Crowned in Black: Chapter 51

We appeared right over the entry to Vastil Pass, barely a quarter of a mile behind the might of Janos' fleet. A hundred and fifty dragons - white, silver, green and blue - with Karalti in the lead swooped down toward the unprotected sterns in a booming, screeching flock.

As we closed on the rear-most artillery ships, cheers went up - until the moment that Karalti's Queensong rolled through the fleet in a shockwave of magically-enhanced sound, pitching men to their hands and knees as her brothers and sisters lay waste to their ships. We converged on them like sharks in a feeding frenzy, dragons skimming by the airships and blasting their shields apart with bolt after bolt of lightning. Within minutes, ten of Janos' Dakhari destroyers were sinking to the ground or plunging out of the air. Exuberant dragons swarmed them and tore them to pieces, ululating in victory.

"Cavalry's here!" I called over the group chat. "Two hundred dragons and change on-route. Prepare to route the fleet back out from the Pass: we're hitting them from behind and taking out what artillery we can, and then we're joining up with you."

"You glorious bloody bastards!" Suri cackled over the line. "Fuckin’ hell, am I glad to hear from you. You better hurry, though. Temeri’s taking a pounding, and not in the fun way."

"Shields are at 2.5% over here, and we just lost our eastern tower support," Gar added - though he sounded more cheerful than anyone on the verge of being overrun by the enemy had any right to be. "So move your asses and get over here."

“This is our territory! Our land!” Karalti led the dragons over the bulk of the 3rd Fleet and into the Pass itself, spitting fire and lightning down at any ship that tried to fire on us. There was a roar of agony as a lucky shot took one of our blues in the wing joint. Dragon and rider pitched down, flapping desperately. Karalti felt it happen through our Bond, and screeched. With hive-like synchronicity, two other dragons broke their flight pattern and dove in to catch and steady their tumbling brother before he hit the deck of one of the Destroyers.

We blew over Vastil Pass, filling it. Karalti teleported a short distance ahead, and every dragon in our retinue engaged Burst Flight to keep up as we powered our way to Temeri. Ship-to-ship skirmishing was fierce inside of the Pass itself, with magic and small arms being flung between the Myszno 1st Fleet and the Vlachian 3rd. More cheers went up from the ships that hadn't seen or yet heard of the carnage behind, until they also started to burn.

The smoke from Temeri was visible a mile away, where the battle was fiercest. One of our Destroyers was under heavy bombardment from a dozen out-of-control dragons, the encircling orb-shaped shields sputtering and failing under the assault of their Light element breath-weapons. Shells and grapeshot screamed past. Some of the rounds left trails - others were practically invisible to normal eyes until they exploded against the side of a ship or its shields, or until we saw a dragon spin over and plummet toward the ground, wings flapping limply.

"Come to me!" Karalti cried out with an odd, high warbling pitch before she burst into her second available Queensong. We lurched to one side as her wings stroked the air erratically: I lay a hand on her neck, and fortified her with my own willpower as she built into her song: as pure and piercing as glass, as deep as a raven's caw. It rolled through the battlefield, and every dragon it passed over turned their heads toward us, roaring in reply. Riders shook the cobwebs from their heads, suddenly possessed of will and freedom in their own minds - and instantly synchronized with their dragon's pure, primal need to join up with their Queen. As one, another hundred or so dragons shook off the shackles of the Diamond Pact and turned on their former allies, to the shock of Janos' fleet. A wing of whites burst away from the harried Myszno Destroyers and fell on the nearest Dakhari cruiser.

I frantically brought up the KMS and took control of the Army - issuing the immediate order to not target any dragons. The swift change in orders resulted in the army briefly seizing fire as it got its bearings - which allowed us to swoop in and start laying waste to the enemy fighting on the ground.

"We've got the dragons! Let's drive these fuckers out!" I leaned with Karalti, urging her to dive and light up a column of mercenaries. They only needed to lose a couple of platoons to fire and lightning before they turned and began to stampede away from the plunging, roaring dragons.

There was a distant roar from up ahead, and then the piercing, teeth-jarring choral notes of our Symphonic Arrays. As the artillery fire on the Myszno forces ground to a halt, our own fleet was able to steam forward. The dreadnaught Metternichwas in the lead, with the Campbelland the Gae Bolg flanking. The Metternich’s ports opened, releasing a furious swarm of dragoons to join the Solonkratsu now laying waste to the enemy forces - and with Admiral Lostra at the helm, I saw how the dreadnaughts were supposed to be used. The great airship held position as our Destroyers rapidly gained altitude and flew to pincer Janos’ ships from the sides. As they herded the aircraft with their Symphonic Arrays, tanking flanking hits and sheltering the dragons zipping behind then, the Metternich’s hammerhead-shaped prow gaped with a massive array of cannons that opened fire on the shield-stripped enemy Destroyers like a giant shotgun. The battery literally shredded the airships ahead of it, sending them raining down on the swirling troops below. The airships who managed to survive, listing and belching smoke, reversed back towards the west; others ceased fire, their sailors waving from the decks.

"We sent our message to the 3rd. Sailors are surrendering: Hold your fire." I shot the message off, watching carefully. "Karalti, get everyone circling the ships, but hold off capsizing any. The gunners are leaving their stations."

No sooner had I said that than the first white flag began to fly from the decks of the 3rd Fleet's lead ship. More and more of them sprung up, hoisted up on the rigging, or simply waved frantically from the decks. I grinned behind the cracked visor of my helm.

"Alright! Let's rout the rest of these fuckers!" I called over the chat. "Myszno for Myszno!"

Our army roared at the sight of the Vlachian ships surrendering: morale suddenly surged, ships and soldiers carrying the fight toward the entry of the Pass ten miles away. My eyes flicked around the KMS as I repositioned our forces, ordering the ground troops and cavalry to halt half a mile from Temeri so they didn't accidentally run into the depleted minefield that still blocked the road further down. Suri was in the system, too, simultaneously issuing orders to Temeri’s artillery.

"Hector, have the dragons and all other airborne keep minimum altitude 1000ft," Suri announced. "We're going to hammer them fast and low for the next two miles."

"Got it!" Karalti heard the message through me, and let out a piercing rallying cry to our dragons. The flight, now swelled to nearly two hundred and fifty souls, echoed the call down the line. Without another word between them, every dragon flawlessly split into their color-sorted companies, weaving through the air to join up as we rose above the killzone. The Knights of St Grigori were all disciplined veterans, and the knights themselves - while disoriented by the sudden release of the Diamond Pact - seemed to understand what their dragons instinctively knew.

Behind us, Temeri's ramparts began to boom and rumble as our artillery engaged the retreating mercenaries and the few Vlachian ships that hadn't surrendered. Clods of dirt flew from the ground as our Destroyers joined the deadly chorus. Within minutes, Janos' forces were in complete disarray, scattering as individual soldiers panicked and began to bolt out of formation. Vastil Pass had turned into a slaughterhouse chute. All we had to do was harry them.

I guided Karalti to an outcropping of rock as she lurched to one side. Her scales were boiling hot, chest heaving, her hearts racing. My dragon had reached the end of her now-formidable strength.

“Pit stop time, Tidbit. Here.” I climbed her neck, grabbed a horn and swung out to her muzzle. Karalti gratefully opened her mouth to receive our one remaining dragon-sized stamina potion. She was down to 2% - it topped her off to 17%. Not enough, but it was what we had. “You can do this. We’re nearly there.”

“What a day, huh?” Karalti rumbled - a sound I felt, rather than heard, as our artillery built into drumfire. The cannons and mortars were a near constant roar. “I can feel my mother in the Heartstone, even in my Inventory. She’s telling me the same thing. That we’re nearly there.”

“We are,” I affirmed. “How does it feel to command your first flight?”

Karalti’s neck arched like a swan’s. “It feels right.”

A cloud of dragons stalked Janos’ retreat, and I watched in satisfaction as the surviving mercenary airships and the Dakhari forces split away in all directions, scattering like frightened sheep to escape the oncoming horde of dragonkind. The reservists were lifting off and running, too - leaving the camp Janos had thrown up to marshal his forces undefended. Our flight converged on it, and within minutes, the magical anti-air shields were depleted, the damn thing burning to the ground.

[Janos of Czongrad (The Regent’s Fleet) has been defeated!]

[You gain 8931 EXP!]

[Congratulations! You are Level 42! Suri is Level 43! Rin Lu is Level 37! Garcia Martinez is Level 35!]

[You gain new achievement: My Brother, My Enemy]

[Your Kingdom has gained new resources! Check your Kingdom Management System for details!]

"Got him." Fierce satisfaction welled up in my chest - and more than a little pride in how well my new, mostly-untried army had handled this monster of a fleet. I was awed, too, at just how much difference the dragons made. It was no wonder Ilia had stood alone for so long despite its relatively small size, and that the revolution had been decided when the Knight-Commander had abandoned the king and thrown in with the Republic. "Good work, everyone."

"We did it?" Rin asked over the link. She sounded shaken. "Oh thank goodness. I'm deaf from all these guns."

"Hell yeah, boy!" Gar cheered. "Me too. Deaf, I mean. And poor old Jacob here is curled up like a shrimp on the floor, hah. Least you can’t shit yourself in Archemi, hey, puta?"

“Urrgh.” Jacob groaned over the VC.

"Fucking brilliant job, all of you," Suri affirmed. "Szonja just told me Ignas and Rutha want to RV with us all at Litvy Castle."

I scowled. "Ignas? Why the hell is he in Litvy?! He shouldn't even be out of bed!"

"He's the bloody king, Hector. What are Simeon, Masha and Rutha supposed to say to him? No?"

I sighed and rolled my eyes, even as I clapped Karalti on the shoulder. My dragon bugled in triumph - a cheer picked up by over two hundred scaled throats as her flight - OUR flight - echoed the savage joy of their Queen. We wheeled up into a great spiraling gyre, riding the heat of the plains and the burning fort, and then headed east into Myszno.