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Big danger, that was a new one. Iryana looked in the direction of the mouth of the valley. A larger pack of dakii than they’d seen yet? Or something worse?

She gauged how well the soldiers were holding up below.

“Hold fire!” If something bigger was coming, they needed to conserve the arrows they had left. The ground forces couldn’t completely hold off on their own though.

Iryana handed her wooden bow to Misha, who shot her a concerned look as Iryana forced her metal-forged one to hand. Pain ripped through her, and Iryana swallowed down bile, but she formed an arrow and drew it back.

Her arrow shot deep into a dakya, the force knocking it back before it fell. She pulled the arrow back with a grunt.

“Hold unforged ammo!” Iryana shouted.

As most of the archers held, Iryana kept shooting, her forged arrows giving her an unlimited supply. She grew bold with firing into the melee. If any arrow was heading for one of their fighters, she could dissipate it before it hit. With the other archers holding, she tried to make up for their absence, feeling the greater drain on her magic.

A fluttered whistle called from the ridge.

“Shit.” Her stomach dropped.

Her eyes immediately traced the tops of the trees, searching for the reason behind that call. Somewhere on the horizon was a dragon.

“Do not fire at the dragon unless it comes at us!” Iryana called. If the dragon wasn’t coming for them, they didn’t want to force it to attack.

Finally, she made out the dragon, flying close to the treetops into the valley. Iryana took a shaky breath. If there was a dragon, it was likely chasing metal-badgers. If there were metal-badgers, she had to hope they were attracted by all the metal-forged fighters and not preparing to dig here.

She could see some of the soldiers down below panic, looking toward the sky, and the distraction gave the dakii an advantage. Ripping more magic out to form another arrow, Iryana fired at a lunging dakya, but it didn’t hit until the beast had already ripped a soldier’s throat out.

“Focus!” ordered the captain in charge of the unit down below.

The dragon was drawing closer, and Iryana tried to pick out the metal-badgers it was likely chasing. Tried to determine their path.

The units had all discussed how to deal with the metal-badgers, and some of the soldiers down below had experience with them already. But that didn’t make the fight much easier.

Iryana’s feet nearly flew out from under her as the ground shook violently. Screams rose, and Iryana grabbed Misha and pulled her away from the ledge. She released her forgings too quickly, stumbling with pain. She saw one of the archers down the line go over, screaming. An enormous crack sounded from above.

“Get out of the way!” Iryana screeched, half-dragging Misha from under the watchtower.

They were barely clear when a tower leg splintered, one side of the floorboards dropping, and then the entire watchtower groaned and collapsed as Iryana watched in horror.

“We’re getting you out!” Iryana scrambled, hands and feet slipping on the snow as she threw herself toward the collapsed tower. There were others at her side, helping pull planks and branches off the pile.

She heard muffled voices from within the wreckage, which only spurred Iryana on. The largest piece of the roof was intact, and people were trapped beneath it. Iryana formed her metal spear and water staff at her sides before leveraging them under the roof. Hands grabbed at both. She groaned as she pulled, using another beam as leverage, and the roof finally lifted.

“Hurry!” Iryana ordered as Misha pulled people out. Her muscles were shaking, but Iryana held on.

“They’re clear, drop it!” Misha ordered. Iryana released her forgings and nearly collapsed. The roof cracked as it landed back on the pile.

“Call for the reserve!” Iryana screamed up to the wall. “We have injured!”

She struggled to get enough air, but she turned, gauging how many were injured, or worse. Two men were unconscious, one woman held a broken leg in open-mouthed shock, but most of the rest just seemed bruised.

Looking over her shoulder, Iryana could see the dragon was almost upon them.

“Who still has a working bow?” A few held them up or pointed at bows on the ground. Many had been destroyed or lost in the wreckage. Those with forged weapons, of course, didn’t have an issue. “If you can still shoot, get your hands on a working bow. If you can’t find one, collect dropped arrows.”

They’d have to worry about the injured when they weren’t all about to die. Iryana didn’t know how anyone else was faring with the quake, whether the melee fighters were still battling the dakii through it, but she couldn’t worry about them right now.

Iryana stumbled back to the ledge, reforming her bow with a pained grunt. Misha was again at her side. Iryana glanced at her little sister, at the cut on her forehead that was bleeding drops of red down her cheek.

“Ready!” Iryana called. “Do not loose unless they turn our way!”