Chapter 17

While Varden was helping the others to their feet an ice spear came flying out of nowhere and just barely missed his head and sunk deep into the wall.

Varden turned to see where it came from and saw a huge man made out of ice and six smaller versions of it.

The large one grabbed a chunk of ice and cupped it in his hands and blew its frosty breath on it. They watched as it changed into a spiked ball. He quickly threw it at the party, as the ball touched the floor it exploded and sent pointed ice spikes in every direction. Luckily for the others, Varden took most of the blast and the ice as well, but the ice shattered as it hit his armor.

Varden thought to himself this was going to be a hard battle for him to win. The thing was using long-range attacks and that was going to make it hard for him to get close. He needed to be close if his sword and shield were going to do any good.

Drake threw his dagger at one of the small ones. It simply held up its hand and formed an ice shield and blocked it.

Cara shot an arrow of light at it, but the light arrow just ricocheted back at them. Cara and Drake had to dive to the ground to avoid getting hit.

Argus knew what to do so he quickly gathered his power and sent a fireball at them. The fireball melted everything that it passed but it was slow moving and the simply outran it the farther it when the smaller it got till it was gone.

Drake asked, "Why did you let them get away?

Argus replied, "I have dealt with these people before, and they are not bad, we just stumbled into their lair. So, they attacked us just defending what they had like anything else would have."

Varden asked, "How have you dealt with them before?"

Argus replied, "Magic spells have to come from somewhere, so you learn what you can from what you can, and you learn to deal with everyone and everything."

Drake searched the room and all he came up with was his dagger. All the beautiful structures had melted away leaving a thin coat of water on the floor. Drake recovered his dagger as the water quickly started turning into ice. Since the door had opened there was definitely a temperature difference in the room, and it was starting to get to everyone.

Varden spotted a long thin chamber on the far side of the room that had stairs going down. Varden knew that they had to be getting close and he was sure that they were going in the right direction. They were going down the stairs when they saw a large rat run from them down the stairs when suddenly it just stopped moving in mid-sprint. As they looked closer, they saw it was pinned to the floor. As they moved closer, they saw that it was hit by another blast of ice webbing. You could still see it trying to move inside the cocoon of ice. Then they looked to see an enormous spider made completely of ice.

Varden quietly called the attention of the others to eight huge columns of what appeared to be black ice that was hanging over the spider. In a couple of seconds, the spider jumped down to collect the frozen rat.

Varden got a very up-close look that the ice spider which was 4 feet high and 6 feet in length. It looked like a typical spider except that it was huge and was made of ice. At first, Varden had thought that it had seen him and was about to attack it when it made a horrible scraping noise as it collected the rat and then climbed up its tower and sealed the rat in to eat later.

Varden thought to himself that this was going to be difficult to get through it without a fight. Varden asked Argus, "Can you cast that fireball spell again?"

Argus readied himself and cast the fireball, but it quickly drew the attention of all 8 of the spiders. All the spiders shot ice into the center of the fireball, and it almost immediately extinguished into a puff of steam that quickly froze.

Now the spiders turned their attention to Varden and the others. Varden moved forward to the attack and quickly slipped on the coating of slick ice that was everywhere. Luck was once again on his side by falling the spider's webbing that it shot missed his head and it stuck to the floor. He was not completely in the clear one of the strands of the web touched his face and stuck there the rest of them shattered as they finished hardening. The piece of web that stuck to his face felt like it was setting his face on fire. He tried to brush it off, but it was stuck fast to his skin. He knew that he only had two options first was to cut the skin that it was attached to or just bear with the pain and wait till the skin worms up and it melts off. The ice hurt but it wasn't that bad, not worth cutting a piece of his face for. By the time he skidded to a stop he found himself surrounded by all eight of them. The only thing that he thought was good about this was it made it easy for all the others to get behind them.

Drake was the first to attack one of the spiders from behind. His sword sliced through its abdomen which began to ooze some grayish sludge.

The spider began to emit a high-pitched sound and a terrible smell. Then one of the spiders turned and jumped at Drayden. She managed to hold up her mace in time. As the spider hit the mace it shattered spraying Drayden with the ooze. They all knew now what they had to do to destroy them. They knew that all it would take was a hard hit with a smashing object to shatter the brittle spiders.

Cara threw 3 balls into the air and did the spell that Argus had just taught her days ago. It worked just like she had hoped. It had attracted their attention and they started trying to catch the spinning balls of light.

As the spiders were distracted it made it easy for the others to kill one Drake, Ryan, Titus, wolfram, and Varden were all able to kill one. Cara had to keep her concentration to keep the balls spinning.

Then Cara noticed that Drayden was in real trouble and so was Drake They had both gotten sprayed with the gel of the spider, but Drayden was in immediate danger she had started to freeze, and she was trapped under what remained of the spider. Cara lost her concentration just as Argus was about to attack. It turned and hit Argus's leg and froze it to the ground.

Titus was the closest to the spider, so he slapped it with the flat of his sword. The spider exploded by the force of the blow. Throwing all its gel straight to the ground.

Varden jumped in the air in the spider-shot webs at him and managed to cover the leg that had been burned by the Beatles. The ice surrounded his leg but didn't stop him from killing the last spider.

As Varden landed, he stumbled as he tried not to land on his bad leg. He found it hard not to let out a screen as the intense pain radiated up his leg.

After the battle was over, they carefully dug out Drayden who by that time was almost frozen completely. They gathered scraps of cloth and anything else I would burn and did what they could to get a fire going to thaw everybody out. Once they were thawed out, they all started to become their old selves again. Everyone was feeling like it had been a long day and they knew that it wasn't over yet. The worst part was that they knew that the worst was yet to come.

Varden asked Argus, " What is wrong? You always seem to have the right answer, but you didn't seem to be casting the right spells at all."

Argus replied in a stern voice, " How would you know just what are the right spells? You are just the simple fighter with no insight into the future or even the present or what is even going on around you. You are a mere boy that needs to grow up before you get everyone killed."

That made Varden stop and think just what did Argus know that the others didn't. Varden checked his leg again and the burns that Drayden couldn't cure were gone.

Varden walked up to Argus and apologized he never meant to insult a powerful wizard like Argus. Then he asked, " Do you know anything about those spiders and the way their webs cured my leg because even Drayden couldn't cure it? "

Argus said, " These are creatures made by magic and put here to stop anyone or anything that might come this way. They are creatures that are made with the water element and since you were attacked by the beetles that are made from the fire element, they canceled each other out."

Varden thought that must be why Argus wasn't able to have any of his spells work against them.

The fire was burning very brightly by the time everyone had thought out, the spiders had melted away completely, and their cocoons had been reduced into piles of rotting flesh. As Varden looked at the piles they were mostly made up of black rats, but he did see at least one human skeleton mixed at the bottom.

As he studied it, he noticed two things were strange about it; the first thing was that he was in a pile at the far end of the stairs it was as if he had been coming from the other direction and the second thing was that he appeared to be a wizard and a very powerful one at that judging by the outfit it had on. In fact, the bones still had a slight glow even after all this time. Argus said the bones look like that because he had been encased by magic ice and since he had used up all his magic his bones absorbed and held onto the magic that surrounded them.

Varden had to wonder how he made it through all those spiders to the other side. Unless he had come from the other direction. There was only one other thing that he could think of; that was since they were created by magic he wondered if the wizard had been the one that created them.

Drake managed to dig out the body and in a special pouch, he found a scroll, three little bottles, and two rings.

Drake handed the things over to Argus for him to look at so he could tell the others what they were. Argus looked at the first ring and said this one appears to be protection from the cold. Engraved on the surface of the ring was a man in a snowstorm surrounded by a ring of fire. And on the other side of the ring and head of a block of ice attacked a man with a circle of fire protecting him from it, and there was one more drawing on the inside of a dragon freezing everything except the man with the ring.

Varden asked, " How did the wizard die? If the ring protects you from dragons, and dragons are so much more powerful and more dangerous than the spiders, then how did the spiders kill him?"

Argus pointed out the spot on the dead wizard's neck where this spider must have bitten him and frozen him from the inside out. Varden thought what a terrible way to die and all the pain that would have been involved in it.

The second one was a ring of fire protection it had the symbol of a man on a block surrounded by fire another with a man in a block of ice with a dragon breathing fire on him.

Argus told Varden, " Take the rings and keep them handy, they will save your life but only if you use them right away at the right time. You must not keep them on all the time, but you have to have them ready."

Varden started to ask him questions but Argus just shook his head so Varden knew that it would do no good, so we stopped in the middle of this question.

Before long everyone was ready to go on. The temperature rapidly dropped as they went down each stair. They carefully when down five more steps where it leveled off to another dungeon level.

It was getting too cold for Drake to do much searching and everything was covered with a thick coat of ice. The ice was so thick that they didn't have to worry about traps. It was not like their walking on the thick coating of ice was going to be enough to break through the ice and set off any trap. The deeper they traveled the thicker the ice kept getting until it was over an inch thick everywhere. By the time, they reached the bottom step all they wanted to do was to get warm it was like they had gone from a summer day in the hottest part of the desert to the coldest part of a frozen wilderness in the span of a few hours.

As Titus was stepping down from the last step he slipped and slid into Drake, Wolfram, and Ryan they all slammed into the far wall. They hit just hard enough to show that there was a door there. If they hadn't fallen, it would have taken forever to find the door through the thick ice.

They had to decide whether they were going to search this level for the dragon and if they were going to search this level how they were going to get through the door to see where it led.

This was a difficult decision to make, at this point, a wrong decision could cost them all their lives. It would take a considerable amount of time for them to chop their way through the ice especially when they are running out of light, but if it led to the dragon, it would be where they needed to be.

As they thought about it, they probably wouldn't have time to find another way out of another dungeon passage, so they had to dig the door open. It was their only hope and the only real choice that they could make now.

This is what Argus had been waiting for. He knew what he had to do. This was why he joined them in the first place. It was just to get them through this point in time. He knew that if he hadn't come with them this far, they all would have frozen here while trying to dig through the doorway.

Argus summoned a great deal of power, then he mumbled something that he spun on one foot in a tight circle turning slowly at first then steadily increasing until he was just a blur. Then all of a sudden, he came to a screeching halt.

He burst into flames, everyone had to stay away and stand as far back as they could just to avoid being burned. In fact, a couple of the cloth items that they had did start on fire and they had to pat them to get them to go out. Argus slowly started to dim and then all of a sudden, he snuffed himself out in a puff of smoke.

What Argus did worked, all of the ice was gone and everyone had gotten warmed up some, but they had to hurry and open the door before it started to freeze up again.

They pulled the door open, and a wall of ice was there but it was thin and clear enough that they could see through it. They stood there looking through it and saw a humongous white dragon curled up on an icy throne. He was surrounded by four gigantic dragons of different colors and scattered around the room were ten small groups of dragons and there were 5 of the same dragons in each group.

Varden prepared the Bowl, but he had no blood to put in it. He knew that would come in time but the last thing he wanted was to get killed while trying to get some.

Argus nodded his head in agreement.

Varden wondered how he was supposed to defeat all those dragons to even get close to the head one. He didn't know how but he had to try something, everything was depending on him. No one else even had a chance of attacking one of them and living let alone an army of them like this.

When everyone was ready, they started cutting their way through the ice. It didn't take long for the ice to get thin and burst outwardly throwing a freezing blast their way.

Varden walked through the doorway and turned to the others. They were all frozen in place as soon as the cold was released it had frozen them instantly. The only thing that had saved him was the ring, then he realized that is why Argus had given it to him.

Varden noticed it was getting a little hard to move and as he looked, he noticed that he was starting to ice up and his feet were starting to freeze to the floor. It was easy enough to break free and he would be ok as long as he keeps moving.

Varden thought about the two rings, one was to keep him from freezing and the other was to protect him from fire. He slid the one it was the protection from cold and it warmed him up and made it easy to move again. Then he slid on the second and he cooled a little but was a lot warmer than he was a few moments ago.

He slid the second ring back off he wanted warmth right now. It was easy to move again, and it was like standing out in the sun on a summer day.

Varden looked around the room and noticed that there was a path leading to a large open door. Standing beside the door was a large frozen giant. Then he really started looking and noticed that there wasn't just one frozen giant, there were lots, in fact, the room was filled with them they were the things in the way making it have a path and as well as the ones that lined the walls.

A cold shiver went down his spine at the realization of the dragon had this kind of power.

Varden made his way over to the main entrance of the room without being noticed and from the main entrance, it was a straight shot to the leading dragon. Varden knew that there were way too many dragons here to fight and now he was alone without any kind of backup support.

Varden steadied himself then stepped forward and yelled out in a very clear voice a challenge to the head dragon.

All eyes in the room turned to him, three of the youngest dragons charged him, and each was ready to tear him apart.

The eldest dragon stepped forward and said with a booming voice, "This is my fight, and any that attacks without my permission will be severely punished. Now young fighter step forward!" The three dragons slammed on the brakes tucked their tails and lowered their head in respect and fear.

Varden hung onto his sword tightly as he walked around the dragons. He saw the tremendous hatred in their eyes. As he got closer to the ice thrown, he noticed that the dragon was so much larger than all the other dragons it looked like a parent to a baby and that was the largest of them. Varden found himself the size of its claws he was totally overwhelmed but he had to see this through.

The dragon said, "I am amazed that you have made it this far. For your courage, I will honor your challenge, but it will be done my way. First I will ask you to leave one last time, this is not for my good, but it is for your own."

Varden wondered what he meant. How could his leaving now be for his good?

The dragon spoke up, "Since you are still standing there, I take it you are planning on staying. Well in that case you will have to prove yourself against my strongest lieutenant. If you win and turn over the bowl that you have stolen from my kind my troops and myself will depart. If you lose you and your party will be trapped here in cased in ice forever."

Varden knew that he had no other choice it was either be torn apart or frozen forever. He knew that he couldn't withstand all the dragons attacking him all at once. No matter how many rings he had.

Varden stepped forward and accepted the challenge under the terms that the dragon had set up.

The head dragon said something in the tongue of dragons and all the dragons cheered and started moving around to form a huge fighting ring. Varden took his place in the center of the ring and from the right side, a humongous dragon entered the circle.

Varden looked at it and it was too tall for him to even jump up and hit with his sword. It looked like he could stand up in its mouth and not even bend over and its teeth were so large that they were the size of his arms.

Then the dragon let out a tremendous roar. It was so loud that it hurt his head and made him slightly dizzy.

Varden knew he had to come up with some kind of a plan quickly or else he would be finished. He knew that everything and everyone was depending on what happened right now. As he thought about it such a large dragon wouldn't be agile or fast, it would have plenty of power with any hit it could land but by its size of it, it would be slow and hopefully would be slow to react. He knew he would have to be fast on his feet and unpredictable. The dragon couldn't be used to fighting something his size at least in close range. If I can stay close, I might have a chance to use its size against it.

The ancient one said, "There is one more thing you must not use the bowl during the fight, or you will be frozen immediately."

Varden thought well that took away any advantage I might have had. Still, it was a one-to-one fight, and he was fast and usually had luck on his side, and was strong as a giant. That was the things that he had going for him. Along with the fact that the dragon could not be used to someone his size having the strength of a giant.

When they were both ready it started off slowly, they circled each other looking for any sign of weakness. After a minute and no apparent weakness on either side the dragon bit at him. Varden quickly dove out of the way.

The dragon bit at him again, but this time Varden was ready and moved to the side and slashed at the dragon's face. It hit but did very little damage, but it was enough to let the dragon know that it could be hurt. The dragon slapped him with its tail sending him flying into the other dragons that made up the ring. The dragon let out a laugh seeing him as a little play toy.

Varden had never been hit so hard before in his entire life. He was out of breath and his whole body hurt already but he quickly climbed to his feet before the dragon got there.

As the dragon drew near it shot a blast of icy breath at him, for a moment Varden iced up then he quickly thawed. At first, he found it hard to move but quickly his speed returned. The dragon stood on its hind legs then tried to pounce on him and pin him under its weight.

Varden saw it coming and moved out from under its feet and as it came down Varden used his shield and slammed up into its face stunning the dragon. This enraged the other Dragons except the elder that was carefully watching the battle. The elder was very impressed by the move to be able to hurt a powerful opponent and at the same time did not try to kill with the sword.

The dragon thought that it had never been hit so hard by something so small. It tried using its tail again, but Varden easily jumped over it. The dragon turned around and smacked Varden with its wing slamming him back to the floor and slid across the room.

Varden thought to himself that this just was not working, and he had to use his skills to end this. The only real advantage that he had was his speed. So, he had to figure out a way to use it effectively and all the slick ice was not helping. If he could get on the back of the dragon with his strength, he would win easily.

Now that Varden knew what he wanted to do he just had to be careful and be patient and sooner or later he would get his chance.

The dragon tried several times to bite at Varden and each time Varden was able to duck out of the way this was frustrating the dragon making it mad and reckless. It just kept biting and when it missed it would try and swat him with its tail. When that didn't work it would try and step on him. Finally, the dragon started to cast a spell that Varden had seen Argus use many times. It was the lightning bolt. Varden jumped but not in time to have it miss him. He was shocked by it, but his armor absorbed most of it and since he was in the air at the time it did no real damage, but his armor did get red hot for a brief moment then cooled down quickly.

Varden knew that it was now or never, so he charged at the dragon. This really surprised the dragon because it was not used to things attacking it so it launched itself into the air, but Varden managed to grab its tail.

He looked like a fish on a hook. The dragon tried changing directions and whipping its tail back and forth, but nothing was working Vardens grip was too good. So, the dragon tried to bite him thinking that he could either bite him in half or eat him whole. Varden knew that this was his chance, he let go of the tail and dropped to its neck. Varden quickly climbed up to behind its head where it couldn't just scrape him off with its claws.

The dragon tried to shake him off, scratch him off, and scrape him off. Nothing worked the dragon got desperate and even tried flying upside down and spinning but Vardens grip was way too good for that.

The dragon finally landed when it saw that there was no way to get him off. Varden moved and put his sword to the dragon's neck it looked like a little knife compared to the size of the dragon, but it was enough to kill it if it was pushed in at the right spot.

Varden demanded that the dragon surrender so they could end this. The dragon knew that it had no choice but to do as he said so it surrendered.

The elder dragon said, "Once more you have amazed me young fighter and once you return what you have stolen then we shall honor our deal you must return the bowl."

Varden carefully placed the bowl into the humongous hands of the dragon. The elder said, "We shall meet again young worrier, farewell."

Before it could do anything Varden asked, "What about the town and my home?"

The dragon turned and looked at him and said, "Since you are worthy and honorable, I shall release them and undo what has been done, but remember you have brought what happens next by yourself and you will have to deal with that as well."

Then the elder dragon disappeared in a puff of smoke and one by one all of the others disappeared as well.

As the last one disappeared a wave of heat set in since it was the dragons that had kept things cold now it felt like a heat wave. It was not long before he could see that all the ice that was there was starting to melt.