Fire and Blood

Chapter 98: Battle of Rook's Rest (Part 3)

The Crownlands ― Rook's Rest...

The battle raged around Rhaenys as she groaned in pain from her recent scuffle with Vhagar and Sunfyre. Her dragon Meleys growled in agony and stumbled when she attempted to rise again. Vhagar's bite had shattered the Red Queen's hip and mangled her right leg, causing her wounds to spill out her life's essence onto the ground, staining it a deep red. Despite Meleys's shallow breaths, she still stubbornly clung to life. Aegon the Younger continued his aerial battle with Aegon the Elder while Sunfyre received vicious wounds from Corxes hovering above her. Aemma and Silverwing were still struggling against Aemond and Vhagar. Without help, they stood no chance against them. Viserys and Maelyx did their best to strafe the Caltrops with dragonfire, hoping to obliterate their anti-dragon armaments. However, they had to break off the attack when one of the scorpion bolts came too close. Rhaenys gripped her reins tightly, refusing to go down without a fight. She knew the cliffs were still within range, and she was unwilling to watch the battle from afar. "Aertan, Meles... (Let's go, Meleys...)" she panted wearily.

"*Guuuuuuuuuuu...*"

Meleys, struggling to lift herself off the ground, firmly pressed both wings against the earth to stabilize her balance. Although wounded and bleeding heavily from fighting two dragons simultaneously, Meleys limped her way to the cliff on one leg with a determined look in her eyes. Slowly, she began to gain speed before doing a nosedive over the edge, plummeting into the abyss below. As she fell, Rhaenys pulled back on the reins of her saddle, gritting her teeth as she strained against her internal discomfort sustained from the fall.

However, Meleys was not defeated yet.

With all her strength, she opened her wings to catch the air, beating them with force to take flight once more. The Red Queen soared through the air, wounded and bloodied, yet still fierce and unrelenting. Meleys was not going to give up. She was a dragon, and she was going to fight as one. With every ounce of strength she had left, she continued to fly, determined to continue the fight. Her wings were heavy, and her body ached, but she refused to let that defeat her. She would fight until the bitter end.

"Dracarys!" Viserys commanded.

Maelyx maneuvered through the battlefield as the young sub-adult dragon continued to attack the line of anti-dragon armament below fiercely. Each beat of his mighty wings propelled him higher into the sky, deftly dodging a line of scorpions aimed at him. His sharp eyes spotted the Caltrops' archers, and he swerved sideways to avoid the Caltrops' archers and quickly get out of range. Although the projectiles grazed against his scales, he remained undeterred - feeling only a minor pinch as they stuck to his scaly, draconic hide. Suddenly, a sense of unease washed over him as he screeched anxiously, detecting the presence of another dragon approaching.

"*Reeeeeeee!*"

Viserys sensed it, too. Is... Is that...?

Aegon the Younger and Corxes relentlessly attacked Aegon the Elder and Sunfyre, unleashing a barrage of ferocious bites and deep gashes onto the golden dragon's gleaming scales. Despite his efforts to break free, Sunfyre struggled to stay aloft with one of his wings severely damaged. Corxes stubbornly held Sunfyre with his foot claws, determined to keep him within his grasp. With renewed vigor, the sub-adult dragon clawed at Sunfyre again, tearing into his already wounded flanks with his razor-sharp talons. "It's not much fun being hunted down, isn't it, bastard?!" he shouted at the pretender. "Being hunted... just like the way you―" he stopped when he suddenly sensed something big approaching at high speed. Checking his surroundings, Aegon the Younger soon felt an eclipse slowly consuming all four combatants. Looking up, he saw who was coming from above. You're here. "Korkys, pryjātās! (Corxes, break off!)" He then turned to Aegon the Elder. "This is the end of the line... for you, Waters."