sternum accompanied by a fountain of blood.

The blade shot forward at an incredible speed as it continued to grow longer, and Theravor was directly in its path. But the blade never pierced Theravor’s scales. Instead, Theravor’s body suddenly turned purple and transparent the moment before the blade reached him. The blade proceeded to pass harmlessly through Theravor’s gut and continued on. Theravor moved to the side and out of the blade’s path before his body returned to normal. Vinkex continued screaming as the blade and blood continued to pour from his chest.

“Now’s my chance…!” Theravor flapped his wings and shot forwards towards Vinkex with his right hand held out in front of him, claws outstretched.

“Ethereal Shift: Dimensional Hand!”

Theravor’s right arm turned purple and transparent up to his elbow. He reached Vinkex and plunged his hand into Vinkex’s chest, but no new injury appeared on Vinkex’s chest where Theravor stabbed him. Rummaging around inside Vinkex’s body for a few seconds, Theravor found what he was looking for and pulled hard. Vinkex’s screams grew more intense as his body writhed in agony. Finally, with a loud snap, Theravor’s hand shot out of Vinkex’s chest. Theravor somersaulted backwards a few times as Vinkex suddenly fell silent and grew still. Forcing himself to come to a stop, Theravor held up his hand and uncurled his talons.

Laying in the palm of his hand, covered in bile and half naked, was an unconscious Draycos with three large, jagged scars running diagonally across his back.