In the darkness, there were other creatures moving about. Dozens of wargs and giants moved through the shadows toward where they assumed the ship was going to come down. There were more than Alex and Jim could deal with alone—enough to pose a risk if they were to screw up.
These were the visible elements Suzuki had talked to Alex about—the things that would determine if she was going to end up dead. Now was the time to look for those invisible factors.
Alex remembered that Myrddin had told her to check out the tactical planner in her dragon anchor. She hadn’t heard anything about it before Myrddin had brought it up, so it was probably a new addition, either from an upgrade or her steady increase in rank.
As Alex pulled up the tactical planner, she noticed Chine was moving uncomfortably. The dragon was probably getting annoyed with his augments. It would be a good idea to take care of that before a fight if there was going to be one. Hey, Chine, ready to get drained?
He rolled his shoulders and breathed a small wisp of fire. I don’t think it’s necessary at the moment. It is only a slight discomfort.
Oh, come on. Better safe than sorry, right? It’ll only take a little time.
Chine’s body relaxed, and he let himself sink onto the soft grass. Alex knew she wasn’t going to have to ask again.
Alex walked around to his front legs. She found the dragon anchor insertion slot and slid her hand all the way down the anchor and into it. The anchor covered her skin, which would have been burnt otherwise.
The augments dragons wore for battle were extremely effective, but they had one very bad downside. They were hell on a dragon’s body, constantly tearing the flesh and burning them by drawing so much of the dragon’s fiery, acidic blood. With careful maintenance and communication between rider and dragon, this could be avoided.
That was where the dragon anchors came into use. Not only did the anchors literally anchor the rider to the dragon’s back during flight, but they were also used to drain the dragon’s augments of draconic fluid and process that fluid through the rider’s bloodstream. Once a rider was bound, they became more dragon each day.
The process had never been fully explained to Alex and seemed to be taken for granted by all the other riders and teachers. Alex hadn’t gotten over her fear of being seen as an idiot for asking, so the whole situation still was shrouded in mystery. But at the same time, Alex’s eyes had the capabilities of a dragon’s. She was already more dragon than any of the other cadets.
Alex soaked the draconic fluid into her dragon anchor and let the anchor integrate it into her blood. When she was finished with all the augments, Alex climbed atop Chine and plunged her anchor into the final spot, his spinal augment. That augment was never removed. It was what anchored Alex to the dragon and the dragon to her.
Once the fluid had all been drained, Alex sat down and let the fluid integrate into her bloodstream. She was glad she had taken care of it now. The longer you went, the more painful the process became for the dragon and the rider. At the stage it was at right now, it was only uncomfortable for Chine. After a drawn-out battle, it was like having salt thrown on a wound.
For Alex, the difference was in how much her blood heated. Either way, it was going to hurt, but absorbing this much hot fluid into her body was easily doable. After a couple of minutes, the heat in her veins disappeared. She decided to take a brief break to look at that tactical planner.
Alex opened her anchor and looked through its menus until she found the planner. She clicked it, and a virtual board opened in front of her. The board was mapped in a sixty-mile radius around her position.
There were figures representing Alex, Jim, and Chine, along with figures representing the descending ship, the mass of flying dark creatures, and the land monsters hunting the ship. “Whoa!” Alex exclaimed, “Now that is kinda cool.”
Alex jumped off of the dragon and waved Jim over to her. “You gotta check this out,” she told him. He wasted no time. “We have a pretty good look at the lay of the land from this thing right here.”
Jim took a look at the hologram. “I think it’s only showing what you’ve already seen. Look here. You don’t have anything displayed over that hill. I think it’s because we can’t see over it.”
A little of the excitement left Alex. She wished she had paid close enough attention to have seen that for herself. Still, she was glad Jim had brought it to her attention. “Okay, well, then I know what we’re doing next. We need to map out the rest of this terrain.”
Alex commed Jollies and asked, “So, where are those reinforcements?”
“I’m nearly there!” Jollies answered.
“Wait! I thought you said you were finding reinforcements?”
“Since you’re so good at listening, you might remember me saying almost no one is here. We don’t have enough bodies to leave their stations, but Brath said he’d take care of the night watch on his own until a replacement came by, so I flew out here to help you.”
Alex would have preferred another couple dozen riders, but Jollies was more than competent on her dragon. Besides, if Alex was being honest, she would have taken Gill, Jollies, and even Brath over twenty other riders. “All right, Jollies. I got something for you when you get here.”
“Kinda figured we weren’t going to have time to wait for reinforcements. You know, since they’re not
