Unfortunately for me, while the basic guard ran away, the elites ran towards the square. I quickly was surrounded by elite mages.
'Fuck, fuck, fuck! I'm surrounded!' I sent my distress through the mind-link.
'Sending support now, I'm coming now but the rest of the team is gonna be late because they have to put on Windcutters.'
'There is no way I can hold for long, I'm going to take off back to the ship. Have Bock and Bella cover me.'
I formed my Changeling Armor into leathery-looking wings and took off, and to my surprise, some of them followed. One of them was using a Windcutter, and the other two were flying using pressure manipulation.
'I know all about the Windcutter, it has an inbuilt speed limit and I doubt they know how to get rid of it. The other ones that are flying on pure pressure are definitely slower than my wings. Plus my flight is far more efficient because I don't have any safety measures.' A smug grin spread across my face.
That's when I checked behind me to notice that my adversaries were gaining on me.
'What the-' A crossbow bolt bounced off of my armor, but the ryustitite plate moving around threw off my balance and made me spin out.
I broke into a dive and pulled up close enough to the street that I could reach out and touch it. I flew through the gate and started climbing again, only to find the enemy in front of me.
'I don't have a weapon what the hell am I supposed to do?'
All of the mages charged, but were forced to dodge some flaming projectiles from the airship. I looked up and faintly saw Bella and Bock standing next to each other, Bella was firing arrows while Bock caught them alight.
They set up a team to block the arrows and one of the enemies flew at me.
'Don't forget about me little one.' Mom's voice resounded in my head as a bolt of fire immolated one of my unwinged adversaries.
'Or me, kiddo.' Dad pierced one of the enemies with a shortsword.
The one wearing a Windcutter charged me and I had no chance to run, so I used the ryustitite in my Changeling Armor to make two arm-blades. As he got closer I dodged to the side expertly and stabbed him in the spine.
'I may not be a master on the ground, but in the air, I'm still the only Ace.' I established a mind link. 'Did you grab everyone? How's the raid?'
'Done and done, we can get out of here.'
A portal opened in front of me and I landed on the other side.
'Gond was the rally point for all of our allies, so they will probably catch on that the ship isn't a dragon. Either that or they will think that we are Dragonriders.'
The image of my parents killing people while calling me my childhood nicknames flashed into my mind. I felt gross for a minute before I got over it. Professor James and a team of three golems stood next to most of the rest of the professors and Dad flew Mom up to the ship.
"The rest of them are down below, and ironically, Nalep got injured." Dad said.
I chuckled and went to the side of the airship. "We have to convince them that a dragon attacked Gond."
The oil we had stored on the floor below me started leaking through the deck into my hands as I started dropping it into the forest and igniting it. The resulting effect looked like the dragon dropping fireballs intermittently.
'This is super dangerous, but it's better than being found out before we get to Fort Lao.'
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"You were supposed to make a vacuum around him so he couldn't fly! You've been trained to deal with enemies wearing Windcutters! How is a Wyrmling any different!?" Erald chastised his guards.
He took a deep breath. "Sorry, dad must be rubbing off on me, I know you weren't given nearly enough training."
"Chase the dragon! There is no way such a lumbering beast is faster than a small Windcutter!" Yomo said, trying to exhaust the king's forces.
"Don't worry about that. I stuck a tracker into the Wyrmling's scales before I played dead." Erald pulled out a stone tablet and poured a bit of his Eneru into it.
A three-dimensional display showing the area around Gond appeared and there was a faint, blinking dot on the horizon. The dot slowly flew away from them for a few seconds before stopping suddenly and falling to the ground.
"Damnit! They found it." The fact that his item didn't work stung Erald far more than the fact that the dragon got away. "I'll go report the failure to dad."
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"Get it off!" I scrambled to eject the eight-legged tracker from my armor.
A spectral chain appeared from nowhere and wrapped around the item.
"Got it!" She pulled hard on it and it could no longer cling to me.
We both watched it fall for a bit, then I nudged Bella in the arm. "Thanks."
I flew to my scouting position above the balloon and pulled out a spyglass.
'For once we aren't being followed.'
I flew back down to the deck and leaned up against a wall next to James.
"You really Ok with leaving behind Gluaze?" I asked him
"I'm not really, I like to call it a strategic retreat. We will be back soon, and with an army. We tried using diplomacy and intrigue, but the king doesn't care and the Cein is only a figurehead." He rubbed his forehead in frustration. "We worked so hard to get him on our side only to find out that he doesn't even control the taxes."
'He sure has a lot to vent.' I thought.
"Good, I'm not willing to give up my objective either, the king is far too powerful and the humans are oppressed." I danced around the god's objective for me.
James turned to me and put out his hand. "Together then?"
"Yeah." I shook his hand.
'That was far too cheesy.'