Does gliding flight give any advantages to dragons in combat?

"They fly now?"
"They fly now!?"
"They fly now"

One of the most iconic characteristic of dragons is their ability to fly, on top of that, my intelligent (human level) dragons also use a fun chemical, called "Királyvíz" as their breath weapon.

(Real királyvíz doesn't actually look different than this)

Királyvíz₁ is a mixture of sugar, spice and everything nice (with a hint of Professor X). It's signature ability is to chew through even golden experience₂ and star platinum with ease. It also produces chlorine gas as a side-effect. On top of that, the reaction-speed of királyvíz can be increased by upping the temperature, something that naturally occurs in flying creatures, it's called waste heat.

Now, dragons can only use powered flight for a very short time, like giant pterosaurs. Their gliding capability is on the same level as for the Quetzalcoatlus northropi. They're roughly at around the size of a large horse, but their longer necks, tail and larger head tends to make them look bigger.

Given that, would it (gliding flight) confer advantage to a dragon, fighting humans, given they are both trying to kill each other and the human band (at around 5 in number) has crossbows, which can wound and potentially kill dragons? The outlined situation is just a point of reference.

_{1: Aqua Regia
2: Alchemists, who are also fans of JoJo, sometimes use names from the manga instead of the actual element, to avoid revealing secrets to outsiders}

posted almost 5 years ago

Mephistopheles‭

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