Ali jumped off Abeloth's back and landed next to the amplifier. "Abeloth, fly to that mountain. On the other side, there's an eagle's nest. Pick up the beast and take it to the village below," he said. Ali stopped talking when all three of them were drawn to the loud noise of a crowd far below.
Ali moved to the edge and looked down to see hundreds running through the valley between the mountains. It was still nighttime, but Ali's eyes had no problem seeing them.
"Come on, go!" Ali ordered Abeloth. Abeloth jumped off the mountain and used his powerful wings to fly through the air. The people below couldn't see his dark red skin in the night when he was so high up, and most of them were too focused on running away to care about what was above them.
"Miles, do you see them?" Ali sent the message to the teenager.
"Yes, they're refugees from the village to the north of us. It's burning down right now with bandits in the village. My drone is there," Miles answered.
"Are the dragons yours?" Miles asked. He couldn't miss the two giant dragons in the sky.
"Yes," Ali answered.
"I'm going down to stop them before they get to the village. Have the brothers block any of our villagers from leaving," Ali commanded.
"Take me down there," Ali said to Eldora. She lowered her head, making it easier for Ali to climb up on her back and hold her smooth scales as she jumped up. Her wings moved as one with the air, and she dove down to the valley between the Stork village and the mountains. The refugees had just passed through the narrow valley between the mountains.
WOOOOOOSH
They all stopped and some even fell to the ground as a giant dragon opened its wings and spread its shadow all over them. Eldora landed gracefully in front of them.
"A dragon! RUN!" an older man who was at the front of the refugees shouted, and the hundreds behind him turned on their heels with fear. But to their terror, a magical black portal opened up just behind them, and an even more monstrous, more demonic creature appeared.
Shadow emerged from the portal, his jaw wide open, and his fangs bared.
ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAR
His roar froze the refugees in place, some even fainting and falling unconscious. This was the worst day of their lives – losing their family and homes and.now attacked by two dragons. What luck was that?
The older man looked back at Eldora, who gracefully lowered her long neck to the ground, and a tall man stood on her back. "A dragon rider," he said, scanning the area for any escape route for his people.
ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAR
Shadow jumped from portal to portal, herding the humans into one pack. The refugees all looked at Eldora, where Ali jumped down onto the valley grass.
He walked forward, closer and closer to them until he stood opposite the older man at the front. "What brings you to my lands?" Ali asked. Ali's face was now visible to the refugees, mostly women, who had never seen a man like him, not even in their dreams.
"Please forgive us," the older man bowed down, his eyes fixed on Ali. "We were running away to Lord Stork's fortress for safety from the evil men who attacked our village."
"Lord Stork is no more," Ali said firmly. "I am now the Lord of this land and its fortress. You can call me Lord Ali. Now explain to me what is happening, who attacked you?"
"House Cinder attacked us with their knights out of nowhere," the older man continued. "They killed the guards and ravaged our village, killing men and women alike. You must help us, please. His Lordship Knight Nolan would surely compensate you for aiding us…"
Ali was about to speak up when he heard a ruckus coming from between the refugees. "Hey, don't go," he shouted.
"What are you doing? Stop!" women whispered, and some shouted as one woman in her forties pushed through them. She had blood on her face from a cut, and her body was covered in mud, showing the terrible night she had been through.
She bumped into the older man at the front as she pushed through to Ali.
"You fool!" the older man shouted, trying to grab her with his stick, but she was too fast for him.
ROAAAAAAAR
Eldora immediately lowered her head. She roared at the women with her sharp fangs next to Ali, warning the women not to come any closer to her master or she would die.
The women fell from the dragon's roar and the sudden wind that pushed her to the ground, but she didn't care. She tried to get up and approach Ali again, as if possessed.
"Please," she shouted, crawling through the ground closer to Ali and looking up at him. "Please save my family! They're still in the village—my little boy and husband. THEY'RE STILL BACK THERE!!!" she shouted up at Ali with despair in her eyes.
The older man rushed forward. "Forgive her, my lord. She's—," the old man tried to grab her, but Ali raised his hand, signalling him to stop.
"You're a Dragon Rider. You can save them, please…please," she begged with tears in her eyes.
[Personal Mission: Liberate the Village from the Bandits and Save the Captured Villagers]
Ali looked down at the crying mother and wife, then he looked up at the old man. "Take your people to my village and stay outside. You will be fed and taken care of. I will visit your village and see what I can do," Ali said out loud. Hope rose in the hearts of every refugee.
Dragon Riders were known in stories as very powerful people, and they had great belief that Ali could save their village.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOSH
All the refugees lowered their heads in surprise as a powerful gust of wind slammed into them from behind. They looked up and saw an even larger dragon flying through the air. But the true shock was the large eagle it was carrying with its legs. "That's the Storm Eagle that was causing us trouble last year," the old man said out loud. They all watched in amazement as Abeloth threw the Storm Eagle down in the courtyard of the Stork Fortress. Then, the large dragon came back flying towards them.
"Follow the orders given to you from the fortress and wait for me," Ali said to the old man as he turned around. His large back now became a beacon of hope for all the refugees behind him – injured men, women, children, and the elderly.
"Of course, my Lord," the old man replied.
Ali grabbed onto Eldora's side and jumped up, standing on her back as she rose up and used her gigantic wings to fly away towards their village. The refugees had to cover themselves from the powerful winds as they watched Eldora, the magnificent dragon, fly away. Abeloth flowed behind her, and Shadow jumped from portal to portal until he entered Ali's shadow.
"I will forgive you this once, but don't you ever do that again, you fool!" the old man reprimanded the women sitting on the ground. But helped her up to her feet gently and wiped away her tear. "You did all you could!" he said to her as some of the other women rushed to her and gave her a hug. Her bravery had given their captured families a chance now.
"Hey over there!" they all turned to see a guard in leather armour wave and shout at them from the edges of Stork Village.
"Come here…come on!" Tel shouted as the villagers from Stork Village were woken up by all the ruckus and were stopped by Tal and Tol in the village.
In the fortress, Sarina looked at the giant eagle in her courtyard with her hands at her hip. Next to her was a middle-aged cook with a cooking knife in hand. The knife was barely the size of one feather on the beast's body. "We might need a bigger knife," Sarina said, looking at the beast.
"Leave it to me," they both turned to see the hooded man walk very slowly with a giant chainsaw in one hand and a two-metre machete in the other.
VVVVVVVVVVVVV
He turned on the chainsaw, and the two jumped back in fear. They had never seen such a fearsome thing before. Its sound alone was terrifying.
Down in the former torture chambers, the lower floors were now covered in metallic tubes with supercomputers at every corner. A small factory, dug into the side of the chambers, produced a drone every ten minutes. All the tubes led to one large, glowing blue bionic ice coffin, where Miles was latching himself in the real world. His mind controlled his drones and robots across the region.
"He can summon those dragons too," Miles said in cyberspace. "My records don't have any similar contracts in Paradise. This is an anomaly." He sent a new line of code to his recently created combat AI, designed to combat one specific person. "Add the new data to the enemy dataset and calculate new strategies," he instructed.
Miles sent Ali a message with his drones monitoring everything in the village. [Ali, if you wish to save them, hurry. They've gathered all the men and children in the village centre. The women are in the village hall near the centre. The bandits look very eager.]
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