The Black Dragon Assault

The black dragons break their circle and turn all at once toward Huarti. Their wings lower, their bodies angling like falling blades over the terrace edge.

The nursery wards answer with a steadier pulse, but the crackling red electricity at the rim snaps brighter. Cold air presses hard against Huarti's toga.

Huarti holds the terrace line. The lead dragon drops lower, its gaze fixed on the ward seam, as if it means to break the nursery by challenging its keeper.

The terrace hums under his dominion, waiting for his answer. The brood stays behind the wards, and the desert threat narrows to one striking shape.

Huarti exhales, and three red fireballs bloom from his mouth in a slow, deliberate line.

They slam into the lead black dragon as it descends, bursting across its chest and wing joints with a violent flare.

The creature jolts in the air, recoils hard, and loses the clean angle of its attack.

The other black dragons wobble in formation for a heartbeat, their dive opening into a ragged scatter over the terrace wards.

Above the terrace, the nursery boundary pulse steadies, brightening against the dark sweep of wings.

Huarti lifts one hand, and red chain lightning snaps out in branching ropes.

The bolts hook the lead black dragon first, then leap across the scattered formation, forcing wings wide and bodies apart.

A second dragon twists free with a torn screech, but the chain catches its flank and flings it sideways over the wardline.

The nursery pulse flares brighter under the impact, its glow clean and steady as the attack formation collapses into a staggered drift.

For a breath, the terrace belongs to the ward and to Huarti's crackling red power.