Page 104 of Cast By Flames (Dragon's Breath)
After learning about the armor, Bailey tested it. Her weapons couldn’t penetrate the metal no matter how hard she struck, so he ordered as many sets as possible to be made. He even spared several hours of his time to assist in the production. Thankfully, the Craegud had brought a handful of shifters with the second flame that were able to help, and the Straegud had half a dozen in their ranks. The East Coast toriq also wanted to armor as many of their warriors as possible. The one thing Nanoq did well during his leadership was store vast quantities of the necessary ore. Perhaps he’d had good intentions before the dark infection overtook him, but they’d never know for certain.
“Hostiles incoming!” Colonel Melvin yelled.
A line of human soldiers stood ahead of the shifters. Aidan craned his neck to see past them to the horizon, where the sun had disappeared, leaving a hint of orange and red streaks in its wake. He had to strain his eyes, but he could make out small shapes in the distance that appeared no bigger than ants. They would get much larger soon.
The commander began shouting orders into his handheld radio. Aidan thought he heard something like “weapons free.” He recalled the early weeks after the dimensions began colliding and how the humans had attacked his fortress and the surrounding area with missiles and rockets. They’d rarely struck dragons, but Bailey assured him the coalition had improved their weaponry and tactics, so they usually hit and killed their targets now.
A wide formation of planes that they called A-10s shot through the sky above him. They didn’t fly nearly as high as the larger aircraft he’d seen a short time ago, but they maintained enough altitude to avoid the dragons in the distance. The Kandoran were likely no more than five hundred feet above the ground.
Across the horizon, rumbles and pops sounded.
Aidan caught small flashes of light and faint screams and roars he barely discerned with his enhanced hearing. They were dropping bombs past the ten-mile line, which was too far to witness the full effects. The line of dragons did appear to break in several areas where the planes must have targeted them. The aircraft broke off to head to the north and south.
He braced himself as shouts sounded behind him.
Everyone, remember to remain calm and keep your heads down. It’s going to get loud,he said telepathically to allthe shifters within range. Other leaders along the line would do the same, as they had reviewed during their training.
The artillery stationed farther back near the shield began cracking the air as they sent rounds toward the incoming Kandoran. Those soared close over their heads, and it was all Aidan could do to maintain his composure. He reminded himself it would only last a few minutes before the next stage of their plan.
Chapter 31
Bailey
My ears rang as the artillery fired rounds over us. Brody and I stood ready, nearly fifty feet in front of the human soldiers behind us. It was nerve-wracking watching the horde of Kandoran steadily get closer. We would be the first to greet them on the ground.
I breathed a sigh of relief when the Patriot missiles began striking dragons in the sky in explosions that cracked the air. They killed their target and injured those near it. The enemy continued to fly closer despite the assault on them and their broken ranks as the sun’s fading rays left us. Only a minute or two remained before it would be fully dark, but we needed that.
The booming sounds stopped, and I heard the commander call for the artillery to pull back. It would have been nice if we could have let them fire from behind the shield, but we’d tried small magical domes before to protect them and found that the spells didn’t respond well to explosive rounds flying through them. No one knew why.
As the dragons approached, I could finally make out the flap of their wings—still a few miles away. The shifters rose behind us, stirring the air as they lifted. They hovered at the rear, ready and waiting for their turn.
I glanced back and caught sight of Aidan. He was so much larger than the others that it was shocking, and I still didn’t know what to think of his huge size. While part of me was concerned that he’d amassed a stunning amount of power since becoming a pendragon, the other part was grateful. He was almost as large as an average pure dragon now, which would give him an edge in battle.
We were fighting a war where we were severely outnumbered. I had no idea how the Kandoran gathered such a massive force, even with the large territory they held, but I’d heard they’d been conquering territory and growing their numbers for decades.
The minutes ticked by, and the wing beats sounded louder as full darkness fell. Past the dragon horde, I could see stars twinkling in the sky. My heart thundered in my chest. Never before had I entered a battle where the odds of winning were so low, and it could take weeks, if not months, to succeed if we did. I had excellent stamina as a slayer, but fighting hours every night would push my limits. Never mind the losses. The fields were going to be littered with bodies from both sides, and I didn’t want to think about who might not make it. My heart ached with the thought.
The Kandoran finally reached close enough that I could make out the details of their forms from the moonlight glistening off their green scales. They flew tightly together, with the space between each dragon being no more than ten to fifteen feet. There were so many that all the weapons launched at them from before only put a slight dent in their numbers, and their eyes glowed deadly red.
I gripped the hilt of my sword, trying to tamp down my nervousness.
“Lights!” the commander shouted from somewhere in the rear.
A moment later, the stadium lights, spotlights, and searchlights we’d positioned all across the front line switched on and shot their bright beams directly at the Kandoran’s faces. The dragons flared their wings and reared up, screeching from the blinding rays. Those behind the front ranks crashed into the ones in the lead, some plunging to the earth as they tried to untangle themselves.
In the next moment, machine gun fire erupted from where we’d mounted the weapons on top of Humvees, buildings, and anywhere else that had a higher vantage point. They zipped through the air as they sped over our heads. The bullets tore into the Kandoran, ripping their wings and puncturing their soft bellies. Those that got deep enough would poison them.
The sorcerersspaced a couple of hundred feet apart along our section, began firing their offensive magic into the air. They filled the gaps where the machine gun fire didn’t reach. Morgan was closest to me, rapidly shooting his electric globes at the Kandoran and knocking them down one after another. Another coalition sorcerer wielded a laser beam that cut through the enemies' bodies like a hot knife through butter, slicing them into pieces. They were still too blind to avoid being hit. I was deeply thankful to whoever thought of using the bright lights and those who worked tirelessly to connect them to the power grid.
As I forced myself to hold still, dozens of bodies across the enemy line crumpled to the ground. There were likely many more, but I could only see so far in the dark. Between the Taugud’s machine guns and the coalition’s, we had nearly a hundred stationed along the border, and they had no mercy forour enemy. Most of the Kandoran in the front two or three ranks were knocked down in minutes.
I itched to run toward the fallen bodies, but I had to wait. If I went out now, one of them could fall on me, and I’d end up seriously injured during the first hour of the war. That would be annoying. I had to wait until the gunners finished their ammo allotment for the night since we had to pace our usage, considering this was only the first of many waves.
It didn’t take long, maybe five or six minutes, but it must have felt much longer to our opposing side. They still couldn’t move forward to attack with the bright lights, and quite a few morecollided with each other in their attempts to back away. As we’d hoped, the infected dragons didn’t adjust to it well, and it brought their destruction.
Silence finally fell, and then a horn blew. That was the cue for everyone else who’d been waiting to charge forward and attack. It was effective since it made hearing from a long distance easier.
I took off running, already eying a pair of fallen dragons that stirred.
