"Oh Shit, Oh Shit! We are actually fucking jumping!" Sonya almost yelled out in joy as she ran towards the edge and jumped. Instead of plummeting quickly towards the bottom, both her and the two mentors started slowly falling almost like a leaf in the wind.
Samuel couldn't help but sigh. He didn't like heights but he wasn't afraid of them either. He quickly followed suit by taking a running jump and as he felt like he would plummet and fall right away it was instead replaced with butterflies in his stomach as he slowly started descending.
Bregane waved and pointed where they would go as he was leading the way, he also motioned for them to be quiet by holding a finger in front of his mouth. Sonya couldn't help but silently giggle to herself as they were hovering down. She was loving every moment of it.
Even Samuel could find some joy in it but he tried to stay focused on the mission instead. They passed several meters of stone on their way down as they tried to stay close to the rocky walls. In the evening darkness it was not a problem to slowly fall in undetected.
Even campfires and torchlight wouldn't reveal that high up, only the moons could. But there were enough clouds to cover most of the nightsky. They passed several more meters of rock and then some. Eventually they were approaching the bottom and they could hear the noises from the camp grow louder.
A few screams that sounded like commands. But most of them were further away from the main tent they were approaching. Bregane led the way and was the first to land in the rocky terrain just a few meters behind the tent. The others slowly landed one by one behind him.
"Alright, I will try to assassinate the leader, Teric if I fail then make sure to finish him off for me. Samuel and Sonya watch out for stragglers and extra guards!" He whispered to the group.
When they all understood their jobs he quickly started blending in with the shadows and the rest followed him to the edge of the tent. They all watched as Bregane sunk into the shadows themselves. Samuel heard Night mutter something about, "Neat Trick!"
Meanwhile Teric unhooked a nearby iron rod stuck into some softer soil and gently lifted the tent flap, just enough for them to see in. Teric started whispering some invocation and prepared a spell.
Suddenly they could see into the tent, it was indeed empty except for one lonely figure sharpening a sword, a large... humanoid werewolf with completely black fur.
Suddenly out of a shadow behind her in complete silence Bregane jumped out with his scythe and swung it at the werewolf. However in an instant the huge werewolf woman turned and swung her greatsword to parry Bregane. A loud clang resounded.
"Did you really think that I have not dealt with assassins before! The one thing they all forget is their smell." The huge werewolf woman snarled. She had an eyepatch over one eye and wore a large plate armor. As she spoke she pushed back Bregane with ease and stood tall.
She was at least twice Bregane's size, towering over him with a toothy wolf grin revealing a row of sharp teeth. "Well I guess the jig is up, TERIC!" Bregane quickly jumped back several meters. As from underneath the tent a lightningbolt suddenly shot out of Teric's hand.
Somehow the werewolf was fast enough at reacting and used her large greatsword to parry the lightning, but there was a fact that her greatsword was made out of metal making it act as a conduit. Where some of the direct damage was absorbed a lot of it still went into the werewolf.
She proceeded to sink to the ground on both knees and dropping her sword, coughing with a raspy voice. Wherever lightning had hit it had also started to set the tent on fire on the opposite side. Teric quickly dragged himself in and started chanting a quick spell to finish her off at the same time as Bregane had rushed back and held his scythe in both hands as he swung from above.
Bregane saw too late the small grin on the werewolfs face as she instantly grabbed Breganes arm and weapon in her huge hand and pulled him in front of herself. The arcane blast that Teric unleashed unfortunately was too late to be cancelled, using Bregane as a shield to take the entire impact she let go as he was hit sending him flying into one of the main pillars and cracking it.
Samuel saw that Bregane tried to get up again, but he quickly slumped back unconscious and not moving on the ground. Teric deeply inhaled and started chanting, but the moment had been enough as the werewolf that now proved to be almost completely unscathed from the lightning rushed forward and with her greatsword she lunged forward.
Teric quickly abandoned casting a spell and instead casted a shield, the arcane shield blocked the sword lunge only for a split second before the shield cracked and the greatsword impaled Teric's chest.
The werewolf howled in victory as she lifted up the greatsword with Teric still impaled on it as he started coughing out blood and his last guttural words couldn't form as he died on the spot. "NO" Sonya scremed out and quickly rushed in with Samuel right behind her. She had just seen her own mentor die and her eyes were covered in fear but more than anything she wanted to save him still.
The werewolf quickly pulled the greatsword out of Teric, or at least thats what she tried. But Teric's final guttural words had been an incantation. The sword was literally fused with his flesh, seeing it angered the werewolf as she let go of the greatsword with a roar.
"So now there are only two young whelps left!" She laughed when she looked back at the two young people, she quickly extended her claws revealing claws almost as long as her fingers. She might not have her sword but she still had weapons.
Thats when it hit Sonya as she looked at her mentor, he was really dead.... she wanted to cry, this was the man that had been there for her for a very long time, always supporting her and making her believe in her own ability, he was much like a second father... he had been her mentor for ten long years - and now he was dead.
Rage consumed her tears that quickly turned into crackling lightning, she started growling, her dragon scales grew to cover her entire body, her long horns started growing in size. Samuel saw her close her usual teal eyes and when she opened them again there were fully formed pupils that looked like those of a dragon.
Her growl grew deeper and her body started cracking, she quickly started growing in size, as wings sprouted from her back. In a few seconds, the loving half devil half dragon humanoid known as Sonya was no more, instead the entire tent exploded outwards in a storm of winds as the now gigantic dragon stood in its place with a deep growl.
"Oh dear... So thats what she has been hiding!" Samuel could hear Night's voice as he sat on the ground, knocked down by the sudden wind pressure from the dragon exploding in size. Sonya suddenly roared at the werewolf standing below her, Samuel saw the fear and terror in this werewolfs eyes. "You... what are you?" She asked aloud.
Samuel saw the dragon rear back its head inhaling... this huge blue dragon, suddenly roared loud enough for Samuel to cover his ears. In the middle of the roar the dragon lowered its head and used its breath which became a beam of lightning aimed right at the werewolf.
The horde leader had no chance to dodge as she yelled in pain before she was quickly turned into dust by the massive lightning breath. Leaving only a dark deep scorch mark covering the ground. Samuel tried to cover his eyes as best he could where he sat close to the dragons claw.
Almost as if it was unsatisfied the dragon then turned towards the camp and snarled as she spread her wings before starting to flap them and pushed off the ground with her legs. Samuel used the moment of distraction to quickly run over to where Bregane should be and true enough he found him laying in the open.
He quickly grabbed him as the dragon started flapping its wings. Samuel didn't know much about healing magic, but even he knew the most basic of cantrips to close wounds and stabilize someone. "Night! Can you get him back to the top of the cliff and keep him safe?" He quickly yelled to the small shadow dragon that reared back in surprise.
"It would be too far away, I would grow too weak, but I can keep him safe down here if you want to go after her!" She said and Samuel looked at her confused as to how she knew and she proudly spread her small wings with a grin.
"We are connected and I know she is your friend, I won't argue... this time, so you better go quick!" Samuel didn't wait a single second as she said those words, he quickly got up and started running. He quickly took out the staff from his pocket dimension and used it as a focus to instantly cast a flight spell, A voice was heard around him. "Decipher the laws of gravity, You are without gravity by choice." The moment the voice ended Samuel started hovering as he took off with max speed towards the dragon that had now gotten far ahead of himself.
Sonya wasn't leaving anything, she breathed her lightning beam as she flew over the camp, incinerating everything that was hit by her breath. Samuel holding the staff started another incantation, "Maximise the laws of this world, I am lightweight as a feather but also fast as a phoenix!" The moment the incantation was finished he two heavy air thuds was heard behind him as they produced two shock waves that sent him flying twice as fast.
If any of his mentors saw him do this they would realize that he was a master of bending magic to his will, many of his spells were spells he had created on his own using a mix of infusion and transmutation magic. To alter spells slightly to make them more comfortable to the caster was common among mages. But creating ones own spells from scratch was not.
'If only I would have helped from the start... I could have saved them!' Samuel inwardly berated himself and he felt a few tears gathering, but he quickly shook out of it as he was approaching the dragon. Sonya or if it even was Sonya in control, must have sensed him coming because she quickly changed direction to upwards and started flying up towards the clouds.
Unfortunately this manouver helped Samuel reach her faster because he was flying with magic whereas she was using her wings, which meant she had a lot more resistance. But she still managed to reach at least two thousand meters up in the air before he reached her.
Samuel didn't hesistate and instantly flew right into the dragons upper neck and grabbed on to its hair that was covering its head. The dragon roared in anger and tried to shake him off as he slowly dragged himself until he held himself in place right in front of her left eye.
"Snap out of it!" He yelled as the eye centered in on the pest that was right in front of its eye. The dragon roared in rage as it tried even more furiously to shake him off. But he was using both magic and physical strength to hold on, he grit his teeth and let go in the direction of her snout, as he reached it he quickly used all his physical strength to punch the dragon in the snout.
The dragon barely reacted, after all the size difference was just too great. It opened its mouth to swallow him whole as cracks suddenly started appearing on the dragon. It started screaming in pained cries as it slowly shrunk in size and the wings shattered like crystal.
In its place was Sonya left, plummeting straight down unconscious. Samuel quickly used his flight to speed down after her, as she finally reverted to her original appearance. He caught her in his chest as they started approaching the top of the mountains he quickly changed direction of approach.
He landed on his feet with a small thud that left cracks in the ground. Not an effect of his almost nonexistent weight, but off the magic that created a cushion force. He quickly took out an extra robe and placed it on her when he put her down on the cold stone.
She had scars that looked like lightning marks running all over her naked body. But Samuel was only concerned for his friend and master as he quickly flew down to where the main tent had stood. His spell was soon coming undone, thankfully he had enough magic to recast it but he preferred to use it to its last moment as he flew down and found Night sitting and panting on top of Bregane.
"I'm sorry, I guess I flew pretty high up, are you alright?" He quickly asked Night when he saw her tired condition... "Better, now that you're close again!" She replied and jumped into his shadow, Samuel heard commotion from what remained of the camp, they would probably come here to look for their leader, so he wasted no time as he put Bregane on his back and flew back up.
The spells were really straining with the extra weight since they were on their last ropes before running out, but somehow Samuel managed to just make it all the way up. He put Bregane on the ground before sitting down panting, gathering his breath again he took a better look at Bregane and Sonya to make sure they were alive and well.
"Ah shit!" Samuel swore to himself and casted his spells again, there was no way in hell that he was leaving behind Teric's body. He quickly zoomed down and just as he found Teric he heard approaching footsteps so he quickly took off upwards again. As he got back up the cliff and landed he lay down Teric.
"I am sorry! I could have saved you if I acted earlier!" Samuel didn't want to leave him in this state so he quickly undid what Teric had done and pulled out the greatsword, thats when he noticed there was something magical about it. So he put both his staff and the new greatsword in his pocket dimension. His pocket dimension had grown exponentially in the last few weeks.
He could now easily store a lot of things in it. But thats not what concerned him now. "Night?" He gently called her name as he stood looking over the remainder of camp from above, what Dragon Sonya had did would definitely make the two armies jobs a lot easier, at least half the camp was destroyed.
"Yes?" She quietly responded after a few seconds. "Please can you help me carry them back?" He asked her on the verge on tears. She didn't say anything, instead a large shadow horse appeared. Samuel understood her meaning and lay Bregane and Sonya on her back while he carried Teric on his own back.
Together they made the trekk back over the mountain. Helping eachother where it was necessary, finding a way back to their secret passage. Night snuck inside the tunnel and pulled the lever to open the passage.
Neither Bregane or Sonya seemed to be in any state where they would wake up soon. So he with some help made the journey through the tunnels with some help from Night. "I will take all of them when we arrive." He told Night. The journey through the tunnel back was the most annoying as the narrow passage meant that they had to slowly advance. Night had to assume smaller shapes and drag the other two with Samuels help.
After a long hour or so they finally arrived and pulled the lever that opened into the room they had left. It was thankfully empty so Night helped drag them out and lay them on the floor. Samuel was exhausted in ways he never thought he could be, but none of that mattered at the moment.
Night closed the passage and someone must have heard the noise because the door opened and Samuel saw that it was one of the earlier Lieutenants that commanded the fort, the woman quickly opened her eyes in shock and Samuel stuttered. "Quickly, get help!" The woman being a soldier nodded and ran off without delay.
Samuel balanced Teric's body on his back and carried Sonya under one arm and pulled Bregane along the floor with the other arm, he knew that they were not in danger of dying and he didn't want to risk revealing Nights existence. He pushed his way through the door and continued down the large hallway.
As he had gotten halfway down the hallway he heard several footsteps. Out of the door he was heading towards came a few of the lieutenants and soldiers, along with Tere'he, Sarmah, Erica & Ulma and what looked to be another healer. Seeing them all Samuel finally collapsed down on his knees, letting the exhaustion finally get to him.