HveWithstoodPain

Aine



Lore:
It was darker than usual that night. The clouds wouldn’t let any light from the moon and stars reach the ground.
The priestess scowled. On a typical battlefield, her golden armor was blinding. But in the darkness, she was little more than a common soldier. It was unsurprising, then, that she was in a foul mood. She waited, and when no one reacted, she scowled again more loudly.
“What?” growled Skifra, resting on a nearby mound.
Satisfied, the priestess finally spoke. “I’d very much like to meet the fool who sent us out here to die.”
“What are you getting at?”
“How are we expected to fight? I can barely see the soldiers in front of me now. Friendly fire will be an inevitability once the battle begins.”
Skifra grinned, though the priestess couldn’t know that. “Surely you’re not thinking of deserting?”
“Of course not. I only-”
“Then stop your complaining, coward.”
The priestess turned so quickly that the soldiers near her were almost blown off their feet.
“How dare y-”
A piercing sound in the distance, a hundred war cornets played all at once. The feud between the two warriors was immediately forgotten. Skifra and the priestess stiffened and watched the invading soldiers come down from the hills. They heard someone gasp, and whirled around. “Damn it!” said the priestess. “How did they get behind us?”
For the army wasn’t only attacking from the front. Their forces emerged from the forest to the west, the mountains to the east, and somehow…
“The southern capital was supposed to be watching for flanking troops! The incompetence of them all!”
“Be quiet! There’s nothing to be done now.” said Skifra, gripping her sword tightly between her claws. But the priestess could tell that Skifra was as furious as she was at their allies.

The two armies were similar in size, but the attackers were moving strategically. They’d charge in and break a defense formation, then immediately pull back from their weakened foes. Again and again they emerged from the little skirmishes almost unscatched. Only in Skifra and the priestess’ group were the defenders gaining any ground.
The priestess threw herself into the most intense areas on the battlefield, using her sheer size and unparalleled strength to knock the enemies off their feet.
Skifra was half the priestess’s size and couldn’t do the same. She’d hang back, protected by the darkness, and then fly in and wipe out the soldiers that the priestess had disoriented and confused.
But they couldn’t win the battle by themselves. The fight dragged on until the two were exhausted and weakened by injury. Their area, the last bastion of the defense, began falling to the enemy as Skifra and the priestess were forced to be more cautious or risk losing their lives.

It was quiet on the battlefield, the last handful of defenders holed up together and preparing for the end. Rain began falling; the dark clouds unleashed bright bolts of lightning, flashing in the distance.
Their vision obscured by the storm, Skifra and the priestess didn’t see the skydancer when she flew in from above. It was only once the enemies had surrounded them completely that she came around, a small, spinning blur of swords and blood.
She was less a dragon than an extension of the storm. Wherever she went, short shouts of terror and pain were instantly silenced. Listeners were left to wonder if they were hearing things, though they never had the chance to wonder for long.

“Ha!” The priestess exclaimed, as she emerged from her hiding place. “It seems the reinforcements are competent, at the very least.”
Skifra narrowed her eyes, watching the devastation. She knew everyone of note in their army, and the new combatant was unfamiliar to her. To her right, a little fae was watching, entranced, as their apparent savior slaughtered the enemy.
“Thank you!” He cried. Skifra prayed that his voice wouldn’t reach the skydancer. Her hopes were dashed. The skydancer turned slowly to the source of the noise, then moved too quickly for Skifra’s eyes to follow. In a second, the fae was dead on the ground, sinking into the mud.

“Why did you do that?” shouted the priestess before Skifra could stop her.
The bloody dragon flew at her, but the priestess blocked her attack with her own sword. “Damn you!” She growled. The skydancer backed off, seemingly noticing the massive difference in their sizes.
She attacked again and was blocked again. She couldn’t get a hit in, and the priestess couldn’t counterattack, so for a few moments they appeared evenly matched. But the priestess wasn’t at her strongest. The skydancer pushed her back step by step, and each time she attacked, the priestess reacted more and more slowly, until finally she failed to stop her opponent’s blade. The skydancer slashed her in the side, and the priestess howled out in pain.

“What are you doing back there! Help me!” The priestess screamed, and Skifra snapped out of her stupor.
Skifra slashed at the skydancer from behind. The skydancer dodged, and in that moment, the priestess managed to graze her back.

The skydancer didn’t make a sound, but her red eyes widened in surprise. She stared at the two warriors without a trace of malice, then silently flew off. They let her go without a fight. Neither were in any condition to follow after.

Gradually, the storm dissolved, leaving only a gentle drizzle of rain. The droplets fell onto the corpses, carefully wiping the splotches of mud off their face before sliding off onto the earth.
Skifra supported the priestess as they left the battlefield. They walked beside a few dozen fellow soldiers, all silent and shocked. The priestess gazed off into the distance through blurry vision, and thought she saw a few surviving enemies scurrying away to safety. But she remembered the skydancer and decided her eyes must be playing tricks on her.

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