'Lo all. This chapter, a fight that should be easy turns out to be surprisingly complicated.
71. The Raid
The camp was almost the same. Blake hadn't realized it would hit her so hard. Different woods, different tents in different places... familiar faces stumbling around and fumbling to put on masks. Many of them hoisted supplies over their shoulders and sprinted towards the woods.
Pit made to chase after them, but skidded to a stop when a looming figure stepped into their path. Blake's heart sank. The Lieutenant was as massive as ever, his hand wrapped around the handle of his brutal sword. He'd been their third most dangerous member, after Adam and Brand. But he was unsteady on his feet, his skin was cracked and scaly, and his left arm was bound tightly to his chest with stained bandages.
There was an instant where she was relieved. This would be an easy fight, with four dragons against him.
Then Justice burst from the woods behind them. Ilia clung to his back and shouted, "No!" with no effect. A tiny indigo streak bolted out of a nearby tent, making a noise like an angry foghorn. Something grey and gold pelted up a small heap of crates and launched itself into the air.
The Lieutenant's sword revved. Pit faltered in mid-run, alarmed by the noise. The indigo streak resolved itself into a dragonet that snarled at the intruders. It was bulky, with tiny wings and a blocky head that reminded her of...
Her eyes widened. She opened her mouth to shout a warning, but before she had the chance, pink and gold spots on the dragon's back began to glow.
Chaos erupted. Crates, cooking pots, tent pegs, and pebbles soared into the air and whipped around the Lieutenant like a miniature tornado. Blake threw her arm over her face to protect her eyes. An ominous whistling was her only warning before something collided with her head, filling her mouth with the taste of copper and making every muscle in her body tense painfully.
"Blake!"
She tried to slap at whatever was attacking her, but her arm wouldn't move from where it was clamped over her eyes—which turned out to be a good thing. Static crackled, and needle-sharp claws raked across her wrist.
The weight lifted. She could finally unclench her jaw and open her eyes. Pit was mid-rear. The world, and several rusty nails, whirled sickeningly around her. The Lieutenant was approaching, his arm out to one side, ready to strike.
Blake's shout was wordless, but Pit seemed to understand her anyway. He leaped forward, batting the Lieutenant aside. He hit the dirt, bad-shoulder first, and swore at the top of his lungs. The indigo dragonet launched itself at them with a roar that sounded like it had come from something ten times its size, as more random objects whipped themselves into the air and hurled themselves directly at her head. Pit's freckles glowed silver, and every single one of them changed direction in mid-air and embedded themselves in the surrounding tents. Several crates smashed, spilling odds and ends all over the ground.
The other dragonet flew in circles, wailing at the top of its lungs and dive-bombing Weiss and Specter. Justice charged Ao Guang and Freya while Ilia yanked uselessly on the reins. All three enemy dragons ignored Pyrrha—but the few White Fang members who weren't busy grabbing everything in reach and running for the hills were taking aim at her. Most of them had pistols, which would be next to useless against dragons but plenty effective against a single human. One fumbled frantically with a rifle, trying to load it with shaking hands.
Him first, while the Lieutenant is down. Blake bent low against Pit's back, so that she wouldn't be hit by any stray bullets, and pointed. They charged, and members of the Fang screamed and dove out of the way as they approached. Brand had long since given them a healthy respect for angry dragons.
Rifle raised the gun just as they were nearly on him. Pit batted it out of his hands, sending it spinning into a pile of crates and knocking him onto his back. He glowed again, and the rifle shot into the air and sailed out over the trees. Someone might find it, eventually, but it would be no help in this fight.
"You."
Blake stiffened. Slowly, she turned to find another familiar face. Sienna, who Ilia had told her was helping to lead the White Fang now that Adam was gone.
She groped for something to say—but Sienna didn't wait for a response. She whistled, and the wheeling grey and gold dragon made a beeline for the pair of them. Blake ducked its first dive, and felt her hair stand on end.
Why? Sienna hadn't needed to show herself. Blake glanced frantically around, and her eyes fell on a tent that was much larger than the others. Her stomach flipped—it was the same one Adam had used. The lab.
"Pit!" she shouted, jabbing a finger towards it. "That way!"
Sienna swore and shouted for the Lieutenant. He was on his knees, supporting himself with one hand, struggling to get to his feet. The indigo dragonet barked and darted towards them, while the grey-gold one came in for another pass. They bolted through the tent flap. Beyond it was a room full of incubators, only about half of them housing an egg. Shattered eggshells littered the floor. Pit whimpered.
Blake leaped off his back and sprinted over to the injectors. "Can you break these?"
He could, and did. More of the Fang streamed into the room, holding pistols. Pit stepped in front of her, grunting slightly when a shot hit him.
Nothing else she could do in a hurry, not without destroying the eggs. She searched for a back way, and found nothing. Panic rose up in her chest—until there was a high-pitched whistle from outside, and Specter charged through the open flap. He toppled most of the White Fang in the room like bowling pins, and menaced a few more with clouds of silver mist. Those that were left raised their guns towards Weiss, and Pit pounced on them.
When Blake looked for Sienna, she and her hatchling were already gone.
"Go away!" the little hatchling roared, barreling into Freya's side. She hardly even felt the impact, but the cloud of random objects was more of a problem. With Pit gone off to handle the ones with guns, there was no one to stop them from flying in every direction.
Freya hadn't expected a fight with a baby to be this difficult.
Gently, she pinned the indigo dragonet under one of her paws. She barked and wriggled, her stubby tail thrashing in the dirt... but she wasn't big or strong enough to escape. This didn't stop the hail of nails, wooden splinters, and spent bullets. If anything, it only got worse as the hatchling concentrated all her energy on aiming them at their riders.
A shadow darted out from one of the tents and raced towards the woods. The flying hatchling followed a few feet above it, until the fleeing rider pointed towards where Justice and Ao Guang were brawling. It wheeled towards them. Freya grabbed the indigo hatchling by the scruff and dragged it along as she went to help Guang.
"The rider!" Ren called out, pointing at the retreating figure. It passed out of the shadow of a tent, and Freya caught a glimpse of a woman, maskless, with a pair of tiger's ears. Pyrrha glanced up at the dragonet, which was obeying the order to attack Ren and Guang, and bolted after the rider.
Nora tensed. "Pyrrha, wait!"
Freya growled. It came out muffled through the protesting hatchling, and she gave her a gentle but stern shake, trying to get her to stop using her powers. No luck. So Freya kept holding her as she broke into a run and leaped over her brother. Her wings flared, and she caught the flying hatchling neatly between her front paws and bore him to the ground.
He hurt. She winced as sparks flew from his horns, spines, and tail. Growling at him to stop didn't help—she wasn't even sure he could if he'd wanted to.
Guang and Justice were at a stalemate. Ilia was fighting with the reins, but it wasn't doing much. Mostly they just batted at each other, with Justice only breathing fire when he thought he wouldn't hit any of the flammable tents around them. But when he saw her with one hatchling in her teeth and another pinned under her paws, he let out an enraged roar. In one motion he tore himself free of Guang and came charging towards her.
Freya's ears went back. She braced for the impact, but Guang slammed into Justice's side before he got to her. They rolled over one another. Ilia almost ended up underneath Justice, but he twisted to one side to keep her out of the way. That let Guang pin him to the ground. He bucked and struggled, but couldn't dislodge him without leaning too much of his weight on his rider.
She relaxed, just a hair. And, in the same instant, there was movement from the ground. The big man had finally gotten to his his feet. He stood unsteadily, breathing hard, the sword in his hand making a horrible grinding noise. It pointed towards the ground as he struggled to lift it, but step by step, he approached Freya and her two tiny captives.
Her muffled bark of alarm caught Guang's attention, but he couldn't help without letting Justice up again. Freya tensed, readying herself to leap out of the way—but before she had the chance, Nora hurled a tent peg at his head. He dodged it, swayed in place, and collapsed onto his back.
There was a brief silence. Then the indigo hatchling started bawling at the top of her lungs, and struggling so hard that she was in danger of cutting herself on Freya's teeth.
Pausing just long enough to secure the other hatchling under one paw, Freya limped over so that the dragonet could get a good look at her rider. It seemed like he'd passed out—she was honestly kind of surprised he'd been standing up to start with. His arm looked bad.
"See?" Freya said, around the hatchling she carried in her mouth. "He's okay, he's breathing. He really shouldn't be fighting like this, though." Neither should these little ones. Why hadn't their riders run away with them when they heard Justice roaring?
The hatchling let out an enraged twang and started trying to claw at her—which, since she was facing the wrong way, mostly made it look like she was doing a frantic doggy-paddle in midair. Freya let out a little sigh that turned into a yelp when the other dragonet shocked her again.
There were too many of them.
Harbinger landed hard on his back paws as the younger earth dragon wrestled him towards the ground. His tail lashed back and forth, splattering mud everywhere. Corsac shouted another command, to bite, but she was pushing his head to one side and he couldn't follow it. He whined and scrabbled in the mud, then tugged at it. It responded, and an instant later she was covered from head to toe—including her eyes.
She yelped in surprise and pain and swiped at him with one paw. Her claws weren't extended, but she was bigger than he was and the attack knocked him onto his side.
"Come on!" Corsac snarled. "Get up!"
Harbinger struggled to his feet. The big earth dragon had jumped forward to protect the smaller one while she wiped the mud out of her eyes. His huge paws smashed against the ground, and it seemed to ripple. Harbinger stumbled but didn't quite fall. He darted forward, slipping under the bigger dragon's tail so that he could get closer to Brand.
This turned out to be a mistake. The ice dragon fighting him noticed Harbinger near his feet and whipped his tail at him. It hit his shoulder, launched him into the air, and sent him skidding into a tree. He lay there for a moment, stunned, bleeding from several long cuts.
"Get up!"
Harbinger managed to stand, even though it hurt and his injured foreleg was shaky. Brand smelled the blood and turned his head. "Nuff," he barked.
Hazel nodded agreement and patted his neck.
Brand slammed into the ice dragon shoulder first. He staggered slightly, raised his claws to attack back—but they hit only empty air as the fire dragon bolted towards Harbinger. "Come on," he said, nudging him along with his nose. "We've bought as much time as we can."
He hesitated. Corsac didn't want him to go—and Brand was fine! He could keep fighting if it weren't for Harbinger. And what if these humans hurt Fennec, or one of the dragonets? It would be all his fault!
"Now!" Brand roared. The ice dragon streaked towards them, then reared up as a blast of fire blocked his path. There wasn't any other option—Harbinger sprinted after the older dragon, limping badly, desperately hoping that something else would interfere with the invading humans.
Idiot.
Sienna leaped over a tangle of brambles, stumbled, and kept on sprinting through the forest, cursing herself all the while. Foolish to think she could keep Blake and a year-old dragon away from the lab, with or without Flux.
She risked a glance over her shoulder and swore under her breath. The redhead hadn't fallen behind like she'd expected—if anything, she seemed to be gaining on her. If she hadn't told Flux to stay behind... well, no. If she'd done that, she might be dealing with one or more dragons chasing her. A single human, she could handle.
There was a knife in her boot. She didn't carry a pistol—she was a decent shot, but only decent, and they didn't have enough of them to go around. Besides, she normally had a dragon guarding her.
Sienna ducked under a low branch. Her eyes whipped back and forth. If she could find one of the others that were escaping the camp... but most of them were gone by now. She only needed to hold out for a few minutes before the ones who'd stayed to hold them off bolted. Unless, of course, they'd all been arrested, and it was the human that would be getting reinforcements.
Best not to risk it. She kicked one foot up, drew the knife, and whirled around with her arm extended. The human's eyes widened, and she skidded to a stop to avoid impaling herself. She ducked down, and grabbed a sturdy branch off the ground.
Sienna eyed the girl's stance warily. It was nothing she recognized, which meant either that she had no idea what she was doing, or she practiced some obscure style that would take her completely by surprise.
Her knife hand lashed out, and discovered that there was, in fact, a third option. The human dodged the swipe with practiced ease, moving expertly on the balls of her feet... and then hurled the stick at her head with no technique whatsoever.
Sienna ducked and darted in close before she could re-arm herself, but the girl was already turning towards her unarmed side. She was fast, light on her feet, and responded to every attack as though... well... as though Sienna were at least three or four times larger than she actually was, with a reach to match. She hadn't thought to use the stick to block the knife, and never made any attempt to deflect it. She just avoided them using increasingly improbable gymnastics.
Finally, Sienna managed to corner her against a tree. She swung wide, giving her no room to dodge to either side, her teeth bared in grim satisfaction. The human kicked off the tree trunk, flipped over her head, and grabbed one of her wrists. The next thing she knew she was pinned to the tree, her knife on the ground at her feet.
Sienna tried to wrench her arm away, and managed to stamp on the human's foot. She kept struggling, knowing that she might have only minutes before Winter Schnee showed up with a fully grown dragon. Would Flux hear her if she—
A dry hiss. Sienna went completely, utterly still.
The human hadn't heard, yet, though she stiffened at the sudden lack of resistance. Sienna twisted her head to peer into the shadows. Two sun-yellow eyes glinted back at her.
Her little hybrid. The saboteur that had killed several of their scouts, and shredded the Lieutenant's arm.
Sienna was suddenly much less concerned about Winter Schnee.