Gliders worked well against dragons by using the wind stream their wings created, riding behind them like Kaden and his crew had behind Xada. The Night of Fallen Wings, Kaden watched dragon after dragon fall to their death when their weapons drug through the membrane of their wings, decorating them with holes. The dragons weren’t able to get the lift needed to stay airborne. There was a reason behind the name they selected for the event.
The gliders were just the same, Kaden mused as Zuma flew toward a pack of them. If they didn’t take them out as quick as they could, he’d be swarmed by them. If they got close to Zuma, her wings wouldn’t fare well either. Their rune weapons were dangerous, and would be able to easily pierce through her skin and scales.
They weren’t going to let that happen. He knew he had to do to them what they had done to so many dragons at the citadel. His eyes narrowed as they neared. Jumping to his feet, he squatted on the back of Zuma as she flew closer. Taking a page out of his rock manipulating companions, he focused his will to his feet, pushing freezing water around his feet. The ice solidified around him and Zuma’s scales, keeping him firmly on their back.
He heard a huff of a laugh come from them as he did it, and he couldn’t help but smirk. They were impressed by his cleverness. At least he could still make Zuma laugh at his antics after all this time and all this drama. Manipulating the air, the water that was ever present in it, was becoming easier and easier for him the more he had to force it to do his bidding. If there was ever a crash course to becoming a water master, this was it.
Pulling in the remnants of clouds around him into his hands, he formed rotating balls of water around him. They kept close to him as they flew through the air. When they got within range, he made his move. Pulling the water out, piece by piece, he willed it to freeze. A hail of frozen dagger projectiles formed around the two of them as they neared.
With as much force as he could manage, he threw both arms out, commanding all the thousands of daggers toward the gliders. A whistle pierced the air as the daggers flew. The gliders shredded before his eyes. He was only intending on shredding the fabric, forcing them to fall to the earth like they had done to so many dragons.
Instead, he watched in horror as even they were shredded from the assault. Puffs of blood shot out behind them as the ice shot through their bodies. They hung in the air momentarily, floating there as their bodies fell apart before. A lump formed in his throat as the pieces of them fell around them as they passed the destruction he caused.
The gliders weren’t going to be a problem at all now. There could be more around, but he didn’t see any others in the air. All they had left were the corrupted dragons, and they were giving Xada and his companions a hard time. When they attacked Xada, they were hitting them with a dark fog. Every time it swelled over them, he heard Xada let out a horrid roar. Whatever was wrong with these creatures was literally hurting the giant battle worn dragon.
“The water is tainted.”
It hit him. The dragons weren’t warning him about any mage. They were warning him about the dragons themselves. The darkened dragons were ferocious as they tore at Xada. Magic and normal weapons couldn’t damage a dragon like them. Dragons magically had tougher skin and scales as is, but with their age and size, they were tougher than normal. The only thing that could really hurt Xada was another dragon. Unfortunately, that’s exactly who was attacking them.
The actions of man corrupted them, but now they were attacking Xada with little control or instruction. There were no serpents on their backs, no riders directing them to fight. Dragons were innately magical. They didn’t eat; they didn’t just were. To corrupt such creatures was horrific work. He thought the corrupted wolves he had seen were just an anomaly, but now he knew that whatever they were doing was twisting nature itself.
Pushing Zuma back toward the dragons, he broke the ice that was holding his feet to their back. The parts of the gliders fell around them as they turned around. He was glad his companions hadn’t been there to witness his viciousness. They had already seen him manipulate someone’s blood. He didn’t need them to see him shred humans with ice too.
What was he becoming? He was taking life, controlling it with such ease. The dragons trusted him, trusted him with visions of the future. He was their voice, their will in the world. But he wondered what was the cost of doing so. What would he become if he continued having to fight so hard?
The dragon flew as fast as they could to get back to the group. He saw that Reese had made it to Beelin as he saw the two of them dancing through the air together. Reese himself had to do a horrific act that day. If they weren’t careful, they too would be losing what made them good.
A dark mist shot from beneath him, a dragon bursting through the clouds. It was cold, near freezing as it enveloped them. It pulled at him, grabbing at his senses, and they flew through it. He knew what it was. It was the darkness he had battled in his mind. Their powers were getting tainted by the darkness itself. He had fought so hard to push it down, to squash the darkness in his own mind, and now it was being shot in his face.
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Pulling Zuma to the side, they tried to dodge another burst as the dragon was on their tail. He had to force the same ice out into his hands and feet to keep him from falling off Zuma as they dodged attack after attack. Another dark blue dragon joined them and he was soon leading two of them toward the rest of the dragons.
Zuma suddenly jerked upward, causing him to slam into their body as it climbed higher. The movement threw the others off for a moment and they were able to get some distance from them. Out of nowhere, a flash of movement blurred by. An echoing boom hit them, shaking them both.
Beelin and Reese flew by, straight toward the two dragons chasing him. He heard another boom behind him and a wave of air pushed him into Zuma again. Turning around, he saw the two dragons behind him being tossed about in a wind stream the two of them had produced.
Wind magic wasn’t as aggressive as some of the other magics. It helped them more than hurt anything. Compared to fire magic, which was mostly destructive in nature. It was so interesting that of the mages, Evonne was the most caring, considering her base element.
Kaden took the opportunity to turn Zuma back around. He had to let them do the damage. His ice and water wouldn’t be able to do much to creatures who could also use the same magic. No dragon could resist sharp claws and teeth, though.
He pushed the thought of the attack into Zuma and felt them rumble in response as they dived toward the disoriented dragons. He felt them outstretch their legs beneath him, flaring their claws.
They collided with a dragon, throwing his body this way and that. Had he not frozen his limbs to his dragon, he’d have been thrown from them in the clash. He heard the tearing of scales and flesh beneath him. The creature was writhing beneath Zuma, their size being far larger than the tainted dragon.
That close to the creature, he saw a dark mist hovering close around it. The darkness was crawling across the dragon’s scales. The brilliant blue of the scales had been darkened, showing a navy color instead with small flecks of its former bright glory decorated across it like shimmering stars.
It was biting and chomping at Zuma as they ripped into its body. The horrifying screams it made were guttural and raw. They were killing it. Zuma was killing another blue dragon. This was not just any dragon, but one of their own kind. Even they would not be able to escape the violent pressures of battle.
He felt the creature slacken and droop before Zuma let go. Its crumbled, ripped body fell through the air, doomed to splatter on the earth. They didn’t have time to mourn their actions before Zuma was fighting the other. It had come from the side, and its claws were dangerously close to Kaden. He did what he could and threw balls of water and ice at the creature, causing it to slip right off Zuma.
Another flash and he watched as Beelin crashed into the creature, ripping it away. In a few moments, it too, dropped to the earth. They flew back near and he saw a shocked Reese breathing hard as dark dragon blood covered his body. Kaden shut his eyes and thrust his arm out, willing the blood to peel off his friend.
Opening it again, he saw that it had worked, but Reese looked horrified at the action. Kaden let the blood drop through the sky just as the dragons had themselves.
With a shaky voice, Reese said, “We have taken out several of them now, but there are so many!”
“I took out the gliders,” Kaden added. “So we won’t have to worry about any of the serpents up here.”
“Only dragons,” Reese cringed. “Xada is taking the brunt of the assault. They are mainly focused on them. It’s the strangest behavior, though.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s like they’re trying to eat them? I don’t know, it’s wild. You’ll see.”
With that, he pulled Beelin back toward the main fighting, leaving them alone. The thought of dragons trying to eat another dragon was wild. There had never been an instance of such an act that anyone knew of. They don’t eat. At least, he had never seen them eat anything.
That’s when it hit him. He had seen Zuma eat. They had consumed the glowstone that Eloise had filled. It was full of magic, and Zuma craved that. His eyes widened in shock. The dragons were trying to eat Xada because they represented magic. They were magic.
“We have to stop them,” he said to Zuma.
With a huff, they turned toward the battle. He saw Evonne and Jerri blasting fire through the air. The creatures were having a hard time fighting against the two of them. Their fire was intense, and several smaller dragons were falling out of the skies in a charred mess.
They just had to keep going, keep fight, and they would eliminate them all. Taldor caught his eye. He watched as they threw sand and rock into the creatures, crushing their wings. Like Evonne, the smaller dragons were falling to the onslaught. There were a few larger ones that were giving them all trouble.
Another pack of darkened dragons came out of nowhere, causing the rest of the dragons to scatter and flee again as they regrouped. They were getting worn out; they were not prepared for this fight and they were running out of strength. The darkened dragons were endless.
He watched as Reese jumped right off the back of Beelin and ran along Xada’s back, heading straight for Lord Cronley. He saw Reese’s arms in the air pointing toward them. Their conversation didn’t last long before he saw Reese leaping off the large dragon, Beelin catching him out of the air.
The skies started to rumble, darkening as he neared the rest of the dragons. At first, he thought something was happening with them. A cool chill hit his back, and he knew it wasn’t coming from the creature ahead of him. Something was coming. Something with unmeasurable power.
A roar echoed through the air, hitting him like the waves of wind that Beelin would create. He turned around on Zuma’s back to see if he could find what Reese had been pointing at. He heard it before he saw it. The massive wings that were thundering through the air.
Somehow, some way, they had known there was trouble. Another blast of cold air then hit him from the south. Another loud roar echoed through the air, blowing his hair this way and that. Two more in opposing directions rumble through the skies. Lightning ignited above them as storm clouds began to rage.
They were coming. All of them. The ground shook beneath the castle, towers began to shake and crumble. Something was coming from the earth. Tears welled in Kaden’s eyes. He knew who was bursting forth. He knew who was coming to save their children.
The matriarchs had heard their cries of death by their own clans’ claws. They were coming to stop it.
All of them.