The Dragoso Series 2: Strength in Darkness
Chapter 8

Anna dove for the entrance after commanding everyone to scatter. She wasn’t going to wait long, the Leader needed to be defeated. She froze any hunter she came across as she ran the halls. She was about to pass a room when a spine chilling chuckle reached her ears. It wasn’t the Leader’s, she knew his voice, his laugh. Anna took a few steps back and looked down a passageway and spotted the Hunter Leader sitting upon a throne with a Tech Dragon laying beside it on a platform. Anna started forward slowly towards the throne.

“Well hello, Anna,” the Leader said, though it was in a voice that brought Anna’s past memories back to her. Fighting to save her kids.

“Cenod,” Anna replied.

“Ah so you DO remember me! I would’ve thought you had forgotten our fun when Gemini was still in the picture. How is the Amethyst Dragon’s son by the way?”

“I wouldn’t know, we haven’t spoken in a few years.” Anna’s eyes flickered to the Tech Dragon that was watching her carefully.

“Such a shame, he always did spark my interest. What with that demon living in him and all.” Cenod chuckled and stood, gripping the handle of the blade at his hip.

“What I want to know is how you managed to convince a dragon hater to work for you. He hates all of them, dragons, wyverns, anything of that sort.” Cenod hummed and looked to the Tech Dragon.

“Let’s just say I promised him your demise and the means to do it if he worked for me. Seems like it worked out, now didn’t it? My master will be pleased when he learns you are dead.”

Anna snarled. “You won’t be flying out of here without a fight, Cenod.”

Cenod pulled the blade from its sheath, the white metal shining in the dim light.

“It is you that won’t be flying out of here. Die!” Cenod lunged forward and phased into the ground. Anna looked around, listening carefully.

“You’re nothing but a pest, a parasite, just like your creatures.” Cenod hissed.

“Where do you think my parasites get their powers?!” Cenod appeared and the blade nicked Anna’s shoulder. Anna roared and spun to knock him away with her tail.

Anna grunted and looked to the wound on her shoulder, oozing purple blood. “Where in Kaylano’s name did you get Synthetisch metal?”

Cenod laughed

“He took it from Metallic Dragons during his war with them. Now fight! Where’s that spirit I saw in the Underworld?”

Anna spat ice at Cenod, freezing his legs. “You mean the illusion I was under? Some spirit! I was ready to kill my own teammate!” Cenod swung the blade and Anna pranced back a few steps.

“Oh I would’ve loved to have seen that. But seeing Brokenstar disintegrate was good enough, pity his life ended that way. He wasn’t very useful though and always questioned my motives, unlike Garrett.”

“Garrett?” Anna looked Cenod over, still controlling the Leader’s body. “Never got around to knowing his-” Cenod had jabbed the blade at her again, having freed himself from the ice. Anna grunted and dodged it before snapping her jaws around the arm holding the blade. “-name.”

“Must you finish every sentence you start?” Cenod swung his fist into Anna’s snout, making her loosen her jaw and snort.

“If it annoys you, yes.” Cenod screamed in rage and swung the blade wildly.

Anna blasted him with an earth shot and growled when Cenod phased into the ground as a shadow. “Getting really tired of this shadow magic, Cenod!”

“Good! I’ll annoy you even more! You!” Cenod phased out of the ground and looked to the Tech Dragon. “I want my shadow realm!” The Tech Dragon didn’t move and Anna looked to it before looking back at Cenod.

“He put someone in a digital world already, didn’t he?”

“What’s it to you?”

“Tech Dragons can’t make multiples!” Anna pounced and pinned Cenod by his neck. Cenod snarled before coughing. A black cloud phased out of Garrett and Anna watched it before freezing it in place. She snorted and looked down at Garrett who struggled against her claws.

“Coward!” Garrett screamed, trying to free the arm holding the blade.

“It is you who is the coward, idiot. You never came after me yourself, you always sent your lackeys to capture me. Look how that turned out. You targeted my kids instead and brought me to you. Did you really think I was the same foolish fledgling you encountered years ago? You thought wrong, Garrett.” Anna looked to the Tech Dragon and pushed her mind into its mind, breaking the walls around it and forcing the parasite from it. The Tech coughed and looked around.

“What the—? What happened?” he asked. His voice had some kind of robotic filter to it.

“I’ll explain later, you have a dragon in your dimension, free it please and place that into a small white room.” Anna nodded to the ice holding Cenod in his cloud form. The Tech Dragon gasped in horror before a portal appeared and shoved the Glacier Dragon in a cage out. The Tech moved the portal to consume the ice and he disappeared with Cenod.

Anna looked down at Garrett before picking him up by his throat and dragging him to the entrance lobby of the base and held Garrett up high on a platform. The fighting that had been occurring had ceased instantly when a Hunter pointed her out.

“Anna Dragon has the Boss!” Garrett struggled against Anna’s hold, but to no avail.

“Enough of this! You are all foolish to follow this psychopath! Just because you lose something and dragons are to blame doesn’t mean we are all like this!” Anna shouted, looking at her team.

She spotted Brenda and Trevor standing over Aya who was unconscious and bleeding from her neck. Brenda had a gash on her shoulder, blood running down her front leg. “He wants nothing more than to make you all suffer! Just as he suffered when he was rejected in the army seventy years ago! Throw down your weapons! This fighting doesn’t have to continue!”

Anna watched as all the hunters hesitated before one dropped his lance and dropped to one knee, bowing his head to Anna. A few hunters saw this and followed the first one’s example. Weapons were dropped, knees to the floor, heads bowed. Soon only about twenty hunters remained standing, gripping their lances.

“It appears we still have opposers. Salem, if you would.” There was a rush of wind and in the blink of an eye, those who were against Anna sat with their hands tied behind their backs and Salem stood near one, brushing his hands off.

“Rather foolish, if I do say so myself,” Salem mused and grinned, showing his fangs. Anna scoffed and looked to Garrett who glared at her.

“Gonna kill me yourself, Dragon? Get the pleasure of ending the life of the bastard who made your life hell?” Garrett question. Anna shook her head.

“No, not for my own pleasure. I’m going to end you myself because it’s my duty as the Dragon of the North to protect dragon lives.”

Anna threw him back against the wall and inhaled. Garrett cried out in pain before looking up at Anna as she released her Life Breath over him. Garrett screamed in agony before it grew silent. Anna looked at the spot Garrett sat moments before and snorted. She turned and saw faces of horror on the hunters.

“You are free from him now. Never again will you have to live under his rule, his...psychotic ways. Where are your dragons kept?” A few hunters pointed towards the other hallway. Anna nodded to them before stepping down and going to Trevor, Brenda, and Aya. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ FɪndNøvel.ɴᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“A dragon slashed her throat,” Trevor choked. Anna laid a hand on Aya’s wound. She spoke a few strange words and her claws glew sea green. Right before their eyes the gash stopped bleeding and new scales replaced the opening.

“She’ll need rest, but she’s okay now,” Anna assured them. “I need you to keep an eye on the hunters who surrendered while I see to the caged dragons and my kids.” Trevor and Brenda nodded and Anna turned away and started for the warehouse.

~oOo~

“See? I told you!” Tyrande boasted as Anna freed him and Ayassa from their cage. Anna laughed and looked at the dragons he was talking to.

“Sorry we doubted you, kid,” a Moon Dragon stated. Anna watched him closely as he spoke before their eyes met. “You have strong kids, keep them close.” Anna nodded once and the Moon responded the same way before he walked out of the warehouse.

Almost all the dragons had been freed from their cages, all except the three in the corner. Tyrande and Ayassa stood by them, waiting.

“These are the ones who need help?” Anna asked, looking at Vatuna. “Where’s the fourth?”

“He was coughing up blood, they took him away and we haven’t seen him since,” Vatuna explained as Anna broke the locks on their cages.

“Glacier Dragon with a chain muzzle?” Vatuna nodded. “Stay here.” Anna strutted out, Tyrande and Ayassa jumping onto her back. “So why these four?”

“Did you see the others, Mom? They were fine, they weren’t hurt. Vatuna, Ractor, Comeli, and Ferentar are in bad condition. They need our help!” Tyrande explained and whimpered.

“Alright, alright, relax, I understand. If they want our help, we’ll provide it. All the dragons were told they have a place in Voutneth if they need it. Once the hunters that surrendered are interrogated, we’ll release them and let them stay and go as they please. I’ve caught glimpses, some want to be waiters and we do need the help at Voutneth.”

“That’d be awesome!” Tyrande exclaimed, jumping slightly. Anna smirked and came to Garrett’s room, seeing the cage still sitting there with Ractor laying in it, he was coming to.

“Who are you?” Ractor mumbled through his muzzle. Anna broke the lock on his cage and wiggled her claws at him.

“Hold still, I’m going to melt the chain off,” Anna explained.

“You’re a Flower Dragon, how can you possibly-” Ractor was cut off, Anna let loose a lick of flame and the chain heated up and snapped. “Anna Dragon?”

“That’s me.” Anna looked over her shoulder at Tyrande and Ayassa who waved to him. Ractor smirked.

“Are the other three ok?” Ractor asked and Tyrande nodded. Ractor exhaled with relief and rubbed his muzzle.

“They’re in the warehouse. I need you to bring these two to the lobby. Tyrande, Ayassa, go to Uncle Zoymey, ok?” Ractor nodded and Tyrande and Ayassa dropped to the ground and went to Ractor. “I have some unfinished business with a certain Wyvern.” Anna watched Ractor walk out with her kids before looking around the room and exhaling.

“Did you honestly think I was going to let you go by yourself?” Anna looked back and exhaled. Kano and Vena stood behind her.

Kano was an ordinary Volcano Dragon, though his wings were slightly thinner than the average dragon. Vena’s dragon form consisted of her having coarse fur instead of scales and a mane of sorts on her head, despite being female. She had lion’s paws instead of dragon claws.

“I can’t let you two risk your lives. Kano, you’re the future of the dragons, I shouldn’t have asked you here. Eshala will have my head if something happens to you. Being a Volcano Dragon, you have the ability to use ranged attacks to your advantage. Cenod fights dirty, I’m not putting you at risk.”

“Anna, you can’t be serious,” Vena snapped.

“I am, Vena. I’ve had enough of this moron and I’m stopping him once and for all.” Anna turned away and cleared her throat. “Open the portal, don’t let Cenod escape.”

“I’m going with you.” Anna whipped her head around to see Trevor approaching.

“Oh, no you don’t. Do you want to break your mother’s heart?” Anna snapped. Trevor scoffed.

“She has my siblings, and my father is still alive. I’m doing what I signed up for, protect the world and help you.” Anna shook her head and the portal opened behind her.

“Get your tail in there then.” Anna launched herself in and Trevor followed behind her.

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