From their vantage point on the ground, the instructors of the Academy's Fourth Year Flight Class watched with bated breath. Their eyes were on four individuals, or two units to be more specific. As always Cadet Cade and Shasiv were in perfect form. People often forget about him these days, he lived a rather low-key life in the Academy. He was friendly and easygoing. Most of his classmates probably forgot he was technically a prince of the Empire most days. However, when he and Shasiv got into the air he completely changed. Gone was the kind and gentle young man, in his place was a ruthless warrior, honed over his years here at the Academy and aided by natural talent.
At one point he'd been considered the de facto successor to the brilliance of Tate Delmont. However, it was the second unit they were gaping in awe at that challenged that prediction. If Cade and Shasiv were masters of the air, then Aliya and Kilnik were artists. The few instructors who had been present when Tate lived at the Academy and who had "taught" him felt like they were watching a reenaction of the spectacular sight that had been Tate Delmont and the dragon Aquana flowing through the air. It was mesmerizing. Not many individuals could truly meld their bodies into one cohesive unit. Were it not for the practical logic of knowing that the unit flying above them was made up of a human and a dragon it would have been easy to mistake them for one creature.
She was bent low over Kilnik's neck almost lying flat on him. Her dark hair was tied back but it flowed behind her like a dark ribbon. The gleaming scales of her dragon's pale body glittered in the dim sunlight as they darted through their opponents with unmatched grace. The other cadets, all fourth years, of course, were all among the best of the best. If all went well in the next few months they would all be admitted into the Dragon Corps. However, next to the pair of them, they looked like clumsy firstyears trying to catch a deer. Cade and Shasiv were their only opposition of note. It was hard to make out their faces since they were moving so fast.
The instructors were sitting at the general sparring height on their own dragons as they watched Kilnik and Shasiv finally clash in midair. Even though this was a group melee spar and real blows of any kind were forbidden, the dragons made it seem like they really were in the middle of an all-out war with the way they were going at it. Each rider responded perfectly to the twisting and shifting of their dragons beneath them. At one moment the dragons had locked into a roll with each other. The advanced movement drew a strangled gasp from one of the younger staff members as the dragons and their riders momentarily plummeted below sparring height toward the ground. The rest of the riders had fallen into a type of chaos, an older staff member sighed at the mistake his cadets were making. They were so caught up in being the one to take down Cade or Aliya and their partners that all the units were now flying down, chasing the pairs and creating what almost looked like a cyclone of wings and scales. "Hold!" The staff member yelled. His dragon used their ability to momentarily create a freezing in the air. It was such a strong drop in temperature that it was useful to snap them all out of their single-minded sparring. The momentary flash to a temperature way below freezing also had a biological effect on the dragons. Their bodies adapted to all temperatures and conditions well, but if such a drastic and instantaneous change occurred their bodies would almost freeze as they tried to adjust. The effect of this was extremely fast, no more than a few seconds. For any dragons and riders who may be in a precarious position in the air while this occurred, there were three sets of Earth dragon pairs always on standby on the ground to catch cadets and dragons who couldn't recover quickly enough. Of course, their four prodigies didn't crash, even mere feet above the ground it was like a twitch of the dragon's bodies and a flinch of their riders in the snap of cold. Then in the next moment, the dragons still embracing with their front legs they released their back legs and tails and somehow executed the most bizarre double landing. Their wings spread out in almost perfect synchronization and their back feet touched the ground lightly as a pair of butterflies. As they landed it looked like a choreographed dance as they then released each other's front legs and their necks and heads parted until they were both on all four feet and then in the customary sitting positions waiting to hear the class feedback.
The other dragon and rider units were not so lucky. A few of them were skilled enough to pull out of their reckless dive and land with varying degrees of grace or clumsiness. Two couldn't recover from the sparring hold and were about to crash when a bulky brown dragon from the "Catch Team" snatched them from injury just before hitting the ground. Only the largest of the Earth Dragons could join this safety team and it was at times like this that their value was on full display. Who else but these high-level dragons could catch fully grown dragons and their riders out of the air like that and set them down on their feet as if they weighed nothing? Of course, the ones who'd had to be rescued were not happy. The dragons in question lowered their heads and wouldn't look at any of their kin, and their riders were bright red and tied to make themself small.
The older instructor whose name was Billet Barne landed his dragon Inan. He expertly slid off the blue scales of his friend and came to stand next to him. "I leave them to you." He told him, referring to the dragons in the class. He heard the sigh of his partner and then the answer. "I'll take care of it. Imagine diving after that bunch like it was nothing, do they not have brains in their heads." Inan grumbled.
He then began communicating with his cadets in low growls, grunts, and soft snarls. The dragons in the class, all but Kilnik and Shasiv lowered their heads in embarrassment.
Billet nodded at Inan and then began his own address. "What was that?" He asked. His students flinched, their attention on him while the dragon's heads and eyes were all on Inan. "I expect better of fourth-year cadets." He emphasized every word. "You will be going into the Corps soon, and yet you were all so caught up in the skirmish between four classmates that you all leaped after them without a second thought. In a battle, we all have our roles to play. As far as skill matchups go Cadets Cade, Aliya, Shasiv, and Kilnik are evenly matched and after doing a quick assessment that should be obvious in aerial combat. If your teammate fell then it would be appropriate for one of two of you to jump in and try to conquer a stronger enemy, but not all of you diving after them like fools. This was a team battle, there were more enemies to defeat than just one unit of the opposing team. Why did none of you engage each other?"
The lecture continued until he was sure they were thoroughly aware of what a stupid and amateur mistake they'd all made. That was the kind of useless thing that could get you killed. Some may wonder why they trained in aerial combat at all. Ever since the war dragons in the hands of anyone outside the Empire were at an all-time low. Some people said Tate and Aquana had wiped them out, but those in the military knew that was not completely the case. There were a few dragons still out there that may be a threat to national security, there were also males and females among them, so the possibility of new eggs outside Imperial control could not be ruled out. Even though to outsiders, students one day engaging in war above the ground may seem unlikely, it was still something they must always be prepared for. As he'd aged and been in the Dragon Corps himself at one point Inan and himself had come to realize that the world was a much wider place than those in the Empire liked to believe. The Empire may have much of the realm under its control for the last few years but there were still threats out there, unrest, and not to mention the mysterious land to the south. It was an accepted fact that people lived on that land across the straight but they were never heard from. There was only the occasional artifact to wash up on the Clystine Shore to remind them of their existence. Who knew if they had dragons of their own? Whenever trade or exploration had been tried in the past it had always ended with disappearances.
The lecture ended and the cadets went their separate ways. Billet couldn't help but notice that four cadets left together, Cade, Aliya, Kilnick and Shasiv went in the same direction.