Everyone acted as a unit.
Arrows, orbs, and huge flaming rocks hurtled through the sky. Blasts of lilac Delphiae-energy rippled outwards. Gold lashings of power poured from Talon’s fingertips in crackling snaps.
Unease tried beating at me, but I put away every emotion; focused on the battle, shooting one ork after another, deeming them the biggest threat. Some arrowheads sank into eyes. Others into heads, shoulders, or chests.
The enemies stumbled under our well-coordinated attack. Bodies dropped. Crawled. Writhed. Staggered to their feet only to collapse again.
The damage was done fast, furiously, and messily. The cacophony of noise was horrendous—all pain and fury and power.
The resident beasts of this area of the Pines were tireless in their determination to take down the enemy. The bears barreled into foes and knocked orks off their feet with a mere swipe of their large paws. The overgrown spiked owls soared through the air, swiping out with their hooked talons. The ape-like humanoids wrapped their arms around orks or hounds, crushing their bodies so tight bones cracked.
The orks retaliated brutally—slamming hammers on skulls, burying axes into backs, stabbing spears into hearts, and slicing open stomachs with swords. The hounds were just as savage, biting and clawing and lashing out with their tails.
Meanwhile, we picked them off.
Their numbers kept falling, but they never faltered. They kept moving, fighting, lashing out.
And then they were charging at the stone wall.
I aimed an arrow right at an approaching ork, burying it in the humanoid’s eye. I reached back to retrieve another arrow.Nothing.“Shit.”
A sudden weight fell into the quiver. I looked to see that Talon was walking around conjuring arrows and slamming them into empty quivers. Wishing I had that impressive ability, I nocked another arrow and then fired.
Officiates and candidates continued fighting hard while orks and dogs roared and cried out in pain, unable to dodge the onslaught. Arrows lanced through their chests. Rocks smashed their skulls. Balls of cold air slammed into them. Energy blasts knocked them off their feet. Golden whips of power reduced them to ashes.
But the intruders didn’t tuck tail and run. The dogs made a beeline for the curtain wall, despite having no ability to climb it. They leaped, their claws raking at the stone. The orks followed behind them and went at the wall, slamming it with weapons like they thought they could chip away at and weaken its structure.
I flicked a quick look at Keyes. “Is there any chance of them forming cracks in the stone?”
“No, not one,” he replied. “But orks aren’t the sharpest of tools.”
Indeed they weren’t, because in coming so close, they were only making it easier for us to take them out. Case in point: Bubbling cauldrons were tipped, raining down pure pain with burning liquid, fats, and sand.
Yelps and cries sounded from below … and something else. Something that didn’t come from below, though. It came from further out. Fromup.
I squinted as dozens of shapes came into view in the sky up ahead. Winged, two-legged serpentine shapes. My stomach bottomed out. “Shit, wyverns.”
Keyes swore. “There are no beasts here who can take on wyverns in the sky.”
I jolted as Talon once more refilled my quiver before moving on to the next person, whizzing forwards and backwards with his enhanced speed.
Studying the approaching creatures, I blew out a breath and nocked yet another arrow. I didn’t release it, since they were too far away. Instead, I studied them. There were a dozen or so—wyvern armies were generally small, since their numbers were just as small—but that was enough to cause horrific damage.
At least they couldn’t breathe fire like dragons. Unfortunately, wyverns were still lethal with their massive jaws, hooked claws, and stinger tails. Still, I doubted Talon would shift and deal with them in his dragon form unless more appeared.
“Aim for their wings!” Ajax yelled. “Put them on the ground!”
We struck as a unit. Instantly, one wyvern burst into ashes as a golden whip whacked into it. Two were taken down bythe oil-covered rocks that were propelled through the air. Others faltered as arrows sank into their wings or scales.
The rest bulleted through the air toward us.
My heart leapt as I noticed Khalida join many other sword-wielding Phoenixians in flying out to meet the wyverns.Shit, shit, shit.
Forcing myself to shut my panic down, I nocked another arrow. Fired. Nocked. Fired. Nocked. Fired. Wyverns who fell to the ground were savagely attacked by bears and strix and ape-like humanoids.
Realizing I was fresh out of arrows, I cursed. Preoccupied with zapping wyverns, Talon wouldn’t have a moment to refill our quivers again. I dropped both my bow and quiver and then grabbed my scythe.
Firmly gripping the long wooden-handle, I lifted the curved blade right as a wyvern soared toward us. It stopped just short of the battlement and whipped out its long tail, knocking several officiates down—they toppled forward, backward, or sideward.
