Skirmish struggles.

The dragons, though typically ones to forego strategy over might, did not lack the cunning to work as a team at times. When Nuria charged at the one to her side, that drake slowed down by flapping his wings forward and standing menacingly on the ground with a roar as he braced himself for her. However, that meant she'd be baited into dropping her guard and be attacked by the one already charging at her earlier or from above if she didn't catch on soon enough...

Nuria didn't pursue the dragon when it reared. She took a moment to observe her surroundings. Everything seemed different. But she saw the other dragon charging her. She threw her spear at that on, and then drew her sword, backing up to be near Market. "We need to get out of here! I need to rally the warriors!"

Unfortunately for Nuria, Sugary was still busy warding off flame spewing foes, so much so that he couldn't even see well around him, and approaching him would not be too easy. And though she chose wisely to not go after one dragon while attacking another to thwart its advance with a spear to the body, that still left one bracing dragon that did not hesitate to shoot fire her way as well, and another dragon to drop a boulder upon her.

The one that spewed fire would be blocked by an ally standing in its way to protect their Queen while suffering burns, while another tackled her out of the way of the falling rock only to be crushed under it soon after. Their position was becoming heavily compromised.

Nuria saw the Kirin that jumped in front of the flame to protect her, his flesh sizzled and smoked as he yelled out in pain. And then, as she was backing away, she was tackled and thrown to the ground. She looked up and saw the Kirin who had done it... And then she didn't... nothing but a red splatter on the ground where he used to be. She stood and saw that the mercenary was too busy fending off a dragon to do anything, so she ran off into the chaos of the battlefield.

She had to organize her troops. She had to get the commanders to lead. Otherwise, they would all die here. If she didn't think of something quick, then it would be too late. She decided to take flight, soaring through the chaos of fire and claw and blood that clouded the air. "To me!" She shouted, calling her warriors to her position to regroup. "To me! Regroup!"

As always, where the Queen went, her soldiers followed, and even in the chaos of battle, her voice was law and her needs were met... However, she'd best beware, for she called the attention of all, friend and foe alike. Now it was a race to see who got to her first: the Kirins, or the dragon team that had her in their sights from ahead of her view when she took to the skies. Her soldiers would always be willing to lay down their lives for her; But if she had any hope of winning, she'd be more tactful as a wall of fire, loyalty, grit, will, and muscle approached from all sides.

Nuria soared through the battlefield as her warriors started to gather and regroup. She hoped that the others further away would follow suit as they saw the group get larger. She clutched her sword and dodged flame and claw alike as she searched for the largest of the dragons. She would have it slain and break the will of these dragons, making things much easier.

Nuria had the right idea going for the big targets, but it would be of minor comfort when several were almost as big as the survivor from the last assault involving dragons. Nonetheless, he stood near the top on an opening to a large cave tossing rocks below, but a wave of smaller dragons attempted to bring her down by coming towards her first. She might have her soldiers back in order, but their foes were far away from being beaten.

"Split off ad hit them from the side!" She orders as the wave of drakes approach. She clutched her sword tightly and got ready to charge into the cluster of drakes head on. She huffed a breath of flame from her mouth and raised her sword. "Now or never!" She shouts, sparks flying from her mouth as she spoke "Charge!"

Now that the Queen was in charge instead of lamenting, she could command her forces as she willed it with very little issues as they moved and roared in unison along with her, sending out a brief small wall of flame at the approaching dragons, baiting them to a frontal assault... until they realized all too late that they had been flanked by the superior agile forces of of the Kirins, resulting in many of them being taken down quickly, while the larges ones in the center fought back fiercely, refusing to be killed off so easily.

Several other large portions of her army followed with the same tactic, and mostly succeeded, but that still left many foes remaining, and many groups flanking large powerful dragons... such as the one making a swipe towards Nuria herself along with several lesser ones accompanying the swipe flying behind it.

Nuria glanced at the icoming swipe and spread her wings wide to stop and avoid it. She grabbed the dragon's claws as they passed her and held tight, starting to stab underneath the scales and bring it to bleed as much as possible. Even when it would lash out in pain, she would find any opening she could to get closer to it, cutting her way through scale and flesh to get her kill.

It was risky, but it paid off when Nuria outright held to the arm as when she struck on the dragon, she forced it to try and shake her off by force, resulting in it whacking at its own allies and leaving itself and allies open to attack from her surrounding troops. She'd have the aid of her allies in finishing it off with a heavy team attack as it fell from the sky in a pained dying roar.

This victory, of course, would only serve to anger the rest. Their formations would break in several ways, but now the skies swarmed with raging fires and pure muscle in all directions. It was easy enough for them to bump with one another hard like that, but that meant tackling their generally smaller foes harder still.

Nuria would continue this pattern of going after the larger, stronger dragons first, ordering her troops to swarm them and take them out as a group before breaking off to deal with the smaller drakes. Their anger would prove useful in being self disruptive. Bumping into eachother in the skies and making rash decisions would only serve to create more openings to take advantage of. She led her group to the next dragon of her concern, the one that appeared to be the leader.

It was one thing to see the bumps as an opening, but the reality of the matter was that they could take their own hits well enough. Agitated though they were, they were far from tired and still fighting back fiercely as they were struck.

Nonetheless, they were distracted enough to let Nuria and her group get by while the rest of the forces were roughly matched in spirit. However, this did not go unnoticed by the injured dragon who seemed to be their target of interest. He growled, and took it a very deep breath as several around him threw fire and rocks at her forces, before he let out a giant firestream at them as well.

"Break!" Nuria shouts, splitting off in another direction to avoid the flame. The rest of the group would follow suit, whether or not they would all make it, Nuria couldn't know at this moment. She had more important things to worry about now though, like regrouping with her warriors. She dodged a dragon that was crossing her path, delivering a slash to it's wing as she passed, then diverted back to the injured dragon from before.

The injured dragon saw what was about to happen, and grinned a malevolent grin as he opened his arms wide, growling at his comrades to fly a short distance away and let him tackle her force alone. His stance seemed to be defensive as he lay low, yet murderous intent was in his eyes. He was scheming something as big as he was proud and bellowed at them. "Come for me then! Let us finish what was started!" His body rumbled as he began to take a very deep breath...

Nuria dives down to the ground, nearly colliding with it and pulling up at the last second. As she flies across the ground, she grabs a spear that was sticking up, shaft first, and heads straight for the dragon now. She fully intended to kill him and was going to meet his challenge to the fullest, breaking away from her path on the ground and heading up towards the dragon's head. "You die today, heathen!" She shouts angrily.

The dragon was practically grinning devilishly with fiery eyes as Nuria was coming right at him, and from below him no less. He could hardly ask for better conditions as he made little to no effort to stop her from attacking with his body, and therefor baiting the rest of her soldiers to follow up close for a decisive strike as well as they roared behind her...

... There was a light coming up the mountain, bouncing from height to greater height to the top...

The dragon waited till the moment she was just about to strike to launch his greatest and most destructive attack... a suicidal type of fire breath he launched right at the ground full force, right at his feet as it rose up like an infernal pillar with no hesitation whatsoever. Taking the Queen of the Kirins and a chunk of her forces down with him in his injured state was an honorable death after his shameful defeat...

... And Nuria would've been caught in the inferno as well were it not for a light that caught up on time only to barely have time to rescue her as it blinked to her side, grabbed onto her, and took her with it as the fires nearly engulfed her. But many of her following soldiers would not be so lucky as they were caught in the fire, and the rest were forced to scatter away from the resulting explosion soon after by will, or by bone shattering concussive force...

There was a hole in the ground once the fires cleared up, and she'd find herself within a barrier made by none other than Market holding her down which had protected them and kept them unscathed; But any moment later, and she might've been killed, if not severely injured in the ongoing battle.

Nuria was nearly about to strike the dragon, when he suddenly started to do... Something... She felt the heat rising from below as the dragon shot fire towards the ground. She pressed on about to stab the beast straight between the eyes, the heat rose, she felt her wings begin to singe and then... Cool...

She hit the ground in Market's grasp, letting out a groan. She looked up, smoke rising from her body as she saw the dragon’s suicidal attack. She looked away and winced at the heat felt coming from the flame, then stood and looked at the carnage... She felt a piece of herself die in that instant. Her enemy was willing to suicide... Well she would just have to resort to more primal techniques...

Unbeknownst to Nuria, the dragon was too injured still to fight as deftly as the rest; He hardly had any qualms about heading off to the afterlife as a battle hungry beast taking her forces head on. Market would try to help her get back up once their surroundings were clear enough, though they were hardly in a safe zone as various dragons still flew about either fighting off her forces, or waiting on them to let their guard down. His armor had various nicks and dents on it and even the crimson coloring had been worn down in a few areas since he was left to fend off for himself earlier under the circumstances. He looked her over to make sure she was still in one piece. "Agh... Almost didn't make it on time... Things are getting desperate, Ma'am. Can you still think and move?" Overall, the fighting was fierce all over, and while her forces had somewhat of an advantage in numbers, the loss of one great dragon hardly demoralized them on their home turf as it gave its life for them. If anything, they were just as fierce and dangerous.

Nuria looked at Markey and gripped her spear tightly. She observes the battle around them and steps forward. "Keep fighting." She orders the mercenary with a growl, before going back to join the fray. She would go for the nearest group of her warriors to rally them together and then would go to the next dragon with the intent to kill.

Market would try to reason with her, but fighting off some of the nearby dragons was the order of the day instead to make sure she joined her comrades safely at least. However, his warning would've hardly made a difference compared to what was now fast approaching from the distance as the fighting continued: An aerial legion of griffons coming from the fortress was on its way to act as reinforcements to the dragons once they got word of Nuria's forces coming in bulk. In the end, their fight against the dragons and the minotaur settlement was just the start of her problems. The alliance of her foes might've been shoddy, but they outnumbered her troops at least 3 to 1 at all times in grand scale, and that was about to make itself more apparent very soon...

Nuria looked on at the approaching Griffin forces. She grouped with her warriors and started handing out orders again. She needed an edge. They were outnumbered even more so than before. They had to organize, had to maneuver. Had to... Adapt some how. Their enemy was ferocious, willing to sacrifice themselves.

Perhaps they needed to match the ferocity. She let out a growl and turned to the commander she was with. She picked up a nearby shield and chopped off two parts of the curve to make a sharp point, then gave it to the commander. She made another animalistic growl and turned towards the enemy. It was time to let their Draconic side take over for this battle...

((Escalating battle))

Nuria's forces would take cue and attempt to make similar improvisations to their armor as needed, and continued to move as she saw fit.

The griffon flight legion would soon come into proper view, and their formation was much more organized than when the assault began the day prior: 9 large formations. Three up high trying to come from above, three from the average height of the dragons and Kirins, and three flying purposely low. All coming from a direction in which they could potentially flank the Kirins between themselves and the dragons. They also looked to be more appropriately geared with reinforced gauntlets and bronzed wing braces for mid-air melee, some had bowguns, and many wielded a combination of one-armed sickles and bucklers. Overall, their lack of armor meant they were in it for fierce combat maneuverability. They would meet Nuria's forces' growls with sharp screeches of their own; They had come as birds of prey on a hunt.

For the most part, however, they'd start not aggressively, but tauntingly at middle height forces. Max height forces would only scout, while low height forces would actually attempt to pick off any of Nuria's ground forces that had yet to join the majority, as well as attempt to confiscate any remaining working catapults...

The catapults would have to be abandoned for this to work. Three formations right on top of each other. A tower waiting to be collapsed on top of itself. She ordered a good part of her warriors to assault the griffin forces from the front, while she led her flanking force upwards. She would lead her warriors above the top formation, planning to break downwards through each formation to create chaos amongst them. Meanwhile, she still left troops to fight the dragons using their advantage in maneuverability.

Nuria's plan had a severe flaw, for in her rush to try to outmaneuver an already high flying formation, it would be her forces that got dived as they were instantly spotted moving towards them. The tower was higher than she had judged it to be, and it was bearing down on her harshly.

In few groups of rows they dove, one after the other, sickles and gauntlets at the ready towards the outermost of her forces. Keen were their eyes, and the shields and flames they would be wary of. However, they were not armed to make lethal blows outright; They came armed to dismember the wings of their foes, and unless Nuria's forces planned on dropping their shields, it would be hard for them to maintain flight just tucking them in behind the shields constantly as they dove in for glancing swipes one after the other to peel away at the battalion of Kirins. As as keen as their eyes were, their accuracy to anyone that didn't successfully dodge a cut or a rip and tear to the base of one of their wings was probably a death sentence at that height. It would also be a mistake to assume their uniformity to be predictable, as they were fast group tacticians, like good avians should be.

The bottom legion was now given prime opportunity to take the remaining artillery and prepare them to fire soon. Among these were the most bowmen and stockier warriors.

The middle legion, as it were, still didn't attack outright, instead constantly feinting attacks until one of her own dropped their guard, or overextended in battlelust rush that had been instilled upon them by their Queen... and then find themselves swarmed by several vicious crow-like foes making the most of any opportunity they could get; chopping, swiping, and pecking mercilessly.

As for the dragons, who actually weren't faring well against faster moving targets, relied upon yet simplistic but effective methods: They breathed fire upon each other while under attack. It hurt them, but it would hurt Nuria's forces more...