Chapter 79: Dragon on the Shore (1/2)
When Victor regained consciousness, it was with a mouth full of sand, and his armor drenched in saltwater.
His entire body was in pain, his nerves scrambled by the dragonslaying lightning. His head hurt, and his ears struggled to distinguish sound from his newfound tinnitus.
[Final Problem] activated! You survived with 1 HP, and your body will look dead thanks to a powerful [Illusion] effect!
[Troll Regeneration] activated!
You gained the [Regen] status! [Master’s Shield] activated!
What about Vainqueur? His own [Darwinist] perk had protected him from the [Dragonslayer] additional damage, but the dragon must have suffered it head-on. If the sheer power had brought Victor so low - and would have one-shot him without [Final Problem] - he dared not imagine what the dragon endured.
From whatever signals he received from his body, he was face-down on the sand, battered by waves and rain; his scythe within reach of his hand, but his legs buried. He had to rise up, find his friend...
“Is he dead?” a female voice asked.
They were here. Right next to him.
Victor laid still, not giving any hint of survival away.
Skill check successful!
“I think so,” another woman replied, her voice cold and vaguely Swedish-sounding.
Yes!
“Is the corpse still warm?”
… No.
No, no, no!
“Why? His Majesty Wotan said no desecration of the dead.”
“But with our hours, we never had fun!”
Charisma check successful! [Terror] negated!
“Enough prattle, my Valkyries.” The thunderous voice of King Wotan boomed from above, the very air crackling with lightning. The fomor clearly brimmed with impatience. “Have you found Knightsbane’s corpse?”
“No, Your Majesty!” Victor managed to move his head just enough to get a glimpse of the attackers. As he expected, two armored Valkyries stood right next to him, spears ready to impale him at any time. His vision was too blurry, even for [Monster Insight] to activate.
“The current must have carried him north, into the high sea,” the fomor, Wotan, mused from above. “Valkyries, gather! Until I have the dragon’s skull tied to my horse, the hunt goes on!”
The two women muttered something about overworking under their breath, before blowing sand into Victor’s helmet with their wings. He heard them fly away, the sound of thunderbolts, the winds, and lightning flashes growing weaker.
Victor waited a long while until the thunder had become a distant sound, and his regeneration patched him up enough to move his legs out of the sand.
You have recovered half of your HP!
The Vizier rose up and observed his surroundings.
From the look of it, he had ended up on a sand and rock island, barely capable of sustaining a few palm trees before the storm turned them into firesticks. A faint rain kept drenching him, washing away the sand from his armor.
Hundreds of electrified fish laid on the sand, the victims of Wotan’s [Ragnarok]; and unfortunately, Victor noticed a few members of the dwarf crew among them. Unlike him, they weren’t faking death.
Thankfully, he also noticed his [Black Grail] left on the shore, so he could maybe raise them, but damn... the remnants of a wing of the Piggybank laid as a testament of the attack’s overwhelming savagery.
Very far into the horizon, Victor could see violent thunderclouds move towards the high sea. The storm followed this [King Wotan] everywhere he went, as he relentlessly searched for Vainqueur. They had moved far away, but Victor had no guarantee they wouldn’t return.
He had to find Vainqueur, and quickly.
Where was he anyway? The fomor believed the current had dragged him away, but [Master’s Shield] needed close proximity to activate. Victor immediately guessed what happened, and cast a spell on the shore. “[Naglfar]!”
Hundreds of pallid, corpselike hands, appeared on the beach and began to excavate the sand. Over a few minutes, the tip of Vainqueur’s horn began to appear, the dragon buried right under the fomor’s nose.
“Charlene! We have been attacked!” Victor attempted to contact her through the [Whispering Skull] but received no tonality. “[Scarlet Study].”
We are sorry. This mortal is not available right now. Please leave a message, or try again after long-distance scrying, teleportation, and communications, are no longer impaired by a Field effect.
What kind of Field?
Field: [Devil’s Triangle].
… aka the Bermuda Triangle.
Great. Just great! At least he knew he was north of the Dagger Coast, but if the legends about that location were a reality in Outremonde… Come to think of it, Wotan must have ambushed them here on purpose, in a place where they could not contact their allies.
He and Vainqueur could always fly back south, escaping the triangle, and rejoining civilization to bring back reinforcements. He needed to gather whatever supplies had survived the crash, free the dragon, raise the dead if possible, and get out of here before the fomor returned for a second round.
Wait.
There was something else on the plane… something dear to him.
“No!” Victor panicked, flying above the island in search for her, only to come back empty-handed. “No, no, no! Marinette!”
His bazooka!