Chapter 64: Black Dragon Bomber and Arcane Guidance

Viewed from high above, the lingering glow of the setting sun trailed a golden ribbon across the surface of the sea.

The black dragon began her dive, accelerating gradually. Jaina took a deep breath as the gale whipped her golden hair into a wild flurry.

At the lowest point of the descent, Onyxia relaxed her claws, and the second test warhead entered free fall.

Jaina immediately cast her spell, and the air currents acted like invisible hands supporting the bomb. Sweat quickly beaded on her forehead; this kind of delicate control was far more difficult than she had imagined. The warhead wavered unsteadily in the air like a drunken raven, but it was indeed drawing closer to the target.

"Off to the left!" Onyxia warned. The dragon adjusted her flight angle to give Jaina a clearer view of the bomb's trajectory.

Jaina clenched her teeth and made a subtle adjustment with her fingers. A gust of crosswind precisely struck the bomb, correcting its course. In the final hundred meters, the warhead plummeted almost vertically.

"Boom!"

Sand and dust flew into the air, and the impact point was a mere dozen meters from the center of the red circle. The shockwave kicked up rolling waves and blasted a massive crater into the beach, which was swiftly swallowed by the encroaching tide.

On the ground, Delren and Magni erupted in cheers. The dwarf was so excited he leapt into the air, his beard bristling all the way up to the sky.

Chromie materialized beside them out of nowhere, conjuring a few fireworks that bloomed overhead, their multicolored sparks reflecting on everyone's faces.

Onyxia landed gracefully. Jaina slid down from the dragon's back, her legs trembling with fatigue, yet her eyes burned with the brilliant light of excitement. "I did it!"

Delren rushed over and pulled her into a hearty embrace, nearly lifting her off the ground. "Fantastic! This is ten times better than expected!"

Onyxia shifted back into her human form, rubbing her shoulders. "Could we find a lighter bomb next time? My arms are aching."

That very afternoon, Delren cooked up a new idea.

"If Jaina can control the bomb from the ground," he pointed to a crude sand table model set up on the beach, "our operational radius can be increased exponentially."

Magni frowned. "Won't the accuracy drop, though?"

"Only experimentation will tell." Delren turned to Jaina, who was drinking some water, anticipation gleaming in his eyes. "Ready to try again?"

Jaina sighed, but picked up her staff nonetheless. "For Azeroth."

***

This time, Onyxia carried the bomb aloft alone, while Jaina stood upon an elevated vantage point, observing through a spell that enhanced her vision.

Once the payload was released, Jaina immediately began casting. Distance clearly compromised her precision; the bomb wobbled through the air, tracing a sloppy "S" shape like a drunkard. Ultimately, however, it struck about fifty meters from the target.

"Effective, but not precise enough," Delren recorded the data. "The maximum control range is roughly three kilometers; beyond that, accuracy plummets sharply."

Chromie scurried over to inspect the figures. "If Jaina stands atop the city walls, she should be able to cover most of the battlefield."

Onyxia overheard their discussion as she landed. "So I don't have to be a glorified mount next time?"

Delren flashed a cunning smile. "Aerial guidance offers higher precision, and besides..." He lowered his voice, "Jaina said you fly very steadily."

The corners of Onyxia's mouth twitched upward of their own accord before she quickly restored a stern expression. "Hmph, well, obviously."

In the days that followed, the beach echoed daily with thunderous detonations.

Onyxia and Jaina embarked on an intensive training regimen. The black dragon practiced approaching from varying altitudes and angles, ensuring the bomb's initial trajectory brought it as close to the target as possible.

Jaina, meanwhile, refined her wind-manipulation magic, acquiring a specialized staff that amplified her tempest spells. She mastered the art of achieving maximum course correction with the absolute minimum expenditure of mana.

"Again!" Jaina shouted from atop the dragon's back, the fierce wind tangling her golden hair.

Onyxia plummeted into a dive, releasing her grip at the lowest apex, and the bomb hurtled away at a near-vertical angle. Jaina's spells instantly enveloped the warhead, shepherding it toward the target like a guided arrow.

"Bullseye!" Magni's cheer drifted up from the ground.

At dusk, an exhausted Jaina and Onyxia sat side by side on the sand, watching the sunset dye the ocean a brilliant gold.

"I didn't expect our teamwork to be quite this good," Jaina murmured softly, her tone laced with a hint of weariness and quiet satisfaction.

Onyxia let out a soft huff. "Don't flatter yourself, human princess. I simply have no desire to make things easy for those demons."

Jaina smiled, choosing not to expose the black dragon's facade. In the distance, Delren and Magni were deep in discussion over how to increase the bomb's payload, while Chromie had conjured a mountain of snacks from nowhere, munching happily as she watched the spectacle.

Delren gazed up at the darkening sky and muttered to himself, "Still not enough. If the summoning ritual takes place in the dead of night, we'll also need to practice accurate nocturnal bombardment."

Hearing this, Jaina turned her head and asked, "What summoning ritual?"

Delren glanced at her, then flicked his gaze toward Chromie. The bronze dragon gave a subtle nod, seemingly granting tacit permission for him to continue.

Delren sighed and drawled lazily, "I reckon that one day in the future, Dalaran will host a demon-summoning ritual, which is why I'm bothering with all this troublesome high-altitude bombing prep—hoping to disrupt such an evil ritual when the time comes."

Upon hearing this, Jaina's eyes widened in sheer disbelief. "Impossible. Absolutely impossible. How could Dalaran ever permit anyone to do such a thing?"

"That is Dalaran, the City of Arcanists. With so many Kirin Tor archmages about, how could they possibly stand by and watch an evil ritual take place right in their midst? I swear to you, the moment anyone dared try, they would be obliterated within a minute."

Delren gazed at the sky, refusing to argue, and simply replied calmly, "Better safe than sorry. It's best if we never need it, but should an emergency arise, we'll have a backup plan."

"Besides, if it ultimately goes unused, this method can still be used to blow up plenty of other targets. Azeroth has no shortage of bizarre factions. We can just hand-deliver a big present to each of them when the time comes."

Jaina's thoughts were far away from oversized explosives; she was puzzling over what circumstances could possibly lead Dalaran to harbor an evil ritual. Uncertainly, she asked, "Could it be that Dalaran is eventually overrun by the undead?"

Delren answered blandly, "The Sun King once believed that Quel'Thalas possessed flawless defenses."

Jaina countered, "That was because there was a traitor within the high elven ranks."

Before the words had even fully faded, she froze. Wasn't Dalaran today mirroring that exact same blind confidence Quel'Thalas once held?

She asked haltingly, "Should I... warn my mentor, Antonidas?"

Delren was noncommittal. "As you like!" Then he shook his head slightly. "Though I doubt he'd listen anyway."

A deep sense of unease settled over Jaina. She looked out toward the distant horizon, as if Dalaran itself lay hidden there, harboring some unseen, menacing threat beneath the surface.