Cynder shifted uneasily under the many pairs of eyes staring down on them. The rest of the dragons with her shared the same agitation, even Azur whose cockiness had all but melted away as he held his eyes to the sky.

To their horror, the shadow dragons started descending upon them and charging their elements.

Everyone spent a moment compiling themselves, fear gripped in their hearts, but they had all endured war. Soon enough, everyone was prepared for what was coming.

Cynder, on the other hand, was feeling anything but ready for a fight. Besides the fact that she had fought against very few shadow dragons, her group mainly consisted of earth dragons who would not fare well against shadow dragons.

Who are they and why do they even want to fight us…? She questioned in her head. She had never seen so many shadow dragons at once; there had to be at least forty of them.

Shadow was not a very common element. She was amazed to see so many at a time. Besides amazement, she felt confused as to why there wasn't any other elements in their platoon and why they had masked their group with elemental magic during their flight.

Her questions didn't get answers before they landed around them. They had surrounded them.

One shadow dragon, who Cynder guessed was the leader of the platoon, approached her and she took a battle stance.

The leader of the platoon smiled wickedly. He wasn't exactly big in size, but his yellow eyes and his demeanour carried fearsome authority. He had four horns, similar to Cynder's, but he lacked the smaller horns between them.

He stopped barely an adult dragon's tail length away from Cynder and looked at her curiously for a good while. She found it really unnerving.

Eventually, the leader opened his mouth. "You're a long way from home." His voice was similar to a snake's hissing.

The platoon leader looked as if he knew her, so she simply blurted, "What?"

He flashed her an unnerving grin.

"I am Aegon, the leader of this platoon. We are on a mission and we could use your help, seeing that you're one of us. Your friends, on the other hand, are not needed."

His sadistic smile made Cynder sick. "I've got a mission of my own and you're interrupting it," she hissed back with a bit of venom in her tone.

"Feisty one, aren't you?" Aegon snickered, but took a serious face. "If you refuse my request, you will share the same fate as your friends."

Aegon motioned his platoon forward with his wing and they swiftly attacked them.

Cynder's eyes widened in slight panic when she saw her group members getting beaten up. They were her responsibility and she'd failed to keep them out of harm's way.

Aegon on the other hand only looked pleased as he watched the fight. He gave Cynder a questioning look as if asking her to reconsider.

"You disgust me, I wouldn't even consider helping you," she snarled.

Aegon narrowed his eyes. "Have it your way, then."

He wasted no time tapping into his element and dashing towards Cynder. He was hardly more than a blur of black scales; Cynder wasn't able to completely dodge his attack and received claw marks on her cheek.

When she prepared for her own attack, Aegon had already whirled around and was coming for another strike.

Fueled by anger, she took the attack head-on. She managed to slice his shoulder with her wingblade, but he headbutted her to the jaw.

She was thrown off balance because of his bigger size and had to rethink her fighting style against him. She shook her head and rubbed her jaw with a paw.

By now the small search party was completely engaged in combat, elemental attacks lighting up the field.

The group of ten dragons consisted of six earth dragons, two fire dragons and two ice dragons. They were quickly being pushed back as the shadow dragons could easily avoid the earth dragon's elemental attacks by sinking into their elements.

Fire and ice kept them at bay, as it harmed them even when they were encased in shadows, but still they were outnumbered and outmatched.

Azur had managed to freeze two shadow dragons with a fury, but it had drained him badly and now he was hardly able to avoid their attacks.

He rolled over to dodge a cloud of shadow fire. He shot icicles at his opponent, but another one jumped out of shadows behind him and knocked him to the ground.

As soon as he turned his face away from the dirt, he froze. His opponent was hardly inches away from his face. His jaw was open and he was ready to fry the ice dragon to ashes.

Just as he thought he'd met his end, flames engulfed the shadow dragon and he screamed in agony as his scales melted.

Faedus, a fire dragon who had two forked brown horns, yellow crests and a white underbelly, gave Azur a quick smirk.

"You're welcome!"

Azur didn't have time to thank him. He had to quickly avoid a tailblade that nearly decapitated him. He brought up his paw and managed to strike his foe straight in the face.

He spun around quickly and smacked the momentarily dazzled shadow dragon hard with his tail.

Just as he got one opponent unconscious, three more jumped at him simultaneously and pushed him to the ground.

Azur groaned and realized that the only ones still standing were Cynder and Faedus. He caught a blur of motion in the corner of his sight and, before he knew it, he faintly felt a spike of pain at the side of his head and the world went dark.

Faedus and Cynder were having an increasingly more difficult time as they had to face more opponents. Faedus quickly found himself completely surrounded. Running out of options, he gathered all of his remaining strength.

His body was glowing slightly as he rose off the ground and released his fury. Most of the shadow dragons managed to avoid the blazing heat, but a few got caught in it.

He landed heavily and struggled to keep his balance. Six more dragons emerged from shadows in front of him. That was the last thing he saw before he collapsed from exhaustion.

Aegon had ushered all of his followers against Cynder and was watching the fight with keen interest. Being the last one standing, Cynder had resorted to using convexity as she was unable to fight so many opponents at once. It was draining her way too fast and she knew it.

As she saw Faedus hit the ground, fear started building in her chest. She was alone against over thirty dragons.

Even if I used a convexity fury, there's no way they would all get caught in it…

"You should have agreed," Aegon told her, and in a blur of motion he disappeared and reappeared beside her to strike her with his right paw, claws digging into her scales.

Cynder lost her balance and dropped to the ground, blood flowing from the fresh wound on her side.

During the fight, she'd gotten bruises and cuts all over her body. Mostly they were just scratches, but they were bleeding. A twinge of pain shot through her body as she stood back up and she grimaced. She didn't waste any time examining her new wound, though.

She shot a beam of convexity at Aegon, who was unable to completely avoid it. The beam completely disintegrated the tip of his wing and engulfed two dragons behind him.

Aegon roared in pain and brought his hurt wing to his face. He gently blew cool air on it in a feeble attempt to ease the pain.

His followers all charged for Cynder and she was forced to take flight. She barely avoided a dozen swipes of sharp claws as she got off the ground, inwardly thanking her quick movements.

She flapped hard to gain distance from her opponents, but they were right on her tail. The fight had drained her, which was obvious from the pace of her flight.

No matter how hard she tried, her wings refused to move fast enough to get away from the bloodthirsty group. She'd hardly gotten a hundred meters away and they were already gaining on her. They split up and formed a circle.

Fear grasped Cynder's chest as she found herself surrounded in midair. She whirled around and spat a cloud of poison in every direction in a vain attempt to shake the dragons off. They were forced to take distance, but in no time they were on her again. To Cynder's horror, they all directed their jaws at her, shadow energy building up in them.

Her eyes widened as shadow fire was unleashed at her from every direction. In a desperate act, she dug deep into her elemental reserves and started forming a miniature convexity fury.

She'd never performed a fury mid-flight, let alone a convexity fury, but she had no time to think about consequences. A purple glow veiled her body as she snapped her wings out and unleashed the fury.

The sky lit up in a brilliant purple flash, the crackling of convexity filling the air. The fury easily deflected the shadow fire and the unfortunate ones who were too close were already dropping from the sky.

Cynder panted heavily when she was finished with her attack and started dropping down herself. Complete exhaustion washed over her and she could hardly slow her descent at all. She just barely could keep her wings open. She glided fast to the ground and landed roughly, tripping over and rolling on the ground.

She rolled over to her stomach, but didn't get up. She was still panting and she needed a break before she could continue.

Unfortunately, Aegon and his followers didn't appear to be giving her that much needed break. The shadow soldiers landed around her and Aegon walked slowly closer, his face showing grim pleasure.

Cynder just watched him get closer, still unable to get up. He stopped right in front of her and raised his bladed tail.

"End of the road, kid."

He prepared to make his final move when the sound of lightning caught his attention. The sky was clear, so he quickly searched for the source of the sound.

It took only a few seconds to spot it. Further away he saw a portal opening up, which alerted their whole group. It was far away, but he was able to see a figure come through it, soon followed by another.

When he saw one of them light up in purple energy, his eyes widened.

"What now?" he muttered, taking a cautious step back.

"Spyro…?" Cynder whispered to herself.

"The purple dragon?" Aegon questioned, turning to look at Cynder.

Despite her wounds and exhaustion, she smirked at him. "You'd better run while you still can."

Aegon snarled and turned to look back at the approaching figures. The glowing one was approaching at an enormous speed. He looked like a purple comet coming right at them.

When he was close enough, Aegon's jaw dropped open. It wasn't the purple dragon; it was a shadow dragon.

Mirage didn't slow down and aimed right at the bulk of the shadow dragons. He landed with an explosion of both shadow and convexity, critically harming many of the soldiers.

Aegon had been to the side of the blast, but had to shield his eyes from the dust cloud that blew past him. Through the dust, he could see a pair of red eyes coming towards him.

Convexity still sparked on Mirage's scales as he came into view, mimicking the sound of electricity.

Aegon stared at him, mouth hanging open. Cynder's expression wasn't very different from his.

"You're supposed to be dead!" Aegon spat out, pointing a claw at him.

Mirage's lip curled at the sight of him. "Maybe so. But you're the one who's about to be."

He gave no warning before he dashed forward and brought up his tail. He twisted his body in a fluid motion and whirled around. The thick golden bracelet on his tail connected with the side of Aegon's head and he was hurled to the ground.

Aegon quickly rolled over and got up, rubbing his jaw.

"I don't where you've been to avoid our Master's attention, but you should have stayed there. You'll pay for your actions," he hissed, taking a battle stance.

It looked like something snapped in Mirage's head as his expression turned to utter hatred.

"You're ones who are going to pay!"

He summoned shadow around his paws and slashed towards Aegon, sending out slicing shadow projectiles.

Aegon was caught off guard by his attack and couldn't dodge it. Instead, he shielded himself with his wings and gritted his teeth hard when the projectiles sank into his membranes.

Cynder hadn't been able to process what was happening at all. The dragon that had been away for only a moment was now wielding an element that even she herself wasn't supposed to have. He hadn't been gone for long, but now he seemed like an entirely different dragon. It made no sense to her. She could only stare dumbly as he tore Aegon apart.

Aegon's followers were either sharing her confused thoughts or didn't dare to interfere in the fight.

Spyro had spotted Cynder from afar and hurried to her side, making sure that she was alright.

He didn't understand the situation either, but the fact that Cynder was wounded and the only dragons standing were backing away from him gave him all the information he needed.

As much as he would have liked to spectate Mirage's fight, his protective instincts kicked in.

He'd seen the dragons of his search party lying on the ground, either dead or unconscious. That combined with the fact that Cynder had been beaten up as well was easily enough to make him mad.

He was looking for a time to step in, but Mirage was whirling around the field dangerously, dropping enemies with incredible efficiency. The remaining shadow dragon soldiers noticed the fact that the tables were turning against them and started to back off.

Before the first ones even took flight, Mirage incinerated a handful of them with a focused convexity beam.

Spyro paused at the sight. He would have liked nothing else than to show his foes a piece of his mind, but straight up disintegrating them wasn't what he had in mind.

To say that he was unnerved by the black dragon's display of power and ruthlessness was an understatement.

Aegon breathed a cloud of shadow fire on Mirage in hopes of suffocating him, but cut his attack short when he saw that it wasn't having any effect. As the flames cleared, the image of Mirage simply faded away before his eyes.

"Wha-"

His sentence was cut short when Mirage knocked him off his balance with a powerful headbutt.

Mirage stood over him and taunted, "I never expected much from you."

Aegon gritted his teeth and rolled over to get in position to attack again. He launched forward with a powerful kick of his hind legs and tried to hit Mirage with a balled forepaw.

Mirage let the hit come dangerously close, but caught Aegon's paw with his own. He gave a quick devious smirk before turning Aegon's paw around.

Aegon roared in pain as Mirage bent his wrist over its limits and, as a result, left it hanging limply. Mirage whirled around again and slapped Aegon to the ground with his tail.

During his short scrap with Aegon, the rest of his group had taken off. Spyro had either been too stunned to stop them or had decided to let them go. It made no difference to Mirage, though, as he prepared to chase them down.

His body glowed with convexity and shadow as he leaned backwards, before taking a quick jump and flapping his wings.

He rocketed towards the escaping division like a comet.

The ones still standing could only stare in stunned silence at how the sky lit up after Mirage caught up with the group. A loud explosion could be heard before figures starting dropping from the sky. Around Mirage only a dust cloud descended, as the nearest ones had been completely incinerated.

Aegon felt cold fingers grip his chest as he saw his opponent coming back for him. In a short moment the fearsome platoon leader had been turned to a panicked mess. He struggled to get away, trying to run with three legs as his other foreleg couldn't carry any weight. His running looked more like squirming to Spyro and Cynder. He was too panicked to take flight and, because of his burned wingtip, he may have not even been able to.

Mirage sped past Spyro and Cynder and kicked Aegon to the back of his head, making him faceplant. He jumped over him and stopped in front of him, faintly panting from the amount of energy he'd released during his short rampage.

Aegon shivered on the ground and lifted his head shakily.

"P-please… We can still make this okay… We can bring down the Master together…" he pleaded.

Mirage snarled. "Do you seriously think I would ever forgive you or your clan after what they did? Not a chance."

Aegon looked as if all hope died inside of him. His eyes widened in fear of what Mirage would do next.

"Don't do it!" Spyro shouted over to him.

He didn't really want to protect the dragon who had hurt Cynder, but he couldn't just watch as Mirage took their lives in front of him.

The black dragon turned his gaze to Spyro and seemed thoughtful for a moment. For a few seconds, Spyro thought that he'd gotten him back to his senses, but he shook his head.

To his horror, Mirage started to glow with convexity again.

"It's time to pay for what you've done."

Aegon could only open his mouth in attempt to reason with him, but Mirage had already opened his jaws.

Spyro and Cynder shut their eyes as Aegon's scream assaulted their ears. It didn't last long before it died away along with him.

They opened their eyes to see a smoking pit in front of Mirage.

Unconsciously, they both took a battle stance and prepared for anything that Mirage could be planning on.

The shadow dragon turned to look at them but didn't say a word. It was as if he'd done nothing to upset them and didn't pay any mind to them.

"Alright, who are you? And how did you know these guys?!" Cynder demanded.

"You already know who I am and, besides that, it's none of your business."

"I think it's our business when people you know come attacking our friends! You'd better start talking," she continued with an angry tone.

Mirage huffed. "Well, I can tell you that those guys would attack anyone in their way. You just had bad luck to get involved with them."

The duo wasn't at all impressed with his answers.

"You know them; tell us who they are! And how can you use convexity?" Spyro pressed on.

Mirage gave them a serious look before answering. "Trouble, that's what they are. But they will cease to be when I take care of them."

He intentionally let the last question go unanswered, which further agitated the two group leaders.

Mirage turned around and started to walk away from them.

"Where do you think you're going? You'd better answer me!" Spyro stamped a paw on the ground in frustration.

The dragon in question stopped in short order. "I've got things to take care of. Go ahead and continue your mission or whatever."

He took flight and didn't look back at them.

Spyro and Cynder shared a concerned look.

"What do we do now?" Cynder asked.