Free Fight And The Fury (Book 8) by Craig Halloran Page B

jerked the reins and wheeled his spear around. The dragon cat creature was gone, but he’d heard a description of the strange beast before.
    “Feline Fury … come, kitty, kitty, kitty…”
    ***
    Dragons diving, Brenwar launched his first stone. The creature spiraled away, but the stone exploded into the cliffs beyond it. He grunted with approval. The mystic might from his bracers surged through his arms. He scooped up more rocks and started chucking them one right after the other. One caught a flying dragon square behind the wings. It squawked and spun into the cliff.
    “Yes!”
    Above, the dragons dove and spit fire.
    The Roaming Rangers and Ben volleyed arrow after arrow.
    Bayzog’s fingers unleashed shards of fire that blasted into the dragons.
    They dove, spit. Fire charred the rocks. Burnt through armor and flesh. The fighting force held its ground. Unloosed everything they had, filling the skies with the roaring sounds of angry dragons. They were repelled again and again.
    “Eat that!” Brenwar yelled, hurling a rock into a grey scaler’s spitting mouth. It tumbled from the sky and crashed into the ground.
    Two Roaming Rangers rushed in with fine elven steel and cut it down. It was one of several dragons that died, but they kept coming. The skies became thick with them.
    “Keep fighting!” Brenwar yelled, chucking another rock. “We have to hold them off long enough for Nath to find those blasted gnomes.” He noticed a dragon snaking along the cliff ledges. He hefted up a large stone over his head and heaved with all his might. It exploded into the dragon’s side, knocking it off the ledge. “Woohoo!”
    The others let out a cheer, hoisting their bows high in the air. The grey scalers retreated and hung high in the sky.
    “Well done, Brenwar,” Ben said, slapping him on the shoulder. “I don’t think a catapult could have launched that rock with such power.”
    “Of course not,” Brenwar said, “unless it was a dwarven catapult.”
    “Of course,” Ben said, mopping the sweat from his brow. His armor was charred black in spots. Eyeing the sky, he added. “But there are still many more of them.”
    “Bah,” Brenwar said, “they cannot handle my great feats. And the next rock I toss will be bigger than the last. Ha!”
    A great shadow blotted out the sun, covering them all. It glided past them.
    “What in Narnum is that?” Brenwar said, lifting his bearded face to the sky. He glimpsed a pair of claws as great as he’d ever seen.
    “Dragon …” Ben said with dismay. “Big dragon!”
     

 
    CHAPTER 19
     
     
    Nath scrambled from one cave to the next, calling out in the fragments of Gnomish he knew. More than a hundred caves dotted the steep cliff face. Hollowed holes. Dens. Cavities. Some deep, most shallow. Unless you could fly, it would take at least a day to search them all.
    “Snarggell! Snarggell!”
    His keen eyes scanned for traces of their passing. His nostrils flared. But their scent was gone. Ears peeled, he listened for anything out of the ordinary, but his search had garnered nothing. Coming out of another cavern, he cursed, “Sultans of Sulfur!” He glared down at the treetops over a hundred feet below. The battle raged on. He struck the rock face with his fist.
    “Ooch…”
    Nath’s golden dragon eyes popped wide. He poked at the rock with his clawed finger, tracing an abnormal outline. How’d I miss that? A gnomish body had melded with the rocks. Two stony eyes gazed at him.
    “Snarggell?”
    “Go away,” it said. “Go!”
    “It is you,” Nath said, staring into the hardened eyelids. “Listen, Snarggell. You have to come with me. Those dragons won’t stop until they have you.”
    “No,” the rock retorted.
    “You can’t stay like this forever,” Nath pleaded.
    “We can outlast our enemies like this,” the gnome said. “Now go!”
    Nath stuck his clawed finger on the crystal gnome’s nose, applied a little pressure, and said, “I will claw you out of