billion book
Chapter 39
Chapter 39
Part 8
“They both knew that whoever won, it would make a big difference on whether all the dragons agreed
with the treaty or not. So they agreed to fight on the plains of Xervia a month after Kergok accepted the
challenge, so everyone could go there and watch. But no one got to watch the whole fight, because it
lasted for three years straight! Every week they stopped fighting for half a day so they could hunt and
eat and get a drink of water, and maybe take a quick nap, but other than that they fought continuously
for one thousand, one hundred and five days. The dragon who was Eldest when they fought made all
the spectators go home to hunt, or they’d have eaten everything in central Xervia by the time the fight
was over, and that’s why no one got to see the whole thing. But almost all of them watched as much of
it as they could, and they stayed about four hundred meters away from the fighters all the time so
everyone knew there was no interference. After it was over, Readings were taken from almost
everyone that watched it, and a continuous record of the whole fight was edited together from the best
views available at any given moment. Because of that, the view of the fight changes a lot, and it’s
mostly a flying fight seen by flying spectators, so be careful if you haven’t flown much or you have a
weak stomach, because parts of it might make you dizzy.
“Millions of years after the fight, Somonik watched the edited Reading of the spectators’ views, and
Quewanak got that memory from him at the founding of The Just Alliance, and we got it from
Quewanak.
“Now since it lasted for three years, we can’t show very much of it. We’re going to show the first nine
minutes, the best ninety-three minute sequence, and the last twenty-one minutes.
“We begin.”
He and Helemia floated back to their seats and closed their eyes in concentration as the Illusion began,
and a window covering a quarter of the interior wall of the hall opened into elsewhere and elsewhen.
Somonik was soaring about a hundred and fifty meters above the rolling plains, and Kergok
approached from the north, flying hard and making good speed. Millions of other dragons surrounded
them, keeping their distance. First there was only the sound of the wind and their wings, then Somonik
growled menacingly, Kergok snarled in reply, and as the distance between them closed to thirty meters,
both cast spells while making short-range Translocations to avoid the other’s attack. That set the tone
for the entire first sequence. The hall was filled with the cacophonous sound of mighty energies
released; the roar of fire, the crack and crackle of lightning, the boom of great explosions, and the
indescribable report of unidentifiable magics. The nine-minute sequence was spectacular, but neither
dragon managed to injure the other due to their phenomenal abilities to Shield from attacks, to dodge
and duck with amazing and sinuous agility, and to Translocate almost instantly. Both were incredibly fit,
healthy, and vigorous. At a moment when they’d paused for a few seconds to catch their breath and let
their power recover a bit, the sequence ended.
“The next sequence was about nineteen months later.” Helemia announced, and the Illusion resumed.
Their battle was rejoined after a hunting break, and both dragons were covered in wounds; a few fresh,
most in various stages of healing, but both still seemed mostly unimpaired. The fight was no longer
over plains, and had moved to a region of rocky foothills. They cast far fewer spells than they had at
the beginning, and never Translocated, instead relying on their fire, their flying skills, their claws, and
their teeth. When they came close to the ground they often snatched up boulders to throw at one
another. The skill and agility they displayed in both fighting and flying was awesome, and everyone in
the hall was captivated. Finally the combatants’ post-break burst of energy was expended, and it
became a slower-paced and more grueling battle. The sequence ended.
As the next sequence began it was seen that both dragons were covered in blood and horrible wounds.
Neither flew, or had any energy left for spells, or fuel for their fire. They bit and clawed and wrestled as
they rolled across the ground in a furious tangle, desperate to finally finish their conflict. Every once in a
while they held each other at bay for a few seconds as they panted and struggled to overcome their
almost-debilitating fatigue, then suddenly the thrashing, roaring, snarling fight would resume. Even at
this late stage of the fight, the incredible toughness of dragons was readily apparent, and most of the
bites and claw strikes failed to penetrate the other’s scales, unless they scored on a previous wound.
Finally Somonik managed to get a good bite on Kergok’s entire muzzle, clamping the brown dragon’s
mouth closed and blocking his nostrils. Kergok frantically thrashed and clawed for more than four
minutes before he lost consciousness from lack of breath. To administer the coup de grace, Somonik
held his fallen opponent’s mouth wide open with one foot and one hand, summoned the last dregs of
his magical energy, and cast a small explosion straight down Kergok’s throat that blew out the back of
his neck.
Somonik raised his head and roared his victory to all the dragons who were watching, and they roared
back in almost-hysterical approval. Then he slowly collapsed to the ground in bone-deep exhaustion,
panting as fast and as deep as it seemed possible for him to do.
The sequence ended, the window faded, and there was not a sound in the gathering hall of Hiliani.
Helemia spoke into the silence. “Somonik. He is Most Noble.”
Another moment passed, and just as someone started to clap, Reggie made a strange sound like:
“Heeack!” as he experienced a shuddering cringe. His voice was still being magically augmented, so no
one could fail to notice it, and the surprising sound interrupted the beginning applause.
“Wow! I just had a prophecy!” he laughed a second later.
“And it’s a good one!” Helemia giggled. “Let’s make it special!”
“Okay! Just a second…” he said as he closed his eyes in concentration.
“Yah, that’s good! But with this!” Helemia enthused.
“Nice!” he nodded as his eyes opened and he grinned.
They rose to four meters above the floor and moved apart and across the great room, until they faced
each other and the center of the great room with a third of the room’s width between them.
Reggie altered the properties of his voice’s magical re-enforcement, giving it the reverberating and
echoing quality heard in Quewanak’s lair, and increasing the volume by half.
“Know that our enemies will name her The Fire,” he announced with all the grim dignity his infant’s
voice could deliver.
As he spoke Helemia raised her arms, threw her head back, and cast the Illusion of a roiling Fireball
two meter wide directly above her, complete with an initial crackling sound and the roar of a blast
furnace pulsing at its limits.
“For she shall incinerate their multitudes in the conflagration of her wrath!” Reggie continued as the
fireball grew quickly, gaining width faster than height, until it was a boiling cloud of fire above her filling
half the room to the ceiling. Images appeared in the swirling inferno; a burning dragon striking at prey, a
herd of flaming unicorns galloping across plains of fire, the Strike Force of The Just Alliance assembled
before the Wards of Venak.
“Know that our enemies will name me The Storm,” Reggie intoned as he matched Helemia’s movement
and cast a perfectly realistic Illusion of an undulating two meter high tornado that grew as quickly as
her fire had. “For I shall destroy their hordes with the hurricane of my vengeance!” The tornado became
a mighty cyclone, filling half the room, with smaller tornadoes dropping down from the swirling, black,
lightning-shot cloud.
Then the edge of the fire met the edge of the hurricane. The fire seemed to ignite a spreading blaze at
the edge of the storm, while the cyclone seemed to suck the fire into itself. The sound of their display
was quite loud now, and he raised his voice to match it.
“Together, we will be The FireStorm, for we will pursue those who would slay us unto their very
homeworld, and we will destroy it utterly!”
The fire and the cyclone joined completely, becoming a hurricane of fire and lightning that filled most of
the volume of the huge hall. It roared and swirled and pulsed and crackled for five more seconds, then
abruptly disappeared with a loud ‘POP’ that left silence in its wake.