Standing so close that the static electricity from all the power she was channelling made his slightly shorter hair stand firmly on end, over the noise of all that was happening on the other side of the shield, he asked,
"What can we do to turn the tide of everything that's happening, Rich?"
Aware of his presence next to her for some time, she'd been lost in powering the shield and keeping them safe up until now. It was only when he spoke she realised quite how drained she felt, despite the laminium from the necklace and the dagger augmenting her own reserves. Head twisting to face her friend, she shook it from side to side to loosen up her neck muscles that had started to tighten. Wishing for a soothing massage, once again she turned to face her friend.
"What do you mean?"
"We can't stay like this forever? Can we?" he asked.
"There's enough power in the laminium for the time being," she replied.
"And then what? The shield runs out and that's it. We're just ripped apart by that horrific force continually bombarding us at the moment. Shouldn't we at least try and fight back? What about the king, Flash, the naga king and... my grandfather?"
Ignoring the strain powering the shield had on her body, Richie's face broke into a sympathetic smile.
"I've tried to come up with something, I really have. But powering this monster of a barrier takes a lot out of me, not just physically, but mentally as well. It's as if my head's full of a fog that I just can't clear, no matter what I do. As you may well have surmised, I haven't been able to come up with anything that either allows us to go on the offensive, or gives us the ability to help those outside the shield we care about, without risking life and limb for everyone already trapped with us. I'm open to any suggestions."
"What about extending part of the shield outwards to encapsulate either the king and his group, or the naga king and Flash?"
Pete, I'm already at about the limit of what I can do. Even a tiny little bit more, like creating that hole for Flash, pushes me right to the very edge and risks the shield collapsing totally. I'm sorry."
"It's alright. It was a bit of a stupid suggestion anyway."
"Not at all," Richie replied. "We need to think on our feet, pool our resources, think outside the box if we're to do anything but die here today. Perhaps you should ask Yoyo and the others if they have anything we could use. I'd do it quick though, if I were you. There's a whole new wave of reinforcements massing outside the council building on the other side of the bridge. If they get over here, I don't see the outcome being anything but us dying in the most horrific of ways."
Nodding at his friend, he turned, brushed past the blonde haired human he loved more than life itself and rushed off in Yoyo's direction, hoping that the experienced dragon healer had something useful to offer.
For a moment, the king's back had become vulnerable. Amelia Battlehard, hanging in the air behind him, had taken a sword strike to her cervical ribs at the base of her neck. A painful scream from directly behind was what alerted the monarch to his fighting partner's dangerous dilemma. Ignoring the pressure from several mental attacks that were nibbling at his consciousness, George unleashed a wave of pure energy from his bruised and bloodied fingertips, in the direction of two dragons intent on having his head. The magic honed in on its intended target, bursting the creatures' subcutaneous air sacs that are located deep beneath the skin, acting as bellows not only for the lungs, but to pneumatisize (fill with air) the bones. Two simultaneous ear ringing 'SPLATS!' accompanied the gore infested, bloody explosions, as internal organs drenched the surrounding area.
Immediate threat seemingly dealt with, the king turned to his collaborator in a world of significant hurt. Wrestling Amelia's sword from her limp hand, with all the strength he could muster George thrust it up into the jaw of the prehistoric beast that had dropped down out of the air and was about to take a bite out of the fearless captain. The look of horror as the beast tried to recoil was accompanied by a satisfying gurgle as it spiralled out of control towards the deck. Knitting together the captain's wound as best he could without stopping to take a look, the king thickened the air around another would-be attacker's windpipe, causing him to suffocate mid-flight, and watched as the speeding body of his foe dropped straight onto a particularly vicious naga fighting one of the guards below. The wicked looking serpent never knew what hit it.
Really, George should have known better, being the seasoned fighter that he was, but his genuine concern for Captain Battlehard's welfare momentarily blinded him to the danger of the situation, leaving him vulnerable to a surprise strike from one of the dragons that had tumbled to the ground some time ago.
Clambering out from underneath numerous corpses and extraneous body parts, still clutching the dark bladed sword that he'd been handed some weeks ago, he wiped away the green blood oozing from a vertical cut that ran from just above his right eye to beneath his chin. Caught off guard, the assault that had started and finished with said cut, knocked him unconscious, sending him into a dizzying spiral before crashing firmly to the ground, all of which he remembered very little of. What he did remember though, was the mission, and to whom he'd pledged his loyalty. So with that in mind, and infuriated beyond belief, he scouted about the immediate area to see exactly how he could repay those that had inflicted the hurt he currently felt. Not fifty metres away, he saw the circular group of dragons made up of a lone councillor, what remained of the King's Guard, and of course Amelia Battlehard and the king. Fighting for all they were worth, sizzling shields protecting the main group around their circumference, Captain Battlehard and the current dragon monarch defended them aerially as supernatural magic detonated all around them. Wading through the broken carcasses, his head still ringing, the sound of the raging battle alone increasing the pain he felt from his headache, the dark dragon set his sights on destroying his enemy's defensive line, determined to do as much damage as possible. And then he spotted his chance. The female of the two fighters situated at the top of what looked like a dome, had unexpectedly taken a sword to the base of her neck. Watching intently, he waited to see what would happen next. He doubted her partner would intervene, because it would mean leaving a weakness, an opportunity, one to be exploited for those looking to do so, and he seemed way too savvy for that. Or was he? As those thoughts finished playing through his head, unbelievably the dragon (he had no idea it was the monarch, as he'd been one of the first to fly over from the council building once things had already kicked off) did exactly what he thought impossible, dropping his opponents in an instant before rushing to the female's aid. This was it, he thought, this was his chance. Without hesitation, he dropped into a crouch and, using the attacking dark force of nagas on the ground as cover, sprinted for all he was worth towards the dome, covering the distance in all but a split second. Coming up behind the ring of nagas spitting poison, battling with swords and magic, all the time trying to take out the beings that formed the ever moving dome's magical shell, in one fell swoop he leapt into the air and, hugging the surface of the shield that curved upwards, he snuck up at speed towards both hovering dragons, approaching the male from behind.