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Lord of Azure Flame Chapter 24x: Fires of Liberation


Phoenix
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When Lt. Frederikov had seen the informant brought to Borodin for conversation, she had tabled standard protocol for the moment, anticipating there may soon be need for her immediately at her superior's side whereas coordinating the siege engines was no longer priority one. Her judgement had given her the time she needed to maneuver amidst the wind and the quaking, which had not yet let up at this part of the fortress, and that meant that she was at the ready when the general laid out her request. Without delay, she located a sky-blue coded spirit doll, the one tied to Zolkov, and handed it over. Crashing sounds had started up on the sides of the mountain, as chunks of crusted snow and ice, dislodged by the constant violent tremors began sliding, rolling, and pitching down the mountainside. The constant threat of avalanches was yet one of the many defenses that had rightly earned the citadel its reputation as being impregnable to assault, certainly from any ground-based foes. It was unfortunate this time then, Iris thought, that it seemed they would bring nothing to this particular battle but a lot of noise.

"<Any others I should get ready or bring on the line for you, sir?>" she quickly asked, prepared to sort through the rest of the dolls so that no time would be lost after the conversation with Zolkov had ended.

"<Nobody in particular, but keep the other four for the main fortress out, I may need to talk to them soon,>" Borodin replied, not taking her eyes off the battle while Iris handed her the doll.

"<Understood,>" Iris acknowledged, keeping the red, green, white, and black coded dolls at the ready.

A bit of free time now, she turned and faced Ivan, hands on her hips. She wasn't much impressed with this one. Not that traitors in general tended to be any sort of decent, but this one in particular stank of weakness and low self-worth. "<Contact is easy, you say? Easy would be if you had a linked doll for us, which is obviously not the case,>" she retorted. "<And I don't know that just being a woman is going to be sufficient. What, are you going to fly back out there carrying one of us to try to get his attention?>"

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Wyvern

The wyvern snarled at them again holding its ground. It had to hold on until someone came looking for him, so he had to stay in one piece until then, and he still didn't trust this unfamiliar pair. The were mostly with that other flock, which made them enemies. After all, the flock leader was the one that injured him, and his rider cleaved his master and friend in two. He couldn't trust any from the imposing flock. <"This place is mine!"> he growled out again instinctively.

Ivan

Ivan: <I can't take you out there. If I go back with a random woman riding passenger, we won't ever reach Levski before Ivanko or Ixion kill us. Whatever you do, leave me out of it.> (They're focused on the battle, and I'm being kept here of all places? This is infuriating.)

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Tas gave the wyvern a simple nod and wished him well before climbing back into Namid's saddle and having the mountain wyvern take off, leaving the riderless surviver alone. Looking around, Tas saw the woman from before standing on some of the rubble in the distance. She was holding something that seemed to flicker with uneven, sparratic pulses of light. (She's too close to the mountain. I don't want to get under the other army's main forces. It might draw their attention since I'm not over terrain I can hide us in. She is peculiar, though... What's that light? Is it signals? Well, I can't do anything about it...) Instead, he looked back to Lev and his opponent.

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Iris stared in amazement at the man for a moment, forgetting to blink until the freezing wind nipping at her eyes caused them to protest. He'd thought her... serious?

"<Look. Even if you had offered, that idea was dead on arrival. The General is much too busy now and for the foreseeable future, and while in theory I'd be expendable for such a purpose, my talents are much better served doing my job and easing her in the completion of her tasks. Not to mention... riding with you would carry a hefty risk, as you pointed out, if not of your betrayal, then of your comrades intent on retribution. I shouldn't have had to explain that, but I guess you are under a lot of strain right now.>"

The lieutenant sighed and shifted her hold on her tome, glancing back to Borodin to see what sort of progress was being made.

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"<Nobody under my command is riding out into that right now,>" Borodin put in sharply while she scanned the air for Zolkov. He'd broken away, it appeared, and was locked in combat with another rider; on inspection with the glass, the mercenary appeared to match the description their traitor had given for the second-in-command. "<Idiot, he's in over his head,>" she muttered; she saw no good reason why Zolkov had broken off. She certainly couldn't try to call him now, and she doubted he'd survive. She looked over her shoulder to the quickest of her unit. "<Chayka, if Zolkov falls, I'm going to need you to head up to the roof to get callers for his officers,>" she said. Her subordinate nodded in response.

"<Are they close enough to fire yet?!>" one of the ballisticians snapped irritably.

"<When it is the right time to fire, I will give the order,>" Borodin replied simply. For a moment she turned to Ivan. "<I doubt we'll be able to contact either Ivanko or the second-in-command for a while, from the looks of things. Is there anyone else important I should know about?>"

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Ivan

Ivan: <No, I already told you who the important ones are. If you don't think you can contact Ivanko or Levski then that only leaves Ixion ... good luck with that.>

The wyvern lord hung his head. The situation was frustrating enough without being forced to wait around with these people answering questions.

Collapse

Suddenly a thunderous noise rushed over the battlefield from the southwest citadel. It caught Ixion's attention immediately, and his focus was slightly broken weakening his barrier with some visible fluctuations.

Ixion: The structure can't hold up like this! (My only choice is to change the battleplan somewhat. There's too much risk of the citadels collapsing to release the mercenaries inside. They would all die if the buildings came down.)

The dark druid released his barrier to focus on each individual gigas and instruct them to not release their precious cargo, and instead, they began to try and turn themselves around. This caused even more damage, but the chimeras were vulnerable if they remained idle, and the mercenaries inside would run out of air within the next half hour or so if they weren't released somewhere. Some might already be in danger of suffocating to death.

The southwest citadel had finally had it. The walls began to crack all up the surface and the thunderous sounds continued rocking the battlefield until a massive section of it separated from the structure. It fell a very short distance before crashing into the mountain and began a long slow tumble down toward the base of the mountain, and it took tons upon tons of rock and snow with along with it.

Far below, Levski and Zolkov were heading back up the mountain in a high speed aerial chase. Zolkov wanted to finish off Lev, but the wyvern lord wasn't going to fight him unless it was on his on terms, mainly, at a high altitude.

Escape

Irina in her worry for Lev descended after him and his opponent during their dive, but by the time she had nearly caught up with them, they were already on their way back up, and they were coming up fast. Too fast. A collision wouldn't be far fetched if they weren't careful.

Irina: Lev!

Lev: Irina, stay out of the wa- ... oh shiiii-

Looking up and past Irina Iso and Stephanie, Lev saw a large chunk of the southwest citadel coming down at them like a slow meteor.

Lev: HOLY WYVERN!!! GET OUTTA THE WAAAAAAAY!!!

Irina and her brother looked back to see the falling section gaining on them so fast, that they both screamed.

Iso: WHOA!!!

Irina: GAAAAH!!!

The massive structure impacted the mountain again and again shaking the area and chasing all four riders back down the mountain. It was going faster than them and would eventually crush them all if they couldn't move out of the way in time, but at its current speed, a slight change in direction would slow them enough to be crushed.

Lev: Keep going!

Another loud crash caused enough turbulence to slow them down even more for a moment.

Zolkov: I'll not end here with the likes of you clowns. Farewell!

Zolkov looked back carefully as the block slammed into the ground again. This time a piece of it broke off and there was a gap barely big enough for him to slip through. He took it and though he and his wyvern were injured and began sliding down the mountain a short ways. The full avalanche passed them by, and Zolkov's wyvern savagely dug itself and him out of the snow before taking off into the sky, ignoring his injuries. The two flew back up to the battle leaving the rest to die.

Lev: Clever ... Stephanie! On my mark, use your warp staff!

Stephanie: I shouldn't use it while in such swift motion, Levski! I don't have a way to track where we're going! We might end up inside the mountain!

Lev: If we're going to die anyway, I'd rather do it taking a gamble to live, thank you very much, now get ready!

Stephanie: Goddess ... please bless this endeavor ...

The section had finally caught up to them, and the next forward tumble would smash them flat against the mountain. Lev signaled to Irina, and the two wyvern lords flew in sandwiching Kiev and his passengers rather brutally. It was the only way to guarantee they would be caught up in the warp, but Kiev just thought his brother and Nikita were blaming him for the falling rocks. Stephanie activated the staff, and a symbol appeared below the sandwiched wyvern and took them all away in a flash of light.

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"<I'll just have to wait for a bit,>" Borodin muttered. "<If there's nothing else important you can tell me, you can go inside. Taushev will escort you,>" she said, indicating one of her unit.

She turned back to watching the battle. Zolkov and the mercenary commander were on their way back up...

A horrific rumbling, louder than anything that had been heard so far, distracted her. She quickly turned to see the southwestern citadel falling to pieces. Quickly she activated one of her communicators. "<Kouriatov, get yourself and your troops out of the tunnel and don't re-enter it,>" she ordered. "<Southwest just fell and I don't trust any of the others to be stable.>"

"<Understood.>"

Borodin didn't have to worry, then; Kouriatov got things done quickly. She switched to another doll. "<Glinka, don't let any of your troops land,>" she ordered. "<Southwest just fell. Once things stop moving you'll need to act quickly to help any survivors, but keep everyone above the citadels until things settle.>"

"<Yes ma'am.>" There was a pause as Glinka relayed the orders to his subordinates. "<What about Razin?>"

"<You'll have to wait for things to settle. I suspect he'll be happy to drop out of the battle at this point, but his troops won't be able to do much else either. Once things are a bit more stable, just try to get as many people out as possible.>"

Zolkov and a few of the mercenaries were in trouble, she could see now. Zolkov managed to dodge away at the last minute from the enormous piece of citadel that was about to fall on them, but she couldn't see what happened to the others. "<If that was their second, they may be in trouble,>" she said quietly. She could not see yet whether the mercenary rider or the others who had swooped in to help him had managed to get clear.

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Saving The Brave

With such a large section of the southwest citadel missing, the rest of the upper structure was coming down under its own weight, taking the soldiers inside with it. As it began to tilt forward and break apart over the edge of the mountain, yet another avalanche started up and carried the pieces of the citadel down with it leaving behind only the lowest levels, and those were already in ruins from the initial breach. The southwest citadel was shattered, and in ruins.

With nothing to dig through, the gigas in that citadel came into view at last, a giant grotesque looking creature covered in thick skin and towering over the ruins as they threatened to drag it down with them. It was inevitable though, and the gigas fell right along with the ruins, sliding down the mountain seemingly helpless.

Ixion: I suppose it was inevitable ... with structures dating back that many years. (The structures are old and with natural erosion would be somewhat weaker by now, but what surprises me is that they weren't as reinforced as I expected. Perhaps it was superfluous due to the lack of consistent invasions. They probably intended to at some point perhaps, but too little too late now ... that or I'm underestimating my own creations. Hmm.)

Ixion continued to watch as his gigas slipped and slided down the mountain. Eventually it had had enough and slammed its head into the side of the mountain and dug deep enough to maintain a powerful grip. That allowed the wreckage to tumble and glide on by. It kept its place there for the moment, waiting for a new instruction. The mercenaries inside were still alive, fortunately.

Cloud Breakers

When the light vanished, the two wyvern lords, fire sage, and priestess found themselves in the sky again. The view was ... strange ...

Iso: Where the hell are we?!

Stephanie: I don't know, I just aimed us straight up and ... OH MY GOODNESS LOOK DOWN ALL OF YOU!!!

They did, and the view was incredible. Below them was the ruined city of Kalten, and looking out in all directions was endless sea of mountains, snow, ice, and clouds.

Lev: What the hell?! How high up are we?!

Stephanie: I-I don't even know, Levski! I just tried to get us out of the way without hitting the mountain!

Lev: For the love of leggings, the palace is the size of a piece of candy from way up here!

Iso: AGGGGGH WE'RE NOT GONNA BE UP HERE FOR MUCH LONGAAAAAAAAR!!!

The lot of them began screaming at the tops of their lungs as they began a fifteen thousand foot plunge toward the palace! The wyverns instinctively knew they were too high up, and made no effort to try and maintain that altitude. They were treading in no wyvern's skies and wanted back down so badly, they even fought against their riders who were trying to make them slow down. Ignoring them, they kept themselves pointed downward like a trio of falling arrows and sped down from the skies at over a hundred miles per hour making their way through currents and clouds all along the way.

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"NO!!!" The courier urged his wyvern on as quickly as he could fly as the piece of archetecture sped not only after Lev and the one he was fighting, but after Irina and Isotov, too, who had decided to help their 2nd-in-command. He knew he wouldn't make it -- even at this speed, and he was flying so quickly that his vision was blurred -- in time to do anything about it -- really, what could he do? -- but he'd be able to help them up, maybe, once he arrived. However, when he gave the signal for Namid to stop by gently pulling on the reigns, all he saw was rubble and snow. "They're...not here...? What happened to them? They couldn't have just disappeared! Lev? Irina? Isotov?" he comented to himself before calling for his friends, dismounting namid even as the wyvern landed and beginnign to traverse the pile of rubble, searching for any sign that perhaps they were just under some of the snow or rocks. He found nothing.

"Where-- ?" his sentence was cut off as another rock fell nearby, crumbling as it hit part of the ruins before sinking in the nearby snow. Startled at the sudden sound, Tas turned sharply towards it, then stumbled back over to Namid. "It's not safe here... I'd better--" he cut himself off, looking back towards the battle. "...." his mouth hung somewhat ajar before he rejected the realization that he was somewhat under the enemy wyvern riders' side of the battle. As quietly as he could, trying not to make any sudden movements, Tas mounted Namid and directed the wyvern to carefully begin flying back towards the safety of being under the mercenary forces. (Don't attract attention, don't attract attention... I don't know where Lev, Irina, Isotov and the others went, but they're not here, so maybe they escaped somehow... Ok... Just relax... Don't be seen...)

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Borodin could see no sign of the mercenaries after the piece of debris fell, so she could only assume for the moment that they had not made it. She went back to watching the battle... the mercenaries certainly appeared to be winning, thanks in part to Ivanko's massive wyvern. With the citadels falling, the mercenaries had a very good chance at winning... the only thing that would likely get in their way at this point was Orteiga, as well as the imperial family themselves.

As she deliberated, one of the dolls lit up again. "<Yes?>"

"<Glinka reporting. We're up in the air like you said, haven't landed, but we've made contact with a contingent from Northwest-- Razin's had a heart attack, they've got a group of riders trying to get him back to the palace. His second wants orders from you, though there's not much they can do.>"

"<Tell them to just focus on getting people out of the citadel and to the palace,>" Borodin replied. "<Don't engage the mercenaries.>"

"<What should I do now, since Razin's headed back to the palace?>"

"<Once things settle, send part of your group down to help dig out Northwest. You return to the palace; I may need to send you to talk to a few people.>"

"<Understood. Oh, General...?>"

"<Yes?>"

"<One of my men's just spotted a trio of wyverns apparently falling from the sky. It's unclear whether this is a new force or not. Orders?>"

Borodin got out her spyglass and looked up, scanning until she saw what Glinka was talking about. It appeared to be the trio that had been fleeing the debris and Zolkov... "<Not at the moment, but stand by,>" she replied.

"<Got it.>"

This would be interesting... Borodin continued to watch.

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Survival

When Zolkov made it back up to about the same altitude that the fighting was taking place at, he flew to the edges of the palace's large roof and landed, dismounting, falling to his knees, violently forcing his shoulder back into place, spitting on the ground, and then standing up to wipe his lips of both blood and saliva before turning to see how his wyvern was doing. The wyvern was covering its cuts and scraps to protect them from the cold until they were dry.

Zolkov: <Now then, with them dead, confronting Ivanko will not be as difficult. A man enraged, has the defense of a child.>

Protection

Meanwhile the warping party was descending at tremendous speed. At this point Stephanie was hanging onto Iso by his waists but was no longer saddles. She was dangling and so was he. Iso was only held to Kiev by his grip on the saddle's fore grip, and if not for his arm strength, that grip would have lasted a mere second at the most. Supporting Stephanie and himself at once against the chilling winds wasn't something he could do for much longer. Irina and Levski had both taken a different approach. Both had gotten in front of their saddles and tightly hugged their wyverns around the neck to keep from being blown away by the dangerous winds during their descent. Neither one could see a thing at this point, and at this speed, only the wyverns bothered to open their eyes, and only for a glimpse, to see how much longer they had to go. Too long at those speeds, and their eyes would be frostbitten.

When they came down into view, Orteiga finally noticed them. They weren't anyone that he recognized and so he assumed it was a small unit trying to break through their defenses. He turned toward where they were falling and reared his head back in preparation to launch a magic attack at them. Ixion, having almost broken through the fighting, caught glimpse of Orteiga, no longer looking in their direction, but now looking up into the sky. Ixion spotted them too. Taking a second to try and locate a particular energy that only a certain someone he knew would possess, he realized that Iso was with that trio of riders. That meant the other two were likely Irina and Levski, and the dragon was about to deal their side a major blow, as well as incinerate a crimson weapon wielder. He couldn't let that happen.

Ixion: Stop him!

He called out seemingly to no one in particular. Those that could hear his voice didn't really matter though. The ones who responded were nestled deep inside one of the gigasi. Suddenly the roof of the southeast citadel gave way, the gigas there bursting out and opening its mouth as wide as it could manage while a small flock of flying chimeras hurried out from within. They made their way toward the fire dragon as quickly as they could, but were almost all killed by its first attack, a stream of fire that reduced them to even less than bones. Still, those that survived spread out to pester the dragon, and Ixion's tactic got the dragon's attention off of the trio of riders as they swooped down just below the castle's roof, just as he had planned.

Zolkov caught site of this and marveled.

Zolkov: <How did they survive? Where did they come from just now? I left them near the bottom of the mountain not three minutes ago! ... unbelievable.>

Edited by Phoenix
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Borodin gave the slightest of frowns, cursing inwardly as the falling trio got Orteiga's attention. Before she could make a decision there, some bizarre flying creatures appeared to distract the dragon-- most likely the doing of the mercenaries' druid-- and her path appeared clear. "<Glinka,>" she said into the communicator, "<get your two best wingmen and approach those three riders. Make it as clear as possible that you're not going to attack, though of course you should retreat if they attack you. I want to talk to them if it's at all possible to do so.>"

"<Understood.>"

As Borodin watched, a trio of her own riders broke off of the group above and headed swiftly towards the still-falling mercenaries.

------------------------

"<PULL UP!>" Glinka shouted over the wind as he approached the riders he'd been ordered to talk to. "<Follow me! You haven't got long before the dragon notices you again!>" Knowing that the riders likely couldn't hear him over the wind, he gestured widely, trying to get their attention. He couldn't safely get much closer to their wyverns at this point.

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On The Way Down

Ixion's fliers had provided a distraction for them, but there was still riders closing in on them. Nikita pulled up when she saw that they were at a comfortable altitude, swooping into a loop before slowing into a near hover. Krinkov had begun slowing down rather early to the point that he could keep his eyes open at all times. From there he simply came to a nice hover. Kiev managed to slow down in his nosedive but couldn't get down to the speed he wanted. Eventually the weight had him flapping wildly like a chicken. This obviously had Iso and Stephanie hanging on for dear life.

Irina: Lev, do you see that?!

Lev: Yeah, three of'em. Get ready, just in ... case. What are they waving for?

Iso: Forget them for a second and help us!

When Irina and Lev caught sight of Kiev and his passengers, they were already pretty far below them. Just barely in earshot. Kiev was slowing down and might eventually reach a hover again, but for the moment, he was descending still toward the slopes. That wasn't a good place to land, and if he was forced to, he would lose his passengers and probably start a small snow slide. Irina and Lev looked to each other and both came to the same conclusion. Irina would go help with Kiev, and Lev would see about these approaching wyvern riders. He approached them as well to make sure he was between them and the others.

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"<Over here!>" Glinka waved to the rider who seemed to be in charge; the other two were still falling, though one was at least in control now. "<You're their second-in-command, right? My commander wants a word with you. She's willing to negotiate.>"

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Lev

Lev: Of course ...

Lev sighed. He was more comfortable speaking common than Zaftran, he had to admit to himself before continuing the conversation.

Lev: <Your commander wants to speak with me in the middle of a battle?> (She?) <Are you giving up or is this some attempt to negotiate our surrender? Latter isn't happening, just letting you know right now.>

Winter Sports

Kiev couldn't get himself into a hover, he had been falling too fast and couldn't recover in time with that much weight and no angle. By some miracle he slowed enough to avoid any kind of hard impact, but he still came to land on a slippery slope, and it was literally only going to go downhill from there. Irina came swooping in aiming to take the two passengers off of Kiev's back so he could recover with ease, but as she came down and offered her hand, she realized she was only going to be able to get one of them before Kiev went on a high speed slide down the face of the mountain. She fought her urge to get Iso as he saw her and helped move Stephanie into position to take Irina's hand. The priestess grabbed on and was whisked away just as Kiev began to slip. Iso fell and caught himself on the saddle.

Iso: Oh not good ....

Kiev began digging his claws into the rock and snow as best he could, but it only delayed things a few moments. He was still sliding down inch by inch or foot by foot every couple of seconds or so. He had a silly look on his face during this attempt to stay put, most of his muscles tensed including the ones in his face. Eventually though he lost his grip and the two of them began sliding down. Irina tried to keep up with them as they slid backwards and over small natural ramps. One of the ramps was just high enough and ended at an angle that span Kiev enough to have him facing forward by the time he landed again. Now facing the correct way, Iso and Kiev were more adequately prepared to freak out about the rock they were about to slam into ...

Iso: HOLY CRAP, KIEV MAKE A TURN OR SOMETHING!!!

Kiev used a wing to flap and steadily guide them by the rock, but then a ramp came up and they went flying off of it back into the air. Kiev was able to get his wits about him again and remain airborne this time, much to Iso's relief, Irina's as well.

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"<She hasn't actually told me, but given what she was saying earlier, I think she's trying to turn things in your favor,>" Glinka replied. "<I know she's not stupid enough to think there's some way to get your side to surrender, anyway.>" The spirit doll connecting him to Borodin lit up; he listened in for a moment.

"<Bring him back here to talk, if you can convince him,>" Borodin replied. "<Otherwise, I'll fly out to talk to him, but I'd rather not be airborne if I can avoid it.>"

"<Understood,"> Glinka said, and pocketed the doll again. "<I can take you to her, if you want. It would probably be to your advantage. Oh, do those two need any help, by the way?>" he asked, jerking his head to indicate where the other two wyverns had fallen.

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Lev

Lev: <Hmm, I understand what you're saying, but I can't risk being captured. If she's willing to meet me, that would be just fine too. Neutral ground where neither of us have to worry about a bunch of reinforcements coming to ruin the other's day.>

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Glinka nodded, and got out the spirit doll again. "<He's not going to get near the palace, you'll have to come out here,>" he said without preamble.

"<I assumed as much. I'll be there shortly; stay where you are unless the battle moves to you.>" Borodin turned to Iris. "<I should not be gone for very long. The order to hold ballista fire remains; I'll be in contact if there's anything to keep me from coming back.>" She already had a spirit doll to Iris in her pocket; communication would not be difficult. She waved the two best riders in her unit over and ducked inside, heading to the nearest aeries. Grabbing a standard-issue helmet to both protect and obscure her, she then sent the nearest wyvern attendant to fetch a trio of sturdy but unremarkable wyverns.

It was a non-trivial risk, taking flight now, but she had two competent wingmen and she could very well turn the tide of the battle in favor of the mercenaries if she opened up communication to their second-in-command. She mounted up, signaled to her men, and took flight.

Shortly she was approaching the airspace where Glinka and the mercenary commander circled. "<I am Brigadier General Borodin,>" she introduced herself as she got within earshot. "<Glinka, I've got it from here; head back to Northwest, and get medical aid on its way to Southeast once things clear.>" Glinka nodded and flew off, his own men following. "<You are?>" she asked Lev.

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Trio

Lev: <Levski Petrov, second in command of Ivanko's Mercenaries. A pleasure ... for the moment, Brigadier General.> Now where oh where is this going to go I wonder? <What did you wish to speak with me about?>

With Kiev back in the air, he flew up alongside Nikita who was now carrying Irina as well as Stephanie. Nikita wasn't at all pleased though the extra load didn't bother her much at all. This was Kiev's human. She only wanted to carry her own rider. It was annoying to say the least. They stayed together but kept their distance while Lev spoke with the wyvern riders that had just shown up. It didn't take Irina more than a second to realize that if they were hostile things would have already kicked off.

Edited by Phoenix
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"<Since you appear to be more powerful and competent than current leadership, I'm willing to work with your side to overthrow the imperials,>" Borodin explained. "<Currently all I can do to help you is keep some of the siege engines held down; just because I'm willing to work with you doesn't mean I'm willing to see massive numbers of my own soldiers die, so I'm tied up trying to get aid to the citadels to get people out. However, if you're willing to cooperate, I may also be able to sway several other generals to my side, and get you access to the siege engines.>" She glanced back at the battle. "<I'm afraid there's not much I can do about Orteiga, though; he answers only to the royals themselves. So, will you take my offer?>"

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Interesting Proposal

Lev nodded several times during her explanation letting her know that he understood but doing so without interrupting. It was an interesting proposal, and Lev began thinking about how things must have changed, despite Zaftra's current decaying state.

Lev: <So twenty-five years is what it takes for people to start considering that maybe, just maybe, Denisov is only watching his own back and doesn't care about the Zaftran people? Better late than not at all and both sides taking ridiculous losses I suppose. I can agree to this, but I need to speak with Ivanko about it to get the final word, otherwise our forces won't be discriminating.>

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Borodin nodded. "<I can't stay out here, either.>" She reached into the pocket opposite the one containing all the spirit dolls that were currently active and pulled out an unused pair, drawing up alongside Lev and tossing one over. "<Either I or my assistant will have the match to that at any given time. I expect to hear from you shortly.>" With a final nod of acknowledgement, she turned to head back to the wall.

Returning to her post, she immediately had instructions for Iris. She handed back Zolkov's spirit doll. "<Zolkov's most likely done for; I won't need this,>" she stated. "<Get me lines for Makalov and Uspensky.>" Those two generals were likely useless, she knew, but then she wasn't looking to get them to engage anyone.

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The raven watched the battle with passing interest. She had seen battles of this ilk before, though the giant worms were certainly...interesting. She perched on whatever she could find, often forced to move quickly to avoid a stray blow or a falling wyvern. Her eyebrow raised when the dim witted wyvern carrying the red-haired mage almost slammed into a rock, but they appeared to fix the situation themselves. She perched on a nearby rock and looked over the wyverns and their riders sharply, curious where they would go to next.

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Lt. Frederikov had acknowledged Borodin's command, and nodded at her departure to rendezvous with the enemy second in command. There was risk involved, but the general was no stranger to danger, and though on some level Iris might have preferred that such a courier job be performed by one such as herself, on others she recognized that it certainly wouldn't have made the same level of impact on the negotiations. Additionally, though her wyvern, Drake, was a fine animal and obedient steed, she couldn't but admit to feeling more comfortable with both feet on the ground... though with the way it had been shaking recently, even that was up in the air.

There was no objection, then as she saw Borodin off with a salute. Rather, Iris immediately went about her performing her duties diligently, patrolling the area and reaffirming to the ballisticians that they were still strictly on standby: at the ready to fire, but refraining from doing so until the command was given. There were pockets of restlessness, and in particular the one soldier who had jumped the gun earlier had the adjutant worried, but it seemed to be for naught, as the soldiers were all still content to follow their orders.

Iris had just put her hand to the breast pocket on her military overcoat, where she stored the doll linked with Borodin, thinking of probing it with a tiny bit of mana to make sure a link was still active, but certainly not enough to initiate a call, when she saw the general's wyvern coming in nearby for a landing. Smiling, she prepared herself for new orders. They were quickly given, and as she passed of the dolls coded for the two generals Borodin had asked for, the green and the white ones from among those she had been keeping at the ready, she also received Zolkov's in return. "<Zolkov wasn't... receptive then?" she inquired. "<A shame...>"

Edited by Balcerzak
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Explaining Things

The mercenary army had just about pushed past Zolkov's brigade. Ivanko was cutting the path through for them while mentally going over ways to approach that dragon without losing dozens of men. Ixion was also mentally taxed from trying to determine the best way to neutralize the overwhelmingly massive beast. Victor only took his eyes off the dragon to kill the wyverns that approached. Anything that wasn't in subjection to him just needed to die, and so like his rider and the dark druid, he too was thinking up ways to approach and fight the dragon.

Ivanko cleaved another rider, and Victor gruesomely dealt with his rider before the path ahead of them began to clear. There weren't any other wyvern riders close enough to engage without altering course, and they had a clear flight to the palace. They had just cleared the main battle zone, and about fifty riders were right behind him, all IMs. Lev was in luck, since they were clear to make contact, but not in range of the dragon just yet. With the citadels in their current shape, one destroyed, the others in various stages of ruin, and the palace engines facing them holding fire, they didn't have to worry about any return fire fore the moment. Lev joined Ivanko's formation immediately during their approach to the palace.

Ivanko: Where have you been?

Lev: Hey, listen, I spoke to one of their brigadier generals, the one holding back fire from this side of the palace ...

Ixion: That explains it ...

Ivanko: That explains it ...

Lev: Her name's Borodin. She's willing to help us.

Ixion: I'm surprised. Not all of them are loyal to the royal family?

Lev: It's been twenty-five years, Ixion. Something like this was bound to happen. Not saying you should have planned for it though. If we came here expecting help and weren't prepared to go it alone if necessary we'd only have a fifty-fifty shot at actually winning.

Ixion: Hmm, I suspected alternative methods of maintaining loyalty since what's happening now if not prevented undermines their entire defense. Still, I needed to plan as though they had all applicable defenses covered and at full strength. I don't have any immediate objections to her offer.

Ivanko: I'd rather speak to her in person but right now there's that damn dra-

Lev interrupted by getting Ivanko's attention with the spirit doll he had received from Borodin by holding it up in the air.

Ivanko: ... heh. Alright, call her up. Tell her we're coming. Ixion, we're going in. Once you can make a distinction keep the chimeras off her units. Basically the ones that aren't trying to kill us.

Lev: Her men are manning many of the ballistas facing us, and the others are helping the citadel survivors if I heard right. She said she might also be able to win over other generals though I wouldn't count on it until this battle is in the bag already.

Ixion: Right, for now we hold fire against her until this gets sorted.

Lev: <Borodin, can you hear me? This is Levski ... ... he didn't say no ...>

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