[South of the steel mountains]
Standing atop a skeletal dragon, Melidra watched her mostly out of undead consisting army smash into the beastmen opposite of them. The vanguard of this was formed by skeleton warriors, their armored forms charging through a hail of arrows and spells until they were met by beastmen charging back at them.
At the onset of the campaign, this place would have been taken by easily ten times their number in zombies and basic skeletons, but after now multiple weeks of fighting their numbers had simply dropped too much too often. And with whatever enemy they faced rarely taking out less than a handful of these undead before dying, sustaining such a horde became simply impossible without attacking civilian populations, something that Melidra didn't even consider an option.
Due to this, the bottleneck in her army swiftly switched from the amount of death energy she had to raise new soldiers to the corpses she was raising. As a result, it became more efficient to instead create more powerful undead, though the increased number of them didn't mean it didn't hurt her to watch these comparatively powerful creations die in such large numbers during each battle.
But despite these initial losses, the armored skeleton soldiers cleaved through the beastmen once the two met in battle, blunting the initial shock of their charge for the lighter armored skeleton soldiers that followed after them. Advancing in a tight spear formation, this group formed the main line of battle of Melidra's forces, leaving the monstrous creatures under her command to stay back for now.
Chief among them was the group of solar dragons that Vagha belongs to. Hovering around Melidra in human forms, they watched the battle below unfold together with her.
"You're too careful, we would have ended this with a single wave of our breaths." The dragoness among them named Averyla said.
"And risk another incident like his?" Melidra asked, pointing to one of the men in their group.
At his mention, the dragon she was referring to unconsciously placed his hand on the side of his torso with a low growl of frustration.
"That bolt shot cleanly through his scales and flesh. If it had been better placed only the possibility that bones might have stopped it would have saved him from losing his heart or another vital organ."
The reminder of the battle a few days earlier quickly stifled Averyla's enthusiasm again. When they had noticed Melidra march her army through the steel mountains with Orynth's permission they were quick to join her. For them, this was a chance to impress Darganth after his rather poor first impression of them.
As such, they had thrown themselves into any battle important enough to warrant their attention. Letting Melidra's undead trap the enemies in the fight, they would then rain fiery death from above, with the beastmen's lack of mages at first meaning they could do so without any meaningful opposition.
But the further they progressed into beastmen territory, the stronger and more organized the resistance they faced became. This culminated in the incident Melidra had been referring to, with an aura user having used the bolt of a ballista or some similar weapon as a throwing spear and succeeded.
"She's right. This army is even larger than the last one and we have no idea how many mana users they have in reserve." Vagha said.
"And it's not like you won't get another chance to run wild." Melidra added.
Just as Averyla nodded along to this, a new voice interjected, "That certainly won't be something that anyone will lack in the coming months if not years."
Immediately Melidra and the group of dragons spun around. Flaring their mana in response to the unexpected company, they aimed the build-up energy into the direction to voice came from.
Under their watchful eyes, a spot in the air a few meters from them started to shimmer as the light passing through it became distorted. Or rather stopped being distorted as perfectly as it had been before, with the figure of a man becoming fully visible in the previously empty-looking air a second later.
"No need to be so cautious, I'm not going to do anything to you." The man said, not seeming in any way fearful of the mana Melidra and the dragons were still aiming in his direction.
Studying him in silence for a moment, Vagha soon got an idea who they were dealing with and partially lowered the arm he was aiming at the man.
"I only know of a single light drake who could remain unfazed in the face of this many solar dragons, so I'm assuming you're the empress's second in command? Odrei, right?" He asked.
"Yes."
Hesitating slightly despite the confirmation, the other dragons and Melidra soon followed Vagha's example and dispersed the spells they had been preparing.
"What is one of the most powerful beast lords on the continent doing here?" Vegha asked meanwhile.
"Taking a look at how far you've progressed into beastmen territory. Or rather she, Darganth only guessed that you might also be here." Odrei said, pointing toward Melidra, "He also has a message for you."
"He asked you to come here?" Melidra asked surprised.
Wordlessly nodding in response, Odrei offered only a minimal response as his attention became drawn to the battle unfolding below. Following his gaze, Melidra looked down just in time to witness as one of the zombie beasts lumbering about amid her forces was ripped apart by a blinding explosion.
With it, a few dozen mana users revealed themselves amid the beastmen army and joined the frontline, quickly closing the breaches her forces had started to create again.
"There you have your chance." Melidra said to Averyla.
Barely paying attention to her, the dragoness only nodded before folding in her wings. Shortly after the other dragons also tucked in their wings, with some descending in their transformed forms while others returned to their true form.
"What are you going to do?" Melidra asked Odrei.
"I'll watch from here and only act if necessary, my intervention would trivialize this chance for you to grow. But please act as if that safety net wasn't there, I'm intrigued by how well Darganth's plan to utilize you in the rest of this war might work so I look forward to seeing what your unique powers can do."
"I am guessing that the second part is what the message is about. I look forward to it." Melidra said.
Not waiting for Odrei to answer and only seeing him nod from the corner of her eyes, she then commanded the skeletal dragons she rode atop to follow after her solar dragon allies.
At the same time, Averyla came crashing down amid the beastmen army. Letting flames erupt around her with her landing, she cleared a few meters around herself of soldiers.
Rising from the kneeling position she had taken on to cushion her landing, Averyla stood amid the smoldering remains of the grasslands that surrounded her and let her gaze wander in search. Finding the first mana user among the crowd a seconds later, she then dashed forward into the crowd of still-shocked beastwoman.
Bursting through their loose formation, she transformed her forearms into claws before striking out at her target.
In response, a bluish-white aura flickered to life around the woman she was targeting. Rapidly coalescing in her direction, it froze over the shoulder where Averyla's attack struck.
Feeling her claws being stopped by the dense sheet of ice, the dragoness quickly pivoted, dodging just in time before the ice erupted into a shower of darts that shot at her. Spinning back around toward her opponents, she gathered flames around her left fist before punching out with the momentum of her turn.
This was met by a similar, ice-covered fist.
When two attacks collided, the two elements briefly clashed before erupting in an explosion of heat and steam. Catapulting back by this, Averyla unfurled her wings to soften her landing. But just as her feet touched the ground, she was surprised by the woman she was facing coming charging out of the dense mist.
Dashing at her with a fist already reeled back, the beastwoman left Averyla no time to react before the punch struck her cheek.
Tumbling to the side, the dragoness only caught her opponent's next move from the corner of her eyes. Acting on instinct, she jumped backward, leaving the claws that were aimed at her side to superficially scrape across her belly.
Using the opening to counter with a punch, Averyla struck the beastwoman squarely in the face, breaking her nose in the process. Following as her opponent stumbled back after the blow, she rained down two more strikes on the disoriented woman.
Just as she reached back for the third blow, Averyla was then abruptly interrupted when she felt something sharp cut across her back. Though only penetrating a centimeter into her flesh, the pain of four bloody gashes being torn open on her back caused her to tense up and spin around.
Blindly cutting through the air with her claws, she didn't feel her strike encounter any resistance. Instead, she felt a punch strike her in the gut, sending her stumbling backward with her second opponent following closely after.
Finally catching sight of him as he rose out of hunched down position, she managed to lean back in time to let his fist rush past her head. But before it even fully past her she already noticed the man's other arm moving and moved to block the swing.
Swinging her right arm, Averyla caught the swipe on her forearm, with the beastman's claws barely penetrating into her flesh. Ignoring the stinging pain that nonetheless came from this, she then used the opening to respond with her own claws.
Stepping forward, she thrust her extended fingers into her opponent's shoulder. Her claws sank through skin and flesh as they made contact, stopping only when she reached the bone.
With her opponent still having her other arm caught in his claws and her attempts to overpower him having failed, Averyla was left with both her arms occupied. Thus needing to act before the beastman could reel back his wounded arm for a strike, she quickly made the decision to bring some distance between them.
Raising one leg, she kicked her opponent square in the abdomen, sending him flying backward. In doing so, her claws that had pierced his shoulder further tore open the wound there, with the claws stuck in her arm flaying off parts of her skin on their way out of her forearm.
Having created some room for herself, Averyla was just about to take a quick breather when she heard footsteps approach from behind her. Swirling back around to her original opponent, she readied her claws to meet the beastwoman in another clash.
But before the woman could reach her, her shoulder suddenly jerked back. Stiffening up as if struck in the back, she stood frozen with her back bent to the limit and her head hanging backward.
Before Averyla could even start to wonder what happened, streams of black energy started rising from the beastwoman's body. Not even needing to wait to follow the path it took after converging, she immediately looked up in response. There, she saw Melidra standing on her skeleton dragon and hovering in place while holding out one of her arms, with a hue of black energy surrounding it.
At the same time, she was pointing her other arm toward any manaless beastmen soldiers that came too close to her, making Averyla realize why her fight hadn't already been interfered with before.
Each time Meidra aimed at one of the soldiers, a stream of white energy similar to the one affecting the two aura users around her emerged from the soldier's body. With this, their life forces rapidly depleted.
And unlike the two mana users where she had to use the death portion of the death element to slowly drain them, Melidra could reap the lives of these soldiers far quicker by directly taking control of their life force and ripping it out of their bodies. As such, these soldiers died quickly but painlessly mere moments after starting to approach.
Using the moment of respite this brought her, Averyla started casting healing magic on her wounded arm. Slowly her torn muscles and flesh healed through this, though even just fully regenerating the destroyed muscle parts and regaining full mobility in her hand took over half a minute.
"Thanks for the help." She said to Melidra a few more seconds later, having had to concentrate on mending her flesh.
"Gladly. But you'll need to work harder in the coming weeks, for what awaits us it won't be enough for you to just grow stronger through aging." Melidra responded, glancing up toward Odrei.
"You almost sound like Vagha." Averyla said with a sigh, "But considering that those two were only fourth ranks you're probably right."
Turning her attention back to the battlefield after replying, Averyla noticed with a frown how all of her fellow solar dragons but Vagha had been forced to return to their true forms to keep up in the battle. And though this allowed them to dominate their fight, something she was she could also have done in her true form, considering most of them had started the fight in humanoid forms, it showed their lack of power.
But far more important than her wounded pride, this also meant that their options were limited. And with likely multiple emperors and others of the most powerful mythic ranks on the continent participating in the battle Darganth would call on them for, they will need the ability to hide in a transformed form without being at risk from even some individuals beneath the mythic rank.
In the face of this consideration, Averyla only sighed again before reluctantly also returning to her true form as she rejoined the battle.