WARNING: THIS CHRONICLE CONTAINS SOME GORY SCENS

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Nuella sat at the edge of a cliff, wind whipping at her wings, trying to pull her into the sky. Rain splashed against her hazel scales, running off her body in rivets while neon blue lightning flashed, followed by rumbles of thunder. Black clouds rolled overhead lit by the orange and red light of a burning inferno. Heat crossed a large green field that grew into the rocky outcrops outlining a mountain range. The heat seared the very air Nuella breathed, making it dry and rasping. She licked at the water droplets trickling from her snout to soothe her throat.

She gripped at the steel pole she had lain down before her, finding the cool surface soothing against her paw. The weapon was near the length of her tail. A blade occupied the final third, with a sharp tip moving back into a pyramidal shape, weaving seamlessly into the pole at the end. They reminded the dragoness of the spears humans were so fond of, though the blade was far bigger. Dragons had given the weapons the name 'glave'.

She rustled her wings, glancing around to her comrades. Telekinetic dragons with colours ranging from dark brown to a light hazel blanketed the mountain. Each had either a glave or a large circular disk of metal. The glaves lay at their feet or were attached to their side with a clip and harness tucked under their right wing, while the shields stood upward. The drake next to her, who held one of the disks upright with a paw placed on top, looked out over the field with solemn eyes, struggling not to give away any emotion, though his tail tip flicked back and forth with anxious tremors.

"Voren? Are you alright?" the dragoness asked, causing him to flinch out of his stupor.

He looked to her, "That obvious huh?"

She smiled tightly, "A little."

He sighed, looking out over the field to their enemy. A line of red, gold, and yellow. Millions of dragons stretching as far as the eye could see, far outnumbering the telekinetic dragons' own army. But the most frightening part of it was the storm of fire above. Clouds of flame flared and swelled in size as they pushed against the storm clouds above, gradually dissolving the water and wind with its heat. The flaming storm acted as a roof for the army it was protecting below, occasionally lashing out with tendrils into the storm.

"You know," Nuella began, "I used to dream of battle as a hatchling."

"We all did," chuckled Voren.

"But in that, I was the hero," the dragoness continued, "Rushing forward with my glave, slashing with talons and tail and telekinesis. Slaying foe after foe. No one could stand against me in those dreams. But in none of those dreams was I fighting against equilibria, and in none of those dreams was I dwarfed by a storm of fire made by a single dragon."

The drake shuddered at her final words, "Do you really think it's one dragon?"

"That's what the reports say. The firestorm is Queen Athaer."

Voren rumbled slightly, "The storm dragons seem to be holding her back though."

The two of them glanced down the cliff where more dragons sat, concentrating on the sky above. There were several ranks of blue and green coloured dragons, stretched thin along the length of the enemies line. Millions of weather, or storm, dragons all combining their abilities into a single mega typhoon stretching the length of the entire southern side of the nation. In amongst them were larger pale blue dragons, their eyes focused on the no-dragon's land between the armies. From their vantage point on the mountain, Nuella and Voren could see shimmers within the rain, where gravity wells lay as traps. Already there were several crushed bodies of golden and red scales within.

"Gravity dragons as well," said Nuella.

Voren huffed his acknowledgement, "Yes. We may be outnumbered, but the mental nation has access to the most powerful abilities in the world. No matter how many dragons they through at us, or how powerful their queen is, we will destroy them."

Nuella nodded her head apprehensible. After a first quick battle to start the war, the two sides had been held at a stalemate for months now. Occasionally a few raids had been sent across to test the other side's defences, but neither had managed to do any real damage. The dragoness was glad, however, as she knew that the moment things were brought into a melee it would be up to her and the other telekinetic dragons to drive them off. The powers of gravity and control of the weather were difficult to use in close quarters, especially against an enemy whose abilities could not be affected by gravity. It also meant that they couldn't advance. To do so would open them up to attack.

"Did we get a count of how many there are?" the dragoness asked.

"Not definitely... but Geavre told me the mind dragons believe it to be close to one hundred million."

"A hundred million... and that is their army split?"

"Yes."

"And when is the earthen nation army coming?"

"Should be here within the next couple of days. It's taken them some time to mobilize."

"Okay... we just need to last a couple more days then," she breathed a sigh of relief.

Half the fire nation's army was near double their own, but with help from the other nation they should be on even footing, or even greater numbers, than the enemy. Then they would be able to push forward and perhaps even bring the battle to a swift end. Still, she wasn't quite sure, as not a single equilibrium had been used yet. The greatest weapons of any army, but also ones that needed to be used with great care.

As she thought that a surge of power warped across the battlefield. It was a wave of warmth, different from that of fire, reminding Nuella of the touch of the sun on a warm day in the desert. The rain seemed to falter for a moment, before continuing to fall. A blinding glow began to burn from the opposing ranks.

"Up! Into the air! Now!" roared their battalion commander, "It's light!"

Decades of training ran through the dragoness. She reached forth with her mind, gripping the glave where it lay, and with a single bound leapt into the air. The weapon floated beside her as she did. Voren went with her, the shield floating around him as they quickly flew higher and higher. Thousands of telekinetic dragons followed, as well as the storm and gravity dragons below.

A beam of living golden light suddenly shot across no-dragon's land. Screams of pain echoed from the lower ranks of the army as several were swallowed by the light. Another wave of power quickly followed, this time from their own side. It was like the very air around the came to life, a living being entity quickly moving and taking over every non-living object.

Nuella flapped her wings as hard as she could, both her and Voren flying up at a diagonal, spreading out as much as they could from the rest of the army. That was the trick with equilibrium. It took time for them to spread. The greater they spread the greater their power, but also the easier for them to be split apart from the inside. So by splitting their focus and making it difficult for them to catch too many dragons in a single attack, it would make them easier to focus for the opposing equilibrium.

She stopped in a hover once she was closing in on the clouds above. It worried her somewhat to see that light of the sun was beginning to shine between the clouds as they dissipated, no longer being focused on by the weather dragons below. The gravity wells had also disappeared, and a growl escaped Nuella as she saw several thousand of the enemy surge into the gap created by the attack.

"Ready Voren!" she roared to her friend.

"Ready!" he called back with conviction, a light dancing in his eyes.

Below the golden light began to grow, lashing upward to some of the stragglers and searing through their scales. A cold wind quickly picked up around it as a wall of ice solidified around it, as well as pushing several other dragons up and to safety. The mountain they had just been on now had a crater of molten stone torn into its side, as well as numerous mangled and charred corpses of those that hadn't been able to escape.

The dragoness turned her gaze forward, the glave following it as it floated in front of her, held by her telekinetic link. She made no move to charge, holding her grown as the opposing army charged. In a game of numbers, it was better to allow the enemy to charge, as it forced them out of their comfort zone, and into the path of the battling equilibria.

The light broke off the ice with searing beams that shot into the sky above. Nuella flinched as a glave/shield duo near them were vaporised by a beam, falling back to the ground as mere bones. She shuddered but forced it out of her mind. She was prepared to die defending her nation if that was what it took.

The storm began to close back together as several storm dragons recuperated from the attack. But it was too late to stop the attack now. Voren flew forward, his shield before him as he hovered in front of Nuella, blocking a golden beam of light from a normal light dragon, then quickly moved it around to block a ball of fire that was also directed at them.

The dragoness flapped her wings heavily as she fought against the growing wind to remain in place. She readied her glave, waiting... waiting. Her eyes focused on the light drake flying toward them, with his radiant golden scales and transparent flimsy wings. She focused her vision, twisted the glave as he got closer... closer... With a roar she unleashed her weapon, sending it hurtling through the sky. He let out a cry of surprise, trying to dodge to the side, but she expected it, angling the glave to intercept him. Another beam of light shot from his mouth, hitting the glave but leaving the weapon unaffected. He grunted in surprise as it plunged into his chest.

Nuella snarled her victory, as with a mental tug she pulled it upward, cutting up through the dragon's throat and then skull, cutting bone as easily as a talon through mud. Nuella immediately refocused her glave, sending it careening toward another dragon, this one fire, this time slicing of a wing before moving on to the next target. The now flightless dragon flailed in the air, crying out as she fell toward the fighting equilibria below.

A cry left Nuella as a bolt of lightning narrowly missed her, causing her to nearly lose focus on her glave. Her eyes turned to Voren as he began to move, backing away from the approaching dragons. The dragoness followed his lead, trusting his direction as she attacked her foes with vicious precision. Other glaves plunged back and forth as blood fell along with bodies. But it wasn't all victorious.

A beam of chaos energy caught an unaware shield dragoness, blasting her from the sky and leaving her partner open to several attacks. He was caught by a beam of light in the wing, searing a hole in it and causing him to fall from the sky. A fire dragon managed to get in close range of another pair, lashing out with his flame as he sent both drakes falling from the sky.

The wind began to pick up as several storm dragons managed to focus their powers again. Lightning began to flash, striking at the enemy. Nuella flapped her wings with heavy strokes, trying to keep in place. She dispatched another fire dragon who was getting too close.

"We can't fight together in this storm!" roared Voren, "We need to retreat!"

Nuella growled but sent her acknowledgement with a telekinetic nudge to his shoulder. Together they began to fall back. Voren's shield spun back and forth, defending them as best he could. Though he struggled against it all. A cry left him as a beam of light touched his flank, charring several scales. Nuella felt herself panic a moment, but he managed to stay in the air, though she could see flashes of his gritted teeth.

The wind began to grow even stronger, whipping back and forth with a ferocious roar of its own. It was like a wall slammed into the dragoness, and suddenly she was thrown high into the sky by an updraft. A cry escaped her, her glave following her as she was torn away from her partner. She gripped the weapon with her claws before she entered a dark grey fog.

She tried to fold her wings and enter a dive, but she wasn't strong enough to close them. She tried angling her body downward, but the wind refused to let her dive. She roared out in frustration as she was forced to allow herself to be thrown about with the whim of the conjured storm. That wasn't the worst part, however. The worst was that she had been separated from her partner, forcing him to stand alone against the hoard of the enemy.

She let out a hiss of anger, taking several deep breaths as the wind holding her began to wane. As soon as she was able, she closed her wings and plummeted back into the storm. The wind instantly began to batter her once again but this time she held her wings tightly to her flanks, not allowing them to be ripped open once again. She roared her approach, breaking through the cloud and back into the chaos.

It seemed everything had gone to chaos with the increased violence of the storm. It was like a massive tornado, desecrating the land. The ranks of the armies had dissolved completely into an all-out melee. Fire, electricity, light, and chaos lit up the sky while glaves flew and lighting thundered from the storm. Wells of gravity trapped dragons together with the abilities of gravity dragons, though these abilities trapped allies as easily as enemies.

All the while the two equilibria desecrated the ground below. The small series of cliffs Nuella had been perched on was all but gone, reduced to molten rock and rubble. The blinding brilliance of the light equilibrium was continually driven to the ground by wind, earth, and water, all a product controlled by the equilibrium of the mind.

The dragoness opened her wings to stop her plummet and was almost immediately ripped through the air by a strong gust of wind. She snarled, twisting, and forcing herself to focus. Two dragonesses, one weather and one fire, struggled in the air, slashing, and biting each other with claws and talons. The weather dragon was struggling to win, unable to rely on the storm to help her. Nuella snarled as she let her glave go and shot it forward to the battle. There was a sickening crunch as the weapon connected with the fire dragon's neck, completely separating her neck from her head.

The weather dragoness glanced at Nuella and nodded her head with breathless thanks. Nuella smiled back, before flying by, unable to stop moving because of the wind. She twisted past a ball of fire, and narrowly missed a bolt of lightning. Her glave took another life, this time a chaos dragon through the stomach and out through his back. Her glave was nearly entirely painted red by the manoeuvre.

Her eyes surveyed the battlefield, trying to find her shield partner. No matter where she looked, she couldn't find him. It was far too chaotic. Fear grew in her heart as she struggled against another gust of wind, clutching her glave in her talons again. She needed to find him. She couldn't bear the thought of not being there to help him fight.

She snarled as she droved herself against the wind, a lightning dragoness falling before her. There was no guilt in her heart. They had attacked them, and now they were keeping her from her partner. The bodies of dead and injured dragons rained from the sky. Even dragons who simply grew exhausted from fighting against the storm simply fell from the sky, trying to get out of the battle before they were slaughtered.

Nuella's eyes darted around. The storm was beginning to wain once again, but the glowing light below was beginning to fade. The waves of warmth it generated began to dissipate, and the taste of a sunny day began to disappear. Nuella allowed herself a moment of hope. If the mind equilibrium won the battle, then they would all win. She took a deep breath, focusing her mind. All she needed to do was survive.

She lashed with her glave again, decapitating another light dragon. She dodged past a cone of searing flame. Snarled as she clashed headfirst into the offending fire dragon, groaning as claws raked at her scales. She pushed away, and her glave took another life. She flapped her wings, aiming to rise into the sky when a flash of golden scales caused her to look around. Her eyes widened, and her glave charged yet again.

The lightning dragoness moved quickly, electricity flooding her scales as she accelerated far faster than Nuella could move her glave to counterattack. A bolt of lightning flung through the air. Nuella's eyes widened as she flapped her wings desperately, but she couldn't outrun a bolt of electricity. Her body seized as she was thrown backward by the bolt, her entire body sizzling with the lightning. She lost connection to her glave, letting it fall from the sky. Her vision went hazy. Her wings refused to react for several moments.

She fell... and fell... and then she managed to find herself moving again. She tried to open her wings to catch herself, only to have another bolt of lightning slam into her. Her vision went black for a couple of moments. Her body went limp in the air. As light began to fill her eyes again, she didn't realise she was falling. All she felt was the brisk rush of wind against her limply flailing wings. All she saw was the blurring dark clouds as they once again began to gather in strength. She saw blurred reds and yellow fleeing the battlefield as the very sky around them turned against them. She smiled, tears filling her eyes...

...then she hit the ground with a crunch.

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Hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed this little fight seen showing the beginning of the war. It was surprisingly difficult to write. What did you think of the weapons the telekinetic dragons used? And what did you think about the characters introduced in this story? The next chronicle will be Aegis! So until then, See Ya!

Pennator^^