Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 01 Ch. 26

Silvertree Chronicles Book One, The World Awaits, Chapter 26, (Dragon Wars Enhanced Edition)

Synopsis: The life of Eldar Silvertree from graduation at the prestigious Elven Academy and desire to leave it behind. Only to return full circle to shake Elven Society to the core.

***Inspired by multiple fantasy environments. Not endorsed by any of them. © EmotionalStorm April 2021. This story cannot be transferred to any other site besides Literotica.com without the prior authorizations in writing from the author and EmotionalStorm must be credited for this work.

Authors warning: This chapter contains no sex.

Authors Note: For those who have not read my bio, please note I write as a form of therapy for a Traumatic Brain Injury. I know the English majors will probably encounter issues that annoy them. If these are your focus, instead of the story itself, then this is not the story for you. I am not and will never be a professional writer.

I do it to tell the story, for those who wish to read them. I originally submitted this story back in mid-2017 to mid-2018. I have worked to try and improve my writing style while struggling with this issue. I have added some editing software and written a few other stories. Now I am revising and editing this earlier work to try and bring it up to a higher standard from what I have managed to learn over the last few years.

Chapter 26 Head of the Dragon

Lord Barrimus looked at his pathetic infertile Half-Dragon son Graxxor. He had thought the human General would have served as a better replacement. Then he turned traitor. Instead, Graxxor still kneeled before him. He hissed over, "I want each of our faction Leaders to meet with you today. Develop our first-round attack strategy, based upon their suggestion, you bring it to me. I will tell you what I want those fools to change.

This Champion in the Elven Kingdom is proving to be most troublesome. I had Ogre Magi increasing the wards into this area over the last 3 days. My spies in the Elven Kingdom have not responded and my Magi have not located them in the Capitol. They may be dead, deserted, or captured in the Royal Palace. Regardless, my plans for taking over the elven family seem to be falling apart.

Same with the humans as the archmage is unreliable and working off of his agenda and not mine. I want a Quick Strike Force put together, 10,000 strong at least, a small fraction of my force but I want to send a message.

Prince Fire Axe stated Gray Blades have encamped inside of this new cross-border area, less than 100 and they are providing some scouts out with each of the shipments that enter or leave the area. We will strike while they are still weak.

Our scouts have informed me the dwarves are loading some of the first wagons for this trade season with the humans. Raw ore would be a good bounty to collect to keep the troops motivated as new weapons are made for the main attack.

King Fire Axe is looking to support this cross-border group because of his treaty. Prince Fire Axe contacted me last night, he has been tasked with doing an assessment of the low roads for his father and will be out of position to help. It does provide him an alibi and keeps him from being accused of interfering.

You are not to enter Dwarven lands, but anything in the path of human lands into the Elven Capitol is fair game. Including trade caravans with or without dwarves present. Get me percentages on each faction's forces they suggest. I may increase numbers if needed.

The human Kingdom has no spies I can trust at the moment. I need those fucking rings from your mother and tell her to stop with the fucking excuses. I know crafting takes time but she is a lazy cunt like her son. Motivate her or else.

If Prince Fire Axe can keep them out of the engagement and assumes his father's place, then he will be a formidable ally...for a while. If not, the chaos he sews in dwarven lands will still cause chaos which will aid us. His is the last one we can look to pursue in usurping the thrones in our favor.

He would likely get recalled back to the Palace when this force attacks. He planted the seed to his father and the court that supporting this group was a mistake. That it would likely cause an incursion across the border instead. I want whoever is on the throne to see it for that with this small show of force. Also, to show it is not threatening them and they should focus on protecting their own Kingdom at this point.

If he can relieve his idiotic father of his head and assume control when that takes place, then it cuts one leg off that alliance. I want them to get into the Elven Capitol and Kill this champion and the Royal Family. They make it into the Capitol and we have succeeded even if they are turned back by their casters before getting to those targets.

Their armies are out of position to stop us. I want the plan by mid-day. Fail me again, and I will have one less son to worry about. Be glad your half-brother is tending to the Council, keeping them busy and arguing over the affairs of the world. Else he would replace you after consuming you!"

Graxxor bowed, "Yes father. We will have a battle plan for you soon."

He pulled out a whole string of crystals as he walked and activated them all, "All leaders are to come to my office immediately. We have battle plans to deal with drafting. We will attack the elves soon. Now move!"

He pulled the crystal to his mother, "I do not want to hear about your cage or losing your troops to me witch. Get those rings crafted or I will find 10 to replace you!"

The crystal shattered in his hand as she destroyed it and he growled, "I will fucking have to deal with her later. Battle plans first."

He got to his office and hung the string or crystals to his commanders on the wall and threw the broken one against the wall in his rage.

He added notes into his journal on what he could learn of Fire Axe. His father would not let him have direct access to any of his spies, yet he kept track of what was reported by each of them when his father's fat mouth gave him small pieces of information. He had names and locations including another 100 or so Dragon and other assets spread around the world.

He had included, from within dragon lands, those that were wanting to follow his father into undeath as Dragons as well. Just in case he ever ended up in charge of it all. If he had a way of killing his father, he would do it, but his father was the apex predator in all the lands and he knew it.

---

Eldar woke several hours later and prepared spells. He wore his black clothes over his armor and looked at the ladies, "I reversed the cloak, so all black will be showing. Easier to hide against the rock and keep your hoods up when we get there."

They went to the rendezvous location out by the stable. His troops arrived and he saw a couple of soldiers in mithril chainmail.

He looked at them, "If you are wearing dark clothing strip and get it over your armor. I do not care that you are in this barn with everyone watching. This is a stealth stay hidden until we are ready to strike type mission. Keep your hoods up while hiding."

They stripped but were not happy about it. He stood to give one lady some semblance of privacy as did his wives. Captain Silver Moon and Lieutenant Silver Bow did the same for the man. They finished getting gear adjusted. He looked them over. "Much better. I should have made that clearer at the meeting."

He looked at the rest of them. "Invert your cloaks, keep them closed over weapons and armor. We will be moving quickly and as quietly as possible. The Lady will control things once we are set at the intersection."

The dragons teleported them all to the circle location outside the city.

She smiled at Eldar, "Your troops are ready as are we and all the supplies are here. Please take what you are allotted."

Everyone went up and got their potions. They had two dwarven clerics and the two dwarven sappers. They would be in the third group.

Jarron looked over, "All of our friends will be teleporting to a private location with your commanders, his wife Annette, and I. Everyone else will come back this way and teleport to the stable in your groups.

One of our friends has a stack of scrolls to aid in this task to return you to the city where you began, near the stable. No discussing the events until we have a mission debrief in approximately one week as to the fall-out from this mission is assessed. Lead away Eldar."

Eldar nodded and activated the runes for the teleporter circle here. Everything worked as planned. He walked along the crevice and got close to the end with detect magic running. He placed his hand on the back in a fist. He looked out and saw 3 wards immediately. He looked at the dragon friend behind him. He signaled wards with the 'w' and counted out with his fingers starting at the thumb to 3.

They looked and started bringing them down. They waited to see if it set anything off and nothing occurred. He slid forward a bit and listened. He pointed to the left and counted out the 7 they expected and continued up to 9. He stepped forward and moved to the right. He checked for more wards and he saw 3 more on each tunnel.

He looked at the troops. He held up a fist. He pointed in a direction, showed the warding sign, and counted up to 3, and repeated for each of the other tunnels. They stepped out and cleared the wards. He looked at Annette and pointed at his head and the 'guy' next to him. Annette connected them.

Eldar, "My wife connected us for communication only. We are going to need one of you to clear wards for the dwarves as the others clear wards moving forward. We have to wait for the dwarves to be set before they go too far down the main tunnel."

Eldar, "Keep me on but drop him."

Annette, "I never connected, I think they can just hear us talking like this."

The one 'friend' nodded.

Eldar moved forward to the outside exit. He moved to the corner and signaled them to start coming 3 at a time quiet and slow. Once he had the first team in place, he started walking toward the exit. He stopped again and signaled. He saw 20 wards about halfway down. He put up his fist behind his head.

Eldar, "I count another twenty overlapping wards in that one section of the tunnel alone."

He signaled 20 'w'. He looked over and he saw the Lady had made it across.

Eldar, "Can you hear me, Lady?"

She nodded.

Eldar, "We are encountering a lot more wards than told to us. This has been beefed up."

She nodded and sent 2 of her men forward and they started clearing wards. He moved to where the wards were. He stopped as he felt something at his foot. He signaled a stop as he threw the fist up.

Eldar, "Tripwire? Just above my right toes."

She tapped one of the sappers who went over and took a look at the setup and signaled him to slide back by tapping his leg. Eldar did as he wanted.

The sapper smiled, "They have given us another collapse we can use."

Eldar signaled to step over. He had everyone hold and checked and there were another 10 wards where the dwarves needed to be working.

Eldar, "Another ten right where the dwarves will be working. Odds are the spot is trapped as well. Before we go too far might want to get them checking traps in the direction you are going."

He held up his hand as his eyes went wide.

Eldar, "Giant approaching if any of those wards are warnings of the trap then we just removed them and the giant will trip them."

Her eyes went big and she signaled everyone back to the intersection.

She looked at Eldar. "We will move forward with a sapper you follow with your attack plan. Protect the intersection and your people."

He looked at the sapper and pointed to the crevice, "Ensure it is stable."

Eldar, "Annette Take your group into the crevice I will get the others down this tunnel as far as we have cleared the sappers are not going to be able to set up the explosives. If that giant hits those traps. Plan stands. We have to see what we have from the reinforcement side."

Karti'Ros, "Danger approaches. As it is one of my Banes I signal that automatically as you already identified what is coming."

Eldar thought back, "That is good to know and to share with the other Blade Wielders. A bane but also a slight prejudice."

Karti'Ros chuckled, "I could see how you would say that as some might have human bane and humans are allies. Some may have Half-elf bane, A clever catch and worth discussing with them."

He backed down the line up another 20 feet. He pulled out his wand and his sword. He held off on the Moon Fire for the moment. He looked at the group who did the same. He had them move down further and dropped to one knee. Everyone followed his lead. It took another 30-40 seconds before the Giant went through.

Sure, enough he hit the tripwire and the tunnel exploded pushing the giant forward or backward and onto a second tripwire that exploded. Eldar shook his head. They heard movement from the Half-Dragon's office. A lot of feet!

Karti'Ros, "Danger approaching, again. As you are expecting it already."

Eldar shook his head and backed their line up another 20 feet and signaled for everyone to stay low. The Silver Dragons moved down the tunnel quite a distance but continued taking down additional wards and searching for more traps. They had moved a good distance from the intersection.

Eldar's group had 6 chain lightning wands at the ready and they waited for them to come to the intersection and investigate the collapse. The Second pulled out a communication crystal and talked on it.

---

"Father those addition wards your magi did? One of the fucking giants did not get the warning and tripped the explosives. The outside path is blocked. We will have to wait for them to dig it out as I have all of the surviving leaders with me working on your battle plan. I am going to kill the fucking Magi that screwed this up."

His father hissed out. "Finish your meeting and get those commanders digging from this side. The magi's have disintegration and enough brains to start on their own when it is discovered. They should be able to clear a passage.

Figure out who our next giant leader is. Great size and stuck with pea brains. Don't waste my time. Get it done and get them to use their contacts with the outside forces while you finish my fucking battle plans. This better not delay us!"

Lord Barrimus ended the communication. He looked at the hallway and heard movement...then he smelled the other dragons. He cursed, "Fucking fools. I will kill every last one of you."

---

Graxxor stuck it into a pouch.

Eldar raised his wand and the others did as well.

Eldar, "Annette he has a communication crystal in his side pouch, use your sword telekinesis to take it and hold it on the ceiling if you can."

He launched the first chain-lightning at the big Ogre-sized Half-Dragon. He called out, "ONE!"

The lightning struck randomly around all of the enemies. They had Graxxor's attention. He saw the elves a good 120-150 feet down the tunnel.

Graxxor wondered, "How in the fuck did they get here? I will have to save one to torture it out of him."

Eldar counted the Half-Dragon, 6 ogre captain bodyguards, an Orc chieftain, and a Gnoll chieftain. 6 more chain lightning wands hit from his vantage point. They started moving toward them which is what he wanted to allow the others to exit the crevasse. Eldar knew they had caught them off guard. He saw the crystal fly away.

The team's arcane flankers fired two chain-lightning from behind them yet they were getting closer to Eldar's side. He continued to center on the Half-Dragon. He sent a third chain lightning charge and stored his wand. The other casters on his side centered on different targets this time. The Gnoll began hitting the Half-Dragon.

The rest of the next volley of chain-lightning hits the Half-Dragon from the rear guard.

Eldar yelled out, "ENGAGE, NO FRIENDLY FIRE."

He had cast mirror image and Blade Song as they closed.

His casters had gone to defensive positions and the melee fighters were set to charge. Two more chain lightning from behind and half of the enemy turn toward the rearguard by Graxxor's direction. They had Silver Moon and Moon Bow who had the walls up already, blocking the routes. They would have to drop them if they got hit. For now, they were guarding the tunnel.

They had 5 badly fried ogre captains and the Half-Dragon was still standing. The Half-Dragon beat to death what little life was in the Gnoll. The Orc and Ogre chieftains were both smoldering corpses. The front-line melee fighters sprung forward to attack the two ogre captains.

Eldar, "Karti'Ros Moonfire on."

He saw a cone of cold go off from the back, fired by his Lieutenant. While 3 of the 4 ogre captains headed for the rear guards were down.

He had one blocking his path to the Half-Dragon. Eldar circled to the right and the Ogre Captain did not fall for it and he tagged him good, it missed his three images. Luck or he had true seeing. Eldar nailed him with three consecutive strikes. Unusual as normally he would get two shots in. Someone must have cast haste on them. The guy to his right brought in a massive blow and that Captain stumbled and died.

Eldar looked at the field and they had one Half-Dragon and one captain standing on his side of the battle. One ogre captain standing on the other side left with Moon Blade and Jarron engaged in melee with it. The Half-Dragon had paused trying to get to his communication crystal and did not find it.

Eldar did a running jump and flipped toward the Half-Dragon who swung and took out one of his images and then another. However, Eldar now provided flanking to and against both attackers on this side of the field.

The front-line forces finished the captain behind him removing the flanking threat he faced. The Half-Dragon started running for the tunnel. Eldar got in a parting shot on him as the wound hissed eerily. The sword handed Graxxor additional damage for both of his races.

Graxxor slammed into the wall of force and hit the ground. Eldar threw a wall of force around him and he was trapped at the moment. Eldar held up his fist.

He called out softly, "Annette, give the crystal to our dwarven sapper. We have him trapped. Hold your wall if you have one. Everyone, stand your ground. Annette, try to get him to throw off all his magical gear."

Graxxor tried to resist but failed the compulsion. He kept fighting the intrusion with his Half-Dragon brain. He started stripping out of his gear. "Have him walk over and lay on the ground with his hands behind his back." Graxxor fought it off as she switched compulsion and he blocked the second attempt. He worked to get some of his gear back on quickly.

Eldar called out, "One barrage of low-level spells. We want to capture him if we can."

Eldar released the wall, he shot magic missiles at him. He saw another cone of cold from Lieutenant Silver Bow. Eldar looked at her, "Low-level spells only! Everyone hold. Annette, try again."

That time Graxxor fell on his face and placed his hands behind his back. He was near death.

Eldar called out, "Hold the attack! Charlemagne put these manacles on his hands and ankles."

He tossed her his manacles. Once they were in place, he addressed the group, "He is barely alive but he is now secure. Cast a light healing spell on him. We need answers!"

One of the clerics did that.

Eldar looked at the sapper, "We will truss him up in ropes to give to the lady, can you let her know we prevented him from signaling for reinforcements and that we have him captured."

The dwarven sapper looked at Annette as she lowered the crystal to him, "Mighty powerful weapon in that one."