The Heavenly Host

Gastropé chanted quickly to start upping the mana level for his next wand blast. He was going to try to do a sustained cone of fire. The carpet spun and started heading straight for the lich and dragon. “Idire tres firatus aerus mesapus!” Gastropé shouted, aiming. The fire from his wand expanded outward in a cone as expected; what was unexpected was the return of the dragon’s icy-cold breath! The cone of flame and somewhat conical ice blast met between the two parties, sending blasts of fire, ice and water in all directions, including back to the carpet. Gastropé wanted to curse, but he needed to keep his concentration on the cone of fire. He muttered the incantations to up the power and replenish the flow, but this was going to be hard.

Suddenly Penelope shoved both her arms out towards the dragon and swept them downward. The dragon lurched hard and began plunging towards the ground. The lich screeched, an absolutely terrifying sound, and seemed to rise off its saddle as it scrambled to hang on, its ride suddenly hurtling towards the ground. The two dropped from sight even as the carpet moved over the area where they had been.

“Wow, that must have been one loud screech if we could hear it!” Zed laughed.

The four on the carpet cheered; glancing at the other carpet, they saw several thumbs up. Gastropé was thrilled. That was exciting! He glanced over at the other battles; there had been five dragons and liches aft of the ship. There were ten carpets behind the ship, two per dragon and lich pair.

As he turned his eyes back to their partner carpet, he saw it lurch dramatically as an enormous lightning bolt from the lich struck the pilot. The carpet began quickly spinning, twisting and losing altitude. It somersaulted a couple of times and then the rear pilot managed to regain control; however, on the last roll the wounded front pilot was wrenched from the carpet and began free falling through the air. There was smoke from the front of the carpet; the pilot’s straps had probably been burnt off.

Crap! Gastropé was appalled to see how fast the pilot was falling. He peered over the edge to see a catcher carpet moving through the air at an amazing speed, trying to position itself under the falling pilot. Gastropé could not see if the pilot was caught, as Peter banked the carpet, causing the catcher carpet and pilot to go below Gastropé’s line of sight.

“Problem, folks!” Peter called. “Our friend is coming back up!” He pointed down, into the bank. Sure enough, the lich and dragon they had sent speeding downward were returning quickly, climbing almost straight up. “Penelope, if we dive bomb them, can you gravity blast them back?”

“I will try!” Penelope yelled and began preparing a spell.

“Hang on, everyone!” Peter called as he spun the carpet in a tight circle and then directed it almost straight down in a collision course with the lich and dragon.

Gastropé shook his head; he had no real idea what to do other than repeat his last attack. As they got into close range, Gastropé pointed his wand and chanted the key phrase for another extended cone of fire. The fire leapt from the wand and Gastropé worked hard to adjust his aim. At such long distances it was tricky, as every movement caused the tower of flame to wave in arcs from side to side or up and down as he adjusted his aim.

Penelope yelled something and their carpet lurched hard as if in recoil. There was a roar as the ice dragon fell back and began plummeting again. Peter righted the carpet; they were now below the catcher carpet. Gastropé hoped they had caught the plunging pilot.

Suddenly the carpet’s edge frosted over and Gastropé’s butt got extremely cold.

“Crap! The bastard hit us directly from below!” Zed shouted from behind Gastropé.

Peter wrestled for control of the carpet; it had suddenly become hard to maneuver, as the carpet’s flexibility was lost due to ice on the bottom of the carpet.

Gastropé frowned. This is not going well, he thought.

∼

Elrose was finally within range of the dragon and lich he had selected. On foot, he was slower than the carpets heading for the other dragons and liches, but he was able to use that time and his Sight to study his opponent. Things looked as expected.

The ice dragon was made out of ice, frozen water, and while the lich’s cold aura along with the dragon’s own made it very hard for fire to get close, there were other ways to induce a phase change. This was one melee in which combat sorcery trounced the showier pyromancy.

With his staff, he could bypass the normal material and somatic components; he need only chant the verbal components and point. Time for the first phase change spell. Actually, time to hurry — the dragon was within range and appeared ready to blast him.