Free Dragon Apocalypse (The Berserker and the Pedant Book 2) by Josh Powell Page B

hearted grin Pellonia remembered.   Then Pellonia saw it.   Between Melody’s teeth, a tentacle flicked back and forth where a tongue should have been.   She’d been taken over by one of the Phage, her mind controlled and turned to their evil purpose.   The Melody she knew was no more.
    Gurken’s eyes narrowed.   “You’ve taken her sister?   I’ll kill you.”
    “Now, now, Gurken.   I really don’t see how you’re capable of that in your current state.   No rage, no ‘dwarfen’ runes, no nothing.   It’s rather sad, really,” Arthur said. He pointed at Gurken and said in a bored voice, “Fulgur.”   A bolt of lightning shot from an orb, striking Gurken and knocking him back.   Gurken shook upon the ground, trembling as the lightning coursed through him.   “Your ‘dwarfen’ runes can’t protect you anymore, can they?”   Arthur laughed, using his fingers to put air quotes around the word ‘dwarfen.’
    “Let it go, Arthur.   You do hold a grudge overly long,” said Pellonia.
    Maximina fired a crossbow bolt at Arthur’s head, handed the crossbow to a servant, took the second crossbow and fired it as well.   The orb of ice circling Arthur’s head, shot a beam intercepting the bolts, freezing them solid, and knocking them to the ground as quickly as Maximina could fire them.   Maximina stopped and glared at Arthur, who did not even acknowledge her presence.   Ohm continued strumming his lute, the tune taking on a character of apprehension and foreboding.
    “I do like your bard,” Arthur said.   “Quite a catchy tune.   Good fellow, are you in need of a patron?”
    “It’s her!” Pellonia heard another voice coming out of the hole.   A girl looking exactly like Pellonia poked her head up.   “It is!” followed by another Pellonia.   “I can’t believe it!” A third Pellonia’s head popped up.   They scurried out of the hole at the same time, getting in each other’s way as often as not.
    The three Pellonia’s walked over to Arthur, smiling at Pellonia.
    “We’re all reunited at last.”   “One big happy family.” “It’s good to see me, again,” the Pellonias said.
    Pellonia curled her lip.   “They got you too?”
    Maximina’s jaw dropped as she looked from Pellonia to Pellonia to Pellonia to Pellonia.   “Four Pellonias!” she exclaimed.
    “Five, actually” Arthur said.   “One made it onto the elven ship.   My mistake, I’d meant to make one copy, that way one could stay here and one could go there, but since I had four orbs with me there was a bit of a feedback loop and poof.   Five Pellonias.”
    “Don’t worry, Pellonia,” said Melody to Pellonia.   “The other Pellonia is helping us as well. She created the portal that took me from the elven ship to here.   Arthur, dearest, do you think we can do anything with a portal that extends such great distances?”
    “I do,” Arthur said.   “I do believe we can, oh, I don’t know, say, open a portal to the Phage homeworld and let them through?”
    Melody looked at Pellonia.   “We’ll get you first, Pell.   You can take your rightful place alongside us.”
    “Never!” Pellonia yelled.
    Arthur, Melody, and the other Pellonia’s laughed and laughed.
    The crowd, noticing the destruction of the tree beast, and the dissipation of the green mist, began to reform.   They began to clap and cheer and whistle.   “Huzzah!   The Lightning Brigade has returned!   They did it!   We’re saved!”   They pushed past The Ice Capaders, knocking them over in a rush to get to Arthur.
    They surrounded Arthur.   “How did you do it?   How did you survive down there so long?   What did you use to kill the plant beast?” The crowd peppered him with questions before a nobleman stepped out.
    “Fellow Arendalians,” he began.   “Our fair heroes, The Lightning Brigade, have returned triumphantly, quite triumphantly, from their quest.   Unlike some,” he said, staring at Lord FitzClarence