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.


A ball of water shot out from his paw, and flew off towards Spyro and Cynder's location. The pressurized medium sized ball of water flew off towards the two at an incredible speed. Spyro saw the attack heading towards him, and instantly positioned himself over Cynder, and spread his wings wide open. He gave her a small smile, trying to assure her that they would be alright, as he waited for the attack to strike his back. He heard a loud explosion behind him, and felt a small spray of water land on his back. He was expecting to feel a volume of water that could break his bones. Not a few drops of water. Spyro looked behind him, and saw Rai flying in front of him. From up close Spyro could see the beating that Rai's body had taken from Sypher. He saw that there was mist in front of Rai. Spyro presumed that the dragon had used a fire attack to counter the water attack.

"You tried to injure them," Rai said, looking back at Spyro and Cynder. He then turned towards Sypher, and gave him an anger filled look. "You are dead to me now, Sypher!"

"I'm glad that you finally have some hate in you again," he said, smiling at Rai.

Rai flew off higher up into the air, and looked down at Sypher.

"A lot has changed since the last time we fought, Sypher. Last time I only had one element, but this time I have four. One of them in particular can cancel out your element completely," he said, snorting out black smoke from his nostrils.

"Oh, by all means let us test this theory of yours," Sypher said, gathering up the water on the field towards him. All of the water on the ground began spinning powerfully around Sypher. It steadily continued spinning, until it shaped itself into a whirlpool.

The giant whirlpool flew off towards the area of the sky where Rai was located. Rai blew fire into his two front paws, and then tightened his paws. The fire was now trapped within his paws. He opened up his paws, showing that the front sides of his paws were covered in fire. He positioned his paws together, and placed his paws over the stadium. From his current height the paws covered the entire stadium. The crowd suddenly felt that the stadium was increasing in temperature. Rai suddenly pushed his paws forward, setting everything that his paws covered ablaze in a flash of red light.

The dragons in the audience quickly covered themselves up with their wings. Once the red light subsided they pulled their wings back, and turned their attentions back at the field. The entire field and its walls were covered in red fire. Cyril was currently covering the top of the walls in ice to ensure that the fire did not spread into the crowd. Rai was currently panting from exhaustion. The fire attack had taken a lot out of him. He looked down at the field, and could not find a trace of Sypher. It was then that a large section of fire suddenly vanished. He looked down towards the area, and saw that his flames had been extinguished. Suddenly a large wave of water spread across the field, extinguishing all of his flames. Rai landed back on the field to see if his attack had done any damage to Sypher. He saw that the dragon's wings had been severely burned. The back of his forearms also had serious burn marks on them.

"I see that you are getting desperate to finish this fight," Sypher said, smiling at Rai. "I've seen you use that attack before, but I have never seen you use it on a scale like that. Scorched Earth sets everything that your paws cover on fire. I would say that it is your strongest fire attack, but that is just my personal opinion. I really hope that you were not expecting it to finish me off, because even from here I can see that it took a toll on you."

"Yea, but it obviously took a lot out you as well," Rai said, trying to regain his energy. How does he still have enough energy to produce that amount of water? The last time we fought he had to continuously create more from using his own water breath attack. I have only seen him use it once, during this fight. I guess that I'll just have to try again, but I'll have to use a lesser fire based attack.

Rai flew into the air again, and released a large fire ball attack towards a spiral of water that Sypher had sent after him. Just as the attacks were about to collide, Rai felt three painful jolts of pain originate from his back. The fire ball and water spiral canceled each other out, transforming into mist in the turned his head back, and saw that three water shaped harpoons had penetrated his back. He wondered when Sypher had gotten the chance to do this. His eyes would not have missed Sypher moving water behind him. It was then that he turned his head forward, and saw the recently created mist, taking the shape of three more water harpoons. They flew towards him, and penetrated his chest.

"When did he learn to do that?" Rai asked, as he let out a cough in the process.

The six harpoons, deep within his body, suddenly exploded. The explosions pulverized the grey dragon's body inside and out. The water explosions knocked Rai out of the air, as he began falling towards the ground with the red tinted water. Just as Rai's body was about to hit the floor a stream of water flew out from the field. The stream of water caught Rai, and slowly placed the dragon on the floor.

"No, we cannot have you dying from a simple fall," Sypher said, as his paws splashed against the ground while he made his way over towards Rai. "I want to hold you, as I see the last moments of your life leave your eyes."

"That won't be happening anytime soon," Rai said, slowly standing back up, which made Sypher halt in place. "I was unaware that you had learned to create water from the moisture in the air. Now that I am, I will pay careful attention to my surroundings. This also means that I can't use my fire element against you, because it will just aid you."

Sypher grinned at Rai's observation. "I'm not surprised that you figured it out. You have always been a very skillful dragon. If you use fire it ends up aiding me, but if you use your shadow element I'll just encase it in my water and use it against you. That just leaves two viable elements that you can use against me."

"That is correct, and I'm sure you can guess which one I am going to use next," Rai said, as the black clouds above them began to group together.

Rai generated a field of lightning from his body. The large field of lightning covered the entire field thanks to the large volume of water across it. The lightning instantly fried anything surrounding it. At this point in the fight the four guardians, who were given roles as enforcers in the current match, decided that there efforts would be better used in making sure that no one in the audience got killed or injured. They were currently keeping the lightning field at bay from the crowd by using their own respective elements. Rai stopped producing the field of lightning once he had seen that Sypher was not moving. He carefully inspected his opponent, and saw that he had covered his body in a thin layer of water. The lightning from earlier was currently travelling through the layer of water covering Sypher.

"Things still have not changed, Rai," Sypher said, as lightning traveled through the outer part of his body. "It still hurts like hell, but I am still able to nullify half of the damage with my water veil."

"Enough, I don't know why you do not want to stay with them. I know that you also want to find a place that you can call home. Where you will be welcomed and loved. Why have you suddenly become so spiteful?" Rai asked, as he began transferring lightning to his front paws.

"There was once a dragon that promised me that he would fill the empty hole of loneliness in my heart. He was the first individual that acknowledged my existence. He gave me a reason to exist. I…I actually thought that we shared a special bond, but I can see that we did not. He ended up preferring the company of individuals that turned their backs on him the moment he showed them who he truly was," Sypher replied, as a large portion of the water around him began shaping itself into a figure.

Rai released his lightning gryphon towards Sypher, who released a large water shark towards him. The Guardians knew exactly what Rai's attack was capable of. They quickly created a clear dome made out of their combined elements. The dome encased both dragons and their deadly attacks. The two attacks came head to head in the middle of the dome. Neither attack showed signs of giving in. The attack and elemental power behind the two figures was equal. The lightning gryphon began clawing at the water shark, as it began biting into the gryphon. Eventually the two attacks began mixing their respective elements with each other. The attacks suddenly became unstable, as the elements that they were made out of mixed with each other. Water mixed with lightning began shooting out of both figures. Rai and Sypher both had shocked looks on their faces as they realized what was happening.

"Rebound!" They both shouted, as both of them put their wings up.

The two figures suddenly exploded, sending a concentrated blast of water surging with electricity towards both dragons. The large blast engulfed both dragons, before continuing on towards the dome it had been confined in. The blast managed to break the dome, but it had served its purpose in nullifying the attacks true destructive potential. The blast quickly died off upon breaking the elemental dome. The crowd looked down, and saw that both dragons were drenched in water, while lightning travelled around their bodies. Both of the dragons looked like they were in incredible pain.

"Do you enjoy the pain that comes from you own attack?" Sypher asked Rai, as he winced from the pain that he was trying to hide. "You are feeling the full force of one of your lightning attacks. My water had plenty mixed within it, and as a result it served as a conduit. Right now you are feeling the same pain as I am. Your natural resistance to any type of electric attack is nullified while your lighting courses through my water."

"It works…both…ways though," Rai said, struggling to speak. "Unlike last time, I can see that you were not able to reduce the damage from my lightning. I can also see that your own water did as much damage to you as it did to me. The tremendous water pressure from the blast washed away your water veil."

"We are too evenly matched right now," Sypher said, as he prepared to continue the fight, "Our attacks rebounding is a clear sign of that"

"What's a rebound?" Seth asked, confused by what the two were referring to each other.

"It is the opposite of combining two attacks, because both elements reject each other," Cynder said.

"So they basically canceled each other out, right?"

"No, if they had canceled each other out it would have resulted in an explosion that only produced a shockwave. A rebound is achieved when both attacks' elemental power, attack, and user's strength are equal to each other. Because of how perfectly these properties match up the attacks have a natural urge to combine, but since the users feel negative towards each other it becomes impossible. As a result a failed combination is achieved, which results in a large blast directed back at both users. It is seen as a punishment for trying to kill someone that is identical to you in every way," Cynder said, as she looked down at Rai with worry.

"A rebound is quite rare, because usually there is always a dominant attack. If an attack is even the slightest more dominant than the other, the two opposing attacks will cancel each other out. Now the only way to make sure that it does not happen again. Is for one of them to use an attack that will overpower whatever the other one uses," Spyro said, as he eyed looked at Rai suspiciously. "Or one of them could increase their power so that they were no longer equals."

"Just face it, Rai. You will not be able to kill me. Perhaps if you still used hate as your main motivation, but I can see that you have already abandoned it," Sypher said, mocking Rai. "You are a weak dragon. You couldn't stop Malefor back then, and you will not be able to stop me from taking away the creatures that you claim to care about."

"Let me reassure you of something," Rai said, clenching his paws. "I still use hate as my main motivation when fighting, but right now I currently use it against those that will do harm to the ones important to me. Now let me show you the form that I took to beat Malefor. A form I have only had to use against two others."

Strange tribal markings began appearing all over the grey dragon's body. Sypher waited for the dragon to transform, because he wanted to defeat Rai at his best. He wanted to show him that even at his strongest; Rai was not capable of overcoming Sypher's hatred for him. The crowd stared in awe as the last few strange convexity markings appeared on Rai's scales. The dragon now had a light purple aura flowing from his body, as he stared angrily at Sypher.

Damn, well this could be a problem, Sypher thought, as he looked upon Rai.

"This is the full version of the transformation. I only used about a quarter of it when I fought against Malefor. You wanted my hatred, well now you can have all of it," Rai said, as he opened his mouth, and released a large convexity beam that ripped the ground beneath it to shreds.

Sypher quickly covered his arms in water, and then brought them forward. His water covered paws met head on with the convexity beam, as he attempted to extinguish the blast of raw energy. A surge of water covered Sypher, helping in his attempt to fend of the light purple beam. The surge of water and Sypher were now pushing against Rai's attack in a desperate attempt to stop it. Sypher could feel the base of his paws warming up, as he was slowly being pushed back by the powerful beam. The large body of water that he had surrounded himself in was beginning to boil from the attack's energy. Sypher knew that it was only a matter of time before Rai's attack would overpower him. All he could do now was hope that it did not kill him. The light purple beam engulfed him, as it finally won the struggle between the two. It continued surging past Sypher, and it was hastily approaching the end of the field. All the while it had split the water on the field, elevating it towards the sky. The individuals seated in that section of the arena had been ordered by the Guardians to scatter. The convexity beam obliterated the stone structure in its way. The convexity beam blasted its way out of the arena, sending rubble in all directions. It travelled into the distance for a good while, before the long stream of purple energy disappeared upon Rai closing his maw.

Even though Rai had just exerted a large amount of energy, he did not seem exhausted. The added energy from going into his convexity form had restored most of his lost energy. Rai looked upon the destruction that he had caused. He had created a long and wide path of destroyed rubble along the field. He had destroyed a large portion of the field that he had been fighting on. He could also see that there was convexity residue along the path that his attack had taken. He looked further in front of him, and saw that there was now a large gaping hole in one of the crowd sections. The majority of the dragons, who once sat there, were now forced to fly in the air while they watched the rest of the tournament. Rai then focused his eyes on the spot where Sypher once stood, and he could find no trace of the dragon.

"He…he vaporized him," Seth said, with a hint of fear in his voice. "They were allies, and he killed him with no remorse."

"Now do all of you see," Spyro said, addressing the other dragons who had participated in the tournament. "If he wanted to kill Blaze then he would have taken that form. No matter what he said, Rai never wanted to kill any of us. He just wanted attention whether it was positive or negative attention."

"He even protected us from Sypher's assault on us," Cynder added.

Rai let out a sigh of relief upon seeing that he had finally finished off Sypher. Even though he had defeated Sypher, Rai did not find any joy in it. He thought that killing Sypher would bring him happiness, because he had threatened to kill those close to the grey scaled dragon. Instead it brought up a hint of sadness within the dragon, because he was forced to kill someone that he had considered an ally. He could not shake off the feeling that Sypher meant a whole lot more to him than he was willing to admit.

The young dragon once again looked over towards where Sypher had stood, as sadness began to overtake the young dragon. A large horizontal gash suddenly appeared on the dragon's chest. The slash covered his right wing, the front of his chest, and finally his left wing. The dragon's body then spurted out blood from the long gash. Rai's eyes widened as he realized what had just happened. He had let his guard down, and as a result the enemy had injured him greatly. He looked across the field, and saw a faint figure approaching the battlefield from the large hole he had created. As the figure entered the stadium through the large hole in the arena, Rai began recognizing the figure. A burned up Sypher, who had dried up blood covering his maw, stood at the exact spot he had stood before he had been blown back by Rai's beam. Rai's attack had burned all of the light blue dragon's scales, dealing him the same amount of damage that had once been dealt to him. Rai wondered how the dragon was still able to move, but one look at the dragon's eyes told him everything he needed to know. The dragon's resolve was keeping the dragon from admitting defeat.

"Did you miss me?" Sypher asked, in a sly tone. "Come on now Rai, you know better than to count me out. That especially holds true if you are my opponent."

"Just shut up!" Rai said, burning his would shut. "We don't have to do this Sypher. This is our chance to start over. We can experience everything that we ever wanted to experience. We don't have to face this world alone anymore."

Sypher looked at Rai with saddened eyes. "I haven't thought that I was in this alone for a very long time, but it is nice to know…that you did."

Rai had a confused look on his face, as he tried to figure out what Sypher had meant. His train of thought was quickly lost, upon seeing a portion of tainted purple colored water approach Sypher. Rai stood still, wanting to see what Sypher was about to do. The purple tainted water slowly began disappearing, as it travelled into Sypher's body. As the purple substance continued flowing into Sypher, a light purple aura began encompassing his body. As the last of the purple substance entered his body, Sypher's eyes began giving off a smoky light purple aura as well. Rai had a hard time figuring out what had happened, but hoped that it was not what he thought it was.

"Do you like my new form?" Sypher said, looking at his reflection in the water. "I didn't change much, but the flowing purple aura is nice."

"How did you achieve that form?" Rai asked in disbelief.

"Through the power of osmosis, I was able to transfer over the water that had been tainted by your convexity energy into my own body. It then merged with my own element, granting me this form. Of course this was only possible thanks to my water element," Sypher said, as he began exerting his energy.

Well there goes my advantage, Rai thought as looked upon the swirling purple aura that Sypher was producing.