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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4877918" data-attributes="member: 143">Thanks, guys. Thought we were dead for a while there with the ENWorld shutdown. At least I can post now, even if it's ssslllllllooooooowwwww.* * * * * Chapter 67“Fight!” Vhael wheezed, lifting his sword—barely—and lunging at the dragon.  For all his spirit, the dragonborn’s strength was exhausted, and the thrust failed to so much as scratch its scaled hide.  The dragon’s counter was almost languid, and it slapped him aside with a swipe of a claw.  Vhael toppled over backwards, rolled to a stop, and did not move. Carzen was in better shape, although his arms throbbed, and he thought he could feel the bruises forming where the dragon’s claws had impacted him.  But other than the cuts to his right forearm, he hadn’t suffered any serious injuries from the dragon’s furious attacks.  That could change in an instant, though, a thought that dashed through his mind as he aborted his next attack to duck under a snapping lunge from the dragon’s ferocious jaws.  The fighter tensed, expecting another fearsome swiping attack from those nasty claws to follow. But the dragon didn’t attack him.  Instead it roared and reared up, and Carzen saw a spray of ugly dark droplets fly into the air from its flank.  It turned, nearly knocking him down as its wing buffeted him across the brow.  He caught a glimpse of the woman fighter, on her feet again, her sword glistening with the dragon’s blood.  There was another, smaller form behind her, in the mouth of the entry passage.  Carzen recognized the halfling archer, and saw that he’d already scored at least one hit, the tiny arrow jutting from the back of the dragon’s dagger-shaped skull.  He lifted his sword to help them both out, but before he could swing the dragon’s tail swept his feet out from under him, and he landed on his back hard enough to send stars flashing across his vision. “Damn,” he muttered, ordering his reluctant body to get back up. Mara had no time to spare for conscious thought.  The dragon was bigger and faster than anything she’d fought before, and it seemed to anticipate her moves before she even started them.  She’d gotten in two good hits, the first from surprise and the second because it had underestimated her, but now that the dragon’s full focus was on her, her luck seemed to have fled.  The sword that Rendil had given her was sharp and light, and it moved like a blur in her hand, but it couldn’t keep the dragon’s claws off her.  In that first exchange she took two solid hits that tore through her armor, digging bloody furrows in her skin.  She thanked the gods for the gnoll armor; without that, the dragon would have torn her to pieces in the first seconds of the fray.  Jaron was sending a barrage of arrows at the dragon, but she knew that it was up to her to keep it busy long enough for the toll of damage that they were inflicting upon it to take effect.  The dragon was hurt, bleeding now from several wounds, including the spear that still jutted from its side.  But the creature’s stamina seemed inexhaustible. Carzen got back to his feet, while Mara dodged a sweeping claw and lifted her sword to strike again before it could recover.  But even as the gleaming sword slashed down, the dragon’s head snapped around, and it grabbed her arm in a crushing grip that caught her from wrist to elbow.  Mara screamed as the dragon lifted her off her feet, unable to do anything except flail desperately; she pounded at it with her free hand, but she might as well have been a rabbit struggling against the jaws of a steel trap.  Her companions tried to come to her aid; Gral splashed another beam of frost along the dragon’s flank, while Carzen lunged in and delivered another glancing hit that just drew blood along its hindquarters.  The dragon responded by swinging around, using its captive like a club, smashing Mara into Carzen hard enough to knock the soldier flying.  He landed and rolled, much like Vhael had earlier, and while he was still conscious, it was clear that his wounds were starting to slow him down. The dragon, still holding Mara, took a step toward him, but abruptly reared up, an angry hiss coming from the sides of its mouth.  It snapped its head to the side, releasing Mara at the end of its sweep, sending her flying into the nearby wall.  She impacted the hard stone a good eight feet off the floor, falling into a limp heap not far from where Vhael still lay unconscious upon the cold stone.  Her sword, torn from her grasp at the last, clattered off the wall and landed in a corner a good ten paces away. The dragon finished its turn, and now they could see what had drawn its ire; one of Jaron’s arrows had scored deeply, only a few inches of feathered shaft jutting from the spot at the base of its skull where its head met its neck.  The dragon fixed a malevolent look upon the halfling archer, who somehow withstood the fell power in that gaze.  Jaron’s hands did not shake as he reached into his quiver, where one arrow remained.  But even as he drew out that final shaft, the dragon dropped into a crouch, and sprung at him, a charging engine of destruction against which the halfling ranger seemed to stand no chance whatsoever.</blockquote>

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