Death From Above.

Originally, Omar thought that tonight's shift would also be an uneventful one.

Or at least, it was, until the news from Augusta's terrorist attacks came.

After that, orders from prince Felix came, reorganizing the troops through the 3 levels of the fortress.

Omar would be lying if he said he wasn't feeling afraid right now. Although he grew in a family of knights famous for their bravery in battle, he himself have never experienced war. No amount of training could prepare him for what's to come and he knew it, the idea of killing someone, was making Omar feel really queazy, almost making him vomit.

Under the arragements of Felix, Omar remained in the Dragon's head. After having sent 100 men to Augusta as reinforcements, the troops left were barely amounting to 297 men and women in total, most of which were in the lower section.

Under the Prince orders, most of the magic warriors and elite Warriors were in the Dragon's head, while the majority of the mages and normal soldiers were in the Dragon's heart, and lastly the remaining few magic and elite Warriors were in the Dragon's tail with Felix and his guards, protecting the armory. Each and every soldier was equiped with a couple of melting bombs, a healing potion and a reinforced metal crossbow with a couple of rounds of piercing bolts as ammunition.

Thanks to this arragement though, Omar found himself once again side by side with julio, and many of the acquaitances and friends he made since coming to the fortress.

While making small tall with to quell his nervousness, omar looked at the brightly lit fortress and then at the moonless night sky before saying:

"Ummn... Sorry for asking in a moment like this but, Julio, have you seen Gabriel? I've been looking around for some time and don't see him anywhere"

"Oh! Gabriel you say? The fucker got lucky and was selected as part of the group that was sent to Augusta" Julio replied in a carefree tone, as if he wasn't the least preoccupied for the situation.

"But us instead... Hahh, what a rotten luck" when he finished his sentence, was when Omar noticed the look on his face, it was one of worry, and it was then that he understood, his friend was also experiencing something simmilar, he was afraid too, probably. Julio's next question only served to confirm it.

"Do you think... We can make it out alive of this one?"

"I can't die here, y'know? I haven't married yet, and there's nobody to take care of my parents if something were to happen to me"

"Even if i have to go through hell and back, I'm surviving this" said Julio with his eyes no longer clouded by worry, but filled with determination instead as he also looked at the night sky.

"You sure say some ominous things sometimes" replied Omar with a chuckle, feeling a little better.

"Well there's a lot of things i want to do before dying, and kicking the bucket while still a virging before my 20s is definitely not one of them"

(That's right, i can't die, not here, not yet!) Omar thought.

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A couple of hours later in the night

In the dark of the night, two silhouettes soundlessly traversed the moonless sky high above the clouds. Both were covered in dark black robes, with hoods over their heads, while they flought fast, traversing hundreds of meters in seconds, their figures were fuzzy, like that of ghosts as their robes seemed to absorb and distort all light

They were flying in direction to the north, their destination, Dragon Pass Fortress, everything in accordance with Admiral Gerios strategy that required a couple of master magi capable of flight due to their high mobility.

As they reached the aerial space over the fortress, the next part of the operation was for them to wait for their signal to initiate the attack. Just as Prince Felix predicted it, the chaos in Augusta was a mere distraction, they planned the bombings in order to weaken the fortress as they divided their troops in tye attempt to send help. But what Felix couldn't have ever predicted was, that the actions he took and even his suspicions where all also calculated by Gerios himself, building his attack plan based in such assumptions.

When they were directly over the fortress, both figures stoped, and from under their robes, each of them took out a small rectangular metal box, opening it, in its insides there was an arrow shaped metal thorn, the strange gadget seemed to be composed of many little metal components, and was complex in its design.

Then they retrieved the arrow-like artifact from the boxes, putting the latter aside as they held the thorn with both hands, injecting their mana in a constant flow. This continued until the thorns couldn't contain any more mana, emiting a soft dark shine over their metallic surface. Then, both figures separated, positioning themselves each above the Dragon's heart and Dragon's head respectively, and then they waited for their signal.

The wait lasted for about 20min.

While holding the thorn in their hands, almost at the same time, both figures lowered their heads and looked at their left arm, in their wrists, a metallic bracelet, inscripted with complex patterns, was vibrating. Looking at it for a second, a thought emerged in the minds of both robed figures.

(It's time) (x2).

And like the reflection of a mirror, both took their two hands together, activating the artifact.

*Click*

*Click*

After its activation, they let go off it, but the artifact didn't fall, instead it remained in its position, as it began to spin faster and faster.

Hastly both mages left, returning from where they came.

The thorns remained suspended in their positions for a of minutes, until....

*SWOOSH* *SWOOSH*

Both dropped downwards at high speed, and continued to accelerate. Such was their speed that a sound akin to a wistle was produced, but soon enough they were even faster, more so than sound itself. Their speed so fast that a thousand meters were traversed in a couple of seconds instantly reaching the ground. And then....

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!(x2)*

Inna defeaning explosion, both walls of the middle and lower sections of the fortress were blasted into clouds of dust and rubble, shoting hundreds of meters into the sky, sending ripples across the whole Sleeping Dragon Valley that resembled those of tremors.

Dragon Pass was under assault...