Ice and Fire: Reign of the Dragon.

Chapter 464 The Battle of the Long Night (Part 8)

Gaelin Targaryen could sense Galesos's hesitation. This purplish-gold dragon, once severely wounded by Mecca, still bore the claw marks of the sheep thief on its scales. Even after Gaelin tamed Galesos, the dragon remained wary of fighting its own kind, even alongside its own, and had never fully opened its heart to its companions.

“I know you don’t trust me, Galesos,” Galin leaned down and pressed his face against the dragon’s neck. “But right now, we both need each other.”

It seemed that he had sensed his partner's sincerity.

Suddenly, Galesos raised his head and roared, unleashing a torrent of purple-gold dragonfire that cleared a burning corridor for the retreating Stormlands cavalry. Robert Baratheon's warhammer gleamed in the firelight as he raised his weapon in salute to the sky.

"Good boy!" Galin laughed, his black hair flying in the heat. At that moment, he felt that the dragon and the rider were finally of one mind.

Seneo Varese narrowed his eyes. Ceres's red scales stood out like drops of blood in the snowstorm, but he didn't want dazzling spectacle; he wanted precision. Ceres wasn't as powerful as the family's other strangely shaped dragons, but she was still a fully grown dragon. Seneo recalled the task he had been assigned.

The ice dragons were handled by experienced dragon riders, while the White Walker mages, who did not have ice dragons but posed a significant threat to dragons, especially young ones, were their task.

Ahead, seven ice mages were working together to construct a dark blue barrier, attempting to protect the lord in the center. Seneol softly gave the command: "Burn it through."

Ceres' breath was a solid pillar of crimson fire. The barrier shattered like glass, and the ice mages staggered back, trying to re-form the barrier. Their lord had not been assigned to the ice dragon, but this still had a significant impact on Brynden and the human army that was fighting the ghouls.

Several ice mage lords joined forces and began to slowly suppress Brinden's magic. Some corpses whose soul fire had been extinguished rose again and rushed towards the battlefield.

"Jonnier!" Seneol roared.

The sunbeam's pitch-black form fell like a meteorite, its dragon claws crushing the ice mage lord's head. The obsidian-like claws pierced through the jaw and emerged from the crown of the head, bringing with them a spray of eerie blue icy brain matter.

With a blank expression, Jonial commanded Sunbeam to turn and crash into the ice mages who hadn't had time to dodge. Blazing dragonfire simultaneously enveloped Sunbeam's body, and in that instant, all the White Walkers blocking the dragon's path were torn apart by its immense power.

Igaras's thick scales made it almost immune to the breath of the ice dragon, as well as most of the ice spears and lances.

"Charge!" Aslan growled, his fingers gripping the dragon saddle tightly.

Igaras let out a deafening roar, its massive horn aimed at the oncoming ice dragon, and it suddenly accelerated. The ice dragon didn't even have time to dodge, and was directly struck in the chest by Igaras, the sound of its ice scales shattering like a glacier collapsing. The two dragons tumbled and crashed into the center of the ghoul army, the shockwave sending dozens of undead flying.

The ice dragon struggled to its feet, but Igaras had already bitten its neck, its thick wings slamming into the ground like hammers, shoving the ice dragon into the frozen earth. The ghouls swarmed in, trying to tear at Igaras's scales, but were engulfed by the golden dragonfire spewed by Syracuse as it swooped down.

Xirui rode the old topaz dragon, her breath pouring down like molten gold, burning the pale women who tried to crawl out of the pit into twisted charcoal. One of the pale women screamed and raised her ice crystal staff, only to have her skull crushed by Syracuse's claws.

"Clean and efficient." Xi Rui chuckled, the firelight of the battlefield reflected in Syracuse's dragon eyes.

Igaras, not to be outdone, unleashed its blazing flames, second only to Vormisor's, tearing a large gap in the midst of the White Walkers.

Demion hovered above the battlefield, Shayar's crimson scales gleaming blood-red in the dim light. The colossal dragon, capable of spewing poisonous smoke, slowly opened its jaws, and crimson mist spread out like a living thing, enveloping the entire White Walker reinforcements.

Where the poisonous smoke passed, the ghouls slowed their movements, the ice spiders' eight legs began to tremble, and even the ice mage's incantation became intermittent. "Now, the hunt begins," Demion whispered.

Little Valar rode Holdendes into the poisonous fog. This blue-grey dragon possessed rainbow-like wings, and its long whiskers pierced the throats of its enemies with the precision of javelins. A Night Knight had just raised his ice crystal longsword when Holdendes' whiskers pierced his eye socket; before the pale blue blood could even drip, it was corroded into black scum by the poisonous fog.

“One,” Little Valar counted, as Holdendes gracefully flipped in the air, his dragon wings shattering two ice spiders.

The frozen earth trembled beneath the iron hooves of the ghoul mammoths. Twenty resurrected behemoths charged in a wedge formation, their empty eye sockets burning with ghostly blue flames, their long, curved tusks laden with icicles. With each step they took, swathes of human infantry were crushed into a bloody pulp.

"Reyers! Dive!"

Otheris's roar was drowned out by the gale, but the green dragon understood. Reyers folded his wing membranes, thrusting straight at the horde like a poisoned spear. At thirty feet above the ground, an emerald light shone from the depths of his throat.

"Dracarys!"

The dragon flames coalesced into a thin, elongated line of fire. The emerald green beam pierced precisely through the eye socket of the first mammoth, instantly turning its ghostly blue soul fire a ghastly green. The behemoth staggered and continued charging for another dozen steps before suddenly exploding from within, green flames erupting from every crevice of its bones, igniting the surrounding ghoul cavalry into a flurry of running torches.

“The seventh one,” Otheris counted silently, pulling on the reins to propel Reyers upwards at breakneck speed. Suddenly, an ice spider lunged from the side, its eight limbs spread out like a cage of death. The green dragon, however, rolled and flipped strangely, piercing the spider’s abdomen with its tail spines and using the momentum to fling it toward the mammoth herd.

A white blur suddenly exploded on the ground. Vasolial tore through the snow and charged into the battlefield, his silky white mane dancing wildly in the wind. Each flap of his wings, this elegant killing machine, carried a rhythmic quality, as if he were dancing a death waltz.

"The left side is yours!" Sebastian shouted to his cousin, pulling on the dragon's reins. Vasolar suddenly retracted its claws and rammed its scale-covered breastplate directly into the swarm of ice spiders. The crisp sound of shattering shells echoed, and icy blue fluid poured onto the snow like a torrential downpour.

The largest ghoul mammoth suddenly stood upright, its tusks, dripping with rotting flesh, aimed straight for the white dragon's throat. Vasolial, however, with incredible flexibility, leaned back, letting the tusks graz his neck scales. In the instant the behemoth lost its balance, its tail lashed out at its temple with a whooshing sound.

Click!

The sound of skulls shattering sent shivers down the spines of human infantry a hundred meters away. As the mammoth staggered and fell, Vasolial pounced on the next group of enemies. Its unique attack methods were terrifying; it would sometimes use its sharp claws to precisely dismantle joints, sometimes use its wing membranes to create area-of-effect damage, and occasionally it would toy with its dying prey like a feline.

"Watch your back!"

Otheris's warning came a little too late. Taking advantage of the moment, the ice spider leaped onto Vasolial's back, its pincers frantically scrambling at the gaps in the dragon's scales. The white dragon roared in agony, tumbling and crashing into the icy plains. Just as the spider was about to inject its venom, a streak of green flame grazed the dragon's wing, incinerating the attacker.

“It’s even.” Osiris piloted Reyers through the air. If Sebastian hadn’t cleared the area beforehand, his green dragon would have been surrounded as well.

The two dragon knights stood back-to-back, forming a deadly vortex. Reyers focused on eliminating high-value targets, while Vasorial cleared out the minions. Their coordination was so perfect, as if they were one entity.

As the last ghoul mammoth turned to ashes in the double dragonfire, Sebastian noticed half an ice spider's claw hanging beside his dragon saddle. He casually tossed it toward the ghoul horde that was regrouping, chuckling, "An extra dish for dinner."

Osiris didn't reply. His gaze passed over the charred remains of the behemoth, fixed on a new wave of shadows gathering in the distance. Reyers sensed the rider's emotions and let out a low, resonant sound.

(End of this chapter)