Prickly

  Dark clouds hang over the city of Pietra, the ret destru of The Grand Army has the various nobles of Faerune scared for their lives. Their anders insist that no movement has been spotted from the dire of Malencia yet, and as such there is nothing to worry about yet. Armies move slowly, The Grand Army was sidered an allied force, and it still took a long amount of time for them to reach Malencia evehey rushed to it. heless, the air of fear is palpable iy, no official statements were made, but whispers are heard from the dark about the western region going dark for a long time now.

  Thunder is heard from the clouds, and iweehunderous clouds is a flock of demons flying towards the city. Zha'klos is with the demons, and finds the entire prey came up with insane... and the only logical option they had left after she herself had quite thhly doomed the entire po the same experieh had. Her flock is posed of elite flying demons, her operations on Brynya get substantially more funding from The Infernal Host. However, taking or even damaging the city should be far too difficult for a flock this far from their base. A problem solved by one of Jesse's test iions. Zha'klos never really took great i in the dryad, a fact that has now ged, as she sees the same thing she finds iing irey to be present within the dryad.

  The demons hanging about in the dark clouds haven't gone unnoticed, their magical signature is incredibly distinct, and aerial mages are already dispatched from Pietra to intercept. Panic bees the order of the day on the ground as mages scramble to form some sembnce of an interception grid. As the aerial mages get closer to the dark clouds, they sehat something is off. Demons are oo far off from the living they could feed on, but this flock isn't even charging at them with reckless abandon to feed off them. The mages quickly find why they aren't attacked quickly, as seeds are u high velocity at them, shredding some before they respond.

  A huge monstrosity of ented wood bursts from the clouds, Zha'klos's flock flies close to the vehicle, and the elves piloting it from withi bothered by the presence of the demons. They would be more bothered if they didn't see the demons.

  Initially Esstrey had the idea for an aircraft carrying bombs, but the potential damage inflicted would be small, and the craft would have to make frequent trips back. What little firepower it dispensed could also easily be repced with a few demons instead, even if the range of demons was smaller. So instead, Esstrey 'persuaded' many POWs to sign tracts with demons, and chopped off their arms and legs. Afterward, they would be stuffed into the aircraft, which she promptly dubbed 'Zveno'.

  The mages shredded by the seeds unched by the Zve into explosions of blood, gore and thorned vines. Another monstrosity of war designed by the mermaid and the dryad, and the official Malen solution for targets in the air. The seeds are bad against armor, and the vines aren't good for anything but tg on to things. Something that proves itself fatally enough, as one of the exploding corpses was a bit too close to a mage further down, and the mas dragged back to the ground screaming by the IEP. Captain Garqia looks to his bat unit, and then to the flock of demons still cirg the Zveno. Their odds didn't look good, now they look worse.

  "Men! Prepare to charge! Use up all yic if you must, after that, hope that the rescue teams on the ground catch you! Remember what's below us!" Right... remember what's below, not just allies, but civilians. They are the only ones who have a fighting ce against a flock of flying demons, if they turail and ran, or evereated...

  The short break in the fire-support the Zveno provided ehe elven gunner having unjammed the piece of experimental VegTech. Zha'klos directs her floto a more solid defensive position as well, it would be bad if a firemage got a solid hit in on the Zveno, they haven't tested its resilieo fire yet. Another volley of fk seeds rip into the mage formation, but the damage is far less this time. The mages are more prepared, and most shots bounce off the barriers. Garqia directs his men forward, fully i on crashing into the pne and bringing it down.

  Instead of getting close, all of his men are rapidly speared by the demons. Zha'klos's flock sists of elites, with she herself being practically demon royalty at this point. Garqa tries to reach out an arm to the demonness as he's impaled, but she simply pushes him off her spear as him fall to the ground below. It matters little whether they live or die, their end is the same if they are on the ground. A single signal with her hand toward her flock is enough, and they begin b the internals of the Zveno.

  Within are some of the maover survivors from the battle for Malencia, ready to offer their lifeforce to feed demons, most had done so to escape the fate Esstrey had prepared for them, one where their bodies would tribute to the war-effort more directly than being used as fuel. As some of the people are draihe elves detach the drained people, letting their limbless bodies fall to the city below. Zha'klos flies down to the city as well, closely followed by her flock.

  The city's bell tower rings as hard as it , as if ringing harder somehow improves the situation. The demonic flock flies over the city in a wedge formation, raining a fiery hell upon it. Mages desperately fire at the demons, and try to extinguish fires, but these demons have been given a ret boost of lifeforce, and hold plete air superiority. Just when the firebombing is slows down, Zha'klos returns with her flock to the Zveno to repeat the process. Every bombing ruhe city does just a little more damage tha as mages tire and the overall heat increases.

  During the sixth run, the natural fire iy does more damage than the demons, the rge amount of fire causing major ges in the local atmosphere, resulting in a firestorm. At this point, oxygen is in short supply, and those who were in safe areas locked away from the bombardments and fire begin to choke as the fire es the city. There is h air raid, as Zha'klos sees o. When the Zveno arrives in the city, it will drop leaflets instead.

  'Today aper, tomorrow is fire.' A brutally simplistic demand for surrender, oailored to the fast nature of their war. They don't have time to thhly destroy every city, better to set examples and demand surrender instead.

  Prickly