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“Can we do this?” I said to Draven, trying to keep my voice casual.
His jaw was tight as he answered, “We’ll have to.”
Nightclaw simply roared. A mighty, deafening sound that echoed across the sky and caused heads below us to turn upwards.
Good. He had reminded our allies that we had our own flying beasts. Only two, admittedly, but Draven and I had shown what we could do with them already.
Still, I had to admit we were at a severe disadvantage. Not only in numbers but in terms of energy. Believing the horde of foot soldiers to be the only wave we would face, I had spared nothing. Now I flexed my hands and prayed I would have enough left to finish what we had started.
Draven’s constant glances of unease, both at me and at Sunstrike, were not helping matters.
I scowled at him. “Stop looking at me like that, Draven.”
He forced a grin and opened his mouth. Presumably to say something reassuring.
But whatever he was about to say was cut short by the cacophony of shrill cawing that filled the air. The battlecats in the vanguard had peeled away to allow the raptors to take the forefront in the attack. Now the birdlike beasts propelled through the air, knifelike beaks pointed downwards.
With deadly accuracy, they dove into the troops of Tintagel’s infantry, skewering soldiers on their elongated beaks, lifting them high into the air before letting them fall again.
I watched in horror as soldiers fell like discarded ragdolls, their bodies splitting open on the hard ground below.
Faced with this new macabre onslaught, King Mark’s once-steadfast soldiers struggled to hold their ground. Terror painted their faces as they confronted the new and horrifying foe.
And the attack hadn’t truly even begun. Not yet.
I looked at Draven, horrorstruck. If Tintagel could not hold the line, what hope did we have?
Again and again, the raptors struck, diving in and out, plucking men and women into their gaping maws. A trio of raptors turned it into a sick game, tossing three soldiers back and forth between themselves, yanking on limbs and tearing flesh, until, one by one, they let the foot soldiers plummet to their deaths.
The frontlines were wavering. I saw knights riding back and forth and shouting commands and encouragement, only to be plucked off their own horses and swept up into the air screaming. I’d lost sight of the king and could only hope he’d gone back behind the city battlements.
Our allies on the ground were doing their best to counter the airborne threat. Archers loosened arrows and ballistae crews launched their projectiles skywards. But many of the shots went astray, missing their targets in the chaotic sky. The raptors were simply too swift.
A cheer from a contingent of soldiers went up as a projectile finally struck true and a raptor tumbled down from the sky. The ground trembled as the creature and rider hit the earth.
But for the one raptor and rider that had fallen, two dozen or more Tintagel soldiers had been picked off in the meantime.
“What are we waiting for?” I screamed at Draven.
I knew why he hesitated. He was afraid for me. Going in amongst the raptors would be much different from simply enveloping the fae foot soldiers in flames from above. We’d be fighting one-on-one, dueling in the air as we had above Noctasia.
But unlike the battle over Noctasia, Draven and I were separated. We’d be fighting alone, without one another to draw from.
Still, there was no help for it. Surely two riders on two battlecats were better than one. We could cover more ground.
I watched a raptor toss a screaming young soldier up in the air then snap him in half with its merciless beak. I’d had enough.
Without waiting for Draven to respond, I urged Sunstrike forward. We surged into the fray.
Flames flew from my fingers as we sped towards a pair of dark riders on raptors. The air crackled with heat as I directed a torrent of fire, first at the riders, sending them screaming and spinning off the backs of their mounts, and then at the raptors themselves.
One of the creatures tried to fly towards us, snapping and cawing, its sharp beak coming perilously close to Sunstrike’s head. But before it could close its beak, I sent a searing cascade engulfing its nearest wing, melting the leathery flesh and leaving the bird screeching in pain as it plummeted downwards.
I watched as soldiers on the ground immediately ran towards it and finished the raptor off, then I turned my attention back to the skies.
Across from Sunstrike and me, Draven and Nightclaw were also engaged. They were speeding across the skies towards a grouping of raptors. Shadows thick as midnight erupted from Draven’s outstretched hands, wrapping around three of the raptors’ taloned wings like heavy chains.
Shadows spread outwards, clinging to the raptors and their riders, engulfing them in darkness. Blind and disoriented, with their wings pulled down by heavy chains, the creatures faltered in their flight and began to fall, their riders plunging from their backs as their mounts followed.
