Tristan helped butcher the water dragon, but asked Rory, “How are you supposed to kill these things? I’m pretty sure being bit isn’t the right way to go about it.”

  The Drakonid smiled and nudged Bertram with her elbow, “I thought you dragonslayers knew everything about them.”

  Bertram responded with a grunt, “Only what gramps had in the book. He never fought water dragons in their territory.” He looked to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek, “Only we’re insane enough to do that.”

  Rory stood up and stretched, “Well, you lure them to open water. They love to go for their target with their teeth – just like what this one tried on you. Ideally, you dodge aside, then strike deep through the eye, into the brain, and into the heart behind that. If you miss the first strike, then stick close to it and try again.”

  Tristan nodded and filed the information away in his memories, “Right. Good to know. But what about the big ones? Wyrm sized.”

  She blinked a few times in shock, “I’ve never seen or heard of one that size except my home Realm’s Protector. I wouldn’t have the faintest idea of how to fight one that large. Her teeth are the size of a tower spire. Her eyes the size of wagons.”

  Tristan tried to visualize the scale of such a creature. Even the demon dragon he fought which was Wyrm size was smaller than what she described. And he had never seen an Elemental Realm, wyrm-sized dragon before. They must be enormous if from the Elemental Realms, he thought, thinking back to the adult fire dragon he had slain which was towering in its own right.

  Onyx and the unicorns came over with Felicity sitting atop his back. “There is time yet for another hunt, I believe, Lord Tristan.”

  He glanced back and nodded, “We finish butchering this beast, and then we’ll depart. Plus, I need to let my essence refill.”

  Bertram sighed, “Yeah. That. Mine comes back so slowly. I won’t be able to do those water adaptation spells for another day.”

  Tristan glanced down at Rory who had resumed carving, “Mind taking the lead on that for a few minutes?” She grunted in affirmation, and Tristan gestured to Bertram to stand, “Teach me the spells you used.”

  Bertram wiped his palms on the rocky stones and nodded, “Sure. Happy to have you bearing the brunt of the essence-weaving.”

  After drilling the spells and phrases for an hour, Tristan had learned and memorized both of them. Waveclinger’s Fins, which was what enabled him to travel at such a fast pace, was a First Order spell. The same for Waveclinger’s Adaptation, which is what allowed him to see and breathe underwater; as well as survive the intense pressure.

  Once learned, the trio finished off butchering the dragon and filling up Felicity’s storage dimension. “It’s pretty full…” she said, trailing off with a disgusted look on her face. “I don’t like having so much meat in there.”

  Rory chuckled, then laughed, “You don’t like being filled with meat, you say?”

  Felicity’s face turned red in embarrassment at the sexual pun, Bertram cackled with laughter, and Tristan turned away as his face went beet red as he stifled a laugh. “Oh yeah!” Felicity replied. “Well…I’ll have you know, I’ve got the biggest storage space out of any fairy dragon!”

  She was trying to defend her pride, but this statement caused Rory and Bertram to near fall over laughing as Tristan went even more red and walked away. Even the unicorns were whinnying with amusement.

  As he took deep breaths to try and calm down, he saw a weird shimmer in the air about three-hundred feet away. Lucky Instinct was still active, and screamed at him that something was wrong. Immediately, he spun his essence crucible at full tilt and activated Scales of Our Foe, armor of Ice, Near Miss, Lucky Instinct, and drew his sword.

  A flash of green burst from the odd shimmer, and he managed to duck to the left as it slammed into the ground and exploded in a viscous ooze that sizzled against the ground all around; melting the rocks into a crater. “We’re being attacked!” he shouted as he tried to discern his foe’s location, the shimmering vanishing.

  The unicorns lowered their horns and thin, translucent barriers popped into existence around them. Rory and Bertram quickly armed themselves and began looking around for danger, taking partial cover behind the lingering remnants of the dragon corpse. Felicity turned invisible and took off to circle above.

  Tristan felt the urge to move, and he listened as he ran to his left. Another blast of green acid spewed out and flew past him, smashing into the ground. They’re after me, he thought. He moved his hand down to the dagger on his hip, poured some of his withering essence into it, and activated Minor Invisibility. He was on the stony beach still, and if he moved carefully, he knew he would not disturb the rocks enough to give away his location.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

  And yet another bolt of green flew at him, and even though he was able to sidestep it, the projectile exploded on the ground past him and flung its goop onto his shins and feet. He could see the steam rise from the ice that was being melted, and immediately turned to sprint for the water, hoping it could help ameliorate the substance.

  “They are cloaked somehow!” Tristan shouted as he ran past the water dragon corpse and knee-high into the waves.

  Rory had her eyes closed, and she turned to her left, raising her shield as a bolt of green manifested and slammed into it. She dropped the barrier and threw her spear in its half-formed configuration, sending it sailing into the invisible assailant, scoring a hit and causing blood to drip from their wound. This was accompanied with a “Gah!” of pain from the target struck.

  And that was all the indication of location Bertram needed. He exploded forward with ferocity, chopping a huge, horizontal slash that cut the invisible figure in twain, sending the two halves spurting apart from one another as the black-cloaked assassin so familiar to Tristan suddenly appeared; top and bottom flopping to the dirt before vanishing to dust and leaving behind the black shroud.

  “The assassins!” Tristan shouted as he ducked another green ball lobbed from his right. “Get down!” he shouted as he turned to that direction and activated Rime Blast stored in his weapon’s hilt. The sixty-foot long and just as wide cone burst forth – a whipping wind of frost and sleet that crashed into the two shrouded entities. The floating ice shards began to seep red ichor, revealing the location of the foes.

  Tristan felt his essence almost fully depleted, and stopped fueling all except Scales of Our Foe. The now-bleeding figures launched further acid balls at him, and he dove into the shallow water before coming back up and trying to move closer to his enemies. Their shrouds persisted, and he could only see the floating, bleeding spikes of ice as they kept their distance and flung more bolts of acid his direction.

  And then, his foot caught on something beneath the water. A large rock that sent him tumbling into the surf, leaving his back exposed as the acid burst against it. He felt the heat against his back, but thankfully his armor along with the empowering spell seemed to blunt the injury. Scrabbling up, he continued to move toward the foes.

  Bertram charged along the beach from his left, and an acid globule slammed into his chest. But he finished his heedless charge and cut down at one of the shrouded figures, who blocked with some invisible tool.

  Rory’s spear flew over Bertram’s shoulder and slammed into the figure he was facing, and Tristan made it to the other assassin who was still seeping ice and blood. He stabbed forth, and felt his blade parried aside as the figure stabbed back at him. But the blade caught on his armor and did not pierce – though he felt the impact and knew he would bruise. Tristan reached out with his hand, grabbed the veiled forearm, and dropped his sword as he drew his dagger and stabbed deep into where he predicted the foe’s chest was.

  The blade plunged in, he felt the resistance of flesh that tore and split asunder, and drew the blade back as it dripped with crimson ichor. Again, he plunged it in, over and over, until the spell faded and the black-cloaked assassin fell before turning to ash, his body disappearing.

  He spun sideways to Bertram who was in the process of taking off his armor as acid ate down through it. Thankfully, Rory got over to him and helped him unclasp it before the ichor ate all the way through the tough plate, and it sizzled on the ground. Bertram was breathing deeply and looked at Tristan with relief, sweat plastering his brow with his locks. “I guess…these are your assassins?”

  Tristan nodded as he glanced around, “Any sight of more?!” he shouted.

  Felicity flew down as the unicorns came over, “More blurs nearby. Not too far away!”

  Tristan scowled and sheathed his weapons, grabbing his sword and mounting Onyx. “Come on! We need to leave!”

  Bertram mounted up, growling, “I hate to leave my armor.”

  “I’ll get you better,” Tristan replied as Rory mounted the other white unicorn. “Go, Onyx!”

  The unicorns dashed off down the beach with Felicity flying fast after them before she got ahold of Tristan’s armor and clambered onto his shoulder. “They’re chasing, I think!”

  Tristan glanced back and saw very faint blurs on the rocky shoreline, coming after them. “We can outrun them! Unicorns have to be faster than whatever they’re riding.”

  Onyx lowered his head and the other unicorns followed in turn as they raced across the landscape, the world near-blurring from the sheer speed as the near-indiscernible blurs faded into the distance.

  “How long until we can go into the wild?!” Tristan shouted over the wind.

  Bertram replied, “When the world starts warbling around us! Where are we going?!”

  “Inter-Realm Market!” Tristan replied. “The place we got here from!”

  They continued for another ten minutes at their blistering pace, and Tristan could feel Onyx’s smooth, loping strides beneath him, knowing that his mount could travel for hours at this rapid pace if necessary. But the world began to warble around them, and he focused all his intentions on the portal that would lead them to safe harbor. The world narrowed around his vision, and in the blink of an eye they were once more near that huge, walled city and fast-approaching the gate and the nearby portal.

  A gate with several black-robed assassins lounging about in front of it. They began to move to act, but Tristan drew on the last of his essence, spinning his crucible and dumping the power into his gauntlet, and the hidden rod storing Chain Bolt. The yellow, arcing lightning tinged with silver sparks surged out the distance between them, slammed into the lead assassin who was just beginning to draw a weapon, and locked up his limbs in a muscle spasm. The effect radiated out from there, and the trio of riders were able to blitz past the incapacitated foes, through the portal, and into the Inter-Realm market.

  Tristan was heaving in deep, exhausted breaths as his vision dimmed, but he kept awake as Onyx and the other unicorns began to slow. “Keep…going,” he muttered as he nudged Onyx to run to the exterior of the market area – the inland portion of Yustat which was still part of the Citadel’s grounds.

  “Why?!” Bertram shouted.

  Tristan was too tired to respond. His essence was tapped, and he had none left.

  Felicity vanished with a pop, and Onyx along with the other mounts began to slow to a loping trot instead of the full gallop. Felicity reappeared with a pop a few minutes later. “Eloise is going to get us! Stop!”

  Onyx and the other mounts did so, and Tristan was still on-edge as he looked around. There was a shifting in the air, and he reflexively went for his sword but let his grip loosen as Eloise appeared, arms crossed.

  “What happened to you three?”

  MESSIAH OF STEEL

  When faith meets firepower… sparks will fly.

  Derek Steele was once a man of science, a brilliant engineer who built his own power armor from scavenged alien tech. He believed in data, not destiny. Then a relic from a forgotten civilization ripped him from Earth… and dropped him into a realm where magic spheres grant power, and gods rule through their chosen champions.

  Messiah of Steel.

  “Iron Man crashes into epic fantasy and nothing will be the same.”

  New chapters every week ? Progression Fantasy ? LitRPG