David’s nose knew immediately what the approaching dot was in the distance. His eyes could only make out an approaching shape but he was certain that it was a dragon, and it wasn’t a walking, or in this case a flying, corpse. Emerald and Okraz had settled back down for the night, and David calculated that it would be at least a few hours before the approaching kin got close.

  As he closed his eyes time got away from him and before he knew it he was opening them again to the light of the morning. His mind while not fully refreshed at least felt some relief as the majority of his mind fog subsided. Everyone else rose quickly and they each prepared themselves for what was coming, and soon the approaching Lesser Wyvern landed with a thud. Its jaws snapped as it huffed, and puffed in exhaustion.

  “Dreg, one of many scouts of alright Brood Mother, come for information” Rumbled the Wyvern. It was skinny, light and built like many others of its kind. Its scales were grey blue and its scales appeared to be smaller, and more compact than anything had seen before. Before David’s mind could wander further the Wyvern approached David.

  “Report, do not have time to waste.” Huffed the Wyvern, its chest puffing out in its own self important way.

  David’s eye twitched a bit as he eyed the Lesser Wyvern up and down. He may be bound to service but he didn’t have to put up with this shit. He growled deeply, puffed up his own spike covered chest and towered over the much leaner dragon. His thick robust muscles stood in stark contrast to the Wyvern’s lean ones.

  “I may serve Oazayss but I do not serve you… Dreg. My bonds demand my service but they do not restrain me from tearing your throat out if I feel like it…” David snarled back, the Wyrm’s all around him perked their heads in surprise. A little snicker could be heard coming from Emerald.

  The Wyvern deflated in an instant and began to look around for an easy escape, “Dreg one of the trustest scouts! Yo-”

  “Enough!” David boomed, as he wrapped his thick tail around the Wyvern’s leg in an instant. His spikes dug into his leg and pulled him close, “Show me respect and I will show you respect.”

  Dreg’s eyes bulged but eventually he offered a small nod.

  “Good.” David rumbled as his tail freed itself from around the Wyvern, “Near the lake down the valley we had a battle. We killed many of those creatures and a Dread. We were going to continue our march as commanded.”

  Dreg nodded his head then cocked his head, “Will go see if words are true.” He squinted his eyes down at David as he took to the air and headed off.

  “Everyone get ready to leave once our new friend returns. We are still bonded…” David huffed out.

  A few minutes later and Dreg returned with a much more timid approach, “What is your name? You defeated them all by yourselves?” A sense of disbelief was in Dreg's voice.

  David offered a nod, “We lost one but the rest of us prevailed.”

  The Wyvern nodded his head, “Most not as lucky. All ordered by mighty Ambass to pull back. Two valleys back intersection, yes?”

  David nodded, he recalled them passing by a crossroads of many different valleys a few days ago. It had six different valleys and paths intersecting, and David had simply followed Ambass’s initial instructions and taken the one on their immediate right once they had arrived.

  “Good. Regroup and hold.” Dreg turned and was about to take off.

  “Dreg. Wait. Be honest with me…” David rumbled out, causing Dreg to turn around, “How bad is it? We are all bound to the same queen. We aren’t going to run.”

  Dreg stared at David and then the other Wyverns for a long moment, “Very bad. You are only one of two groups mostly unharmed. Most Wyrms and Wyrmlings are dead. Most groups retreated once a larger corrupted one showed up.”

  Dreg sighed as he continued, “Nurdiangarh gains more power with every battle. Expect to fight against what used to be our kindred soon.”

  David simply nodded, and then sighed as Dreg took off. Great. David had a feeling this was going to end up this way. Everytime a Wyrmling, Wyrm or bigger dragon died this necromancer just reanimated them. There had to be some sort of limit to its affinity though, no? Some weakness? Ambass would know the answers if David could pull them out of him.

  He turned back to the squad, “We turn back. Prepare yourselves. I do not expect this to become any easier.”

  Slath, Serthic, Ari, and Okraz all looked disheartened but dipped their heads in acknowledgement. The kobolds Shooter and Emerald followed their respective masters in obedience. Everyone present could feel the tightening of their bonds compelling them towards their new objective. Whatever sort of magic or witchcraft Oazyass had employed on them all made this decision easy. You either listened and acted or the bond would make you suffer.

  The trek back proved fruitful at the very least. The Wyrm’s opened up about their affinities and we formulated some strategies. Slath was earth affinity with an emphasis on making barriers and was also clearly a brawler. Serthic had mostly traits revolving around speed and wind affinity to aid. Air didn’t speak much but revealed that their ice affinity was mostly specialized at making projectiles like we saw earlier. David suggested they work on learning to spread their affinity out to disable or slow the reanimated. Lastly, Okraz spoke about her water affinity and how it not only aided her swimming but also let her shoot water in a focused beam.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  After they each revealed their affinities they all turned expectantly to David. Information was key in this world and David had just extracted key information about them all, he had to return the favor, “My affinity is… life itself.”

  The Wyrms peered at each other and murmured as David continued, “As you can see it reacts violently with these creatures. It also allows me to mend wounds, and top off everyone’s endurance. It is quite unusual for an affinity but powerful if we work together.”

  All the Wyrms appeared confused as they attempted to wrap their head around the details but nevertheless they nodded along. They each had experienced his affinity first hand so he knew that they at least understood how it benefited each of them. The distance and days flew by and before they knew it they were rapidly approaching the crossroads.

  The light of a new day had just started to illuminate the valley as they approached and the ground was scorched by a recent battle. Greenery and stone were all burned black and what little organic matter was turned to charcoal. There were heaps of bodies everywhere as they got closer. Many of the bodies were humanoids, but there were a fair amount of dragon corpses too. David growled as realized quickly that most of those dragon corpses were wyrmlings or wyrms. Oazyass was not a sentimental mother that was obvious, and David had to remind himself that he would equally be tossed aside if it aligned with her enigmatic desires.

  They were greeted by the thundering bellow of a Lesser Dragon that they rose up high from the multi valley mountain intersection ahead.

  “Who passes!?” Fire twisted around the dragon like a shield as it eyed David and his group. Slowly the ominous ball of fire and dragon approached the group.

  “I am Onyx. Dreg the scout has sent us here to fortify the road” David rumbled back.

  The fire dragon scuffed at David as its fiery shield dispersed and disappeared. As the fire subsided the details of the dragon’s features became visible. It clearly had seen some battle recently as most of its yellow scales were cracked or simply missing. A singular titanic horn rose out of its forehead, and its body was considerably thicker than the lesser wyvern’s David had deadly with recently. David mused at how similar and dissimilar he and this other lesser dragon were.

  David stood tall as the dragon landed in front of him and the two stared each other down. David’s dragon sense began to tingle and he knew instantly that this was a dangerous potential rival. Despite their equal status as lesser dragons David was considerably more muscular, and a head taller. The other dragon’s face twitched as it recognized its physical inferiority just as David recognized the opposite.

  “Scorch.” Hissed out the fellow dragon with a thick acidic voice. Its eyes shifted to the wyrms following David and it licked its lips. David almost tore out its throat in that instant but instead used every fiber of his willpower to restrain himself. His dragon instincts and body thrashed against his old human mind in a battle of will, but thankfully his mind was able to hold out this time.

  “These wyrms are mine. Where is your squad?” David growled softly as he stepped forward.

  “Served their purpose. Died for the Brood Queen.” Scorch snapped back but its eyes still lingered on the much smaller wyrms.

  “I see. Then these wyrms will serve the Brood Queen as Onyx sees fit.” David matter of factly stated.

  Scorches' facial features flinched for a split second before the microexpressions quickly disappeared, “Yes. Yes… We have our duty to attend to.”

  Just as abruptly as he had appeared the yellow dragon turned and began to march away towards the crossroads. David shook his head as he and his group began to follow. The crossroad of valleys was an unusual feature to occur in nature, and upon reflection David pondered if it was in fact not a natural feature? The way earth affinity users could manipulate earth he wouldn’t be surprised if there were some mountains that weren’t natural. He wasn’t even sure of what the peak of an affinity user's power could be?

  At their destination and the center of the many valleys there was a whole torrent of gathering dragons. Dozens of little wyrmlings, half a dozen wyrms, and a lesser hydra. David shook his head in slight annoyance as he recognized Voranle. The same sinister hydra that had threatened him when he first arrived at the plateau gathering. Fantastic. So far almost every lesser and bigger dragon he had met was aggressive.

  One of Voranle’s heads had spotted David and let out a long hiss. The other two heads then peered up and followed through with a hiss of their own, “The black one returns.”

  David resisted the urge to lash out once more as his dragon warning senses were trembling, “I am Onyx. Let us get to the point. We must focus on survival, so let's work together?”

  David could tell Voranle held back as the three heads broke into a whispered argument. One of the heads broke off to glare at David, and then at Scorch. David mused to himself that at least he knew the malice was mutual. As all three heads finished they stared back and nodded in sync, “Survive. Yes. All agree that survival is most important”

  David shook his head as he internally acknowledged the fact that the hydra hadn’t actually agreed to his proposal. As David was about to retort his nostrils began to burn, and the smell of putrid death burned. He staggered forward and spoke, causing the two other lessers to flinch as well, “More walking corpses are coming…”

  “How?” Two of the hydra’s heads perked up and looked around, and even Scorch began to glance around.

  “I have an exceptional nose. They are many miles away still but they are coming soon.” David murmured as he tried to pinpoint from what valley they approached.

  David’s nose began to pick up the horrifying smell more and more and the realization hit him. The look of horror on his face made even the hyper aggressive Scorch rumble, “What is it?”

  David cursed to himself before staring at the two, “They are coming quickly from four valleys… the way we just came and the valley back to the plateau are clear.”

  As they and the other dragons lingering around the three giants began to process his words,

  panic broke out. Wyrms and wyrmlings were murmuring, scattering around, and a few even began to fight among themselves. Voranle suddenly flared up with fire engulfing his entire form and roared, “STOP IT!” His deadly glare and affinity instantly calmed the horde of wyrmlings and wyrms in their tracks.

  David was already glancing around first at the four valleys from where the enemy was coming and then back at the valley leading towards the plateau. They had three lesser dragons, and a host of smaller dragons to defend four directions. Do they gather together and stand or… David’s eyes began to drift upwards as they caught sight of something. David nodded to himself. Perfect. He grinned and turned back to the group, “I have a plan.”