All The Skills - A Deckbuilding LitRPG

Book 3: Chapter 49: A New Brixaby

"Magnificent?" Smugness practically dripped off the end of his very pointed muzzle. "Impressive? Gargantuan?"

"You\'re awake," Arthur said and grinned at his dragon\'s offended look.

But, as a matter of fact, Brixaby did look very impressive. He had grown more in size and pure mass than Arthur had last seen him. He was also now the size of a decent cart donkey, which could handle the weight of a man without armor on. And his features had developed and matured.

Brixaby\'s scales were at the same time a deeper black and yet showed off the iridescent purple shimmer when the light caught him at just the right angle. Occasional flashes of the deep purple skin in gaps in the scales reinforced his true color, as were his wings when the sun shined through the thin membrane.

His barrel was wide with a deep chest and visible muscles meant to support four rapidly beating wings. His tail, however, was long and whiplike which indicated that there was more growth coming.

Brixaby\'s head and muzzle had lengthened subtly in proportion to the rest of his body, with his muzzle curving downward ever so slightly. It reminded Arthur of a farmers scythe -- elegant and very deadly.

Aside from his size, the biggest change to his silhouette was the spikes that ran down his spine. They were thin and curved backward to a wicked point. He had similarly elongated scales on his knees, wrists, and elbows. Any dragon that tried to tangle with Brixaby in the air would receive a spiky surprise.

His dragon glowered down at him. Now that he was larger, his expression was that much more fearsome. "What are you doing? You don\'t have wings yet. You can\'t fly."

"Yet?" Arthur let out a laugh. It shouldn\'t be funny -- they were in the middle of a battle -- but with his limbs buzzing from adrenaline thanks to his fall, he couldn\'t be in a better mood. "Find me a body enhancement card that gives me wings and we\'ll talk about it."

Though chances were, even with a card like that and his Master of Body Enhancement boost, Brixaby could probably still outfly him.

In the last few seconds, Brixaby had easily buzzed away from the worst of the fighting.

That was another change: What had been a hummingbird hum from his wings was now a deeper drone that Arthur could feel in his breastbone. He imagined that could become a terrifying sound to their enemies.

"Hurry, climb up," Brixaby said. "You closed the portal, but there\'s still a fight to be had." His blood-red eyes glittered. "And I\'m looking forward to showing you the benefits of my new power--No peeking! I want it to be a surprise."

Arthur rolled his eyes but didn\'t look into Brixaby\'s deck. Instead, he swung around and gripped his dragon\'s scaley elbow. He had a moment where he mentally tried to reach for his 20-point Spree card to give him a boost of strength, then remembered that Cressida had it.

He had to do this himself.

Legs kicking in the air, Arthur pulled himself up bit by bit. Brixaby grabbed his foot to help stabilize him, and using the leverage, Arthur reached to grab one of the spiky ridges that went down Brixaby\'s spine.

That was going to be interesting to sit on.

But as he pulled himself up and then swung his leg over, he realized his dragon was, more or less, made for him.

The neck ridges were viciously pointed backward... but they also flattened out at the base of his neck and for a foot or so behind his spine before spiking out again. That allowed Brixaby to have full flexibility of his neck without his ridges clashing with one another. And, conveniently enough, it gave Arthur a place to sit.

Though if he leaned forward, he might get stabbed.

For the first time, he truly experienced what it was like to fly on his dragon.

His seat was comfortable. Not narrow or bony like some courier purples he\'d flown with. Also, he was able to grip his dragon easily using his legs, instead of feeling like he was trying to straddle a wide platform, like some of the larger dragons he\'d flown on.

Though Brixaby could dart in all directions including nearly straight up and down, his body remained completely level in the air.

But just in case, Arthur grabbed a length of rope from his Personal Space and lashed his own legs down. He\'d seen Brixaby\'s acrobatics and there was no way Arthur could hang on if the dragon did a loop-de-loop.

The second he was ready, Brixaby buzzed forward, straight into battle. Arthur, on his back, whooped.

The portal might have been closed but the fighting continued.

Arthur had half hoped that cutting off the connection would end the Mind Singer\'s influence over the dragons. But it seemed, just like the team they\'d fought last night, that the Mind Singer had sunk her claws into her thralls and made it hard for them to shake loose.

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Her dragons were likely left with some instructions in case they were left alone.

Worse, one of the remaining green dragons was trying to reopen the portal. Arthur didn\'t know if he could do it, but he had the help of the silver mana user.

"Brix," he said, leaning close across his dragon\'s narrow neck to call out his command, "Whatever you\'re about to do, make sure it stops them." He pointed to the portal.

"Hold on!" Brixaby said, and the angle of his rapidly beating wings changed as he shot nearly straight upward, while managing to keep Arthur\'s seat absolutely stable.

Through their bond, Arthur sensed that Brixaby was showing off. It would have been easier to tilt vertically, but the rope Arthur used on his legs was for emergencies only.

"Definitely getting a riding saddle," he muttered. "One with a lot of wide straps."

"Make them black," Brixaby said. "It will go nicely with my scales."

When he was level with the portal, he stopped. Then he opened his mouth and roared.

From the moment he hatched, Brixaby had a naturally loud voice.

This new roar went beyond that.

He had stripped a portion of the power away from the Sonic Attack Legendary card. How much, Arthur wasn\'t sure because he had followed Brixaby\'s request and had not actually looked yet.

So, he observed instead.

Brixaby\'s open mouth, of course, was pointed away from him. So, Arthur only caught a bare sliver of the blast. It was still deafening.

The sound was somehow... shallower than the card last night had been. A single deep note of nothing, of void, instead of a full chorus of destruction. And it didn\'t quite shake the air in the same way the card had.

But the effect still had an impact.

The green and silver opened their mouths in what Arthur assumed were squeals of pain. It couldn\'t be heard over Brixaby\'s low nothing-blast.

The rider on the silver clapped hands over his ears before slumping boneless across their beast\'s back.

The two dragons struggled for a moment, and if they had been caught on the edge of the blast, they might have been able to move away. Now, there was no escape. They didn\'t fall apart in the same way Shadow had. Instead, they slumped in the air and fell with blood streaming from their ear holes.

"Follow them down," Arthur demanded, feeling cold. He hated the killing, but what was done was done. "I want their cards."

"Sure," Brixaby said. "But they aren\'t dead."

That shocked him. He stopped Brixaby\'s gather for a dive with a squeeze from his knee. "Then wait."

He looked again at the falling dragons and realized while they were in bad shape, they seemed to be halfway stunned. The dragons were making a token effort to control their fall. As Arthur watched, one managed to straighten his wings out and turned his plunge into a downward spiral. The mana-silver\'s rider seemed to be coming around too and was waving his arms in a casting pose. The silver\'s fall began to slow.

They\'d live, but they were out of the fight.

"I call it my stunning shout," Brixaby said.

Finally, Arthur looked at Brixabys core card.

Call of The Void

Legendary

Nullify

The wielder of this card has the ability to take another card of the same rank or lower from any deck. Once placed in a temporary deck, the new cards aspects are slowly consumed and added to a list of ten removable/adjustable slots to grow the wielders strength.

This list is not transferable and will dissolve upon the wielders death or removal from the core.

This card is part of the Call set. Search out other cards in this set to add to your power.

Card Effects:

4/10

- Attribute: Charm +5

- Spell Magic Nullification - Level 5

- Instant danger sense (2-second warning)

- Stunning Shout Level 3 (beginner)

The skill was indeed called \'Stunning Shout\'.

"Huh."

A lot of the power had been stripped from the Legendary card. Brixaby didn\'t seem to have the ability to exclude allies from the cone of destruction, or much control over the effect except for \'loud\' and \'less loud\'. But what was left was still powerful, and acted like a skill. Arthur didn\'t have any complaints. It meant the shout could be powered up.

His attention was drawn upward by an alert from above. Laird had gone off to skirmish with several other dragons after Brixaby had caught Arthur. Now the red dragon roared for everyone\'s attention.

Arthur was too far away, but he saw the red dragon point and followed his gaze.

Sometime in the last few minutes, a contingent of the Mind Singer\'s dragon had broken off from the main battle to fly over the salt lake.

"What are they doing?" Arthur asked, though a sinking sensation had settled in his stomach.

"They must be after the dungeon. Ha!" Brixaby laughed. "Little do they know it\'s been cleaned out."

"No, they\'re far over the water. They\'re--"

He stopped, seeing a pattern begin to form among the faraway dragons. Some separated from the rest to dive toward the water at a steep angle, only to pull up sharply just before hitting. The wind of their wings made the waves choppy.

No... It shouldn\'t be possible to see the waves out from this far. They were bigger than they looked.

"That song," Arthur breathed.

Brixaby looked back at him. "What song?"

Laird must have already made the connection because he was roaring for the defenders to gather together. Meanwhile, more and more of the Mind Singer\'s attacking dragons broke off from their own fights or finished their own, only to turn and fly out to the lake. They were like moths to a flame.

And now Arthur was seeing them all at once he noted there were a lot of blue, green, and silver dragons in the bunch. Water, nature, and magic.

Some of the diving blues began to bring up big globs of water with them on the way up, only to release the water at the high apex of their climb. It crashed back down, magically coaxed into remaining a sticky glob that could be carried, or a chunk of ice. That in turn created more waves, which were growing higher and higher.

"I thought it was just a bad rhyming scheme," Arthur said. "It was a warning. They mean to drown us swamp the land or the Mesa. Thats a brine sea! That amount of salt will sterilize the land. Brix, fly forward--We have to stop them!"