End of the war

The sun was setting over the dry and broken battlefield, covered in the dead bodies of both man and monster. The dragons had encroached on man's land for hundreds of years, and under new leadership, the human race had decided to do something about it. Though only a hundred years prior they had fought amongst themselves for control of land and resources, the threat of the dragons was enough of a common problem for them to band together.

For thirty years the war had gone on, the balance of power barely shifting from one side to the other. The dragons were massive creatures with incredible power, but the human mages had developed magic that could turn the dragon's scales to stone. They would become heavier, stiffer, and more fragile as the mages cast their spells, until they could no longer protect themselves and the magic seeped past their scales to their inner organs, killing them from the inside out. But the spells took time and resources, and the mages could not protect themselves while casting it. Their warriors and archers did their best to protect them, but there was only so much they could do about the claws, fangs, and fire breath.

That was, until they were able to enlist the assistance of the gryphons. The gryphons had stayed mostly uninvolved in the war, preferring not to take sides and remain neutral so as to be able to negotiate with whoever won. However, as the dragons found it ore difficult to take what they wanted from the human lands, they turned next to the gryphons lands instead. Which, naturally, made the decision for the gryphons on whose side to take.

The gryphons were a two-pronged advantage for the humans. They were fast and agile, and while their strength was nothing compared to the dragons, they could still dive in and attack and get out before the dragons could do much about it. But they could also be mounts for the humans. That meant that the human warriors could get in at the dragons much more safely, and with the combined force, the mages could be much safer in their casting.

And they were. Over a prolonged month of battle, the dragons were gone. Piled atop one another in a mountain of stone, non-degradable corpses that would forever serve as a reminder of what happened. Gryphons and humans were carted away from the field, some to be cared for, and others to be burned or buried. They had fought hard for the right to keep their own lands. And the had succeeded.