Chapter 28.6- The Seadragon's Roar

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Vhagar remained in the air as Igneel and I shot at the ground. A few meters from it, he spread his wings as far as he could, catching the wind and slowing us almost to a crawl. Dragon flight remained one thing I just couldn’t understand. Considering his mass and considering how fast we had been going, there was just no way that spreading his wings should have done anything to meaningfully slow us down. And yet it did. We landed, light as a feather— another skill Igneel and I had trained before this. Most dragons made the ground shake when hey landed. Good for scaring foes, but I found it inelegant. As far as I was concerned, precision could be just as, if not more scary than overwhelming force.

“Laenor. Finally” I heard Vaemond’s voice as I walked into the tent. This was the command center for the fleet. Why was it on land instead of on one of the ships? Well, because we were being crafty about things. The ships that were engaging the Triarchy now were the expendable part of our army. The rest of it lay in wait, hidden around the other end of this island. The Triarchy had done us the favour of coming at us with scores of well-built ships. We’d liberate said ships from them as much as we could today.

“Apologies. There was an inescapable delay back at Bloodstone. What is the situation?”

“As long as you are here now. That is Vhagar above, yes?”

I nodded, waving him on to continue.

“The expeditionary force has engaged the triarchy three times already. We can outrun them in the open sea but we have to give a few ships to delay them every once in a while. They don’t dare use their scorpions on our ships, probably saving every single bolt for the dragons so we have them out-armed in that department” He said. I nodded.

“So the plan remains the same, yes?”

“We had to force the expeditionary force to slow down and sustained more losses because of that, but yes all is going according to plan. If you give the order, we will fly the flag to signal the Captain of the force. They will change headings and come here post-haste. The triarchy fleet must already smell blood”

“And you think you’ve frustrated them enough that they will come to a natural chokepoint like this one?”

“Even with this chokepoint, without the dragons, they would beat us. That’s the truth of the number disparity between our forces. Our ships can punch above their weight class and we’re faster than they are, but in this kind of place, those advantages would be just as curtailed as their number disparity. So if they don’t forsee the dragons being a problem thanks to their scorpions then I don’t see why not. And they must defeat us at sea if they hope to dislodge us from these islands. If they try landing ground forces while we remain at large, then nothing would stop us from attacking them from behind”

“Then do it. Laena and I will watch from above, behind the clouds. When we attack, you’ll know” I said.

He nodded. “Gods be with you, Nephew”

“And you, Uncle Vaemond”