Sorry it took a week to update. I've just been real busy lately. I recently had some water damages in my home so me and my dad had to replace the flooring thanks to a pipe that decided to start leaking. Anyways enough about my problems. Enjoy the chapter!

-Spyrofan4321

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Chapter 11 The Catacombs

The catacombs was a large place. When they entered into the catacombs itself, it opened up into a large underground cave. Sunlight was gleaming through the cracks and water was seeping through the roof. Spyro guessed a river was above them, making it the source of the waterfall. The catacombs seemed to sparkle on the inside from all the minerals on the cave wall. Old walls were still standing from an old civilization that used to live there. From the looks of things, they have been gone for centuries.

"Look over there",Nestor whispered and pointed.

Spyro looked to see three gnorcs pacing back and forth in the distance. They were standing between two old columns.

"Gnorcs, we must be in the right place",Sparx said.

"Let's take 'em out",Spyro whispered.

Spyro sneaked closer to the gnorcs while they paced. Nestor and the others followed him while Sparx hid behind a large a rock. Spyro stuck to the shadows and behind the occasional column. The others followed his path. They were slowly getting closer to the gnorcs. Spyro waited at a nearby column beside the path for Nestor to catch up.

"Nestor, do you think you could get over there?",Spyro whispered and pointed.

Nestor looked over to where he pointed. It was behind another column a little closer to the gnorcs.

"Of course",he quietly responded.

Nestor looked over at the gnorcs. They were looking away down the path toward Nestor then looked away down the other way. Nestor quickly took his chance and quickly sneaked across the open path. Nestor was a little over halfway across when a gnorc turned to his direction. Nestor looked over and saw the gnorc looking at him then quickly made it to the column.

"What was that?",the gnorc said.

"What was what?",another gnorc asked.

"I saw something over there."

"Probably a rat. We see a lot of them down here."

"That was a big rat."

"If you don't believe go look for yourself if it hasn't already ran off somewhere. Like I said, we see some pretty large rats around here."

The gnorc slowly walked to Nestor's position. Nestor peeked around the column to see him coming toward him. Spyro saw the situation then motioned to Nestor to stay put. Spyro moved ahead to the next column awaiting the gnorc to get into position. As the gnorc got closer he slowed his pace. Spyro peeked around the corner in the darkness and the gnorc was close enough to make his move. He checked to see if the other gnorcs was looking, then grabbed the gnorc from behind and held his mouth shut. The gnorc was about to yell until Spyro put a claw on his throat.

"Yell and I'll decorate the floor with your blood, got it?",Spyro threatened.

The gnorc squirmed then obeyed seeing if he didn't he would die.

"Is the earth dragon here?",Spyro asked.

The gnorc didn't do anything put give Spyro an evil look. Spyro put more pressure on his neck then the gnorc slowly nodded.

"Good, what direction?"

The gnorc pointed across the cave to a wall with two passages.

"The left passage?"

The gnorc slowly nodded.

"Good. Time to sleep my friend",Spyro whispered then slit the gnorcs throat spilling his blood on the ground.

Spyro motioned for the others to come on then he made his way closer to the other two gnorcs.

"Hey Ike find anything!",a gnorc yelled but got no response.

"Ike?",he repeated.

"Great, Ike's playing hookie again. Well I'll go find him before he gets too far. Remember last time?"he gestured to the other gnorc.

"Yea, haha, he was beaten for going running away. I don't think he likes what he does."

"Me either",the gnorc said walked away.

Spyro let the gnorc pass then sneaked over to the gnorc still standing guard. Nestor caught up to Spyro and looked over at the gnorc.

"We gotta take him out before the other guy finds the body",Spyro whispered.

"On it",Nestor responded.

Nestor sneaked over to the gnorc standing guard. He slowed his pace as he got closer being careful not to step on any twigs. He was close enough to make his move now.

"By the gods! He's dead",the gnorc yelled.

The gnorc standing guard quickly looked over than began running to the other gnorc. That is until Nestor reached out and slashed with his claws. He gashed the gnorc in the back ripping the blood out of him. The gnorc yelled in pain as he collapsed to the ground. Nestor finished him off with a quick swipe across the neck. The other gnorc ran to here the yell came from to find another dead body. Nestor barely managed to get in the shadows before he was noticed.

"Where are you!? Show yourself!",the gnorc yelled unsheathing his sword.

"Over here",Spyro responded as he stepped out of the shadows.

"The purple dragon! I'm definitely going to enjoy killing you!"

"And over here",Nestor said as he stepped out of the shadows also.

"Don't forget me",Cynder added as she walked next to Spyro.

"Or me",Katrina added then she walked to the other side of Spyro.

"I'm included too",Sparx said as he flew overhead of Spyro.

"Wha. . . What!? Four dragons! I'm getting out of here",the gnorc ran to the paths behind him going left. Nestor launched a fireball at him but missed only by inches. The explosion set his clothes ablaze but he quickly tore them off and kept running.

"Oh my god, naked guy running around!",Cynder said.

"I think I'm gonna be sick",Sparx added.

"That is something I didn't want to see Nestor",Spyro laughed.

Nestor shrugged and began walking to the two paths. The others did the same. Nestor stopped between the two then looked at both of them.

"Which one you think?",Nestor asked.

"The gnorc told me left",Spyro answered.

"Should we trust our enemy?",Sparx suggested.

"Well the other gnorc ran left so we should"

"Go right to avoid him",Sparx interrupted.

"There's a better chance of something being left",Cynder suggested.

"Yea, that gnorc wouldn't have ran left if it wasn't a dead end",Katrina added.

"Maybe the dragon elder is at a dead end",Sparx suggested.

"We go left then",Spyro said as he took the left and followed the path. The others did the same.

There were dimly lit torches along the wall. The path turned into a tunnel after a few minutes of walking. Bats were flying about inside it which was mostly freaking Sparx out.

"What's wrong Sparx",Spyro smiled.

"They are bigger than me",he responded not taking his eyes off them.

"Everyone is bigger than you",Cynder giggled.

"Not everyone", he replied.

"Really, who is smaller than you",Spyro asked.

"Well there's the . . . umm . . . aw crap how did that happen?"

Spyro laughed, "Like I said, everyone is bigger than you."

They continued down the tunnel. The bats seemed to have taken off somewhere so Sparx was fine now. A few minutes passed until the tunnel opened up into another cave. This one was like the one they were in before but it was a little smaller. They entered it and continued into the depths of the catacombs. Large boulders decorated the place along with an occasional 500 year wall that used to stand.

"I wonder what used to live here?",Katrina asked.

"I not even I know",Nestor answered.

They walked a couple steps and they stopped at the sight they saw.

"Look over there",Cynder pointed.

More gnorcs were spotted in the distance. Some were pacing back and forth while others looked liked they chatting with each other. It also looked like there was a campsite on the other side of the cave.

"Let's get closer and see what they are doing",Nestor suggested.

They crept over closer to the gnorcs, they were still about a hundred feet away but they strayed off the path into the maze of boulders to be safe. Sparx kept low to the ground. They quietly made their way closer to the group of gnorcs only to find there were more gnorcs than they saw before.

"I see about a good twenty",Katrina whispered.

"Great",Spyro murmured.

They crept a bit closer to the gnorcs. They were now close enough to hear the faint conversations they were making to one another. Spyro listened in on one.

"What is he going to do with them",the gnorc asked.

"I don't know. I do know he wants them so he can rule this land. Something about taking their power? I don't really know though."

"How is he going to just take their power?"

"I don't know! He's Gnasty Gnorc! He's the one who captured all of them in the first place!"

Spyro listened in onto another conversation in the distance.

"Man I hate it here"

"Me too."

"Why were we even sent here?"

"To guard the stupid earth guardian."

"Why didn't Gnasty just take them to his fortress?"

"I don't know."

"It's so annoying that we have to guard it."

"Yep."

"I'm sure you think it's annoying."

"I don't know"

"Couldn't you at least pretend to listen for once."

"Yep."

The gnorc sighed then walked away. Spyro shook his head then looked over and saw the same gnorc than ran from them before.

"I think we are screwed",Spyro whispered.

"Why?",Nestor asked.

"Look",Spyro pointed.

Nestor looked and saw what he was talking about. The gnorc they saw before was talking to what looked liked the leader of this gnorc group.

"Alright! Attention everyone!",the leader yelled.

Everyone in the cave went quiet and looked at their leader.

"It seems we have some dragons loose in this cave. Spread out! Find them, and eliminate them!"

"Yes Sir!"

"This is not good",Nestor shook his head.

"We need to find the earth guardian and get out of here",Spyro whispered and quickly began to make his way around the gnorcs through the rocks. Everyone followed Spyro and Sparx hid under Nestor's wing.

"I hate it that I glow",Sparx complained.

The gnorcs began their march to other cave in search of the dragons and some of the others began searching in this cave. The leader stood guard around the campsite. The dragons kept up the pace and creeped around the campsite.

"Check over here", a nearby gnorc said.

Spyro motioned for the other dragons to hurry up the pace. The rocks were getting smaller as they advanced which obviously made it tougher for them to pick up the pace. Luckily the shadows were provided some cover for them. The other dragons caught up to Spyro and he quickly motioned for them to stop. He pointed ahead and a gnorc was walking across the rocks looking in the gaps. The gnorc stood on top the tallest rock near him and scouted the area.

"Cynder",Spyro whispered as quiet as he could.

Cynder crawled up beside Spyro to which he whispered to her.

"Get in front and try to block us from his sight."

Cynder nodded and obeyed, closing her wings as much as possible. The gnorc was still looking around and everyone was praying they wouldn't be caught now. The gnorc turned his head and looked directly at Cynder.

"Find anything over there?",the leader asked from a distance.

"No, it's clear over here",he responded as he rock hopped back over to the campsite.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Thanks to Cynder being a black dragon, they weren't spotted just yet. Spyro peeked over a rock and motioned everyone to make their move to the next tunnel for it was clear. The gnorcs were still looking around for them as they made their way to the next tunnel. They made their way through the rocks and found themselves in front of the tunnel. Spyro took one last look and everyone made they way inside. The tunnel was declining deeper into an unknown darkness.

Nestor looked at his surroundings,"We're in pretty deep."

"Yea, the earth elder must be here",Spyro responded.

They continued onward. Two minutes passed and the tunnel opened up into another cave. Spyro looked ahead about 50 feet a saw the crystallized dragon they were looking for.

"Over there",Spyro pointed.

"About time",Sparx said.

They quickly made their way over to him and stopped in front of him. Spyro took his paw and placed it on the elder side. It immediately began shaking and shards were falling off piece by piece. Then a blinding light shown. The dragons covered their eyes until it faded. When it did the earth elder was on the ground and coughing. The earth elder is a brown scaled dragon with large dark green wings. He was bigger than Cyrus. His horns were curved and had spikes coming out of his back and had a diamond shape at the end of his tail. The elder shook his head and stood to his feet to see a purple dragon with 3 other dragons and a glowing dragonfly standing in front of him.

"My thanks for saving me. I am Boldar, guardian of the earth element."

"My name is Spyro. This is Nestor, Cynder, Katrina, and Sparx."

"Greetings everyone. Good to see some friendly faces",Boldar smiled.

"Yea but we are a mile underground and need to get moving to get you back to the counsel. We will explain everything then",Nestor explained.

Boldar nodded and the group turned around to head back the way they came from. Boldar was still a little unsteady on his feet but got better as he traveled down the tunnel. When they got to the end Boldar was walking like a normal dragon should.

"Ok Boldar, there are about 20 gnorcs up ahead. Any ideas?",Spyro asked.

"We need to take them out. If word gets to Gnasty of my disappearance, he would send his forces to Artisan."

"Right",Spyro said taking in a deep breath. "Well we sneak as many kills as we can or we just go and kill em off as quick as we can.?

"How about we take them from underground?",Boldar said.

"How are we going to do that?",Spyro answered with a question.

"Allow me."

Boldar jumped up and twisted his body in the air and acted as a drill digging into the ground. In just a couple of seconds, he was digging underground making his way to the campsite.

"I didn't think he literally meant underground",Sparx pointed the obvious.

"Right, well lets go do our part",Spyro suggested as he and the dragons ran to the campsite. When he arrived, all the gnorcs on the camp immediately turned their heads to see the 4 dragons the have been searching for.

"Well it's about time you showed your faces. What are you doing here?",the leader asked.

"Well that's a stupid question",Sparx laughed.

"You'll find out in just a few seconds",Nestor smiled.

At that time the ground begun shaking and the gnorcs fell down to the ground.

"What was that?",a gnorc asked.

"Oh no tell me you didn't!",the leader begun but was cut off as Boldar's tail shot through the ground and impaled the leader. Blood splattered on a nearby gnorc and he immediately began screaming. The leader cursed then his body went limp. Boldar leaped out of the ground throwing dirt at nearby gnorcs. Boldar came down and smashed himself into the ground causing a fissure. The ground opened up swallowing up 6 gnorcs. Spyro and the others sprung into action and ran to help Boldar. Nestor leaped onto a gnorc and torn him to shreds with his claws. Katrina shot an icicle through a gnorcs head killing him instantly. Spyro shot electricity at one which arced and killed another gnorc.

Cynder breathed a devastating shadow which suffocated some more gnorcs. More gnorcs were coming in through the tunnels. Some fired arrows at their opponents.

"Take cover!",Boldar yelled as he held his wing over his head.

The arrows came down and one of them impaled Boldars left wing. It didn't even seem to phase him and he counterattacked by shooting a boulder at the archers. The archers dove out the way but one gnorc wasn't so lucky and got crushed. Sparx flew overhead illuminating the soon to be battle. The gnorcs charged toward the dragons. Spyro shot a fireball at one which he dodged with ease. Cynder used he gnorcs stopped their charged as the flame singed a gnorc. The gnorc jumped onto the round and began rolling but ended up being a black crisp. Katrina ran up next to Spyro and blew some ice onto the ground. The gnorcs slipped and fell to the ground. Cynder leaped for a nearby gnorc and impaled him to the ground with her tail. Spyro and Nestor fought side by side, slashing at gnorcs that were foolish enough to get close to him. A gnorc swung his mace at Nestor in which Nestor quickly ducked his head making him miss by inches. Nestor swiped at the attackers feet, tripping him then stabbed the gnorc with his claws. Spyro attacked with his horns stabbing a gnorc in the chest and knocking over another. Katrina leaped aside as a gnorc tried to slice her with his sword. Katrina growled and knocked the gnorc into the air with her horns. Katrina jumped into the air, meeting her attacker. She sliced thegnorc aacrossthe gut with her claws, uppercutted him and brung both her fists down, striking the gnorc. The gnorc fell back down to the ground behind Spyro and was slowly moving. Spyro sliced him across the neck with his tail, finishing him off while he was fighting another gnorc in front of him. The gnorc swung his sword at Spyro. Spyro evaded the attack by jumping to the side and quickly reacted by blowing fire onto the gnorc. The gnorc screamed and ran into another one of his fellow gnorcs. Two gnorcs were on fire as they fell the ground hoping the dirt would put them out. Just a few gnorcs were remaining. Cynder shot a glob of poison at her enemy. The gnorc didn't have time to react and he was engulfed in the poison. He screamed as the poison burned his body and fell down to the ground. Two gnorcs were left. The two in unison charged at the dragons. Boldar slung his massive paw at one and sent the gnorc flying across the cave. The remaining gnorc leaped at Boldar and stabbed him in the leg with his sword. Boldar yelped and crushed the gnorc with his other paw. He then pulled the sword out of his flesh and held onto the wound.

"Good job everyone",Boldar said.

"Boldar! Your hurt!",Cynder exclaimed as she inspected the wound.

"I've been through worse. Come on, we should get moving",Boldar suggested as he walked with a faint limp to the tunnel. Everyone followed him with worried faces.

They continued through the tunnel walking at an incline the whole time. Boldar was quiet most of the way but asked Spyro about Blaze and others.

"Sorry Boldar. We were only able to rescue Cyrus so far. He's waiting for us at the counsel",Spyro explained.

"I see. Well we should pick up the pace so we can get there sooner",Boldar said.

They continued through the tunnel. In a few minutes, they made it back to the entrance of the catacombs inside the massive cave. They exited the tunnel and Spyro pointed to the light coming through the doorway.

"Your gonna die!",a voice said.

Spyro quickly looked to his left and saw a gnorc with a load of dynamite behind him. The gnorc was holding a switch then pressed it. The dynamite exploded! The explosion threw the dragons off the path onto the rocks beside them. The gnorc was disentigrated by the blast.

"Everyone all right!?",Boldar yelled.

"Yea",Spyro coughed.

"That crazy gnorc tried to kill us",Cynder coughed.

"GUYS WE NEED TO MOVE NOW!!!", Nestor yelled.

The explosions was causing the cave to collapse. The gnorc's plan was to bury them under 10 tons of rock. Spyro quickly leaped up and Sparx was already flying as fast as he could to the light. Spyro ran over to Katrina and helped her to her feet then both of them ran for the exit as did the others. Rocks were falling from the roof and water begun falling in. Everyone ran as fast as they could.

"LOOK OUT",Spyro yelled as he pushed Katrina out the way of a falling boulder. Spyro continued running, dodging falling rocks along the way. The exit was only a few feet away. Everyone but Katrina and Spyro made it out safely. As Spyro and Katrina ran toward the door, a large boulder fell in front of it, blocking the only path out.

"Oh no! We're trapped!",Katrina yelled as Spyro caught up to her.

"NO! We can't be",Spyro exclaimed as he begun beating on the rock.

"There's got to be another way!",Spyro exclaimed as he looked up.

"I don't think there is another way!",Katrina yelled.

"Yes there is! Come on! Follow my lead!",Spyro exclaimed as he leaped into the air flapping his wings. Katrina quickly did the same.

"What are you doing!?",Katrina exclaimed.

"Look up!",Spyro answered.

Katrina obeyed and saw light gleaming through the roof. She knew what the plan was now. Avoid falling rocks and make their escape. Spyro flapped his wings as fast as he could gaining altitude with Katrina right beside him. They flew upwards and the light was getting bigger and brighter. Rocks were falling down in an attempt to foil their plan but Spyro's quick reactions kept them going.

"Spyro!",Katrina yelled.

Spyro kept moving evading all the falling rocks and rubble. Their exit was getting closer. Spyro and Katrina kept getting closer and closer to the exit until the blinding light was all they saw. Spyro closed his wings in and flew out the hole followed by Katrina.

"That was too close",Katrina flew next to Spyro.

"Yea it was, lets get down there and find the others",Spyro said as he descended down to the used to be exit.

"They can't be",Cynder said as she continued beating on the boulder in front of her.

"It's quite alright Cynder, in fact I think they are in high places",Boldar said as he looked up at Spyro and Katrina.

"DON'T TELL ME THAT!",Cynder exclaimed.

"Hi guys",Spyro greeted as he landed.

"Miss us?",Katrina added.

"Good to see you again",Boldar smiled.

"You ok Cynder?",Spyro asked.

"Why yes of course I am! I had faith that you would get out the whole time",Cynder said.

"Sure you did",Sparx smiled.

"I did!",Cynder reminded everyone.

"We should get going back to Artisan",Nestor suggested.

"Indeed",Boldar said as he leaped into the air and begun his flight back. Cynder swatted at Sparx as she began flying herself and the other 3 dragons followed her example.

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Did you enjoy it? Hope so! I've got an announcement to make while I'm here. I bet some of you people have been wondering how Nestor has been doing. (No not the Nestor in this story) Well he has grown up some more. Wanna see him? The just copy and paste this link below to the address bar.

.com/dragonimage_235039_174420_pixel

And visit this one too!

./dragonimage_243197_178595_pixel

This is my friends dragon. He just adopted an egg a few days ago so I'm advertising him here! Thank you all for doing this! It is such a great help for us!