Read A Land Of Fire (Book 12) for Free Online Page B

dragon.
    Mycoples lurched forward and with her
jaws clamped down on the tail of another dragon, tearing it off. The dragon
screamed and plummeted to the ocean—but no sooner had she done so than Mycoples
was pounced on by several more dragons, who sank their teeth into her legs.
    Thor, meanwhile, still held on for dear
life, determined to take control of this dragon. He forced himself to remain
calm and to remember that it was all a matter of his mind. He could feel the
tremendous power of this ancient, primordial beast raging through his veins.
And as he closed his eyes, he stopped resisting, and began to feel in tune with
it. He felt its heart, its pulse, its mind. He felt himself become one with it.
    Thor opened his eyes, and the dragon
opened its eyes too, now glowing a different color. Thor saw the world through
the dragon’s eyes. This dragon, this hostile beast, became an extension of
Thor. What it saw, Thor saw. Thor commanded it—and it listened.
    The dragon, at Thor’s command, released
its grip on Mycoples; it then roared and lurched forward, sinking its teeth
into the three dragons attacking Mycoples, and tearing them to pieces.
    The other dragons were caught off guard,
clearly not expecting one of their own to attack them; before they could
regroup, Thor had already attacked a half dozen of them, using this dragon to
clamp down on the back of their necks, catching them unaware, maiming one
dragon after the next. Thor dove into three more and had the dragon bite down
on their wings, tearing them from their backs, the dragons tumbling into the
sea.
    Suddenly Thor was attacked from the
side, and did not see it coming; the dragon opened its jaws and sank its teeth
into Thor.
    Thor shrieked as a long, jagged tooth
punctured his rib cage and knocked him off his dragon, sending him tumbling
through the air. He felt himself plunging down toward the ocean, wounded, and
he realized he was about to die.
    Out of the corner of his eye, Thor
spotted Mycoples diving down beneath him—and the next thing Thor knew, he
landed on Mycoples’s back, saved by his old friend. The two of them were back
together again, both wounded.
    Thor, breathing hard, clutching his rib,
surveyed the damage they had done: a dozen dragons now lay dead or maimed,
bobbing in the ocean. They had done well, just the two of them, far better than
he would have imagined.
    Yet Thor heard a tremendous shriek, and
he looked up to see several dozen dragons left. Gasping for breath, Thor
realized it been a valiant fight, but their chance of winning looked grim.
Still, he did not hesitate; he flew fearlessly upward, racing to meet the
dragons that challenged them.
    Mycoples shrieked and breathed back fire
as they sent fire at Thor. Thor again used his powers to put up a wall of ice
before him, stopping the dragons’ flames from reaching him. He held onto
Mycoples as she impacted the group, as she thrashed and clawed and bit,
fighting for her life. She took wounds, but she did not let it slow her down as
she wounded dragons on all sides of her. Thor, joining in, raised his bracelet
and took aim at dragon after dragon, and as a beam of white light shot forth,
it knocked one dragon after the next off of Mycoples as she fought.
    Thor and Mycoples fought and fought,
each covered in wounds, bleeding, exhausted.
    And yet, still, dozens more dragons
remained.
    As Thor held up his bracelet, he felt
the power ebbing—indeed, he felt the power ebbing from himself. He was
powerful, he knew, but not powerful enough yet; he knew he could not sustain
the fight until the very end.
    Thor looked up to see huge wings in his
face, followed by long sharp talons, and he watched helplessly as they
punctured Mycoples’s throat. Thor held on for dear life as the dragon grabbed
hold of Mycoples, clamped its jaws down on her tail, and swung her around and
threw her.
    Thor hung on as he and Mycoples went
spinning through the air; Mycoples tumbled end over end, and they plummeted
down