This was wrong. This was so wrong. He shouldn't be here. Every fiber of his old body told him so. It was like he was outstepping his authority. But at the same time, he was curious. After all, it was his library… and he was its Chronicler. And despite everything he was curious about this hidden section. So he proceeded on, with two elemental constructs following him to light the hallway.
But why was it hidden away? And what was that part about sanity? Well, honestly, he mused to himself, this hallway is unnerving. From time to time he swore he could hear someone trailing him, he could hear something like footsteps… Except those were not coming from behind him, but strangely from the right side of his head. Yes, that's right, from the right side of his head - no matter how many times he turned around, those footsteps constantly came louder in his right ear. And from time to time those footsteps got faster, as if a person who was responsible started running. And the further he went, the more and more clear he heard some odd periodic buzzing overhead, and the darker the hallway became. He was glad he took those constructs with him.
Finally, he reached another door. But it was… odd. Made of heavy metal, and covered in dust and rust, and seems like it hasn't been used for a while. And of course, it didn't budge even a bit.
The Chronicler looked at the door before him. Whatever was behind… Perhaps was the answer to the questions he had regarding that odd book. And maybe even more. Or maybe there was nothing behind. But how does it open, if it opens at all?
A closer look at the door revealed eight round rotating plaques with numbers. Numbers…
"Aha!" the old dragon couldn't help but smile, pulling out the scroll with notes he took when examining 'Fables and legends'. 6-0, 5-8, 3-8, 7-3, 2-2, 4-0, 1-4, 8-5.
The plaques turned with a clicking sound, as the Chronicler entered what he thought to be a code. 4-2-8-0-8-0-3-5. A familiar chime played, and the door slowly opened, sliding sideways, revealing a small antechamber with another door on the other end, with a single parchment attached to the door.
The reading on the parchment said,
"Chief Archivist note: YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE. Addendum: NOT YET ANYWAY."
Creak-creak-creak-creak.
My every jump makes snow creak, and leaves a sizeable dent in it. Good thing I decided to move by jumping instead of plowing through.
"Spyro! Sparx!" I called out to them, hoping they will hear me through the wind.
"Loon?!" Sparx turned towards me, eyes bigger than his head, again, "H-how did you get here-Nevermind that, dude, Spyro's hurt!"
"What happened?" I move closer and begin to dig half-buried dragon from the snow. Well, I can see that he crash-landed here, judging by a now almost unnoticeable plow line in the snow… As Sparx tells their story, I nod, painting a clearer picture. They were flying for around three days, with stops now and then to rest, but eventually, they got into a blizzard, and Spyro got hit by a few shots from some apes' cannon. One of shots hit his wing and he crashed. Ever since he was unable to move, at all, and had severe pain in his chest…
Broken or cracked ribs. I guess. Oh come on, I'm not a medic, I'm a… uh, I'm a purifier?
"So, Loon, you dug him up, now what are you going to do?"
Hell if I know! I look at Batter… who is standing ON the snow, as if he weights nothing.
"Get back to their party, for starters," he says.
Right. Whatever that means?.. Ok, let's try this.
"Right. Mind if I tag along?" I ask. "Whatever, Loon, just… help my bro here."
You have joined Spyro and Sparx party!
Right, right, now… what to, what to…
"Close your eyes and don't focus" I hear Batter speak, "Don't think about anything at all."
I do... Somehow. Wait, what did I just do?!
Spyro the Dragon - The Legend - L6 HP 122/380 CP 160/160 - Status: Pain (Broken ribs), Cold
Sparx the Dragonfly - The Load - L6 HP 100/100 RP 3/3 CP 100/100 - Status: Cold
Alexandr the Pure - The Leader - L5 HP 250/250 CP 65/65 - Status: Pure
Gamma - The Brute - L4 HP 300/300 CP 45/45 - Status: Pure
"Heal Spyro," I hear Batter again as I open my eyes, wondering what in the world I just did, "Either items or competence will do. However, that will not remove status effects, like pain, but it may remove the cause of the status and stop its refreshing."
"Sparx, find some shack, a tent, or anything where we can cover from this cold." I say as I prepare to discharge purity into the purple dragon's body. Sparx nods and flies off, as I heal Spyro.
Competence - Mend the Scales - Spyro
Competence - Mend the Scales - Spyro
Competence - Mend the Scales - Spyro
Spyro groans and opens his eyes, slowly, before snapping them open and staring at me.
"Whoa there big guy, hold on, I'm not done yet!" I hold him down as I channel one more healing competence into him.
Competence - Mend the Scales - Spyro
"Alright, done. You feel any better?" I help him to stand up. He's shaking and cold to the touch. Must be hypothermia. Not good.
"Doesn't h-hurt as much as b-before" he says, his teeth clatter, "H-how…"
"Later, let's see if your brother found any place to get out of this cold" I cut him off and call out, "Hey, glowstick! You found anything?" In hindsight, not a good idea. I just might've alerted everyone here to our presence.
"Yeah I did" Sparx said as he returned. That was quick, "There's some half-ruined shack a bit further that way, just behind that flimsy wall" He points somewhere north. I indeed see some deserted fortifications there… Hopefully it is abandoned. "There's nobody there" Sparx says, as if reading my thoughts, "Except for these icicle guys"
The 'icicle guys' look like skeletons of humans, the kind you'd call 'big boned'. They all wear corroded suits of metal plate armor, painted black with red stripes, and… I honestly can't tell if that's a horned helmet or they have horns themselves.
And then one of those skeletons breaks free from his icy prison. And then another, and another, and another…
"Gah! The icicle guys are alive!" Sparx yells and dashes behind Spyro's back.
"Purification in progress"
Battle time!
Competence - Wide angle
Thrall x4 - HP 75 / CP 0
A dead warrior animated by malicious will.
Weak to Metal. Resists Fire. Poison immunity.
Before I do anything, Gamma flares, scaring Sparx even more, and blasts the furthest thrall with his Particle Ray. Its body is cut in half and shortly after collapses on the snow in a pile of bones and armor. The rest three drew their swords (a rather wide and heavy curved blades!) and rushed towards us. I pushed Spyro aside, he yelps and collapses in the snow, shivering. Cruel, I know, but I can't fight if I'm acting as a living crutch. The first 'animatronic' reaches us just in time for my Purity to be ready. So I strike, bringing his 'un-life' to an end, bones flying everywhere. The other two strike me. I'm going to be honest: ape claws and club bruises are NOTHING compared to what blades do. The sound of sliced flesh and the scent of blood filled the freezing air, and, although the cold somewhat numbed my nerves, I felt sharp pain in my right forearm and left shoulder. Clenching my teeth, I worked through a combination Ignitus taught me: claw from right to left, torso or shoulder, backhand at feet or knees to break the balance, claw from above-left, claw from below-right. Ram with horns. Alright, before ramming there should've been a "Spit a gust of flame" but I don't have fire element. Gamma joins in and strikes in unison with me, together we shatter another undead. The final one get staggered by our assault, as I perform
Competence - Courageous dash - Droolspirit the Undying, Thrall
Huh? Those guys have names?
Doesn't matter as the metal shrapnel tears its bones to pieces. Wow.
"Adversaries purified"
300 credits received.
400 experience points received.
An Eye received.
I stared at the eye in my paw. It was looking around, rolling in my grasp, redirecting its slit pupil at… basically anything in sight.
"Whoa, Loon, those were some cool moves!" I hear Sparx come from his hiding spot behind Spyro, "Hey what you got there?" He doesn't finish and stares at eye in my paw. The eye stared back at him. With a loud scream he darts back behind Spyro who slowly gets up and looks at me surprised. I just show him the eye in my grip before shoving it in my satchel.
"Loon. Why did you do that?" Sparx asked slowly.
"…Might come useful later." I mumble, "Come on, where was that shack?"
The shack turned out to be, indeed, a shack. Built from various mismatching pieces of wood and metal, it was barely big enough for me and Spyro to fit inside. There was some kind of… kiln? Furnace? Crucible? Whatever, the main thing is, it could be used to warm this place. Just need to gather some fuel…
The only fuel in this snowy wasteland was pieces of long ruined war machinery and fortifications. I brought some pieces of wood to the shack, thrown them into the furnace, and asked Spyro to light them on fire. It took him some time to get it done - pain in his chest remained, still - but he managed to, and we had a heat source in our dwelling… for now. I went out to collect more fuel, dragging in remains of wooden shields, barricades, wooden spikes, catapults… I also dragged in a few banners to make us something to sleep on. Not much, but still better than nothing. I don't know how long it took me, but by the time I was more or less done, Spyro was asleep on his 'bed', still shivering, despite being close to heat source. With a heavy sigh I lie next to him and pull some more tattered banners over us as improvised blanket, and snuggle close to the purple dragon. Gamma, in turn, snuggles close to my side and radiates warmth into me. Hopefully none of us will freeze to death overnight. I was still shaky from… my… experience with death.
I'm definitely not looking forward to repeat it.
"Karter, have you seen Alexandr?" Ignitus asked with a worried expression on his face, "I can't seem to find him anywhere in the temple…"
"I saw him in the morning" Karter wheezed, "He just disappeared to thin air afterwards… Like that guy with a bat I saw once."
"Mon ami" came a chuckle from Zacharie, who was re-packing his backpack, "You should not worry about your little scaly friend" He chuckled again, "In fact, I'm sure he will return pretty soon with someone you hold dear. Two of them, in fact."
"We're… um, closed. Please… get out."
The Chronicler turned to the voice source.
It was a… strange-looking dragon. He was very, very skinny, his limbs seemed unnaturally long, and his movement was shaky, to put it mildly. His scales were of icy blue color, yet his horns resembled those of a ram - a trait of earth dragons.
"Excuse me?" He asked, raising a brow in surprise.
"I-I said, we're closed, get out?" The dragon's voice was shaky and raspy, and it seemed that he was hyperventilating… Plus he sounded like he was unsure if whatever he was saying was true.
"But this is MY library," said Chronicler with stern expression.
"Uh, uhhh, umm…" Now he was definitely hyperventilating, "L-Look, it's too early! You're not supposed to be here yet! Ch-chief archivist's orders!"
"Who is this 'Chief Archivist'? And calm down, young one, I mean you no harm," the Chronicler was confused. Even more that just confused.
"Leave!" suddenly shouted the dragon and stepped towards Chronicler and his mechanisms, "Leave! LEAVE!" His voice sounded more and more distorted, his body looked like it was drying out, turning into a skeleton wrapped in scales and leather. Eyes sank into his skull, jets of black smoke streamed out from empty sockets.
"Merciful Ancestors!" Old dragon backed up in shock and horror.
"Nnnnghhh!" dried up dragon launched himself into a pounce…
"Nnnnghhh…" I wake up with a pained moan. Right, I forgot my cut shoulder.
Competence - Mend the Scales - Alexandr
Ah, much better. Ugh, it's still dark outside… But it seems that night actually has passed.
"Morn'n Boss" Gamma rumbles subtly.
I walk out the shed and, indeed, see a faint line of light on a horizon, slowly, very slowly growing bigger. Right, right. Now to wake up Spyro and Sparx.
"Come on guys! Time to wake up" I say as I pat sleeping purple dragon.
"Ugh, five more minutes mom" comes reply from Sparx.
Well, they do wake up eventually. I have to give them a short explanation about Gamma, and then we have our breakfast (I had to borrow it from Spyro - I left in such a hurry that I totally forgot to buy any meat from Zacharie), discussed our plans for the day, and what is our goal here is.
Well, the goal is simple: find and rescue Volteer, while avoiding Cynder's attention. For me, it also included getting some live practice (training dummies are good, but still, that all just a theory), maybe find another Add-On, and, perhaps, even finding and defeating one of the Royal Guardians.
"I suggest we go and investigate the fort on the hill" Spyro suggested, "Maybe from there we will be able to get a map or something. Get a general idea of where to go"
"I agree," said Batter to me. Of course to me, nobody else sees or hears him, "We need to get at least some idea where we are."
"Alright, so let's get going then" I say and snuff out our small fire.
"And remember, we must avoid Cynder, for now" adds Batter, "You may have some knowledge of art of fight, but you are still weak".
"Anywhere is better than this frigid cold," Sparx put a dot in our conversation.
So we move out.
Walking through the snow is tough, especially when it's deep and mushy. Took us an hour to get halfway to the bloody fort, and that wasn't even a kilometer long walk.
Then of course, there were constant complains from Sparx.
"Geesh, it's kinda boring here. I mean, we haven't encountered anyone yet except for those four icicle guys." Sparx said, then quickly added, "Not that I'm complaining…" He suddenly dashed to my face, "Hey, Loon! You know any songs?"
"What?" I raise eyebrow at the question, "Well… There is one scraping the back of my memory right now…"
"Well, let's hear it then?" said the dragonfly.
"Well… I can try to…" I shrug and clear my throat. Batter turns his face to me, "Alright, here goes nothing…"
I cleared throat once again and started singing, words and tune… Familiar, I heard it somewhere before…
"Do you remember the days when living was meant to be free?
Not looking for fortune, not looking for fame, the beauty of life was the key?"
Batter frowns. Spyro and Sparx look interested. Suddenly I stand on my hind legs, balancing with Gamma's help and my tail and pump my fist - erm, or at least try to, feral anatomy is odd:
"We lived as one, to conquer the world, a thousand dreams to come true!"
I spread my paws as far as I can,
"We knew in the end will find the meaning of life and the truth!"
I raise my head to the sky and continue,
"So proud and full of passion, we formed a better world,
We fought against oppression and wisdom was our sword."
Batter's frown deepens.
"On the path to glory we've searched the rainbow's end
Lives meant to share, where's the signs that we've sent"
Batter makes a step towards me.
"On sad wings of destiny we're kings without a throne-"
And then he bumps me off balance with his bat. I fall backwards into a mound of snow with a pathetic 'oof'.
"Enough." He says as I stand up from the snow. "You alright there?" asked Spyro.
"Yeah," I say, "Although I guess I won't be singing more."
"Why?"
"My 'imaginary friend' did not like it."
"Yeah, no offence Loon, but your singing voice? Public hazard" chuckles Sparx.
We continued on in silence.
Then again came a deafening roar from above, and again a shadow flew by us.
Oh crap. We're on the white snow, and Spyro's purple scales stand out like a sore thumb, or a stumbled toe! I press myself into the snow and pretend I'm a boulder or something. Spyro does the same. Batter stands at the ready and Sparx is nowhere to be seen.
A minute pass. Another one. And another one. Nothing happens.
"I think it's gone" I whisper finally and stand up. Snow is bloody cold to lie on!
"Was that Cynder?" I head Sparx's voice coming from Spyro's direction.
"I sure hope it was her" He replies. "What? Bro, are you nuts?" Sparx's jaw drops.
"What, you'd prefer that there were two bloodthirsty dark dragons flying around?" I hiss at the dragonfly.
"Oh." Realization struck him not unlike thunder, "Then… I hope it was her, too."
More 'icicle guys' were waiting for us in the fort. This time, however, there was about a dozen of them, patrolling inner perimeter, with really, really big one standing in the center of… how is it called, courtyard? Whatever. He's standing in the middle of the fort, and looks all important with all that heavy plate armor and huge axe-sword.
"Alright. So what's the plan? You two just charge in there and wreck stuff, go nuts, right?"
"Ee-no. Charging headlong would be a poor idea, seeing how many of them are there. Plus we don't know if there are any more in there" I shake my head, rubbing my chin, trying to come up with… Well, any kind of plan, "What do you think, Spyro?"
'Well… I don't really know, but they look like… zombies to me?" he said. "Skeletons," I correct him, "By the way, your fire won't be very effective against them." He gives me a confused look, I elaborate, "Metal armor and bone matter is very heat resistant. If they were, say, alive, you could fry them by heating their armor."
"But since they are nothing more than bone and metal, burning them is not best way to go"
He nods.
"So what you were saying?" I asked him.
"Well… Since they are skeletons, maybe they can't exactly think?"
That gave me some food for thought.
Competence - Wide Angle
Thrall x16 - HP 75 / CP 0
A dead warrior animated by malicious will.
Weak to Metal. Resists Fire. Poison immunity.
Ogre Thrall - HP 250/CP 20
A dead monster possessed by a spirit of raging warlord.
Weak to metal. Weak to Fire. Resists physical. Poison immunity.
"Right. So big one is dangerous. He's tough and can probably use magic or something," I say, "Sparx, I need your eyes and ears."
"No way!" the dragonfly dashes behind Spyro's head and sticks out his hand, pointing at me, "You're not getting my eyes like you did one yesterday!"
"I think he means metaphorically" Says Spyro to his brother, "Probably wants you to take a look at something."
"Indeed. So, here's what I need to know…"
"Oh dear…" rasped the dried dragon, his form reverting back to his… 'normal' state, "I never liked Fridays anyway…"
His eyes became glassy, breathing stopped, and his body stiffened as he dropped on the stone floor. The Chronicler was still breathing heavily. He was badly out of practice with combat, and this encounter took him by a surprise.
Not to mention the shock of having to kill another dragon.
Of course it was some sort of… possessed dragon, but still it was a dragon.
The old dragon looked at his bloodstained claws. Then at the corpse before him. Then back at his claws. Back at the corpse.
"Why?.." he asked dead body with shaky voice.
It didn't answer.
And why would it? It's dead, after all. He killed that dragon.
The Chronicler swallowed an uneasy feeling in his throat. Now he definitely needed to get to the bottom of it.
"H-hey, big ugly!"
The ogre turns his head and sees annoying ball of living light hovering slightly above him.
"W-whacha looking at? Never seen a dragonfly before?"
It growls and swings its sword at small orb of light.
"C-come on-n, I can d-do better than this!" Taunts the ball of light and dashes to the fort entrance. The ogre growls, getting attention from thralls, and commands them to chase the annoying ball of living light. Thralls growl and howl, and charge after it.
But just as they cluster together to get through a rather narrow entrance, someone shouts from behind the wall:
"NOW, GAMMA!"
"NOW, GAMMA!" I shout as my Add-On flares up. Sparx dashes past us, and time slows as first few thralls pop from behind the corner.
Purification in progress…
Competence - Flash of Pain
Bright flash comes up. Thralls in front rows slow down significantly, the back rows piling up on them, chaos ensues. I swear I saw Batter grin as Spyro lobbed a fireball into the clusterfuck Gamma made.
Boom!
Not enough to kill all the thralls, but most of them are on fire now. Well do we have something to fix this, Gamma, oh do we!
Competence - Planar Blast
Bang!
Pieces of bones and armor fly upwards. That's about ten or so thralls done. The rest are quickly taken care of by Spyro as I close distance with positively pissed off Ogre.
Competence - Courageous Dash - Rusputtin the Returned, Ogre Thrall
I crash right through it, stunning the ogre, and dealing Metal damage to it. Well, it doesn't seem to be all that impressed by my stun - it only lasts a few seconds, after which the bastard charges at me.
Five meter tall, heavily armored skeleton, charges at me.
I'm so surprised by how fast it moves - I don't even!
Oh God, Ancestors, Alien Precursors and everything else, did anyone got license plate of that freight train that hit me?!
While I'm trying to pull myself back together, Gamma tries to fend off the ghoulish ogre. Spyro joins the fray, too. Well, that draws aggro away from me, but Gamma's healthbar ends up taking some damage, too. A scream of pain brings me back to relative consciousness. I turn to see Spyro being hit by ogre's wicked blade. Alright, that's it! I just healed him, Ancestors damn it!
Competence - Courageous Dash - Rusputtin the Returned, Ogre Thrall
Competence - Particle Ray - Rusputtin the Returned, Ogre Thrall
And there! It's dead now!
The ogre is jerking inside its armor, throwing its head back. Suddenly, cracks appear on the chest plate. They spread rapidly through the metal, with loud screeching noise.
And then his armor bursts into pieces, undead creature pops out from it, leaving its legs behind, transforming into a floating skeletal torso with head and arms.
"Oh crap!" all three of us gasp. Well, we all say our own thing, but this is the general idea.
Competence - Wide Angle
Wraith - HP 250/CP20
A dead monster, possessed by a spirit of raging warlord.
Fast - Weakness to Metal. Resists Fire, highly resists Physical. Immune to poison.
"Look out!"
Dodge to the side form the axe-sword-thing it wields. Yeah, it's fast now. Much faster than it was before.
We just lash at it with all we got. Gamma slows it down with his Flash of Pain, I stun it with my Courageous Dash, and Spyro sets it on fire and jumps up in the air and hits it with his claws and horns. While airborne.
Adversaries purified.
1500 Credits received
2000 Experience points received
Two Eyes received.
A Desperation received.
A desperation?
You know, I kinda wonder…
Inventory-Check
Eye - Reveals some enemy characteristics.
Desperation - An object utilized in combat. Deals 10% of MAX HP damage to all adversaries in combat. Reduces adversaries' morale. Ineffective against Guardians.
"Loon? Why in the world do you collect those eyes?" Sparx asks in a rather deadpan tone.
"Might come in useful later" I shrug, "Let's go into… What is this… Barracks?" I look at semi-collapsed buildings within the fort, one looking more maintained than the rest. I just hope they won't come down on top of us. That would be unfortunate.
Just as Spyro and Sparx enter it, I feel Batter place his hand on my shoulder.
"Yes?" I turn my head to face him.
"Nice display of thinking there," He says, with same deadpan expression he wears constantly. However, his voice has small amount of parental pride in it. "However, this popped something I have not yet seen."
"Huh?" I tilt my head slightly.
"The unclean are divided into two types: Ghouls and Phantoms."
"Ghouls are abominations of flesh and bone, incapable of standing against physical world and its forces. Thus they are vulnerable to physical harm."
"Phantoms, on the other hand, are ectoplasmic beings that have no physical form. They are unaffected by physical nature, and can only be harmed by attacks that affect the nature of the universe itself."
"Magic." I say, rubbing my chin, "So what's the problem?"
"This 'Ogre' you killed was a hybrid of the two types."
I stare at four-eyed human.
"Think of it as of possession. Whatever foul spirit has been using this corpse did not want to part with it, so it dragged some of his physical shell with it when it was banished."
"That explains why it had such high resistance to…" I see Spyro and Sparx come out the building with rather disturbed expressions. "Guys? What's wrong?"
"Yeeeeah, you know what, Loon? Let's not go in there." Sparx says, "No, seriously, let's don't."
"Apes. Dead. Lots of them." Spyro adds, "And some are… flayed. Others…"
"Ok ok you're right, screw this place" I say quickly. Fuck, what sick thing would… "They were being prepared for reanimation." I suddenly have this realization.
There is a bloody necromancer on the loose?!
"Well, at least we know that the undead are not fond of apes, right?" Sparx forces out a smile.
"…Shit." I have another realization, "If that is so… Spyro, how many bodies were there?"
"I-I didn't count. Several dozens, maybe" he shivers.
"We've got to find Volteer and get him out of here. Pronto" I get confused looks from dragon and dragonfly, "This means fast!"
"Wow-wow-wow, Loon, what's the hurry?"
"Glowstick, there is a fucking dark dragon on the loose," I say, throwing away my speech restrictions for the time, "Do you want to have another one, undead dark dragon at that?"
"Point taken," the dragonfly nods, "Buuuut, you need to get that mouth of yours washed. With soap."
"Sod off" I chuckle.
"How in the name of Great Holy Flame did he got in THERE?!" Ignirus roared.
It did not make any sense! It would take at least three days of flight to get to Dante's Freezer, and about week and a half to get there by foot (if you get lucky with wind for sails, that is). Yet there he was, white dragon, fighting alongside Spyro.
"Karter! Would you kindly get Zacharie here for a moment?" Ignitus turned to the archway leading outside, to the balcony where two creatures (humans, as Alexandr called them. Although Karter insisted that he was something called 'Elsen') lived.
"I, hhh, I can't do th-hhh-at," came a reply from the wheezing man, "He just… disappeared."
"What." Ignitus' orange eyes glared at elsen.
"Disappeared. Like, hhh, one moment hhh-he's here, and then he's not."
Old fire dragon grumbled something and returned to his observations over the pool of visions.
"Alexandr, you are so getting grounded…"
Oh I just love crossroads and T-junctions!
"Right. So now what, we have two paths to go," I say with a sigh, "I hate to say it, but we have to break up the team for a moment"
Of all the buildings, only this one had something interesting in it. Well, other than weapons, dissecting tools and necromancy supplies. Well, at least some of them came in handy, namely, crystals. Green crystals restore energy, red ones restore health. Blue ones are most rare, as they are gift of Ancestors, as Ignitus says. They hold most important treasure: knowledge.
1000 Experience points received
Alexandr advances to level 6!
Gamma advances to level 5!
Anyway, as I was saying, this was the only building with something of interest to us. First, it had map of surrounding area. Crude map, but a map nevertheless. There was another fort nearby, where Cynder's forces were stationed. However, there also was a network of tunnels and caves below, which were connecting the forts together as well.
"Spyro, you take the upper path. Your wings give you greater mobility in the open. The caves will restrict that advantage…" I look back at nubs where my wings should be, then at Gamma, "While my scales color provides excellent camouflage on the snow, my mobility is very limited when in the open. I'll take the caves." Spyro nods. "Another thing, Spyro," I add, "There might be... Things on your way. Unnatural things that seem to be immune to your claws and horns. Ghosts, if you will," I pause, getting the 'you aren't serious' expression from a purple dragon and dragonfly, "Just... Trust me. I had an encounter with them already. If you encounter them burn them. They are immune to physical harm, but magic they can't escape."
"I'll keep that in mind, Alexandr," Spyro nods, still not completely trusting me yet it seems.
I tap my claws on the floor, "Alright, let's get going, we've got a Guardian to save, now!"
"Yeah, good luck in the creepy ice caves Loon" Sparx said.
Something sparks in my head.
"Hey, one more thing" I say, as Spyro was about to leave for next fort in the distance, "I've been thinking… Alexandr sometimes is quite a mouthful to say, so…" I pause, feeling as if something gets warmer in my gut, "Call me Xan for short."
The dragon nods in response, "Very well. Good luck, Xan"
"Yeah, try not to die or get lost, Loon"
"You too take care. See you ahead," I nod and turn left, descending into dimly lit catacombs.
Competence - Wide Angle
Alexandr 'Xan' the Pure - L6 - The Leader HP275 CP75
An aspiring dragon purifier. Light resistance to ectoplasm. Light weakness to memories.
Gamma - L5 - The Brute HP 350 CP 50
Combat Add-on. Focuses on ranged damage and crippling of the adversaries. Resists physical.
And wow. Already I doubt my decision.
"Turn left here"
I mean, Spyro is mobile, alright. He can do that double-jump, and glide move, and even somewhat fly, but his scales… His purple color stands out in the snow too much!
"Now turn right. Skip next crossing and turn left on next one"
Especially if one will look from above. Damn it! If Cynder sees him, she'll snatch him before he'll know anything!
"That's not left"
"Batter, did you memorize the entire map back there?" I turn to my companion.
"Yes," he answered, then added, "Purification in progress"
"What?" I managed to say, before being barraged by a gust of snow.
Competence – Wide Angle
Chilled Apparition – HP 120 CP 20
A mischievous or malicious spirit haunting a cloud of ice dust.
Weak to Fire.
I sigh. Will worry about Spyro later. Now, battle time.
"Bro, you know, I somewhat regret this decision already"
"Ah, come on Sparx. We'll be fine," Spyro said as they made their way through the snow to the fort.
Sparx pouted, "Well, I'm just, you know… Worried. I mean, snow's white, right?" he dashed to be in front of Spyro's face, "And you're, well, purple. And fat. Big fat purple dot on white snow, you get my drift?"
Spyro looked up to the skies.
"Yes, I see what you mean. But this is a risk I'm willing to take, I guess. We must keep going. Ignitus is counting on us"
They saw that the next fort was, in fact, a battlefield between apes and ghouls.
"Divide and conquer, right?" Sparx said. Spyro nodded, "Yes. Let's wait for one side gain an advantage, and finish off the winners."
"You're doing this on purpose, don't you?"
I rolled my eyes at Batter.
"Boss, ye min' if I ask, but who's this feller that keeps following you and mostly contributin' deadpan comments and advices?"
"I'm surprised you didn't ask earlier, Gamma. He's Batter. He's my mentor in the way of purification. And yes, I do this on purpose. I want to explore, because who knows what you can find if you look in every nook and cranny" I explain as I once again take a 'wrong' turn, entering a rather large cave, "Like this here place," I pause, looking at the sight, "Huh"
The cave actually looks like it once was a part of a dungeon or something like that. There are some bricks visible through thick layer of ice, and there is a door… But it's out of reach. No way could I dig through five meters of solid ice with just my claws.
In the center of the cave, however, lies something more interesting. Dead in the middle of the cave stands a solid ice shard… With a bear wearing a tuxedo, monocle and top hat frozen within. He's standing on all fours – well, threes actually, since his front paw is reaching out for a bag full of gems just a little bit outside the ice shard he's trapped in. His expression is an interesting mix of pain, anger, greed and desperation. I could not help but chuckle at this guy. Whatever was happening around this place, he thought grabbing bag of gems would be more important than running for his life.
"Well, shoot, buddy. Looks like you almost got it," I smirk. I do feel horrible for sassing this long dead bear guy, but it feels that he had it coming. I made a step towards the bag with gems.
I swear at this moment his expression became angrier.
Nah, just my imagination.
Batter stands near the entrance, leaning on the wall and looks at me. I sit before the frozen bear, and rip the bag from ice. It tears and falls apart, gems scatter slightly. Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, amethysts. Treasure! Treasure! I feel a soft purr build up in my throat as I chuckle. Well, looks like I do have a bit of a dragon in me.
"I guess you won't need this anymore, pal?" I ask the frozen bear.
There it is again! His expression gets angrier?
I frown. Something is off. "Batter? Do you feel something?" He shrugs, watching me.
Right. Whatever then.
Gems, total value of 2000 credits received!
So I have around 4000 credits in total. Nice. Can't remember the price Zacharie asked for armor and weapons, but well! I got much more credits already than I used to get from smashing dummies in dojo. I stand up and wave the bear goodbye. "See you never again I guess" I say as I walk to the entrance to the cave.
And then I hear loud cracking from behind.
"Really?" I moan and turn around, assuming battle stance.
The icy prison covers with deep, wide cracks as the form inside begins to twitch.
"Mmmm…" a raspy moan comes from within the cracking ice pile, "M-mine…"
And then this icy prison exploded, revealing a large, hulking figure with burning white eyes. Still in tuxedo and top hat, and monocle.
"Purification in progress"
Competence – Wide Angle
Moneybags – HP 1000 CP 250
A ghoul that could not let his earthly possessions go.
Grabby paws x4 – HP 25 CP 0
Phantasmagorial manifestation of one's greed.
Well, shit.
He growls at me and takes a swipe with his claws – which elongate at least four times as he makes a strike. Holy crap!
And, by the ancestors, they hurt!
And now I'm bleeding, too.
Competence – Courageous Dash - Moneybags
It stuns him for a fraction of second. Damn, what's up with those sudden resistances?
Competence – Particle ray - Moneybags
PEW. I never noticed the sound Gamma's competences made. Interesting. Well, we slightly damaged this bear-ghoul-thing. And apparently pissed it off.
Alexandr - Want!
Alexandr - Need!
Alexandr - Need!
Gamma - Want!
Alexandr - Violent Maul
Alexandr HP 184 / CP 51 – Bleed, Palsy, Shattered
Gamma HP 332 / CP 45 - Pure
Bleed – Losing 3% max HP each 2 seconds for 60 seconds; can kill; cured by healing.
Palsy – Stops physical motion. Does not affect purity charge rate. Lasts 5 seconds.
Shattered – Reduces armor value by 70%
Well, shit.
No, wait, let me emphasize.
Well, SHIT.
Item – Luck Ticket - Alexandr
Bleed removed.
"Thanks Gamma" I mutter through clenched teeth, as my jaw is paralyzed.
Well, actually it's not just my jaw, my whole body. So all I can do right now is… well, wait and brace myself for another attack, as Gamma tries to fend off those damned paws things.
Alexandr - Double Rend
Competence - Planar Blast - Area (Grabby paws x4)
A flash of light and compression wave washes over my body, as all four sets of phantom paws disappear. On the other hand, I'm down to 197 HP again and bleeding as well.
Perfect.
Competence - Mend the scales - Alexandr
Bleed removed.
Now time to beat this guy into submission. Who does he think he is? Have a taste of MY claws, you greedy abomination!
So I unleash a flurry of attacks at the monster, slashing its flesh with my claws, leaving bright marks where my hits connect.
Gimmies!
I blankly stare at four more 'Grabby paws' spawn around the bear-ghoul.
Planar Blast - Moneybags (Moneybags, Grabby paws x4)
Nope. I'm not having any more of that crap.
Competence - Battle Rally
That's more like it! Let's rip this guy to shreds!
I continue peppering him with my attacks, throwing in a Courageous Dash every now and then, saving Gamma's energy to blast off his summoned minions.
The battle between the undead and the apes was coming to an end. The ghouls were ultimately defeated, but inflicted heavy casualties on the apes. And just as they started to recover from battle, a certain purple dragon rushed in and rained havoc in the remains of the troops. This is barely a fight – more suitable description would be 'slaughter'.
"Hah, and those guys thought they would be a match for us!" Sparx taunted nobody in particular, as Spyro was catching up his breath. Suddenly, a motion below the rubble draws the attention of the dragonfly, "Hey, bro, look there!"
A small ape crawls from beneath the debris and stands up, holding his stomach. His face is stuck in a blank expression, his eyes stare somewhere through the walls of fort, and he's visibly swaying from side to side, barely standing upright.
"Geesh, Sparx, relax. I don't think this guy will be causing us any troubles…" Spyro says, watching the ape, which falls back on all fours and crawls towards them. He reached out his arm, and rasped loudly, "H-help… me…"
"You've got to be kidding" Sparx covered his face with his palm before continuing, "You dudes just tried to kill us, and now you're asking for help?"
"Y-you d-don't unders-stand…" the ape continues, standing back up and holding his head by sides, "I-I'm… I'm very sorry…" He coughs; a drop of black ooze escapes his mouth. His eyes become bloodshot, as he begins to breathe louder and harder, "P-please, help me…" Another cough, more black ooze leaking from his mouth, and nose, as he stumbled towards shocked pair, "H-help me…" more ooze – even his eyes leak the stuff now – "Help me!" He suddenly grabs Spyro's shoulders and tries to shake him, black ooze leaking non-stop from his mouth, eyes, ears and nose, and black veins spread over his head as his expression turns into maddened desperation. He shouts at the purple dragon, "HELP ME!"
And then his head explodes into a fountain of black goo and smoke. His grip released, and his body began to fall back – only to be stopped by some unknown force. Leaning backwards at awkward angle, standing on two legs and one arm, his second arm grabbed a board from the ground and swung it at the dragon.
"OH WHAT THE?!" Sparx dashed away, and Spyro jumped back from the… thing the ape became. With loud hiss, it hobbled towards the dragon, swinging the board madly; black goo kept jetting from his neck.
"Screw this bro, let's get the hell out of here!" Sparx shouted at Spyro who in turn fired a jet of flames at the creature. It gasped and threshed a bit, shouting something like 'Yabba, my icing!', engulfed in flames, but then ignored them completely and bashed the purple dragon with its board. The hit makes him sit flat on his ass and take a few more bashes, before hurling a fireball at the corrupted ape. The monster howls, engulfed in flames and bashes dragon's shoulder, Spyro gasping in pain, feeling a bruise forming under his scales. Next attack he barely dodges and throws the abomination up in the air, and, jumping after it, lashes out with his claws.
"What in the world are you?!" Spyro growls through clenched teeth.
The monster did not answer, continuing its relentless assault.
The monster I was fighting was still raging, but its attacks became more clumsy and slow. It must have run out of competence points. Not that this helped me much – I was bleeding, my CP were dangerously low – I probably could afford a single heal more – and even Gamma's glow seemed to dim. To add insult to injury, we also were out of luck tickets and silver flesh. Just peachy.
Moneybags swipes at me once again, but I duck out of harm way, and Gamma stabs the ghoul in its side. We both stay silent, concentrating on taking down this surprisingly tough adversary. Next swipe comes in low, I jump to avoid it. That was… Well, the better choice I had, as opposed to getting mauled. As I landed I felt lightheaded and weak, my front legs bucked in and I fell face first on a cold stone floor for a moment. I scramble back to my standing stance, just in time to avoid another blow from the raging ghoul. This has to end, NOW.
I gather the remaining of my strength and pounce the monster, grabbing his torso with my claws as hard as I can. I use my hind legs and claws to rip and tear the corrupted flesh. Somewhere on the side of my vision, I see Batter raising an eyebrow in a dull curiosity.
Then Gamma flares and stabs his longer 'fingers' into the ghoul's side.
Moneybags jerks in place… and stands still, as glowing orange lines exit his body from the other side.
He does not move after that… Then collapses on his back with dull 'thud'.
"Adversaries purified"
3500 experience received!
Alexandr advances to level 7!
Competence unlocked: Mend the Flesh – Heals a lot of damage – 15 CP
Gamma advances to level 6!
Competence unlocked: Neutron Ray – special attack of mediocre importance – 12 CP
Competence unlocked: Combat Trance – Passive – Increases Add-On defense by 5% when in combat with multiple adversaries, max 5.
Competence - Mend the Scales - Alexandr
"Ahhhh… Much better" I mumble, semi-closing my eyes. This… Is strangely satisfying victory.
"I think… His armor took over his brain…"
Spyro and Sparx watched the abomination the ape become shift back to its original form, spouting those words, before collapsing into a dead heap, dropping off some crystals and a few gems.
"Bro… What in the world just happened here?.." Finally asked the dragonfly.
"Sparx… Maybe this is what Xan tried to warn us about…" Spyro said, looking at dead ape. This was wrong. He… Probably did a lot of bad things before, yes – but he definitely did not deserve to go through something like… this.
"Meaning…" Sparx slowly said, his hands dropping down as he looked at his brother with wide open eyes, "Loon… Is not… A total loon?"
"I… I don't know…" young dragon shivered at the prospect of meeting more of those things, "Come. We need to find Volteer… Before anything bad happens to him."
Suddenly, a chuckle reached their ears.
I walk through the caverns, frowning. Batter still dictates the directions, but this time I actually follow them. I'm in no shape to fight anything right now. In fact, I could use some quick rest to heal my wounds…
Too bad it's too cold to rest, actually.
I take another turn, and to my surprise – a pleasant surprise! – I see…
"Z-zacharie?" Spyro asked in confusion.
"Why, Buenos dias, mon ami!" Zacharie replies with, I assume, a smile under his mask, "Such a wonderful day, don't you think?"
"How did you get here?!" I ask him, "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but – how?"
"Oh, a merchant has his secrets," Zacharie nodded to Spyro, "Just know that I'll be wherever you will go before you will be there. That's what item merchants do, don't they?" He winked at nobody in particular.
"Alright, but, hey! Why are you here anyway, weirdo?" Sparx chimed into the conversation.
"Well, I'm a merchant, mon ami! And I need to make money somehow, correct?" Zacharie smiled, and I nodded, "Thus here I am, yours truly – offering you the best supplies you can find around here!"
"That's actually great news!" I smiled, and opened my pouch, reaching inside to pick some credits and gems, "I'd like to restock after…"
"…A rather unpleasant encounter," finished Spyro. Sparx nodded.
"Well, mon amis! I have everything you need to heal your wounds, refill your energy, give you strength…"
"…And most importantly, protect you and increase your offensive abilities!" Zacharie placed his backpack on the ground and once again I felt him smiling under his mask, "So let us do business, mon ami!"
"Alright" I nodded at him, "Let's see what you've got"
"Here's what I have," Zacharie said and opened his backpack, revealing a list of things.
"Wow… Armor sounds useful, but it's… so expensive!" Spyro mused out loud.
"Of course it is, mon ami!" Zacharie chuckled, "There aren't many armor in this world tailored for whelplings!"
"Ah, I see" I nod, "Right. Then I'll have…"
In the end, Spyro bought himself a leather helmet, bracers and kneeguards. He also got some more meat and – just in case – some luck tickets and silver flesh.
I bought a full set of leather armor – a helmet, bracers, chestguard, and legguards. Then I also bought something called 'Hardened Scales' and 'Color of Ingenuity'.
"Alright. How do I 'equip' those?" I look at small pile of pale cyan powder and a singular scale.
"Simple, really!" Zachari said, winking at – wait, am I seeing things again or did he just winked at Batter?
"Okay, Zacharie. I demand answer!" I stomp my paw and point at Batter, "Do you see him?"
"Oh, mon ami!" Zacharie chuckled again, "I told you, a merchant has his secrets…"
"Batter, do you know him?" I squint at my mentor. He… ugh. Stands with his usual deadpan expression. I sigh, "Yeah, be that way, 'imaginary friend'. So how do I use those?"
"Simple! Just apply them to your body and watch them affect you…"
Wow. That simple? Alright. Well, there is a scale on my shoulder, very similar in size and shape to the one I hold in my paw… What if I put it on there…
Whoa! That tickles actually! I feel scales spread over my body, more defined, more robust, and… well, more plentiful. As if there were more scales in total on me.
The powder I simply rubbed into my arm-paw. It spreads over my scales – the color doesn't change much, but if look closely, one could see that they have a slight cyan tint. Very, very subtle one.
"Oh, well. Feels interesting…" I mumble as I move around a bit, "Nice. Like natural skin!"
Oh.
"Wait, that came out wrong," I facepaw.
Zacharie only chuckled.
Getting some more luck tickets and silver flesh, I said goodbye to Zacharie and continued onwards through the caves.
Eventually we got out… But the surprises were not over.
"Okay, how does this work?!" I ask when we finally leave the caves. We somehow ended up high on the mountainside – I guess it's a mountainside anyway, judging by strong wind and steep slope going down.
"Hey, look here," I heard Batter say with… amusement in his voice? What?
I look. He's standing next to a long decayed dead soldier, clad in heavy plate armor. This guy would be at least six meters tall! Seriously, what the hell is wrong with this world?
"Yeah… Hope he's not gonna spring to life or something…" I mumble, "So where to next?"
"Our goal is to get down from the mountains we're on currently," he pauses and points at the shield, "And this would be the fastest way down"
I understand what he means a moment later.
"You can't be serious. You're not serious," I shake my head, "Please tell me you're not..."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Boss, shut it!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Left! Left!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Boss, s'rsly! Stop yelling!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
We're going down, fast. Really fast! Like turbo fast! AND WE'RE GOING FASTER!
"Right! Then left, quick!"
I try to steer the shield we're riding on, clinging to it with all my strength. Oh did I mention I keep screaming? I know! It doesn't make me look heroic or manly BUT COME ON I'M SCARED! I'M RIDING DOWN THE FREAKING MOUNTAIN ON AN ANCIENT METAL SHIELD!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"I find this experience enjoyable," I hear Batter's voice. He almost sounds… amused? Excited? Having fun? Now if I wasn't busy screaming, I'd be surprised by that.
"Spyro, you need to retreat! You don't look too good bro!"
The purple dragon rolled to the side, evading the axe of an Ogre. This fort was a battlefield between the undead, apes and the abominations some apes became. Spyro decided not to stick around for long, getting out of the gates and running towards the bridge over a deep-looking crevice, zapping approaching skeletons with his newly-acquired electric breath, throwing them around and into each other. However, even with that he was hit a few times, until he got blocked by an Ogre Thrall. That was most unfortunate, as there was no way around him without fighting through a crowd of thralls and apes… Well, it just happened so that Spyro got drawn into the fight against his will. And right now Sparx's advice was very appropriate.
Then, from the mountain came at first distant scream, then it got closer and closer and closer…
"aaaaaaaAAAAAAAA!"
"What in the world?" Sparx turns towards the source of screaming, "Bro, look!"
Spyro turned his head – everyone in the field seemed to turn their heads towards the source of screaming – and saw Alexandr, dressed in leather armor, sliding down the mountain on a shield at breakneck speed.
"GETOUTTAMYWAY!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, "HOWDOISTOPTHISTHING!"
Spyro barely managed to jump out of the way as Xan sped by, crashing into a smaller ape, which threw his makeshift sled up in the air with him. In flight, he collided with Ogre Thrall, knocking it off its feet – and sending himself flying even higher.
Straight over the edge of the cliff.
"AH MOTHERF…!" Came a shout from Xan as he disappeared in the crevice.
"Xan!" Spyro gasped in shock and ran towards the edge, thankfully his adversaries decided to deal with each other first, "XAN!"
"Down here!" Alexandr was hangin on his Add-on at the other side of the crevice, few meters below the ledge, struggling to latch to slippery walls, "You got a rope or something up there?! I can't get a grip!" He then stared at Gamma, eyes going wide, "Oh for fuck's - no-no-no!"
Moment later, his add-on lost grip on the icy wall.
"XAN!" Spyro yelled in terror.
"WOAH GAMMA HANG OOOOOOON!" was the last thing heard from Xan as he fell down below and disappeared in the fog.
Stay in your coma…
Stay in your coma…
Stay in your coma…
Stay in your coma...
Stay in your coma...
Stay in your coma...
Stay in your coma...
Stay - in - your - coma...
Ughhhh… Fuck, not this shit again. Uhhhhg…
"Boss? Yer good?"
"Oh fuck off Gamma," I moan. My limbs hurt, my body hurt, my head hurt, hell, my EVERYTHING hurt! I fell down good two-three hundred meters! And probably should be a splatter on the ice I'm laying on. But nope. I'm alive again - thank you, Joker card - but hurt like hell. Well, at least I don't want to paint the crevice I'm in with contents of my stomach… Alright, I want to but not enough to actually perform the act.
Uh, and one more thing...
"Wait, Gamma?" I ask and turn onto my belly with another groan as Gamma applies Luck Ticket on me, "How comes you are not damaged, like, at all?!"
"Add-ons are beings of higher metaphysical process. They are unaffected by most of what the world's residents consider to be 'normal'," Batter replied instead, "Mine once saved me when I jumped down the factory chimney"
"Do I even want to know?" I moan in response.
Competence - Mend the Flesh - Alexandr
Yeah, feels better. Not much, but better.
Oh man, this adventure is already proving to be quite an experience…
"You get the FUCK away from me!"
What? What am I hearing?..
"Get lost you fucking ABOMINATIONS! This is my land! NOT YOURS!"
Alright. This is interesting. I go roughly in the direction of the voice. Before I can go too far though, I'm distracted by an ape flying through the air and smashing into the cliff. He impacted so hard I heard his bones crack, and blood gush from his nostrils and mouth. Wow.
"Piss off you SHIT-GHOSTS!"
This time it's ogre thrall that flies by and shatters into pieces on the wall.
I run a bit further and see a huge ice dragon fighting apes and thralls at the same time. Correction: literally an ice dragon. As in, his body is made of crystal ice. Straight lines and sharp edges make his body, a ridge or sharp-looking spines goes along his back. His wings flared, adorned with glittering ice crystals, and membranes see-through.
"FUCK OFF YOU BALLS OF FESTERING FLESH!" He roars in deep voice, and smashes few apes and thralls into a bloody paste, "GET OUT OF MY LANDS!"
The rest of apes and undead decide to take smart option and flee. The dragon looked where they ran and breathes heavily.
"Impressive" I say quietly, "Hey! Sir!"
He turns around, FAST. And glares at me.
"You!" He makes a step towards me, I back off a bit. I really don't like the tone of his voice, "You! IT'S YOU! YOU COLORLESS PIECE OF SHIT!"
Wow. That's… helluva cold welcome. And another cringeworthy pun.
"I KNEW! I knew you little shit would be trouble!" he continues, "Should've SMASHED YOU WHEN YOU WERE STILL AN EGG! But NO! That MORON of a firedrake TOLD YOU'RE SPECIAL!" He huffed, a cloud of his breath washed over me, making me shiver from sudden cold, "So, pray tell me, you little waste of life, WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU IN HERE?"
"Uh… I'm here to purify the spectres?.." I gulped. His eyes flashed with hate.
"I see. So YOU are the fucking PHANTOM KING THAT DECIDED TO SNATCH MY BELOVED LAND?!" He roared at me.
"No, I'm not a…"
"HOW DARE YOU!" His muzzle bumped into me, making my stagger back, "Listen here, you sorry waste of an egg yolk. I'll only tell this once. You GET THE FUCK OFF MY FREEZER, you TAKE YOUR MOTHERFUCKING GHOSTS, and YOUR DAMNED MONKEYFUCKS, shove them into THAT BLACK BITCH'S ASS, take HER, AND! BEGONE! FROM! MY! LAND!" I felt his spit on me, " And if I ever, ever, EVER see you again, I WILL FUCKING MURDER YOU INTO OBLIVION!"
With that, he took off into the air.
"Wow… What an asshole," I wiped some of his spit from my face, "So now what?"
"Follow him," Batter said, moving slightly ahead of me and looking up, as if trying to figure out where he went, "Judging by his behaviour and what he just said, this might be the Royal Guardian of this land"
"Maybe we should get out of this ravine, or whatever we're in right now first," I looked around, and sighed. No cave or stair or even ladder in sight.
"Grrrah!" I facepaw. Hard.
Yeah, I found a cave alright. As well as found out that it's the only way to go, too - the ravine ended with steep climb on one end, and just as steep drop on the other. But what I found in cave was - you guessed it - another maze of tunnels, stairways, passageways, hallways… All of which somehow were looping into each other!
That's it. I can't keep going any more. When we entered this cave, the day already been declining. And… how much time did I spend here, walking through this looped maze? Anyway, I'm exhausted.
"Batter, I need to rest," I say. He nods. I lie down… well, I start to. I'm interrupted by Gamma's movement. Right. So I lie down on the side where my Add-On is. It's warm. Well, warmer than sleeping on the plain floor.
"Goodnight, Batter" I mumble as I close my eyes.
"Wow. I mean… Could it be a ghost or whatever?"
"WHAT?!" I jump on my feet, fully awake and look around, Gamma flared wide, "Where? WHERE?!"
"Woah Loon, calm down!"
Oh.
"Hello, Glowstick," I say with a slight grumble, "Hey, is Spyro with you?"
"Yeah, I'm here" I hear Spyro's voice, and turn to see the dragon coming closer, "Xan? Is it really you?"
"Yeah, yeah, I know, right?" I groan and rub my forehead with a sigh, "Look, it's hard to explain, but know that I'm alive and well, alright?" He looks at me in confusion, causing me to look at Batter for advise. He shrugs. "I'll explain when we're back to the Temple, alright?"
Spyro looks at me with suspicion, but nods.
"Right. Now let's try to find our way out of this stupid location. It almost drove me nuts yesterday" I say with a deep, sad sigh.
We walk. And walk. And walk. And walk. After unknown amount of time walking, strange things start happen.
Like right now we're standing on the ceiling of the hallway.
"Okay, I don't know how it works," Sparx mumbles.
Next turn, we're standing on the wall.
Next turn, we're on another wall.
Next turn we're in the air and fall down into the pit that used to be a corner.
Next turn…
"Okay, how did we end up like this, considering we're walking ALL TOGETHER?!"
I'm on the ceiling, Spyro on the floor, and Batter is falling through the hallway in a loop, approaching terminal velocity with his usual stoic expression.
A really stupid idea came to my head after another of Batter's passes.
"Hey, Spyro! Could you kindly jump up?" I ask the purple dragon. He looks at me with confusion, "Trust me, I want to check something quick"
He jumps - and so do I. But while Spyro just jumps, I grab him.
"Check this - Atnigra-aaaaaaahh!"
Yeah, not the brightest idea. Now we join Batter in his fall. Except we don't fall in loop. We fall down, fast, slide down the wall which suddenly turns into a slope and at full speed slide into a large cave. Our journey ended with a collision with an icy pillar. Our speed has slowed down by that time, but still we still felt that.
"Ouch"
"Offf. Yeah, I'm never ever doing that again," I groan and stand up, "Well, this is new, at least"
We look around. Suddenly it comes to me.
"I saw this place before!" I gasp, "This is the place where Volteer was!.. But… Where's everyone?" I move around with a frown. Not an ape in sight, but there were firepits - long since extinguished. There is another entrance, but it's gated… Probably a way from one of the fortresses, "And where's Volteer?" This is where I notice something I didn't see in my dream. A giant, heavily-armored skeleton is sitting on the throne, frozen inside ice crystal. Knowing my luck, I assume battle stance and inch around the cave.
"I found him!" I hear Spyro shout. Well, duh, how could I forget this small alcove in plain sight?
In there, lied Volteer. A sad sight. His body is skin and bones, his breath is ragged and shaky. On his side are many, many scars and wounds. Heavy muzzle weights his head down, and, hearing us closing in, his eyes - of beautiful topaz-yellow color - opened in pure terror. He weakly tried to get away from us, whining and whimpering, almost tearing up.
"Hey hey hey hey, big guy. Calm down, we're not apes… and not undead, alright?" I say calmly, but that does little to ease up the Storm guardian.
That's when Sparx's terrified scream comes from behind us, followed by sound of shattering ice.
"Perfect," I groan and turn around in a jump. Spyro does the same.
"Purification in progress"
Competence - Wide Angle
Ice King
HP 1000 CP 100
Once rightful ruler of these lands, now stuck in perpetual nightmare. Resists fire and physical. Immune to poison. Weak to metal.
Great.
"Alright. Let's dance, you ironclad bastard!" I growl, "Spyro! Let's attack from both sides!"
Spyro charges to Ice King's right flank, I charge to his left. And we maul away. Our adversary summoned a cloud of ice spikes and launched them at us - we barely had time to dodge.
Competence - Courageous Dash - Ice King
Competence - Neutron Ray - Ice King
The stun did not even affect him, he just reeled back a bit. Switching his attention to me, he swung his axe at me, again, I dodge. Spyro lobs fireballs from the distance at him, setting the giant on fire. It does not last long, because an icy mist surrounds him, extinguishing the flames - and giving him a shield. Oh, now we're talking!
Moment later he discards his axe in favor of a large mace, which he swings in a wide arc in an attempt to hit us. Spyro took a hit, taken by surprise, but I managed to dodge out of the way by jumping. I look at Spyro - he was thrown at the ice pillar and noticeably stunned by impact.
Competence - Mend the Flesh - Spyro
He's still stunned though - and the Ice King is preparing to make another swing! This time it's an overhead strike, and I'm not sure if Spyro will survive being between floor and mace. I act before I can think, dashing to him and pushing him away - and the mace is falling on top of me as I slip by… But I'm too slow, this will hurt…
The mace hits, but not the intended target. Sparks fly everywhere, and I feel strange pulling pressure on my wing-shoulder… Gamma! Gamma blocked the impact!
Good job, my faithful Add-on, I thought, slipping aside and glancing at him. He does not look good, his lines got dimmer and emit chiming noise.
Competence - Mend the Flesh - Gamma
Looks better already. And Spyro helps by setting the Ice King on fire! Okay, crazy idea time.
"Distract him!" I yelled at Spyro and circled around the gigantic skeletal king. He tries to follow me, but Spyro charges at him from behind and hits his leg in the shin from behind. Actually that works better than I expected, the giant falls on his knee and shakes his head, disoriented and confused. I waste no time and pounce on his back, quickly turn around - head to head - and try to pry off his armor with my claws and Gamma. And at this moment, the ice king stands up, and I feel COLD.
"Fu-"
And then he's on fire again. Well, not on fire, but the cold is gone. Come on Xan, do something!
I decide to go for the spots where his armor connects together - or would be connecting, judging by rotten remains of leather. I clinged to the undead giant and forced Gamma's claws into the joint - my add-on ringed in tension as armor on Ice King's arm creaked and, eventually, snapped. The sudden disappearance of tension surprised me, took me off guard and threw me off him. Although, got to admit, he dropped his mace, too.
And picked up sword instead.
Moment later he summoned even more ice shards at us. This time, they cover too much of an area to dodge. I felt ice shard impale into my flesh, piercing my scales, making me groan in pain. Spyro got hit, too. Damn it, but we're getting somewhere.
"Alright, Spyro, you ready?" I ask the purple dragon. He nods and replies, "Let's do this again!"
Again I distract the Ice King while Spyro rams his shin. Again I'm on top of him, this time prying off armor from his other arm. With a snapping sound it gives in, and he stands back up - but this time I cling to his back tight.
"Xan!" I hear Spyro's voice, "Look! There's some sort of crystal in his ribcage!"
"Keep him warmed up, Spyro! I'll try to-AH!" I hold on tight as he shakes wildly. My hind legs slip off and I nearly let go of him, but manage to hang on by a miracle.
But I did manage to get a glance inside his armor. Indeed, there was crystal in skeletal chest, throbbing and pulsing with energy. Spyro, again, sets him on fire, as he changes his weapon from shortsword to zweihander. Oh and he seems to be more proficient with it, too.
And there is another problem. I can't get a good grip with both my claws and Gamma to pry his chestpiece open. I need help.
"Knock him on his knees, Spyro!" I shout as Ice King once again tries to shake me off. I barely hang on - thankfully, Gamma's grip helps - and brace for the moment he falls. However, this time, instead of getting up slowly, he sort-of bounced upright, using his sword as awkward support stick.
"Again!" I shout at Spyro, my throat dry from the experience, "AGAIN!"
He charged again, and as Ice King started falling again, I used my tail - awkwardly - to lash at his elbow joint.
It worked! He dropped his bloody sword and fell flat on his face.
"Spyro! Help! I can't pry his cuirass…" I don't need to finish as purple dragon pushes his claws into the armor seam on one side and does his best to pull the seam apart. I jab Gamma into the similar seam on the other side, and, after a few long seconds, Ice King's armor snaps in half, revealing his skeletal torso.
We jump away as skeletal king stands up. His crystal heart throbs and pulses with corrupted power, I can see streams of dark energy flow from it to his bony limbs.
Competence - Courageous Dash - Ice King
Competence - Particle Ray - Ice King
He still tries to resist his fate, but we both see crystal heart cover in cracks as Gamma's beam hit it. More, more! Spyro lobs a fireball at his ribcage, but it does not seem to do much damage.
Competence - Planar Blast - Ice King
As expected, the shockwave did not do much damage to the skeleton, but the heart lost few pieces. The undead king was slowing down, as with each throb, more pieces fell of his heart.
This is where I felt sad for him. I mean, the Wide Angle described him as rightful ruler of these lands… Stuck in a perpetual nightmare.
Time to put an end to this nightmare then.
Competence - Planar Blast - Ice King
The heart shatters, debris fly through the holes between ribs. The skeleton's glowing eyes dim as it collapses into a heap of bones.
"Adversaries Purified"
5000 experience points received.
4000 credits received.
"Hey, we did it!" I say with a smirk, "Now… what's up with Volteer?.." my smirk turns into a frown.
He was watching our battle with fear, it seemed. And when we emerged victorious, he tried to make like boulder and not stand out. However, he did a poor job of being a boulder, seeing how he whimpered and whined and tried to crawl away when we approached him again.
"Well, shit. Looks like he completely lost it," I sigh.
"Is there anything we can do to help him?" Spyro asks. I shake my head in response.
"I highly doubt it. A broken body can be fixed with ease. A broken mind…" I pause, raising eyebrow, "Huh?"
I was hearing a chime… Similar to the one I heard back at the temple when I met Gamma.
"What the?!" Sparx exclaims and darts behind Spyro.
I look up and see what I think is another Add-On descend from the cave ceiling.
"Uh, Hi?" I say to it.
"Interesting," comes a response. Very feminine voice, sounding almost like a xylophone, "You intrigue me"
"Thanks?" I don't know how to read the message.
"You're welcome!" it chimes in response. I can feel it look at us all, evaluating us, "Very intriguing, indeed. Many possibilities, yes"
"What in the world are you?" Sparx asked, peeking from below his brother's wing.
"I am self-designated as Lambda. An Add-On of draconian metaphysical nature. Like the one your companion possess," her lines pointed at Gamma.
"Lambda? Uh… Listen…" I lick my lips nervously, "My name is Alexandr. I am on a holy mission to purify the world. I seek allies to assist in my mission…"
"Don't mind him, he's just a loon!" Sparx interjected, receiving a soft swat from his brother.
"You want me to join efforts with you. I assume this will increase the chance of your success," Lambda chimes, "Coincidentally, I wish to get out from this location. Your offer is beneficial to us both"
"Really? You want to get out of here?" I tilt my head and scratch behind my horns. huh, feels good, actually, "Why didn't you leave on your own?"
"I am metaphysically bound to this place. I can not leave on my own volition," Lambda chimed back, "As for why I want to leave, I crave for new knowledge. This place holds no more new data for me..."
"Continue not," I interrupted her, "I will gladly take you with me, Lambda. Can you tell me what skills do you possess?"
"My analytical skills allow me to deal with various ailments and weakening effects, and treat them," Lambda responds, floating closer. Unlike Gamma, her lines glow soft cyan color, "Also I can cause different duration damage effects on adversaries, should the need arise. But I myself is a bit fragile for direct confrontation"
"Understood. I gladly accept your help, Lambda. Any objections, Gamma?"
"Nope, boss," my first Add-On responds.
Add-On Lambda has joined your party!
Lambda takes spot on my right wing shoulder. Comparing to Gamma, she is, indeed, more feminine, more curvy, so to say. Unlike Gamma, she only has one 'claw', and has five 'fingers', two of which were separate, and other two were joined in U-shape. The fifth was the top one, index finger, if you prefer.
"Hey, hey, hey! Looking good, Lambda, Gamma!" I smile and flare my both Add-Ons.
"Oh! Wait a second!" Lambda chimes, "I see your goal was liberating this electric draconkin male?"
"Yes. Unfortunately, it seems he's completely lost it…" I sigh. Volteer kept trying to crawl away from us, crying and whimpering.
"I can help you with that," Lambda noted, and her lines glowed brighter for a moment.
Competence - Frequency Modulation - Volteer The Storm Guardian
Volteer just… Stops. Dead in his tracks, so to say.
Then he blinks.
Once.
Twice.
Thrice.
Then he speaks.
"Whuh?" his voice is muffled by the heavy muzzle he's wearing, "Whu urr yuu?"
"Hoo boy. Let's get this thing off him," Sparx mutters and flies towards Volteer's face, "Hold still big guy, I'll get you out…"
The Chronicler was breathing heavily. He had to return to his library to grab four more elemental constructs. After another encounter with a dried-up dragon he lost one of his contraptions, and, expecting more resistance, decided to play it safe.
He felt uneasy about this whole ordeal. He felt he really should not be here.
And the parchments he kept finding were not helping at all.
"Chief Archivist note: YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE."
"Chief Archivist note: You REALLY should not be here"
The final parchment he found before another ominous-looking door said, "Chief Archivist note: Turn back NOW, Memoram. This is the POINT OF NO RETURN for you. YOU. SHOULD. NOT. BE. HERE. Period. GO. BACK. Period."
Memoram. This is… WAS his name. When he was… Alive. Alive? Well, he was not dead… Or was he?..
The Chronicler shook his head. This was in the past. Now was more important. After the final parchment, he had an urge to actually meet this 'Chief Archivist' and have a talk with him.
What in the world was HIS library hiding?
The door in front of him opened with ominous creaking. The Chronicler squinted, looking into the opened way.
Another library, with bookshelves, books and scrolls… But this one looked nothing like his library. The shelves were made from smooth polished wood, the books were more compact, and looked differently. Alien, even. But what actually drew his attention was in the distance.
Books. Huge books. If some books in his library could be used as door-stoppers, those books could easily hold Warfang gates open.
The Chronicler carefully walked towards one of them. This one seemed to be… disturbed. It kept shivering and trying to open… and, as Chronicler closed in to it, he realized that the book was… much bigger than he saw it at first. He was standing on a balcony of sorts, and those books were going down, down, down… into seemingly endless abyss.
The Chronicler rose his paw hesitantly and reached out to the book. He felt fine leather of the cover shiver under his fingers. 'Last page,' he commanded with a thought and flipped the cover open.
The book screeched - making the old dragon back away - and its pages flipped with moan-like sound, stopping at the final one.
Then it flipped as another page was added.
Then another.
And another.
The Chronicler inched forward to the book and peeked at flipping pages.
And then he recoiled in dread.
He had seen this many times - history writing itself. But this book, whoever it belonged to, contained only two words.
A desperate plea, repeating over and over again.
"KILL ME"
"A purple dragon named Spyro. Amazing," Volteer mused, looking at said dragon, "Of course, there were unsubstantiated rumors of a purple dragon countless generations ago, but most consider it hearsay, gossip, legend" Oh, dear Ancestors. He's giving me migraine. I swear, his chatter is like a status-inflicting competence on its own! "It's hard to believe, difficult to fathom, amazing to comprehend...er...um..." He finally seems to notice me. Oh, goodie. "Um… And… who are you?"
"Hi" I say, "You must be Volteer. Name's Alexandr, or Xan for short, nice to meet you. Now let's get the fuck out of here before Royal Guardian arrives." I saw him frown at my foul language and quickly add, "A dragon made of ice, and he's very pissed off about you, apes, Cynder and us being here. I'd even say he's in a killer mood."
"A dragon made of ice? That's preposterous, unbelievable, imp-"
And this is when the ceiling of the cavern collapsed. Well, not the whole ceiling, but large part of it, revealing that this cave was more of a dome.
Oh, and guess who crashed right through it.
"YOU!"
I felt my ears ring again and migraine from Volteer speech intensify.
"By King-Empress twin wings and tails! Are you deaf? Or just completely and utterly retarded?"
Keep shouting like that, and I will be deaf alright.
Massive shimmering body emerged from the floating ice dust, making a step towards us. I think I heard Volteer's jaw fall on the floor. That, or he dropped a brick.
"Pray tell me, you little colorless shit, what part of 'I WILL FUCKING MURDER YOU INTO OBLIVION' YOU DID NOT UNDERSTAND?!" the Guradian's eyes drilled into me, Gamma and Lambda. If looks could kill, I'd be deader than dead.
"Well..." I began, but got rather rudely interrupted:
"Shut the fuck up! You are obviously too retarded to form a coherent reply!"
"Now listen here!" Volteer shouted angrily, "There are whelps in here, so watch your language!"
"Shut your mouth-hole, sparkly slave!" He roared at Volteer, "You and your kin should have never ever been granted any kind of freedom!"
He then menacingly pressed his face at Volteer, making the yellow dragon back away a bit, "You electricity-suckers are only good for menial, tiny work that does not require any sort of developed intelligence! Or even less! I wouldn't even trust you to pull a bloody LEVER, you moron would find about a hundred ways to injure yourself doing that!"
"W-why I never… What do you… you!" Volteer seemed to be both greatly offended and out of words to express how much he was offended.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP! I NEVER ASKED YOU A THING!" Ice dragon snapped at storm guardian, making him back up a bit more.
"Look, sir, we're sorry for the intrusion. We'll be off now, and you'll never see us again" Says Spyro, trying to salvage the situation.
Too bad the Royal Guardian is not very open about salvaging it.
"YOU TOO SHUT UP, MISERABLE RUNT!" the ice dragon shouts at Spyro, covering him in bits of icy spit.
"I have a growing urge to cause you lethal bodily harm," I say and look at Batter.
He nods with a stern look and says to me quietly, "Even Dedan hasn't been that much of an asshole after he turned..."
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING ASSHOLE, YOU LITTLE TWAT?" the dragon glares at me and leans closer. Way too close to comfort. I can see his sharp teeth and burning, ember-like eyes… Full of insanity and hatred.
Wait, what?
"Uh, I do believe you are hearing things," Volteer noted, "He did not call you such name…"
Wait… Did he hear what Batter said about him?
"Must have something to do with him being a Royal Guardian," my mentor responds. I nod and look straight at ice dragon.
"Matter of fact, I just did, you ear-dead, ice-brained shithead," now that I have his full attention, I look straight into his eyes, and say slowly, "Guardian! I will only say this once. Let us leave or I. Will. Destroy. You." I emphasize on the final part of the sentence. I see Spyro, Sparx and Volteer stare at me with expressions ranging from 'Did you just flipped off an eldritch abomination?' and 'Your funeral'
Silence filled the cave for a few moments, then the dragon replied to my threat:
"Wow" Suddenly his voice normalized for a moment, "You ARE retarded" then he bursts out laughing, "What, in the name of Queen-Emperor, gave you this idea?" He stops laughing and once again his face is all the way into my personal space, "I am Cryos Dante, guardian of The Freezer! This. Is. My. Land. IT AIN'T SHIT WITHOUT ME!" He rears and stomps his front paws, "Insolent worms! I will murder you all! It will be a favor to the world to end your pathetic lives NOW!"
"Cryos Dante!" I shouted. It seemed that as I did, all sounds in the world stopped.
"You have brought corruption into these lands"
"We tried to reason with you, but it seems that you are too mad, too spiteful to let it go."
"Now, I have no other choice but to fulfill my holy mission."
I reared, flaring my wing-like Add-Ons. I felt energy course through my very being, through Gamma and Lambda. Then I stomped my front paws on the floor of former dome-cavern. I look up at giant ice dragon in front of me. He's at least three times bigger than I am, hell, maybe even more. He easily can turn me into paste with one strike of his paw. And yet, I grin. I feel power build-up inside me. It wants out.
And so, for the first time on this adventure, I hear familiar words - but these words come from my throat, shaped by my vocal cords, born inside my lungs, and coming from my own mind
Three simple words they are.
"Purification In Progress."
But, oh damn, how satisfying it is to say them.
BOSS TIME.
"WORTHLESS WORM! I'LL CUT YOUR FACE OFF AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS TO WIPE OUT THAT INSOLENT GRIN OF YOURS!" I hear Cryos roar in pure rage.
"Try me!" I snarl back at him and jump to the side to avoid a barrage of ice shards. Gamma instantly fires off a Neutron ray at Cryos.
Competence - Neutron Ray - Cryos Dante
Competence - Battle Rally
Competence - Direct Amplification - Cryos Dante
However I also see Spyro and even Volteer stand in battle stance, about to join the fray.
"Stay out of this!" I shout, "You are no match for him!"
"That's nonsense, hogwash, folly!" Volteer disagreed, "We'll get him! Besides, I feel deeply offended by that rapscallion's behavior!"
Oh, right. Battle Rally.
Oh, thanks for the distraction, by the way. I barely managed to dodge the next strike. His paw strikes the ground close to me, small bits of ice and rock fly in every direction, and the shockwave from impact knocks me off my feet.
Cryos raised his paw for another strike, but it gets zapped by Volteer. Royal Guardian instantly switches his attention to the electric dragon, and gets another lightning to the face.
Competence - Neutron Ray - Cryos Dante
And a neutron ray for good measure.
The ice dragon rears and lets out deafening roar, stomping his paws on the floor. I once again thrown off my feet, and so is Spyro who is circling around Cryos - looking for the opening. Volteer lets out another bolt of lightning, but he already looks exhausted…
I quickly scramble back at my feet, reach for my satchel. Picking up a slice of silver flesh, I shouted, "Hey, Volteer! Catch!" and tossed it at the electric dragon, then added quickly, "No time! Eat it, ask questions later!" I roll out of the way of another strike.
Competence - Wide Angle
Cryos Dante HP ? CP ?
Corrupted Royal Guardian of Dante's Freezer. First Boss.
Wow. That's it?
"Batter, how tough is he?" I hiss to my mentor… who is nowhere to be seen.
"Royal guardians are very strong in battle, powered by their own corruption and world's ruler energies" comes a reply from somewhere behind me, "And they resist your attempts to scan them…"
"And you just telling me this NOW?!" I turn around to face him…
Bad, BAD idea. Before anything, I feel a large paw hit my side, throwing me aside. Ho fuck, it HURTS.
Collision and slide on the floor hurt even more, despite the floor being icy and slippery.
"Boss, gittup! No time!" Gamma pushes me off the floor as if he was my wing. Just in time to avoid another barrage of ice shards. Yeah, no direct impacts, but a lot of indirect ones from shattering ice spikes. Gamma and Lambda attempt to cover me, but they can't deflect everything. Although my armor does provide some protection, it's not really enough.
Competence - Mend the Flesh - Alexandr
Competence - Direct Amplification - Cryos Dante
"You should also know that Royal Guardians possess resistance to statuses…" The Batter continued, but I interrupted him:
"That would be useful to know BEFOREHAND!" I bark at him, focussing on not being hit by any more of his swipes.
Easier said than done. The bastard is relentless! He gives me no chance to strike back, except for occasional blast from Gamma and Lambda. And as battle went on, Cryos seemed to only get more aggressive.
I glance at Volteer and see that he still looks at the piece of silver flesh in hesitation. Half-growling, half groaning, I turn to see where Spyro is. He's behind Cryos, breathing fire at his hind legs. 'Cause that'll help.
I dash towards Volteer, jump and slap his face, "Come on! Eat it! Restores energy!" I explain as fast and short as I can.
"Metabolism…" he began but I interrupted him while dodging another barrage of ice shards and a rather large ice spike Cryos spat at me, "Magic! Ask LATER!"
He seemed to take the explanation and quickly downed the silvery meat.
"Interesting…" I heard him mumbling, before dashing to the side, swiping me off my feet to pull me away from another barrage of ice shards, "This, study later! Combat now!"
Good to know. I'm back on my feet, now there's three of us fighting Cryos. Alright, what's the plan, I think as I look at Volteer and Spyro. The purple dragon keeps trying to roast the guardian's rear. With little to no effect, sadly.
"Stun him, Volteer!" I shouted, re-casting my Battle Rally. The electric dragon nods quickly,and launches a ball of thundering lightnings at Cryos. He watches the yellow sparkling orb fly in his direction with dismissive expression… Until Volteer fired a single bolt at it, making it explode with deafening bang. Sparks, ice debris and dust flies everywhere, as Cryos collapses on his chest, shaking his head slightly. The scales on his snout are shattered and cracked.
"Woah!" I heard Spyro's voice as I ran towards the shimmering dragon. Not really thinking, I jumped up on his snout, clinging on the cracks. 'Come on, faster, faster!' I think as I climbed over his muzzle onto his forehead and slipped between his horns onto his back. To my surprise, I found an unarmored spot between his wings. Before I even can think it, Gamma flares up and jabs its 'claws' into the soft spot, causing the great dragon to shriek in pain and shake violently. I hang on to the wing with my paws and Lambda's aid.
Cryos stood up and shook once again, flapping his wings - and throwing me off. I land on the cavern floor on my feet and slide a bit as my claws make small grooves in the floor.
"Insolent worms!" the ice dragon growls, huffing a cloud if cold steam from his mouth, "You know nothing! That did not even hurt me!"
He gets a Neutron Ray from Gamma for his trouble. Spyro, in the meantime, latched onto the dragon's tail and slowly made his way over Cryos' croup, breathing fire every now and then - melting those ice scales off him. The ice giant, in response, exhaled an ice cloud at Volteer, encasing him in a crystalline prison.
"Lambda! Can you do something about this?!" I shout as I run and slide underneath Cryos, Gamma and my tail blade lashing on his plated belly, shattering some more plates.
"One moment…" Lambda glows a bit brighter, "Freeze. I see…" She flashed bright cyan, and the ice crystal that imprisoned Volteer dissipated, "Done!"
And then I feel a strong paw grab me by my head and abruptly lift me up. Even though I can't see, I know for sure it belongs to Cryos, as I desperately struggling to get out, make him release me. I claw at him and Gamma and Lambda lash at his paw in efforts to get me out.
And then he shook me up. I swear I could feel my neck strain and nearly snap from sudden motion. And he did that again. And again. And…
When he makes another shake, Volteer charged at Cryos with loud, vicious roar, his paws push ice dragon chest and his jaws snap inch away from his neck. He let me go, sending me flying into a wall. Ouch. I slide down and barely have time to roll out of the way as Cryos and Volteer wrestle, trying to get at each other throats.
Competence - Battle Rally
Competence - Direct Amplification - Cryos Dante
Competence - Neutron Ray - Cryos Dante
Spyro clings to the dragon's side, angrily clawing at his icy hide. Sparx is nowhere to be seen.
Well, keep lashing! I get to Cryos' hind leg and start clawing at it. Gamma instantly jabs into his flank, and Lambda goes to stab his groin. He shudders and almost falls over under our combined assault, but managed to remain upright. This time, his teeth snapped dangerously close to Volteer's neck. And again, this time even closer. Oh fuck. We have to do something and fast.
The best idea I could come up with was to attack his foot-paw. So, I made both my Add-ons to jab their claws into it as hard as they could.
That actually manages to throw him off-balance, as his leg slips and he collapses on the floor. Volteer reaches out and his jaws clench on the ice dragon's neck.
Not that it impressed him in any way, as he continued to scratch and stab Volteer with his claws, not losing even a tiny bit of his furious vigour. However, his ice armored scales are battered and cracked, and missing completely at some places.
Another Neutron Ray pierces Cryos' skin where his 'armor'' is missing, causing him to roar in pain and lash his tail at me - while summoning another ice shards barrage, directed at Volteer. That makes him release Cryos' throat to dodge, and ice dragon stands back up, quickly.
"MORONS! What are you trying to achieve here?!" he roars… but his voice slightly distorted, his throat bleeding odd, viscous black fluid where Storm Guardian's teeth pierced the scales, "Didn't you hear me the first time?! Me and this land are CONNECTED! It AIN'T SHIT WITHOUT ME!"
He wanted to add something else, but Volteer shot an impressive bolt of lightning straight into Cryos' throat, making him shut up and gargle as who-knows-how-much volts of electricity passed through his innards. Ouch. He collapses on the floor, shattering more of his armor - and his wings' membranes in the process.
Spyro wastes little to no time and lashes at the revealed soft spots once covered by the ice armor. Cryos growls and groans, trying to stand back up, his hind leg not working properly from the wounds I inflicted. His movements became slow and sluggish, and that viscous black fluid leaks from his wounds - not just the ones Volteer left on the giant's throat.
"Xan! I've seen that blood before!" Spyro shouted to me, "Some of the apes became a kind of freaky abominations and were bleeding that stuff all the time!"
"Not NOW, Spyro!" I shouted, taking in the information, clinging to Cryos' side and using my add-ons to lash at his flesh, myself focussing on holding on and using healing competences. However, it was obvious that we're winning…
And then Cryos swung his bony, membraneless wings in a scissor-like motion, sharp claws and fingers whistle an inch away from Volteer's neck. No, I will have none of that. With that thought Gamma jams his claws into the wing's shoulder joint, making the ice dragon rear and roar in pain… only to flop moment later because his hind leg was no longer functioning..
The impact threw me and Spyro off him, and shatter whatever was left of his armor. Cryos was trying to scramble back on his paws, but they kept slipping on his black blood. Eventually he stopped moving and was just laying there, motionless, breathing heavily.
"Finish him," I hear Batter saying sternly. I nod and walk towards his head, with full intention to end this…
And suddenly, the book stopped. The Chronicler took a few deep breaths to calm down before peeking into it again.
The last "KILL ME" plea was cut in the middle, the ink line sloppily jumping down to a next line, writing two more words that barely made any sense:
"THANK YOU"
"You're not… him… are you?.."
I feel like I walked headfirst into a brick wall.
"What?" I stare at the ice dragon in front of me.
"Yet… You look just… like…" Cryos coughed, more black fluid seeping from the corners of his mouth, "And… still not him…"
"What are you talking about?" I feel confused. What the hell happened to him all the sudden?!
"Finish him," Batter repeated in a more stern tone. I wave off.
"Cryos? What the hell are you talking about?" I ask the Royal Guardian.
"Kid… You… You've set something… Something big in motion…" the dragon rasped, struggling to keep the black viscous blood from flooding his throat, "Kid…"
"Finish. Him. Now," Batter bumped me with his bat, and almost knocked me off balance.
"Shush you!" I growl, "Cryos! What is going on? What… corrupted you?"
He looks at me wearily and exhales weakly:
"Kid… F-find Inductus… F-find… Inductus… She… She knows what… to… do…"
he coughs up some more 'blood', and finally says one last thing:
"K-kid… It's y-your... birthday…"
And then his body slowly goes limp as he exhales one last time, before he becomes completely motionless.
"Adversaries purified" I say with a sigh of relief.
5000 experience points received
3000 credits received
3 luck tickets received
2 silver flesh received
Ignis card received
"Well, that was something!" I heard Sparx's voice. I scoff quietly.
"Well, indeed, this was one glorious, splendiferous, magnificent battle!" Volteer chimed in, "Although I have not a slightest idea, guess, estimation on who that Inductus could be…"
"We'll figure it out later," I waved off, "Right now, I want to do the first thing I wanted to do when I got here…"
"Let me guess: get out of here?" Sparx chimed in.
"Bingo!" I said, making finger guns at Sparx, "Uh, one problem though… I'm kind-of grounded…"
Yeah, despite me having both 'wings' now I'm still unable to fly.
"Well, perhaps I could give you two a lift?" Volteer smiled.
"I can fly on my own, thanks," Spyro replied, "Just… Give me some time to collect myself before taking off..."
We fly back to the Temple over the course of the next three days. As we land on the balcony/landing pad, we are greeted by Ignitus, Karter and Zacharie… And Batter, too.
I slip from Volteer's back onto his arm and slide down on the floor… and instantly feel the burning glare of Ignitus on me.
"Alexandr," he said sternly, in a demanding tone, "Explain yourself this instant"
"Uhhh…" I feel at a loss and look at Volteer and Spyro, hoping to get their support.
"Ignitus, my dear friend," Volteer said, making a step forward, "You seem to be upset about something this young did? I need to admit that his help was..."
"The thing is, dearest brother," Ignitus interrupted Volteer's speech, "That I never sent HIM out to help you. I did send Spyro out, yes - but I await explanation on why and how did he got there"
I gulp and look at Batter, trying to get at least some support from him. He looks at me with an expression that says 'suffer'.
"W-well... I gazed into the pool of visions…" I said slowly, sitting on my haunches, pressing my index fingers together, and trying to look away from that gaze, "And saw Spyro being hurt badly…" I lift my paw seeing how Ignitus wanted to say something, "But you were nowhere to be seen, so… I… Umm…" I grin nervously as both Ignitus and Volteer glare at me, "I decided to go out and help?"
"And how exactly did you get there so fast?" Ignitus asked with… well, the best I can describe that is 'sarcastic curiosity'.
"I, umm, I took a shortcut?" I blurted out.
I get the 'oh really?' looks from all the dragons present. Including the 'fly one.
"Look, I'm sorry, alright?!" I say sheepishly, "I just could not just sit there and do nothing while Spyro was dying out there!"
Volteer shakes his head, and Ignitus' frown deepens.
"This is not an excuse to run away like you did, with no warning at all!" he said, "For that, you're grounded. You will remain in the Temple until further notice," I frown and he continues, "It's for your own good. You must understand that running off like this could get you killed!"
I huff and raise my paws in surrendering gesture, "Alright, alright, geesh! I give!" for that, I get a surprised look from Spyro and angry glare from Batter, "I still going to need some time to recuperate…"
A cough from Volteer followed.
"Now, if we're done with sermonizing…" the Storm Guardian said, "It's good and fortunate to be back home! We have so much to discuss, but first - is there anything to eat? I'm positively starving, famished, ravenous even! And you know, the food for thought ain't good when your stomach is empty!"
"Yeah, something lavish would be very welcome right now" I chuckle.
"Uh-huh… Just don't forget to wash that mouth of yours. With soap," Sparx chuckled, making Ignitus shoot another glance at me.
An old, gray dragon rose his head wearily from the warm cavern floor.
"W-what?.. H-how?.. The hater… is gone?.."
Footsteps.
"Father."
"You have much to explain."
A/N: The lyrics sung by Alexandr are from "Wings of Destiny" by Gamma Ray.
Although I do not do this often, the battle theme with Cryos Dante is MDK2 Kurt Boss Theme.
