“A-fucking-what?” Leta’s flabbergasted statement was shushed by Allister, who took the offered goggles and handed them to her to look at.

What Leta had mistaken for an odd-shaped side of a hill was a serpentine body covered in matte green and gray scales that were the size of a car. It reminded her a lot of a Komodo Dragon she’d seen in the zoo, with front legs that were longer and skinnier than its back legs and were lined with a webbed membrane from its front claws to its haunches. Its tail was twice the length of its body and tipped with two flattened membranes on either side, most likely used to steer the beast while it was gliding.

And it was a glider. There was no way something so large could get any kind of lift on its own with just its membranes.

The Wyvern tipped its head back to swallow something, and she could see in the binoculars that it was eating a horse still attached to the riding carriage, though the driver and the tourists that would have been sitting in the carriage were nowhere to be seen.

‘Hopefully, they’re not in that thing's belly.’ Leta mused as she handed the binoculars back to Atreus.

“Singular things, Wyverns.” Allister grumbled, “They eat meat, sure, but they are also known for swallowing ore whole. Some think it’s a nutrient deficiency issue - like how horses need salt blocks to stay healthy. That’s why most Wyverns stay underground in abandoned mines and such. For one to be out here?” He shook his head. “Something must have pushed it out of its nest.”

“Or called it forth.” Mic harrumphed, “Wyverns are low-level light beasts. They’ll go blind from sunlight, even when it’s cloudy. All this light pollution from the city must be hurting its eyes, but it’s still here.”

“No beast will pass up a meal if it’s readily available.” Atreus took one last look around the binoculars before he paused. “This is exactly what happens during an Arisen War. The chaos means people are in a panic, which means they aren’t in their right state of mind, and Blessed can slip between them undetected. The Mundane do not know they’re about to be prey until it’s too late.”

“Wait…” He breathed, his index finger fiddled with the scope as he tried to zero in on something in the distance.

When his head pulled up, he let out a low curse. “Dammit. Run! Night Mares! And Harpies aren’t far behind them!”

Mic spat something foul in a language Leta didn’t catch. “Up! All of you! Move!”

Leta could feel the ground beneath them begin to quake as the party got to their feet and began to run in earnest.

Anti-aircraft fire lit the sky as they sprinted through the decaying remains of an old tin factory and hopped over a chain-link fence. A few of the Chosen stumbled over themselves at the steep incline of the hill they found themselves on.

Ahead was an abandoned olive grove overgrown with thick weeds that seemed to reach up and grab them as if to slow them down for their pursuers to catch up. The air was heavy with the smell of burning wood and tires as their legs pumped desperately to push them forward.

Leta chanced a look back as they hit a copse of trees to see a herd of what looked like black horses just about to reach the tin factory and gaining fast.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“We’ve got company!” She shouted just before Atreus pulled two handguns from holsters below his arms.

“Weapons free!”

As one the company brandished all manner of futuristic looking guns. Some were very similar in design to the handguns Atreus used, while others like Allister gripped short barrel shotguns, jamming rounds in chambers with a speed that was made even more impressive as they were on the run.

Two of the Chosen slowed to allow the others to pass, compact machine guns that looked like they could have fit in a brief case held at the ready. Just as the last of the company passed them by, they unleashed a birage of lead fire into the oncoming horde.

The beasts let out hissing screams that were more reptilian than equestrian, their brays of pain echoing over the panicking city as those that were struck were trampled over by those behind them.

The two in the rear guard began to slowly back towards further into the trees as the rest of the company pressed forward, the horde nearly upon them.

“Dammit.” Leta turned, arches of lightning crackling over her as she held an open palm out to the horde of creatures galloping ever closer.

“No!” Atreus shouted, stopping in his tracks. “If you unleash your storm, every Blessed in the city will know where we are.

“They’ll know where I am.” Leta shot back. “Keep going! I’ll meet you at the forge.”“You don’t even know where that-”

“I’ll find you!” Leta fixed him with her glowing eyes, the force of her gaze like a physical blow, causing Atreus to take a step back in surprise. “Now go!”

The General took one moment to fix her a look before he cursed again. “Dammit. Don’t die.”

“Can’t.” One shoulder lifted as she turned back to the herd stampeding toward her.

She ushered the two rear guards forward with a shout, “Go! Go!” before looking up into the storm clouds above.

Immediately, she felt her connection to the energy crackling above snap into place. Raising her hand as if to grab at something unseen, the black clouds swirling in the night as thunder rumbled, a foreshadowing echo of what she desired. Her feet left the ground as if her body were being physically drawn to the storm as sparks of static cracked around her, their staccato faster and faster like a creature exited to be set loose.

By then, the Night Mares were practically on top of her, their draconian eyes snarling maws wide as they set their sights on her. The power of the storm above had doubled in a heartbeat as she gathered the energy and willed what she desired into the world. It had soon gone from feeling like her hand held up a child’s ball to feeling like she was holding back the weight of a small moon.

With a scream, she drew her hand down as if to drag the heavens down with her.

And she did just that.

The Night Mares were meters away from her when the clouds above ruptured with countless lightning bolts. They arched off each other, scorching the land before her with a searing heat.

The dark beasts screamed and shrieked as the lighting tore through them, their bodies sizzling as if burning from the inside out or being ripped in half by the force of the strikes.

From the outside world, it looked like a bomb had been set off, the force of the crashing lightning shattering windows for a kilometer in all directions and searing the eyes of the Wyvern in the distance.

The blast shook the ground with enough force that seismographs in countries thousands of kilometers away detected it.

The Chosen stumbled as the Earth beneath them shook with the force of an earthquake and turned to look back. With ears ringing or nearly deaf, they tried to block the light out with their hands. The fall of lightning was so bright that they couldn’t even see her floating form, her silhouette swallowed by the sudden destruction she had drawn forth.

[The Host has learned the skill Storm Hammer: Level One.]

It was over in an instant, the clap of thunder echoing over the city as if it held its breath in shock at what it had collectively witnessed.

“Damn.” Leta took several breaths, feeling as if she’d just sprinted across the city.

Her lungs pulled in sour air laced with ash and dust as she turned to see what was left of the Night Mares.

The horde had vanished.

Or, rather, disintegrated was a much more appropriate term.

Her attack had scorched the ground until it was reduced to sharp glass that protruded from the earth like angry thorns.