For your daily Sunkat (and other ship) needs

The battle

A/N
Warning. Much gore, venom and Deathbringer bringing death. Also, major plot twists ahead. Read at your own risk.

Sunny stood atop a large sand dune, searching the desert for movement. Meerkat had assured her that he would be super extra careful not to make anyone in The Masked angry or suspicious, and that he would just seem like an eager volunteer. He had also told her that The Masked intended to come around midnight, which, if Starflight's calculations were correct, was in a few minutes. They had all voted that the blind librarian should stay as far back as he could and that Fatespeaker would be keeping him safe. To Sunny's dismay, Clay had insisted on having Peril guard her, although Sunny thought she didn't need protection, her friends would be her friends. They never think that I can take care of myself. Well here's my time to prove them wrong! Deep mid thought, Sunny hardly noticed the little streak whizzing by the edge of her vision, until it struck Peril in the chest, melting before it could do more than dent a scale. Tsunami roared and lunged at the tree where the arrow had come from, just as a dragon in a Mudwing mask leapt out to attack. Instantly it was pandemonium. Starflight was shouting questions.

"What happened? What's going on? Did they attack yet? Is anybody hurt?" Fatespeaker growled at him to stay quiet, and he deflated visibly. A dragon in a Rainwing mask threw itself at Sunny, tail raised, but Peril knocked it out of the sky.

Tsunami was battling two dragons in NightWing masks. She thwacked one over the head with her tail, while clawing for the other. She failed to reach it however, and the remaining Masked member clawed at one of her wings angrily. She roared in pain, and twisted to hit it with her tail, but was yanked down. The dragon she had hit over the head had not passed out as she thought it had, and was now grabbing her tail. The Sandwing above her slashed out with its own tail, but she caught it and snapped the tail bone. The dragon screamed with pain, and lunges at Tsunami. Just in time, Riptide slammed into the Sandwing holing her tail, which loosened it's grip enough for Tsunami to escape. The two Masked crashed into each other mid flight, and knocked each other out. Riptide and Tsunami tied the dragons up with their own tails, kissed quickly and then flew back into the battle.

Deathbringer has gotten separated from Glory at the start of the battle. He flew over the fighting until he located her. She was facing off with a dragon in a SkyWing mask and as Deathbringer watched, she camouflaged and appeared to vanish. Deathbringer was so engrossed in watching his Queen win the fight, that he didn't see the Sandwing in a Mudwing mask until it knocked him off balance. He twisted around and back winged a few times, then blasted a bolt of fire right into the little eyehole of the mask. The dragon screamed in pain, and Deathbringer threw a dagger at its throat, which hit straight through the bone, killing it instantly. Deathbringer flipped and dove straight into the back of one of the  dragons who was advancing on Fatespeaker, fracturing the dragon's spine, then pushed off it's falling body to slit another dragon's throat with a chakram. Then he flipped and neatly sliced a dragon open from the base of its neck to its tail. By the time the third body hit the ground, Deathbringer was at Glory's side again. There were almost twenty dead or passed out dragons on the sand, Deathbringer noticed. Four were his own doing, two were Riptide and Tsunami's work, six were Peril's victims, but other two had black venom marks on their heads, which meant his Queen had clearly taken care of herself when he was away. There were also three dragons who appeared to have been killed by a Sandwing barb to the heart, but he decided he could solve that mystery later. As he watched, Glory camouflaged and then latched onto the neck of a dragon masked as a Skywing. She dug her venom spitting teeth into his neck and shot her deadly poison into his body. Deathbringer was impressed with the trick, but not too impressed to turn around and snap the neck of a Sandwing in a Seawing mask.

Sunny had hardly gotten any blows in on any of the dragons before Peril would come up and burn them to a crisp. The Masked's numbers were dropping quickly. Twenty. Fourteen. Thirteen. Nine. Six. Five. Three. She even saw Meerkat kill a few of them. He shone out from all the rest, and once she spotted him, she couldn't stop staring. He was wearing an Icewing mask, which was only a few tones lighter than his real scales, which glowed in the rising sun. As he made his fourth kill, Sunny looked around. There were only two dragons left standing besides Meerkat, and they looked quite beat up. Sunny heard Tsunami swearing.

"Shit, I knew we shoulda killed them!" She growled, advancing. A blast of burning venom stopped her, and she back winged quickly. Glory and Deathbringer flew smugly side by side and then repeated what they had done. Glory shot a stream of venom, and then Deathbringer breathed a blast of fire after it. The effect was that the venom partially boiled and so it was scalding hot when it hit the dragon's scales. The two final members of The Masked dropped to the ground, screaming. Over the noise of dying dragons, Sunny heard another sound. One that she had been fearing she would never hear again. Meerkat.

"Hey Sunny! A little help here!" Meerkat called, flying up to her while trying to untie the knot in the back of his Icewing mask. Suddenly, a flash of brown scales shoved Meerkat from the sky.