Page 24 of Mad Dragon of Chaos

“What do you mean? Like you?” Adrian demanded.

Tyche nodded and shoved to his feet. His eyes remained locked on the bobbing boat as it raced closer. “I-I can’t tell who it is, but I can feel power. Wild and uncontrolled. Something’s wrong with them. It’s…it’s all wrong.” He shook his head hard twice, as if trying to get his thoughts to clear. “We can’t let them dock here. This…god can’t be allowed to step foot on the Isle of Stone.”

“Shou!” Haru swung to his left and laid a hand on his clan brother’s tense shoulder. “Fly to the clan. Warn Rayne and the others that attackers will invade our land by boat. We will need more dragons to fight them and to assist in the rescue of Omari Nori and the others.”

“Got it!” In the blink of an eye, Shou shifted into a fiery orange dragon and flew off toward the Omari clan.

As Shou escaped the beach, a surge of wind gusted out of nowhere. Adrian threw up his arms to shield his eyes from flying saltwater and sand. The force of the wind had him stumbling until a hand pressed into the small of his back, steadying him. He turned his head and gazed over his shoulder to see Haru glaring at the approaching boat while supporting Adrian.

The wind didn’t let up but grew stronger, making it almost impossible to remain standing where they were. Tyche was almost on his knees, trying to keep from sliding and tumbling along the beach.

“Is this from Shey?” Adrian demanded, even as he glanced up at the sky, which remained bright blue. If Shey were conjuring up a storm, there would be dark clouds rolling in and deep booms of thunder.

“No!” Tyche pointed a finger at the boat. “It’s that asshole.”

They stared at the vessel that was close enough to reveal at least a dozen men wearing black uniforms and masks that concealed their faces while carrying automatic weapons. Yeah. That wasn’t a peaceful party aiming to further negotiations with the dragons.

In the center of the group stood a single man with trimmed blond hair and pale skin in a white uniform. Adrian suspected this was the god Tyche had mentioned. Had the Order won a minor god over to their side? Was there a god out there willing to take orders from humans? That seemed kind of insane, unless the human had promised something that they couldn’t attain on their own.

But this wasn’t the time to figure it out. They had to keep the soldiers from landing on the Isle of Stone.

Adrian fought to take a step forward. With a flick of his wrists, throwing daggers appeared in both hands. However, the wind was far too strong for him to be effective at this distance.

“I’ll be right back.” Haru’s low growl rumbled through Adrian a second before his supporting hand disappeared. Adrian fought to catch his balance as Haru shifted into his dragon form. An eardrum-piercing roar erupted from Haru as he launched himself into the air.

The wind gusted up, knocking Adrian and Tyche to their knees. The waves grew taller and more violent, crashing into the shore with the noise of cars smashing into each other. Foam frothed up on the waves, gathering in dirty mounds on the sand. It was as if a hurricane were marching toward them. Yet, when he sneaked a peek at the ship where Caelan and the others were, it didn’t appear as if they were battling the same wind.

“That—” Tyche’s voice was cut off as he spat and coughed as if he’d gotten a mouthful of sand. He crawled to Adrian, his long hair whipping around him, nearly blinding him. “That’s not Brian!”

Adrian caught his words. Haru roared and flapped his wings wildly into the wind, but he was making little progress. The boat was still approaching, though it had slowed quite a bit as the waves grew. The dragon bellowed out a blast of fire, but even that was batted back so that it barely made it out of his mouth.

“Who?” Adrian demanded. Had he heard Tyche wrong? Who the fuck was Brian?

“The God of Wind! Brian! That’s not him!”

Once Adrian could get his mind to lurch past the notion that the God of Wind—whom he’d never heard of in the first place—had been named Brian, fear choked him. If that wasn’t the god Tyche knew, did that mean that whoever was behind the capture and slaughter of gods had transplanted another god’s power into a human?

“Are you sure this asshole is supposed to be the God of Wind?” Adrian shouted, grasping at straws.

Tyche stared at him for a second as if he’d lost his mind. “What the fuck else could he be? The God of Sunny Days?”

Tyche had a good point. All this wind had come out of nowhere and was very centralized in its invisible attack. This was the work of the God of Wind.

Adrian’s legs trembled and gave out beneath him. It had become too hard to continue standing against the wind. Haru was roaring and shooting fire, but it wasn’t reaching the ship, which had now stopped its approach. The soldiers in black gear were shooting at the dragon, but thanks to his thick scales, the bullets were bouncing off him. It was a stalemate, but Adrian feared it wouldn’t last long.

Squinting his eyes to protect them from the flying sand, Adrian edged closer to Tyche, who was now kneeling on the beach, his side turned toward the water. “Is there a way to take advantage of the fact that he probably doesn’t know what he’s doing?”

Tyche was silent, his hand raised to shield his face. “We have to wear him out.”

“What?” The God of Luck was insane. He didn’t want to stop this minor god but to push him harder. “If this keeps up, he’s going to send tornadoes across the island, killing hundreds.”

“It’s the only way! That’s a human with too much power. He thinks it’s endless, but he’s going to use up everything he’s got and pass out or kill himself.” Tyche leaned closer to Adrian, his stare unwavering in the howling wind. “We need more dragons.”

That was a good idea.

And one they didn’t have to do anything about.

Angry dragon roars split the air, and the ground shook under them as dragons flew over and burst through the distant tree line. A few people in a variety of different robe colors ran out to shift into dragons as soon as their feet touched the sand and rocks. Apparently, Shou did more than summon members of the Omari clan for help. Judging by the variety of colors in the dragon scales, multiple clans had sent their members to engage the invaders.