Page 171 of The Wild Prince’s Favorite (The Dragon Empire Saga #3)

He watched as Kein furiously clawed at the mountain, effectively breaking through rocks and triggering an avalanche over the neighboring cliffs.

His dragon attacking the ridge high in the heights sent a crushing tide of rocks, snow, and dust, and Kassein watched as it hit the enemy’s flank without warning and without anywhere for them to run.

“Darsan would be a big fan,” his sister scoffed with a hint of amusement in her voice.

Indeed, their older brother had an uncanny reputation for willingly or unwillingly breaking mountains and causing avalanches when they were younger, but never had it been used in combat like this.

Even Kassein was filled with silent admiration as he realized that Alezya and Kein’s attack on the mountains had probably been helping them in more than one way.

He had wondered why none of their enemies had tried attacking them from above with arrows or the like, and now he knew: with Alezya and Kein roaming the skies, there wasn’t a single man who would dare to peek out.

Kassein grinned, proud of his woman, and swiftly spun the blade in his hand, suddenly eager to do his fair share of the work down here too; Kein and Alezya were taking down a lot of men at once, and he couldn’t wait for them to be reunited once this would all be over.

For now, however, there was still a lot of work to be done.

This war was an ongoing nightmare.

As the downpour got worse, the thunderstorm arrived with a loud boom to throw a dark shadow over the battlefield.

Kassein heard the voices of men fighting coming from everywhere, as both armies were now a confused mix, stepping over mud, rocks, and bodies, many whipping their blades in disorganized chaos at whoever came their way.

He realized his bronze armor had become a shining beacon, with a lot of his men following in his wake, while the enemy tried to run away from whichever area he approached.

Whenever he could check on the others, he did.

He was aware he would lose men no matter what, and they had already likely lost dozens, but he had to keep an eye on his sister, the Munsa Tribe leaders, and Sazaran.

Kiera seemed to be doing fine; the rain had become heavy enough to wash the mud off her body, and instead, he could see the dark gray scales that covered her skin, testaments to the scratches and cuts she’d suffered, but it wasn’t much compared to the volume of men trying to take her down.

If he had to guess, Kassein thought those men were hoping they’d have a better chance at taking down his sister than him, and they were fatally wrong.

Kiera loved fighting, and she didn’t often have the chance to use her full strength.

Not only that, but even if she didn’t look like it, his sister was about eight years older; that meant she’d had eight more years of training than him, and their father had never been one to train his daughters any less than his sons unless they chose not to.

Their oldest sister, Cessilia, was an excellent fighter, but she didn’t particularly enjoy it, and Sadara, the youngest sister, didn’t like fighting at all; Kiera was the only one of his sisters who had been eager to train as much as she could before she left the nest, and right now, it was showing.

She was absolutely slaughtering everyone around her, her dual swords swinging around her with impressive speed.

She had even picked up a couple of new blades along the way as he noticed a spear and two knives attached to her belt or armor.

It was like watching a small tornado whirling around on the battlefield; her armor was dark gray, like her dragon’s scales they were made of, and a flash of silver was all he could see while she spun, moved, and fought like a lightning bolt.

Kiera had never bothered looking graceful; instead, she was focused on being fast and lethal.

Her fighting style was closer to that of an assassin than his brute style, but here, it served her well; she was jumping from one prey to another like a snowcat on a rampage, looking like she flew in her determined fighting space.

She might complain about the mud, but it didn’t look like it slowed her one bit.

Her dragon, Kiki, looked like her reptilian double.

The dark gray dragon was hard to spot against the landscape, but whenever it made an appearance, it was to dislodge rocks from the cliffs and send them crashing down, dart into an area where it had just enough space to drill through enemy lines, or fly back up to terrorize those in the nearest cliffs.

Kiera’s dragon wasn’t loud, but it was easy to follow its path, for it caused waves of mayhem and panic wherever it appeared.

Its best work was in the heights, though.

Kiki wasn’t flying as high as Kein was, but it was making full use of its snake-like figure and rock-like color for sneak attacks.

Instead of being as loud and furious as its sibling, his sister’s dragon seemed to be leaping around just above their heads, a flash of ashen scales dancing around the mid-height cliffs its bigger sibling couldn’t reach, pouncing on any archer that thought it had a chance with Kein busy elsewhere.

Kiki was just as fast and efficient as Kiera, making appearances everywhere they needed before they even knew and disappearing into the storm again before the enemy could retaliate.

They would have been in a much more compromising situation if it hadn’t been for the pair of dragons terrifying everyone who wasn’t down there.

Kassein was forced to focus on the men who had approached in front of him for a few minutes before he was finally able to steal glances at their other allies.

He’d lost sight of the Munsa Tribe’s male leader, Ekut, but his sister was doing alright on her own; unlike them, she couldn’t grow scales to heal her injuries, so her cuts and bruises were in plain sight, but he had to admit, she was still looking as fierce and determined as when the battle had begun, aside from that permanent grimace.

She had a slight limp from her earlier injury, but she was doing fine otherwise, standing her ground thanks to Sazaran protecting her blind spot and her sharp, long spear that allowed her a wide range of motion without moving too much.

Kassein had only noticed she’d changed weapons again because the spear before was shorter, and he guessed the Munsa Tribe stuck close and had prepared many replacement weapons.

Ekata also kept one of their army’s smaller blades at her waist, probably in case she had to defend herself in close quarters.

She looked tired, but she was still leading her people by example, and it was Kassein’s first time realizing she was the only other female fighter on the battlefield.

It should have made her an easier target, perhaps, but the Munsa Tribe seemed determined to protect their leader.

Thus, she was well surrounded by some of their people, all of them easily distinguishable by their unique spears and the small fishnets some of them used to trap their enemies’ legs or block their attacks.

Sazaran was also looking tired but putting up a good front; Kassein was surprised the older man still found the strength to bark orders and motivate their troops at regular intervals.

Kassein let the General direct their forces as he saw fit.

While Kassein led the front of the army with few words and mostly action, Sazaran was in a better position to assess the troops’ morale and strength from the middle ranks.

He focused on the fighting ahead of him again, but by all accounts, the troops didn’t seem to diminish, only slow down.

As they’d anticipated, the nightmare they had for a battlefield was doing a lot of damage.

Since Kassein had decided to stop making deliberate efforts to move forward, keeping his men from advancing any farther even when they had a chance, the opposite army was struggling to get to him.

It wouldn’t have been a good move to stay rooted where they were on many battlefields, but here, it was proving to be a good decision; by the time the new waves of opponents reached Kassein, they had gathered all sorts of little injuries and fatigue.

They weren’t letting themselves get to an area where they could be enclosed and isolated, either.

By keeping his army from stretching, Kassein ensured they didn’t lose the connection at the back or weaken their flanks.

Moreover, Alezya and Kein kept damaging the rival army farther down the rift, burying their flanks under snow and rocks, forcing them to stay in tight, uneven, and slow ranks and advance arduous routes before they could make their way to Kassein’s army.

Their initial plan to trap them by attacking the flanks continued to backfire.

Between the dragons and the terrain, they were losing ground before some of their men even reached the fight.

After a few glances upward, Kassein noticed what had to be their allied tribes finally appearing in the heights and engaging in the fight where they could.