Act 3, Chapter 2
Rune was so confused. This monster was Cyrus. But How? When Rune saw his brother last in Warfang, he was his normal self. Something must have happened after he left for Glenhaven. But what?
Rune dodged out of the way as Cyrus tried to crush him with a paw. The giant black dragon then tried to attack Rune with a giant blast of Concurrence breath.
"That thing is Cyrus?" Nellie exclaimed. "How did this happen?"
"I don't know!" Rune shouted.
The giant Cyrus swung around and tried to strike Tyrrany, who dodged out of the way in the nick of time.
"We need to get out of here!" She shouted.
Cyrus focused his attacks on his brother, who only dodged away, killing any Crepsculi who got in his way. Meanwhile, Roxanne tried to make a break for the North exit of the arena, but a sward of Crepsculi blocked her path, and she was still too tired to fight.
"Damnit!" She shouted. "We're trapped."
"Not for long!" Someone shouted.
Suddenly, Flame came running down the hall, unleashing a blast of Fire breath. Flame burned the Crepsculi blocking the North exit into ashes. Roxanne was nearly burned by Flame's attack.
"Watch it!" She snapped.
"Your welcome." Flame said sarcastically. Arthur flew up to Flame from behind, catching his breath.
"You could have waited up." the dragonfly said.
Flame turned to face Tyrrany, who was killing a few Crepsculi that tried to attack Nellie.
"Hey, Anny! We can leave through here!"
Doing that wasn't a good idea. Cyrus heard him loud and clear, and proceeded to fire a blast of Concurrence at the red dragon. Luckily, Rune managed to shove him out of the way of the giant dragon's attack. The Concurrence beam destroyed part of the stone floor.
"How do we get out?" Nellie exclaimed.
Rune got an idea.
"All of you, listen to me!" He shouted. "Head for the south exit! I'll provide a distraction!"
"How?" Tyrrany asked.
"I'll think of something!"
As Nellie, Tyrrany, Roxanne, Flame and Arthur ran for the south exit, Rune turned to face his brother. Sadness was on his face.
"Cyrus!" He exclaimed. The giant focused on him. "You've got to try and fight this!"
Fight what? Runefor asked. Do you even know what's happened to him?
He's been corrupted by Convexity energy. Rune answered. The same thing that happened to me.
Rune dodged as Cyrus fired several more blasts of Concurrence as him.
You can't dodge Cyrus's attacks forever, you fool. Fight back!
But he's my brother!
He doesn't care at the moment!
Even if I have to fight him, I can't do it here!
Then turn around and escape with the others, you twit!
Rune glanced at the South exit, then at Cyrus. Thinking quickly, Rune fired a blast of energy at the ground, filling the whole area with black smoke. Cyrus roared in rage, unable to see. Rune took advantage of his brother's blindness and ran for the exit.
He saw that the other four were waiting for him a short distance away. Suddenly, Cyrus charged after him, roaring with rage.
The six teenagers ran through the lower halls of the Palace, the giant black dragon in hot pursuit, firing a barrage of Energy blasts at them in a desperate attempt to hit them.\
…
Blank slashed the throat of one of the Crepsculi. Emerald was nearby, using her Earth breath to knock a few more against the wall of black fire. Ember was standing behind the green dragoness, too afraid to move.
"Look out!" She shouted to Emerald, pointing at a Crepsculi that was about to get the drop on the older dragoness. Emerald turned and struck the monster with an Earth blast, sending it flying.
"Thanks, Ember." She said.
"Your welcome."
The chaos had lasted for several minutes. No matter how many of the Crepsculi were killed by the many dragons in the room, more of them just kept coming. Blank was enjoying the fight, but Emerald was getting tired of it.
"They won't stop attacking!" She shouted. "We should just run while we're still ahead!"
"Yeah!" Ember agreed.
"What, and take the coward approach?" Blank asked, killing another Crepsculi. "Where's the fun in that?" The green dragoness groaned.
"It's not cowardice. And besides, we've already killed several dozen of these creatures." Blank sighed.
"Alright, fine! Let's go!"
Emerald turned to look at the younger pink dragoness behind her. "Come on, Ember. We're leaving."
"Oh, thank you!" She said happily.
Blank, Emerald and Ember ran for the exit on the east side of the Arena. As they ran, Blank and Emerald killed any Crepsculi that attacked the again. When they reached the other side of the room, Ember spotted something.
"Guys, look!" She shouted, pointing. Across the way, Vaun and Aaron were struggling to fight back against a cluster of Crepsculi that had surrounded them. A few of the monsters had knocked the brown Earth dragon onto the floor, while the Water dragon was struggling to get them off of him. Some of the monsters had started sinking their teeth into Aaron's tree-trunk limbs.
"Get them off! Get them off!" He shouted, shaking his legs.
"I'm trying!" Vaun complained. "They just keep coming!" Blank smirked.
"Should we help?" He asked Emerald.
"Well, they're jerks." she said. "But I wouldn't wish this on anyone."
Blank, Emerald and Ember ran towards the two other dragons. The Fire and Memory dragons tore away the Crepsculi that were covering Aaron, while the Earth dragoness helped Vaun fight back against the monsters that tried to attack afterwards. Blank extended a hand to Aaron to pull him up, which the latter grudgingly accepted.
"Thanks." The brown dragon grumbled.
"Cancel our bet, and we're even." Blank said.
"Fine."
"We're getting out of this place." Emerald told Vaun and Aaron. "You should come with us."
"We need to find Roxanne first!" Vaun shouted. "She's still in the lower Arena!"
"That can't be helped now." Blank said. "Just shut up and come on!"
The Blue and Brown dragons looked between each other, and then sighed.
"Fine." Vaun said.
"But don't think that we like you punks!" Aaron added.
"The feeling's mutual." Emerald said, an eyebrow raised.
And with that, the five dragons ran out of the Arena.
…
Rune, Nellie, Roxanne, Tyrrany, Flame and Arthur fled through the many underground hallways of the Palace. The giant Cyrus was chasing after them, trying his best to strike them down with his Concurrence blasts.
Fleeing from Cyrus was a challenge. Somehow, scores of Crepsculi had flooded the building. The young dragons had to strike down any of the monsters that attacked them in their haste. However, some of the pathways had so many Crepsculi in them that the dragons had to avoid them.
After fleeing for several moments, the dragons, except for Tyrrany, were starting to run out of energy.
"We can't keep running forever!" Roxanne yelled.
"Where's the exit in this place?" Flame shouted.
"It should be coming close by!" Rune shouted.
Sure enough, after the teenagers rounded a few corners, they finally found the exit to the Palace. However, they saw something they didn't expect.
A group of Cheetahs and Tigers was blocking the doorway. They were all wearing strange white uniforms and had bizarre metal Gauntlets on their arms. Tyrrany, Flame and Arthur recognized them.
"Those are employees of the FTC!" Arthur shouted.
"What are they doing here?" Flame exclaimed.
"I…don't know." Tyrrany said.
"'FTC'?" Nellie asked. "What's that?"
"The Faeshrine Trading Company."
As the teenagers got close, the FTC employees raised their gauntlets in the air, which started glowing with Dark energy. Suddenly, several Crepsculi crawled out of pools of darkness on the ground.
"So they're the ones responsible for all this!" Roxanne shouted.
"But why?" Tyrrany asked.
"That doesn't matter!" Rune shouted. "We're heading past them!"
The teenagers sliced through the Crepsculi and pushed past the FTC employees, who tried to stop them, but to no avail. The Giant Cyrus shoved the Cats out of the way and blasted the doorway with Concurrence, destroying the doors.
Now outside and on the city streets, the teenagers turned to see Cyrus burst out of the Palace after them. As they tried to flee down to streets, several giant pools of darkness appeared on all sides.
"More of those monsters again?" Flame shouted.
"No." Rune said.
In a moment, six gigantic versions of Crepsculi crawled out of the ground and surrounded the teenagers.
"Crep-gigasi."
Cyrus spread his great wings and took to the air. The giant Black Dragon began attacking with mutliple blasts of energy from up in the air. The teenagers were surrounded completely.
"What do we do now?" Arthur asked.
"We fight!" Tyrrany yelled.
The other dragons nodded in agreement. They readied themselves and attacked the giant monsters surrounding them…
…
"I haven't been to this city in years." Elza said. "It hasn't changed at all."
Elza and Tina flew high above the streets of Glenhaven. A loud commotion could be heard coming from the Palace in the center of the city. A swarm of monsters appeared to be surrounding the building.
"Cyrus must have wanted me to go there." Tina said to the smaller dragoness.
"It's very likely."
As the two dragonesses flew towards the Palace, Tina gasped. She saw a giant Black dragon flying around in the air, hovering over six giant monsters.
"It's Cyrus!" She exclaimed.
"He must be enacting Bergan's plan." Elza added.
"I've got to convince him to stop!"
"Are you sure you should try that? Cyrus may be trying to keep up appearances if Bergan is around."
"I don't care!"
Immediately, Tina took off as fast as she could, heading straight towards the Black dragon.
"Tina, dear, wait!" Elza shouted. The green dragoness continued at her normal pace, careful not to overexert herself.
…
At the exact same time, Elenar, Albanion and Aegis were flying into the city from the North. Elenar had no idea where Rune might be, but she would do whatever it took to find her son.
The first place she flew towards was the Glenhaven Palace. She was unfamiliar with how Glenhaven worked, but since the Palace was the grandest building in the city, it would make sense for school to he held there for the children of Glenhaven.
As the dark grey dragoness led her two Deep Shadows towards the Palace, they noticed something strange. The sounds of a great struggle seemed to be coming from the building. And dozens of monsters were surrounding the outer walls.
"What's going on?" Aegis asked.
"This must be the danger that Bergan was speaking of." Elenar said.
"We should investigate immediately." Albanion added.
As they drew closer, Elenar saw something that alarmed her. A giant Black monster was flying through the air over on the far side of the Palace. Several other, even larger monsters were on the city streets, surrounding someone.
"What could be happening over there?" Elenar asked.
"I know not" Albanion answered. "But it would seem that someone is in danger. We should aid them."
"Agreed." The other two dragons said.
The Queen and the Two Deep Shadows took off as fast as they could, heading towards the group of giant beasts.
…
Rune and Tyrrany leapt immediately into battle, while Flame passed Red and Green Gems to Nellie and Roxanne. Once the Water and Lightning dragons were back at full health, they joined the others in the fight.
Flame, Nellie and Roxanne all attacked one of the Crep-gigasi as one, striking the creature's limbs with Fire, Ice and Lightning blasts, respectively. They battled the beast well, but were struggling to deal significant damage to it.
As Cyrus was raining blasts of Concurrence at the dragons, and the Crep-Gigasi started roaring and slashing at them, Rune engaged one of the Crep-Gigasi one-on-one. Tyrrany did the same on the other side of the field.
Rune knew that physical attacks would be useless, so he took to the skies and flew up to the Crep-gigas's face. The Black dragon unleashed a blast of Blood Lightning into the beast's eyes, blinding it. He then unleashed a variety of Elemental strikes against the creature, wounding it severely.
Tyrrany used a different tactic. Since her cloak prevented her from flying, she Activated her Time element and then used her Space element to teleport onto the Crep-gigas's back. She then stabbed the creature's back, unleashing a blast of the Pain element into it's spine. As the Crep-gigas fell down to the ground in agony, Tyrrany proceeded to unleash a blast of Blood Lightning to cause even more damage. However, she didn't see the giant claw of another Crep-gigas come swinging around from behind her, knocking her into the air and onto the asphalt below.
Rune ran up to help her.
"Are you alright?" He asked, extending paw to her.
"I am fine." Tyrrany answered.
The dragoness looked around at the surrounding Crepsculi and the giant black dragon.
"Damnit!" She exclaimed. "We can't win this! Unless…"
Suddenly, Cyrus came flying out of the sky, ready to strike the two dragons with Concurrence yet again.
"LOOKOUT!" Rune exclaimed, shoving Tyrrany out of the way.
Just as Cyrus was about to unleash his attack, something unexpected happened. A giant, Dark yellow dragoness flew out of nowhere and shoved Cyrus onto his side. The giant dragoness came to a landing as Cyrus crashed into the ground.
"Sorry, Cyrus!" She said to the Black dragon.
Rune looked the new giant over. She looked almost like….
"Tina?" He shouted, confused.
"Rune, you're okay!" the dragoness exclaimed, smiling.
"Don't tell my you've been corrupted too!"
"No, I'm still me."
"But, then why-"
Rune was cut off when Cyrus got back onto his feet and roared. Tina tried approaching him.
"Why would you attack your brother, Cy?" She asked. The Black giant only snarled at her.
"Cyrus?"
Cyrus opened his mouth and fired a blast of Concurrence at the dark yellow dragoness, sending her flying backwards and crashing several yards away.
"Tina!" Rune shouted, running over to her.
As the giant dragoness got back onto her feet, she had a look of sadness and confusion.
"Cy, why did you attack me?" She asked. Cyrus didn't answer. He only roared in rage at her and charged forwards.
Suddenly, a giant green Cyclone flew down from the air and struck Cyrus against his side, sending him crashing again. A dark green dragoness wearing a dark grey robe came to a landing beside Tina.
"Elza!" Rune shouted.
"Are you alright, dear?" Elza asked Tina.
"I'm alright." the giant dragoness replied sadly.
Tyrrany ran up in front of the two newcomers.
"If you two are here to aid us, then do so." She said coldly.
"Who are you, young one?" Elza asked.
"That is not important."
Tyrrany then turned and charged at Cyrus, a blast of Lightning breath flying from her mouth. Rune sighed, following suit.
As the other dragons fought, Elza took to the skies, attempting to attack a Crep-gigas's eyes. However, the beast saw her coming, and grabber her with a claw. Elza struggled to break free of its grip, but it was no used.
Luckily, right before the monster could crush her, a Dark grey dragoness and a burly Dragon wearing a dark grey robe flew out of nowhere and clawed at the monster's eyes. The Crep-gigas roared in pain, instinctively letting go of Elza to swat the two dragons away.
As Elza fell, another dragon in a dark grey robe swooped in and caught her, helping her regain balance in midair. It was Albanion.
"Are you alright, love?" He asked, concerned.
"Albanion?" Elza asked. "Why are you here?"
"There's no time to explain."
After Elenar and the other dragon, which turned out to be Aegis, mortally wounded the Crep-gigas, they flew over to Elza.
"Are you the one who these beasts were attacking?" Aegis asked.
"No, I and Tina are here helping the ones they are truly after: Rune and his companions."
"Rune?" Elenar exclaimed. "Where is he?"
"He's over there, confronting Cyrus."
"Cyrus?"
"It's a long story, Elenar."
…
For once in a long while, Tyrrany was enjoying herself.
The ten dragons, Rune, Nellie, Roxanne, Tyrrany, Flame, Tina, Aegis, Albanion, Elza and Elenar, engaged Cyrus and the Crep-gigasi in battle. It was no small fight. A great amount of magic exploded into and out of existence all across the area. The sounds or roaring, clawing and slashing filled the streets.
At first, it seemed like the dragons were winning. Three of the Crep-gigasi had been slain, and their bodies were dissolving into black energy, which faded into nothingness. Tyrrany and Rune were working together to bring a fourth Crep-gigas down. Rune had decided to try something he had been practicing for a long while: He combined six of his Elements to attack the Crep-gigas with a barrage of mighty White energy blasts: Convergence. Meanwhile, Tyrrany started relying solely on her Blood Lightning ability.
Once the beast started dissolving, Tyrrany grinned with satisfaction.
"Victory is almost ours." She said.
"Yeah…" Rune agreed.
Before she could celebrate their soon-to-be-had victory, Several giant black pools of Darkness appeared on the ground again. Several more Crep-gigasi started rising out of them. Soon, the dragons were surrounded once again.
"Damnit!" Tyrrany bellowed. She turned to glare at Cyrus. The black dragon was snarling at a Dark brown dragon in grey robes and a dark grey dragoness, the latter of which was trying to reason with him.
"Cyrus, listen to me!" The dragoness was pleading. "Stop fighting us!"
"He won't listen." the dark brown dragon said.
Tyrrany snarled.
"HE must be summoning them!" Tyrrany roared.
The disguised dragoness turned around and charged at the giant black dragon, rage and adrenaline flowing through her veins.
Tyrrany rushed right past the two strange dragons, who were surprised to see her.
"Stop, you fool!" The burly dragon warned. But Tyrrany didn't listen.
As the dragoness opened her mouth to blast the giant with Blood Lightning, Cyrus opened his mouth and attacked with Concurrence. The giant black blast ripped right through the red lightning and collided with Tyrrany, lighting the dragoness on Black fire. She screamed in agony as the dark flames burned away her outfit.
On either side of the spectacle, Flame, Arthur and Nellie watched as the dragoness fell to the ground.
"ANNY!" The red dragon and green dragonfly exclaimed in horror.
Cyrus grabbed the wounded dragoness by the tail and tossed her far to the side. Luckily, she landed right before Nellie, who immediately used her Water breath to douse the flames. Flame ran up to Tyrrany as well, to see if she was okay.
Tyrrany struggled weakly onto her feet, groaning. Her makeup had been washed away, and the tattered rags that remained of her outfit fell off her body. Tyranny's white hide was completely exposed for all to see. And they did.
The most of the other dragons gasped in surprise and alarm.
"It's HER!" Tina exclaimed.
"The estranged daughter of Elenar!" One of the adult male dragons added.
"It cannot be…" the dark grey dragoness said.
Tyrrany was horrified.
They can see my hide.. She thought to herself.
Tyrrany tried to turn to run away, but she was too tired to move much. And besides, there was nowhere to run to. She was trapped.
Suddenly, a Crep-gigas swung it's claw and struck Tyrrany, Nellie and Flame with great force, sending each of the three young dragons flying. Flame and Nellie landed before the other dragons, perfectly fine. Tyrrany, however, landed on her side before another Crep-gigas, unable to get up. The monster brought it's claws down, intending to crush the life out of the weakened girl…
…
"NO!" Elenar screamed. Immediately, the dark grey dragoness took off at record speed, heading straight for the monster that was about to crush the White dragoness.
In almost no time at all, Elenar was standing over her daughter, her front legs blocking the Crep-gigas's claw from continuing on its path. The Queen roared with rage. Her face was twisted into a wrathful snarl
"YOU WILL NOT HARM HER, YOU BEAST!" She screamed. Elenar sent a great blast of Pain into the monster's claw and up its, body, causing the Crep-gigas to twitch and shake in agony.
Aegis and Albanion flew up to the Crep-gigas and proceeded to shove it backwards, away from Elenar and the young dragoness, the latter of which having slipped into unconsciousness. The Queen then grabbed her long-lost daughter and proceeded to pull her away from the fight.
"Oh, please be alright, Hope." She said sadly.
As that took place, Rune, Nellie, Tina and Flame were running forwards in an attempt to aid the others as well. However, Cyrus jumped in front of them and blocked their path. The giant Black dragon was snarling.
"Get out of my way!" Flame roared, charging forwards. As Flame tried to get past Cyrus, the latter merely struck him across the side with a paw, sending Flame flying to the left. Cyrus then glared at the other three and approached, preparing to attack.
"Cyrus, stop it!" Tina pleaded. She grudgingly struck Cyrus with several Mental blasts in an attempt to weaken him. However, the giant black dragon fought through it, and struck the dark yellow giant across her muzzle with his talons. He then blasted her, knocking her to the side.
As Cyrus snarled at Rune and Nellie, the smaller black dragon stood in front of the Water dragoness, guarding her. Cyrus fired a blast of Concurrence at his brother, who fired a blast of Convergence in defense. As the two beams hit, it was obvious that Cyrus's Concurrence was the stronger attack. The Concurrence forced Rune's Convergence back into his mouth, and sent him flying backwards several yards. The young black dragon landed on his back and writhed in pain.
Rune glanced back at Cyrus as the latter proceeded to Approach Nellie, who was too scared to run. The giant black dragon raised a paw in the air, ready to attack her.
No…. Rune said.
Cyrus swung his paw. Nellie screamed. Rune became enraged.
NO!
Nellie fell to the ground, a nasty wound cut across her chest. She was bleeding heavily.
Does this enrage you, Rune? Runefor asked.
Rune didn't answer. He only growled, trying to regain the strength to stand back up. Several of the other dragons tried to come to Nellie's help, but the Crep-gigasi blocked their path. Meanwhile, Cyrus was charging energy into his mouth, preparing to finish Nellie off. Rune could hear a faint crying sound. Nellie's crying.
Rune started breathing heavily. He bared his teeth. His body started glowing with a purple aura.
Let me aid you, Rune. Let my power combine with yours. Let us become one to rescue your dear Nellie.
Rune shut his eyes. He started climbing back onto his feet, shaking heavily. The purple aura started to get thicker and thicker. And then, Rune roared with rage. As he did this, the purple aura completely surrounded his body.
Rune glared up at Cyrus. His eyes had turned a hideous yellow, and his irises were now demonic.
Rune and Runefor had become one.
…
Man, this chapter was boring as hell. Luckily, I managed to make something awesome happen at the end to make up for it a little. If you found this chapter lacking in my usual quality, I apologize. I promise things will get better next in the next chapter.