Snow fell lightly among the towering trees as the sun’s edge reached the tip of the western ridge surrounding the Dryad’s valley. Shadows stretched across the land, covering the forest in a gray gloom. Occasional bursts of strong winds would shake the giant pines, sending large sheets of snow tumbling down to the ground from the branches above. Aside from the wind-driven trees, there was little movement in the forest.
But there was life.
A snow-covered army rested around the living walls of the Dryad’s grove. Thousands of demons were gathered, their legions arrayed against the barrier, positioned perhaps a hundred yards from the edges of the tree wall. Most of them were bramble fiends, little more than twisted clumps of vines that would not rise higher than a grown man’s knee. But there were other demons as well. Bone thieves with their asymmetrical construction and twisted wretches with their malformed bodies could be seen, as well as larger specimens. Grundwyrms and Nithetre, both gigantic demonic creatures, were scattered among their smaller kin. The larger demons were spread out haphazardly yet close enough to each other that there were no large gaps between them.
Towering above them all was a creature of immense bulk. It hardly looked to be a living thing, more like a gardener’s worst nightmare given form. A colossal bulbous body made of dirt and rotting wood sat heavily on the frozen ground. Three legs radiated out from the central spherical form, their jointless shapes made out of thick, twisting vines wrapped together like corded muscles. A multitude of tall, thin, fleshy structures grew from the top of the lumpy body, each colored like bruised flesh, all of them gently writhing in a slow, purposeless dance. On the lower curved slopes of the creature’s body grew round, pustule-like tumors. Occasionally, one of these growths would split open and a newly born bramble fiend would slide out to fall to the ground dozens of feet below.
Other than the never-ending birth of its foul children, the bramble fiend matriarch did not stir. It did not need to. Like the rest of its gathered brood, it waited. There was no reason to throw itself upon the dangerous, well-defended tree wall the Dryads had grown to protect their grove. Time was on its side.
An ear-splitting roar shook the air as a massive, winged form flew by overhead. The dragon’s cry was laced with agony, the torment of festering flesh made many times worse by the wretched demon ripping its wound open. Pain had overwhelmed its senses, just as the signs of consuming tentacles had appeared bulging under its scales, spreading out from the rotting hole in its shoulder. It wouldn’t be long before the dragon succumbed to the demon eating its way through its meat and blood. Once the dragon’s mind broke, the body would become a puppet for the possessing demon to inhabit. Then the demonic dragon would fall upon the Dryad’s grove and rip its defenses apart.
The matriarch waited. Time was on their side.
Just as the dragon circled the far side of the mountain, a sound echoed among the trees of the valley. It was not a dragon’s earsplitting roar, nor was it the ragged cry of a demon. It was a long, clear, piercing note, both musical and martial in nature. A trumpet sounded amidst the gloom. A moment later, another trumpet answered its call, followed shortly after by another, then another. Soon, dozens of horns could be heard, as could the resounding cry of scores of soldiers calling out orders, all coming from the northern reaches of the valley.
Through the thick tree cover flags waved, the brightly colored banners of various companies visible despite the dimming light. Hundreds of fiercely armed and armored soldiers took position on top of a hill, standing ready to face the amassed horde of demons. A commander riding a black horse, his large sword shining, waved and gestured as though he were prepared to give the order to charge, waiting only for his troops to finish their maneuvering.
The demons did not attack straight away. They turned, en masse, snow falling from their bodies as all eyes gazed at the intruders, but they did not charge. The demons simply watched, their unnatural silence the only answer to the war cries of the coming army.
Then, the matriarch moved.
One huge, misshapen limb lifted, shifted to the north, then came crashing to the ground with a tremor-inducing thump. The titanic demon lurched, its bulbous form dragging across the ground and leaving a huge groove behind it as the lesser demons surrounding it scrambled to make way. The fleshy feelers on the crown of the beast twisted and turned towards the army that had appeared suddenly before it. There was a brief moment, very brief, that it seemed as though the demon matriarch was contemplating the scene before it. There was no face to show a hint of emotion, yet the air around the creature was questioning.
Then, a jagged crescent moon of yellowish green light appeared in the air before the matriarch’s feelers. The fell runes that shaped the arc twisted into being, shimmering in the cold air for an instant before the whole arcane construction spun in place, rotating around an invisible point. From the sickly light formed dozens upon dozens of stones, each one weighing a hundred pounds or more. The stones rocketed forward as though shot from canons, arcing through the air to strike at the mortal soldiers arrayed against it.
Some of the soldiers dodged away, shields raised against the far-reaching attack. In some places, huge magical shields of light appeared, blocking the incoming rain of rock and death. Some were unlucky and unable to protect themselves against the barrage and fell under the heavy stones, their armor and bodies breaking as they cried out in fear and pain.
Those screams of pain seemed to be the signal. The horde of demons stirred, their bodies shaking off snow as they dashed to the north, charging the soldiers. As the demons rushed towards them, the soldiers seemed to break, their morale gone in the face of an overwhelming threat. They fled back into the trees in a barely organized retreat, letting out more cries of fear and alarm. Of the several thousand demons that had surrounded the Dryads' grove, well more than half took the bait.
“There they go,” Syd murmured from her spot in the tall pine tree overlooking the horde and valley. “About as many as we could really hope for. Sucks that the matriarch isn’t following, though.”
“It’s too slow to chase,” Noll quietly growled from where he crouched on a branch nearby.
“Hopefully that means it’ll be too slow to come this way, too,” Syd murmured, eyeing the walking landmass.
“We’ll see,” was Noll’s only response.
It was truly amazing that Jack had been able to create such a massive, realistic illusion. She wasn’t sure if each conjured image of a soldier was an individually controlled construct or if the scene of a retreating army was more like one single magical mirage, but either way it was convincing. Even the fact that the matriarch’s spell-conjured stones had just passed through the ethereal soldiers had been accounted for as Jack had made the soldiers react appropriately.
Jack really was a monstrously powerful being.
Turning her eyes away from the demons and the fleeing illusions, Syd searched the skies for their priority target. It took a moment despite the size of the beast, but she eventually spotted the huge dragon circling the split peaks of the northern mountain. It would soon be turning their way, which meant part two of their plan was about to commence.
“Get ready,” Jay quietly passed the word to her companions around her. “This shit is about to hit the—windmill.”
Jadis wasn’t entirely sure if her last-second modification to the Earth-based phrase made much sense, but she was fairly certain a windmill would draw less questions than a fan.
Abruptly, a dragon roared in the sky overhead. Except, it wasn’t the ice dragon they were prepared for. Instead, it was a smaller dragon, its body covered in shimmering red scales as well as bright yellow spikes. It bellowed a challenge, its bat-like wings flapping as it hovered in the air over the clearing that they had chosen for their trap.
“And here comes the wyrm,” Noll said, pointing with his mostly translucent hand. “Brace yourself, pup. A breeze is coming.”
“I’m fine, old wolf. Brace yourself,” Syd shot back as her gauntleted hand bit deeply into the tree trunk. “My other two selves aren’t in a position to catch you if you fall off.”
Noll snorted, but the sound of his amusement was overpowered by the distant roar of the ice dragon. It had seen the illusionary red rival hovering overhead. Even at such a great distance, Syd could see the dragon was speeding towards them, its great wings beating the air as it charged towards the red rival. The dragon wasn’t the only thing coming, though.
Jack’s false dragon had caught the attention of the demonic horde as well. Briefly focusing her gaze on the ones that had stayed behind near the grove and matriarch, she saw that a good number of the demons were heading in the direction of their trap. Not all, many were staying behind with their bulbous leader, but a couple of hundred at least were loping their way through the trees towards the slope of the hill she and her companions waited on.
“Well, looks like Stavros and his Reavers aren’t going to be bored,” Syd commented before turning her eyes back towards the skies. “Hopefully we can get this dragon dealt with before—holy fuck!”
Syd’s eyes went wide as the massive form of the ice dragon closed in, the beast practically on top of her and Noll. It had soared across the several miles that stretched between their spot in the south-east of the valley and the northern peaks far faster than she had expected. As the dragon neared, she felt both the cold and the wind pressure increase, as though a literal living blizzard had decided to swoop down from on high. Maybe one truly had.
The ice dragon sailed through the air, its wings held back against its body and its mighty fore-claws held out in front of it as it fell upon the red-scaled interloper that had appeared in its territory. The red dragon screeched in defiance; its wings spread wide to cover the view below it as it hovered impossibly in mid-air. If the dragon noticed that its foe was floating in a way that shouldn’t have been possible, it made no sign. Instead, it simply dived at its enemy, eagerly prepared to tear the red dragon to pieces as it raged in anger and pain.
The two creatures met midair, except, there was nothing there to meet the ice dragon. The beast’s body dove right though Jack’s illusion, encountering no resistance whatsoever. Jadis could actually see the surprise in the dragon’s reptilian eyes as it passed through the mirage only to see that it was far, far too close to the ground now to pull out of its dive.
A blast of freezing air hit the trees around the clearing as the dragon’s massive wings opened wide in an attempt to slow its breakneck descent. Syd nearly let out a scream as the force of a hurricane hit her and she was almost thrown out of the tree she was stationed in. It was only her iron grip that had dug her fingers into the wood that saved her from being blasted away into the forest.
No more than two seconds later the dragon’s body hit the ground, the impact causing the ground to quake with enough force that Syd damn near fell out of the tree a second time.
Syd resisted the urge to look at Noll. She just knew he was giving her an “I told you so" look and she wasn’t going to give him that satisfaction at the moment.
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