Wings and Heartbeats (Manorian Fanfiction and crossover between ACOTAR and TOG)

Part 34: To Battle We Go

It was as if it rained blood, which considering the battle going on in the skies, it might as well be. Black and red and blue blood sprayed. Bodies had already started piling, and they were only half an hour into the fray. Aedion kept his sword swinging, Lysandra a whirlwind of teeth and claws and unchecked ferocity beside him.

Wyverns and imps crashed, more skeletal bird-like things squawking. Wendigos were a familiar sight, so are the Valg but nothing could prepare him for the skinless humans, their sockets missing eyes, their hide was muscle, empty with nothing but bones in some spots, hands curling into claws. Giant scale-covered snake hybrids slithered about the battlefield, their skin like plated armor layered over steel, their head angular, their teeth shining with the promise of violence. 

Aedion had already lost track of the rest of their entourage, everything was drowned out by the screams and shouts of pain and victory both, Peregryns and Illyrians joined the fray in the sky, blotting out the midday sun.

This was going to be a long fight.

-

Aelin's breathing was hard, she kept her movements quick and precise, a slash to the neck had heads rolling, a burst of flame incinerated skin. There was the occasional stab of pain from her abdomen but it was manageable thanks to the tonic that Yrene had stirred up for her, the healer is now hidden and helping the injured in the war camp within the mountains. 

Rowan was behind her, they were back to back, drowning in a wave of blood and onslaught of Valg footmen. Gritting her teeth, she ran, ignoring the limitations her pregnant belly set on her as she raced further into the fray where the High Lord and High Lady of the Night Court surely was. 

Rowan shouted after her, she ignored that too as she summoned a blade of flame, angling it perfectly as she sliced through multiple Valgs at once as they charged at her, theirs heads now tumbling. Gaining momentum she jumped and dodged, stabbing and burning as she went, death trailed wherever she went. 

She finally reached Rhysand's and Feyre's side, their bodies leaking dark magic, the High Lady summoning an array of magic, one moment she was summoning water wolves, the next she was burning soldiers alive. They nodded, the only sign of acknowledgment. She met Rhys's violet eyes, the exotic hue drained and tired yet determined.

They knew what they were doing, there was a reason why Aelin ran for them.

Quicker than an asp, before Rowan or Feyre could understand, they took each other's hands. Rowan had neared them, his pine green eyes wide, Feyre now too was watching in blind terror as Rhys winnowed them away.

Right in midair above Under the Mountain.

Aelin was calm as the High Lord's wings snapped out, flapping. He took hold of Aelin's arms and then they were soaring.

Straight into Under the Mountain.

-

Each breath was manual labor as Dorian continued to swing Damaris, the blade singing as it sliced through flesh, the shining metal now stained with black and red and blue blood alike. Chaol, bless him, was fighting on horseback. He reserved his magic, using sharp ice shards to decapitate soldiers when necessary, he had the feeling he would need it soon.

Dorian hoped he wouldn't be the one who had to bring down the three scaling snake-worm-thing slithering around the battlefield, swallowing soldiers whole before they even had the chance to scream. 

Arrows fired from both sides, shields were drawn up, soldiers fell.

Just a little longer, Dorian urged, just a little longer.

-

And as the High Lords of Prythian and rules of Erilea took it out on the battlefield, winged and foot soldiers clashing blades and soaring arrows, as blood sprayed, Lady Elide Lochan remained calm as she trailed after Yrene, so similar, so achingly similar, this situation.

Arvena was hidden deeper within the caves of the mountains, healers watching from nearby as her mother was bustled off to work. They came across a soldier with a deep wound within the chest, gently, Yrene knelt down and hovered her hands over the soldier's chest.

"Get me a cloth and a bucket of warm water," Yrene said sternly, calmly.

Elide made her feet move, a small part of her still marveling at how painless the moment was, her wound was gone, but the scar was there. She traveled deeper into the cave system, where there was an underground water system, the water heated from a force she couldn't bother to remember at the moment.

She walked past the Archeron sisters, well Nesta and A Elain to be exact, the latter giving her a weary smile as she helped a healer apply pressure on a wound, Nesta was standing stone still, her eyes observing everything, her usually neat bun fraying and loose.

Elide stalked past Evangeline, the fifteen-year-old bristling with impatience as she helped a healer clean a wound. The young lady of Arran gave Elide a smile, so wise, yet so young.

It was for children like her, that she and her court fight to protect.

-

They had thought to push the Solar and Seasonal courts apart.

To push them back under to their base would be predictable.

What wasn't predictable, though, was that there was a beautiful trap within their own stronghold.

Aelin and Rhysand crept silently, their feet nimble and swift, their breathing no more than tufts of air, the jagged stone walls of the mountain's cave system was easy to blend into, they were going straight into the center of their base.

Where they are weakest.

-

something epic is going to happen uwu

I may or may not upload it today too, depends on my mood