“If you can find their horn on them when they’re human and claim it, you have total power over them and can kill them or control them.”
Reallygood to know.
“Your shield will draw their magick attacks to it. You don’t have to catch the blasts.”
In that case... she threw the shield over her back. “I need you to return my sword to me.”
“You sure?”
“Positive. Elfin short sword. Extra sharp.”
The lance shrank down to her exact specification. Tanis drew her legs up until she was squatting on the saddle.
Dash wanted to ask her what she was doing, but he was too close to the others now. All he could do was grind his teeth against the bit and do the hardest thing he could in battle.
Trust her.
He rammed his shoulder against the bastard on his left and drove his horn into his rear flank. Tanis grabbed the mane of the horse on his right and rolled over his back, using her sword to slice at the horn before landing on her feet to meet Dash behind them while Dash flipped, turned human and stabbed the third unicorn with his sword, making a clean cut through his torso. He dropped the sword, sent three blasts at two more unicorns before he returned to his equine form.
The dragon gracefully swung herself into the saddle and laid low across his back. It was strange to him to have her there. While it wasn’t unheard of for unicorns to have riders in battle, he’d never had a partner before.
In his youth, they’d tried to break him for it... hence the first time Outlaw had been applied to him and his temperament. But he’d refused a bridle. As he’d told her when they met, he would not be controlled. Not by anyone. And especially not when his life depended on it.
But someone else had trained her for war. This wasn’t just a result of the powers he’d given her when he made her human. She knew how to fight in a human body as if she’d spent time doing so.
Aye, she had been trained in this form and had a lot of experience. She instinctively knew how to protect her battle partner.
He ran fast toward the last four who were rushing at them.
“Use my fire.”
Dash scowled at her words. “What?”
“My dragon fire. Unleash it on them.”
Surely, she wasn’t serious. “We’re in the middle of a forest.”
“I know. Scorch them.”
“It’ll scorch us, too.” And burn down the forest.
Tanis growled at him. “No. It won’t.”
“Yes. It will.”
“Trust me, beast. I know what I’m doing.”
Was she insane?
He literally had one split second to decide.
“I’m a dragon, Dash. Trust me.”
I’m going to regret this.In spite of his doubts, he opened his mouth and let fly the powers he’d taken from her.
One moment the unicorns were on top of them, and the next, they were screaming, then silent. He watched as her dragon fire instantly vaporized them into ash.
The fire also destroyed his bridle. Dash spat it out as his rig dissolved. Coming to a halt, he turned around to survey the landscape behind them. The only trace of the four remaining unicorns were tiny bits of smoldering ash that floated in the breeze.
