Chimera: for Glory! Part 1

Chapter 1, Part 1

Let me tell you, we inexperienced heroes have it the hardest. People always need something, and when the experienced knights can't bothered, they dump it on us. In the past week, I've had to fetch groceries for a lovely elderly lady, clear the weeds out of every field in town, and I've taken cats down from trees more times than I have fingers to count. To be fair, it was the same cat more than half of the time.
When I first came to this land, I planned to be like the strong heroes of legend, so I walked a short distance from the port and landed myself right here in the quaint town of Gatsburg. In my time here, I've done nothing that couldn't be done by a youth with a ladder. Since I was a boy I've trained hard, imagined epic adventures and exotic maidens. I don't think there's anyone in this town under fifty, and it's honestly a bit unnerving, like they eat their young or something.
The shanty that cost me all my life's savings is hardly fitting for a hero, and I've been rooming with field mice. As I try to forget the feeling of mice in my shirt, I am snapped back to reality by the sound of a large crowd.
I look up to see a colorful assortment of knights gathered around the quest board, chattering excitedly. Perhaps someone got themselves stuck in a tree today? I approach the crowd and as I come near, a knight in dull grey armor with a red cape turns to me and waves me towards him excitedly.

"Dude, get in here! Have you seen this?"

He points in the general direction of the quest board. I shake my head and he pushes me from behind to the front of the crowd. A large poster comes into view. The poster takes up the entire board, and it is labeled in big letters: "PRINCESSES KIDNAPPED BY DRAGON!", with a smaller subtitle underneath reading, "EVERYTHING AWFUL, SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING". Below, there is an illustration of a fearsome red dragon guarding a pile of treasure from a brave knight, with a list of missing princesses beneath it, and the reward their kingdom is offering for their rescue.
I look to the gentleman behind me, and he gives me a supportive thumbs-up before being immediately slammed backwards into the mob by a pair of tussling Red and Purple knights. Standing next to the board is a knight in copper armor with some sort of blue smoke coming from his helm. He stands confidently before the crowd. On the other side of the board, an important looking knight in golden armor carefully inspects the bounties. After a while, the knight on the left addresses the crowd in a deep, gruff voice.

"Gentlemen, as I am sure you have read, we have been summoned today to aid the princesses that the evil red dragon has captured. By working together, we can ensure their rescue and slay the dragon. Who's with me?"

Oh man, this is right up my alley! Righteous! Chivalrous! I cheer along with the other knights, and the copper knight thrusts his fist in the air. The men charge off towards the main road Northward, and some jump into their wagons. In less than a minute, the crowd has disappeared completely, even the grey knight from earlier. I stand there, and realize my biggest problem: in my current circumstances, I have no way of getting to the faraway tower. I look around, and see several scraggly knights poking around uncomfortably. I quickly begin walking Northward. Hey man, I'd rather walk than hang around here... it's way too depressing. As I pass an alleyway, my attention is caught by a dull blue glow. I look down the alley, and I am met with a short man in blue, star-covered robes with a pointy blue hat and a white beard. Just sort of sitting there on a wooden milk crate. And now he's making unbroken eye contact with me. I turn to walk away hastily, but a voice rings out from behind me.

"Eeeeehhhhhh, just a second there young'un..."

This guy is way too suspicious... I turn slowly back to him as if it were a painful process.

"What... what's good gramps?"

The man stands up from his crate and hobbles forward, still only coming up to about my chest. As he walks, he waves his hands around dismissively with glazed eyes, leaving paths of sparkles where his hands moved.

"Couldn't help but notice you've not gotcha'self a wagon, isn't that right?"

I nod slowly, following his hands with my eyes.

"Don'cha worry, I'll set ya up with mah old wagon for a small price. Comfortably seats four. Real trusty 'ol thing. Power windows. Magic propelled and whatnot."

An alleyway salesman? Well why didn't he just say so. My mind at ease, I pull out the small sack containing all the money I had saved up doing quests in the past week and ask if it will be enough. The man snatches the bag out of my hand and snaps, poofing a rickety old wagon into existence behind me, much to my surprise.

"You've got'chouself a deal son! Good doin' business with ya."

As the wizard disappears in a poof of smoke, I consider that I may have made a grave mistake, but I shake the feeling. I've never gone wrong with shady alleyway salesmen before. This man is making an honest living, surely.
I hop into the wagon and inspect it. While it shakes and creaks as if it were about to fall apart at any second, I know better. That is a sign of excellent craftsmanship and sturdy structure. Inside are two rows of benches with small, faded and frayed cushions. To be honest, they're probably the nicest furniture I own at the moment. Painted onto the wooden railings are some sort of handle or crank. Custom job. Filled with confidence in my new steed, I point Northward and the wagon lurches forward before chugging forward at a respectable pace.
I roll out of town, past the leftover knights with my arms behind my head. Hell yeah, I'm gonna be the coolest knight in this mission. I'm telling you, the princesses are gonna be all over me, man. After some time without meeting any sign of life, I see a figure coming into view. Eventually, the wagon comes up next to the man, a rather heavyset knight decked out in cardboard boxes, carrying a bright yellow weapon of some sort. He is panting heavily as he jogs and seems to be having a really tough time. He does not look up, and seems like he has really committed to his decision to go on foot. Even so, he is such a pathetically sad sight that I end up calling out to him.

"Hey man, you want a ride?"

The man turns and shares a soulful gaze before nodding. I stop to allow him to hop in, and then continue on to meet up with the other knights.
As I reach the base of the mountain, I see most of the wagons stopped at various heights up. Some are broken down, others have knights fighting monsters outside of them, and those toward the top were either abandoning the others or parked with their drivers climbing down to help the others. We begin our assent of the mountain, and are able to catch up to the wagons that are stopped without much difficulty. I bring my wagon to stop, as the path is blocked by at least ten other wagons, and look over to my passenger to offer him a high-five.

"Looks like we managed to catch up!"

The man is silent for a moment and then nods enthusiastically. Not much of a talker I guess. The two of us dismount and head forward to see what the holdup is. As we round a loop of the winding path upwards, we are met with several weaker looking knights battling large snakes and fearsome mountain hogs. Feeling a sense of camaraderie with the other inexperienced knights, I jump into the battle. Surprisingly enough, the monsters aren't actually very challenging to defeat and I clean out the path within minutes with my trusty Runeblade. The other adventurers thank me before heading back to their wagons and my friend in the cardboard armor holds out his palm as if for a high-five. I quickly deliver, and after several seconds of stillness, he nods mellowly, his arm still extended. We return to our wagon and follow the others forward.
As we progress up the mountain, there are several other groups of monsters that are cleared out with increasing ease. The ragtag group of knights had began to develop a sort of formation and, even though their numbers decreased as knights gave up and went home or were injured, they still had the strength to drive away the monsters every time.
As we near the top of the mountain, the procession begins to cheer and the sound of drinking and gaiety can be heard from some of the wagons. Suddenly, there is a horrible crashing noise, and a large boulder falls directly in front of our wagon, decimating several of the wagons in front of me. As the boulder echoes further down the hill, a shocked silence descends upon the group. Up to this point, there had only been small injuries that slowed our progress little. As the illusion of invulnerability fades, the caravan is brought to a halt, and most of the knights slowly gather around the splintered remains of the wagons. A few wagons can be heard continuing up the mountain. The knight in copper armor steps out of the crowd and offers a small prayer before slowly trudging back to his wagon. Many others follow suit, and silently move back to their wagons as well.
In a few hours the procession reaches the top, significantly smaller than it had been at the start. Only a handful of Knights remained, many of the weaker knights having turned back after the rockslide. The knight who had led the charge up to this point had done his best to assist the weaker knights, and then led the group to the summit. Before us, a tower of stone as dark as charcoal rises up into the clouds, surrounded by bubbling lava. As the remaining knights gather to devise a strategy, I look around for my portly partner to find that he is nowhere in sight. I honestly can't blame him. The knights settle into loose ranks, and wait for the copper knight to speak.

"Gentlemen, we have made it this far through cooperation and we well succeed just the same. We have dwindled in numbers, our remaining wagons ought to be enough to carry all of the princesses back to safety. If we stay close, there is no danger-"

He stops abruptly, convulsing slightly as the blue smoke flowing from his body sharpens into spines that point out like a chestnut shell around him. A loud roar of pain is heard and a large stone claw falls against the ground. Over the ridge behind him, a large number of stone beasts have emerged, growling deeply as their tails whip back and forth. The copper knight nimbly leaps backwards and shouts to the men behind him:

"Stay strong. They are numerous, but we will prevail!"

Within seconds, sounds of combat ring out all around me, with the every knight locked in combat besides myself. As I charge forward to assist the knight in front of me, he turns and shakes his head.

"Don't worry about us. With all this noise, the dragon must know that we've arrived already. You need to go rescue the princesses before it's too late! GO!"

With this, the man resumes combat, throwing his weight against the beast in front of him with a primal yell. The man makes a good point, but it just seems wrong to abandon them all here after working together to get this far... I survey the chaos around me, eventually locking eyes with the copper knight, who nods to me as if to say that they will manage. Steeling my will and making a promise to come back and help once the princesses are out of harm's way, I take off running towards the tower, swiftly avoiding the raging stone beasts. I don't stop when I reach the giant ornate doors and instead throw my weight against them. The doors swing open with a creak and I am met with a cold stone shaft upwards into the darkness, accented by a narrow spiral staircase looping around against the inner wall of the tower. As the doors slowly drift closed, the damp silence all around me begins to make me nervous. Call me old fashioned, but I figured the dragon would be here to greet us, sitting atop a mountain of gold doubloons. I make my way to the stairs and begin my assent, with my footsteps echoing through the blackness. As I lose sight of the ground, I see a dim light above me, a ways up. I continue upwards until I emerge in a dimly lit and spacious circular room. Evenly spaced along the wall are dark prison cells, with figures visible within. I clear my throat before declaring,

"Princesses, I've come for you!"

Immediately, there is a murmur of voices and the captive maidens come to the doors of their cells. I turn around completely on the spot, taking a cursory glance at each of them. By my count, there's at least fifteen of them... I'd better get started. I pull out my sword and head over to the cell holding the Human Princess, and say, "Alright, stand back and I'll have you out of here in a second."

As she steps back and away from the cell door, I draw my Runeblade and channel a wind spell into it, delivering a slash that knocks the door clean of it's hinges. I offer my hand as she steps down and out of the cell, and she blushes before saying,

"Oh thank you, my brave knight."

To be honest, this mushy sort of stuff cramps my style man. I nod quickly and continue to the next cell over, in which the Insect Princess stands patiently, out of the way of the door, with another slash, I free her as well and she bows her head to me as she passes, carrying a small purple gemstone of some sort. Well, this may be easier than I thought it would be. I'll just open up all the cells, and then when the others catch up we can escort them to the wagons and be out of here before the dragon even knows what hit him. I begin walking towards the next cell when a voice rings out from a few cells down.

"Hey, let me out of here and we can get this done twice as fast."

I walk over to the sound of the voice to find Knight Princess, the leader of the Band of the Moon. She steps aside and I free her. As she walks past she says,

"My name is Minerva, thank you for rescuing me. Now let's get out of here before we're missed."

The armored princess continues walking and grabs a dark grey broadsword from a pile of weapons in the center of the room I hadn't even noticed. At the nervous clamoring of the princesses I had skipped, I return to the cell holding Slime Princess, winding up to knock down the door with another Spiral Gale. Before I can finish the spell however, a deafening roar makes me loose my focus. Far louder than the rock beasts, I know that the dragon is descending on the tower. Before I am able to begin casting again, the dragon comes crashing through the ceiling, making a three point landing between myself and the center of the room.

(Optional, for atmosphere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH3V93MSaP0)

Rather than the huge and fearsome dragon I had pictured (I mean that's what they drew on the poster after all), she is, first of all a she, and second of all only about eight feet tall. With a wisp of flame escaping her mouth, she roars at me before running towards Minerva. Aw shit man... I begin sprinting and slide in front of her just in time to block a powerful swipe of her claw with my sword, sending me backward and to the ground along with Minerva. Apologizing, I help her up before saying quietly,

"You take the other two and go downstairs, I'll take out the dragon and free the others. I'll be right behind you."

Nodding, Minerva takes off, grabbing the Human Princess by the wrist, and gesturing for the Insect Princess to follow her and heading downstairs. I turn back to the Dragon and ready my sword. She's unbelievably strong, to be honest I'm not even sure I stand a chance without the other knights. Snarling, the dragon lunges at me and I hunker down to defend as she lashes out with a flurry of claws. It takes all of my skill to just stop her attacks and, between her strength and fighting style, I find myself being forced backwards and up against the wall. Several punches barely miss me as I duck and weave, making the wall crumble and shatter behind me. Seeing a brief window of opportunity, I duck under a punch and slide past the dragon, and deliver a blow to her back, to seemingly no effect. I consider freeing the other princesses while I evade, but decide that it would only put them in harm's way. As soon as the others arrive, they will be safe, but in the meantime I have to stall the Dragon. Just as I attempt to deliver another strike with all of my strength, the Dragon whips around, unleashing a cloud of flames that I narrowly avoid. Before I am able to land properly however, the dragon delivers a punch through the flames that land square in my solar plexus, sending me flying across the room and knocking the wind out of me. As I struggle to get up, I see her approaching fast, wound up for another blow. I prop myself up with my blade, still trying to catch me breath, but am unable to avoid a swipe that sends me crashing to the floor from above, causing it to crack under the immense force. My ears are ringing and my vision is blurry as I roll and jump to my feet, stumbling around drunkenly. No way... Am I really going to die here? I cant die here... I don't want to die... Reduced to primal impulse, I yell out and lunge toward the dragon who is wearing a look of deep satisfaction. As she moves to counter my slash, I drop down and roll under her, and channel Ice Spire.

"Eat this, bitch!"

Water appears from between the stones of the tower in a path toward the dragon and freezes solid in huge spikes. Breathing heavily, I am given a moment's rest, with the dragon immobilized in the thick ice. I can't rest easy however as the Dragon begins to thaw the ice around her with breath and crack it with her incredible strength. I quickly cast the second half of the spell by slamming my palm to the ground, causing new spires of ice to rise from the ground, shattering the others before bursting into frozen shrapnel. Just before the wave of destruction reaches her, the Dragon breaks free and flies out of the way with her powerful wings. Cursing under my breath, I ready myself for another onslaught. We clash several more times, sending me crashing backwards into the walls and floor before I finally collapse. My head is ringing and there's blood trickling down my forehead as well as from a deep cut in my side. The realization sets in that help may not be coming. For all I know, my comrades outside may have already perished in battle. I struggle to lift my body even an inch, but needles of pain spread through my body... It's no use. The Dragon approaches, her mouth sparkling and crackling with flame. I don't want to die... Slowed by the intense pain wracking my body, I lift my arm and bring myself to my knees by propping myself up against my sword. The Dragon watches with amusement as I slowly make my way to my feet, making it clear that she is simply toying with me. In a desperation, I begin to channel the strongest spell I know. If I'm going down, this bitch is coming with me. As the spell accumulates power, my palms begin to glow a bright white, and I plunge my blade into the stone next to me, causing the ground underneath me to crumble away. I can't be having to worry about collateral damage, so I'll take this fight to the base of the tower. I land with a sickening crunch, but am able to remain standing. The Dragon glides down gracefully through the hole in the floor, and hovers just above me, before letting loose a jet of fire. I bring my arms together, allowing the flames to hit my palms where the energy is completely absorbed. Palms now glowing very brightly, I assume an unarmed fighting stance and the Dragon dives down at me. Having lured her into my range, I bring my palms together, a vortex of swirling energy forming between them before blasting out in a dense beam. Caught completely off guard, the dragon is blasted all the way to the far wall, which crumbles against the impact, shaking the entire tower. As the structure of the tower finally gives, the tower begins coming down around me. Seeing my chance, I run over and finish the job with several well-placed Spiral Gales. Wheezing and shaking from blood loss, I stand for a moment. As if to cement my victory, the tower dropped a large chunk of floor from above on the motionless Dragon. Seizing the opportunity, I cast my signature spell, Chimera Blood. A black shadow appears from my blade as I plunge it into the ground, swallowing up the Dragon's corpse, and retracting to the sword. As the runes of the blade glow brightly, I can feel a new weapon being added to my arsenal of spells; Dragon Breath.
At this point, my vision is framed by darkness, and I can barely walk... I hobble back to my wagon, not noticing the other knights waiting outside until I bump into one. Murmuring an apology, I continue until I reach my wagon where the Princesses I saved are waiting. I haul myself into it, hearing what must be the voices of the princesses, but a dull throbbing in my head and ringing in my ears are making it tough to make out words. I just sort of nod absentmindedly and point the wagon in the general direction of my home. The ride back, I am in and out of consciousness, but I am able to make my way to the old and stiff bed in my home before collapsing from fatigue and injury.