War for the Skies (completed) (Book 1 of the Heroes of the Realms series)

Chapter 37

"I'm not too worried," Cetus said calmly, and gestured at the Guard. "Tell the population we're being invaded."

The tree monster turned around, revealing his long back full of apple trees. He screamed something in another language, and it felt as if the ground was shaking below me.

Then we waited. The ghostly moans still sounded, but they sounded far away, weary, and slowly approaching, making it even more terrifying. Why had they come? The possibility that it might've been Cally crossed my mind, but if she was being honest, and if what I saw in the jail at Techaract was true, then that couldn't have been it.

But maybe...

"They're looking for you," I quickly told her.

Everybody faced me.

"Before we came here, we broke her connection with the Cursed Lands, because she was being... somehow manipulated by her father. Now that the link is destroyed..."

"They want to take me back and put those glove things on me," Cally finished. "No way I'm putting those back on."

"Then we have to fight them," Cetus said. "And protect you."

The battle cries sounded after that. There were shrieks and roars, and they all shook the surroundings. It felt as if we were in an earthquake. I reached for my sword, then I realized I didn't have one.

Theo set his hands on fire, and Skylar looked ready to mind-blast things, so I had to use the wind.

Cally was trying to control the darkness, but it was high noon, and I didn't think there was anything she could do, except inside the shadows of the long trees.

The smell of smoke filled the air, and I brought my focus together, trying to push away the unpleasant smell away, and filling our surroundings with fresh air. Then we saw the army.

It wasn't as big as the armada in Techaract, just a small group of Cursed soldiers who slowly marched their way into our opening, through the trees. The battle cries moved in closer, and then gigantic monsters erupted from the trees, jumping at the army.

They were all huge, the smallest one about ten feet tall- a short T-Rex with wings. They literally destroyed the army, not even needing our assistance. Just one or two of those guys could've crushed them to pieces, let along about ten or fifteen of them.

Still though, we tried helping out in all of the chaos. Theo was shooting flames and Skylar was throwing things with her mind, but I didn't see Cetus or Cally anywhere. Had Cetus taken her somewhere safer?

I tried focusing on the battle and formed large clouds in my hands, then threw them towards the army. Some got blown to pieces, others just flew backwards, but the invasion slowly started to die out.

Cetus finally appeared, but not as his fancy, suited dragon-human form anymore. He was about thirty feet tall, a glimmering blue sea serpent with narrow, yellow eyes and tall pupils, just like he had been before. He had a giant mouth, and coming with it giant fangs. He exploded from the river in another beautiful water explosion, and dove straight for the army.

He managed to bite a few of the Cursed while he was in the air, until he fell back into the other side of the lake. But if Cetus was here...

I quickly whipped my head back. Just as I had expected, Cally was in the shade, but she wasn't just sitting at a tree stump and enjoying the view. Something was pulling her into the trees, something I couldn't manage to see.

I started running towards her, but I was slow. I was exhausted from all of the wind clouds I had made, so flying definitely wasn't an option. I just had to get there in time. I could feel beads of sweat forming on my forehead and flying off due to my speed.