//------------------------------// // Chapter fifty six, Huoshan Hellfire: Torch. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -The Volcano, Upper Tier, Arizona- “Arizona, what… is that?” Turning my head to Fortitude as he smashed one of those beast golems to pieces against a wall with that cool shield. “Hold on a second!” After I finished pounding a metal wyvern into a vaguely ball shaped mass of lumpy metal, I just grabbed the untouched tail and looked about. Now I just needed a target for my makeshift flail. “Okay, what did you want me to…? Yeah… that’s… that’s definitely bad. Maybe worse than the giant worm shadow we fought at Haven’s Patch. That’s a greater shadow monster if I ever saw one!” Rising up in the distance, barely within the light being given off by all the longma darting around and flinging fireballs into the shadow horde, I could see a fairly large shadow monster that looked like a large dragon dripping with lesser shadows. With each breathe it seemed that the light of this night immediately died around its head for a few seconds. Other longma were resorting to physically ramming themselves into the metal wyverns as fire did nothing to them, they were not fighting said wyverns over the lower tier of the city which has now become infested by shadow monsters. “Don’t let that thing get over the second tier!” I called out to a nearby longma while pointing to the dragon, he looked in the direction of the large dragon shadow as he kicked the head off a pony golem with a one legged buck. “Spread the word, any shadow that can fly is a major problem and its worse when it can spill those lesser shadows everywhere. You’re walls of fire mean absolute squat to that thing!” The Huoshan Guard turned back to me, nodded and then took off towards the middle tier with flames jetting out his back, tail and hooves. I looked to the shadow dragon and looked down at the segment metal tail that I still held in my hooves, said tail was connected to a large mass. “Clear some space out for me Fortitude, I’ve got a special deliver for that thing!” He did as I asked by running an outwards spiraling circle around me pushing away any golems that were close by. Once he was done, I began heaving the mass of metal to drag it along the ground as I started my spin. -Middle Tier, Huoshan Hospital, Tianhuo- “Hurry up!” I groused angrily at the kitsune tending my wounds. I would normally be calm and rational, but my city was under attack and I had a strong need to get back out there. “There is quite some waste, when you ask me to make haste, they are injuries.” Sweetcakes was correct, she couldn’t rush job this and the speed of her healing required time and effort on her part. “You hurt yourself well, smashing a metal monster, time can heal most wounds.” She was understating it, I ripping a hole clean through it when I plowed my body through the torso a metal wyvern. It was inoperable and I might have gotten badly cut up by going straight through its innards like I did. It was all for a good cause though, that thing was attacking Pom after all. Sweetcakes took a step away from me, nodded and bowed her head. I darted towards the entrance of the hospital as the next injured longma went in looking after me with awe. Yes, I was quite brave to rush straight back into battle despite coming in with some nasty injuries, said bad injuries were all my fault. I shall endeavor to do better, hopefully until the morning sun comes. I stopped near the entrance when I saw Velvet drinking a pitcher of water with ice in it and her ice sprite was helping her cool down. Ignoring that, I approached the entrance and saw that Paprika was outside aiding Pom’s canines, which was much to my relief that the hospital had more coverage. Pom was staying back with her cute little puppy guards, they were looking about eagerly for targets to rip apart at the lambkins next command. The Huoshan Guard had the hospital better covered now that the lower tier no longer needed anyone to defend it. Speaking of, a longma was standing next to the entrance of the hospital with his spear at the ready. He was watching the sky and his surroundings for any golems that would dare to try and get by him. I approached him and quickly recognized him while doing so. “Situation report, now Yang, abbreviate it if you have to!” The guard turned to me and immediately does so. “The walking airship is turning around, Teatime has likely noticed the shadow horde coming up behind him and that thing has flamethrowers. Useless against us, but he’s planned for several eventualities like adding spiked cleats to the six hooves of his airship. We’re still under attack by golems and the shadows are just about done flooding the lower tier. Firewalls are up and fully operational. I think things are going well enough for the situation ma’am.” He pointed to the sky and at the large dragon made of shadows flying forward, which was dripping with other smaller shadows. It looked to be a personification of darkness and a physical nightmare unleashed onto this world. “Also there’s that!” “Where’s your brother’s squad right now and what are they currently doing?” I knew that squad wasn’t currently on the upkeep of the firewalls. “They’re hitting the shadow horde with heavy sustained long range bombardments, though I think I can see him from here. Yeah, he’s pulling his squad back to over to the middle tier of the city.” Looking at where Yang was, I nodded as I spotted them retreating overhead while raining fireballs constantly into the lower tier. That was a good call, didn’t want anyone falling into the shadow horde if they get knocked out, stunned or suddenly become incapable of flight at an inopportune moment. We didn’t want any lethal burn outs during all this. “It looks like they’re going to continue bombardment of the shadow horde from a much safer position.” “Fine, leave them to it, where do you think we’re needed most aside from here. This area is well defended now.” We could focus our efforts on Teatime’s airship and destroy it, but then the shadow horde might take advantage of us doing so. “Do we take on the large shadow dragon or those golems still running rampant? We’re going to leave Teatime's airship alone.” “I think…” A large lumpy ball of warped metal smashed the dragon in the face knocking it out of the air and back towards the base of the volcano, Yang turned to me looking stunned with whoever did that. “As long as the firewalls are up, we need to deal with all the golems running around unless that dragon comes close to flying right over them. It’s going to be a problem though, it’s been noted that the pony golems are being repeatedly repaired and we can’t do anything about it. Don’t know about the beast or wyvern golems, they don’t seem to be capable of being quickly repaired.” “I’m more worried about Nefer being inside Teatime’s airship. Skelly is already mounting a rescue and possible sabotage of the insides of his airship. I only hope that she’s able to get away before Teatime’s ship eventually runs out of fuel for those flamethrowers.” Turning to see Gene come in for a landing. He looked a little tired, but otherwise was uninjured. I took to the air to see Clockwork’s ship firing flames down the staircase at the shadow monsters coming up it, also the front end of the ship started to open outwards ominously. “We should keep dealing with the wyvern golems, things will become a lot easier once they are all gone.” The shadow dragon roared and floated to being above the lower tier of the city and started to pick up speed. It wasn’t damaged in the slightest and it still looked powerful. At least it had looked powerful until it took a large beam of dark energy with colorful streams in it, said beam plowed into the shadow dragon and forced it roughly back into the ground at the base of the volcano, again. It didn’t take a minute for the shadow dragon to get back up and start moving forward, it would take Oleander some time build up for another one of those and we didn’t have anything else to hit the dragon with. “Oleander is doing a good job, we should find a way to repay her for all the help.” I commented idly as I bucked a leaping beast golem higher up into the air. Yang pierced it with his spear several rapid stabs before pulling backwards and letting Gene finished it off with swing that sliced it apart chest to hip. They both turned to me. “Right, let’s keep focusing on the wyverns and hope that…” A wyvern was slammed into the ground by Paprika nearby. “We survive this night to see the sun again. Don't we have anything else we can hit that dragon with to keep stalling it?” When the machine started glowing brightly, Paprika proceeded to wrap it’s torso in her fur and then, with a single heave, she launched it towards the lower tier where it exploded taking out a massive patch of shadows. The empty space on the ground below was soon filled with shadows once more within seconds. Things were getting darker and much harder to see down there, if not for the number of fireballs being flung at the shadow horde from above. Those not occupied with fighting metal wyverns were hitting the shadow dragon with a massive number of fireballs, didn’t seem to be slowing it down or even doing any damage at all. “Okay, that confirms it. That shadow dragon needs to die, but it’s immune to fire like a real dragon.” I could see why a shadow monster like that would be attacking Huoshan. We, the longma, would not become the hoof-hold for the shadow horde to destroy this world from! -Stairs between upper tier and palace, Arizona- “What do you mean you can’t do that again? Those longma aren’t doing a thing to it!” We’ve managed to knock it back twice, but it wasn’t going to stay down and it doesn’t help that it was practically immune to fire. Not a good thing when a majority of your side has fire as a primary form of attack. “I told you, Fred and I need the time to build up enough energy to do that!” Ollie had told me that she couldn’t fire another shot that powerful for another minute or so, it was not something I wanted to hear. “I also need to concentrate and it’s hard to do that with you yelling at me to hurry up!” “Yeah, please give Ollie some space, BECAUSE SHE ABOSLUTELY NEEDS IT!” Backing away from the open Fred being read quickly by Ollie, I turned to Jacky to see if she had anything. Jacky was looking at the shadow dragon in the distance and then she turned her gaze to the sky. “Do you really expect us to get help from above?” I asked. The sounds of several cannons firing was heard and several spherical shapes slammed home into the dragon’s head, throat, chest, pelvis and lower belly region twice. The dragon was knocked down and onto its back near the lower tier gates by the force of multiple exploding cannonballs striking it. “Yes, because the Ardent Survivor is still up there and there is likely a butterfly at the helm.” Jacky took her bow out and pulled out a golf ball. A golf ball, against that thing, really? She put it to the string and took aim. “I have no idea who taught him how to fly the ship though. It’s a tossup between Gene, Flotsam and Savannah.” The roar from the shadow dragon could be heard from here, it was quite angry after being hit with multiple cannonballs. “Did somebody call my name?” Savannah came running down the stairs, she was wearing fighter wraps around her paws, arms and legs. “Did you teach Belfry how to fly the Ardent Survivor?” Jacky turned a threatening gaze to her, 'somewhat promiscuous', Abyssinian crew mate as she drew the string back with the golf ball. “Who me, do you seriously think I would I do that Captain Blackcap?" Despite Savannah’s words, Jacky still had her gaze firmly locked on Savannah as she released the golf ball. "I wouldn’t trust a butterfly with high altitude steering in the slightest.” A rainbow arced away into the city showing everyone the exact flight path of where that golf ball was going. The shadow dragon was looking up into the air and leapt up to get airborne, only for it to suddenly be hit by the tip of the rainbow mid leap in the chin. The golf ball, having thrown it off balance despite its large size, made it flip backwards and land on its head and flop onto its belly. “That was an impressive shot Jacky!” Savannah clapped her paws together while smiling cheerful. “Answer the question Savannah…” Jacky narrowed her eyes at the cat who continued to smile. “Maybe a little…” Savannah held up a clawed thumb and finger close together. “But Flotsam and Gene helped!” “Quick question, who in their right mind would leave a dog brained giant butterfly in charge of piloting an airship?” The flat no nonsense tone Jacky spoke in made me shiver. I know I’m stronger than her, but that was about as frosty as Velvet can get. “Well look at it this way Jacky… it hasn’t crashed yet!” Behind Savannah, we all watched as The Ardent Survivor fell a few hundred feet and then reoriented itself before it rammed into the reinforced palace at the top of the stairs. Savannah turned to the airship and then back to us. “At least Flotsam trusted that he could pilot it for a short amount of time…” “Long enough for her to… pull it back up before it hurt someone?!” Jacky as she rolled out of the path of a stray fireball. She turned to yell at the longma that nearly hit her. “Hey, watch it, you almost caused a friendly fire incident!” “To be fair, fire is neither friendly nor evil! It equally consumes many things without a single thought of its own.” The cross eyed looking yellow longma yelled back as he flew several odd loops around the wired wyvern trying to hit him with its claws and tail. “While it could become capable of conscious thought with magic, it would still be fire and decidedly only friendly to those who could properly help it contain itself!” Said longma proceeded to fire a fireball that went wide… by about forty feet… in the opposite direction of the wired wyvern… even when it should be well known by now that fire wasn’t working on them. I turned to look down at the lower tier and saw the shadow dragon was getting up again. “Shadow dragon is up again, does anyone have any good ideas as to what else we can hit it with?” A second later I watched a humongous fireball strike it from above. Fire couldn't hurt it, but the raw force of that attack certainly did. A humongous dragon slowly descended from the clouds.