Explosions rang through the sky as smoke rose from the ground darkening the sky. The battle for Berserker Island was well underway and the fight was as ferocious as they come. Dane was able to mobilize his fliers and got them in the air quickly to deter the riders from their assault. They proved a challenge but they were determined to ensure that they accomplished their mission and regained their home.
Thyra flew through across the sky with more urgency than usual; a flyer was on her tail, keeping up with her skills on the back of a Deadly Nadder.
"I can't shake this guy" she said full of frustration.
Rampage banked from side to side quickly and hard as he dodged two blasts from their aggressors. Thyra would take him into a sharp left turn past a tower and then go right past another but the flyer kept up with them. She would underneath a makeshift bridge and then above a two story building to try and put him off but the man was still there.
"Damn it. What am I going to do?" she wondered.
"Perhaps I could be of assistance"
Thyra would turn to her left as a shot came hurling in at the man, knocking him off the dragon and towards the ground. Sten and Erupotor would fly past them from behind.
"Thank you Sten. I owe you one"
"Of course you do, and I intend on cashing in on it when we're done" he said smugly. "Now let's go blow up another port"
Thora and Virgil flew up to another port and began to rain hell upon it. With a couple of magnesium and plasma blasts, Hothead was able to demolish a great amount of the port with Thora's help of course.
"Oooowwweeeee!" he cheered as he went into an upward spiral with his dragon.
"Great work everyone. We just have two more ports to go and we'll be done here" Thora said.
"They'll be destroyed in no time" Sten said as Eruptor was forced into a spin to avoid a wave of arrows.
Virgil flew around with his bow in hand; he would spot a set of archers loading up dragon root arrows to fire at them. He took aim quickly and fired three arrows in quick succession snapping the string on the bows. This would cause the strings on the already drawn bows to snap back and injure the hunter archers.
"That's a fine eye you got there" Thyra praised.
His skill sand aim with a bow was unmatched in their ranks. Only someone as talented as him would be able to snap three lines in quick succession.
"Thanks" he answered.
Sander and his team had kept most of Dane's men busy for now and had caused a good amount of damage to their structures and their forces. It was a good day in the office for them but with more and more men flooding out to replace their wounded, they could only hold out for so long.
"I hope Dagur comes soon. These hunters are not letting up" he said worried.
"They will be here soon. I believe in them" said a rider full of confidence.
"Let's hope so"
Six blurs moved through the dimly lit caves at incredible speeds causing various whooshes here and there. Those blurs were indeed dragons, dragons on the hunt for a Bewielderbeast. As the dragons flew at high speeds, Sandstorm would begin to slow down and descend towards the ground causing the others and his rider to be confused.
"Sandstorm. Buddy. What's going on?" Rune asked.
He would respond with a little grunt as he touched the ground.
"Why are we slowing down?" Heather asked. She and the others hovered above them in the air.
"Beats me" Forde replied.
"Rune boy" Dagur called out. "Why are we slowing down?"
Rune turned to him and shrugged his shoulders. He had no idea as well.
"Sandstorm, we're going to need some answers or those guys will have my head" he said nervously.
Sandstorm wouldn't mind him as he stamped his foot on the ground twice. When he did that, Rune began to understand what was going on. Vibrations could only travel so far and return back to his dragon that he would need to do it multiple times to navigate through a huge tunnel system like this. Sandstorm would give a short roar before taking to the sky again. The others would have no other choice but to follow them but they needed an explanation.
"Rune, care to tell us what's going on?" Vyra asked.
"You see, the thing is that this tunnel system is so large and vast that we're going to make some stops so that Sandstorm can get his thing going again. The place is so big and vibrations can only travel so far and give him a decent amount of the topography of the place. The entire place can't be mapped out without a strong enough force to send out vibrations through the cave walls" Rune said.
"I think I understand. But not entirely" Dagur said.
"What Rune is trying to say is that Sandstorm would need to make frequent stops so that he can map out the entire tunnel because of how big it is" Forde explained, putting all that grammar in simple terms.
"Oh. That's understandable" Bjorn said.
"Well is there a way he can do that without making all those stops, like keep it fluent?" Heather asked.
"We'll see" Rune said. "I don't know how you're going to do it but we'll need to make those stops on the go. A lot of people are counting on us and if we stop so often, it's going to slow us down. I know we'll find a way, I just know it" Rune spoke softly to his dragon.
Sandstorm cooed, assuring his rider that together they will find away.
Rune wore a little smile on his face knowing that he and his dragon were on the same page. With a great flap, Sandstorm would increase his speed as they neared a turn. Sandstorm would begin to bank late into the turn, getting so close to the wall that it scared Rune.
"What are they doing? They shouldn't be hitting a turn at that speed" said Forde.
"Unless they want to get smashed into the wall" Heather said.
"They shouldn't be flying that fast in a cave in the first place" voiced Bjorn.
"Come on, we have to keep up with them. We can't lose track of them or we'll get lost" Dagur said as he spurred Sleuther to follow after them.
"Sandstorm, what are you doing?" he asked.
His dragon would run on the wall a little before giving another roar that would set eyes on them. He would use his legs and push off the wall as he went into a spiraling dive towards the floor of the cave. The two would shoot down into an open gorge in the ground as they would come out in another tunnel underneath the one they were in.
"Mighty Thor. What the hell are they doing?!" Bjorn said now worried about their safety.
"We wanted to move fast but not this fast. We could get killed" Heather said also concerned for themselves and their dragons.
Dagur was focused, he had spurred Sleuther on and the two would take the drop into the tunnel below before the other four shot through. He and his dragon moved with the aim of catching up with the two up ahead, they didn't want to get left behind. Vyra joined him in his pursuit although barely keeping up. The two strike class dragons had 'turned on the jets' as they blitzed through the cave like mad men on a suicide mission.
"I guess those two don't mind. They're flying just as recklessly as Rune" Bjorn said.
"Well, you know what they say. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Come one Windshear!"
"You too?" Bjorn said before looking at Forde.
Forde shrugged his shoulders as he also increased his speed.
Sandstorm came up on a straight with large spikes sticking out of the walls. The dragon huffed as he weaved his way through the obstacles at high speeds. Over, under, left, right, up, Sandstorm moved with unparalleled agility passed the spikes, showing why he belonged to the strike class. The others would follow with moves of their own as they tried to keep up.
Sandstorm flapped mightily as he carried both himself and his rider over a spike and into a little loop of their own. The dragon would turn his body over as his legs faced the roof of the cave. He would use his legs to do a little run on the roof before dropping down and continuing their flight. Rune had begun to understand the new behavior of his dragon, taking all his actions into account he thought deeply and slowly began to connect the dots.
"Running across the surface of the cave at that speed with his legs would cause him to hit the walls with a lot of force. A force strong enough to send a lot of vibrations through the ground. With that amount of vibrations travelling through the ground because of that force, it would allow him to get a larger picture of the area because the vibrations are travelling faster and over a larger area" Rune mumbled to himself as his eyes widened realizing the plan his dragon had come up with.
"Sandstorm! You're a genius!" he exclaimed.
"You're definitely getting a tub load of crab when we get back home! You might have just saved us all the time in the world" he said rubbing his head.
Sandstorm purred for a while before returning his attention to the path before them. He would run along the left wall of the cave avoiding another spike that protruded from the right side getting a feel for the terrain up ahead. Rune would turn around, taking a quick look at the others behind him to see how they were holding up. Dagur followed them closely, and then Vyra, Heather, Forde and lastly Bjorn who was at the back of the group.
He admired the trust that they put in him, leading them underground through a network of icy tunnels that led to Odin knows where. The faith and trust that they put him in kept him going, this mission was crazy but still they put their faith in it. The only way he could repay them was by pulling this thing off.
Sandstorm flew deeper into the tunnel before taking in a deep breath as he charged up for a blast. He took aim and fired at his spot precisely through two spikes. He would hit the right side of the tunnel's wall causing the ice to crack and then collapse. He had found a weak point in the tunnel and had exploited it, hopefully this would get them closer to the nest. He would bank right aggressively through the huge hole he had created, bouncing off the wall as he got one last feel of the place.
The others would follow behind as Sandstorm led them to what looked like a dead end. The Sand Wraith would begin to slow down and descend as they reached the end of the tunnel. The others followed suit as they landed close to him all staring at the end of the tunnel.
"Well, Mr. let's find the King of Dragons, that was some dangerous and I mean very dangerous flying back there" Bjorn said.
"You could have gotten yourself or any of us killed in those conditions" Vyra joined.
"You wanted us to get to the nest quickly, so I got us here quickly" Rune responded.
"Where exactly is here?" Dagur asked.
"Looks like a dead end to me" Heather said.
"You want to bail me out here bud or do you want the masses to chew into me?" he whispered to his dragon.
Sandstorm gave a light hum as he turned to the wall before them. He would fire a blast at the wall causing cracks on it but it was nowhere near heavily damaged. It would take a lot more to break through the thick wall. His fired shot would grab the attention of the others and he was sure that his rider could carry on from there as he would turn and give him a little smile. Rune nodded understanding his assignment.
"What was that about?" asked Forde.
"I think he's trying to tell us that the nest is behind this wall. Judging from how thick it is, its going to take all our dragons to break through that wall" he explained.
"Okay people. On my mark we all fire" Dagur said taking charge.
"Three, two, one, now!" he commanded.
All six dragons fired at once hitting the wall and causing a mighty explosion. The cracks would travel far as the wall began to fall with crackles around. Ambient light shot through the large hole they had made as it revealed a secret hideout, a get away from all the chaos.
A large waterfall was at the end of this magical place spewing gallons of water, a large rock stood in the center of the water that flowed down from the water fall and out to sea. Ice barricaded the walls making the place even colder than earlier. Little waterfalls could be seen, formed on the walls as their water ran down into a series of inter connected pools around the place. Multiple icicles hung from the ceiling as large jagged rock pieces spanned the area with little vegetation growing on them. The light that came in through the roof gave the place a surreal feeling, like it wasn't even on earth. They all were surprised at how such a place could exist within the island and go unnoticed for generations.
"This place….. it's beautiful" Dagur said in amazement.
"There's no better place suited for a King than here" Forde said.
"Let's proceed with caution; we don't want to spook her. I mean him" Rune corrected himself.
They flew in as quietly as they could before landing within the nest. They had no clue where the Bewielderbeast might be, or if they were even around and that time. They all dismounted their dragons as they took in more of the view.
"I wonder where they could be right now" Bjorn said.
"They could be somewhere within the network of this place or not even at home at all. We just have to keep our fingers crossed" said Rune.
The water below began to move as the presence of something massive could be felt. Waves crashed against the rock sides as the ground vibrated. The dragons stood close to their riders bracing for whatever was about to appear. Long large white spikes began to rise from the water slowly building up the suspense. Light blue eyes would reveal themselves alongside the massive head of the dragon. There in all her majesty, the white Bewielderbeast, the 'King' of Dragons.
"I guess that didn't take long" said Rune.
The eyes of the queen was focused on the group, she wondered how they got to her nest. They had come face to face with her, each of them staring her in the eye, full of fear and yet in awe of her and her presence. The first step of their plan had been complete; all that remained was convincing this dragon to join their battle. Something that was easier said than done.