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Chapter 19: The Last Stand

"There's no way," Finn groaned, pacing on the barren plateau which was something of a temporary base.

"He's lying," Junko agreed, pointing a beefy finger.

"I say we just rip the truth out of his skull," Spitz growled, pointing a blaster at Blacktalon's temple. The body-snatcher was on his knees bound in Lightning-Fungus, Dragon Cyclonis and dragon-Piper both watching both him and the Raptors lest something happen.

"Excuse me, but how do we do that?!" Piper growled at Spitz, glaring. "There's no way I'm gonna see if I can do it unless we're sure he's lying! And I don't think he is."

"Neither do I," Aerrow said. "Look, we're so thin-worn, we need all hands on deck." Starling looked unreadably at Blacktalon. Piper glanced at Smaug, who hadn't said anything. His molten eyes were narrowed on Blacktalon, a subtle, dark, calculating look in his eyes – the kind of look that meant Smaug had passed the point of feeling burning rage towards someone and had reached the point of coldly, cruelly thinking over and contemplating what he was going to do to them. Smaug had told her about the mysterious sorcerer who'd somehow brought him back from his petrification, and she knew perfectly well that he had no intention of letting Blacktalon get away with this. She just hoped he would hold off until Ungoliant was gone, assuming it didn't end with Ungoliant killing them all and engulfing the world in darkness. Piper beat back the weightless non-feeling inside as the truth washed through her. However this ended, when it was over, she knew she would in all likelihood never see her friends, her family, in this life again.

"I think we're losing track of the bigger picture," Starling said, stepping forward.

"Thank you for stating the obvious, Dame Starling," Smaug snarked – his way of taking the edge off while he was surrounded by every one of his enemies and had a good chance to just kill them all.

"Starling's right," Dragon Cyclonis said, almost glaring irritably at her greenish comrades. Spitz rasped at the black dragon spitefully.

"Hey!" Both Cyclonis and Spitz were taken aback by the cutting snap from Starling. "You can hate Cyclonis' or Smaug's guts all you want," she exclaimed, glare on Spitz; "and you can try and kill them again if we live to see another dawn, but right now, the three of you need to get your crap in order like I am! Or we're not going to last!" The hiss Starling spoke the last sentence in could've made blood run cold. A tense pause passed, the last Interceptor and the short Raptor leader staring each-other down; before Spitz hissed and sauntered away. Starling glared after him a moment longer before relaxing slightly. Growling, Smaug glanced over at his indigo-scaled mate in a meaningful manner.

"We may not have learned how to kill Ungoliant," Piper spoke up, holding everyone's attention; "but after our experience at Bakarech Owai, we know more about her. She tried to use her Unlight against us, but instead she gave us a valuable weakness."

"Which is?" Stork asked bluntly.

"I don't know exactly what the details are just yet," Piper replied softly, lifting a wing-claw by her chin. "We need to know more to be certain. But now we've got a lead and a direction to go in." She held everyone's gaze. "Those crystals she uses – Smaug and I think it's the source of most of powers and what makes her Unlight so impervious. If I can work out under the right conditions what kind of crystals they are…" Everyone shared uncertain glances, the atmosphere growing grimmer. Piper lowered her draconic head. "Listen, guys, I know we don't have much left, but it's all we have. We either fight to the death to save the world, or we all go down with it." Finn, Junko and Stork's faces softened. Even the Raptors looked contemplative.

"Not bad," Dragon Cyclonis complimented Piper, smirking slightly.

CRASHH!

The abrupt, tremor-inducing slam of the bloodred forelimb near Blacktalon jolted everyone, catching them off-guard as eyes bulged. Smaug was snaking his serpentine neck towards the white-haired captive, a dangerous glint in his golden eyes.

"Ahh, my Good Samaritan," Smaug almost purred elatedly. "At last we meet. I suppose all those deaths I've brought didn't bring you what you wanted?" Several of the company including dragon-Piper couldn't help glaring at Smaug, but he ignored them, relishing in seeing the sorcerer in front of him suffer and willow. When Blacktalon just seemed to sag a little more as a little more life left him, a sick, savage grin spread on Smaug's crocodilian snout. Oh, if he couldn't indulge in slaughtering his Storm Hawk enemies and hearing their death-screams here and now, watching this filthy fanatic's spirit rot a little further would be a sweet anodyne. "Tell us, Mister But-An-Asset; why shouldn't I just kill you now?" Finn moved like he wanted to intervene, but dragon-Piper stopped him with a raised foreclaw.

"I only served Ungoliant in the hopes I would reclaim what I had lost," Blacktalon murmured, his voice quiet and broken. He lifted his mauve eyes to hold the gazes of the Storm Hawks unblinkingly. "I only have one thing left now. And even if I was in a position to escape without being immediately stopped by dragons, I know I'll need help to bring Ungoliant down." Blacktalon's eyes lingered, and the Storm Hawks, shared a look. Smaug said nothing, but a smirk spread on his face as a growl rumbled inside him, taking every ounce of pleasure that he could in the idea the once-smug sorcerer had been so hollowed out that he had so little left in him now but revenge; just like so many dwarves and Men and elves had been hollowed by the losses of kith, kin and riches to Smaug's past conquests. Smaug would have preferred to kill the Good Samaritan, but seeing him like this was enough to satisfy him for now. Seeing Smaug had made up his mind with a subtle frown in her brows, dragon-Piper turned her head towards Stork. Groaning, the Merb pointed a crystal-mounted weapon which fired a rippling beam at Blacktalon. His chain immediately fell away, and the body-snatcher sorcerer calmly stood, all others gazes on him as he calmly stretched. The looks the Storm Hawks and Raptors gave him weren't very welcoming. Then the electronic beeping started.

"Um, if we're gonna do anything, we'd better do it fast," Finn said, face grave as he expanded the Crystalvision map projection. "Ungoliant's horde are at Terra Mikonosuin's doorstep."

"That's the entire southern quadrant of Ionos about to fall!" Aerrow exclaimed.

"We can't let that happen," dragon-Piper murmured lowly and darkly, reptilian face set in a grimmer determination than ever before – it reminded all her small mortal friends of how much everything had changed in the last couple months. Was two months truly all it had been since Smaug's return? It seemed more like years.

"Starling and myself will attack the smaller spiders on our own to keep them distracted," Dragon Cyclonis said, "whilst the rest of you deal with Ungoliant herself. No backup, just the two of us."

"So this is it," Junko murmured grimly after a pause. "The last stand."

Terra Mikonosuin was not in a good state. Though the Unlight hadn't come to its doorstep just yet, in the last few days, panic had rippled through its denizens, driving some to take to the lower streets in the name of anarchy and gluing the remainder every day to their Crystalvision receivers' news of the spreading Unlight. The sky inside the terra's forcefield was clear of its airborne blimps, only inhabited by a few blizzard-phoenixes. Triggering cries and wails among onlookers in the streets and at the high-rise metal buildings was the dark-grey fog rolling ominously inward from the barren crags beyond the terra's forcefield. People ran in the streets, and one female clutched her wailing offspring to herself despairingly. Beyond the many-kilometres-wide forcefield which enclosed the half-city, half-lake terra and its unstable aurora in its blue sky, a bank of malevolent, colour- and sense-sucking Unlight reached the forcefield's wall and pressed against it, hungrily yawning to be let in. Within that grey shroud, direction and orientation and time lost all meaning in the blank, dull depths that were both a neverending trap and a finite cell.

Ungoliant's huge, spindly legs thumped and moved forward like sentient towers carrying her horrible body as she approached her next target. One of her front legs snatched up a squirming little creature that had been lost among the grey oblivion, drooling mandibles and teeth making short work of the much-needed snack, and the ceaseless gnaw in the pit of her being was somewhat abated for the moment. Ungoliant's children stayed clear of her, but she was still aware of them scuttling about, rightfully keeping their distance from her. The spider-demon hissed and drooled hungrily, and for a fleeting moment the subtle glint of five or seven of her eyes materialised through the rolling, silent grey plumes, creeping ever forward among the ground below the shallow clouds near here, her children chittering excitedly as they knew mother would feast and they would feed on the scraps.

Then Ungoliant's many eyes saw them coming. The mamba-coloured dragoness roared, a torrent of blue-white fire streaming through the clouds as she tracked her fire to blow apart and destroy the rock between the Unlight and the forcefield. A smaller red-and-silver dragon flew in and added his own fire to Cyclonis'. Dragon Cyclonis and dragon-Aerrow glided towards a low cliff's ledge, slowing on their wings and fluidly landing beside a company of tiny mortals. Finn, Junko and Starling were on their Skimmers and the Raptors were flying with their semi-crystalline winged suits, hard looks on all their faces as they glared out defiantly. Blacktalon was also among them, spreading his wing-apparatus, face ice-cold. A blast of foghorn-noise preceded the Condor rising out of the cloud-fog behind the dragons. Dragon-Piper stood slightly apart from the others – well, not entirely apart, as the dragon with bloodred and dull-gold scales slunk forward slowly beside her, his fiery eyes glaring balefully at their enemy. A few kilometres ahead of the group, Ungoliant half-emerged from the Unlight to screech her terrible, metallic scream, her teeth bared and front legs reared.

Smaug roared back, eyes bright and head-spurs flaring. Ungoliant's visible head hissed some more, mandibles slowly parting back over chrome teeth as she whispered, scraping along the edge of Smaug's brain.

"So, you challenge me, fire-worm?" Smaug bared his teeth savagely, the barb flaring his already-burning anger. "I would've thought you'd be sssmart."

"And you should know it is unwise to insult a dragon, gorging DOTARD!" Smaug's lips didn't move and his molten eyes were narrowed as he focused telepathically on the spider-demon. He lifted his cruel, batlike wings and spread them dramatically, showing off his thickly-built chest as the lone crystal-scale crackled. "My power levels mountains! If you think yourself worthy of anything more than feeding on the scraps of your betters, then face me, shadow-weaver! Or do you cower from the firelight outside of your holes?!" Light was shining in Smaug's gullet as he declared his challenge. Dragon-Piper, dragon-Aerrow, and Dragon Cyclonis roared in turn. And the dragons bounded forward and took off, while their miniscule mortal allies took to the air, the Condor's horn honking as they all flew forward.

Ungoliant screeched defiantly. If the fire-worms wanted to see what she was capable of, she would deliver – she charged forward, shrieking terribly, Unlight trailing behind her while her children rushed hungrily behind her. The last stand had begun.

As the allies flew forward, Dragon Cyclonis twisted her head and gave a signalling screech, before banking – Starling promptly joined her as they broke apart from the main formation. If Ungoliant cared, she didn't show it as she screamed furiously while rushing forth.

Finn and Junko aimed large, crystalline arrowheads the size of their torsos, mounted on crossbow-weapons on their Skimmers.

"Fire!" dragon-Aerrow bellowed loudly in his booming voice. Finn and Junko did so, their projectiles shooting ahead through the air, and blasting into Ungoliant in bright flashes of light. Ungoliant slowed in her forward-charge as she screeched in pain – from the hearts of the energy-explosions, Lightning-Fungus of the same grade that had almost fully-encased Smaug and had successfully restrained Cyclonis was rapidly spreading.

Seeing the possible prey that was breaking apart from the main group, several dozen of Ungoliant's brood scuttled out of the Unlight-bank along the rocky plains. Dragon Cyclonis bared her teeth in turn, her and Starling's eyes narrowed as they shot towards the horde. The black dragoness summoned her fire to the back of her mouth, ready. Many of the spiders below were larger and scarred than most of the ones on Safukaw, and they obviously hadn't earned those scars via stupidity, for the moment Cyclonis and Starling came within a certain distance, they all fired projectile web-strands practically in unison. A dozen web-strands upon her would've been nothing, but against so many unified web-strikes, Dragon Cyclonis had to shut her eyes and twist her head slightly, increasing her internal fire to burn the webbing off her heated scales and wings as it threatened to obstruct her wingbeats. Starling and her Skimmer had neither a dragon's strength nor tough hide, and the mass web-attack collectively turned her into a human-and-Skimmer half-cocoon, compromised sky-ride twisting out of control. Starling grunted and groaned against the chrome bindings, and after a few seconds, she began hurriedly cutting through with a knife, rushing to break through before her Skimmer's diagonal descent concluded. Dragon Cyclonis bathed scores of the spiders in her fire like a bomber plane flying along a stretch of terra coastline.

Ungoliant screeched and roared furiously, aiming her abdomen and firing a much more powerful web-attack than her spawn. Finn and Junko grunted as they parted their Skimmers to avoid being blasted.

"This thing is tough!" Finn said. Not two seconds later, Finn's blue eyes bulged and he dodged, a gigantic dark limb whooshing through the space where his Skimmer had just been. The Raptors were swarming about near Ungoliant like crystalline-coloured flies, letting loose multicoloured energy-attacks. One of the biggest, white flashes got a loud scream of rage from Ungoliant, who promptly lifted another tower-like leg and swiped it diagonally through the air. The limb smashed through the Raptors, triggering small energy-explosions from their flying gear as they fell towards the cloudline like cut-apart flies in the air.

Spitz was yelling as they fell, but they didn't fall far before a dull-grey web strand fired and encased the three reptiles at once, the force in the projectile blasting them backwards as it cocooned them. Half a mile away, the Raptors collided with and were stuck by their webbing restraints to a large crag, the dark webbing cushioning the impact. Dragon-Aerrow flew forward like an arrow with his wings half-tucked, the many-eyed spider-demoness no doubt seeing him.

"Storm's Fury!"

At Piper's yell, the golden-orange beam shot into the male dragon, its light blazing beautifully over his red scales for a split-second. With a roar and a gesture of his wings, Aerrow let the shockwave loose. He was close enough to Ungoliant that she was hit clean by the shockwave – she screeched in pain and fury, eyes all over her body scrunching or burning as her dark, boiling hide was suddenly smouldering, the Unlight's wisps and storm-heads slightly retreating from the blast. The spider's crystalline veins were glowing brighter. So disoriented was the spider-demoness, she never saw Piper shooting upon her flank, chest and neck glowing. Soaring alongside the spider-demon, the dragoness breathed a torrent of both orange fire and white lightning, making Ungoliant screech further as the front third of her body was simultaneously cooked and lightning-struck. Thunderheads broiled and growled as dragon-Aerrow roared and dived. Ungoliant saw him coming and lifted a leg – too late, as Aerrow dived upon and slashed her like a bird of prey, destroying several eyes on her horrible head.

On the ground, Starling yelled and grunted as she threw moves and blasts using her energy-nunchuks, one cheek bruised. Her blasts threw a couple encroaching bull-spiders each the size of a small tree backwards, landing on their backs with legs scrabbling at air, but Starling was lucky if a blast managed to seriously maim them. A light-brown spider that was missing several eyes and two legs screeched horribly as it came frighteningly close to the Sky Knight, slamming a leg into the ground hard enough to crack rock and force Starling backwards. She regained her footing and glared, before leaping with her leg aimed in a kick.

Her strike crunched against the spider's skull, loosening a couple remaining eyes. The spider shrieked and withdrew. Starling was panting with exertion as she got a three-second reprieve. She glanced in a certain direction, and saw Dragon Cyclonis roaring as she hovered very low, picking at hordes of spiders with her claws and breathing torrents of fire to incinerate them, her vast, beating wings casting mighty winds against more of the monsters. Starling groaned as she barely stopped herself from doubling over, clutching her side to ease the searing muscle. No, she couldn't afford to give in now, not here! Grunting, she un-scrunched her glaring, hazel-green eyes. Just in time to yell and throw a particularly-powerful blast with her crystal-nunchuks, reversing a pouncing spider's momentum.

Dragon-Piper swerved around, unleashing another torrent of fire upon the screeching, glowing-veined spider-demon. Ungoliant's dark flesh was already magically healing, though it didn't stop the monstrous abomination hissing in utter venom. The three hovering dragons gave pause as the hum built loudly and audibly in the air, the glow from Ungoliant's crystal-veins brightening.

"Did you think yourselvessss at an advantage?!" she screech-hissed to all their brains.

Then Ungoliant let loose the blast-wave from her crystalline veins, the arcing energy rippling outwards. The lightning bolts zapped Piper long before the rest of the electrical wall passed over her, the assault to her heat-conductive scales making the dragoness screech. Dragon-Aerrow in that same instance tried to make a dodging dive, but the energy-wall passed right over him. Dragon-Piper spread her wings in time to stop herself falling to the Misty Waste. Dragon-Aerrow likewise beat his wings to try and arc out of his descent, silver chest's side shattering a rocky spike and he barely got himself gliding, the pain invading his mind threatening to make the Binding slip and change him back to human. Piper roared at Aerrow encouragingly, and his roar answered hers.

The last of Ungoliant's burns healed up, her crystal-parts' glow dimming as she trained many cloudy, malicious eyes on her three draconic enemies, Unlight seeming to sift behind her as much as the dark substance could.

"Dead dragon and falssse-dragonsss will marinate and ssstew in my web…!"

It would've only been visible were one up-close to Piper's car-sized head, but her reptilian mouth's corners quirked in a smile. She climbed in the air, light glowing between her chest's scales. Ungoliant screamed ear-piercingly, crystal-veins' light building again. Then a yell caught the spider-demon's attention, a split-second before a short volley of energy-blasts collided with a different eye on Ungoliant's back, head and a couple of her legs, making her shriek. Wing-gear spread, Blacktalon stopped twirling his double-bladed energy-guandao and soared away along the sky.

Ungoliant mewled with her mandibles half-parted – she scarcely registered the shadow passing over her head just before her exoskeleton was pierced with a loud noise. Ungoliant screeched briefly, cloudy eyes shifting to look at herself. Stocky hind-claws with bloodred scales were hooking into her head, clawed toes having punctured out a few of her eyes there. Wings still spread as he stood effectively perched atop her, Smaug's blazing eyes held a cold glint for the spider-demon, lip slightly curled in a nasty smirk, crystal-scale on his left side shining with power.

"Going up," Smaug growled softly. Then he thrust his wings hard, and a shockwave which made clouds billow was let loose from that single wingbeat as the dragon and the spider thrice his size ascended – Smaug was carrying the spider-demon vertically upward, dark wisps of Unlight trailing below them as they approached the orange sun. Piper's slit-pupil eyes were wide in awe for but a moment before she focused, her chest's arrow-shaped scale glowing brighter blue as she pushed and poured more and more energy to Smaug. Piper could feel it, he was relying on continued power from their bond to accomplish what he was doing as he carried Ungoliant higher and closer to the stratosphere, the cost of carrying the spider's huge weight and resisting her poisonous aura eating power almost as fast as he received it. They were nearly to the stratosphere, the power in Smaug was probably the only reason he didn't seem to register the air getting too thin for even his lungs…

"For all your new tricks, you retain your LIMITATIONS!" Smaug roared down at Ungoliant. Then he gripped and tore his hind-claws loose, pulling out exoskeleton and black goo, leaving the many-legged dark abomination to fall as she screeched. Smaug hovered high in the dull-blue sky above the Unlight and the un-poisoned clouding, wings beating, while the much larger monstrosity fell like a mountain dropped from the sky.

Dragon-Piper and Aerrow, having fallen back to a further distance, watched in awe as Ungoliant fell towards the cloudline near where her bank of Unlight lingered, the besieged Mikonosuin visible further behind there. The spider-demon passed through the cloudline.

BOOM.

The shockwave exploded and rippled outwards, blasting into Aerrow and a weakened Piper and forcing the smaller dragons backward as Piper grunted.

With a yell, Starling's energy-nunchuks made the pinned giant spider's functions cease. Covered in thin sprays of dark gore and somewhat battered, the violet-haired warrior turned her head, hazel-green eyes widening. She saw the shockwave from the titan-sized impact, shielded her face as it passed over, making her hair billow and forcing some other spiders back. Starling looked again, whilst Dragon Cyclonis was busy tearing a particularly-large spider apart with claws and teeth.

"Are we winning…?" Starling murmured rhetorically, and she didn't notice the eight-legged monster whose mandibles were three metres behind her.

The giant spider charged at its prey, fast and silent as a normal-sized spider-

WROAAAARRR!

-and a blaze of white fire promptly engulfed it, the sudden blast of roaring flames and light alerting Starling – the screaming, disoriented spider still came at her, but Starling leapt acrobatically over the flame-covered arachnid as it shot through the space where she'd been. Starling threw a blast from her crystal-nunchuks. It had a weak spot, and with a squeal, the burning spider died that much quicker.

Blacktalon landed fluidly upon the Condor's ramp as the carrier rose higher, while the Storkurd Slayer distended from the Skimmer bay and two Skimmers gathered on either side of the carrier. Finn grinned as he put the new Lightning-Fungus projectile in his mounted crossbow. He aimed. Blacktalon didn't grin at all, mauve eyes shifting from Finn outward to their common enemy.

Dragon-Piper's eyes widened as she saw it, too late. In the space of a second, Ungoliant went from practically shrivelling to suddenly screeching and charging not at Piper but at another target, lifting her front leg high like a reaper's scythe as she screeched.

Stork saw it and shrieked, made the Condor pull back, the mortals scattered.

Too late – the spider's leg sliced through a Skimmer, and it burst in an energy-explosion.

"FINN!"

Grey smoke and crystal-blue fire spat and trailed from the hurtling comet of a Skimmer, in the seconds before it crashed with a terrible noise to the shallow plateau near Dragon Cyclonis and Starling's battle with spiders. Junko's action was almost immediate – he swerved his Skimmer and flew straight towards the crash-site.

Dragon Cyclonis must've seen the wallop acting first, because she immediately resumed attacking, tearing through and burning the spiders on the ground with Starling's aid.

Dragon-Piper had to summon most of her willpower to lift her wide, orange eyes away from Finn and back to the other dragons' own opponent (a difficult task with how physically, metaphysically and mentally tired she already was), aware of Smaug far on her flank levelling out of his descent from the upper-atmosphere but feeling so detached. Smaug took advantage of his velocity as he levelled out – Ungoliant saw him coming with her remaining eyes and lifted a leg, a second before Smaug's hind-claws countered and collided with the limb, managing to shove and force the monstrous demon sideways.

The Stone Queen clenched her three-fingered fist subtly – a rare gesture of the large but elegant ruler. Flanked by two of her council in their dotted, multicoloured robes, the queen rose from her chair, a hard look in her eyes.

"I will not without good reason authorise use of the Crystalic Bomb whilst our most valuable allies in Ionos are in the crossfire, risking their necks," the Stone Queen declared to the nine Crystalvision-projected figures stood around her long, silver table, the monarch's voice enough to make nearly anyone bow their head in submission.

"Ionos is currently undergoing an apocalypse, Your Grace," King Gyalhaw said, vexed, though he minded his tone somewhat. "The Storm Hawks know what putting their lives on the line entails!"

"I have to agree with King Gyalhaw, Your Grace," added the female leader of Terra Monsunos. "We have already lost enough of our world to this invasive force."

"I'm well aware of that, but I put more faith in the Storm Hawks pulling through as they have done before, than I do in using this weapon and violating the Pact of Ten. My terra will not be the one to fire that weapon unless there is no other choice!"

"We cannot stand by and do nothing," the cold, haughty Kitanen commander declared, uncharacteristically calm. "If the Storm Hawks fall and Ungoliant triumphs, it will be the end of our world entirely." The Stone Queen was glaring unblinking but her mind was whirring.

"May I suggest a substitute?" she said. "It will require a lot of effort in little time, but we can create an alternative blast of equal intensity…"

The larger spiders were hissing and screeching furiously, firing web-strands to try and catch their large opponent. Dragon Cyclonis barely angled her head in time to avoid having her eye glued shut, web-strands hitting her head-spikes or raven-black scales harmlessly. Now she had most of the spiders boxed where she wanted them, she reeled her neck as light travelled up to her jaws, and she wasted no time letting loose the torrent of fire, the arachnid monstrosities disappearing and turning to ash amid her blue-white flames.

Nearby, Starling was grunting and hurling blasts with her crystal-nunchuks while Junko swung green-glowing punches with his free arm, one arm cradling Finn. Grey eyes dark as he paused from swinging punches, the wallop's knuckle-buster equipped glowing hand tore a chunk of earth the size of his whole arm free, and he tossed it with a war-cry. The projectile smashed into two spiders violently, throwing them clean off their feet. Starling all but screeched as she threw an energy-blast on her flank, catching a spider square in the eye-cluster. The violet-haired Sky Knight didn't see the two spindly-legged silhouettes crawling with fluid slowness up the spiky overhang above her head, nor did she see them leap.

They knocked Starling and Junko flat, and Starling's crystal-nunchuks slid away from her on the ground. Both the ambusher spiders went for Starling. Junko turned while holding Finn's body, struggling to work out how to intervene without endangering his wounded blonde friend. Starling saw one of the spiders' undersides, thin blade sliding out like a wasp's stinger. She swung her body to the side as much as she could under the scuttling claws, a split-second before the stinger stabbed the ground. The spider screeched and scuttled against its sibling as it tried to stab the human under their sixteen feet.

"Cyclonis!" The dragoness' jaws snapped a spider in two, then she twisted her head at Junko's cry. She spotted the scrabbling spiders, and the Sky Knight struggling underneath their legs.

"Starling!" Cyclonis exclaimed, purple eyes bulging and head-spikes flaring.

The spiders rasped and hissed sadistically, jabbing and stabbing their stingers at the earth as though trying to stab the Sky Knight was a game to them. The roar of a dragon exploded, and both spiders spun. Too late; the massive wing-claw swatted one spider, its body audibly shattering under the blow as it hurtled. The other spider screeched as it beheld the huge beast, before Cyclonis snapped her crocodilian jaws shut on it, then lifted her neck and wrenched with a furious snarl; the spider was torn in half, one half flying free as black gore sprayed, and the dragoness promptly spat out the other half. She growled hatefully, her fire's light flaring between the scales on her neck's underside, but she checked it and promptly turned her purple gaze on the human woman she'd just rescued, who was now getting to her feet like the tough warrior she was. Junko and Starling were looking up at Cyclonis in mild surprise, but in Starling's case it was rapidly melting into a warm, almost touched expression under the specks of black gore decorating her face.

"Are you alright?" Cyclonis said quickly, sounding urgent verging on frightened.

"I've been through worse," Starling quipped lightly with a smirk, wiping her face with a forearm. Dragon Cyclonis growled furiously, purple eyes brightening.

"Don't. Do that. Again." Despite the fearsome display, Starling was almost taken aback specifically by the tone of Cyclonis' voice.

"With instincts like yours, I don't think I have to worry," Starling said, arching an eyebrow and smirking slightly after a brief pause. The comment earned her an almost surprised look from Cyclonis. Starling mentally brushed it aside as she glanced at the other two Storm Hawks, face hardening. "We need to get Finn back to the Condor, now." Dragon Cyclonis nodded, then twisted her neck and breathed a torrent of fire behind them, the surging inferno wiping out more encroaching spiders. The dragoness spread her wings and started walking forward, the Storm Hawks grabbing onto her large hind-paws before she thrust downward and took to the air.

HOOOOONK!

The Condor whooshed in, a dark, less-than-stable smirk on the helmsman's face before the carrier dropped its charges. They exploded in a series of violent flashes upon the screeching, agonised spider-demon, who began shifting backwards on her spindly legs. Was she retreating? Was she retreating?!

A couple charges exploded on Ungoliant, front legs lifting to shield her from the intense blasts. Her crystal-veins were bright and humming. She spat out a hateful hiss at the carrier, spittle flying from her chrome teeth – then like some great scorpion, she lifted her bloated, corpse-mottled abdomen and her rearmost pair of legs, and with a rasping noise a dull-grey rope of web shot diagonally up. The web-rope hit the Condor hard enough to jolt the ship, linking the carrier to the spider-demon. Then the rope violently tore downward, pulling the left engine-arm's walling clean away. The ship immediately lost stability as it began to dip lopsidedly, alarms blaring.

Ribcage almost painfully leaning into the helm, Stork's eyes widened at the first thing he saw – outside the cloudline-facing windshields, the Storkurd Slayer was in freefall. The great ballista-weapon seemed almost suspended in the air, then it shattered upon a dwarf-terra's rocks, broken and splintered in half. The only thing on Atmos or Ionos that could halt the advance of a dragon such as Smaug if this mess with Ungoliant ever ended in their favour, was no more. Stork grunted and swerved the helm furiously.

Smoke billowed as the Condor twisted to avoid flying into the Unlight, forced to retreat. A small, winged figure shot to the air from the carrier, taking off back toward the direction the ship was leaving. Blacktalon said nothing, simply glaring outward as he let loose energy-bolts. They burst in small, pink blasts upon Ungoliant, each and every blast expertly targeting and punching out some of her many cloudy eyes, her undamaged eyes glaring at the new assault's source. Blacktalon didn't let up as he flew overhead – he increased his energy-guandao's charge, and with a single swipe unleashed a shower of energy-bolts. They exploded upon Ungoliant's crystalline veins which such brutality and spontaneity that the spider-demon shrieked anew, explosions of pink occurring over nearly half her mass. A pause passed before the energy and smoke from smouldering spider-flesh cleared – the crystal-studs were still there, thrumming and glowing. Blacktalon grit his teeth, then soared slightly back, towards where dragon-Piper stood weakly on all fours among several spiky hills while the two male dragons separately circled near her.

"No effect!" Blacktalon reported as he approached.

"Keep trying!" dragon-Piper roared back at him.

They didn't see the spider-abomination coming, so fast was the goliath's charge, until her giant, three-fingered claw smashed into the body-snatcher in a backhand – with an audible crack of bone, Blacktalon's body, smaller than a biscuit compared to the clawed fingers, went hurtling away, crashing against a column of rock. Embedded in the crater formed around his impact, Blacktalon's body was visibly broken in several places, wing-gear crumpled and hissing sparks.

Dragon-Piper gasped, then she turned her head to glance at Smaug, who had a serious frown. Dragon-Aerrow's facial features hardened, then he opened his crocodilian jaws and let out a calling roar in a certain direction.

"Sorry, Aerrow," Stork's voice responded, projected to echo from the downed Condor's speakers. "She won't go anywhere soon!"

"Then it's up to us," Piper said firmly. Aerrow's serious expression matched her tone. Smaug let loose a trumpeting war-cry, then he flew forward, followed by Piper and Aerrow.

"Speed of Light!" Piper cried. The pinkish-red beam fired into dragon-Aerrow as he flew forward. When the glowing male was halfway to Ungoliant, suddenly he disappeared in a film-like flicker. Several more flickers of him flit and flashed like single-frame movie images over Ungoliant as she screeched and screamed, each flash of the smaller male dragon's image dealing new wounds and gouges to the malformed spider-demon. Ungoliant screeched, spindly legs giving out as she crashed with a tremor to the ground, but not two seconds later her wounds were healing as her crystals thrummed, and she screeched that metal-on-brain noise as she rose back up. Dragon-Aerrow inhaled a growl of a gasp, leaf-green eyes wide.

"Give. Up."

"We'll give up when you beat us in a fair fight!" dragon-Piper spat fiercely, orange eyes bright.

"Then you will FEED ME!" Ungoliant rasped. With an awful shriek, she was suddenly charging, Unlight trailing. Crying out in surprise, Piper spread her wings and took to the air, a second before Ungoliant's gigantic body smashed and crumbled the rocks Piper she'd been on.

At that moment, Blacktalon shifted his body against the diagonal rock wall he'd been blasted against, bones in his stolen body cracking. When he lifted his gaunt face towards the sky, his mauve eyes were glowing brighter than before. He didn't hesitate before he acted – he shot out a crooked arm, and a stream of transparent mauve energy shot forth, diagonally crossing the distance across the half-clean, half-Unlight sky. When it hit the indigo dragoness's bronze-scaled chest on the right side, she cried out in surprise, head promptly snapping to look at where the energy pouring into her was coming from. She saw the source far below her. Blacktalon's skin was flaking away like ashen paper as he poured ever more of his energy. Piper didn't know much about what Blacktalon was, but she could guess the likely outcome if he kept this up.

"Blacktalon, don't!" she cried.

"I'm coming…" Blacktalon whispered a noise and Piper's draconic hearing caught it, although she got the impression he wasn't talking to her. For a moment, Piper was reminded of when the Dark Ace had overloaded eight years ago. That sound was the last clear sound that left Blacktalon's mouth, before skin and muscles disintegrated to the skull underneath, and then bones too vanished in a flash, leaving only the tail-end of the mauve energy-feed shooting into the wide-eyed dragoness. As the last of Blacktalon's energy shot into her with a slight flash, dragon-Piper hissed and reeled slightly – this strange, new, sickly-tasting energy thrummed inside her momentarily, then it dulled and settled. Piper had barely begun contemplating what she was supposed to do with this before a roar drew her gaze overhead.

Smaug was circling in the sky a distance from Aerrow, their shared attention on Ungoliant and their female. Ungoliant screeched directly up at them without lifting her head, and Piper could feel the cloudy eyes all over the abomination's body glaring at the flying dragons. But Piper wasn't interested in superficial appearances or general threat, and she inspected closer. As Ungoliant's crystals charged, flashes and flickers of unstable light seemed to ripple through them, unlike before. Piper's molten orange eyes widened. She roared urgently at the other dragons, all three of them twisting to fly away as the thrum built in the air again.

Ungoliant let loose the spherical blast, just as the dragons took cover. The energy-wave rolled over the low, spiky rock-range they were flying amid, the serpents largely sheltered though stray arcs struck and painfully sapped Piper. She beat her wings to catch herself from falling, then clung bat-like to the rocky hills' sides, twisting her neck around to look for the others. She spotted Smaug latching to the hills a short distance away (by dragons' standards), and she could see from his entire body language and his eyes that taking cover like this was a dull burn to his pride, making him feel like a coward despite the logical arguments which had won out. Smaug suddenly detached himself and beat his huge wings to hover, roaring; a second before Aerrow completed his U-turn and latched bat-like to the hills on Piper's other side.

"It's working," Piper said quickly and seriously. "I've just found out that those crystals get unstable after twelve minutes – that narrows it down to a family of five crystals."

"We'll keep fighting," dragon-Aerrow growled in a determined voice, leaf-green eyes hard and sharp. "We won't give up. Ever." Piper nodded subtly but proudly, then she glanced across at Smaug – his fiery eyes met hers and for but a fleeting split-second Piper got the strangest impression that neither of them wanted to ever break that eye contact between their orbs' swirling depths, before Smaug turned his gaze back outward, lip curled above sharp teeth. "But we're running ragged. We need something more."

A loud, metallic song promptly followed by Ungoliant's angered screech drew all three dragons' attention, Smaug narrowing his eyes. They slunk up the hills to peer above them, and in the distance, beyond the poisonous trail and wall of Ungoliant's oblivious-grey Unlight, a fleet of approaching silhouettes stood out against the sky. Blimp-shaped Mikonosuin aircraft and blizzard-phoenixes, all flying away from the capital terra's blue forcefield. Smaug narrowed his eyes but he didn't smile, perhaps only calculating the strategic value rather than taking any joy in the assistance.

"All right!" dragon-Piper beamed with a sharp-toothed grin. This just might be their cavalry.

The approaching fleet was also seen from the Condor, where Dragon Cyclonis stood on all fours after dropping Finn off.

The blizzard-phoenixes were equipped with crystal-pods and weaponry attached to their ice-blue bodies; while on the propulsion-trailing blimp-aircraft, largely automated cannons, energy-weapons and other tools were pointed ahead, people visible on external parts manning the crafts. Ungoliant regarded the approaching aircraft but didn't shriek or snarl in protest.

The energy-weapons hummed or crackled together, many flares of multicoloured light crackling.

KA-BOOM.

The fleet all fired as one, and a blinding flash of white light lit up the entire region.

Dragon Cyclonis screeched and raised her wing against the blinding light, a noise like a massive rocket's propulsion exploding in her ears as she and the equal-sized Condor were reduced to silhouettes amid the white.

The other three dragons roared and shielded their faces as the light silhouetted them and sound deafened them.

Exposed spider-spawn shrieked and screamed painfully, quickly trying to flee the burning light in agony.

After a few moments, the ball of white ebbed across the battlefield, visibility returning.

Things were near-silent as Piper made a growling groan, slowly lowering her wing-arm from her pounding head. One of the first things she realised was another dragon's warm body was around her. She was surrounded protectively by Smaug's wing and neck. Aerrow had likewise pounced to try and shield her, but had apparently in the blinding and deafening blast mistaken Smaug's protective wing for her and grabbed that. As Aerrow recovered, he quickly parted with the limb and turned his green eyes outward – Smaug recovered his senses no less quickly and lifted his forelimb from Piper, then his lip quivered at Aerrow murderously as he growled – Piper promptly intervened with a ferocious snarl at the larger male, and he halted, making eye contact with her as if seeing into her eyes would help to soothe the fire inside him.

Far ahead, clouding was twisting and swirling inward around the horrid dark mass, and even the Unlight below the fleet appeared to have slightly recoiled for the moment. Ungoliant was unmoving, like a great, horrid skeleton of some Eldritch horror leftover long after its death, wisps of smoke sizzling and pouring off of her mottled flesh. The crystalline veins protruding through her were duller than ever, almost duds. A part of Piper almost wondered optimistically if it was over, though the rational parts of her mind checked it until proven.

Several seconds of silence. Then the splintered crystalline veins flashed back to life with an ominous hum.

"Take cover!" Piper bellowed, hoping Cyclonis and the Condor would hear her draconic voice.

A rippling, spherical energy-blast tore loose, pure-blue light and lightning-arcs tearing through the fleet – in an instant, aircraft were shredded to scraps of falling, smoking metal like paper planes caught in a razor-fan. Surviving crewmembers screamed as their craft hurtled towards the sea of dark Unlight waiting to swallow them in oblivion.

The crystals themselves still crackled with lightning…

KA-BLOAMM!

…and shattered.

Across from the three dragons, the spider-demon screeched in agony as a plume of red, yellow and green exploded off of her.

"Those colours…" dragon-Piper murmured, reptilian eyes wide, observing keenly. "The energy wave. That dust…" She glanced over at an interested-looking Smaug, her sharp-toothed grin looking devilish. "I know what those crystals are, and I know how we can stop Ungoliant. I need to talk to the others!" She took off and flew fast as her wings could carry her, headed straight towards the Condor and Dragon Cyclonis' distant forms. Smaug and then dragon-Aerrow were promptly on her tail.

Ungoliant's movements were slow and almost placid as she shifted her tower-like legs, lifting her body with the slowness of a vast crane's mechanics, large chunks of the crystal in her body shattered from that last expenditure. Her Unlight had been pushed back, and she was so weakened that she couldn't even call it with her crystal-augmentations to come rushing back in, though her mere presence still ate up and subtly dimmed the light around her. She could vaguely hear, see and sense her children's shock and eagerness where some of their miniscule, multitude silhouettes vaguely materialised at the fringes of the Unlight's banks, though they would not be feeding on their mother's corpse today. The spider-demon bared her teeth and hissed hatefully.

Dragon-Aerrow bellowed, alerting Dragon Cyclonis and the Condor of the remaining dragons' approach. Piper came in for a landing on the barren, low plateau, whilst dragon-Aerrow and Smaug landed on low hills on opposite sides.

"You recognise those crystals?" dragon-Piper asked Cyclonis, a razor-toothed grin on her reptilian face.

Cyclonis formed a lopsided smirk as she said, "Wajno Crystals."

"Oh, yesss," Smaug murmured as Piper glanced at him. "Preciously rare and very powerful." Meeting his molten gaze, Piper knew by his eyes that he already knew or was rapidly working out where she was going. "Well? Don't stop now." He purred suavely at her, a subtle warmth in his voice and eyes that was never there for anyone else.

"Wajno Crystals need very specific elements and centuries to form from raw crystal, and only someone with immense willpower can control them without backfire," Piper said, brow-ridges stern. "But… Ungoliant is weakened now, and if we can set all of it off throughout her system…"

"But that would wipe out everything within at least fifteen kilometres, including everyone on Mikonosuin," Dragon Cyclonis said, purple eyes widening.

"Not if we also have the power to contain the blast," Piper replied.

"How?" dragon-Aerrow asked.

"I don't know…" Piper admitted as she turned her crocodilian head away, brooding, whilst Smaug growled subtly. Leaf-green and amber-orange eyes widened, sharing a glance and then looking in the same direction Smaug was already looking in. Towards the rippling, curving slice of forcefield-shielded bright-blue sky which dark Unlight rammed against, multicoloured aurora half-encased.

"Mikonosuin's forcefield isn't designed to be nearly strong enough for an explosion like that," Cyclonis said. Then her purple eyes shifted as she realised and suddenly spoke more softly, "Unless its range is shrunken down to concentrate its strength…"

"As for power…" Dragon-Piper thought for a total of one second before her face lit up and she glanced at Smaug – his face went from dark to smirking warmly at her in an instant, as if he were proud that she had come to that conclusion herself or just of the conclusion's implications.

"We have our bond – and we have the Binding." Dragon-Piper turned to Aerrow, feeling a pang of guilt as she knew that sentence alone had ruined Smaug's good mood. She briefly cast a subtle, apologetic look over her shoulder at the larger male. Then a tremor and a distant clap of noise struck, prompting every dragon to snap their gazes outward. Ungoliant was up, and the scorched monstrosity was lumbering backwards into her Unlight, hissing and rasping, her cracked and broken Wajno Crystal veins pulsing steadily with light again. The dragons' sharp eyes saw new, fledgling crystal was forming inside the gaping, black, gruesome trench that the explosion had blown through her.

"Let's… wrap up the planning shall we?" Starling suggested in a gentle, not-quite-nervous-but-please,-let's-get-on-with-this tone.

They talked the plan and its details over in as much time, then relayed it to Stork, who also reported to them on Finn's condition in the med bay, before setting out on the skies for the besieged capital terra.

The forcefield was marked by the end of the lagoon's shallow bank and the beginning of grey oblivion beyond, the transparent barrier subtly thrumming where the partially-visible forms of swarming, ravenous spiders battered their spindly legs or their snarling faces against it, trying to bypass this last line of defence to the capital terra. The orange-scaled Mikonosuinesh captain of the terra's Crime Guards was waving and directing a string of screaming, fleeing citizens, when something caught his gaze and made him snap his wide eyes outward. Far across from him, on the side of the terra's lagoon opposite the city, the tiny silhouettes of ground-based spiders were disappearing into the oblivion-fog, before their gigantic queen's tower-like front legs materialised outside the forcefield like a monster crawling from a child's nightmare. The horrid features of her oversized head with its fifteen eyes and four arms materialised from the Unlight next. With a shift of her gigantic weight, the spider-monster reared her front legs and shoved herself ram-like against the forcefield keeping her from the city full of morsels within. The resulting ripple's starting point was half-visible from in the city, but the ripple rolled above the Crime Guard captain's head and the skyscrapers' tips through the entirety of the kilometres-wide forcefield dome. The captain turned his horrified reptilian eyes back outward. The spider-mother was pushing hard against the forcefield, making the dome which had successfully protected Mikonosuin for centuries thrum in protest under her assault.

"By the heavens…" the captain murmured, voice and mouth working almost on automatic. At this rate, no more than two-thirds of Terra Mikonosuin's population would be evacuated in time before its basic but major defensive wall shattered…

Suddenly, the sound of a distant but loud roar broke, making the captain crane his eyes to look in a different direction. Beyond the forcefield, through which translucent flashes of colour were rippling, four dragons were flying and hovering just above the high forcefield's top.

A rectangular portal opened, the dragons immediately flying into Mikonosuin's near-empty airspace, promptly tailed by the Condor as all five airborne forms made straight for the urbanised side of the terra. Cyclonis, dragon-Piper and Smaug swooped low and took up roosts on the skyscrapers a certain distance apart from each-other, whilst dragon-Aerrow flew on, twisting as he came upon and latched batlike onto a hangar-lined section of a particular skyscraper, reptilian head looking in.

"There's nothing we can do," groaned a green-uniformed controller inside the hangar-like opening despairingly, turning to the carriage-sized dragon's head gazing in at him. "We can't beat them, they'll be through in less than an hour!" The bright-red dragon's green gaze hardened.

"Get whatever's left of the council in here, now!" he declared.

Three members of the council and the Stone Queen herself were in that same hangar in less than ninety seconds.

"Your Grace," dragon-Aerrow exclaimed, molten green eyes widening. "You're still here!"

"I will not leave when so many of my people are still in danger," she replied earnestly. "Besides – I couldn't stand by and let the other terras attempt dropping a full-scale Crystalic Bomb when a spontaneous mega-assault was a safer option." Dragon-Aerrow smiled.

Outside, Ungoliant's smashing and pounding was producing longer-lasting swells of translucency on the forcefield, distorting the sky around the urbanised terra.

At the end of Aerrow's explanation, the Stone Queen's council-members were gaping, and one of them asked; "Are you sure about this?"

"I am," dragon-Aerrow replied, reptilian face dark. "When we strike, shrink the forcefield down around Ungoliant."

"But, it's impossible!" another council-member moaned despairingly.

"She doesn't think so," Aerrow responded, before pulling away from the hangar and vanishing with a flutter of his leathery wings. The indigo-and-bronze dragoness took his place, a subtle confidence in her reptilian face.

"The old systems for Mikonosuin's forcefield are still there, buried under all the new software," Piper said, voice hard; "and it was designed to shrink around dragons during the Hundred-Year Dragon Purge. You can trigger it, you just need-"

"The DNA of a being descended from dragons. But that of a Mikonosuinesh will not suffice! And even if we had a Kitan-Eel on hand, they're too primitive!" A council-member said. "Rogues have tried it in previous years, but it doesn't work – our DNA has become too laced with Ionos' crystal-radiation over generations! And dragons' own DNA is too close to the source!" Dragon-Piper's smirk widened, looking disturbingly mischievous.

"What if we had a dragon descendant who's DNA is un-contaminated?" she challenged. The Raptors on their flying apparatus promptly flew past her shoulder and straight into the hangar, looking around as they landed. "Bogaton Raptors are among the oldest species on Atmos – almost all sentient talking reptiles have a common point of origin. No-one knows what that common ancestor was, but I can guess."

"Storm globes!" The sound of Junko's yelling drew a couple Crime Guards' gazes and even made a few of the civilians who'd been running on the street turn to see the wallop holding out a sack with the top opened. "Anyone with storm globes, please, it's urgent!"

"Hey, over here!" A Jimūzunin female sprinted up to Junko, dumping a storm globe into his sack's top promptly, followed by a couple more people, Junko muttering quick thanks to each of them.

KRASHH. KRASHHHH. KRASHH-KRASHHH!

Ungoliant beat ruthlessly against the rippling forcefield.

KRASHHH!

One final, mighty strike, and the wall separating Terra Mikonosuin from Unlight vanished. The eldritch spider-monster rushed forth into the lagoon on her tower-like legs, Unlight trailing behind her like a royal's billowing cape, her offspring squealing excitedly. The lagoon's waters growled and foamed as Ungoliant's legs waded effortlessly through them, her size greater than the water's depth. She was making a beeline towards the delicious, food-filled city that had been furiously within sight yet out of grasp for many minutes too many, and towards the four dragons she'd be happy to eat alive. The dragons roared as they flew towards the monster at the head of the invading Unlight.

Smaug rose in the air at the group's head, fiery eyes bright as he glared at their opponent. Dragon-Piper pumped her wings to fly alongside him, the two dragons sharing a silent look. Ungoliant's mandibles parted from her wet, chrome teeth in a horrible, hungry scream at the dragons, each dragon only a third her size at most. She reared her front legs as the dragons' hind-claws approached, and she struck. Her blow knocked down the black dragoness whose wing had been injured earlier, but Piper and Smaug made sure to slam into Ungoliant with a blast of noise, then as they roared and lone scales on either of their chests glowed, the two dragons simultaneously beat their wings and slowly lifted Ungoliant together, her Unlight wisps trailing. Piper gave a roar that practically said, Now! With a blast of invisible magic, the dragons threw Ungoliant clean off the ground. The goliath spider crashed and tumbled legs-over-head along the lagoon, kicking up violent sprays before coming to a stop, half-submerged. Dragon-Aerrow swooped upon her at that point, firelight shining in his neck as he opened his maw-

Dark web-rope fired from Ungoliant's upward-pointed abdomen, slamming into Aerrow's reptilian face. Jaws glued shut with fire rushing in his neck, the dragon's green eyes bulged, swerving in the air. Another web-rope fired, catching Aerrow's wing, and he recoiled.

"Aerrow!" Piper cried out. The red-and-silver dragon crashed to the water in a spray and tumbled, water rapidly quenching his firelight. A ferocious screech as Dragon Cyclonis completed a banking turn and flew back into the battle, spiky hackles raised. Dragon-Piper in turn bellowed and flew forward, Smaug following on her tail. Then Piper's molten-amber eyes widened, a slight gasp escaping her.

"Wait! It's a trap-!"

She'd seen Ungoliant's broken crystals flaring to life, but she'd spoken too late. The spider-demon let loose a terrible, agonised shriek and a blaze of pale-blue lightning exploded off of her, Wajno Crystals fracturing. The lightning-torrent blasted straight into the three dragons faster than they could try to escape, making them shriek as every nerve in their bodies burned with agony.

A ball of bluish-white light nearly a league wide erupted in the water.

On the Condor's bridge overhead, Stork grunted and shielded his eyes with one arm, then when the light dimmed, he returned his gaze to the sight below.

Ungoliant with her grossly bloated abdomen was lying still in the water, smoke pouring from her over-strained crystals. Water-currents shifted and flowed lazily, then small and rapid sprays started as the scattered dragons' uniquely-coloured bodies and spikes started reappearing, Cyclonis letting loose a snarl as the drenched fire-breathers worked near-frantically to get back in the air. Across the lagoon from them, Ungoliant's tower-like legs shifted.

As Stork and Starling watched from the Condor and spectators watched from the city's streets in horror, Ungoliant sluggishly but with growing speed was lifting herself up and marching through the lagoon, towards a specific destination.

Dragon Cyclonis' vast wings beat the water with blasts of wind as she worked them to get airborne. Ungoliant paused, eyes on her legs gazing directly at the dragoness, and at dragon-Aerrow quickly bursting above the water. There was a sound, like the winds of a mighty hurricane howling through passes and valleys, as the wall of Unlight that had already encroached on the water suddenly rushed forward with speed like the ash-cloud of an erupting volcano. Dragon-Aerrow roared in alarm, too late – one moment he was there, recoiling, then the next the oblivion-grey smoke swallowed him up. Dragon Cyclonis twisted to fly away, buying herself several moments before the smoke rushed into and consumed her as well. Arms of the vast, dark mass were spreading forth on either side of Ungoliant.

Stork promptly pulled a particular lever with a grunt. There was nothing, no ammo deploying from the Condor, just a weak metallic whine. A wide-eyed Stork pulled the lever again and again, then beat at it in frustration.

"Shoot," Starling cursed to herself as she turned away, before promptly sprinting from the bridge.

Less than ten seconds later, one of the Condor's turrets was extending from the bow's side-wall, manned by Starling. Face hard, the violet-haired Sky Knight slid the crystal arrowhead into the turret, took aim. Eye narrowed, she breathed out. She clicked the trigger, the blaster firing. Several of Ungoliant's eyes shifted, and the gigantic spider-demon almost threw herself, the arrowhead exploding on the water's surface to form a small Lightning-Fungus island.

"Junko, we need more Lightning-Fungus," a wide-eyed Starling murmured into her ear-comms piece, praying that her previous ammo count had somehow been off.

"That was the last one…" Junko's voice responded dreadfully.

"You ssshhhouldn't have left your belliesss ssso exposssed…" Ungoliant's blade-on-grey-matter voice hissed, as dragon-Piper lifted her head above the water, orange eyes bleary, feeling so tired and sluggish. Piper didn't register her body melding and shrinking against her will in a blue flash until she was human again, water-treading in the lagoon. She gasped, eyes wide as she looked at herself before turning her amber gaze ahead. Ungoliant's tower-like leg sank with little noise and spray through the water a meagre several-dozen metres from Piper. The spider-demon, three times the size of Smaug or Cyclonis, was standing above Piper in the water, leering directly down at the woman who was as small to her now as a spider was to a human. She lowered with taunting slowness towards Piper, clawed grappling-arms stretching almost lethargically…

As the shadow upon her darkened, Piper in the water screamed.

An explosive, violent spray breached the lagoon as Smaug half-swam, half-burst forth with a furious roar. Ungoliant suddenly twisted her body, lifting three legs on her flank. Smaug must've been dazed from the blast just like Piper had been, as despite Piper's urgent scream, he didn't see the trap as he flew straight at Ungoliant's thorax, before her legs crashed down and flattened him under the water in a spray.

"NO!" Piper screamed, eyes saucer-wide. This couldn't be it, they couldn't fall now, this couldn't be how it would end! Foam and water sprayed and burst as Smaug thrashed and fought furiously amid the water. A swell this caused carried Piper further away from him, increasing the woman desperation. Smaug kept fighting, flashes of his tail and bloodred wings' bladed tips visible, he even managed to get his head above water for half-a-second before it was shoved back down; but Ungoliant was now turning her full physical effort to forcing the great dragon down and keeping him down, smashing another leg at him as her monstrous head hung low over Smaug. No more glimpses of his head or chest through the foam, now just his whipping, desperate tail and bits of his wings.

"YESSSSSSS…"

A/N: This is it, the penultimate chapter. Only one more to go after this. Originally there were going to be three more chapters, but I felt they were too short so I rearranged them into two.

Comments and reviews are appreciated. :)