Chapter 93 The Attack on Hellbane pt1
Hellbane has never lived up to its name as it has today.
Dragons of red, blue, green, and black have swarmed the fortress. As Tharros flies closer, plumes of poison ignite in bursts of fire. Lightning strikes and storm clouds billow, the raging rains doing nothing to douse the flames.
Amid the chaos, slayers on alicorns dart like flies attacking giants, their weapons and powers flaring as they desperately defend the fortress.
“Hurry!” I scream, my voice raw with urgency as I stand on Tharros’s back, straining to get a better look.
I can’t see anyone I recognize, but I know my friends are fighting down there. The slayers falling from the sky could be them. The thought sends a jolt of fear through me, spurring us forward faster.
“You must jump to Warden! If they see you on my back—”
Tharros needn’t say any more. Warden flies over his wings, his body leveling with the dragon’s back as he bugles for me.
I don’t wait. I leap onto my alicorn without hesitation. His muscles ripple beneath me as he adjusts to my weight.
“Can we stop them?” I shriek, terror in every facet of my voice.
“They’ve been taken over by dark magic,” Tharros rumbles. “Our only hope is to chase them off!”
We back away from each other, approaching Hellbane at different angles so we don’t appear together. Tharros’s massive form blends into the storm clouds, while Warden and I weave through the chaos like a single entity, our movements synchronized and seamless. Each beat of his wings feels like an extension of my own will, every shift and dive a testament to our bond.
The fortress looms closer, its battlements ablaze and walls crumbling under the relentless assault. We dive toward the courtyard, our descent rapid and precise. Below us, a monstrous blue dragon has landed, its scales shimmering with an unnatural glow. It roars, a sound that shakes the very stones of Hellbane, and lunges at the panicking servants.
The dragon's massive jaws snap shut, and I watch in horror as it tears through the fleeing figures, scattering disembodied limbs across the courtyard. Blood pools in the stone crevices, mixing with the rain and fire. The sight makes my stomach churn, but there’s no time for hesitation.
Warden’s wings tuck close to his body, and we plummet like a falcon diving for its prey. The wind roars in my ears, and I grip his mane tighter, my heart pounding. We have to stop this madness. We have to save those who can still be saved.
We land, and I leap off Warden's back, rushing toward the dragon with my sword drawn. The ground shakes, the chaos of battle raging all around. She turns her massive head toward me, her eyes glowing a crazed, venomous green just like Ember’s. Her jaw opens, lightning crackling between her jagged teeth, casting an eerie glow on the blood-soaked cobblestones.
Without warning, she attacks. A braided stream of lightning shoots from her mouth, tearing through the air with a deafening roar. I duck and roll, narrowly avoiding the deadly bolt as it rips cobblestones from the ground and exposes spurts of lava from the churning earth below. The heat singes my hair, the sheer power of her attack shaking me to my core.
“Anara!” Zaries calls, his voice barely audible over the cacophony.
I glance up and see my friends racing toward me. Zaries is flinging bolts of shimmering metal, Sylvain’s hands glow with green poison, and Oberon wields his blade with deadly precision. Their alicorns dive and weave above us, clashing with dragons in a deadly aerial dance.
We come together in a practiced formation, backs to one another, each of us facing outward. The dragon roars again, but this time we’re ready. We’ve fought together in the hardest of arenas, learned to trust each other with our lives.
I tighten my grip on my sword, my eyes locked on the dragon. Oberon spreads shadows all around us as he aims a bow and arrow at the eye of the dragon. Sylvain calls spores from the ground, pulling poison out of the earth itself and trying to ensnare the blue dragon with poisonous vines.
Zaries and I race forward, running up the foreleg of the dragon and spearing her with our blades. We aim between scales, prying the plates up and digging into her flesh below. All I want is for her to stop. To flee.
For the needless killing to end.
She screams in fury as she tries to shake us off. She has no control, but how can I tell Zaries we can’t kill her? How can I tell anyone we can’t kill these dragons even as they’re killing so many of us?
High in the sky, slayers are fighting and dying to protect their home. Their bodies fall like stones all around us, their alicorns screaming with failure. It’s a massacre, and we’re fleas compared to the beasts that seek to destroy us.
Zaries runs up the blue dragon's neck, using her scales and spikes to climb when he can no longer find footing. He reaches her head and kneels, one hand around a massive horn and the other driving his sword into her skull before I can tell him to stop.
No! I scream in my mind even as I don’t know what the alternative is.
Humans and dragons don’t need to be enemies.
The blue dragon screams in agony, her head thrashing violently as she tries to dislodge Zaries. Her roar is deafening, a sound that rattles my bones. With a ferocious shake, she sends him flying across the courtyard. My heart stops, and I scream, reaching out for him with everything I have. My wind powers stretch desperately to slow his fall, a gust of air to cushion his descent.
Oberon swoops in on Fred, leaning dangerously off his saddle, his arm outstretched. He catches Zaries in mid-air, flinging him onto his own mount like a well-rehearsed dance in the skies. The precision of the maneuver leaves me momentarily breathless, my heart pounding with a mix of relief and awe.
"Die, little mouse!" the blue dragon screams, her voice a chilling mix of rage and pain that vibrates through my bones.
She arches her neck over her shoulder, lightning crackling at the corners of her mouth like a storm contained within her jaws. The air around us hums with electricity, the tension so thick it’s almost palpable. The world seems to slow as she unleashes a deadly bolt of lightning directly at me.
Time stretches impossibly, each heartbeat a thunderous echo in my ears. The blinding bolt of lightning races toward me, illuminating the battlefield in stark, violent light. I leap, hoping I can be fast enough.
I hit the broken cobblestones with a grunt as my name punctures the air.
“No! Anara!”
My eyes dart up to Maggie, high in Thorne’s tower. She’s screaming for me, but running back inside.
She can’t possibly think she’ll rescue me herself?
As I scan the tower, willing her to run to safety, it explodes in a torrent of falling stones and debris. Dust and dirt and rock shatter and fly, a green dragon flying through the tower as if it was nothing but mist, bursting through the wreckage with a ferocious roar. Poison billows from its maw, staining the air with a sickly haze.
The realization that Maggie couldn’t have survived that cataclysm hits me like a battering ram. The entire tower crumbles before my eyes, its ancient stones cascading to the ground as the dragon powers forward.
Hands grab me from behind and pull me off the blue dragon. We fall backwards, Sylvain’s red hair blowing wildly around us as we land on a massive red mushroom and bounce off, rolling to the cobblestones below in a heap.
The two crazed dragons face each other, both out of their minds with rage and madness. The green dragon lunges at the blue, its claws slashing through the air, while the blue retaliates with lightning-fast strikes of its own. Dragon blood sprays over us, each droplet burning our skin wherever it lands.
The roaring of these colossal beasts, far stronger than any human could hope to face, drowns out the desperate screams of those caught in the crossfire. Bodies litter the ground, charred by fire, convulsed by electricity, soaked and corroded by poison.
High in the sky, Ember lets loose a thunderous roar, her shadowy form appearing like a swirling black cloud breathing fire. She darts and weaves through the air, evading Tharros's attempts to corral her. Lightning crackles from her jaws, aimed at him as he maneuvers with grace born of countless battles.
Tharros dives and spins, avoiding the deadly bolts while hoping to calm Ember's frenzied assault. Their clash sends shockwaves through the clouds, thunder echoing their primal struggle. With each clash of scales and burst of flame, the sky becomes a battleground of elemental fury and desperate restraint.
All at once, the green magic controlling them directs them to converge on Tharros alone. The dragon I’ve harbored animosity toward for so long, the mentor I’ve grown to respect, even love, is suddenly surrounded and assailed by his own females, driven by the dark magic that grips them all.