They had been sitting on the side of this mountain for several days. They knew there were creatures somewhere; their scouts kept finding signs but couldn't find them. It was like something was covering them. And if the giant wolf was correct, it was those damn trees. His army could not reliably move through them. Even the non-sentient creatures of the forest fought them every time they tried. Even the grublins were starting to refuse to go into it without trolls with them, and that was just to hunt things like those damnable Dragon Deer.
The wolf glared at the top of the half-mountain they were on. There he could see the very top of the canopy of the Giant's Forest. He could still see the scorch marks from their first attempt to break through there. The trees of the forest resisted any kind of attack. Even his magic found it challenging to break through any part of the forest. The magic flooding this land was just that potent.
Movement out of the corner of his eye forced the wolf to look towards the assassin he had bought, against his and a few of his commander's better judgment. That blasted dragon continued to say he could sense someone powerful directly below them. That promise was the only reason the Dark General had not ordered his death, contract or no. It was also why the dragon was watching over the digging dreadwings personally. Either they would breakthrough, or the dragon would be digging his own grave.
The glare shifted to the offending dig sight. The hole that had been dug was not huge, and those digging certainly were not very big either. At first, it seemed like a great idea, but now it seemed like a waste of time. The ground had given way to a bedrock degree of hardness very quickly, making digging slow. Painfully so.
And, as it was, the Wolf finally had enough. The sun was coming up again. He was not going to spend another day on the side of this half-mountain.
"Move!" He shifted his whole body, and before the dreadwings were even able to move out of the way entirely, he was already chanting his spell, "Magic of the fire demon: HELL CANNON!"; As he chanted, a fiery orange seal appeared around his muzzle and throat, when done a fireball had formed in his muzzle.
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The explosion had caught them off guard. During the last couple of days, they had heard and experienced a few explosions, but nothing on this level. There was groaning as everyone tried to regain their bearings and get back on their feet. Even the foxes near their homes were experiencing this despite being amongst the trees and away from the half-concave of the cave, such was the ferocity of the blast.
Many were still shaking their heads clear as they worked to stand back up when they heard it.
"Shreeeek!" And it wasn't alone.
All eyes instantly rose, they looked to the ceiling to see a large hole, and coming through that hole were dreadwings.
Marshal, like many, froze. They had thought they were safe. Marshal had been through fights, sure, and he had been a leader for a bit now, but that did not change many of his natural reactions. He did not know what to do. Marshal was already on the verge of panic, which for him was very much a minor freakout and freezing up. But he also knew he could not do that, he needed to do something, but he did not know what. And the longer he remained frozen there, the more dreadwings he could see trying to force their way through the hole. He could almost feel a fog creeping to the edge of his mind.
Thankfully he was saved by someone else acting, in this case, the one-two punch of the Legendary Couple. Spyro's long-range Arking Electro Bolt hit first, striking the first dreadwing, burning through and jumping through and between several others still flying. Marshal was unfreezing as next came an explosion of Cynder's Shadow Flame, clearing the immediate blast area and raining onto the few who were outside its range.
Seeing someone else act, Marshal regained his barring and adjusted his stance while consciously calling up as much magic as he could in one instant and unleashed a roar of a Wind Tornado straight towards the offending hole in the ceiling. The Tornado struck and eviscerated the dreadwing and its ape rider, which had been about to climb through next. It stretched in the sky, ripping dirt, rock, and plants that made up the half-mountain on the other side of the hole. Those immediately near the hole were thrown and bashed. When Marshal finally stopped to take a breath, there was enough debris that had been kicked up that, while most of it came straight down to rest on the side of the mountain, there was enough that the hole became blocked up by the larger objects, including a few corpses.
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Shadowfang was impressed, as much as he would allow himself to be. Apparently, there were indeed some strong dragons down there. The problem came from getting in there. With a huff of annoyance, he called forth his power once more.
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Marshal was breathing heavy. He could feel the amount of magic he had just controlled. He did not think he was even able to do that. But he did not have the time for contemplation. He could see the closed hole, but he also knew that whatever had caused the original explosion could do so again or failing that it wouldn't take long for someone to dig through the new hole. And given the speed at which the dreadwings had come through and the fearlessness they had been showing, he would not have been surprised if there was at least an army outside.
So, with another breath, he yelled out, "Everyone who can fight, get ready! Anyone 15 and below head to trees and take cover! If you can't fight, do the same!"
Before anyone could act on what he was saying, another explosion ripped through the clogged hole. This one had less concussive force, or more it was more directed, and instead of creating a vacuum blast wave, it just blasted out the ceiling creating an even more giant hole.
Marshal knew he only had a few seconds before dreadwings started pouring in again, and he also knew everyone else would still be in shock. So he looked at the others around him and made some more snap decisions. "Luanda, Stecra, Get them moving. Walf, Kean work with Claw and provide cover." As the first screech started to sound, he had a second thought, "We need to get out of here. We don't know their numbers, and I don't think we can fight an army for long."
There was no more time to talk though, His magic was already building back up, and he could sense/hear more dreadwings coming, and he could tell that Syro and Cynder were already reading to take off. He'd be damned if he let them fight alone.
So swinging his head back to the rapidly growing swarm, Marshal crouched, and with a heave and blast of wind, took off to do battle with a rapidly growing army. Spyro and Cynder were less than a second behind him. As soon as those two were airborne, they were already unleashing what quick long-range attacks they could manifest, hoping to at least disorient the swarm.
Marshal knew he did not have the snap fire fine-control the power couple had, and he also knew he did not have the time to try any of his fancier brute force attacks, not even his favorite "Gas Explosions" as they had come to call it. Instead, he went with pure brute force. He was charging straight at the rapidly expanding cloud of dreadwings, calling on magic the entire way. Creating a confusing, disorienting cacophony of wind around and following him to the point he was almost a silver streak as he crashed into the first dreadwing he could reach.
The resulting blast cone of Wind Magic gave little care for anything in its path.
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Georgia hated mornings with a passion. And all of these explosions were not helping! And considering Fabree had gone and created a mini-earthquake with that damnable attack of his somehow just cemented how shitty she felt. But like it did for her, it broke people into motion.
First was Horhe the Volcano, who, with what seemed like a minor grunt/bellow of rage, took off after their wind-based "leader," not wanting to be left out of the fight. His minder Harild followed shortly after to keep the fool alive, probably.
Their gun-ho fighters charging into the fight gone, and no one else moving, Georgia decided it was time to move herself. With a glare at the rest of the "leaders" and with as much "bitchy-visceral" as she could muster shouted out, "Well, are you going to stand there all day?!"
They looked at her, then the fight, then back to her and her raised eyeridge before finally moving into gear.
Of course, Kean and Walf turned and started rushing to the foxes' tree-route-houses, while Luanda and Stecra moved towards the dragon horde, who were still not really moving. And considering there were only five dragons in the air at the time, it was no surprise that there were dreadwings already making a dive.
Thankfully, Luanda noticed quickly and was more than ready to start launching Explosive.
Ice bombs (how that worked, Georgia was still confused about) at those that tried. The explosions, of course forcing people out of their shocked state to react only to get hit with Stecra's loud voice.
"You heard Marshal! MOVE!"
Georgia's ears range from Stecra's prominent use of Sound Magic to make sure she was heard. But it worked; the Horde was moving.
Turning to look where she had last seen the bundle of energy that was Carmeta, Georgia was shocked to see only a lingering scent of ozone. Looking towards the direction the smell went, she saw that the electric dragoness was already in the air, zippy and zapping between dreadwings. And the shadow dragoness could almost swear that the bundle of never-ending energy was giggling?
Either way, Georgia noticed she was the only one not up and in the fight. And that just would not due. So with a hidden smile grassing her maw and the strongest flap of her wings she could muster, she corrected her oversight. She had a reputation to uphold, after all.
AN: Hey, would you look at that. I managed to get out a chapter! And it only took me a little over three months! But here's the best part. I have more! I was on such a role with this chapter I rolled directly into the next. I promise the shortness of this one is made up for by the next one. That one is longer, almost twice as long!
I had so much fun with this and the next chapter; it really was just the starting bit that was giving me trouble. Once I was able to get that, then forced myself to sit down and type, it came out so easily! There is a possibility that the next couple will be the same. Like I've said before, I hated most of this ark, but we're getting towards the end, and this is the part I've been thinking about for so long and in so many ways that I'll probably have a harder picking which option I go with than actually typing. Then again, my typing style is the epitome of figuring out as I go along.
Anyway, while, as I said, I have typed up the next chapter. I'm not going to release it for a bit. This is more so that if by some miracle I manage to keep typing multiple chapters like this, I can do a "regular" update thing instead of the sporadic I'm doing now. I hope you can forgive me.
But for now, and until we meet again, Happy Reading!