The merchants were screaming, abandoning their gold and their grain, trying frantically to flee toward the heavy iron gates. But the gates had been sealed shut with massive, impenetrable layers of corrosive web. They were trapped in a slaughterhouse.
"No," Kaya whispered, falling to her knees.
She watched a towering wooden water filtration system—the prototype she had sketched just hours ago—collapse into a pile of burning splinters as a giant spider crashed through it. She watched her ledgers, her market stalls, and her fragile, beautiful attempt at civilization being violently ripped to shreds.
It was all gone. Two months of grueling, meticulous work, erased in an hour of horrific violence.
"Hold the line! Protect the merchants!" Sarn’s voice boomed over the chaos, though his green scales were severely burned and he was fighting with a severe limp.
Suddenly, a massive, piercing shriek split the night sky.
Kaya jerked her head up.
High above the burning courtyard, the clouds parted. Veer dropped from the heavens like an angel of death.
He had heard the screams from his aerial patrol. The Vulture chief didn’t bother issuing commands to his vanguard; he just dove directly into the heart of the nightmare. His massive obsidian wings were pinned to his sides as he accelerated to a terrifying speed, aiming directly for the largest cluster of Rot-weavers attacking Bram’s recruits.
At the last possible second, Veer snapped his wings open. The concussive blast of air scattered the spiders like dry leaves. He landed in the center of the fray, drawing his twin curved blades.
The rage radiating from Veer was palpable. It wasn’t the cold, calculating precision he usually fought with. This was raw, frantic, desperate fury. He spun like a bladed cyclone, his steel slicing through the thick chitin of the spiders with blinding speed. He was a one-man meat grinder, desperately trying to carve a safe path for his people.
"Veer!" Kaya screamed from the high balcony, relief flooding her chest so fast it made her dizzy. He was here. He would clear the courtyard. He would save them.
But down in the shadows of the courtyard, the mutated, pale form of Lord Siss slithered out from the burning marketplace.
Siss looked up at the Vulture chief tearing through his swarm. He didn’t look angry. He looked profoundly, sadistically satisfied. He had anticipated this.
Siss raised his scarred hand and let out a piercing, high-frequency hiss.
From the high, jagged peaks of the canyon walls surrounding the courtyard, dozens of massive, specialized Rot-weavers emerged. They didn’t crawl down to fight. They raised their bloated abdomens toward the sky.
In perfect synchronization, they fired massive, heavy nets of thick, sticky, highly corrosive silk directly into the air space above the courtyard. They weren’t aiming for the ground troops. They were setting an anti-air flak field.
Veer, having cleared the immediate area around Bram, kicked off the ground. He spread his massive fifteen-foot wings, intending to gain altitude to survey the battlefield and locate Kaya.
He flew directly into the trap.
A massive net of corrosive silk slammed into Veer mid-flight.
The sticky webbing instantly tangled in his left wing. Veer let out a sharp grunt of surprise, his perfect aerodynamic balance violently disrupted. He slashed wildly with his blades, trying to cut the silk, but as he struggled, three more nets fired from the canyon walls hit him dead on.
The webbing wrapped around his torso, pinning his arms to his sides, and tangled irreparably into his right wing. The acid immediately began to burn through his dark coat and singe his beautiful, obsidian-black feathers.
"No! Veer!" Kaya screamed, her voice tearing her throat. She scrambled to the edge of the balcony, leaning over the stone railing, completely helpless.
Veer plummeted from the sky.
He hit the obsidian floor of the courtyard with a sickening, heavy ’CRACK’.
The Vulture chief rolled violently across the stone, tangled in the burning, acidic webs. He fought with the ferocious, unyielding spirit of an apex predator. He managed to rip his right arm free, stabbing his blade into the stone to halt his momentum. He forced himself to his knees, his face pale, blood dripping from a gash on his forehead.
He let out a primal roar, straining every muscle in his back, trying to force his massive wings open to break the webbing by sheer brute force.
Siss slithered forward, his pale tail gliding silently over the blood-soaked marble.
"The skies... belong to you," Siss hissed mockingly, repeating Veer’s own words from the treasury two months ago.
Before Veer could react, Siss’s mutated, bone-white tail whipped forward with the force of a battering ram.
The heavy, scaled tail slammed directly into Veer’s extended left wing.
The sound that followed was the most horrific thing Kaya had ever heard in her life. It wasn’t just a snap. It was a loud, wet, echoing shatter of thick, hollow bones splintering into a thousand pieces.
Veer’s scream tore through the courtyard. It wasn’t a battle cry. It was a sound of absolute, soul-crushing agony. The Vulture chief, the untouchable predator of the skies, collapsed onto the stone. His left wing lay bent at a grotesque, impossible angle, the beautiful black feathers soaked in his own blood and melting from the acid.
Siss didn’t stop. He raised his tail again and brought it crashing down onto Veer’s right wing.
’CRACK.’
Veer’s body convulsed, his head slamming against the marble floor. He went completely limp, his twin blades slipping from his grasp. The magnificent wings that had defined his entire existence, that had made him the untouchable king of the sky, were utterly, irreparably destroyed.
"VEER!" Kaya shrieked, tears streaming down her face. She practically threw herself at the stone railing, ready to jump the hundred feet down into the courtyard just to get to him.
A massive, bloody paw grabbed her by the back of her tunic, yanking her violently backward.
Cutie pulled her away from the ledge. The giant bear-rabbit was weeping, massive tears rolling down his furry, blood-soaked face. He knew that if she jumped, she would die. He knew that Veer was gone. He pulled her against his massive chest, trying to shield her from the sight of the broken Vulture.
"Let me go! Let me go, Cutie! I have to help him!" Kaya sobbed, thrashing wildly against the giant’s grip. Her entire world was collapsing. Her army was dying, her fortress was burning, and the man who had protected her, who had constantly infuriated and charmed her, was lying broken in a pool of his own blood.
A cold, wet laugh echoed from behind them.
Kaya froze. Cutie slowly turned around, pushing Kaya behind him.
They had retreated to the highest point of the central keep, the command tower that overlooked the entire canyon. And slithering up the side of the stone tower, defying gravity with his jagged, uneven scales, was Lord Siss.
The mutated Snake Lord hauled his massive, pale body over the stone railing of the high balcony. He was bleeding from dozens of arrows and sword strikes he had taken in the courtyard, but the sadistic, victorious glow in his amber eyes was blinding.
"A tragedy," Siss hissed, his jaw clicking wetly. He looked down at the courtyard, where his spiders were dragging Veer’s unconscious, broken body away into the darkness.
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