Bane Stark, who had now stood guard at their campsite on the fringes of the Twilight Mountain for most of the ensuing chaos, shook his head in frustration as Shinsou broke his sprint inside the camp perimeter. The bodyguard’s still, scarred hand gripped around the hilt of his weapon. This time, it was not out of habit alone. Shinsou could see that his navy green ranger’s smock, usually smeared with mud and blood but nothing more, was singed at the edges. Behind his friend, the campsite was a hive of activity as the unusual collective of men bustled about their plans.
“Where the fuck were you, boy?!” Bane roared, his eyes still surveying the sky overhead for any signs of Sunwing.
”Being the camp’s meet and greet, and then I thought I’d pop off to get incinerated,” Shinsou remarked as he wiped a thin layer of soot from his white cuffs, “what’s the situation old timer?”
Bane shrugged. “Don’t look at me. I brought you some friends, so go and talk to them! They sound like they are starting to kick some ideas about so you might want to go and help out!”
Shinsou knew that Bane was right; this was a rare opportunity for him, left to be completely unhindered and unchallenged by his mentor, and it was going to be too good for him to miss.
Bane sighed as the Telgradian left his side. The ranger feared Shinsou had still not grasped the enormity of what the beast Sunwing had done to life in this once beautiful region. For the most part, the Twilight Mountains had ceased to function, with no-one daring to pass through. What few towns remained on this part of the border were now empty husks or looted, and the majority of their citizens were living mostly underground, under the protection of various hidden sanctuaries. There was fear and desolation at every turn.
Shinsou was now calming. His soft, golden eyes swerved through the rain and across the rugged mountain edges not so far away, searching for any sign of the winged terror that had graced them with its presence. He could see Sunwing again in his mind. Its looming form would come for another pass again soon. In its wake, there would be that now familiar stench of burning fumes and seared flesh, the kind that would heave the stomachs of even the steeliest of men. Sunwing would cut through their ragtag party soon enough before turning its attention back to the rest of the area if they did not come up with a plan.
But Shinsou wasn’t worried, even if he should have been.
“Storm,” The Telgradian called out to the person he identified with the most, a man of silent, calm power, much like his own younger days, “…I overheard the child say something about lightning. Do you possess such power?”
The Telgradian asked the question whilst he shook the rain from his own white greatcoat, momentarily ignoring the presence of the child as he distributed his weaponry to the masses. The rainstorm beat at the skin of the Telgradian’s face, droplets shattering into white orbs against his expressionless visage. He raised his hands up to make the rough form of a dragon, and pointed the underneath of the nearside wing, the wing that would they would likely be facing on Sunwing's return pass.
“It doesn’t take a scientist to work out that we will beat Sunwing by grounding it. Will your powers allow you to strike at the skin flaps of the wing, where the hide is weakest? If we can burn a hole through that wing, Sunwing won’t be going anywhere but down. When it's on the ground...”
Shinsou looked over his shoulder to see the various armaments being handed around. One of them was a huge warhammer.
"...We can do the real damage. Even if you weaken the skin to the point of tearing, I can pierce it with my Dark Lance. So, can you, no, will you do it, Storm Veritas?"
Shinsou wiped his brow with a dirty sleeve, smearing a streak of mud across his glistening forehead as he waited for the response. As with the uncertainty of the rains overhead, there was the same uncertainty again about Storm and the others.
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