Page 74 of Cast By Flames (Dragon's Breath)
Dark and ominous clouds began rolling toward us in the distance. I cringed as they reached overhead, expecting torrential rain to pour on us. A drop splattered on my face, followed by another a second after that. It was only sprinkles and not too cold, either. Galadon’s seer powers might not work well out here, but his control of theweather appeared fine.
The Kandoran forces continued forward, undaunted by the change in the weather. Our four shifters spread out as the enemy approached them, seeming so small compared to the overwhelming number of green dragons. How long could they hold out in the air?
Rayna began striking the ones farther away from us, forking the lightning so it hit several at once. Verena’s hands flew out as she froze them one by one. Conrad and I dashed toward the fallen dragons, knowing we had minutes to kill them before they could regain their senses and fight back. We also kept wary eyes on the skysince large beast bodies were falling all over, and we didn’t want one smooshing us. Thankfully, the sorceresses and shifters seemed to be taking care with where they dropped their targets.
I leaped on top of a large one with a singed snout where he’d been hit by lightning. Lifting my blade high, I struck down on the soft spot at the back of its skull. The dragon was so massive that my sword nearly sank to the hilt. Gritting my teeth, I pulled it out and dashed off the beast toward the next one.
It was held frozen by Verena’s power, but she let go as I approached. It turned to look at me, and I rammed my blade straight through its eye, pushing with all my strength. The tip lodged on the orbital plate. Killing a dragon this way wasn’t easy and required a great deal of force and a bit of luck with one’s aim, but I was already committed. I leaned into my sword hiltand broke through, penetrating the brain. The dragon’s head slumped and nearly brought me down with it.
Kneeling, I jerked my blade out and went for another Kandoran, but there were so many on the ground now I couldn’t even count them. Rayna had switched to killing the ones she’d felled. Others that Verena had brought down were trying to attack her, but she’d raised a shield to protect herself until we could finish them.
I dashed around a dragon Conrad was fighting. He was so focused on his prey and keeping an eye on the others around us that he wasn’t even taunting them. That’s when I knew our situation was dire. If he wasn’t cursing, we were in trouble.
I finally reached the one closest to Verena, snapping at her shield with razor-sharp teeth. Its back was to me, so I chose to dash up its tail and along its spine. The beast spun its head around and tried to bite my leg. I dropped low onto its other side. Thankfully, I was in the perfect spot to plunge my sword between its ribs and into its heart.
It took my entire blade to reach the beating organ, but I got it before the dragon could turn its head and lunge for me from the other side. The Kandoran wailed a horrible screech before slumping into death.
I took stock of my surroundings.
Galadon and Titan were still in the air, but Eliam and Freya were on the ground a few hundred feet away. The male shifter’s wing appeared severely damaged, and blood soaked his body from numerous wounds. I was amazed he could still fight at all. Freya limped as she fought in beast form, and there were rips in her wings, but she didn’t appear as bad as Eliam.
Conrad and Rayna appeared to have the remaining dragons around us covered. Verena had resumed taking down more in the skies, but they were farther away and falling closer to the shifters. They needed my help more. I ran toward them as fast as possible, narrowly dodging a dragon who swooped down to attack me from above. No time to play nice. I ducked as it passed and sliced my sword through its belly.
Blood and guts spilled as the beast crashed into the ground a handful of feet behind me. It wasn’t dead since I hadn’t hit a vital organ, so I needed to finish it. I stabbed once again where its belly now lay exposed, easily finding the heart.
Eliam roared as a dragon chomped onto his shoulder. Nothing made me angrier than seeing my friends harmed, and he was one of the shifters who didn’t hesitate to be friendly to me. I finished closing the distance and leaped onto his attacker. The Kandoran would not be killing him if I could help it. I stabbed my blade into the back of the dragon’s skull. It died instantly, with its head falling to the ground. Eliam went down with him, but the Kandoran’s jaw loosened enough so he could pull free.
I jumped off and checked him over. He was in terrible shape with a crushed shoulder, mutilated wings, abroken rear leg, and oozing wounds everywhere. I couldn’t do much for him while surrounded by the enemy, but I’d do my best to protect him from further damage.
“Stay close behind me,” I ordered. With any luck, I could keep most of the other dragons off him.
He did as I said, crouching a few feet to my rear as I slashed at the next foe coming for us. The following minutes were nothing more than fighting and a sea of blood. One Kandoran struck me with its tail, leaving a deep gash on my side.Another bit me in the arm. Pain and agony suffused my body with every new injury while I did my best to block everything out and keep fighting. I’d promised Aidan I would come home, and my sweet boy needed me, too. No matter what, I couldn’t give up.
I killed as many dragons as I could, but they kept coming. Eliam stayed behind me, snapping at any enemies who came close to him. He couldn’t move much with his injuries, but he bought me time as I took care of the ones at the front.
During a few seconds of respite, I took in my surroundings while I tried to catch my breath. I caught Galadon in the sky. He was a ruthless killing machine that sent chills down my spine to watch. He used his spiked tail to great effect, lashing at anything behind him while crushing the foe’s neck to his front with his teeth. Every dragon who came near him ended up on the ground soon after, either dead or seriously injured.
A couple of hundred feet away from me, Conrad had a pile of green-scaled bodies around him. He was covered in wounds with a nasty gash along his left cheek, one of his arms hung uselessly, and he limped. Still, he had a determined glint in his eyes as he kept wielding his sword one-handed at every dragon who came near him.
The storm clouds had thinned, and the light rain was gone, but Rayna still used what remained to bring down the occasional lightning bolt. She aimed them strategically at any Kandoran that tried striking Titan or Freya from behind. The male shifter had joined the other two on the ground after his wings were torn the same as theirs.
Unfortunately, the pair of them were too far apart to watch each other’s backs, but Rayna had enough dead dragons behind her that she could only be attacked from the front. Howshe still had any power to throw lightning, I didn’t know, but she would be drained any moment at the rate she went. I hoped she wasn’t sacrificing herself for the rest of us.
Two more Kandoran came at me, flying low in the sky. I lifted my sword with one hand and readied my dagger with the other. The enemy to my right came first, breathing red-orange flames into my face. I ducked to avoid his chomping mouth and used both blades to cut through the beast’s underside. It screeched overhead.
Eliam tore into the injured Kandoran as I slashed at the second dragon coming at me from where it landed on the ground. I swung my blade as hard as I could and sliced deep into its neck, almost making it halfway through the throat. It used its powerful legs to push off the ground and back into the air. Damn, it had decided to back off rather than keep fighting me, probably to give itself time to heal. The dark magic infusing its body would help it rejuvenate quickly.
In its place, another dragon came, and I wanted to groan.
Thanks to our tactics, the sixty or so that had initially shown up were nearly wiped out.For that, we could be proud, but dozens more had flown in to replace them over the last few minutes. I almost sank to my knees when I couldn’t see an end to thegreen dragon trail in the sky. No matter how hard we fought, we couldn’t survive this. I fought back tears as I thought of never returning to Orion or Aidan.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered and readied my sword for however many more strikes I had left to give. At the very least, we’d take as many down with us as possible.
Chapter 21
Ozara
The pungent odor of death and scorched earth filled the air. Even with more than four hundred dragons flying all around her, she could scent it from the land ahead. They’d been flying for about a week at a grueling pace, and this wasn’t a good sign.
