Chapter 37

Field Training

“You all have already been told this before. But I will repeat it again. The purpose for your visit here to the northern jungle basin is simple. We are receiving reports that a flock of psychic dragons are invading the northern border of our territories. Our job is simple, and one that any officer would have to undertake while stationed here. We are to patrol the border, repel any dragons and come back to base. We will use our locking-lightning techniques to help keep the dragons at bay, while we repel them. The idea is not to kill but to make them realize that going south is worse option than going north.” The instructor, liaison Milnern, paused. His silver lapels showed that he was only a high tier enlisted. Likely the type that would be assigned to anyone heading to a new unit, which made sense. The idea was to join a fresh-faced officer with a seasoned veteran of the area to provide advice.

There was a pause as he looked over the group, before he continued.

“Now I have it on good authority that there is a person bearing the title dragon slayer here.” The liaison continued. While Lykan didn’t raise his hand as it was a statement enough eyes turned to Lykan to direct the liaison’s attention his way. “Well I have one order for you. Don’t do anything reckless, we will be in the air at over a thousand feet. Facing the most magically talented dragons known to the world. Your sword skills might be legendary, but they will do nothing in the air. If I so much as see you pull your sword you will have a list of demerits sent your way. Do you understand?” The Liaison said, then paused as he took in the uniform and weapons the boy was wearing. The boy did have a sword strapped to his left hip, a sign that he had earned the privilege of wielding such a weapon in combat. But the biggest surprise was the thick obsidian war bow draped over his chest with a full quiver of Iron arrows on his back.

Looking at the boy and his weapons the liaison paused, before asking. “You some type of archer?”

Lykan just shrugged and answered, “trying to be sir.”

The liaison just shook his head. At that same time the last and final blimp arrived. They were going up with five, four for actual patrol and one for the students to watch safely from a distance.

“All right, it looks like your ride is here. Now I will say this, keep your arms and legs within the craft at all times. If a psychic dragon somehow breaks free of the encampment that is fine. Your ship is shielded with the best mind protection technology available. Just stay put and the rest of us will come to your rescue shortly.” The Liaison said covering any last-minute concerns. While the shield blimp that the students would enter had far fewer defensive weapons, its metal lacing on the blimp and reinforced hulls made the blimp able to withstand most attacks made by a psychic dragon.

Everyone began entering the ship. “Kid.” The Liaison said, trying to get Lykan’s attention. Lykan turned, as did most of the audience that had begun to move. “I give you full permission to shoot down any psychic dragons that make their way past the blockade.”

Hearing that Lykan nodded.

The Liaison waited until the boy and other candidates turned away. As soon as no one was looking at him he let loose a shudder that he had been holding. Just locking eyes with the boy was intimidating, fortunately he had long played the role of a soldier that the role was easy to wield to mask his true feelings.

The twins made their way to join their fellow classmates, seeing them a note of panic struck the liaison as he realized his mistake.

“Wait, princesses and royalty!” The Liaison Milnern shouted as he realized that the second prince and his oracular wife from the Belkins Empire were also in attendance. “We have a special shuttle coming for you.”

The liaison looked up and then took a sigh of relief at the sight of the battleship sized blimp that was coming. While this was not one designed to take down a smaller and swifter psychic dragon, the powers that be wanted the biggest and strongest of air ships to protect their children and the foreign diplomats.

At first the first princess and her twin brother looked like they wanted to protest. But it was the odd words of the Belkins Oracle that stayed their hand and ultimately caused them to give up their protest of staying with the rest of their class.

“Come now princess.” Oracle Dathney began, “how else will we get first row seats to the show.”

With that the Oracle and her husband both took a step away from the rest of the students. Before she left the group, she then turned to Lykan, who she apparently knew on some level. “Lykan, I look forward to you gracing us with your presence real soon.”

Lykan for his part just stared at her and her silver glowing eyes. Hearing that the boy just nodded.

“Yeah, come on sister, we should at least join our fellow leaders.” Lawrence, the twin brother, said as he gestured for his twin sister to follow. It was clear that the sister had her doubts about the arrangement and that she wanted to be next to her fellow classmates. Then as the liaison watched her gaze it was soon apparent that she only wanted to be next to one of her classmates.

“Come now princess. I have a gift for you.” The Oracle said, as her hand gently wrapped around Princess Lauren’s. Liaison Milnern was at a loss for what to do in such a case, did he strike at the foreign dignitary? Did he let the action slide? Ultimately, he waited for the princess to make her opinion on the subject clear before he made his move.

“A gift?” Princess Lauren asked.

“Yes, a bracelet. It is an old mental charm bracelet. I have one for you and your brother.” She said, holding up the two bracelets that glowed with magical energy. The two looked at the glowing gifts and a moment of confusion crossed their faces.

As this was going on the first ship of students took off like a rocket straight up. With that Liaison Milnern let out a deep sigh of relief knowing that the royal family and foreign dignitaries would all be fine aboard the capital class battleship that was flying in just for this trip.

While the academy made it so that all students were equal, it was well known that special precautions would be taken with royalty who attended the school. While it was important for them to see the dangers that awaited their kingdom, it was also far more important that the royal family be taken care of at all costs. So these excursions were often a delicate balancing act.

“Here take these as a gift of friendship.” Dathney said, handing out the first bracelet to the brother Lawrence. Lawrence took it, and instantly sucked in a breath of air at the pulse of magic that flowed from the bracelet to him.

“That is powerful, but what does it do?” Lawrence asked still looking at the bracelet.

“They are quite safe I assure you.” The Second Prince, Khan Anwar, said holding up his wrist with a similar bracelet on it. Seeing the bracelet, Lawrence put his on. “As for what they do. Well, I will let my wife explain.”

It was clear that the second prince was more than smitten with his new wife, who always seemed to be in the right place at the right time to witness big events.

“They are mind protection charms. These should help us shrug off even the mightiest of mental blasts from a psychic dragon. Should one break free from containment and come towards us.” Dathney said.

Lauren just looked at the trinket that she now held in her hands.

“What good could we do if we were conscious after such an attack?” Lauren asked.

“We? We could do nothing save for watch the end.” Dathney admitted.

“So why wear such a trinket?” Lauren asked confused but still putting on the bracelet.

“To see what will unfold.” Dathney said, with that their ship landed.

Putter, put, put, burst.

The ship let loose a beam of heat as it landed. Such sounds were common, but something felt off to Lauren. She turned to Dathney who was already boarding the ship arm in arm with her husband. Perhaps feeling the intense stare at the back of her head turned.

“You want to know if such a sound is common?” Dathney asked.

Lauren who had ridden on many airships could tell for a fact that such a sound was not common. She was about to say as much when Dathney continued speaking.

“You will be fine. Just keep the bracelet on and watch how destiny unfolds before your very eyes.” With that the two and their entourage of royal guards entered the ship.

Looking around Lauren noticed that her own guards were also nearby, giving them enough space to have the sense of privacy but close enough to protect should any dangers arise. Seeing the guards who were always so close by, even in the Academy Lauren sighed and entered the airship.

“Do you think this world will ever make sense?” Lauren asked.

“What?” Lawrence asked unable to understand where the odd question came from.

Lauren for her part was too off balance at the whole string of events to fully formulate her thoughts. With a discontented sigh she entered the ship and was brought up and out over the northern expanse of the Sidherthan territory. The honor guard of ships was out in front, followed by the smaller defensive ship that held the academy students. Then finally in the rear was the Deadalus , one of the largest capital class battleships the Sidherthan military had at its disposal.

With everyone off the flight line, Liaison Milnern let out a long sigh of relief and went to report in that the training excursion was off and that the royalty for both countries got onto the Deadalus without any incident.

Meanwhile, the elite guard ships who were up front were already beginning to panic. This was mating season for the psychic dragons. This meant that the dragons would be extra aggressive and need to expand their territories. While attempts to hunt the psychic dragons, and other dragons down had been attempted in the past, such attempts were ultimately useless. They seemed to notice the lack of competition and could lay clutches that were double or triple the number of a normal clutch to help fill the void in population. Also, it meant that only the strongest survived and bred. That was in large part how the psychic dragons became so powerful to begin with. They were originally weak, with most able to stun a person with a mental blast at most. Now they had grown larger and fiercer with the ability to knock out an entire airship if one was not careful.

In all the final strategy when it came to most dragons was let them maintain the borders of a country. For an enemy country to invade they would have to march their forces past the dragon infested lands to Sidhertha. The march alone would be enough to break down some of the strongest of forces. Then the subsequent pushes forward would be daunting. This was the final reason why the dragons were ultimately given their territory of the jungle basin and the fiery plateaus. They were a natural deterrent to invaders, and there was seemingly little Sidhertha could do against them. So, all the border guards could do was provide as much of a deterrent to the dragons and their future offspring as possible. Taking down ones that they could, but most only managed to shock and repel the dragons with chained lightning that was circulated through broad iron chains that linked each of the vanguard ships together. The iron chains were of course hollowed out and infused with strengthening runes of magic a true linking of magic and technology that the Sidherthan kingdom was known for.

“Why are we even here?” Lauren asked, a bit of frustration building in her as she looked at how far ahead everyone else was from them. They were easily a few kilometers away from the other students, who in turn were a few more kilometers away from the actual guards. “I mean how can we even see what the guards are going to be doing?” She said, all but pouting.

“I believe that was the point, take us up on a benign trip to show us what a typical patrol would look like.” Lawrence said, reassuringly.

“Patience, we will all see more than we likely wish to shortly.” Dathney said, her icy blue eyes staring off into the distance. Then just as she spoke a black cloud began to bellow and roll from the jungle basin skies. Lightning crackled as sparks of energy began to roll from within the black cloud.

A slight feeling of panic filled Laruen’s mind as she looked at the unnatural cloud. It took her mind a second to realize just what was so unsettling about the cloud. Then she realized while the other clouds seemed to be flowing from east to west, this cloud rolled south at an angry pace.

Then with horror she realized that it wasn’t a cloud, “those are dragons?” She asked, not wanting what she was seeing to be true. While they were still far away, and the beings they were watching were small, barely more than the size of a flock of birds from this distance, Lauren’s mind knew the truth. Death was in that swarm, and they were not the size of birds, not by a long shot. These were hundreds and thousands of dragons who were all feeling the calls of the wild pulling them south to mate.

“Yes. I’d suggest you buckle up.” Dathney said as she began doing as she suggested. While her hands moved to the restraining straps and positioned them around her body her eyes never left the giant window at the bow of the capital class ship they were in.

Seeing this her husband quickly followed suit, followed quickly by Lawrence who had learned to trust the oracle in their short time together. Only once he was fully secure did he look to see that his sister was still standing still, as panic began to take her mind. Reaching out a reassuring hand Lawrence touched her.

Upon that connection the grip of fear that had been plaguing her mind vanished as she looked down to the hand. Then followed the hand to the arm, to the person who was her twin, her other half.

“Come on.” He said, gently pulling at her arm.

With that simple command, she moved and quickly moved to fasten herself into the plush seating just as the others had done.

“I must warn you.” Dathney said, as the ships at the front began to pulse currents of electricity through their metal chains creating a light that shown through the darkness that was the swarm of dragons coming straight forward.

“What’s that?” Lawrence asked.

“This next part will be quite intense.” Dathney said. Then with that quite a few dragons hurled themselves at the electric lines, touching the wires all to fall to the ground.

The guard who had been assigned as a caretaker chose this time to speak.

“Those currents are enough to kill the average human instantly. But for these dragons the most we can hope is that they are shocked long enough to fall to the ground where the fall will break their bones. Those that don’t die recover and often go back.

“ROARRR!”

A deafening shriek of power was heard as the middle ship in the formation suddenly grew dull and began to fall to the ground. The only reason it hadn’t fallen completely was due to the three other blimps on its side that still stayed afloat.

Lauren looked on with horror as the largest purple dragon that she had ever seen surged forward, followed quickly by hundreds of dragons. The dragons surged forward to strike at the defensive ship that held the students.

“ARRAGGHHARR!” The dragon roared again, sending a blow to the ship that caused it to stand still. Fortunately, the ship didn’t fall like the other hand, but the ship was as good as a sitting duck for the swarm of dragons that had followed the giant killer past the front lines.

Lauren looked to see that the second prince had placed his hand over the clutched fists of his wife. Seeing the gesture Lauren too felt the urge to follow suit, uncaring of propriety she placed her hands over her brothers as the giant purple dragon came surging forward straight for their ship. It was clear that the capital class ship had been its target all along and that it had just disabled the other ships to slow down those that would follow it.

They were going to die. That much Lauren was certain about.

BOOM! The cannons of the ship fired, most missing as they had to take wide angles to avoid the other ships of the fleet. Lauren watched as a few shots managed to land against the legs and torso of the beast. The beast not stopped by the initial volley let loose a third deafening roar.

This one, as the other had been laced with enough psychic energy to knock out the entire crew.

Darkness flooded Lauren’s mind as the intense wave of force was too much for her.

***

“Lauren. Lauren.” Someone was calling her name.

She felt her body being shaken. Then she awoke with a panic. Had it all been a dream?

It had to have been, they were on the ship. She looked around to see that Dathney and her husband were still seated to her right and her brother was seated to her left. Realizing that it was likely a bad dream she awoke but felt the need to warn the others.

“The dragon…” She began, as she felt fear gripping her at how bad the situation was getting

“Still above us.” Lawrence answered, then looked up.

Thud, thud.

Almost as if on cue the loud pounding steps of something massive could be heard from overhead. A chill ran down Lauren’s spine.

“Is that a psychic dragon?” She asked hearing the sounds of a beast that was easily three times larger than any she had ever heard of being recorded for a psychic dragon.

“Yes.” Lawrence said, his tone seemingly broken.

Poom.

Shots were being fired from light hand cannons on the ceiling. It was clear that the dragon had landed on the roof and was now trying to take down the blimp from the area above them. Fortunately this was the Deadalus, which was known for its nearly impenetrable hull that was reinforced with strengthening runes.

Still things were bleak. The front line was barely holding, with only three of the four ships still flying with the fourth one, the middle-right one hanging listlessly down. As for the other ship there was hope, while dozens of dragons had managed to get on it, the ship itself was mounting a defense as iron arrows and rifles struck at many of the dragons who were attempting to latch onto its hull.

Other dragons followed the trial, but all were turned back by a defiant roar from the monster that was on top of their roof. It seemed that the dragon matriarch had chosen their ship as its own trophy.

The other dragons all watched on from a distance, like scavenger birds who waited their turn to pick the meat from a prized kill.

“They are just waiting for us to die.” Lauren said, looking at the dragons who were even now forming a protective zone around the kill.

Finally, when she could take no more, she covered her face with her hands.

“Don’t flinch now princess. For now, is the time that we have all waited for.” Dathney said.

Lauren confused looked up from her fingers to the oracle who only sat calmly staring forward at the window to the inevitable death that awaited them.

Lauren thought she was crazy, who would watch their own death. Just when she was about to say something, she saw the moment she had been waiting for. A moment of hope.

It was so faint and far away that Lauren almost couldn’t believe her eyes. She turned to look at Dathney who still never turned her eyes away but still felt the presence of her gaze none-the-less.

“Yes, this is what you have waited for.” Dathney said.

Then sitting up fully Lauren looked on as a shiver ran down her spine as she saw something unbelievable.