(Yay for extensive chapters with epic battle scenes, its all below. Oh yeah, a certain song helped me create this: Fight by Icon for Hire, tis good. Enjoy)

Part 4 –

Ganter flew behind Chimera, admiring the landscape; there wasn't any sign of any cities or a war, it was all just nature. It showed just how simple life was in this world, and he smiled at the thought. With his new dark dragon body, it seemed that the sun warmed him now, in comparison to when he first arrived. It felt like a strange paradise to him now, and though he wondered if Chimera's spell was now bringing in the side effects, he kept quiet, wanting to get this amulet and get back to his siblings.

Off in the distance, they soon saw a tan stone market, of which even the ground seemed to be made of the tan-colored stone. Chimera noticing his glance, said, "Legend tells that there used to be a true city underneath the market, and that it was made in between some hills, which could help hide it. Also, a long time ago, something happened, and a stone ceiling was built over it, constructed with magic. And so, the market was contructed."

Ganter nodded, slightly curious about what was hidden under this market. The duo's claws soon landed on the cobblestone ground, and Ganter looked around; it was just as Chimera had said. Several dark dragons were walking around, and one or two gave him a suspicious stare, but walked off without saying anything.

While they walked through the market, Chimera pointed at a dark dragon with green wings and whispered to Ganter, "That's Gladius; him and his brother had a fight some time ago, and haven't spoken since." Chimera then pointed to another dark dragon with purple wings, "And that's Jin, I heard he was training to be an assassin, I don't know why though."

Ganter stayed silent, not wanting to draw attention to himself, but he nodded understandingly, and they continued to walk through the market. Meanwhile, the pitch black dragon from before walked up to Jin, "You see that duo?"

Jin nodded, "Yes."

"Good, you know what to do." With that, the pitch black dragon walked off, and Jin took a deep breath, keeping an eye on the pitch black dragon as he walked off. Jin only went after Chimera and Ganter after he was sure he couldn't see that sword-like tail tip.

Back with Chimera and Ganter, they turned at an alley, which strangely, had a drain for water to flow in.

"Is this where the amulet is?" Ganter looked around, curiously.

"Yeah, it's down there." Chimera pointed at the drain with her tail.

"And how are we supposed to get down there?" Ganter asked, looking down the hole.

"You are a dark dragon now, use your shadow powers." Chimera pointed out.

"And how am I supposed to use them, I've never been a dark dragon before." Ganter replied.

"Okay, think of yourself without a definite shape, imagine you are darkness itself, and let the shadows surround you. Like this." Chimera said, transforming into black smoke, and flowing down the hole. Ganter did as Chimera said, and soon he found himself to have done it. It felt weird, not having a complete body, Ganter wondered what would happen if some of his smoky body drifted away; would he lose his tail, or wings?"

They soon landed on moist ground; and Ganter looked around, "Some legend huh?" It was like Chimera had told him; there was a true city down here. There were numerous buildings, but everything was abandoned, and there was little light down there, but with Ganter's new vision, he could see perfectly fine.

"To be honest, I could have gotten the amulet long ago, but I never had any use for it. I guess hiding it helped in the long run." Chimera walked over to a statue and lifted it up. She then whipped her tail around and the double-pointed spear caught something, tossing it out from under the statue; it was the amulet. It looked like a gold ring with a dark red gem in the middle, and Chimera picked it up, putting it on via a gold chain attached to the amulet, but the amulet only reached the bottom of Chimera's neck, and it didn't swing around with each of Chimera's movements.

At that moment, a shadow fell on them, and its tail tip barely missed Chimera's neck, but Chimera had dodged just in time. When the shadow took a form, she gasped in surprise, "Jin."

Ganter backed away from the other dark dragon, and asked, "What do you want?" He didn't notice how harsh he had said it.

Jin looked at Ganter; his dark blue eyes glared at him, but Ganter thought he could see sadness in them, and Jin spoke, "I have orders to kill you two."

Chimera growled, "And who would that be?" Deep inside, Chimera only knew one dragon that could strike fear into someone and cause that one dragon to take on more than one person.

"I won't tell you." Jin said simply, raising his knife-like tail tip. The tip soon appeared to be a long sword thanks to dark magic, which created dark blue energy to make it look longer.

Ganter gulped, "We don't want to fight you." He kept his distance from Jin's tail.

"I'm sorry, but I have no choice." Jin stabbed his tail in Chimera's direction, but the dark dragoness rolled out of the way.

While Ganter continued to back up, his tail brushed something, and he jumped up in fright, which got the attention of Jin and Chimera. What they saw surprised them; a dragon crawled out of the ground, but it had no flesh, it was only a glowing skeleton. Soon, others followed, and after mere minutes, the three of them were surrounded by dozens of the skeletal dragons.

"Um, would anyone like to call a truce?" Ganter asked, now he and Chimera were no longer backing away from Jin, but now, to Jin. And then, the three of them now stood with their backs to each other.

"I don't know about you two, but I am not so sure we can just fly away." Chimera remarked.

"As much as I would like to just get rid of you two and forget about this all, I guess there would be no reason to refuse help, when we are surrounded by the undead." Jin's voice started to rise with that last part, and a tinge of fear was in it.

One of the skeletons lunged at Jin and he parried with his lengthened tail blade, cutting it into two. A couple more lept at Jin and so he swung his tail again, destroying them as well. And so Jin continued to do this with devastating grace, and Ganter felt he now knew why Jin was a hired assassin, and he felt glad that these skeletons had interfered, otherwise it would be Jin he would have to fight.

Chimera had infused shadow energy into her tail tip, causing the tips to be covered in a pair of blades, and she stabbed her tail into one of the skeletons, impaling it, and flinging it away. She blasted others with her shadow breath, causing the creatures to cease being animated, and fall down in a pile of bones. If a skeleton got to close, Chimera slashed her claws at it, breaking the fragile body.

Ganter had tried to keep his distance, not being used to fighting for his life, but when one of the skeletons got close to him, he swung his tail, knocking it into a wall. Ganter wasn't used to being a dark dragon, and he wasn't sure if he should use his new powers. Multiple skeletons saw his 'weakness', and converged on the former ice dragon. However, Chimera and Jin were still immersed in their own fights, so Ganter was on his own. He let out a growl, hoping to scare off the creatures, but it failed. Ganter had only preformed a fury once before, while Careena was giving him battle training, and Ganter wasn't sure what it would do now, with him being a dark dragon instead of ice. He took a deep breath; the creatures continued to surround him; and Ganter focused his new powers. The dark energy lifted him into the air; he began to be surrounded by shadows, from which he then let it all out. The explosion had annihilated the skeletons around him and Ganter fell to ground, exhausted.

Chimera and Jin had finished their own fights, and then they looked at each other, not sure about what to do next. So Chimera walked over to Ganter and said, "You are quite the dragon, you know that?"

Ganter took a few minutes to get back on his paws, "I guess, all I did was remember what I did with an ice fury, and applied it to my new powers."

Jin walked over to them, keeping his tail blade charged with energy in case he had to fight more, "What's this about 'ice furies'?"

Ganter gulped, but before he could speak, he saw a lone skeleton leap off a building, aiming for jin's neck. Without knowing he did it, Ganter found the strength and intercepted the attack, falling back to the ground in a tumble as he tried to keep his own neck from being broken by the beast's jaws.

While Jin was surprised, Chimera ran over and helped Ganter deal with the remaining skeleton. When they were finished, Jin spoke with complete surprise, "You just saved my life."

Ganter got back on his paws and looked at Jin, whom was obviously dumbfounded by Ganter's selfless act, and he said, "Yeah, that's what friends do. I can tell, you're not so bad, just misguided."

Jin blinked at him curiously; he had never heard of such a thing. "Just who in the world are you?"

"My name is Ganter, and I guess you've met Chimera before." Ganter gestured to the wary dragoness.

Jin frowned, "I think you have some explaining to do, and I would suggest you do, or else I'll finish what I came here to do." He raised his energy-saber-tail-tip threateningly.

Ganter looked at Chimera, and she said to him, "Well, I guess your cover is blown, might as well tell him, we don't need more fighting right now."

Ganter looked back at Jin, and taking a deep breath, said, "Alright, Jin, I'm not a true dark dragon. I came from another dimension, I think, and I was originally an ice dragon, but Chimera disguised me so I could hide here in plain sight."

Jin looked at Ganter as if he was insane, "Are you done lying?"

Ganter backed away slowly, "I'm not lying. I really was an ice dragon, and somehow I ended up here, in this place full of dark dragons, and so Chimera turned me into a dark dragon so you guys wouldn't kill me."

Jin made a noncommital hum, "I guess you are telling the truth, but maybe I should still kill you."

"Why do you want to kill us?" Ganter said fearfully.

"Because he told me to, if I didn't, then he'd kill me, and you two as well." Jin said, fearing the other dark dragon.

Ganter gulped, "You came here to kill us just because some other dragon told you to?"

Jin nodded, thinking more about that dragon than of killing right now, "You don't know what he is capable of, he can't be beaten."

"No one is truly invinicible, I'm sure we could take him." Ganter replied.

"W … we?" Jin asked, his fear of the pitch black dragon was immense.

"Yeah, we, but I guess that the concept of working together isn't something you are used to. Chimera told me about how you guys like to be alone, but it doesn't help." Ganter looked at Chimera, whom was keeping her eyes on Jin, ready if he attacked.

Chimera then spoke up, "Why don't we just continue this back at my cave, I guess you could come too, Jin."

Jin blinked; he really didn't know what to think of all of this. All he wanted to do was to get back to his brother; he hoped he wasn't killed in his absence, "I guess I still have questions, but don't blame me if we all die." And so, they flew out of the underground city, back up to the market.

(I will get back to Careena and Nuevo in the next part. Any questions or comments?)