Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow Read Free Page A

Gallanth’s neck, holding his head while screaming in agony.
    Gallanth was already in the process of teleporting; the light rays formed a brilliant blue tunnel around him, and he could not stop the procedure once initiated. His large golden frame vanished. He quickly emerged without his rider above Michenth, whom he grabbed immediately, followed up by Eagrenth on Michenth’s other flank, Falcanth to his front, and Talonth on his tail. Jmes continued to fall, screaming.
    Grab your ring, Jmes, grab your ring! Gallanth shouted telepathically; he also roared out loud to his rider and mind partner. He could feel the pain Jmes was going through but was helpless to stop it. Jmes’s dragonstone ring would have controlled his fall, but he could not concentrate on it to enable its power to work. His mithril helmet would also have stopped the flayer’s attack, but he had given it to an Enlightened Party senator as a gift of good will to ensure their support of the war effort.
    Gallanth and the other three dragons managed to control their dragon lord’s descent and set him gently on the ground. Immediately, a female gold dragon and a support corps healer group landed beside them and began to administer aid; they attempted to stem the bluish blood flowing from Michenth’s gaping wound. Gallanth was about to jump into the air and teleport to Jmes, when he felt the telepathic connection with his rider sever as Jmes hit the ground and was killed instantly. The other dragons raised their heads as Gallanth’s roar shook the ground, for they could feel his intense pain from losing his rider.
    Gallanth then launched from the ground and disappeared. “Gallanth, no, you can’t attack on your own!” Falcanth roared to his brother, but it was already too late and Gallanth was too enraged to listen. He emerged in front of the midnight black demon steed, which quickly spurred, and started to fly away as fast as its fiery hooves could take it. Gallanth gave immediate chase. Nightmares fear almost nothing, but this demon horse showed fright now. The black beast and its riders attempted to teleport out but were thwarted by Gallanth’s vengeful roar, which had the power to dispel and disrupt magic. As he gained on the dodging nightmare, the flayer fired a mind blast at the closing gold dragon. Gallanth felt the invisible impact but shook it off, as adult dragons are immune to these types of attacks. The creature then started to panic and turned to its drow companion to get them out of the area, but the drow screamed back that he could not. The nightmare kept swerving and dodging, but Gallanth was faster and quickly caught up to the black steed. With one swipe of his huge claws, he severed the nightmare’s hindquarter along with the flayer’s left leg. The evil steed then plummeted toward the ground and crashed in a field.
    The drow and the flayer rolled away from their steed. The hideous flayer’s leg was bleeding and the drow suffered several broken ribs, but they still managed to get up and attempted to escape. Gallanth back winged and landed on the black steed with a thunderous impact like a hurricane. This knocked the two evil beings back to the ground and crushed their wounded steed. Gallanth then walked slowly toward them, shaking the ground with each step. He shouted in Draconic with a thunderous tone, “Feel fear, for your death approaches, and your kin will feel my wrath!” The drow raised his staff and cast a lightning bolt. It found its mark, striking the dragon in the chest, but Gallanth took the damage and did not even wince through his rage. He first looked at them directly and forcefully read the drow’s mind to discern the underground location of the dark elf city and the adjacent flayer villages. This painful thought extraction caused the dark elf to scream in shear agony.
    Gallanth then raised his mighty head and opened his jaws, exposing his razor sharp, eighteen-inch-long teeth and a pair of three-foot-long fangs; fire