Video: Love at War

Chapter IX - Unforeseen Cataclysm

The Cyclonian army waited on the main battlefield. There were hundreds of switchblades and heliblades, and dozens of ships ready to attack. Not long later the Sky Knight army arrived. Several skimmers and carrier ships flew towards the enemy army. The Cyclonian leader on the field gave the order to attack. The talons charged at the Sky Knights. Aerrow waited until they got closer, his eyes squinting in anger.

"Fire!" - he yelled as he pointed forward with his sword.

All the ship shot at the Cyclonians, taking a few skyrides down. The enemy army retaliated by shooting back. They had superior armor and weapons, so the Sky Knight ships had to rely on dodging and flanking maneuvers. Suzy Lu and her squadron provided the roaming support by randomly flying around and hunting down Cyclonians that tried to give chase to their allies.

The Screaming Queens shot volleys non stop. Rains of arrows fell down upon the enemy soldiers, severely damaging their rides, giving more opening to the main attacking group: Aerrow and the Red Eagles. The boy used some maneuvers never seen before. He turned the auto-pilot on as he pulled out a sword and walked to the edge of one of his skimmer's wings. The skyride spun around crazily, taking out any Cyclonians on its path.

While that, the Third Degree Burners and Rebel Ducks helped them out by doing some surprise attacks on the talons. And at the same time, the Raptors decided to show their betrayal by doubling the score the Sky Knight squadrons had just gotten. Radarr saw that and cheered. Yes! They had gotten new allies!

Piper supported everyone by using her crystals in order to boost their rides. She'd focus and spread waves of energy that only worked on the Sky Knights' rides. They'd fix their rides of minor damage, increase their speed and firepower and generate a temporary force field around them that deflected the standard blasts from the talons. That special buff was refreshed every single time the rides came in contact with the energy pulses released by Piper, so everyone was flying close to her every now and then.

That started to draw more attention to her. The talons noticed she was the source of their strength, so they proceeded to direct their attacks at her. Realizing that, the Buff Buzzards, the Neck Deeps and the Rex Guardians increased the protection around her. They made a defense that was nearly rock solid. That limited their movements, though, since they had to focus on protecting Piper, which made them more vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy ships.

One shot came and destroyed three ally skyrides at once. The girl saw that and used a levitation crystal to drag the victims safely to a carrier ship. She concluded she'd not be able to focus only on support. She had to go to the offensive as well. Another shot from an enemy ship passed near her and Radarr, missing them by a few inches. Angered by that, she concentrated a little, making ten firebolt crystals and an enhancement crystal she had brought with her spin around her very fast.

"Everyone, move out of the way!" - she warned the groups that surrounded her protectively.

They saw her absorbing the energy of those crystals and focusing it on a point in front of her. They quickly flew away from the area as she shot out a huge beam of concentrated energy that pierced the armor of the enemy ship as if it were made of paper and easily blew it up. Radarr watched speechlessly. So much power! Woah!

"That should teach them not to shoot at a girl!" - she said triumphantly.

But not one second after she said that, more shots came towards her, which made Radarr pull on her, causing the ride to dodge the blasts. The talons were using some kind of special piercing ammo that bypassed her force field. They shot some more at them. The little animal jumped in front of Piper and used a wrench to parry all the bolts of energy, sending some back at the enemies, blasting their rides away in the process.