Elle’s warning cry gave the occupants of Stone Wing Spire maybe two to three minutes to brace for battle. Malik plummeted to the Incubation Chamber, ready to rip Sam’s throat out.

Aisha had been helping the sisters build the guard tower, leaving the Incubation Chamber unguarded.

Malik burst into the building, catching Sam in his bear form mid-sniff where the yellow egg should have been. In its place, the bowl was an irritated red, as if recovering from a wound.

“What did you do —” Malik growled and charged at Sam.

“Wait,” Sam stood on his back legs. Malik had no intention of stopping. Sam clumsily swiped at Malik with his one paw. Malik easily dodged him and used his claws to Rake the arm. Sam roared in pain as his blood spilled on the bowl and floor. It caused no reaction with the bowl.

With surprising quickness, he snapped his jaws at Malik, managing to get a small bite in, tearing a tiny piece of his wing off while Malik spun away. Although the wound was tiny, Malik was surprised at the amount of blood. He knew to dance back, away from the bowl, lest it gets greedy. Malik’s blood fell to the bowl and floor in turn. As it mixed with Sam’s the bowl began to sizzle

“Stop it, you buffoon,” Sam said to Malik who had his fangs bared, ready to jump in for another attack. “I didn’t take your disgusting egg. I came to investigate.”

“Liar,” Malik snarled.

“Shut up. Do you want to argue with me while your little settlement gets carved up by the beetles? I saw a dwarf come in here while you and the female gargoyle were playing like children on the mountain. I found it odd that he carried something under a blanket as he left and wanted to find out what it was,” Sam’s words were insulting but they spilled out in a panic. Malik had no way to know if he was telling the truth.

Malik frowned with uncertainty. He heard yelling outside and knew that the battle had begun.

“Which dwarf,” he asked, barely being able to contain his rage.

Sam’s arm was still in bad shape as he transformed into his human form, looking pale. “The one that seems to be in charge of the Rune Crafters.”

“Themo?”

Sam shrugged, “I don’t know his name.”

The sounds of battle grew louder, “Leave this place. Go find my egg. If I find out that you have deceived me, I’ll rip off your other arm and eat it in front of you.”

Sam glowered but still rushed out of the door. Malik didn’t know what to believe but knew that if he killed Sam and he was wrong, Charles and his family would never forgive him. Without Sigrid to carry word to the dwarves, the dwarves would also likely abandon Stone Wing Spire. But if they were behind this, what then? He didn’t know and didn’t have the time to dwell on it.

Stone Wing Spire was under attack. He left the building and immediately launched himself into the air again. Making sure Sam didn’t run off, he watched him slip into the dwarven burrow.

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Inside the Incubation Chamber, the blood had reduced to a sludge within the wounded bowl, slowly pulsating.

The scene outside made Malik’s heart thump. Thankfully, the Soldier Beetles were not very intelligent, giving the defenders one advantage. Charles’ family and the dwarves had scattered them, but that also meant his people weren’t united either.

Elle and Aisha were atop the scaffolding of the guard tower. Elle was firing arrows into the maws of the beetles. Aisha was hitting dwarves that were fighting at the ground just a few feet below with her Guardian’s Embrace if they were getting pressed. Themo was even there, fighting as furiously as the rest. Malik felt a swell of pride as Aisha’s blue orbs zipped through the air, saving dwarves from serious injury. Without the duo atop the scaffolding, Themo and the dwarves would have fallen already.

Milly was kiting a Horned Beetle away from the main group with a periodic arrow. Only a couple of the lower leveled Soldiers lay stunned at the tree line from tripping the rune traps. Malik had hoped they would have been more effective.

Charles, Naveck, and Sigrid were a sight to behold. Charles was keeping the attention of two Horned Beetles, swiping with his paws, deflecting their attacks, and trying to snap at them with his own teeth. Sigrid was wielding a plain, yet sharp-looking sword, swatting off limbs from the soldiers. Naveck guarded their backs, burying his pickaxe into the beetles if they got too close to the other two.

Malik wanted to help Aisha, but they were holding their own for now. Milly was in the most danger, getting further away from any backup. As he flew over and couldn’t help the grin that crawled across his face. The Horned Beetle was in his sights and he pumped his wings as fast as possible. Once in range, Malik activated Gargoyle’s Descent.

Malik loved the feeling that tickled his stomach as he plummeted faster than gravity allowed. The joy was cut short as he kicked his feet out and slammed into the creature’s back. The shell fractured and the impact jarred Maliks’ entire body. There was no time to recover as the Horned Beetle gave a high-pitched hiss and tried to shake him off. Malik used Rake with the extra 30% damage from Gargoyle’s Descent, burying his claws wrist-deep into the bug. It reared its head and shot the stinger.

At first, Malik thought that the stinger had shot harmlessly into the air or ground, as he basked in the easy victory. Dispatching the Horned Beetle had been enough to fill his chest and burst in a Level gained, taking him to Level 7 and another five free stat points. He decided to save them for now, not wanting to use them carelessly in his adrenaline-fueled state.

He stood up to stretch his wings ready to get back to the others. He glanced at Milly and saw that she had a confused expression on her face. She looked down — Malik followed her gaze. A red stain began to grow and spread across her pant leg.

“Not good,” she croaked, turning pale. The stinger had shot straight through her leg. The human didn’t have anything like Stone Skin to slow the bleeding.

With no knowledge of how to treat such a wound, Malik rushed over and helped Milly lower herself to the ground.

“What do I do?” he asked. Although he didn’t know the girl well, he was worried about her. She was doing just fine without him before he came plummeting out of the sky.

“I… I think you need to wrap it in cloth. Tight. Slow the bleeding,” she sputtered.

With a claw, he gently cut off her other pant leg, running his finger around her thigh, careful not to cut the soft-skinned human. Tying it around the wound more hurriedly, she cried out and bit her lip. Malik didn’t know if it was working, but he knew she couldn’t stand on her own. Instead, he cradled her and moved as quickly as he could to get her to the settlement. Frustratingly, he still wasn’t strong enough to hold her and fly at the same time. Even if he put all five points in Strength, he didn’t think it would be enough.

The human’s head lolled in his arms. Malik feared the worst and kept running.

“Wake up, girl, wake up. Ah, wake up!” Malik said as he ran.