The Snare of Darkness

by DragonMaster000

The Dragon Realms have survived Nexus's attacks, but now Ragnor's wrath has been awakened. Spyro and his friends will now have to join forces with an unlikely ally in order to survive, and in the process Spyro may be forced to come to terms with a difficult truth: the truth of the purple dragon.

36. Chapter 36: Rage

Chapter 36: Rage

By some miracle the path to the Infirmary had been remarkably clear so far. Cynder had done an incredible job guiding the formation of dragons through mostly uncontested sections of the city, using her shadow powers to sense the wraiths' movements and avoid them wherever possible. As he flew just off her of wingtip Spyro couldn't help but cast an admiring glance toward her. Even with the boost that the green spirit gems had given her it was clear that she was badly worn down from all of the fighting that had transpired before he and Nexus had entered the scene, but she hadn't faltered once in her quest to guide these guards and citizens to safety.

Of course, the trip hadn't been entirely uneventful. They had come under attack a couple of times from wraith archers, black arrows shooting up from rooftops below them, or down from the top floors of some of the city's larger towers, and if it wasn't for Cynder's advance warning the dragons would have undoubtedly suffered severe casualties from the surprise attacks.

Cynder and Spyro had both been able to use their powers to block the volleys, however, and with Cynder and his dragonfly family pinpointing the sources of the attacks Spyro had been able to make short work of the wraiths. Both times he had made use of his Dragon Time to dispatch the wraiths before they even had a chance to react. The added drain on his power was worth it to get past the danger without putting further risk on their charges. He was just glad there were no other dragons or moles in the area to get caught in a crossfire.

He desperately hoped that the absence of citizens was because they had all made it to safety. However, just as he had that thought the group flew over a row of buildings and found a stretch of utter desolation before them. Nothing was left but rubble, every building within a wide radius flattened by what must have been some sort of blast. He felt his stomach clench at the sight.

"Almost there," Cynder spoke up in a low voice, seemingly more to herself than anyone, and Spyro turned his gaze back toward her. There was a look of grim focus on her face, her eyes dark and narrowed as she scanned ahead for any signs of danger, and all at once Spyro felt the urge to say something to try and lift her spirits. He immediately drew a blank, no words coming to mind, and in the end all that he could manage was a small sigh.

That was when a faint tug grew in the back of his mind, and Spyro frowned in confusion. Only a second later it came again, however, more forcefully this time, and immediately his head jerked up with realization.

Nexus!

He pulled back sharply, spinning around to face in a more eastern direction where it felt like Nexus's pull was coming from. Countless questions formed in his mind, the young purple dragon wondering what his brother could be calling him for, but those questions were very quickly replaced with a sense of budding fear when he realized that there was one reason more likely than any other.

Did he find Tyrannica?

"Spyro?" a voice behind him suddenly called out, jolting him from his thoughts. He spun back around to find his mother's questioning eyes on him, along with many others. Cynder and the formation of guards had drawn to a halt, watching the purple dragon with confusion.

"What is it?" Cynder asked.

"It's Nexus," he replied, his eyes turning back to the east. "I think he knows where Tyrannica is."

He saw that Cynder's eyes had widened a touch when he turned back around, while open fear and worry was in the expressions of his family. For a moment he was struck by indecision, unsure what his response here should be.

"I should go join up with him," he said finally.

"Whoa, hold on," Cynder objected, holding a paw up. "We still need to get these people to safety."

Spyro faltered, looking at her in surprise.

"But..." he began to protest, his gaze darting between their charges and the eastern skyline. Cynder's eyes softened sympathetically.

"I know that it's urgent, but the Infirmary is close. It'll only be a couple of minutes before we reach the forces there and then we can go meet up with Nexus together. Right now these people need us."

Spyro still hesitated, his gaze frequently turning toward the distant rooftops as the consistent tugging on his consciousness reminded him of just what was at stake. Finally, though, he gave a relenting sigh and nodded.

Cynder returned the nod. "Alright. Let's hurry."

Pausing just long enough to check that the guards were still with them, Cynder resumed their course between the buildings, pushing their pace as fast as the heavily burdened guards could go. The citizens riding on the dragons' backs let out frequent squeals of alarm from the sharp pitching and turning, and Spyro thought he even heard one of them succumb to motion sickness, but no one was willing to slow down.

"Hey, uh," Sparx called out a minute later, his voice strained as he and his parents struggled to keep up with their tiny wings, "just wondering, but is anyone else seeing that crazy light show up ahead?"

Spyro glanced up above the rooftops, and his expression darkened when, sure enough, he spotted the telltale flashes of elemental combat lighting up the smoky sky. Wraith shrieks and dragon roars could be heard growing louder and louder as well.

"Do we go around it?" Nina asked nervously.

"Where?" Flash said. "There's fighting everywhere!"

"There must be a battle line set up between us and the Infirmary," Cynder said with a growl. "We'll have to go over it. Everyone, get ready to climb!"

Spyro cast her a surprised look before turning his gaze back toward the guards following them. An anxious frown grew when he realized that with how heavily weighed down each of the armoured dragons were with their passengers, there was no way they were all going to be able to climb safely out of the wraiths' arrow range without losses.

"No," he called out, and this time it was Cynder's turn to give him a surprised look. "Keep going. I'll clear a path."

Throwing his wings backward, he shot ahead of the formation before anyone could protest. In mere seconds the sound of combat had reached deafening levels, and once he crested the next row of buildings his sight was greeted with a pitched battleground. Dragons and wraiths were engaged in a gruelling battle, the dragons apparently trying to push farther down the street but getting hounded at every step by a large group of the shadowy monsters.

The wraiths hadn't noticed him yet, and he wasn't planning on giving them the chance. Spreading his wings wide, he began drawing on his power and felt bolts of electricity beginning to snap and dance in the air around him. In only a moment the buildup had reached its peak, and in the blink of an eye a dozen bolts of lightning rained down into the street below, catching the bulk of the wraiths off guard and leaving nothing but puffs of black mist in their wake.

Only a small handful of survivors remained, and before Spyro could follow up on his attack they scattered. He remained hovering there for a moment longer, senses alert for any kind of retaliation, but nothing came. The guards in the streets below slowly relaxed, and when he also realized that the coast seemed clear Spyro hovered down toward them.

"Thanks for the assistance, Master Spyro," one of the guards, a navy-scaled ice dragon, said as he approached. "Those wraiths were really starting to give us some trouble."

"Was that all of them?"

"In this area, yes, I think so. Sounds like there's still fighting to the north and south, though. The wraiths have been hitting our defensive line from pretty much all sides, but we're pushing them back for now."

"Is the Infirmary safe?" Spyro asked anxiously.

The guard nodded. "It's clear."

The sound of wing beats rose behind him, and Spyro looked back to see that Cynder had just arrived with the other guards and their passengers. Upon seeing the wounded and the civilians, the ice dragon guard straightened up sharply.

"Go on. The way ahead is safe. Get those people to the Infirmary and we'll keep the wraiths off your tails."

"Thank you," Cynder said gratefully. "Come on, Spyro."

Spyro nodded, and the group of dragons and their passengers resumed their course. As the guards had promised, there was no sign of wraiths in the streets ahead and the sound of combat was quickly fading behind them. Soon it was nothing more than a background rumble over the rooftops, and at that point Spyro felt some of the tension in his body beginning to loosen. He closed his eyes for a moment, taking deep breaths to settle himself after the drain of his powerful lightning attack.

"Are you alright?"

Spyro jolted slightly, Cynder's voice catching him by surprise. She was looking at him with a hint of concern, no doubt noticing his heavier breathing.

"I'm fine," he told her, flashing her a faint smile.

Cynder still appeared worried, but a second later she relented. "Just be careful, please."

Spyro simply nodded again, saying nothing. He could understand her concern. They still had a very dangerous fight ahead of them, and he couldn't afford to burn out on energy. He still had plenty of stamina left, however, and already he could feel his breathing and heart rate settling back to normal.

Finally, their destination appeared ahead of them and Spyro felt the first hint of a smile growing on his muzzle. Any relief he felt was immediately dashed, though, and his expression turned to one of shock. The entire building was in ruins, completely flattened along with several of the residential buildings around it. Save for a couple of small rooms that were barely holding themselves upright, the once impressive structure had been reduced to nothing more than a mound of rubble.

The wide street in front of the Infirmary site was now littered with the prone bodies of dragons, moles, cheetahs and more, some hidden under crude stone shelters constructed by earth dragons but most simply lying out in the open. A small handful of medical staff were moving between the wounded, their normally pristine robes dirty and tattered. To Spyro's mounting dismay he realized that there were far less of them than there normally should be on duty in the Infirmary, and of those that were present some of them were even injured themselves. Where were the rest? Was this really everyone that was available to handle the countless wounded that were still being carried in by scattered groups of guards even now?

"Ancestors," Cynder muttered, and Spyro could see her own feelings of shock and horror reflected in her wide eyes.

They were both jolted out of their stupor when the guards flew past them, descending toward the Infirmary grounds to deposit their wounded charges. Shaking his head, Spyro began scanning the area trying to locate anyone familiar. Cynder had mentioned that Cyril and Sirius were supposed to be here, but so far he hadn't seen—

"Spyro, look!" Cynder suddenly exclaimed. "It's Faren!"

"What? Where?" he asked, head snapping around toward her.

Cynder pointed, and Spyro felt his eyes widen in both surprise and relief when he spotted the familiar shade of red among the sea of wounded, lying beside her father near one of the broken residences. Without another moment's hesitation Spyro and Cynder both glided down toward their friend, and it was only a moment before they were spotted.

"Cynder!" Faren cried as they landed, eyes wide with shock. "Spyro!"

Cynder uttered a grunt of surprise when Faren almost immediately grabbed her in a hug with a foreleg, but quickly enough she chuckled and patted the red dragoness on the back reassuringly.

"It's good to see you're safe," she said, but that was when her expression morphed to one of worry when she saw just how battered the other dragoness was.

Spyro's own eyes nearly bulged out when he realized just how completely covered in bruises Faren really was, not to mention the way her wings were bound to her sides with a few meager strips of bandage while her forepaw was splinted with a piece of broken timber. Tythos was even worse off, with several large gashes across his flank and a bundle of cloth in one forepaw that he was pressing against his chest. The fabric was stained a sickly dark red.

"What happened to you guys?" Sparx asked, worry on his own features as he hovered down beside Spyro along with his parents.

Faren glanced back at her bandaged wings, cringing faintly. "We were at the Courthouse when one of the explosions hit it. I got caught in the rubble, but Father pulled me out. There are some small fractures in my wings and my forepaw is broken, and Father got injured by the wraiths just before we met up with Voltra and her father on our way here."

"Voltra's here too?" Cynder exclaimed. "Where?"

Faren pointed with her tail—with one forepaw splinted and her wings bound, balancing to point with her remaining paw would have been all but impossible—and the newcomers looked over to see that, indeed, Voltra and the larger yellow dragon that must have been her father were lying some distance away, each of them nursing their own wounds. Spyro felt another touch of relief at the sight, knowing that at least one more of their friends was safe for now.

His relief turned to a frown of confusion when Voltra noticed his gaze and immediately averted her own, however. At first he wondered if it was just some kind of coincidence or mistake, that it wasn't him and Cynder that she was reacting to. When she glanced up again and her eyes met his directly, only for her to flinch and snap her gaze away once more, that thought was erased.

Why does she look like she's scared? he wondered anxiously.

He wracked his brain for any kind of answer, asking himself what he could have done to make her act this way toward him. Almost immediately a possibility struck him, and a hollow pit opened in his gut.

The beach.

Was that it? After seeing him fall to Ragnor's control like that, was she really afraid of him now? But she had to know that wasn't him, right? She had to realize that he would never let himself hurt any of them like that. Not again.

They all had to realize that, didn't they?

"What a mess," Cynder muttered, her gaze sweeping over the scene around them again. "So many people..."

"Indeed," Tythos remarked grimly. "They say most of the medical supplies here were lost when the Infirmary was destroyed. Another explosion. I don't know how the wraiths were able to get bombs like that in here, but it seems like they hit every critical building in the city at once."

Spyro looked back up at the fire dragon elder before his features fell into another dark frown, his eyes turning to the rubble of the Infirmary. He could see a small group of moles and a couple of dragons trying to excavate any supplies they could find from the back of the building where the storeroom must have been. They didn't seem to be having much luck, which didn't bode well for the horde of wounded guards and civilians that were waiting for aid. A new thought occurred to him then, and he leaned closer to Faren.

"Are you in pain?" he asked.

Faren hesitated before nodding awkwardly. "I can manage it."

Spyro's frown deepened, and he lifted a forepaw up toward the red dragoness. She looked at it in confusion for a split second until realization hit and she recoiled.

"No!" she yelped. A second later she noticed Spyro's startled expression and flushed with embarrassment. "I-I mean, thank you, but I don't want you wasting your power on me. I'm okay, really."

Slowly, Spyro lowered his paw and exchanged a puzzled look with Cynder. The black dragoness also appeared surprised, but not to the degree that he was. He realized that this made sense, given that she had been worrying about him tiring himself out up to this point as well. It was the same as when they had been battling through the Well of Souls to confront Nexus: As far as she was concerned, he should be saving his strength for the 'real' fight.

That didn't make him feel any less guilty about leaving a friend in pain when he had the power to help them.

"So, are you the only ones here?" Cynder spoke up after a short pause. "After I got separated from Cyril and Sirius I was expecting to find them when we caught up."

The two fire dragons exchanged a worried look at the mention of the Guardians, which both Spyro and Cynder took instant notice of. Spyro turned to his companion with an anxious expression, while Cynder took a step forward.

"What is it?"

"They were called away some time ago," Tythos replied, his voice grim. "A guard arrived with news that Volteer was in danger, and they left to assist him immediately. We haven't heard any news since."

"Volteer's in danger?" Cynder repeated.

Spyro also opened his mouth to ask for more detail, but a sharp jab at his consciousness cut him off. He flinched and let out a small groan, bringing a paw up to rub his brow.

"Spyro?" Faren spoke up anxiously.

Another mental blow staggered him before he could respond, drawing another wince and groan from him, but only a second later he became aware of a powerful, insistent tug that was familiar, but at the same time far more powerful than any that he had felt before. His head immediately snapped up, his gaze swinging around to the southwestern skyline. A sense of unbearable urgency took hold of his entire being, and he found himself padding forward without meaning to.

"Spyro, what is it?" Cynder asked, stepping up beside him and touching his shoulder with a wing.

The purple dragon jolted, glancing quickly toward Cynder before his eyes were forcibly dragged to the southwest again.

"It's Nexus. He's calling. I..."

He shivered, a sense of realization and dread dawning on him as Nexus's pull grew even more insistent.

"I think he found her."

Cynder's expression immediately darkened, her bearing shifting from concern to warrior-like focus in a heartbeat.

"Then we should get going."

"Her?" Faren spoke up tentatively. "Do you mean...Tyrannica?" She glanced anxiously up at her father. "That's the way that Sirius and Cyril flew. Do you think they're fighting her?"

"They might be," Cynder replied grimly. "If they are, we'll make sure they're okay. Spyro?"

She turned to her purple companion again, only to find him clutching at his head with a forepaw and gritting his teeth against the now almost relentless hammering against his mind. Nexus's call was carrying more and more urgency behind it by the second.

"We need to hurry!" he groaned.

Cynder nodded sharply, spreading her wings without hesitation and pushing off into the sky. She stopped and hovered a few metres above the ground, turning back and waiting for Spyro to join her. The purple dragon did so without any further delay, tensing his wings in preparation for a dash above the rooftops to avoid as many wraith archers as possible.

"Hey, wait up!" Sparx suddenly called out, the golden dragonfly darting up to join them. "Don't think you're going to leave me behind!"

"Sparx, what are you doing?" Nina exclaimed, rushing up behind him with Flash in tow.

"What does it look like?" he retorted indignantly. "I'm going with Spyro! He'll need all the support he can get out there."

"Against a dragon like Tyrannica?"

"You know. Moral support."

"Sparx, you should stay here," Cynder interrupted. "I know you want to help, but this is too dangerous."

"What?" the dragonfly cried. "Come on! How is this any different than the other big boss fights I've tagged along to? I'm not ditching my brother at a time like this."

Though touched by those last words, Spyro still couldn't help the knot of dread that formed in his gut. Though Sparx had a point, this battle still wasn't the same as any of the previous ones they had faced together. This one was far, far messier, and in chaos like this anything could happen. Thankfully, Cynder seemed to agree with him.

"I think Spyro would be able to fight a lot better if he knew that his family was safe," she said firmly. "Please, Sparx, just stay here and trust us. We've got this one."

Sparx opened his mouth to continue protesting, but one look at his brother's conflicted expression caused him to hesitate. After a moment a look of bitter resignation crossed the dragonfly's features, and he crossed his arms with a loud grumble.

"I don't like this habit you're getting into," he said pointedly, levelling a finger at the dragoness. "I've stuck by Spyro's side since this whole freak show started, and good intentions or not, I'm not going to just let you shut me out of all of these crucial moments."

"What?" Cynder faltered, her face morphing to one of confusion. "Sparx, that's not—"

"Guys, there's no time for this!" Spyro snapped, cutting her off. His eyes were flitting back and forth from his family to the city rooftops, his chest tight with anxiety. Nexus's mental calls had abruptly cease, but through their link he could still sense that deep feeling urgency and tension. The battle was already beginning.

"Right," Cynder nodded, her expression hardening once more. "We can keep talking about this later. Don't worry, we'll be fine."

"Please be careful. Both of you," Nina begged them.

Spyro's features softened for a moment, his parents' frightened gazes tugging at his heart, and all he could do was nod in response. After that he tore his eyes away and focused on the southwestern skyline, his jaws clenching.

They had only moved a couple of wing beats before a terrible cacophony exploded through the streets nearby, the pitched rumble of battle reaching a frenzy. Spyro and Cynder both reared back in surprise and alarm, their heads turning toward the source of the noise. In only a moment they caught sight of a winged figure dashing between the buildings, flying recklessly low and fast. Their confusion only mounted when Boreas burst out into the Infirmary grounds, the grey-scaled dragon covered in nicks and scratches, his chest heaving for breath.

"Incoming!" he shouted, the word sending a spear of dread through Spyro's chest. "We overextended, and the wraiths have collapsed our front lines! They're coming!"

"Defenders, get ready!" Captain Pyruth roared immediately, the captain jumping into the air and moving toward the entrance of the nearest street. "Protect the wounded!"

Utter pandemonium erupted in the blink of an eye. Screams of dismay and panic rang out from the crowd, people scrambling away from the street entrances. Any guard that could still stand rushed to organize some kind of defensive perimeter around the area, dragon and mole alike, some of the wounded almost getting trampled in the process. A pawful of the less wounded civilians even rose to join them, whether it be to protect family or friends that were there with them, in the hope of survival, or just to go down swinging. A couple of other dragons began trying to drag wounded colleagues toward the more sheltered buildings, searching for any sort of cover they could find.

From his vantage point in the sky, Spyro saw an odd black tinge sweep through the surrounding streets. The next second a dark fog exploded out into the Infirmary grounds and wraith war cries filled the air.

The shadowy monsters fell upon the crowd, shrieks of terror ringing out as they struck at soldiers and citizens indiscriminately. Blackened claws and blades beat and slashed, armour rending, blood splashing against the cobblestone. From the sky above Spyro watched in horror, his gut twisting from a wave of nausea.

This is insane, he thought, caught in a petrified state of disbelief and revulsion. These people can't even fight back! Why are they attacking here?!

"SPYRO!"

He jolted from the harsh shout, spinning to face Cynder with wide eyes. There was a hard edge in her gaze, her jaw clenched and her eyes dark.

"Snap out of it! We need to get down there now, before—"

A whistle that was barely audible over the background din made her cut herself short, and without an instant's hesitation she spun around with her wing flared out, a swirling gust of air following. Spyro flinched as a dozen hazy black arrows shot up around her, their path deflected just barely enough to miss their marks, all except for the one at the very front of the volley. Cynder's sharp cry put ice in Spyro's veins, and the black dragoness recoiled with a forepaw clamped around the dark shaft protruding from her shoulder.

"Cynder!"

"I'm fine!" she answered tersely past clenched teeth, the arrow fading to mist at the same time. She met his fearful gaze with a fiery one of her own. "Worry about the people down there!"

Spyro couldn't reply before a sharp tug on his mind staggered him in the air. Nexus was calling more insistently than ever, and for a moment he imagined his brother standing before the looming figure of Tyrannica, desperately trying to hold the larger, more powerful purple dragoness at bay.

"We're wasting time!" Cynder exclaimed when she saw him hesitate. "Helpless people are dying down there! Now let's go!"

She didn't give him a chance to respond, tucking in her wings and diving as fast as she could toward the tangle of bodies below. A rapid-fire spread of pulsating, crimson orbs of energy exploded from her jaws as she descended, weaving through the air and slamming into any nearby wraiths they could find. When she landed Spyro almost lost sight of her amidst the mess of smoky trails left by the wraiths phasing into and out of the shadows, but Cynder was undeterred as she began lashing out with all three of her glinting metallic blades.

A familiar, high-pitched roar snagged his attention the very next second and his gaze darted over to where they had just left Faren and her father. He gasped, his eyes widening when he saw his friend backed up against her father's side with a jet of flame blazing from her mouth. Faren was desperately sweeping it back and forth, trying to deter the cluster of wraiths that were stalking like predators around the fire dragon pair. Tythos was also breathing out as much fire as he could muster, but the wound to his chest was obviously hampering him. A wraith snuck past, leaping up toward the fire elder's back. Sparx, Nina and Flash, who had been huddled together between the dragons, darted back with panicked shouts that drew Faren's terrified eyes.

"Father!"

Spyro's features darkened, his eyes narrowing into a steely glare. The fear and confusion that was rampaging inside of him gave way to a smouldering, angry heat. These monsters...not only were they slaughtering innocent, defenceless people; not only had they just hurt Cynder; now they were threatening his friends and, worse still, his family.

A deafening roar burst from his jaws and he dove like a meteor straight toward the scene. The wraith, still in midair from its leap, snapped its white eyes upward just in time to see the earth missile that was hurtling toward it. With a startled shriek it phased into shadow, the missile passing through harmlessly, but when it reformed on the ground it was met by a torrent of electricity from the purple dragon's jaws. It thrashed and screeched for a brief second before its body collapsed into nothingness, and Spyro wasted no time rounding on his next target. One of the wraiths that had been closing in on Faren rushed forward, its arm transforming into a mace, but Spyro met it with talons that crackled with the power of convexity. A dark explosion sent the wraith flying backward, most of its body disintegrated by the blast.

Three more wraiths broke away from other battles as soon as they spotted the purple dragon, charging him through the shadows and emerging right on top of him. Spyro winced as a hardened shadow club bounced off of the chest plate of his ice armour, and a quick duck of his head was all that saved him from taking another to his frozen helm. Snarling, he caught the third club with his left forepaw and the wraith's eyes widening for the briefest heartbeat before a torrent of electricity sent it into wild spasms and forced it back into the shadows. The wraiths regrouped, but Spyro twirled around and breathed out a gust of frosty mist that swept over everything within three wing-lengths of his position, freezing two of his foes solid. The third, the one that had escaped electrocution, rushed at him with a wild swing of its club, aiming for the head again, but a blistering jet of flames met it mid-way and the wraith screeched as its body was burned away to ash. Spyro snorted, shaking out his left foreleg to rid it from the twinge from catching the wraith's club.

He paused to regain his bearings, and as his gaze swept over the battlefield around him a horrible pit grew in his stomach. The guards were fighting with a ferocity and determination that he had rarely seen before, cutting down any wraith that they found in their path, but they were so heavily outnumbered. Everywhere he looked was bloody. Every sound was buried under screams. He turned about when his ears picked up a particularly frantic cry for help, but the moment he had he was met with the sight of a wraith blade plunging deep into an injured mole's back before Spyro could even think of stopping it. He snapped his eyes shut and turned away, his whole body tensing so much it hurt.

No! Stop! he screamed in his mind. Equal parts despair and hatred were boiling up inside of him, the pressure growing with each pounding beat of his heart until it felt like he was going to burst. This has to stop! They can't even fight back! Why are they even doing this?!

He couldn't take it anymore. Every scream and cry for help echoed inside his mind until he couldn't even think past the noise. The howling shrieks of the wraiths, sounding almost like cackles of glee fuelled the burning anger that was building inside of him until, finally, it couldn't be contained any longer. Throwing his head back and his wings out wide, he unleashed a bellowing roar accompanied by a burst of energy that shook the ground in all directions.

"STOP!"

For a brief instant, they did. Wraiths, dragons, and moles alike all faltered for the span of a second, all eyes turning toward the purple dragon that stood with a fierce snarl on his face and a dangerous light gleaming in his eyes. Then, like a dam bursting, dozens of the shadowy monsters surged straight at him with piercing war cries.

Spyro didn't flinch. The wraiths' numbers didn't intimidate him anymore. All he cared about was that these creatures were done terrorising all of the people he cared about, and everyone else in this city. He was ending this now.

The first wraiths entered striking distance, and Spyro made his move. Time froze for a split second, the purple dragon spinning on the spot with his bladed wings and tail outstretched. When time resumed the leading wraiths crumbled with shrieks of pain and numerous deep, jagged lacerations opening across their forms. About half of them vanished instantly, reduced to lifeless mist, and the rest staggered backward or ducked into the safety of the shadows to recover.

Spyro followed up with a conical earth shot, the concussive blast flattening another small group of wraiths directly in front of him. He spun again, arcs of lightning snapping at more wraiths that had been trying to jump him from behind. That was when he was staggered by a heavy blow to his hind leg, however, a yelp of surprise and pain escaping his jaws. Eyes blazing with anger, he rounded on the source and breathed out another screen of fire that managed to catch one wraith but merely scattered the rest. He snarled with mounting frustration and whirled to meet another charging enemy, an earth missile catching this one in the head before it could dodge and removing it completely.

A jab of pain struck at his mind without warning and Spyro reeled back, grunting sharply and bringing a forepaw up to his brow. A low growl came loose. He had already been feeling frustrated with Nexus's relentless calls at this point, but this one came at the worst possible time.

The scrape of a wraith foot was the only warning of impending danger he had, an alarmed gasp escaping him before something slammed into his side.

The force knocked all of the air out of his lungs and lifted him a couple of feet up off the ground. His ice armour cracked, and dull pain erupted from his side as his world spun. Another weak grunt was forced out of him when he landed hard on his back.

Shaking his head to try and stop it from spinning, Spyro hurriedly rolled back to his paws only to stagger again as another club struck him from the opposite side, leaving a bruise on his shoulder. Snarling furiously, Spyro whirled around and lashed out blindly with his claws, hoping to catch the offender but the wraiths simply ducked backward through the shadows. He roared, frustration reaching a peak, and he began charging a beam of convexity in his mouth.

The next thing he knew, pain hotter than molten metal exploded from his left foreleg. Spyro's eyes bugged out, his power dissipating before another deafening roar burst from his jaws, this one filled with agony, and he collapsed to the ground and clutched his left leg tightly with his free paw. A moan of torment leaked through his clenched fangs, unbearable pain racing through his whole leg. Forcing one eye open, he glanced down and cringed at the sight of the messy gash that cut right through his poison scar. It was wide, and it was deep, probably down to the bone, like something had just torn a chunk right out of his flesh. The pain was some of the worst he could remember.

That was when he noticed one wraith step forward out of the corner of his vision, and he tensed. The wraith stared down at him with its empty, soulless eyes, while in its hand it clutched the handle of a long, heavy mace, the rounded head bristling with jagged, blade-shaped spikes. The blades on one side were stained red, and Spyro realized with a jolt that this was the wraith that had struck hm. Right in front of his eyes the tip of the weapon became engulfed in swirling black shadow and reformed into a broad war hammer, one that the wraith lifted high in the air.

"Sleep," it hissed, and Spyro felt his eyes widen when he noticed that it was aiming squarely for his head.

The hammer came down. Spyro's whole body tensed, his powers reacting by instinct. A dome of earth slammed shut above him, and he felt a deep, reverberating THUD when the hammer made contact.

That's it! he inwardly snarled.

His earth element pulsed and the dome exploded without any warning, sending shards of stone shrapnel tearing through the air in all directions. The wraith with the hammer was shredded in an instant, the creature letting out a startled screech before fading to nothingness, and dozens more were cut down by the blast, either wounded or killed. The attack opened a ring of clear space around Spyro's body, wide enough for an adult dragon to spread their wings in, and with an agonized growl he rolled back to his stomach and forced himself back up to three paws, his left foreleg dangling uselessly.

Stillness once again fell over the area, the wraiths momentarily cowed by the lethal aura that the purple dragon was exuding. A glow of rage and hatred shone from his eyes, while any onlookers that glanced his way could immediately notice the patches of darkness that crawled across his scales. His form rose and fell with every heavy breath he took, a low, rumbling growl riding on each one. He glared challengingly at the surrounding wraiths, daring them to make the next move.

Slowly, the wraiths that had been knocked down by the earth blast also rose to their feet, their own glowing eyes staring straight back at their target. Shadow swirled around their bodies, the gashes and shrapnel scars that covered them gradually closing over. Fully reformed, the wraiths took up battle postures once more. Spyro snorted at this sight.

"Yeah?" he growled. "I can do that too."

A faint white gleam emanated from his body, travelling down his leg until it collected over the gash that was dripping streams of red blood down onto the stones. The glow intensified, reaching an almost blinding level, Spyro's features twisting in concentration while his power erased the damage that had been done to his limb. His leg jerked and a sharp bolt of tingling pain shot through the entire length of his limb as the destroyed nerves regenerated, but afterward came blissful relief. Tissue and scales knit themselves back together at an ever-quickening pace, until only a few seconds later there was no evidence of the previous wound at all save for the drying blood.

Taking his eyes off the wraiths for a moment, Spyro raised his foreleg and twisted it experimentally, clenching and unclenching his paw. A satisfied smirk grew on his muzzle when he felt no lingering pain left behind; not even the growing ache from his poison scar remained, just a faint numbness. The rest of the bruises and scrapes on his body disappeared just as quickly, leaving the purple dragon completely renewed.

As if affronted by this sight, the wraiths unleashed another ear-piercing battle cry and dashed forward, weapons raised high to pummel their foe into submission. Spyro's gaze hardened, and a ball of crackling violet energy coalesced in the palm of his upraised forepaw. Some wraiths faltered, but even the ones that kept charging couldn't reach him before he slammed his paw down onto the ground. The resulting explosion of convexity swept over the monsters' ranks, catching every wraith in its destructive power whether they tried to escape into the shadows or not. When the explosion cleared, the street surrounding the purple dragon was once again empty.

"Spyro!"

His head snapped around at the frantic call, his glowing eyes locking onto his brother just in time to see him narrowly dodge a wraith's serrated blade. Sparx darted upward, trying to escape the monsters' reach with their parents in tow, but they were forced to stop short when another swing cut straight across their path. Nearby, Faren let out a jolting cry when a wraith's fist punched through her column of flame and struck her hard on the side of her face, throwing her to the ground. Farther into the Infirmary grounds Cynder was struggling to force her way through a crowd of wraiths to reach Voltra not too far away, the yellow dragoness swinging a whip of electricity around wildly in a desperate attempt to force back the wraiths that were closing in on her and her father.

Spyro's eyes flashed pure white, and time slowed down to a fraction of its normal speed. The heat of rage bloomed with new intensity in his chest, spreading out into the air around him, and as his power swelled Spyro felt himself being lifted up into the air. Flaring his wings wide, he inhaled deeply and drew upon every ounce of power that he could muster, the very sky around him beginning to warp and ripple from the gathering heat, his ice armour flashing into steam. It continued to build, hotter and hotter until it felt like his scales were about to combust.

With a mighty roar, he released it all.

Fire lit up the sky, a ring of white hot flames exploding outward before collecting into countless deadly fireballs, blazing like meteors above the Infirmary grounds. With time still moving at a crawl, Spyro extended his senses outward and locked on to every wraith that he could see in the street below him. One by one the fireballs began to rain down toward the earth in a storm of devastation.

The wraiths were helpless. As time began to speed back up to normal their shrieks of pain and fear finally reached the purple dragon's ears, along with the panicked screams of the citizens as explosions erupted all around them. A crashing sound like waves of thunder echoed out across the city until the cataclysm finally began to subside several seconds later. The last of the fireballs slammed down on top of their shadowy victims, the fury attack spent.

Spyro floated down on stiff wings and gently lit upon the cobblestone street, the glow in his eyes fading as a long, weary breath rushed from his jaws. His limbs sagged, his body feeling like it had doubled in weight on top of his legs, but he refused to relax until he'd quickly scanned the area for any lingering danger. He let out a large sigh of relief when he saw that all signs of combat around the infirmary had ceased. The wraiths had been wiped out, or at the very least his attack had chased them all off. He didn't really care which alternative was true at the moment. The fight was over.

He paused to take stock of the aftermath, and his stomach fell from what he saw. On the brighter side, the battle had been brief enough that a slim majority of the citizens had actually been saved, but the number of bodies that he could see strewn about was still far, far higher than he would have ever hoped. He tried not to look at them, a wave of nausea striking him as more of his anger subsided. It didn't help when he noticed the new burns that had been inflicted on several of the survivors, a surge of guilt causing him to briefly falter, but he quickly forced that feeling aside. A burn was much, much better than the alternative.

He heard soft, limping paw-steps just behind him, and he looked to see Cynder approaching. Her expression was grim, but there was a touch of concern when she met his eyes.

"Are you alright?"

Spyro didn't respond at first. His eyes swept over the sea of wounded and the fresh bodies among them, and his jaw clenched from a fresh wave of cold, simmering anger. The battle cries of the wraiths had faded away and were now replaced with the moans of the injured and the wails of dragons and moles that had just lost loved ones in that surprise attack. That sound was almost worse than the wraiths.

"This has to stop," he growled.

Cynder gave him an unreadable look for a brief moment, but after that she nodded.

"Agreed. Are you ready?"

He simply nodded back. He faced her again to ask if she was ready as well, but that was when he noticed her favouring her injured shoulder, one forepaw pressed over the bloody patch where the wraith arrow had struck her. His brows tightened, concern rising above his more heated emotions. Lifting a paw up toward her shoulder, he called on his newest power and the pad began glowing. A grateful look came over the dragoness's expression as she shifted her own paw, allowing Spyro to heal her wound. Only seconds later she was standing tall again.

"Alright. Where's Nexus?"

Closing his eyes, Spyro refocused on the connection to his brother. He recoiled immediately from the jolt of indignation that rushed through from the other end for blocking his connection in the first place, but at least this clearly meant Nexus was still alive. It only took him a moment to pinpoint the direction that the other purple dragon's call was originating from.

"There," he said, pointing with a wing.

Cynder responded with another nod, spreading her wings to take off. Spyro mirrored her posture, his eyes once more darkening as he turned to face the southeastern skyline. Tyrannica's rampage had cost too many innocent lives already, and it was time for her to pay.

"Spyro?"

He turned his head at the timid call, and for the briefest moment his features softened at the sight of his parents and Sparx, huddled together and watching him with tense, anxious postures. The sheer worry that consumed them was plain as day to see in their eyes.

"Be careful," Nina implored him.

Spyro was silent at first, but at length he replied with a determined nod, hoping that it was enough to reassure them that he had no intention of losing this battle. He would make it back safely, along with Cynder, Nexus, and all of the Guardians. He had to.

Without another second's delay, he launched himself into the air and took off like a flash toward the rooftops, Cynder following right off of his tail.

*.*.*

Nexus had never felt so frustrated and infuriated in his entire life.

One job. He and Spyro had agreed that they had one job: Help rally the city's defences against the wraiths, but the moment either of them catches even a whiff of Tyrannica's whereabouts they were to drop everything and meet up to face her together.

And yet, after giving Spyro ample time and warning to follow up on that arrangement, Nexus's stupid, reckless, difficult, uncooperative moron of a brother still hadn't shown up!

A split second was all the time he had to register the spray of venom that arced through the air toward him, and by pure battle-hardened reflex he shot a blast of freezing air out to intercept it. The poison froze solid in an instant, and Nexus deflected it harmlessly away with a wing. He glared up at his much larger opponent, Tyrannica returning to a ready stance after her failed attack.

"Dare you to try that again," he scoffed.

Tyrannica returned a crooked smirk, a low chuckle escaping her. The hard look in her eyes betrayed her seriousness, however.

"I must say, Nexus: You do live up to our Master's description. For such a little whelp, you are a capable fighter."

"Really? Funny. The only thing he said about you was how much of a failure you are."

Tyrannica's confidence faltered briefly, her jaw clenching, and Nexus allowed a small grin of his own to form.

"You know, it still isn't too late for you to give up this pointless little fit of insubordination," the indigo dragoness continued, forcing her tone to become calm once more. "Surrender without any resistance and I'm sure Ragnor could still find some sort of use for you. At the very least he would probably grant you a quick death over the fate that's in store for you right now."

Nexus snorted. "Yeah, right. You and I both know that after this kind of open rebellion he won't be satisfied until he's pulled me apart one scale at a time."

"Hmm," Tyrannica grunted, her expression going flat. "I suppose that's true."

She abruptly disappeared, and Nexus instantaneously dropped into a low, ready stance, scanning with his eyes and every elemental sense he had for his foe. It didn't matter, though: When she reappeared behind him less than a fraction of a second later with her tail raised high, it was too late to react. The flat of her tail blade slammed into his side and sent him tumbling through the air, the impact driving the wind out of him and leaving his flank and wing throbbing with pain. He did manage to right himself before hitting the ground, landing hard on all four paws and sliding a few feet with his claws digging gouges in the paving stones, but catching his breath was a bigger problem.

Tyrannica didn't give him the chance. She was upon him in a flash, paw raised to deliver another blow, and Nexus had to flatten himself against the ground to dodge it. He hastily rolled to his left before she could follow up, a portal swallowing him up and transporting him back into the centre of the courtyard. There he rose, facing his opponent warily. Tyrannica turned to face him, the gleam of a hungry predator in her eye.

She began pacing in a wide circle around him, stalking with long, deliberate steps while she scanned his defence for the slightest vulnerability. Nexus watched her carefully, unwilling to give her an opening to catch him off guard again, but he did chance a quick glimpse at his surroundings.

As much as he was annoyed with Flash for launching an attack on Tyrannica when they weren't prepared, it had at least had the desired effect. Cyril was still breathing, the Ice Guardian taking advantage of the cover the young dragons provided to drag himself and Sirius off of the battlefield. They were still in sight, huddled off in a corner of the square near Volteer's prone form, but neither of them were in any condition to help in the battle any longer.

Flash, Chinook and Enigma were lingering on the outskirts of the battle as well, taking Nexus's warning about Tyrannica's lethality to heart. Chinook kept to the sky, far enough away that Tyrannica couldn't easily strike at him without giving him time to react, but close enough to harass her with quick distracting strikes when possible. Flash stuck to the ground, fading in and out of sight as he used his power to cloak himself, and Enigma remained almost entirely in the shadows, only emerging when Tyrannica's focus was completely off of her.

Their presence was both a benefit and a hindrance. On the one paw the added hits they managed to sneak in had the potential to add up and maybe, just maybe, they might wear the already battered dragoness down enough to the point that victory might be possible. On the other, though, Nexus was forced to keep Tyrannica's attention squarely locked on himself, lest she take the opportunity to pick off his allies one by one. This put him in a dangerous position, and he had already taken a couple of blows that he normally wouldn't have to as a result. His foreleg ached from a clumsy block he'd been forced to make against one of her stronger punches, and his tail sported a slowly bleeding gash from her fang when he had narrowly avoided getting caught by her bite. He was extremely lucky that she hadn't coated her teeth with poison, or else he might have been dead already.

He hid a scowl after finishing his survey. Spyro still wasn't anywhere in sight either, and Nexus could have really used his counterpart's support right about then. If he got out of this alive, he was definitely going to have some choice words for his brother later.

Tyrannica's pacing quickened, and Nexus realized with a jolt that he was giving her far too much room to plan an attack with. Taking the initiative himself, he launched himself forward into the air. Tyrannica was unfazed, an amused smirk crossing her muzzle as she swung her tail up to intercept him. Nexus flapped his wings hard to evade, kicking against the flat of the blade for extra height before firing a blast of convexity from his jaws. The larger dragoness reacted just as swiftly, a wall of dark crystal bursting up to protect her.

Nexus didn't hang around. He lunged sideways, clearing the wall a second before Tyrannica shattered it, sending jagged shards of crystal spinning through the air where he had just been. He sucked in a breath and charged an earth missile, but before he could release it he flinched from a deafening, high-pitched shriek that tore at his eardrums. A wave of crimson red energy swept over him, and Nexus immediately went rigid from the chill like ice that shot through his veins.

His chest locked up, his limbs going stiff. The world around him blurred and darkened, while the hammering beat of his heart pounded in his ears. What was happening? Where did Tyrannica go?

"Such a disappointment."

The young purple dragon gasped, eyes going wide in panic when he heard that deep, reverberating growl of a voice echo inside his mind. A familiar and unsettling pressure built at the base of his skull, squeezing against his mind and sending a throb of pain through his head every time he tried to think. A violent shiver ran through his body all the way to his tail.

"No..."

"After all the time and effort I invested in you, this is what you've sunk to. You were gifted with training and experience that not a single one of your predecessors received, and what did you do with it?"

His wings were shaking too erratically to hover with, leaving Nexus to clumsily descend to the cold rocky ground. The very next instant the earth itself lurched with a deafening CRASH, and Nexus's head snapped upward with a shrill yelp. He shrank back immediately, horror twisting his face when he saw the dark, towering form of Ragnor looming over him, nearly filling the entire space within his dim, hollowed-out cave in the Dark Realms. The stone floor was cracked and splintered where he had slammed his forepaw down mere feet away from Nexus's face.

"You do this!" he roared, leaving Nexus's ears ringing. "You throw all of it away in this pathetic, futile bid for freedom! Have I not made it clear what happens to my creations when they rebel against their purpose?"

He lifted his other forepaw, his black talons adopting a violet glow from the convexity crackling between them. Nexus's mind flashed back to the last time he was in the Dark Realms, to the sight of those talons embedded deep into Malefor's chest, the other purple dragon's body crumbling away into dust while his agonized roar echoed inside the cramped chamber. He flinched away, clenching his eyes shut and clutching his wings tight against his trembling body.

"No," he gasped, shaking his head roughly. "This...th-this isn't r-real. I cut off my connection. I'm in W-Warfang, not the Dark Realms. I-It isn't real. It is not real..."

He struggled to regain control over his heaving chest and thundering heartbeat, but his efforts were dashed when a huge paw clamped around him, forcing another fearful cry from his jaws along with all of the air in his lungs. Pain flooded through him, his bones threatening to collapse under the pressure.

"There is no freedom for you!" Ragnor bellowed, his blazing red eyes hovering directly in front of Nexus's own. "There is no escape! There is no redemption! I am the master of your fate, and I always will be! You will never be free to decide your own path. You will never get to choose. You are a slave; a tool, one that I command until the day you die! Until the day that I kill you!"

The pressure on his body doubled, and Nexus's jaws parted in a soundless cry of pain. He struggled with every ounce of strength he had, legs straining, tail thrashing desperately, but he was powerless to escape Ragnor's grip. The massive purple dragon jerked his captive upward abruptly, jolting Nexus into stillness, and he immediately went weak when he found himself in front of Ragnor's snarling jaws.

"And that day is fast approaching!"

His maker's roar nearly deafened him, but before Nexus could even think of struggling again his world suddenly spun when he was thrown backward. His back collided with something solid, and light exploded in his vision when his head and horns snapped back and struck the unyielding surface. Dazed, he tumbled to the ground and landed in a rough heap, pain flooding through his skull in waves. Groaning weakly, he reached up with a shaky forepaw and gingerly pressed it against the new wound above his brow. It stung bitterly, and his paw felt wet.

At that moment something gripped his shoulder, and Nexus recoiled with a startled snarl. He raised his forepaw, convexity snapping across his talons.

"Whoa, stop! It's me!"

Nexus faltered. That...That wasn't Ragnor's voice. The figure in front of him was a blurry, indistinct mass, and he squinted to try and make it fall into focus. Slowly, painfully, the distorted image sharpened as both the dizziness from his head trauma and Tyrannica's fear magic receded, resolving into the familiar white-scaled form of Flash. The light dragon had his paws held up defensively, an anxious look on his face.

"Are you alright?"

Nexus was silent for another moment, too confused to answer and still struggling to rein in his unsteady breathing. An image of Ragnor's piercing eyes flashed in his mind again and he flinched, another horrible shiver running up his spine.

"You are a slave until the day you die!"

"Nexus!" Flash called, jolting the purple dragon. "Are you alright? Chik and Enigma can't hold her off on their own!"

Nexus faltered again, turning his head toward the battlefield that had once more replaced the fear-induced illusion. Tyrannica still stood in the centre of the square, rearing up to slash at the retreating grey form of Chinook, her glinting talons narrowly missing his wing. As she landed on all fours again she immediately snarled when Enigma's shadowy form darted past her leg, a dark blade scoring a thin line through her hardened scales. The indigo dragoness swept her head around, a scorching inferno roaring from her jaws, and Enigma dove into the shadows again a mere second before she was burned to a crisp. Roaring in frustration, Tyrannica swept her gaze across the courtyard in search of her harassers.

Her eyes passed right over Nexus and Flash, causing the purple dragon to flinch, but to his confusion she didn't react to their presence. It was as if she couldn't even see them at all, and that was the moment when it clicked: Flash must have cloaked both of them with his power.

"Can you still fight?" Flash demanded, his paw gripping Nexus's shoulder again, causing him to tense. Flash's eyes bore into the purple dragon, a whirlpool of concern, anxiety, determination and fear.

"I..." Nexus fumbled, but that was when he finally registered something else in Flash's gaze; that strangely unnerved and worried look. He recoiled, suddenly feeling both indignant and embarrassed.

Get a hold of yourself! he inwardly snarled. This is no time to lose your composure! Remember your training! Cold, and focused!

He roughly shook his head and scowled.

"I'm fine," he said, pushing Flash's forepaw away. "Get moving. We're wasting time."

He didn't wait to hear Flash's reply, nor to give himself time to reflect on the illusions that he could still feel trying to claw at the back of his mind. Scrambling up to his paws, he dashed back out into the square while drawing on the power of convexity. Tyrannica noticed him quickly, her eyes locking onto him, and a low growl rumbled from her throat. Her jaws gaped open and the crimson glow of fear gathered again like a ball of mist, but just before she could unleash her attack she was staggered by a black figure that leapt from the shadows and slashed at her scales with long, serrated blades.

Enigma didn't linger, the dragoness flapping her wings hard and using her momentum to pull away. Tyrannica lashed out with her tail, the blade whistling as it cut through the air, but when it met its target Enigma's body parted like black mist and reformed behind the cutting edge, leaving her unharmed. Snarling, Tyrannica swung again, but that was when Nexus's beam of convexity lanced out. The beam struck her tail, deflecting its path and causing Tyrannica to roar in pain. Enigma took the opening to lunge forward again, but their foe wasn't caught nearly as off guard as she'd hoped. With another roar Tyrannica swung her tail back up, launching the dark crystal spike that had formed along its length.

Enigma's eyes widened and she immediately phased her body again, her scales becoming foggy and insubstantial, but when the crystal spear drew within a foot of her form she abruptly lost that ghostly quality. The shadow dragoness barely had time to utter a startled gasp before the spear tore through her wing shoulder, leaving red mist and a deep gash in its wake. Enigma's body spun around from the impact before she tumbled to the ground.

"Enigma!" Chinook cried.

Tyrannica wound up for another attack, more crystal materializing along her tail, but Nexus beat her to the punch. With a snarl he hurled two balls of convexity with his forepaws, one after the other. The first struck the ground at Tyrannica's paws and detonated, staggering his larger opponent and throwing her off balance. Her second spear went off target, shattering against the ground a few feet from Enigma's crumpled form, and Chinook wasted no time swooping down and pulling her away to safety.

Tyrannica's wing flared up in front of the second convexity orb, a barrier of her own purple energy coating its surface. Another explosion rang out, the crackling blast obscuring her from view for a brief moment.

That was when a second blob of green venom appeared through the smoke, and Nexus had to roll frantically to the side to avoid it. The poison splashed on the ground just beside him, droplets spraying in all directions, and Nexus flinched when he felt some of them land on his foreleg. He stiffened, expecting the venom to start burning through his scales, but he faltered when he realized that he didn't feel a thing.

It took him a second longer to realize that this was more true than he thought. He couldn't feel a thing, because the scales and skin beneath the poison drops had gone entirely numb. When he flexed his foreleg the small patch of muscle there felt like it was half asleep.

What? he thought in bewilderment. Non-lethal? What's she trying to pull here?

Movement caught his eye, and the young purple dragon jolted when he saw a third shot of poison coming straight for him just as the smoke was clearing. Without even thinking he threw up a portal in its path, a second flashing to life directly in front of Tyrannica's face. Quick as her reflexes were, she still couldn't dodge her own poison before it splashed all over her snout and eyes. Uttering a cry of shock and anger, she staggered back and swiped at her eyes with her forepaws, trying to wipe the thick, viscous fluid away. Immune though she may be to her own poison's effects, with it coating her eyes she was still left temporarily blinded.

Flash, Chinook and Nexus all saw this opportunity, and they all seized it. Flash struck first, the white dragon appearing out of thin air and latching on to Tyrannica's back between her shoulders, his claws digging as far into her scales as they would go to lock himself in place. Tyrannica snarled and thrashed with her wings and forelegs, rearing up and shaking furiously to try and dislodge the much smaller dragon. She couldn't quite reach him, though, and Flash held on with all of his might. He jabbed his tail forward, aiming for the dragoness's neck, but her bucking and lurching threw his aim off. He only managed to open a small, thin cut in her scales, but it was still enough to draw a snarl of pain and anger from her.

Chinook was next, unwilling to waste the distraction that Flash had provided. He snapped his wings back and dove toward the clashing pair, the air whistling around his wings and tail. After closing the distance he flared his wings out and spun, slashing his tail upward with a blade of condensed wind collecting on the leading edge of his tail fan. The wind blade surged forward, a barely-visible crescent-shaped streak that sped straight for Tyrannica's chest.

Unfortunately, she noticed. She suddenly bucked forward much more violently than before, and Flash cried out in surprise when his weight lurched forward. His claws opened new bleeding gashes in her back as he slipped, but Tyrannica didn't seem to care. With him off balance she finally managed to snatch him up in her forepaw, the white dragon's eyes bugging out with shock and fear. Sneering with both triumph and contempt, she swung her forepaw and threw Flash into the air, straight into the path of Chinook's wind blade.

Chinook cried out in dismay, reaching out as if to try and catch the blade or redirect it with his power, but it was pointless. The blade broke on Flash's body, opening a bloody gash across his upper back and through his right wing membrane.

His eyes bulged once more, a hoarse gasp of pain escaping his jaws. He collided with the ground a moment later, tumbling limply across the stone and leaving a trail of red in his wake. When he came to a stop he gave a drawn out groan of agony, unable to rise when even the slightest movement sent fresh pain blazing through his wound. Tyrannica observed the scene with a pleased smirk, while Chinook hovered in place with a look of horror frozen on his features.

Tyrannica noticed the grey dragon's state, and her grin took on an even more vile air. She opened her jaws, a spear of ice taking shape within, but Chinook was entirely oblivious. With a jolt Nexus launched himself into the air to intercept, barely managing to tackle the wind dragon out of the way before he was impaled, the icy projectile soaring away over the rooftops.

"Hey!" Nexus snarled, shaking the grey dragon's shoulder roughly. "Snap out of it!"

Chinook yelped and recoiled, his wide, panicked eyes locking on to Nexus's harsh red-tinged ones.

"I-I..." he stammered, glancing down at Flash's prone form. "I didn't mean..."

He trailed off, and Nexus stifled a groan when he felt the way Chinook was trembling in his grip. This dragon was shaken, badly.

"Save it," he growled. He nodded his head down toward Flash. "Just get him out of here. You guys are done."

Chinook appeared surprised by those last words, but before he could protest Nexus pushed him away and spun around to conjure a barrier of convexity in front of the barrage of earth pellets that Tyrannica had fired at them. Apparently realizing the urgency of the situation, Chinook acknowledged the order he'd been given and dropped down to Flash's side, the white dragon attempting to use his forepaws to drag himself away from the battle and groaning with each tug. As gently as he could, Chinook pulled Flash's left foreleg and wing over his shoulders. Despite Flash's ragged cry of pain, he pulled him back up to his paws and together the pair limped away to cover near their other fallen comrades.

Nexus was on his own.

Scowling grimly and forcing down the swell of trepidation rising in his chest, he squared himself to Tyrannica. She was watching the grey and white dragons retreating, but only a second later she turned her gaze back up toward Nexus and flashed him a broad smirk.

"Well, isn't that touching? A heroic last stand in defence of the helpless. Who would have thought?"

Nexus's scowl hardened, teeth bared.

"Just shut up and fight."

Tyrannica merely laughed, but Nexus refused to lower his guard, watching her intently and attempting to guess her next move. Her attack came faster than he could prepare for regardless, lightning arcing through the sky and filling the air with its crackling power. Nexus managed to deflect some of it with another convexity barrier, but his wings and tail were still struck by stray bolts sending painful spasms through his body. He snarled, fighting to keep his flight steady and not daring to take his eyes off of his opponent for an instant.

A bright green glow gathered around her form next, earthen power collecting in her jaws. The piercing hum of raw power filled the courtyard, building by the second, and Nexus felt a jolt in his gut when he registered what was coming next. He threw himself sideways, but Tyrannica was quicker. The earth missile launched with a deafening boom, leaving visible ripples in the air as it passed. The stony projectile reached him in less time than it took to blink.

The world slowed, the missile dragging to a crawl a mere few inches before it could shoot him out of the sky. Skirting around it, Nexus paused just long enough to breathe out a sigh of relief before setting his sights on his attacker. Angling his body, he dove straight toward the immobilized dragoness while ice gathered along the leading edge of his wing.

He couldn't afford another close call like that. Tyrannica might be worn down, but she was still more that formidable enough to overpower him if he gave her another chance. The ice on his wingtip sharpened into a deadly blade. Nexus adjusted his dive to pass right by Tyrannica's neck, stretching his wing out and bracing himself for impact.

A split second before impact he released his hold on time, the hungry vacuum eating away at his mana disappearing. His bladed wing struck true, a violent tug on his left side accompanying the sound of tearing scales and a sharp gasp of pain. Nexus barely managed to compensate with his other wing before the impact could spin him around completely, and without wasting an instant he pulled up and away from the larger dragoness, only flaring his wings out to slow down once he was safely out of her reach.

Tyrannica stood with a startled expression on her face, her forepaw clasped over the side of her neck and beads of crimson blood seeping between her claws. Nexus felt a small swell of triumph at the sight, but that feeling dwindled when Tyrannica pulled her paw back to look at the blood upon it. There was a gash alright, but it was far shallower than he had been expecting.

What? How did...?

He went over his attack path in his head, and his confusion only mounted when he came to the conclusion that it should have been a crippling blow, yet Tyrannica hardly seemed affected. Had she dodged it? But how? Time was at a virtual standstill. It didn't make any sense!

Almost as if she could hear his thoughts, Tyrannica's eyes found him and her dangerous grin returned. She straightened up and faced him once more, her posture tall and boastful.

"Dare you to try that again."

Nexus's features hardened into a glare, a growl rumbling through his jaws. He didn't like that defiant gleam in her eyes. Warnings were screaming in his mind—there was no way she should be acting that confident after taking a wound like that—but he also knew that he couldn't afford to wait for her next move. He had to keep up the attack.

A chain of three fireballs burst from his jaws, streaking directly toward Tyrannica's face. She countered with earth, sweeping her wing upward and covering it with a thick layer of gravel coating the outer membrane. The fireballs detonated on contact, but the gravel simply crumbled away and completely absorbed the force of the blast. Smoke and stone chips filled the air, but Tyrannica was unharmed.

Nexus was already on the move, though. The moment his fireballs exploded he used the cover of the smoke to charge, tapping into his Dragon Time again. Tyrannica had dared him to do it, but he was calling her bluff. She was distracted, her defence against his fireballs leaving her flank wide open. As he closed in he readied his earth power, a spear of solid stone materializing in the air before his jaws.

His eyes picked out something strange. For only a brief instant he thought he saw Tyrannica's form blur at the edges, and suspicion immediately sprung up in his mind. He didn't have a chance to think about it, however. He was already launching the spear, earth power propelling it forward at blistering speed. He leapt away, wings flapping hard to increase the distance before letting time resume its normal course. A heavy breath snuck free from his jaws, the repeated use of Dragon Time drawing hungrily on his mana reserves.

A sharp, metallic clang caused him to falter, and his eyes went wide with disbelief when he looked back. Tyrannica was still standing, her tail blade raised by her side. His earth spear, the tip now broken, was spinning away toward the far side of the courtyard.

What? he exclaimed inwardly. How did she deflect it in time?!

She didn't say anything at first, simply gazing back at him with that same infuriatingly cocky smirk on her face.

That was the last straw. With a furious roar Nexus banked hard and pulled around into another dive straight toward the other purple dragon, his horns lowered. Smoke and flame curled off of his wings as he charged up a comet dash. Time stopped for a third time, Nexus determined to hold it right through to the moment of impact. It might cost all of the mana he had left, but one way or another he was finishing this!

That was when Tyrannica's body blurred again, her figure warping as if he was looking at her through the surface of a pool of water. The very air around her seemed to twist and distort, reality itself bending to some unseen force.

And then she started moving.

Piece by piece, limb by limb, Tyrannica's figure snapped back into focus, starting from her head and tracing all the way back to her tail. Each part of her body that refocused also sprung back to life like she had just been unfrozen. Over the course of a quarter second her face split into a triumphant grin, her body twisted around and her forepaw raised up toward him, balled into a fist. Nexus couldn't move to avoid her. He was already committed to his charge, moving too fast to turn away. All he could do was watch with wide eyes as the dragoness encased her paw with a thick mass of stone and slammed it forward.

An explosion shook the square as fire and earth met once again. Light flashed in his vision, white-hot pain blazing from the side of his jaw up through his skull. An instant later the punch carried through to his chest, the air rushing out of his lungs before he could even register the hit. The pain came next as every single muscle in his chest seized, a tight, suffocating feeling spreading outward from the diagonal scar.

He didn't feel himself flying backward through the air. He barely even noticed when his back crashed into the ground, and when he came to rest in a broken, crumpled heap he couldn't move a muscle. His mind was blank, filled to capacity with the crushing pain and the feeling of breathlessness that had taken hold of his entire being. His vision was blurry, his mouth gaping as his body struggled to inhale only for his chest to refuse him. The pain was crippling, like someone was trying to twist the muscles in his chest until they snapped, not to mention the pounding in his skull.

Tyrannica's faded laugh reached him from across the square. The indigo dragoness stalked closer, the stone around her forepaw crumbling away. Her expression was one of triumph and smug satisfaction.

"Did you really think Dragon Time would give you an edge over me?" she chuckled.

Nexus couldn't answer, barely even conscious of what she said.

Breathe. Need to breathe! Can't...air...

Fresh pain erupted from his chest and stomach when Tyrannica's huge forepaw crashed into him, knocking him farther across the ground. He landed flat on his underbelly, sprawled out helplessly and gasping like a fish out of water. He couldn't even think of defending himself, primal, instinctual panic beginning to settle over his mind.

"You're not the only one that Ragnor taught his tricks to," Tyrannica grinned darkly. "That there? That's just the most recent thing I picked up. There's a realm of possibility to our powers that we haven't even imagined yet."

Nexus managed to rally his senses enough to meet the larger dragoness's eyes, fresh panic rushing through him when he found her looming above him. This was bad. This was really bad. He had to get up. He had to fight! He was going to die if he stayed here!

His body wouldn't obey him. His chest screamed with pain like a hundred knives stabbing through his muscles every time he tried to move.

"Exciting, isn't it?" Tyrannica grinned, reaching her paw down toward him. "Think of what we could become?"

A blur of motion appeared between them, blocking Tyrannica's forepaw and making her recoil slightly in surprise. Nexus likewise faltered when he found a grey-scaled figure standing in front of the towering dragoness, his confusion only multiplying when he recognized Chinook. The wind dragon was shielding him with his wings flared out wide, staring Tyrannica down.

What the...?

"Stay back!" Chinook cried.

His voice betrayed his fear, even before Nexus spotted the tremors shooting through his legs and his tail. The wind dragon was terrified, but the fact that he was standing there at all was enough to give both purple dragons pause.

What was he even thinking?

It only lasted a moment. Quickly enough the amused smirk was back on Tyrannica's muzzle, a chuckle rumbling out of her chest.

"How touching."

She reached her forepaw forward again, this time toward Chinook, and the grey dragon instantly reacted with a blast of wind that knocked her a step backward. She recovered quickly, her look of surprise giving way to a laugh. Chinook sucked in another breath, but Tyrannica cut him off with a sharp wave of her forepaw.

A large block of dark crystal exploded up out of the ground by his right side, slamming into his ribs, and Chinook uttered a choked gasp when he was launched away from the impact. He crashed into the ground a few metres away, groaning weakly with a dark, splotchy bruise forming beneath his scales, turning them an ugly blueish purple colour. Several spikes of crystal were still embedded in his scales, thin streams of blood beginning to trail down his side.

Fear rushed through Nexus's body when Tyrannica began advancing on him once more, shaking her head and laughing. Gritting his teeth and snarling through the pain, he dragged his forepaws underneath his chest and began to push, his whole body shaking, but the effort proved futile when Tyrannica placed her forepaw on his shoulders and roughly pushed him back against the ground, the weight drawing a fresh wheeze of agony. Before he could even think of using his elements dark crystal formed around Tyrannica's paw like a gauntlet, an icy chill shooting through her captive when it made contact with his scales.

"Now, now, don't be so difficult," she scolded him, and Nexus felt his gut turn from the mockingly sweet tone she adopted. "Is it really worth it to keep fighting? Look around. It's pointless. Why don't you do us both a favour? Just. Quit."

Her grip tightened with her last word, and Nexus winced when the pressure on top of him doubled. His eyes snapped shut, mouth opening in a silent cry of pain and his bruised ribcage feeling like it was going to collapse at any moment. His mind raced desperately to come up with some kind of escape, but slowly he realized that he was entirely out of options. That punch had ruined him physically, and the dark crystal had already devoured every ounce of elemental energy he had left. What was he supposed to do!?

Nothing. There was nothing. For only the second time in his life, true helplessness washed over him and left him feeling weak.

I'm going to die.

Tyrannica laughed again, most likely reading the distress on his expression, and Nexus could barely muster the will to glare up at her. He faltered a moment later, however, confusion rising above his fear when he spotted movement in the sky past her shoulder. Squinting, he angled his head to the side to try and get a better look.

His eyes widened immediately, and after that a small, sardonic grin tugged at the corner of his muzzle.

About damned time...

His change in expression didn't go unnoticed. Tyrannica fixed him with a suspicious frown before turning her head to look behind her as well. It only took her a second to spot what he had: two figures hovering in the air above the courtyard, having just appeared over the rooftops to the northwest. Spyro and Cynder had arrived.

Spyro had finally answered his call.

"Ah," Tyrannica grunted, sounding only mildly perturbed by this development. She faced Nexus again, flashing him a smile. "Hold that thought."

He let out a surprised gasp when the crystal on her paw came alive, spreading outward and wrapping around his torso. Before he could react the crystal hardened again, squeezing painfully against his chest and pinning his forelegs and wings in place while anchoring him to the ground. A numbing chill spread through his body right to his core, a shiver running through him. Growling as the sensation of helplessness within him only swelled, he struggled against his bonds but found it was no use. He couldn't crack the crystal by straining his upper body, nor could he reach it with his hind legs or tail. He was completely trapped.

His eyes turned up toward Spyro and Cynder a the same time that Tyrannica faced them.

They were the only hope remaining now.

*.*.*

Spyro was barely paying attention to the cityscape in front of him as he flew, his focus entirely fixed on his bond with Nexus. He could feel dread squeezing his chest with each rapidly worsening spike of fear and desperation that he could sense through their link, his whole body growing more and more tense.

"Hurry!" he called back to Cynder, the black dragoness straining her wings to keep up with him. His own wings felt like they were going to fall off at this point, but he couldn't slow down.

Cynder opened her mouth to answer, but before she could her gaze snapped to something ahead of him and her eyes went wide. "Spyro, look out!"

The purple dragon turned his eyes forward just in time to spot a trio of wraiths on one of the rooftops, aiming crossbows up toward the two dragons. The bolts were swirling with black shadowy fog, far thicker than usual. They fired, the bolts expanding outward and morphing into thick nets, gaping open like a maw ready to snap him up. Spyro's eyes narrowed into a glare, his confusion pushed aside. Whatever this new tactic was, he didn't have time for it.

The beam of convexity that lanced from his jaws engulfed the nets in the blink of an eye and carried onward, a crackling explosion erasing not only the wraiths but also the roof of the building they stood on. A deafening boom echoed out into the streets, the sound of breaking stone following suite, and as rubble cascaded down into the street Cynder turned a shocked look toward her companion. Spyro didn't acknowledge her, instead pushing his wings to flap harder. His overburdened muscles screamed at him, but he paid them no heed.

The Guardians and Nexus are in danger. I can't slow down. I have to get there. I have to stop this...

Suddenly a sharp jolt burst through his connection to his brother, Spyro flinching with a startled grunt as it struck his consciousness. Pain. He was aware of pain more intense than anything he had felt from Nexus before, and his heart rate immediately spiked with alarm.

"What?" Cynder asked, noticing his expression. "What is it?"

He couldn't answer her. Too many questions and fears were racing through his mind. Were they too late? Had Tyrannica just landed a lethal blow? What had happened to Nexus?

The only relief to be had was the fact that he could feel that they were getting close. Not long afterward he saw a wide square courtyard appear past the buildings ahead, nestled in the middle of a collection of stone houses—many of which were damaged and crumbled. Soon enough he could make out the forms of dragons scattered all around it, and only a second after that he spotted the colour purple.

"Looks like we found them," Cynder commented, her voice tense.

Spyro pulled back, flaring his wings out to slow his momentum and coming to a hover above the edge of the courtyard. Tyrannica was impossible to miss, the huge dragoness dominating the centre of the square, looking exactly like the image in Ignitus's book back at the White Isle. It was easy to see that she had been through an intense battle, her form covered in scrapes, bruises, burns and bloody patches, but none of this made her appear any less imposing. In spite of himself, he felt a cold tremor of fear run through his being.

Focusing in on Nexus's connection, he soon pinpointed his brother's location and his fear rose. Nexus was trapped, pinned in dark crystal and completely at Tyrannica's mercy. The side of his face was almost completely red from blood, running from a couple of gashes near the back of his head and across his jaw, and through their link he could still tell that he was in a great deal of pain.

A weak gasp from Cynder pulled his attention away for a brief moment, and he turned to glance at her quizzically. Her eyes were wide, her mouth hanging open, and a rush of apprehension took hold of him when he recognized the look: horror. Looking back toward the courtyard, he swept his gaze across it rapidly and almost immediately he felt his own gut clench.

Bodies. There were bodies of dragon guards everywhere, many of them impaled with jagged spikes of dark crystal, their forms mangled from crashing into the ground at high speed. That sight alone was almost enough to make him sick for a second, but then he swept his eyes to the right and his breath caught when he saw Chinook, then Flash, Enigma, Sirius, Cyril and Volteer all lying on the ground, all of them wounded, only some of them conscious.

And then he spotted Terrador.

Spyro froze. For a moment that felt like eternity his heart forgot how to beat, his breath leaking out of him in a shaky gasp. The only thing that still moved was his wings.

This was impossible. It couldn't be true. The way his eyes were staring blankly ahead, cold and unmoving; the pool of blood around his head; it all had to be some illusion, because nothing else made any sense. From the first moment he had met Terrador he had been a pillar of steadiness and calm support. He was the one that caught Spyro from falling into despair and rushing off to his own demise when the Terror of the Skies had snatched Ignitus from right in front of him. He was the one that taught Spyro patience and unmoving resolve in combat. He was the one that was always there to offer blunt, straightforward words of wisdom and guidance whenever Spyro felt confused. It was impossible that he could just be...gone.

"I was wondering when you would turn up!"

He flinched at the unexpected call, his eyes flitting toward the purple dragoness below. Tyrannica had turned to face the two newcomers, a broad smirk covering her muzzle and a sadistically pleased glimmer in her eyes. Spyro felt something swell within him—a dark, smouldering pit of resentment. His eyes were dragged back toward Terrador's body, but the image of that expression remained burned in his mind. His claws tightened.

"Sorry about the mess!" the indigo dragoness continued, a faint chuckle in her voice. "I wasn't expecting you or your brother here to show up today, so you've caught me at a bit of a bad time. I hope you don't mind."

The pit of anger flared, sparking with new heat. Spyro felt his jaws clench, his teeth grinding together, but he still couldn't tear his eyes away from his fallen mentor. The sound of his heart began to beat in his ears, like distant rolling thunder at first but slowly growing louder.

He felt a nudge inside his mind. Nexus. His brother was trying to steady him, like a restraining paw on his shoulder, but Spyro felt nothing in response.

She did this...

"I do have to say, though, you're not quite what I expected. Master Ragnor told me about your exploits; Malefor, Nexus, even holding out against Ragnor's own shadow projection? Don't get me wrong, that's very impressive, but after hearing all that I was expecting...more."

The heat in his veins rose, his breath now coming in trembling bursts. He didn't notice the wary look that Cynder turned toward him, concern held in her eyes behind the shock of loss. He felt another prod from Nexus through their connection, and with a faint growl he cinched down on it, severing the link.

"And if it isn't Cynder, too," Tyrannica continued, her tone brightening. "I was hoping we might run into each other! I've heard all about your work."

Cynder's head snapped back around to face the other dragoness, confusion spreading across her features; confusion, and also a more unnerved edge.

"Your exploits are one of the things I most enjoyed hearing about when Master Ragnor filled me in on everything I missed during my...absence. Such single-handed dominance, spreading panic with a mere whisper of your name. Terror of the Skies indeed! A title well earned!"

Cynder recoiled, her shock turning to a grimace, but whether it was anger or revulsion that drove her expression, Spyro didn't notice. His blood was boiling, the heat so intense that his own scales felt like they were stifling him.

She did this...She's gloating about it...

"I really wish that we had more of a chance to talk. I would love to compare stories, but unfortunately duty calls. I do have a mission that I need to carry out, and there have already been too many interruptions today." Tyrannica paused, her gaze dropping toward her tail, which she had curled around to her side. "I'm sorry."

She moved faster than the eye could follow, her form turning into nothing more than a large purple blur. One instant she was simply standing there, while the next she had spun completely around with her tail extended, and a jagged spear of dark purple crystal was halfway through the air between her and Cynder. The black dragoness back-flapped with a startled cry, summoning her wind power to intervene, but she barely managed to conjure more than a breeze before the glistening point was less than a wing's length from her chest.

Dragon Time leant Spyro its aid, his movements quicker than the blink of an eye. His left forepaw snapped across and caught the spear, its momentum stopping dead in his vice-like grip. A chill colder than ice travelled up his foreleg, a sound like countless ghostly whispers reaching his ears as the crystal sucked his power away, but he didn't move. Cynder hovered in petrified silence, wide eyes locked on the spear's deadly tip. Not a sound rose from the courtyard below for several seconds.

"Huh," Tyrannica finally grunted. "I wasn't expecting that. You know, you probably shouldn't be holding—"

She was cut off by crackling screech somewhere between a scream and the sound of glass shattering. The crystal spear splintered into pieces in Spyro's grip, the purple dragon clenching his talons so hard that they cut into his own palm, thin drips of blood falling to the earth below among the shards of broken gem. Briefly caught off guard, Tyrannica could only stare up at him in surprise.

Spyro's eyes turned slowly back to the square below, coming to rest on Terrador's stiff form again. His chest clenched, breath failing him, a sting rising beneath his eyelids, but it wasn't sorrow that manifested on his features. His eyes narrowed to slits, nothing but an empty white glow showing through as they fixed themselves on his newest foe. His lips parted in a snarl, a low, bloodthirsty growl riding on every sharp exhale. His talons clenched tighter, cutting deeper into his own skin. His regenerative power awakened, trying to heal the damage, but the clear white glow was tainted by the wisps of darkness crawling across his scales.

She did all of this.

Kill her.

Unable to be contained any longer, his rage exploded. Throwing his wings and claws out wide, Spyro unleashed a roar born of depthless hatred, a demonic howl that shook the very sky. Purple bolts of energy snapped across his body, filling the air with a hum of raw power, and Tyrannica dropped into a ready stance without a second's delay. With a beat of his wings Spyro launched himself down toward the courtyard, a burst of fire blasting him forward at reckless speed. Tyrannica barely reacted in time, lurching sideways to avoid him when he slammed into the ground with bone-rattling force. Convexity blasted outward with the sound of a thunderclap, staggering the dragoness further and causing her to wince as stone debris pelted her scales, and Spyro gave her no time to regroup before throwing himself straight at her again.

Crackling purple talons were deflected by a swing of Tyrannica's own claws, the dragoness letting out a grunt when another small blast of convexity erupted from the clash. Spyro's head jerked forward, jaws parted to bite into her foreleg, and Tyrannica only narrowly managed to rear back in time to escape him.

Her forepaw came down hard on his back, the force slamming his chest into the ground, and in the split second that he was dazed she spun around. Her tail crashed into his side, throwing him through the air, but Spyro righted himself just before hitting the ground and dug his claws into the stone, sliding to a stop a few metres away. Power swelled in his chest, and with another roar he fired a beam of convexity from his jaws. Tyrannica grunted and ducked behind her wings, a barrier of her own convexity blocking the attack, but the force of the clash pushed her backward and sent a shockwave rolling across the courtyard. Spyro leapt, wings pounding for a boost of speed, and by the time Tyrannica lowered her wings he was already upon her. His horns crashed into her chest, his rage giving him strength he never knew he had, and the much larger dragoness was knocked backward with a winded gasp.

Spyro gave her no time to recover. Claws flashed, and Tyrannica snarled in pain when they cut across her lower chest, just below her foreleg. Spyro slashed again, but just as he made contact a barrage of lightning bolts erupted from her body. He snarled, pain coursing through his body and causing his muscles to lock, but he shook it off only a second later. It was still too late, Tyrannica's own talons cutting through the air and throwing him backward, opening three deep cuts across his chest and shoulder. He staggered when he hit the ground, his wounds blazing in protest from the pressure of standing, but it was only a moment before the now sickly glow of his healing power shone through the scars and sealed them before Tyrannica's narrowing eyes.

"I see," she grunted. "This complicates things."

Spyro's response was another furious roar, and with a pulse of his Dragon Time he brought the world grinding to a standstill to cover his next charge. Normally he would have been shocked when Tyrannica kept moving, throwing her tail blade up to block his attack, but in this instance it only made him angrier. He jumped, aiming to sneak another beam attack up over her defence, but her tail sliced around again and caught him in midair. A fresh gash was cut into his abdomen, spraying droplets of blood across the ground, and a follow-through strike launched him backward with another gash across his leg and side. He landed hard and his Dragon Time faltered, the world returning to normal, and several cries of alarm rang out from his fallen comrades when they found him sprawled out barely a few feet in front of them.

Damn it! he snarled inwardly. Not good enough! I have to break through. She has to pay!

He was back on his paws in an instant, convexity gathering in his jaws. Tyrannica countered with her own convexity beam, and the resulting blast sent dust and stone raining in all directions. Spyro fired again, jumping up and flying to his right while the dust cloud had him obscured, but Tyrannica still managed to block in time. A third beam lanced out, followed by a fourth, each one deflected by his foe without hitting their mark. Spyro snarled, his patience spent, and with pure reckless abandon he charged straight at the larger dragoness.

She countered with her claws, slashing at him as he closed the distance, but Spyro didn't try to block or evade the blow. He pushed forward, head on toward his goal.

Tyrannica's eyes widened in surprise. A small, dark smirk pulled at the corner of Spyro's muzzle.

The indigo dragoness's talons struck true, raking across the younger dragon's back. Blood sprayed across the stone courtyard. The momentum of his own charge carried her claws through to his right wing, shredding through the membrane and leaving it in tatters. White hot pain exploded through his body.

Spyro didn't falter, his eyes fixed upon the dragoness's lower chest that now loomed directly overhead. A blade of convexity formed on the claw of his left wing, and when he stabbed it upward Tyrannica's body jerked sharply and a screech echoed through the courtyard. He twisted his wing, pushing the blade deeper. She pulled away, claws thrashing to drive her attacker back. One blow caught Spyro on the cheek, knocking him aside and leaving a new cut behind, but his wounds were already closing over by their own accord while blood began to seep freely from Tyrannica's own. The look of confidence had been erased from her expression, replaced by a wary, studying glare as she backed away to create some more distance between them, favouring her injured flank. Spyro turned to face her, stretching his back and wing to drive the numbing stiffness out of them.

"You're insane," she sneered. "You're just going to get yourself killed fighting like that."

"Not if I kill you first,"Spyro snarled in return. "You're done hurting my friends."

Tyrannica cocked her head to the side, eyes narrowed. "Was that heroism or bloodlust?"

A savage growl rumbled from Spyro's jaws, the darkened purple dragon going tense.

She's still mocking me?!

That was the last straw. Drawing upon every ounce of magic that he could summon, Spyro sucked in a huge lungful of air and blasted a crackling beam of convexity toward his foe. Tyrannica threw herself to the side, flapping her wings to gain extra distance, and the beam missed her hindquarters by a scale. Spyro wasted no time swinging the beam after her, tearing a line through the walls of the buildings at the far end of the square, and Tyrannica yelped when the dark power splashed against her tail and hind leg—not concentrated enough to wound her, but definitely enough to hurt.

She abruptly vanished, a spike of alarm shooting through the younger purple dragon, but before he had a chance to brace himself she had already reappeared in front of him and just to his right, her forepaw swinging upward in a low arc. The blow caught him across the collarbone, bruising his chest and jarring his windpipe enough to make him gag, his convexity beam fizzling out. Before he could even utter a cry he had been lifted off of his paws and slammed back first into the ground, Tyrannica's paw driving down on top of him with a crushing weight, pain coursing through his chest.

Get up!

He strained his body against his foe's weight, but a mound of dark crystal had already grown from the stone on his right side and wrapped around his foreleg, pinning him to the ground. Another jolt of alarm and adrenaline rushed through his veins, Nexus's predicament coming to mind—in fact, out of the corner of his eye he could just make out the trapped shape of his brother farther across the courtyard, Cynder standing beside him and hacking savagely at the growth encompassing him with her tail and claws.

A defiant growl broke free. He was not about to let himself be beaten this way! A surge of power rose above the hungry drain of the crystal, a pillar of earth erupting from the ground above his shoulder. The pillar smashed through the crystal that had trapped him, then kept going to punch into Tyrannica's chest and knock her off balance. Rolling upright, Spyro performed a tight spin and brought his tail upward to crash into the pillar. Convexity exploded from the impact, shattering the stone and propelling hundreds of razor sharp chunks of debris forward at blinding speed. Tyrannica roared, flinching away.

This was his chance.

Spyro leapt forward, long blades of hardened convexity growing from his claws, but he wasn't expecting Tyrannica to recover as quickly as she did. Her own forepaw swung back around and Spyro took the full brunt of the blow on his shoulder. A roar was jolted out of him, his world spinning for a second before another hard impact brought him to an abrupt halt. Cold pain spread from his side, and dizzily he glared down to find that he had crashed into the armour of one of the fallen guards. Nausea registered at the back of his mind at the sight of the dark crystal spear sticking right through the metal, but the deep thud of Tyrannica's wings drew his thoughts away from it. She was bearing down on him, unwilling to give him an inch of space to recover.

He leapt again, aiming to flank her on the right, and the world around him flashed to a familiar cold blue tone as his Dragon Time kicked in to aid him. Just like the last time, though, Tyrannica was somehow unaffected and spun to meet him, her forepaw slamming him back toward the ground. He bounced, ignoring the jolt of dull pain that raced through him, and somehow he managed to right himself in midair. A hard flap of his wings slowed his backward momentum to a hover, and with a heated snarl he shook his head and glared back up at his opponent.

"Stop doing that!"

"No."

Spyro roared, his fury building, and with another powerful flap he sped straight toward her with his horns lowered. Tyrannica braced herself and cracked her jaws open, a poisonous green mist gathering at the back of her maw.

However, neither of them were expecting a dark shadowy form to rise from the ground beside her. Tyrannica's eyes snapped downward, confusion registering in her face at the sight of Cynder leaping up from the dark void, flipping forward with a harsh cry. Metal flashed as her tail swung outward, and Tyrannica jerked back with a roar when Cynder's pointed tail blade cut deep into her foreleg. The gash stretched from her elbow joint down to her wrist, leaking blood. When Tyrannica's other forepaw slashed at her new attacker, Cynder had already phased her body back into the shadows and retreated several wing lengths, emerging once more in a low battle stance and glaring daggers at the other dragoness.

In the mere seconds that this exchange took, Spyro had closed the distance to his target. Curls of fire surrounded his body, and an explosive blast rocketed him forward in a comet dash that struck true while Tyrannica was still reeling from Cynder's surprise attack. Tyrannica roared again when she was knocked backward by the force of the impact, a new burn stretching across her upper chest and charring her scales black. Spyro flapped back away from her, lining up another attack, but he was forced to dive to the ground when a hail of ice shards cut through the air around him. He winced and snarled when one dug into his shoulder, staggering him as he landed.

Cynder hurried over to his side, opening her mouth to ask if he was alright, but before she could he had already reached up with his forepaw to yank the shard free from his scales, rolling his shoulder as his healing ability sealed the new wound. She hesitated when he turned to look at her, shuddering at the sight of his soulless white eyes, but even so she held his gaze and offered him a nod. He could practically hear her saying "I'm with you" just from that action alone, and he simply nodded back.

Farther ahead of them, Tyrannica had her eyes on her wounded foreleg, a dark scowl twisting her features as she tested her weight on the limb. It threatened to buckle immediately, a sharp twinge shooting through her expression. Her eyes turned toward her two adversaries with anger burning within them, and with a heavy flap of her wings she took to the air instead.

Cynder wasn't having it. Her wings snapped out, her power gathering in the air around her, and with a hard downward flap she summoned a heavy gust that caught Tyrannica's wings and slammed her back down to the earth. The purple dragoness landed straight on the stab wound Spyro had left behind, the crash sending a tremor through the ground beneath Spyro's paws, and a sharp roar burst free on impact. Almost immediately rage flashed in Tyrannica's crimson eyes, her gaze fixing directly upon the smaller black dragoness.

"You bitch!"

Cynder responded with another flap of her wings, a new gust blowing horizontally across the square, and Tyrannica grunted when her wings once again caught the wind and sent her hurtling toward the buildings to her left. To Spyro's surprise, however, instead of hitting back first like Cynder obviously intended, Tyrannica managed to twist around to brace with her hind legs and one good forepaw. Earth magic gathered in her legs, and with a heaving push she unleashed it all. A shockwave of energy annihilated the wall beneath the indigo dragoness, the force propelling her through the air straight toward her foes. Cynder had no chance to dodge before the larger dragoness's forepaw crashed into her, knocking her back through the air with a winded grunt, but thankfully she managed to right herself with her wings and scarcely managed to twist out of the way of the billowing firestorm that Tyrannica followed up with.

Spyro was already in the air at this point, looping up opposite of his companion. Cynder used her wind to speed herself higher into the sky for a flanking attack while Spyro charged up convexity in his jaws. Tyrannica hastily countered with a beam of her own, the dark energies meeting with explosive force. A second later the indigo dragoness was forced to dodge when Cynder dove from above with shadow fire trailing from her talons, only to be driven back when Tyrannica swiped at her with a wing claw in return.

The tangle that followed was both vicious and chaotic. Tyrannica let go of all pretense of composure, instead pursuing the two smaller dragons with bloodthirsty intent, face twisted in a murderous snarl. Talons glinted, teeth flashed, and elements lit up the sky above Warfang. Spyro tried to meet her head on whenever he spotted the slightest opportunity, fuelled by hatred and powering through the pain of his wounds every time they clashed, but in the back of his mind he knew that every time he closed within her reach he was taking his life in his paws. Tyrannica was relentless, and if it weren't for his healing powers Spyro would have been reduced to a bloody, broken mess long ago. Cynder did her best to support from range, but Tyrannica seemed especially keen on striking her down. Those wind attacks had made it personal, it seemed.

Finally, after Cynder managed to distract the indigo dragoness with a screen of shadow fire and Spyro scored a hit with a volley of earth missiles, Tyrannica reached her limit. A vicious roar erupted from her jaws a mere instant before her form turned into a dark purple streak. Cynder yelped and back-flapped hard when the much larger dragoness appeared in front of her, talons raised and murder burning in her eyes, but even with the wind at her command she was just a split second too slow. Tyrannica's claws slashed downward, and blood spayed into the sky.

Spyro was stunned for a split second, glowing eyes tracing his companion as she tipped backward with her own eyes bugged out and her mouth parted in a silent cry. Three deep slash marks stretched across her shoulder and chest, staining her midnight black scales crimson.

His face contorted into a fearsome snarl, eyes blazing with fury, and before Tyrannica could dodge a lance of convexity blasted her right between her shoulders, knocking her away and forcing a pained gasp from her maw. With two mighty flaps of his wings Spyro closed the distance between him and the black dragoness, stretching his paw out and pressing it against her chest, ignoring the air rushing past his ears in their freefall. He forced his healing power down through his foreleg, Cynder uttering a strained gasp as light blazed through her wounds.

Relief quickly replaced the shock in her expression, her eyes turning to meet Spyro's, and despite the way he could still see that his state unnerved her he could also tell she was thankful. However, only a split second later her eyes widened again in alarm. Her mouth opened to call out to him, but before she could even got a word out Spyro felt a sudden, stabbing pain crash down on him from all sides. It felt like a hundred daggers had just been plunged through his scales all across his body, and this time he couldn't just ignore the pain. His roar turned to a wheeze when crushing pressure bore down on him, chasing all air from his lungs.

The pressure spiked in a sharp jerking motion, and an audible snap sounded from his right foreleg, the limb dangling uselessly at his side.

It spiked again. This time his left wing gave way, crushed unnaturally against his flank.

Spyro's eyes bulged, his jaws parting in a soundless roar of agony. Farther ahead he could see Cynder still falling away from him, staring back up at him with a look of horrified dismay. In his peripherals he could just make out the tips of Tyrannica's jaws, and all at once he became aware of the hot assault of her breath against his scales.

Her jaws clamped down harder, and what meager air was left in Spyro's lungs rushed out in a hoarse gasp as his broken limbs twisted from the pressure. Even in his enraged state Spyro was nearly knocked senseless by the searing pain that erupted from them on top of the feeling of Tyrannica's razor sharp fangs punching deeper into his skin. It felt like he was going to snap in half!

No! He refused to be beaten this way! Gritting his teeth and straining every inch of his body against the pain, he poured all of the power he could manage into his fire element. Flames began to flicker across his scales, the temperature around him spiking dramatically, and Tyrannica let out a surprised grunt before biting down even harder than before.

Another crack rang out, and Spyro's fire sputtered out under the sheer weight of agony that exploded through his ribcage. It felt like several ribs on his right side had just collapsed, and now even the simple thought of breathing was painful. It smothered his mind like a fog, reducing his fury and thirst for vengeance to a primal sensation of panic.

She was crushing him. If he didn't break free now he was done for, but the pain flooding his every sense left him helpless. He couldn't even breathe! Even as he struggled, the corners of his vision began to dim...

Tyrannica's fangs jerked suddenly, forcing a breathless gasp from Spyro's mouth before the pressure abruptly vanished. His eyes snapped wide open, a jolt of pain rushing through his body when the dragoness's teeth were yanked free from his skin. At the same time he sucked in a greedy lungful of air in spite of the screaming protest from his broken chest. It was only then that he realized that he was falling, and his wings snapped out by instinct—or at least his one uninjured wing did, sending him into a spiral.

He caught a brief glimpse of Tyrannica hovering above him, her forepaw covering a fresh gash running across her cheek. A streak of black and magenta was racing away from her, climbing higher into the sky on a gust of focused wind: Cynder.

Spyro didn't see what happened next, his vision flashing white with agony when his side struck the ground hard. He gagged, the taste of blood filling his throat, and for a long moment he was unable to move. When he tried to roll over onto his chest the tidal wave of pain from his broken bones immediately stopped him. An unwitting roar burst free of his jaws, the young purple dragon simply incapable of holding the surge of pain inside.

A distant call carried over to him, and Spyro faltered for a moment. Fangs gritted and with his breath coming in ragged heaves, he shifted just enough to turn his head toward the source. He found several pairs of wide eyes gazing back at him; his friends and companions, those still left conscious anyway, staring with various looks of shock and horror on their expressions. Even Nexus, now free from the crystal and lying off to the side with a forepaw clutched tightly over his chest, had concern and what Spyro could almost call disbelief written across his face.

That wasn't right. This wasn't how this battle was supposed to go. Tyrannica was supposed to be dead by now.

Heat rushed through his veins, the talons of his one working forepaw clenching, and with another rough grunt Spyro turned his head back up toward the sky. Cynder was barely more than a blur above him, flying circles around her much larger opponent and searching for any opening to dart in a land even just a glancing blow with her tail or wing blades. Tyrannica retaliated with wild slashes with her uninjured foreleg, wings and tail, some strikes coming dangerously close to landing, but the indigo dragoness's movements were beginning to look heavy and uncoordinated while Cynder was just fast enough to evade them for the moment.

That was when Tyrannica let out a sharp roar of frustration, sparks of electricity dancing across her scales before lighting up the sky around her, forcing Cynder back. The black dragoness unleashed a flurry of crimson fear orbs at her opponent, but Tyrannica barely flinched when they splashed against her hide, instead sending a crackling beam of convexity slicing through the air.

This was all her fault. She did this to him.

Cynder tucked her wings in a dove down for another attack, but this time Tyrannica was ready for her. The indigo dragoness's body turned into an indistinct blur for a split second before the back of her forepaw met Cynder midair with an audible smack. Cynder cried out in surprise and pain, stumbling back. Tyrannica followed up with a spray of glowing venom from her jaws, and Cynder let out a second sharp cry when it engulfed her, coating her scales in a thick, hissing layer. She staggered back through the air, her flaps unsteady. She pawed roughly at her eyes, distress evident on her features. Seizing this opening, Tyrannica lunged forward with her jaws gaping.

Spyro's eyes went wide and time seemed to slow for an instant, but then a fresh howl of rage erupted from his jaws and convexity speared up into the sky. Tyrannica was caught off guard, the beam crashing into her shoulder and knocking her away from her target, giving Cynder just enough of an opening to escape with a clumsy dive. Tyrannica's gaze turned to Spyro, a harsh glare settling over her features while she stretched her shoulder out. Several scales cracked and broke free, the deep indigo colouring turned more of a sickly grey.

Forcing the pain from his mind, Spyro finally managed to roll over to his paws and shakily pushed himself up, ignoring the way his bones snapped and cracked with unsettling volume. A cloudy white glow surrounded him, his body jerking and shuddering as his ravaged limbs twisted back into place, his flesh stitching itself back together. The pain didn't disappear, lingering instead as a deep, permeating ache to remind him of the damage he had sustained, but he didn't care. He straightened up in spite of it, jaws parted and chest heaving with each trembling breath he took, his eyes blazing with deadly intent.

With a hard flap of his wings, Spyro was airborne. Fire gathered around him, and a rumbling BOOM shook the courtyard from the comet dash that sent him rocketing up toward his foe. Tyrannica dodged, narrowly lurching out of the way as he raced past, but Spyro was undeterred. Before the flames had even dissipated he curled up into a tight ball and surrounded himself with a thick sphere of stone, shooting back down at the larger dragoness like a cannonball.

He hadn't even made it halfway to her when his protective shell was rocked by a sharp impact. Jagged cracks radiated from the point of dark crystal that had punched through the hardened rock, and Spyro didn't even have time to blink before a deafening blast tore his earthen shell to pieces. Dazed, he shook his head and looked up to find Tyrannica midway through a spin, her tail looming straight in his path.

The impact rattled every bone in his body, the young purple dragon crumpling from the force, sent streaking toward the buildings below. Before his mind could catch up he had slammed back first into the face of a brick house, the already-damaged wall giving way around him. Recently mended bone splintered under the impact, and Spyro's world turned dark as rubble came crashing down.

Silence descended upon the courtyard, all eyes fixed on the dust cloud billowing out from the hole that now dominated the front of the small home. Only a moment later a shockwave of convexity tore through the debris, scattering stone in all directions and revealing a bloodied, broken purple dragon underneath. The glow around his body flickered as he shakily dragged himself out into the square, the cuts and scrapes in his scales barely sealing shut before the light dimmed. The cold glow in his eyes likewise died out, and the seeping darkness that covered his scales withered away. Bruised, dusty purple scales were left in its wake.

Feeling horribly stiff and numb, Spyro lifted his heavy eyes toward Tyrannica. She was hovering with a dark, twisted scowl stretching across her muzzle, crimson eyes burning as she stared back into his own. One forepaw was clasped over the opposite shoulder, the scales there still looking broken and discoloured, while her other foreleg hung limply with blood dripping from the deep gash running down it. More blood coated her underbelly, running from the puncture wound he had scored there, while weariness dragged at every remaining inch of her battered form, her wing beats laboured. Even so, the seething fury that Spyro could see burning in those blood red eyes sent a shiver down his spine.

Her gaze finally shifted to sweep over the other dragons in the courtyard and out across the city beyond, and as it did a look of mixed resignation and disgust gradually settled over her features. At length she gave a bitter huff, her eyes settling firmly on Spyro once more, and Spyro shrank back under that burning stare. Just when he was sure she was going to fire another elemental attack at him, though, she abruptly tilted her head back and a long echoing roar sounded across Warfang, her call reaching from wall to wall and out into the fields beyond.

All sounds of battle faded. For a short moment an eerie, haunting silence hung in the air, and Spyro couldn't help feeling a clawing sense of unease deep in his chest. What kind of scheme was this? What final trump card might she have hidden in reserve?

To his sheer surprise, nothing came. The indigo purple dragoness cast him one final venomous glare before she beat her heavy wings and turned toward the north. Cynder came in to land beside him, her body glowing a poisonous green as the last of Tyrannica's venom dissolved away, and together they could only watch in disbelief as the dragoness that had devastated their home, brutalized their friends and snuffed out their mentor retreated.

The haunting chatter of the wraiths rose to fill the void that was left in the wake of the fighting, but slowly that sound too faded as the wraiths slunk back into the shadows and departed through the fissures from which they'd emerged.

The battle was over.

Somehow, Warfang had survived.