Chapter 6-3

Said fastest one had nearly caught up with Almonihah. It was actually halfway aerodynamic, though the pair of bird wings in front of a pair of bat wings probably shouldn't have worked as well as they were working. But then again, none of these creatures should work in the first place.

The half-bronze dragon could hear it closing in on him, but there wasn't exactly much he could do right now... or was there? The terrain below was somewhat... well, forested was probably not quite the right word when those things weren't really trees anymore, but they were at least fairly closely spaced. He dove down, angling to fly between two that were probably too close together for his pursuers.

He remembered too late that he wasn't exactly a practiced flier. One of his wings clipped something, and he found himself tumbling through the air for a moment before coming to a stop with a crash on something hard. Forcing himself to move, Almonihah fought his way through the underbrush—it seemed to almost literally grab at him—to get to his feet and keep moving forward. He permitted himself just a bit of satisfaction when he heard a crash behind him, though a grimace of pain interrupted his slight grin. He hoped he hadn't broken anything in that crash...

Another crashing sound heralded the arrival of Zakhin'Dakh on the scene. The lead Javni'Tolkhrah had landed better than Almonihah, though its larger size had been making travel through the underbrush difficult. Now, however, it had a giant griffon on its hindquarters, which was proving rather... distracting. Its hide was disturbingly tough to penetrate, so his talons were doing only superficial damage, but he certainly had its attention.

Garkhen and the Rangers were slowly falling back, warily watching the Madness-Touched that were still stalking them. Garkhen was growing weary, and so he ceased channeling power into his size and strength to conserve his energy. One of the monsters thought this was a sign of weakness and charged forward, only to be met by several arrows. While none were fatal, it did slow the creature down, which gave the half-blue dragon time to get his shield up. It slammed into him, and he grunted as his shield arm took the force of its slowed charge.

More arrows struck it, and it yowled in pain, giving Garkhen an opening to get his own blow in. While not lethal, it did stumble back, badly injured. Another arrow struck it, this time between the ribs, and it slowly toppled over, chest heaving ineffectually as it died. The other Javni'Tolkhrah started to fade back into the Madlands, no longer so interested in attacking these dangerous creatures without the flying members of their group.

Zakhin'Dakh wasn't faring so well, however. His original target had managed to wriggle free of his grasp and escape into the underbrush, chasing after Almonihah, while another Javni'Tolkhrah came up behind. He'd only just barely managed to avoid it landing on him in return. It was smaller than him, but quick—some sort of messed-up cat-thingy with lizard scales on its head and back. It lashed out at him with swift claws, and while it hadn't caused any serious harm yet, the big griffon already bore several scratches on his face and forelegs... and more were coming up behind.

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Sorry this is taking so long, but it takes a while to get through three characters all fighting at once. Next week, though... next week will be a later-in-the-week post, but it should be larger.