Wings of Fire - The Personality Shift: Alternative version of Chapter 8
Thorn glared at the cause of Pyrrhia's troubles; the purple-scaled Magiah. He was sitting as calmly as possible, as if he wasn't even fazed that he had been discovered. He won't be so cocky once I get my talons on him.
"So you finally arrived? It's nice to meet you snout to snout." Magiah greeted them as if they were friends, yet a tone of contempt was present in his voice.
"Turn Clay and the others back to normal right now!" Peril yelled out the order.
"Now, now, there is no need for us to rush. We've only just met." Magiah replied causally.
"There is nothing for us to talk about. Now undo your spell, or else." Deathbringer threatened.
Oh my, such violence!" Magiah laughed, and then grew serious for a moment, "Don't you know what I can do? You can't touch me; compared to all of you, I am invincible!" Magiah spread his wings dramatically.
"Wanna bet?" Riptide countered.
Magiah smiled, "Of course. If even one of you can touch me, I'll undo everything I've done here, including bringing back those two Skywings from death."
"That's all? When then, this should be easy." Fatespeaker launched herself towards the purple dragon, but stopped short when a wall of fire appeared in between them.
"Oh my, however will you get around this?" Magiah's voice came from behind the flames. "If only there was one of you who could pass through fire." Magiah said with mock laughter.
Everyone looked at Peril, "Well, it would seem he wants to test us." Peril concluded.
"I don't know what sick twisted game Magiah has planned, but it seems we don't have a choice, this is the only way we have to fix this." Thorn announced.
Peril took a deep breath and stepped towards the flames. When her talons touched the wall, she could feel the heat of the fire but wasn't completely fazed by it. The flames were dense, just like how Clay described swimming underwater; so Peril pushed her talons forwards, and expected to instantly reach the other side. That didn't happen though, as her claws were still be licked by the fire. Peril hesitated for a second, and in that moment of hesitation, Peril felt an updraft from the flames and she was knocked out from the wall.
Peril felt her heart stop for a split-second; she failed!
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, how can you expect to save Clay if you can't even get past something you live with everyday?" Magiah said with mock concern. He then had the fires vanish, and in their place, came a barrier of water.
Peril walked back to the others, "So now what? If that's anything like the fire, we won't be getting through it." She grumbled.
"Well, it looks like I'm up." Riptide said sadly. He pieced it together that Magiah would have different barriers for each of them, so this one being made out of water, must be for a Seawing like himself. His tail whipped up some left-over ash from the eruption as he walked up to the wall. He then plunged himself into the water, and then, he noticed that there was a current, pushing back out. Riptide's gills opened to let some of the water in, and he whipped his tail so he could try to get through the current of the barrier. The more he tried to make progress, the stronger the current became. It wasn't long before the current got the upper hand and forced him out of the water.
"And I thought you were a Seawing. Where's that natural advantage at, probably back with Tsunami?" Magiah said as Riptide hung his head with shame at failing.
"Why won't you just face us!?" Thorn growled, annoyed at how their foe took them so causally.
"Because that wouldn't be fun, I like using my power, it's thrilling." Magiah laughed, "Oh by the way, Peril, Scarlet says thanks for getting her out of Burn's tower."
"You've seen Scarlet?" Peril asked, surprised.
"Oh yes, she was quite an interesting dragoness, very unique. I'm sure I saw her somewhere when I arrived. Don't know where she is now." Magiah replied.
Deathbringer took the opportunity to try and hit Magiah in the back, but the purple dragon sidestepped out of the way. "Come on now, I'm not through with you six yet. But it you want it to be your turn, Deathbringer, well then be my guest." Magiah used his magic to create and toss over to the Nightwing a spear; one of the Seawing version.
"What? You want to spar with me?" Deathbringer asked suspiciously.
"Oh no, you aren't fighting me. You are facing all of them." Magiah took a few wing beats backwards, and gestured to the ten skeletal dragons that were rising from the ground around Deathbringer. "You're going to need a weapon if you want to fight all of them."
Deathbringer's heart sank at the odds; it was a pity Glory wouldn't be here to see his to-be triumph though. The skeletal dragons rushed at him like a hoard of angry scavengers, and Deathbringer raised his spear, which was uncomfortable with it being one for Seawings. He pierced through the skull of the first one and yanked it of its bony body. Then he spun around, using his tail knock down the second one, and the spear for the third one. For the fourth one, he blasted fire on it, but the bony dragon just shrugged it off. So Deathbringer rushed it and tore its head off. The fifth one jumped on his back and dug its claws into his scales. Deathbringer twisted around and flung the skeletal dragon off the cliff. The sixth and seventh dragons walked around onto opposite sides of him, and he braced for their attack. He then noticed they were distracted by Thorn and Peril, whom were blasting fire at the zombie-like dragons.
"Hey, hey!" Magiah protested, "You aren't allowed to interfere with this! If you two don't stop right now, I'll double the number."
"Don't worry, I've got this." Deathbringer announced, he was secretly happy though, these skeletons had sharp claws.
Hearing this, Magiah snapped his claws, and the remaining five skeletal dragons rushed forth at the Nightwing simultaneously. Deathbringer, unready for the attack, was quickly pinned down in the onslaught, and one of the skeletal dragons prepared to bring it jaws down onto his neck. But then, Deathbringer felt the weight on his back lift, and he looked to see the bony dragons backing off.
"And that's the skill of a professional assassin? How pathetic." Magiah said unapprovingly.
Reluctantly, Deathbringer walked back to the others, his pride severely wounded.
"Well, who wants to go next, Fatespeaker perhaps?" Magiah asked out loud.
"He'll have you go sooner or later." Thorn said to the nervous Nightwing.
Fatespeaker took in a deep breath, "Alright, so what sort of challenge do you have planned for me?" She was hoping Magiah would give her something easy; but she was also curious as to why their foe insisted on these trials.
"Well, you know your 'visions,' let's see if they are really helpful." Magiah announced. He snapped his claws and several polls rose out of the ground and on top of them were what resembled Rainwing dart guns. "Let's see if you can dodge them. There are a total of 9 darts, avoid them all and you will win."
Fatespeaker was puzzled at first but then she noticed that the dart guns swirled when she moved, so they would always point at her; it would take some quick reflexes not get hit.
"And begin!" Magiah yelled, and the first set of darts flew her way. Fatespeaker crouched down onto the ground as the first set passed just inches about her head. Fatespeaker tried to catch her breath but was cut short when the second group was fired. Quickly, she jumped out of the way mere seconds from being hit. Fatespeaker tried to get out of the way of the third set, but she moved too slowly, and so one of the darts successfully poked itself right into her snout. She was looking down right at it is she felt sleep overcome her.
"Didn't predict that, did you?" Magiah asked, laughing.
"So now who's next? How about you in the green?" Magiah was looking at Jambu, whom wasn't wanting to have to do anything.
"Me?" Jambu asked nerviously.
"Yes you. It's time you joined in the fun." Magiah said.
"Do I have to?" Jambu replied.
"You do if you want your sister to be an awesome queen again. Don't worry, he doesn't seem like he wants to kill us. He would have done so already if he did." Fatespeaker comforted him with her words; she was just waking back up.
"Alright then, for Glory." Jambu said, hoping this wouldn't hurt.
"Good thing you agreed, because you won't even get a chance to touch me until all of you can pass my tests." Magiah replied smugly.
Jambu stepped forward, "Just don't hurt me." He replied sheepishly.
Magiah stepped farther backwards, and out of the ground, rose a giant dark, forbidding, rainforest. "Cross it, then you may get a chance at me."
Jambu gulped, but walked closer to the dark version of his home; his scales remaining green all over him. He grabbed onto the branches and started swinging, occasionally wrapping his tail around and launching himself. His plan was to treat it as a race, but in this forest, things would seem to come out of nowhere and scare him. It was after a zombie-like sloth, swung out from a branch that, Jambu felt like he had enough. He turned around and came screaming out from the dark rainforest in terror. Jambu's scales were a complete set of blue-gray and pale green.
"Forget 'lazy Rainwing,' now that is a scaredy Rainwing." Magiah started laughing.
"Well, it's about time I end this little game." Thorn announced, "Once I'm through with you, you'll wish you never messed with my daughter and her friends."
"Big talk, let's see if you can back it up." Magiah replied, unfazed.
Thorn growled, "I won't disappoint."
"Good, seeing as how you are a queen." Magiah snapped his claws again, and a desert rose out of the ground, just as Jambu's rainforest did. "Oh, keep an eye out for Dragonbite vipers." Magiah said with some laughing, which sounded faint, but surely ahead of her.
Thorn stepped forward into the magical desert. Everything looked normal to her, but occasionally, she could see shapes stirring in the sand. To get an advantage, she took to the air, rising high enough so that if there were any of the deadly snakes, they couldn't reach her. But after a while, her wings started aching. Reluctantly, she glided back down to the ground, and almost instantly, a Dragonbite viper launched from under the sand. Thinking quickly, she shot out some fire at the snake and darted away. However, Thorn was unprepared when a second viper shot out at her right hind leg and sunk its fangs in. Thorn was horrified, seeing as how there was nothing she could do now. Very quickly, the pain came in and the venom turned her leg black. She closed her snout firmly, as it was all he could do to keep from screaming in the agony. Once darkness settled in her vision, she knew she must have died, but there was just one problem; she could sense, if not fully feel, the venom leave her leg. Thorn could also feel the rocky ground of the Nightwing volcano, so she must not have died.
"Come on now, you don't seriously think I'd let you die, I'm much too pleased with myself to do that." Magiah said teasingly. Shakily, Thorn got back on her talons, she was sure what was about to happen next wasn't good.
"Well, the six of you have failed the test I have given you. So, you can't possibly hope to stand up to me." Magiah announced, and then, he snapped his claws one last time.
All of a sudden, Thorn, Peril, and the others, found themselves back in the Rainforest, but there was one problem; the boulder wormhole to the volcano was gone! And back on the island, Anemone and Clay stared at the situation; there was no way to could stop the purple dragon now!
