The army made good time. The full moon was high in the night sky when they neared the citadel. It was now near midnight, and the eclipse would begin soon. They had about another hour and should arrive just in time to begin their attack just as the eclipse was due to begin.

The Turbokat kept a constant patrol over the approaching army, keeping watch for Wyverns. They would begin the diversion just as the army was getting into position.
A slight red glow to the left caught T-Bone's attention. "What the heck? That's a strange-looking bird."

Razor looked up from his radar monitor and over at the bird. "That is weird." He clicked on the radio communicator. "Hey Elena, you got any birds in this world with glowing red eyes?"

There was a pause, then her voice came over the radio. "Red eyes? Please tell me that's not a red-colored eagle!"

"Yeah, it is."

"Shoot it down!"

"What?"

"It's a Spirit Bird! That's Shade Kat! He sees everything that bird sees!"

T-Bone quickly turned the jet, trying to line it up with the eagle, but the bird was far too fast and agile, not too mention far too small. "How the heck are we supposed to shoot down a bird?"

"Try!"

They did. Everytime T-Bone managed to get the bird where Razor could take aim, it dodged easily away. No normal bird could possibly have been so fast.
"Missiles are no good. Switching to laser guns!"

"Roger that. Hang on!" He turned the jet sharply, putting extra distance between them and the eagle, then turned back to line it up better. "Now!"

Razor fired. There was no way to get a lock onto it, and the bird easily dodged away from the laser fire. It spun in a tight loop, flying back over the jet, very close to them. T-Bone pulled the jet up sharply, trying to simply crash the bird. It still evaded. "Elena! We can't get it!"

"I'm coming!"

"You're what?"

There was no answer. A few moments later, a loud screech cut through the night air. Another bird, this one a large silver-gray owl with glowing blue eyes, was flying towards them from the forest below. Fast. The eagle screamed in response, then turned towards the owl, talons extended. The two large birds collided in mid-air, screeching and clawing. T-Bone and Razor could only watch the two birds battle, red and silver feathers falling away in all directions. The birds broke apart, then came at each other again, still biting and clawing fiercely.

"Razor, can you get a lock on it now?"

"Taking aim..." He tried to lock on, but the birds continued to fight. "No good. I can't get one without hitting the other."

"Maybe I can." He aimed the jet straight at the birds. "Elena! When I tell you to, break away!" He could only assume that the she was somehow controlling the owl. It took only a matter of seconds for the jet to close the distance. "Now!"

The owl jerked it's talons and beat it's wings hard, pushing itself away from the eagle, while at the same time throwing the other bird towards the Turbokat. The timing was perfect and the eagle was pulled straight into the right engine's intakes. There was a loud screech, which seemed to change into a kat-like scream, then nothing. A large explosion burst through the other end of the intake, shaking the jet. "Woah! What the heck was that?"

The owl shimmered, then turned into a small ball of silver light that shot back down into the forest below. A moment later Elena's voice came back over the radio. "'Should have warned you about that. Spirit Birds tend to explode when they're 'killed'. It's magical energy though, and so shouldn't have done any real damage to the Turbokat. I took a quick look at your engines before recalling my bird and they look fine."

"Glad to hear that."

"Hey, did you actually turn yourself into a bird? Razor was quite intrigued by the possibility of the spell.

"Physically, no. But that was my spirit you saw. I literally send my spirit out of my body and it becomes a bird. So that eagle really was Shade Kat. And the problem is, now he not only knows we're coming, but also what your jet is capable of."

"Correction, he knows some of what our jet is capable of. But we've still got a few surprises in store for him, right Razor?"

"Affirmative."

T-Bone changed course, and resumed the patrol. It wouldn't be much longer.

The radio crackled and they heard Elena's voice again. "Alright, we're getting into position now. Go for it!"

"Just what I was waiting for..." T-Bone increased power to the engines. They flared up and the jet shot forward, straight towards the citadel.

"I'm sending you some help. We got conformation of at least nine wyverns."

"What kind of help?

"Stalker Bats."

"'Stalker Bats'? What the heck are those?"

"You'll see. Be careful."

Razor chuckled. "'Careful' isn't exactly in his vocabulary".

"Hey!" T-Bone shot a look back over his shoulder at his partner. Over the radio they could hear Elena laughing softly.

The citadel soon came into range. And sure enough, eight large shapes began to fly up from it's towers, coming straight at them.

"Here we go!"

"Ready! Keep an eye out for the last one!" Razor lowered his visor with it's built in targetry imaging. He took aim as they approached.

T-Bone pushed all three engines up to maximum and they shot through the line of wyverns. Razor fired 4 octopus missiles. Three hit their marks dead-on, pinning the wyvern's wings. The fourth didn't hit the wing or body, as the wyvern turned just in time, but instead hit it on the tail. The wyvern screemed and thrashed about in mid-air, trying to dislodge it. In it's fury, it ended up slashing another wyvern with it's barbed tail. The injured wyvern turned on it's attacker.

"Nice shot! Three down and two fighting each other!" He brought the jet around, making a loop around the castle, and flew back towards the wyverns. This time however, Razor didn't fire. At the last moment the jet turned, heading southeast. The three remaining wyverns gave chase. The two that were fighting ended up bringing each other down.

The night was clear, and the full moon gave them plenty of light, at least for the time being. But that didn't help the fact that six more of the massive creatures had been hiding in the dark forest below. They now winged their way towards them from various directions. "Uh oh. Slight problem."

"Yeah, and we're out of octopus missiles. I don't think we can take them all down."

"Right. But the point was simply to distract them. So..."

The wyverns had them seriously outnumbered, but this time T-Bone was ready for them, and knew what they were capable of. The wyverns constantly attacked, but were never able to do any damage to the jet. He kept them flying in circles with so many twists and turns that another pair collided into each other and fell out of the sky. The entire time he continued leading away from the castle.

"T-Bone! Look!" To the north, they could see the moon. It was already almost half gone. But that wasn't what Razor was pointing at. Nearly two dozen black shapes were flying swiftly towards them from the west. From a distance, they looked like bats, but they were large. "Those wings must be at least ten feet across!"
"Think those are the Stalker Bats that Elena was talking about?"

"I would guess so."

The bats were amazingly fast and agile, more-so than the larger wyverns. They swarmed around them, screeching, biting, slashing with sharp claws, and attacking with their long tails, which were covered with numerous needle-like spines. Razor was taking aim at one of the distracted wyverns and was about to fire when they heard Elena's voice on the radio.

"Razor! T-Bone! Where are you?"

T-Bone answered her. "We're about forty miles south-southeast. What's wrong?" He could tell by her voice that something indeed was wrong. They could hear the sounds of battle in the back ground, and it sounded as if she was fully engaged in combat at the time as well.

"Have my bats found you yet?"

"Yes. These things are.."

"Good! Let them handle the wyverns. We need your help! Now!"

"We're on our way!"

Razor fired his missile, the tarpedo hitting it's target and exploding in a blast of sticky black goo. The wyvern dropped like a stone. T-Bone turned the Turbokat and flew quickly back towards the castle.

Elena sat on her stallion, eyes closed, unmoving. Her talisman glowed brightly. Physically, she was still at the head of her army, waiting in the shadows of the trees not far from the castle. Spiritually, she was about a half mile away. Her silver owl sat perched at the top of a large tree. She watched through it's glowing blue eyes as the Turbokat engaged the first group of wyverns, successfully taking down five of them in the first pass. 'Incredible! They are good!' She remained in the tree, unmoving, as they led the wyverns away to the south and east. In the distance she could see six more of them coming up out of the forest after them. 'Oh no. We greatly misjudged the numbers!'

Her owl blinked, then looked up to the moon. She could feel the power of the talisman growing. Sure enough, the moon was just beginning to wane. The eclipse had begun! The owl spread her large wings and flew silently back through the trees. When it returned, it shimmered and became a silver mist, which flew back into Elena, awakening her from the trance. Mau was on her right side, sitting atop his gray mare. General Birman was to her left.

"Well?" The sorcerer looked at her with concern.

"They took down several of the wyverns, but there's far more than we thought. They're leading them south now. I'm going to send the bats to help them."

Mau nodded, then watched in silence as Elena took a deep breath and closed her eyes again. Once again, the talisman glowed with a bright silvery light.

In her mind, Elena sent out the call. 'Come, my friends! The time has come! We need your help this night to stop the one who seeks to claim out lands! Fly my brothers and sisters of the Moon! Fly to our aid!'

No kat heard her call, yet in the forest around them sudden screeches, and the sound of numerous sets of large, leathery wings, could be heard. The giant bats took flight toward the south after the wyverns.

Elena opened her eyes. "It's time!"

Birman raised his sword. An evenly spaced line of lesser officers did the same on both sides. The infantry prepared. He then pointed his sword forward, and the army charged. Nearly a thousand armored kats wielding swords and maces burst through the tree-line towards the koblin encampment, and the castle beyond it. The koblins were ready for them. They held their ground, letting the kats come to them. The two armies clashed, with Elena, Birman and Mau leading the charge on their horses.

Elena's powerful sword cut down several koblins in the first few seconds of the onslaught. But it wasn't nearly enough. The koblins had them outnumbered five to one.
To make matters worse, by waiting for the kats to come to them, the koblins had brought Elena's army directly into range on the castle's artillery. The talisman glowed, and Elena looked up just in time to see the stars blotted from the sky. "Shields!" She grabbed the talisman with her free hand, bringing a silver glow over herself and her horse. Mau threw up his hands, and the same glow covered him and his mount. The rest of the army lifted their battle shields just as the hail of arrows came down. Kat and koblin alike were trapped in the volley. But the koblins kept coming, climbing over the bodies of the fallen to attack their targets in a relentless wave.

Elena's stallion was a trained warhorse, and he lashed out with all four hooves at the attacking koblins while Elena hacked and slashed with her sword from his back. Mau attacked with spells of darkness, electricity, and ice. He may not be a physical fighter, but he was a very skilled battle-mage. As the moon continued to wane under the shadow of the eclipse, Elena and Mau could feel their powers getting stronger. It began to appear as if they had the upper hand. Then the tide of battle changed.

A bright flash of red light lit the trees behind them. A creature, larger than a Stalker Bat, but smaller than a wyvern, flew through the air at the rear of the army. It's body glowed with an unnatural red light. The beast then released a stream of fire from it's jaws, igniting the trees and grasses in a wall of flames. The army was cut off from possible retreat, and from the cavalry.

Worse, they were now trapped in perfect range for the castle's artillery. Another volley of arrows pelted the battle-field, followed by massive stones thrown by the cattapults. The glowing beast flew around again, breathing another jet of flame, right into the heart of Elena's infantry. Fighting off koblins with her sword hand, she pulled out the communicator with the other.

"Razor! T-Bone! Where are you?"