Fifteen in all, it was nothing short of overkill to capture two renegade dragons, especially given the fifteen's training. They were members of the elite Crimson Guard, the specialist force answerable only to the king himself. And they were here in the icy cold of West Wales to bring to justice the two rogue dragons who'd hindered the war effort so much, as well as escaping from high security dragon containment facilities. Their superiors had no idea how they'd accomplished such a thing (insider help hadn't been discounted) and was one of the many questions they were eager to ask the pair. Limited information regarding the fugitives implied new and unusual talents, something they neither understood or tolerated. Hence the reason the fifteen troops had been dispatched. The group, as one, continued to march silently along the windswept shore, closing in on the unsuspecting couple.
At around two miles out, the group split into three units of five, with a view to outflanking them and cutting off any pre-planned escape they might have. Their leader, known only as 'One' (they all had numbered designations) continued with his group along the beach, using the soft sand to mask their approach. Both of the other groups cut inland at different points, circling around the countryside to the other side of the cottage that was their target, using their infra red vision to see where they were headed. A mile from their target, all three groups ran across variants on a theme. Several sets of interconnected web traps formed a barrier to their progress. While appearing to have been constructed with great care and cunning, they were no match for each of the team's considerable talents. Both the inland teams reported their situation to One. He gave both the go to continue their assault. Simultaneously the teams began to take down the traps, silently pitying the two targets for their rather simplistic approach to security. Unbeknown to them, the traps were much more than at first they appeared.
A mile away, two sets of eyes shot open at exactly the same time.
"We've been discovered," they both whispered.
With not a moment to spare, they leapt out of bed, quickly pulling on a set of clothes each, eager to be protected from the bitter cold outside. Gloves, boots, and hats followed, and while this was a little time consuming, they both knew the bitter weather had the potential to be as deadly as their attackers. Grabbing a small backpack from a secluded, secret cubbyhole, there for just such an occasion, containing money, jewels to sell, weapons and some chocolate, they opened the back door and silently slipped out into the darkness. Using touch telepathy for fear of being discovered, the two discussed how they would proceed, while swiftly traversing the landscape towards the beach, all the time holding hands.
"We should make a run for it," he said, sending a calm reassurance across their link.
"NO!" Earth replied. "We stand and fight. Give them exactly what they came here for. I'm tired of running, and more than a little disappointed at being discovered here and once again having to give up everything we've worked so hard for."
"But..." he started.
She wasn't having any of it.
"NO MORE! We take them on here. Teach them a lesson. Make the cost of them finding us hurt them dearly. So there are three groups... so what! A maximum of three each, that's only nine at most. I don't think we should have any trouble taking care of nine, do you?"
Annoyed because he let her question go unanswered, she could feel him trying hard to shake off the devastation he felt at having to give up this place. It seemed inevitable that their discovery was almost certainly linked to the rather unfortunate accident last week. If only he'd done nothing, or stayed inside the shop a few seconds longer. Fate, in their bitter experience, had a way of knocking you back down flat, just as you thought everything was going along so well.
'It has been so long since I last used it,' she could hear him think to himself, forgetting about the physical link to his wife.
'Are you afraid you won't remember how to?' she questioned.
'It's not that. It's just that I thought this was all behind us. The running, fighting, the taking lives. All I wanted was for us to be left alone.'
Remaining quiet, she abruptly tugged him to a halt. Crouched motionless on a sandy path, masked on either side by tall, wavy grass, some five or so yards above the beach, tears streamed from their eyes as the wind howled viciously around them. With their combined power, their senses extended further, with their physical connection acting as a conduit now, channelling each of their abilities together, making them stronger than the sum of their parts. The five (surprise ran through them at that discovery) dragons were starting to ascend the slope towards their position. With one ancient word, channelled magic cloaked their heat signature, making them all but invisible to their opponents. Before they both rolled to different sides of the path into the long grass, their last words through their physical bridge were to divide up exactly how they were going to launch their attack. Conjuring up her familiar as she hid amongst the long grass, a huge thick serpent with two mighty heads, looking like any dragon's worst nightmare flickered into life. She watched as it slithered off into the darkness, waiting to do her bidding.
Padding along stealthily, the dragon elite ignored the blustery gale they found themselves caught up in, despite the shivers it sent splintering through their false human forms. One had dropped to the back of the group, bringing up the rear. Unable to see how just two of them could possibly outflank them, his briefing had stressed how dangerous these two were, and he was determined not to take any unnecessary risks. Cresting the rise, he could just make out the cottage in the distance, showing up as a dark, cold oblong over the shoulders of his troops in front of him. And then without warning, it happened! At first, he thought they'd been struck by lightning because that was the sound that accompanied the blistering surge of magic that had landed amongst them. But he was a professional and trained by the best, and so his survival instincts kicked in instantly, despite the terrible pain behind his eyes from the almost blinding assault. Switching his vision back to normal, an array of attacking mantras from which to choose leapt to the front of his brain as he rolled up onto his feet, after having dived for cover off to one side of the well travelled path.
Others in his group hadn't fared so well. Three, the dragon in front, had taken a huge hit to his back, from the force of whatever had exploded amongst them, falling flat on his face, ears ringing, pain surging down his legs and up his neck. Spitting out the mouthful of sand he'd taken in, his powerful arms pushed himself up, only to be greeted by a dark shadow with a menacing smile standing out in the electrically charged air. Giving everything he had, his reactions were out of this world, but they simply weren't good enough. The shadow (he could just make out it was a woman now) let crackling bolts of bright blue, zigzagging lightning rip from her fingertips. On contact with his body the lightning surged across his skin, burning, flaying and destroying. Like nothing the well trained dragon had ever experienced, the pain was off the scale. In the blink of an eye, he was dead.