Fire, it surrounded us.

The main gate and it’s surroundings became alight in a flash of a second, screams began to fill that night in Branwick, shouts and orders from the officers to the troops to prepare to defend the town, common folk moving buckets of water while many try to bring old pumps to try to save the only thing protecting them from the claws and maws of the monsters outside.

The humans, badly injured prepared themselves on what supposed to be the last stand, apparently the reinforcements wont arrive in time to save them, those thoughts and similar grim words echoed in the mind of our chosen heroes. “Heroes” Michael thought, many of them believed that with just their weapons and a little bit of luck they could just overpower everything the world threw at them and yet here they were about to face a real foe, at least they managed to rescue the captives and force the Minotaur to kill himself in the process or so they thought, but now a whole army of monsters, different creatures and what appeared to be a dragon were now at the gates. Their primary “advanced” weapons that caught the attention of many griffins were now nearly depleted of their ammunition.

Aliana, Elsa, Maquis and Milla were helping around moving buckets of water along with the rest of the griffins while a bandaged and injured Austin try to move up to the wall to shoot at the approaching invaders, with the help of Prag and Wojtek, the 3 males exchanged mortified looks seeing the enemy so close, they turned their heads back and shouted “The Gate!!, they are going for the GATE!!!” with hurry and fear gripping their hearts griffins began building a improvised barricade to hold the already damaged gate. a fire drake began pounding the burning gate with his claws each strike felt like the toll of a requiem bell signaling Death to all who remained on the other side.

That’s when a second wall of fire ignited the top of the wall, every griffin and humans jumped towards safety while the smoke turned itself into a wall of darkness and fire obscuring the horror behind it, the troops remained on the back of the burning wall expecting anything to come from behind it. All of the sudden sinkholes appeared behind the lines and mutated diamond dogs, lizarmen and other creatures sharing the similarities of normal animals began rushing forward the surprised defenders.

The town folk had nowhere to go, a few tried to escape by flying high but a stream of fire threatened to burn them out, with no other option part of the population joined the defenders of the town, clashing of weapons, claws, roars and blood filled the moment.
Michael didn’t know how to react, to him everything was pure chaos and death, all he thought at that moment was to simply find a place to cover, the sound of a shot replaced his train of thoughts, Milla began to shoot at the closest creatures giving the poor griffins a chance to disengage the fight or place a killing strike on the enemy, the rest of the girls in the group put their backs against the foundations of the sawmill, the strange runes glowing ever so slightly whenever one of the humans got a little bit close to them. Prag, Austin and Wojtek made a run for it and with little help from the civilians looking for shelter they placed all kinds of furniture as a cover , anything to just buy a couple of seconds in case they needed to reload.

The knights flew close to the ground swiping, impaling and shooting their crossbows at anything down their path, with their Captain leading the charging arrow formation the knights flew around providing support and much needed time to the rest of the troops to organize, the rest of the griffins guards took the formation of a phalanx stabbing with their spears and pole-arms, all while slowly moving forward towards the sinkhole forcing the creatures to fall back inside the darkness of their entrance. The already exhausted town guard was fighting for their lives many remained heavily injured on the ground, others doing their best to protect the civilians while they run for salvation inside the main buildings.

More tunnels appeared close to the main roads of the town, the combined forces of the griffins helped with the invaders, the torrent of monsters were dwindling, the smallest of sinkholes even thought they were far more numerous began to simply collapse one by one the mutated monsters falling one after the other made the griffin guards feel confident on their tactics and the hope of victory became a light glowing in the dark of the night. While on the bigger sinkholes diamond dogs and lizarmen crawled out with armor and forged weapons forcing the griffin defenders to change their tactics, their “new” enemy showed up to be far more challenging than the cannon fodder they have been fighting the whole time, the knights seeing this decided to join in the lines, the appearance of nets throwers and enemy pole-arms forced the griffins to fight the enemy on the ground.

The situation was becoming more desperate, two armies facing each other on the cobblestone streets of Branwick, small skirmishes raging all around the inner roads of the few blocks, random fighting and screams while 2 armies stare down each other waiting for one or other signal to charge forward.
Little by little the griffins move forward while the lizardmen did the same, their speed increasing, wings flapping rapidly and the sound of armored claws from both sides becoming louder and louder, at the few last moments both sides screamed at each other while preparing to strike.

The griffins took the initiative of the charge and flew low into the ranks of the enemy lines forcing the diamond dogs to the ground, the lizarmen were bigger, broader and moved far more experienced for the looks of it. The charge of the griffins was lethal for the first few seconds but now they were facing an enemy that could beat them at close quarters.
Michael saw with confusion “how is it that a whole species that can fly and has natural claws, can be defeated by just a bipedal enemy?”, sure the lizardfolk had a few advantages, more armor, better weapons and their physique was near the same as the humans, almost same height, and body complexion, only they were a little bit smaller and slim than the human counterparts, except for the bigger lizards that carried two-handed weapons, they looked just like Conan the barbarian only a scalier version.

The young knight Leonie shot her last two bolts into the body of the closest lizard berserk barely doing any damage, the deep growl of the beast sent a chill down her spine as he got closer, the sight of the heavy blade mortified the noble girl, hoping her training and agility was more than enough to dodge his attacks, Leonie prepared herself for the worst, only to hear a distinct sound above the chaos of the battle, she quickly turned around to see Michael the human loading another round, the focused look on his eyes moved above her choosing another target. Just when she turned back to the approaching berserk, she saw the tower of muscles and metal collapse in front of her, on the front of the head a small hole appeared and when the corpse lunged forward she saw a bigger exit showing the brutality and gore of the projectile.

The brutal response of the humans towards the enemy was as quick as was deadly, with more shots sounds escalating and more enemy falling leaving pockets of space between the attackers and defenders, that’s when an officer of the lizards pointed at the humans and suddenly a full charge of the enemy waved towards them.
The numbers of griffin were not enough and with the ongoing battle, their numbers began to dwindle, nobody could stop the wave of enemies, the addition of falling chairs, vases and others objects coming from the griffins that were hiding on the upper floors of their houses, began to fall in hopes to stop them.

The barricade barely did anything to protect the humans, Wojtek and Austin were impaled instantaneously by a full line of spears while the rest of the humans did their best to fight them off, with one or two militia that appeared out of different locations to join in the main battle that would determined who will be the victor of that night.
The group tried helping their companions, but it was too late, they were dead on the spot, Prag and Aliana took their weapons and bags and told the rest of the group to go inside the sawmill.
Mary and Lucy just stared at the two corpses of their companions, they closed their eyes and put their arms to their chest, it was the least they could do for the time being. Just the idea that a few hours they were alive and talking to them now they were gone, the fear of not getting out alive began to grip the hearts of the two specially when they counted their ammo while reloading their rifles, soon it will be all over.

Milla began to rummage through her bag to find anything that could be of use to blow the enemy apart, a couple of pipe bombs, some flares and a whole box of firecrackers was the only thing she had left, her brother gave her the guns from Texan while he took the saiga and revolver of the polish man.
Aliana move towards the corpses of the enemy and took a hatchet and a one handed sword, knowing full well that in the end there won’t be enough bullets for all.

The group moved to the upper floors of the sawmill, running from window to window, their interest changing the moment they saw the battle, the griffins were winning but they were out numbered and they still had to deal with drake that was pounding the burning gate. That with each strike the gate just broke little by little pieces of it falling inwards. The enemy didn’t need to defeat the griffins in combat, just stall them enough for the drake to finish them off.
The humans saw an opportunity to make a run for it, the enemy was focused on the main griffin army, the majority if not all the mutated monsters were either dead or scattered to who knows where and to the south the rest of the town looked pretty normal, completely untouched by the battle.

Prag tried to reason with his little sister, he tried to convince her to leave the town that the whole situation was hopeless, Milla didn’t want to leave the grffins to their fate, Aliana and the rest were looking side ways at the civilians knowing full well what would happen to them if they left them.
Prag was trying to prove his point until a random arrow from outside pierced his neck, Milla rushed to his brother trying desperately to stop the bleeding but there wasn’t anything she could do, for a few seconds of agony Prag tried to tell Milla to run then he just simply stared at the ceiling, the light of his eyes fading away. With grief and hatred Milla grabbed the shotgun and the rest of the pipe bombs and attacked the lizarmen army outside, the rest of the humans followed after her, shooting faster barely without aim, the sound of the bullets hitting the enemy in different places wasn’t what made the lizarfolk retreat but the sheer velocity of the rapid fire and the explosion that left a few holes in the middle of their formation was that broke the morale in their ranks.

The rifles of the humans roared in the battlefield, taking shots at the officers and bigger threats, their movement desperate but without flinching, shooting round after round and then switching to the weapons of their fallen comrades with a grim determination to eradicate the lizardfolk.
The griffins saw this as an opportunity to push forward and with a final effort the lizardmen army fell. On the last moment when the enemy ran from the battlefield, the gate fell, the dragon with part of his face blown up pushed forward, the stomps on the ground shaking the buildings nearby. Some griffins knights moved up to face the drake knowing that the army was already dealt with, they began to use their wing to fly around taking shots at the great lizard continuing with their aerial maneuvers.

Michael and the rest of the Americans couldn’t believe their eyes, a mutated dragon was now walking around the main street, it’s wings broken, part of it’s face falling apart and part of it’s tail missing, the gigantic lizard move with a purpose searching for something. On it’s back, a familiar figure rode it, holding a magical axe and barely holding to the mount, Adrix was still alive, injured but breathing none the less and was looking for revenge.
Even with griffins flying around both the drake and the Minotaur were looking after the humans, when they located them hiding in the sawmill, Adrix lead his titanic pet towards them ignoring the bolts and spears of the guards.

The humans ran deeper into the building trying to find an exit, Michael with weapons in hand and the rest of his ammo, jumped down hitting the wooden floor hard, Aliana, Elsa and Milla following his action while the rest of the girls simply took shots at the drake with a fain hope to kill it.
The civilians who were taking refuge in there were lead by Aliana out side through a side door, on the last moment the drake opened up his two mouths and with it's breath set fire the inside of the building, Calli, Mary and Lucy didn’t had time to scream while the torrent of fire burned the entire upper floor to ash in an instant, the rest of the humans moved outside hugging the stony wall of the building, when suddenly as soon as Elsa got close to one of the runes, the stone began to shine brightly the mark of the rune etching it self on the back of her hand, then with light flowing
through her eyes she spoke in a strange dialect "Den som bryter detta minnesmärke skall ständigt plågas av arghet. Svekfull död ska träffa honom".

She began shooting at the fire drake, the normal bullet were now like magical artillery shot hitting the monster time after time, sadly she only got 5 shots on her mosin but then she took out her bayonet and with a simple gesture of her hand the blade glowed with a golden aura. Michael and the rest stood there dumbfounded seeing this oversized tinkerbell with a rifle charging straight at the flaming dragon without fear.
Seconds later they saw Aliana mimicking the Swedish girl and touching a different rune, but it didn’t had the same effect, Michael tried to do the same as well as Milla but only the american had some sort of magical effect on him.
Michael felt a power surge as his blood was boiling inside without hurting him, as his actions were being lead by a strange force, pointing him in the same direction of the drake and with a glowing aura. The emblem of the white tree shining on his chest as he ran forward to the danger ahead. Michael ran along side Elsa shooting his rounds while trying to dodge the attacks. taking different directions both humans looked for a way to kill their target. Ancient Magic flowing out of their bodies into their weapons.

Shot after shot the projectiles found their mark obliterating the drake piece by piece, parts of decaying flesh hit the ground as the broken drake tried to cough up some flames to burn his enemies but to no avail, 5 shots hit their mark and then 5 more shots hit it again forcing the remnant dragon to fall, the head tried to take one last bite of it’s prey that was rushing towards him but before he could open his maw a blonde figure jumped over a turned cart and landed on the head piercing a long blade in his skull. a long drawl of pain was the last thing he felt before collapsing dead on the road. The blonde Swedish girl jumped of the head after she removed the bayonet from his skull and for a few seconds of clarity the dragon looked at his adversary and with a kind and sorrowful look on his eye the dragon silently thanked her. With this victory and the magic fadeing away, Michael and Elsa jumped, cheering and shouting for in the distance with the light of the morning sun, Iron Beak showed up with the rest of the army, the sound of warhorns and the roar of a thousand griffoon soldiers coming to their aid.

Adrix fell into the ground hiding in one of it’s broken wings, unable to keep control over his gigantic slave, the injuries sustained during his first engagement with the humans and his poorly teleportation using wild magic nearly brought the end to him. But now he has lost everything except for his chance to kill or restrain at least one human, he could at least bring one corpse to his master and the future he was promised would be his. He saw both humans jumping unaware of the dangers that was lurking around, it was perfect, he would only had to rush them and take both of them with him. The glow of his axe began to turn into a sickly color and as soon as the Minotaur was about to rush he felt something piercing his chest from the back, Captain Silver held his Sword in place and dug it deeper forcing the blade to protrude from the chest of Adrix. The student of Grogar and the Terror of Edelweiss was dead his little reign of terror was finally brought to an end.

The Griffin captain saw one pair of humans celebrating and other pair just lumped on the ground crying their loss, it was a Pyrrhic victory but a victory none the less. He hoped that at least the reward they were going to received was enough to thank them for their sacrifice, with out the help of the humans more lives would have been lost and he knew that both their technology and magic that they showed would be a great addition for the growing kingdom.
Embarrassed that his idea to try to buy the human affection so they can teach their secrets to the griffon make him felt like one of those nobles that lived in the capital. So for now he will keep all of this as a secret and will make sure that it all fall into a rumor, it's at least the kindest thing he could do for them.

The few day that passed were filled with grief and sorrow, both the humans and griffins had lost friends and families, they lighted up funeral pyres and said their goodbyes to their fallen. With the arrival of the rest of the reinforcements from Erden, life in the town of Branwick began to flow again, shops were repaired, stocks were filled and the sawmill once again was repaired and had a whole roof replaced. The humans were paid a handful of riches for their efforts and to their fallen companions, the group that accompanied the troops for the short duration left a great impression on the griffins both noble birth and commoners.

With a heavy heart and a heavier purse the humans moved inwards towards the capital of Griffonstone, the idea that Milla brought to the group was to go towards Equestria,after hearing about magic and the knownldge the equine had, if the ponies were friend with the Griffins they could at least try to cross the ocean in order to find a magical way back home, and after what Michael and Elsa felt that night they believed it was a good option as any.

All of the sudden on that exact moment Captain Silver and Iron Beak met them as soon as they were leaving, with an opened golden scroll on his claws, he told them that the new King Grover wanted to meet them and reward them for their acts, he said he wanted to meet the creatures that helped protect his subjects in their most dire of times. The girls were enthusiastic while Michael just simply cursed inside, a gentle “fuck” barely leaving his mouth.

Author's Note

I know it has it's errors I'll try to fix them before posting the chapter, and that I said that I was going for the format of a diary but I'm going to leave a couple of chapter like this to try something new. I'm really busy with work and barely got time to write and check everything. So I'm going to take a little more time the next time.
Hope you guys like it.