The Warlock Pt. 12

"So let me get this straight," I said to the collected masses.

"You have funeral rites to perform and Damionatrexion, Damion for short, has blocked access to your funeral grounds," I took a breath.

I had summoned two tables and we sat across from each other. The talks had been long and arduous, with a lot of couched terms and veiled nuances. Gwydion, Chloe, and Xandra were on my right with Xath and Sofia on my left. Across from us were seven dragons sitting in their human forms. All of them were attractive and built like a brick shithouse. Andreallion was the queen and had five councillors with her.

"None of you guys can force him to remove the block because he is on your Council and fighting him would kick in various sanctions against the attacker. Furthermore, the only dragons you could turn to that would be capable of defeating him are allied with him and are waiting to take over the council when you fail to perform the proper rites."

I looked at the assembled council. All of them were blushing except for the one at the very end. Damion himself.

"You have summed it up very well Master Warlock," he said with just the right amount of deference.

"I have to tell you guys that I don't see why I should get involved. Frankly this is a Dragon issue and I see no upside for me. I actually admire his gambit. I could see us working well together if he were leading the council," I replied.

At this point Andrea, I was shortening all their names, spoke for the first time.

"I would almost be disappointed if you took the deal on altruism alone" she said. "You need a focusing crystal for some reason. Damion has an ancient dragon Heartstone that would work much better than the Eye of Solomon you are looking for. The Eye was cracked many years ago and frankly I can almost guarantee that it is hidden well enough that you won't find it."

"How did you know I was looking for the Eye?" I asked, trying to mask my surprise. I thought my back channels were circumspect enough, I was going to have to tighten things up.

"You have been aiding the smuggling of antiquities out of the Middle East for the past two years," she replied. "All of a sudden you orchestrate the killing of your friends brother-in-law and send an expensive car to the Sheik. That tells me you found what you are looking for. When I got a hold of the shipping manifest and saw that the Sheba Codex was included it wasn't tough to figure out that you wanted the Eye. Since the Eye is basically a powerful focus point for energy, I figured you needed a focusing crystal. If you were to kill Damion, his treasures would be yours. Including the Heartstone of Lanceltion ... whom you know as Lancelot.

Aside from the Lancelot bomb she had arrived to the right conclusion. Even though she used the wrong reasoning. It was nice to see these guys weren't infallible.

"It wouldn't be just the heartstone. As a powerful warlock in his own right he has many artifacts locked away. If you were to challenge him in single combat, all his treasures would be yours," she continued. As she said this she summoned a piece of paper and slid it over to me. It appeared to be an accounting of money and items that Damion held. The funny thing was that the money was all held in bank accounts mainly Swiss and Caribbean. So much for seeing a dragon sleeping on a bed of treasure. Hell, some of his artifacts were actually in museums. Welcome to the 21st century.

"We have an extensive spy network. There are probably some we missed but I am sure that list accounts for 90 percent of his assets." She answered to my unspoken question.

I shifted my gaze to him and examined him with my mage sight. He was indeed powerful. We would be about even in power if we had met before Ajak. He also had some unknown powers due to his being a dragon. I had no idea if they would tip the balance in his favor or not.

Something felt off about this whole situation. These guys were DRAGONS for crying out loud. The gambit used to blackmail the Council was sophomoric at best. The negotiations to get me involved were equally weak. I almost wondered if there was another game being played here and this was just a screen. Except for the fact that this was so blatantly a bad negotiation that they would know I had to see it for what it was. I started looking deeper and deeper for hidden agendas when I heard a mental snort.

You ever think that maybe these guys don't play the mind games you do, boss? I heard Xandra in my head

These guys can't be this naive, can they? I sent back.

Why not? Like you said, these are dragons. Backstabbing and throat slitting probably aren't their strong suits. They seem to be adept at getting information but I am thinking that they are a pretty straightforward group most of the time. I am not picking up any vibes that they want to backstab you. In fact now that I focus on them I can see that the only deceit is in Damion. All the others are playing it straight. She sent.

I think we may have found a new power for Xandra. Sweet.

So what is the play? I sent.

Can you take him? I know you like the idea of getting a dragon's treasure hoard. And if we could get a focusing crystal without having to traipse through the Congo it would be worth it. She answered.

I can't imagine this guy being tougher than Ajak. If it was a straight up Warlock battle I would have no issue. I am not sure what he is bringing to the table as a dragon though. I think I want to do it just to say I kicked the shit out of a dragon. I sent.

I heard Xandra snort in my head.

I looked at Damion one more time and nodded at him, he nodded back and I knew we were on.

"So how does this work? Soul exchange is a given. What other terms are there?" I asked, more to Damion than the rest of them.

"It will be a duel to the death, one on one, at our arena. The loser shall give the winner his soul and all worldly and otherworldly possessions. Furthermore the winner shall shall get the hand of the princess in matrimony, I always did want to be royalty" Damion responded with a smirk.

I assume the last part was a gibe leveled at Andrea. There seemed to be more than just bad blood between the two.

"I'll agree to those terms as long as her mother will accept the prospect of betrothal back when I win" I accepted.

A collective sigh went through the members of the council despite the hard looks Damion and I were getting. It looked like these guys wanted to be able to dictate terms.

"I have five days left on my vacation and I want to spend at least four of them trying to make babies. Let's get this done tomorrow" I said ignoring the collective gasp from my side of the table.

Damion looked a bit nonplussed.

"There are rituals and forms to address before we can just enter a duel," he sputtered. "It would take me two weeks to meet the proprieties."

"This is a Warlock duel, D-bag," I responded. "Any extras you add on have to be Dragon specific which I am sure the council can waive. If you think I'm giving you two weeks to figure out how to backstab me you're dumber than you look. I would throw down right now but I'm not sure if Xandra is wearing panties and I would be distracted until I can figure it out. I know Sofia is going commando so I will have to give her a spanking for taking my attention away from such an august council.

I addressed the Council.

"Now are you guys gonna man up and force Damion the d-bag dragon fight me tomorrow or are you going to puss out?

The motion to waive duel protocols passed four to one. After the vote I got up and left Xath to deal with the fallout.

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Fifteen minutes after inspecting Xandra's panty situation (commando as usual) and turning Sofia's tight little butt pink, Xath came into the parlor area where I was sipping a cuba libre. He helped himself to a rum bottle and mixed his own drink. He sat down across from me and stared.

"If I had one tenth the power you do ... why do you have to be such a dick?" he asked exasperatedly.

I sipped my drink and regarded him quietly. I really didn't want to get into a fight with Xath. As I said before I liked the guy. He did what he felt was right for the community as a whole.

"Don't play the silent trick with me, Martin. We know each other too well. I have to know why you felt the need to provoke the Dragon Council. We have an unprecedented chance to open communication with creatures of legend and you end the meeting talking about underwear? My god man! The knowledge and abilities these guys could bring to the table are unprecedented! Why won't you just play ball with me for once?" He had gotten himself worked up.

"Xath, believe it or not not I'm not trying to get in your way when it comes to Council business. I simply don't care about you guys that much. I have to point out that you wouldn't even know about this if I hadn't invited you as a guest. This is my circus and these are my clowns. I had to push the Dragons from an angle they weren't expecting to be able to judge their motives. Think about it, I'm going to kill one of their council members tomorrow. I'll be a human striking down a dragon and adjusting their entire power base. I expect everyone of those guys to betray me at some point and I have to be able to see how bad it will be. My talking about panties took them by surprise and they revealed things. It showed me the only two who were taking me seriously about fighting and killing Damion were Damion and Queen Andrea. Now I know to watch the queen a bit harder." I replied, trying to keep myself calm.

"Why do you need such a huge focusing crystal?" he asked trying to catch me off guard.

I looked at him for a long time. If it were him alone I would let him in on my plan, the problem is that he represented the Arcane Council and would be duty bound to report my project. I didn't need that interference.

"Warlock business," I said trying to shut this conversation down.

"Nope, not this time, you are a member of the Council and I am going to insist you let us know what you are up to. I the last two months you have managed to get a high ranking Paladin dead, lasso a demon prince, fight an angel to a draw, challenge a top tier wizard to an archaic duel, restore a ley line to downtown Detroit, and sit down to tea and crumpets with dragons. You're off the reservation and I'm going to have to bring you in, I expect full disclosure by tomorrow," he said.

Really? I was going to have to deal with this now?

"You really don't want to pull rank right now chief," I told him in what was probably a dangerous voice.

"Martin you have to realize I am not your enemy here. There are members of the Council that want us to censure you and the Paladins are licking their chops waiting for a chance to get at you. I am not saying you can't do whatever it is you want to do. I just want the Council to be in the loop. Frankly it is in your best interest to fall in line a little bit. If we were to censure you, there would be no protection from people going after you," he said cautiously.

And now I was pissed. I remembered a line from the Watchmen graphic novel that fit so well here.

"Xath, the minute you censure me I am coming after the Osirons. Within a week there will not be a single one of those bastards that will to step into the darkness because they know a demon is waiting for them. The day after your censure goes down I will have a personal treaty with Victoria done that will ensure me the help and cooperation of all the Vampyres. The things she wants me to do would make me so much more powerful on this plane. As for the Paladins, the minute one of them made a move I would tear the soul out of their number two general and feed it to Ajak. They did such a good job letting him out I would let them resume their play date. Did you know that Percival Brightblade manipulated his daughter to dump me five years ago? I would send an extra special present to him. You need to wrap your head around something here boss. The council doesn't protect me from the supernaturals, it protects the supernaturals from me" I was shaking with rage by now.

Gwydion and Xandra popped their heads in at that point and noticed the chill in the air. Both of them backed out slowly.

Both of us were trying to gain control of our tempers. After a few seconds Xath relaxed a little and spoke.

"Let's talk after the fight tomorrow. Emotions are running high right now" he said, stiffly.

"Yeah, let's do that," I replied.

We each retired to our quarters. I really didn't need this shit now.

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Having never been to the Coliseum in Rome I have no idea how to compare the scope of The arena we were fighting in. All I can say is that it was HUGE. Walking in at one end I could barely make out the opposite end. The size made a lot more sense when Damion dropped in. He was roughly the size of a jet in his dragon form and his scales were black like a raven. There were two horns that curved forward. Apparently a lot of this fight was going to be fought in the air. The arena was maybe half full with most of the Dragons sitting in their human forms and anxiously awaiting the action.

The Queen stepped forward and announced the terms of the duel. There was a large gong behind her and when she hit it all hell broke loose.

The stadium seating where my friends and the Royals were sitting was bathed in dragon fire as a huge purple dragon exploded behind them. When the flames settled you could see a thin blue sphere encompassing everyone. Xath had managed to get a water shield up in time to save the people but not the area they were sitting in. The structure underneath Xandra, Sofie and Chloe fell out and into the arena. I saw them get up and dust themselves off. A portal opened up about 100 feet in front of them and two packs of hell hounds raced through followed by two hound masters. The hounds jumped for the ladies as the big dragon circled around. I saw Gwdyion jump down to help them but in mid air he switched to his angel persona and took off like a shot. He intercepted a smaller silver hued dragon that was coming fast to flank the royal seating area. I looked at Damion and grinned.

"You broke the rules," I noted.

"Rules are made to be broken, and your friends are only distractions," he replied. His dragon form made the sounds come out clipped.

I realized what he meant a split second later when his tail came around and caught me dead square in the chest. I knew ribs had broke and if one of them would have punctured my heart or lungs I probably would have been dead. Thankfully my regenerate spell managed to start fixing the damage as soon as they broke. As I was flying through the air I realized that the end of the stadium should be coming up soon. Sure enough I hit the upper balustrade and felt my hip bone crack. I needed a second. Damion had jumped into the air and was circling, watching the drama unfold beneath him. Big mistake. I wasn't dead yet and he should have try to finish me off. I watched as my girls started to fight.

The thing about hell hounds is that they are notoriously tough to control. Their natural tendency is to tear every living thing they see into shreds whether man, demon, or angel. Enter the hound masters. Hound masters are a demon that specialize in controlling a pack of hellhounds. They basically whip them into submission and bind them to a jewel via a blood ceremony. They then attune the jewel to themselves so only that particular hound master can control that pack. The advantage of this is that you don't have to summon or control five to nine individual hounds, you only have to control one hound master to get a pack. Sophie showed what the downside to the arrangement was.

Sophie had summoned her rifle and pegged the two lead hounds. With a touch of breathing room she shot at the houndmaster, not his physical body, instead she targeted the jewel. The stone in his hand shattered and all of a sudden half the dogs stopped and sniffed. They then turned to their former master and went after him. No demon likes being bound and the hellhounds were no different. The hound master demon went down under the weight of his own pack. The howls and yips for the free pack made it harder for the other houndmaster to control his. Another shot rang out and a second jewel exploded. For now the other pack was occupied in taking down their master.

I looked for Xandra and didn't see her, then all of a sudden a black form appeared riding the purple dragon just behind it's head. I was able to make out Xandra's whip around the throat of the dragon and saw her start punching the back of it's head. Xandra might look like a librarian out of a porn movie but she still had demon strength. After about 5 good punches the Dragon started to coast down to the ground. Then I looked for Chloe.

Chloe had come around the rubble and stood in the open arena. What happened next is almost indescribable but I will try. A shimmering translucent curtain of black and green energy sprung into existence in front of her. She sent it streaking toward where Xandra was going to bring the dragon down. Some of the first pack had taken care of the houndmaster and were running toward the seemingly defenseless girl. As the curtain touched them they simply were gone. Xandra jumped off just before the curtain hit the dragon. As the curtain moved over the body it seemed to peel away all flesh and scale and muscle. On one side was a regular dragon body, after the veil passed over it was just bleached bone. The curtain stripped everything from the dragon and continued on to the rest of the hellhounds. Soon there was only a dragon skeleton sitting on the arena ground. Then it started to move. It picked itself up and walked over to Chloe who hopped into the rib cage she then went and picked up Sophia and smiled as Xandra popped in. The undead dragon walked over by the royal seating area and set up guard.

If a dragon's face could show emotion all you would see is shock on Damion's face. Even more registered as he was buzzed by a silver dart. With my hips healed up I could stand and watch as the silver dragon that Gwydion intercepted appeared to be chasing a white streak. I was amazed at the speed Gwydion was able to achieve as he kept just out of reach of the predator behind him. Every few seconds crimson would drop from the dragons form so my friend must have gotten a hit or two in already. Gwydion went straight up and was out of eyesight in seconds with the dragon following close behind. Everyone held their breath for the next couple minutes and soon we saw a shape tumbling down ungracefully high above us. As it got close we could see that it was the dragon's body but it was missing it's head. The headless corpse almost hit Damion and seconds later we saw Gwydion in angel form drifting down carrying his bloody trophy. He landed next to the bone dragon and saluted in my direction. That brought Damion's attention back to me.

My ribs were healed up and I was back to full strength. I switched to my fiend persona and grinned. Now it was my turn. As I started flying slowly in Damion's direction I started to get mad. Really angry. I tried to stop the rage that was building up inside but I just couldn't do it. I launched a strong bolt of Hellfyre at the dragon. He whipped his head around and breathed fire. His breath weapon took out much of the punch that my Hellfyre had but enough got through to make him circle around for another pass. I launched a bolt of Angelfyre at him and he did the same thing with pretty much the same result. I had sent my soul siphon tendril out and was in for another shock. It slipped right off. It was like trying to attach to a eel covered in oil. I was in for another shock when I felt a tendril attach to me. There had to be something to being a dragon because I never even saw it coming. It instantly started draining energy and I almost panicked. As I was losing strength I remembered how Raphael had broken my collar. If I could draw more energy from the planes I might be able to do something. I focused on grabbing more power. I felt it surge into me, I pictured gathering more and It felt like a valve opened. I was no longer tired or weary. I was pulling in more power than he was taking out. I opened myself for even more. Now I was suffused with planar power. I felt him try to end the connection but now I wouldn't let him. I reached for more. He broke it off with a strangled bellow and started to fly away from me. I reached out and grabbed him, only slightly surprised that he was now only about the size of a mastiff to me. I was so full of rage. This guy was willing to kill my friends and was trying to stop me from completing my project. He tried to take Xandra, Sofia, and Chloe away from me. I drew more power. I felt my hand around this weaklings throat and squeezed. I was still in my fiend persona but I realized my size had expanded. I gripped him and threw him down into the ground. As he lay there twitching I was still angry. I drew more power yet again.He was now about the size of a cat and I summoned my mace and brought it down as hard as I could on it's body. Gore and blood flew everywhere as I literally pulverized the interloper. I couldn't help but shout in triumph and draw even more power. The amount of energy I had could level continents, hell this much power could extinguish a sun. I looked at Xath. HE wanted to censure me? I started to form a gout of Anglefyre that would obliterate any trace of him when I realized what I was doing. I desperately tried to shut off the flow of energy but I couldn't. It had taken on a life of it's own. It had to go somewhere and I couldn't let it loose on this plane. My last thought was to find somewhere safe to let this loose. I felt a shift. I felt a weightlessness just before I let loose a torrent of order and chaos infused energy. It felt like it went on for a millennia but it was over in a flash. I was now standing on a featureless plain of hard earth. I tasted something metallic in my mouth and felt blood from my nose running down my face. My ears were ringing and when I reached up to touch them my fingers came back bloody. I felt weak and numb and collapsed to my knees. I had time to wonder where I was before darkness enveloped me.