Ok, here we go, next chapter. As you probably have already guessed, I will be following the storyline of the Weapon Master mode of Soul Calibur II as closely as i can, with a few personal twists. But, for the most part, If you've been through WM of SCII, and if you pay attention to the descriptions of certain levels, then you know pretty much what's going to happen. But enough yapping! Let's get to reading!

Chapter 6: Benetnasch

Once Mitsurugi was out of sight, they decided to bury the bodies, which were still lying in the corner. Afterward, they gathered some loose boards from the rampart and built a campfire on the ground below the platform Spyro had fought Mitsurugi on.

They cooked some of the meat they had borrowed from the Warfang kitchens, and ate in silence. Flame practically inhaled his slice, making Ember turn her head in disgust ("What?" Flame said defensively. "I'm hungry!") and Cynder rolled her eyes.

After fifteen minutes, when they all finished eating, Flame broke the silence. "So, who do you think this "Link" guy is?"

The girls shrugged, and Spyro said, "Don't know...but, judging from how Mitsurugi described him, he's probably not a person you want to get on the bad side of."

"Well, we'd better get some sleep," Cynder said after a short silence. "We've got a long journey ahead of us." They all agreed.

Spyro and Cynder curled up next to each other, and Spyro draped his wing over the black dragoness like a blanket. Flame and Ember curled up likewise, and Sparx rest on Spyro's horn. With a few "good night"s, they were asleep...

Spyro stood crouched on a burning plain, his wings badly torn, and an open wound on his left hip. Several meters behind him lay a human male, blonde hair, purple attire, red bandana around his neck, a rapier in its sheath at his hip, and a look of terror and confusion in his eyes. Standing on Spyro's left was another human, slightly shorter than the man on the ground, also blonde, wearing a green tunic and hat, brown snow boots, wielding a blue shield and a strange blue sword with the blade seemingly split down the middle.

And in front of them stood a skeletel creature covered entirely with flames. The infurno raised its sword, the eye on the blade giving them a look of pure malice. The beast roared as it swung the massive blade at Spyro...

Spyro shot awake with a gasp and in a cold sweat. As his head shot up, Sparx was sent flying, and Spyro's wing shifted on Cynder's back, stirring her.

"Spyro...?" she groaned. "What is it?"

Spyro didn't respond right away. He looked around, forgetting for a second where he was. The rampart was bathed in faint twilight as the moon set behind the western horizon, the sun still hiding behind the eastern mountains.

"I..." he said. "Nothing...it was nothing."

Cynder nudged him with her shoulder. "C'mon, Spyro, don't shut me out. Let me help you. "What's wrong?"

"I said it was nothing!" he snapped angrily. An instant later, he didn't even know why he was so mad. Seeing Cynder's concerned look, he said, "Sorry, Cynder...I don't know why I snapped like that...?

Cynder glanced down at the shard in the purple dragon's paw. "I do." Before Spyro could react, she snatched the shard from his grasp. "It's the shard." she said before stowing it away in her satchel. "I don't think any one of us should hold it for longer than we need to."

Once everyone was awake, and Sparx stopped complaining about being woken from a perfect dream, they left the rampart and flew eastward.

They'd only covered a few miles when they came across a structure. Upon closer airborne examination, they saw it was an arena of sorts. A square platform stood in the middle of a small lake, surrounded by stone stands. Judging from the humans filing out of the srena, the previous match had just ended. The only one left inside was a man lying in the middle of the platform, apparently the loser of the fight.

"Spyro! Look!" Cynder called, pointing at something outside the entrance. Spyro smiled when he saw who she pointed at: the green tunic and hat of the one human he wanted to see right now.

"That's Link!" he shouted. Unfortunately, his cry didn't go unnoticed, as Link looked skyward for a second before taking off running as an alarming speed. It was all they could do to keep up with him! He didn't show signs of stopping, and ignored their plees for him to stop.

They'd put several miles behind them when they came across a large, bustling town, and Link disappeared among the crowd of townsfolk.

They were about to follow him when Spyro stopped in midair. "Wait, guys!"

"What?" Flame asked. "We know where he is! Now we just gotta get to him and talk!"

"I know, but look how he reacted when he saw us!" Spyro said. "It was like he'd never seen a dragon before! How do you think those other humans'll react?"

"We have no choice, Spyro!" Cynder countered. "We need to talk to him, and if it means passing through towns, so be it."

Spyro still thought it was a bad idea. But he knew Cynder wasn't about to change her mind, so he gave in. They flew down to the road leading into the city. As Spyro looked around nervously, he saw a large forest on the northern side of the road, the trees rustling in the breeze. Further up, just outside the city gate, there was a sign that read:

"Welcome to
Bebetnasch"

As they walked up to the gate, Spyro looked through and saw something he thought he'd never see in this world: Dragons!

Dragons and humans were walking up and down the streets, as though they were one people! there were venders on either side of the street, run by humans and dragons alike, selling food, weapons, clothing, and many things Spyro had no idea what they were.

"Wow!" Spyro gasped. "There are dragons in this world!"

His exclaimation didn't go unnoticed, as another dragon about his age walked up to them. He was a red dragon with blue belly scales, spikes, and tail spade shaped like a flame. He had two short horns on his head, also blue, and fiery red eyes.

"Say, I don't recognize you lot, and I know pretty much everyone in town!" he said excitedly with a noticable accent. "I guess that makes me your official welcoming comity." He glanced from Flame to Spyro and to Cynder. When his eyes fell on Ember, however, his entire demeanor changed. "Well, hel-lo, what have we here?"

"Huh?" Ember jumped when the dragon addressed her. "Oh, um...I'm Ember."

"Well, Ember," he said in a flurtatious tone. He grasped Ember's paw gently, as though he were handling a dove. "My name is Blaze. Welcome to Benetnasch." And with that, he kissed her paw, making her blush.

"Hey!" Flame put himself between Blaze and Ember. "Watch who you're sweet-talkin'!"

"Flame!" Ember protested.

"No, it's alright," Blaze quickly said, sounding ashamed. "I'm sorry. It's just not every day i get to meet such a beautiful dragoness such as yourself, Ember." Next instant, he went back to the excited demeanor Spyro first felt from him. "Say! You fellas're new 'round here, so I guess I should show you around! No one knows this city better than me!" He was about to turn around when he caught himself. "Ah! Almost forgot! What're your names?"

"I'm Cynder," she said. "This is Sparx," ("Ok, for a sec, i thought you were gonna forget about me, again!" the dragonfly said. ) "You've already met Flame and Ember." Flame glared at Blaze and curled his upper lip, revealing his fangs, while Ember rolled her eyes at the firebreather's defensive attitude. "And this is Spyro," Cynder continued, motioning to the purple dragon, who nodded in turn.

Blaze's eyes widened when he took a second look at Spyro. He glanced from his eyes to his scales and back, mouthing something as though lost for words. "It...it c-can't be..." he stammered. "I-I've heard stories...A-a-are you really...t-the...the...?"

"The what?" Spyro asked, though anticipating the answer.

Blaze gulped and said so quietly Spyro almost didn't here him, "The Purple Dragon...?" Spyro nodded. Blaze was about to shout when Spyro grapped his snout, holding his mouth closed.

"Yes, I am the Purple Dragon," he whispered warningly. "But, please, I don't want to draw attention.

"Now, I'm going to let you go," he continued. "Please, don't shout it out." After an asuring nod from the firebreather, Spyro released him.

After streatching his jaws, Blaze said, "Sorry, I just get real excited, real easily."

"Yeah, I can tell," Sparx said, making Spyro roll his eyes.

Blaze looked afronted. "Is he always like this?" he asked the others.

Spyro nodded, and Cynder said, "It gets a little annoying, when he gets involved in a drawn-out conversation."

"Let me guess," Blaze said, sounding humorous. "He doesn't know when to shut up?" Everyone nodded, and Blaze chuckled in turn.

"Hey!" Sparx exclaimed. "I take that personally, ya know!"

"Sparx, that's enough!" Spyro said, pulling his adopted brother back with his wing.

(Sparx made some comments, which have been omited, that made Cynder give him a stirn look, but made everyone else laugh.)

After getting over the laughing fit they got from the last comments Sparx made , Blaze said, "Well, I guess i still owe you lot a tour of the city, right? Well, I'll just skip all the boring stuff and go straight to the main attraction!" Motioning for them to follow him, he took off running. They barely had time to register he had left before he disappeared into the crowd.

Cynder closed her eyes for a second. When they opened, the whites were blood red. She was using her Shadow Sight ability. After a few more seconds, she pointing straight ahead. "He went that way!" and they took off running.

When they finally found a plaza that wasn't crawling with market-goers, they were exhausted from dodging and weaving in and out of traffic. Blaze, who apparently hadn't even broken a sweat, walked up to them.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Scale of one through ten, i'd give you each a three-point-five." he said. When they gave him cofused looks, he continued, "One thing you gotta know in the city: stamina is everything. You gotta be able to dash from one side of town to the other and back, and still have energy for more. The better items in the shops are always the first ones to be purchased. You're not quick, you're S.O.L." (to those who don't know, S.O.L. is 'So Outta Luck')

"Yeah, well it sure doesn't help that they're carrying those heavy bags," Sparx said, motioning to their satchels.

Blaze gave them a questioning look and said, "You lot going on a long trip or something?" Spyro nodded, still panting. Then, he noticed that Blaze was now wearing a suspicious look with an eyebrow raised. "Where are you from? cause with that much supplies packed, you're certainly not from this part of the world."

Spyro looked back at Cynder and opened the connection between their minds. He's getting suspicious. Do you think we should tell him?

I don't know, Cynder said to him. I think we should let him figure it out before we do.

Good idea, just there's one thing we should be open of.

Once Spyro caught his breath, he turned back to Blaze and said, "We're on a journey to find Soul Edge."

Blaze burst out laughing. "Soul Edge! HA! Good one!" He continued this rant for five more minutes, before Spyro cleared his throat. When Blaze saw the serious look on his face, his laughter stopped instantly. "You're serious?"

Spyro nodded, and Cynder reached into her satchel and removed the shard of Soul Edge from it. "We found this in our country. It's a shard from Soul Edge."

Blaze stared in awe at the metal shard, eyes wide and mouth open. "So, this is a piece of Soul Edge..."

"Hold up, pal!" Sparx said, flying up to the dragon's face. "Don't get too googly-eyed about that thing, it's evil!"

"Yeah," Spyro said. "It radiates an aura of pure darkness. We need to find the rest of the shards and destroy them."

"ARE YOU MAD!" Blaze shouted.

"Shh!" Spyro looked around, and was relieved that no one was looking.

"Are you mad!" Blaze repeated, in a hushed voice. "Destroy Soul Edge? Why not use it?"

"It's too risky, Blaze." Spyro said.

"But, the power! Soul Edge is the ultimate weapon in the world! How could you pass that up!"

"By remembering what happened when Nightmare got his hands on the sword," Spyro said adamantly.

The last word seemed to hang in the air, and they were silent for the next five minutes. Cynder stowed the shard back in her satchel, shile Blaze shifted his paws uncomfortably.

Finally, Blaze broke the silence with a whisper. "I'd like to help out, but, since you're looking for Soul Edge, you already know that it's somewhere east of here."

"Yeah," Spyro said. "That much we already know."

Just then, there were excited shouts coming from a raised platform behind Blaze. They looked to find what looked like out-of-control mechanical puppets. The puppeteer was trying to tell everyone that everything was under control, but to no avail.

"Ah, the old geezer's puppets gone haywire again," Blaze said again, sounding bored. "That's the fifth time this month!"

"Think we should help him out?" Spyro suggested.

"I don't see why not..." Flame stopped short when the crowd's cheers grew louder, as a human hopped up onto the platform, and Spyro smiled when he saw who it was.

"It's Link!" he said.

"Wait, you know this bloke?" Blaze asked skeptically.

"Not really," Spyro said. "We need to know more about what we're up against, and got a recommentation for him from a samurai named Mitsurugi. We've been tailing Link since."

"And it looks like he's up there to stop those puppets!" Cynder motioned to the stage, and they saw Link drawing his sword and shield.

The puppeteer shouted up at Link, "Wait! Those are custom-made puppets from Merak! Please, don't wreck them!"

Link nodded an dturned his attention back to the puppets, who noticed that there was someone there to challenge them. They drew what looked like wooden swords, but Link had already attacked. He swung his sword so fast that the first puppet didn't even move before Link hit it with the backswing and doing a backflip off the puppet's face.

While the first puppet was stunned, the second charged at Link from behind, but Link slammed his shield into its head-like appendage, followed by a powerful combo attack, knocking the puppet on its back. The first puppet had recovered from Link's first onslaught and attacked, only for Link to kick it in the gut.

"Whoa!" Sparx exclaimed. "The green guy's got some moves!"

The puppets were on either side of Link, who was now standing in the very center of the stage. Both puppets charged simultaneously, but Link did something Spyro hadn't expected: he crouched and held his sword arm across his chest.

"What is he doing?" Spyro thought aloud.

Then, the blade of Link's sword glowed with an energy Spyro had never felt before. Then the energy turned from blue to red, and the energy output intensified. Just before the puppets attacked, Link performed a powerful spinning attack, releasing the energy in a wave. The puppets were thrown back an doff the stage, hitting the ground with two identical crashed, before ceasing to move, and the crowd erupted into cheers.