Holmorth straightened to his full height, reaching down and unsheathing a wispy wand. “Ah, it seems as if we will dance once more,” he growled in his raspy voice. “I did not think I would have the chance to kill you all so soon. The gods must be smiling on me.”
Brath screamed something unintelligible, and Furi launched a firebolt at Holmorth. The wizard merely waved his wand and the fire disappeared around him. “You’re going to have to try much harder than that.”
Alex raised her hands and turned to Brath. “Hold on, hold on!” she said. “He’s more powerful than he was before. We can’t just attack and give him the advantage.”
“If he’s so powerful, why the hell is he monologuing?”
Alex thought the question through. “You’re right. He must be stalling for some reason,” she said. “Dragonriders, get ready to—”
Holmorth raised his wand and bowed slightly. “I am not stalling,” he hissed. “Merely playing with my food before the kill. If you are in such a rush to lose your lives, then by all means, let me oblige.”
Holmorth floated into the air, his wand raised high. As his feet left the meteor, the crust rapidly deteriorated. Beneath the crust was something foul, reeking of offal and decay, yet encased in what could only be a womb.
The membrane over the embryonic sac was pink and nearly transparent. An eye opened in the fluid, then the membrane burst and the rotting liquid fell to the ground, burning through whatever bat or dragonrider was in its way.
A creature old and horrible uncurled in the sky, its bony tail unwrapping to allow shredded and tattered wings to open. Its body was made of bone, its skin rotting. Maggots poured from its mouth, the undead dragon roaring loudly enough that those who fought below stopped to look up in horror.
Holmorth landed atop the dragon and laughed maniacally. “How does one kill what is already dead?” he taunted. “How does one slay what was born in the very fabric of reality, died, and returned anew, now evil?”
Jim’s voice came through on the comm. “That’s a really good question. How are we going to kill that thing?”
Alex responded, “I’m glad you’re on board with killing it.”
Brath was staring down Holmorth and the undead dragon. “Of course, we’re going to kill it,” he said. “Holmorth killed our friends in cold blood. We don’t have a choice. You hardly ever get a chance for revenge. Now we can make him feel every one of their deaths.”
Alex had been trying not to think about what had happened at the Wasp’s Nest. She didn’t want to think of the dead cadets, their bodies broken and mangled by the invasion Holmorth had led. But Brath was right. Innocent lives had been lost, children mostly, and it had been Holmorth’s doing.
Alex sized up the dragon as Holmorth stood gloating, rambling on about a new age of darkness or some other apocalyptic drivel. The undead dragon was easily twice the size of Furi. A straight-on fight was going to end up with all the riders dead. “We go low,” Alex suggested. “Back into the thick of the fight.”
Gill chuckled and said, “So, you’re opting for running this time? A bold new strategy.”
“Hey, you gotta try something new sometime,” Alex said as she leaned forward, sending Chine diving into the chaos. The rest of Team Boundless followed closely.
Chapter Nine
Team Boundless plunged deep into the battle, weaving between bats and other dragonriders with the undead dragon and Holmorth hot on their tails. Alex knew she was going to have to come up with something better than her current plan.
To be fair, the plan was working fairly well at the moment. The undead dragon was too large to maneuver through the flying bodies. It was more likely to hit a bat than to hit any other dragonriders since the dragonriders were so outnumbered.
As long as Alex could stay out of the undead dragon’s way, she would have time to figure out what needed to be done. Hey, Chine, anything I need to know about undead dragons?
His answer was hardly encouraging. Undead dragons are the eldest of all dragons. They are the progenitors of our race, extremely powerful. Even death could not hold them. Their own power brought many of them back to life.
Okay, but how do we kill it?
The same way you kill any dragon—beat it to death. There is only a little life left in its body. Extinguish the flame that burns within it, and the dragon will remain dead.
Now Alex could see the only flaw in her plan. If the undead dragon was incapable of attacking Team Boundless, the team couldn’t go after it that way either. There was too much going on for a straight-on attack. Whatever their next phase was going to be, it would have to be heavy on creativity. “Jollies, you read me?” Alex asked.
The pixie’s voice came through the comm crystal-clear. “Yep! You having an easy time dodging all these bats? I swear, I didn’t know there were this many bats in the world.”
“Not as easy a time as I wanted. I’m going to need you to come with me. We need to start whittling down Holmorth’s dragon, and see what Holmorth is capable of as well.”
“On it!”
Jollies came zooming through the battle from the other side. Amber and Jollies had speed that Alex couldn’t even dream of competing with, and it was that Alex needed at that moment.
Alex and Jollies turned back around, heading toward Holmorth. A group of bats flew at the two dragonriders. They were only able to narrowly pull away at the last minute as the bats sent sonic blasts toward them.
Jollies went low and Alex went high, Alex clearing a path with Chine’s ether flames. Once the bats were out of the way, the dragonriders continued toward Holmorth.
Holmorth was waving his wand above
