Evolution: A Warlock's Rise To Power

An hour later Lucan and the others were prepared to move.  It was decided that Lucan would go down through the trap door with the dwarves.  Super had decided to join in on the fight and Oar was eager to participate as well.  But Lucan put his foot down and forbid his steward from joining.

Lucan had tried to convince Edgit that they should use players/travelers, but the dwarf wasn't having any of it.  Edgit was determined to lead the charge and the others with him were just as unwavering.  And Edgit didn't want outsiders to be aware of the situation.  A heart of fire was a resource that wars were waged over.  The citadel may be progressing nicely, but it currently didn't have the proper defense to defend its treasure if another party became interested.  Especially if that player was an immortal traveler.

Lucan didn't push the issue and reminded the dwarf to retreat if things got too dangerous.  With that settled, Lucan, Super and the ten dwarves ran through the plan one last time.

When everyone was ready, Edgit opened the trap door and jumped down.  One by one, the others dropped into the cavern below.  Oar squatted by the edge and almost shut the trap door.  He kept it open just enough so that he could watch what was happening below.

The temperature was stifling.  The first thing Lucan did was store away his cloak.  It was already hot enough while covered in thick leather.  He didn't need the extra layer to trap anymore heat.

The cavern was about five-hundred meters wide.  After landing on solid stone the warlock quickly took in his surroundings.  On the far side of the cavern was a flow of magma.  In the very center of the flowing river sat a heart of fire perched atop extremely thick fire crystals.

"Get ready!"  Edgit yelled as he saw the growing ripple in the magma.

Lucan opened a portal to the material realm where the supplied they needed had been stored in the corresponding cavern ahead of time.  Three dwarves rushed through and dragged a massive cauldron into the room before Lucan closed the portal.

"ROOAAARRRR!!!!!"

The wyrm broke through the surface of the magma.  Two large claws gripped the cavern floor as the magnificent creature pulled part of its scaled body out of the river.  Magma dripped off its red hot scales as it let out another mighty roar.

"Go now."

Super, Lucan, and another dwarf named Biggs ran to the left side while the other moved with the cauldron to the right side of the cavern.

Super retrieved a large cross bow and let a bolt lose after taking aim.

*Clank*

His aim was perfect.  The bolt went straight for the creatures eye, but its eyelid dropped and stopped the high speed crossbow bolt from making a scratch.  But the wyrm's attention was now fully on the three in the left side of the cavern.

Adrestia took form on Lucan shoulder and then the warlock began to chant.

The small shadow drake leapt from his shoulder and grew.  When she hit the floor, she was already in her three-foot-long form.

Adrestia let out a mighty chirp as she leapt into the air and unleashed her draconic aura.

In the scheme of things Wyrms are considered one of the lower level types of dragons.  Just above them were drakes.  But this wyrm was a massive an ancient being where Adrestia was still considered an inexperienced whelp.  After giving the drake a once over, the wyrm relieved she wasn't a threat and opened its large maw, spewing magma onto the cavern floor towards the three on the left.

Super disappeared into the shadows while Lucan took a step back. Biggs charged forward, unafraid of the heat.  Biggs was the second most accomplished smith out of the group of dwarves.  The heat may hurt him over the long run but with his current skill level her could reach directly into a furnace and shape the materials with his bare hands, a bit of magma wasn't enough to deter him.

"Quit yer' spewing!"  Biggs yelled while rushing towards the wyrm with his massive hammer raised above his head.

The wyrm stretched forward , its mouth opened wide, ready to bit the dwarf in half.

When Biggs got in front of the wyrm, he suddenly leapt to the side as the beast pounced forward.  A beam of green light soared through the air and locked onto the worm, halving its speed.

"Take this!"  Biggs hollered while swinging his hammer towards the side of the wyrm's neck.

*Crunch*

With his full strength, he was able to put a few cracks into a large scale but he didn't completely break the creatures defense.

"ROOAAARRRR!!!!!"

The wyrm was furious and let out a roar and swiped towards the dwarf with one of its claws.  The wyrm may be moving slow, but a dwarf's tiny legs didn't give him great agility.

As the wyrm roared, Adrestia dove down from above and unleashed her own breath attack into the creature's mouth.

Rolling purple flames were sucked inside the large wyrm.  They didn't burn the wyrm to dust, but the royal hellfire punished and tormented the creature.  It began to writhe on the cavern floor as it randomly slashed its claws all around, leaving deep gouges in the stone.

Another burst of magma was unleashed from the wyrm, it wasn't target at anyone.  The creature was only trying to expel the purple fire.  Which it successfully did.

The wyrm was truly enraged now.

With eyes locked on Adrestia, it showed the small creature what it meant to unleashed a dragon's aura.

Adrestia had been threw a lot and seen many things but when targeted by such a force she still froze in mid air and began to fall.

The wyrm watched greedily as the shadow drake fell from above and opened its mouth in anticipation of the small snack that was about to fall into range.

"Take this!"  The dwarf yelled as it struck the other side of the wyrms neck.

*Crack*

After receiving a solid hit, the wyrm's head jerked to the side allowing Adrestia to fall to the ground instead of the creature's mouth.

The shadow drake shook its head, throwing off the fear and climbed back up onto its legs.

The wyrm jerked its head back to the front and locked eyes with the arrogant drake that was raising its head before it.  Just before it could open its maw, Adrestia unleashed her aura again.

This time she didn't release her dragon aura, no, what she released was something far more sinister and evil.  The aura of a royal devil.  Even most the dwarves who were busy to the side couldn't help but stop for a moment.

The Wyrm was frozen in fear as Adrestia rear back on her hind legs, spread her wings wide and let out a mighty bellow.

"CHRIP!"

Then she scratched the nose of the creature drawing a small bead of blood.

"Hurry, we are ready!"  Edgit yelled.

Adrestia dashed towards them with the drop of blood that she had retrieved while Biggs fell back.

While the dragon shook itself out of the fear, Super plummeted from above with his two scimitars drawn.

*Crack*

His blades dove between scales on the top of the beast's neck and bent one slightly backwards.  As the beast tried to roll over and squash Super, Lucan ended the soul fire beam and condensed the soul fire bomb.  He didn't hold it with the wand in his hand but used his spell weaver ability to hold the bomb in place with his left stump.

With a quick wave of his wand, two phantom fighters appeared before him.  They rushed towards the wyrm while Super evaporated into the shadow.  Sprinting through the torrent of magma that was fired at them the two phantoms ran unhindered.  In a synchronized motion they unleashed uppercuts.

The Wyrm didn't take any damage but its head jerked back and pointed straight upwards, exposing its neck.

Lucan stuck out his stump and fired the soul fire bomb.

*Bang* *Crunch*

Several scales on the underside of the creature's neck cracked.

"We are ready!"  Lucan hollered.

***

Edgit Hammerstone and the others dragged the massive cauldron to the right side of the cavern Wyrm appeared.  They quickly pushed it onto the magma and closer towards the heart of fire.  The cauldron floated as several dwarves tossed large stones into the river to form a temporary platform to stand on.

With the cauldron in place next to the blazing heat source, Edgit tossed in several pieces of solar steel.  A metal known to be extremely strong but required a ridiculous temperature to melt.  The only draw back of solar steel was that it became extremely brittle if it were get cold.  But down here that wouldn't be an issue.

"Get carving."  Edgit instructed as he tossed fire powder into the magma to increase the heat even further.

*Clink* *Clink* *Clink*

The other dwarves took hammers and chisel and began to carve out a long and well measure path into the stone floor.

Edgit tilted the cauldron and reached out towards the red hot glowing solar steel with his bare hands and began to force the pieces together into one solid lump.

Leaning out of the cauldron, he tossed more fire powder beneath it before leaning back in with a small hammer in one hand.  He held the metal while beginning to pound on it till it stretched out into a thin puddle of metal and began to heat even faster.

"Get ready boys."  He said to the others.

"Almost there."  Said another dwarf.

They had completed most of the channel and only three dwarves were working on extending it while the others were laying an wire incapable of melting in the thin channel that they had carved.

Thirty seconds later, the channel was complete and the wire was laid with an extra foot hanging out of the channel and laying on the stone floor.

"Here it comes."  Edgit said as he tossed the whole bag of fire powder into the magma under the cauldron before tilting the whole thing over.  The lip of the cauldron met the stone floor and its contents spilled into the channel.

The solar steel was rapidly cooling.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

The dwarves took out their smithing hammers and stood in lines on either side of the channel and beat the metal into the form.

They were able to work the metal all the way to the end of the channel forming a single long strip of solar steel.

Edgit ran to the end where the wire stretched out onto the stone while the others rushed to the cauldron to get it out of the way.

Gripping the wire, Edgit heaved with all his might.

"AHHH!"  With his muscles bugling he pulled the solar steel free from the form.  He dragged it back towards the magma and tossed it into the river while keeping a firm hold on the wire.  He placed it right underneath the heart of fire where the temperature was the highest.

"Prepare the rest boys."  He said to the dwarves before turning towards Lucan and the others. "Hurry, we are ready."

***

After Lucan released the soul fire bomb the wyrm's head bucked back further.  With a wave of his hand, half a dozen phantom mages that he had prepared earlier descended from the ceiling.  It took only moment for them to finish their chant.

Six soul fire beams locked onto the wyrm.

"Go now!"  Lucan shouted.

With a mighty grunt, Edgit ripped the piece of solar steel from the magma and quickly dragged it towards the wyrm. The others put on salamander skin glovers and grabbed the red hot piece of metal and helped rush it over.

"1, 2, 3!"

Edgit counted off before every dwarf unleashed their full strength and raised then snapped down the long strip of steel.

The strip of metal snapped onto the back of the wyrm's.

"AHHHH!!!!"

Edgit let out a bestial roar while he held the far side of the piece of solar steel and began to bend it around the wyrm's neck.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

All the dwarves including Biggs used there hammers to help bend the metal around the beast neck, smashing it into place.

Edgit reached out and took each end in one of his hands and brought them together under the creatures neck.

Super rushed over holding a long, thick chain where each link was carved from a fire crystal.  Once the two ends of the solar steel came together, he held it at the joint.

Edgit pulled out one of the spare bone fragments from the mithril dragon and handed it to Super. Using it as a pin, super held it in place.  Edgit took the large hammer from his back and rested it on the floor.  He took aim and used every bit of strength he had left to drive the hammer upwards.

*Bang*

The true dragon's bone fragment pierced into the chain, through the solar steel and into the cracked wyrm scale.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

Biggs stood on top of the wyrm and drove a bone fragment into the solar steel and into the scales that were pried apart on top while two other dwarves drove another pair into the cracked scales on either side of its neck.

"That's enough."  Edgit hollered.

Lucan dismissed the phantoms and cast their bombs toward the empty part of the cavern.

"RAAHHHHH!!!!!"

The Wyrm shrieked in rage before it turned its head downwards toward Edgit.

It opened its mouth as a waterfall of magma poured down and completely engulfed the dwarf.