As a group the dragons angled their wings sharply to follow the gold hide of Tamaraniz and his rider into the oncoming swarm of bladed insectoids. Even those who were not part of the Pyresian Wing Host turned towards the battle with snarls and bared teeth, their reptilian eyes narrowed eagerly for the carnage ahead.

Tam's breath weapon alone had disrupted the spinning cone of buzzing bugs, half of them beginning to fall from the sky dead or dying as their metallic wings rusted away. They landed in squealing thumps in the grassland below, twitching like flies dying on a windowsill. 

Mojavico positioned himself carefully in relation to the dragons ahead of him, cautious of being caught in the breath weapon of another dragon. As a fellow [i]Uvelu[/i] he didn't have to worry about Tam's acid, but he had a fiery passenger to worry about. 

The horizon tilted and he turned downwards at the ground. Ahead of him there was a blinding white flash as Vesenthicar unleashed her own weapon, white static building up on her stout skull until it ballooned out, jolting in jagged blue-white arcs from one skeeter to another until nearly two dozen fell, sparking, out of the air. Other dragons lashed out with claws and teeth, and upon realizing that the creatures were at least partly composed of metal, began snapping them out of the air like lizards lapping up crickets.

There wasn't much Drache could do except hold on and watch lest her claws loose their grip on Mojavico's tail during the dive. Like many of the other half-dragons, she had come to the conclusion that the best place for her would be down in the streets where the true dragons would be little help. 

For her, the arc of blue smoke heading for the city, an order for the dragons to defend, was purely coincidental. It's what she planned to do anyways, until she saw where Tam was headed. 

The Wing of dragons seemed to split in twain, the more seasoned fighters leveling out and heading towards the second swarm and the massive creature within while the older, fatter, and slightly less aerobatic dragons maintained a course for Gold Ridge. The dragonkin, apart from Drache, joined them. 

[i]Thud, thump, [b]thud[/b].[/i] Dragons landed on the ground just outside the city, their wings folding and their tails lashing as they fell upon the Skeeters. Fire and lightning crackled, different colours of light blossoming across the walls of the buildings as reinforcements for the villagers arrived. The half-dragons weren't all here as mercenaries looking for work, but most of them were familiar with bloodshed in some style or another. Drawing blade and cudgel, or simply unsheathing their claws, they rushed down the streets to mingle with Gold Ridge's defenders where they'd be most...effective. A huge scarred dragonkin with tattered wings and scales such a dark green that they were almost black strode right past Verissa and sliced a Skeeter in half with a pitted double-bladed sword, the strike so vicious that the flying body parts slaughtered the Skeeters on either side.

Back in the air, Mojavico and the other warrior-drakes had identified the eel-like flying centipede as the greatest threat. The huge reptiles circled the swarm, picking off the smaller Skeeters by the dozen. The Princess itself was far more agile than they were, turning sharply, almost impossibly, in midair. More than one dragon bellowed in rage as she watched her breath weapon streak uselessly through open air as the huge insect simply whipped around it. 

[color=ed1c24]"Here's an idea!"[/color] Drache bellowed, not sure that Mojavico would be able to hear her before the rushing wind whipped the words out of her teeth. Thankfully, the wedgelike crest turned slightly and Drache saw the light teal eye looking back at her. [color=ed1c24]"This is all wasted effort if we don't kill [i]that[/i] thing. It's too fast! I think I can be faster, but it'll work best if we can get some help! Are there any [i]Xarxi[/i] in this Wing?"[/color]

Mojavico looked around. There weren't many ice dragons left in Pyresia and he didn't think any of them had joined this little excursion. The faintly-striped copper male ducked through a few straggling Skeeters, bashing them with his boney wings, before spotting a familiar stocky dragon in the distance. [color=7bcdc8]"There! Galceledas!"[/color] He turned towards the stocky, short-limbed drake and added as an afterthought, [color=7bcdc8]"By the hells, what is he even doing here?"[/color]

[color=ed1c24]"I don't care, I just need you to tell him to ice that thing before I get there, and then tell Tam and that specky dwarf of his to get everyone to line it up straight if then can."[/color]

The half-dragon sounded certain, but Mojavico was having his doubts.

[color=7bcdc8]"And then what, may I ask?"[/color]

Drache grinned, a puff of smoke streaming from her nostrils.

[color=ed1c24]"You're going to help me blow it up."[/color] She just hoped the true dragons would take orders from a half-breed.

Behind her and in the back of her mind she heard a crackling sigh.

[color=f7941d]"Work, work, work."[/color]