Chapter 21

The vanguards spent several hours sparring with each other. They decided to call it a day when the sun finally set. They reentered the dining hall, which was crowded with dragons, and managed to find an empty table.

"You're getting better with your flame breath, Charlotte." Spyro observed as they sat down.

"Thanks, I've been practicing." She replied smiling. The moles set meat, juice, and various berries in front of each dragon. They ate ravenously, as their sparring gave them quite an appetite. When they were done, Twitch sighed, satisfied.

"Man I'm stuffed." He said.

"Yeah," Zephyr began, "Come on, time for be-"

A mole burst loudly through the main door, catching every dragon's attention "Orcs!" He screamed.

The entire dining hall came too life as the guards frantically exited the hall. "Come on!" Spyro yelled before he and the vanguards ran out of the hall. Outside, the sounds of flapping leather could be heard as dreadwings filled the sky. They resembled bats, but were much larger and they served as transport for the dark master's forces. One of the dreadwings dropped a large container, which burst open and released several armed orcs. Twitch zapped one of them with a bolt of lightning, but another large container dropped behind them, releasing more orcs. They attacked the vanguards with swords, maces, and chained blades. One orc swung at Zephyr, who dodged to the left, and fired an earth bullet that crushed the orcs ribcage and sent his limp body several feet into the air. Another orc leaped at her from the side, but Flare stepped in and blasted the orc away with a fireball.

Around the vanguards, dragons fell to the hands of the dreadwings. One tackled a dragon in mid-air and sank its long fangs into the dragon's neck, piercing its jugular and causing it to drop dead to the streets below. The dreadwing was preparing to attack another dragon when a tailblade penetrated his back, it let out a load shriek as it fell to the ground.

"Nicely done, Anima." Nitro stated.

"Praise me later, we still have work to do." Anima replied before he and the other council members dashed into battle.

"Look out!" Crystal screamed before firing an ice spike that impaled the orc attempting to attack Fang from behind. Sting parried a blow with his tailblade before consuming the orc with shadow fire. Spyro zapped another orc that tried to attack Cynder, but another orc caught Spyro off guard. Spyro saw the blade and tried to dodge it but it still managed to leave a gash in his flank. Cynder's eyes narrowed into feral slits as she saw the blood of her mate. She spat a glob of venom that hit the orc and began burning the flesh off his chest. Spyro finished the orc off with an Ice spike through its eye.

An orc kicked Crystal in the hard in the stomach and she rolled across the ground. The orc leaped at the fallen dragoness only to be met by a pillar of earth that sent it flying up into the air and coming back down to the earth below with a sickening splat. "You okay?" Zephyr asked helping Crystal to her feet.

"I'm fine, thanks." Crystal replied

None of the dragons on the battlefield noticed the four orcs that entered the healer's den.

Leon was once again at the top of the tower. "So how are you coming with answering my question, Leon?" Sin manifested himself in front of Leon. Leon gave him a blank stare, "Don't tell me you've forgotten already."

"You want to know if I know what I am." Leon said.

"Oh good, you had me worried for a second."

"Of course I know what I am…I'm a human."

"Not the answer I'm looking for." Sin said, shaking his head. Leon was about to say something else but a tremor rocked the entire city, causing both Leon and Sin to stagger in place.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Wasn't me." Sin said. He looked up as he did last time and said, "Uh oh."

Elektra was taking shelter in the healer's den with the dragons that were too young to fight. The two cheetah guards were frantically glancing between Leon and the doorway. Another tremor roused Leon from his sleep, and also tipped over a medicine cabinet. The sound of breaking glass distracted the dragons and the cheetahs long enough for the four orcs to burst into the room and quickly plunge their blades into the cheetah guards. Two orcs leaped for Elektra, who fired a bolt of lightning. The lightning killed one orc but the other one pinned Elektra to the ground and held her jaw shut. One of the orcs eyed the dragoness and the small dragons that cowered in the corner before his eyes fell upon Leon, "Well, what a surprise. We've been searching for you ever since the dark master was released."

"And here I am." Leon said staring hard at the orc.

"Yes, but I doubt the dark master would believe that you let yourself get captured by the dragons."

"Hey, Leon." Sin manifested himself next to Leon and pointed to the table, where his weapons and armor lay, before disappearing again.

"I wonder what the dark master would say if we brought your corpse back with us, maybe he'll promote us." The orc pondered.

"Hey…can I kill this one now?" The orc on top of Elektra asked.

The first orc smiled at Leon, "I suppose we can at least let you watch as we kill these dragons."

"How kind of you." Leon said. He was secretly concentrating his energy on his javelin. It slowly slid out from under his armor and floated in the air, it rotated until its tip was pointed at the orc that was on top of Elektra.

The orc put its blade to Elektra's chest. "I'm going to enjoy watching you suffer." Elektra's eyes grew wide in fear. The orc raised its sword and Leon saw his chance. With a flick of his wrist the javelin extended. The orc, hearing the sound of the crystal grinding against the hilt, looked up. Leon gave another flick of his wrist, sending the javelin completely through the orc's eye and impaling the other two orcs, pinning them to the wall. Leon flicked his wrist again and the javelin flew backwards and snapped the chain restraining his left arm. He grabbed the javelin and swung hard, snapping the chain that held his right arm before slowly rising off of the bed. He kept the sheet wrapped around himself as he approached Elektra. She was still frozen in fear despite the yells of the young dragons warning her of Leon's approach. She came back to her senses when Leon pointed the cold tip of his javelin at her neck.

Elektra looked at him with pleading eyes as Leon contemplated his next move. After a moment that seemed like hours, Leon brought his javelin away from her neck and said, "Get out."

Elektra rose off the floor and began ushering the children out of the room. She glanced at Leon one more time before leaving the pavilion to find a safer place to hide.

It took Leon about fifteen minutes to put his armor back on; he was glad to be clothed again. As he was fastening his dagger to his leg, Sin appeared, leaning against the wall, an evil smile on his face. "That's twice now that you've let a dragon live."

"Shut up." Leon said as he straightened up and headed for the door.

"So…what will you do now?"

Leon paused mid-step and thought for a moment, "I'm going to deal with these orcs." He made his way to the exit without looking back. When he got outside, he noticed a few orcs and dragons lay dead in the middle of the streets. An explosion caught Leon's attention, and he carefully made his way through the streets toward the sounds of battle.

The council's aerial battle had taken a turn for the worst when dreadwing riders joined the fray. Nitro and Frigid began firing ice spikes at the dreadwings hitting two of them and causing them and their riders to fall to their deaths. Apathy and Anima breathed clouds of shadow fire that consumed several dreadwings. A dreadwing and its rider managed to catch Anima off guard and the orc rider slashed with its sword, leaving a long gash along Anima's back. Anima roared in pain and slashed with his tailblade, severing the dreadwing's wing and sending it shrieking to the ground. Gaia shot another dreadwing down with an earth bullet, but she failed to notice the dreadwing and rider flying at full speed from the left. It tackled her and they both went spiraling towards the ground in a mass of claws and fangs.

"Gaia!" Frigid yelled as he watched his life-mate fall out of the sky. He attempted to break away from the fight to help her, but found his path blocked by two more dreadwings.

As Gaia and the dreadwing spiraled to the ground the orc attempted to stab the dragoness, but she move her head to avoid the blow. As they continued falling the dreadwing got the upper hand and managed to get on top of Gaia. The earth dragoness opened her wings to try and slow her decent, but it didn't help much. She slammed into the ground hard, breaking both her wings with a loud snap and sending up dust and debris. As the dust cleared, Gaia cracked open her eyes only to see the dreadwing still on top of her staring down at her with blood lust in its eyes. The orcs rider smiled evilly before giving a short grunt. The dreadwing opened its mouth and prepared to end the Gaia's life with one bite, but it never got the chance, as a streak of purple lightning struck it from the side. The beast and its rider convulsed wildly on top of Gaia before falling to the side, dead. Gaia rose to her feet and was surprised to see Leon standing a few yards away. The human and dragon locked eyes with each other for a moment before another explosion broke their concentration.

Gaia looked back at Leon and asked, "Will you fight with us?"

"For now." Leon replied coldly. Gaia nodded her head and the two made their way through the city.

The orcs seemed to come out of the walls and attack the vanguards. Just when one would drop dead at the dragons' feet, two more seemed to jump in and take its place. "They just keep coming!" Charlotte yelled before setting another orc on fire.

"Just keep fighting!" Spyro yelled back. He then shot an earth bullet at an attacking orc sending it rag dolling into two of his fellow soldiers. Crystal ducked under a chained blade as it whizzed over her head, and froze the attacking orc in place, allowing Zephyr to smash it to pieces with her tailmace. A group of five orcs ran at them from their flank.

"Look out!" Twitch yelled. Suddenly, a massive gust of wind blew the orcs into the air before a large slab of stone lifted out of the ground and crushed the falling orcs against the wall.

The vanguards looked to the left to see Gaia and Leon approaching them. "Mom?" Zephyr said surprised.

"Master Gaia, What are you doing with him?" Flare asked giving Leon a low growl.

"They'll be time for questions later," Gaia replied, "but right now, we need all the help we can get."

The vanguards looked at Leon again for a moment before nodding their heads reluctantly, Cynder smiled knowing that this might be what Leon needed. Just then, several more containers dropped around them, releasing more orcs. They stared at the opponents before them tightening their grips on their weapons, and growling menacingly. Leon and the dragons got into defensive positions and the orcs rushed forward. One slashed at Flare, who ducked before stabbing the orc through the chest with his tailspike. Another orc swung its chained blade at Gaia, but she jumped back before spinning around and swatting the orc with her tailmace. Leon parried a blow from another orc and thrust his javelin forward, piercing the orc through the roof of its mouth and out the top of its skull.

Two dreadwing riders observed the fight below. The one on the right spoke, "Sir, isn't that-"

"Indeed." The one on the left interrupted. "Signal the retreat." The one on the left bellowed loudly and the orcs began dispersing. The bellow distracted Leon allowing an orc to swing his chain blade and leave a long deep gash in his side. Leon stifled a scream and glared angrily at the orc, who only smiled at his suffering. He swung the blade again but this time Leon managed to grab the chain as it whizzed by. The orcs eyes widened as an evil smile spread across Leon's face. His hand emitted dark lightning that traveled down the chain and through the orc. The orc convulsed wildly and was dead within a few seconds, but for Leon this was about sending a clear message. He focused his energy and increased the voltage, causing blood to pour out of the orcs eyes, nose, and mouth. Then the orc exploded, spraying blood and guts everywhere and painting the spot where the orc was standing red. The vanguards gaped at the spot where the orc exploded. Any remaining orcs where picked up by the dreadwings and fled from the dragon city.

"Gaia! Zephyr!" Frigid landed and immediately ran over and hugged his life-mate. "I thought I lost you."

"He saved me." Gaia said, looking at Leon. The vanguards stared questioningly at Leon, who paid them no mind as he examined his wound.

Frigid stared hard at Leon, before saying, "I guess I owe you my-"

"I don't want your thanks." Leon cut the ice dragon off.

Frigid was about to say something but the other dragons quickly surrounded them, growling at Leon, who quickly shifted into a defensive position in expectation of an attack. For a while everything was silent, until the dragons started calling out Leon.

"He's the cause of all this!" one dragon shouted.

"I say we kill him now, before he releases another homicidal dragon." Another dragon chimed in. It wasn't long before the other dragons took their shots at Leon until a massive roar erupted from the crowd. Terrador led the council through the crowd and Leon straightened up as the dragons approached him. Anima's death glare did not go unnoticed by Leon as Terrador stopped in front of the human. He stared hard at him, studying him, but Leon did not care.

"You should go back to the healer's den," Terrador stated. Leon stayed silent and Terrador sighed, "Why don't you just make it easier for us…and yourself?"

Leon stared hard at the earth guardian. Behind him, Fang was watching with extreme interest "Come on, give them a reason." He thought to himself.

Next to him, Cynder was digging her claws into the stone nervously. She looked at her mate, "Spyro…"

Spyro looked at back at her and shook his head, "It's his decision now."

Leon continued to stare hard at the dragon for a few more moment before taking a deep breath and relaxing. His retracted his javelin and clipped it to his belt without taking his eyes off of the earth dragon.

Terrador relaxed and two cheetah guards carefully approached Leon. They pulled his arms behind his back and shackled his hands together. "Take him back to the healer's den." Terrador ordered. The two cheetahs nodded and began taking Leon back down the street. Cynder watched as they disappeared into the night and sighed with relief.

Terrador then turned his attention to the crowd, "Come…we must bury the dead."