We were simply waiting for Commander Ashwind to return before we could finally leave our island for the first time.
Everyone else was complaining about what was taking so long, but I guess only we knew what he was going to do.
We volunteered for military duty, but an actual war was probably not what anyone was expecting.
There were so many dragons, equipped with armor and various dragon-sized weapons.
Even humans were preparing saddles on their backs.
"I don't like this! It's so tight and uncomfortable!" Gale whines and complains after fitting even the lightest armor on.
"You big baby, you can't even handle the leather armor?" I mock him for complaining about it.
"I'd rather nothing at all!"
"All I can tell you is to get over it."
The dragon we were all waiting for was finally here.
Though the emperor himself landed in front of the army with him.
Naturally, the emperor coming out to lead an army created a lot of murmuring.
Ashwind was looking away like he got punished for something.
Maybe he really did it...
"I know what you're all thinking, and I'm not taking command. I will be returning after reaching our border." Emperor Stormlight clarified the matter, before finally giving everyone the order to get moving.
"You better hold on tight if you don't want to fall off." Gale says and yoinks me behind his neck.
"I haven't fallen off before!" I snapped before he leans sharply to fling me back down.
"Now you have!" He beams as I hit the ground and got back up with a tingling sensation where I landed.
There was no time for fooling around anymore. Not even Gale was dumb enough to keep playing around in front of the emperor and a commander.
And as we flew for hours, some of the dragons were starting to look quite green.
I couldn't pinpoint exactly why until we proceeded a little farther, enough for a red dot to come into view on the ground below.
This was where Emperor Stormlight decided to hover and face the rest of the dragons, which were reacting to a terrible smell the humans were unaware of.
Gale was also trying to close his nostrils while complaining that it was a familiar smell.
"Dragons, and humans!" Stormlight roars to the shaken army staring down at the scene on the ground, "Dragons from a strange land have invaded our home, murdered our people, our families, and our friends!"
He gestures to the splotch of red adorning the ground and looks up with a fiery gaze, "Take a good look! This is what remains of Frontier Village! Can we allow this to happen again?!"
"No!" Everyone roars back.
Stormlight then looks back towards the target while finishing the speech.
"Don't think of this as a conquest, but a crusade! Our ancestors could only hide us away like little hatchlings afraid to fight, but things have changed! We are not invaders. We are liberators!"
Just a few words had such a profound effect.
The sorrowful and sick expressions were quickly converted into resolved anger, and Commander Ashwind swiftly continued our advance to convert this morale into momentum.
Emperor Stormlight stayed behind, likely that speech was the only reason he came along in the first place.
I suppose it would be difficult for dragons to handle a war after so much peace without the requisite level of fury and hatred.
I couldn't even think it was a planted hatred. It was all true, and it was hardly exaggerated.
No matter how far I dug, I couldn't dredge up a single drop of pity or sympathy for them. Only monsters could do that without feeling anything.
It felt like we were flying for weeks, but it was probably just a day until we reached the beach of the new continent.
"We'll stop here and push forward on the ground." Commander Ashwind orders.
It was almost night, and the moons were already visible in the evening sky.
As we moved inland, the sandy beach gradually transitioned to a muddy swamp.
"It figures those monsters would live in filth like this." One of the dragons nearby remarks.
There was nothing stopping our advance.
The first dragon we encountered-- if they even deserved to be called a dragon-- ran away as soon as they saw us coming.
That marked the end of our easy takeover.
A similarly sized army appeared in opposition soon afterward.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
***
Queen Moorhen looked out from her palace across the expansive marshland that made up the Mud Kingdom
"I thought being dragged by the tail into the SandWing's war was bad enough, but then an entire island full of new dragons just had to appear out nowhere. " She growled irritibly.
"I know, however-" A sibling begins a sentence.
"But they could also be our ticket out of this war, if we could just form an alliance. Don't you think so, Mica?" Moorhen ponders. "Prepare a diplomatic party as quick as possible."
"Actually, that's what I was here to talk about... They've already attacked us! There are at least over a hundred dragons." Mica responds, "It seems a sibling group has already visited the new island with that in mind, but I guess it didn't work out as they hoped."
"W-what did they do?!" Moorhen flares with her talons on her head, "Have General Slate hold them back for now. It's all we can do."
"What about Burn or the SkyWings?"
"They wouldn't get here in time and might not even care. We have to figure out how to resolve this ourselves."
***
Gale and I were near the front, by Commander Ashwind.
Given our roles, being so close to the front wasn't very comfortable.
He was in charge of leading the main force, but there were other command positions as well.
Such as Subcommander Eno, a human subcommander leading a group of dragons carrying gigantic dragon-sized bows.
Right now the MudWings were staring in shock or awe at us.
While all of our dragons had some sort of armor, and most had weapons, they did not.
Some of them are attending this battle with absolutely nothing.
Even their weapons only consisted of some spears. That was it.
"You're kidding me?! They come and murder so many of us, and then expect to fend us off with just this?" I fume at the scene.
Of course, our dragons mostly donned leather armor. Otherwise flying would be harder.
The more important or skilled had steel plating over their vital areas, which were fitted after arrival if it was too much to fly in.
Why wouldn't they make it an aerial battle? Well, that's because-
"Loose!" Subcommander Eno commands the group of bow-wielding dragons hovering in the air.
At once, they released a volley of arrows each longer than a human's body. Accuracy wasn't important, just that it was hard to completely dodge even in the air.
The MudWings were all clumped into groups, meaning that many of the arrows struck on target, and a few immediately fell.
Once the confusion wore off, that's when they finally charged.
My gifted kinetic vision allowed me to see everything clearly from our precarious positioning.
The swampy, mucky water was immediately stained a menacing red as both sides clashed.
Despite the MudWings seemingly naturally superior strength, our dragons were just too well equipped for it to be easy.
On one side of the battlefield a MudWing tried to lunge at a dragon, only for them to pull out a dagger the size of my arm and thrust it into their neck at an angle that would be impossible with claws.
On the other side, a MudWing trying the same thing spat out blood and flopped over as the dragon drew a crossbow.
When they could get into a close quarters fight, the instant they tried to bite at their neck for a quick victory, the dragon simply ducked and lined up a perfect shot for a human on their back.
Even when they could get a hit in with their claws, assuming the dragons weren't wearing steel, their claws would get caught on the leather long enough to be nailed with a devastating counter.
However, their fire breath was a surprise to most. They could create sustained streams of fire that spread out like the volcanoes described in the old stories.
A couple poor dragons were caught off guard by the new kind of breath attack and collapsed from severe burns. The rest learned to dodge out of range.
"Don't falter! If they could use their fire without restrictions, they would already be doing so!" Ashwind shouts, removing most of the hesitation from the soldiers.
Not even aerial attacks work, as any that try to dive at dragons from above are easily hit by crossbows, or intercepted by other dragons. Those with riders have a small advantage, as arrows hitting a chasing dragon will strike with more force and more easily penetrate scales and bone.
Ashwind was a whirlwind of combat, even more so once the MudWings realized he was the commander.
All who tried to pin him with brute strength alone were almost casually tossed aside, often with their forelimbs dislocated with joint locks almost faster than even I could see.
Another that stabbed with a spear was deflected with the body of a crossbow, before choking on a bolt as blood flowed onto the mud.
Finally, a slim MudWing rushes Ashwind with a spear as he stands over the corpses of the first two.
I can't just sit on Gale's back doing nothing.
I reached over my shoulder as the dragon momentarily paused and threw the spear.
The spear whooshed through the air at a frightening speed, but just as it was halfway-
Clang!
My arrow struck the side of the speartip, sending it off course and harmlessly hitting Ashwind with the shaft instead of the point.
The dragon, not even registering what just happened, continues trying to attack Ashwind's barely armored chest.
Ashwind effortlessly blocks the swipe with his steel greaves, and holds the dragon's neck as he melts a hole through it with a jet of pure red flames.
The dragon slumps over with a gaping hole in the center of its neck. It barely even bled, as it was completely cauterized.
Ashwind coughed and wheezed a little from using his fire in such a way, but regained composure in just seconds.
A couple of the other dragons from where it came screamed, but it was drowned out by the roaring of the battlefield.
Immediately after, a huge MudWing enters from the back and yells out something loud to the rest.
Then they all start retreating further into the swamp.
Everyone roars and moves to chase them with the momentum, but Ashwind extends his wings to stop the charge.
He was staring blankly at the dragons retreating into the denser swampland, seeming to mumble to himself.
"Hmm, if that was the enemy commander... Why retreat... Ah, a mistake." He mumbles silently before getting louder, "Everyone stop here! We will wait for night and push forward slowly!"
The moment of relief as the danger passed was phenomenal.
I could tell because Gale was getting less serious now and shifting around.
"If you make me fall into that mess then I'll smash your tail as hard as I can with a hammer when I get the chance." I threaten.
"That doesn't sound very effective, but I don't want you to fall down either. I'd have to nuzzle a glob of mud." Gale snorts and pushes me with his nose.
Most of the other dragons were covered in mud and blood. Especially the dragons with the huge greatswords, as they could probably easily cut a dragon in half. It was hard to imagine any unarmed dragon able to so much as touch them.
But it restricted them to the ground if they wanted to use it effectively, and balancing on two legs so deftly wasn't easy for dragons.
Waiting for nightfall definitely sounded like the right idea. Who knows what kind of trap they were hoping we'd fall into.
Now I see why he muttered that it was a mistake.
We had but a few casualties, none of which were humans. Many of our dragons had a majority of black scales.
This was their only chance to stop us before night fell over them like a deadly blanket.
Some dragons were already turning back to the beach to wash all the mess off, though they will just get messy again.
Still, I like it better when I can see their beautiful patterns of black and white without the impurities of all this gunk.
Many of the humans were actually hesitating to kill, more than the dragons, but even that didn't last long when they realized these MudWings were not even considering them worth paying attention to during the battle.
"Split into groups and scout the surroundings! If you encounter humans, talk to them and convey our purpose here, even if you have to scare them first." Ashwind issues a general command, but doesn't specify how to do the grouping. "Except you two, both of you are staying close to me until needed."
What were we even needed for?