Copyright: I do not own Spyro or anything Spyro related. It is all owned by Sierra Entertainment and Activision. I do own my original characters in the story.
"The next round will now begin." Volteer yelled out, gathering the crowd's attention. "Our first participant for this match received the number 4, Gen it is your turn."
"Hold off on using your element for as long as you can." Rai told Gen.
"I'll try, but I am not making any promises. My sole goal is to win this tournament." Gen said, flying on down towards the field.
"Do you believe he will win his match?" Sypher asked.
"It'll be tough for him, considering he actually took the preliminaries seriously unlike us. His opponent's number is one above his." Rai replied.
"Yes, but he never used his element in the preliminaries. So this should be a very interesting match."
"We will see." Rai said, averting his attention back onto the field.
Upon hearing her name called by Volteer, Grace made her way down onto the field.
"Begin!" The electricity dragon shouted out.
The dragoness ran towards her opponent, who just stood still in the middle of the field. She closed in on the dragon, and clawed at him with her talons. The dragon sidestepped her attack, but in the process was smacked on the side of his head by her tail. Gen was dazed by the force of her attack. The dragoness followed up by kicking Gen on his right side with her right hind leg. The dragon stood his ground, and threw a punch of his own at Grace. She dodged it effortlessly, and took a hold of the dragon's arm with her tail. With it wrapped tightly around her opponent's limb, Grace slammed the dragon onto the ground. Cracks formed around the spot where the dragon had been slammed.
Gen quickly recovered, brushing off the attack, and pounced at Grace. The dragoness summersaulted underneath the dragon, and used both her hind legs to kick the dragon in the chest. The force from her kicks sent the dragon up towards the sky. The dragon's wings quickly unfolded stopping him from gaining any more height in the sky. He turned around, and began flying back down towards the ground. Grace smirked and opened up her wings, flying off towards her opponent. They met head to head in the sky both eager to test their skills against each other.
This time Gen was able to strike the dragoness, delivering his first strike in the battle. Grace received a head-butt from Gen, sending her back towards the ground. She looked up while descending, and saw that Gen had his horns pointed out towards her. Grace turned around so that her back was towards Gen. As soon as she felt her paws make contact with the ground. The dragoness rolled towards the side. She heard a loud noise behind her as she recovered from her recent scuffle. Grace turned her head, and saw that Gen's horns had made contact with the ground. Cracks had spread across the area that the horns had impacted. The dragon pulled his horns out of the ground, and turned towards Grace.
The cerulean scaled dragoness once again ran towards her opponent. He stood still staring her down as the dragoness closed the gap between them with each step. Grace jumped towards Gen, twirling around in the air as she approached the dragon. She stiffened up her tail, and whipped it against the dragon's right side. The dragon cringed as his ribs rattled from the dragoness's attack. Gen pushed through the pain, and took a hold of Grace's tail. With Grace unable to break free of his grasp, the dragoness would be unable to avoid the green scaled dragon's attacks. The dragon formed a fist with one of his paws, and began pounding on the dragoness.
"This is bad at this rate she is going to get the same treatment as Brox." Cynder said, cringing at the sound of Gen's fist hitting the dragoness.
"They don't care about winning. They just came here to make everyone as miserable as they are." Seth said, staring down at the field.
"She is getting what she deserves." Lux said, gaining the attention of the remaining participants. "She arrogantly told me that she was the next in line to become leader of the Ice City. Well right now she can barely defend herself. She talks a big game, but it seems that she just can't deliver. I hope that dragon breaks her."
Gen kept on pounding on the dragoness. Her body was bruised from the beating it was taking from Gen. The tail that Gen had been holding onto began to wrap itself tightly around the dragon. He threw another punch at her, but this time it missed its target. The ground cracked as his fist made contact with it. Grace had used her tail as a means of pulling herself up from the ground. The dragoness hugged onto the dragon, placing her four paws on the dragon's body. The claws on each of her paws pierced into the dragon's body. She hastily jerked her paws, slashing the dragon's body. Gen yelled out in pain as he lost his grip on the dragoness. Grace used the opportunity to deliver a swift kick to her opponent's snout. The attack landed sending the dragon, skidding along the field.
"I want to end this as soon as possible. I've seen what your group is capable of. You guys do not care about winning. All of you just want to cause as much pain as you possibly can to your opponents." The dragoness said, breathing ice onto her fore arms. "I'll make you guys pay for all the suffering that you have caused here today."
"If you are going to make us pay then it shouldn't be me that you are saying that to." Gen said, whispering to himself. "The dragon responsible is up there with the other participants."
Grace reached the dragon, and punched him with both her fists. The ice on her forearms quickly transferred over onto the dragon. Gen's chest was now covered in ice as a result of his opponent's attack. The ice dragoness stepped back as the ice on Gen's chest began to crack. The light blue ice exploded, cutting Gen's chest in several places. The dragon stood in place as he shook of the damage he had received from the dragoness.
"I would like to ask you something." Gen said, looking down at the damage her ice had done to him. "Why do you care what happens to those dragons? They are of no concern to you. So why are you standing up for them?"
"I stand up for them because I hate it when strong creatures pick on weaker ones. You should be using that power to protect the weak, and not to cause pain and misery to them. Those who abuse the power they have been given for their own gain need to be put down." She said, moving her front paws around in the air.
Gen smiled at her response. "Nice answer believe it or not I also believe that."
"Then how do you explain your group's actions?"
"That's quite easy, I am not the leader therefore what we do does not represent my own ideals. The majority of our group isn't as violent as you believe us to be. We are simply following his orders." Gen said.
"Then maybe it is time that you guys start doing what you think is right." Grace said, opening up her paws.
Gen noticed that she was up to something. The dragon began looking around the field, but saw nothing unusual. He slowly began to feel coldness wrap itself around him. The dragon looked upwards, and saw several large ice spears hovering above him.
"You used the moisture in the air didn't you?" Gen asked, amazed that she was able to create so many objects in such a short amount of time. "So this is the power of your quick freeze element."
"I told you that I'd end it soon. Don't worry though I'll make sure to avoid any major organs, Quick Freeze Element: One Hundred Frozen Ice Spears." She said, moving both her paws downward.
The ice spears rained down on the brown and green eyed dragon. The crowd stared in amazement as the light blue objects covered their target entirely. The last ice spear finally fell down on its target. Gen's body had been blocked off from view due to the amount of spears. Grace smiled as her attack ended, and smacked her front paws together. The moment that her claws collided with each other, the ice spears exploded. Tiny ice crystals fell down onto the field, leaving the crowd to marvel at their beauty. Mist now surrounded the area where the attack had hit. Grace waited patiently for the mist to clear.
"Wow she managed to do it." Seth said.
"She just got lucky against him." Lux said angrily.
"I guess that that's one more down." Blaze said, looking over towards Rai.
Grace concentrated her eyes on the mist, attempting to look into it and see in what state her opponent was in.
"That was way closer than I had intended it to be." Gen said from within the mist. "I didn't want to show any of you my element, but I guess that it can't be helped."
Gen began flapping his wings, ridding his surroundings of the mist. The crowd was in awe at what they were staring at. The dragon was standing on the field surrounded with sand. Gen himself was encased in sand. The sand slowly fell back down towards the ground with the rest of the sand that had appeared. Without the sand covering him, the crowd saw that the dragon had received no damage from Grace's spear attack.
"So your element is sand, huh?" Grace asked a bit confused on how that was possible.
"Yes, I have Malefor to thank for this element." He said, running his paw along the sand.
"So you covered yourself in it in order to defend against my attack." She said, beginning to circle the dragon. "Alright then I'll just hit you with something that you'll have no time to defend against." Grace said, throwing three ice spikes at the dragon.
Gen's sand flew upwards, protecting him from the attack.
"You'll have to do much better than that." The dragon said, turning around towards her.
The sand moved up to protect him without him giving it a command to do so. It did it on its own, which means that getting through that defense is going to be difficult. Grace thought to herself.
"If you're just going to stand there then I'll make the next move." The dragon said, moving his paws around.
The sand began moving towards the dragoness. She opened up her wings, and took to the sky in an effort to avoid the sand. The sand flew up towards her following her every motion. Grace knew that she needed to gain more elevation if she was going to have any chance of losing it. Just as the dragoness was about to head further up she felt something envelop her tail. She looked down and saw that the sand had a hold on her. She tried flying away, but it kept her in place. Grace looked further down, and saw that it was still connected with the sand on the ground. The sand began pulling the dragoness down back towards the ground with it. It slowly brought her back towards Gen, who had a smile on his face. The sand held her upside down as she stared across towards her opponent.
"Surrender now and I won't have to cause any unnecessary pain." Gen said, moving more of his sand closer towards Grace.
"I would never surrender to someone like you." She said, struggling to break free of the sand.
"Alright then you brought this on yourself." He said, morphing the floating sand into a solid object. "Sand Element: Sand Spikes."
"No, this isn't over yet." She said, breathing ice on the sand wrapped around her tail.
The dragoness froze the sand around her tail in light blue ice. She tugged hard, shattering the frozen ice in the process. She had broken free of the grasp the sand had on her. Gen's sand spike flew towards Grace, who barely managed to dodge them. The sand began returning to its controller as Gen prepared another attack. As he did so the green scaled dragon noticed something strange about his surroundings. Small ice crystals were floating around him. He knew what this was. He had seen Grace use this attack during the preliminaries. The dragon smashed his paws against the ground, scattering the sand he was controlling into the air.
"Quick Freeze Element: Freezing Crystal Connections," Grace said.
"I'm not going to end up being frozen by you." Gen said, sending more sand into the air.
Grace extended her wings, signaling the ice crystals to freeze her opponent and the area around him. Nothing happened, Gen was still able to move around, but for some reason the dragon looked exhausted. The ice dragoness noticed that Gen was not covered in ice. She did not understand what he had done. Her attack should have frozen him in place instantly. It was then that she began seeing the frozen objects floating around the field. Her ice crystals had been covered in sand before the attack had commenced. Instead of freezing her opponent, the crystals had frozen the sand that covered them. The ice cracked apart showering the field with sparkling ice dust.
"I barely managed to cover of all of your crystals." Gen said, panting in between words.
"I see, but it looks like it took a lot out of you." She said, sending an ice needle towards Gen. "This should take care of you."
The sand that had stayed surrounding Gen flew up towards him. It blocked the ice needle from making contact with the dragon. It held the needle in place until it exploded, covering an area of the sand in ice. The frozen sand cracked apart disappearing from sight. Grace took notice of the sand that she had frozen.
That's it, that's how I'll get past his defense. I'll freeze the sand he uses to defend himself with.
"She's gotten rid of most of my sand. I'll have to make more." Gen said, opening his maw and spewing out sand from it.
"While he does that, I'll prepare as well." Grace said, forming ice around her forearms, hind legs, and tail.
The production of Gen's sand suddenly came to a stop. "That's as much as I can produce while still maintaining my defensive technique. I'm almost out of energy as well every small bit I am able to save will help me out in this fight." Gen said to himself.
The dragon looked across to his opponent and was surprised by what he saw. The dragoness had light blue ice covering her fore arms and hind legs. The ice covered from her talons all the way to her elbows and knees. A small amount also covered the tip of her tail.
"You like this?" Grace said, bringing up one of her paws. "Quick Freeze Element: True Ice Dragon Form."
"True ice dragon form? What does she mean by that?" Cynder asked.
"Those in the ice element class can undergo a transformation where ice develops on their body parts. Because they become more like ice itself they refer to it as their true form. Where the ice develops is unique to each ice dragon. The advantage to going into that form is that your control over coldness increases, giving you access to new attacks. The downside is that maintaining that form drains most of your elemental energy." Spyro said, looking on at the action developing on the field.
"Show me what you can do in your so called true form." Gen said, sending his sand towards Grace.
The sand flew hastily towards Grace, it spun around as it approached her. The ice dragoness ran towards the incoming sand, taking it head on. Once she got within arm's reach the dragoness pierced her iced fore arm into the sand. The sand instantly froze, stopping any more of it from flowing towards her. The dragoness swiftly retracted her claw, shattering the frozen sand in the process. She continued running towards her opponent, freezing the ground beneath her with each step. Two streams of sand closed in on Grace. One was on her left side while the other was on right side. The two streams slammed against her, pounding her in.
"Got her," Gen said, pounding his two fists against each other on the ground.
The dragon looked on as he witnessed his two streams turn into ice in a matter of seconds. Then the two sand objects shattered, revealing the dragoness that was held within them. Her wings were extended as she flew towards her opponent. The sand dragon began retracting all his sand towards him.
"It looks like you know that none of your attacks will do anything against me." Grace said, landing within arm's reach of her opponent. "True Ice Dragon Form Style: Waltz Freeze Dance."
Grace slashed the sand dragon twice. His sand instantly flew up to defend him, but upon making contact with the dragoness's claws it froze. The dragoness spun around, slamming her tail against Gen's defensive wall. Once again his sand froze in place. The dragoness turned her back towards him, and clawed at his stomach with her hind legs. Sand once again flew towards her, stopping her from making contact with Gen. The dragoness aimed both her claws at Gen, straightening out her fore arms. Instead of making contact with Gen, her claws made contact with what remained of his defensive sand. She froze the last of it before shattering all of the sand that she had frozen. The light blue ice shimmered as it fell towards the ground. Gen nervously looked at Grace who was a few inches from him. He knew that he no longer hand his defensive sand to protect him.
"Good, now my attacks will finally be able to land." Grace said, piercing Gen's right shoulder with her claw.
She pulled out of his shoulder, freezing that part of his body. Gen exhaustedly looked over at Grace, who was also exhausted. The dragoness prepared to slash at her opponent for the final time. As she was about to do so the ice on her body shattered. To her and Gen's surprise, the dragoness had run out of energy. Gen instantly took advantage of this, and spewed out sand from his maw. He incased his opponent's limbs in sand. Another amount of sand morphed into a spear, and was pressed against Grace's heart.
"If you had conserved your energy as I did, during our last scuffle then our roles might just have been reversed." Gen said.
"Still I almost won, but it looks like I couldn't reduce the chances of your group hurting any more creatures." She said, admitting defeat.
"This is bad even if he doesn't kill her. He will probably end up doing the same thing that Sypher did." Alyssa said.
"Rai tell him it's over. She can't do anything else." Spyro said, refusing to have Grace receive the same treatment as Brox.
The grey dragon smiled at his comment.
"Gen!" the grey dragon yelled out. "Kill her!"
Kill her? The green scaled dragon asked himself. He was surprised by the order he had received from Rai. What purpose would that serve? Perhaps this dragoness is right. I'm just a mindless drone following everything he tells me to do. I've hurt dragons that had not done anything wrong, and I've also felt pleasure from the torture of dragons. He's made me into a monster. I am no better than the member of Malefor's elite guard that I have been searching for. I have become the very thing that I despise.
He looked at his opponent who had not accepted her faith. The dragoness pulled her limbs, attempting to break free. She then froze when she felt the spear of sand pull away from her. Her opponent was preparing to strike her down. The spear of sand launched forward towards her. At first the dragoness felt nothing. She looked around, and saw that the spear had not penetrated her. After careful investigation she saw that the spear was at her side. It had made no contact with her. She stared at her opponent who seemed to have a very determined facial expression.
"I am not like him." He said, letting the sand spear disintegrate into normal sand. "If my opponent cannot fight back against my attacks, I win the battle automatically. Isn't that one of the rules?" Gen said, turning towards Cole and Volteer.
"Yes, that is." Volteer said.
"Then I guess I'm one." He said, letting the sand that was holding onto Grace fall down towards the ground.
"Winner of the match, Gen!" Cole announced.
The stadium was silent. Most did not understand why the dragon had chosen to do what he did. They were all expecting him to follow the orders of his leader.
"Why didn't you kill me?" Grace asked.
"Besides the fact that I would have gotten eliminated," he said, turning towards her. "Let's just say that I was slowly becoming like the very dragons that I wanted to kill for quite some time. My friends and I used to be the ones who would get picked on by the stronger creatures. I guess we lost sight of our true goal when we met up with him. We slowly became like the very things we wanted to get rid of. You reminded me of what I used to stand for before I let him twist my mind."
The medics came, and took Grace away. She thought about what Gen had told her as they carried her away.
"I guess not all of them are as bad as I thought."
Gen flew back to his seat. No words were exchanged between him and Rai.