The Storm King

When the crashed Tribal ark fired upon Sunlit arks, the forces within it poured out. Leon’s retainers led the charge, followed by Sar and Exallos, then the Tempest Knights, and then those forces brought by the two ninth-tier elders. Elise, Cassandra, the Evergolden guards, Helen, and Tikos all remained within the ark, to varying degrees of reluctance.

Valeria was just about the first one out the door. The ark’s main door was blocked after the crash, and while Valeria had had the fleeting thought to try and use earth magic to flee, she remembered that the Sunlit war arks had been hidden below the salt flats. They wouldn’t get far with Sunlit earth mages on their asses, so better to fight where they had the most advantage.

So, without the main door of the ark available, everyone had to move out of several emergency doors, then move as quickly as they were able. Valeria shot out of hers so quickly that only Red emerged before her from a different door. However, they moved against the same target, the last remaining Sunlit war ark in the sky. They had to move quickly since their crashed ark couldn’t remain on the ground with their shield down for long, and the war ark was already recovering from the evasive maneuver it had taken immediately following their ark’s last salvo.

Immediately behind Valeria flew Maia, her body already transforming into a spectacularly large ice dragon, while Red had assumed her wyvern form. The rest of the retinue taking part in actively defending the ark were moving in the same direction, but lower, moving to meet the dismounts from the Sunlit transport arks not too far away, who were even now moving as quickly as they could toward them.

As Valeria and the rest of the retinue rocketed into the air, a titanic wave of magic washed over them as Leon and the Sunlit Emperor crossed blades far above, and Leon came out the lesser. Storm clouds appeared in a moment, blotting out most of the sun’s light, and Leon was sent crashing through them.

It immediately felt like someone had reached into Valeria’s chest and squeezed her heart, but she did her best to ignore the feeling. She trusted Leon and knew his power. He’d come out of this alive, of that she was sure. Maia’s ice dragon roared in anger and grief, but since she kept pace with Valeria, the silver-haired woman knew that Leon, at least for now, didn’t need their help.

Below them was a more promising situation. Alcander and Alix had each taken half of the Tempest Knights and half of Sar and Exallos’ followers to both sides of the ark where they were forming up with MALLs that the two Tempest Knight commanders had stored in their soul realms. They would provide support for Marcus, Gaius, Anna, Anshu, and Anzu as they dealt with the oncoming Sunlit dismounted forces. Sar, Exallos, and Nestor—the latter’s ability to fly taking Valeria somewhat by surprise—meanwhile, peeled off to deal with the final stealth ark.

With all this in mind, Valeria, Red, and Maia charged at the final war ark as it finally straightened out and aimed its largest Imperial Lance on its nose at their crashed ark. Valeria felt a spike of power from the large war machine, the Imperial Lance glowed with power for a moment, and then a mass of molten metal was fired at the crashed ark.

Valeria felt a wave of extreme heat as the mass missed her by only a few dozen feet—missing Red and Maia as well—only to be blocked as the shield of white light sprang back into place around the ark once more.

With a grin of triumph, Valeria knew it was their turn.

She, Maia, and Red drew close to the ark, and a few mages popped out from external hatches to do battle with them. None of them were stronger than the seventh-tier, however. Maia’s ice dragon roared in rage once again and a torrent of ice shards exploded outward, peppering most of the dismounts and killing the greater part of them almost instantly. Valeria followed up with a few swings of her glaive, sending waves of bone-chillingly cold mist at the survivors. This mist enveloped them faster than any could react, freezing nearly all of them solid in a moment.

Red, meanwhile, didn’t bother with the dismounts. She flew past Valeria and Maia, the few survivors filling the air with their ineffective magic and missiles, all bouncing or splashing right off Red’s ninth-tier scales.

As Red drew close, she opened her mouth and spat an explosion of fire upon the war ark. Enchantments sprang into place to protect the flying machine, but they didn’t last long under the intense heat and power of Red’s flames. Enchantments shattered in mere moments, steel liquified, and the ark’s outer hull was compromised.

While Red focused on the foredecks, Maia sped past Valeria, her body now larger than even Red’s massive form. Her serpentine dragon wrapped itself around the aft decks closer to the engines, and then began to squeeze. The war ark was tough, but under such intense pressure, its plating began to buckle as enchantments failed to maintain structural integrity.

During this, Valeria flew around the ark, eliminating the last of the dismounts and their reinforcements with well-placed applications of her magic and the odd swing of her glaive.

Below her, the rest of their force met in combat. Lightning arrows rained down upon the Sunlit ground force. Most of them couldn’t fly and so were easy pickings for Leon’s retinue in the air and the MALLs on the ground. The Sunlit forces retaliated as best as they were able, but the MALLs were more heavily armored than the war arks were, relatively speaking, and so the Tribesmen were able to use them as cover if they needed it on the salt flats. Others called upon the salt below them, causing walls to spring into place to cover them from the death that the MALLs brought and the death that rained down upon them from above, courtesy of Leon’s retainers.

Flashes of light and cries of pain filled the air, the Tribesmen having more power on average and the advantage of heavier firepower, while the Sunlit forces vastly outnumbered them. Casualties were taken on both sides, but Valeria was at least gratified to see that they were disproportionately in her side’s favor. But the Sunlit forces were large enough that she couldn’t help but wonder if that would matter. Those four transport arks had brought nearly a thousand soldiers, while those who followed Sar and Exallos weren’t warriors by trade, and their side didn’t even number fifty total.

Her growing fears were alleviated as the ark she’d been flying around—defenders having stopped coming out as Red’s fire turned its front into molten slag and Maia crushed its back—lit up her magic senses as its stored magic power was released. The damage it sustained breached its magic stores, and what remained of the ark by then detonated with great power. Valeria was sent flying as Maia’s ice dragon was shattered and Red roared in pain and triumph.

As Valeria righted herself, she saw that one of Red’s wings had been torn slightly and a few pieces of broken ark were sticking out of her scales, but she still flew, roaring her pleasure at the destroyed ark. Maia, meanwhile, simply reformed her ice dragon without a word.

Valeria then turned her eyes toward the final ark in the fight: the stealth ark that Nestor, Exallos, and Sar had challenged. It was much smaller—whereas the crew of the war ark would’ve had to have a crew of at least a hundred, the stealth ark could’ve only had three or four. That significantly smaller size gave it greater speed and maneuverability, while it put to great use doing its best to avoid Sar and Exallos.

Nestor, though, seemed to be ignoring the ark at first. He’d inscribed runes of floating light about the size of his golem’s head in the air, with much of the errant magic power being kicked up by the battle flowing like a river into the largest floating rune and then spreading out to the others.

She didn’t have to wait long before what he was doing was put on display: he inscribed one last rune, and that seemed to complete an array that formed all of that provided magic power into five massive bolts of lightning. These bolts opened like fingers, reached across the sky, and then closed upon the stealth ark. Sar and Exallos immediately waved off as these bolts of bright golden lightning sliced through the ark with ease, and it too exploded quite violently.

It brought her no small amount of pleasure to see them making progress, until she felt intense killing intent wash over the battlefield.

The Sunlit Emperor had brought four ninth-tier mages with him, and while they could’ve participated in the battle, it seemed that having four ninth-tier mages, along with Valeria’s eighth-tier, and the unknown that was Nestor, gave them pause. Leon and the Sunlit Emperor were continuing to clash far above them, the force of their battle causing the storm clouds to ripple and churn and booms of thunder to echo across the salt flats, so the Sunlit ninth-tier mages didn’t have much support.

Now, however, they had to act. The arks had been taken out, they had no other choice without ceding the battle to them entirely.

A lance of light flew across the sky and slammed into Red. Red’s cries of success became cries of pain and wrath. A massive fireball sped through the air and splashed across Maia’s ice dragon, gouging a huge chunk out of it and causing it to spiral downward before Maia was able to repair the damage and stabilize it.

Valeria sped backward as Red turned toward their new foes and bore down upon them, letting her fury run wild. Fire filled the air as Red chased the light mage around, not managing to close the distance enough to do much damage. The light mage kept moving and firing beams of light behind him, slicing deeply into Red’s hide, but Red was large and could take those hits. She was the equivalent of a ninth-tier mage, and her healing factor had those wounds not spilling much blood before they closed over.

Maia took a more defensive posture, her serpentine dragon constructed form having something of a standoff duel between her and the fire mage. Maia, at first, only shot enormous spears of ice at the fire mage, but fireballs countered her attacks fairly well. Still, she launched so many that the fire mage had trouble keeping up.

After a couple exchanges, Maia’s ice dragon roared, her magic rose into the sky, and rain began to fall. The fire mage enveloped himself in flames as Maia’s power saturated the surroundings, every drop of rain falling under her control. Without much choice, he did the only thing he could do and charged. Millions of drops of water slammed into his fire shell like needles, peeling away at every lick of flame protecting him from the river nymph. His fire shell was even penetrated in a few places, and Maia’s water dented plate, pierced mail, and drew blood.

But the fire mage hit her and detonated an explosion with such force that everyone below on their side of the crashed ark hit the ground. A few of the weaker mages in the Sunlit force even fainted.

In the end, Maia’s mage cut out and her ice dragon dissolved. Valeria’s expression became one of horrified rage and she prepared to throw caution to the wind and attack, but as the ice dragon melted away, it formed a large cloud of mist and wrapped itself around the fire mage. The fire shell momentarily grew brighter as it fought off the mist, but the mist swirled about, effectively becoming another cloud, and obscuring the bright red flames from view. It then lengthened, turning into a wet twister hovering in the air, and when it dissipated about a minute later, the fire mage’s shredded corpse fell to the salt flats below.

The mist then condensed, reforming into the river nymph that Valeria was well-familiar with. She’d clothed herself and hovered in the air with grace and poise, but her body was battered and bruised, cut and bleeding. While she hadn’t fought in human form, it was clear that she’d not avoided damage.

“You all right?!” Valeria shouted out. Maia turned her head and nodded, her aura much weaker than it was before but still strong and vigorous.

A roar grabbed their attention, and they bore witness to Red finally catching up to the light mage, though her wings were in terrible condition, and her hide wasn’t much better. Scales had been ripped clean off, leaving much deeper gouges than she’d sustained in the battle before.

But she had the light mage in her jaws. The man’s body was glowing brightly as he attempted to use his magic to escape, but he bathed in the fire Red was exhaling, burning yellow-hot. There was a flash of white light, and then his magic cut out. A moment later, Red spat out his charred corpse.

With that, Valeria spared the other side of the ark a look.

She saw Nestor hovering in the air, another runic enchantment drawn in the sky. Captured within was another Sunlit ninth-tier mage, and hovering beside Nestor was Sar, his body looking to be in similar condition to Maia’s. But the Sunlit mage was screaming in terror as the light runes pulsed with magic power, and his body bulged. Valeria had to stifle a cry of terror and disgust as the man’s magic power was ripped out of him, taking most of his blood with it. Little care was made for how it left his body, leaving the magic little more than shredded meat and bone trapped in Nestor’s array.

“NNOOO!!” the final Sunlit ninth-tier mage roared. He’d been locked in battle with Exallos and bore a striking resemblance to the man Nestor had just killed—a close relation, Valeria guessed. A film of smoky darkness spread across the man’s body as Exallos brought a tremendous wind blade down upon him, the spectacularly sharp air passing harmlessly through him. Exallos didn’t seem to be in the best condition as far as Valeria could tell, with a few rents opened in his armor, and he was moving a little slower than everyone else.

These flaws were exploited as the last ninth-tier mage surged forward, his body turning into little more than a shadow as he fell upon Exallos, sinking into the gaps in his armor. Exallos screamed in pain, and a moment later, the Sunlit mage shot back out. Exallos, however, his eyes wide, fell, his aura falling in intensity faster than his body did through the air.

The final Sunlit mage glared at Nestor and Sar and charged. The sky darkened even further as his magic surged outward, but Nestor inscribed another rune—an ancient rune—that caused it to stop in place. Tendrils of darkness congealed and struck forth, passing through whatever barrier Nestor had put into place, but Sar darted forward, golden lightning pouring from his body and shredding the tendrils one by one.

Sar then hit the main mass of darkness so hard that Valeria nearly blacked out from the resulting thunder. She swayed in the air, the power and killing intent that filled the air starting to get to her a bit. But she righted herself and focused.

Sar had bored deep into the black mass while Nestor sent glowing runes racing across the sky. The mass roiled and a few bolts of lightning exploded outward, but it wasn’t until Nestor finished surrounding the mass after a few seconds that the mass froze, and Sar’s lightning had a more permanent effect.

A scream echoed across the entire battlefield as the mass dissipated, revealing an even more bloody Sar with his hand inside the ninth-tier mage’s chest, his body glowing with lightning as the Sunlit mage fried from the inside out. His eyeballs filled with blood and popped, his body flailed and seized up, and Sar threw him down, letting the now thoroughly dead man fall to the ground below.

But then, Sar fell without much indication of control. Valeria shot after him, managing to catch him only about a hundred feet off the ground.

“My thanks…” the man groaned as he hung limply in Valeria’s arms.

“Just stick with us. We’re not done yet…” Valeria replied as she rose back into the sky. “Nestor! Help me with him!”

“If you insist,” Nestor replied as he inscribed another rune, forming a platform of ice hovering in the sky. Valeria gently placed Sar upon it and Nestor and Valeria each began applying healing spells.

At the same time, Maia’s ice dragon had descended upon the battlefield, unleashing great waves of freezing mist upon the Imperial forces. Red, on the other hand, sped off toward the transport arks. Barely a second after Valeria turned her attention toward the wyvern, the first of the transports exploded in a gout of bright yellow, orange, and red flame.

“Lady Valeria…” Sar gasped as his wounds were slowly sealed by the healing spells. “Please. Exallos…”

His eyes turned downward, and Valeria nodded in understanding as she left Nestor with a stack of healing spells and threw herself off the floating platform. She plummeted to the ground, not finding it too difficult to locate Exallos in the flat white expanse, even with the battlefield having been cut to pieces by the MALLs and other blasts of magic.

Unfortunately, when she found him, the ninth-tier Eagle elder wasn’t moving. His chest plate was bloody and ripped to ribbons, and when she knelt next to him, she felt little magic power, but just enough to tell her that he was still just barely clinging to life. He wouldn’t last long, though, and when she peeled off some of his more heavily damaged armor and saw the extent of the damage, she wasn’t sure even the strongest healing spells would save him.

She immediately tried, though, retrieving the strongest healing spells she had as well as pouring a few of Helen's best healing potions onto Exallos’ wounds. She then gathered him up and made for the crashed ark, where help could be found. And with the battle now decisively in their favor, the crashed ark wouldn’t have to keep its shield up.

However, just as that thought crossed her mind, a titanic wave of magic sped through the air, punching a hole through the clouds, and slamming into the ark. She was momentarily blinded as a flash of lightning a peal of thunder squeezed her head and blotted out her senses, and when she regained her senses a moment later, she saw that a hole had been blasted in the ark’s shield.

Fortunately, there was no further attack, and the tremendous magical pressures coming from above where Leon and Sunlit still fought continued.

She redoubled her effort. The battle, no matter how much it may be slanted in their favor, wasn’t over until Sunlit was defeated. She wasn’t sure anyone in their party, even Leon, could beat him, and if Leon lost to him right now, they’d lose everything.

The thought of losing Leon had Valeria’s heart racing even faster. Panic flooded her mind at just how long he’d gone without support. If something happened to him, she’d never forgive herself, and she’d make it her mission to destroy everything that the Sunlit Emperor cared for.

But as another wave of flashing power washed over the battlefield from clashing power, she knew that there was still time. They just had to hope they could get Leon the support he needed before it was all over.

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