As Azier and Ivis fly through the orange sunset skies of Rayhaven, Azier yells out, "You need to blah blah something training."

"Yeah, I get it. How hard can flying one of these dumb reptiles be?" responded Ivis.

"Hey, dragons are brilliant animals; they're not dumb! Look at him; he definitely understood that." Shouted Azier as Ivis looked down to see his dragon's head tilted, looking at him with an irritated scowl. "And they can pull off some amazing aerobatic maneuvers; it can actually be pretty difficult to stay on."

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Scoffed Ivis. Azier moved in closer.

"Don't be so mean to them; they can understand you fairly well," Azier said. As Vailstrym slowly barreled over Ivis, Azier said, "And you might want to hold on. I see he's got a look in his eye."

Thornfire smirked as Ivis leaned forward and tightened his grip on the saddle. Then, all of a sudden, Thornfire rolled sharply to the right and drove straight down for a bit before pulling a left corkscrew maneuver. Ivis screamed the whole time as Thornfire performed extreme aerobatic maneuvers. As they came in for a landing, Thornfire stopped short, sending Ivis flying over his head and crashing into the ground. Azier and Vailstrym let out a chuckle.

"Did you see him?! Look at him! He's just as rude as I was!" Yelled Ivis. "Oh, I've got a word with you, reptile!" Ivis runs over to berate Thornfire, who has a dismissive look on his face.

As the two were yelling at each other, Azier heard screaming in the distance. When she looked up, she saw Vexx Corvance attacking the outskirts edge of the city. After a few seconds, Ivis and Thornfire stop arguing and notice the commotion, too. They all saw smoke in the distance and Vexx on his wyvern, Ignistra.

Before Ivis could move, Azier was already on her dragon, taking off and heading straight for Vexx. Ivis called out to her to wait as he got onto Thornfire.

Vailstrym and Azier tried to fly as fast as possible to surprise attack Vexx. When they were close enough, Vailstrym shot a plasma blast at the wyvern. Ignistra, however, saw the brightly glowing ball of plasma head towards him at the last moment and managed to dodge the shot. Vexx turned to see the guardian flying at him at full speed, with another trailing behind.

As Vailstrym and Azier flew head-on at them, Ignistra thrust backward and nearly got out of the way in time. As Vailstrym rolled to the right, Ignistra sent a volley of sharp, hollow dragon quills—one of the quills embedded into Vailstrym's left side.

Vailstrym then let out a cry, and Azier looked down to see the quill sticking out. Thornfire and Ivis stopped dead in the air for a few seconds after witnessing what had just happened. Vailstrym couldn't keep flying, as the quill was letting too much blood out.

"Hey girl, lean to the right a bit so there's less blood coming out; I'll reposition," Azier said. Vailstrym listed to the right as Azier simultaneously adjusted her position to keep her balance.

As they came in for a landing, Azier jumped off just before Vailstrym crashed into the ground, then ran over to assess the injury. She could not do anything while out in the field without the medical equipment in Rayhaven. She kneeled beside Vailstrym, lying on the ground with labored breathing. Azier wasn't sure if her dragon was going to make it.

Ivis and Thornfire flew above Vailstrym and were about to land, but they saw the quill in Vailstrym's side. They both immediately knew she needed help, so they kept flying into Rayhaven to rally someone for assistance.

***

As Vexx saw Vailstrym crash to the ground, he knew he just pissed off the Dragonguard more than he wanted to. Vexx did not intend to take out a dragon that day, but despite the risk, he still counted it as a positive outcome. Vexx was not expecting anyone from the Dragonguard to be there so quickly, this far out on the city's edge.

Now, with the Rayhaven Dragonguard angered even more, Vexx decided to call off the distracting attack before they could retaliate. After all, Vexx did get what he came for; there was no need to overstay his welcome.

Vexx and his small attacking group retreated into the dense Forgotten Forest before any locals knew what had happened to them.