>>5844319>“Diana! Take this!” You offer Daryun’s Delphi Shield to your Right Wing, who eagerly accepts it. “It’ll keep you safe from arrows and wind magic. Join the others!”“Thanks, Blair!” She offers you a half-salute, before racing off to engage the newest wave of Hellwings. You were still overrun, and it didn’t help matters that you’d be spending the next few moments searching for Winona as opposed to fighting back the enemy. But if you let her fry your comrades any longer, the battle would soon be lost. You pull back from the fighting with the Desert Vultures to allow yourself room for concentration. Traces of Winona’s magic still hung heavy in the air, and you already had a good idea of where she was hiding. You’d focus on that area and uncover her this time for sure.
You closed your eyes, doing your best to track that first Bolting back to the source. You open your senses as best as you can, ignoring the magic being flung from both sides. Finally, you notice a familiar sensation coming from the eastern side of the city. A belltower stands tall and proud, unbothered by the fighting happening on all sides. Could that be where Winona was hiding?
As if to answer your query, you see a small twinkle coming from the top of the tower. It was only for a second, but you’re sure you saw it. You’ve found Winona, and almost as if in response, she fires off another skyshattering Bolting. Beathan barrel rolls away from the crack of blue thunder that emanates from the tower at the last second, but several of your allies, including Eleanor, are not so fortunate. The lightning cuts through a wing of pegasus knights easily, swatting them out of the sky with a smoldering crash. Nearly a dozen more of your subordinates are cut down, while Eleanor herself sustains moderate damage.
>“Found you!” You can now retaliate against the Hellwing’s Tactician, but you know that casting a Bolting won’t be instant. Quickly surveying the state of the battle, you note that Ava and Diana have led the charge in routing the remaining Desert Vultures. Any surviving Almyrans have now taken to fleeing the battle rather than joining their commander. Anemone, meanwhile, has eliminated another Hellwing Captain. She and Ingrid are swatting down wyverns as quickly as they come at them, but you note that she’s sustained damage, and sooner or later she’ll run out of charges of Luna. The fifth detachment of Hellwings goes down. By now, you can tell that their numbers have been whittled down more than half. And while both sides have grown a lot more evenly matched, you yourself have still sustained no shortage of losses. You watch as you expect another wing of wyverns to replace the last, but instead, the Hellwings line opens up, and three Winged Demonic Beasts come forth instead.