Chapter 11- Fire, Shadow, and Death
Spyro was looking between both Zyla and Cynder. Zyla was rearing up, readying herself for the battle.
"Cynder, please don't do this!" Spyro said. "You're injured enough as it is. Just run. I'll beat Zyla. All you need to do is run for your life. Go find Terrador and the others and get the heck out of here."
"I don't think that's gonna be happening," snarled Zyla. "The both of you are going to die, and once that happens, there will be nobody left to stop me from pulling off my master plan!" She laughed.
It was a high cold laugh that had no emotion in it. It was the same laugh Zyla had always used. It was almost as if she had no emotion in her at all.
"What is your master plan?" asked Cynder.
"I'm not going to tell you. You don't deserve to know. You deserve to die more than anything."
Spyro could see that Cynder's sides were still heaving. How much energy had the attack she used on the guards taken out of her? He was afraid that if she engaged in the battle with Zyla and used too much energy, then she could die of exhaustion.
That was why he was going to help her out with the battle. He got into his defensive stance and stood closer to her. He would not let his mate die. Especially not by the hand of Zyla.
Zyla spat a ball of dark fire at Cynder, who dodged just in time. Spyro returned the favor by releasing a torrent of red-orange flames. Zyla dodged.
"Crap," Spyro whispered to himself. "This sucks."
"Oh, you have no idea!" hissed Zyla. "I'm surprised and mad that none of you have died yet!"
Cynder disappeared and reappeared right next to Zyla, who had blinked just as she disappeared. Spyro realized Cynder had used her shadow dash to confuse Zyla. Cynder breathed shadow at Zyla and then clawed Zyla's side.
Blood dripped from the wound Cynder had caused. Just as Zyla whirled around, Cynder disappeared and reappeared next to Spyro. She was breathing heavily, her chest and sides heaving.
"Cynder, are you okay?" Spyro asked her.
"I'm okay," she answered. "Let's just finish this and get the heck out of here."
Zyla whirled around again, wincing at the pain the side wound was causing her.
"WHY YOU LITTLE DOG!" roared Zyla. "I'M GOING TO TEAR YOU APART, LIMB BY LIMB! YOU'RE GOING TO BE DEAD BEFORE YOU KNOW IT!"
Cynder just laughed. "I don't think that's going to be happening. Me and Spyro are still filled with a lot of energy. If you try to kill us, then we can just fly out of your reach. Your wounds will probably stop you from coming after us."
Zyla was the one to laugh this time. "You are injured, too, Cynder," she told her, pointing out the wounds both she and the meat hook had caused. "You will also be slowed down by your wounds. And the amount of blood loss caused by the new wounds I shall cause will make you so weak that I can kill you."
Spyro felt enraged. "I won't let you kill her, or even wound her!" he yelled. "She will get out of here alive, as will I."
Zyla snarled. She leaped at Cynder, who was expecting the attack. Zyla raked her claws along Cynder's back, leaving deep gashes. Cynder gritted her teeth, trying to go against the pain. Spyro shot a blast of fire at Zyla.
The blast hit Zyla's leg, blackening it. Zyla shrieked in pain. Spyro smiled grimly, which scared Cynder. Spyro had never done such a thing. He was usually the one that had a bit of pity for those that he was fighting. The one exception had been Malefor, who was purly evil and whom Spyro would never forgive for corrupting Cynder. Cynder wouldn't show pity for Malefor either.
Cynder dashed over to Zyla, jumped up, and clawed the malignant pink dragoness in the left wing. Zyla shrieked once more as the thin membrane was torn. Blood dripped from the five tears.
Spyro looked down at Cynder's feet and saw a little bit of blood. He realized that was her blood. There was also blood on her claws, but Spyro believed that was Zyla's blood.
Cynder, angry at Zyla for causing everything that had happened, released a stream of shadow, which Zyla in the left side of her face. Roar after roar ripped from Zyla's lips as the pain intensified.
That side of her face became blackened. All that could still be seen was a bit of pink on her snout and around her eye, as well as her blood-red eye.
Now Zyla had been pushed to the limit. It was time she ended this fight, once and for all.
Terrador was speeding through the air, breathing Earth at the enemies below. Though many of them had been defeated, there were still many of them left.
He saw Hunter standing on a hill, shooting arrows at the soldiers that followed Zyla. Mara stood behind him, beheading or stabbing to death the enemies that managed to get up on the hill. She looked over at Terrador, then called out to him.
"Terrador, how much longer must we do this?" she yelled.
"We must keep doing this until Spyro finds Cynder," he roared back. "Hopefully that will be soon. We cannot take much more of this; there are too many of them. If we don't find the general of this army soon, and I don't mean Zyla, then we will be overrun and killed. Or imprisoned, tortured and then killed. Either way, we will be killed. Just keep holding on, Mara. It should all be over soon. Just keep trusting me, Mara!"
"I'm doing as well as I can!"
Hunter was running out of arrows. The battle definitely needed to be ended soon. Where was Spyro? Had he found Cynder yet? Or had Zyla cornered him? If that had happened, then there would most certainly be a fight going on at the moment.
He shot an arrow at one of the soldiers, which caught them in the throat. He heard Mara grunt behnd him. But he couldn't look away. Doing such a thing could get him killed, and he would not risk that.
Just as Hunter shot another arrow, one of the soldiers leaped up onto the hill and stabbed Hunter in the side. Hunter clutched that spot, feeling the blood spreading, and fell to his knees. Mara beheaded the soldier and then crouched down next to Hunter.
"Terrador, we need you to clear all these soldiers from the side of this hill! Hunter has been wounded!" she roared to the Earth guardian.
Terrador heard the new cheetah tribe leader and first cleared all the soldiers underneath him out. He then turned around and blasted all the soldiers that were there at the hill. He saw Hunter crouching, holding the wound. Mara was crouching next to him. Terrador decided to fly over to the hill.
He landed next to the two cheetah warriors. "How is the wound, Hunter?" he asked.
"It hurts," Hunter answered. "I'm doing my best to pinch the wound. It keeps bleeding freely. I believe that I need to rest now, Terrador. But if I do, I do not know whether the soldiers will come up here and kill me or Mara or whoever it is that will guard me."
"I am going to end this battle right now. Do not worry," Terrador told them.
"How will you do that?" exclaimed Mara. "There are many soldiers! This plan may end some of them, but how do you know that you'll end all of them, Terrador?"
"I don't know. But I must try. If I don't, we will most certainly be overrun and killed. This is something I must try, Mara. Do you want to die, Mara?"
"No, but if your plan does not work, how do we know that the soldiers still won't overrun us?"
Terrador didn't answer. He had to try the plan. If it failed, he would be regretting even thinking of it for the rest of his life.
He opened his wings and flew over to where the soldiers all stood. He flew into the middle and snarled at the soldiers. They laughed, and that was when Terrador decided to make his move.
He closed his eyes, drew upon all his strength, and finally opened his eyes and released the energy.
A blast of earth flew in all directions in the form of a fury. It either vaporized or crushed the soldiers, as the fury was also filled with rocks.
When he was done, Terrador looked around and saw that the soldiers were all gone. He then saw that the fury had hit the castle with full force.
His eyes widened and realized that it would cause the castle to begin to fall apart. With Spyro and Cynder inside.
"Oh crap."
Cynder winced at her pain. Both her and Zyla were severely wounded. Gashes lined Cynder's back, and burn's covered most of Zyla's body. Cynder shot a blast of shadow fire, but Zyla dodged it. After Spyro's flame attack, the right side of Zyla's face was terribly burned. Besides some of her snout, below her eye, and her eye itself, the flames had blackened all of that side of her face.
Blood created a small pool at Zyla's feet, and the same went for Cynder. Cynder felt herself weakening, and she knew that soon enough, she would be too weak to continue in this battle and Zyla would finally be able to win. Just as she was about to give up, she saw Spyro standing beside her, and she thought, I must do this for Spyro!
Even her thoughts had slowed down due to exhaustion. Her limbs ached terribly and her wings felt as if they were going to fall off.
Zyla blew a torrent of scalding flames that Cynder was just barely able to dodge. Cynder retaliated with her own torrent of dark flames. The two bursts of flame collided with each other. They stayed even, and then Zyla suddenly stopped. Cynder stopped also to catch her breath. She took a glance up at Zyla, who was breathing heavily.
"You're never going to win, Zyla!" Cynder snarled. "This is where you meet your end, you evil, malignant creation of a creature!"
Zyla laughed at the insult. "You think so?" she drawled. "I think not. In fact, I believe that this is where YOU meet your end, Cynder, you puny black dragoness!"
Cynder let out a roar and lunged at Zyla. Cynder clawed at Zyla's back, her claws raking right through flesh and even scratching the bone.
Zyla tried to shake Cynder off, but it was no use; Cynder had too good of a hold on her. Then Zyla rose up and released a fury of dark flames. Cynder flew into a pillar. Her vision flickered.
Spyro ran over to Cynder. "Are you okay?" he asked. His eyes were deep with worry. Cynder looked up at him. Her wounds were terrible.
Zyla's wounds were also terrible. She was moving towards Spyro, ready to deal the death blow. But then one of the wounds inflicted upon her began to sting. The pain became very unbearable. She cried out and then fleed.
Spyro turned around and saw that Zyla was no where behind him. It seemed that he and Cynder had won.
"We did it, Cynder!" he told her. "We won! Just hold on! I'll get you out of here! Just hold on, please!" Cynder gasped and did her best to stand up. Spyro helped her. "Just lean on my shoulder, Cyn." She did so, and they began making their way out of the dungeons.
Spyro did his best to make his way to the main entrance. He hoped he was going the right way. That was when he saw the two large doors in front of them. He smiled; they had made it to the entrance and now they could get out of the castle and leave it behind forever.
But then Spyro felt the entire castle shake. He saw parts of the walls crumble and some stained glass windows shattered from the top. That was when he realized what the entire shaking had been caused by: Terrador had released a fury to end the battle that had probably begun as soon as Spyro had entered the castle.
"Oh crap!" he exclaimed.
"What?" rasped Cynder, her throat dry.
"I think Terrador just went a bit too overboard. He released a fury, and now the entire castle is crumbling!" he explained.
"Oh my God. What do we do?" she asked.
"We need to get the heck out of here! Now! If we don't then we'll be crushed and killed. Come on, hurry as much as you can."
"I'm trying, but I'm badly wounded. If I go too fast, then I may give out."
Spyro nodded and did what he could to go fast and not hurt Cynder at the same time. It was a challenge, but he was going to do his best to do it. He loved her too much. He would never let her go.
Pillars began to crack. Soon they would fall and the ceiling would collapse. Spyro hurried the pace a bit more.
Cynder gasped suddenly and then she fell to the ground. Cynder realized suddenly that what was happening now and the end of the fight just minutes before had been a part of her dreams. She hoped that what was happening now did not end like the dream version.
Spyro looked down at his mate. He then looked over at the two doors and blasted them open. Now it was time to get her out. The ceiling began to crumble as two of the pillars gave way. Spyro looked back down at his mate.
"Cynder, I'm going to get you out of here, just hold on!" he gasped. "I'm going to use my Earth Breath to get you out of here."
"Just leave me," she rasped. "Go now, without me."
"Not in a million years, Cynder!" he yelled at her "I'd rather die than watch you die here, helpless and weak, you know that, Cynder!"
Spyro picked her up gently and put her in front of the opening where the doors had been. He then breathed a blast of Earth that knocked her out of the castle. Cynder felt the blast, but it wasn't as painful as it could have been. Spyro had made it more gentle. Cynder slowly got up, her wounds hurting more than ever, making it harder than usual.
"Cynder!" She heard Terrador's voice, but she no longer cared. She looked back into the castle, where Spyro still stood.
"Spyro!" she yelled. She could see the entire castle was just seconds from collapsing.
Spyro opened his wings ready to dash out of the collapsing castle, but then a huge chunk of the ceiling broke off and barred the opening. Then suddenly the whole ceiling collapsed along with the castle. Cynder could only watch in horror as it happened, her mate still inside the castle.
"SPYRO!" she cried. "SPYRO! SPYRO!"
But it was useless. It seemed, almost impossibly, that the dragon she loved, Spyro, was dead.
