Willow

You know, this was actually my first time seeing Cyrus in person. I’d heard a lot about him, so I thought I knew what to expect, but the guy was massive. It was hard to believe he could support his own weight, let alone fly. Even without the influence of his presence, the fact is, he was probably the single largest predator within a thousand miles, and when you see something like that, you can’t help but be terrified.

Of course, the fear was slightly undercut by the blood dripping from his scales and the jerky panic of his flight. He looked slow and clumsy in the air, and I’d almost pity him if I didn’t know who he was and what he’d done. Within the span of a couple days, he’d inflicted the kind of trauma that would wake my girlfriends up screaming in the middle of the night. Within the span of a few weeks, he’d convinced a grieving teen that the only way he’d ever heal was to kill his own mother. Within months, he’d turned over a hundred people into a genocidal death cult. He didn’t deserve an ounce of my sympathy, and he wouldn’t get any.

A hail of bullets ripped into him from below as the centaur’s goblin riders opened up on his wings. At the same time, the gunners I’d gathered caught him in a brutal crossfire. A massive telephone pole crashed into his side, sending him tumbling for just a moment as pods filled with every poison, tranquilizer, and parasitic vine I could muster enveloped him in a haze. He began to dip and sink as thunderous gunfire ripped gaping holes in his wings, but somehow, he didn’t fall.

His wounds were closing right before our eyes, and when the last gun was empty, he was still in the air. In a few minutes at most, he’d fully recover, and we wouldn’t be able to repeat such a barrage again. That meant it was time for plan b.

I popped the lid off a small bottle and drank its contents in a few quick gulps. By the time it was empty, I was already changing. A pair of horns erupted from my skull as I rapidly increased in size. The potion Erica and I had mastered together for our long nights with Aoife was a lot more than just a sexy gimmick in bed. With it, I assumed a properly amazonian physique, easily six and a half feet tall, with a minotaur’s muscle packed into my frame. My wings fanned out beautifully behind me, ready to carry me with a grace Cyrus could only dream of. Spruce presented me with an angel sword, and then with one powerful beat of my wings, I was gone.

I raced towards Cyrus, still floundering in the air. Many of his wounds had already recovered, but some of the injuries he’d sustained on the ground persisted, and as roots and vines wormed their way towards his open wounds, seeking the nourishing blood within, it seemed he might not manage to recover so fast after all.

He spotted me, of course. We were alone in the air, and it’s not like I had anywhere to hide. He opened his mouth wide, unleashing a gout of golden flames, but I was already gone, comfortably nestled in the blind spot immediately below him. He was slow, awkward, and afraid. This was the best chance we’d ever get. I swooped upwards, twisting through the air to get behind him. Just a few cuts to the wings and he’d be grounded for good.

Of course, things couldn’t be that easy. There were also the angels. Two of his many faced cherubs had emerged from his lair with him, and they were both moving to intercept. As slow as Cyrus was, his angels were anything but. According to Aoife, I was a much more dextrous flier than them, but their teleportation made that advantage practically worthless. My best bet was brute force. I just had to hope that the strength I’d borrowed from Erica would be enough.

They both dove for me at once, blades whistling through the air. I wouldn’t be able to avoid them both, so instead I met them head on, pumping my wings hard to close in on one of them just a bit faster. I raised my sword to meet it, but there was no impact. In a flash of light, the angel disappeared, popping back into existence a few feet below me as it pulled out of its dive. An instant later, the second angel collided with me, and I just barely managed to react in time. The sword that would’ve pierced my gut instead just left a gash in my side.

This was bad. Against Cyrus, an aerial fight would be almost comically one sided, but against a pair of angels… well, it was still one sided, just in the other direction. They were too mobile, and they could come at me from any conceivable angle. I needed to limit their options, and I needed to do it now.

I could fight them on the ground, of course. I’d be able to call on the local flora for help then, but if I did that, there’s no way I’d catch back up to Cyrus before he recovered. Fighting in the air was obviously off the table. There was only one option left that made sense. I was now both above and behind Cyrus. I could land on him if I wanted, and if anything could make the angels hesitate, it would be Cyrus getting caught in the crossfire. I pushed hard until I was right above the sun dragon’s head, and then I fell like a rock.