The army was already vaulting over the chunks of ice before the wall was completely down. Ice dragons were already engaging the invaders in close combat, while others were pulling away from the horde. Spyro and Cyril were in the thick of it, becoming completely surrounded in a matter of seconds. They stood their ground however, using everything they had to fight them off.
Cynder was off the wall before Eclipse could address her and the fire dragons soon followed. They strafed large trails of fire among the grublin army, burning everything in their wake. He witnessed another fire dragon be shot down by a bowman, plummeting to the street below and almost instantly being swarmed.
Eclipse chased after them, hoping off the wall and taking flight. He dodged all the arrows that threatened to take him out of the air. Grublins threw weapons, rubble, even parts of dead comrades at the dragons in the air. The blades brushed his sides, making him slowly bleed onto the battle below.
A wyvern collided with him mid-air and grappled him to the ground. The force of impact killed the wyvern but he landed in the middle of the horde. The grublins around him stopped for a moment, simply looked at him. It didn't last a second longer.
With wide strokes he forced them back, clearing a circle around himself. A brave grublin charged forward, his weapon raised in the air. A flick of his tailblade brought the creature down with ease. As it fell, two more went forward in the same fashion but they just as easily dispatched. An arrow found itself in his shoulder, causing him to growl with impact. Another arrow pinged off his helmet and with quick movements, he grabbed it and threw it at a charging grublin. Grublin blades continued to assault him, arrows kept finding the gaps in his armor, his plates began to weaken from consistent strikes.
Black fire erupted from his mouth and covered the few unlucky ones who were in front of him. He wiped around, flinging the stream of dark fire around him and catching the ones that were too slow. Another ring was quickly formed around him but this too only lasted a moment. They converged on him with the overwhelming force of a tidal wave. Something took his legs out from under him, pushing him to be flat on the ground.
Grublin feet assault his exposed stomach, sending blunt forces of pain through his body. Grublin swords continued to bash away at his plates, slowly breaking the metal casing. As another torrent of black fire shot up his throat, a grublin kicked his head making it dissipate into nothing.
Time stopped for a moment when he saw Cynder fight through the horde towards him. Get up.
Strength rushed through his beaten and bruised muscles, reinvigorating his entire body. The fire returned in his throat, hotter than ever, and with a deep growl he released it onto his assaulters. They squealed in pain as it covered their flesh, burning their bodies to nothing but ash. His limbs found their way upward with his wings pulling him into the sky shortly after. A grublin troll nearly hit him out of the air, but a instinctive roll kept him airborne.
The troll swung again, finding its mark but not before being lit ablaze. His landing was more graceful than the first one, instead using the momentum to decapitate several grublins. There were no cries of agony, only grunts of exertion as the troll went after him again. The fist came down, barely giving him time to roll out of the way. It came rushing towards him with alarming speed, uprooting the cobblestones in the road. He flipped over it while glancing the troll's arm with his blade.
A grublin came behind him, jabbing it's crude spear towards his back. He countered with his own blade, swiftly shoving it through the grublin's center. The troll's frustrated roar brought his attention back to the hulking beast. He flung the grublin at the troll before ducking under it's hand. More black fire greeting the troll when it threw the body away, encasing it's entire head. The troll swatted at the stream of flame, trying to stop the burning assault.
He stopped the fire, instead he started running towards the troll while raking his talons across the ground. Dust, grublin parts, and small pieces of rock collected in his paw and as the troll's eyes locked on to him, he flung the debris into his face. Jumping at the same time, he collided with the blinded troll's head, making him topple over. Using the beast's shoulder as a boost, he lept into the air again, rising high above the downed troll. As gravity carried him back down he angled himself downwards, reaching for the troll's head with his talons. He felt it's skull break below him and his talons puncture the soft mass that was it's brain. Using the skull as a springboard much like the shoulder, he catapulted himself off it's head and onto the backs of two grublins. Cynder stood in front of him as he landed, looking semi-impressed at his actions.
"Could've done better." She mocked before stabbing a charging grublin grunt.
"I'm a little rusty, what can I say." He shrugged then threw the bodies onto more grunts.
"We're holding them here, but this won't last long. They'll overwhelm us soon." He watched another ice dragon fall to the horde with her words. The wall forces were also starting to get worn down, he saw the bodies of some of the students mixed in with the fragments of grublin. We can't hold the walls and the courtyard. Not with the gate down, no.
"Get everyone off the walls and bring them to the second line. We'll try and hold them here a while longer." He commanded, swirling around to decapitate more grunts. She nodded to him, taking off shortly afterwards.
"INCOMING!" A siege tower round met the ground and exploded, sending both grublins and dragons flying. Time began to crawl at a snail's pace while the sounds of battle faded behind a dull ringing.
He looked around the battlefield, watching the battle slowly unfold in slow motion. Moles were sent flying backwards by a troll's cobbled hand. A shield-bearer deflected both fire and electricity upwards with his shield. A dragon was shot mid-flight and came crashing down, her body creating a trail of blood in the stones, she was dead on impact. Terrador crushed a grublin under his tail mace, Cyril was freezing grunts in their place, and Volteer chained his lightning breath among them.
Everything sped up, his blade finding its way into the center of a grunt before flinging it away. Black fire poured from his mouth, burning the arrows that threatened to find the spaces between plates. He rushed the bowmen in question, rolling under their second volley. His blade swiftly disarmed both of them of their crossbows before they could load again. A sharp pain shot through his side as one of the bowmen punctured his armor. He whirled around both dislodging the sword and relinquishing the bowmen of his head.
The second bowman missed his lunge, giving Eclipse the opportunity to cut him in half. He ended it by jamming his blade through it's skull. More grunts rushed forward but were swept aside by the upper half of the recently deceased bowman. Their corpses shattered upon impact, sending grublin bits in every direction.
Spyro crushed a grunt with a crack as he landed besides him. Spyro's armor was also battered like his, dents and punctures decorated the plates like medals. Blood ran down the side of his head and dropped off his chin.
"They won't stop coming." Spyro's breaths were labored. Eclipse slashed three grublins across the chest, instantly imploding them with his talons before turning to him.
"Cynder's pulling our forces off the walls, we're falling back to the second line." Spyro threw a grunt into the air with his horns. A wyvern somehow grabbed the grublin mid-air and continued onwards.
"If we abandon the walls then the siege towers can fire on us unchallenged." He pointed out as he impaled a grunt with an ice spike.
"If we stay here then the walls will fall all the same but with more casualties. We don't have the bodies to sustain this melee and protect the catapults at the same time." He explained, destroying more grunts as they charged them.
"We'll suffer more loses to siege tower fire if we retreat!"
"We'll all lose if we stay here! The longer we get bogged down here the more soldiers we lose!" Eclipse shouted back. "They have the numbers Spyro! The best chance now is to regroup and hold them at the second line!" Spyro shook his head with a snort, jumping into the air shortly afterwards.
He swatted away a grunt when it attempted to puncture his chestplate. His tail flared backwards, sending more grunts to the ground. Swiftly flipping backwards onto them, extending his talons into their backs. Cognition of events slowly faded, being replaced with a blind fury of fire and blade.
Grubin warriors continued to swarm into the city, barely being held back by the combined dragon and mole forces. The unrelenting barrage of siege tower rounds sent chunks of building, road, and soldier throughout the air. More and more dragons met their ends along their mole allies, painting the ground red with their blood. The sky cried black from the smoke of ruined buildings, the smell of death radiated in the air, and the metallic taste of dragon blood ran along survivor's tongues.
"PULL BACK!" The order broke through the chaos of the brutal melee.
Eclipse looked up from the broken face of the shield-bearer, his pupils reflected the adrenaline that coursed through his veins. With a savage stab of his talons, the shield-bearer broke apart below him. He saw dragons lift off into the air with moles on their backs but he didn't follow them into the air.
He whirled around, spinning like a tornado with his tail extended out. Grunts, shield-bearers, and bowmen alike imploded upon impact of the blade, some letting out pained screams as they did so.
A troll smashed the ground next to him, throwing off his balance. The second hand came around, but a roll caused it to miss its target. The blade separated the back legs from the knees before finding a place on the beast's thigh. He used his blade as a climbing hock, launching himself onto the creature's back. Fire erupted from his mouth as he spun around, coating the back of its neck and burning away it's green flesh.
The troll grabbed him, throwing him off like a dragonet's bouncy ball. He rolled across the ground, knocking over tens of grublins before disappearing and reappearing on it's back once more. His talons dug into the burnt backside of the troll, causing it to groan in pain. It's hand tried to grab him again, only finding its own neck. Just like the first troll, his tail blade broke through the beast's skull. It crushed a troop of grublin grunts as it fell to the ground with Eclipse on top. He rolled into the fall, destroying more grunts as he went. His talons flared forwards as he finished his roll but they stopped short of it's target.
Blue, sapphire eyes met him instead of the familiar deep red of the grublin horde. White scales contradicted the monotones green and red of the battlefield. Her calm smile sent confusion through his brain, bringing him out of his blind rampage. His mind spun circles around her presence, trying to understand why she was here. He didn't notice the shimmer of yellow that briefly passed over her eyes.
"NO!" Someone contested when he reached for her. Her smile shifted into something more evil but he still didn't notice. He was suddenly launched into the air backwards, his helmet flying off with the sudden force. The surreal feeling was shattered with the devastating impact with the ground. His roll was everything less than uncontrolled, the leftover force sending him bouncing across the ground like a river rock.
The world wouldn't stop spinning when his eyes reopened. She approached him with the same smile spread across her face. White scales faded to a familiar red, sapphire shifted to the bright amber of his enemy. Dazed dots connected in his spinning thoughts and the cruel realization reached him. It was Armavir.
"All to easy." He laughed, raising his blood soaked talons. His body didn't listen to his pleas to move out of the way. His magic joined his body in defiance, no fire came up his throat and his body remained where it was.
Cynder swooped from above with her own talons outstretched but Armavir simply grabbed her by the throat. His smile somehow widened with sick satisfaction as she struggled for air. Her pained gasps fueled his attempts to get up, rage building in his chest. Armavir turned his attention to him, pushed him under his other paw with ease. He angled his head upwards, fire returning to the back of his throat. Armavir released him, allowing him to stand and the fire to surge forwards. His paw came back down upon Eclipse's back with what felt like the might of Terrador's mace. The fire was extinguished and the strength in his legs went with it, leaving him with feeble attempts to resist.
"You really are a shell of you former self." His stated went struck him like a knife.
Spyro struck Armavir's back, making him release both of them as he staggered. Spyro raced after him, seemingly made of fire and rage. The two dragons met each other with a slam of their bodies, trading blows on impact. Cynder rushed to his side, her breathing still laboring from the strangling. She nuzzled under his neck, nudging him up. Spyro came sliding back to them but Armavir held his ground.
"What happened to you two? You were forces to be reckoned with before, now you can't stand up to the likes of me." He taunted. Eclipse struggled to stand with Cynder helping him with her wing.
"You played dirty."
"That didn't stop you from defeating me before. Now you're nothing. Only a shadow of a legend." His words snaked their way into his mind.
"A shadow of a monster." He corrected
"Is that what you think you are? You were mythical, no one could harm you at the peak of your power and long afterwards." He scoffed, bringing his paw to his forehead. "You've become weak, all because some dragoness weaseled her way into your heart. Even Cynder didn't bring you down to this."
"Finish it then."
"Not like this, it would be too easy. My army is going to break your remaining forces at any minute and all I would need to do is end the three of you. No, this is not where it ends for you. There are still pieces I need you for."
"Then why do this?" Spyro got up in front of them.
"A message."
"All this so you could get a point across?" He stomped his paw down.
"You're guardians will understand." Armavir let out a roar, ringing through the streets of Warfang. Grublins of all sizes went running out of the city, leaving utter destruction in their wake. Armavir smiled at them as his army rushed around them. "Until next time." He mockingly bowed before casually walking out of the broken gate. Leaving them with all the death and their first real defeat.
