Trip gathered his mental energy and focused on the rubble again. As he’d done before, he willed a blast of air to rush under the rocks and force them up into the air, through the hole in the roof and out. To his surprise, the closest bear flew up along with the rubble.
With the rocks and beams gone, Kaika, Therrik, and Grady lay exposed on the stairs, battered and bloody. Therrik lifted his head and looked straight at Trip, but only for a second. He mustered some energy and sprang to his feet, wobbled, then found his balance. With the chapaharii sword still in his grip, he leaped down the stairs toward the bear at the bottom.
It hurled an attack at him, one Trip hurried to raise a barrier to defend against. The gust of power breezed past Therrik, Grady, and Kaika to batter at Trip’s defenses. He hardly cared. Therrik reached the bear and thrust his sword at it.
The silver-furred creature reared up and slashed with its claws, but not before the chapaharii blade popped its defensive barrier and sank into flesh.
Kaika and Grady clambered to their feet, both shaken and wounded—Grady gripped his ribs with one hand and drew in wheezing breaths. They had both retained their blades, however, and started down the stairs, looking for openings to get around Therrik’s broad back to help with the fight.
Gunshots came from the rooftop. Trip sensed Leftie firing at the second bear. It had landed unharmed amid the rubble. It raced back to the opening in the rooftop, ignoring the bullets bouncing off its shielding.
The bear appeared on the ragged ledge and roared as Kaika and Grady looked up, raising their swords. It jumped down, straight toward them.
Trip wanted to knock the bear aside with a gust of power, but feared its shields would protect it. Instead, he launched an attack at its mind, forming a mental dagger to stab into its brain. It twisted in the air, batting its paws at its head. Kaika and Grady jumped to either side as it came down on the stairs, then leaped back in, plunging their swords into its flanks.
The bear roared and shifted in front of their eyes, trying to turn back into a dragon. Trip read its thoughts, its plans to fly away.
He gritted his teeth and focused on the creature’s mind, redoubling his attack and hoping to buy the others time to stab it repeatedly with those blades. And they did. They hewed at the creature like loggers racing to cut down the most trees in a competition. The chapaharii swords sank in again and again, and their foe couldn’t complete shifting to dragon form. Half roaring, half screeching, the creature lashed out weakly at them.
Kaika leaped onto its misshapen back, drew her sword up like a spear, and plunged it into the dragon’s head. The fight left it, and its body slumped down motionless on the stairs.
Relieved, Trip leaned a hand against the wall for support, his legs weak after the mental effort he had expended. But he feared he couldn’t relax for long. Scratches and grunts came from the bottom of the stairs as Therrik continued to battle the other dragon, still in bear form, by himself.
Kaika and Grady jumped off the dead silver and raced down to help. The bear’s shields were down, and it was battling Therrik without magic, muscle and claw versus muscle and sword.
Trip summoned his dwindling strength to blast the creature with a mental attack. The bear had strong defenses around its mind, and Trip didn’t think he’d done much, but it jerked its head back and snarled, distracted if nothing else. That gave Therrik a few seconds to leap forward and sink his sword into its chest.
“Back off,” Therrik growled at his fellow officers. “This one’s mine.”
He yanked his sword out and plunged it in again and again. Kaika and Grady stepped back and lowered their blades.
Trip leaned his shoulder against the wall and stretched out with his senses, worried about what the bronze might be doing to her human captives while this battle went on. But he didn’t detect the other dragon, not in human form or any other. The people remained where they had been earlier, all still alive, thank the gods.
Did you see where the bronze went? Trip asked Azarwrath.
She fled a couple of minutes ago.
Because she knew we would win?
Because that elder gold dragon you sensed earlier started flying this way. Azarwrath did the soulblade equivalent of pointing a finger toward the sea.
Trip sensed Bhrava Saruth, along with Zirkander, Tranq, and many of the other pilots, wearing down a pair of silver dragons fighting just south of the harbor. Shulina Arya and Rysha were flying toward the headquarters building; they were less than a minute away. Lastly, he spotted the old powerful gold that had been far out to sea when the team first arrived. It was in the harbor, attacking that crabbing ship.
Rysha! Trip reached out to her.
Are you all right? she replied immediately. We thought you were going into a trap.
We were, but we’ve taken care of it. Someone needs to stop that new gold.
Rysha hesitated. Shulina Arya says we can’t, not alone. Can you and the other blade wielders help?
Trip looked down the stairwell to make sure the silvers were indeed dead. Kaika, Grady, and Therrik stood near the fallen foes, all hunched over, gripping their ribs or leaning on their swords and panting. After being buried under all that rock, they were covered with blood and bruises and would need a healer’s attention, but none of them looked to be in danger of dying or needing immediate help.
I can help. Trip wished he could shape-shift and fly up there to join her.
“The bronze is gone,” he told the team down below. “Get the people out of the basement. I’m going to help with the battle at the harbor.”
Shulina Arya sailed past the gaping opening he had torn in the roof and landed near Leftie and the fliers.
Therrik looked up at Trip, and Trip expected him to object to Dragon Boy giving orders. But all he did was wave and say, “Go get them. We’ll join as soon as we can.” His dark eyebrows twitched. “Dragon Man.”
Grady smiled slightly.
Trip sprang upward, using a gust of wind to propel him to the roof. He ran toward his flier—Leftie stood in the cockpit of his, the rifle he’d fired at the silver dragon still in hand.
Wait, Shulina Arya said from the edge of the rooftop. He has stolen all of the crabs in the hold, and now he is leaving.
Trip spotted the massive gold dragon flying up from the harbor, heading out to sea. He thought Bhrava Saruth and the others might give chase, but he sensed them far down the coast now. The two silver dragons had fled, and he and the pilots were pursuing them.
As Trip reached his flier, he realized there was little point in jumping into the cockpit. The elder dragon had picked up speed as it flew out to sea, and already, it disappeared over the horizon.
He didn’t actually kill anyone, Azarwrath observed, drawing Trip’s attention to two of the crabbing crew swimming toward the docks. Other men stared at their destroyed hold, the inside empty save for a few forlorn crabs left behind.
Just damaged their ship and stole their cargo?
Many dragons have done far worse. Also, his presence seems to be what caused the bronze and those silvers to flee.