New chapter sneak peek!

Here is a sneak peek of the new chapter! Sorry for the delay, I had a serious case of writer's block and lack of time.

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“The changelings! They’re here!”

Immediately, the griffons stood in alert. Around the palisade, the troops prepared their weapons and got ready. A few griffons got ready to fly and meet changelings in the air. Darius unsheathed his sword.

A black blur fell from the sky at rapid speeds and crashed against the ground. A small explosion happened, two griffons shouting in pain as pieces of dark material exploded from it. They fell down hard just as another blur fell. Dimitri was about to ask what was that when Darius shouted.

“They’re dropping! Shields and pikes up, fire arrows at the beasts when you see them!”

Dimitri looked confusedly at the griffon when he turned and looked at one of the small craters the explosion had made. In it, the vague form of a changeling was visible.

“They’re throwing themselves down at us?!” he exclaimed at the now-covering Quick Claw. The griffon nodded.

“Yes, they have an ability that lets them explode when they crash at high speeds!”

At that time, fighting had begun. Hundreds upon hundreds of changelings suddenly erupted from the trees surrounding the camp, clashing against the griffon soldiers. Dimitri noticed as at least a dozen changelings threw themselves at a griffon. The griffon used a large battle hammer to shove half of them away in a bloody mass, but the other managed to strike him deadly blows with their horns. The griffon screamed in pain as they stabbed him with them. In a powerful strike, he shoved the changelings off of him, but then fell down, barely breathing. Another one nearby hadn’t been so lucky.

Four changelings lay impaled on his spear; however, that had made the griffon unable to keep using it and he now had five changelings on top of him, each one stabbing with their horns. The griffon fell with a cry of pain as a changeling finished him.

Dimitri cursed as he looked away and saw another dozen changelings going at him. He looked down and saw a trembling Quick Claw. Swiftly, he pulled the particularly small griffon into the tank with him. He rapidly closed the hatch and heard loud thumps as the changelings crashed against the tank's armor.

The griffon looked shocked at the human.

“What are you waiting for!” he shouted. “Go to the visor and tell me where there are huge masses of those bugs together!”

Quick Claw nodded and quickly sat himself (though a little uncomfortably). He peeked and saw the scene outside. It was total chaos. At least twenty changelings were trying to open the tank either by hitting it, scratching it, or throwing magic at it. It seemed futile, though. As for the rest, the griffons were clearly losing. Although the griffon troops were killing more changelings, the enormous mass of those bugs seemed too much for them all.

“Tell me in degrees how much to turn!” Dimitri shouted from behind. Quick Claw looked behind and saw the human placing a large and long metal thing inside a small hatch and closing it. He then jumped towards a seat and looked at him. “Where do I shoot?!”

The young griffon looked out again. “Turn thirty degrees left and fire.”

“And up or down?”

“Ehh… I think roughly twenty degrees?” he said doubful.

Dimitri looked at him annoyed. “You think or you know?!” he exclaimed. Quick Claw almost jumped at the annoyed human’s exclamation.

“Twenty degrees up!” he exclaimed. Dimitri nodded and pulled some levers. The tank’s turret rotated and he seemed to step on something as a loud boom rocked the tank a little. The sound deafened Quick Claw for a few seconds, and he managed to hear another loud explosion nearby. He quickly looked outside and noticed the fighting seemed to have been brought to a temporary halt as all looked at the tank. Almost immediately though, the fighting resumed.

Dimitri lowered himself again and loaded another one of those metal things.

“Okay, this is going to be impractical, we need a loader!” he said. Quick Claw looked outside.

“They’re too busy fighting,” he said. Dimitri positioned himself back at the place where he had fired.

“Give me another target!”

The griffon looked outside. He noticed three griffons cornered by a mass of many changelings, too large to count like that. “Fifty degrees right, twenty down!”

Again, the turret moved and the tank rocked as another blast sounded nearby. Quick Claw saw as changelings exploded and were sent flying in pieces. The griffons pushed as the changelings looked around, confused as to what had hit their comrades.

“We need a loader,” Dimitri said hurriedly. “Let’s go outside and call a griffon in, and fast.” He pulled a short metal tube with a handle from a short scabbard-looking thing on his belt.
Quick Claw unsheathed a short sword as Dimitri got near the hatch. He pushed it open and jumped outside. The sound of little explosions, like the tank’s, but way smaller, sounded outside. Quick Claw went outside behind the Russian and immediately had to use his sword to defend himself. He pushed three changelings away from him and looked for Dimitri.

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What do you guys think?