"Fire!"
Captain Zherak lowered his arm as the nearest Hellmaw gun discharged.
KA-BOOM!
The other five followed, their flashes lighting the hollow beneath the ridge. Lesser demons hauled fresh shells to the trained gun crews while spent casings rolled across the dirt. The crew officers kept the ammunition carriers moving with orders and lashes.
Beside the observation table, Othrek watched the bombardment strike an alliance trench junction. A shelter disappeared beneath dust, and the ward above the connecting passage flickered.
"Their protection is weakening," the mage said.
"Then keep firing."
Zherak leaned closer to the image. Soldiers were dragging a wounded man beneath the shelter while others struggled to carry ammunition through the passage.
For most of the afternoon, the alliance had been doing exactly that. They ran, repaired their wards and tried to hold their positions while his guns continued firing from behind the ridge.
One of the crew officers wiped his face with a dirty cloth.
"Perhaps they will surrender before we miss another meal."
"Finish this target," Zherak replied. "Then you can complain to the cook."
The officer grinned and returned to his gun.
Another volley thundered out of the hollow.
Vaerith pov
Vaerith saw the flashes as he climbed above the southern end of the ridge.
He had reached the frontline and was examining the ground beyond it when orange light flickered beside an old stone. More flashes followed along the same slope.
He immediately turned toward the flashes.
As Vaerith flew closer, he saw six guns firing from behind the ridge. Demons hurried around them, carrying shells from the nearby ammunition wagons.
Vaerith circled once watching the team building activity going beneath.
The barrels resembled those mounted on Warhounds, but these weapons rested on wheeled carriages. The ridge stood between them and the alliance positions they were bombarding.
Another gun fired.
Vaerith watched its crew hurry back into place.
He had found what he had come for.
The bronze dragon drew his wings upward and drove them down, launching himself toward the battery.
A warning horn sounded below.
Demons looked up. One of the ammunition carriers stumbled backward into a box, scattering shells around his feet.
"Dragon!" someone screamed.
Zherak turned from the observation table.
Vaerith was coming straight toward them.
The same lesser demon stared upward with his mouth open.
"But we’re behind the hill."
"It has wings, you idiot!" Zherak shouted.
The demon looked at the ridge, then back at the dragon, as though this had become a personal betrayal.
"Raise the wards!" the captain shouted. "Protect the guns!"
Othrek seized his staff. The other mages also rushed to the ward stakes, and red barriers began spreading above the six positions.
Beyond the trees, another horn answered.
Vaerith turned his head.
Nightwing clan demons were rising from the encampment. Their black wings overlapped as they climbed, gathering into a dense mass that stretched above the treetops. More joined from behind the hill until the formation filled that part of the sky.
They came toward him with weapons raised, their cries carrying across the hollow.
Vaerith glanced at the approaching swarm then back at the guns beneath him.
Then he spread his wings and lifted his foreclaws.
Othrek felt the gathering power and looked up sharply.
Blue light crawled along the dragon’s horns.
It spread across his claws in branching lines, snapping between them as a broad circle of runes formed beneath his chest. The bronze scales along his neck reflected the growing glare.
The mage’s mouth went dry.
"More power into the wards!" he shouted.
The red barriers brightened.
The ammunition carriers abandoned their wagons and crowded beneath the barriers. One hauled a shell box above his head as if it were a shield.
Zherak caught his arm.
"Put that down!"
"It’s thick wood, Captain!"
"full of ammunition!"
The demon lowered the box very carefully, then threw himself into the dirt.
Above the ground, lightning gathered around Vaerith’s foreclaws. Its sharp, rapid cracks grew louder than the approaching Nightwings.
The dragon looked down at the six gun positions.
"Thunderfall."
He lowered his claws.
Six great bolts of lightning struck the battery.
KRA-KOOM!
The wards flared beneath the impacts, turning the ground red and white. Zherak threw an arm over his eyes as the ground shook beneath him.
Othrek braced his staff with both hands. The barrier above his gun bent inward, and cracks spread across its surface.
"Hold!Hold!" he screamed.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
More lightning followed.
Bolts hammered all six positions, bursting against the wards in blinding flashes. One barrier shattered above the southern gun. The mage beneath it tried to raise his staff again, but the next bolt struck him before he could finish.
He fell beside the carriage, his robes burning.
Othrek saw him die.
Then his own ward broke.
Lightning tore through the collapsing red light and struck the mage squarely. His staff burst in his hands, and his body was hurled against the observation table.
He did not move again,he was as dead as anyone can be.(Long answer question 10 marks:How dead can a dead be? lol)
Across the ground, the remaining mages poured their strength into the failing barriers. Lightning broke through each one in turn and crackled beside the guns they were trying to protect.
Within moments, every mage defending the battery lay dead.
The bolts continued striking the exposed positions.
A carriage split beneath one impact. Another gun lurched sideways as its wheel shattered. Lightning burst among the crews, throwing demons against the earth banks and setting abandoned equipment ablaze.
Beside the fourth gun, a bolt struck the ammunition wagon.
One of its side burst open.
Flames spread through the boxes stacked inside, and a demon crawling beneath the carriage looked back just as the first shell exploded.
The wagon vanished inside a rising ball of fire.
KABOOOOM!
The blast lifted the gun from the ground.
Its barrel, carriage and the demons sheltering beside it were hurled into the air together as though they were made of air. Burning ammunition boxes burst above the position, scattering fragments across the position.
Zherak hit the dirt as a wheel spun over his head.
BOOM! BOOM!
The next explosion flattened the shelter behind him. Stones and shattered timber flew across the gun positions while more shells burst inside the burning wreckage.
When the glare faded, a smoking crater marked the place where the fourth gun had stood.
Pieces of its carriage were still falling.
Vaerith watched the wreckage rain and grinned.
All six positions had fallen silent. Flames burned around the damaged guns, and no mage remained standing to restore their protection. Another shell exploded in the crater, throwing sparks above the earth banks.
The approaching Nightwings were still trying to reach him.
Vaerith gave the ruined battery one final, satisfied glance.
"Much better."
The light faded from his horns as he turned toward the alliance lines. With a powerful sweep of his wings, he climbed away from the hollow and began the flight back.