Eagle Guard of the North Wind (I)

*Crash!* *Boom! Boom!* Massive boulders crashed down one after another, striking the ground with deafening booms. Cassius dodged through the air with rapid shifts in direction, bursting with unimaginable speed. Few who had not seen it with their own eyes would believe this was a red dragon—a creature known for brute strength and clumsiness. *Crack!* The sound of fracturing rock abruptly split the cavern roof. Mid-flight at high speed, Cassius tilted his head slightly up, startled to discover that the rock ceiling above the exit was caving in. His expression grim, the red dragon snapped his wings tightly inward and tucked his limbs beneath his body. *Whoosh—* Like an arrow loosed from a bowstring, he dove straight down. At the final moment before the rubble collapsed completely, Cassius shot out of the cave entrance, the tip of his tail grazing past falling stone. *Rumble—* Immediately behind him came a deafening roar as dust billowed outward. Then came dead silence. The tomb was utterly buried beneath tons of stone, never again to be disturbed by prying eyes. Though in practical terms he had completely trashed someone's grave, in a sense it could also be seen as fulfilling the long-dormant wish of this storm giant elder. "Rest in peace," Cassius murmured, casting a final glance at the entrance now smothered under rock and soil. He patted the ancient runes on the pillar by the entrance and turned to leave. Uncurling his talons, the red dragon looked down; the eerie blue Eye of the Storm Sovereign still rested quietly within his grasp. "The power in this thing is too colossal to swallow directly. I'll need to find a vessel for it." Looming memories of the terrifying tempest just now still left him shaken. * * * Storm Heights, the Cinder Nest. Along the ramparts of Bedrock Fortress lay numerous corpses of goblins and kobolds, and even a few ogres. Nearly all of them had been killed with a single strike by arrows shot from the sky. Up in the sky, alongside the roars and hisses of wyverns, soared over forty massive giant eagles. The plumage of these giant eagles was sleek and vibrant, their vital areas protected by scale armor, and their wingspans stretched more than six meters wide. A closer look revealed that atop each giant eagle rode a knight clad in heavy plate armor, with only their eyes exposed. Across their breastplates was emblazoned the crest of an eagle crossed with swords. These were the Eagle Guard of House Lackman! House Lackman was known as the "Eagle of the North Wind" precisely because their ancestor, Tergai Lackman, had stolen giant eagle eggs from the highest peaks of Storm Bluff. He bred large numbers of giant eagles within his territory and trained elite giant eagle riders to serve as his personal guard. These giant eagle riders could repel invasions by monsters like frost giants and wyverns, and they served equally well as lethal instruments of war between feudal lords. Passed down from generation to generation, these knights known as the "Eagle Guard" possessed several centuries of history. The aerial battle was still underway. More than forty Eagle Guards—some drawing bows and notching arrows, others brandishing lances—steered their giant eagles in continuous flight around the eight wyverns. Trailing head to tail, they formed a massive encircling ring. They had ample experience fighting wyverns. Knowing well that they could not clash head-on with such colossal beasts, they exploited the wyverns' cumbersome size and poor midair turning ability against their own superior mobility. Thus, they adopted what was known as the "circle formation." Covering one another nose to tail, the Eagle Guards flew circles around the wyverns until the beasts were dizzy and disoriented. Whenever a wyvern lunged forward, it was met with a hail of arrows; and should it miss, a lance charge from behind awaited it. On the ground, the goblin forces were utterly helpless against these high-speed aerial targets, capable only of loosing limp, feeble arrows. Sapped of their momentum by air resistance, the arrows bounced harmlessly off the Eagle Guards' plate armor like mere tickles. The ogres bellowed and roared, hurling boulders haphazardly into the sky. One ogre didn't even bother aiming, simply chucking a rock skyward by pure instinct. *Thud!* The boulder traced a graceful arc through the air, miraculously managing to knock an unlucky Eagle Guard clean out of the sky. "Ooh! Hit 'em!" "Good job, Datou!" "Knock down all those little flies and meat cans!" Cheering wildly in their frenzy, the ogres swarmed forward and tore the giant eagle and its knight to shreds. Not to be outdone, Langpu, standing at the highest point of the wall, waved his greatclub toward the sky. "*Fireball*!" A searing ball of fire shot straight toward the giant eagles in the sky. Yet under the rider's masterful maneuvering, the giant eagle pulled off a sharp aerial spin to evade it. The fireball grazed past its chest, leaving behind only a trail of scorched feathers. Although it missed, the deterrent effect was potent, instantly putting the Eagle Guards on high alert. "A spellcaster!" "Stay clear of that section of the wall! Damn it, how is there such a thing as an ogre mage?" "Look out, there's a caster over there!" Langpu's face was clouded with gloom. The giant eagle knights were far too mobile; more often than not, before he could even finish constructing the spell matrix for his Fireball, they had already soared high out of reach. And even if they managed to bring down one or two with boulders, that was sheer luck. Langpu pushed up the tiny spectacles on his face and muttered under his breath, "Can't count on the goblins, and these brainless wyverns are useless too. We'll have to rely on that beast, or... wait for Master to return and deal with them. "No, it's just a few dozen humans. "Master will be disappointed in me." At that thought, the ogre mage turned toward a cave on the cliff face and roared in Draconic, "Chimera! If you don't make a move now, are you waiting for Master to return and rip you to shreds?" *Roar—* A furious bellow erupted from the cave. The colossal beast with the three heads of a goat, a lion, and a dragon charged out from the dark cavern, beat its dragon-like wings, and soared into the sky. "It's a chimera!" an Eagle Guard cried out in midair. "Break formation!" A calm, steady voice rang out across the sky. The speaker was Alger Yeoman, captain of this unit of the Eagle Guard and a seasoned warrior. Beneath his heavy standard-issue plate armor was a pair of exceedingly calm eyes. Unlike the others, his weapon was neither lance nor bow, but a heavy greatsword engraved with the openwork motif of a soaring eagle. Flapping its wings, the chimera flew directly to the highest vantage point. *Awoo—* It unleashed a long, piercing roar. Then, in its most practiced maneuver, it went into a gliding dive, spewing a searing breath of flame from its maw. The Eagle Guards immediately broke their original formation and scattered to evade the fiery assault. Yet against the chimera diving at breakneck speed, three of the Eagle Guards were unable to dodge in time. Engulfed by tongues of flame, they ignited into blazing torches in midair before tumbling toward the earth with agonizing shrieks. Seeing his comrades fall, Alger barked, "Leave this chimera to me! The rest of you keep those wyverns encircled!" Leaning slightly forward, he stroked his giant eagle's feathers and whispered, "Igor, here we go!" Living and fighting side by side, the giant eagle and its knight understood each other tacitly without the need for words. *Screeech—* A sharp eagle screech echoed through the sky.