“Again!”Viktor’s thought rode the net, clean and hard. Gabriel’s second rocket climbed, burst white.
Carys adjusted:“Wind veers north—shift two!”
The Sagittarii moved as one—sight, breath, release. Another iron storm fell, biting deeper. Finding joints, eyes, oiled leather.
On the ridge, Storne’s riders slid forward at a canter, shields up, lances angled. Pressure—the kind that makes a line look down right before it breaks. Ivan’s cavalry mirrored, facing south, a dark tide held just off the reef, waiting for the tip.
“You burn so beautifully when you’re angry,”Zeporah whispered, sweet as rot.“Shall I tell you what the prince sees when he looks at her. How he plans to—”
“Tell me, witch. Make it obscene,”Viktor sent, voice like flint striking.
He cut through three men in a breath, turned, and called the thunder closer.
“Every word you spit becomes my fire.”
The storm obliged.
Lightning struck the glass he’d made, ran it like a fuse.
The twin walls roared higher.
Men. Arrows. Swords.
Dawn.
Sunlight split sky.
Wings tore through the light.
The demons no longer dreamed.
They screamed.
The dark that stalks the blackest night.
The eyes that sever dreams.
Out of Ashakar—wings vast enough to drown the sun. Another followed, then three more. Their scales drank firelight, their eyes burning with the madness of souls bound too long.
“Mirrors!”Viktor’s command thundered through the net.
On the ridge, Sagittarii heaved the polished shields upright. Sunlight struck, caught the fire, blazed it back into the sky. The first dragon shrieked as light seared its sight, the second banking hard into the desert wall.
“Volley four—staggered!” Carys’ voice ran, tight as bowstring.
“Cut the wings!”
A rain of iron hissed upward.
Shafts found eyes, throats, the thin places beneath scales.
One beast faltered, screaming, blind.
“Ballista—now!” Viktor thundered.
The first bolt shrieked from the ridge, iron singing from the storm. It struck true—ripping through socket, through spine. The dragon collapsed, a broken star crushing its own elven warriors beneath.
A roar surged the line. The first demon devoured.
