The large dragon queen let out a loud and obnoxious yawn as she kept flying forward with the rest of her guards, before she smelled something right in front of her. She sniffed a few times before growling to the others as she then pointed ahead where the silhouettes of the adobe houses could be seen. It didn't take long for their growls to grow into small roars and happy hisses, starting to salivate at the thought of finally having some food after the long journey. One of the sand dragons even decided to do a flip in the air in celebration while letting out a howl.

They all dispersed as they reached the small buildings, some small enough to be carried in their claws. The queen curled up on the outskirts of the town, getting ready to sleep after flapping her wings all day, but waiting for her subjects to bring her dinner first.

Six of her Sandwing subjects stayed by her side, their eyes alert and the postures tall while four others started to fly across the small village, looking for any signs of life. But any signs of life were obscured as the noisy Icewings made themselves at home on the roads, going into the valleys and exploring what used to be areas filled with humans, now barren. And just as two Icewings made it to the center of the market square, a loud bell was heard, drawing all their attention to the center of the village.

"Kill them." I speak.

The silence is shattered as thunder booms across the village and the dragon's pained cries make themselves known, as the pair of Icewing dragons in the market area let out a whimper or whine for every piercer that shots through them, denting their armor for every miss, and filling the dragon's body with holes for every shot that made it through. It was loud then completely silent as we looked at where the dragons were still standing, their blue blood now completely covering the nearby buildings, creating a few small puddles beneath them. One dragon fell with a gasp, the other fell down on the other dragon with no noise at all, no final breath, no final word, just the thud of falling down.

I looked up from the window as we stayed hidden in shadows, dropping our thunder-bow's quietly as we switched to our arrows. I watched the four sand dragons descend down as they realized where we were.

The bell rang again, and the ballistas fired. Only one dragon managed to dodge, it didn't matter that the others wore armor, the ballistas went straight through, bringing them crashing to the ground. One was dead instantly, crashing into the guild's building, snapping their neck on impact as they crashed against it, they were the lucky one. The others let out agonizing screams, not roars, screams, as black veins started to crawl up their body's, they started to shake, to convulse, twitching as they fell down and fell into a painful eternal sleep.

"Make it rain." I muttered.

Soon another bell rang out loudly, the one dragon who managed to evade the ballistas, looked up to see the sky whistling, as it was filled with arrows, all descending down on him. He quickly dived towards the side of one of the abandoned buildings, then tucked his wings as he then bashed himself into the wall and crouched down, so only his tail really stuck out. Out of the storm of arrows, only a few hit the armor on his tail, the bastard managed to survive, and as he turned, his eyes locked on with mine.

"Everyone down!" I shouted as I heard the sound of the air hissing. I and some others managed to duck under the windows as fire then blew through, the poor souls who didn't duck in time were either completely turned to ash or turned into charred statues of who they once were.

"Go! Now! Before it-" I warn the others as we run down the stairs, only to see the wall blow apart as the dragon's head sticks through, its jaws wide open before another unlucky soul was snuffed out as he was captured in it's maw, and swallowed whole with a scream.

I and some others still upstairs fired at the dragon, but most of the shots just bounced off its armor, one almost bouncing back and landing in my foot. The one shot that managed to get through landed on the roof of its mouth, just as the venom started to spread however, the dragon let out a small breath of flame and the venom was promptly burned out.

"Three Moons." I growled as the dragon turned to the people in the right. "Hey! Over here!" I yelled as it got ready to incinerate the petrified villagers. I quickly grabbed the spear someone had dropped on the floor and stuck it in the loading chamber of my prosthetic arm. "I SAID OVER HERE YOU DAMN FIRE DEMON!" I yelled as I thrust my arm towards the neck while letting loose the mechanism, as a result, the spear and my arm was launched into the creature's neck, piercing the usually unbreakable scales of the beast as the rope went loose.

The dragon let out a screech and thrashed its head, throwing me down to the floor, sending me tumbling to the ground.

I coughed and spat out sand as I got up and looked behind me, where the giant creature loomed over me as blood dropped down from its slightly open jaw, before licking its lips.

I watched in relief as the people who were about to get fried managed to get down to the stairs safely. That was short lived however as the dragon managed to grab me in its talons. I struggled but I couldn't free myself from something that could crush me to a pulp, then I noticed it wasn't even bringing me to it's mouth, but its grip got tighter. "You bastard!" I cried out in pain as it tightened its grip further. It let out a growl akin to a laugh before I heard a quick whistle next to my ear, and watched as an arrow flew past and implanted itself directly in the dragon's iris. The eye almost instantly turned black as the venom started to take effect, it let out a loud scream before dropping to the floor as it fell on its back, crushing the abandoned building below it.

"That's six." I say to myself as I load another shot.

"Seven boyo." I heard Ant say as he rushed to my side.

"Ant, why aren't you with the rest of the archers-"

"They're dead boyo, the white ones froze'em." He said solemnly before grabbing and dragging me along.

"Where to?" I asked as I watched as the last ballista tower that remained continued to fire even as an Icewing climbed up and snatched the weapon up in its claws.

"Fire!" Was the last thing I heard from the loader of the ballista as the Icewing lunged forward with their jaws and bit down, making the ballista and its people disappear into their jaws, only for the dragon to suddenly stiffen as a giant bolt shot out from the back of it's neck, before slumping over and letting out the frozen remains of the ballista and people fall out, only to shatter into pieces as they touched down with the ground.

I suddenly heard the bell ring out three times.

"It's about damn time, let's get out of here!" Ant said as we started to make our way through the destroyed village, catching a glimpse as a Sandwing flew overhead and burned anything below.

We suddenly stopped as we got to the area outside the tent, and standing there were two dragons, a smaller Icewing, and her... her armor shined in the new fires, but was still absent of any blood. She tilted her head and let out a chirp as she saw us.

All our attention was drawn as Scorpion suddenly appeared from behind the Icewing as she drew their attention away, as the machine started to exit the tent. "Scorpion!" I called out as I ran to her side, but the Icewing sprayed ice between us, creating a small ice wall that separated us.

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"Get to the walker!" she screamed as she swung her sword at the creature's underpaw, making a small gash in the massive creature.

"Don't worry, I've got ere in my sights...'' Ant announced as he aimed the crossbow at the creature's eyes as it got ready to lunge at Scorpion.

I almost didn't notice the shadow. "Ant, watch out!" He looked up and saw Blaze's talons primed and heading straight for him.

"Fuck-" He said before I pushed him out of the way, yelling in pain as her claws slashed right into my back before we tumbled to the floor.

I looked back in horror as I saw Scorpion flying in the air, her armor completely shattered and covered in blood. She let out a few coughs as she tried getting up, but looked to the dragon, then back in my direction.

"Hang on Scorpion, I'll on my w-" I started as I sprinted towards her, but she cut me off.

"This wasn't your fault-" The Icewing picked her up in its jaws, and bit down. The head came right off and sank into the sand. Just like that... Scorpion was gone... My eyes were wide, my hands shaky as I just stood there like a fool as I felt the dragons start to surround me. "No... S-Scorpion... this isn't what I saw for us..." I yelled as tears flooded my eyes. I then heard the Icewing let out a hiss and roar as Ant aimed true at the creature's eye, before grabbing me.

"We've gotta go."

I ran with him but just stared at her head as it laid there, more tears flowing down. "Why was she dead? I saw her alive! I saw her in my life! "WHY!?" I screamed, matching the Icewing's roar of pain as it clutched at it's eye where it promptly removed it from its own socket.

My breath hitched as I heard "Help! Someone please help!" The boy who was ran the desk in the guild building.

"We're coming, hang on!" I shouted as I freed myself from Ant's grip.

"Boyo!"

"Go, I'm not letting anyone else die today!" I shouted back at him as I looked one last time into Scorpion's lifeless eyes, before tearing myself away in tears as I ran towards the source of the sound, ducking as the Icewing swung its tail wildly as it tried to find me.

Blaze just watched till I noticed the source of the kid's noises were right under her talons, pinning him to the floor.

"Please help!" He sobbed as Blaze looked down on him, tilting her head curiously at us.

"Hang on!" I cried as I shot a bolt at her armor, scratching one of her shoulder plates. Her curious expression turned to a snarling one as she lifted herself from the boy and loomed over me, her shadow encompassing my surroundings completely. "Yeah... that's right... be pissed-" I started to yell but was suddenly sent flying backwards as the end of her tail slammed into me.

I let out a choked gasp as I tried to breath, but my lungs were not working with the rest of my body after I hit the wall. I could feel something cold and wet running down my back, but could pay no heed to it.

I watched as the dragon queen lifted her barb and turned it in my direction, aiming for my chest as it got ready to strike. Just as the barb came down, the boy got in front of me and hugged me. "No! Please!" He cried.

"Get out of the way!" I quickly yelled to him and pushed him to the right so he wouldn't be impaled either, but to our surprise the barb had veered to the left, and had pierced the wall right next to my head.

"You can talk?" A new voice asked with an accent, I looked up and saw the now wide eyes of Blaze, her mouth hanging open as she looked down at us. The boy continued to whimper and hug me tight, expecting us to be finished any second now.

"It's all right kid, I'll get us out of this-" I start to assure him only to be interrupted with her voice.

"Kid!? C-children?" The large and imposing dragon from before, took a few scared steps back as it's tail fell limply at the side, it's eyes open in horror and terror. I realized my hand had fallen to the gem in my pocket. "T-there were c-children?" She asked.

I looked at her, and barely managed to nod as I was starting to feel the pain in my stomach.

"I... I-I-I d-didn't know... I swear... I-I d-didn't k-know..." She stammered as her eyes started to fill with tears. "C-children?"

Suddenly we were all drawn by the Ice dragon as it roared, not at us, but at her.

"B-but t-they're-" Blaze tried to respond but only flinched as the ice dragon roared again at her before snarling something else as it looked down at us.

"We have to move... now..." I hissed to the kid as I tried standing up, only able to since he helped me up and was acting as my support.

"S-soft? I-I-" Blaze stammered in response to the Icewing before the white dragon covered in spikes lunged at us, only to be interrupted by an ear-splitting "NO!!!" Me and the boy watched as Blaze suddenly flew forward and crashed the Icewing, sending them both to the sand covered ground as she pleaded. "H-hold on! I'm your queen! I order you to st-" She attempted to get out before the Icewing slapped her and slashed at her neck.

"Come on kid!" I said as we both started to take off towards the large walker.

"W-Wait! No please! I can be a good queen!" I heard Blaze behind us.

I turned back to see the Icewing had gotten on top of her and reared their head back as they got ready to freeze Blaze's face.

Suddenly there was a flash of blue and white as Blaze's barb shot up right through the lower jaw of the Icewing. "C-cold!" Blaze cried as she quickly pulled her barb out of jaw and took a step back as the Icewing's corpse fell to the floor. "I..." She stammered but we just kept running till we got to the net as the walker slowly started to turn in the rainforest's direction. "Grab the rope!" I shouted as we managed to leap on just in time as all the legs started to move and the walker started to move forward.

Another Icewing started to fly from above and dived towards us, but it faltered as blood started to pour from it's eyes, it's snout, it's ears, before falling to the sand headfirst, the body crumpling.

Was that... Pebble?

"Get on!" I heard Ant yell from above. "Haul yer ass!"

We climbed and by the time we got up, we watched as what was the rest of the village got lit up in flames or covered in ice.

"Is it... done.. Is it over?" I asked.

Then I felt Pebble put his hand on my shoulder. "River, where's Scorpion?"

Then the tears started again.

***

She had always thought death was romantic, how it would be beautiful when someone dies for someone they care about, or when they die in battle for their cause, but this wasn't beautiful, this was ugly, messy, dreadful. She panted as she looked at the blood on her tail and armor, before two other dragons landed, an Icewing and a Sandwing.

"Your majesty, we-" the Sandwing starts but then the Icewing flew forward.

"What did you do?!" She screams as she slashes at Blaze's neck but Blaze quickly reacts by biting into the dragon's neck and jabbing her claws into them. "I-I'm sorry!" She cried as she retracted her claws, but the Icewing still tried lashing at her till the Sandwing behind her ripped them off Blaze.

"Get off my queen!" They shouted and it didn't take long for more to join the fight, as the remaining Sandwings and Icewings started to fight.

"N-no... no... please stop..." She said quietly as she saw them fight, the Sandwing now starting to tear into the Icewing's wing, the same dragon that had been chatting with him during the fire last night they stopped. They could have been friends at a first glance but now...

"Stop it!" She suddenly roared as she tore the Sandwing away, slashing them with her claws while aiming her tail barb at the Icewing's throat. "ENOUGH!" She roared again and soon, the twelve dragons stopped their fighting and landed down next to them, surrounding them in a circle, their eyes showing confusion, disbelief, shock, one had a smirk.

"E-Enough... I will not be weak... I want two guards with me at all times... Icewing's..." She paused as she looked at them. "R-round up the dead... and the rest of you, look to see if any scavengers or vipers are in the area, if you find a scavenger, bring it to me, do not kill it or-"

"'Or' what?" One of the Icewing's asked. "I've barely seen you lift a talon, now you think you're-" Blaze pounced upon him in an instant and ripped off his chest piece so she could press the barb against his chest. "Or next time, it'll pierce your skin... understand?"

The Icewing nodded frantically. "Y-yes your majesty, I'm very sorry!" They whimpered.

Blaze let them go and with a scowl, she inspected her talons, but she was shaking...

"In the morning, we'll head back to the stronghold, this expedition was-" She started as she buried her head in her talons.

"A success." One of the Sandwings suddenly said.

"W-what?" Blaze asked, startled.

"You got rid of any opposition here, this blindspot is now ours." An Icewing stated before bowing.

"Even if the cost was high, we now own this blindspot." A Sandwing said.

Blaze looked up hopefully, before looking back at the carnage she had left behind. And the memory of that scavenger talking, the fact that she nearly killed a child, were they sentient or was it just a trick, but it nodded, so... She shook the thoughts away and watched as the Icewing's carried one of their own out onto the sand.

"I-Is this what being a leader truly feels like?"

The blood dripping down from her teeth was her answer. She looked down and saw the little boy still in her talons, before blinking. He was gone.