Chapter Text
Durrakas grunted from the effort, his boots sliding on the rough stone as he fought to keep his balance after barely blocking a swipe from a giant scaled paw with his shield. Despite the impact knocking him away several dozen paces, he managed to stay on his feet.
With his free hand, he called forth a spell with a quick chant, producing a bolt of light that impacted the scales of his foe. The Guiding Bolt connected, illuminating her body with a soft glow that would help his allies to strike her. Once he saw her attention shift away from him, he quickly took stock of the situation.
In front of him, the gigantic form of Tiamat loomed, her five chromatic heads all focusing on different opponents. The avatar summoned by this sect of fanatics was strong, and it was a turn of events he and his friends wished they had been able to prevent, but they had arrived too late as the fanatics managed to complete the ritual just as they arrived. Durrakas was able to witness the cultists leader being engulfed in a storm of magical energy, with Tiamat’s avatar emerging from it. Using the offered bodies and souls of her cultists to do so.
Ever since her avatar’s summoning, he could feel the attention of Bahamut on the battle, his God fully aware of the events that transpired. Durrakas knew he had the option to make a similar sacrifice, giving up his whole being so that Bahamut could descend as an avatar to fight against his nemesis. But he had been made abundantly clear that it was to be a last resort option, that he would rather not have his main priest making such a sacrifice unless there was truly no other way.
Durrakas owed a lot to Bahamut, the Platinum scaled Dragonborn following him ever since his youth. These scales he wore were not the same color as those he was born with.They were merely silver, once, but his devotion brought upon the change.
Even though the metallic dragon God was not revered in his clan, they at least respected him. In his travels, Durrakas met several clans rejecting the fact that both him and his nemesis had any power over them. Some even assaulted him for daring to wear his symbol.
At the beginning, he harbored doubts whether pledging his service to Bahamut was the right choice, but after all the adventures he’d had with his friends, they were swept away one by one like leaves on the wind. Now, he knew it with all his heart that it was the right one. With His guidance, Durrakas had been able to prevent several plans that would have caused harm all over the material world and other planes. From groups of bandits planning to raze villages for some imagined slight, through narrowly avoiding wars by unveiling engineered diplomatic crises, to demonic invasions that required help from celestials. Durrakas and his friends had helped save a lot of lives.
Eventually, Bahamut bestowed upon him a boon: he could be reborn in a new form that would grant him new advantages and a prolonged life. Durrakas had accepted, and that was how he became a winged, platinum Dragonborn. The simple freedom of unassisted flight was enough to convince him that he had made the correct decision, and despite the initial regret over losing the colors of his birth, he eventually found himself wearing his new scales with pride.
Thus it was him and his group who had been tasked with preventing Tiamat’s summoning.Since should She be left to Her own devices, the destruction inflicted on the world would be… widespread, to say the least. She had made it clear to Bahamut that She did not care about mortals other than chromatic dragons and Her goal of placing them as uncontested rulers of the material world.
An inhuman hiss of pain broke Durrakas from his memories, as he witnessed Rycroft plunge his lance into the white head of Tiamat. The human fighter was dancing around the battlefield, his martial prowess evident to all. Even though his age was starting to catch up to him, it was also a warning to all that may dare to defy him. He embodied the saying of ‘beware an old man in a profession where most die young.’.
The Lance he was wielding had been a gift from Bahamut specifically for this fight to give them an edge against Tiamat, and Rycroft had proven worthy of it, making great use of it against His nemesis.
The green head of Tiamat looked at Durrakas, tensing for a split second and he barely managed to dodge the torrent of poison that the head breathed out, avoiding it with a single flap of his wings. She attempted to engulf him within the continuous breath but eventually relented, waiting for a better opportunity once he landed. An arrow embedding itself in her scales with a crack, caused her to roar in rage and the head turned to face her assailant.
A dwarf stared back, the Oathbow he had used to launch the arrow on her now at resting position. Durrakas always found it ironic that he, a Dwarf Ranger, had to use a famed Elven weapon as his weapon of choice. But Vonrik never complained, and even joked about the fact by claiming that he was a better wielder than all of the bow masters the elves had. He made great use of it, its ability to designate a target as a sworn enemy, which helped guide his aim until it was defeated.
Vonrik had stayed at the back for all of the battle, forcing Tiamat to focus her numerous breath weapons on him, which he dodged effortlessly every time, showing surprising agility in such a small stature. He provided great support, allowing his companions out of tight spots with quick reflexes and spells. It let all of them to focus more on offense, knowing he had their backs.
The distraction allowed Durrakas to land, and spotting that none of Tiamat’s heads were focused on him, he knew he had no better opportunity. Bahamut had allowed him to cast a powerful spell for this fight, though he could only do it once. He struck the ground with his fist, unleashing a powerful radiant shockwave around him, it passed harmlessly through Rycroft, but hit Tiamat hard, cracking several scales on her white, blue and red heads.
Suddenly, a blinding white flash appeared above Tiamat, illuminating the whole of her back and burning through layers of her scales. She roared in pain, the flash having taken her by complete surprise. Durrakas had flinched at first, but he recovered quickly from the light, knowing it was a spell from Nerileth, the Elf sorceress that was part of their group. She had been casting powerful spells all during the fight, and was the one Tiamat attempted to get rid of in priority. But she made sure of staying nimble and away from the Goddess of greed and tyranny, fully aware of how dangerous her breath attacks were.
The damage had now been done, and Durrakas could see that with all the arrows, spells and weapons that she had been hit by, Tiamat was barely holding on now. He could even see that some of her heads were clearly blinded, arrow shafts still sticking out from many of them, though the Red head was looking at all of them with murderous rage… And then She spoke, Her thunderous rage echoing through the cavern for the first time since the fight began.
“Insolent pests… I know when I am beaten, but I will make sure you won’t make it through as well!” And then suddenly She raised all five of her heads towards the ceiling and breathed.
The storm of elemental breaths that poured out of her maws impacted the ceiling of the cave… Quickly, fissures started to spiderweb through the stone ceiling above, stalagmites and large rocks beginning to fall…
Durrakas immediately recognised the danger as well as Rycroft, who had exploited Tiamat action by piercing her torso, clearly having dealt a grievous wound to the Avatar as she had began dissolving moments later.
The Dragonborn retrieved a diamond that he had prepared inside his pouch, affording him easy access without having to retrieve it from his bottomless bag. With it in hand, his tongue began an incantation, his voice bending magic to his will in order to cast one of his most powerful spells. In front of him, the Gate spell formed, creating a gateway to his home, revealing a small estate in the middle of a forest, the scent of pine and the sound of birds coming through. More importantly, it was a way out of the now collapsing cave… However he could immediately sense something was wrong. Tiamat’s Avatar was still lingering, and he could sense that she was attempting to close the Gate before they could cross. It would clearly not hold for the minute the spell usually did if She had anything to say about it.
“NOW! I DON’T KNOW HOW LONG I CAN MAINTAIN IT FOR!” Durrakas shouted to his teammates who were running as fast as they could towards the hole in reality leading to safety, the view starting to distort and waver.
Vonrik passed through first, nodding in thanks to his teammate, then Nerileth, having cast a quick spell to boost her speed to make it from all the way across the cave. Then finally Rycroft, giving the Dragonlance to Durrakas hands as he passed him, rushing through the quickly destabilizing portal… However, while he could sense that Rycroft crossed without issues, the Dragonborn realized in horror that the spell finally broke right as he, himself, was in the middle of crossing.
As he felt himself being wrenched through space, as he tasted green, as he heard vanilla, as he touched the sound of breaking glass, as he saw colors that held no name for they were never meant to be perceived, as he smelled panic itself… Durrakas knew had been caught in the volatile currents of fractured magic, he did not hear as much as he knew the voice of Tiamat ringing out in his head.
“ Nomag wux nelithik persvek wer ralthoki di wer Sameja, aribahamutkosjirl!”
All his senses vanished into nothingness, leaving his soul to feel as currents of pure magic carrying him with them.